Our Resources in Christ, Part 1

You cannot live what you do not understand. No Christian has ever yet lived the Christian life who didn't know what it was.

Christians all over the place are frustrated no end, trying to live a life that's never been defined for them. So, how could you have just a few dollars in the bank, yet have riches beyond compare? Find out today on Grace To You as John MacArthur looks at the treasure that is yours if you're a Christian. The unfathomable riches you can enjoy this side of heaven.

It's part of his current study, Richer Than You Think. Now before we get started, John, Happy Thanksgiving Day to you and Patricia and your whole family. You know, this year, 2020, there has been a remarkable amount of trouble everywhere, and yet you and I have talked about this, so I know we both believe there's far more for us to be thankful of than to be fearful of in these times. But for that man or woman who's listening right now who may be struggling to rejoice and be thankful, give us some encouragement. What can we be thankful for today? You know, if you're a believer, you don't want to doubt the love of God.

He loves you with a perfect love. You don't want to doubt the promise of God that all things are working together for good to those that love Him and are called according to His purpose. You don't even want to doubt the plan of God.

Maybe you wonder, wow, did it have to be this? You don't want to doubt the plan of God. The Lord has a plan that you want to submit to, because that plan may involve suffering. It may involve humiliation.

It may involve a time of sort of breaking some of the things that you depended upon. You don't want to doubt the process of God. The end result is to give you blessing and to glorify His name. So this has been a year, and we're all probably glad that we're getting close to the end of this year, but we haven't doubted the Lord's work at all through all of this. And, you know, His best work is done in our hearts through hard times.

His best work is done when we can't control all the circumstances. And that's what Paul says, you know, and he says, you know, I'm content in everything. I'm content to be abased. I'm content to abound, because He supplies all my needs through Christ Jesus in everything. And Paul says, I'm even content with suffering, told the Corinthians. I'm content with pain and affliction and all those things, because when I'm weak, he said, then I'm strong. So just know this, that God is, through all the struggles and all the issues and all the trials, perfecting you. Peter says, after you've suffered a while, the Lord makes you perfect.

And that's what He's in the process of doing. So be thankful for what He has accomplished, even through a difficult year. Thanks, John. That is a great reminder. And friend, we are thankful you've made this broadcast part of your day.

I know you'll be encouraged as John continues his look at the blessings that are yours in Christ. Here's the message. You cannot live what you do not, what? Understand. Understand.

You can't live it. You cannot function on principles you don't know. No Christian has ever yet lived the Christian life who didn't know what it was.

You've got to have it. Christians all over the place are frustrated no end, trying to live a life that's never been defined for them. And Paul knows as a man of God that it is not just a case of telling people, you've got to pray that God will energize the information. Now I believe that that's why in Acts 6 the Bible says that the apostles said, we will give ourselves continually to the ministry of the Word and prayer.

Why? Because the ministry of the Word must be energized by the Spirit of God and that is sought in intercessory prayer on behalf of the people. I don't think that the man of God's job is just to pray for the broken legs and the broken arms and the bad backs and the diseases of his people. I think he is to pray that they, as it says in verse 17, would receive a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him that the eyes of their understanding would be enlightened, that they would know what is the hope of their calling. It's not enough just to teach, it must be taught and then pray to him, as it were, by the energy of the Spirit of God released as a response to intercessory prayer.

Now what really is going on here is simply this then. Paul is describing our position and praying we'll understand it before he tells us how to live it in chapter 4. Now knowing your position is important. You know, if you take a new job, usually at some point they give you a description of what you're supposed to do.

Sometimes it's called a portfolio if you're an executive. If you're on an assembly line, they tell you what to do. You don't have to know everything, you just need to know what you do and you can't start the process until you know. You're given an assignment, the parameters are defined and you're asked to fulfill those. Number one, you must hear the definition of it. Number two, you must understand it and then you can do it.

But you can't do it without the first two. Same thing is true with the Christian. You can't just try to get people to behave in a certain manner unless they understand the parameters and definition of what it is that they're asked to do.

And yet, you know, it's a sad thing but it's true. Church after church after church after church, people will get up and they'll tell people what to do but they never give them the parameters or an understanding of what it is that they're really doing. You know, you get up and you exhort people to live the Christian life and do what's right and live for God and get dedicated, consecrated, irrigated, whatever it is, you know, goes on and on. And try to get them to live it up and you really are... you're working on them from the standpoint of sort of a half-time pep talk every Sunday to try to jack them up again and get them rolling, see. Or else you put them under a guilt trip and they begin to feel like they're just really...they got to do this or God is going to be right on them, see. And so they get to feel guilty. Or you intimidate them.

Or there's a certain peer pressure exerted on them and if they don't function, they're not one of the in groups, see. And all of this bypasses the real motive for living the Christian life. The real guts of it, the real heart of it, the real base of it is simply understanding who you are in Christ. That's the base, knowing your position. You've got to understand the foundation principles. This is who I am. This is my position.

This is my understanding of it. And Paul is praying, Oh God, may they deeply understand who they are. May they get a grip on this incredible reality that they are one with the eternal God through Christ, that all of the blessings of the heavenlies are theirs, that this is the standard of their existence forever and may they live like it, see.

That's what he's after. And so I tell pastors all the time, man, when you get into the pulpit, teach positional truth. Teach people what their position in Christ is, then tell them how to act.

If they don't know who they are, they don't know why they ought to act that way. It's so important. If you're a Christian, He loves you totally.

You couldn't be any better positionally. But, oh man, when you understand positionally what you have in Christ, when you understand all these resources that you were chosen and Him before the foundation of the world, that you were redeemed and your sins were forgiven and He is granted to you to be a part of His eternal plan and to call you into that great unity with which the whole universe ultimately ends up, when you realize that this inheritance is planned for you, incorruptible, undefiled, that faith is not a way reserved in heaven for you, when you realize that all these things are yours in Christ, that you are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ, Jesus, when you realize that all of that is yours and that's who you are, that ought to do something about how you live. It really should. And that's the bottom line. You cannot exhort people to a certain behavior unless they understand who they are. And so Paul here is praying that we and the Ephesians will understand. Constant exhortation without theology just brings people under guilt.

It doesn't motivate them. So the mature Christian understands his privileges, his possessions, checks out his resources, lives consistent with who he is. Now let's look at his prayer then. Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.

Stop there. Now in this he just introduces to us the idea that he is praying. Wherefore takes us back on the basis of this tremendous inheritance that we have in Christ, I pray for you.

And he says, I pray for you because I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all saints. Now how did Paul hear this? Well, it had been four years about since he had ministered in Ephesus. But sea travel was relatively easy in those days because of the ships and so forth.

And so there was great accessibility to that little small part of the world around the north and west part of the Mediterranean. And additionally, there was a liberty that Paul enjoyed even while he was a prisoner and that was that they allowed people to come and visit him. So there was a constant flow of Christians, no doubt, coming in and out of Paul's life.

And they would be bringing him reports. And as I told you when we first studied the beginning of Ephesians, this letter was not only written to Ephesians but no doubt all the churches of Asia Minor. And so it's probably that that he has in his mind. He says, of all of you churches in Asia Minor, I have been hearing about you, people visiting, coming by ship, perhaps walking on some of the great Roman highways that would give them access to Paul's location. And so Paul says, I've been hearing good things.

In fact, I hear two things. I hear about your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints. And those, beloved, are the cardinal things. Those are the basic aspects of a true Christian. A true Christian is marked by faith in the Lord Jesus which gives evidence of itself in love toward all saints. In fact, in 1 John chapter 2 and verses 9 to 11, it says there, if you claim to have saving faith and hate your brother, you're a liar.

Those two go together. By this will all men know you're my disciples, John 13 says, if you have love one for another. And love, as we've defined it so many times, is sacrificial selflessness, serving others sacrificially, unselfishly. True faith always springs into love. And so he says, I've heard about it. It's genuine. I see it.

Now I want you to see these two things because they're very important. First of all, your faith in the Lord Jesus...the Lord Jesus. You see, salvation begins with believing Jesus is Lord.

You see that? I was speaking in Miami and a pastor came up to me afterwards and he says, well, he said...he was kind of...I don't know what, kind of on edge, I think. He said, well, I suppose you're one of those lordship salvationists.

You probably believe that in order to be saved you have to receive Jesus as Lord. I said, as a matter of fact, I don't know any other way. He said, yeah, I thought so. I said, you're not a lordship salvationist?

Sounds like...He said, no, no. I said, let me ask you a question. I said, is Jesus Lord? Well, he didn't really want to answer, I guess, because he said, well, well, there is a sense in which He is. I said, well, is Jesus Lord? Yes or no?

Yes. Well, yes, that's right, He's Lord. So if you receive Him, does He come as who He is?

Yes, He'd have to, right. Let me ask you this, I said, does Philippians 2 say that every knee should bow and confess Jesus as Lord to the glory of God? And I said, does Romans 10 say that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, thou shalt be saved? Well, he says, but it doesn't appear in the gospel of John. I said, what doesn't appear in the gospel of John? Jesus is Lord?

No. He says the idea of lordship salvationism. I said, I don't know what you're saying.

I said, I don't know. You just tell me what you're going to do with Romans 10, 9, that if thou shalt confess Jesus as Lord, thou shalt be saved. And then he just said, yes, well, you're a lordship salvationist and he walked off. How you get salvation minus the lordship of Jesus Christ is a problem.

The point here is, Paul says, I know you're genuine because your faith is in the...what? The Lord Jesus. You don't receive Him as Savior and then later as Lord, you get Him who He is. Now whether you respond to His lordship or not is another issue.

But He's Lord. Now the second thing he says, not only is your salvation evident by the faith in the Lord Jesus, but your love unto all the saints. Do you notice that this love is indiscriminate?

Indiscriminate. You notice that a true Christian doesn't pick and choose, he loves and by virtue of that whoever gets in front gets loved. We used to say this little phrase, well, I love Him in the Lord, which means personally he can't stand them.

Remember that one? Well, I love Him in the Lord. As if you had a little pipe coming out of you, you could squirt them with God's love, you know.

You can't unscramble the egg, folks. If you love them, you love them and the Lord loves them. And if you don't love them, then the Lord doesn't love them through your not loving them. You love them, all the saints.

You can't be discriminate. The world picks and chooses. Paul says in Philippians 2, I pray that you would have the same love. What that means is to love everybody what?

The same. And in 1 John 3 he says, love in word, not in word and tongue, but in deed and in truth, anybody who has a need and don't shut up your heart of mercy when you see them with a need. You can learn all the theology you want and spin off all of the dogma you want, but if you don't love, then you are nothing but sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. And true salvation goes from the head to the heart and reaches right out to touch other people. And he says, I am so thankful to God that I've heard about you, that you have faith in the Lord Jesus and that you love the saints.

Now you know something's kind of sad. That Ephesian church, man, they started out right. But when you get to chapter 2 of Revelation and verse 4, the Lord Jesus writes them a letter. And the Lord Jesus says to the church at Ephesus, I have so much love, I have something against you because you have left your...what?...first love. Sad to think about it, but the history of the Ephesian church is they left their first love and they went out of existence as a church.

There's got to be faith and love and balance. You know, the monks and the hermits had a loyalty to Christ which separated them from men to live alone in a desert place contemplating faith. It was loveless faith.

It never touched anybody. The heresy hunters of the Spanish Inquisition and other ages had a loyalty to their faith which caused them to literally persecute anybody with a difference. Loveless faith. And I'm afraid there are some Christians in the churches today who are hateful and bitter and resentful of other Christians and it's loveless faith and I question in...as I would the cases I just illustrated whether it's even genuine saving faith. The genuine is marked by love. In fact, I'll tell you something, folks. You can't love the Lord Jesus Christ, put your faith in Him without loving the people that He loves.

Did you get that? I'll never forget my son one time. I was driving in a car and he leaned over to me and it was about a certain person. He said to me, I love so-and-so.

And I did a double ticket. I didn't even know I knew him. I said to him, what do you mean you love so-and-so? He says, I love so-and-so. I said, why do you love so-and-so?

He said, because I always hear you say you love Him and I love Him too then. Well, that's right. If I love the Lord Jesus Christ, 1 John 5, 1 and 2 says, if I love the Lord Jesus Christ, I will love those begotten by the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's part of it. So he says, I commend you. And I pray for you, verse 16, I cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. And then his prayer of thanks turns to a petition. And I pray, he says, verse 17, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened.

And stop right there. He says, Man, I'm praying for you that you'll understand your riches in Christ. Warren Wiersbe has written a little book called Be Rich, and in there he gives an interesting illustration about William Randolph Hearst, who was the late newspaper publisher. Hearst at one point in his life decided to invest a veritable fortune in the collecting of great pieces of art. And he was collecting them all over the world and storing them in warehouses in different places. And one day he read a description in one of his art books or magazines or whatever, a description of an incredibly valuable piece of art. And he determined that he had to have that piece of art. So he got his agent and he sent him all over the world to find it. No one knew where it was.

That guy went all over the world to find that art treasure for William Randolph Hearst. Months and months went by and finally the man came back and reported, Mr. Hearst, I found it. And with great joy he said, Where? Where was it? He said, It was in your warehouse.

You bought it years ago. Frantically searching for what he already possessed. Paul is praying here, Lord, deliver those Christians from frantically searching for what they already possess. Give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him so that they will know what is theirs and that they'll be able to use it in the living of life.

See? Let's face it, people, we do spend a lot of time messing around, chasing stuff we've got. We say, Lord, I need strength. And the Bible says you can do all things through Christ who already strengthens you. Lord, I need love. The love of Christ is shed abroad in your heart. Lord, I need grace. My grace is sufficient for you. Lord, I need peace in this situation. I already left you all my peace that passes understanding.

What else is there? You see, Christians scrambling around begging for what they've got. What a waste. And the Bible says you should just ask for wisdom. If you lack wisdom, ask it. And wisdom is the sense not to keep asking for what you've got.

See, the point is this. Paul says, God, the human mind cannot conceive of the riches of our position in Christ, so please, God, grant to them this understanding. Only the Spirit can search the deep things and reveal them to us. Such understanding is beyond the human mind and God must enable us to understand. So he says that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory...I love those titles, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, that identifies it with Him. After all, we're in Christ, right? And if we're in Christ, then He's our God too. And He's the Father of glory. That means the one who possesses all things.

All glory is His. And so He prays to that God that He may give us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Now notice the word Spirit. God grants us a Spirit.

It is an anarthrous construction in the Greek, no article, a Spirit of wisdom and revelation. Now people have discussed what Spirit is this. Some people say it's the Holy Spirit, that God would grant us the Holy Spirit. But I don't think that's Paul's prayer because every Christian already has a Holy Spirit, right?

I don't think that's it. And besides that, it's not the Holy Spirit, it's a Spirit. So I don't think it's the Holy Spirit. We don't need to ask for the Holy Spirit. We already have the Holy Spirit. Our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians 6 says, and Romans 8 and 9 says all Christians have the Holy Spirit.

So that wouldn't be it. And others have said, no, it's the human Spirit, that He would give us a Spirit of wisdom and revelation. And He's talking about the human Spirit. I don't think that's right either because we already have a human Spirit. The word pneuma, in which we get breath and air, pneumatic, pneumonia, it's the Greek word, can be translated a lot of ways. And I think the way it should be translated here is as a disposition, an influence, or an attitude which governs the soul of someone.

Let me illustrate this. It doesn't have to be the Holy Spirit or the human Spirit, it can just be an attitude. For example, Jesus in the summer on the mount said, blessed are the poor in...what? Spirit. He wasn't talking about the Holy Spirit or the human Spirit, He was talking about an attitude.

Those were humble people. Now when we see somebody who's sad, we say, oh, they're spirits sad. Or we see somebody really playing hard at some game, we say, that is spirited play.

Or we see somebody really happy and we say, boy, He's in high spirits. And all we mean is an attitude...an attitude, a disposition, an influence in thinking. And I believe that what Paul is saying is this, give them the fullness of an attitude of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Oh God, he says, let them know in their mind how much they possess in Christ.

Give them a deep, rich, keen, strong, full understanding. Now, I would add to that that I think the Holy Spirit and the human Spirit are also both implied. And what Paul is praying is this, watch. God, send the Holy Spirit to work on the human Spirit to create the right spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him because it's the work of the Spirit. Only the Spirit can search the deep things of God. And by the way, the word revelation deals with the imparting of knowledge and the word wisdom deals with the use of it. So he's saying, God, I'm just praying that the Holy Spirit will work on the human Spirit to produce the spirit of wisdom and revelation, that is, that they will know their position and their resource and that they will use it.

See? Step out and use it. So he wants the believer to have a full, deep knowledge of God, not intellectual, but something deeper than that, something far deeper. And I'm telling you people, I've said this for years and years and I'll say it till I drop over, the Christian life is predicated on what you know, it's going to be here before you can live it. It's got to be revelation before it can be wisdom.

You've got to receive it before you can use it. And that's why we spend our time teaching the Word of God. And so Paul prays, God, it's not enough. It's not enough that I just tell them the facts. I pray for them that they will understand the imparting of truth and the use of it and the use of it in the knowledge of Him. You know, you have Christ. Do you know Christ? If you know Christ, do you really have this attitude of wisdom and revelation, this deep sense of knowing God's heart and God's mind?

Let's pray. It's so great, Father, to know that all the resources that are in Christ are granted to us by faith. Thank You, Father, for every person here, every one a special life, every one especially beloved of You, every one uniquely designed and made. And Father, for those who have come to faith in Jesus Christ, for those who know and love Him, every one a part of Your eternal plan. And some, Father, who haven't yet said yes, but You're calling them by Your Spirit. They're part of the plan too. They're some of Your people yet unborn.

Bring them to Yourself today. For those who are in the family, Father, help us to have a spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him, a spirit produced as the Holy Spirit works on our human spirit to give us comprehension beyond what is possible in the normal human mind, to know the deep things of God and knowing them to be able to use them, that our position may be known, understood, and lived at. And we'll thank You in Jesus' name.

Amen. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur. Thanks for being with us. Along with teaching here on the radio, John pastors Grace Community Church, and he serves as chancellor of the Master's University and Seminary in Southern California. Today's special Thanksgiving broadcast was part of John's current study, Richer Than You Think.

And friend, as you celebrate Thanksgiving today, know how thankful we are for you. And we'd love to hear how John's verse-by-verse teaching is benefiting you and your family. If you have a spare moment over the next few days, send us your feedback. Make sure to include this station's call letters when you send your letter to Grace to You, Box 4000, Panorama City, California 91412. You can also email us at letters at gty.org. That's our email address. One more time, letters at gty.org. And don't forget, you'll find thousands of free resources at gty.org.

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