The Hope of His Calling (Remastered)

Devotional

Day 1: Eyes Opened to the Unseen Inheritance

The Christian’s deepest need is not more information but illuminated understanding. Like a blind man staring at a sunset, natural minds cannot grasp spiritual realities without the Holy Spirit’s work. Enlightenment is not a one-time event but a continual dependence—a daily peeling back of sin’s film so truth can pierce the heart. This prayer for "enlightened eyes" anchors believers in God’s active revelation, not human effort. Assurance grows as light dispels shadows, revealing the hope etched into every promise. [07:44]

“I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you…” (Ephesians 1:16–18, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you relied on human wisdom instead of praying for the Spirit’s illumination? How might your study of Scripture change if you sought heart-sight before head-knowledge?

Day 2: Cataracts of Sin and the Surgeon’s Light

Sin acts like a cataract—a thickening film that distorts truth into shadows. No amount of squinting or reasoning restores sight; only the Spirit’s knife removes the obstruction. This blindness explains why brilliant minds dismiss divine realities. Yet enlightenment is not merely corrective surgery but a transfusion of life, making deadened nerves pulse with heaven’s light. The process hurts, but clarity comes as the Healer scrapes away layers of self-deception. [11:05]

“They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.” (Ephesians 4:18, ESV)

Reflection: What habitual sin or prideful assumption might be clouding your vision of Christ’s lordship? How can you invite the Spirit to expose and remove this barrier today?

Day 3: From Paddling to Ocean Depths

Spiritual knowledge is not a stagnant pond but an unfolding ocean. Even mature believers paddle in shallows, unaware of depths awaiting exploration. Complacency masquerades as contentment when saints mistake doctrinal checklists for intimate knowing. Each prayer for enlightenment unveils new chambers in God’s mansion—rooms where covenant promises hang like tapestries, waiting to be studied, touched, and believed. [17:40]

“Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.” (1 Corinthians 14:20, ESV)

Reflection: When did you last feel spiritually challenged beyond your current understanding? What step will you take this week to dive deeper into God’s “unsearchable riches”?

Day 4: God’s Covenant: Signed in Blood, Sealed in Time

Assurance rests on God’s oath, not human emotion. He bound Himself twice—first by promise, then by blood—to guarantee His plan. Like a will unbroken by death, the covenant outlives doubt’s storms. To question salvation is to distrust the Testator’s integrity. Steady your heart on this: the same power that resurrected Christ enforces every syllable of His pledge toward you. [39:33]

“So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.” (Hebrews 6:17–18, ESV)

Reflection: Which circumstance or failure makes God’s promises feel negotiable? How would clinging to His oath alter your response?

Day 5: Anchored Behind the Veil

True hope hooks not on visible blessings but on Christ’s finished work in heaven’s holy place. When storms rage, the anchor holds because it grips realities beyond the veil—Christ’s blood on the mercy seat, the Father’s approving nod, the Spirit’s unbroken witness. Assurance grows not by chasing spiritual highs but by studying the chain linking your soul to eternity. [48:23]

“We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain.” (Hebrews 6:19, ESV)

Reflection: Where are you tempted to measure God’s faithfulness by temporary circumstances? How might fixing your gaze “behind the curtain” steady your soul today?

Sermon Summary

Paul prays for the Ephesians as those already marked by faith in the Lord Jesus and love toward all the saints, and yet Paul does not ask merely that they may be useful, active, or stirred in feeling. Paul asks that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. God himself is the supreme end of Christianity, and the knowledge of God is not mere information about what God does, but a direct, personal, intimate knowledge of God himself.

The Spirit alone gives this knowledge, for the natural man at his best is helpless before the knowledge of God. Human ability, culture, philosophy, and the talk about the modern man are complete irrelevancies in this realm. The world by wisdom knew not God, and the natural man understandeth not the things of the Spirit of God.

Paul then comes to the particulars, the three great “whats”: what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward those who believe. Yet Paul pauses again over the vital necessity: “the eyes of your understanding being enlightened.” The heart and understanding are the center of the person, and God must enlighten the whole being, not merely the intellect in an academic fashion.

The darkened understanding of the natural man is like an eye covered by a cataract. The organ is there, the light is there, but a film has come over the lens. Sin has brought opacity, blindness, and even a kind of atrophy. The Holy Spirit removes the veil and gives life and power to see.

Paul’s prayer is striking because it is offered for Christians. The enlightening work of the Spirit is not needed only at conversion. The Christian in this world needs fresh illumination day by day, like manna gathered daily. Spiritual knowledge must be progressive, for no Christian has arrived. The danger is resting on past experiences instead of being led from chamber to chamber in the great mansion of truth.

The first great thing Paul wants known is “the hope of his calling.” This hope is assurance, the certainty that God has called effectually. The general call goes to all, but the effectual call brings a person into Christ, justification, and glory. Assurance rests not finally on changing feelings, but on God’s character, God’s covenant, God’s oath, God’s power, regeneration, and union with Christ. His oath, his covenant, his blood support the soul when darkness seems to veil his face.

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Key Takeaways

1. Enlightenment must be freshly sought. The Spirit’s illumination is not a storehouse from which the soul lives indefinitely. The word may cease to “speak” when spiritual dependence is neglected, even where much Scripture has been learned. The daily need is not novelty, but fresh sight, fresh unction, and fresh dependence upon the Holy Ghost. [16:25]
2. Assurance rests on God’s calling. The hope of his calling is not a vague wish, but the certainty that God has acted effectually. The devil may bring doubts, sin may trouble the conscience, and feeling may fail, but God’s call is not precarious. The happy Christian life depends upon making calling and election sure in the light of God’s own truth. [29:48]
3. Experience needs objective truth. The sealing of the Spirit is precious, but subjective experience alone can be shaken by temptation, illness, darkness, or accusation. Paul’s prayer points to assurance grounded in understanding, where the mind is enlightened by the Spirit to grasp what God has revealed. The soul needs both the inward witness and the solid truth beneath its feet. [32:46]
4. God’s covenant steadies troubled souls. God’s character does not change, and God’s covenant is not an experiment. The Father gave a people to the Son, the Son entered the covenant, and salvation rests on an everlasting purpose. The soul that studies God’s oath and covenant finds a ground of assurance far deeper than its own frames and moods. [37:23]
5. Union with Christ cannot be undone. Regeneration is not a fragile condition that appears and disappears with each failure. If a person is in Christ, that union is indissoluble, for Christ is the head and his people are his body. The doctrine of rebirth gives strong consolation because eternal life, once implanted by God, cannot be destroyed by the creature.

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Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[00:38] - Paul’s Prayer for the Ephesians
[02:10] - The Supreme Knowledge of God
[03:35] - Natural Wisdom Cannot Know God
[05:36] - Three Things Paul Wants Known
[07:44] - The Eyes of the Heart
[09:05] - Understanding Darkened by Sin
[10:30] - The Cataract of the Soul
[15:05] - Christians Still Need Illumination
[17:04] - Spiritual Knowledge Must Grow
[21:38] - The Hope of His Calling
[24:27] - General and Effectual Calling
[32:13] - Assurance Beyond Experience
[35:18] - God’s Character and Covenant
[43:29] - Regeneration and Union with Christ

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Ephesians 1:15-18
“For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,” [00:38]

1 Corinthians 2:14
“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” [03:55]

Romans 8:28-30
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” [27:09]

Ephesians 4:17-19
“Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.” [09:18]

Observation questions

In Ephesians 1:15-18, what is Paul thankful for in these believers, and what does he still continue to pray for them? [01:09]
In Ephesians 1:17-18, what are the three “what” statements Paul wants believers to know?
According to Ephesians 4:17-19, how is the natural person’s understanding described, and what results flow from that darkened condition? [09:40]
In Romans 8:28-30, what sequence of God’s saving work is laid out, and where does “calling” appear in that chain? [41:41]

Interpretation questions

Paul prays for people who already have faith and love, and yet he still asks that the eyes of their hearts be enlightened. What does that suggest about the ongoing need of Christians for fresh spiritual illumination? [15:05]
If the natural person cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God, how should that shape the way Christians think about intellect, education, or human ability in knowing God? [03:35]
Paul speaks of “the hope of his calling.” Why is this hope better understood as assurance rooted in God’s effective call, rather than a vague religious wish? [29:26]
Romans 8 connects calling, justification, and glorification. How does that passage help explain why assurance rests on God’s purpose and action rather than on changing feelings? [42:20]

Application questions

Many believers can read Scripture and yet find that it does not seem to speak with freshness or power. When has that been true in life, and what habits tend to weaken a sense of dependence on the Holy Spirit? [16:25]
Spiritual knowledge is meant to grow. Looking back over the last year or two, where has there been real growth in understanding God himself, not just in learning more facts? [18:54]
It is possible to rest too much on past experiences. Is there any tendency to live on old mercies, old insights, or old spiritual seasons instead of seeking fresh light today? [17:59]
Assurance can be shaken by sin, illness, temptation, or accusation. When doubts come, what does the heart usually look at first: personal feelings, recent performance, or God’s revealed truth? [33:36]
God’s character is unchanging, and his covenant is not fragile. Which truths about God’s character most strengthen a troubled soul right now, and which ones need to be meditated on more carefully? [35:55]
God has sworn and bound his promise with covenant mercy. What would it look like this week to answer fear and uncertainty with specific promises of God rather than with self-argument? [39:33]
Union with Christ is not something that comes and goes from day to day. How might daily life change if this truth were more steadily believed in times of failure, temptation, or darkness? [44:45]

Sermon Clips

In other words, if I have been called effectually, I am called to the end, if I'm called in the mind of God, I'm already glorified it's as certain as that. When God starts, he always finishes. He who has begun a good work in him will perform it until the day of Christ. Nothing can stop it. The covenant is one, the plan is one. And if there is one link, all the links will follow. No one shall pluck them out of my hands. [00:42:20]

And surely we all know that by experience. It doesn't matter how much you may have learned, how much understanding you may have of the scriptures. If you begin to backslide in your life and living and practice, you will find that the word doesn't speak to you. It's an invariable law. One can never take a spiritual holiday. You can never, as it will, go on living on a reserve which you've accumulated. No, this, like the manner, has got to be collected freshly day by day. [00:16:03]

You may have had the ceiling with the spirit, and yet, as the result of falling into sin or circumstances or illness or some feebleness in your flesh or something like that, the devil may so bombard you. He's like a roaring lion. He may come and attack you. He may shake your whole universe. And you may say, that must have been a false experience that I had. I must have been deluding myself. If you rely only on the subjective, you may find yourself in a state of great and grievous misery. [00:33:41]

He is not praying here for those who are in the world. He is praying for those of whom he has already said that they're in Christ Jesus, that they're fellow heirs with the saints. They've been sealed with the Holy Spirit, they've got love unto all the brethren, and so on. And yet he prays that the eyes of their understandings may be enlightened, from which I deduce these principles, that as long as we are in this life and in this world, we shall always need the enlightening work of the Holy Spirit. [00:15:05]

God, through the gospel by the Holy Spirit, sends out this general call to the whole world. But then he calls in particular certain people, and no man is a Christian unless he's called. The called are the Christians. The Christians are the called. These people in whom the word of God has been made effective, it's been made powerful, it has come as a command which they find irresistible, and they readily respond to it with the whole of their being the called. [00:28:38]

But the New Testament is entirely different from that here. Rather, the picture is of a progressive growth and development and increasing understanding. You start as a babe in Christ. You begin to grow, you begin to garner knowledge, and it goes on. You think you know everything, and then something quite new suddenly opens before your gaze. You go on learning from glory to glory, forgetting the things that are behind. I press forward, says Paul. He's wanting to learn to know, ever advancing, that's the christian life. [00:18:09]

And what he prayed for them above everything else, was that God might give them a knowledge of himself. That is the supreme thing. That is the ultimate goal of Christianity. There is nothing beyond that. There is nothing higher than that. But to know God is indeed everything. [00:02:20]

But I can rely upon him, the character of God. God is eternal. God is immutable. God is everlasting. God never changes his purposes. I know of no greater comfort than that. [00:36:07]

And that is why all the talk about the modern men and the special difficulties of today are so completely fatuous. The change of the times, the advance of knowledge, is a complete irrelevance in this realm. It has nothing to do with it at all, because men at his best and at his highest, is a complete ignoramus and absolutely helpless face to face with the knowledge of God. [00:04:10]

It's the whole secret of a happy christian life. The enemy attacks, the devil is there with his doubts and uncertainties. Sin troubles us and makes us think that perhaps we've never been a Christian at all. Ah. Are you certain of the hope of your calling? [00:30:05]

Now, the state of men by nature and in sin is comparable to that. You see, what that blind person needs is not a new eye. What he needs is that the opacity, the veil, the mist, this thing that is developed into his lens should be removed. And then the moment that is removed, he can appreciate the light and he can see things as he did before. [00:12:01]

The natural men can never attain unto this knowledge. Doesn't matter how able, how big he is. It's a task which is entirely beyond him. The world by wisdom knew not God. The greatest philosophers can never scale the heights. They can never arrive there. [00:03:35]

Now, what does all this mean to us in practice? Well, we can look at it like this, what we all need is not a new faculty. We all have the faculty. The tragedy of men is not so much that he has lost a faculty, but that as the result of sin and evil, he cannot use and exercise his faculties. [00:10:24]

It should be our constant prayer. We should seek this day by day. We should seek it by reading the word, by praying for this enlightenment before we do so. It should be the constant endeavor of our lives that we might grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord. [00:20:15]

And therefore the apostle is praying that in a total sense, not merely in an intellectual manner, not merely in an academic or theoretical way, that we may know these things. He is praying that rather, with our whole being, we may come to know them and to respond to them. [00:08:36]

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