Prayer our dealings with others —Martyn Lloyd-Jones

"Prayer is also equally necessary in our dealings with others. That is what is most prominent here, of course. Paul was writing this rich, profound doctrine, and he knows that the Ephesians were going to read and discuss and study it together. But he knows that that is not enough, so he is praying that his teaching of them may be made real to them. And he knows that it never can be made real to them except under the direct blessing of God. The best teaching in the world is useless unless the Holy Spirit takes hold of it and applies it and opens our understanding to it, and gives it a deep lodging place in our whole being. We have already seen in the first chapter how the Apostle had been praying for the Ephesian Christians that ‘the eyes of their understanding might be enlightened’. For if the Holy Spirit did not open ‘the eyes of their understanding’ Paul’s teaching would be quite useless and void.

Let us learn a very practical lesson from this. We all have friends who are not Christians, about whom we are concerned. We are anxious to help them, and we talk to them about these things. We quote Scriptures to them and explain them. We try to show them the Christian attitude and position with respect to present conditions and the whole of life. But I must emphasize that if we leave it at that, it may come to nothing. You cannot reason anyone into the Christian life. You can give the reasons for believing but you cannot reason them into belief. You can put the case before them, but you cannot prove it as if it were a matter of a theorem in geometry. We must realize that while we are instructing them, we must also be praying for them. It is only as the Holy Spirit deals with them and prepares them and opens their understanding that they can receive the truth.

The Apostle is perfectly consistent with his own doctrine. He knew that it was as essential that he should pray for these Ephesians as that he should instruct them by his Epistle. We, likewise, must never forget that instruction and prayer go together. If you are interested in a particular person, and desire his salvation, you must not stop at befriending him, helping him, spending time with him, and putting the truth before him; equally you must pray for him. Indeed I would go so far as to say that unless you are giving more weight to your prayer than to your instruction your work is likely to be a failure.

Note the place that is given to intercessory prayer in the New Testament. It is extraordinary and quite amazing, and is exemplified particularly in the Apostle Paul. Notice, too, how very dependent Paul was upon the prayers of other Christians. In most of his letters he pleads with them to pray for him. He urges them to pray that he may have a door of opportunity, that he may have liberty, and so on. He fully realized his dependence upon the prayers of others."

—Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1972). The Unsearchable Riches of Christ: An Exposition of Ephesians 3 (pp. 110–111). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.

the effectual working of God's power —Martyn Lloyd-Jones

"Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power." —Ephesians 3:7

"One of the most fundamental questions confronting us as we preach the gospel is, What can turn any man from being a hater of God into one who loves God? What is it that can turn the natural man, to whom the things of God are ‘foolishness’, into a man who delights in them, and enjoys them, and lives for them, and whose highest ambition is to know them more and more? According to the Apostle there is only one answer; it is the ‘effectual working’ of the power of God—nothing else!

The Apostle Paul himself was very conscious of this power. Had he been left to himself he would still have been the persecuting, blaspheming Pharisee. He had heard about the preaching of Christ, he had heard the preaching of Stephen; he knew all that Christians claimed. But he hated the ‘good news’: he saw nothing in it except blasphemy. What happened to this man? There is only one answer; he had been made a new man. He had been regenerated, born again, ‘a new creation’, nothing less than that! And this was the result of the ‘effectual working’ of the power of God.

It is the effectual working of the power of God that makes anyone a Christian. It means a rebirth, a regeneration. It is not the result of our decision, it is not something that you and I decide to do; it is what is done to us! ‘The effectual working of his power!’ Paul would never have been a Christian at all were it not for this power. But even after becoming a Christian he would have been ineffective apart from this same power. It is this working, it is this power of God, that not only transformed his whole outlook, but it called him into the ministry and gave him the gifts that are requisite to the ministry, the understanding of the truth, the power to speak, the power to write, the power to teach. It was all of God."

—Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1972). The Unsearchable Riches of Christ: An Exposition of Ephesians 3 (p. 55).

the doctrine of the call — Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“Is it not one of the great marks of the Christian salvation that God planned it before the foundation of the world? Not only that, he knew us individually before the foundation of the world. Our names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life before we were ever born. This is glorious! This is wonderful! The whole doctrine of the call is involved in this phrase (“And he must needs go through Samaria” - John 4:4). He knows us one by one & knows all about us, & he meets us: “he must needs…” (John 4:4). He knows this compulsion… The Son of God comes to meet us in his own appointed time & way. As we have seen, from our standpoint we never know when. We must always be expectant, always open, always, as it were, anticipating by faith. But he comes!…” — Martyn Lloyd-Jones

God does nothing without reason — John Calvin

“Why is it that men fret so when God sends them things entirely contrary to their desire, except that they do not acknowledge that God does everything by reason, & that He has just cause? For if we had well-imprinted on our hearts “All that God does is founded in good reason” it is certain that we would be ashamed to chase so against Him when, I say, we know that He has just occasion to dispose thus of things, as we see. Now, therefore, it is especially said that Job attributed to God nothing without reason, that is to say, that he did not imagine that God did anything which was not just & equitable… The Holy Spirit wished to tell us that, if we wish to render glory to God & bless His name properly, we must be persuaded that God does nothing without reason. So then, let us not attribute to Him either cruelty or ignorance, as if He did things in spite & unadvisedly, but let us acknowledge that He proceeds in everything & through everything with admirable justice, with goodness & infinite wisdom, so that there is only entire uprightness or equity in all that He does… If we are afflicted we must not think that it happens without reason, but God has just cause to do it. And whenever we are tried & anguished let us run back to Him, let us pray to Him that He will give us grace to acknowledge that nothing happens to us in this world except as He disposes; indeed, & to be certain that He disposes in such manner that everything always comes back to our salvation… There is nothing better than to be entirely subject to the majesty of God & to recognize that if He let us do according to our own desires there would be only confusion; but when He governs us according to His will, it is for our profit & salvation.”



— John Calvin, Sermons from Job, The LORD gave; the LORD has taken away


“the LORD has called for a famine” - 2 Kings 8:1

“the LORD has called for a famine” - 2 Kings 8:1 — “This is the Scripture mode of representing those heavy calamities brought upon a land or a single habitation, and which sheds upon the sorrows and distresses of life a peculiar light, that is highly consolatory to the children of God. Viewed in this light, famine, pestilence, and war, and every other calamity, constitute an army, ever ready to come and go, to advance and retreat, at the Almighty’s command, but which, without His permission, can assail none… Sometimes they are employed to punish, and are the instruments of Divine justice; sometimes to awaken, and to restore sobriety to the intoxicated; sometimes to embitter sin, and to force sinners to a throne of grace; sometimes for the trial of the saints, and to kindle around them a refining fire; whatever may be the purpose for which they are employed, they never return, till, like the word of God, they have accomplished the thing whereunto they were sent. No one, therefore, when afflicted, has simply to do with his afflictions, but, above all, with Him who has appointed them; he is not to content himself with complaining, and thinking how they can be removed; but is to consider why they have been sent, and to decipher the obscure handwriting…”

— F.W. Krummacher, The restitution

God's works before creation… — John Calvin

“Here also the impiety of those is refuted who cavil against Moses…For they inquire why it had come so suddenly into the mind of God to create the world; why He had so long remained inactive in heaven: & thus by sporting with sacred things they exercise their ingenuity to their own destruction. In the Tripartite History an answer given by a pious man is recorded, with which I have always been pleased. For when a certain impure dog was in this manner pouring ridicule upon God, he retorted, that God had been at that time by no means inactive because He had been preparing hell for the captious…. As for ourselves, it ought not to seem so very absurd that God, satisfied in Himself, did not create a world which He needed not, sooner than He thought good. Moreover, since His will is the rule of all wisdom, we ought to be contented with that alone. For Augustine rightly affirms that injustice is done to God by the Manichaeans, because they demand a cause superior to His will…”

— John Calvin, Commentaries on the first book of Moses called Genesis