Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Ephesians chapter 3 and reading
through our text verse 14. For this cause I bow my knees
unto the Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul's epistle to the Ephesians
chapter 3 and verse 14. For this cause I pray. The Apostle Paul writing to the Ephesians
here writes to them as a Gentile church He wants them to know
the blessings that they have and that they share with the
Jews. The one church, the one people. We have in verse 15, of whom
the whole family in earth, in heaven and earth is named. And we've just sung of the righteousness
of Christ. And we read in Jeremiah, Jeremiah
23 verse 6, this is the name wherewith he shall be called
the Lord our righteousness. Then you go later on to the 33rd
chapter of Jeremiah. This is the name wherewith she,
that is the church of God, shall be called the Lord our righteousness. The one surname. And so with
the Gentiles here, that one church, the whole family in heaven, and
earth is named." Now if there was any doubt in the minds of
a Gentile church or the Ephesians as to whether they could really
lay claim to blessings that God's ancient people had, then they
would restrain prayer. But Paul gives them the pattern
of prayer. He tells them in a letter what
he is actually praying for them. We have then a wonderful example
of his care of the churches and making known to them how he was
exercising that care even though he wasn't there in person. This letter written from Rome,
sometimes we might be tempted to think because we are not in
person with someone, maybe our loved ones, that we don't have
any care over them or can't exercise a care over them. Well, the chapter
here and our text, it clearly says before us that the care
that we have for one another may rightly be shown by our petitions
for them by our communicating to them and letting them know
what we are asking from the God of Heaven for them. And so it is a beautiful example,
not only a prayer, but intercession one for another, asking God for
something Not just for ourselves, but for another. We live in a
world that all the time is thinking for me, me for self. And it's a wonderful thing when
we just get a little picture of one whose thought is no, for
another, for others. Not for me, not for me who's
in prison in Rome or bound and can't do this and can't do that,
but for this church here. And it's good for us to Think
also, further from that, to the intercession of our Lord and
Saviour, Jesus Christ, in heaven. A voice that speaks for us in
heaven. He is our advocate with the Father. He appears in the presence of
God for us, and though not in personal presence, yes, he says,
I am with you always, even unto the end of the world, by his
Spirit and by his grace. the wonderful mystery of the
Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But our Lord is at the
right hand of the Father, and we already have Him. The gift
of the Holy Spirit, I pray the Father, He will give you another
comforter, and shall abide with you forever. We have that poured
out at Pentecost, poured out 10 years later with Cornelius
and his household of the Gentile church. And so we have the Apostle
here asking for things and we might say that they are not obtained
in any other way. They must come from God Himself
and God has ordained that they come through prayer. We have
in Ezekiel 36 Many blessings that the Lord will bestow upon
His people, a new heart, a new spirit. When He give, He will
take away the heart of stone. Many blessings. And then He says,
I will for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do
it for them. But when we come to these letters
to a Gentile church, that could be put, I will for this be inquired
of by Jew and Gentile. by the people of God, or in the
words of the context, by the whole family in heaven and earth. The family of the Father, of
our Lord Jesus Christ, our Heavenly Father, and our brother born
for adversity. And so I want to look this evening,
we are told in our text that there is a cause, there is a
reason that the Apostle is bowing his knees, he's praying unto
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to look at
the petitions that he is offering up here. So firstly, a grant
asked for the Ephesians, a grant asked. And then secondly, the
measure of the grant, according to the riches of His glory. And then thirdly, the things
asked to be granted. Firstly, a grant asked for the
Ephesians, in verse 16, that He would grant you. We are familiar in our country
of grant-making charities. Charities like our Gospel Standard
Charities that make grants to the churches. They don't have
to be repaid. They are not earned. They are
not paid for. They are given freely. And where
a grant is made to an individual, whether a minister, then that
grant is not taxable because it's not earnings, it's not something
that they ask for, it's something that they have no control over
whatsoever, whether it's given or not. The committees that gather
together, they think, well, who is it that stands in need of
help? And they might give help one
month or one quarter, but not another. And even if it is regularly,
it is solely at the discretion of the grant We have that even
in a natural way in our land through many, many charities
that give grants in that way. Those grants that are given,
there's always a criteria. Generally there's a relationship
or there is those things that are fulfilled in those that are
supplying or asking for the grant before they're given a grant.
And one of the most common, of course, is that they do not have
income or sufficient income in any other way. They are dependent
on that grant. That grant is meant to be a help. And sometimes it is that another
person might put in for someone else. They might know of a minister
and they realize he's going around in the car his very old car,
and he does a lot of mileage, and they will approach the grant-making
society, and they say, we're concerned about this minister,
are you able to make a grant so that he can have a car and
do his ministry? And so perhaps the first thing
that the minister will know of it, he gets approached and says,
we're going to help you with a car. and it's given as a grant. He hasn't put his hand to it
at all with these Ephesians. They haven't put their hand to
it. They can, they can ask according to the same pattern as the Apostle,
but he is making this petition on their behalf unto God the
Father through our Lord Jesus Christ that He would grant you,
that He would do so. It's not someone else, someone
on earth, speaking to a grant-making charity and saying, would you
make a grant to this person? It's going to the God of heaven
and of earth and asking Him if He would make a grant to these
people. And it's not just a blanket request,
it's very specific requests. And of course in conveying this
to the Ephesians, He is conveying to them what they need a grant
for. He is conveying to them that
He knows they do not have the means to provide this themselves. It must come from God. And so He's asking this grant
for them. We might have those that we know
of our friends, our loved ones, and we desire for them, I hope
we do, the blessings of eternal life, the blessings of God's
work, we might look upon them and we see them deficient in
several aspects of the Christian faith. But we've got one option,
you can go to them and teach them and tell them and try to
make them see the right way, or You can present the petitions
to God and ask that the Lord would grant them the promise
they shall all be taught of God. We have the example here. Our
God is a true and living God. He is the eternal God. He has
power. He has ability. He is able to
give things to people, to His people, and He is able to make
His grace abound to them. We ought always to remember this. We are so used to a self-help
world, where we are told if you do this and this and this, then
you can get over your fears, or then you can come to a knowledge
of this and that, and it's always what we can do. But to have something
given and imparted by God Himself to us as a poor bankrupt with
having nothing and only given to sin and all evil and needing
every gift and every favour to be given us from above. This
is a good reminder of how to come asking. You might say well
it's a similar, but in a different way with the Public and God be
merciful to me a sinner. Asking for a grant as it were
of mercy. But here the apostle is asking
for specific things. A grant us for the Ephesians. Maybe imitate him. Maybe there's
those that have been on our spirit and those that we know. How can we help them? We see
them deficient in things. May we take the Word tonight,
and that we, like the Apostle, bow our knees unto the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that we ask that He grant these
persons, or persons, specific things, and if we're used to
writing to them, Communicating to them, tell them. Tell them
what we've asked the Lord on their behalf. That's what the
Apostle is doing to these regions. And he follows it in many of
the epistles to the churches. He doesn't just say, I'm praying
for you. He tells them what he is praying.
Not only does he pray for them, but At times he turns it and
he says, Brethren, pray for us. However much we may pray for
others, we know we value and need the prayers of others for
us. And may this also be used by
us who are parents and grandparents, that we ask that this blessing,
these blessings be granted to our offspring and to those that
do not yet know the Lord or those that do know the Lord, but they
might be blessed with these things as well. God is honoured by His
people that acknowledge their dependence and acknowledge that
He is able to grant these things. Our second point, the measure
of the grant. We're told in verse 16 that He
would grant you according to the riches of His glory. That's the measure, according
to the riches of His glory. Paul does not have a small view
of the fullness in the Lord Jesus Christ. He has a great view. It is like one seeking a grant
from one that is a billionaire, that has all manner of property,
of wealth, and power and authority at their command, and to be equivalent
to writing and saying, could you please grant to this people
or to this person, according to all of your riches and your
wealth and all that you have to give, you give according to
that grant. And it's a reminder to that person,
this is not just, give us a little grant, a little help, but give
great help, an abundance of help. Large petitions with Thee bring
Thou our coming to a King. None can ever ask too much. No,
not when we ask for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ and
pleading His name. So the Apostle has a mind of
where these grants are coming from, where the blessing is coming
from, how it can be given, why it is given, May we always have
that in view, how often we may think of the
Lord in very small and mean ways, not realise that He has heaven
and earth at His command. He waits to answer prayer and
to realise what has been achieved by our Lord at Calvary. in His sufferings and His death,
putting away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, rising again from
the dead, assuring us that those sins are put away, are blotted
out, the sentence upon His people is taken by Himself, the wrath
of God that they would have to endure for eternity in hell has
been endured upon His beloved Son. and that that which the
Lord has done at Calvary is not just to settle a debt, not just
to put away, but it's also to give in a positive way. We could have someone on earth
that has transgressed and that they were due to go to jail and
have a great sentence to pay or a debt to pay, and if the
Lord allowed it, You might be able to pay that debt, you might
be able to set them free, but all they'd be, as it were, set
free, but they may have no house, and no clothes, and no food,
and no ability of sustaining themselves at all, but they're
free from debt, and they're free from prison. You know, the Lord
not only saves from hell, not only saves from the wrath of
God, but he also saves to heaven. And you'll notice when we come
to these petitions that it is only at what the people of God
are saved to that they might know those blessings, those positive
blessings that flow forth from the Lord Jesus Christ. Grow in
grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Not only has the Lord paid the
debt through His precious blood, but He's also wove that robe
of righteousness through His whole perfect, sinless life of
obedience, even unto death, the death of the cross. And that
righteousness is not for Himself. He already has a righteousness,
but He that hath two coves, let Him give to him that hath none.
He has wrought it out for His people. It's beautifully set forth in the case of his
robe without a seam. They said, let us not render,
let us cast lots for him. Himrider takes it up without
a seam, without a seam, this robe, bequeathed from everlasting
to be a royal robe to cover thee. A blessed thing to realize that
the people of God shall stand faultless before the throne at
last, not in their good deeds, not in their righteousnesses,
but in Christ's righteousness. And here below, the blessings
that they have all flow forth from the Lord Jesus Christ. What we are, how do we deserve
to know what we are? Any different from the natural
man that receiveth not the things of God, neither can he know them.
We are by the grace of God, by the grant of heaven, and the
measure that Paul wants. You know, you have the account
of Elisha when he came to the king Jeroboam, I think it was,
and he asked him to strike the arrows
into the ground, and he just struck three times, and then
stayed. And he was angry with him, he
said, if thou had but thrust five times, then thou would have
completely destroyed the Syrians, but now thou shalt not fully
overcome them. It was God's way of showing what
his decree and purpose was, how far They should have destroyed
them. Nevertheless, there was a restraining,
as it were, in the thrusting of the arrows. Well, Paul, in
effect, would say, don't restrain. I'm not restraining, you might
ask me here. It is according to the fullness,
according to the riches in glory. May we be mindful when we pray. What measure are we asking for? How much are we asking for? God
is glorified when we ask for a lot, when we ask according
to the richness of His glory and that we don't in effect diminish those riches by asking
for small things. On to Luke then, third line.
Are the things asked to be granted? The first one is in verse sixteen. to be strengthened with might
by His Spirit in the inner man. It's a great blessing to have
natural strength. It's a greater blessing to have
strength in the inner man and that it is the Spirit of God
that gives this. We read in Psalm 84, they shall
go from strength to strength. Naturally, the world would say,
well that's getting stronger and stronger all the time. But
the way it's pictured in that psalm, the way it's pictured
in Psalm 107, is that strength is given, and then it is all
used up. And when it is used up, then
more strength is given. We think of Psalm 107. They were
blessed, and then they sinned, and then they went down, they
fell down, there was none to help them. They cried unto the
Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses,
He lifted them up again. They didn't stay lifted up. Very soon they were down low
again. And that is what the Lord does for His people. If He just
gave strength once, and it was constant right through their
lives, They'd never have to come back again and again, but they
need it renewed. They shall renew their strength. They shall run, not be weary. They shall be strengthened. I
always remember, and I may have mentioned it before, years ago,
when I'd been preaching up at Nottingham, and I preached two
services, and I was driving home back down to to Cranbrook, a
long way, a couple of hundred miles. And the traffic was hard
and I got down to Luton on the M1 and I thought I just have
not got strength to go any further. I thought, is it 6.30 I'm going
to go in, or nearly 6.30, I'll go and listen to the service
at Bath or Luton, listen to Mr. Ansbottom. I'd forgotten that
they actually started their services at six o'clock. So I went into
that vestibule, and just as I got in, I heard the text given out.
And it was that verse, they shall go from strength to strength.
And Mr. Amsbottom's opening remarks were
just what I've said. This means not going stronger
and stronger, but be given strength, using it up, and then need it
renewed again, which was the very reason why I came into that
chapel. And so strengthened in soul and
body during that service, and afterward I went back to his
home, went back with the brethren, had time of fellowship, and still
had strength to drive the remaining hundred miles home. And it's
an occasion I've never forgotten, and that psalm has always been
precious in that sense. And it's a blessed thing where
we read that word, the spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity,
but a wounded spirit who can bear. We can have people with
great infirmities of body, but if they give him strength, the
spirit, strength of mind, they can bear that. But those that
have an affliction of mind, depression, or some weakness in that way,
that is one of the hardest, hardest things to bear, because who can
sustain that, who can help that? So the Apostle writes at the
very beginning, that they be strengthened with might by His
Spirit in the inner man, a spiritual strength, spiritually able to
stand against Satan, able to stand in this evil world, able
to believe, in a way we might say, the spiritual strength of
the man that was born blind. He'd been given that strength.
He had the scribes and those of the Pharisees come against
him, questioning him again and again, how was it that thou wast
made to see? They said to the Lord, did sin
this man or his parents that he was born blind? And how many
times that dear man had to answer those questions that come again
and again. He says, I have told you, and
you believe not. Wilt thou be his disciple? Thou
art his disciple, they say. We are Moses' disciples. We know
where Moses came from. But this man, we know not from
whence he is. The dear man returns and he says,
the hearing is a wonderful thing, thou knowest not when she hears,
but he hath opened mine eyes. Was it ever heard since the beginning
of the world of one opened the eyes of one that was born blind?
If this man were not of God, he could do nothing. They said
to him, thou art altogether born in sins. They cast him out, they
wouldn't hear him. But that dear man had strength
of spirit, he was able to stand, able to simply say, one thing
I know, or as I was blind, now I see. It's a blessed thing to
be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man. May have many infirmities and
weaknesses, but to have that inner strength, In effect, the
Apostle is saying, you Ephesians, by nature, do not have strength
in the inner man. You need it to be given by God. You need it to be given by His
Spirit. Do not trust in yourselves. Do
not trust in your own strength. You could have said, remember
Peter, though all men forsake thee, yet will not I. But dear
Peter, he denied his law those three times and with those and
with curses. May we pray this for ourselves,
pray for those we've made intercession for and especially those that
we see are their little faiths and those that are trembling
and struggling. There is a God able to strengthen,
there is a God able to help and to lift them up and strengthen
those four souls. Well, the second thing in verse
17 is that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. By faith. It is by the faith
of Jesus Christ. This is a distinction Galatians,
that is taken away in the ESV and some of the other translations,
they speak it of faith in Christ. But it's the faith of Christ,
it's faith that is given by Him who is the author and finisher
of our faith. And it is that faith that causes
a soul to stand, not faith that is a duty faith or somehow brought
up from ourselves, it's from God. And that is why the apostle
here is asking for this grant. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. Remember with Peter again, I
pray for thee that thy faith fail not. Those that are kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last day. Faith is absolutely vital. Without faith it is impossible
to please God. He that cometh to God must believe
that He is, that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
Him. And here, the apostle joins faith. It's how Christ dwells in the
hearts of His people. Faith makes the Lord Jesus Christ
of a reality. He that is not seen, and yet
is so real to the people of God, abiding in them, I in them, and
they in me, those that are united with Christ. You know, we might,
like this evening, we come into the chapel here, we go out, But
we don't dwell here. We've got our homes, that's where
we dwell. But where we dwell, it is not
just passing through like we might do a shop or into a building
and not enter into it again. But it's where we dwell. And
the Lord has promised, Lo, I am with you always. But here the
apostle wants that dwelling to be really felt and known. Christ
in them, the hope of glory. And then we have thirdly, their
request that they might be rooted and grounded in love. That in all that they do, that
this is the foundation of all that they do. rooted and grounded
in love. Years ago my father was a nursery
man and he used to do root stocks. We'd cut up six inch long sticks
and we'd stick them in sawdust and soil with fertilizer and
we'd just water them and leave them there and those stocks would
And it could be said then that they were rooted in whatever
they were in. When those roots were first formed,
when the tree first started to grow from those sticks, it was
all rooted in that rooting material, and they grew up. Well, the picture here is, not
in that literal sense, but being rooted and grounded in love. That was the spring of it all. The Apostle often speaks of the
love of God that passeth all understanding. The eternal love
of God, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore
with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Why did the Lord choose
a people? By love. Anything in them? No. A sovereign an eternal love,
a love that wasn't based upon anything that could be taken
away or changed. The very beginning of the hope
of the people of God is before time. It doesn't begin with their
calling, it doesn't begin with their parents, it doesn't begin
on earth, it begins, thine they were and thou gavest them me.
chosen in Him from the foundation of the world. It was love that
began it. And if that's the case, in our
profession, when called, it will be rooted and grounded in love. All that is done springs forth
from that. The love of Christ constraineth
us. You think of the reaction of
our Lord The Samaritans wouldn't receive him as he went through.
His face was set as to go to Jerusalem. And so the disciples
were with him. They said, shall we call down
fire from heaven, consume them as Elias did? He said, ye know
not what spirit ye are. The Son of Man came not to destroy
men's lives, but to save them. That which the Lord does. Love
is at the root of it, having loved His own, He loved them
unto the end. It was love that brought Him
to this world, it was love that brought Him to the cross, it
was love that took the sins of His people upon Himself, it was
love that brought Him to suffer, love to His Father, love to His
people, and so it's not a strange thing if the people of God that
it is that they be granted, that they themselves be rooted and
grounded in love. Then we have fourthly, verse
18. May be able to comprehend with
all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height,
to comprehend. Now sometimes we might have something
we're trying to explain to someone, and we explain it one way, and
we say, do you understand? Do you comprehend what I'm saying? They say, no, we can't. So you
try to explain it a different way, and whichever way we go,
they just cannot comprehend it. And it is true with the things
of God that great is the mystery of Godliness, God manifest in
the flesh. And there are many things, well,
you may say all things, that by nature we cannot comprehend,
we cannot understand. You know, if you go back in this
chapter, the Apostle Paul says of himself, that he says, unto me who am
Less than the least of all saints is this grace given, that I should
preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which
from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created
all things by Jesus Christ." Those things were revealed to
the Apostle. They are written down here in
these letters, the inspired, infallible Word of God. But we
need the Holy Spirit. We need that we also be able
to comprehend. When our Lord rose from the dead,
He appeared to His disciples, then opened to their understanding
that they might understand the Scriptures or comprehend the
things of God. You think of the eunuch, he couldn't
comprehend, he couldn't understand, he couldn't know whether it was
Isaiah speaking of himself or of another man. But through Philip's
preaching he could see, he could see Christ. And so it is that
able to comprehend with all saints, many times throughout this passage
what the Apostle is emphasizing here. You Ephesians, you are
now fellow heirs. You are now joined with the people
of God. You that were far off are brought
nigh by the Lord Jesus Christ. You think of in chapter 2 and
verse 14. Now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes
were far off are brought nigh by the blood of Christ. He is
our peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the
middle wall of petition between us. And so he is emphasizing
this. This is with all of the saints,
all of the people of God. You're not just tacked on the
end, but grafted in to understand these things. and he gives the
dimensions to it in every way, breadth, length, depth and height,
the wonders of the love of Christ, the wonders
of salvation in every aspect of it. And then we have in verse 19, to know the love of Christ. So this is going further than
being rooted and grounded in love. This is to know the love
of Christ. This is not just to know about
the love of Christ, but to know the love of Christ. To have the
love of Christ shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost. It is the blessing to be granted
to know those times when the love of God is shed aboard in
our hearts. It is to know the love of Christ. I wonder how many of us here
can say, I know the love of Christ. I've known what it is to have
it shed abroad in my heart. I've known what it is to be filled
with the love of God. Remember when the Lord would
restore Peter, he didn't say to Peter, now Peter, you've denied
me three times. I want to assure you that I still
love you. He asked him, love us thou may. We told him, John, we know that
We first, God first love, we love Him because He first loved
us. And so this is what the Lord
was doing with Peter. Here's the love of God. Do you
know the love of Christ? Do you know my love in your heart? Lovest thou me? Lord, thou knowest
all things, thou knowest that I love thee. This is the way that we know
that we are loved from eternity when the Lord gives us a love
to Him, the love of Christ. And when also we have the love
to His people, we know that we pass from death unto life in
that we love the brethren. He that loveth him that begat
must also love him that is begotten of him. This also tells us, without this
grant, without this blessing, we do not know the love of Christ. It is not something that comes
from us. It is something that comes from
God. And if we're tempted, if we've
had the love of Christ, it'll be born in our hearts. And we
think, well, that was just emotion. Devil will tell you it was. Sometimes
the Lord will answer by withdrawing that, and it may be a long while
before you feel it again. So if that was just emotion,
why doesn't it come again? Why can't I manufacture it myself? Because it came from heaven.
It came as a grant, and the apostle is telling these Ephesians This
is to be known by the grant of heaven. Do you know the love
of God shed abroad? That is granted you from heaven.
You have a token from heaven given you. Then we have one last one. Down
in verse 19. That he might be filled with
all the fullness of God. It's almost as if he goes back
to the beginning, to the measure that He was petitioning for according
to the riches of His glory, now the last thing that He's asking
for them is that they might be filled with all the fullness
of God. Every grace, all holiness, every
favour, all knowledge, all understanding, all love, every hope, all patience,
all endurance, the understanding of the provisions of the covenant
of God, the certainty of eternal life, the hope beyond the grave. The Apostle says to thee, Corinthians,
if in this life only ye have hope in Christ, with all men
most miserable, is that hope beyond the grave. You read in
John 1, of his fullness have all we received, and grace for
grace. I love that, especially in relation
to prayer, and this is the subject here. The Lord gives the grace
of prayer and supplications. For that grace, he then gives
the graces that are being asked for in prayer. Paul had been
given the grace of prayer and supplication for these Ephesians. And for that grace, he was asking
that they be given grace. The Lord gives grace for grace. One blessing leads to the next
blessing, one teaching of the Lord opens up other parts of
the word and parts of the covenant of God and of grace. And this
is what he designed. And again, it is to notice the,
without a bound he's asking, he wants these petitions granted
according to the riches of His glory. And now here it is not
that He might be filled with some of the fullness of God,
but all the fullness of God. Everything that is stored up
in God through our Lord Jesus Christ to be given to the people
of God, that is what He wants them to be filled with. May this prayer be really encouraging
to us, as setting forth what we need, what cannot be given
in any other way, as setting forth that the way of unlocking
it is through prayer and petitioning, that we may ask these things
for ourselves but also for others, as the Apostle is here, and that
this glorifies the Lord. It exalts the Lord Jesus Christ. How many times through this prayer
is our Lord mentioned? In our text we have, for this
cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then we have in verse 17 that
Christ may dwell in your hearts. Verse 19, to know the love of
Christ All the time, our Lord Jesus Christ is being lifted
up and exalted. Every blessing comes to us through
Jesus' precious blood. May the Lord grant His blessing
upon this Word tonight that we go home and that we have those
things that we also present our petitions for. Things especially
that we feel our wanting feel our need of help, need of strength,
may we ask for the grant of heaven for those things. Amen.