Let us turn again to God's Word
as we continue to consider the prayer of the Apostle that we
find recorded at the end of Ephesians chapter 3. Turning then again
to Ephesians chapter 3. Last Lord's Day we were considering
the opening part of the prayer from verse 14 through 15 and
16. So I want us now to turn to those
verses that follow at verse 17. Ephesians 3, reading from verse
17, Paul's further petitions, as it were, that Christ, he prays,
may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye, being rooted and grounded
in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth
and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ
which passeth knowledge that ye might be filled with all the
fullness of God and this morning looking more especially at those
words that we find in the 17th verse Paul prays then that Christ
may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded
in love. The theme then that I want to
address is that of Christ dwelling in the heart and we see that
here in terms of faith and of love and looking at the verse
as it stands before us These two clauses, considering then
in the first place what he said at the beginning of verse 17,
that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, the sinner's
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what Paul desires for
these believers in the church at Ephesus, that Christ may dwell
in your hearts by faith. How can this be? It is of course
only by the ministry of the Holy Spirit and so somewhat really
those things that we were considering last Lord's Day evening. As I said then we're to recognize
that there is a connection between the end of verse 16 and what
is stated here at the beginning of verse 17. Remember the end
of that 16th verse, his prayer that they be strengthened with
might by his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in
your hearts by faith. These are synonymous statements. These two clauses complement
one another. There is no other way whereby
Christ can dwell in the hearts of his people than by that gracious
ministry of God the Holy Ghost. in the covenant, is it not, his
work to apply that salvation that the Lord Jesus accomplished
upon the cross at Calvary. How the Lord speaks so much of
him and his ministry there in those three chapters in John's
Gospel, remember chapters 14, 15, and 16, we've considered
somewhat of the content of those chapters on previous occasions,
and there the Lord says that it is expedient that he go away
from them. If I go not away, he says, the
Comforter will not come, but if I depart, I will send him
unto you. And what is his ministry when
he comes? His ministry is that, of course,
of conviction to reprove the world of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment. There is that aspect of the Spirit's
work to bring the sinner to some realization of what his true
state and standing is before a holy God. There's that negative
aspect, we might term it, in which he brings conviction into
the soul he reproves. But then also, primarily, it
comes as that one who will reveal Christ. It's an amazing ministry
that the Spirit exercises. He is God. We speak of Him in
terms of being the third person in the Godhead. He's not in any
way inferior to the Father and the Son. The three divine persons,
of course, are co-equal, are co-eternal. But in the outworking
of the Covenant, how the Spirit is that one who comes to serve
Christ, doesn't speak of himself, says Christ. He has such a self-effacing
ministry. He comes to take of the things
of Christ and to reveal them to sinners. And isn't that what
we see in this prayer, as Paul is praying for these believers,
his desire that they be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the
inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. Paul says elsewhere, doesn't
he, Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none
of his. He is none of Christ except ye
know that gracious work in those sovereign operations of the Holy
Spirit. No man can say that Jesus Christ
is Lord but by the Holy Ghost. And how true it is at times that
we fear maybe that we are those who are grieving the Spirit of
God. Remember the exhortation that
Paul gives these Ephesians at the end of the following fourth
chapter. There in chapter 4 and verse
30 he says, Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are
sealed unto the day of redemption. Every believer must be sealed
by the Spirit. Those words that we find In chapter
1 and verse 13, this great statement that Paul is making in the opening
chapter of this epistle, and he speaks of a salvation that
is altogether bound up in the doctrine of the Trinity. He speaks
of the eternal purpose of the Father, having chosen a people
in Christ before the foundation of the world, and predestinating
them unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ. the sovereignty
of God in the purpose of the Father and then the great work
that's accomplished by God the Son as he says there at verse
7 in chapter 1 right through to the end of verse 12 concerning
Christ's work in whom we have redemption through his blood
the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace All
that Christ has done is wondrous accomplishments in honoring and
magnifying God's law by the obedience of his sinless life and then
that sin-atoning sacrifice where he honors the same law now in
terms of all its dreadful penalties. The work of the Lord Jesus Christ
hence spoken of and then in verses 13 and 14. All of this is sealed in the
believer's heart by the Blessed Spirit, which is the earnest
of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession
under the praise of His glory. We read in verse 14, all that
work of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is to that blessed end,
the praise of His glory, but the sealing of the Spirit Every
believer must be sealed with the Spirit. I know there are
those who take that 13th verse in chapter 1 and try to make
out that there's some second blessing experience that some
might experience and other believers don't know and they need that
second blessing. They speak of it sometimes in
terms of the sealing or they speak of it in terms of the baptism.
But truly, every believer must know that gracious work of the
Spirit. And as we've already said, there
are these verses that we find scattered throughout the New
Testament Scriptures concerning the vital need of the Spirit
to seal all that work of Christ in the soul of sinners. And I
fear that we may be those who do grieve the Spirit of God quench
the Spirit of God is the language that we find in another epistle
in 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 9 we can grieve him, we can quench
the Spirit because if we are believers we must know something
of that minister of the Spirit and at times do we not feel that
we so quench him that there's an awful barrenness upon our
souls. We certainly see that it was
the experience of God's people of old in the language that we
find in the book of the Psalms. David can cry out in his great
penitential Psalm, take not thy Holy Spirit from Again, on another
occasion He can create, leave not my soul destitute. Now we
do feel destitute when there's not that ministry of the Spirit,
the Spirit of Christ making real in our souls the person and the
work of Him who is the only Saviour of sinners. And in a sense it
shouldn't surprise us that God's children do feel on occasions
that surely the Spirit is not within me. How can I know that
Christ by that gracious ministry of His Spirit is making His abode
in my own heart? Because we are so aware, are
we not, of the state of our hearts when the Lord begins to deal
with us? Now is it possible that the spirit
of the Lord Jesus Christ could be in such a heart as mine, says
the child of God? Could ever God's dweller, says
Joseph Hart in the hymn, so conscious of what he is and the state of
his own heart? And of course it's there in the
language of the Word of Truth. what we read in the early chapters
of Genesis concerning the state of men before God visits that
awful judgment in the universal flood. We're told at the beginning
of Genesis 6 that God saw the wickedness of man was great in
all the earth and every imagination of the thought of his heart was
evil. continually. It's such a remarkable Hebraism
we have there. Every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart was evil. All the wickedness of our hearts
by nature. The consequence of the transgression
and the fall of our first parents. And we of course receiving from
them a fallen nature. The heart deceitful. Again, the
Prophet says, it's deceitful above all things, desperately
wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord,
search the hearts. I try the rains to give to every
man according to the fruit of his doing. God only knows the
real state of our hearts. And the Lord Jesus, in the course
of his own ministry in the Gospel, speaks of those evils that proceed
from the hearts of men. How is it then that Christ can
dwell in the heart? It seems utterly impossible. There's no good thing there.
And yet the amazing truth is that Christ can be there, because
Christ is that One who is the Saviour of sinners. Christ is
that One who is pleased to receive sinners, and to eat with them. how remarkable it is. I like
the remark that John Gill makes on this particular verse, that
Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. He speaks of that heart
where no good thing dwells but himself and his grace. There's no good thing in any
Christian believer but the Lord Jesus Christ himself and his
grace. all about the child of God is
so contrary and yet the believer is brought to this to believe
that there is the love of God to such a degree and that love
manifested in the gift of his only begotten son that God loves
sinners and has given his son to be the saviour of sinners,
and the Holy Spirit himself comes and makes that glorious salvation
a blessed reality. And so the believer is brought
to a state of hope. We think of the faith of Abram.
Abram, the father of all them that believe, and our Abram is
one who, against hope, believes in hope. In spite of all that
we might see and feel with regards to the wretchedness of our hearts
and the unbelief that clings and cleaves to our fallen nature,
or such is the grace of God in the Lord Jesus, such is that
great love of the Father towards sinners, that against all that
seems to be contrary, there can be hope. Abraham staggered not
at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith. giving glory to God. God's promise
overcomes all the evil that is in our fallen, sinful, unbelieving
hearts. The Lord doesn't leave his people
destitute. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
one who comes and ministers to them so graciously. And this is what Paul is praying
for these Ephesians. that Christ, he says, may dwell
in your hearts by faith. The wonders of that faith that
is saving, that faith that really is by the gracious operation of
the Spirit of God in the soul of the sinner. That faith that,
of course, Paul has spoken of previously here as being the
gift of God. A remarkable chapter, we're so
familiar with it, aren't we? It trips off our tongues really
quite easily in the second chapter. By grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. We are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. well there is the truth and it's
all the work of God, His workmanship fight of the operation of God
we have no fight of our own and the Lord has to deal with us
in such a manner that we're brought to realize that when he begins with the sinner,
what does he do? he brings that sinner to the
end of himself he turns that man to destruction He teaches
that man the awful doctrine of his total depravity, his impotence,
his spiritual impotence. He can do nothing. And he has
to live to prove that in every sense of the word salvation is
of the Lord, the purpose of the Father, or the procuring by the
Son, or the Christ accomplished. And then that blessed application
to the soul by the gracious work of the Holy Spirit. Christ dwelling
in the heart. How can it be? It's by faith.
And from whence can we obtain such faith as that? It's that
that comes from the Lord Jesus Christ himself. We have to look
to him, looking on to Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith. But then he goes on in the second
place here to make mention of that love that is the love of
God. That Christ may dwell in your
heart by faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love. And isn't that love of God really
the beginning? The beginning of salvation? Behold
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we
should be called the sons of God. Why we read those words
there at the beginning of 1st John chapter 3. Here is something
to behold. And you know the force of that
words to behold, it's something that we are to to look to and
it has that idea of a careful even an intensive looking into
a true consideration of the wonder of the love of God and when we
think of this prayer at the end of this third chapter do we not
have to recognize that it's love it's that love of God that lies
at the very heart of the prayer This is a great burden of what
the Apostle desires for these Ephesians. Being rooted and grounded in
love, he says, that they may be able to comprehend with all
saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height,
and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that
ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. He prays for them, desiring that
they might begin to comprehend something that is really beyond
comprehension, something that is incomprehensible. And why
is this? Because he's speaking of the
love of God and that love of God in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Again, remember how in that first epistle of John Twice in the
fourth chapter, the Apostle makes that statement,
God is love. God is love, in verse 8 and again
in verse 16. And love is more than an attribute
in God. Surely there's that sense in
which love is the very character of God. He is love in and of
himself without reference to anything outside of himself. There are three persons in the
Godhead. There's the love of the Father
to the Son, the love of the Son to the Father, the love of the
Father and the Son to the Holy Spirit, the love of the Holy
Spirit to the Father and the Son. In that mystery of the Godhead
in all that he is, in his very essence, God is love. And yet, God is pleased to demonstrate
that love towards the sinful sons of men. What has God done
in the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, in the Lord Jesus Christ,
God manifests in the flesh that one who is the son of the Father
in truth and in love who in the fullness of the time is sent
into this world as we're told there in Galatians 4 when the
fullness of the time was come God sent forth his son made of
a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the
law what a remarkable demonstration of God's love is that gift of
his only begotten son to be the Redeemer, and all that that redemption
involves. In the Lord Jesus Christ, sin
is propitiated, isn't it? And all that that word implies,
the propitiation of sins, it has to do of course with the
Godward aspect of sin. How God is angry with the wicked
every day. but in the sacrifice of Christ
the justice and the wrath of God has been satisfied God's justice is satisfied because
the punishment has been meted out the soul that sinneth it
shall die the wages of sin is death and again the language
of John in that first epistle he says here in his love if in
his love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent
his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." That's a remarkable
statement. And that's what we have here,
isn't it? He's speaking of this love of God, is the Apostle.
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye, being
rooted and grounded in love, and then he goes on to speak
of the great lengths and breadths and heights and depths of that
love which is shown to sinners in the person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. There's not only those words
in the fourth chapter of that first epistle chapter 4
verse 10 here in his love not that we love God but that he
loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins
but he uses that same word earlier in the epistle in chapter 2 and
verse 2 he is the propitiation for our sins, writes John and
not for us only but for the sins of the whole world he's speaking
of course principally to Jews but he's speaking also about
that that love extends to sinners of the Gentiles no more confined
to Israel as was the case in the Old Testament when of all
the families of the earth God would say of them you only have
I known that the Lord Jesus Christ has
come to make a sacrifice for sinners of the Gentiles as well
as for those of the Jews He is the propitiation I know it's
a technical word, it's a theological word, yes, but it's a biblical
word. And so we do well to study it, to examine it, to try to
understand the significance of it, and as I've already intimated
it, it is a word that really speaks of that Godward aspect
of sin. It's an offense to God. and God's anger and God's justice must be satisfied,
His wrath must be visited on the sinner the gift of God He loves the sinner here in His
love not that we love God but that He loved us But in Christ,
of course, it's not only that there's that dealing with the
Godward aspect, there's also the human aspect. Sin has an
effect upon us. We're guilty. We're guilty before
God. We're guilty before the Holy
Lord of God. We're transgressors. the law
demands a full, complete, perfect obedience as James says, if a
man keeps the whole law but offends in one point he's guilty of all one sin and yet of course we're
guilty of a multitude of sins but how the provision that God
has made in the in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and
that great work that Christ accomplished. Remember how Paul speaks of it
there in Colossians chapter 2 and the verse 13 following he
says you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your
flesh hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you
all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances
that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out
of the way, nailing it to his cross, and having spoiled principalities
and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it." How all that that was against us has now been blotted
out, taken away. Oh, he's removed sins from the
believing sinner even as far as the East is from the West,
that's infinity. North and South, of course, fixed
points on the compass. But no fixed points when we talk
of East and West, that's infinity as far as the East is from the
West. You can't measure that. And that's what God has done.
We've had the Sassan staying with us overnight and we had
a good conversation yesterday evening, I felt, and we were
talking and Gwen Sassan, some of you are very familiar with
her, she was saying, she remembers as a young believer finding such
comfort when she discovered reading in Leviticus the truth of the
scapegoat. Remember the Day of Atonement,
there's two goats. There's the one goat that's going
to be the sin offering, and there's a second goat, and the high priest
will confess the sins of the nation on the head of that goat
as well, and then a strong man takes that scapegoat into the
wilderness, and releases it, and it's gone. Never to return. And of course, what was the comfort
to Gwen Sarsen was that she realized is that sin was gone. The scapegoat, the truth of the
scapegoat. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ has done on the cross. What a provision God has made
in the person of His only begotten Son. Sin's gone. There's that great verse, isn't
there, if I remember right, I think it's in Jeremiah chapter 50. in Jeremiah 50 and verse 20, In those days and in that time,
saith the LORD, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for,
and there shall be none, and the sins of Judah, and they shall
not be found. For I will pardon them whom I
reserve. What a word is this! that Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded enough ought
to be grounded in this love this love of God to be rooted in it that in the Lord Jesus Christ
there's no bar no barrier between the sinner and his God all of
that sin is God it's strange isn't it that I'm
sure you're you're aware there are those who have such a strange view
of the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament
they make a false distinction they say that in the Old Testament
you have a cruel God an austere judge But in the New Testament
you find a loving God in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's by
his death that the Lord Jesus Christ has made it possible for
God to love sinners. That's the distinction they make.
They say, well, you read the Old Testament. I've heard people
say this. You read the Old Testament and God there is so, so hard. He's a God of judgment. It's austere. They seem to think there's nothing
of grace there in the Old Testament. But the Lord Jesus Christ is
there in the New Testament. What has Christ done? He's come
and by dealing with sin, He has now made it possible for God
to love sinners. Well, that is a false distinction. It's more than a false distinction.
It's blasphemy. It's blasphemy. Because the God
of the Old Testament is the same God that we have in the New Testament. In the New Testament we have
the fullness of the revelation of God, but it is the same God
throughout the Testaments. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God
is one Lord. He is one. He is one in essence. His purpose is one. throughout
the Testaments. In a sense, we're wrong, really,
when we speak of God's decrees. God's decree is really singular. He dwells outside of time, He
dwells in eternity. There are not a succession of
events that God is fulfilling, as it were, fulfilling His decrees,
we might say. Really, His decree is one. He is in one mind and none can
turn Him. And He has one great purpose,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and that one purpose, of course,
is the salvation of sinners. And we have it, don't we, in
the language that we have there at verse 3 in chapter 1 and the
following verses. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy and without blame before Him in love having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will and the language here is so clear
it's God's good pleasure, it's God's predestination it's God's
election And all this is being worked out throughout the Scriptures
Old Testament and New Testament. We're not to make false distinctions.
We're to recognize that God is One. He's undivided, He's indivisible,
His purpose is One. And it's because God had an eternal
love to sinners that Christ came and Christ died. and Christ rose again was the
outworking of his own eternal purpose when the fullness of the time
was come that's the fullness of the time that God himself
had appointed from all eternity in the covenant when the fullness
of the time I like the fact that there's two definite articles
there doesn't just say the fullness of time it's the fullness of
the time God sends forth his Son made of a woman made under
the law to redeem them that were under the law or God commendeth
his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died
for us as the Apostle in writing to the church at Rome why is there salvation because
it all flows from the sovereign love of God God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish but have everlasting life he so loved
and what did he love? he loved the world now we're
not to think of world there quantitatively, really. There are those, of course,
who will say that it's a love for all the world, for every
individual that is living or ever has lived, without any exception. We're not to look at that word
there quantitatively. Surely we're to consider it more
qualitatively. What is the world? All that is in the world, the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life,
is not of the Father, but is of the world. The whole world
lies in wickedness. You see God has a love for that
that is so contrary to himself, a wicked world. A multitude of sinners, and those
sinners in a state of enmity and alienation Far, far from
God. Enemies in their mind by their
wicked works. God loves sinners. Here in His
love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His
Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Remember what the Apostle
says in that great golden chain that we have in Romans chapter
8? Whom He did foreknow. He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called. And whom He called, them He also
justified. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified. That salvation that reaches from
eternity to eternity. Whom He did foreknow. What is that foreknowledge? I
know the Arminian speaks of that foreknowledge in terms of God's
foresight. That's what they say. They say,
well look, God foresees who's going to believe. And on the
basis of that foresight, He makes choice. He foreknows them, He
predestinates them, because He sees they're going to believe. That's a foolish interpretation.
It's a man-centered interpretation. And it's not a right dividing
of the word of truth, it's an abusing of the word of truth.
What is that foreknowledge? It's those whom God has foreknown
in the sense of having set his sovereign love upon them. If we go back to Genesis chapter
4, we have that opening statement in the first verse concerning
the birth of Seth. Adam knew his wife Eve and she
conceived. He knew her. Well, it's what
might be called carnal knowledge. It's the union, isn't it, of
a man and a woman. They become one flesh. It's that
sort of... it's love. He knew her, he loved
her. And the outcome of that love
was the birth of a child. And so when we read of God's
knowledge of his people, it's a loving knowledge. God loves
his people in this sense, he knows them. There's an eternal
union that he has with them in the covenant. Whom he foreknows
he predestinates to be conformed to the image of his son. How
are they conformed to the image of his son? That eternal union,
because God has set his sovereign love upon them, it must become
an experimental union. In the fullness of the time there
will be that blessed work of the Spirit in the soul of that
sinner. And there'll be a real living union, spiritual union
with the Lord Jesus Christ. And it will go through to all
eternity. That's what Paul is saying in that glorious portion
there in Romans 8, whom he did for now. He also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of His Son. And whom He did predestinate,
Him He also called. And whom He called, Him He also
justified. And whom He justified, Him He
also glorified. Oh, how He loves His people.
And that love is sovereign. And that love is particular.
Jeremiah says, The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying,
I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee. And what does God do? He rests
in His love. O, to be rooted and grounded
in such a love as this! Christ may dwell in your hearts
by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded, in this love of
God in Christ you know the prophet Zephaniah says of this love of
God he will rest in his love God rests in his love how remarkable
is that and all that that love might
be shed abroad in our hearts and all comes to pass of course
by faith that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith the G
being rooted and grounded in love we have a double simile
don't we here a reference as it were to to trees being rooted, but also
a reference to a building being grounded. I think it's a double
simile. Where there is a tree, how necessary
are those roots that strike deep into the ground, and are the
strength really of the tree. Likewise, when we think of a
building, how important it is that the building is set upon
a good foundation. The Lord Jesus himself makes
that clear at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. Or to be rooted in and grounded
in this remarkable love of God, which is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
You see what Paul is praying for with regards to these believers
at Ephesus. And I think I said it last week,
it's not just a prayer for the church at Ephesus, it's part
of the Word of God. It's God's Word to all the churches
of Christ. It's a prayer for all believers
in the Lord Jesus Christ. That Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth
and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ
which passeth knowledge that you might be filled with all
the fullness of God well the Lord willing we'll continue later
as we come to consider the following 18th verse but the Lord be pleased
to bless his truth to us that we might be those who truly know
what it is for Christ to dwell in us. That's the secret, is
it not? It must be Christ in us, the
hope of glory. Well, the Lord bless to us His
word. Amen.