Thank you, Robin. Go back to
Ephesians 3 now. After we looked at Acts 20, Paul's
farewell to the Ephesians, I began reading the rest of this book. And we looked at chapter 1, chapter
2, a little bit. And I was struck with this again,
with this prayer of his. And one word in particular, but
look at it again, he said, I bow my knee to the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, verse 15, of whom the whole family in heaven
and earth is named. We're family. Brother John, John and Tommy
Parker, their father, Ed Parker, passed away yesterday or the
day before? The day before yesterday. A dear
man, faithful member of the church there at Spring Lake. He'd been
here before. We've been there many times.
And Tommy and Johnny both come to our meeting nearly every year.
They came last year. And they said to me, they both
said to me how precious family is, like you all. Family, we're
family, heaven and earth. Some of our brethren are home.
They've gone home. And we're soon to follow. Family. He said, I pray that
God would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to
be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. Paul said, our outer man perishes
every day. You get older, die and you shall
die, but the new man, It's strengthened. It's renewed day by day. Verse 17, that Christ may dwell
in your hearts by faith. That Christ may dwell. That you
may be rooted and grounded in love. In love to Him. In love
to each other. In His love. Grounded. Rooted
in His love. That you may be able to comprehend
with all saints. All saints comprehend a little
bit. It's really incomprehensible,
but a little bit. We know something of the breadth
or just how wide. You know, if God included me
in this kingdom, it must be wide. His love must be wide open. The length. He's able to save
other men. His arm is not short. So He went
all the way to Tyre and Sidon to save that one woman whose
daughter was vexed, exceedingly vexed. And how deep the depth,
oh the depth of the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God
and the height, how high. We just can't enter in. Some
are there. It's as high as you can get.
And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, we cannot
fully understand the love of our Lord for his people, for
us, until that day. We know in part, preach in part. And then when that is as perfect
as come, we'll know as we've been known. And that's, I think
that's why there's going to be silence in heaven. We're just
going to be amazed and amazed in the presence of Jesus, the
Nazarene. Wonder how he could love us,
me, a sinner, condemned, unclaimed. Be filled with all the fullness
of God. The fullness of God. God is love. God is peace. God is Righteousness. Be filled. I want
to be filled. Now, unto Him that's able to
do, now here's the word, exceeding. Abundantly, above all that we
ask or even imagine or think, according to the power that worketh
in us. The gospel is the power of God.
Unto Him be glory, and the church, that's us, by Jesus Christ throughout
all ages, world without end. That's what we're going to be
doing. Glorifying, glorying in, and glorifying our Lord, world
without end. That's the new world, without
end. And what do you say to that?
Amen. Amen. So Paul said, now the hymn
that is able to do exceeding abundantly. Now that word caught
my attention. And I just started doing a word
search on exceed. I knew there were quite a few.
Quite a few. Like the exceeding precious promises
that Peter talked about and others. Where sin abounded and grace
did much more abound. That's the same word. Exceeding
means to surpass or go far beyond that you're able to understand.
It far exceeds all that you can imagine. Scripture uses words
like this, unspeakable. That there's going to be joy
unspeakable. Sometimes we go through sorrow
that's unspeakable. Our Lord did. He said, my soul
is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death. And we go through
some of that. And it's unspeakable. Our Lord
speaks of joy unspeakable. When Paul came back from the
third heaven, he said, I heard things I can't...it's unspeakable.
I'm going to try to speak tonight on the unspeakable. Tell the
untellable. Fathom the unfathomable. Comprehend
the incomprehensible. You know, I use this word all
the time, and it's the best word I can think of when I can't think
of a word. Unbelievable. Don't you? I believe it, yet it's unbelievable. It's just unbelievable. Job said it, and I know how he
feels. He said, I've spoken things that
I haven't understood. He said, things too wonderful
for me. They far exceed my ability to
understand it. Far exceed. And Paul said this,
he said, I haven't seen, he quoted Isaiah, the eye has not seen,
the ear has not heard, neither have entered into the hearts
of man the things that God has prepared for them that love him.
But God hath revealed them a little bit unto us by His Spirit. But
we just see in part, don't we? If these things so far exceed
our understanding, if we had a full understanding like Paul,
he was so full of joy, wasn't he? Even in prison. He even said
he rejoiced in his tribulations. Didn't he? He said, I glory in
infirmities. I want to know a little bit about
that. And John said this, he said, Beloved, now we the sons
of God, but it doth not yet appear what we shall be. Because what
we shall be so far exceeds what we are now that you can't describe
it. So, let's look at some scriptures
that talk about things that exceed, that are far above that which
we are able to understand. The first thing we have to see
is the exceeding sinfulness of sin. Then nothing else will amaze
us, okay? Paul talked about that, didn't
he? Romans 7. He said the law came. The law shows us the exceeding
sinfulness of sin. The power of darkness. Where do we turn? Oh my. Look
at Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6, okay? That's close
by. Ephesians 6. We just don't understand
how exceedingly sinful sin is and evil and wicked and the power
of darkness and evil that is all around us and in
this world. We just don't know. Daniel, in his vision, it said
in Daniel 7 that the Lord showed him these visions and it said
he was greatly grieved and troubled because he saw the beast the
Lord revealed to him and he said he was exceedingly strong and
fierce. exceedingly fierce. When our
Lord came, Matthew 8. Yeah, Matthew 8. It says the
devils came. This was in the country of the
Gadarenes. It says they came and they were
exceedingly fierce. And our Lord confronted them. And they ran from Him. And they
went into those pigs, you remember, and ran violently. And all the
evil and the wickedness and the violence and the... God looked
down from heaven in Genesis 6 and said, the whole earth had corrupted
His way. He said, He saw that the sin
of man was great. That's the word, exceeding. The
first use of the word, exceeding, is in Genesis 13 where it says,
the sin of Sodom was exceedingly wicked. Far exceeded. And here's the thing. We don't
see it. We just see a tip of the iceberg. We don't hear it. We don't see it. The Lord in
mercy and love and grace to His people restrains. He was right. The wickedness
of man, the fierceness of our adversary is exceedingly fierce,
but God. Peter said Satan has a roaring
lion. Adam sat in a garden. was not just eating an apple.
Satan made him rise up against the God who loved him, the God
who did all things for him. And it just got worse from there
after Adam said, just like Satan, We'll have our way. And man got
progressively worse until God in Genesis 6 said, I'm going
to destroy man. It repented me. I made him. He's
so bad. So bad. The thoughts of his heart and
imagination were only evil continued. We would be horrified if we saw
and heard everything that goes on. We're horrified to some degree
by seeing and hearing what we do. But God restrains most of
it. God sees it out there. Ephesians 6, Paul said this in
verse 12, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness
of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. And it's this evil and this corruption
that fills people in Romans 1. Filled with all unrighteousness,
fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy,
murder, debate, haters of God, proud, and on and on it goes.
Romans 3. It's this evil that holds people
captive, 2 Timothy, at his will. And Paul prayed then, he said,
oh that God may for adventure give them, they might recover themselves,
you're captive by the God of this world. What I'm doing is
showing you just a little bit, just a little bit, the black
backdrop so that you might see the exceeding power of our God
and exceeding riches of His grace. I bought Mindy a string of pearls
for her birthday, this last birthday. I might not have too many more,
but I went to the jeweler and the first thing he did was got
a black velvet cloth and laid it out on that on that display
cabinet, okay? And he brought out those beautiful,
glistening, white, gorgeous pearls and laid them on that black backdrop. And those pearls just glistened. So you've got to understand something
in exceeding sinfulness of sin to understand something in the
exceeding riches of His grace and His power, what power it
takes to deliver us from darkness. We just don't know. We just don't
see it all. We just don't hear it all, all
that really exists. And this underscores and magnifies
in our text, go back to our text, Ephesians. In chapter 1, it underscores
and magnifies chapter 1. You have it? Verse 19. Verse 18. That the eyes of your
understanding be enlightened, that you might know what is the
hope of His calling. Everybody that's with Christ
in glory, removed from this dark world. Sin removed from them. Removed from all fear. Removed
from all danger. In perfect righteousness and
holiness and happiness and peace and joy, unspeakable and full
of glory, every one of them are called by the gospel. Chosen. Why do we make so much
of God's sovereign electing grace? It took the power, it took the
love of God, the mercy of God, the grace of God to choose anybody. It took the power of God to deliver
us. Verse 19. No, verse 18. The hope
of His calling with the riches of the glory of His inheritance
in the sight. I'm sitting here trying to describe
what we can't see. Only by faith. We get a little
glimpse of it. You get a little smile on your
face. If we could really enter into it, you couldn't sit in
that pew. Seriously. Verse 19, what is
exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe. Some of you,
Jeanette and I were talking, she was in religion, steeped
in religion, just in the darkness of religion, and that's just
as dark as gutter. It takes the power of God to
break a Pharisee's heart as much as a publican. It takes the power
of God. The same gospel has to come in
power. That's why Paul said to the Thessalonians,
I know your election, beloved of God, because our gospel came
unto you in power. What brought you out of religion
brought you to crap. Brought you out of the gutter.
The gospel that can bring a self-righteous woman to a gutter, bring them
together and make them bosom buddies. Like Mary the Virgin
and Mary the Harlot became fast friends and sisters for life.
What power did it take to break one and break the other? The
same power. The working of His mighty power. To us who believe,
what a gift, what a power. This faith is not of yourselves,
it's a gift of God. I remember saying as a young
rebel, I said, I don't need that. I told you that and I'm ashamed
of it, but just so you'll know the power of God. I went around
telling my friends, there's nothing to this. I'm ashamed of that
now. But the power of God, the Gospel
came to me. And then I went around to all
my friends and said, there's everything to this. I tried to find them
all. I tried to retract. It is true. Like Paul, Saul of Tarsus. The working of His mighty power.
According to the working of His mighty power. Exceeding riches
of His power, His glory. He said in Luke chapter 11, our
studies of Luke, he said this when they accused him of casting
out devils by Beelzebub. He said, If I with the finger
of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is coming
to you. Because when a strong man arm keeps his palace, That's
the God of this world holds everyone in this world captive at his
will. And they're willing captive and happy. Don't want, they like
this captive. They like this bondage to him. They don't think it's bondage
at all. But when a stronger than he comes, comes upon him, overcomes
him, he taketh from him. He takes captivity captive, John. He has to. He has to. Almighty love arrests that man.
He comes to get what's his. And he takes them and makes them
his captives, his willing bond slaves. We were willing slaves
to sin before, and now willing bond slaves to Christ. So it
takes a stronger than he. Oh, the exceeding power of our
God and Savior. And it far exceeds our understanding
of it. It far exceeds our ability to
understand it, our knowledge of it. What our Lord had to do,
what he had to endure, we'll never fully understand. The temptations
that he faced in the wilderness, The first thing he did as a man,
our Lord came as a man. And the second Adam rebelled
against God. I mean the first Adam. And the second Adam came
and obeyed God. The Lord our righteousness. The
second Adam from above to reinstate us in His love. Adam's likeness
now at face. Stamp thine image in his place.
The second Adam comes and face, the first thing he did was face
Satan's every assault. We just get a little, he just,
and I doubt very seriously if Satan himself deals with any
of us. demons and little underlings. You know, we're just not big
enough, not important enough. Right? Job now was assaulted
by Satan. But what our Lord had to do when
he was tempted in the wilderness, we'll never understand. And he
faced Satan, who's stronger than us. We're no match for him. He faced Satan at his weakest
point. He, at his weakest point as a
human being, faced our strong adversary. And he defeated him. As a man, he was tempted at all
points, like as we are. Men in the garden. I quoted to
him, he said, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful. Will not understand
what he went through in the garden. Tried. I've heard men preach
it. I've tried to. Will not fully understand. The
thought of being made sin for him, he sweat blood. Simon Peter said this, he said,
you have not resisted unto blood striving against sin. No, and
we probably never will. But he did. Sweat blood. Oh, exceeding. power that he
had to face. And then on the cross, that's
where it all came to a climax. The power of sin and darkness
descended upon our Lord. The hand of God, the wrath of
God came down on a man, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why we will
not understand. It exceeds anything we'll ever
understand. This underscores and magnifies
the exceeding riches of His grace. Look at Ephesians 2, verse 7. Ephesians 2, verse 7. Now you
know how it starts out. You walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air. You are under His power, His
dominion, under His control. that now works in the same in
the children of disobedience, among whom we had our conversation
in time past. Children of wrath, by nature,
children of wrath, even as others, but God. Rich in love, rich in
mercy, rich in grace. Even when we were dead, quickened.
You know what power it takes to call a dead man to life? Verse
6 has raised us up together, made us sit together in heavenly
places. We already talked about that.
From darkness to light, from life to death to life, from hating
God to loving God, from saying, I won't believe this, to I love
this. Say, I will not go there and worship, to say, I don't
want to leave. The power it takes to raise us
up, make us sit together like that demoniac. That gathering
demoniac, when the Lord came to him, cutting himself, about
to destroy himself, nobody could tame him. When they came and
found him, he was sitting there clothed in his right mind, listening
to the Lord, just smiling, rejoicing, praising the Lord, singing. What
power it took. Oh, so he says in verse 7, he's
going to show us in the ages to come, it's going to take an
eternity to show. the exceeding riches of His grace
and His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. What it took. We're
going to know as we've been known. And again, I'm saying things
too wonderful for me. The former things are not going
to be remembered or come to mind. So people have asked me, so how
can we really thank Him for forgiveness of sins when we have no memory
of sin. Well, how was our Lord sorrowful? How did our Lord die? He's God. How did He die? It's just unanswerable
questions. We're going to know we were sinners.
We're going to know. But there's no shame with it.
No shame. No guilt. No tears, no sorrow. And I find
that hard. It's going to be hard for some
of us not to, because I cry when I laugh, don't you? The other
day, we were, Monday night, we were with our family in Kingsport
and we were laughing. I haven't laughed that hard in
a long time. I was crying. I was laughing
so hard. Blowing my nose? Joy unspeakable and full of glory.
No more sin. No more worry. No more fear. No more enemy. Just nothing but
happiness and glory and comfort. I don't know how I'm going to
be able to laugh without crying. Oh, He's going to show us the
exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us. The
riches of His grace. For who? The riches of His grace. See, grace is giving us what
we don't deserve. That's what grace is. God giving
something to someone who doesn't deserve it. It's not what works
is you earn it. Grace is a free gift. Now, who did He do this for? Nobody's singing any louder than
another one. But you would think the thief on the cross would
sing the absolute loudest of anybody. You'd think Mary Magdalene,
you could hear her voice of over anybody. No, every one of us
are going to be singing at the top of our lungs, from the bottom
of our heart. Somebody said the only argument in heaven is going
to be over who's the chief sinner. Paul said that, I'm the last
and the least. He said, but unto me is this grace given. Go to
1 Timothy 1. Maybe you've never seen verse
14 before verse 15. 1 Timothy 1. We quote this all
the time. 1 Timothy 1. Paul says he's a pattern
of salvation. In verse 12, do you have it?
1 Timothy 1, 12. I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled
me and counted me faithful and put me into the ministry who
was before a blasphemer. Persecutor, injurious, but I
obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly, unbelieving. And
the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love,
which is in Christ Jesus. To me, he said, less than the
least, chief of sinners. And so this is a faithful saying.
It's true. Paul says it's true because look
at me. Christ came into the world to save sinners, even the chief.
He said the grace of God was exceeding abundant. Faith and love in Christ. Far
exceeded His ability to convey it and understand it. So the
grace of God is exceeding the riches of His grace. Love is
mercy. Mercy means not getting what
we deserve. God's not a man, is He? He says vengeance is mine, I
will repay. Why did He take vengeance on
me? Because He's God, not me. We sing that song, Oh the love
that drew salvation's plan and purpose. Oh the grace that brought
it down to man. Oh the mighty gulf that God did
span, that Calvary. We sing that song, How can it
be? How can it be that thou, my God,
should die for me? That God should love a soul like
me? How can it be? Because He's God. That's right.
And He's going to show us in the ages to come the exceeding
riches of His grace. A couple more, okay? Go with
me to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. Now you know where
I'm going. Let's look at the exceeding promises. of our God. 1 Peter 1, and it's in 2 Peter, but I want you
to see this. In 1 Peter 1, now he says in
verse 3, and all the epistles sound alike, don't they? The
same story. Verse 2, elect! Simon Peter,
his first letter, he couldn't write ten words without saying,
elect! You know, some of you in here
probably hated that word at one time. Now I can't say it enough,
can you? You love, you like, that Simon
Peter did, he knew how many boats were out there, how many fishermen
were out there. And what kind of fellow he was, but God. Licked through sanctification
of the Spirit. Verse 3, Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ according to His abundant and
far exceeding mercy begotten of us. That sounds like Ephesians
1 doesn't it? It is. To an inheritance incorruptible
that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept.
Peter said we're kept. By the power of God. Seething
greatness of His power. Oh my. Verse 7, here's what I want you
to see too. Though you're going through,
verse 6, manifold temptation, the trial of your faith being
more precious than gold, it perishes, though it be tried with fire.
We go through fire. We go through fiery trials. That's what it said. If need
be, we go through these fiery trials. Faith is going to be
a trial. It's going to redound unto praise, honor, and glory.
It's going to come through the fire, praising to God, who was
there with us. Our Lord, who was the burning
offering for us. Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
You know what it said? It says the king heated that
furnace. It was exceeding hot. It was hotter than any furnace
had ever been heated. And he took these three fellows
and threw them in it. You know what happened? God's
power exceeded the heat in that furnace. Now how can that be? How can it be? So someone was
in there and he stayed there. He stayed there. And he was not
consumed, John. That's the burning of the book.
Same story. Same story. Well, 2 Peter, this
is what I want you to see. 2 Peter, chapter 1, verse 3. He said, How he's divine power
has given us all things. Here it is again. It's power.
Given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through
the knowledge of him that called us to or by glory and virtue. whereby are given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises." What he told Abraham, Abraham,
I'm going to bless everybody through you. The whole world
is going to be blessed. He said, I'm going to give you
a land that you will not be able to understand. I'm going to give
you an inheritance. The second use of exceeding is
when God said to Abraham, when Abraham saw that Lot was down
in Sodom and all that, and he seemed like he was alone, God
said, Abraham, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. Let Lot have the Sodom. And you know what happened to
Sodom? What you get me, Abraham, that exceeds anything, any lawsuit
that's gained exceedingly. But these exceeding
precious promises, our Lord said, He that believeth on the Son
hath life. He that liveth and believeth
in me, Christ said, shall never die. shall be with me in glory."
He said, Father, I will that they be with me in glory. Who? Thomas, doubting Thomas. Simon
Peter, denying Simon. Mary Magdalene. I will. The thief on the cross. Today,
he promised him. Today, and it might be for us. It might be for one of you. This
very day. Today, he said, thou shalt be
with me in paradise. exceeding great promises to escape
the corruption that's in this world. I'm going to give you
one more, okay? One more. Jude. Jude. Look at Jude. One chapter, but
always in a chapter. And it ends, it ends exceedingly
joyful. It starts talking about the corrupt
men, the ungodly, and so forth. But it ends this way. He says,
If some, the Lord is going to save with fear, pull out of the
fire. Plucked as a bran for the burner. And he says in verse
24, he ends it this way. Now unto Him that is able. That's
the power. The only one who can. And He's
promised He would. To keep you from falling. And to present you faultless.
Unblamed. Unapprovable. No sin. No record. All the handwriting
of ordinances. Scripture says exceeding waiting
against us, the law, able to present us faultless, record
clear, before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise God, our Savior,
be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and ever.
Amen. That brings us back to Paul's
prayer unto Him. is able to do above all that
we could even ask or think. Unto Him be glory, both now and
forever. Exceed Him. And it sure exceeds. It's kind of like Sheba. We're
all going to be like her. When she came and saw the power
and the glory and the riches and the honor and the wisdom
of Solomon, she said, Thy fame exceeded all that I heard. She said, the half wasn't told.
And I ain't told it tonight, not the half of it. Okay, stand
with me.