Is an ocean that shall blessing
tears of heaven's sweetness, Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus
is a heaven, a heaven to me. And it lifts me up to glory,
for it lifts me up to Thee. Alright, let's turn in our Bibles
to Ephesians chapter 3. Ephesians 3 as we continue these
studies in the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 3. Let me make
one announcement before we begin. So, the Bill Parker told the church last night, the
church in Ashland, that he would be their next pastor. So, rejoice in that. He's preaching
there tonight. Alright, Ephesians 3, let's read
the text. Let's read verses 13 to the end
of the chapter. Paul says, Wherefore, I desire
that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this cause, I bow my knees
unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family
in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according
to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by
his Spirit in the inner man, 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, to know the love of Christ, which
passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness
of God. Now unto him that is able to
do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according
to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the
church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. That's Paul's prayer for
the church at Ephesus, and that's my prayer for you and for me.
It's just a short prayer. This is our text tonight. This is our subject. Paul's prayer
for the Ephesians. Now remember, Paul was in prison.
In verse 1, he said, I'm a prisoner of Jesus Christ for you. He was
in prison for preaching the gospel, for preaching the truth, enduring
great persecution and trouble. And the church at Ephesus was
very troubled by it, as you would be were I in prison or someone
else we know in prison for preaching the gospel. We'd be greatly troubled
with distress. The church there was. Verse 13,
he says, I desire that you faint not at my tribulations for you,
which is your glory. He says, I don't want you to
faint or fall out or quit. I don't want anyone to quit just
because of these persecutions, whether they're for me or for
you. Whatever, whoever goes through
persecution, don't let it trouble you. He said, I don't want anybody
to quit, but all to remain true and faithful till Christ come. Trials, persecutions, afflictions,
trouble, in no trouble, in every trouble.
But Paul was enduring persecution for the gospel's sake, as will
all believers. They will be strangers to the
people of this earth. They will be pilgrims on the
earth, the scripture says. They will experience being separated from the world. But
Christ said that, marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate
you. And he said, blessed are you if you're persecuted. So
persecuted they the prophets before you. On the contrary, our Lord said,
if the world speaks well of us, then perhaps we're not speaking
the truth clearly enough. If the world speaks well of us
and highly esteems us, God may not. So if we feel separated
from this world, even the religious world, that's fine. That's fine. So separated they, or persecuted
they, the prophets, the apostles, our Lord himself. And so these
trials and troubles, tribulations and persecutions are what all
believers are called to endure. Listen to 1 Thessalonians 1.
It says, these are a manifest token of the righteous judgment
of God that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God
for which you suffer. All saints have suffered, if
you read Hebrews 11, are the things that God's people endure.
We're not called upon to endure anything like that, but to a
much lesser degree. Nevertheless, there will be persecution. But we can say with Moses, can
we not? And Moses chose rather to suffer
affliction with the people of God. Choosing rather to suffer
affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasure
of sin for a season. So Paul prays that nobody quit.
Nobody faints, nobody falls away in the face of persecution. And
he prays to God, and that's who he's praying to, and that's who
alone can keep us from falling. He alone is able to keep us from
falling. Verses 14 and 15. He says this,
for this cause, that is, calling upon God that he might keep you
from falling, from fainting, For this cause, I bow my knees
unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is God the Father
we pray to. It is Christ we pray through.
He's intercessional. It's the Holy Spirit that takes
those prayers to Christ. With intercessions, with groanings,
it cannot be uttered. So he says, I pray to the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven
and earth is named. I love that verse there. The
whole family. God's family. God's family is
named for Christ. The disciples at Antioch were
first called Christians. Christians. They were called
Christians, and so are we. We're named after Christ, like
the bride takes her husband's name when she marries him, when
they're married, when they're joined, when they're united.
So it is with the believer. He takes Christ's name. We are
named. There's a family in heaven, and
many of our brethren and sisters have already gone there, have
gone home. We're the ones that are away. They are at home. Many
of our brethren, and we're talking about persecution, many of our
brethren were killed in action while we remain on this battlefield.
But we'll be there by and by. All requests that the Lord keep
us from fainting and falling away, God our Father, through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now here's his request, here's
his prayer, beginning with verse 16. that God would grant you,
and me, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his
glory, to be strengthened with might by his Holy Spirit in the
inner man. This is the first thing, that
God would grant us inner strength, that God would grant us. The
king, according to the riches of his glory. Our God, our God,
that he might grant us according to his riches. Now, we can go
to God for anything, and we can go to God for great things. This
is no great thing. I love what, I forget who the
prophet was. Micah was who it was. The Lord
said, ask a great thing of me. And Micah didn't want to presume
upon God and ask something great. He said, if you can't weary me,
ask for something great in the height of the dead. And that's
when he made that prophecy. I'll show you something great.
Behold, a virgin shall conceive. But we can ask of our God great
things because he's rich. He's rich. We go to a king that's
greater than Solomon. See, under Solomon's reign, you
remember that? Under Solomon's reign, every
man dwelled under his own vine and fig tree. And I just imagine
that whoever it might be that would go to Solomon with whatever
it might be that he'd give it to them. I just know something
about Solomon. Don't you? You reckon that the
lowest of the low would go, would ask to meet an audience with
Solomon, you reckon he'd hear it? I know he would. And whatever
the man asked him. There was a king one time, this
is a true story, there was a king one time who was going to show
favor to someone, to a servant of his, and he said, ask what
you will and I'll give it to you. And the man asked some great
thing, like just a huge, huge request. And one of the king's
officers was prepared to strike the man down for such impudence,
such presumption, such whatever. And the king said, no, he honors
me. He honors me. I told him. He
honors my word. I told him I would give him whatever.
He asked something great. I'm going to give it to him.
So it is with our God. That he would grant you according
to his riches. You reckon you went to Joseph, who's in charge
of the storehouses. You reckon you went to him and
said, I got a big family, I need a lot of grain. I know he'd leave
you loaded down with wagon load, like he did his brethren. That
God would grant you, it all must come from him, mustn't it? A
man can receive nothing except it be given him from above. That
God would grant you this inner strength. by the Holy Spirit,
this inner strength. Now, this is our greatest need,
spiritual strength. Because someone can be very strong
and robust on the outside, young and virile, and yet be a spiritual
and emotional weakling. And vice versa, someone can be
very, very weak in body as a rock. As a matter of fact, on their
deathbed, can just be standing firm as a rock, while outwardly
strong or driven with the winds. Better to be strong in faith,
isn't it? and weakened body. Here's the key. He prays that
we might be strengthened with might by His Holy Spirit in the
inner man. Now here's a key to this inner
strength. Verse 17, that Christ may dwell
in your hearts by faith. He is that rock. He is that foundation
upon which we're built. If we stand firm on Christ, if
Christ is our solid rock, then we will stand firm, won't we?
We will have this strength of resolve. Without a firm, abiding
faith in Christ, there is no understanding of anything. Without
some understanding of who Christ is, where He is now, what He's
done, His will, His covenant, without that, there is no understanding
of why the world is like it is, why things happen the way they
do. There will be no peace of mind, no peace of conscience,
no peace of heart, without some understanding and firm belief
in the Lord your Rock, who sits on the throne overruling all
things. predestinating all things. This
is that key to inner strength. Christ in the heart, by faith. And this Christ in the heart
is more than just a head nod. He says Christ, that Christ himself
may dwell in your hearts by faith. Now this is not something mystical,
though it's hard to explain. Yet every believer, every true
believer, knows Christ and is known of him, every true belief,
to a different degree, like little children and older men. Yet Christ is there. He said he abides in their heart,
a constant, and this is known and felt. Now what I'm talking
about now is a feeling, a sense of his presence with us. We need
that for this strength. We need a sense of his abiding
presence, just like you wives would feel comfortable knowing
that your husband's in the house. It's the same thing here, that
we know that Christ abides with us, that he's ever with us. Those
who don't have husbands, you do have a husband. Your maker
is your husband, the scripture says. So you, more than anybody,
need this abiding sense, this sense of Christ's abiding presence. A mere knowledge of doctrine
only will not keep us from worry, from fear, from distress when
things start to go wrong. But this real abiding belief
and trust in a real person that stands with you, in you, Christ
in you, And this comes from, how does this sense of his presence,
how does this abiding sense of his presence come to us? Where
does it come from? Well, number one, it comes from
God's Word. Faith, we're talking about faith.
Believing, trusting that Christ is with us, in us, for us. All things work together for
us according to His will. All that comes from God's Word.
Faith cometh by hearing. So here's the first thing. This
is the best thing to ensure that you have this inner strength,
knowing that Christ is with you. The preached Word. The reading
of the Word. Don't bypass that. You must gather
your own manna daily. Gather your own manna. Eat it
for yourself. You have a double portion, even
triple portion, Wednesday, Sunday twice, prepared for you. You just need to come hungry
and you'll be fed. Yet, the rest of the time, you've
got to gather it yourself, aren't you? So the reading of God's
Word, Christ is near and dear to those who, this is how he
speaks. This is how God speaks. Young and old, I say this to
everyone. Look into God's Word. This is how He speaks to you.
This is how you feel His presence. Prayer. What is prayer but communication
with our Father? Is there any sense of love between
you and your parent or spouse or whoever it may be if you don't
communicate? What if you never talk? You'll drift apart. So
it is with our Heavenly Father, with the sense of communicate. Communication brings nearness
and dearness. Prayer. Prayer. Strength in the
inner man comes through prayer. Fellowship. What you're doing
right now. Gathering together. Sheep is what we are. We're not
very strong when we're alone. Sheep can't make it alone. It's not the nature of the creature
to want to be alone. Can't do it. Sheep, when danger
comes, they huddle up into just one mass of fleece. And you want to be the one in
the middle if there's a wolf around. But that's the nature
of the animal. They huddle together and they
get They get encouragement from one another, warmth from one
another, fellowship together, gregarious. That is, they gather
together, flock together. All clean animals in the Scripture
are gregarious. They flock together. It's a picture
of God's people, clean, made clean by Christ. That's the nature
of the animal, gregarious. That's where we get the word
congregation, congregation of the saint. And Christ said, now,
he said this, and it's not just, well, he said, where two or three
are gathered, I am right there in their midst. So if you want
a sense, a true sense of Christ's presence, you be where his people
are at every opportunity. If you don't feel it tonight,
come back Sunday. Now, where any of these things
are missing, the Word, prayer, fellowship, we will be left to
ourselves. We will be left to fend for ourselves. We think we'll feel like it anyway.
And we will be easy prey for Satan like a wandering sheep,
right? All we like sheep have gone astray,
prone to wander, Lord, I feel. We'll be left out there and we're
easy prey on our own for Satan's sin, self, and the world, and
fears and anxieties and temptations will beset us. Run back to the
flock, run to the Word, run to Christ Himself. Alright, this
inner strength comes from Christ dwelling in you. That you, verse
17, may be rooted and grounded in love. Here's the next thing
he asks the Lord, asks God to do for us through Christ. That
you be rooted and grounded in love. Job went through a lot,
didn't he? No one has ever been through
what Job has been through. All of us collectively, all our
troubles put together might equal what Job went through. How did
he get through it? How? Well, the Lord said this about
Job. The root of the matter is in
it. The root of the matter. In other
words, his roots go deep. Christ is that root, isn't He,
John? Christ is that vine. But the root is this deep abiding
faith which is the gift of God. The root of the matter, deep
abiding, deep roots. If a tree or a shrub or whatever
it is has deep roots, let the high winds come, huh? A palm
tree down in You've seen those uprooted, haven't you? There
are no roots, I would say. It's just a ball of nothing.
Some tell me, though, that some of these trees, some of these
huge hardwoods, that the actual taproot is as big, is as deep
as the trunk of the tree you see itself. So if you see a hundred
foot tree, there's a hundred foot taproot going down there.
No mere wind is going to blow that up for you. The root goes
deep. And so it is, the root of the matter, because a deep
abiding grasp of the truth, laying hold of it. That's what he talks
about when he says, lay hold of Christ. I mean, wrap your
soul around him, and rooted and grounded This word grounded means
settled, anchored. It's the ground on which you
stand. It's the foundation. This petition, what is it? The new building we put up, what
do you call it? Huh? Addition. Thank you. This addition,
petition, this addition we put up on the back of the the main
building here. What are you laughing at, Nancy? You try. This petition we built, this
addition we built back here, was on filled dirt. Most of you
know that years ago it was just a big hole back there. And we
had to fill dirt in to build on it. And, you know, when you
build, you need to go down as deep as you can to some hard
pack, to some solid soil. It's not field dirt, it's actual...
Some of that footing, Gabe, is 10 feet deep. I know I was in
it, digging, cleaning that. 10 feet deep. That little petition,
little addition back there sits on about 20 yards of concrete.
That's not going anywhere. This big thing might fall down,
that one won't. Grounded. It's grounded. It's
grounded. Anchored. Stand fast. And you
see, it's not really our faith. It's Christ. How big is your
Christ? How big is your Christ? Grounded and settled. He's the
foundation which no man can lay. No other foundation can be laid
than that which is laid. Christ, the solid rock, the cornerstone
Brother Ron read about. In love, rooted and grounded
in love. Love to God. Blessed are, well,
all things work together for good to them that love God. Rooted
and grounded in love to God. Do you love God as God? I mean
the God we believe. holy, sovereign, just. Those
things seem hard and too strict and too severe to the world. They think we're too severe,
too austere, whatever, in our demands that God be known as
holy and sovereign and all that. Folks, every promise in this
book depends on that. Every promise in this book depends
on God being absolutely God, that He doesn't change, that
His Word won't change, that nothing can move Him, nothing can alter
His purposes. Huh? We must insist upon that. All our hope is built upon an
unchanging God. I love God as Sovereign. Don't
you? He's not God if He's not. Love,
rooted and grounded in love to God, love to Christ. Oh, listen,
all my hope, all my peace, all my assurance is based upon the
blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. I mean, John, that the
blood of Jesus Christ actually put away all my sin, past, present,
and future. That's all my hope. My hope has
nothing to do with me. I'm so fickle, finite, failing,
fallible. Everything about me is changeable
and up and down, up and down. Huh? What's all my hope? There's a man at the right hand
of God, a high priest, for his people. We insist upon it. I love Christ, the efficiency,
the eternality of his blood. Don't you, Stan? And his righteousness? I have no righteousness. Mine
are filthy rags. I try to sew one up. I think
I've got something, you know, I think I've got something, some
good traits every now and then, and then, phew, do something,
and it all blows apart. I'm right back to square one. In the dirt is a sinner pleading
for the mercy of God. Well, what's my hope? It's that
I'm covered with the righteousness of Christ. I love Christ as being Christ.
rooted and grounded in love, love to him, love to one another.
By this we know we've passed from death unto life. We love
the brethren. The love of God's people for one another is not
just a religious praise that you use
every now and then to make people think you're pious. It's real,
isn't it? We don't go around telling each other that very
much. No, but it's there. You know it's there. It's true. You know, you've experienced
enough of the other kind to know the difference. Rooted and grounded
in love. Now, that's our love to Him.
And we love Him. Why? Why? Why would He first love that?
We wouldn't love Him had He not set His love upon us. And how
do we love Him more? How do we grow to love Him more? Look at the next verse. That
you may be able to comprehend with all saints the breadth,
length, depth, and height to know the love of Christ for us. See, love begets love. And comprehending
or thinking about His love for us is what causes our love for
Him to grow. trying to be true to the Word,
I wanted to get to this. It's a shame, and I apologize
for quite often, well, the world's conception
of the love of God so nauseates me, and I get so sick of it. It's so blasphemous, the religious
conception of the love of God is so blasphemous, that God loves
everybody but there's people in hell that he loves. And it's
so nauseating and so blasphemous and I get so sick of it that
sometimes we don't say enough. Sometimes we shouldn't let that
keep us from thinking about, talking about, considering and
ever stop being amazed by the love of God for us. You understand what I'm trying
to say? Though the world's got a misconception
of it and a wrong view of the love of God and they abuse it,
yet that should not stop us from talking about and thinking about
and being amazed by and thankful for the love of God to us. And
I shouldn't, as a preacher, worry about somebody hearing me talk
about it and thinking that I'm saying God loves you. Never mind there. But I'm talking
to God's people now. He says that we might know the
breadth. Now listen with me, saints, that
you may be able to comprehend with all saints the breadth,
the length, the depth, and the height of the love of God in
Christ Jesus. And I wish a more able man were
standing here now, an older man who's been experienced it more.
But I'll give it a shot. That we might be able to comprehend
with all the saints, this is something all saints know and
understand, the breadth of the love of God in Christ Jesus. The breadth. The breadth is the
width of something. How inclusive God's love is. How many, you know, we can't,
we only love