Scripture is very clear about
what ought to be going on when the ecclesia meets, that it is
in the ecclesia where people hear and grow, that there is
the shout of glory. It is in the church where the
spirit of wonder and worship of the Lord Jesus Christ takes
place. It is important To be a member
of a church, absolutely. You know my little saying that
going to church makes you no more a Christian than walking
in your garage makes you an automobile. But going to church and being
a part of that community, God's community, is important because
it's important not only that you are converted, quickened,
regenerated, born again, but that you are no longer like Hayden,
a baby. Thank God that Hayden is growing. I've watched her grow. And as
she takes the milk, you can almost see her growing. Babies are to
grow. You know very little as a baby
Christian about the love of God. You know very little. You are
to grow in grace. Remember, grace doesn't grow.
We grow in grace. Grace is always at full tide. It's marvelous. It's awesome. It's wonderful. It's glorious
grace. It's amazing grace. And we grow
in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
so very, very important. So the Apostle in Ephesians 3
makes the statement in verse 21, unto Him be glory in the
church by or through Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without
end. Let's begin reading. Verse 14,
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. There's a big part of our family
that's already in heaven. And then some of the family here
on earth. That He would grant you according to the riches of
His glory. And last week we found out that
that glory, at least particularly here, is His glorious power. Somehow, with the churches today,
we've lost a sense of the need of power. Do you understand it
takes power to bring dead folks to life? And you had the made
alive who were dead. Power. Power to convert the heroin
addict. Power to save the crack addict. Power to save the church addict. It takes power. In fact, I think it was Wednesday
evening, I said, I believe it takes more power, in a sense,
to bring a religious person out of darkness into light than it
does a crack addict. Because you who are sitting in
church camouflaged and hiding within the walls of a church,
hiding from God, you are in a double darkness. You are in the darkness
of your depravity and nature and in the darkness of religion.
You are in a double darkness. So if you're here and a religious
person and without Christ, it's going to take the power of God
to get you to cough it up. that your church can't save you,
that baptism can't save you, you need a power to be exerted
in your life. Then the Apostle says that he
would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be
strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. In the inner man. You are to
be strengthened in the inner man. How many of you want to
be strengthened in the inner man? I do. I want to be strengthened
in the inner man. We worship God in spirit. Some
of you clapped after men of grace death through singing. But some
of you didn't worship God in your clapping. In other words,
while they were singing, you were enjoying it with your fleshly
ears and your fleshly self. But your spirit wasn't jumping. People get baptized and come
up out of the water saying hallelujah. But really, they only got wet
because their spirit is not jumping. Where you worship God, the flesh
profiteth nothing. In other words, you doing this,
getting down on your Knees making the sign of the cross. All of
that can be done and you never worship God. The flesh prophet
does nothing. Where you need strength is in
the inner man. In the inner man. And Paul is
praying for that. That you'd be strengthened 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. Oh, you need some power in order
to comprehend. Say, well, you know, I went to
church today and he was just too deep for me. Not if you're
converted and strengthened in the inner man. It's important
that we not only have preachers, but that we have hearers. that
you're able to discern, you're able to hear with spiritual ears
and literally enter into and say, Glory! Hallelujah! That's the truth! And you are
so filled that you can't help but say, Amen! Let it be so! It is so! It is absolutely so! You're excited about the truth
in a man. That's one of the things that
we have lost in our churches. If it's not in the bulletin,
we don't do it here. Really, things ought to happen
in God's house. And you ought to see things and
hear things that you knew nothing about. I was glad when they said,
let us go up to the house of the Lord. What ought to happen
here is we ought to be entering into the wonders of so great
salvation. We ought to be standing amazed
in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wondering how He
could love us, a sinner condemned unclean. Oh, how marvelous! Oh,
how wonderful is the Savior's love to me! You 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 passes knowledge. To know this love that you can't
know. The Apostle Paul, sometimes he just blows me away. He'll
say things like, oh, the exceeding sinfulness of sin. And I go,
huh? He Himself lost for words to
express how exceeding sinful sin was. And here He says, I
want you to know something you can't know. The breadth and height
and depth and width of the love of God to us in Christ Jesus. I want you to know that. That
was His prayer. And it's going to take power for you to know
it. Because your senses are weak. Your understanding is weak. Your
spiritual eyesight is weak. You've got to be strengthened
in the inner man to lay hold on these wonders of the grace
of God. Why has the shout gone out of
our church? Why has the amen gone out of our church? Why has
the glory gone out of our church? Because you know what's going
to happen before you get there. You know, we've got the same
mundane little thing going on in most churches. Church ought
to be the most exciting place in all the world to you. To know
the love of Christ. And then this one, when we get
there, I will fail. I know that when we get to this
one, I'm going to fail. I know that. That you might be
filled with the... It doesn't say with the fullness
of God. It says that you might be filled
with all the fullness of God. To be filled with all the fullness
of God. I don't even know what that means.
But I want it. I want Him. I want to be filled
with the fullness of God. I know this, to be filled with
the fullness of God, if there are any unhappy people here,
it would be joy unspeakable and full of glory. Because our God is a happy God.
Our God is a smiling God. Our God is not a depressed, defeated,
impotent little God. He is the Sovereign, Almighty,
King of kings and Lord of lords. And then I love this. Oh, how
we live so far below as Christians where we ought to be living.
What doubters we are. How weak in faith. My prayer
constantly is this. Constantly my prayer is this.
If God could grant me one prayer request, it would be this one. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Because I know when I'm believing,
I'm pleasing Him. When I'm doubting, I'm not. Without
faith, it's impossible to please God. God's got this whole thing
shut up to faith, which gives Him glory. I'm trusting my God. I believe in my God. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. For by grace
are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it,
that faith, is the gift of God." Faith. If you don't believe what
I'm about to read, life's going to be very mundane for you. Now
unto Him that is able. You know, if we just stopped
right there, if we just put a period there, And we were able to say,
my God is able. My God is able. Wouldn't that
say a whole lot? That would say a whole lot. Just
to say, He's able. Don't care what your problem
is. Don't care what your situation is. My God is able. My God is
an able God. He is not disabled. Now unto
Him that is able to do. Oh, my God is a doing God. I
listened to many messages today. And on television, I watch these
guys preach and listen to tapes. And you would think that God
is a God who is a far off, who's sitting in heaven waiting on
you. But I want to tell you this.
God is not waiting on you. My God is a doer. Do you understand
that while I'm preaching the Gospel and exalting the God of
heaven today, that He is actively walking the aisles of this church? He is passing by. Somebody ought
to cry out, Pass me not, O gentle Savior! How on others Thou art
calling! I'm over here! Somebody ought
to flag Him down. Now unto Him that is able to
do exceedingly. Paul's trying to, but he's failing.
He's able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we
ask or think. according to the power that worketh
in us." A power that works in us. I want you to be strengthened
with power. And there is a power working
in you. Greater is He that is in you
than he that's in the world. They that be with us are more
than they that be with them. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love the Lord, to them who are
the called according to His purpose. Think about that. God is working
for you. God is strengthening the spiritual
man in you. How far below we live. This is
the way to have a little heaven on the way to heaven. Little
heaven on the way to heaven. Getting high on drugs is just
such a mess. But getting high on Him, you
can have a real high every day. Every day. I'm going to fail
here, but I want us to look at verse 18. And I want to talk
about spiritual geometry. Paul said, I'm praying for you
that you may be able to comprehend with all saints that you comprehend
this. This love of God. Old man John
on the Isle of Patmos all by himself, he got a glimpse of
it. Behold, what manner of love! The Father hath lavished upon
us that we should be called the sons of God. And it gets gooder
and gooder, he said. It doth not appear what we shall
be. But we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like
Him. For we shall see Him as He is. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Do you know that? It's important
that the church know that. I'll tell you when the glories
are going to go up. When we enter into that blessed
assurance. When we know beyond any shadow
of a doubt, I am His and He is mine. I have been accepted into
beloved the Lord Jesus Christ. There is therefore now no condemnation
because I'm in Christ Jesus. There's a power in love and knowing
this love of God. I want you to be able to comprehend
with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height. And I want to tell you, church,
that it is not enough for me, as your pastor, to see you off
of drugs. It's not enough for me. Have
I been clean You know, two years. Big deal. Shouldn't have been
using in the first place. It's not enough for me to see
you off of drugs. It's not enough for me to simply
see those of you who have come out of churchanity and into Christianity
to be out of a false church. It's not enough. I want you to
grow. I want you to be rooted and grounded. I want you to have
a shout. I want you to have joy unspeakable
and full of glory. I want you to be strengthened
in the inner man. I want you to know that your
God is able. So it's not enough for me to
simply see you free from the chains of religion. It's not
enough for me either. It's not enough for me as your
pastor to prevail in birth for your soul. I'm glad you're saved.
I was glad Haden was born. But I'm glad to watch her grow.
It wouldn't be right if she didn't grow. We would be burdened and
heavy laden if our grandchild did not grow. We want to see
her grow. I want to see you grow. I want
you to know there's more than just not smoking white powdery
stuff. I want you to know that there
is much more. And once you find out there is
more, you'll not go back over there. I want to see you grow
up in the faith. I want you to ripen in spiritual
maturity like Paul. I want to parent. I want to nurse
you. I want to tutor you as my spiritual
children. For this cause, he said, I pray
for you. I bow my knees to God. It's just
not enough to know we are the objects of electing grace. I'm
glad that this church believes in election because it's Bible.
It's true. We don't apologize for that wonderful,
glorious doctrine that's found throughout the Bible, that God
chose a people before the foundation of the world. We rejoice in that. But there's more. There's more. You may count yourself to be
Calvinistic, but that is nothing. There's much more. I don't know
what you count yourself to be. Maybe you're a Baptist or a Methodist. But there is so much more. I
want you to be acquainted with the sublime qualities and perfections
which Paul compares to a fourfold measurement. I want to be taught
And I want you to be taught in this spiritual geometry. I want to comprehend, don't you? The breadth. I want to comprehend
the length of the precious love of Jesus Christ. I don't want
juicy fruit gum salvation. I don't want that. Yeah, yeah,
God loves everybody. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know He loves me. Big deal,
so what, ho-hum. I don't want that. I want that
jumping, hopping salvation. We have got so sophisticated
in our churches. I think I said this Wednesday
night. We go to a football game or a baseball game or we watch
those Red Wings try to put that little thing called a puck in
a net. grown men fist fighting, beating
each other up, putting skates on, getting on the ice, doing
all that. And we go absolutely berserk. We come into the house of God
and look like the old mule looking out the barn door. Some of you ladies watch soap
operas and you just cry over those things. You come to the
house of God and hear about how the Son of God condescended to
this earth, gave His life on Calvary, and don't shed a tear. Something ought to be going on
in church that's exciting. You know, when we were kids in
elementary school, we didn't take algebra in the second grade. Most of us. Or trigonometry. We first had our little arithmetic
classes. One plus one. And we learned
to count. And we learned plus and minus. And we learned our timetables
and so forth. We learned elementary information. And then went on to more difficult
studies. Out of grade school, into middle
school, high school, on to college, university. You know where I
want to be? I want to obtain a fellowship
study on the science of Christ. I want waters to swim in. I hear
people talk about, you know, the gospel is just as simple
as ABC. Ha! There is a depth in the gospel
that no man will comprehend on this earth or in heaven. While
the ages pile themselves one on top of another, God is going
to be showing you and I how good He has been to us. You know,
there's a lot of things you don't know. You know when you were
shot down in the hood and stabbed and left for dead? Do you know
why you didn't die? Because there was an Almighty
God. There's a lot of things you don't
know. And when we get to heaven, He's going to pull back the curtains
and let us see. And while the ages pile themselves
one on top of another, you as an individual are going to be
saying, Hallelujah! You may not have done it in church,
but you're going to do it up there, I guarantee you. It's going to take your breath
away. It's a good thing you have eternal
life, because you die. So Paul desired that their spiritual
faculties might be strengthened with might by the Spirit in the
inner man. You know, really, have you ever
been in God's house and Him revealing? I mean, have you ever been in
a service, and I know many of you have not, where you felt
like that you were just going to go on? See, there's a quietness
here, not a whole lot of nodding. You know, there's some nodding
because some of you are asleep. And some of you may be on drugs,
you nod. But, to be in the house of God where you were immersed
in the love of God. It was waters to swim in. You
were in over your head. You were like Peter, let's just
build three tabernacles and let's just stay here. That's don't
go anywhere. That's to be carried away, to
be immersed in the love of God, to be strengthened in the inner
man. That's why Moses had to be hid
in the cliff to the rock, because God said, if I let you see My
glory, and His glory, remember, was I will have mercy on whom
I will have mercy. If you ever find out how merciful
God has been to you, you will never complain about another
thing. If God just showed you right now in your physical body,
or me, how merciful He's been to us, it would kill us dead.
He can only let us see the hinder parts. He hides us in the cleft
of the rock, and His glory passes by so that we don't die. And
when His glory is passing by, you're not critical of other
people. You're like this, oh, what a wonder that Jesus found
me. Out in the darkness no light could I see, but His great arm
under wonder of wonders, He saved even me. I don't marvel that
God saved you, but I marvel He saved me. And when God shows
you His mercy, you are a merciful person. You have never seen a
sinner that you cannot like, you cannot help. because God's
been mighty merciful to you. It's very, very true. And that's
what has to happen in the church. We've got to see the glory of
this Gospel. And Paul said, I want you to
be rooted and grounded in love. Love to Christ. You know, we're
often used to seeing in the Baptist church, oh, how I love Jesus. And I think I've been in church
where that was sung when it was true. I know we ought to make more
of His love for us than our love for Him. I know that. Hearing
His love, not that we love God, but that He first loved us. But
there's also a two-way street here. Oh, how I love Jesus, because
He first loved me. Are you today carried away, sitting
here in the house of God, standing amazed in the presence of Jesus
the Nazarene and wondering how He could love you, a sinner condemned
unclean? Are you just breathtaking by
the beauty that you see in Christ? The loveliness of Christ? The
awesomeness of Christ? The grace of Christ? That's what
ought to happen in church. And one of the reasons that church
people are the meanest people in the world is because they're
not carried away with this love. You see, when you're carried
away with this love, there's a desire to be like Him. And
so you become a servant. You have obtained mercy, so you're
merciful. You have obtained grace, so you're
gracious. You're not a mean, gossiping,
ornery Christian. No. When you're in these waters
to swim in, you look like your daddy. You act like your daddy. Paul said, I want you to know
the breadth. Have you ever thought about this? I mean, did you ever sit down
and just think about the counsel of the Trinity? Before the world
was, when God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit
You ever try to imagine this, that before the foundation of
the world, God chose me. And have you ever thought about
this? The plans that He made for you. You know, that's in
the Bible. I know the plans I have for you.
And they're good and they're not evil. Before your great granddaddy,
God had it all planned for you. Before the sperm ever hit the
egg and you began to grow. Before I formed thee in thy mother's
belly, I loved you! Some of you here don't even know
your mother. You don't know who your daddy was. But you do now. Have you ever thought about that?
The counsel of God? Have you ever thought about the
number of people that God has chose? The breadth, the number
of the elect? Somebody said to me the other
day, Pastor Clark, you believe in the sovereign election of
God of people to salvation. I said, yes, I do. So, you believe
God's got this little handful. I said, well, first of all, We
need to understand how big God is. Depends on how big your God
is. Because my God said this, I give
unto them eternal life and they shall never perish and no man
is able to pluck them out of my Father's hands. How big is
your God? How big is His hand? In fact,
this is just me, and humor me, because I can't necessarily prove
this from Scripture. But I believe, uh-oh, it's my
own personal belief that the devil will not beat up on God
as far as the number in hell versus the number in heaven.
Now, just leave me alone. Don't argue with me after church.
Just let me believe that God is going to make sure there's
more people in heaven than there is in hell, because the devil
is not going to defeat this mighty God. And I know what some of you are
thinking. Oh, God is the way that leads to destruction. But
effectual is the power of the Spirit of God to quicken and
give life too. When you think about the press,
I was struggling with this all week about how am I going to
illustrate? How am I going to talk about
the breadth of the love of God? And I began to think about, you
know, we've seen a lot of rain and I saw a river out of its
banks the other day. And you know, God's love is like
a river. Some of you were not planted
near the banks of the river. You were way out there in the
desert place. But the river of God's love overflows
the banks. And it flows outwardly until
finally, in a mighty grasp of grace, it reached you. It reached you. There you were,
thief! There you were, drunk! laying
in your own mess. There you were fornicating. There
you were adulterer. There you were chief of sinners.
But where sin did abound, grace did much more abound. Even to reach you. Even me, yes. Even me. Do you get taken up
with that? Even me. And then what about
the link? Have you ever thought about the
length of the love of God? Have you ever thought about the
endurance of the love of God? Have you ever thought about the
patience, the length of God's patience with you? Some of you's
testimony, I've heard your testimony go like this, I used again, and
again, and again, but our God is longsuffering. There's nobody
in here that God hasn't been patient with. Nobody. Do you know God has loved me as
long as He has existed? I'm still failing. How long has God existed? Are you getting a little bit
This is pretty deep stuff, this love of God. Not nearly as shallow,
maybe, as you may have thought. You're not an accident child
of God. You might say, I am so lucky I got saved. No! It had
nothing to do with rabbit's foot luck. It had nothing to do with
spitting on horseshoes and throwing them over your left shoulder.
God is not in the lotto business. God foreloved you, for whom He
did foreknow intimately. Think about that. Sorry rascal
that you are. The mess that you were in. And
where did He found you? Where did He find you? On the
dung heap? When there was no difference,
God made a difference. Isn't that something? God didn't
go out to the dung heap and pick up a bright and shiny piece of
dung. The only thing on the dung heap
is dung. And He went out to the dung hill,
and that's where He found you. And He said, I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy. So you can take no glory yourself. Everlasting love. The length
of the love of God. There is no pause in the love
of God. In other words, when you're drunker
than a skunk and can't stand up, the love of God does not
halt. Aren't you glad God loved you
when you were a drunk? Aren't you glad God loved you
when you were without strength and helpless and hopeless and
dirty and undone? God loved you. I'm glad about this. That old
age cannot wear out the love of God. By, He's been patient
with me a mighty long time. Your continual tribulations can't
exhaust it. Your successful temptations cannot
drain it dry. Have you ever been tempted and
your temptation was successful? That's another name for relapse. And you have thought to yourself,
how can God love me? Think about the length. He is
never going to take you out of the will. He is in it with you
for the long haul. You will never be disowned. You
cannot forfeit His love by your doings. He saw what you were
going to do before you did it. He got His big telescope out
before the foundation of the world, looked down through time,
saw every spot and wrinkle in you, and yet loved you. You say,
Pastor, you're just way over my head. Well, bless your heart,
join with me. I'm over my head too. I'm way
over my head. Because this is unconditional
love. Like eternity, the love of God, knows no bounds. What about the height? What about
the height? Let's talk about getting high.
What about the height? One day, I'm going home. I mean, let's just start with
the height, height. This world is not my home. I'm just a passing
through. Often I'm called to go to the
cemetery to the funeral home. What a blessed experience it
is when I can say with assurance to that family, blessed are the
dead which die in the Lord. Happy are the dead. Can you imagine
what it's going to be like one second after you are free from
this corpse? Can you imagine? Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty,
free at last! Absolutely free! Free from cancer. Free from sickness. Free from
sorrow. Free from hurt. Free from temptation. What a high is that going to
be? If we have hope in this world only, we are of all men and women
most miserable. We've got eight. wonderful hope
in the height of the love of God. In fact, the Bible says
this, if children, then heirs. Heirs? Yes. Heirs of God and
joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Have you ever thought about your
inheritance? Think about it. When you are
carried up to the heights of the love of God, The Apostle
Paul said, I was caught up into the third heaven. He said, I
once knew a man. He was caught up. I'll tell you
this, if you get a little foretaste, used to, we would, Miss Pam knew
what I was doing, but when we would cook outside on the grill,
I would say to her, is it done yet? Whether it was a good piece
of steak or chicken or whatever, she'd go, no, I don't know. Why don't you go check it? I
would go get a foretaste. You ever get a foretaste of glory
divine? That's what the songwriter was
talking about when he wrote Blessed Assurance. Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory
divine! The height and then the depth. When I was a young boy and would
preach to empty chairs in the basement of the Parsonage at
Grace Baptist Church in Warren, I'd set up empty chairs and I'd
preach down there. I've been preaching since I was
about 10 years old. I'd preach to cows, I'd preach
to horses, I'd preach to trees. I had some glorious services
back in those days. I led the singing, I did the
preaching, I did the praying, I did it all. I would take the same text, John
chapter 1. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then I
would shift into high gear. And the Word was made flesh and
comes among us. That's the place to shift into
high gear. And the Word was made flesh. I cannot get my arms around that. The Word was made flesh and tabernacled
among us. A woman taken in adultery. Jesus set a trap for her to cross
her path. You know, the Lord used a strange
means. He had the church folks bring
her to Him. You know, the Pharisees. The
Pharisees caught her in the very act. You ever notice that they
didn't bring the man? Anyway, they brought the woman
to Him. And they cast her down at His
feet. The law says stone her. These
are the most marvelous words in all of Scripture, I think.
And the Lord stooped down where she was. Where she was! Now it's I die! Just him and
her! I'd love to know what he wrote
in the sand, wouldn't you? Yeah, he probably wrote that,
but he probably wrote, John's here. John, you've been with
her. Jack's here. Jack, you've been with us. Probably
wrote a few names down there. Because something happened. You
that are without sin cast the first stone. Have you ever thought about the infinite
stoop of God? Oh, the depth. You've heard me
say this before. You know, they make a big deal,
and it is a big deal about President Abe Lincoln coming from the little
log cabin to the great White House. I've got a greater story
than that. There was one who went from the
great White House down to the little log cabin. His name was
Emmanuel. God with us! The foxes have holes and the
birds of the air have their nests, but the Son of Man has no place
to lay His head. There He goes carrying His own
cross. Up Mount Calvary, the Creator. Old Brother Simeon was hanging
around the temple, drawn there by the Spirit of God, and Mary
and Joseph brought the baby up, and Old Brother Simeon took him
in his arms, and he looked in that little baby's face, and
he said, mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Left Thy servant
depart in peace. I can die now. I can die now. God Almighty has come down to
save me. I can die now. The infinite stoop
of Almighty God. Oh, the depth. Folks are supposedly getting
saved, but they get over it so quick. We've got to have some
folks who don't get over it. Have you got a, I can't get over
it, salvation? Whatever happened to Paul on
the Damascus Road? He never got over it. He said,
I was a blasphemer. I was injurious to the church.
But hey, hey, I obtained mercy. I obtained mercy everywhere he
went. I obtained mercy. We need that kind of salvation
today. We've lost the gospel and we've lost the wonder. The Lord of angels sleeps upon
a woman's breast. In closing, I want to say this
to you. You, you who have wallowed in the stables of sin, you who
are as black as all hell, you have a stain so deep, I want to tell you, He's gone
deeper than the stain has gone. The blood reaches deeper than
the stain has gone. He is a greater Savior than you
are a sinner. And what He says to you, you
say, Pastor, I don't understand much. But I came in here. You don't know whatever. You
don't even know my name. And I didn't want to come today,
but something happened to me this morning. I see the filth. I see the blackness. I am a sinner. And I am amazed at what you have
said today. I've been in and out of church
all my life, but I never knew there was a God who loved me
so much And he would come down here. I said, I'm afraid. Do you have anything for me? Yes, the Spirit and the bride
shall come. Let him that is athirst come. Whosoever will, let him
come. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. Can you today venture on Christ? I just double-dog dare you. Later on Christ, just step out
and say, get on the boat. I'm going to trust Him.