I invite you this morning to
turn back with me now to Ephesians chapter 3. Ephesians 3 is a kind of introduction
into the ministry of the Apostle Paul as well as a grand introduction
into the mystery of the Gentiles. Or if you please, the New Testament
doctrine of spiritual Israel. For thousands of years, God's
prophets established the doctrine of God's election of Israel. This was established so sound,
so solid, that you can today Ask anybody who the Jews are
and they'll tell you without hesitation that's the elect of
God. That's God's chosen people. They'll
tell you that. This went on for thousands and
thousands of years and it was established. God's election of
Israel and his biased affection for them and his preservation
and protection of all through the Old Testament. Paul said
in the first several verses of chapter three and verse three,
how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery, as
I wrote afore in a few words, whereby when you read you might
understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other
ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it's now
revealed unto the holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that
the Gentiles, the Gentiles, the heathen, those who opposed Israel
and slayed them every chance they got, arch enemies of God
and God's people, that the Gentiles should be fellow
heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ
by the gospel. This was a mystery. It's a mystery
yet today. It's a mystery. Men and women
don't, whenever they read about election in the scripture, they
go straight to Israel. That's talking about Israel.
No, it's talking about the Ephesian church which were Gentiles. Unto me who am less than the
least of all saints is this grace given that I should preach among
the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. And the mystery he's talking
about is the mystery of the true church, his body, spiritual Israel. Now turn with me to Romans chapter
nine. Romans chapter 9. Paul begins Romans chapter 9
praying for his kinsmen according to the flesh. He pours out his
heart to God. What's he saying about these
people that everybody thought was the elect of God? He's praying
for their salvation. And these people, he says in
verse four, who are Israelites, that is, born of Abraham's seed,
called sons of Jacob, to whom pertaineth the adoption, every
son of God is an adopted son, having predestinated us, he says,
unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. under them pertain the adoption,
under them pertain also the glory, that is, the glory that God revealed
to him when he gave him the Ark of the Testament, or the clouds
which symbolized his presence and glory, or the Shekinah, glory
of God, when Moses came down, his face shone so bright they
had to put a veil on him. or the Shekinah that filled the
tabernacle when God came into the tabernacle, glowing bright
symbol of His presence. The glory and the covenants,
all the covenants that God made, His covenant promises, and the
giving of the law and the service of God and the promises, all
of God's covenants pertain to Israel. The law came by Moses. And the service had to do with
the priesthood and prophets. There were no Gentile priests.
They were all Jews. And all of the worship, temple
worship or typical worship, all these things pertain to the sons
of Abraham. And even during the day of Christ,
the Jews said to him, we be not born of fornication, we have
Abraham to our father. We're Jews. We're Jews. We have God, therefore, as our
father. Verse five, Romans nine, whose
are the fathers, that is, all of these old patriarchs, Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, whose are the fathers, and of
whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came. He was a Jew. He was a Jew. Now this is old Israel, the natural
children, the sons of Jacob. But, and here's where the confusion
comes in. When Christ the promised Messiah
came, the Redeemer of Israel, the promised one, He was rejected
by the Jews. The Jews despised him. Everybody that was in it, anybody,
turned thumbs down on him. The whole Sanhedrin turned thumbs
down on him. They are the ones trained specifically
to see the Christ, to recognize the Christ, and then inform the
rest of the nation about him. They said he's an imposter. He's
an imposter. He was rejected by them and their
religious leaders and their councils. And they looked at him and said,
he's an imposter, he's a pretender, he's a false Christ. Now this
being so, don't that make the Word of God of none effect? Huh? All of these things that
God said about His covenants and His promises and all of these
things, And then when it comes time for the Christ to actually
come and for the people to follow him and to look to him to be
saved, and they all rejected him, don't that make the word
of God of none effect? No, sir, but here's what it does.
He reveals to us that they're not all Israel, which are the
natural sons of Jacob. Now look at this, verse seven,
Romans nine. Neither because they are the
seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall
thy seed be called. That is, Isaac was the son of
promise. Ishmael was how they figured
out how they were gonna fulfill God's prophecy. We're just gonna
take this young woman and she can be a wife to Abraham and
produce the heir. No, God wouldn't have anything
to do with this. He said, when the time comes, when it's beyond
your ability to do it and beyond her ability to do it, then you're
gonna have a son. That is, verse eight, they which
are the children of the flesh, are you listening? These are
not the children of God. I showed this to a man one time
and he said, well, I'm still going to show them favor just
in case. Well, there is no just in case. These are not the children of
God. I don't know. If you've got a
council together to state this as clearly as it can be stated,
I don't think you can state it any clearer than that. These
are not the children of God, but the children of the promise
are counted for the seed. Then in Galatians chapter three,
verse 26, he said, for ye are all the children of God by faith
in Christ Jesus. And in him, he said, there is
neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither bond nor free. There is neither male nor female,
for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be Christ,
then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Now Paul was preaching Christ
to a mixed crowd of Jews and Gentiles, and the Jews began
to speak against his preaching and contradicting what he was
saying. And so Paul said the next day when
he got up to speak, he said, well, since you judge yourselves
unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded
us, saying, I have sent thee to be a light of the Gentiles,
that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this,
Huh? They were glad. I'll tell you,
I was glad the first time I heard it, too. I'm a Gentile, and yet I'm a Jew. I'm a Gentile, but I'm heir of
the promise. They were glad. It didn't upset
them. They weren't jealous of the Jews.
When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and they glorified
the word of the Lord. and as many as were ordained
to eternal life believed. The mystery hidden from ages
past and revealed today is the mystery of spiritual Israel.
And that is that the 144,000 in Revelation 7 are the same
as the number which no man can number out of every nation, kindred,
people, and tongue under heaven also stated in that same chapter. God has a people. And these people
He gave to His Son by divine election, they were given to
Him to save for the glory of His name. Now look back at Ephesians
chapter 3. Paul says in verse 8, Unto me
who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given. that I should preach among the
Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. My friend, it is the greatest
privilege ever given to tell or even to hear and understand
something of the riches of our God and Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ. I can't make it larger than it
is. It is the greatest privilege.
Some of you have been privileged to be born in good homes. You have good parents. You have
parents that provide for you. You have parents that are looking
ahead for your future. You have parents who care how
you act. You have parents that are carrying
you in here to hear the gospel. You're privileged. There's people
that are not. There's people who have evil
parents. There's people who could care less about their children.
Care whether they heard the gospel or they didn't. Some of them
just farm them out to churches because the churches are willing
to come by and get them. And that's a little babysitter
for a few hours, so they send them down there. They care less
what they hear or if they hear. I'm telling you, if you're here
this morning and you have a good home and good parents, and they're
carrying you here to hear the gospel, you're privileged. Privileged
to hear. If you're just here this morning
and you're hearing what I'm saying, it's a privilege. And what about this bumbling
idiot? God has privileged to give me
the truth of all people to give it to me. I feel exactly the
way the Apostle Paul felt. Me, I'm less than the least of
all saints, is this grace given? And that's what it is, it's grace.
I didn't figure it out, he revealed it to me and that's exactly what
Paul told him. It was made known to me by the
revelation of God. how many there are who live out
their days and go on with their lives and continue in their everyday
routines who have never seen or heard of the riches of Christ
and therefore are unaffected by them. And here Paul said what I'm desperately
trying to do. Verse nine, to make all men see
what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning
of the world has been hid in God who created all things by
Jesus Christ. I was told years ago that fellowship
is fellers in the same ship, that fellowship. You know, we
like to gather at one another's homes and eat, and that's all
good. I like to do that. Nowhere I'd rather be than with
the children of God, and we have some fish that we caught or whatever,
and we gather there. But that's not fellowship. Fellowship
is fellers in the same ship. We have the same savior. We have
the same grace. We have the same spirit. That's
fellowship. That's fellowship. The rest of
it, just icing on the cake. I was thinking about this the
other night. We were out on the river fishing, had one of the
best times, the boys tell me, that they've ever had. Just caught exceptional fish
that night. Four of us in the boat. One was
pulling up the uh... the line and one was dipping
the net one was running the boat and I was just there directing
the music but we was all in the same ship
and we was all partakers and that's the way it is in Christ
we have everything we have in common God's people are given
eyes to see and ears to hear and a heart to understand They, as this ministry goes on,
are making known unto principalities and powers and heavenly places
by the church the manifold wisdom of God according to the eternal
purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now here's where I'm going with
this, verse 14. For this cause, for this cause,
And that's what I titled the message this morning, The Preacher's
Prayer. He said, 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. And I moved by this grand and
glorious revelation of God that he set the whole Godhead in motion
to save the chief of sinners. We're moved by that, Russell,
aren't we? That's what he said, for this cause. I bow my knees
unto the Father. Grace. that he's given to vile
rebels and enemies of God. Paul said, I'm the chief of sinners.
I persecuted his church. But I moved into submission to
him and delight to do that very thing and understand what a privilege
it is that he's given me. And here's my prayer, verse 16. And this is my prayer for you.
I hope you'll pay attention to these words that he would grant
you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened
with might by his Spirit in the inner man. These things that
I preach to you, I talk to you about faith, believing on the
Lord Jesus Christ, repenting of your sin. I'm talking to you
about the knowledge of sin. All of these things is the revelation
of God in the gospel. But apart from his spirit, you
can't do anything. It's like you're in a vacuum
floating around and you can't, you got nothing to put your feet
on, nothing to grab hold of. You're just, here you are and
you're just kind of floating around in a vacuum. If you do
anything, it's gonna have to be granted to you of his grace. That's what he's praying for.
He knew that. He was a great speaker, he had
great knowledge. God gave that man great grace.
He wrote half the New Testament. But he couldn't do anything and
couldn't say anything, and even if he could, you couldn't listen
to him or hear it or act on it unless God, by his grace, enabled
you to by his Spirit. That's how dependent we are. To be strengthened with might
by his spirit, now watch this, in the inner man. What is that
inner man? That's Christ in you, the hope
of glory. What's he gonna strengthen, Russell? Is he just gonna put in you a
desire to quit this and start doing that? No. That may be some side effect
of it, Here's what I'm telling you, that inner man is Christ.
If he strengthens you by his Spirit, he's going to build up
Christ in you. He's going to make you to understand
just how precious he is. Just how single he is. There's
just one in whom you can look and be saved. To be strengthened in might in
the inner man is to have Christ in you. and to know Him. I know, Paul said, whom I have
believed. And I'm persuaded that He's able
to keep that which I committed unto Him against that day. There's only one way you can
have assurance, and that's to know Christ, because assurance
is in Him. That man, that inner man is not
the old man improved or the old man with a makeover. That new
man is Christ. And he's renewed in the spirit
of his mind, that man is. He has the mind of Christ. There's
no might, no strength, no stability anywhere else. All in Him. The life that I now live in the
flesh, Paul said. Ain't that what we're talking
about? That's what we're interested in. The life that I now live,
right now. Not 20 years ago, not 50 years
ago, right now. The life that I now live in the
flesh. Now watch this. I live by the
faith of the Son of God who loved me. and gave himself for me. That's how I live. I live looking
to Christ. Oh, but what about when I just
feel so down? The life I now live in the flesh,
I live, I look to him. I look to him. And if I feel
something, oh, what a day, what a day. But if I don't, he's still
faithful. He's still faithful. He loved me and gave himself
for me. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. Faith perceives the salvation of God
in Christ and it embraces it, rejoices in it, lives by it,
has gratitude for it, and love. And in order for you to be strengthened
or able to stay in God's spirit, must reveal Christ to you. And
if he reveals Christ to you, it'll be through the preaching
of the gospel. Our confidence is not in exercising of some
gift, but in the person and work of Christ. That's where it's
at. Now listen, Ephesians 3.17. that Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith. Is that what he's talking about?
Exactly what he's talking about. That is by the testimony which
God has given to us of his son, we find him more and more to
be sufficient for all things. Verse 17, that ye being rooted
and grounded in love, The love of God in Christ, effectual,
free, eternal, unchangeable love. Love that cannot fail. Whether
they be prophecies, they can fail. Preaching can fail. Love can't fail. Love that won't let you go. Love
that spares no expense. Love that
will sacrifice everything. Love that beareth all things,
believeth all things, hopeth all things, and endureth all
things. That you being rooted and grounded
in love. Not your love for him, but his
love for you. Verse 18. We're talking about
the preacher's prayer. What do I hope to accomplish
up here? What do I hope for you? What's
my hope for you? I believe God sent me here. I
believe he's called me to preach his gospel. He's proved that
to me by a congregation that's willing to sit and listen to
me. But what's my hope for you? As I prepare these messages,
what do I hope is gonna happen? Well, that's what he's talking
about here. that you be strengthened with might in the inner man,
that Christ be formed in you, that you being rooted and grounded
in love, that you may be able, listen to this, verse 18, to
comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and
depth and height. I listened to Brother Mahan preach
for the first time and I thought, oh my soul, if I could just get
a little piece of that, If I could just come to know a little piece
of that. God don't give out little pieces. If you're His, He gonna
make you to know the length and the breadth and the height and
the depth. Oh, and to know the love of Christ
which passeth knowledge that you might be filled with all
the fullness of God. And the prayer of the preacher
both for himself And as he prepares for his hearers, is that he might
know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that they
might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now his love
for us, as it's understood, is the cause of our love for him.
It's not a proportional love, it's a particular love. And his
love is without limit. It's free and sovereign love,
and it is as eternal as the Father, and it's of the same quality
as God. It's active love, and so it flows
to us throughout all eternity. God's love for you, Luke, was
flowing. If He loves you at all today,
His love began in eternity past, and it's never stopped, and it
never will. It's manifested in our election
and the various offices to which our Lord was given. It's manifested
in its glory as Christ suffers and dies for His elect. It's
seen in His ascension. It's seen in His assumption of
our flesh and of our nature. It's seen in His gift of atonement
and righteousness. Now consider this. In that last
passage I read to you, it said this word passeth, this love
of God that passeth knowledge. Now the word passeth means to
surpass or to go beyond, to supersede all knowledge, and surely his
love does that. But the word also means to distribute, And I'm using not a dictionary
now, but I'm using the context of the verse to define it. His prayer was for them to know
the love of Christ which passeth knowledge or distributes knowledge
or is used to communicate knowledge. Any knowledge without the love
of God cannot fill us with the fullness of God. How many times does he tell us
to preach in love? In love. What knowledge would benefit
us if it had not the love of God in it? You can't talk about
forgiveness and not talk about the love of God. You can't talk
about all of the the offices that God gave to
Christ before the foundation of the world, without talking
about his love. You can't talk about his sacrifice.
He loved us and gave himself for us. Husbands, love your wives
as Christ loved the church. It's this love that passeth knowledge. Now the knowledge it passes,
passes everything. But it passes, it distributes
knowledge through love. Through love. And any knowledge
without the love of God can't fill us with the fullness of
God. God is love and he that loveth not knoweth not God. If
you know anything at all about God, you know something about
his love. His death as it's viewed by the multitudes today is no
more than an effort to save everybody. But true love is particular. These people talk about universal
love of God. I just, you know, if you're married,
you go home and tell your wife, husband, you go home and you
tell them today, honey, I love you just like I do everybody
else. See how far that goes. It won't work. Because that's
not true love. True love's particular. It's
particular. Oh, he chose us in Christ before
the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love or before him being loved. Being loved. As Christ dwells in our hearts
by faith that we're rooted and grounded in love. And as these
things are seen and understood, we begin to perceive what is
the breadth and length and depth and height. For what good is
preaching if God does not move in the hearts of the hearers? All right, let's read these last
verses, and I'll close. Ephesians 3, beginning with verse
20. Now unto him. that's able to
do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according
to the power that worketh in us. Oh my soul. We pray our little pitiful prayers.
They're pitiful. We're praying to almighty God. We're praying to him who has
power to save the chief of sinners. We're praying to a God whose
salvation he delights to show, mercy he delights to show. And
we come up with these little pitiful prayers about some meanie
or something that how pitiful are our prayers to
God. But Paul said, go ahead and pray.
Because he's able to give you exceeding abundantly. Wow, that's
two words that really talk about over the top. Exceeding abundantly
above all that you ask or even think. You don't even know what
to ask for. But he's able to give you above
that, above that. Unto him. Unto him be glory in
the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Thank God his work is not
done in proportion to our prayers or faith. He works far above
our ability and far beyond our knowledge. He does exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or even think. May the Lord
be pleased to answer such a prayer in such a way. And when he does,
we'll give him all the glory. And if he does, there'll be nobody
else to glorify. That's the way he'll give it.
Lord, we thank you for your blessings here. We thank you for this congregation,
for those who come out this morning. We pray that we said something
here this morning that will serve as an eternal word, a word which
will never be snatched from them, a word that will be used effectually
by your spirit in their hearts. We ask you for Christ's sake.