Let's turn now to Ephesians chapter
3. Ephesians chapter 3. The church at Ephesus was in
need of God's grace in their heart. They were in need of more
faith. But the apostle Paul was in prison.
He was in prison. And all that he could do was
to write to them and tell them the truth of the gospel. All
he could do is write to them and tell them of the truth of
God the Father's electing sovereign grace, of Christ's accomplished
redemptive work, of God the Holy Spirit's power to bring His people
to Christ and keep His people. And then the only other thing
that Paul could do was to pray to God. And he tells us in Ephesians
3 what his prayer was. We saw that on Sunday. Now that's
all Paul could do. Now, isn't that us? We're in
prison. You and I who believe, we're
in the prison of our flesh and our inability. And towards those
fellow believers who are in need, or towards those who don't know
Christ who are in need, all we can do is tell them of the gospel
and ask God to bless it. That's all we can do. And we
leave it all. unto him." But look at what this
says about him. Look at Paul's doxology here
concerning him. Verse 20. He says here, "...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, by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. I want to talk to you about
him that is able, about him that is able, no matter the obstacles,
God is able. It does not matter what the obstacles
are, God is able. First of all, the true and living
God is able to do. Look at verse 20. Now unto him
that is able to do. The true and living God is able
to do. That means To effect or work
out or accomplish whatsoever one is pleased to do. That's
what it means, to do. To effect, to work out, to accomplish
whatsoever one is pleased to do. The true and living God is
mighty God. He's omnipotent God, all-powerful
God. He's able to do whatsoever pleases
Him. Now, the idol God that men imagine,
and that this world serves and preaches, is not able to do. Look over Deuteronomy chapter
32. They say their God is not able to do. They say that. You
hear them say, they say, He wants to. They say, He's done all He
can, now it's up to you. So they say their God is not
like our God. Isn't that what they say? They
say their God's not like our God when they make statements
like that. And when you state scripture and show them what
God is able to do, have you ever had men say, well, that's not
my God? Well, God told us right here
in the Word that's exactly what they would say. They would say
that their God is not like our God. Look here in Deuteronomy
32 and look at verse 31. For their rock is not as our
rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. They judge for
themselves and say, my rock's not like your rock. For their
vine is of the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah.
It's a natural vine. Our vine is Christ. He's a heavenly
vine. Their vine is of Sodom and Gomorrah,
of this sodomizing, no-fruit-producing earth. Look here. Their grapes are grapes of gall. That's their fruit. Because the
vines of the earth, guess what the fruit's like? It's earthy.
It's gall. And their clusters are bitter.
Their fruit's bitter. It's bitter. Their wine, their
gospel, is the poison of dragons. and the cruel venom of asps. Look at Romans 3 just a minute.
Romans chapter 3. There's no wonder then it proves
that their God is idle, made of a man, when you consider where
this venom of asps comes from. Look at Romans 3.13. Their throat
is an open sepulcher, and with their tongues they've used deceit.
The poison of asps is under their lips. So why call on sinners
to believe and to put their trust in a God that can't do? Why would
you call on a God to trust somebody that can't do as He pleases?
As He pleases. What use is calling on a God
like that? Our God is so mighty, brethren.
Listen, our God is so mighty. that He tells us beforehand what
He's pleased to do, and then He brings to pass exactly what
He said He was pleased to do. He says, "...declaring the end
from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that
are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will
do all My pleasure." Now if I said that I do what pleases me, if
I made that statement to you, but I don't tell you beforehand
what pleases me, then I could go to plan B and plan C and plan
D and just say, but I'm doing what pleases me, this pleases
me to do it this way. But there's more power in it
when God tells us beforehand, this is how I'm pleased to do
it. I'm not going to divert to plan B. This is what pleases
me. And then He goes about doing
what pleases Him. That's where you see God is able. God is able. The Lord, before
He went to the cross, He said, Now I have told you before it
come to pass, that when it is come to pass, you might believe.
Oh, the true and living God, the mighty God, our God is Him
that is able to do. His arms full of power, He's
able to do what pleases Him. And that's the proper definition
of God. That's the proper definition
of who God is. God is able to do. Who can resist
God's ability? Who can turn God or stop God
from doing what He will do? If there's any that can turn
God, if there's any that can stop God from doing what He's
pleased to do, then that one's God instead of God. And God forbid,
God is able to do. There's no God like Him. Now
secondly, notice what and how God is able to do. Look at our
text, verse 20. This is what He's able to do
and how He's able to do. Verse 20. He's able to do exceeding,
abundantly, above all that we ask or think. Now brethren, God's
able to do what we ask Him. That would be enough. That would
be enough if He told us here, God's able to do what you ask
Him. But God is able to do even more
than we can ask or we can think. That's what God's able to do.
Now this does not mean that God has not told us what pleases
Him to do. On more than one occasion I've
given you these things that pleases God. It pleased God to save through
the foolishness of preaching. You can find that in 1 Corinthians
121. And the reason it pleased God to save through the foolishness
of preaching, the preaching of Christ and Him crucified, the
preaching of truth, is because it pleased God for all preeminence
and all fullness to dwell in Christ. You can find that in
Colossians 1, 18-20. And then it pleased God to save
each child through faith in Christ. You can find that in Hebrews
11, 6. You can find it in Galatians 3. It will be justified through
faith. You can find it in Romans chapter
1, verse 17, I believe. The just shall live by faith.
God calls each child and He gives them faith when it pleases God. You can find that in Galatians
1.15. Paul said, when it pleased God, who separated me from his
mother's womb to reveal Christ in me. He called me when it pleased
him. That's when God calls people, when it pleases God. God gifts
and he sets each member in his church as it pleases God. We saw that on Sunday. 1 Corinthians
12.18. It pleases God never to forsake
one of his children. He said in 1 Samuel 12, 22, "...the
Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake, because
it is pleased the Lord to make you his people." These are things
that please the Lord. God works in each believer by
the power of Jesus Christ that which is well pleasing in his
sight. He said in Hebrews 13, 20, the
God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus
Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood
of the everlasting covenant, He will make you perfect. He will make you to do every
good work, doing His will, working in you that which is well pleasing
in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and
ever. Amen. God worketh in you both to will and to do of His
good pleasure. And then it pleased God in the
end to gather all His elect in Christ. Since we're in Ephesians,
let's look at it. Ephesians 1. Look at verse 9. Having made known unto us the
mystery of His will, of His will, according to His good pleasure,
which He hath purposed in Himself. And here it is, that in the dispensation
of the fullness of times, He might gather together in one
all things. And we saw the other day, these
things mean believers. Believers in Christ, both which
are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him. They're going
to all be gathered together in Him. And then, lastly, Luke 12,
32 tells us, Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's
good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Now those are things
God has clearly told us He's pleased to do. He's pleased to
do those. A man may not be pleased with
them, and he may object and say, I'm not, I don't think God's...
Your God's not like our God. This God is, that's what he's
pleased to do. Now there are things God's not
willing to do. God's not willing to do anything
that goes against His holiness, His justice, His righteousness,
against His character in any way. God's not willing to do
so. But there are set ways in which
God is pleased to do those certain things that I just told you.
And God will not do them otherwise. Now, folks who say that God saves
another way, other than what pleases Him, limit His promises
and limit His faithfulness to His promises. But God's able
to do. He's able to do. But when it
comes to these things that God's able to do, these promises, these
things that are clearly revealed that God says He's able to do,
they are exceeding abundant above all that we ever would ask or
would ever think. God has plainly told us from
the beginning what He's pleased to do. The problem is, brethren,
here's the problem. The problem is the things that
God is pleased to do, though they're stated plainly in Scripture,
the things that God is pleased to do are exceeding abundant
above all that we would ask or think. That's the problem. When
the Lord told Abraham, He said, I will certainly return unto
thee according to the time of life, and lo, Sarah thy wife
shall have a son. You know what Sarah did? She
laughed. She laughed. Why did she laugh?
Why did she laugh? She said, I'm old, and I'm past
the age of childbearing. I'm going to bear a child? She
looked at herself, and she reasoned with her reasoning, and judged
things by her power and her ability, and by that she said, God's not
able to do what he said he's going to do. But God said, is
anything too hard for the Lord? If God said he's going to do
it, God's going to do it. He said my counsel shall stand.
I will do all my pleasure. I've heard men say, I don't think
Christ could be born of a virgin. I've heard them say, I don't
think Christ could be made sin. Or I don't think Christ could
rise from the dead. Or I don't think God saves all
his people through the foolishness of preaching. What do you base
that on other than your own inability and your own limitation? Isn't
it so? What are you basing that on?
Because God's Word says He does. You're basing it on some vain
thing, experience, a vain experience, a vain thought, a vain imagination. The reason that we have to be
born again, the reason we got to be born from above and given
faith to believe God is because the fact is everything that God
does is exceeding abundant above all that we would ask or think.
That's why we have to be given faith to believe. If God could
do something that you thought, I think He can do that, He wouldn't
be any better than you are or I am. But God's God. He's God. Now, as far as we can go, brethren,
as far as you can go in these promises, in asking God to do
them, or as far as you can go in our thoughts of these things,
God is still able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we
ask or think. Notice the progression here.
God's able to do all we ask or think. We have to go backwards
here to get the fullness of this progression. Start with the end
there. He's able to do all that we ask or think. Now that's great.
That is great. But it says more than that. It
says God is able to do above all that we ask or think. Boy,
he could stop right there, wouldn't he? But He still goes further.
God is able to do abundantly above all that we ask or think. And He doesn't stop there. God
is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.
So when you read the things God's pleased to perform in the Scripture,
when we read these things, whatever expectations you can form in
your mind about these things, how God's going to bring this
to pass, you can rest assured you hadn't scratched the surface.
You hadn't come to nearly to the end of this exceeding abundant
above all. that we could ever think or ever
ask. That's what God's able to do. What are some things that
you've asked God for? I'll tell you something that
God did before we ever asked Him for anything. God regenerated
us and gave us faith in Christ. The evidence of our praying and
asking God is that He had already done that. Now that was something
you and I never would have thought God would do. I was a rebel against
God. I didn't want God to do that.
I was determined God was not going to do that for me. I was
a thorn in everybody's side who believed the gospel because I
didn't believe God could do anything that they said he could do. And
God did something without my will, without my fleshly will. Now He made me willing and made
me glad He did it, but He did it without my consent. He did
it on His own. Then when He made us to know
our sin, and know that our sin is just full of sin, our flesh
is full of sin all the time, then what did you start asking
God for? Lord, have mercy on me. Don't deal with me according
to my sin. Have mercy on me. Look at Psalm
103. Look at Psalm 103. Look at verse 10. We pray, Father
have mercy on me, don't deal with me according to my sins.
Because we see our sins, we know our sins. Now look what it says,
Psalm 103 verse 10. He hath not dealt with us after
our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the
heaven is high above the earth, exceeding abundantly above all
is the heaven above the earth. Go as far out into heaven as
you can go, that far out above all, so great is his mercy toward
them that fear him. You see how above... We just
wanted some mercy. Look how great mercy he's given
us. We prayed this, Father forgive
me of my sins. Forgive me of my sins. Look at
the next verse, verse 12. As far as the east is from the
west. They never meet. The East and
the West never meet. You go North, you're going to
go South eventually. You go East, you're going to keep going East.
You go West, you're going to keep going West. As far as the East is from
the West, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. He
said, I'll be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins
and their iniquities will I remember no more. I was thinking about
this today. I read that and I was just sitting
there thinking about it. I'm thinking, how far can you
go with that? Well, he said Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness. Christ is the end of the law.
You think about that. We don't go to the end of that statement.
You think Christ is the end of the law. God gave one law in
the garden, and when he gave that one law in the garden, God
knew Adam was going to break it. He said, in the day that
you eat thereof, you shall surely die. That was not just a warning
and not just to tell. He was telling him what he was
going to do. Why did he give that law then? Because Christ
is the end. Because Christ is the end. Christ
is the reason He gave it. So that when He broke it, Christ
could come forth and redeem us from all iniquity and get glory
to God because of what Christ had done. That's why. And then
He gave a law to people that were already dead in trespasses
and sins and already could not keep the law because they couldn't
put away their sins. And He said, now if you do this
law, You'll live. You'll be righteousness if you
do this law. Why did he give them that law?
Men say, it's not fair if God gave us a law that we couldn't
keep. God can do what He's pleased to do. His thoughts are exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think. Why did He give
that law then? He gave it to bring His true
Israel to the end of ourselves, in the end of our doing, in the
end of us thinking that we can put away our sins and present
ourselves as perfect righteousness to God and bring us to the end
of that law which is Christ. He said in Galatians, the law
was our schoolmaster to drive us to Christ that we might be
justified by faith that is in Him. We only ask God to forgive
us our sins, but He did so much more than that. The Lord went
exceeding abundantly above all of that. He recreated us better
than we were in the image of Adam. He recreated us better
than that. He's taken us and gone exceeding
above that. He's made us heirs of God and
joint heirs with Christ. He's made it so that we can't
ever be separated from the love of God in Christ. He's made it
so that He's not just supplied our need, He's gone exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or even thought. He says,
I won't remember your sin ever again. You know what that means,
brethren? How much is Christ the end of
the law for righteousness does? In Christ Jesus, His child before
God, the all-seeing eye of God, can not sin. You know what sin
is? It's the transgression of the
law. That means a believer can't break the law of God before the
eye of God. Now, in ourselves we do, and
God will chasten us for that. But I'm saying in Christ, His
people have perfectly fulfilled it and can't ever break it. Because
Christ perfectly fulfilled it and put away our sins as well.
Isn't that wonderful? That's exceeding abundantly above
all that we could ever ask or think. Our prayer, think about
it. Is it not limited when we pray? What do you pray for? It's so
limited, isn't it? It's limited by our knowledge.
It's limited by our knowledge of God. Limited by our knowledge
of ourselves. It's limited by our need. We
don't know the fullness of our need. We don't even see half
of what we need. So all we can pray for is what
we see, what we know, and that's limited. That's very limited.
And yet God's providing our needs exceeding abundantly above all
that we could ask or think. He is every day. And then it's
limited by our desire. We don't desire all that God
could give us. Have you ever started to pray
for something and stopped? Because you're afraid God'd give
it to you? I have. He knows our thoughts,
though. He's already going to do exceeding
a bundle above all we think. If he gave us opportunity to
meet here every day of the week, that would be more than our desire.
Some folks don't have the desire to meet here in the amount of
time we do meet here. That would be above our desire.
And until God gives us the desire to be with Him all the time,
worshiping Him all the time, speaking of Him all the time,
speaking of His Scriptures all the time, reading of His Word
all the time, speaking only of Him and glorifying only in Him,
until He gives us that desire, we'd be miserable in heaven.
It's absolutely miserable. You see, we're limited in the
things we ask for, limited by our faith. We don't half believe
God. We don't half believe God can
do what He says He can do. I like what Spurgeon said. He
said, God never means less than He says, but He always means
far more than we think He says. That's true. Because we're limited
in everything about us. So don't be afraid to ask God
more than you can comprehend God's ability to do. I've got
loved ones I love dearly that are getting on up in years now
and are some of the most strongest rebels against God that you'll
ever want to meet. Against God and men. But God's
able to save them. As long as they got breath in
them, God's able to save them. He's able to. Exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask. Look what Paul just asked for.
Paul asked to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge
that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. Can
you comprehend that? I can't comprehend that. But
God can do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.
He said, I'm the Lord your God which brought you out of the
land of Egypt. He brought us out of this world. He brought
us out of our sin. He brought us out of our spiritual
death. He brought us out of our flesh, out of our unbelief. And
since He's done all that freely for His elect, you know what
He says to us? Open your mouth wide and I will fill it. That's what He said. You know,
you don't open your mouth wide unless you want a big mouthful.
He said, open it wide and I'll fill it. As wide as you can open
it, God can fill it. You picture a child, he's out
by a river and he takes a cup and he dips it down in the river.
Man, you just saw that river just sink down to nothing, didn't
you? You don't even see a dent in that river. Well, that's our
dipping our little cup into God. He's all fullness and He's able
to do. He gave His only begotten Son
for us, shall He not with Him freely give us all things? God
bids us ask whatever we need, believing God is able to do it,
exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. Now look
at this third thing. How is it that God is able to
do so exceedingly? Verse 20. According to the power
that worketh in us, according to the power that worketh in
us. God's able to work His power for His people. He chose whom
He would in Christ before the foundation of the world without
our consent, without our doing anything. He sent His Son, the
power and wisdom of God. By His power, He made Him of
a woman. By His power, He made Him under
the law. By His power, He made Him sin
for us who knew no sin. When He put away our sin and
brought everlasting righteousness in, just like Joseph was freed
from his prison, God released Christ from death. And God made
Him Lord of His house and ruler of all His substance to bind
His princes at His pleasure and teach His senators wisdom. He's
our Joseph. And all of this God was able
to do. Every bit of this God was able to do. You and I had
no say in it. And all is done exceeding, abundantly,
above all that we could ever ask or think. And then God's
able to work this power in His people. Not just for His people,
in His people. He's able to send the gospel
to His lost sheep. He sent it to the Ethiopian eunuch.
He sent it to Lydia. He sent it to the Philippian
jailer. He sent it to the thief on the
cross. Have you ever read those seven sayings that men said while
Christ was on that cross? And that He said, that man heard
the gospel. He heard the gospel. God's able
to work this power in His people. He's able to regenerate a dead
sinner and work faith in us. Look back up at Ephesians 1,
verse 19. Paul said, I want you to know
what God's done by regenerating you and giving you faith. He
said, I want you to know the exceeding, verse 19, the exceeding
greatness of His power to us who believe. What's it like?
It's according to the working of His mighty power which He
wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him
at His right hand in heavenly places. You mean the same power
it took to raise Christ from the dead it took to give me spiritual
life? and faith in Christ. Yeah, it
did, because all hell and Satan was against it. You can go on
reading Ephesians 2. We were dead in trespasses and
sin. We were walking according to the course of this world.
We were under the power of the prince of the air. We were children
of wrath, even as others. Every obstacle was preventing
it. And God worked it with His exceeding power and His exceeding
might. He can do this exceedingly in
His people. He's able to subdue our old man.
Paul said, God's able even to do all things to himself. You just ask Nebuchadnezzar.
Ask Nebuchadnezzar about that. He said this, those that walk
in pride, he's able to abase. He said that after he crawled
around in the grass for a little while like an animal, like a
raven lunatic, because God put him there. He's able to draw
us to cast all our care into Christ's hand. Christ said, no
man I believe that includes all of them, don't it? No man can
come to me. You can't come to him after you
die. You can't come to him while you're living. You can't come
to him any other way than this. Except the Father which has sent
me drawing, and I'll raise him up at the last day. God can do
that. He's able. And He does it that
your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the
power of God. Why do men not believe God's
able to do this? They never experienced the power of God. That's why.
When you experience it, you'll know, yes, He's able. He's able. He's able to keep us by His power.
I know whom I've believed, and I'm persuaded that He is able
to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day. He
is able to keep us from falling, Jude said. He's able to work
this in His people. And one day He's going to raise
us by His power. The same power it took to raise
us in the very first second to spiritual life in the inner man.
He's going to exercise that power again when we close our eyes
in death. He's going to bring us to glory with Him. And He's
going to raise our bodies to be with Him in glory. Everything
from the beginning of our spiritual life to the end and when we go
into glory with God is all by His power. Every bit of it. God
raised those three Hebrew children out of that fiery furnace, and
they didn't even smell like smoke. You know, when God brings us
out of this furnace right here that we're in, we're not even
going to smell like this place anymore. And you know what they
said before they ever went into it? You know what their words
were? They said, Our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver
us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of
your hand, O king. Now you put yourself in their
shoes. You think about it. You're standing there, and you
watch this king heat that furnace seven times hotter than it was.
And so much so that fellows walk up close to it, it just burn
them up. and you're able to stand there before the king, before
the man who is in charge of the whole land, and say to him, my
God is able to deliver me out of that. That's almost daring
him to throw you in it. Well, that's so of us, brethren.
Our God is able to deliver us, whether it's a fiery furnace
or any other thing. Our God is able to deliver us. I wish I believed that. I do. I really do. I believe it, but
I wish I believed it. I find myself praying to God
this. I find myself saying, Lord, You say that You can do exceeding,
abundantly, above all that I can ask You. Here's what I'm asking.
Please do it. Please do it. And God's able
to work His power by His people. He's able to work His power for
His people, in His people, and by His people. Look at Ephesians
3 and verse 7. Paul says, I was made a minister
according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by
the effectual working of His power. He's able to make ministers. His ministers. He don't have
to settle for some charlatan that decided, I'll run, I'll
run in my power, and in my strength, and in my wisdom, and I'll preach
my message. He don't have to settle for that.
He can send His preachers with the truth. God's able to work
this power by His people. He's able to use His ministers
to save His people. And it's Him doing the saving.
Paul said, Though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth
by the power of God. And he said, For we also are
weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God
toward you, for us. He said, I labor, striving according
to the working which worketh in me mightily. We have this
treasure, though, in earthen vessels, that the excellency
of the power might be of God, not of us. But God is able. He's able to do what He's pleased
to do. And God's able to do all this
by irresistible power. Listen to this. This ought to
be our prayer right here. It's from Jeremiah 32, 17. Ah,
Lord God, behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy
great power in your outstretched arm. And there is nothing too
hard for you. Nothing too hard for you. The
great, the mighty God, the Lord of hosts is His name, great in
counsel and mighty in working. That's who He is. We got witness all around us,
don't we? All around us we got a witness of His power. His power. He created all this. Can He not
do with His own what He will? Can He not do what pleases Him? Sure He can. Alright, look at
this. Paul tells us here who it is
that's going to praise Him for this, or who it is that's going
to be praised, and who it is that's going to praise Him. He
says here, verse 21, unto Him be glory in the church. Who's
going to be praised? He is. Unto Him. Unto Him. We adore and we glorify God alone. The Psalmist said, Among the
gods there's none like unto thee, O Lord, neither are there any
works like unto your works. All nations whom thou hast made
shall come and worship before you, O Lord. That means they're
going to all come and bow the knee. Every one of them. And
they're going to glorify you, your name, for thou art great
and doest wondrous things. Thou art God alone. Now look
at this. Who is it? Who's the us who's
going to praise Him in this life right now? And who's God working
this power in? Who's going to praise Him? Verse
21 says, "...in the church." That's those He'd love from everlasting
and loves everlastingly. That's those that he chose in
Christ before the foundation of the world. That's those he
sent his son into this world to be the propitiation for. That's
those that he's going to regenerate and bring to faith in Christ.
That's those that he's going to keep and preserve and bring
with him in glory and there won't be one ever lost. The church
of God which he purchased with his own blood. The most difficult
thing in this world is to find a church where the gospel is
preached. And anybody that doesn't realize
that, doesn't understand that, they're not listening for the
same thing I'm listening for. But it's a difficulty. It's very difficult to do. But
the certain mark that you have found God's church is, His people
are going to praise Him. They're going to give Him the
glory. You won't hear us preaching one message about our ability,
about our will, or about our work, or about our wisdom. We're
going to preach His. That's right. The acid test for
every single message you hear as to whether it's the truth
of God or not is who gets all the glory. In His church, His
people are going to give Him all the glory. Why is that? Look
here at this fifth thing. He tells us by whom God is able
to work all these things so exceedingly and by whom His church brings
glory to His name. Look at verse 21. By Christ Jesus. It's by Christ Jesus. Are you
going to call Christ a failure? Any man going to call Christ
a failure? He says here God's going to get the glory in His
church by Christ Jesus. By Christ Jesus. God the Father
gave this work to His Son before the foundation of the world.
The work of bringing all glory to Him. And the worlds were made
by Christ Jesus to glorify God. And Christ Jesus upholds all
things by the word of His power to glorify God. Christ came into
this world and He accomplished the redemption of His people
to glorify God, to glorify His justice and His mercy, His love
and His righteousness. Christ Jesus is the head over
His church, over all, above all, with power over all, to fill
all in all that God might be glorified. that God might be
glorified. Any of these things that God
said it pleased Him to do, He said this in Isaiah 53, He said,
the pleasure of the Lord, the pleasure of God is going to prosper
in Christ's hand. And if I look at any of these
things God says it pleased Him to do and I say, I don't think
God's going to do that way, I'm directly looking Christ in the
face and saying, I think you are a liar and a failure and
can't do what God said you can do. That's what's happening. When a man denies what God says
he's pleased to do, because this glory is going to be brought
to God by Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus is going to put
down all his enemies to glorify God. He said this, Fear not them
which kill your body, but are not able to kill your soul, but
rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body
in hell. That's who to fear. He's able
to do that. Not one elect child of God's going to be lost, but
they're all going to be saved by Christ Jesus to glorify God. That's why. And here's why. Here's
why. The Scriptures say it's going
to be so. In Psalm 22 to 22, Christ said,
I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the
congregation while I praise thee. And we know that's Christ because
Hebrews 2 tells us. He said there in verse 25, My
praise shall be of thee in the great congregation. I will pay
my vows before them that fear Him. He said in Psalm 40 verse
10, I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart, I have declared
thy faithfulness and thy salvation. I have not concealed thy love
and kindness and thy truth from the great congregation. He did
it when He walked this earth, but He's doing it right now through
His preachers and through the lips of His people. He's doing
it right now because He commands this praise. He tells us in Psalm
111, 1, Praise you the Lord. Praise you the Lord. I will praise
the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright
and in the congregation. The chief song leader, the chief
song leader among all God's people is Christ Jesus. And He makes
His people to praise and glorify God. unto God be glory in the
church by Christ Jesus. Have you ever seen this in Philippians
2? Do you know why in the end every knee is going to bow and
every knee is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of
Lords and King of Kings? Do you know why? It says that
every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory
of God the Father. Who's going to make them bow?
Are they going to have to be forced down on their knees? Are they
going to have to be... something going to be done to
compel them to bow? What happened when they came
to arrest him? He said, I am. Bam! They hit it, buddy. Who's going to bring that glory
to God? Christ is. His presence. That's right. That's
right. Now, how long is God going to
exercise this power and be glorified in His church by Christ Jesus?
How long is He going to do this? Verse 21 says, Throughout all
ages, world without end. Amen. Throughout all ages means
as long as this world is in existence. God shall exercise this great
power for His people and in His people and we shall give all
the glory to God because of Christ Jesus working in us. And when
it says here, world without end, it means in that world to come,
they'll never cease, will never cease beholding His power and
will never cease glorifying God by Jesus Christ. That's right. Brethren, this is the day of
grace. We're in the ages right now. This is the day of grace.
Call on Him while He may be found. You know, you say, I can't call
on Him. The weakest call, the weakest
cry unto Him, He'll hear that. And the greatest power comes
from a weak cry. Because if you can cry that weak
cry, He's already exercised great power in you. And when He brings
you to cry mercy, it's because He delights to show mercy. And
He'll show mercy. And when it says amen here, what
does that mean? We say that. What does amen mean?
When you see it at the beginning of a statement in the scriptures,
it means surely, truly of a truth. It's the same word as verily.
Verily, verily. Amen, amen. It means surely,
truly of a truth. What I'm about to say shall come
to pass. And when you see it at the end of a statement, it
means so it is, so be it. So be it. Now, of everything
I have said here tonight, I stand by it 100%, trusting my entire
eternal soul upon these great and precious promises and God's
exceeding abundant ability to do above all that we ever ask
or think. And you know what I say to every
bit of it? Amen. So be it. Amen.