Bless that reading. To the Prophet
of our souls. And now once again we'll turn
to the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians and chapter 3. And this evening we'll read verses
14, 15 and 16. The Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians,
chapter 3 and reading verses 14, 15 and 16. For this cause
I bow my knee unto the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, in whom the whole family in heaven and in earth is named. And he would grant you, according
to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by
his Spirit in the inner man. Well, we see the The Apostle
here is speaking to us with regard to the desire he has to pray. And he says, for this cause I
bow my knee unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And by
this he signifies that when we come to pray, we should come
reverently and with a true heart and desire that we come to a
God who does hear and answer prayer, and therefore our attitude
should not be flippant, it should not be light-hearted, but it
should be serious and solemn, because we are approaching the
Almighty God, the ruler of everything, and that one who is high, lifted
up and holy, and therefore we will recognise that to be so,
and the Apostle says here, for this cause I bow my knee unto
the Father. He had a reason to pray and it's
good of course when we always should and we always must have
really reasons to pray. And he tells us then, of whom
the whole family in heaven and earth is named. And of course
that really incorporates the whole Church of God, those who
have lived on this earth and have been saved and are now in
heaven, and all the family that still remains on earth, of whom
the whole family in heaven and earth is named, because every
member of the Church of God is known. No one arrives in glory
as somebody unknown, because everyone who comes there comes
because they are one for whom the Lord Jesus Christ died, for
whom he shed his blood, for whom he redeemed from all their sins.
So there's no one who is found in heaven who is not known by
the Saviour. and all of his people also of
course known on the earth and all those who will come to live
on this earth while time remains will still be of that same position
of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named and then he
comes and says that he would grant you this is the blessed
father grant you according to the riches of his glory to be
strengthened with might by a spirit in the inner man. Well, the great
truth is that we have a God who is boundless in riches. God has everything at his disposal. There's nothing that he cannot
grant to his church and grant to his people. But in this context
it would seem really it's very specifically related to our soul,
because the Apostle speaks about strengthened with might by his
spirit in the inner man. It's not something which is evident
outwardly, but it is that which is inside the soul of man, that
which is the inner man. And to think that this is so
true, he grants according to the riches of his glory. It's good to just ponder that,
to think how great our God is. He's able to give us everything
that you and I need for our life here below and that which will
bring us safe home to glory. The riches of his glory. The Lord God is rich above everything. He does dispense. his gracious
promises, he dispenses his word, and he gives that which is encouraging
to the Church of God as they carry on living in this world. And it is according the riches
of his glory to be strengthened with might by spirit in the inner
man. Well, we need to be strengthened
because we live a life which is a battle, a battle against
sin, a battle against our great adversary the devil, the sins
which do so easily beset us, the sins which so easily grab
hold of us, and therefore what a mercy it is to know that we
can be strengthened against these things and strengthened with
might by his spirit in the inner man. that should be an encouragement
to us to realise we have a God who can strengthen, who can support
us against all the temptations of the evil one, so that we are
delivered from many trials, many temptations, many difficulties,
to know that our God reigns. We read together in that 138th
psalm where David speaks about that. David knew the battle he
had to fight within. He often speaks about it in the
many psalms where he cries unto God Most High and how good it
is that we can cry unto God Most High at any time. We can cry
unto God Most High tonight and in that 138th psalm we read in
the third verse, in the day when I cried thou answerest me.' David
was able to confirm that God had heard his cry. And, strengthenest
me with strength in my soul. Now we have a God who hasn't
changed. We have a God who is the same
today, who can answer our cries, And may we cry, and may we pray,
and may we bow our knee, like Paul speaks of here, and may
we be strengthened against the devil and all the temptations
to sin, and therefore stand firm by his grace, by his mercy. And it is really because of his
love toward us that he strengthens us. He knows where we are. He
knows the path we're taking. He knows the temptations and
he knows that he will bring us through safely when the Lord
has granted that grace and repaired us for our eternal home. And so we should be thankful
tonight that we have such a God who does strengthen with might
by his Spirit in the inner man. It is the Holy Spirit of God
that does that for us in the Colossians. and the first chapter
and the 11th verse we also read, strengthened with all might.
That's not our might, it's the might of God. Isn't that humbling? Strengthened with all might,
according to his glorious power, and to all patience and longsuffering
with joyfulness. You know, it's not only the New
Testament saints who were encouraged and strengthened, We can go back
to the Old Testament and we think of Daniel, you know, Daniel had
a difficult life. We perhaps think of the parts
that we read when there were amazing deliverances for him,
but he needed to be strengthened again and again, especially when
he was to disobey the commands of God. And we read in the 10th
chapter of Daniel, he said, then there came again and touched
me, one like the appearance of a man, and he strengthened me. This was, you see, by a vision. No less, that great God strengthens
us today, and said, O man greatly beloved, fear not. Peace be unto
thee, be strong, yea, be strong. And that wasn't his own strength,
that was the strength that God gave unto him. And when he had
spoken unto me, I was strengthened and said, let my Lord speak,
for thou hast strengthened me. And how encouraging it is to
know when God comes and does strengthen us, we may feel very
poor. We may feel very sinful. We may
feel a great need of God to come and stand by us and strengthen
us. Well, we have these evidences
that God does just that. And so he says that he would
grant you and he would grant us this blessed favour according
to the riches of his glory. Nothing's too hard for our God
to be strengthened with might by a spirit in the inner man,
in our very soul. When the Apostle wrote to Timothy,
again just one last reference in the fourth chapter of the
second epistle, 17th verse, notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and strengthened
me. Well, Paul had many times, didn't
he, when he needed to be strengthened. Well, he confirms, the Lord stood
with me and strengthened me that by me the preaching might be
fully known and that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was
delivered out of the mouth of the lion." Well, we know the
Apostle went through hard times, but he was delivered and he was
able to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. He was strengthened
with might in his inner man. Well, may all of us know the
blessed strengthening by the Spirit in our souls to do that
which is right and to stand firm for the great and glorious truths
of the gospel. Amen.