Well, let us turn to God's Word
here in Ephesians chapter 3. I want us to really consider the
word that we find in verse 17. You will observe that in many
ways this is a prayer of the Apostle as we see from where
we began the reading at verse 14 for this course. It says,
Paul to the Ephesians, I bow my knees unto the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ." As if he were now turning from addressing
them in his epistle and beginning to bow before God the Father
and to pray for them. And so in many ways what we read
in the following verses is part and parcel of that prayer. It's
not the first time. I think we can say in a sense
we find him also engaging in prayer In the other portion that
we read in chapter 1 at verse 16 following, where he says that
he does not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you
in my prayers, he says. It is interesting in these various
epistles how several times we find Paul doing this. He addresses
these various churches but then time and again he turns from
addressing them and begins to address God. I remember some
years ago in A.W. Pink's books on... I'll try to recall the title... Studies in the Scripture, isn't
it? And he has several sections there in which he expounds what
he calls the prayers of Paul and all together agree with A.W.
Pink In some ways he was questionable with regards to the doctrine
of the eternal sonship of Christ but he was a very able expositor
of scripture in other ways and certainly I found profit in reading
some of those expositions of Paul's prayers and I would commend
those writings to you. As I said, tonight I want us
really to look at what he is saying here in this prayer at
the end of chapter 3 of the Ephesian Epistle, and those words in verse
17, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, the G being
rooted and grounded in love. Taking those words in, in particular,
as The text where he speaks of both love and faith, what is
he really declaring? He's saying that the believer
is one who is rooted and grounded in love and in faith. There are two parts then to the
text and I want to invert the order and look at the second
part of the verse first of all and so to say something of what
he's declaring here concerning God's love in Christ. He says
that ye being rooted and grounded in love being rooted and grounded
in love that is the state He declares of those who are the
members of the Church of Jesus Christ there at Ephesus. And of course the beginning of
salvation is there. The love of God lies at the very
heart of what he is saying in this particular prayer. How does
he continue? At the end of the verse he says
that they are rooted and grounded in love and his prayer is that
they may be able to comprehend with all sayings what is the
breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love
of Christ which passeth knowledge that she might be filled with
all the fullness of God. He prays that they may comprehend
something that he also says is altogether incomprehensible. What a remarkable prayer this
is, but he's speaking of course of that love that itself is so
remarkable, the love of God. On two occasions in his first
epistle John tells us God is love, and there's a sense in
which love is not simply one of the attributes of God. But
God in his triune being is love, there is that relationship. between
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The Father loves
the Son, and the Son loves the Father, and the Father and the
Son love the Holy Spirit, and without reference to any object
outside of Himself. God is love, says John. And how God has demonstrated
the wonder of His love to sinners in the person and the work of
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ
that the sinner's sin is propitiated. The justice of God, the wrath
of God has been satisfied by what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
here upon the earth. Remember how, again, it's John
there in that first epistle. Chapter 4 and verse 10 says,
Herein is love. Here is a definition of love.
not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son
to be the propitiation for our sins. A remarkable verse of Holy
Scripture because it reminds us of course that God is a holy
God and a righteous God and a just God and He can by no means clear
the guilt. Sin must be punished, God's justice
must be satisfied. He is angry with the wicked every
day, and the Lord Jesus Christ is that one who has come and
made propitiation. He is born in his own person,
that holy wrath of God. And John declares it not only
there in chapter 4 and verse 10 of the epistle, but again,
previously in chapter 2 and verse 2, he says he is the propitiation
for our sins. and not for us only, but for
the sins of the whole world. Of course, in principle, he's
addressing Jewish Christians, but it is the wonder of what
Christ has done. It is a salvation that reaches
to the whole world. It reaches to sinners of the
Gentiles also. The wonder then of the love of
God is seen in what God has done in the gift of the Lord Jesus
Christ, But he has not only come to make propitiation in the sense
of bearing the justice and the wrath of God, he has also dealt
with the guilt of sin. He has made expiation. Without the shedding of blood,
we are told, there can be no remission of sins. Well, the
Lord Jesus Christ has dealt with that aspect of our sin, the guilt
of it. And remember, again, it's Paul
writing there in Colossians chapter 3 and at verse 13 he says, "...forbearing one another
and forgiving one another If any man have a quarrel against
any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all
these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which
also ye are called in one body, and be ye thankful. I have the wrong portion there,
don't I? It's chapter 2 I should have referred you to, not chapter
3. where he speaks of the Lord Jesus
coming and blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against
us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing
it to his cross. And having spoiled principalities
and powers, he made a show of them openly. triumphing over
them in it, that is in his death upon the cross. The wonder then
of the work that the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished, not
only dealing with the matter of the justice and the wrath
of God, but also dealing with the guilt that pertains to the
sin And we have to recognize here that Christ's work on the
cross isn't something that made it possible for God to love sinners. That's how some imagine the work
of Christ, what it accomplished. They say that it made it possible
that God should love the sinner, but it's a false distinction.
that they make when they think of God in the Old Testament as
one who is an austere judge, an angry God,
a cruel God in many ways, and when they come to the New Testament
they say we see a different aspect, we see the Lord Jesus Christ
who is the image of God, but here we have the loving and the
gracious image. They make a distinction as if
there's one God in the Old Testament and another God in the New Testament
but of course that is that's a blasphemy really because God
is one here we shall the Lord our God is one Lord and as God
is one in his essence he's three persons yes but he is one God
so that one God is also one in his purpose We should really
speak of God's decree. I know sometimes we do speak
of the decrees of God, because we see God's decree being worked
out in time, in the process of time. Events following one another,
so we speak of God's decrees. But of course God is dwelling
in eternity. And with God it is ever the eternal
now. He is of one mind, and none can
turn him. He has one decree. And that decree
is the decree of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Ghost. And it's because God is love,
and because God loved sinners, that He sent the Lord Jesus Christ
into this world to do all that was necessary for the salvation
of sinners. That's the truth. It's not that
the Lord Jesus, by His work, makes it possible for God to
love the sinner. No, on the contrary, it's because
God loves the sinner. God commendeth His love toward
us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,
says Paul, when the fullness of the time was come. That is,
that time that God had determined in His eternal decree. When the
fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made
of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under
the law. that they might receive the adoption
of sons. Oh, it is that love of God then
that lies at the very basis of the salvation of the sinners.
He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting
life. And what are we to make of that
expression? God so loved the world. Well
I think in some ways we're not to be thinking of the word quantitatively,
but qualitatively. When we think of how scripture
often times speaks of the world, all that is in the world. The
lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of
life which is not of the Father but is of the world and the world. that lieth in wickedness, the
world that lies in the wicked one. This is the world, this
is the sinner that God has loved. And of course we have that remarkable
golden chain in Romans 8, I'm sure we're all well familiar
with the words, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate,
to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be
the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, Whom He did predestinate,
them He also called. And whom He called, them He also
justified. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified. The great links of the chain
that reach from eternity to eternity. And where does it begin? It begins
with God's foreknowledge. And God's foreknowledge is not
to be understood in terms of God's foreseeing events. And
in the light of what he foresees, making his decree, no, the word
that we have there is a far richer word than that. It literally
means his knowledge of love. He has set his love upon his
people. And because he set his eternal love upon them, he predestinated
them. Love begins that golden chain. And we know that love of God
is a sovereign love and a particular love. I'm sure we're well familiar
with the language of the Apostle in the ninth chapter of Romans. Verse 10 is when Rebekah also
had conceived by one, even by her father Isaac, for the children,
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth. It was said unto her, The elder
shall serve the younger, as it is written. Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. For the Scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, even for the same purpose have I raised thee up, that I
might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will he harden. all the mercy
of God, and the love of God, and the grace of God. This is
the wonder of that foreknowledge of which the Apostle is speaking
there in Romans 8.29. In the language of Jeremiah 31,
where the Lord says to the prophets, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. God will rest
in His love. The language of another prophet,
Zephaniah. Zephaniah 3.17, He will rest
in His love. And this love, I say, is what
is being spoken of here in the prayer. As Paul makes mention
of these Ephesian believers, he reminds them that they are
rooted and grounded in love. We have, in a sense, a double
simile. We have that of a tree, something
that's rooted, and we have that of a building which is grounded,
the necessity of a good, solid foundation. And this is the believer's
comfort, of course. The love of God. This is the
believer's comfort in all the trials and all the troubles.
or the afflictions and the reversals that come in the good fight of
faith or the believer you see is one who is rooted and grounded
in that love of God that sovereign love the wonder of it and Paul's
prayer you see for them he wants them to be enabled as it were
to comprehend with all saints the breadth and length and depth
and height and to know this love of Christ and he says he passeth
knowledge. It's beyond comprehension really
and yet it's for the believer to yearn after it and long for
it. There is then that love of God
which we see demonstrated in Christ in his person and in his
work. But then turning to the first
part of the verse He speaks of the sinner's faith in Christ. That Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith, he says. Now, how can that be? How can
that be? How can Christ dwell in the heart
by faith? Well, it is, of course, by and
through the ministry of God, the Holy Spirit, who comes as
the Spirit of grace, who comes as the Spirit of Christ. And again, we see it in the context
in the previous verse. His prayer that God would grant
you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened
with might by His Spirit in the inner man. Now these are really synonymous statements,
aren't they? The end of verse 16, the beginning
of verse 17. Strengthened by His Spirit in
the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.
The one interprets the other. How does the Lord Jesus Christ
dwell in the hearts of His people? By and through the ministry of
the Holy Spirit. Paul says again elsewhere, If
any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. or the Holy Ghost. In many ways
He is the sum to us of all gospel blessings. We recognize that. Although we have nothing at all,
how rich we are if we are possessors of that gift, the gift of the
Holy Spirit, the best of all God's donations. The ministry
of the Holy Spirit when it comes to us has that ministry of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And we're reminded, aren't we,
that we are to be those who would not grieve the Holy Spirit. At times, maybe, we do feel that
that is the case. We can grieve the Spirit. We
can quench the Spirit. And what do we feel when we We
are guilty of those things, we feel an awful barrenness in our
souls. We have to cry out to God that
he will not leave us in that desolate condition. In many ways
that's the theme that runs through that opening hymn that we sang,
number 25 in the book. Isaac Watts certainly understood
something of that. He expressed his air of longing
and the yearning for the return of the Spirit. And David, David
in the 51st Psalm, as he's so conscious now of the greatness
of his sin and it's not so much that he sinned against Uriah,
he's not only murdered a man, he's not only sinned against
Bathsheba, he's committed adultery with her. But how he grieves,
he's sinned against God, against the only. Have I sinned and done
this evil in thy sight? And what does he say? Take not
thy Holy Spirit from me. or take not thy Holy Spirit from
me that is penitential prayer and how we can so often grieve
the Spirit there is of course that sin against the Holy Spirit
that can never be forgiven what a remarkable statement is that we must not grieve the Spirit
of God and yet the strange thing is that the Spirit comes and
works in our hearts in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in
your heart by faith. When we consider what the scripture
says concerning the heart of the sinner, how God saw the wickedness
of man, that it was great in the earth, and every imagination,
every imagination of the thought of his heart was evil continually. We're told it's a Hebraism really,
it's such a pregnant statement that is being made there in Genesis
6. Every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart, all his imagination, all his thoughts, everything
that transpires in the depths of the man's soul is evil, continually. The heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I the Lord search
the hearts and try the reins, Oh, what proceeds out of the
hearts of men. Remember the words of the Lord
Himself in the Gospel, there in Matthew chapter 15 and verse
19. Out of the hearts proceed evil
thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness,
blasphemies. These are the things which defile
a man. And what are the Pharisees concerned
about external things? To eat with unwashing hands,
defile if not a man. How they'd upbraided the disciples
because they didn't indulge in those ritual washings when they'd
been to the marketplace. The Lord reminds those Pharisees
where the evil arises. She's in the heart of man and
yet that is the very place where Christ comes to dwell. Or can
ever gods dwell here? Says Joseph Hart in the hymn.
Can he really dwell in my heart? In my heart? I like the comment
that's made by Dr. Gill concerning the hearts, his
remarks on this particular verse in his commentary. He says, where
no good thing dwells but himself and his grace. The only good
thing, if we're true believers, the only good thing in our hearts
is Himself, that is God in Christ and His grace. Although there's
so much contrary in the believer, it is by faith that we're able
to believe that God does indeed come and dwell in our hearts. It is by faith that we believe
that God loves us. and Christ has saved us and so
we can say with Abraham who were against hope he believed in hope
and we believe in hope he stated not at the promise of God through
unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God and this
is what Paul is praying for these you see that they'll be strong
in faith that faith it is in the Lord Jesus Christ well how
we need to know something of the reality of it that in spite
of all that we are as sinners the wonder is that the God that
we come to worship is the God who loves sinners and Christ
is that man, the man that receiveth sinners and eateth with them
and so Paul's prayer that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith
that ye being rooted and grounded in love, in that love of God.
That's where we have to look. We have to look to the God who
is all goodness and the God who is all grace. May the Lord bless
His truth to us. Let us continue to worship God
as we sing our second praise. The hymn is 633. The tune, Wareham
431. The love of Christ is rich and
free, Fixed on His own eternally, Nor earth nor hell can it remove,
Long as He lives, His own He'll love. His loving heart engaged
to be Their everlasting surety, T'was love that took their cause
in hand, And love maintains it to the end. 633, TUNE 431