Let us turn to the Word of God
again in that portion we were reading in Ephesians chapter
3 and I want to read again from verse 14 through to the end of
the chapter this remarkable prayer of the Apostle Ephesians 3 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, that he would
grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened
with might by his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell
in your hearts by faith, that ye be enrooted and grounded in
love. 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 passeth knowledge, that
ye might be filled with all the fullness of God." Now there we
have the prayer, that's one sentence you may have observed according
to the punctuation here in the authorised version and then as
it were this doxology at the end of the prayer 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 Jesus throughout all ages
world without end Amen. But in particular the prayer
that we have in those verses from verse 14 through 19 we do find on occasions in the
epistles of Paul interning as he were from addressing the churches
and instead of instructing them and exhorting them he begins
to plead with God. We have these various prayers
that you can find if you go through the Pauline epistles and in this
letter to the Ephesians we have in fact two prayers And we read
there at the end of chapter 1 that first prayer, he tells them in
verse 16, and he ceases not to give thanks for them, but he's
making mention of them in his prayers. And then we have the
prayer from verse 17 following. So we have two prayers. But considering
this particular prayer here in the third chapter, and really
I want to concentrate for the text upon the words that we have
in verses 17, 18, and 19. These three verses, that Christ
may dwell in your heart by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded
in love, 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 passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the
fullness of God. What a remarkable prayer is this,
what tremendous aspiration. I love that hymn that we just
sang of Charles Wesley's, how he aspires after that love of
God that even the angels cannot begin to comprehend. The firstborn
sons of light, desire in vain its depth to see, they cannot
reach the mystery, the length and breadth and height. God only
knows the love of God, or that it now was shed abroad in this
poor stony heart." Now as Charles Wesley is here aspiring after
that knowledge and experience of the love of God in Christ,
so this is what Paul is praying for these Ephesians in the verses
that we've just read, verses 17, 18 and 19. And so the theme
I want to try to address this morning, it's an impossible theme
really, it's the dimensions of divine love. The dimensions of
divine love. How he speaks of it here, the
breadth and length and depth. heights. Now, looking at the
context, we see how he speaks of the necessity of faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ. The end of verse 16, his prayer
that they be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner
man, that Christ may dwell in your heart by faith. all the
importance of that faith and it's faith of course that can
only come by the gracious work the sovereign operations of the
Spirit of God that they be strengthened in the inner man strengthened
by the Spirit that he might come to them as that one who is the
Spirit of Christ How we need that ministry of
the Holy Spirit. No man can say that Jesus Christ
is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. If any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of his. And how we are to examine ourselves,
prove ourselves, and know ourselves, that Jesus Christ is in us, except
we be reprobate. How can Jesus Christ be in anyone? but by that work of the Spirit,
that gracious, effectual work of the Spirit, when He comes
and by His sovereign operations works faith in the heart. So His prayer here at the end
of verse 16 through 17, to be strengthened with might by His
Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts. by faith. And then, besides that
grace of faith, he goes on, of course, to speak of the love
of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's love demonstrated in the
gift of Christ, in the person, in the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. At the end of verse 17, that
ye being rooted, he says, and grounded in love, or that love
that God has manifested then with the gift of Christ, God
commended His love toward us, says Paul in that while we were
yet sinners, while we were yet sinners, He sends His only begotten
Son to be the Savior of those sinners. Well, let us come to
consider these verses. 17, 18 and 19 the dimensions of divine
love now i meant to bring a book along a sermon really by william
huntington on this text on this theme of the dimensions of divine
love and i think in some ways it probably the best way to introduce
oneself to the voluminous writings of that servant of the Lord's. And I was going to bring a copy
and say that if anyone wants a copy of that particular book
and wants to read what he has to say on this text, please let
me know and I'll endeavor to bring some copies of the book
this evening. Now quite free, it was published
many years ago. But if you want a copy, I can
certainly let you have a copy of that sermon that grows really
into a book, The Dimensions of Divine Love. And amongst other things, Huntington
makes a statement concerning this love that it is better felt
and enjoyed than described, how true that is how can we best
understand anything of God's love in the Lord Jesus Christ
talk as we may, say what we may the only way we can really appreciate
it is when we know something of what it is for God to shed
that love abroad in our hearts we're told here aren't we, it
passeth knowledge verse 19 to know the love of
Christ which passeth knowledge incomprehensible it's so wonderful
this love that God has demonstrated in the gift of his only begotten
Son the Lord Jesus it passes our knowledge, it passes all
our understanding think of words that we have in the book of Job
though these are part of his ways but how Little a portion
is known of Him. How little we can know of God.
Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out
the Almighty unto perfection? We cannot. And yet God has given
us His Word, and we come to His Word, and we pray that God will
enlarge our scanty thoughts, that we might understand something
of the wonders that He has wrought in the person of the Lord Jesus.
Well, let us turn to consider the dimensions of this love.
First of all, to say something with regards to its length. The
length of this love it is, of course, from eternity to eternity. That's how long it is. From eternity
to eternity. We speak in terms of time really
but of course eternity takes us all together outside all the
limitations of time and of space there's no past there's no future
in eternity it is simply eternity now we're told aren't we concerning
God himself that God is love that God is love in his Godhead,
as Father, Son and Holy Ghost, without reference to any object
outside of himself. As we've said before, the Father
loves the Son, the Son loves the Father. The Father and the
Son love the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit loves the Father
and the Son. There's a relationship of love
between the three Divine Persons, without any reference to any
objects away from himself. And so, when we read that God
is love, His love is Himself. And what of that love of God?
Well, we know that as God is a sovereign God, so His love
is a sovereign love. He tells us as much, doesn't
he? Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. And those words,
of course, are found twice in Scripture. We have them there
at the beginning of Malachi and then the Apostle quotes them
in that remarkable 9th chapter of Romans where he is speaking
of the sovereignty of the love of God. God set His love upon
Jacob and passed over his twin brother Esau. God's love is sovereign. God's love is also, of course,
like Himself, an everlasting love, even from everlasting to
everlasting. Thou art God, says the Psalmist. And if Love is what God is and
who God is. We have to recognize that as
He is from everlasting to everlasting, so is love. He's from everlasting
to everlasting. And likewise we're told by the
psalmist that the mercy of God is from everlasting to everlasting. All these attributes in God are
just as Himself. He's mercy. is grace all from everlasting
to everlasting. And so whilst we have to recognize
that God dwells in eternity our poor minds can only begin to
in a small measure comprehend the wonder of the love of God
when we think in terms of the past and the future when we think
in terms of from everlasting to everlasting. And for a while,
let's think of the length in that sense. It's from everlasting. It's from all eternity. The words
that the Lord God addresses to His servant, the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah 31.3, The Lord hath
appeared of old unto me, saying, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee. Oh, He loves the Prophet with
an everlasting love, loves Him from everlasting. And that is
true of course, not just of the Prophet Jeremiah, it's true of
all those who know anything of the grace of God in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Are they not loved in Christ? Are they not chosen in Christ? Remember how in the opening chapter
The Apostle speaks of all those blessings, those spiritual blessings,
in heavenly places, in Christ. There in verse 3 of chapter 1,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world. That's from everlasting. that
we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will." All the
blessings that are spoken of there in the heavenly places
center in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is in Christ
that God has loved His people. it is in Christ that he has made
choice of his people. And again we read here at verse
11, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in
Christ Jesus our Lord. It all centers in Christ, the
one in whom he has made choice of his people. He purposed it in himself, we
read back in chapter 1 and verse 9, and then here in verse 11
we are told is that He purposed in Christ Jesus. And it shows
us the union between God the Father and God the Son. He has purposed it in Himself,
He has purposed it also in the Lord Jesus Christ. They are at
one. Though God is three, Father,
Son and Holy Ghost, yet God is one and His love is one. And that love reaches back to
all eternity. Oh, remember the language of
the Prophet when Micah gives promise of the coming of the
Christ and makes mention of the very place where Messiah will
be born, Bethlehem. There in Micah 5, 2, But thou,
Bethlehem, Though thou be little among the
thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come, whose goings
have been from of old, from everlasting." Mark what he says there concerning
this one who is to be born at Bethlehem, his goings have been
from of old, from everlasting, his goings forth. How are we
to understand that? What is he saying? What is the
Prophet really indicating by those words, that expression?
"...whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting."
Well, isn't the Christ that one who is the eternally begotten
of the Father? The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us and we beheld His glory. He says, John, the glory as of
the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. When
was He begotten? When did He come forth? Well,
that was before there was any creation. Before there was any
creation at all. when there were no depths, He
says, I was brought forth when there were no fountains abounding
with water before the mountains were settled, before the hills
was I brought forth His goings forth have been from
of old from everlasting, He is the Eternal Son of the Eternal
Father, eternally begotten but then also those words in Micah,
of course particularly have reference to his coming into this world,
his birth. The words are addressed to the
little town of Bethlehem, the place of his nativity. But thou,
Bethlehem, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah,
yet out of thee shall he come whose goings forth What are these goings forth now
at Bethlehem? Well, it's the outworking of
that eternal covenant that was between the Father and the Son
and the Holy Spirit. It's the fulfillment in the fullness
of the time, that that was ordained from everlasting, from all eternity,
in the fullness of that time that God had appointed, He sends
forth His Son. It's the outworking of that covenant
of peace that was between them both. Lord, I lends him. How this love of God in Christ,
it stretches back to all eternity. And when the Lord Jesus prays
for His disciples in that great high priestly prayer of John
17, what does He say to His Father? Thou hast loved them. as thou
hast loved me or the father loves the son and the father loves
all those who are chosen he is the one who has made choice of
them in his son and there is Christ in his prayer boldly reminding
the father as it were of that glorious truth thou hast loved
them loved them from all eternity as have us loved Mary from all
eternity. But this love is not only one
that stretches back, it also stretches forward, it's
from everlasting and it's to everlasting. Do we not read concerning
the Lord Jesus as He comes to accomplish that great work that
the Father had given to Him in the Covenant? Now He has set His face to go
to Jerusalem. He will accomplish all that good
will and pleasure of the Father. He will make the great sin atoning
sacrifice. And there at the beginning of
John 13 we read, having loved His own, which were in the world,
He loved them unto the end. He loves them unto the end. He
loves them forever. He loves them even through all
the bitter suffering. that He must endure as their
substitute, making a great sin-atoning sacrifice. What does He give unto them?
I give unto them eternal life, He says, and they shall never
perish. Why? He has paid the penalty. The punishment has been visited
upon Him that was due to them. He has died the just for the
unjust. as sinners they deserved an everlasting
death but in Him they find everlasting life I give unto them eternal
life and they shall never perish they are in Him and once in Him
in Him forever says good John Kent how true are the words it's
an everlasting salvation it's from everlasting it's to everlasting
and think of the various parts of that salvation There's righteousness. Well, what is it that justifies
the sinner before God? It's the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's that glorious doctrine that
Luther rediscovered. It was always there, of course,
always in the Word of God, but it was buried in the Dark Ages.
But when God comes and visits that monk in his cell and reveals
to him the precious truth of justification by faith, what does Luther realize? The
righteousness that saves is the righteousness of Christ. His
obedience. His obedience in life, His obedience
unto death, even the death of the cross. And what is that righteousness? It's everlasting. It's everlasting. Daniel 9.24,
the work of Christ to finish the transgression, to make an
end of sin, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting
righteousness. everlasting righteousness and
what is there also in the Lord Jesus Christ why we're told in
the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength everlasting strength how He is
able you see to overcome all the powers of darkness how He
has vanquished sin and Satan how He has triumphed over death
and the grave Or what strength? It's everlasting strength. And
then Isaiah also speaks of everlasting joy. Isaiah 61 7, everlasting
joy shall be unto them. Oh, the joy, the rejoicing that
never ends. Rejoicing in all that Christ
is and all that Christ has done. But then, as it were, to cap
it all I like what we read in 2 Thessalonians 2.16. What has God given us in the
Gospel? He has given us everlasting consolation and good hope through
grace. What a blessed hope is that that
the Christian has. It's a good hope. because God's
comforts are everlasting. Here is something then of the
length of this love of God. It stretches back to eternity
before ever there was any creation. It stretches forth into eternity
when time shall be no more and that day must come. The end of
time. the return of Christ, the great
day of judgment. But this love of God, it stretches
from everlasting to everlasting. And as it is long, so it is also
broad. As we have here in verse 18,
the prayer is that these Ephesians that all believe us because this
is the Word of God and as this epistle is addressed to the disciples
who made up the church at Ephesus so it is addressed to every true
church of Jesus Christ it belongs to us as a New Testament church
that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being
rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all
saints What is the breadth and length? Oh, it's the breadth,
you see. And how broad is it? How broad
is it? Well, does it not reach to all the peoples on the face
of the earth? Every kindred, every tongue,
every people, every nation. That's what we read in the Revelation.
Those who are saved are called out of all the peoples on the
face of the earth. That is the contrast between
this day of grace and what we have in the Old Testament. As
we've said many, many times in the Old Testament, of course,
God's gracious purpose was confined to one nation. I must read to
you only have I known says the Lord God through His servant,
the Prophet, addressing Israel, you only have I known of all
the families of the earth. Oh, they were God's peculiar
people. He showeth His word unto Jacob,
His statutes and His judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt
so with any other nation as for His judgments. They have not
known them. That was the Old Testament. Oh
yes, there were on occasions those from the Gentile nations
who in the goodness and the grace of God were converted and worshipped
the true God. They were proselytes. Anticipating
as it were what would come to pass in the New Testament. The
calling of the Gentiles. And of course we read it here
didn't we in the opening part of this third chapter as Paul speaks to this gentile church
he reminds them of the revelation of that great
mystery verse 3 by revelation he made
known unto me the mystery All the mystery hid in Christ, not
made known in other ages, but now revealed unto the apostles
and prophets by the Spirit of Gentiles. Verse 6, that Gentiles
should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of
the promise in Christ of the Gospel. The calling of the Gentiles. He speaks of it also, doesn't
he, there in the previous chapter? Verse 13, he says, Now in Christ
Jesus ye, this is a Gentile church, ye who sometimes were far off
are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace who
hath made both one. and has broken down the middle
wall of partition between us having abolished in his flesh
the enmity even the Lord of Commandments contained in ordinances to make
in himself of twain of two of the Jew and the Gentile one new
man all the old distinction is gone you see the gospel now is
to go to the ends of the earth that's what he's saying the calling
of the Gentiles but when we think of the breadth when we think
of the breadth are we not to think of the experiences of the
people of God do we not sometimes friends feel as if we're far
off the invitation is look unto me all the ends of the earth
for I am God and there is none and now we have to cry to him,
as it were. The psalmist knew it. From the ends of the earth,
he says, will I cry unto thee. You know, maybe sometimes we
do feel that God is at a distance from us. We know that sin separates
between us and God. We're told that quite plainly.
God doesn't wink at our sins. He might hide his face from us. Remember this, that those who
are really far off those who are dead in trespasses and sins
they never have any feelings like the child of God has when
he feels that God is at a distance when he is seeking God and yet
he feels in his soul as if God is not hearing him in his prayers
and answering him in his prayers But the breadth of God's love,
you see, is this, that it reaches God's people even when in their
own feelings that is their experience. There is a glorious breadth.
We're not just to think in terms here of the call coming out to
sinners of the Gentiles amongst all nations. Is there not a spiritual
interpretation that we're right and proper to make those who
feel themselves spiritually at a distance and of course when
the Lord begins with us when there's that first quickening
in the soul or do we not then feel something of what alienation
and enmity is and we realize and we come and we make our confessions
and we seek his forgiveness but we have to remember that the
Lord will continue to deal with us and sometimes we will feel
what it is to be at a distance we have to examine ourselves
again and prove ourselves and know ourselves and cry to him
and call upon him and rest in this that there is a glorious
breath to the love of God revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ but
then in the third place there is also a depth It's the breadth,
and length, and depth. And I suppose the one place where
we discover this more than any other is in the Book of Psalms.
What a remarkable part of the Word of God is the Book of Psalms. How often, friends, do we turn
to that part of God's Word when we find ourselves in some trouble,
when we feel ourselves to be in a low place, We see that the
psalmists, they knew these experiences. Deep calleth unto deep that the
sound of thy waters bounce. Thy waters bounce. Deep calleth
unto deep. Oh, there are deep valleys that
the people of God sometimes find themselves at the very bottom
of. Again, look at the words that we have there in the 88th
Psalm, verse 6, Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, he says, in darkness, in the deeps, thy
wrath lieth hard upon me. And then he goes on later, verse
8, I am shut up, I cannot come forth. There seems to be no deliverance. I'm in such a dark place. I feel so down, so low, so dejected. Oh, out of the depths have I
cried unto thee. You know the language. That remarkable
130th Psalm. Doesn't the Puritan John Owen
have a whole book expounding the contents of that psalm. It's not a very long psalm, just
eight verses. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord, Lord, hear my voice. Let thy nears be attentive
to the voice of my supplication. When we're in a low place. And
what does the Lord do? Does he not hear that prayer?
We have it in a remarkable way in the experience of Jonah the
prophet. When the disobedient prophet
had been cast overboard, swallowed by the great fish, is he not
then brought to pray and we have the record of his prayer, that
remarkable prayer of Jonah from the fish's bellen. There in Jonah
chapter 2, the depth, closed me round about, I went down,
he says, to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth with her
bars was about me forever." Oh, have you ever been there? At
the bottoms of the mountains? That's not sea level, of course.
What he's speaking of there, it's the great depths of the
oceans. The very foundation of the mountains,
as it were. And yet, what does he do in that
dark, dark place in the fish's belly? So cut off now from God,
he'd been disobedient. We read how he looks to the temple. And he said, my prayer came in
unto them, into thy temple. Now, this is Old Testament, of
course. And you know the significance of the temple. We were recently
reading at home those early chapters in 1 Kings, the building of the
temple. by King Solomon, and then that
great prayer, the tremendous prayer that Solomon prays in
1 Kings 8. We're reading it just the other
day. And of course, it's a significant thing, the temple, because it's
a type. It's a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we read of Jonah in
the fish's belly addressing his prayer to the temple, he couldn't
look to the temple physically. Daniel could do that when he
was in Babylon when he was forbidden to pray to his God he could open
the windows and he could look to Jerusalem where the temple
stood and he could address his prayer in that sense to the temple
but Jonah would have no idea where the temple was completely
disorientated in the fish's bellies But what is he doing? He's looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ in a very real sense. He's looking to all
that that temple typified. My prayer came in unto them. There he was in the depths, the
bottoms of the mountains, the earth with all her bars round
about him, so cut off as it were. He brought me up also out of
an horrible pit, says the psalmist, set my feet upon a rock, and
established my goings." What is that rock? It's the Lord Jesus
Christ, and that's where the Lord God sets the feet of His
people, when He delivers them out of the depths. And how the
Lord Jesus Christ, you see, how sympathetic a high priest He
is, touch, touched with the feeling of our infirmities says Paul
to the Hebrews or did not the Lord Jesus Christ himself descend
into great depths in all his sufferings that tremendous cry
of dereliction my God my God why hast thou forsaken me when
he's made sin what depths he must have sunk to And yet, you
know, it's a remarkable cry, isn't it? Because although he
feels himself in such a low place, deserted, but he uses the language
of appropriation. He doesn't just say, God! God! No, he can say, My God! My God! And is he not a pattern to us,
you see? When we're in deep places, The language of another psalm,
clearly a messianic psalm, Psalm 69, because parts of it are quoted
in the New Testament in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. But
remember the opening words of the 69th psalm. Save me, O God,
for the waters are coming unto my soul. I sink in deep mire
where there is no standing. I am coming to deep waters where
the floods overflow me. It's a psalm of David, but there's
a far greater than David here. It's David's greatest son. It's
the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's Christ praying there upon the
cross. Oh, what depths! You see, the
Lord can meet with His people in the depths, because the love
of God is not only long and broad, it's deep. The love of Christ
which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the
fullness of God." It passes knowledge. We cannot really begin to understand
it, to comprehend it. But it reaches us wherever we
are, because Christ is that One who has come to His people. In a very real sense, the wonder
you see of the Incarnation, the reality of his human nature a sinless man yes but touched
with the feeling of all our sinless infirmities he knows he understands it's a deep love and then finally
we have the height of it also to comprehend with all signs
what is the breadth and length and depth and height What does the Lord God do? He
raises the poor out of the donkey and sets them among princes.
That lovely Thanksgiving prayer of Hannah there in 1 Samuel chapter
2. Read it through. As she knew
it, He raises His people. And so we have it, don't we,
in what's written previously here in chapter 2? verse 4 following
God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved
us even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together
with Christ by grace shall I say and hath raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus before
ever the believer reaches heaven at the end of his days here upon
the earth, he knows something now of what it is to be in heavenly
places in the Lord Jesus Christ. Or are we those, friends, who
desire that we might be in those places? How can we enter, whilst
we're here upon the earth, into those heavenly places? How is
it possible? Well, we have to learn this very
basic truth that true Christianity all revolves around one person. It all revolves around the person
of Christ, the great mystery of the Incarnation. God was manifest
in the flesh. We thought to say something of
it last week, looking at some of the content of the sermon
of Peter there on the day of Pentecost where he speaks much
of that man approved of God that man now highly exalted oh that's the mystery God was
manifest in the flesh and in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. Do we seek to think upon these
things, to meditate in these things? Are we those who want
to comprehend? This is what Paul is praying
for these people, that they may be able to comprehend with all
science. We We believe, don't we, in the
priesthood of all believers. We're all saints if we're in
the Lord Jesus Christ, if we're true believers this morning.
Do we bear this mark of a saint? You say to me, maybe this question,
how can I know, how can I know that I am really of the election
of grace? How can I know that I am really
a saint? Well, what do saints do? They
try to comprehend the breadth, the length, the depth, the height,
they want to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. That's the mark of the saints.
They want to be in these high places where the Lord is. Now this word you see, comprehend,
it's an interesting word because it's a very strong word. It's
a very strong word. It's one of those words that's
a compound. two words welded together and
it literally means to lay hold of that's what it means to comprehend,
to lay hold of it's the same word that Paul uses when he's
writing of his experience in Philippians 3 and it's rendered apprehend there in those verses. What does
Paul say? He uses the word several times. Not as though I had already attained,
either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I
may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ
Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself
to have apprehended But it's one thing I do for getting those
things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which
are before. And then he goes on to speak
of pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus. But this word apprehend, what
is he saying? Well, he speaks about he is apprehended. The end of verse 12. I am apprehended
of Christ Jesus. Had not the Lord laid hold of
him? The Lord laid hold of him there
at the very gate of Damascus. When he comes to true faith in
Christ he was apprehended. What does he want to do? That
I may lay hold of that for which I also am laid hold of. Oh, he
hasn't yet, you see, laid hold of these things. He's forever
reaching forth. He wants to know something more
of the wonder of these things. And what does he go on? to say that I may know Him that's what
He wants that knowledge to know the Lord Jesus Christ the power
of His resurrection the fellowship of His sufferings being made
conformable to His death and so we have it here, don't
we? to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that
ye might be filled with all the fullness of God Paul begins his
prayer as it were there at verse 14 he speaks bowing the knee
to the Father of Christ of whom the whole family in heaven and
earth is named and then we have the prayer and what is he praying
for? it all comes to this ultimate that as we have it at the end
of verse 9 that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God
how can we be filled with all the fullness of God only when
we recognize that it's all in Christ in Him in Him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily be those then who, whatever
our experience might be, whether we feel ourselves in the deeps,
whether we feel ourselves at times far off from God, or to
yearn after such a new revealing of Christ to us
that we might begin to comprehend the wonder of that love of God
demonstrated to us in the gift of His only begotten Son. Oh,
the Lord be pleasing to grant that this love might be shed
abroad in all our hearts. Amen. We're going to sing as our concluding
praise the hymn 87 in the second part. Two parts to the hymn.
The second part of hymn 87, the tune is Werum. O'er the mysterious
depths of grace, Who shall thy wandering mazes trace, A passing
human thought to know, Where this abyss of love shall flow? The second part of 87, the tune
Warem 431,