If you will, open your Bibles
to Ephesians 3. This has been pressed on me more so
lately. Twenty-two years ago was the
appointed time of my father's death. The Lord took him home. He was wise. In this earth, we
would call him a wise man, but he was wise in Christ. Oh, he
was such an example. I'm so thankful the Lord gave
him to be my father. Last year turned 40. And if someone
had brought me. No one knows you don't know.
I don't tell less stories if you didn't hear the price heard
more about anybody else. Knowing him. For my 40th birthday
someone showed up and said here's a letter from your father. Yet
before he'd open. They got to cut grass first. I think I'd say, well, I got
some stuff to do around the house. I need to eat. I need to go Google something. I'll open it later. I'd probably
cut my finger trying to open it, wouldn't I? 2,000 years ago, God the Holy
Spirit spoke through Paul the Apostle to write this letter
to the Church of Ephesus. And for 2,000 years, there's
been famines. There's been corrupt governments.
There's been floods. There's been fires, hurricanes,
tsunamis. And the Lord has preserved this
letter to His children. Do I care? Do I say, well, I'm going to go
cut grass first, and then I'll read it. Do I needlessly bear burdens
and not take everything to my Lord in prayer? Carry them. I pray I don't. I pray we don't.
Let's read our text for today. We'll begin in verse 13, Ephesians
3, 13. Wherefore, I desire that ye faint
not at my tribulation for you, which is your glory. 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, 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. Now unto him that is able to
do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. according
to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory, in the
church, by Jesus Christ throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Paul's writing to these
brethren in Ephesus from prison. He's a prisoner. And he says
in chapter 3, verse 1, he said he was the prisoner of Jesus
Christ. He was the Lord's prisoner. But he continues though, though
he's a prisoner. And he's writing to them about these unsearchable
riches in Christ. How Christ was made one with
his people. And believers, those made one
with him. We are partakers of God's promise
to us in Christ, currently. We're partakers of his promise
in Christ to us. From prison, Paul says that it
was God's magnificent grace, what a blessing it was, that
he was made to be a servant to Gentile dogs. Here's this Pharisee,
he goes, what a grace, I get to go preach to Gentiles. What a privilege it was for him
to stay with those people for two years when he labored with
them. What a privilege it was to preach to Him, to be an eyewitness
of God the Holy Ghost working in men and women's hearts. He
got to see that. What a grace. What a gift. To see them rejoice in the Savior. To hear His glory and His praises
coming from their lips. And it's a great privilege for
Him to write to them now. These are great things. Great
grace. And He's about to pray for these brothers and sisters.
And He's about to pray for you and I sitting here today that
are given faith of Christ. You have an interest in the Gospel.
And He tells of the boldness and the access that we have to
approach that throne of grace. In Christ, we can freely come
to God's throne of grace. In Christ, we have access big ol' security doors. There's
not bars on the windows. It's not impenetrable. You can
go right in. Because of Christ, we can do
this. To our Father's throne. But before He begins to pray
for His brethren, He puts their mind in the right place, in verse
13. He lays the He puts us in gear where we need to be. Look
here at verse 13. Wherefore I desire that ye faint
not at my tribulation for you, which is your glory. It's your
salvation. We could spend a few weeks right
here in this verse, but just imagine. Here's the man that
preached the gospel of Christ to these people. Free and sovereign
grace in our Savior and substitute. And they heard. The Holy Spirit
did a work in him. And he's sitting in prison. He's
writing to them from prison. How would I react to that? Man,
the Lord used to preach to me, to save me, to tell me the Gospel. If he was sitting in prison,
write me a note. How would I feel? Would I just think that if I
was there in Ephesus, Lord's work here in Ephesus is done.
It's all over. Wrap it up. it's over with. Would
I think that just all is lost? Would I be angry at the Jews
and the Romans that took him up there and put him in prison,
conspired against him, kept him there? Be angry with them? Would I want to storm that capital
city of Rome and rescue my brother, bust him out of jail? Get your
pick forks and your torches. We're going to go get him. Would
I want to do that? Paul says, don't faint at my
tribulations. Don't fret over my hardship.
This is for your glory. This is for the saving of God's
people. It's for your good. Almighty
God put me here, and I'm not a prisoner of Rome. I'm the prisoner
of Jesus Christ. He put me here. What does he
get in that? That applies to us right now. Don't let what's
going on in this world make you faint. just before he begins
to pray saying, put this world out of your minds. Anything that's
happening is just exactly on purpose. It's just exactly the
will of our heavenly father. It's for his glory. It's for
our good. It's for the saving of his people.
And he lets us see that hindsight. Don't we get to look back? So
look how the Lord worked. Now we see Paul praying too,
verse 14. For this cause, I bow my knees
unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He says, for this cause,
because God has quickened your hearts, he said there in chapter
2, verse 1. You were dead in trespasses and
sins, the Lord made you alive. Because He's made you alive,
He's gave you a new spirit. For this cause that you have
eternal life, Seeing that we have this cause of boldness,
of freedom to approach His throne, access to it, the cause that
you're fainting. He knew they was fainting. He
knew they were distressed. What's going on around you? He
says, I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He prays to the Father for these
people. Now does that mean that we've got to put on a show and
get on our knees every time we pray? That's not what it means. Paul's truly and humbly approaching
his father, his eternal father in prayer. Truly. You ever hit your knees? I mean,
just have the wind took out. My back goes out sometimes. One
time I sneezed and before I got through hachooing, I was on my
knees. I was put on my knees. It was
a pain. A contrite heart goes into a
person. They have some pain inside of them. They'll hit the knees
of their heart, won't they? Come before his throne just collapsed
in weakness. Who's Paul praying for? It says
in verse 14, For this cause I bow my knees unto our Father, unto
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom? of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the whole family in heaven and earth is named. Paul's praying to the Father
for every one of his family members that have been given the name
of Christ. All saints are given his name. Both in heaven, those that's
already with him in glory, they have his name. On earth, those
in Ephesus that read this letter for the first time, they that
believe on Christ, they that's been born again in the heart,
they have the name of Christ. They're given His name. Us now, you who believe, you're
given His name. Everyone that is given His name,
those espoused to Him, His bride, those born to Him, those adopted
by Him, any way, any angle you can take to approach that, that
relationship, the whole family, Paul sums it up. All that are
His, we have the same name as our Redeemer. Turn over to Jeremiah
23. What's His name? Christ is the
King of kings, the Lord of lords. He's our elder brother. He's
our redeemer, our kinsman redeemer. One we're related to, head of
the whole family, head of the church. What's his name? Jeremiah
23, verse 5. Jeremiah 23, 5. Behold, the days
come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous
branch. and a king shall reign and prosper
and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth." He said,
behold, I'm going to raise my son up. In his days, Judah shall
be saved and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is his name
whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. That's Christ's name, the Lord
our righteousness. Now turn over to Jeremiah 33,
10 chapters. Jeremiah 33. What's the name
of the whole family going to be? We see Christ's name, but
what's spiritual Israel's name going to be? Best way we can
put that in our character, what's my last name going to be when
we get married? Look here in verse 16, Jeremiah 33, 16. In those days shall Judah be
saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this is the name
wherewith she shall be called the Lord our righteousness." How is this so? How could that
be my name? I'd be afraid to try to explain
it. He says it, doesn't he? His family, his elect, his bride,
his church have the same name. Can you imagine if we had to
sign paperwork that way? Put your name right there, and I
write, Kevin Bailey, the Lord is my righteousness. We're giving
His name. You think any touch of righteousness
that we have, that we work real hard on here on this earth, that
we try to perfect, we try to polish up a little bit, you think
it's got any part of that name? That's His name. The Lord is
my righteousness. What a reminder it would be.
It's better than S.S. as old Gil used to write. Alright, back
at our text. Here in Ephesians 3. We see who Paul is praying to.
He's praying unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We
see who Paul is praying for, the whole family. It's given
his name. Lord our righteousness, made just, made holy in Him. Those that He died for. So what
is it that He prays for? Know who He's praying to? We
know who He's praying for, but what is He asking? What's His
petitions? There are four things here, Paul, petitions our Father
for His people. It begins in verse 16, 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's
my prayer for you. That's my prayer for me. Lord,
strengthen my inner man. Make it might. Give it might
according to the riches of your glory. So many think that this means
that you're going to be made mighty and strong outwardly. Oh, I've got great faith. I was
bold. I stood up to the bad guy. That's not what he's talking
about. He's not able to boldly weather a storm in his flesh.
That's not what the inner man being strengthened mightily is.
John said, he must increase, and I must decrease. I must decrease. It is to grow
weaker and weaker. That don't sound like that's
getting strong, does it? It's to grow weaker and weaker. Weaker in our abilities, weaker
in our might, weaker in our thoughts of ourselves. to go down. Paul asked three times our Lord. He had that thorn in the flesh.
And he begged the Lord three times, Lord take this from me.
And he said, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is
made perfect in weakness. The Lord said, my strength is
made perfect in you, Paul. in your weakness. His strength's
made perfect. It's brought to its fullness.
It's brought to completion in our weakness. Paul learned from
that. From having that thorn put in
his flesh and the Lord Jesus telling him, my grace is sufficient.
And you're going to see my strength whenever you're at your lowest
point. Whenever you're just so weak, you can't get out of bed
in the morning, you're going to see my strength. And Paul
learned from that. He said, for when I am weak,
then I am strong. His inner man was strengthened. When I'm weak in this flesh,
I'm strong in Christ's ability. When I'm weak in this body of
death, I'm strong in His Spirit. When I'm weak in this flesh,
when I'm truly humbled, whether I'm physically tormented, I'm
just in emotional anguish, or any other type of just complete
weakness. When I'm just a wreck, and my eyes are turned to Christ
during that. And I'm brought all the way down.
Lord, I have no breath in me. I just die. And I see Him. Strong. I look to Christ. It's as strong
as you're going to get. Brother Spurgeon once wrote,
young men in his congregation, he said, prepare yourselves,
my younger brethren, prepare yourselves, my younger brethren,
to become weaker and weaker. That's what's coming. Prepare
yourselves for sinking lower and lower in self-esteem. Prepare yourselves for self-annihilation and Pray to God to expedite the
process. That's wisdom. Or make me weak. Bring me down
low in my view of myself. For this cause, cause this, for
this cause, I bow my knees to our Father. That's the first
beatitude, wasn't it? Blessed are the poor. Blessed
are the poor in spirit, meaning, for theirs is the kingdom of
God. Why? Well, the poor, the weak. David wrote, the Lord is nigh
unto them that are of a broken heart and saith such as be of
a contrite spirit. What a petition to the Father,
to be close to Him. Lord, strengthen us, be close
to us. Secondly, Paul prays there in verse 17, Ephesians 3.17,
that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. He prays to
the Father for his brethren, the whole family of God, that
Christ would dwell in their hearts by faith. Dwell in us. I wrote down, not ranting. He's
not leasing. It's not temporary. Permanent. Dwell. Lord, abide in them. Let Christ abide in your people.
That He would be on our minds always. Give us the mind of Christ.
Put it in us. What does that mean? That we
can dwell on Him throughout the day. I cannot save myself. Christ can. I cannot strengthen
myself. But Christ can. I can't even
provide for myself. Christ can provide for us. And
I can't keep myself. I can't keep myself today, much
less for eternity. Christ can keep me. Lord, dwell
in your people. What a wonderful thing to pray
for, for each other and for ourselves. To ask for our brethren and to
ask for ourselves. Lord, abide in me. Lord, dwell
in your people. Be nigh unto me. that Christ,
the hope of glory, abides in our hearts. Thirdly, there in
the end of verse 17, Paul says 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. We may come back, for you math-minded
people, we may come back here next week and look at the volume
of love Doing some cubic measurements there, isn't it? But it says
that we're being rooted and grounded in love. We need to be grounded. First thing I thought of was
a lightning rod. There ain't many of them out here. But on
top of a tall building, you got a lightning rod. So that way
the lightning hits that rod and doesn't hurt the building. You
know what that is. But if that thing's not grounded,
It's just attracting it to the building to burn it down. There's
got to be some type of copper wire from that lightning rod
all the way down the side of the house to touch the ground.
And it doesn't just touch it. And you don't put a little tiny
rod in the ground, and that's grounded electrically. You've
got to get a big old four or five foot long copper piece,
and you've got to drive it. It's hard. Drive it all the way
down, grounded, deep, and rooted. You can take a little tender
plant, take it out of the greenhouse, go stick it in the ground somewhere,
little tiny roots. It's got roots. But you put it
in the ground, and you can take it up the next morning and go
move it wherever you want it to. Probably wouldn't damage it. But if you
left that there for an extended period of time, long enough to
be grounded, and them roots start soaking up that living water,
it starts absorbing those nutrients, and them roots start growing
out a little bit, it's going to be hard to pull that up. that ye being rooted and grounded
in what? In love. In love. What is all this love that we're
to be rooted and grounded in? What are we to be grounded deeply
in to soak up, same as a root does, look at verse 18, to comprehend
That means to realize, to understand, to somewhat get a handle on. Just comprehend some. The breadth, length, depth, and
height of the love of Christ. What's the breadth of the love
of Christ? Concerning sin, He removed our
sin as far as the east is from the west. That's why. You start heading east and keep
heading east, and you ain't never going to start heading west.
You're just going to keep going east. Go back west, same thing. How far around this globe did
His mercies, His gospel reach? Every tribe, kindred, nation,
tongue, under heaven. All over. And He's able to save
to the uttermost. That's the breadth of His love.
You ever just sinned sometimes and you say, I'm too far gone.
The Lord ain't gonna forgive me. He's wide, but buddy, I was
on the fringe. I went way right. I went way
left. I strayed as far as I could stray. I don't know if His mercies and
His grace is wide enough to cover me. That's the breadth of His
love. all-encompassing, able to save
to the uttermost. What's the length of His love?
Everlasting. He said, I've loved you with
an everlasting love. We don't understand infinity.
We don't understand eternity. Our brains can't wrap around
that. But from before before until
after after, There's no beginning and no ending to His love for
us. It's not for a season. It's not
at the start of the race. He doesn't love us to give us
the gift of faith and give us a good start, and then we have
to work our way towards Him. He's the author of our faith. He's
the finisher of our faith. Until the day comes that faith's
no more. It's gone. Because we have sight.
So that day comes that He brings us into His likeness, into His
presence, and we see Him face to face. That's the length of
His love. And the depth of love. This is, to me, was the deepest. What's the depth of the love
of Christ for His people? Those He's given His name to.
I was in a miry pit. Someone's unconscious. If they're
dead in trespasses and sins at the bottom of a well, what do
you have to do to get them out? They're unconscious. Throwing
them a rope ain't going to help them. Putting a ladder down that
hole ain't going to help them. You got to get under them. You
got to go lower than they are. Get a rope around them, get your
arm under them, they get them up, don't you? Christ was made a man. Paul told
the Philippians, he said, he was equal with God and lowered
himself below the angels to be a servant. to be a servant, a
common carpenter, born of a woman. That's not the depth of it. It
wasn't just that he came and was made a worthless human that
just drinks iniquity like water and just surrounds himself. I
mean, engulfed in this world and nothing around him, he is
holy. And everything around him is sin. Every thought around
him is sin. Every breath we take sin. He
come to that. He went deeper. He went all the
way to the grave. He gave up his life for his people. And he was buried in the dirt
in a borrowed tomb according to the scriptures for his people.
He went to the earth, went to the ground. Is that as far as
it goes? Is that the depth of it? It goes
deeper. He endured the hell that we deserve. The psalmist said this or I wouldn't.
Lord, I know you won't leave my soul in hell. All the way down to what I earned. All the way down to that punishment
of sin and death that I am and that I earned. That's how deep
his love was. And the height. How high? How high is His love? All the
way to the right hand of the Almighty God. All the way to His throne. Turn
over to Ephesians chapter 2, back just a page or two. Paul's been pretty consistent
through this book. reminding us of these things. Look here
in verse 4, Ephesians 2, 4. But God, who is rich in mercy,
how much mercy does He have? He's rich. That's the breadth
of it. That's how wide it is. For His
great love, that's the length. He says His
love is great. If He said He had a great hall,
I would imagine that hall is awful big. He says, my love for
my people is great. Wherewith He loved us, even when
we were dead, and sins have quickened us together with Christ, by grace
are you saved. There's the death. There's Him
coming to put away our sin while we were still in the tea against
Him. Still at war with Him. Taking our sins to the cross
with Him and giving us His holy character. By grace are you saved. and hath raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." There's
the hype. All the way to His throne. Being
in Him. Paul is praying we may have a
touch of comprehension. We may be able to realize, just
in a little bit, what these things mean. How long will it take us
to fully grasp that? Look here in verse 7, Ephesians
2, 7, that in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches
of His grace and His kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. You and I are going to be together
for a long time. Did you know that? If either
of us is took out of this place and took off this world in the
next two weeks, we're going to be together a long time, ages
to come. And Christ is going to be teaching
us about His grace and His love towards us. What a thought! We see Him part and know Him
part. And a mind can't enter in to what He has in store for
us. He's going to tell us for ages,
for all eternity, for the length of it. He's going to tell us
about His love. Now back to our text there. Ephesians
3, verse 18, that you may be able
to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length,
and depth, and height. All saints have some comprehension
of the breadth of the love of Christ. They know all my sin was laid
on Him. They know about the width of
that love. All saints have some comprehension. They somehow understand,
even in part, the length of this. That love, that salvation is
eternal. It's not for a little bit. It's
not a kicking off point. He saved me all the way. Brother
Rolfe said, we're plumb saved. have been, are, and will be.
They all understand the link. And all saints have some comprehension,
some comprehension of the depth of His love. Of the sin that
we have and that payment that's required for it. He reveals that
to us. In part. He doesn't reveal it to us fully.
We just die. He reveals it to us in part.
The cross being our accepted sacrifice. That satisfactory
substitute. propitiation for us. We understand
something of the depth, and we have some understanding, some
comprehension, all saints do, of the hop that we're going to
be brought home. He's going to bring us to glory
with Him. We're going to rest solely in
our Redeemer where He is now. We know where He is. I don't
know how it's going to happen. I don't know if each of us is
going to be different. I don't know what it's going to look
like. I don't know what it's going to feel like, but I know it's going to happen.
He said, I have some understanding of the height of His love. Now,
fourthly, Paul petitions our Father. He prays to our Father. Not only that we'll have this
experience of our Savior's strength, He dwells in our hearts, that
we realize somewhat what it understands, that immense volume of His love. but that we truly know it. I'm
sure we have some comprehension of it. We've got an idea of how
this works. That we truly know it. We truly know Him. We truly
believe Him. Look here in verse 19. And to
know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye might
be filled with all the fullness of God. That's to know Christ. Don't let this be a theory. I
don't want it here. I need it here. To know Him. I don't need just an understanding.
I need to know Him. Believe Him. To know Him. To
love Him. Asking for God to strengthen
His people. To strengthen me and to strengthen
you. That's something good to ask for, isn't it? That's what
Paul did. Asking God to dwell in our hearts. Lord, abide in
Your people. Boy, that's something good to
ask for. What a prayer. Asking God may enter into continually
the width and the length and the depth and the height of His
love for us in Christ. Lord, give us an understanding
of these things and make us dwell on them. Make us consider these
things. Keep us in our mind. Asking the
Father to make us know these things. Make us believe. Make us know you. Burn it into
our hearts. Burn it into our minds. If the
Lord is pleased to do all these things, if He wants to do this,
you and I would be filled with all the fullness of God. We'd
be filled plentiful, wouldn't we? That's plenty, isn't it?
Could you imagine asking for anything else? Those four things.
But there's more. Whatever we can imagine, it's
better than we think. We're worse off than we think
we are, and we got it better off in Christ than we think we
did. Look here in verse 20. Now unto him that is able to
do exceedingly abundantly, exceeding abundantly above all that we
ask or we even think, according to the power that worketh in
us, unto him be glory in the church by Jesus Christ throughout
all ages, world without end. Amen. The Lord will be with us. Let
us experience, understand, and know His love for His people,
what He's done for us. That would be amazing. We'd be
filled to the uttermost. And He's able and willing to
do more than that. This ain't just something we're
let in on. It's not something we get to see, witness, and understand,
and not experience. We're going to be with Him forever.
What a thought. I pray the Lord be with us. Give
us those things. Teach us. Amen.