Okay, so I'm going to go ahead
and get started, and I'm going to be in Ephesians 3. Ephesians
3. Ephesians 3, and I'm going to
read verses 14 through 21. Okay, Ephesians 3 verses 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, 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 Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. this passage starts out, for
this cause. And this cause is basically from
verse one down to where we got to, where it says, for this cause.
But I think it's summed up in verses 11 and 12, so go back
and read that. And it's for this cause, and
he gave, wrong, wrong passage there, verses 11 and 12. according
to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our
Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by
the faith of him. The purpose of God which is found
in Jesus Christ and his faith. We have access to God by Jesus
Christ's faith. This should cause all to bow
down to me and to God the Father. Had this not been the purpose
of God, then we would have not had any access to God the Father. We are admitted into the presence
of God through and by Jesus Christ. In fact, it is in his presence
that we will be. This is true for all of God's
people. It's not different for one person and another. One person
doesn't have access this way and another has access another
way. in a lot of this world will tell you that kind of thing,
and got this ecumenical attitude that whatever makes you feel
good. Jesus Christ tells us he is the
way, the truth, and the life. It says all of us, the whole
family of God is named in Jesus Christ. When God sees Christ,
He sees us. When He sees us, He sees Jesus
Christ. Christ has our names written
on His heart. If a man or a woman is not named
in Jesus Christ, they have no access to God. Why is it this
way? Why is it that we are named in
Jesus Christ? Because we have no glory and
no reason to glory. We have no works that would earn
us the glory of God. The fact that it says all his
people are named in Christ tells us we have no glory, no righteousness,
no love of our own that would commend us to God and admit us
into his presence. What we have, we must be given,
it must be granted unto us. But him in whom we are named
can, if, He is pleased to grant to us according to His riches,
the riches of His glory. There are a great many things
that are the riches of Christ's glory. But oh, how we look to
Him to be strengthened by His Spirit in the inner man. Not this flesh, but the inner
man. That new creation as the scripture
puts it. That which is dwelt by Him. who is glorious. My strength
given by his spirit is to see him for who he is and what he
has done. Verse 17, that Christ may dwell
in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded
in love. We are strengthened with might
by his spirit. by faith, the fruit of the spirit,
and it roots us. That is, it makes us stable,
and the foundation for it is love, Christ's love. All of this
done by him enables us to do something, and that's where I
wanna go this morning. So I have comprehend, what is
it that we comprehend? And to know, what is it that
we will know? Glory, whose glory is it? So comprehend. First of all,
I want to point out something. Paul says he bows the knee to
the father. Scripture says that all will
bow the knee one day. That will be a bowing in slavish
fear for some. But some, just like the apostle
Paul, will bow now in time, if you will. But this bowing spoken
of here by the Apostle Paul is not a slavish fear, because remember,
we have access. This bowing is in adoration for
him with a reverent fear, knowing he does all his good pleasure,
but also knowing he loves his people. He is coming to the Father
in prayer here in this passage, Paul the Apostle. Because none
of this comprehension and knowledge would come without him granting
it and giving it. This he does by his spirit through
faith. The faith believes it, whether
we fully comprehend or know it or not. And we don't know it
fully. We see through a glass darkly. But Paul's prayers to God that
he may give it to us. There was a day when we were
like the queen of Sheba. I believe there will also be
a day like this again to us. Tell of when, you know, we first
came, you know, that that time where we first came to believe,
you know, have you ever remember that? I know I do. I started
reading things and seeing things in scripture. I'm like, that
wasn't there before. I didn't see that there before.
That's the kind of thing I'm talking about. But turn with
me to 1 Kings 10, if you would. 1 Kings 10. This is the kind
of thing we're talking about, the Queen of Sheba here. 1 Kings
10. 1 Kings 10 verses 4 through 7. Verse 4, and when the queen of
Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom and the house that he
had built, and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his
servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel,
and his cupbearers, and his assent by which he went up into the
house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her. And she
said to the king, it was a true report that I heard in my own
land of thy acts and thy wisdom. Howbeit, I believed not the words
until I came, and mine eyes had seen it. And behold, the half
was not told me, thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame
which I have heard. This is the kind of thing we're
talking about here, except this is Christ and not Solomon. What do we read in Luke 11, 31?
The queen of the south shall rise up in judgment with the
men of this generation and condemn them. For she came from the utmost
parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold,
a greater than Solomon is here. Here is one that is greater than
Solomon and his name is Jesus Christ. A name that is above
every name that every knee should bow. But by faith, as it says
here, Christ dwells in our hearts and that roots and settles us
and fixes us steadfast. We're not moving anywhere. That's
the only place we got to go is Jesus Christ. But his prayer
says this, may be able to comprehend, and that is to take eagerly. It's not necessarily to understand
and know it all, it's to take it eagerly. But this verse, in verse 18,
it just really boggles my mind, in verse 18. May be able to comprehend
with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height. I mean, I just can't imagine
knowing all that, comprehending all that. But it's, you know, that we may
be able to comprehend all of this, the breadth and length
and depth and height. Do we really know this? No. I mean, to some extent we know
it, yes, by the gospel, by his word. But this word means, remember,
to take eagerly. This is what we want to hear.
Now, thinking of this just as it pertains to God, thinking
of all his riches, his wisdom, his power, his compassion, his
grace, and there are more, a lot of things you can name. We, by
His grace, take eagerly His works, His work and works, in all that
it is, breadth, length, depth, and height, the breadth of it. It is of great extent. That's
what the word means, great extent. He is creator of all. God is
master. He is the potter over all things. He formed everything that has
ever been formed, so it covers all that he is pleased for it
to cover, or all who he is pleased for it to cover. Yet God is. He just is. He's always been.
And I don't even have the words to describe that very well, so
I'm gonna move on. So what about length? What is
the length of all of God's magnificence? And let me just give you some
scriptures for that. Psalm 92 we read, before the
mountains were brought forth or ever thou hast formed the
earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou
art God. Another one, but the mercy of
the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting and upon them
that fear him and his righteousness unto children's children. One
more, two more. Bless be the Lord, this is Psalm
106, 48. Bless be the Lord God of Israel
from everlasting to everlasting and let all the people say amen. Praise ye the Lord. And last
one, Daniel 4, 34, Nebuchadnezzar talking. And at the end of the
days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and
mine understanding returned unto me. And I blessed the Most High,
and I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion
is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation
to generation. How long is everlasting to everlasting? Do you remember that, you know,
as far as the East is from the West? That's how hard it is. I can't really tell you other
than what scripture says, and that's what it says. We being
mortal understand this, life is but a vapor, and then it's
gone, poof. Everlasting to everlasting, that
is who God is. So what about death? And I want
you to turn to a very familiar Psalm, Psalm 139. I really like
this song, Psalm 139. Psalm 139. So we're talking about depth
here, Psalm 139. I'm just gonna read the first
10 verses. O Lord, thou hast searched me
and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting
and my up-rising. Thou understandest my thought
afar off. Thou compassest my path and my
lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is
not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and
before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. It is high, and I cannot attain
unto it. Whither shall I go from thy spirit?
Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend into
heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold,
thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall
thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me. His works are deeper than anything
we can think of. The sea, he is there. What about height? I got one
verse for that. Wherefore he is able also to
save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for him. It's so high we can't even see
the top of it. It's the uttermost height of
his works and his glory. But what about these things as
it concerns him who is, as it pertains to mankind who is mortal? The breath of his grace and mercy. What about this? The one who
is from everlasting to everlasting came down and came into time
itself so that he might be made like unto his breath. That goes
from everlasting to everlasting and throughout all time. And
all that he did was to honor and glory. It was to his honor
and glory. The breadth of it went to all
the kindreds of the earth. Not all men, all kindreds of
the earth. Length. Matthew 24, 34 we read,
then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, come
ye, blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world. God purposed this back then and
it shall ever be with those who are His, Matthew 24, 45 and 46. Then shall He answer them saying,
these are those who, you know, said they did something for God.
Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the
least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away
into everlasting punishment. the righteous into life eternal. So the length of it never ends. You cannot see the end of it,
it's so long. That is His mercy and grace toward
us is forever more. But it is equally true we cannot
see the beginning of it. What about death? Turn with me
to Job 33. Job 33. Job 33 verse 24. Job 33, we're talking about death,
24 to 28. Then he is gracious unto him
and saith, deliver him from going down to the pit. I have found
a ransom. His flesh shall be fresher than
a child's. He shall return to the days of
his youth. He shall pray unto God, and he
will be favorable unto him, and he shall see his face with joy,
for he will render unto man his righteousness. He looketh upon
men, and if any say, I have sinned and perverted that which was
right, and it profited me not, he will deliver his soul from
going into the pit, and his life shall see the light. We were in a pit, a pit which
we digged ourselves. This pit was a deep pit. This pit was so deep there was
no light there. We could not see a thing. We
could not do a thing. It was a darkness which we could
feel. This pit was our grave. The pit has no life. This pit
is death. We fell so far that there was
no life in us. But He who is rich in His glory
did this, 2 Corinthians 4, 6. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Shined in our hearts, not this,
this. Shined in our hearts, inside,
starting in here, shining out. Christ in you, the hope of glory,
the scripture says. Or we can say from our passage
that Christ may dwell in your hearts and his love will root
and settle us. That light lights our path. We
can see where to go. It shows us his glory and that
glory is found in the face of Jesus Christ. Then last of all
on this point, we have height, and I've already read it before,
I'm gonna read it again though, because it, to me, fits. Hebrews 7, 25, wherefore he is
able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God
by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. He did save them, and he shall
save them, so much so that we also read this, I mean, from
that pit, he first of all placed us on a rock, a shore foundation
that can never be moved, and that rock is Christ. But listen
to this, 1 Samuel 2, wait. He raises up the poor out of
the dust, the dust of his grave and his old, dead, dry bones,
and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, the dunghill of
their own filth, giving them life in Christ Jesus. to set
them among princes and to make them inherit the throne of glory
for the pillars of the earth of the Lord's, and he has set
the world upon them. I, of course, added a few comments
in the middle there, but that was 1 Samuel 2.8. All of this,
all of it, was because he loved his people, and what love it
is, so we have next to know. Verse 19, and to know the love
of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with
all the fullness of God. God, if he is pleased, will allow
us to know the love of Christ. Let's just look at his love for
a moment. Again, his love is everlasting,
everlasting. So it has always been the purpose
of God to love a people, to give a people to the only begotten
of the Father. That one who is, who is from
everlasting to everlasting, but it came down into time, and read
some of these things in scripture, Romans 5 verse 6. For when we
were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly. This passage says we were without
strength. It's not that we were really,
really, really sick or weak. No, that's not it. We had no
strength. No strength to pull ourselves
up and no strength to stand before God. Why? Because we were in
a pit, a grave, as dead as last year's Christmas tree, as the
saying goes. Graveyard dead. There's no strength
there. Scripture confirms this to us.
It says we are all born dead in trespasses and in sin, and
that's what God tells us. Seems kind of funny statement,
don't it? Born, but dead. Born in this flesh, but spiritually
dead to God. That's where we started at. No
way to get ourselves back to God. Dead to God. Dead to God
men don't do things godly, as our verse says. In due time,
Christ died for the ungodly. So if you're godly, then Christ
did not die for you. If you have strength enough to
make a decision for Jesus, he did not die for you. He died
for us when we were without strength and ungodly. But the scripture
goes even further, Romans 5.10, for if, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more
being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. This if here
is not an if if he did the reconciling or not, because he did, but the
if is for you and I. If he did this for you or for
me, it was done in this manner and during this time, if you
will, is what it's saying. When we were enemies. If you
have no experience at being an enemy of God, then I'm afraid
God did not die for you. Because the ones who Christ died
for were his enemies. I know all too well about being
an enemy of God. Thank God I can now say was an
enemy of God. But I can also say this flesh
is still an enemy of God. First Corinthians 15, 25 and
26 we read, for he must reign till he hath put all enemies
under his feet. The last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death. This old dead flesh will be destroyed
one day. and I and we who are named in
Christ will truly be able to behold the Lamb of God. Because of his love for us, he
died for us when we were enemies of Christ, yet he died for us. But his death was not in vain,
it accomplished something. Reconciliation to God, we now
can come in the presence of God. This was done by His death on
that tree. But again, the verse says much
more. It says, we shall be saved by
His life. We have more to look forward
to. But if you're one of His, He
will cause you, being an enemy, to do an about-face and become
the friend of God. Is this something we do? No,
this he does by his spirit through faith. James 2.23 we read, and
the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God and
it was imputed unto him for righteousness and he was called the friend
of God. Through the gift of faith, I
can now agree with God as to who he is and what he has done
and about myself. It's all because of him dying
on that tree. We've read it before in 1 John
4, 9 and 10. I've preached on this before, 1 John 4, 9 and
10. In this was manifested the love
of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten son
into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love,
not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son
to be the propitiation for our sins. Jesus Christ came as a man, and
I've tried to say this several times in messages that I've done,
but it's just so hard to find the words to describe this, the
love that God had for us in Jesus Christ. He is God, He is. No man can say unto Him, what
doest thou? Nobody can argue or debate with
God and win. His ways are far above our ways,
and His thoughts are not our thoughts. But this One became
flesh. He suffered, the Lord of glory
suffered. But suffering did not take away
one's sin. He had to suffer, and I'm not
trying to belittle His sufferings. To suffer the forsaking of the
Father, I can think of no greater suffering than that. But this
is what he did in our stead. But he went even further and
he had to go further so that God might be just and the justifier
of them that believe. He died being made what I am,
sin against God. That is love. And he chose to
do this. This love is a choice that God
made. We read it. Romans 5 verses 6
through 9 this time. For when we were yet without
strength and due time, Christ died for the ungodly, for scarcely
for a righteous man will one die. Yet peradventure for a good
man, some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love
toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us. Much more than being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. He died for sinners and he saved
sinners by himself and he perfected them forever, forever. This is what you call the glory
of God. And that's my last point, glory.
knowing Jesus Christ is being filled with the fullness of God.
Because Jesus Christ is the fullness of God. God the Father purposed
all this for us in his son Jesus Christ. So we ought to praise
him, give him all the glory. There's no boasting in myself,
and there's no boasting in man, period. We ought to, we should
boast in Jesus Christ the Lord. Because all of this is for Him
and by Him. All of this God purposed to give
glory to Himself. We have no part in accomplishing
one iota of it. And if we seek glory of ourselves,
we are rebelling against God at the very best. At most, we're
yet and may be everlasting enemies of God. We look to Him and Him
alone. for everything, and we give Him
glory. We give Him glory, honor, and
praise for all He has done. Again, Psalm 106, 48, Blessed
be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting, and
let all the people say, Amen, so be it. Praise ye the Lord. So the glory is all his, the
breadth of it, the length of it, the depth of it, the height
of it, and it is all because of his love for his people. All
of the glory for this work goes to Jesus Christ, who alone accomplished
and completed salvation. Sad that we have to say it that
way. Salvation is totally done and complete, or it isn't salvation
at all, is it? But his work is total and complete
and perfect. To God be the glory. If we are
to know any of this, it will be him working this in us. Ephesians
3.20, 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. And that's not our power, that's
his power. What power is it that's in us?
His spirit and the fruit of faith that we might see Jesus Christ,
the Son of God. Verses 11 and 12. According to
the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our
Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by
the faith of him. We see that, right? By the faith
of him. We have boldness and access because
of Christ. It has nothing to do with us
or our works. It is by the faith of Him, Jesus
Christ. His work accomplished and His
work of God in us is to cause us to believe it. To Him goes
all the glory which our passage ends with, and I'll end with
this. Unto him be glory in the church by Jesus Christ throughout
all ages, world without end. Amen. And to that we can say
as the psalmist said, Amen. Praise ye the Lord. Amen. Dear Lord God, we know we have feeble, stumbling
words. We can't even describe the majesty
that you have, dear Lord. Oh, cause us to see it to some
extent, dear Lord. Cause us to stay there. Fix us
in place, dear Lord. Stand us fast in your glory,
dear Lord. It's all by your grace. We can
do nothing without you. All these things we ask in Christ's
name. Amen.