Well, good morning. It's good
to see you all here this morning. If you would, open your Bibles
with me to Ephesians chapter three. Ephesians chapter three. Before we begin, let's bow before
our Lord together in prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven,
holy and reverent is your matchless name. And Father, we dare only
Come before your throne of grace, we only dare call you our Father
in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. We dare only approach
your throne pleading the obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ as our
only righteousness. We dare only plead his blood
as payment for our sin to pay the sin debt in full. And Father,
how we thank you. Know how thankful we are for
such a Savior. How thankful we are for such
a gospel that you've given us to preach and believe. How thankful
we are you've sent it to us. Of all people on earth, you've
sent your gospel here. You've mixed it with faith as
it's been heard, called out your people, preserved and protected
them all these many years. Father, how thankful we are.
We're so humbled to think of the magnitude of your mercy and
grace to us. And Father, we thank you. Father,
I pray this morning that you would, one more time, bless your
word. As we look into it, as your gospel's preached, as the
name of your son is declared, Father, bless your word. Be pleased, I beg, to reveal
your glory this morning through the preaching of your word. Father,
enable us, each one of us here this morning, to hear and to
believe, to rest in Christ our Savior. Father, we pray a special
blessing in our children's classes, that are going on right now.
Father, we also pray for this week of Bible school that you
would bless richly. Father, I pray you'd bless our
teachers as they have prepared, as they teach, and bless our
children. Give them a ready mind and a
ready heart to learn and receive the things of our Savior that
are taught this week. Father, I beg of you that you'd
use this time to plant the seeds of faith in the hearts of our
young ones. and in your time, you'd cause it to grow to faith
in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we dare not sin against
thee in praying for your people that you brought in the time
of trouble and trial, that you know the need of your people
wherever they might be found, sick and heartbroken, recovering
from surgeries and ailments. Father, we pray you'd be with
your people, that you'd comfort their hearts with your presence,
until you see fit to lead them out of it. Now Father, all these
things we ask and we give thanks in that name which is above every
name. It's for the glory of Christ our Savior we pray, amen. I've titled the lesson this morning,
Unto Him That's Able. Our text begins Ephesians 3 verse
20. Now unto him that is able to
do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according
to the power that work within us. This verse is such a comfort
to me. Because I know, by God's grace,
I can't do anything of my own power. Our Lord told us that. He said, I'm the vine, you're
the branches. Without me, you can't do nothing.
And I found I can't. I can't do anything physically.
I can't do anything spiritually. But here's our comfort, our Savior,
is able. He's able to do everything. Paul
says here that our Savior is able to do abundantly above all
that we ask or think. Our Lord can do way more than
what we ever think that He could. Maybe you're like me. Far too
often, I find myself being guilty in prayer of limiting the Lord's
ability. And here's how I do that. I make
suggestions to the Lord. Oh Lord, here's this issue. Lord,
if you do this. Lord, here's this problem. If
you do this, you know. Well, that's limiting the Lord's
ability to what my puny mind can think up. The Lord is able to do abundantly
better than anything I think up. Any suggestions that I might
make to solve a problem, And I'll just use this one example.
Wouldn't you say that the Lord parting the Red Sea, so you know,
the Lord led Israel out of Egypt and trapped them at the Red Sea.
That's what Pharaoh thought, thought they were trapped. And
Lord parted the Red Sea so the children of Israel could cross
over on dry ground. And then Lord brought that sea
in on Pharaoh and his host and destroyed them all. Now isn't
that a way better way for Israel to leave Egypt than we would
have dreamed up? I mean, even after the Passover,
we wouldn't have ever thought of the Passover, would we? But
even after the Passover, we had said as well, children of Israel
will just leave Egypt, you know, peacefully and calmly, nobody
be chasing, nobody be bothering them, just go straight to the
promised land. God's way is exceeding abundantly above anything we'd
dream up, isn't it? Bring Israel through the Red
Sea, that's a demonstration of God's power. Gives us a picture
of redemption in the blood. God did abundantly above all
that we'd ask or think. Now Paul says here, God's able.
And your saving faith believes that God is able. Period. Period. God is able to do whatever
he wills. God's able to save me and to
keep me saved all by himself. Look at Romans chapter four with
me for a moment if you would. This is how God describes the
faith of Abraham. Abraham's the father of the faithful,
and this is how God describes his faith. He believed God's
able. Romans 4 verse 18. Who against hope believed in
hope that he might become the father of many nations, according
to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. And be not
weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when
he was about 100 years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb.
He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but
was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded
that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. Now that's saving faith, believing
that God is able to perform everything that he promised. Now I looked
up this word able that Paul used in our text, the Greek word that's
translated able. And I wanna look at some places
that this word is used in scripture. And I hope that when we see these
things, our souls will be encouraged and comforted to see what the
Lord is able to do. Now, if we really believe that
the Lord's able, we'll be able to enjoy the blessing of faith
even more, because we'll rest in Christ more. And get your
fingers loose. I promise you, this is gonna
be a Bible study. When we first started this work,
John Chapman said, he said, I don't want to call this Sunday school.
He said, I want to call it a Bible class. And that's what this is
going to be. We're going to turn to some scriptures
and have a Bible class. So first look at Matthew chapter
three. I try to take these pretty much
in order to make it a little easier for us. Matthew chapter
three, the Lord is able to make sinners like you and me to be
his children. Matthew chapter three, verse
seven. But when he saw many of the Pharisees
and Sadducees came to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation
of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Bring forth therefore fruits, meat for repentance, and think
not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father.
For I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise
up children unto Abraham. Now if the Lord is able to take
stones, rocks, laying on the ground. If he's able to make
them the children of Abraham, he sure is able to take sinners
like you and me and make us his children, make us living stones
in his house. He's able, isn't he? Now look
over Matthew chapter eight. The Lord is able to heal our
sin sick souls. Yes, he's able to heal our bodies,
but more importantly, he's able to heal our sin sick souls. Matthew
8, verse 2. And behold, there came a leper
and worshiped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make
me clean. And the word canst there is the
same word translated able in our text. This leper saying,
Lord, you're able to make me clean. Now there's no question
about the Lord's ability to heal my sin sick soul. There's no
question about his ability to cleanse my soul from all of my
sins. The only question is, will he? He got to power, but will
he? Well, I'll tell you this, I sure
am gonna beg him to save me. You know why? He's able to do
it. He's able. Then look across the
page, or if you got the authorized version, turn the page, Matthew
chapter nine. This is interesting, there's
a connection between believing the Lord is able and him saving
us. Matthew 9 verse 28. And when
he was coming to the house, the blind men came to him and Jesus
saith unto them, believe ye that I'm able to do this. Now do you
want me to give you sight? Do you believe I'm able to do
it? And they said unto him, yea Lord. Then touched he their eyes
saying, according to your faith, be it unto you. Now do you believe
I'm able? They said, yes. And he said,
according to your faith, be it unto you. And they received their
sight. Now there's a connection between believing that the Lord
is able and him saving my soul. There's a connection there. Now
that doesn't mean, oh, I better hurry and work real hard and
conjure up faith in myself and make myself believe. No, if there's
a connection between saving faith and the Lord actually saving
me, my prayer is, Lord, give me that faith. Give me that,
I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. Faith
is a gift of God. Lord, would you give that faith
to me so I'd be saved? Then look at Matthew chapter
10. Now we know this. The Lord is able to save. We know that. But it's also important
for us to take note of this. He's also able to damn unbelief. Matthew 10 verse 28. And fear not them which kill
the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear
him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Now, I really don't like to think
about hell. I don't like to talk about damnation
in hell, but we do have to talk about it as the scriptures talk
about it. If we're gonna deal honestly
with scriptures, we have to talk about it. The Lord will damn
those who refuse to believe on him. and that's what every last
one of us deserve. By nature, we refuse to believe
on it. Then here's my prayer. Lord,
be merciful to me. Don't give me what I deserve.
I know you're able, I know you'd be just if you did it, but Lord,
would you be merciful to me? Would you be merciful? And here's
a very good reason to pray that way. Mark chapter two. Here's
a very good reason to pray Lord, would you not give me what I
deserve? Lord, would you be pleased to save me? Here's a good reason
to pray that way. The Lord is able to forgive sin. Mark chapter two, verse five.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy,
son, thy sins be forgiven thee. Now, you know, these friends,
they brought this sick man, you know, to the Lord, wanting the
Lord to heal him of his palsy. And the Lord says, son, thy sins
be forgiven thee. But there were certain of the
scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, why does this
man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
only? That word can there is the same
word translated able in our text. Who is able to forgive sins but
God only? And immediately when Jesus perceived
in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, He said unto
them, Why reason ye these things in your heart? Whither is it
easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven
thee? Or to say, Arise, take up thy
bed, and walk? But that ye may know that the
Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, He saith to
the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, Arise, take up thy
bed, and go thy way into thine house. And immediately he rose,
took up the bed, and went forth before them all. in so much that
they were amazed and glorified God saying, we never saw it on
this fashion. Our God is, has the power. He's able to forgive sin. And here's how he forgives sin.
It's by making that sin to not exist. He puts it away under
his blood. So there's no reason left for
God to damn his people. That's why their sins forgiven.
There's no sin to damn them. So my prayer is, Lord, do what
you're able to do. Would you forgive my sin? Now look over at Mark chapter
five. Our Lord is able to tame our old man. You know, the great
grief of every believer is, I've got to live with this old man.
this old man of flesh, this civil war going on inside me. That
old man tries to make me quit trusting Christ every day. He tries to make me trust my
own works every day. He tries to get me to look anywhere
but Christ all the time. What am I gonna do with him?
He's just too much for me. Our Lord is able to tame that
old man by giving us a new man. A new man who rules over the
old man. And here's a picture of it, Mark chapter five, verse
two. And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there
met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit, who had
his dwellings among the tomb, and no man could bind him, no
knot with chains. Now, no man could, no man was
able to bind this man. Now, you know the story, and
that word could, by the way, it's the same word able translated
in our text, No man could tame this, he's a wild man. Nobody
had the ability to do it. And you all know the story, the
Lord cast the legion, the unclean spirit out of this man. In verse
15, and they come to Jesus and see him that was possessed with
the devil and had the legion sitting, clothed, and in his
right mind. And they were afraid. Now what
we see there is a picture of the new birth. Here's this new
man, he's sitting. He's tamed, isn't he? Where is
he sitting? At the feet of the Savior. He's
not naked anymore, he's clothed. He's clothed in the righteousness
of Christ, and he's in his right mind. God's given him a new mind,
the mind of Christ. He believes Christ. He loves
Christ. He trusts Christ. That's a picture
of the new birth. The new man is the one who's
in his right mind, who's clothed in the righteousness of Christ,
who sits learning of Christ, And that new man rules over the
old man. Now you think, well, my old man,
he's not tamed. He's strong as ever. He's as
vile as ever. He's fighting as hard as ever.
Well, that's true. But the new man rules over the
old man in this way. Yes, that old man's gonna cause
you grief all the time. How he does it, doesn't he? But
he can't make you look away from Christ. Oh, he tries to get you
to trust your words, but he can't do it because the new man won't
let him. Now our Lord's able to cause
us to be born again, to give us a new man that won't trust
anyone but Christ, anyone or anything. Now look at John chapter
six. Our Lord is able to draw all
of his people to himself. John chapter six, verse 44. Our Lord says, no man can come
to me except the father which has sent me draw him and I'll
raise him up at the last day. Now that word can, no man can
come to me is the same word able in our text. No man by nature
is able to come to Christ. Our nature is so dead in sin,
we don't have the ability to come to Christ. We're so dead
in sin, the ability is not in us to believe on Christ. We cannot do it. But the Lord's
able. The Lord's able to draw all of
his people to himself. And you know how he does it?
By showing them Christ lifted up. A man's going to preach Christ
lifted up, and our Savior said, And all, when they see me lift,
they'll come to, they'll be drawn to me. That's the preaching of
the gospel. When Christ is lifted up and
magnified, his people will come. You don't have to beg them to.
They will come, they won't be able to help it. And that is
such an encouragement in preaching and bringing our loved ones to
hear the gospel. You know, this is the week of Bible school. I don't teach a class like our
teachers do, but I got 10, 15 minutes with the kids before
they go back to their classes. I'm telling you, it's the most
nerve-wracking, tough preaching I do all year long. I mean, I
just, I'm excited about it. I love this week. I love this
time with the kids. But I'm telling you, it's the
toughest preaching because I know they don't know
the Lord. And you don't know how desperately I want them to.
Oh, I want to be able to present Christ to them so they'll believe.
Oh, and it just seems like a lost cause, doesn't it? You have friends,
you have loved ones that don't know the Lord, they won't believe
Him, they have no interest, and you can't make them have any
interest, can you? Well, here's our encouragement
to keep inviting them to come hear the gospel, to keep giving
them, you know, we used to give tapes, now we give a link, right,
to the sermon audio or something. Here's a reason to keep bringing
our children to hear the gospel. Here's the reason we keep having
Bible school, it's time to teach our little ones. We don't have
to draw somebody to Christ. We don't have to convince them
to believe on Him. We can't anyway, so it's a good
thing. We can't make them believe Christ. But our Lord's able. Our Lord's able. Now that's an
encouragement to keep preaching Christ. Our Lord's able. And
I tell you, if He's gonna give somebody faith in Christ, He's
gonna reveal Christ to them and make them fall in love with Him,
make them believe Him, He's gonna do it by somebody preaching Christ
to him. Somebody's gonna tell him who Christ is, so they'll
believe him and love him. All we gotta do is preach Christ.
I mean, I say that like it's no big deal. All we gotta do
is declare the gospel. God will draw his people to himself.
He's able, he's able. Then look at John chapter 10. Our Lord is able to make his
people persevere to the end. John chapter 10, verse 29. My father which gave them me
is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of
my father's hand. Now we think, I'm so thankful
the Lord saved me. The Lord's revealed himself to
me. The Lord's given me faith in Christ. There's a long way
between here and the Lord. I mean, potentially it's a short
way, but could be a long way, couldn't it? Could be a long
way. Right? If you live a normal lifespan,
you got a long way to go, brother. When I look at myself, this is
what I know. I won't persevere to the end. Now what's going
to comfort my heart? Our Lord is able to save his
people and he's able to keep them. No man can pluck them out
of me. No man. All the earthly circumstances
will meet between now and when this body breathes its last breath,
I promise you this, our Lord's able to keep us through all of
them. Don't turn here, let me read it to you in Romans chapter
eight, verse 38. For I'm persuaded, Paul said,
I'm confident of this, that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall
be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus, our Lord. Our Lord is able to cause his
people to persevere to the end. He'll keep them, he'll keep them.
All right, now look at Acts chapter 13. I just was talking about how the
Lord's able to keep and preserve his people. That's why Jude could
so confidently say, now unto him that's able, to keep you
from falling and to present you faultless before the presence
of his glory with exceeding joy. You know why he's so confident
of that? Our God's able. He's able. And here's the next
thing, Acts 13. Our Lord is able to justify sinners. Acts 13, verse 38. Be it known unto you therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man, this man, is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are
justified from all things, from which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses. And that word could, the same
word translated able in our text. The law is not able to justify
us because we can't keep it. The law would justify us if we
kept it perfectly, but we cannot. We don't have the ability to
be justified by the law because we can't do it. But the word of God says, this
forgiveness of sins is preached. This justification from our sins
is preached to you through this man. We're not able, but the
Lord Jesus Christ has already justified his people. And justified
means to be made without sin. Now, if all of our works of the
law, all our attempts to keep the law, that's sin, isn't it?
Well, we're not able to justify ourselves by our works. The message
of Christ is the Lord justifies his people. Not only is he able,
he's done it. He's justified his people by
grace through faith in him. If you would be justified, Quit
your works. Quit your works of the law and
trust Christ. Just trust him. He's able. Now
look at Acts chapter 20. Our Lord is able to build up
his people in the faith. Acts 20, verse 32. Here the apostle Paul
is giving his final words of instruction to the elders of
the church at Ephesus. And this is what he tells him.
And now brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his
grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance
among all them that are sanctified. Now, how does the Lord build
up his people like this? It's by the preaching of the
gospel. In Romans chapter 16, you don't
have to turn there. Let me read it to you quickly.
Romans 16, this is what Paul says. He's closing out his letter
to the church at Rome. Now to him, that is a power to
establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus
Christ. Here's how God builds up his
people. Here's how he establishes them. It's by the preaching of
Christ. He builds up his people. He establishes
them so they will not be moved. Oh, you know, when we first think
that we got to be established, here's what we think by nature.
This is, well, I've got to be really diligent. You know, boy,
I can't, I can't miss a service. I've got to give, I've got to
look for every opportunity, you know, to serve. And I've just
really got to listen and make sure I'm not trusting anything
but Christ. And maybe the more I learn about
Scripture, the more I'll be settled and made firm. It's not by our
works. It's not something we do. The
Lord establishes His people. The Lord builds them up and makes
them strong in the faith. See, the Lord's able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think. Isn't the Lord's
way so much better? Our way to establish ourselves
puts us to work. God's way to establish his people
puts us to rest. Oh, it's exceeding abundantly
better, isn't it? Just preach the word. Just preach the word. If you
would be established, if you would be built on Christ, just
be here to hear the word. Hear the word preached. That's
why Paul told Timothy, he said, Timothy, you've had a blessing.
From a child, you've known the Holy Scriptures, which are able
to make you wise unto salvation. They're able to build you up.
All right, now look at Romans chapter eight. The Lord Jesus Christ is able
to please the Father. He's able. Romans eight, verse
eight. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. But you're not in the flesh,
but in the spirit. If so, be that the spirit of
God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the
spirit of Christ, he's none of his. That word of verse eight
cannot is the same word translated able in our text. You and I in
the flesh, we're not able to please God. We're not able to
do it, it's impossible. But the Lord Jesus Christ has
already Please the father. It's not just that he's able
to do it. He's already done it. I quit trying to make God happy
with you by your words. Trust Christ. He's already pleased
the father. Now look at Romans chapter 14.
The Lord's able to make his people
stand and not fall away from Christ. Romans 14 verse four. Who art thou that judgest another
man's servant? To his own master he standeth
or falleth. Yea, he should be holdin' up, for God is able. God's able to make him stand.
You know, one of my biggest fears is falling away from Christ.
I've seen it happen so many times. One of my biggest fears is that
I will do it too, and I'm afraid of it, because that's what my
flesh wants to do. But what joy to rest in Christ. He's able. He is able. to make his people
stained. All right, now look at 2 Corinthians
9. 2 Corinthians 9, verse eight. And God is able to make all grace
abound towards you that ye always having all sufficiency in all
things may abound to every good work. Our God is able to make
his grace abound. You know, the Lord doesn't just
give his people just barely enough grace to scrape by. He makes
his grace abound. So that where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. Now, if you have any desire to
comfort my heart, Don't talk to me about salvation by my works. Don't talk to me about me pleasing
God by my works, because all my works are sinful. If you would
comfort the hearts of God's people, talk to them about how God's
grace abounds. It super abounds over all of
our sin. Then look at Hebrews chapter
two. Our Lord is able to comfort his
people, comfort their hearts. Hebrews 2 verse 17. Wherefore
in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren,
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For
in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he's able to succor,
to comfort them that are tempted. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ, the
son of God, became a real man. And since he became a real man,
he went through everything, absolutely everything that we go through
in this flesh, with the exception of committing sin. He went through
sleepless nights, spending prayer. He suffered hatred and ridicule
and slander. You know, one of the things he
suffered is the false praise of men. The false praise. You and I fall prey to that.
But he didn't. He suffered all these things.
He suffered untold pain and agony to be able to save his people
from their sin. And part of the reason he suffered
all of that is so that when his people go through the same thing,
our Savior is able to say, I know how you feel. I know how you
feel. I've been there. And I know just
what you need to accomplish. He's able to comfort his people.
Now look at Hebrews chapter seven. Our Lord's able to save. Hebrews 7 verse 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.
Our Lord is able to save. He'll save everybody that comes
to God through him. Then by all means, come to him,
begging for mercy. He's able to completely save
the worst of sinners. All right, now look back in our
text. I'm about out of time, but I want to give you this quickly
in closing. Ephesians chapter three, now unto him. that's able
to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according
to the power that worketh in us. Now the power that worketh
in the believer is the power of the new man. It's the power
of the new birth. The same power that God used
to raise Christ from the dead is the very same power working
in you to believe. That's the power, the same power
that raised the dead body of the Lord Jesus from the dead
is the same power that gives you spiritual life. That's the
power working in you so that the Lord will keep you to the
end. Now verse 21. Unto him be glory in the church
by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Now all the glory belongs to
Christ because he did all the work. He had to be the one to
do all the work because he's the only one able. He's the only
one able to do it. Now, if you trust Christ, you
see that that's true. He gets all the glory, because
he did all the work. But what's more, you want it that way. You want Christ to get all the
glory. Matter of fact, you need Christ
to get all the glory. And let me make good on that.
If Christ gets all the glory, what does that mean? He did all
the saving for me. Now, if I would end up getting
some of the glory, then that means I got to do something to
earn it, doesn't it? And I can't do anything to earn it. I can't. No, I need Christ to get all
the glory. Because if He gets all the glory,
He did all the saving. And that's the Savior that I
need. So hearing that Christ gets all
the glory, that throws my soul. Because hearing He does get all
the glory tells me not only is He able to save me, not only
is He able to do all these things we looked at, He's done them. They're already done. Now come
rest in Christ. Oh, I hope the Lord will bless
that to you.