While you're turning to Ephesians
chapter three, let me introduce my message by talking to you
a little bit about worship. Our text will be Ephesians three
and verse 20 and 21. When we meet together in this
place for public worship, We have a regular order of services. It's never been written out,
but we fairly regularly follow it. It doesn't vary very much.
We'll have one or two hymns and then scripture reading and prayer. another hymn or two and special
music, usually not more than two or three hymns before the
message. And then the message of the gospel itself, a closing
hymn, closing prayer, benediction, calling for God's blessings upon
the word that's been preached. And the only significant difference,
whether you come on Sunday morning or Sunday night, or as we have
tonight on Tuesday night for our midweek worship service,
is that on Sunday evenings, every Sunday evening, we conclude the
day with the observance of the Lord's table after the pattern
of the New Testament. But everything else in the worship
services is very much the same. Now, that's not by accident.
That's by determination. That's by purpose. We don't gather
in this place to socialize, to catch up on the latest gossip,
to entertain or to be entertained. I know that it's not real popular
to have just plain, simple worship services. If you drive by a church
building out there on Junction, on the highway going to Junction
City, they have all kinds of advertisement all the time. Shelby
and I noticed it last night. We went out late to take some
mail out and had dynamic worship. She said, what would that be?
That means folks shout and clap their hands and dance around
and act like fools. And they feel good. And they feel good. Now I've never been there. I'll
guarantee you that's what it means. You go to church and folks,
well let's turn around and shake hands with our neighbors and
smile and pat folks on the back. Let's recognize the old folks,
the young folks, the mothers, the fathers, the children. Let's
make people feel good. That's not our purpose. That's not our purpose. You may
recall many years ago, Brother Hubert Montgomery was dating
a lady. She came out here with him and
she said, it's just not fun going to church out there. And Brother
Hubert, they were both old folks. Brother Hubert said to her, I
didn't know going to church was supposed to be fun. The purpose
is not fun. The purpose of our gathering
is to worship our God, to worship the God of all grace, the triune
Jehovah, to worship him. We ought to dress like people
who come to worship God. We ought to talk and act like
people who come to worship God. And we ought to make it our business
to help one another as we come to God's house to worship God
so that we Feed one another's minds and thoughts, not with
trivial, insignificant, or even ungodly things, but rather feed
one another's thoughts and minds with the things of God, directing
our hearts toward the worship of God. In this third chapter
of Ephesians, writing by inspiration of God the Holy Ghost, the Apostle
Paul gives us a sample of all that's needed for our public
worship. As we open the chapter, we have a sermon. Paul gives
a very warm declaration of the unveiling of the mystery of the
gospel, that the Gentiles, by God's purpose, are made partakers
of the promises of God in Christ Jesus. That was always God's
purpose. It contains his prayer in verse
14, beginning with those words, for this cause I bow my knees. And then Paul tells us of the
marvelous blessings he sought from God in our behalf, in behalf
of God's church. And in the verses before us this
evening, verses 20 and 21, the chapter concludes with a hymn,
a hymn of adoration and praise. In this brief chapter, the Spirit
of God sets before us everything really involved in public worship. Preaching, prayer, and praise. That's it. Preaching, prayer,
and praise. Everything else ought to be eliminated. Preaching, prayer, and praise. Have you found my text? Let's
look at it. Ephesians 3, verses 20 and 21. This is an inspired
doxology, an inspired description of praise, an inspired hymn,
if you will, of praise to God. 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. Now this doxology grows
out of and crowns the apostle's message in the preceding chapters
of this magnificent epistle. It ought to excite praise in
our hearts. when God has done such great
good for us, as Paul has described in these first three chapters
of Ephesians. God has done such great good
for us, we ought to freely pour out our hearts in praise to him
continually. And we can and should do so with
the hope and with the confident expectation that that which God
has done for us is but the forerunner of that which God shall do for
us in days to come. If we read through this chapter,
we see that the apostle speaks the blessed revelation of the
gospel in this gospel age. In the fifth verse, he says that
it is now made known to the sons of men. It was not made known
in the types and shadows of the law in the Old Testament in its
fullness, but rather it was made known in type and in shadow.
And now God has given us his word in this gospel age. Christ
has come, fulfilled all that was given in the law and the
prophets and the types and shadows of the Old Testament. And it
is fully and clearly revealed, set down for us in black and
white in the word of God. All the prophets and apostles
have given us by inspiration in Holy Scripture the revelation
of the gospel of His grace. We live today in this time when
we ought to have great reason indeed for praise and thanksgiving
to God. He has revealed to us His Son. He's revealed to us the fullness
of His grace and His glory in His Son and has given it to us
in Scripture. right here in the book of God.
All we need to do is read the word, asking God, the Holy Spirit,
to shine upon the page and apply it to our hearts. Then in the
eighth verse, Paul speaks of the relation of the gospel to
himself. Unto me, who am less than the
least of all saints, is this grace given. Oh my. Whatever the gospel may do for
other men, it is of greatest importance that we experience
its power in us. We must personally be aware by
experience of God's grace and power in us in the experience
of His grace. All the gold in Fort Knox is
not nearly as valuable to me as any I may actually possess
of my own, no matter how little that may be. Can you speak for
yourself and say as Paul does, unto me is this grace given. All this grace heaped upon sinners
in Christ from eternity. All this grace of redemption,
this grace of life and salvation in Christ. Further on, in the
10th verse, the apostle speaks of the gospel in its relation
even to the angels, to the intent that now, under the principalities
and powers in heavenly places, might be known by the church
the manifold wisdom of God. The gospel has a distinct relation
even to the angels who never experience it. They've always
had something to do with it. The angels of God, we're told
in this book, desire to look into it. They look at it as a
wondrous mystery to be revealed only in Christ the Redeemer and
his sacrifice. They are sent forth, we're told
in Hebrews 1.14, as ministering spirits. Created, ordained, sent
forth by God to be ministering spirits to minister to those
who shall be the heirs of salvation, to those who shall be partakers
of Christ by the gospel. It is written of our Lord that
he was seen of angels, watched over by the angels in all that
he did, ministered to by the angels in all that he accomplished.
And when he arose from the dead, seen of angels, having accomplished
redemption. The angels of God rejoice over
the conversion of sinners by the gospel. Merle read a portion
of Luke 15 where we're told repeatedly how there's joy in the presence
of the angels, in the presence of God, when one sinner repents. The angels of God, we read of
in Revelation 4 and 5, join with the redeemed in heaven to sing
praises to the Lamb. Next, in verse 16, Paul speaks
of the relation of the gospel to all who hear it. That is,
to all who really hear it. He prays that God would grant
to those who hear the message of redemption and grace in Christ,
according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with
might by his spirit in the inner man, being filled with all the
fullness of God. Having spoken of the relation
of the gospel to men and angels, in our text, the apostle turns
with full heart to speak of its relation to God himself. Now,
now, in the light of all this, now unto him that is able to
do exceeding abundantly of all that we ask or think, Go back
and look at what he asked for, that you'll know the love of
Christ, that God may dwell in your heart, that you may walk
in the fullness, being filled with all the fullness of God.
He says, now I'm calling for you to turn now to him who's
able to do exceeding abundantly above all that I've been talking
about. He's 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. All right, text very clearly
speaks of three things. It speaks of God's great ability. And it speaks of that power of
God working in us, speaks of our experience. And then it calls
for adoration of our God. Oh, come, let us adore him. That's the title of my message.
That's what I want us to do this hour. That's what I want us to
do in the totality of our lives. This message I've been preaching
to myself as I've been working on it for the last couple of
days. And I pray that God will give me grace to adore him. From him, all grace comes. To him, all glory must be given. For of him and through him and
to him are all things. All things are of God, so let
us adore him. If unto him there is to be glory
in the church throughout all ages, then to him there should
be glory in this church at this moment. This is my father's house. Worship him in it. This is my
father's house. It's a house of prayer, not a
den of thieves. It's a house of prayer, not a
house of entertainment. It's a house of prayer, not a
house of carnal pleasure. May it please the Lord God to
enable us to render to him his due. By Christ, that Brother
Bobby read back in the office, let us offer the sacrifice of
praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips,
giving thanks to his name. Our text speaks not of preaching
or a prayer, but a praise, and it goes beyond praise. It really
speaks of adoration. And I don't really know how to
describe adoration. It's something more than just
praise. Praise primarily has something
to do with the lips and what we say, what we sing, what we
speak. Adoration is supreme worship. Adoration is worship at its height. Adoration is a heart thing. It's a heart thing. The word
is actually a compound word, comes from two different words,
which mean kiss the hand. In oriental times, ancient oriental
times, men would bow the knee and hit their thigh and kiss
the hand of a great benefactor. Bowing in humility, smiting their
thigh as the one unworthy of the benefit received and kissing
the hand in appreciation and recognition of the fact that
all that I possess right down to my very life itself, I owe
to him who is my ruler. let us then with reverence bow
to our God and kiss his hand in adoration all the time. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Adoration then is the height,
the fullness, the length, the depth, the breadth, the praise.
It's the eloquent silence of the soul that just simply can't
be expressed in language. In this spirit, let's look at
our text. And I pray that God will enable
us to turn our eyes off of every other object and fix them entirely
upon him. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will
grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. Oh God,
turn my eyes upon you and cause the things of this earth, all
of them, all of them to become dim in the sight of your glory
and grace. Let's remember what the gospel
does for us so that we may adore God for it. Let us fix our hearts
on him. who is God our savior and adore
him for himself and for his great ability to bless, enrich, save
and sanctify us above all that we can ask or think. Now let's
look at these three things in our text. First, the text speaks
of God's great ability. the abundance of his power. Now unto him that is able to
do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. The text is speaking about God's
ability. God's ability. This God we worship. This God to whom we turn in prayer. This God upon whom we call in
every time of need. Oh, how I adore the ability of
God. Oh, for grace to adore him as
I ought. It is God's great ability. God's great ability. Hear me, I know in this generation,
folks talk about things like this and just kind of slides
by and we don't think. It is God's ability as God that
gives confidence to faith. It is God's ability as God that
gives confidence to faith and hope. What does Paul teach us
here about God's ability? He does it by making a comparison. He declares that God's ability
is indescribably above all that we ask. Now let that sink in for a second. Indescribably above all that
we ask. That's some statement. We've
asked some great things of God. I well remember when first he
taught my heart to pray. I felt myself so sinful that
I didn't deserve anything from God but hell. And yet I dared
to ask God for what I thought to be the greatest of all possible
gifts. I prayed, Father, forgive me,
I said. I confessed my sin and asked
God to forgive me. I was well convinced that God
might forgive others, that he had forgiven others, but my sins
were so vile that I felt almost it was impossible for me to be
forgiven. or seek forgiveness from God.
And yet, he revealed Christ to me, and I asked God for that
great blessing, and God forgave me all my sins. Gave me a witness within, a testimony
from God that my sins were forgiven. Since then, we've asked a great many things
from God, haven't we? I pleaded with God to cleanse
my polluted soul day by day for 50 years. I begged him to heal
my backsliding heart, my heart ever prone to wonder from the
God I love. I prayed for God the Almighty
to deliver me from temptation. I turned to him for my daily
needs. I asked him to guide me every day in his will, in the
way I should go. I pleaded with him these 50 years
to hold my heart by the grip of his grace. And these great
things I've asked my soul. God has done them all. He has done them all. But here
the Apostle Paul tells us that we've not yet reached the bounds
of God's ability. We haven't begun to get started
reaching the bounds of Jehovah's infinite ability. At best, at
best, our prayers, our highest, most ambitious, loftiest prayers
are very limited. God is not limited at all in
his ability to perform. We are limited, horribly limited
in our ability to pray. He's not limited to do anything.
We are horribly limited in our ability to ask him to do for
us. Sometimes our prayers are limited
by our sense of need because we don't really know what we
need. That's a hard reality to come
to. But we don't really know what
we need. We read last Sunday morning in Romans chapter eight,
that we know not what we should pray for as we ought. That's
not occasional. That's all the time. We never
know what we ought to pray for as we ought. That doesn't lie
within us. We're not that smart. We don't
have that insight. We don't know what we ought to
pray for as we ought. And so the spirit helps our infirmities
as we pray. How our hearts deceive us so
that we don't even know what we need. When we think we're
strong, then we're weak. When we think we are most righteous,
we are most sinful. When we think we are most spiritual,
have you been there? You know what I'm talking about? You have something you think,
oh, now that's real spirituality. Then we're most carnal. When
we think we're full, then we're empty. When we think we're well,
we're sick. But blessed be God, his ability
to bless is not limited to our sense of need. We ask for bread
and water, but his fatlings and his oxen are killed. Our prayers
are often limited by our needs and are often limited by our
desires, greatly limited. The fact is, no one prays for
more than he desires. We are often cold toward the
things of God, so cold that we really don't desire anything
more, anything greater, anything higher than what we've already
experienced and commonly desire little more than the gratifying
of our own carnal lust. Now listen to your pastor while
he preaches to himself. And I wish I didn't have to say
it. I wish it weren't so. But in these 50 marvelous years
of God's goodness that I've experienced with knowledge, most of my praying, what I would
call praying and you would call praying, most of it, has been
nothing but the vain repetition of desires for God to gratify
my personal lust. That's a sad fact, but fact it
is. Fact it is. If it weren't so,
and I don't mean to suggest we shouldn't have special affection
for those in nearest relation to us, but if that were not the
case, if that were not the case, I'd pray for your children and
grandchildren just like I do for mine. I would feel exactly, David,
about you as you feel about yourself. I would feel exactly in the midst
of this difficulty what Teresa's feeling right now. And I just
can't. Most of our prayer, forgive me,
most of my prayer, has been just seeking the gratification
of my lust. how cold we are to the things
of God. So much so that we really don't
have much desire before him. We bring our little cups to the
infinite, overflowing, gushing spring of his great water, and
we take home just a little. than sometimes when we do want
great things. Our faith is small. Our prayers
are limited by the smallness of our faith. You remember what
our Lord said to those two blind men in Matthew 9 when he healed
them with his touch? Listen to this. According to
your faith, be it unto you. He could not have honored their
faith any more highly. He could not have spoken any
more admirably of their faith. He could not have given words
to set them forth as examples of faith any more nobly than
according to your faith be it unto you. And he touched them
and they walked away seeing. Thank God, thank God, even our
unbelief doesn't limit his hand. Thank God his blessing, his bounty,
his mercy, his grace, while received by the hand of faith, is not
dependent upon the hand of faith. If we believe not, what does
the book say? He abideth faithful. Oh, how I thank God. He's not
limited by the weakness of my faith. How often we pray for
things in unbelief. Years ago, I heard Brother Mahan
talk about a group of folks who came together, the church had
been in a drought out west, hadn't rained in a long, long time,
and the crops were all failing in the fields, and the church
folks called for a prayer meeting to pray for rain. And they all
gathered, folks who didn't normally come to church, places packed
out, and a little boy standing there looking at things going
around, and he said to his mama, said, didn't we come to pray
for rain? And she said, well, yes, son.
He said, how come nobody brought an umbrella? How true, how true. We pray, and sometimes pray for
God to do great things, but with horrid unbelief. We pray knowing
that we would be delighted with much less than we seek. How I
rejoice again. God is not limited in his ability
to bless us by the weakness of our faith. We all have great
reason to bless God. He doesn't deal with us according
to our faith. Often our prayers are hindered
simply because We don't know what God's will is. If we're God's, we seek His will.
I know that. I know that. Thy will be done,
if we're God's. And sometimes you can look back
over the day or over the week or over the month or over the
years and point to something and say, now that, that was God's
will. That was God's will. I know that
God led me in that way and that was his will. But to look to
tomorrow and know what God's will is, to look to the next
moment and know what God's will is, that's another story. We
ought always to seek his will and seeking his will to submit
to his will. But understand this, God's ability
to do us good doesn't depend on our ability to read, discern,
and comprehend his will. Turn back to the passage I quote
to you often, Proverbs chapter three. Proverbs chapter three. Most of you are old enough, you
will excuse me for a little nostalgia. Shelby and I hadn't been dating
long. We'd try to read scripture together, pray and try to worship
God. And one night we read these two verses. they became to us Ancropians and they remain such. Proverbs 3, verse 5, Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. You can't do both. You can't do both. You can't
trust the Lord with all your heart and then reason about it.
You can't reason about things and determine what you're gonna
do by your good reason and trust the Lord. Trust in the Lord with
all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding. In all
thy ways acknowledge him. Bow to Him. Surrender to Him. Give yourself up to Him. And
He shall direct thy paths. He will order your steps. But Paul doesn't stop here. He
goes on to tell us that God's ability to bless us is infinitely
above all that we think. Our thoughts, let alone what
we ask, our thoughts, our highest thoughts at their best are not
his thoughts. Neither are our ways his ways.
God can do much more than we've ever imagined. Perhaps you've
sometimes thought how greatly God might use you in the service
of his kingdom. and he has. I think immediately
Brother Larry, forgive me for calling your name, Larry, but
he came here, what, 16 years ago? Has it been that long already?
It hadn't been that long. He asked me, he said, do you reckon there's something
I could do that might be helpful And I suggested the beginnings
of this thing with ultimate index, preachers using it all over the
world. All over the world. He wouldn't
have me tell you that for anything, but he can do a lot more than
that. He can do a lot more than that. Oh, if God might be pleased
to use me. He can, he can. Maybe you've
thought, how? Great it would be if God would
just fill you with his spirit. He can do that and more. He can
use you for the filling of others. You may have thoughts about how
powerful and prevailing in prayer, oh, how I wish I could pray affectionately. God can make you do that and
more. Maybe you sometimes have thoughts of, real thoughts of
desiring, to be strong in faith, and I mean by that, I have to
clarify it because people have the idea that somehow I'm talking
about Muscle Man faith, no. I'm talking about a poor, contrite,
helpless, weak sinner who can do nothing, flat believing God
for everything. We who are gods, often think
of what he will do for us in heaven. I like to think about
it, I hope you do. Oh, blessed thoughts they are. Now imagine the highest, just
your highest thoughts, just your highest thoughts. I told you
a few weeks ago, after we had Brother Bob Duff's funeral service
here, just before everybody left, Brother Merle Hart and I were
sitting right downstairs here and he said to me, he said, What
do you reckon the Bobs are doing now? Just imagine your highest thoughts,
your highest thoughts. I hath not seen, nor ear heard,
neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the things
which God's prepared for them that love him. wonder what it would be to be
perfect, free of sin, free of pain, free of sorrow. More than that, more than that,
He's going to make the perfection such that we will apprehend with
clarity how that the sin and the sorrow and the pain. All the things, all of the things,
all the things we would erase. If we could, Mark, we'd erase He's gonna cause us to rejoice
in what He's done with all of it. He will give us grace and He
will give us glory. He'll give us Christ, oh yes,
but we've not yet come to the limit of His ability. For He
will give us more in Christ than we have ever yet imagined. Pastor, what are you trying to
do? I'm trying to convince you and to convince myself of God's
ability to bless us so abundantly that it exceeds any measure. Power blessing upon blessing
for a millennium, but you shall not reach the bounds of his ability.
put together all that you have read in the book written by prophets
and apostles, by divine inspiration, all that the most sanctified
of minds throughout history have ever thought of, and all that
you have thought of, and you haven't begun to start knowing
God's ability to bless. Let me make some practical use
of that. Our prayers should never be restrained
or limited. We cannot ask too much of God. We cannot expect too much of
God. There can never be a presumption
upon God's ability. There can never be a presumption
at the throne of grace. Listen to what God says by his
spirit. Let us therefore come boldly
under the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. Now, hear what he says. God bids
us come to him with no fear, with no hesitancy, with no fear,
no hesitancy. He tells us to come to him for
grace. Whatever the grace is you need,
come to me for it. He calls for us to come to him
for help. Whatever the help is, he says,
come to me for it. And what he's able to do, What he's able to do, what he's
able to do, he's willing to do. He's, I said not to Jacob, seek
ye me in vain. If God says, come to me for grace,
come to me for help, come to me with no hesitation, that means
God is perfectly willing to give you the grace and the help you
need. What a comfort this ought to
be to poor sinners too. God, even our God, is able to
forgive the greatest possible transgression. The Lord Jesus
is able to save to the uttermost all who come to God by Him. Now, I spent all my time on that. That's where it should have been
spent. But then Paul speaks of our experience. According to
the power that worketh in us. Paul says, now trust this God.
Trust this God who has such infinite ability. Cast your care upon
Him who has such infinite ability. Cast your whole being, your whole
life, all that concerns you into His hands who has this infinite
ability. Because you know that power by
experience. It works in you. It works in
you. It raised you from the dead.
It gave you life and faith in Christ. It is this power, this
power of God that sustained you all this time. It is this power
of God that has made you overcome temptation and even your many
falls. It is this power of God that's
kept you to this day and will not let you go. I found that God is able to forgive
sin by his Son. God is able to deliver from temptation. I found that God is able to comfort
in sorrow and even turn sorrow into joy. I found that God's
able to revive the backsliding hearts and make Christ more precious
because of the fall. I found that God is able to give
joy in the midst of affliction and God's able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. I have found, I've been privileged to experience
what most people don't get to experience. I've been privileged
to experience what it is to anticipate death right now. And I found
that God's able to give joy in the darkest of hours. And I found
that God Almighty is able to raise you up off your bed of
affliction. And it is God who graciously
turns you in your bed in the time of sickness. We sometimes
ask great things of God, but even in giving us these things,
he's done exceedingly above what we ask. We ask for forgiveness,
he gives us his son. We ask for cleansing and he makes
us sons. We ask for pardon, and it gives justification. We ask
for salvation, and it gives us righteousness. We ask for life,
and it gives us the spirit. We ask that it save us from hell,
and it gives us heaven. We all returned like prodigals
and said, Father, make me as one of your hired servants. And
we didn't have any idea, but he had ready for us a ring of
love, the robe of righteousness, and the fatty calf of provision.
Now then, let us therefore adore him. Let us kiss his hand. Unto him be glory in the church. By Christ Jesus, throughout all
ages, world without end. To him be glory in this local
assembly right now. And every time we gather, let
that be our purpose. To him be glory. His glory is
his person, his presence, his grace, his salvation. His glory
is revealed in the face of Christ Jesus. And he gets glory from
us through Christ as we render praise to him and adore him. By Christ Jesus, God receives
our praise, even the kiss of his hand, only through Christ
our mediator, through his blood and righteousness. To him be
glory in the church throughout all ages, all the age of your
life and mine. Oh God, will you please For Christ's
sake, get glory to yourself with every breath yet appointed for
these lungs. To him be glory in all the age
of your life. To him be glory in all the appointed
age of this local assembly. To him be glory in all the age
of the gospel church in which we now live. To him be glory. throughout all the endless ages
of eternity. Come, let us adore him. Oh, my
soul, how I ought to adore him. No longer in darkness I'm walking,
for the light is now shining on me. And now to others I'm
telling how he saved a poor sinner like me. And when life's journey
is over, And I, the dear Savior, shall see, I'll praise Him forever
and ever for saving a poor sinner like me. Let me do so, adoring
Him with my lips, with my life, with my heart, in my house, in
His house, by faith. And I call on you, children of
God, adore him. Adore him. Kiss the Son. Kiss his hand with gratitude
and praise, surrendering all to him. And I call on you who
yet know not the Savior. Come kiss the Son. Come kiss
the Son. Lest he be angry when his wrath
is kindled but a little. Come, kiss the hand of omnipotent
grace and mercy found in Christ Jesus. And kissing the hand of
God our Savior, you adore him as he cannot otherwise be adored. What more can I say? Amen.