Verse 16, Ephesians 3. That God 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 you, being rooted and grounded in love,
may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth,
length, 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 exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according
to the power that works in us, unto him be glory in the church
by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. The title this evening of what
I wanted to look at is found here in this passage in verse
17, the last portion of that verse, rooted and grounded in
love. Rooted and grounded in love.
One of the things that I noticed as we've been studying through
this chapter is that what weaves all of these chapters together,
these six chapters, is love. It's mentioned different times
in every chapter. He begins there in chapter 1
and says, God has chosen us in Christ before the world that
we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Then he says in verse 15, I have
heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love to all the
saints. And then in the second chapter,
Glenn read it to us. God who is rich in mercy for
his great love, wherewith he loveth. And then in this third
chapter, you see it here mentioned twice in my text, and in the
fourth chapter, he says, with all lowliness and meekness, with
long-suffering, forbearing one another in love. And then in
the fifteenth verse, speaking the truth in love. And then of
course we come to the fifth chapter, were passages concerning the
husband and their wives. He said, in verses 1, he was saying, Be ye
followers of God as your children walk in love. Walk in love. And then he said, Husbands, love
your wives as Christ loved the church. So ought men to love
their wives as their own selves. And then in chapter 6, Peace
be to the brethren and love with faith. And then he closes the
epistle this way, Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus
Christ in sincerity. So he begins with the love of
God. That he chose us in Christ that we should behold him without
blame before him and his love. And then he ends with the fruits
of that love. The evidences of that love in
our own heart. That we love him. We love him. And then all through this book,
He speaks of this love. It's just one thing woven into
another. Now, notice in our text how these
requests are woven together. I mentioned this the other day,
but let me remind you again. In verse 16, we are strengthened
by His Spirit in the inner man for this cause. Notice how these
weave together. That Christ may dwell in your
hearts experimentally by faith. And what's the consequences of
Christ dwelling in our hearts? Notice this, that you might be
rooted and grounded in love. Christ dwells in our hearts,
the Holy Spirit's there in our hearts, God is there in our hearts,
and the effects of that, you being rooted and grounded in
love when we live in the experience of Christ. And then verse 18,
these passages link to verse 18, That He said you might be
able to know the breadth, the length, the depth, and the height,
and to know the love of Christ. To know the love of Christ. And
then that's linked to the last portion of verse 19. That you
might be filled with all the fullness of God. See how all
these things link together. It begins by the Holy Spirit
strengthening our inner man. That we may have the capacity
to hold Christ in our hearts. Know that He's there experimentally.
And out of that comes this being rooted and grounded in love.
And then, of course, he says, out of that, that you may know
the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. For this reason, that
you might be filled with all the fullness of God. What a wonderful statement that
is. And I don't know if I'll get around to dealing with that
or not, but let me just say this much about being filled with
all the fullness of God, and let me say it like this. Is God
good? Of course He is. He's good. Then be filled with all goodness.
Is God a God of knowledge? Yes, He is. Then be filled with
knowledge. Is God a God of comfort? Then
be filled with comfort. The Scriptures tell us to be
filled with comfort. Is there a God of joy? The joy
of the Lord is your strength. Then Paul writes to Timothy and
says, Be filled with all joy. I'm filled with all joy. Joy
unspeakable and full of glory. Is God a spirit? Then be not
drunk with wine or in his excess, but be filled with the Spirit.
Is God a God of peace? Is God grace? Is He mercy? Is He holy? Is He just? Is He
patient? Is He long-suffering? Then be
filled with all the fullness of God. And not only filled with
the goodness of God Himself, but be filled with those things
that God is able and willing to communicate unto us. Does
God give faith? Of course He does. Faith is a
gift of God. Then it was said of Stephen that he was a man
full of faith. Be filled with faith. Does God
give hope? Of course He does. He's given
us hope and everlasting consolation through Christ. Then be filled
with a full assurance of hope until the end. Does God create
us into good works? Of course He does. Then it was
said of Dorcas, she was full of good works. Be filled with
good works. Jesus Christ, the Scripture says,
in Him dwells all the fruits of righteousness. Therefore,
be filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus
Christ. He's a fruitful vine, and just
come and fill yourself with Him. Fill your heart, fill your thoughts,
fill your time with Him, with Jesus Christ our Lord. Filled
with all the fullness of God. And that's linked, that's linked
to love. You know, if you leave love out
of these passages, I don't know how we'd understand it. Because
it links all of these verses together. Take away love, and
you take away the inner man. Because the inner man is born
of God. He that loveth is born of God,
for God is love. You take away Christ out of the
heart? If you take away love, you do. Because Christ is God,
and God is love, and Christ dwells in the heart. Take Christ out
of the heart, if you take love out of the equation. If you take away love, what else
do you take away? Well, you take away the sword.
that the heart is rooted in, that nourishes the heart and
sustains the heart. And what soil is that? Love.
Rooted in love. You take away the love, you take
away the grounds upon which the Christian builds his whole life. What do we build upon? What is
our building? What is our structure grounded
upon? Love. Grounded in love. What did the Master say? If you
love me. That's the ground, isn't it?
If you love me. Everything that's not built upon
this love, this ground of love, is built upon sin. And it'll
sink. It'll collapse under its own
weight. If you love me. Peter, do you love me? Lord,
you know I love you. Then feed my sheep. But love
comes first, doesn't it? No sense trying to feed them.
The sheep, if you don't love me. Do you love me, then feed
my sheep. Why do we worship? Why do we
do what we do, brothers and sisters? Why are we here this afternoon?
Why do we give? Why do we preach? Why do we teach?
Why do we follow? Why do we obey? It all comes
back to this. If you love me. If you love me. He that loveth me, He keeps My
Word. If a man loves Me, he'll follow
Me, because he loves Me. If a man loves Me, when he reads
My Word, he'll be looking for Me. If we love him when we pray,
we'll be looking for him in our prayer. If we love him, we'll
be looking for his appearance. Love. Love is the root, and it's
the ground upon which we build. It's the soil. that our hearts
are rooted in and nourished in. And love is the ground that we
build upon. And if you take away love, we have nothing to root our hearts
in, to nourish us and sustain us. And you take away love, we
don't have any true ground to build upon. Whatever we build
upon anything besides love will surely collapse. So I want you
to think just a few minutes with me about these two things, rooted
and grounded in love. When I was growing up in Tennessee,
when I was old enough to even remember, we had two huge white
oak trees out in our front yard. In our back yard, we lived in
a little log house. Finally tore it down and built
a block house, but there was two huge white oak trees. And all the time I can remember,
still to this day, those trees have never changed. And a white oak, white oak, we had
a lot of them on my dad's place. A white oak, a white oak, you
just, you can't push them over, the wind can't blow them over.
Because a white oak, maybe all the oaks, but I know something
about a white oak, it has a huge taproot. If you go down under
the ground right in the center of that tree, it's got a tap
root, and sometimes they go down several feet into the ground.
And then you've got this root system that goes up through the
ground, and if you've ever dug any of them up, they go down
maybe six, eight foot in the ground, and they'll find these
huge rocks, and they'll just wrap all around those rocks,
those roots with. And you cannot blow those trees over. And when
so many of the other plants and trees and saplings are dying,
it don't affect those roots, those oak trees whatsoever. Because
they have this root system that goes down deep in the soil, not
only making it strong, but it gets its nourishment from those
roots. I remember one time, when I was
young, we had a drought, maybe a couple of years. But everybody
lost their gardens, a lot of trees died, the squirrels and
the snakes, And the coon was coming in where the creeks were
drying up, eating what little corn that they had out in the
field. But it never affected those oak trees. You'll never
know the drought was on. And it's because of that root
system going down in the ground, out in the soil, bringing in
the moisture that supplied the nourishment for that tree. Here's
what David said about the believer. Blessed is the man who walks
not in the counsel of the ungodly, he don't stand in the way of
sinners, he don't sit in the seat of the scornful, but his
delight is in the law of the Lord, in the gospel, in the Word. And in that law does he meditate
both day and night, and he shall be like a tree planted by the
rivers of water. He brings forth his fruit in
his season, his leaf shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth
shall prosper." Why? Because those roots are going
out into that soil and getting the moisture and bringing it
to the tree. And if we don't have those roots
grounded in this soil of love for Christ and the love of Christ,
then we don't have any nourishment. The Lord Jesus Explained this
to us in Matthew chapter 13 you remember When he was speaking
about the seed that was sown in the ground And he told us
about the seed that was sown on stony ground it did how much
earth and the seed landed there and immediately it germinated
and before any roots could go down because there was not any
earth and It tried to spring up. But when the sun came out,
it dried up. It was gone. And the disciples
said, explain that to us. Explain what you're talking about
in this parable. He said, well, it's like this.
When someone preaches the Word to somebody, it goes into their
heart and immediately they receive it. But he says, even though
they receive it and have some knowledge of it, They have no
root in themselves. When the root tried to go down,
there was nothing there to get into but rock. And then when
persecutions come, that's the healing, and tribulations come
because of the Word, the person is offended. He's offended. If you'll study that parable,
there's two distinctions in those two heroes. One, there was a
distinction in the ground. One ground was a good ground.
The soil was deep. The other ground was a stony
ground. But there was also a difference in the root. The Lord Jesus said
He has no root in Himself. Well, if a tree has no root,
how's it going to get nourished? It can't get it. You've got to
have soil, and then you've got to have the root go down in the
soil. And the Lord Jesus said he's had no root in himself.
And what happens when these troubles come and persecutions come and
suffering comes because of the Word? The person's offended. They get offended. This person must have had some
knowledge because the Lord said they received the Word with joy. Joy is the effects of knowledge. But it wasn't rooted in the love. of that knowledge. See that?
It must have had some knowledge because it heard and it said,
that sounds good. That sounds really good. And
it just received it. Now I'm a little bit suspicious.
If you witness to somebody and they just received it without
questioning anything, without examining anything, without any
difficulty in it at all, I'm always suspicious about that.
Because it seems like to me, a man just won't own up to being
a sinner until God makes it. And a man can't receive the Gospel
until the heart is prepared for it. But this year, he received
it immediately. But then when persecution's coming,
he got offended. He got offended. And the problem
is the soil. And the problem is he didn't
have a root to go down in that soil. And you know what happened? The person had a knowledge of
the truth, but no love for the truth. And that's a dangerous
thing, isn't it? That's a dangerous thing. To
have knowledge without love of the truth. Here's what Paul said
about knowledge. He said, knowledge puffeth up,
but love edifies. We know we can't do without knowledge.
It's impossible to be saved without knowledge. We know that. How
can we believe on Christ if we've never heard of Him? It's impossible,
ain't it? We must be taught. But knowledge
by itself, Paul said, just makes us proud. It makes us argumentative. It makes us critical. But love
of that truth, that emphasis. Look here, let me read you how
Paul said it here in 2 Thessalonians. Look in 2 Thessalonians 2. In verse 10, look at this. Here's
what I'm saying. Root, rooted, rooted in love. Look what he says in 2 Thessalonians
2, in verse 10. He's speaking here of the devil
deceiving people with his signs and lying wonders. And then he
comes to verse 10, and he says, "...with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish, because they receive
not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." You see
that? He didn't say they receive not
the truth. That's critical, we know that.
But there's something that is just as important as that, and
that's receiving the love of it. The love of the truth. Why
was that person offended when persecutions came because of
the truth? Was he offended in the truth?
You know what David said? Great peace of they that love
your law, and nothing shall offend them. If a man loves the truth,
he's not going to be offended with the truth. If a man loves
the Lord Jesus Christ, he's not going to be offended with Christ.
Love of the truth is so important. And if we have the knowledge
of the truth without the love of the truth, that's very dangerous,
brothers and sisters. It's very dangerous. Listen to
what J.C. Philpott said. He said, there
are those who receive the knowledge of the truth, they receive it
and readily profess it for a time before the church and before
the world. Yet who after a time for one reason or another, not
only cast the truth to the ground, but they trample that truth openly
under their feet. And the whole cause of them doing
this is that they never once loved the truth that they professed. And he adds this, Love, love, a heart love for
the truth, not only receives that truth, but it secures the
heart from leaving the truth. It's not only a knowledge of
the truth, but it's a lie about it. And when a man gets the knowledge
of Christ, the knowledge of the truth in his heart, And He feeds
off of it, and He's nourished by it, and He loves it. You can't
pluck that truth from Him. And you can't pluck Him from
that truth. They're bound. It's a love of it. It's a love
of it. I really think you and I are
seeing in our time and in our day, some people who have a lot
of truth, they have a lot of knowledge. But I'm telling you,
brothers and sisters, you wonder sometimes if they have a love
of it. Consider this word grounded.
It means to lay a basis for, to build upon. Think of your
house, your own house, the ground that your house is set upon.
Think of a skyscraper. Think of some of these high rises
that they build on. I was looking at that huge building,
it's the world's tallest building, over a half a mile high there
in Dubai. And I was studying about, I began
to think, what kind of foundation would you set a building like
that on? Can you imagine looking up over a half a mile to see
the top of the building? And what kind of foot does that
have to have, foundation that has to have? It's like a hundred
and fifty foot slathered in that thing. 150 foot deep. Can you
imagine that? Just to hold that building up.
They can't build buildings like that out on the West Coast, especially
California. They can't have skyscrapers out
there because they can't get ground to hold it up. The buildings
are too heavy. They can have it there in New
York, even though it's so close to the ocean, because it's a
rock. They can build those high-rises
there. But that's what this word, grounded, is. Rooted and grounded
in love. What do we build upon? Paul said,
I'm a wise master builder, didn't he? And boy, he was. He was. Can you imagine what a skyscraper
he built? Spiritually speaking, he traveled. Look at the miles he traveled.
Look at the sermons that he preached. Look at the churches that he
established. Look at the time. Look at his
effort. Look what he gave. Look what
he spent. He gave himself. I labored more
abundantly than they all. But here's the key. What did
he build upon? What did he build his high rise
upon? What did he build his structure
upon? Well, he says, your love, grounded in Love. Boy, you and I are just trying
to finish our little one-story building, aren't we? We'll be
thankful if we could just finish that. But it's not how high is
it. It's not how high we build. But
it's what we build upon. I'd rather finish my little one-story
building and have it to stand as to build a half-a-mile building
and have it all crumble. And can you imagine all the structures
that's been built in the last 2,000 years? Seriously speaking,
all the works that men have done. I was in Henry, Brother Henry's
library before he retired, and I was absolutely amazed at the
cassette messages that he had. 52 years, you can imagine. I mean, the whole room was full
of, around the walls and along the floors, full of messages. Thousands and thousands and thousands. I was amazed. What a mass. What a building he built. Spurgeon, I've got in my little
library 66 volumes. Probably that thick, each body,
of Charles Spurgeon's sermons. And that's not near all the work
that that man did. I mean, he erected a huge building,
a massive building. And you think about men like
Billy Graham in our day. I mean, he's erected a big building
too. Mother Teresa, that woman suffered,
she gave, she went to those Camps where those lepers lived? She
gave her life to that. But it goes right back to this,
doesn't it? Why do we do what we do? What are we building upon? Is it love? Rootage, yes. That gives us the nourishment.
But that's something you can't see. That's all underground. That's in the heart. But when
we begin to build in the Kingdom of Christ, and do these religious
works, that's things that can be seen. And sometimes people
see them and they brag on us and they pat us on the back.
But we have to ask ourselves this question, am I building
on love? God knows, doesn't He? God knows. Those people who stood before
the Lord Jesus, on the Day of Judgment, and they said, Lord,
look at our building. We have a massive building. We've
worked on it for years. We've done many wonderful works
in Your Name. We've cast out devils. We've
preached in Your Name. But the Lord Jesus, you see,
He wants to get at the heart of something, doesn't He? He
wants to examine the motives. And He said, well, let's see
what you've done. And He didn't go up to the top and come down.
He started at the bottom. Let's examine your ground, he
said. What are you grounded upon? And it wasn't love. And right
there before their eyes, their skyscraper crumbled to the ground. Peter, lovest thou me? That has to be settled first,
doesn't it? Why? Because that's the ground upon
which we must build. Clarence, do you love me? Do we come here? Why do we build
on the thought? Why do we give? Is it because
of love? We're building upon love? If
I'm preaching to you simply because you call me and ask me to be
your pastor, or if I'm just preaching out of obligation, or it's my
job, or it's expected of me, I'm not only in a dangerous position,
And I'm in a shameful position, because it must first and foremost
be built upon love. Listen to this. Though I speak
with the tongues of men and angels, and have not love, I am like
sound and brass, or tinct and sound. Though I have the gift
of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and have all knowledge,
and have faith to remove mountains, I'm nothing if I don't have love. And though I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor and give my body to be burned for the cold,
if I have not love, if I don't build upon love, if I don't love the Christ who
loved me and gave Himself for me, If I don't have the love
of God shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Ghost which is given
to me, if I'm not building upon love in the end, Paul says, it
profits me nothing. It will profit me nothing. Brothers and sisters, do what
you can and do all that you can, but do it because you love the
Savior. Love your wives because you love
the Savior. Love your husbands because you
love the Savior. Be good to your neighbors. Work to support your families. Teach your children. Be patient. Be kind, forgiving. Maintain
private worship in your home. Have your family altered. Maintain
public worship. Follow the Lamb wherever He goes. But do it all because you love
Him. That's the grounds. Rooted and
grounded in love. And I'm telling you, it may not
seem like much to this world. It may not be much in their eyes.
But I'm telling you, Jesus will recognize it. And on the day
of judgment, it may be just a visit, but he'll remember it. It may
be a cup of cold water, but he'll remember it. And he'll recognize
it. And he'll say, you did it because
you love me. That's enough. And our one-story
building will be just as accepted and commended in his sight as
the 2,700-foot tall buildings that the great man have erected
because it was done out of love. She did what she could. Why did
she do it? She loved me. The widow, she
had only one mind, but she put it in. Why? Because she loved
me. She loved me. Rooted and grounded
in love. God bless His Word.