I want to begin reading to you
again in Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 16. That He would grant you, according to the riches of His
glory, the riches of His grace, His love, His strength, His power,
to be strengthened with might by His Spirit, by His sovereign
Spirit, and the inner man, the new 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,
the length, the depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ
which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the
fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to
do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according
to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the
church by Jesus Christ throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. The title of my message this
morning is found there in verse 19, To Know the Love of Christ. Now I've asked you to be patient
this morning. I don't intend to keep you very long in the
afternoon service, and I hope this don't take too long, but
if it does, please be patient. This ain't a subject that we
can cover so quickly, To Know the Love of Christ. This was
Paul, I begin reading to you here, This was some request. This was the first request that
the Apostle Paul had as he prayed. And I want you to notice here
how these verses, they progress as we go. And one of the things
that scares me about myself, and I'm concerned with it about
you, that as we progress in this epistle, As the epistle progresses,
we won't be able to progress with it. That's my concern for
myself. I don't want to be left behind.
And this epistle is progressing. Paul begins. Here, let me give
you an example of this. He begins in verse 12 and he
tells us that we have access. We saw that in chapter 2. Access
to the Father. We have a door open to us to
the Father through Jesus Christ. And then what's the very next
thing that he tells us? I therefore bow my knee to the
Father. I pray. I take advantage of this
access. Is there a door? Is there access
to the Father? I'm going to take advantage of
it. I'm going to enter that door. See how he progresses? If there's
no door, If there's no access, we're not going to pray. What
good would it do us? But since there is an access,
that's the foundation of our entrance into the Father's presence.
Therefore, he says, let us pray. Let us bow. And then, notice
how the prayers itself, the requests, notice them, how they progress. In verse 16 through verse 19,
The first thing He begins with in verse 16, that He would grant
you. That He would grant you. What
is the first thing that you and I need to realize as we seek
the Father? One of the first things as we
bow our knee to Him, that whatever He gives us is a grant. It's a gift. We can't marry anything. We can't earn anything. It's
a grant. Lord, give us this. Give us this. Here's a recognition that our
growing in grace, our maturing as a Christian, it's a grant. We didn't give ourselves this
new life. And you know something, brothers
and sisters, we can't strengthen the life that's been given us.
It's Him that comes from Him. And therefore we go right to
Him and we say, Lord grant, grant strength for this inner man.
You created me in you. You made me a new creature. Strengthen
this new creature. You give him a new life. Strengthen
that new life that you give. It's a grant. And I would think
if God is willing to give a man a new life and He does it, He'll
uphold that life. He's willing to do that. So Paul
says, go right to Him and say, Lord, grant this and grant that. Brother Glenn told us a few months
ago as he took us through the 15th chapter of John that we
can't do anything in ourselves except we abide in Him. Therefore,
go to Him and tell Him this and ask Him to do these things for
us. And then in verse 17, the first thing then, we pray. We
ask this of Him, grant it, grant it according to the riches of
your glory, to be strengthened, to be strengthened. See how He
progresses? We know that we need this from
the Lord. We go to Him and we ask it and
He strengthens the inner man. The first thing we need before
anything else is to be strengthened. Why do we need strength? Well,
he tells us in verse 17, that Christ may dwell in your hearts
by faith. How is Christ retained in the
heart? By the strength of faith. That's the only way that we can
retain Christ in the heart. This inner man is the one that
gets hold of Him and retains Him. So if we're going to retain
Christ in the heart, we need strength. The strength of faith. See how He's progressing? It's
progressive. We need strength to retrain Christ
in the heart. And then verse 18, that we may
be able to comprehend with all saints. What is the breath? Length, depth, and height, and
so on. What does this word comprehend
have to do with? It has to do with our mental
capacities. We can't perceive, that's what
this word means, to grasp, hold up, for oneself, we grasp hold
of a spiritual truth. How are we going to do that if
we don't have the mental capacity to grasp hold of it? The spiritual
capacity. I told you about the person who
took me through the airport and showed me how to get on planes
and fly. And while that person was showing
me the monitors and explaining what those things meant, boy,
the lights just came on. I said, that's obvious to it.
You mean that's it? And I grasped that. I grasped
it for myself. In my intellect, in my mind.
I'm not afraid to go flying now. Because now I can comprehend
something about what's going on. That's what this Word means.
It means we have the mental capacity to grasp something. Why do we
need to pray, brothers and sisters? Because we need this mental capacity
that only God can give us to grasp the depth, and the height,
and the breadth, and the length. To comprehend, to seize upon. Now we come here to verse 19.
To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. The love of Christ is not something
we're born with. We're not born with a knowledge
of the love of Christ. We're not born with a love of
Christ in our own hearts. But Paul says here, we come to
know the love of Christ. That is, we come to seize upon
it. We come to possess the knowledge of Christ's love for ourselves. Paul said, He loved me and gave
Himself for me. Did he always know that? Not
only did he always not know it, he never cared. If you would
have went to Saul of Tarsus and said, Christ loves you, he would
have despised you for telling him that. He didn't care about
Christ and Christ's love. But he come to know it. He seized
upon it for himself in his inner man. This is the very reason
that you and I don't go around telling lost people that Jesus
loves them. That's not the message for lost
people that Jesus loves them. This is the children's bread.
Why don't we go tell the lost people that Jesus loves them?
They're dead in their sins. That's not the message for lost
people. The message for lost people,
and the apostles went preaching this all through the book of
Acts. Repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Why don't we tell lost people
that Jesus loves them? They can't understand that. It's
not even a matter if He does or if He does not. That's not
it at all. They cannot perceive it. They're
a natural person. They don't have this inner man.
Here's the whole problem, and I told you this a few weeks ago.
The whole problem and the difference in a saved person and a lost
person The same person has this new man. He has this inner man,
this spiritual man. And the lost person, he's a natural
person. And what does the Bible say about
a natural person? He does not understand the things
of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness unto him,
neither can he know them. Why can't he know them? They
are spiritually discerned. Why should we go tell a lost
person, Jesus loves you? Can they perceive that? No. And Paul said that's the only
way to know the love of Christ is to lay hold of it for yourself. But it's not the old man that
lays hold of it. It's this new man. It's this
spiritual man that's been born by God. And the lost do not possess
that spiritual person. I don't say this to offend anybody,
but this is the truth. Until a man is born again, he
cannot know God, he cannot know Christ, he cannot know the love
of Christ, he cannot have the assurance of salvation, because
it's this new man. So we see here in verse 16, strengthened
with might by His Spirit in the inner man for this very reason,
because this inner man is the one that can seize upon, can
comprehend the love of Christ, which passive knowledge, that
you may know the love of Christ. So that's our subject this morning,
and I'll hurry as quick as I can to get through it. In verses
18 and verse 19, that you may know the length, the breadth,
that is the width of anything, the depths, the heights, and
the length, that you may know the love of Christ which passes
knowledge. Here's the way I want to look at this this morning,
and I think here's what the Apostle Paul would have us to do. He
would have us to measure the love of Christ. Measure the breadth
of it. Measure the length of it. Measure
the depth of it. Measure the height of it. And
he says, when you do, when you've reached the extreme, as much
as you can comprehend of these measurements, what you'll find
out is this, the love of Christ passeth knowledge. We get very little of it. But
we try, don't we? We try. And what he would have
us to do, I think, is this. This is one of the ways that
we know something of these measurements of Christ's love. We measure
it by this, by measuring those depths and heights and lengths
and depths and so on that oppose the love of Christ. There are
these measurements in the love of Christ, but there are measurements
also that oppose the love of Christ. Let me show you right
quick what I mean. Look over here to your left in
Romans chapter 8 and verse 35. Romans chapter 8 and verse 35.
If you and I are going to learn something about the deep love
of Christ and the breadth of it and the height and the length
of it, We're going to have to consider some of these things
that oppose the love of Christ. There are breaths that oppose
the love of Christ. There are depths that oppose
it, and so on. I say that because the Apostle
Paul says that in Romans chapter 8, and look in verse 35. Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation,
or distress, Our persecution, our famine, our nakedness, our
peril, our sword? Do these things oppose the love
of Christ? Sure they do. Absolutely they do. As it is
written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are
counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all of these things we
are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death, boy there's a death ain't it, or life, nor
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, there's a height, are
things present, are things to come, there's a length, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of Christ, love of God, which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord." And the Lord Jesus is saying here this. He said,
I have so much confidence in my love for you. that I'm going
to set it against all opposition, everything, death, life, devils,
hell itself. Whatever can come against you
is really not going to be against you, he said, it's going to be
opposing my love, and I'm going to show you which one measures
the deepest and the highest and the widest and the longest. And this is the way, brothers
and sisters, we prove these measurements of Christ's love. Let's look
at them right quickly. First of all, let's consider
some breadths. Breadths, some widths that the
Bible talks about. And there's many of them, but
let's consider just one this morning about this breadth. The
Scripture speaks a lot about breadth of things. One of the
things it talks about as being wide and spreading is our sins. You know the Bible speaks of
sin as leaven, and it speaks of sin as leprosy. And you know
why it talks about sin being like that? Because these things
spread. You ladies, have you ever had
the opportunity to make yeast rolls and that, and you put in
your own yeast? You know what yeast does, don't
you? You sprinkle just a little bit
of yeast in flour, and what does it do? It spreads through the
whole batch. Leaven in the Scriptures denotes
sin, because sin is a spreading thing. Leprosy is sometimes at
the top of sin, because leprosy is a spreading thing. When leprosy
started, it usually started as a little speck. It was either
in your stomach or your arm or your head, but it was just a
little speck. And what it started doing is spreading. It spread
through your whole body. And if they didn't separate you
from people, it would spread into your family. It would spread
into your community. It even got in the walls of the
building. And they had to tear the walls
down. Sin is a spreading thing. You know how sin spread to us
by one man? Committed one sin. By one man,
sin entered into this world, and death by sin, and so death
spread. It spread to everybody. Sin is
a spreading thing. Look how one sin has spread to
every human being. I sometimes think about myself,
and you probably think this about yourself too, that if I was the
only sinner in this world, and nobody else was a sinner, And
I had just one sin in my heart. That sin in me is such a spreading
thing, it would spread throughout all my heart. Then it would spread
to my family. Then it would spread through
the community. And then it would spread and corrupt an entire
world. Because sin is a spreading thing. Have you ever felt it spreading
in you? And sometimes you get afraid
of your sin because it starts spreading and you can't stop
it. It gets in your affections. It gets in your will. It gets
in your motives. And you say, my soul, is sin
going to spread that it's corrupted the entire man? My love for Christ,
my faith, my motives, my affection. That's what sin does. It's a
spreading thing. Is there anything that is wider
than the spreading of our sins? Yes, there is. Thank God there
is. And you know what it is, brothers
and sisters? The love of Christ. You know what the Bible says
about the love of Christ? Love covers a multitude of sin. Ain't that a wonderful thing?
When you feel like your sin has spread, that is spread all through
you and it scares you? Isn't it a wonderful thing to
know that the love of Christ is of such a breadth that it
spreads out wider than your sins? You remember when the Lord told
the Jews and He likened them to that little baby in Ezekiel
chapter 16 that was cast out as soon as it was born? The Lord said, you're like a
little baby and your navel wasn't even cut. And they throwed you
there in the ditch line. And you lay there polluted in
your blood. You were filthy. And the hot
sun began to shine on you. And you began to stink in your
dried blood. You were a filthy, corrupt person. And He said, I passed by you
and I saw you in that awful condition. And I said to you, live. Live. And He said, when I passed by
you, now listen to this, behold, your time was a time of love,
and I spread My skirt over you, and I covered your nakedness.
I covered your corruption, your shame, and I entered into a covenant
with you, and I thoroughly washed you from your blood, and I anointed
you with oil. I spread My skirt over you. Isn't that wonderful, brothers
and sisters? What does sin do? It spreads in us and exposes
our nakedness and exposes our shame to our own hearts. And it makes us so afraid. And
we feel this awful corruption. But here comes the love of Christ.
And it spreads completely over us. And covers our sin. Covers
our shame. Covers all our nakedness. Oh, to know the love of Christ. to know the love of Christ in
the breath of it. David, poor thing, he looked
up on the housetop, he looked down there at that woman, and
that lust, that leaven started there in his heart. And boy, it began to spread.
Sin for that woman. I want that woman. And then what
happened? The lust that was in his heart
spread to his physical person. He committed adultery with it.
But it didn't stop spreading. Then he committed murder. But
it didn't stop there. Then he lied. And it didn't stop
there. He played the hypocrite. And
finally, it seemed like his sin just spread and was ready to
spread over the nation of Israel itself. And the Lord come to
him and awoke him and stopped him. And you hear him praying
this prayer. Oh, Lord, have mercy upon me
according to Your loving kindness." Why did he pray like that? Why
did he talk about the loving kindness of the Lord? Because
he said, there's a breath that I see in you that's so wide that
it only can cover my sins. Oh, Lord, loving kindness. Oh,
aren't you glad for the love that covers your sins? Bless
the Lord Jesus for it. The length, not only the breadth,
but He talks here about a length. And what does it matter how wide
the length of Christ is if there is not a length to it? If it
covers but it doesn't have a length, it means so little. And we have
something here of the length. Look here in Ephesians chapter
2. Look what the Apostle says in
Ephesians chapter 2. He tells us something here of
the length. Let me dwell on this just for a second. Because I
think if you and I are going to see the length of the love
that's in Jesus Christ, we're going to have to see a length
that was in opposition to that love. And look what the Apostle
says in chapter 2 of Ephesians in verse 13. Here's a length.
Look just at three of them right quickly. But now, in Christ Jesus, you
who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
Paul said there was a length in your distance from God and
salvation. How far off were we, brothers
and sisters? Look what he says in verse 12. You'll have to discern
this for yourself in your own situation. Look in verse 12.
Here's how far off we were. At that time, you were without
Christ. If a man is without Jesus Christ,
how far off is he? He's not near God, is he? He's
not near heaven, is he? If a man is without Christ, he's
without life. If a man is without Christ, he
is without help. If a man is without Christ, he
is without any light. All of these things are in him.
If you can measure salvation and damnation, there is the measurement. There is how far we were off without Christ. I cannot even
begin to measure that, can you? You just have to feel it and
tremble that that is where we were. But he adds this to it,
you were without Hope. What is it to be without hope?
Well, if a man's without hope, he's ready to perish. If a man's
without hope, it means there's nothing standing in his way of
going to hell. Without hope. If you're here
this morning and you're without hope, the very next breath could
be your last. And if you're without hope, what's
going to happen to you? if the next heartbeat you had
was your last and you were without hope. He didn't say you had a
little hope, or you had hope that someday you may have hope,
or somebody else had hope for you. He said the fact is this,
you were so far off, you were all together without hope. No matter what you thought about
it, that's how far off you were. What does it mean, brothers and
sisters, to be without hope? Don't you remember that? Looking
back on it now, don't you remember? I was thinking last night, I
was just sitting there in my house thinking, and all these
times come to me that I could have been killed. I mean, I thought
seven or eight times, just flooded into my mind, I could have been
killed. You probably had some of those times too, didn't you?
And you too. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? If the hand of the Lord had not
upheld you and protected you, what if you had died in that
situation? You would have fallen off. God
wouldn't have helped you. Angels would have not helped
you. There would have been no grounds for you to enter heaven.
You would have perished. Why? Because if you were without
hope, that's what happened. You perished. And look at this. Look what else he says. Without
God. without God and the world. I was reading this in the commentaries,
and I wanted to read enough of it to make sure this is what
this meant, because I don't read any Greek, but they said this
literally renders, without God, atheist. Atheist. Now, when you and I think of
atheist, we don't think of everybody being atheist, do we? But you
know the Bible only recognizes one faith. Do you ever notice
that as you read your Bible? The Bible sets forth two kinds
of people in this world, those who believe God and those who
do not. These things have I written unto
you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may
know that you have eternal life. But what about those who do not
believe Him? They've made Him liars because
they believe not the record that God gave of His Son. They who
believe the Son, they have life. They who believe not the Son,
shall not see life. But the wrath of God abideth
on him. We think of atheists as somebody that denies God.
Somebody that just don't believe God at all. But Paul is saying,
that's the condition all of you are in. You were so far off,
you were atheists. Somebody said, now listen, I
wasn't an atheist. Now, I believed in God. Well, let me ask this
question. In the light of eternity, what
good is that faith? In the light of eternity, is
that faith any better than the faith that somebody who doesn't
believe in God at all has? So God doesn't even recognize
it. The Scriptures don't even recognize it. We were atheists! I was reading that two portions
of Scripture. One of them is in Psalms 14,
and one of them is in Psalms, I think, 53. And it said this,
and I was reading this, and I thought, well, that's true. What Paul
is saying, we were atheists, is true. The fool hath said in
his heart, there is no God. How many times have all of us
read that, and we say, well, I know I was lost, but at least
I wasn't an atheist. Haven't we all said that? Thank
God I wasn't an atheist. Have you ever read that complete
psalm? Go back and read it sometime.
When he said, The fool hath said in his heart there is no God,
here's what he said immediately. There is none that understandeth,
there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way. They are altogether become filthy. They are all gone back. There
is none that doeth good, no, not one. And you turn over to
Romans chapter 3, and the Apostle Paul, he quotes that chapter,
and he applies it to every unregenerated man. Every unregenerated man says
in his heart, there's no God. There's no God. He's an atheist. He's an atheist. How far off
is he? He's an atheist. He's an atheist. See how far you were, brothers
and sisters. What good did your faith do you? There's all kinds
of faith, but there's just one the Bible recognizes. The faith
of God's elect. The faith that's a gift of God.
The faith that's in Christ. The faith that has rich foundation
in the Word of God. Everything else is nothing. It's not saved. If you and I
want to grasp the length of this love of Christ, let us grasp
something of the distance we were at. when he found us. How far from God, from Christ
and hope were we? Do you have any sense of it in
your heart? Have you grasped any of it at
all? If you have, then think about
this. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who sometimes were far off
are made nigh. You're now nigh. And what's at
the root of it all? We know the means. It's by the
blood. It's by the cross. But what's
the cause of it? Love. Love. Listen to this. If any of you
be driven, you be driven out unto the utmost parts of heaven. From thence will the Lord your
God gather you, and from thence will He fetch you. Now, I don't
know who could be any farther than the utmost parts of heaven. That's a long way off, isn't
it? And he said, suppose there's
a case where some of you are driven that far off. He said,
my love is so great, from there I'll come and get you. And I'll
fetch you. That's love, ain't it? Oh yes,
we were far off. A great length. But there is
something that reached beyond the length. And that was the
love of Christ. Remember Him told about losing
one of His sheep? I lost one of My sheep, He said.
And I left the 99 in the wilderness and I went after that one. I
went after Him. But how far off had the dumb
sheep wondered? Who knows? Let it be into the
uttermost part of heaven, or even earth, or wherever it is.
I'm telling you, there's such length in the love of Christ
that it will go as far as that elect sinner has gone, and it
will fetch him home to the foe. That's love. That's love. Yes, we were a long way off.
We tremble now to think of it. But I tell you, knowing something
about our distance from God and Christ and hope, it helps us
to see the love of Christ and the length in it. It doesn't
matter. Oh, that's the hope that we have
for some of our loved ones too, ain't it? We see how far they've drifted.
No interest. Haters of God. Long way off. I have loved you. with an everlasting
love. That's a long time, isn't it?
That's a long time. You go backyard in eternity.
Christ says, I love you. I love you. You go out in eternity
to come. He said, I love you. There's
no length to my love. How are you going to measure
everlasting? There's but one thing that's everlasting, and
that's God Himself. I love you with myself. Our Lord had a terrible time
with His little band of apostles and disciples when He was up
on this earth. A terrible time. You talk about ignorance. You
talk about an ignorant bunch of them. You think you're ignorant.
And we think we're sinful and self-righteous. The Lord went down one time and
He was passing through Samaria. And they wouldn't even look at
Him. They didn't want to have anything to do with Him. And
James and John said, Do you want us to call fire down from heaven? Can you just see this? Lord,
do you want us to call fire down from heaven and destroy this
bunch of sinners? You can do that. You rule over the heavens
now, do you? You command the fire to fall
and it does? Oh, you poor sinful bunch, he
said. You don't even know what spirit you are. I didn't come
to destroy their lives. I come to save them. James and John come to him one
day and said, Lord, grant that we could sit on your right hand
and on your left. We want to be exalted right there
with you. We want to rule with you. We
want to tell people when to come out and when to go in. Don't
you just about know, there come a day, not long after this, they
were ashamed of themselves. What in the world was the matter
with us? How shameful. The Lord Jesus was preaching
to His disciples one day about His arrest and betrayal and humiliation
on the cross. And Peter took Him and said,
Shut up! Shut up! What's the matter with
you? You're crazy, man. Nothing like
this is going to happen to you. And the Lord said, Get behind
Me, Satan. Satan? Lord, that's your apostle. That's the chief spokesman. No,
that's Satan. And he's got in Peter's heart. They went out one day and found
a man preaching in Christ's name, casting out devils. And they
said, you stop that. Don't you ever let us catch you
speaking in His name again and casting out devils. And they
had the gall to go tell the Lord about it. Boy, we stopped that.
We put a stop to that. And He said, you know what you
just did? You put a stop to a man who loved Me. A man that I'd
sent. You sinful bunch of apostles. But you know what John 13 says? having loved His own which were
in the world, He loved them unto the end." There's a length in
the love of Christ that goes beyond their ignorance, their
sinfulness, their self-righteousness. It goes beyond them and everything
that's in them that's wrong. It out lengths all of it. No
valley is so long. No saint there be too old. But
Jesus' love is longer still. His love outlives us all. I have loved you. I loved you
back there, and I love you now. You put this Scripture down.
I don't have time to turn over there. I'm going to keep you
too long if I do. Isaiah 43, verses 1-7. You turn over there
sometime and read that and look what a blessing that is. The
love of Christ. The length of it. The depth. The depth. The prophets talked
about the depth. If you read the book of Psalms,
you often hear him mentioning the depths. I was in a horrible
pit. Psalms 40, the mariclet. Psalm
69, I sank in deep waters where there is no standing. I am coming
to the deep waters where the floods overflow me. that whale swallowed Jonah because
of its disobedience, and boy, it dove. If you know anything about whales,
they're not subject to the pressure that man is, and other animals
and fish are. They can dive down to the dark
recesses of the ocean. They put cameras on them and
followed them down into the deep recesses of the ocean. And that's
what happened to Jonah. That whale swallowed him and
went out there in the ocean and just dove. Down he went. Down
he went. Down he went. And you know what
he said? I'm down here at the bottom of
the mountains. Out of the belly of hell, cried I. That's low,
ain't it? Man, that's a depth. How in the
world was he to get out of a depth like that? What would have happened
to him if that whale had vomited him out down there? He'd have
never got out. But he said, I'll look again. I'll look again. I'll look to Christ. I'll look
to the temple. Why did he say that? Because
he perceived in his inner man that there was a depth in the
love of Christ that went underneath where he was, there at the bottom
of the mountain. And he says, you brought up my
life from corruption. You brought it up. Hezekiah said this, when the
Lord told him he was going to die, he turned his face to the
wall and began to cry and pray. And the Lord healed him. And
he said, for peace I had great bitterness. I thought for sure
I was going to die in this awful disease. But thou hast, in love
to my soul, delivered it from the pit of corruption. Thou hast
cast all my sins behind Your back." The depths of the Mother
of Christ. The height. Consider this with
me right quickly. The height. And just as there's
breadth, just as there's depth and length, there's heights. And they're dangerous too. And one of the heights is this. There's many, but one is this.
It's a fear. It's anxiety. Almost sometimes
to the point that we're willing just to give up. That we cannot
attain to God and to the thanks of God. We can't even be a Christian. It seems like the more we find
out of what a Christian is, sometimes the more we almost despair. That
I can love Christ? That I can deny myself? That
I can take up my cross and follow Him? Me? And when this life is over, that
I can go all the way up to heaven? Me? Did you ever look at those
things and you almost despair? that I could sit down and read
the Word of God and enjoy it? The Lord called me to preach.
And I tell you, when I first began to believe that He had
called me to preach, man, it scared me to death. It scared
me to death. And I began to think, man, I
can't do that. There's no way I can do that. I'll tell you
this. If this ever happens, you're probably going to fire me as
your pastor. But there's times, to be honest with you, on Sunday
morning, I'm so apprehensive about coming to this pulpit.
I'm so scared about getting up here before you and opening my
Bible. If some of you called me, if
clerks called me and said, Bruce, the building burnt down last
night, I'd probably say, oh, praise God. Praise God. You heard about that assistant
pastor that set the building on fire? Because he didn't have
anything to say. Did you ever get that apprehensive
about something? I mean, just being a Christian. Just being
a Christian. If you know what being a Christian
is. Can I rise to that? Can I be a follower of God as
a dear child? Paul talks about these depths,
or these heights. He tells us here in chapter 6
and verse 12, he speaks of something about these heights. We wrestle,
not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against spiritual wickedness, and where are they? In high places. High places. In our minds. That's
a high place. In these heavenly places. This
kingdom of Christ. In 2 Corinthians 5.10 he says
this, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth
itself against the knowledge of God. There's imaginations
that's within our minds that exalt themselves against the
knowledge of God, against the knowledge of His grace. against
the knowledge of His goodness and His faithfulness, His gospel,
His Son. And Paul said, you've got to
cast these imaginations down. They're high things. They will
keep you from God. They'll keep you from believing.
They'll keep you from loving. They'll keep you from following.
They'll beat you down. They'll get you just so discouraged.
You'll just give up. You'll despair. These high things,
they're dangerous. The Lord told the children of
Israel to go into the land of promise, into Canaan. He said,
I've given you that land. It's yours. Go in and possess
it. So they sent spies over there to search out the land and see
what it was like. And those twelve spies came back
and they said, we've never seen a place like that in all our
lives. There's wells that's already dug. There's whole orchards that's
full of fruit. There's houses that's already
built. It's a wonderful place, a beautiful... They said, look
what a cluster of grapes that we found. Took two of them just
to carry a cluster. But they said, you know, we can't
go over there. We can't take that place. And they said, why
not? They said, boy, those cities
are walled up to heaven. Now, brothers and sisters, they
probably were high, but walled up to heaven? You couldn't see
them for the clouds? That's pretty eyeing. And they
said those Anakims, those sons of the Anakims over there, those
giants, we was hiding in the bushes watching them walk by,
and we were like little tiny grasshoppers in their sight.
They probably weren't 11 or 12 foot tall. But they weren't that
big. They weren't that big. What had
happened? Their imagination. These high things. had exalted
itself in their minds against the knowledge of God. God said,
I've given it to you. And the devil says, no, he hasn't
really. I've given you these cities. Oh, you can't take them.
You can't take them. You've got to pull those things
down. There's a height, brothers and sisters, that will destroy
us. Is there a height above those heights? Well, is the love of Christ higher
than those? No matter how high those things
are, how high is the love of Christ? The love of Christ is Christ
Himself. Where's He at? He's above everything. He's above
everything. When Moses had died and all those
old men and women had died, The Lord come back again to Joshua
and those young children. He said, now I want you to go
in and possess the lamb. I want you to go in and possess
it. And He said, be strong and of a good courage. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid of those high
walls. Don't be afraid of those giants. Because the Lord thy
God is with thee. and He shall be with you wheresoever
you go." You're going to face those giants? There's a love
that's higher than those giants, bigger than those giants. And
no sooner have they crossed over Jordan, those mighty walls begin
to crumble and those big giants begin to fall. There was something
higher than those things. And what is it? I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, No principalities,
no prayers, no things present, no things to come, nor have can
separate us from the love of Christ. The love of Christ. May God help us to know something
of it. Let's pray.