Open your Bibles with me to Matthew
chapter 14. I want to read a familiar story,
one we often make reference to. I think one that's good to hear
from the Scriptures again. And remind us of our Lord's saving
grace. as you know, the turbulence of
the sea all throughout the scripture. is used symbolically to represent
the uncertainties of life for us. The turbulence of trials
and persecutions and troubles that we go through. And it was
particularly true of the Jews. The Jews were not known ever
for being seafaring people. They were an agrarian culture
and they were pretty much locked to the land throughout all their
existence. And the sea was a very uncertain,
fearful thing for them. And here we have this story beginning
in verse 22, Matthew chapter 14. And straightway Jesus constrained
his disciples to get into a ship. And to go before him unto the
other side, while he sent the multitude away, the feeding of
the five thousand had just taken place. And when he had sent the
multitude away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray, and
when the evening was come, he was there alone. And the ship
was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with the waves, for the
wind was contrary." A lot of things in this world that are
contrary to us. A lot of wind blows in the direction
we wish it wouldn't. And in the fourth watch of the
night, Jesus went unto them walking on the sea. He walks on troubled
waters. And when the disciples saw him
walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit.
And they cried out for fear. But straightway, immediately,
Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer, it is I. Be
not afraid. And Peter answered him and said,
Lord, if it be thou, bid me to come unto thee on the water.
Enable me to walk where you walk. above these troubles. And he
said, come. That was his warrant for stepping
out. The Lord's command was to come.
And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on
the water to go to Jesus. But as he was looking to Christ,
in his peripheral vision, he saw the wind and the waves. Isn't
that the way it is? Lord says, come, we come, we
fix our eyes on him, but in our peripheral vision, there's a
lot of things going on that cause us to turn away. When he saw the wind and the
voice, the wind boisterous, he was afraid and beginning to sink,
he cried, saying, Lord, save me. Peter prayed two prayers
that are very brief like this. One of them is here, Lord save
me. The other one was Lord depart from me. Remember that? The Lord answered this one. I
know Peter's glad he didn't answer the other one. Immediately, Jesus
stretched forth his hand. Immediately. As soon as he said,
Lord save me, he stretched forth his hand and called him and said
unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And
when they were coming to the ship, the wind ceased. And when they were in the ship,
and they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying
of a truth, Thou art the Son of God. So many wonderful applications
to that story in our lives. Donald called me this afternoon. He's having some outpatient surgery
in the morning and will be staying with his son for a week or two
for recovery. We may miss him on Sunday. I know he's got a cell phone.
It's on the church list, so if you'd like to call him after.
He's going in at 7 in the morning and maybe by later tomorrow or
by the next day you can probably catch him on the phone. going
to be going to spend the night with his son tomorrow night,
so he won't be in the hospital. But he asked if we'd pray for
him, so let's pray together. Our gracious Heavenly Father,
we come to you Confessing, you Lord, that there
are storms all about us that would overtake us, and we are in need of your grace
and your mercy. We are fraught with fears, with
doubts, and we're so easily distracted and so prone to look away. We
ask, Father, that you would cause your word to work effectually
in our hearts and give us the grace to look this hour to Christ
and to be reminded once again of how it is that you save us
from all our troubles. Deliver us. We ask it in Christ's
name and for his sake. Amen. Would you open your Bibles with
me to Ephesians chapter 3? Ephesians 3. I suppose it's safe to say that
all of us at one time or another have had the experience of fainting. I know growing up I used to have
a lot of episodes where if I stood up too quick I'd be on the ground.
And I would faint. I don't know what it was, but
nevertheless it happened a lot. But the fainting that's being
spoken of in our text is very similar to the experience of
fainting physically. A lot of parallels to be made. The Apostle Paul in Ephesians
chapter 3 verse 13 says, Wherefore, I desire that you faint not,
faint not at my tribulation for you, which is your glory. And when a person faints physically,
they have symptoms of dizziness. They get disoriented. And the
same thing is true. when a person is experiencing
spiritual fainting. They get disoriented. They can't
tell which way is the right way. Things get blurry. And the vision
gets blurred when you're going to faint. Everything just gets
sort of fuzzy and then it blacks out. And when a person is fainting
spiritually, The same things happen. They lose sight of Christ
and the eyes of their heart become blurred and dizzy. A person,
when they faint, gets weak-kneed. Their legs can no longer support
the weight of their body and they collapse, fall down. When a person is fainting spiritually,
The same thing happens. We get weak-kneed. We can't stand
firm on the rock that the Lord has provided for us in Christ.
And we find ourselves wobbling. And oftentimes we fall. When a person is going to faint
physically, their speech is slurred. They can't speak straight. They
can't talk clearly. And the same thing is true when
a person is fainting under the trials and troubles of this life
in the spiritual sense. They can't speak clearly. They
can't offer up clear words of praise and thanksgiving to God.
They can't witness clearly. Their speech is slurred. Now, all of these physiological
symptoms are caused by one thing. For one reason or another, the
brain is being deprived of blood. And in that blood, of course,
is the oxygen that keeps us lucid and awake. And the same thing
is true, isn't it? When a person is fainting spiritually,
it is because they are being deprived of the blood. It is the blood of Christ that
keeps the soul alert and strong. Let me show you that in Hebrews
chapter 12. Verse 1, wherefore seeing we
also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses.
Now those witnesses were just mentioned in the previous chapter.
Many of those people who are listed as men and women of great
faith, when we read their stories in the Old Testament, we find
that they had fainting spells. They had spiritual moments in
their lives where they lost sight of the blood of the sacrificial
lamb. And they became weak-kneed. And
they became blurred in their vision. and their speech was
slurred. But nevertheless, he says, working
past about with such great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside
every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us. What
is that sin? Unbelief. And let us run with
patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was
set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God, for consider."
Consider. Now, that's the only place where
this Greek word is used in the New Testament. And it's the word
from which we get our word, analyze. It's translated, consider here. Look closely at the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Consider him that endured such
contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied
and faint in your minds, you see. What is the remedy for fainting? Well, it is looking to Christ,
the author and the finisher of our faith. and considering what
he went through for us, and looking to that precious fountain of
blood that flows from Emmanuel's veins. That's what gets oxygen
back into the soul, isn't it? Look what he says in verse 4,
you've not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation
which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son despise not
thou chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou rebuke of
him." Some of the fainting that believers experience is caused
by the chastisement of our Heavenly
Father. You know, the symptoms of fainting
physically are also part of the cure. The symptoms of fainting physically
are the body's way of recovering from that fainting spell. Why
do we get dizzy? Why do we get disoriented? Why
do we get weak-kneed? The vast majority of fainting
doesn't take place when people are sitting down or when they're
lying down. It happens when they're standing
up. Why does the body react in such a way in order to get the
head down? Isn't that true? So that the blood can get back
into the brain. You know, the same thing's true
when we faint spiritually, isn't it? Our fainting spells are designed
to bring us down. And there's no better place to
be than in that posture of prayer. Look at verse 14 in Ephesians chapter
3. He says in verse 13, I desire
that you faint not. And then in verse 14 he says,
for this cause I bow my knees unto the Father. That's a good
posture to be in to recover from fainting. Get on your knees and
put your head down but look between your knees and you'll get over
it. Isn't that true? So when we are experiencing physical
fainting as a result of losing sight of the blood of Christ,
good posture to get ourselves into is to bow our knees before
our Heavenly Father and bow our heads in prayer. Seek His grace
and consider Christ. Analyze Him. Look closely at
who he is. Oh, there is a fountain filled
with blood. There is a fountain. There's
sufficient blood to provide plenty of oxygen to the soul, to keep
us alive and well. It's drawn from Emmanuel's veins.
Sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. There is power in the blood.
There's life in the blood. The blood is our life. Physically, our life is in the
blood. Spiritually, our life is in the
blood of Christ. The dying thief rejoiced to see
that fountain in his day, and there may I, though vile as he,
wash all my sins away. The remedy for fainting is to
get blood back into the soul. And the scripture says, well,
here's what God said. He said, when I see the blood,
then I'll pass over you. Those Israelites were trusting
in the blood of the sacrificial lamb that had been put on the
doorposts and the lintel of their little houses to keep that death
angel away. They were trusting in the blood.
They couldn't see the blood. They were on the inside of the
house. But they were trusting in that blood that had been put
out there. We don't see physically the blood. But we know the Lamb's been slain. We know the blood's been shed.
And our hope from fainting is that God will see the blood,
and when he does, he will pass over us. You see, spiritual fainting,
just like physical fainting, is designed in order to sit us
down, in order to stop us in our tracks
and cause us to be seated. Consider him, lest you faint. ponder, think on, analyze the
person of Christ. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
40. Isaiah 40, a very familiar passage. We'll often quote the first few
verses of that chapter. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith the Lord. Speak ye comfortably to them.
Tell them that warfare is accomplished. I love that passage of Scripture.
But look at the end of the chapter, verse 30. Even the youths, even
those who are strong and stalwart, even the youths shall faint and
be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But, but, Those
who are faint-hearted. And, you know, here's the thing
about it. If you're physically fainting and you ignore the symptoms and refuse to sit down right
away and get your head down, you're going to fall and hurt
yourself. So when the symptoms of spiritual
fainting begin to creep up and we begin to feel those first
signs of losing sight of Christ, It's a good thing to sit down
and wait upon the Lord, the trust in Him. But they that wait upon
the Lord, they shall renew their strength. They shall mount up
with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Not faint. Paul says of these
Ephesians, he says, Oh, I pray that you faint not. And for this
very reason, I bow my knees to the Father. I cry out to Him
on your behalf that you faint not. Alright, look back to our
text in Ephesians chapter 3. Verse 14, For this cause, because
I desire that you faint not, for this cause I bow my knees
unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family
in heaven and earth is named. Now he's talking about the family
of God. He's talking about all the elect, all the elect angels,
all the elect saints, make up one family. We have one God and
one Father of us all. And he says, that's who I pray
to. I'm not praying to some figment of my imagination. I'm praying
to the God who is able to strengthen you. to get that blood flowing
again, and to enable you to stand, in spite of the trials, in spite
of the troubles, in spite of your weaknesses. For this cause I bow my knees,
of whom the whole family, every one of God's people have the
same Father. Now I know the world likes to
talk about God being father of us all, and was with some relatives
recently, One of my uncles was talking
about playing golf with a Catholic and an Episcopalian and a Baptist
and some other denomination. And my uncle thought it was cute.
He spoke up and he said, well, we got all the bases covered.
And my aunt said, well, at least we're all going to the same place. You know, that's not what scripture
teaches. There's one God. One Father. One Baptism. One
Lord. One Gospel. And that's who we
are to bow our knees unto. Now I want you to notice also
here that Paul's not particularly talking about praying for himself,
though I'm sure that there were many times when he found himself
doing this for himself. during times of spiritual feigning
spells. But he's talking about praying
for the Ephesians. And the encouragement here is
that another remedy for our own spiritual dilemmas is to pray
for one another. Oh, we ought to always pray for
ourselves. But what a strength of soul it is to find ourselves
interceding for each other. I suspect that we would find
fewer episodes of being faint ourselves if we bowed our knees
to our Father on behalf of one another and interceded for and
prayed for each other. Verse 16, here's what he prays,
that he would grant. Now this word translated grant
here is almost in every other, I think 352 times or something
like that, translated give. Give. It is the word give. It is a gift. That he, this is
what I'm praying to our Heavenly Father for, that he would give
you. If you don't earn it, he's going to have to give it to you.
and he's going to give it as we ask for it, accordingly. But he's got an inexhaustible source of grace to give, doesn't
he? Out of the riches of his glory. How rich is that? Well, I've said before, Bill
Gates is a pauper in the sight of God. The riches of his glory,
he's got Oh, he's got sufficient. Paul puts it like this in Philippians
chapter 4. He says, My God shall supply
all your need according to the riches of His glory in Christ
Jesus. All your need. Everything you
need, He'll supply it. Turn with me to Colossians chapter
1. Colossians chapter 1. Verse 27. To whom God would make
known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the
Gentiles. Which is Christ in you, the hope
of glory. What is the evidence of Christ
in you? The Spirit of Christ in us is
what causes us to cry out to our Heavenly Father and call
Him Abba Father. It's what causes us to approach
Him as a Son rather than a slave, isn't it? This is the evidence
of Christ in us. This is the riches of His grace. The riches of His grace is that
we'd be able to come before the throne of grace with boldness
and call out to Him as a Father and receive His pity and His
mercy and His grace. This is what He's talking about. And this is what a fainting soul
needs. A fainting soul needs the evidence
of his presence and the power of his presence. Look what else
he says in our text. He talks in chapter 3 verse 8
about the unsearchable riches of Christ. This is an inexhaustible source. of spiritual wealth in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 16, that he would grant
you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened
with might by his Spirit in the inner man. That's what we're
to pray for. You see, when the body is fainting,
it needs to be strengthened, doesn't it? That blood flow needs
to be restored to the brain, and the oxygen needs to be received
and the body needs to be made strong again. Well, the same
thing's true of the inner man, the spiritual man. This is not
a physical body he's talking about. This is the new nature
made in us in the spirit and person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And this is the man that's strengthened when we're fainting. He says,
I pray that the Spirit of God would give you power. Well, the
Lord Jesus Christ said in Acts chapter 1, you remember when
He was ascending back into glory, and the disciples said, Lord,
is it time now for you to restore the kingdom? And the Lord said,
it's not for you to know the time nor the seasons. But, but,
the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and He's going to give you
power. Power. Same word here, deutamos.
Word from which you get our word, dynamite. It's power. He's going to give you power.
He's going to strengthen your inner man. He's going to lead
you into all truth. He's going to point you to Christ.
You see, if we are to look to that fountain of blood that flows
from Emmanuel's veins, if we are to trust in that blood of
the sacrificial lamb, If we are to have oxygen restored to our
souls, it will be the work of the Holy Spirit. He's the one
that leads us to Christ. He's the one that reminds us.
He's the one that teaches us. He's the one that convicts us
of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. So we pray that
the Spirit of God would do His work in our hearts, causing us
to be strengthened in the inner man. with the power that only
he has to give. We are impotent when it comes
to overcoming the things that would cause us to faint. We are dependent upon him. The
outer man is always perishing, but the inner man is renewed
day by day, isn't he? You know, I think that one of
the reasons that the Lord has designed this body to deteriorate
more and more as we get closer to closer to death is to remind
us of our need to have the inner man strengthened. You know, it's
said that when, and it's true, when a person loses one's sense
one of their five senses, the other senses become more acute
to make up the slack, to make up the difference. If you put
a blindfold on for just a few minutes, all right, I'm going
to close your eyes, while wide awake, put a blindfold on for
just a few minutes, you'll notice in just those few minutes that
you'll begin hearing things that you didn't hear when you had
your eyes open. And a person who's permanently blind has usually
very acute hearing. And so you lose one thing and
you depend on something else. And so the same thing is true
with our physical bodies as we begin to lose the strength of
youth and become even more and more frail and feeble towards
the end of our lives. The Lord is reminding us of our
need to look to Him and to become strengthened in a place where
the physical body, the more it deteriorates, the stronger the
inner man can be. We lose one in order that the
other might become more acute, more able to analyze that which
is true about Christ. So Paul's praying for these Ephesians
that they faint not, and he's saying, oh, that he would give
to you according to the unsearchable riches of his glory, which is
Christ in you, to be strengthened with power by his Spirit in the
inner man. The inner man. Physical exercise profiteth little,
the Scripture says. We ought to try to be in as good
a health as we can and feel better and live better, I suppose. But the Scripture says it profiteth
little. It doesn't last long and it doesn't
get us very... Not compared to holiness and
righteousness and the strengthening of the inner man. That's the
most important thing, isn't it? That's the most important thing.
And that's what will keep us from fainting spiritually. Verse 17, that Christ may dwell in your
hearts. Now the word dwell here is not
that He would be there, He is there. He's promised to never
leave us nor forsake us. Christ in you is the hope of
glory. But you know, two people can
live together in the same house and have very little communication. I've seen it. You see it with
your teenagers, they're always busy doing stuff, or your kids
are involved, and every once in a while parents say, wait
a minute, we need to have some family time here, we need to
sit down and get acquainted. Husbands and wives can become
so busy with their own routines that they lose touch with one
another. And that's what he's talking
about here. That's what he's talking about. He's saying that
Christ may dwell in you, that you might enjoy his company and
his communication and his fellowship. He's there, but you've gotten
too busy. Too busy to sit down, enjoy a
meal with him. Too busy to receive from him
those gifts of grace that He has to give to His children.
That's the way it is, isn't it, for us? We just get so wrapped
up in things of this world. But that's the reason that we
faint spiritually. We faint spiritually because
we lose sight of Him. He's in the same house with us.
Well, what did the Lord say to Peter after he started to sink
in the water? I said, why did you have so little
faith? Why did you look away from me? Why did you let those
circumstances out there in your peripheral vision take your attention
away from me? That's the reason you sank. That's
the reason you began to faint. And that fainting spell you had
caused you to call out, save me Lord. And immediately I did. Immediately. You see the very
symptoms of fainting. just like in the spiritual, in
the physical realm, are designed as part of the solution. They're
there to cause us to come down, to bow before Him. He says that
Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. That you would look to Christ,
that you would trust in Him, that you would rely upon Him,
that you would consider Him. And this isn't a, it's not something
that happens in the body, it's not something that happens just
in the mind, it's something that happens in the heart. It's a
heart issue. This is a focus of the affections
and the emotions of the heart upon the person of Christ. Christ
may dwell in your hearts. That's his dwelling place. That
you being rooted and grounded. Now he's using two different
word pictures here. One of a tree and one of a building.
The word grounded here is foundation. What's the strength of a tree?
It's its root stock. That's the strength of a tree. It's interesting to me that in
horticulture we do things just the opposite of what God does.
But that's the way the Lord is all the time, isn't it? He says,
my ways are not your ways. You plant a seed, Jim, from one
of your oranges and you'll get an orange tree, but you won't
be able to eat those oranges. They'll be wild oranges. They'll
be so sour you can actually use the juice to cook chicken with
them just right off the tree. You can't eat it. But I'll tell
you what they do. They take that seed and plant
an orange tree and they take the rootstock from that wild
tree and they graft in a hybrid branch in order to produce
the good fruit. Because that rootstock is hardy and it produces the good fruit. You know, we're the wild olive
branch that's been grafted into the good rootstock, aren't we?
It's just the opposite, the way the Lord does it. But nevertheless,
the strength of a tree is in its roots. He says that you might
be rooted and grounded, planted by rivers of living water. The roots go down deep into the
wellspring of nourishment. and grounded that your foundation
will be laid upon the cornerstone, the Lord Jesus Christ." So he's
the root? Well, Job put it like this. Job
said, the root of the matter is in me. And he was speaking
of Christ. Paul said he's the cornerstone,
the stone which the builder rejected has become the head of the corner. That Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith. That you be enrooted and grounded. Foundation. In what? In love. You see, if the Lord gives us
grace to look to Christ, we're going to be overwhelmed with
His love. And His love for us Well, it's
seen most clearly. It's seen most clearly. I mean,
we know the Lord provides for us and He enables us and teaches
us and so many loving expressions that we enjoy day by day from
our relationship with Him. But where is the most clear picture
of His love for us? Greater love hath no man than
this, that he laid down his life for a friend. God so loved that
he gave. The love of God is seen in the
shedding of Christ's precious blood on Calvary's tree. That's
where we see his love. That's the love, that's the blood
that brings oxygen back to the soul. That's the remedy for a
fainting heart. It's to look to Calvary, it's
to look to the cross, it's to see what Christ has done for
us in His doing and in His dying. He came into this world out of
love for His people. He suffered the opposition of
men. He opened not His mouth as a
sheep going to the slaughter. Why? Because of His love. He
did all out of love. He maintained perfect obedience
to the law because of His love for His Father. His love for
His people. And when Christ dwells in our
hearts through faith, we will be rooted and grounded in love. In love. His love will sustain us. All
that blood will flow on it. The breath of God will breathe
again. The vision will become clear. The speech will become unmuttered. Knees will get strong again. We'll be able to stand. when we are grounded and rooted
in His love, look at verse 18, that we may be able to comprehend,
to understand with all the saints. You see, all of God's people have the same
understanding of His love. In terms of its
breadth and length and depth and height, they all understand
the love of God. What is the breadth of the love
of God? How wide is it? It's wide enough for every single
one of God's sheep. All the elect are captured in
the breath of His love. How long is it? How long is it? From eternity
to eternity. He's loved us with an everlasting
love. Lord, I have loved them to the end, is what the Lord
Jesus said, and He will love us for all eternity. Nothing. You see, true love True love. People talk about, well I, you
know I used to love my spouse, well I fell out of love with
him. True love never faileth. Never faileth. His love is true,
and the length of it is from eternity to eternity. That's
the breath, it's to all the elect, that's the length from eternity
to eternity. What's the depth of God's love? To save the chief
of sinners, that's the depth of it. The depth of it goes deep enough
to the deepest part of the sea to pull out the worst of all
sinners. And I find great hope in that
because I can say with all honesty with
the Apostle Paul Christ came to save sinners,
of whom I am chief. Now, we're not trying to compete
with one another to see who the chief of sinners is, but every child
of God knows their own hearts, their own fainting
spells, their own unbelief, their own lack of faith, their own
affections for this world better than they know anybody else.
And every child of God knows how much love and grace and mercy
has been lavished upon them. And every child of God stands
before God and says, Oh Lord, you had to go to the bottom to
get me. And you keep scraping me off the bottom. That's the depth of His love.
There's no center outside of His reach. Those things which are not, is
what he says. How high is it? He says that you might be able
to comprehend what is the breadth and the length and the depth
and the height. What's the height of His love? To take us to glory,
that's the height of His love. His glory. Christ in you, the
hope of glory. To be made like Him, to live
with Him. in eternal glory and bliss for
all eternity. That's the height of His love. You know, when John describes
in the book of Revelation, chapter 21, this heavenly Jerusalem that
comes down, he measures it out. Let's look at that just a moment.
Revelation, chapter 21. We'll close with this verse. Look at verse 15. Revelation 21, verse 15. And
he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and
the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. And the city lieth foursquare. It's a cube. It had depth, it
had height, it had breadth, and it had length. And they were
all the same. And the length, as large as the
breath, and he measured the city with a reed, twelve thousand
furlongs." Now you know that this is symbolic language, but
you know what the word twelve is. It's completeness, it's perfect,
it's eternal. This city is big enough to hold
the 144,000, all the twelve tribes of Israel, all the people of
God. This is the breadth, and the
height, and the length, and the depth of his love. and to know
the love of Christ which passeth knowledge." Well, you ever fainted? I think I still faint on a regular
basis. I don't faint physically like
I used to, but I sure have a lot of weak spells, spiritually. And the Lord's given us here
a remedy for that problem. Bow
your knees. Lower your head. Consider Him. The oxygen of God's grace and
the blood of Christ will flow through our souls and strengthen
our hearts in His love. In His love. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we do thank
you that you don't give up on fainting souls. We pray, Lord, that you would
strengthen us by your Spirit in the inner man with power to
look to Christ. We pray for our brother Donald.
We ask, Lord, that you administer health to him tomorrow through
the physicians. Thank You for His testimony and
for the evidence of Your grace toward Him. We pray that You would grow us all
together. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.