The Ephesian Church, chapter
1. I want to begin reading verse 15
and finish that chapter. This is the prayer the Apostle
Paul prayed for these believers here in this congregation. And
the thought that I had is found in verse 19. that we will look
at this morning, but let's begin reading this prayer in verse
15. Wherefore I also, after I heard
of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,
cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in
my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding being
enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling,
that you may know what the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints is, and what is the exceeding greatness of his
power to usward who believe. according to the working of His
mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him
from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly
places. For above all principality and
power and might and dominion, and every name that is named,
not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and
has put all things under His feet and gave Him to be the head
over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness
of Him that filleth all in all." My thought this morning is found
here in verse 19, the exceeding greatness of His prayer, of His
power. The exceeding greatness of His
power. And this is what Paul prayed
for these believers, each one of these believers. in this church
that they might know for themselves experimentally in their own hearts
the exceeding greatness of God's power to them. Everywhere in
this universe that you and I look, if we had eyes to see, you and
I would see the power of God. The things that are made, Romans
1 tells us, declares His power, being understood by the things
which are made, even His eternal power. When we look around us,
we look above us, what do we see? We see God's power, don't
we? His power in creating all things. Jeremiah said this, O Lord God,
behold, Thou hast made the heaven, and You have made the earth by
Your great power and Your stretched out arm. And nothing is too hard
for you. Who made all things? God did. How did He do it? By His power.
I want to say this, and I'll say it without any apology. I'll
say it as tender as I can say it. But I'm sincere when I say
this. There are so many in our day
professing believers who are embracing this theory of evolution. What is that but denying the
power of God? They give every excuse for not
simply taking God at His Word. Well, science tells us. Well,
I don't care what science tells you. What does God say? Lord, Thou hast by Your power
created things in heaven and things in earth. And to deny
that God created this universe is to have a form of godliness,
but it's to deny the power thereof. It's become an issue in our day,
did God create this universe or did he not? Or did he just
set in motion and evolution created it and make it all? That's an
issue, isn't it? God by His power did it, and by His stretched out arm. There is a wonderful statement
in Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 3 concerning our Lord Jesus Christ,
and listen to this. He not only made all things by
the word of His power, but He upholds all things by the word
of His power. in high school in a science class,
101 I guess you could call it, that nothing propels itself. Nothing has the energy within
itself to react, to propel itself forward. If you've got a gasoline
engine, you have to put gasoline in. That's what propels it. If
you have an electric motor, you've got to plug it in the wall. If
you have a windmill, the wind's got to blow. If you have solar
panels on your house, the sun has to shine. Nothing propels
itself. Everything has to be propelled
by a power outside of itself. And that's the way everything
in this universe is. That's the way you are, and that's
the way I am. We cannot live or move or have
our being apart from the power of the Son of God. That's what
it means when it says He upholds all things by the word of His
power. I would challenge anybody this
morning, and I'm going to bet with you, you'd probably take
me up and I'd lose some money, but I know this much. You cannot
in your own strength get out of this seat where you're sitting
this morning and walk through those doors except you receive
the power to do it outside yourself. A power that's working in you.
And that's the power of the Son of God. He upholds all things
by the word of His power. Everything functions by His power. But this is not what the Apostle
Paul is talking about this morning. When he's talking about the power
of God, the exceeding greatness of His power, he gets somewhat
specific here. He says in our text, His power
to us-ward who believe, not to the universe, not to inanimate
objects, not to animal objects, not even to the lost, but He's
working in you that believe. Turn over in the third chapter,
in verse 20, he gets more specific here. Look what he says in verse
20 of chapter 3. Now to him that is able to do
exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according
to the power that worketh in us. That's specific, isn't it? The power that worketh And where
is it working? In us. And we could read it like
this, that you might know the exceeding greatness of His power
to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty
power, that He is working in us, in our hearts, in our spirits,
and in our souls. This word in our text, exceeding
It means to go beyond the usual mark. It means to surpass, to
exceed the normal bounds, the exceeding greatness of His power. And this word, greatness, speaks
to the sure magnitude of God's power. So we could read it like
this, that you might know the immeasurable and unlimited and
sovereign and surpassing magnitude of God's power toward you and
for you and in you. That's a wonderful statement,
is it not? I don't know of another passage
of Scripture that speaks to the power of God as this verse does. And it's not talking about His
power in creating the universe. It's not talking about His power
and upholding the universe or guiding all things in His providence,
but it's talking about that exceeding great power that is working in
the hearts of His people. Isn't that amazing? And Paul
said, I want you to know that exceeding great power. And how can we know it? How can
we know the exceeding greatness of this power? I think we learn more of this
power when we see some ways in which it has been working in
us, in our own hearts. Let me give you some ways. We
sometimes read the statement in God's Word that He hath delivered
us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom
of His dear Son. But let us stop just for a minute
and consider the power of Satan. He has delivered us from the
power of Satan and translated us into the kingdom of His dear
Son. Satan has a kingdom, and it is
filled with darkness. And there are multitudes of humanity
who are being helped in that kingdom. It's a prison house. It has bars and they cannot get
out. Satan in the scriptures is described
this way by the Lord Jesus. He's said to be a strong man
who keeps his house. He's a strong power that keeps
the heart. And the Lord Jesus said, the
heart is his goods. Heartlust is Satan's goods. Unbelief is Satan's goods. Prejudice
and hatred to God is Satan's goods. And the Lord Jesus said,
when Satan occupies that heart, he keeps his goods. They're secure. And nobody can get out of his
kingdom. Nobody can get out of that darkness
behind those bars. Except somebody who is stronger
than Satan come where he is and bind him and cast him out of
that heart. That's the only way a person
can be delivered. And what kind of power does it
take to deliver a man from the power of that kingdom, the exceeding
greatness of the power of God? Nothing else will do it. How
did you get out of his kingdom? It wasn't by your own will. It
wasn't by your own strength. There's one way that you got
out of there, remember it, is by this great power, the exceeding
greatness of God's power. The Bible says something else
about the condition that you and I were in and had to be saved
from. The Bible says you were sometimes Now, there's a difference between
being in darkness and be in darkness. A person may be in darkness and
feel his way out and get out of it. But I'm telling you, when
you're darkness itself, how do you get out of that? How do you
get out of yourself? Everywhere you go, you carry
the darkness with you, the darkness of your own nature. What power
does it take to deliver us from this darkness and turn us from
it? I tell you, it takes the power
of God, the exceeding greatness of His love. power. Listen to what our Lord Jesus
Christ said. What a sad indictment against
us, and a fearful indictment, but it's true. Every one that
doeth evil, he hates the light. Neither will he come to the light,
lest his deeds should be manifest. Here's the problem that you and
I have. We are darkness. It's our very
nature, and we cannot love light until we are delivered from this
darkness. And there is but one thing that can deliver a man
from that darkness. And what is it? That is the exceeding
greatness of God's power. The Bible says He has called
you out of darkness. And what a call that is to bring
a man out of himself to God in Jesus Christ. When the Lord had saved Saul
of Tarshish, He sent him to preach the gospel of His grace to the
Gentiles. And here's what He said, I'm
sending you to do. I'm sending you to open their
eyes. Boy, that's a task, isn't it?
Could Paul do that? No wonder he said, who's sufficient
for these things? I'm sending you to turn them
from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that
they may receive forgiveness of sins, and that inheritance
among all them that are sanctified." And I tell you, if this man had
had the trust and his own power to do such a task, he would have
thrown up his hands in despair. But you know what happened? Paul
went to preach the gospel, and as he preached the gospel of
the grace of Jesus Christ, That gospel was attained by the power
of God. And it went to their hearts and
delivered them from darkness, delivered them from the power
of Satan, and transformed them into the kingdom of God's Son.
Paul went and preached to those heathen at Thessalonica. They
were worshippers of idols. And they believed the gospel
that he preached. And later on, he writes a letter
to them to tell them what happened. He said, you turn from idols
to God to worship the true and living God. And he tells them
how that happened. Our gospel came to you, not in
word only. It came in word, but not word
only. But it came in what? Power. He came in power and in much
assurance. What kind of power did He come
in? He came in enough power that it turned them from the worship
of idols to the true and living God, to love Him and worship
Him. And our text tells us here what
kind of power that was. The exceeding greatness of His
power. Nothing else will save us, will
it? That's why you come here this morning and you're saved.
You attribute your salvation, your deliverance to this one
thing, the exceeding greatness of God's power. Thirdly, consider
this, and if we'll consider this, we'll see and know more of the
exceeding greatness of God's power. Consider the difficulties
that grace has to overcome in saving our souls. Look just down
below our text this morning in chapter 2. Look in verse 1 and verse 4 and
5. Ephesians chapter 2 and look
at verse 1. You talk about a difficulty that
had to be overcome. And you hath He quickened, He
has given life to, who were dead in trespasses and sins. And verse
4, But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith
He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ by grace are you saved. Paul is reminding us here what
happened to us in the Garden of Eden. When Adam sinned against
God, what happened to him? He died. He died physically a number of
years later, but immediately he died a worse death. He died
a spiritual death. That's what Paul is reminding
us here. In Adam, All die. By one man's sin entered this
world, and death by sin. And when you and I come into
this world, we are dead in trespasses and sins. What can come to us
and give life to our souls? Oh, that question the Lord asked
Ezekiel about those valley of dry bones. Son of man, can these
bones live? Can these dry bones live? Boy,
that's a question we could ask, isn't it? Lord, can a sinner
live who is dead and trespasses and sins? There's but one thing
that can come and give him life, and that's the exceeding greatness
of this power. Remember what the Lord Jesus
said, You have given me power over all flesh, that I should
give eternal life to those whom thou hast given me. We think
the resurrection of Lazarus was a miracle. Yes, it was. But it
is not the miracle that he wrought in the hearts of his people when
he comes to them and gives them life. And only his power can
do it. Nothing else. Making a decision
will not give you life. Make all the choices you want
to. That won't bring you life eternal. Be baptized in water. That won't give you eternal life.
Go to church. Be a moral person. That don't
have power of life in it. Only one power can raise the
dead, and that's the power of God. But not just His power,
the exceeding greatness of His power. Fourthly, think of this. Think of the deep and strong
root of sin that has been growing and spreading in our carnal minds
ever since we were born. You know what the carnal mind
is? It's enmity against God. It hates God. It's against God. Consider the bitter root of unbelief
that has been growing in the heart from childhood. Consider
the pride, the self-righteousness, the stubbornness, the prejudice. Consider the darkness of the
understanding. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness to him, neither
can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Consider
the bondage of the will. You will not come to me that
you might have life. When you and I consider the depths
of sin that the human race has fallen into, and to be saved means that soul is
brought up out of those depths. And he is given repentance. He is brought to believe in a
living Savior. He is made new. He lives. What can accomplish such a thing? I know mainly this morning I'm
preaching to the choir. You say, Bruce, I agree with
everything you say. I wish this was preached from every pulpit.
I wish every man and woman that you meet in this world could
come up to you and say, Brother Wayne, God has taught me. God
has taught me. He's taught me what I am. He's taught me of my perishing
state. And He's shined His light into
my heart. And He's made me see. And He's
made me knew. And Christ is my salvation. Christ
is my hope. I wish everybody could say that.
But when you start talking to some people about what it takes
to save a sinner, oh, it don't take that kind of power to save
me. That's not my experience. But that's the experience of
those in the Bible. The exceeding greatness of His
power. Fifthly, consider this, the sacrifices
that one will make who will live godly in Christ Jesus. Man, I had no idea when the Lord
saved me what you'd be compelled to let go of, what you'd be compelled
to give up to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. There's been a
lot of tender ties that's been broken. Have you experienced
that? You've experienced that in your own family. among your
own sisters and siblings. There are ungodly friends that
will be forsaken. Come out from among them and
be ye separate, saith the Lord. There are positions in life that
will be lost. There are lucrative prospects
that will be abandoned. There is shame and contempt that
must be borne when you profess the Lord Jesus Christ. What will
get you through these difficult places? One thing, that's the
exceeding greatness of His power. Well, I tell you, our hearts,
by nature, are so tenderly attached to this world, are they not?
We're so bound to the things of this world, we won't let go
of the least thing, even for Christ's sake. Even to obtain
eternal life, we can't let go of it. We're attached to it. You don't have to be exceedingly
rich and told to give up those riches and come to Christ. You don't have to be that way
to refuse to come to Christ. That rich young ruler came to
the Lord and said, what must I do to have eternal life? The
Lord said, go sell everything you got and come and follow me. Boy, he couldn't take that, could
he? There was a road, there was a block right in his road. His
heart wouldn't let him get through that. His heart was attached,
tenderly attached to his wealth. But it don't have to be wealth.
It could be a yoke of options. I bought a yoke of options. I've
got to go try them. Oh, when you've tried those yoke
of oxen, will you come then? Well, I've found some land and
I've bought it. I've got to go see it. Oh, when
you went and seen the land, will you come then? Well, I would
have, but I married a wife and I can't come. Tender attachments
to everything. Now, but you found in your lifetime
some of the smallest little things in life. It puts a roadblock
in your way. And you can't get over it. You
can't get through it. Your heart is there. You may
turn your physical back on it, but your heart is there. It's
just like Sodom and Gomorrah when Lot's wife went out, but
her heart was still there. J.C. Ryle said she looked back
in her mind before she ever turned and looked back with these eyes. That's the difficulty we face,
is it not? I've been so embarrassed to profess
Christ before. If it hadn't been for His power,
the exceeding riches of His power, I would have denied Him. What does it take to bring a
sinner to Christ out of his awful, depraved state? What does it
take to keep him going, professing Christ, walking with Christ and
serving Him? It takes the same power that
saved him to keep it. The exceeding riches of his power. What would have made that rich
young ruler willing to let go of everything, all of his riches,
and come to Christ? Is there anything that would
have so worked in his heart to make him not only lay aside those
riches, but to gladly and willingly let them go, even to count them
done that he may win Christ? What could have made that man
willing? You want me to show you? Look over in Psalms chapter
110 and verses 1 through verse 3. Take your Bibles and turn
there and look. Psalm 110, and look here in verses
1-3. Psalm 110, and look in verse
1. The Lord, the Father, God the
Father, said to my Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, set thou at
my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool, The Lord
shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion, rule thou in the
midst of thine enemies. And look at this, thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power. Boy, isn't it amazing
you can take one little verse and it's just packed with information.
You know the Lord Jesus Christ has a people. God has given him
a people. He calls them His sheep, and
He says, The Father has given them to Me, and they're going
to come to Me, and I'm going to save them. But listen, at
first they don't have a will to come to Christ. How do they obtain such a will?
Where do they get it? This exceeding great power of
God. working in their hearts. That's where they get that will. My dear dad, all through my teenage
years, I've told you about this so many times. All through my
teenage years, boy, he grilled into me that God was angry with
wicked people. and that God was a just God and
He would bring me to judgment for my sins. That kept me scared
to death. And looking back on that, I'm
glad. I'm glad He told me that. I just wish that He had emphasized
the Gospel to me, if He knew it. He never said much about
Christ to me. But I lived in fear all the days
of my life. And looking back now, I see why
I did not come to Christ. I didn't have a will to God.
I didn't know who He was. I didn't love Him. I was in bondage to sin and Satan. I could not come and I would
not come until a power began working in me that opened my
mind, that changed these warped affections that I had and gave
me eyes to see the Lord Jesus Christ and what He had did for
poor sinners. And you know what happened? You
know how that come to pass? The succeeding greatness of His
power. The Lord Jesus said, You will
not come to Me, but you must come. If a man is ever saved,
he must be willing to come. God never saved the first man
apart from being willing, did He? If you be willing and obedient. But where do we get that will
to come? Thy people shall Be willing. That's why I can preach the gospel
and just leave it with the people I preach to. I don't have to
get sick thinking it's left up to me to bring them. I can't do it. I can't bring
myself. I don't have that kind of power,
but there's one who does. And when he brings us, Then we
can say, boy, I know something about that power. It works in
us secretly, doesn't it? I'm not saying to you this morning
that you just sit here and wait. Don't do anything. Don't come
to Christ. Don't do a thing until you're overwhelmed by this power. I'm not talking about that. I'm
not talking about you wait until you see visions or have dreams
or all of this. But there is a power. the exceeding
greatness of God's power, and yet it works so secretly in your
heart. And it's making you willing to
come to Christ, to be saved by His grace, to give yourself up
to Him. And there's no sense in getting mad
at most people when they won't come. They'll never come until
this power takes hold of them. You cannot make yourself a Christian.
You're made a Christian by the exceeding greatness of His power. Turn to another passage with
me over in the New Testament. A very familiar passage in Philippians
chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2. Everything that you and I do
in a way of being saved, in a way of coming to the Lord Jesus Christ
and to God by Him, is a mere reaction to what God is doing. If God does not act, we will
not react. And that is what Paul is telling
us. Look at this passage in Philippians chapter 2 and look in verse 12. As you have always obeyed, not
as in my presence, only how much more in my absence. Work out
your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God
which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure."
You've got to be willing, but where do you get that? It's God
that's working in you to will. But my goodness, what kind of
power does it take to make a man who is not willing, willing the
exceeding greatness of his power? When God begins this work of
power in the heart, you know something? He'll never forsake
that work. He'll never start it and stop it. He's not like
that. It's a work that only he can
start, and it's a work that when he starts, he'll never stop. Look what he says in Philippians
chapter 1 and verse 6. Brother David likes this verse.
He quotes it to me a lot. Being confident of this very
thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform
it until the day of Jesus. Christ. God's power is not only
essential to save us, but his power is essential to keep us
saved. Repentance is not a one time
deal, is it? When he starts it, it's a lifelong
attitude. Coming to Jesus Christ is not
a one and it's done. We're always coming to him. We're
always having to resist some temptation. That's a lifelong
work. Struggling with sin is an ongoing
warfare. Wrestling against these principalities
and powers and wickedness in high places will never cease
in this lifetime. We are susceptible to the assaults
and snares of Satan. There are strong winds of error
that's always blowing in our direction. There are floods of
vileness and ungodliness within us and without us. There are
strong lusts and passions and backslidings and temptations
to leave the true and live in God. Haven't you searched your
heart and found these things there? The flesh is opposed to the straight
and narrow way. Everything within us and around
us is working to entangle our steps and drive us from Christ
and our hope. And there is only one way to
get over these difficulties and go on and proceed to the Father's
house. And that is through the exceeding
greatness of God's power. Boy, this does not discourage
us. This encourages us, doesn't it? It doesn't discourage any lost
person. When we tell you that you can't
save yourself, there's no power in you or around you that can
save you. But there is a power that can,
and that's the power of God in Jesus Christ. Look at a couple of more passages.
Look in Ephesians chapter 6. Look what he says in verse 10. Paul
is ready to close this epistle. Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord and in the power of His might. Could I show you another verse?
Look over in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Here's another familiar passage. This is where the Lord gives
this thorn in the flesh to the Apostle Paul. A messenger of
Satan had a thorn in him and he prayed three times, Lord,
would you take this thorn away? I tell you, it was aggravating
him to death. Sometimes he thought it was going
to drive him to despair. He says in verse 8 of chapter
12 of 2 Corinthians, I sought the Lord three times about this,
but look at His answer. Look at His answer here in verse
9. And the Lord Jesus said unto
me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made
perfect in your weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will
I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may
rest upon me." Notice what the Apostle Paul didn't say. He didn't
say, when you mix your power with my power, then you'll be
strong. That wasn't what Christ told
him, was it? The Lord Jesus told him this, when you come to the
end of flesh and its strength, When your power is abated, like
the waters of Noah, and is dried up, and you're left with nothing
but the power of Christ working in you, then you are strong. It's never a mixture of what
I've got and what He's got. That's the most difficult thing
we face in our life as believers. We've got something that we've
got to add. And he has to strip that away
like an idol. Lord, I've got my plans, and
let me add it to your plans. Lord, I've got my strength, let
me add it to your strength. Lord, I've got my righteousness,
let me add it to yours. No, everything we have is just
a hindrance to us. And when we come to the end of
all we have and all we're left with is everything that he has,
that's when we're in good shape. Peter says it like this, that
we've been called to an inheritance that's incorruptible, undefiled,
that fadeth not away, And it's reserved in heaven for you, and
listen to this, who are kept. How? Anybody remember that verse? How are you kept? Power. What kind of power? What kind
of power does it take, brothers and sisters, to keep you from
going back? What kind of power does it take
to keep you when you're tempted not to yield and yield and yield? What kind of power does it take
to bring you back when you have yield? What kind of power does
it take to heal your backsliding? Oh, how we have provoked God
in our Christian life. Let's be honest about it. How
often have we fallen, and if nothing else in our heart, give
great occasion to the enemies to blaspheme. I've done it and
you've done it. And yet this life, this eternal
life, this holy life, is upheld in our souls. We're kept! We're kept! By the power of God
is the way we're kept. One more passage. I want you
to turn to Jude, verse 24. Jude chapter 1 and look in verse
24. Now to Him that is able to keep
you from falling, from stumbling. and to present you faultless
before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, till the
only wise God our Savior be glory and majesty and dominion and
power both now and forever." He's able. Listen to these passages. I'll
quote to you. But I think when we read about
what it takes to save us, read about what it takes to keep us,
read about what it's going to take to set us there in His presence,
we should have nothing but praise and thanksgiving for God's power. And that's what the Bible is
full of. Listen to these passages. Be thou exalted, O Lord, in your
own strength. So will we sing and praise thy
power. That's why we sing that old hymn,
There's Power in the Blood. Saying to God, how terrible art
thou in thy works! Through the greatness of thy
power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee. Now also, when I am old and gray-headed,
O God, forsake me not, until I show thy strength to this generation,
and thy power to every one that is to come. Let the sign of the
prisoners come before thee. According to the greatness of
thy power, preserve thou those who are appointed to death. They
shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power. They shall talk of thy power. And that's what we've been doing
this morning, isn't it? We've been talking of His power that's
working in us. That's working in us. And I am just as confident this
morning that when this body is laying in a grave somewhere,
eat up with worms, that there's coming a day when this body is
going to rise and it's going to be made new and glorious and
just like the Son of God. And you know what's going to
accomplish that? His power. His power. Father, thank you. Thank you for such a glorious
truth concerning your power, the exceeding greatness and magnitude
of it. Oh, would you give us hearts
to know more about you? to know more of you, to know
you better, to see how faithful you've been, to work in the hearts
of your children, the hearts of your people, to bring them
to Christ, to keep us coming to Christ and overcoming all
of these awful obstacles. We've continued to this day because
of your great power working in us. And we praise you for it. Oh, Lord God, maybe there's somebody
here this morning that's dead in their sins, that's in the
kingdom of Satan, in the kingdom of darkness, and they cannot
get out. Would this be the day that you
would be pleased to exert this great grace and this great power
in delivering them? from Satan and his kingdom. Oh,
Lord, they would praise You for it, and we would praise You for
it. We pray this morning for Lothar
and Gene that You would continue to strengthen them. Let them
feel this great power in their hearts, in their souls. We thank You, Lord, for strengthening
John and Kathy. We thank you for the children
this morning. Oh, our dear, precious children. Save them in their
youth, if you will. We pray for Billie and her granddaughter. Lord, you know she's on the verge
of death, ready to go out into eternity, and she's in darkness.
Oh, how fearful to fall into your hands. We pray for that
family. Oh, God have mercy. In the time
of wrath, remember mercy. We ask all of these things for
the glory and the honor of our dear Savior. Amen.