Let us turn in our Bibles once
again to the letter of Ephesians, and tonight in chapter three, Ephesians chapter three, beginning in verse 14. 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, 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 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
and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ,
which passeth knowledge, that you might be filled with all
the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to
do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according
to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the
church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Tonight, we are looking
at the second prayer of the apostle in this letter. There are several
benefits to you and I by considering these recorded prayers. We're
not just to rush through them and think, well, that's just
a prayer. But I've listed tonight three benefits that I think we
should consider that we are helped as we look at these prayers.
The first benefit is we have an example of this truth. We
have an example of this truth. Of what truth? We have an example
of this truth that what God has promised He would have us to
ask for of Him. We have this promise that what
God has promised, He would have us to ask for of Him. I want you to look back into
the Old Testament to the book of Ezekiel. And we see this brought
out to us so clearly in Ezekiel chapter 36. in Ezekiel chapter 36. First, let us see what the Lord
here promises. Promises or tells what he will
do, what he's going to do. No question about it. No ands,
ifs, buts, or maybes. This is what I'm going to do.
Notice that in verse 24. For I will take you from among
the heathen, and gather you out of all countries and will bring
you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you and you shall be clean from all your filthiness and
from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I
give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will
take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give
you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within
you and cause you to walk in my statues, and you shall keep
my judgments and do them." Clearly, we see the new covenant promises
in those verses of scripture. But I want you to look down to
verse 37. Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired
of by the house of Israel to do it for them. I will increase
them with men like a flock. God has promised. He has given
us exceeding great and precious promises, and he will fulfill
his promises, but He, as John Gill says, and I quote, expects
that his people will apply to him for it. It is our duty to
put the Lord in mind of his promises. We see this example to us as
the apostles and no one believed at least wrote any more of the
sovereignty of God and the ordination of God, the purpose of God from
old eternity than the Apostle Paul did, but it certainly did
not impede him in prayer. In fact, it served as a stimulus
to him to pray. and the same should be true of
you and I. That's one benefit we've received
from studying these recorded prayers of the apostles. We have
examples of this truth. What truth? That God would have
us to ask him for those things which he has promised. There's
no better way to pray, as far as I'm concerned, than to take
a promise from the word of God, and that's where his promises
are recorded, and take them to God. Lord, this is your promise. This is what you said. Now, fulfill
the promise. What better way to pray than
that? Here's a second benefit. We have
an example for us to seek the Lord's blessing upon our work
in preaching the gospel. John Calvin said, for the word
is sown in vain unless the Lord fertilizes it by His blessing. Look with me, if you will, to
1 Corinthians chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3, and Paul
gives the testimony of him and Apollos here in this place. 1 Corinthians chapter 3, beginning
with verse 6. He said, I have planted, Apollos
watered, but God gave the increase. So then, neither is he that planteth
anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that
watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward
according to his own labor. Now, we usually think of preaching
and teaching the Word of God as sowing the seed, of planting
and prayer as watering. Both, both have their place. Both sowing the seed and watering
with prayer, both have their place and the praise belongs
unto God. One man sows, another man waters,
but nothing's going to come of it unless God blesses and God
gives the increase. This is often used by those who
hate the truth of God's sovereign election, God's effectual calling,
and they say, well, if God has chosen those who are going to
be saved, Then what's the purpose of preaching? They're going to
be saved. I remember years ago that no
matter what, they're going to be saved no matter what. Well,
in one sense, that's true. God's going to save everyone
that he has loved with an everlasting love and chosen in Christ. But you cannot say no matter
what because Christ had to die. The blood had to be shed, the
payment had to be made, the righteousness had to be brought in, the gospel
had to be preached, and men had to bow to the claims of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So planting, watering, sowing
the seed, praying, they go hand in hand, and yet when the increase
is given, The glory doesn't go to the man who preached or the
people who prayed. All the glory goes unto the Lord. And here's a third and last example.
We have an example for us. By studying these prayers, looking
at these prayers, we have an example for us not to grow weary
in well-doing. You know, that's one of the easiest
things to do, to grow weary and well-doing. You say, do God's
people go weary and well-doing? Well, obviously we do and we
can because I want you to look at a couple of verses. These
New Testament churches, they did look in Galatians, back a
few pages, in Galatians chapter 6 and verse 9. The Apostle Paul to this church
said, and let us not be weary in well-doing, for we shall reap
if we faint not. One of the remedies for not growing
weary in well-doing is prayer, is prayer. Look at this verse
also in 2 Thessalonians chapter three. Here's another New Testament
church. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 and verse
13. But you, brethren, be not weary
in well-doing. Prayer is especially useful to
keep us from growing weary in well-doing because prayer quickens
us. It quickens our zeal. It quickens
our faith in God and in his precious promises. Now, as we look at this prayer
tonight, Ephesians 3, beginning with verse 14. We'll just go
through it verse by verse. For this cause, I bow my knees
unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice the verse begins
with the same three words that the chapter began with. For this
cause. For this cause. And the theme
is the same. The theme is the same. If you
look back in verse 13, he said, wherefore, I desire that you
faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. And I mentioned last time, we
see the heart of a pastor here in this apostle. He was more
concerned about the believers being discouraged over what they
saw than he was himself being discouraged. And as a pastor,
I know that's certainly true, that many times we, or I, am
more concerned about you folks being discouraged. When we see
just a small group here and we know there's many of our membership
who could be here but choose not to be here, my concern is
that you'll grow discouraged, that you'll be discouraged. No,
for this cause, Paul says, that we not stumble and not lose hope
and not faint because of these tribulations that Paul was going
through and that we sometimes go through as a church. The theme
is the same. In verse 1, for this cause, and
now in verse 14, for this cause, the theme is the same. He would
have them not to be discouraged, but rather to persevere in the
faith. Notice he directs his prayer
to God the Father. For this cause, I bow my knees
unto the Father. Do you know the easiest thing
in the world in prayer is to bow your knees? That's easy. to bow down on your
knees. I'll tell you what's more difficult
is to bow in your heart. You can bow in your knees. Remember Paul said that physical
exercise profits little. And the position in which we
pray is not nearly so important, the position of our bodies as
the position of our heart. that we come before God with
a broken and a contrite heart. That's more important than the
position of our body. But praying on one's knees does
show reverence. To bow shows reverence. And when we pray to God, when
we come to God, we come in reverence so we come boldly to the throne
of grace. Paul prayed here, he said to
the Father, but He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For
this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. All spiritual blessings, every spiritual blessing that
God has for His people comes to us through Jesus Christ. Every blessing, I don't care
what it is, he's that one mediator between Almighty God and men. And our prayers and our praise,
our sacrifices of praise, they too go to the Father through
the one mediator, through Christ. Every benefit, every blessing
comes to us, God's children, through His Son, Jesus Christ. Verse 15. Of whom the whole family
in heaven and earth is named, all of the family of God, those
in heaven and those upon earth. We all make up one family, the
household of faith, the household of God. We all make up one body. We have one head, who is Christ. And when we think of the family
of God, as believers, part of the family of God, in every family,
there are different stages of growth, for the most part. Now,
I know I'm looking at some people here tonight. In your family,
there's adults, and there's young children, but usually, or many
times, there's young children, there's teenagers, and there's
adults. And the Apostle John writing
in 1 John reminds us that he's writing unto you, fathers. I'm
writing unto you, young men. I'm writing unto you, children.
In every family, there's different stages of growth, of maturity,
for the most part. And we certainly know that's
true in God's family. There's some who are just recently
born again, and they're described as babes, as babes, desire the
sincere milk of the word, whereby you may grow. Babes in Christ. The same is true of God's family. We all make up one family. All
the members have the same privileges. We're all members of that same
family, the family of God. We all have the same name. Everyone
who is a member of God's family is a Christian. That's our name,
Christians. We all have the same name. Verse
16, now this is His first request, His first petition in this prayer.
I believe there are three petitions in this prayer. This is the first
one, 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. He asks that they might be granted,
Notice he says that you might be, that he would grant. Grant
is a gift. It's a gift. He asks that they
might be granted or given strength. And we should see in this petition
and in this verse, first of all, the first thing that we should
see is this, that salvation comes by grace or it is a gift. Now we all know that. The wages
of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord. We understand that salvation
comes as a gift, but we also must realize that growth, that
maturity, maturing rather, it too comes as a gift from God. Paul wrote, for by grace are
you saved? The Apostle Peter wrote, but
grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. There's no salvation apart from
the Lord Jesus, and the same is true of us growing. There
is no growth apart from him, apart from him. Now here are
three truths to see in this first petition. This is three truths
that I see in this first petition of the apostle. First, this strength,
this strength that he is requesting will come out of the riches of
his glory. Whose glory? Christ. Out of the
riches of his glory. In other words, it will come
out of the fullness of grace and strength that is in Christ
Jesus. Now, knowing that so, we recognize
this is an unlimited source. In Jesus Christ, there is an
unlimited source of grace and strength. We're never going to
use up all of His grace. We're never going to use up all
of His strength. It's like, I like to think of
this as a reservoir, like a lake. We've got several lakes around
Houston to supply the water for millions of people, but just
think of one person. Do you think you could possibly
Use up in your lifetime all the water that is in Lake Conroe,
Lake Livingston, Lake Houston? Of course not. So in Christ, full of grace and
truth, the Apostle John, full, there's a fullness in Christ.
And of his fullness, Paul asks that they be, that they be given
strength. The riches of His glory. The
strength will come out of the riches of His glory. And there's
no limit. There's no limit to His grace
and strength. The second thing we see in this
request is this strength will be given to us by His Spirit. In other words, the Holy Spirit
who lives in every believer in Christ. The Holy Spirit who lives
in every child of God. Notice the request again, that
He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to
be strengthened with might by His Spirit. By His Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives us strength. How does He do that? By leading
us to Christ. Our Lord said, when He has come,
He shall testify of me. And when He comes to live in
our hearts, He leads us, He testifies to us, our spirits of Christ. We continue to draw from Him,
to look to Him. And third, This strength concerns
the inner man. Notice that, the inner man, that
he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to
be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man. This tells us that it is spiritual
strength that he's requesting. The apostle Paul gave his own
testimony in 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 16 when he said, for though
our outward man perish, this body, as we grow older, and Paul,
of course, as he suffered so much persecution for the name
of Christ that took its toll on his body. He said, for though
our outward man perish, and it does perish every day, we get
closer and closer and closer to the end of our life in this
world. This outward man perishes, he
grows weak and dies, but the inner man, this is what he said,
for though our outward man perish, yet the inward man Notice this,
he's renewed day by day, day by day. The inner man is given
strength by the power of the Holy Spirit through the riches
which are in Christ. I wish, I wish men were as concerned
for this strength, this spiritual strength, as many are concerned
for physical strength. Don't you? People will go to
the gym, they'll run, they'll exercise, they'll spend hours
trying to gain physical strength. Nothing wrong with that, I'm
not condemning that by any means, but how little time many of these
same people are so concerned about the strength of the body
have no concern, no interest for the strength of the inner
man, the new man that is created in Christ Jesus and true righteousness. Verses 17 and 18, 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
and length and depth and height. This is the Apostle's second
petition, that Christ may dwell in you, in your hearts by faith. You might say, well, doesn't
Christ dwell in every Christian? Is it possible? Is it possible
that God the Holy Spirit might be in a person and Christ not
be in him? Well, the answer, of course,
is no, no. The Lord's words in John 14 and
verse 23 are, we will come unto Him. We, God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We will come unto Him and make
our abode in Him. Where His Spirit dwells, where
God the Holy Spirit dwells, there He dwells, Christ dwells. wrote
to the church at Colossae, he said, Christ in you, the hope
of glory, Christ in you. Well, then why, why does Paul
pray and ask that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith? When Christ comes to dwell in
a person, he's there permanently. I had to put that in. When Christ
comes to dwell in a person, he's never going to leave. He's never
going to desert that person. He will never desert or leave
one of his own. Having loved his own which were
in the world, he loved them unto the end. Why then, ask this,
why then this petition? Well, I believe the key is found
in those last two words, or those two words, rather, by faith,
that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. It is by faith that we receive
Christ, and it is by faith that we have communion with him, that
he dwells in us by faith, and our faith must be or should be
lively, trusting in Him, looking to Him. We sing that hymn sometimes,
He lives, He lives. You ask me how I know He lives? He walks with me, He talks with
me, He lives within my heart. Faith, when faith is active as
it must be and should be, we know and we experience this fellowship
and this communion with Christ and it's not just now and then,
but it's day by day by day. We walk with him, he walks with
us. It is by lively faith in Christ
that we're settled and grounded in the love of God and Christ
to our souls. Paul's prayer is that all saints
might have a good and better comprehension of the love of
Christ. You notice he mentions four dimensions
of God's love, of Christ's love. I want you to look back with
me to Job, just a moment. Job chapter 11. We'll come back
here to Ephesians in just a moment. But Job, we find a passage of
scripture here that also deals with these four
dimensions. In Job chapter 11, and beginning
with verse 7, We have two rhetorical questions,
I believe. Canst thou by searching find
out God? No. No. God is infinite. And we are finite
creatures. Can any man, can anyone by searching
find out God? No. Canst thou find out the Almighty
unto perfection that you know all about God? Is that possible? Not hardly. And now notice these next verses.
It is high as heaven. What I want us to see here, what
Paul in our text in Ephesians says is true about the love of
Christ is true of every attribute of God, no matter which one. His wisdom, His knowledge, His
holiness, His justice, His wrath, His mercy, His grace. Can anyone by searching find
out all about God? It is as high as heaven. That's
true of every attribute. It is as high as heaven. What
canst thou do? It's deeper than hell. What canst thou know? The measure
thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the sea. Now, Paul says something very
similar, doesn't he, about God's attribute of love. 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, now let's
look at these, what is the breadth, the width of God's love. The only way we can begin to
understand that is to realize that God's love extends to all
nations and all ranks of people, the breadth of God's love. His
love is not concentrated with one nation, but it extends the
breadth of it to all nations. In Revelation chapter 5, you
remember those saints there in glory who are praising God. They praise Him for having redeemed
them out of every nation, every tongue, and every people. The breadth of God's love. The
second thing is the length of God's love. When did it begin? In eternity. It has no beginning. And it has no ending. The length
of God's love. The depth of Christ's love. It
reaches to fallen man. And I know we are used to hearing
this term depravity. Total depravity. But I wonder
if any of us, and I know we don't really understand Just how depraved
all of us are. How low the Lord Jesus Christ
reached down when he reached down for me. The depth of Christ's
love. And the height, the fourth, the
height of the love of Christ It raises its objects to the
very throne of God. Can you get any higher than that?
To the throne of God. Verse 19, this is the third petition. and to know the love of Christ
which passeth knowledge that you might be filled with all
the fullness of God. He asks that these Christians,
these believers, might have such a knowledge of the love of Christ
that would result in their being filled with the fullness of God. And I look at this and I say
this. It's one thing to speak of Christ's
love for his people. It's one thing to do that, to
speak of Christ's love for His people, and it is something else
to be able to speak of His love for me. Paul could, Galatians chapter
two and verse 20, when he said, I am crucified with Christ, Nevertheless,
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me. Who loved me and gave himself
for me. Paul was so persuaded of the
love of God in Christ that he could rejoice in knowing that
nothing, nothing can separate one of God's children from his
love. Remember that list in Romans
chapter eight? Chapter 8 of Romans, verses 38
and 39, for I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. And then the last two verses,
he closes his prayer with the highest praise of him to whom
he prayed. God is able to do more than any
of us ask or think. Let that soak in. Let that soak in. He's able to
do more than any of us ask or think. Now to him that is able
to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. I thought about these examples.
God opened up the Red Sea for the people to pass through. Do
you think anyone thought of that? There they were standing with
the mountains on the side and the armies of Pharaoh coming
after them. And do you think it entered into
any person there's mind that God could open up the sea, the
Red Sea, so that they could just walk through on dry ground? I
don't think so. Do you think any of them imagined
that God for 40 years could feed that great nation of more than
a million people food every day for over 40 years, just rain
it down from heaven? I doubt anyone thought of that.
that the walls of Jericho, that great fortified city that it
was, that just by the blowing of the ram's horns, the walls
would just come down, fall down. I don't think anyone imagined
that could happen. You think anyone imagined that
the shadow on that sundial could go back What was it, 10 degrees? As a sign to Hezekiah? There's
nothing impossible for God. Nothing. John Calvin said, for
whatever God can do, he unquestionably will do if he has promised it. If he's promised it, He'll do
it. All glory must be given to God
in the church by Jesus Christ. As we read in that psalm earlier,
in his temple does everyone speak of his glory. What a tremendous
prayer. God help us to learn from the
prayers of these holy men of old. Let us sing a verse or two
of a hymn and then we'll be dismissed.