Please turn with me again this afternoon to that portion of scripture that we began to look at this morning, Ephesians chapter three. Ephesians chapter three, verses 14 through 21. Ephesians chapter three, I will read the prayer again here in its entirety. Paul says, for this reason, and of course we point it back to verses 18 through 22 of chapter two, as one of the main reasons why Paul is bowing the knee. But for this reason, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. And by whole family, he means there the church. That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his spirit, in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able, that is, may be fully strengthened to be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and the length and the depth and the height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us. To him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. Well, in looking at this passage, I said this morning that I would consider this as one of the epitomizing texts that would point us to communion with God. And because of what Paul prays at the very outset, the operations of the Holy Spirit in connection to communion with God. The great aim of this prayer is that each person in this household of God, which he mentions in verse 19 of chapter 2, that each person should be specially suited to enjoy the fullness of God within themselves. He's praying in, or he's stating at the end of chapter two, this great corporate aim of God in God dwelling in the midst of his people, the holy temple, that household of God that's being built together for the dwelling place of God by the spirit. And it's this that prompts him and provokes him to pray in Ephesians chapter three, beginning at verse 14. But when he does that, He prays for each person, the inner man. And when he says the inner man, he means each and every one of you who have been born again, who have been brought into this great family, who have been brought into this great household, that God would specially work and suit you to the extent that you might enjoy the fullness of God within yourself, within your own heart." What a prayer. What a happy expectation. This is what God wants for me? Oh, that our hearts would be lifted up to this place of knowing the fullness of God. We pray even this afternoon, Lord, that you would keep us attentive and that you would give us strength in our inner man, that we might know these things. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, Paul knows that if they are going to be all that God intends them to be, then they need power. They need strength. And that's where we stopped this morning at looking at this petition for the inner man specifically, that they would be strengthened with might. And as I said this morning, that Paul is praying, he says it here in verse 16, strengthened with might. Then he says it again in verse 17, rooted and grounded. Then he says it again in verse 18, when he says, may be able to comprehend, that is, to fully grasp, to be strengthened to the extent that you can comprehend. All of that language is meant to show us that though God has given us this new inner man, yet there is this need for being strengthened within the inner man, this need for reinforcement. And so we spoke about that and we really end it on that note. But finally, I want to come this afternoon to this whole matter of answering the question, where then does this particular power Paul is requesting come from? Where does it come from? Is it something that man himself is able to conjure up? Is it something that if we close our eyes long enough and hold our mouths just right, that we may experience it, we whip ourselves up into a big enough frenzy, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, then we'll know that power? Is that where the power comes from? Well, notice again the words of the apostle, I bow my knees to the Father, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, through His Spirit. Now, there are two things this afternoon under this heading of where this particular power comes from that I want to note and focus on. Firstly, this. The power necessary to know God in this way is of God. I think that's plain enough when we break down these verses the way that I've just broken them down. I bow my knees to the Father that He would grant you and that in so granting you that this gift that He's granting you would be in accordance with the riches of His glory. God is And I would say God must be when we take this whole matter of communion and we consider it, that He is and that He must be the source from which this power is derived. Otherwise, we will not know, we cannot know the communion that Paul here speaks about, the heights to which this communion that Paul here speaks about. Take us. We cannot know it in ourselves. Even with that redeemed humanity and that inner man, Paul seems to be aware that there is a strength beyond that inner man that is still needed. And therefore he prays to God this way. Notice Paul's words in verse 20. He says it again at the end in this great doxology. Now, to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. Well, who is it that is able to do exceedingly or abundantly above all that we ask or think but God himself, the one who is the infinite God, the one who is the omnipotent and the almighty God. And that word able in verse 20 is the same word family that the word might or power in verse 16 comes from when he says that he would grant you to be strengthened with might, dunamis, Well, then when He says, now to him who is able, that word able comes from that same word family for might or power. And all this leads us and points us and should convince us that it takes nothing less, nothing less. than the power of God to bring us into this kind of realized fellowship with Him. We cannot do it. We cannot achieve it. We cannot rise to the heights that He's calling us to rise to in walking with Him in our own strength, in our own ability. We need infinite, omnipotent power from on high. And Paul says he is able. He is able. Not just able to give us what we need, but able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. And Paul's prayer here is that he would grant this to all of his people. I'm bowing my knees to the father of the entire family. in heaven and on earth, who's been named by Him, who's been called into this fellowship with Him. I'm calling upon Him that He would grant you. He's the source. But how do we know that God will grant us this power? Should we have any, assuming that it is our desire that we should know Him, And I assume that it is our desire, brethren, that we should know Him. And assuming that it's our desire that we should have these things that Paul is praying for realized in our lives, Christ dwelling in our hearts. an understanding and comprehension of the great love which passes knowledge and being filled with all the fullness of God. Assuming that is indeed our desire, should we have any real expectation of realizing this in our lives? Why are we talking about this? These things are too lofty for us. Are we really talking about going beyond knowing into some kind of experimental religion, experimental spirituality? That we should walk with God in such a way that we should adore Him, that we should delight in Him, that we should really know and experience His felt presence in our lives? Is this some kind of dream that we're dreaming? And will God even grant us this? Notice again what Paul says in verse 20, that He is able to do exceedingly above all that we ask or think, and then notice these words, according to the power that is at work in you. Do you see that? He's able, and He's able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we could ever ask, all that we could ever think, all that we could ever dream up. And how is He able to do that? According to the power that already is at work in you. God, brethren, God is already working in you. God has already done a great work in you that takes nothing less than the infinite, omnipotent power of the Almighty. He's already given you so much. The power to be raised from the dead. The power that it took, as we sang in that first hymn, the power that it took to bear the whole weight of our sin on His shoulders and to drink down the entirety of the wrath of God and then to come out on the other side, resurrected and alive and ascended and living at the right hand of the Father. and then to take that and to apply that to you in such a way that you should be washed, that you should be renewed, that you should be regenerated by the pouring forth of the Holy Spirit according to the power that works in us. I'm reminded of several verses, actually there's more than we could read, but listen to these verses because here we kind of get the heart of God towards his people. Isaiah 40, verses 28 through 31. Have you not known? I feel like God may at times be asking us those kinds of questions. Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, He neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak. And to those who have no might, He increases strength. Even the youths shall fain and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Or Isaiah 41, one chapter over, verse 10, Fear not, I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Or, Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 12, 9 and 10, my grace is sufficient for you. For my strength is made perfect in your weakness. Therefore, Paul says, most gladly, I will boast, I will boast in my infirmities, so that the power of Christ may indeed rest upon me. For when I am weak, then I am strong with the strength of Christ. It's God's work to give strength to His people. so that they might not give up. But it's also God's work to give strength to His people so that they might abound. You see, it's one thing that God would strengthen us that we might persevere. How you doing today? I'm making it by the grace of God. These trials really have me. But it's another thing when we begin to speak about the abounding power of our God towards us. Notice the way Paul puts it in Romans 15, 13. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Oh, how God gives to His people strength, that they should stand up under the fierce temptations and afflictions and trials and tribulations that they meet with in this world, but oh, how he does exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we could ask or imagine according to the power that is already at work in us because he gives us power from on high in order that we might not only suffer well, but that we might abound in hope. Notice, well, I won't read those. Let me move to the next question. There's so many more texts that speak in that same way. I'm very tempted to read them. If you want to read them, just go to all the doxologies that we find in the New Testament, and you can find them there. The way that he speaks so often. Anyways, God is able to make us abound, but how much then, how much power is really available to us? How much power is really available to us? Notice again the words of verse 20 of our prayer here, Ephesians 3 and verse 20. He says, now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly. How much power is available to us? Paul says, it's super abounding. It's a compound word. It's super abounding. And it must be so. It must be so. Because when Paul prays, what is he praying in accordance with? What gives him warrant? What gives him reason to pray the way that he's praying? I bow my knees to the Father, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory. Paul is drawing from the riches of the glory of God in his request that the people of God would be strengthened with might in their inner man by the Spirit. It's amazing to me. Think about it. Well, I tell you what, look at how he prays in verse 19 of chapter 1. Some have said that Ephesians chapter 3 verse 14 is actually a continuation of the prayer of Paul in Ephesians 1. I don't think so, but Paul has already prayed. And it's an amazing prayer that he prays here Verse 19, and he's praying that these people would know, that God would give to them the spirit of wisdom and of revelation, that they would know certain things. In verse 19 he says, that you would know what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places. Think about that! What Paul is praying is that you might know the exceeding greatness of His power toward you who believe, the exceeding Abundant, super abounding power that God is pleased to give to His people and that in accordance with His glory. Think about what he's saying there. According to the riches of His glory? What is His glory? I can't take time to get into all that. But let me just give you a summary statement. His glory is the sparkling of His deity. Stole that from Thomas Watson. His glory is the sparkling of His deity. Let's think for a moment. Where is the power coming from? And how much power is it that God has been pleased to pour upon us? According to the riches of His glory, His glory is the sparkling of His deity. Here's God and He is radiating with glory because of who He is. A kaleidoscope of all that God is, in all of His infinite attributes, in all of His divine perfections, simultaneously and inseparably burning forth from His divine person, from His divine presence, the riches of His glory that Paul is speaking of here is that in which the self-satisfaction and the complacency and the joy and the delight and the communion within the triune God exists and then overflows. And he says, it's according to this. The power that I'm praying for that is already at work in you is according to this rich treasure chest. The power comes to us in order that we might know this communion with God. I ask you the question, is there any want in Him? Is there any want in God when we consider the riches of His glory? Is there any want in Him? Let me ask you another question, is there any miserliness, any stinginess, when it comes to the riches of the glory of God. I would say it would be contrary to the riches of His glory for Him to withhold the power from those who come to Him requesting it. It would be contrary to His purposes and His highest aims to not grant to us that which is necessary to have communion with Him. this super abounding power that raised the Lord Jesus from the dead and has seated Him at the right hand of the Father. It would be miserly, it would be stingy, it would be contrary to His purposes and His highest aims to not grant to us that power so that we might have truly communion with Him. Paul says, it is according to the riches of His glory. What does that mean, according to? Well, one writer has said that if there's a rich man who wants to give a gift to someone, and he gives out of the riches of his treasure, then what that means is that he might go to that person and say, I'm a billionaire, here's ten dollars. He's giving out of the treasure, but He's not giving according to. And when Paul says that God gives us power that is according to the riches of His glory, what he means is that He dispenses a power that is consummate with the riches of His glory. It would be presumptuous If we had not been invited to this, to be made partakers of the divine nature, but He has invited us to all this through His Son. What He's invited us to doesn't, compare to anything in this earth. And he has not only invited us, we're told here that he is indeed able and willing to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. The second thing in this verse is that it's through, and here's where what I've been trying to push us towards comes into play. It's through the instrumentality of the indwelling Holy Spirit that God works this power in us. It's through His Spirit in the inner man His direct or immediate agency, which is something that I mentioned in some of the previous sermons with regard to the operations of the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit takes of the things of God and He is the immediate agent. agency, the one who dispenses personally and intimately into the heart of man all that he is given from God. He dwells in us. He lives in us. And he works powerfully in us. Do you think about that? Oh, do we think about that? Do we ever consider that? It's the special function of the Holy Spirit to do just this, what Paul is praying here, that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with might in your inner man by His Spirit. God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts. And it's through Him that we are empowered to cry, Abba Father. Well, that's communion, right? It was the Holy Spirit. How did you become a believer? It was the Holy Spirit who convicted you of sin. It was the Holy Spirit who enabled you to see. It was the Holy Spirit who caused you to believe. It was the Spirit who made you alive, born again, born from above by the Holy Spirit, or that text that our brother read in our call to worship in Titus. When the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. And how is it that God sends his strengthening power to us from his rich treasury even now? but by the One who is called the Spirit of Might, the Spirit of Power. It's the Spirit, brethren. We've been sealed with the Spirit. He cannot be taken away from the people of God. He's been stamped upon us, placed within us as an earnest, as a guarantee. of that rich inheritance that is still yet to come. He's been given to us that we might have the four tastes of heaven, that it might be in some measure realized in our lives on this earth, that we might taste of the goodness of God, taste of the great love of God, taste of the greatness of Christ working and abiding in us by the Spirit. So I repeat Paul's words in Romans 15, 13. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope. How? By the power of the Holy Spirit. And this prayer that Paul gives to us here, that God through Paul gives to us here for communion is purely spiritual. It's divine. Those who do not have the inner man and those who do not have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the inner man can know nothing of it. But those whom God has brought forth from death unto life and raised from their sins and seated them at the right hand of the Savior, they may know it. Do you know it? Only God's Spirit can do this empowering work in us and bring us to this place of communion. He's the one who energizes. He's the one who revitalizes. He's the one who empowers us. But now, in what ways does he do that? And let me be a little more brief here, but I do think that this is important. Paul does not specifically address that question here. But sometimes it's helpful to try to bring this thing down a bit to where we live. So I ask the question, how then? Does the Spirit come in accordance with the riches of the glory of God and strengthen us with might in our inner man? There are some helpful passages that can give us some clues. As I've said already, this prayer cannot be disconnected from Paul's prayer in Ephesians 1. So let's look again at it, and I just want to read to you what it says, beginning in verse 15. Therefore also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers," and then notice what he says in verse 17, "...that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Himself, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and so on, as I've already read. But Paul is praying here specifically that they might be given the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ and in the knowledge of the Father of glory, so that their eyes might be opened. What might it be opened to? Things that have not been realized? Things that are not true? No! So that their eyes might be opened to that which is already true of them. That's what he's saying there. He's praying for things that are true, but he's praying specifically that Christ's people would know it, that Christ's people would grasp it. Well, okay, what does that mean? Well, it means this, that we need the Holy Spirit to strengthen us with regard to the mind. We're often plagued with doubts and dullness, slowness and inability to think clearly. We may find ourselves troubled with evil thoughts. Paul actually calls these in Ephesians 6.16, the fiery darts of the wicked one. We don't want them. Where do they come from? I don't want to be distracted. I don't want to be dull. I don't want to be slow. I don't want to be unable to think. I don't want to be discouraged or distracted. We don't entertain them, but there they are. As soon as we wake up in the morning, and they carry on with us all the way until we lay down at night and sometimes even when we dream. They intrude into our thoughts and into our minds. What about wondering? Do you know anything of wondering? It seems to dominate you only when you try to focus on spiritual things. Right? You can watch a movie, you can scroll Facebook, you can do all kinds of other things with laser-like focus. But the moment that you try to read Scripture, the moment that you attend to the Word preached, the moment that you begin to sing a hymn and get to verse 2 or 3, the moment that you begin to meditate, or pray, suddenly what happens? You find yourself a million miles away. Or do you find at times that the truth is just plain hard to grasp? This letter, this prayer, You may read it, you may say, I don't understand it. What? The fullness of God in me? The height, the width, the breadth, the length of the love of God which surpasses knowledge? What are you talking about, Paul? You may come to certain passages of Scripture and say, that's too hard, that's too high, that's too difficult to grasp. Remember what Peter said of Paul in 2 Peter 3, verse 16? He says, as also our beloved Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand. And so it is that we need the Holy Spirit to come, and with the great power of God, according to the riches of the glory of God, to help us to understand, and to help us to focus, and to help us to be strengthened in our mind, Some people, I'm afraid, because of the difficulty, have given up. Can I say to you, don't give up. Keep going. Keep seeking. Keep praying with Paul for understanding. Keep asking for the help of the Holy Spirit. God has given you His Word. He's given you this letter. He's given you this prayer. He's given you all these truths. He's given them to you. Even the hard ones that are not easy to grasp, He's given them to you not to frustrate you. He's given them to you so that through them you may really know Him and commune with Him. Don't give up. We need the Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and this is one particular way, by the strengthening of the mind and the imparting of understanding. Likewise, we need the Spirit to work powerfully within us and strengthen not just our minds, but our hearts. And this goes back somewhat to this inner man, but I mean something a little different. Firstly, the place wherein our affections lie. When I say heart, that's what I mean. We need power from on high that God might strengthen us by His Spirit in our hearts, in our affections. We need the help of the Holy Spirit to keep us from being drawn away by our own desires and enticed. Right? There's a reason that we're warned not to love the world or the things of the world. If that was not a peculiar temptation even for the Lord's people, We wouldn't need to be warned against that. And yet John does warn us not to love the world or the things of the world, our hearts. Though renewed or often threatened by the deceitfulness of the friendship with the world. So Paul tells us in Galatians 5, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these things are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish. And then he goes on and he says, those who live by the spirit, let them keep in step with the spirit. Oh, how we need the Spirit to strengthen us in those things. But we also need Him to strengthen us against the imaginations and the anxieties and the discouragements that often plague our hearts. So what does Paul say to Timothy? God has not given to you a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. We need the Spirit of power and might to strengthen and empower our spirit that we might not be given over to our anxieties. And in the same way, the will needs to be strengthened. Our wills are feeble and they are irresolute. How often have we resolved, I'm going to do this, I'm not going to do that, only to find ourselves not doing what we say we're going to do, and doing the things that we say we're not going to do. Does that sound familiar? Paul said it, for what I will to do, that I do not practice, but what I hate, that I do. And what's his conclusion? Well, you can trace it out all the way through Romans 8 to verse 13, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. We'll be looking at that in days to come, but I simply draw that out now to say that if we will have any victory with regard to our will, that we will walk with Him, that we will serve Him, that we will seek Him, It's going to come through the strengthening of the Holy Spirit. Martin Lloyd-Jones said, the Apostle states it perfectly for us here. So that however weak you may feel yourself at this moment, however much you may have failed, this is the way. The Apostle's prayer is that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, which strengthened them in the inner man by the Spirit, may we not then say, all is well. I can be reinforced by God. I cannot make myself strong. I cannot put this iron into the walls of my soul that I need to be reinforced to do what I will. I fail. But here is strength from God. And He is all sufficient. And it is according to the power that works in us. by the Spirit, that we may actually commune with God in this earth by the Spirit. For through Christ, we have access by one Spirit to the Father, Paul tells us. And we come to Him, the Spirit, for strength that we need, and we rest upon Him alone. Oh, brethren, that we would know this, in our lives. Lord, we cry out to you for this strength. We thank you that this is not a prayer of presumption. You have already given us everything that we need for life and godliness. Lord, we pray. that you would work it in us in such a way that we might truly be strengthened in mind and in affections and in our will, that we might truly walk with you and be filled with all the fullness of God. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen.