Acts chapter six and starting at verse one. And in those days when the number of the disciples were multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. So you had the Greek speaking, Hellenized Jewish converts that felt like they were being ignored as widows who were in need and thus they were receiving the charity of the assembly in Jerusalem. But it seemed as though the pure Jewish widows who were of the Hebrews all their needs would be intended to. But the Greek-speaking converts amongst the widows apparently were not getting everything, and they felt like they would be neglected, and when they looked at it, it seemed as though, oh, so what's going on here? So it's very obvious to read into this, some of them may have been thinking, is there a little prejudice here? Is there a little bias against us because We're Greek-speaking converts, but the Hebrew women are all being taken care of, and so you can see very quickly how a little animosity and lack of trust could transpire. So, in a very real sense, it's almost like an emergency because the moral authority of an assembly is extremely important. If that ends up being compromised or negated in some way in the minds of the people, then, you know, all is lost, you see. So, it was a problem and it showed itself up here in verse 1. And so immediately, the apostles who are serving as the governing board in that early first assembly in Jerusalem, they sprang immediately to action once this came to their attention. They did not realize this was going on, but once it came to their attention, they sprang into action. Verse two, then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, all the people, and said, it is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. You've got to remember, you've got 3,000 saved on the Day of Pentecost. Right after that, you've got 5,000. And in those texts, it says men. So we kind of tend to project, and I think probably so, accurately, that if 3,000 men were saved, there were women and children saved as well. If 5,000 men were saved, there's a lot of people. Now, not all of them would be part of the Jerusalem Assembly, right? They came together and axed each other to, from every nation under heaven, so they're not, you know, they'll go back home after, so they're not necessarily part of the Jerusalem Assembly. But no doubt, because that's where the Gospel began, and this is where the Jews were driven to, and drawn to, and they would flock to, the Holy City. No doubt that assembly was in the thousands, whatever the number is, but there's a lot of people. And they're being added daily. If you think of 3,000, 5,000, they're being added in large numbers in quick order. So there's this seething, growing multitude that the apostles have to manage. if I can use that word, but they have to oversee as an assembly. And right away, there's this problem. Hey, is there a little prejudice? You saw the Hebrew-speaking widows? You take care of those, but we're left out in the lurch? So the apostles, like I said, they sprang to action. They said, look, we can't take the time to tend to things like this. We have to, as elders, give ourselves to the word of God and to prayer. So we need to appoint men who can handle this business. And so, verse 3, Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business." Now, the authority to appoint the deacons comes from the elders. In this case, the elders were the apostles. But it doesn't come from the people. It comes from the elders, or in this case, the apostles. They would have to appoint them. They were the ones that would lay hands on them. You say, well, they had the people voted. Well, I'm going to address that in a moment. So find seven men. But we will give ourselves, verse four, we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. In the saying, please the whole multitude, and it gives us the list of names of people they chose. In verse six, whom they set before the apostles, these seven men, and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them. So they brought them before the apostles, the apostles laid hands on them, and ordained or authorized them to act in this office of being a servant, being a deacon. And this is what they did. Now, there's not a lot of detail there, but there's certain things we know. The leaders of the assembly, the elders, in this case the apostles, had the responsibility to appoint people to these positions and to ordain them to that end. But this problem arose, and it was a management problem, and it began to be a moral problem. There was perceived perceived prejudice in the ranks, or that's the way it was working out. So the apostles realized whoever's going to do this needs to do it honorably, rightly, and fairly, and the people are going to have to trust them. It does also have to do with the money. Don't forget, this is not just charity, it's a money issue. The money is being spent on these people, and you're ignoring these people. So there's a money issue. Is someone fiddling around and doing what they want? So these people needed to be trusted by the multitude. They need to have the confidence of the multitude. So the apostles did something that I believe was extraordinary. They said, choose you out seven men. And I say it's extraordinary because you don't see that in Scripture. I know churches like to boast of it. This is the only thing they point to. But I want to remind you of something, brethren. All the elders and all the pastors of all the assemblies that you see in the scripture, there's not one instance of them being voted in by their congregations. There's no such thing in the Bible. Everything is extracted from this. But I want to also remind you of this. That's a presumption even here. We're not told that anybody voted. He said, well, what's this? He says, choose you out seven men. Well, that's what the multitude did. They chose them out seven men. Choose you out seven men filled with the Holy Ghost. How would they know if they were filled with the Holy Ghost? In those days when they were filled with the Holy Ghost, they spoke with tongues. Now over the course of time, Paul would say, well, not all speak with tongues. Yes, that's true. But in these early days, the divine gifts of miracles and signs and wonders abounded, okay? And attendant with the apostles were these signs and wonders. And that includes the speaking in tongues and all these things. So how did the people choose out seven men that were filled with the Holy Ghost? How'd they do that? You say, well, they voted. No, no, we're Americanizing it. Show me the passage where it says that. It says, choose you out seven men. If the apostles made the appointment of these seven men, it would be fair to say they chose them out, those seven men. That doesn't mean they voted on them. It doesn't say give us 20 and we're going to vote amongst them and find out who the seven should be. Let's just vote on it. It doesn't say anybody voted. We don't know how the people chose these men. But let me give you a little context for that. The elders in the assembly, the pastors and the elders, were dispatched by the apostles. This brother goes here, and he establishes a work here, and he's going to appoint elders himself as that need arises. And this brother is sent here, the apostle preaches here, and then he sets up an organization, if I can say it that way, appoints leaders. We see that in the scripture. There's no democratic process amongst the people. However, here, they did something extraordinary because of the pressure that was on and because of the growing size and who are all these people and how are the disciples going to know, how are the apostles going to know who to appoint? Well, we could ask the question, how are the people going to know who to appoint? Well, let me just draw you an illustration here. In Acts chapter one, we have the apostles are going to replace Judas Iscariot. There's only 11 apostles now, and they needed 12, and so they needed to replace Judas. So in Acts 1, verse 21, We are four of these men which have accompanied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out amongst us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto the same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection." You can't be an apostle unless you've witnessed, you've been an eyewitness of the resurrected Christ. So these apostles running around today in these charismatic churches, oh, so you've seen the resurrected Christ? The problem is they'll say yes, you know. And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justice, and Matthias. So they have two men, two men that seemed eminently qualified, two men that had, one way or another, borne witness to the resurrected Christ. But we only need one. They came up with two, but we only need one. This is amongst the disciples themselves. Verse 24, and they prayed and said, Thou Lord, which knows the hearts of all men, show whether of these two thou hast chosen, that he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place. And they gave forth lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias. And he was numbered with the 11 apostles. So Matthias became the 12th apostle. You say, what about Paul? Well, he was the 13th, because he was the apostle to the Gentiles. There was 12 to the tribe of Israel. He was the apostle to the Gentiles. But what they did, the apostles said, we need to replace, but we've got two men. And obviously, they weren't going to use their judgment to choose. They weren't going to have a vote. They didn't have a vote. They said, we need to know what God wants. So they cast lots. To say, Lord, where the lot falls, we see it as your sovereign providence. We don't know which direction to go in. This must be your choice. Lord, show us by lot. And that's what they did. They did not vote, brethren. And that was for elders. So I would venture to say, because we have no instance of a democratic vote of any office in any church throughout the whole New Testament. That when it says very simply in Acts chapter 6, verse 3, among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, who we may appoint over this business. So what they said is, look out among you for seven men of honest report. By the way, they didn't come back with 14 and vote on seven, which is what a lot of churches do. And I'm saying, we don't know that they even voted. We don't know how, but they came to the exact seven, presented them to the apostles, yup, that's their seven, they appointed them. So how'd they come up with that seven? There's nothing given here. For all we know, they used their judgment of men that were qualified and had gifts, but then they said, but we don't know how to choose amongst them. For all we know, they cast lots. For all we know, it's just not recorded in the scripture. It's presumption. But I think there's a principle there that we ought to hold on to and make note of and make use of. It seems the principle is that the people were able to confirm their trust in the man or the men that would serve as deacons and take the money bag and distribute it fairly as the need arises. Because there was a question as to whether it was being done fairly. So the apostles say, you find men, but they have to be men filled with the Holy Ghost. But we'll judge that, and we'll okay that, and we'll appoint that. But you find them. And by doing the thing, the saying pleased the people. And they found the exact right seven men. Now I've got to tell you something. If you've been in church circles very long, And you see the democratic process in action. If you think they're going to choose the right seven, it's like almost never happens. My buddy here, he'd make a good treasurer. Oh, yeah? Well, my brother, he'd make a good treasurer, and blah, blah, blah. And what happens when you've got the democratic process? I used to hate going to business meetings. And we're going to vote, and they say, so who's going to be a deacon? Because they both rotate deacons every three years or whatever. We've got, you know, a slate of four candidates, but we only need two deacons. So you're sitting there voting, and how many vote for this brother and some, you know, whether they raise their hands or vote on paper, but it's an embarrassment. So now you're pitting brethren against brethren. You vote for this brother, but both brethren may be qualified, but you got to choose one. And so it just creates a bad blood animosity, and this is amongst brethren. There's no need for it. We don't have any example of that going on in Scripture, and I don't want it. And I don't see it in scripture. So I think as elders of the assembly, we have the responsibility to appoint the right men. And I think if this kind of situation came up, and we had 3,000 people here, and we only knew really personally about 25 of them really well, and the rest of them we kind of knew by shaking hands and saying, I love you in the Lord, you know, but that didn't tell you the whole story. And so, and there was some sort of scandal with the money, say, find men that you trust of noble character, and then we'll, you know, bring them to us. I wouldn't have a problem with that. But that's not what's going on here in an assembly this size. The situation's totally different. What we're doing for this assembly at this point in our history, I don't think is necessary in practical terms. Like, in other words, it isn't going to really change anything. I understand that. It isn't about that. This is about having principles in place that match as closely as possible the examples we have in scripture according to the situation that we're in. And the general principle is the people express their confidence in the men that would distribute the money. So I think that's a good principle to have, just as a general principle. It has nothing to do with appointing Anthony. It has to do with, you know, someone can come to us and say, hey, how come, because a lot of churches, hey, they voted. We should vote. No, they didn't vote. We don't know that. That's your presumption. All we know is, again, they say, brethren, look ye out among you. Look you out among you. What does that tell you? Seven men of honest report, full of holy ghost and wisdom, whom ye may appoint over the business. And verse five, they're saying, please the whole multitude. And they chose Stephen, but how did they choose him? We don't know. But they chose seven out of seven, they're right. And I usually, you know, I told you this story. I was in a meeting. It was, I forget the name of the group. It was the young adults. And, you know, the one hippie there was saying, you know, we need to get rid of the old fogies of deacons. We need to get some young blood and bring some rock and roll in this church. And I'll tell you the story, you know, smoke's coming out of my ears and veins popped on my neck and Paul's inching away from me. And I just stood up, and rather than like, boop, you know, like Flintstones, done with work, the horn goes off. Rather than blowing the steam, I just let it out at a constant, moderate level. Like Asim Thrabin, you know, speaking calmly, but all tense. And I said, I don't know of one person in this room qualified to be a deacon. What are we talking about? And I stopped talking. And the guy who was the ringleader, I'm telling you, I can remember, he's sitting on the floor like legs growing. He's sitting on the floor, and he went just like this. And everybody else, and there's this other couple here, the fantastic couple, and they're like looking at their feet. And then there was a guy who was like the assistant pastor, and he's like, oh. And I spoke for about five minutes, and that was the end of that. We don't need that, brethren. I don't want it. You know, Clavel runs smoothly. It's like a well-oiled machine because you have trust in your elders, and hopefully the elders seek not to do their will, but the Lord's will. This is how we should run. So the people need to, I think it's good for the people, however, to confirm. If we were a thousand people, it would be more important to get that confirmation. As small as we are, and we all know Anthony, we've all known him forever, so like, you know, I've probably known him for 40 years. I know, well, I've known him longer than you have. And that's his son. So we all know him. There's not these big question marks, but I think it's still prudent to establish a pattern just so that we can be beyond reproach. So I don't want to do it like, you know, speak now or forever hold your peace. Yeah, I got a problem with the brother. Let me say something right here. And then if he has something to say, let's say he has something valid. Well, it's not proper to air the brother's sins before all the people. No, that should be done in private. So the way we want to handle it is like I just said this morning. If anybody has a reservation about the appointment, come and speak to the elders about it to us together in private. If it would end up being a matter that had to become public, well, that's for us to decide, not for you to blab out and then find out, well, maybe I shouldn't have said that. It's just not the way to go about it. So we would just say, if anybody has an issue, we're not expecting anyone, but I'm not trying to discourage you. If someone came to us and had an issue, And we determined, well, we understand your point, but no, that's not going to keep a person from becoming a deacon. That's in the past. And they just had an axe to grind or whatever. And we're not going to think ill of the person, because I think I said this this morning, because they're trying to help the elders. Like, did you know this? Maybe someone doesn't know whether it's important enough, so they bring it to the elders. We're not going to look down on you, even if we don't do what you ask us. But we would want to know. You know what? We're not gods. We don't know all things. So it's only prudent. I talked to Anthony about it, and he said, well, you know, no problem with that. And why should we? And like I said, we probably should do the same thing when we even make appointment for elders. It's not that we're looking for the people to choose out their elders. But, you know, is there anything we don't know about this person we're making an appointment to? But the decision comes, as it is in the scripture, from the elders, in this case from the apostles. So that's that. That's why we're doing it. We've got two weeks, and then, like I said, it'll be September 13th, Sunday, September 13th, that we'll be able to make that appointment. And we look forward to being able to do that. All right. So, Ephesians 3 is where we're going. Ephesians 3. Now, the apostle here in chapter 3, as we know, has been talking about three steps to really what I'm saying is spiritual maturity in its zenith, at least in its zenith as we can have it while on this sin-cursed earth in our flesh. But the zenith, I think, is described in the second part of verse 19. And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now, for a Christian to be filled is one thing. To be filled with all the fullness of God. Well, whatever that means, that sounds like spiritual maturity to me. They've received all the fullness of God. Obviously, they can't receive all that God is. No man could contain that. But within the confines of our capacities, with spiritual maturity and God's grace, through the receiving of His Word, this is something that we can receive and that Paul wants the Ephesians to have. And so the goal is this, what I'm describing as the ultimate reflection of spiritual maturity, being filled with all the fullness of God. And so, there are three steps, Paul says, in that regard. In the first one, verse 16, Paul's praying for them to that end. He's praying that God would grant them, verse 16, according to the riches of His glory, God would grant them to be strengthened with might by His Spirit, which takes place in the inner man, obviously. But that's Paul's prayer, that they would be strengthened with might by His Spirit. And we've talked about that at length, so I don't want to review the whole thing, but to become spiritually mature and to become spiritually strong, we have to follow, as we said before, certain spiritual principles that are given in God's words, certain spiritual laws that are intended to enable us to grow stronger so that we can receive the fullness of what God has for us. But we can't do that as babes. A babe can't eat meat. So a babe can't be filled with all the fullness of God. He can be filled with God. When we're born again, we're filled with God, but we're limited vessels, see? So the subject matter really is spiritual maturity and growing in grace, which its final expression is in Paul's terms, to be filled with all the fullness of God. And so these physical laws we have to obey. We talked about physical exercise. You say you want to grow in strength and there's certain principles of exercise that build strength. Don't follow those principles, you won't get strength. Same thing with spiritual growth. There are certain things we're told in the Bible that will increase our love, our faith, our stamina, our grace. And if we don't follow those principles, we don't get those ends. They're basic principles. But it's the Holy Spirit, because in verse 16, his prayer is that we might be strengthened by his Spirit, strengthened with might by his Spirit. This power that the Spirit of God gives us comes by virtue of the Spirit entering our lives, changing our hearts, our drives and our motivations, and opening up the scriptures to our understanding, and changing our hearts and causing us to love God, to love His Word, and thus we're motivated and driven to seek Him out. Well, all this is enabling us to follow these biblical principles, to obey them, and then to grow in power by virtue of doing that. If we don't do these things, this is not meritorious. Oh, do, do, do, that's meritorious. No, it's not meritorious. If you turn the knob and push the door, it'll open. See, you got to turn the knob and push the door for it to open. Well, that's works. No, it's what you got to do. You know, that's like the bare minimum. You know, there's no glory in that. That's how you do it. And so if you want to grow in love, if you want to grow in knowledge of Christ, there are certain things you have to do. But just because a person does those things, doesn't mean he'll get those things. See, that's the power of the Spirit, that's the miraculous power. An unconverted man can do all the things the Bible says he should do, and he won't get anything out of it. But God's people will receive an abundance. Because something's happened in here, and that's God's grace, that's not us, see? That's God's grace. We just have to do what we're told and follow these principles, and the Spirit of God will lead us and empower us through obedience. And so, like I said to you last time, Jesus said, So if you don't feed your spiritual body, then your spiritual body gets sick, weak, and it could die. Okay? And we talked about the value of Bible study, and in the value of Bible study, and I can't review all these, but we see that in the value of Bible study, we see that There's a reason that we study the Bible, because in studying the Bible, it does something very powerful for us. It enables us to see Jesus. We looked that up in John chapter five. It reveals unto his. See, search the scriptures because they speak of me. So when you study the Bible, you're learning about Christ, even if you're not reading about Christ in that text. They go, Christ doesn't have anything to do here. He has something to do with everything in the Bible. You're just not seeing that yet. Jesus says, search the scriptures because you say in them is salvation and in them you're going to see me. So yeah, there's a value in Bible study. You're learning of Christ. That is going to profit you spiritually. We also looked at 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, and we see that studying the Bible prepares us for service and ministry. We looked at Psalm 19, 7, 11, and we see that studying the Bible will, in the terms of the psalmist, He's speaking of the knowledge of the law, okay? But the law is God's word, so we broaden it for our use, and we say, well, the knowledge of God's word, the knowledge of the gospel, the knowledge of Christ, will bring, according to Psalm 19, salvation, it brings wisdom, it tells us what is right and what is true, it brings joy to us, it enlightens the eyes, and it enables us to see things we couldn't see before, it is extremely profitable, It warns us, we're told in verse 11, and we're also told there are benefits. To be had by so God's word brings salvation, wisdom, the knowledge of what is right and true, it brings joy, enlightens the eyes, it is profitable, and it gives us warnings and heads up for things maybe we're not looking for. Yeah, that sounds like pretty profitable venture. Studying God's word, being in the house of God, learning the scriptures, being under the ministry of the word. It's so vital. A nonchalant approach to these things is a nonchalant approach to Christ. It's just true. I mean, it's not an opinion. It's just true. So until we begin to Learn God's Word, and then apply it and obey God's Word. We'll never experience the fullness of God, because we won't be growing. And like I said, we'll just remain spiritual pygmies. And Paul will have to say, you know, I have to give you milk when you should be meat by now. And Paul says, you should be teachers of the Word, but I have to give you stuff for babes. We don't want that to be us, OK? And babes don't receive this matur, meet the full, all the fullness of God, okay? And we made one of the notation, then we got to pick it up here, particularly for time's sake. One of the notation that was, Jesus did not die on the cross singularly so that we can be forgiven our sins and have eternal life. Our being forgiven of our sins and being given eternal life is a means to an end. Because we didn't die when we were saved, did we? If we all died and were saved, we could say, well, the end to which Jesus planned everything in going to the cross, that would be saved. As soon as we're saved, we die and then we can go to heaven. But no, no, no. We keep going for some reason. Well, because we're saved for an end. See, we think that's the end because it's the end for us. Hey, I'm safe. How selfish can we be? No, but God has saved us for a reason. And as I've said to you, he has saved us. He died on the cross and rose again from the dead that yes, that we might be forgiven of our sins and become children of God so that we might serve him. and bring glory to him by our walk and godliness and witness before the world." But men would see spiritually resurrected beings change from the inside out and they'd say, there's the power of God in that person. We're designed, we're supposed to be doing that. That's why he saved us, see? See, in a sense, the ultimate end, and every, particularly every reformed minister worth his salt will say, the end for which all man has been created is the glory of God. Well, that's true of the Christians more so than anybody. All right. There was, and then this last thing I want to mention, just for the context of it. I read to you from this one fellow, and I said, I made an analogy in a sense, you could watch God create the world. And that would be amazing, you'd see God's sovereignty and power and glory on display. But something even more glorious than that is to see a person pass from death into life. And that doesn't sound like, oh, that's just poetic. I mean, that's nice sentiment, but it's not really true. It'd be more glorious to see him create the world. Well, I know that we, I can understand why we would think that. But I think if we knew better, if we could see more sharply, it is more of a miracle to change a man from his total corruption to the service of the living God from within. That he change, the essence of the man change, and not from without. Remember I said, you know, Pastor Cugini is an influence to me, and a good influence. But you can't compare Pastor Cugini's influence to the Spirit of God dwelling in us and coming in us and being amongst us and changing our hearts and driving us. Pastor Cugini can't do that. Pastor Cugini can externally motivate me. I have a memory of him. I remember what he did. I ought to do the same. That's like an external influence. But when God saves a person, he changes them from the inside. It's not an external influence. He changed them from the inside. They are born again. And that is the grandest of miracles. And so this one fellow, he said, I'll read it again because it's so great. That heaven, that heaven, the region of calm completeness, of law unbroken, and therefore of power undiminished. That's what it's like in heaven. That heaven affords a lesser and dimmer manifestation of his strength than the work that is done in the hell of a human heart. I just, yeah. If we see clearly, we'd realize how true that was. So we look at the text here and verse 16 is the first step, right? So we've talked about that at length. And we talked about 17 as well. The first step, that we be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man. And verse 17, the second step, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. Okay, so the first step is that the spirit of God indwells us and empowers us, which he does by indwelling us. But why is it important that the Spirit indwells us and empowers us? That, verse 17, that word that is a connective, is it not? It's connecting what he just said to what he's about to say. Paul desire, and just to show that these are distinct steps as Paul is laying them out, that indwelling of the Spirit, to be strengthened by the Spirit, Paul's prayer is that the Ephesians would be strengthened with might by God's Holy Spirit for a reason, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. Now, we're gonna tend to say, now wait a minute, that doesn't make sense. Well, first of all, as I've taught you, well, it has to make sense because Paul set it under inspiration. We start from that premise. Okay, because we say it doesn't make sense because, wait a minute, when the Spirit of God comes into us, does not Christ dwell in us? In fact, doesn't Christ dwell in us by virtue of the Holy Spirit being in us? And so, aren't these things simultaneous? And my answer to that question would be, as we see things, yes. You want to try and put it on a timeline? Simultaneous or a very close approximation to it? Yes. Well, then this doesn't make sense. No, it does make sense. Paul said it under inspiration. I would have to judge that when Paul speaks, we need to be strengthened by the Spirit in the inner man so that Christ can dwell in our hearts. This, I don't think this is a reference to the indwelling of the spirit at conversion. This is the indwelling of Christ, but this is an indwelling of a different sort. It's not just the simple reference to his presence. His presence, the presence of Christ enters into us when the spirit of God enters into us. Agree. But what I think Paul is talking about here is not just the actual presence of Christ, but he's talking about fellowship and communion with him. We need the spirit in us giving us power, giving us strength so that we can dwell with Christ. so that we cannot just coexist with him as distant neighbors, that he can dwell in us and we can dwell in him. I think this is about fellowship and communion. He says, being rooted and grounded in love, which we are rooted and grounded in love by virtue of Christ dwelling in and with us, By Christ doing that and being rooted and grounded in love, we are able to know, that's verse 19, to know the love of Christ, which is the third step. We're talking about, like I said, this is a devotional consideration, because I agree that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the presence of Christ coming into us. But to dwell with Him, to dwell with someone, it's an ongoing thing. To dwell with them, I mean to really dwell with them, not to positionally dwell with them, to dwell with them, you know? They always say they leave the cap off the toothpaste, or the camo of the seat is left up, or whatever. Well, when you dwell with a person, you get to find out some details. He's talking about dwelling with Christ in a more profound way, not just his presence in us. And in order for Christ to dwell in us in that profound way, the Spirit of God does a work in us. The Spirit of God sanctifies us. and prepares us for that relationship that we will have with the one who lives inside us. So he may already live inside us, but we need to be prepared to dwell with him. And the spirit of God enables us and strengthen us and empowers us so that we can actually dwell with him and he can dwell in us. We're talking, like I said, communion and fellowship. If you truly want to know the love of Christ, because it says in verse 17, verse 16, you need to be strengthened by a spirit. There's a reason for that, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. And then he says that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height. You're learning of what Christ is like when he dwells with you and communes with you. You find out the breadth and the length and the depth. And to know, see it leads to this last stage, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. So step two is meant to bring us to the point of step three, to know the love of Christ. Now, if we truly want to know the love of Christ, then, well, you've got to love him. You'll never know the love of Christ if you do not love him. We have to open our hearts and allow him free reign. When we start to do that, we start to learn about his love for us. That's how it works. And submission to him is an act of love. If a wife fails to submit herself, a Christian wife fails to submit herself to her husband, she's not loving her husband. Submission is an act of love. Jesus says, you love me, you'll obey me. Submission is really, people are so put off by the concept, but Christ submitted himself to the Heavenly Father. I say that all the time. Submission is, I trust you. I respect you. I acknowledge your authority. How can I help you achieve God's will for us? That's love. It's unrestrained and unreserved. Anything else is a failure in love. Well, the same thing is true for ourselves in the Lord. When we submit to the Lord, it's an act of love. And when we show that love through submission, it opens up the doors of our in a more profound way, knowing him even more and understanding him. And when you understand him more, you'll love him more. It's a beautiful, not so vicious cycle. So love, true love, will beget knowledge. beget the desire to learn of Him. If there is something in Christ at all that at first causes us to love Him, well, if we're truly beginning to love Him, then we'll want to know more about Him and what His will is for ourselves. Those things cannot be separated. So true love produces within the person who has it a hungering and a thirsting for more knowledge of the One, the object of their affection and love. And that's seen all the time when people start dating and They kind of fall head over heels. Well, guess what? The guy wants to see that girl all the time, or she wants to see him all the time. Well, don't these people get sick of each other, we might say? No, they don't, see? And they're yearning more of that because that love is new, it's fresh, they need to know more, see? Now, there comes a point in our earthly lives where, you know, between husbands and wives, well, the wife kind of gets to know her husband after a while, the husband gets to, you say, you know, we're not like God. There's only so many layers you got going on here, right? And so, you know, there's an end to our depths. So that doesn't mean love ends, but, you know, we get to the point and we're very familiar, but for God, there's no end. Like I say, the Bible is too big to preach in a lifetime of a minister. There's gonna be stuff we won't cover in my ministry. That's true for every ministry. The first love that we have stems from knowledge. And that knowledge came from the Word of God. When we were saved, we didn't love Him before. When we heard the gospel, There was something drawing us, someone drawing us. And we saw what He did for us, and we saw that He was obedient to the Father, and we saw of the sacrifice. and of the abuse he took and how he did it in love. And all he requires of us is that we yield to him and submit to him in humility and throw ourselves upon the mercy of the grace of God and the mercy that Christ has shown. And so by learning the simple gospel, we begin to love him. That's the spirit of God regenerating us. So we're getting new hearts. And so we're just at the very first stages. But how did we get to that stage? It started with knowledge. You can't start loving Christ without the knowledge of the Gospel. The Spirit of God, along with the psalmist, says, taste and see. You gotta taste to see. So we study God's Word, we examine His work, the work of Christ, and we do that, we begin to see more of the love of Christ. Ignoring Christ and ignoring his word will make us ambivalent, and learning of Christ through his word produces love for him. Now there's a paradox here in verse 19. We read, and to know the love of Christ, this is Paul's prayer for the Ephesians, that they would know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. Well, if it passeth knowledge, how are we gonna know it, right? So there's a seemingly impossible thing here. Well, that's so common in the scriptures. So Paul's prayer is that we could know the unknowable. Well, I want to explain that a little bit, best I can. As Christians, we need to mature. We need to grow in grace, that's obvious. And we grow in grace and mature, and we increase in our love and knowledge of Him by by loving Him, by studying His Word, and when we When we, through knowing and experiencing the love of Christ, as we continue to learn of Him, follow those principles, see His grace and kindness and blessings in our lives, and the peace that He gives us, we'll begin to love Him more, and we'll begin to have experiences with the Lord. The Lord will answer a prayer, or He'll not answer a prayer, and we think all is lost, and our faith is gold-licked a thin thread that we're holding on to, and all of a sudden the thing comes together and you say, he did that just to show me I'm dumb. And he's great. What was I worrying for, you know? And he came through. And so those kind of experiences strengthen the gift, put resolve, put a little steel in our backbone, and we're on our way to learning and growing and loving and maturing, okay? And so we experience him and we know of his love, but here's the key. Well, we only know in measure. The heart has been given grace to us as believers to recognize Christ's love. That's true. And the Spirit of God indwelling us enables us, once we recognize it, to revel in his truth and in what he has done for us, to revel in knowing him, but again, We only know him in part. The finite will never know the infinite completely. How could it? Paul wants us to have a knowledge of Christ that passes knowledge. To know him when he passes knowability. How does that happen? It happens in part. I'll give you an illustration. Hypothetical. Your dad. Think of your dad. Or maybe for some people, maybe it's better to think of their moms. Or it could be someone else, a mentor, someone you've looked up to. Let's use the example of a dad. So you know your dad, and you know your dad loves you. You absolutely know that. You know that by what he's done for you through the years. You know that by how he's talked to you, how he's shown patience with you, how he chastened you. He wanted you to grow up to be a good person. And you saw the sacrifices that your father made for you, and maybe some of the costs. And there's no question in your mind your dad loved you. And you know of his love for you, and thus you have a love for him, and you say, now I know my dad, and I know he loves me. And then you say goodbye to your dad, because he dies. You say, my dad loved me, I know that, and I loved him. And you get all the proof in the world, there's not a doubt. I know of his love for me. Look, I lived through it for whatever, 50 years. Well, you thought you knew, of your dad's love for you. But then at that funeral, there's a reception line after, and some old relative or some old acquaintance of your dad comes up and tells you something about your father you never knew. Why had that happen? I didn't know that. I never heard that. But he's talking about something that was probably 40, 50 years ago. I wouldn't have known. My dad never said anything. So you're in line. You know your dad's love. But this stranger, who you never even saw come by the house, and this guy that came by me. Well, I never saw him at the house. I didn't know who he was. Well, he told me who he was. Didn't mean anything to me. I never heard anything about him. Never saw him before. So in our hypothetical example, this old relative comes up, or old acquaintance of your father, and tells you something about him you didn't know. And what he tells you enables you to realize something your father did that cost him greatly, it was for your benefit, and you'd never heard of it. And this guy probably hasn't seen your father in 50 years. You know your father better than he does, but he knew one thing you didn't know. And when he tells you, you realize something. I knew my father loved me. I didn't know that. See, you knew in part. And that part you knew, you're so convinced you understand it from the top of your head to the soles of your feet, the depths like nobody else. Maybe quantitatively, nobody else in the world knew what you knew, but you know what? You didn't know it all. And you learned something that was far more profound. And one thing you're learning is that you only knew of your dad's love in part. When you get to that place, When you learn of the depths of Christ's wisdom, which is what Paul was talking about in Ephesians 3. When you learn of the depths of his love for you, which he's talking about in verse 19. When you learn of the context here is the mystery that was hidden in ages past, but has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets. When you see that which the fathers never saw, and it's exposed to you, and you thought you knew, yes, all the world will be blessed through Abraham's seed, because the world will just, you know, become a good place, and we'd kind of generalize it. When you realize what was, what his plan was all along, maybe you can be filled with all the fullness of God. A brand new Christian won't be able to love God in that way because he doesn't have the capacity yet to receive those things. It's not a slam to them, it's just the nature of babes and the mature. And that's why the scriptures emphasize that the leadership in the assembly ought to be, the leaders are called elders. And it's only proper for the gray head to be making the spiritual decisions and setting the course, not the guy with the long hair who wants rock and roll. Because that old man, that old funny daddy who can't, doesn't even know how to download on his, he doesn't even have a cell phone. You say, so how much can he tell me about everything? You just don't know how much you don't know. I think from the right from the beginning, a Christian says when he's saved, I know the love of God. I know the depths of my sins. I know what Christ did. And he has been exposed to a mountain range. And he says, I've reached, that's why I say, it's a sad thing, but I can understand the mistake at first. The mistake, we've reached the pinnacle. We've reached the summit. We're at the summit of Sinai. So we're waiting for the two tables. No, you're only on the first leg. What are you talking about? The summit's way up there. This is just the first leg? Yup. But you can't get there without going through that first leg. So you knew the love of God. You knew the love of Christ when he saved you. You did. You learned about it. It was overwhelming. You learned of the love of Christ when he made you his own. You knew of his love later on as you grew in grace, and then you learned the doctrine of predestination and election. You say, wait a minute, God chose me from before the foundation of the world? What did he do that for? Oh, because I deserved it, right? No, you didn't deserve it. And so when you're learning of the sovereignty of God and that he chose me, I can't explain it, but now you kind of straighten up. I don't want to let him down. So you've learned a little bit more of the love of God by growing in grace. You knew it before, you know it a little more now. And you think I've reached the pinnacle of truth. You knew of his love when in Providence he guarded your life in certain ways. and opened up certain doors and shut certain doors and answered certain prayers. You gain a little history through years of walking with the Lord. You get a resume and you learn of his love. You say, well, I knew of his love. But brethren, after all that, when he reveals to us the secret of his covenant, there are a lot of ministries that talk about that. The secret of his covenant with Israel. the mystery of Christ, that when we were saved, when we thought that was the mountaintop, when we learned of his sovereign grace, so that was a little, we went beyond the mountaintop and whoa, and it came from that, from his, but then we learned, but wait a minute, he saved us to bring us into covenant relationship with him as his holy nation, He brought us into the Commonwealth of Israel, locked hand-in-hand with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Not second-class citizens. Right there, God is no respecter of persons. I'll tell you, brethren, there are not too many churches in our day that teach the doctrine of the Israel of God. None of dispensationalism does. And the typical mediocre evangelical church, which might not be big-time dispensational, well, they're not talking about this. And then even the reformers, they say, oh yeah, we believe in the Israel God. They never talk about it. When you do hear them talking about it, they're backing replacement in theology. They're not really getting the idea. No, it's not that the church replaced Israel. We are Israel. Paul was saying that this is overwhelming. He said in verse 10, this truth is the manifold wisdom of God. Well, if this truth is the manifold wisdom of God, then I think to be filled with all the fullness of God would require that we receive these things. If we don't, we didn't quite get the fullness, did we? So we can say as Christians, I knew of his love. I knew of his grace. I knew of his power, and we mean it. But we're limited vessels. But then we grew in grace. He said, I knew of his sovereign providence. I knew of election. And we meant it. But then we grow in grace because we're Bereans. That's what he told us to do. And then the secret of the Lord is open, which is laid out in chapter 2 and chapter 3. It's like the whole Bible in its end for us is being laid out for us here. And you say, I knew before. I knew my dad loved me because I spent 50 years with him. And then that relative comes along. It's the apostle Paul. It's Ephesians 2 and 3. And that relative says, did you know the mystery of Christ? And then when he walks by, after he tells you in the receiving line, you say, I knew of his love in the depths of his wisdom before, but now I know. See? But the most mature Christian, the most aged, mature Christian on the face of the earth who has received all this truth, because we're in bodies of flesh, we still only know in part. There's no arriving. But you see, brethren, that's why I say when the modern movement is stop at John 3.16, all the other stuff just makes arguments. Yeah, well, we're not arguing with each other. You say, yes, we are. No, we're arguing with God. I cannot accept the principle that the Bible's so difficult we should ignore it because it just makes problems. And that's how we're going to maintain our love for Christ. You ever stop and think of it that way? We don't want to grow stale in our love, so we keep pressing. We want to know. We want to see. We want to taste. And our cup should overflow. There's no end to the learning of His gracious wisdom and power. We left the court of the Gentiles, and we came into the massive court of Israel unsaved with all these other brethren. We see that it's a big courtyard. And then we went into the court of the men. We went into the court of the men a little bit smaller, This is a more exclusive place. There's still people milling around the Court of Israel. How come they don't come through the door? Well, no, don't leave them behind. Go stand with them. No, no. He's calling us to keep going. And we go through that Court of the Men, and we go into the Court of the Priests. There's so few there. That room's so much smaller. Well, why is it so? The first room is so grand. That's why people think this is the pinnacle. This is the mountaintop. This is John 3, 16. I've been forgiven. What more do I need to know? When you're in the core of the priest, guess what? You're looking at the outside of the Holy of Holies. And the Holy of Holies is to be filled with all the fullness of God. And when you receive this truth of the mystery of Christ, the secret of his covenant with Israel, you're entering into the Holy of Holies where the Lord wants to fill us with himself. So in-depth doctrinal teaching is really meant, in the end, it causes us to love him more, and when we love him more, we'll serve him more faithfully, and be able to honor him in a way that, you know, sometimes immature believers, they'll think we're dishonoring him when we're honoring him in a more profound way. There'll be people that think, if they could sit in the sermon and say, for instance, this morning, he was dishonoring the Lord Jesus Christ, that Pastor Gallagher, He was telling us all, so that happened then, right? So you're going to tell me that he came on the clouds in glory with the angels 2,000 years ago? That's a joke. You've got to be wrong about all those pronouns. John MacArthur must have the answer. And because they have a paradigm that doesn't enable them to understand verses 29 to 31, they change the whole chapter. But if they had loved him enough, to study the prophets. If they had loved them enough, even if they didn't study the prophets, to say, I love Jesus so much, whatever he's saying here, somehow it's true. So I don't know what to make of it. I know what to make of the other verses. I don't know what to make of 29 or 31. But as they increase in love, they stumble across all these passages in Isaiah and all these other places. They say, oh, this is plain as the nose of my face. So when people are expounding on that kind of stuff, Sometimes the spiritually weak or immature, for lack of a better word, they'll not appreciate what you're saying. They'll think you're doing God a disservice. And when we say we're doing God a disservice by receiving the meat of the Word, we're doing a disservice to any brethren who listen to us. We would do better to be slow to speak and quick to hear, to hold judgment until we've studied a thing and known. But brethren, we conduct ourselves that way. Our Christian lives are meant to be good, rich, full, and happy. And I can't make it happen for you. It's not my job to make it happen for you. You've got to make it happen for yourself. You say, how do I do that? by yielding to God's Spirit and trusting Him even when you don't understand Him. You just keep doing that and studying God's Word and praying and seeking His face, it all comes like the floodgates being opened. And in the end, you'll realize it isn't me doing anything. He's doing it all. I just opened the door for Him to come in and pour in a flood. How can I take credit for that? I just turned the knob and I pushed. That's how I had some prayer.