Okay, we're in Ephesians chapter 3, starting this morning at about verse 14, where Paul begins to pray. in light of the great mystery he's been showing. Remind ourselves that the first three chapters are an incredible presentation of the riches and the wealth and the resources that we have in Christ. Remind ourselves that Paul is writing this from prison. He's writing to young Christians, many of them have in that era, wherever Christians were, they were often killed, imprisoned, different things. And if they were Jews in their past, then there were Judaizers, people who were still loyal to Judaism. And their loyalty to Judaism was more a loyal to their perversion of the Old Covenant rather than the Old Covenant itself. And so they would follow the Apostle Paul and others and try to make trouble. In fact, that's one of the reasons Paul wound up in prison. But, as we pointed out last time, God has purposes for all the things he brings or allows, and we need to focus on just being available to him, because after all, we would not have, Book of Ephesians, had not Paul been in prison, and some other books as well. So, here are these letters, and he has been talking about this incredible mystery and wonder. God is, from the get-go, has been in the redemption business. starting with Adam and Eve, and of course they came up with an idea of how to cover their guilt, cover it with fig leaves. It's interesting that Adam and Eve were in a state of innocence prior to salvation, I mean prior to their fall. They had no sin, they had no sin nature, They had no slavery to sin. They were in perfect fellowship with God. And there's a lot that we're not told, but you'll remember that there was a tree of life there, which once they sinned, they were shut off from that. But that's had something to do with how they maintained their fellowship with God. And they walked in the garden with the Lord and had fellowship with him. But when they sinned, they died. They died spiritually. They were cut off because of their sin. They were cast out of the garden. And from that moment all the way for the rest of history, a person who is outside of Christ is dead in sin. And the only solution is God's provision. And it's always a blood sacrifice. When I see the blood. I'll pass over you. And that's the story all through the scripture. Now there's some subtopics and there's covenants that God made with Moses and Abraham and so many others and there's things where God chose the nation of Israel and he did a lot of things through them and there's things that he's still going to do. But the core essential essence of all that God is doing is redeeming a numberless multitude out of every kindred, tongue, tribe, and people. And so in the New Covenant, in the writing to the Ephesians, he says in chapter 2, you've grown up in a world where there's They're Jews and they're Gentiles and they shall never meet, and the Jews think that they're better than the Gentiles and can't understand how they could be saved unless they're circumcised, unless they become Jews, and God said no. In the new covenant, all those walls are taken down. And if you meet someone in the street, regardless of whether they're red, yellow, black, or white, Jew or Gentile or whatever, if our fellowship is around Jesus Christ, that surpasses everything. And I don't have to become a Gentile, I don't have to become a Jew, I don't have to do—our fellowship is around Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for us. So, three chapters here of incredible revelation about our wealth and resources in Christ. And it's stuff that we need. So here, Paul begins to pray in verse 14 and 15 of chapter 3, for this reason, in the light of all that has been said thus far, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family of heaven, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. And so the foundation of this prayer is that Paul has a clear understanding of what God's purposes are for this reason, for this reason of what God is doing. taken two and made one. He's redeeming people by the blood of Christ, regardless of any and everything else. If you don't know what God is up to, if you don't know God's purposes, and if you don't bring it down to know God's purposes for you and I, what are we going to do? We're going to wander. We'll go down blind alleys. We'll be subject to people who are offering something that glitters or whatever. And I would say that there's a problem in Christendom even fundamental Bible-believing Reformed Christendom people who are very weak on understanding, and this is something I need to cultivate in my own life every day, the truths of Ephesians 1, 2, and 3, the wealth and the resources of who we are in Christ. Some of you may remember, Ray Steadman was a pastor out in California many years ago and he told a story, in fact it's written in his commentary or sermons on Ephesians, about a Navajo Indian that had property and they discovered oil on his land. He became a very wealthy man. And he did business with a local bank and he had, in the vault in there, they had stacks and stacks and stacks of gold that was his. And there'd be occasions when the old Indian would come in and say, cow's all dry, grass all burnt, had a whole bunch of things, just things, terrible, terrible, terrible. Well, the people at the bank had learned what to do. Guide him in to the vault, and he'd sit there for an hour or two and count his money. Then he'd walk out saying, grass all green, cows all fed. Well, I'm sure if we had such a vault in the bank, it'd probably cheer us up a little bit. but it pales into insignificance compared to the wealth and the resources that we have. We need to spend time counting our resources, meditating upon our resources, who we are, what God is up to, because that's going to greatly impact what we do, the attitudes we have, the choices we make every day of our lives. So what if you're in a situation and You're not sure what to pray about it. Well, there's a couple of things you can always land on and you'll be right in the middle, in the center of what's important. Lord, glorify your name. People ask you to pray for them. So-and-so is sick, so-and-so is dying. And we have the privilege of praying that the Lord would raise them up. But a lot of people take that and they try to stretch out and say, if you'll have enough faith, God will heal you. Or, well, they would have been healed, but you didn't have faith. And there's things that we don't know. And we can debate some of those things, but here's what you can't debate. Lord, glorify your name. The model prayer is good. We call it the Lord's Prayer. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. Those are the important things. We may not have the details at this point. But when you're at a place of not knowing, hang your hat there. And revel in the resources that we have in the first three chapters of Ephesians. So he says, I bow my knees. That is a position of humility. You can have your knees bowed and not be humble. There are a number of scriptures that speak of people in a place of praying, and they are praying with their knees bowed, and that's fine. Here's a quote, the Bible has enough prayer not on the knees to show that it isn't required, but it's also enough prayer on the knees to show that it is good. So, you're praying to the Father. of our Lord Jesus Christ. We usually direct prayer to the Father through the Son by the empowering of the Holy Spirit. And again, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. God is the Father of both Jew and Gentile, and he is saving both Jew and Gentile. And even though there is distinctions along the way when it's all said and done, there's one bride at the end of the way, made up of every kindred, tongue, tribe, and people. Someone made note and I didn't look it up, but in Ephesians chapter 3, verse 14 and 15, Spurgeon had a sermon title from this verse, Saints in Heaven and Earth, One Family. And this is another source of encouragement. You may be in a situation where you're the only person in your family, so far as you know, that's a Christian and walking with the Lord. All the more need to be in a Bible-believing fellowship. All the more need to fellowship with the Lord through his word and to realize as you read the scriptures that you're part of a big family. So he prays in verse 16 through 19 of chapter 3 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 to comprehend with all saints what is the width, the length, 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, I suspect many of you have those verses marked in your Bible. It's an incredible statement. And a good thing to pray for one another, a good thing to pray for ourselves. Lord, make this real in my life. Lord, this is the essence of what it means to be a Christian. This is the great need that I have. I have need to be strengthened with might through the Holy Spirit in my inner man. And so it's good at times to think in terms of who you are. We tend to focus on the outer man. That's what we see. And we've already fed it a couple of times. You've ate something before you came here, and some of you eaten since coming here, and we take care of our outer man. None of you walked in Oediphorus. You've got your deodorant on. And you've taken a bath at least once this week. And so we take care of the outer man, and we tend to neglect the inner man. In Thessalonians, it says, I pray God keep your whole spirit, soul, and body to the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we look at the totality of who we are, spirit and soul many times are intertwined, and there are a lot of people just saying that we're spirit, soul, and body. Others would say we're spirit, soul, and body. For communication purposes, I think it's helpful to divide it out. I won't debate with you about the issue. But in the innermost being of who we are, we can say that when you're lost, you're spiritually dead. You're dead in your innermost being, and there's a throne there, and on that throne is a big I. Me, my, I. It's all about me, or big S, self. And so that in the essence, that's in your inner person until you're saved, you're lost, you're dead, and you do whatever a natural person wants to do. That affects your soul, your mind, emotion, and will. Who you are in your innermost being affects your soul. And it affects your body. It affects how you look at your body. And so I look at my body, and my body is mine to impress somebody with. And we live in a world that is forever trying to impress others with their body, or to be ashamed of your body, whatever. But when you're alive, when you've been born again by the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit dwells within your innermost being, your inner man, And on the throne of the innermost being of who you are is Christ. And so you can put a cross there or just put C for Christ. That affects your mind, emotion, and will because you are now alive. And as you feed your spirit and it overflows into how you think, your emotions, the decisions you make, And of course that obviously affects your body. Because you now confess with the Apostle Paul, my body is the what? Temple, the dwelling place of God, which you have of God, you're not your own, you've been bought with a price. And so, Paul is praying that he would grant unto those Ephesian Christians, we pray this for each other, pray this for ourselves, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened. We need strengthening that with might through his spirit in the inner man. So, Well, I go to church on Sunday, but the Bible is closed and I'm not feeding my soul. If you fed your physical body the way you feed your soul, what would your health be in? That, why we want to do this, that Christ may dwell in your hearts Through faith, you say, well, Paul, I thought Christ was already dwelling in your heart. That's the essence of what it means to be a Christian. But here is the concept, deeper here, of Christ being at home in your heart. We start the Christian life as a babe, then we're to grow, and if Christ is at home in our heart, he's not a guest, he's not a visitor, He's the indwelling master of my life, and through faith. Well, to cultivate that, I'll just put a note there, and I'm gonna find something, if I can find the page. This print is small, so it may be hard. But anyway, the essence of it is, and we won't go there right now, but to go, to put a note here, Hebrews 11. There's a whole chapter on helping us to understand what it means to live by faith. And we see example after example after example of people who lived in faith and that you may be rooted and grounded in love and that you may be able to comprehend with all saints these certain dimensions and we'll get to that in just a second. Now there's a part here where we are dependent upon the Lord for all this, it's not just a mere academic humanistic decision, because it said that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man. And for this person, the reason that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love, If we don't grasp, this is one of the things that the Lord's Supper does for us. It helps us to have remembrance of our being rooted and grounded in love. This doesn't exactly relate, but this was pretty astounding to me. There was a British newspaper published a report of a bombardier from World War II named Robert Key. who died when a grenade he was holding exploded. The Army report blamed him for showing off with a grenade in the recaptured French town of Anagin in September 1944. His family, apparently ashamed because his service records cited foolish behavior for his death, they refused to talk about him for 65 years. Or talk about him. But when the town's mayor traced Robert's family in 2008 and asked permission to name the road the mayor of the town where this accident took place. They contacted the family and wanted to name the road in honor of Robert. That sounded strange. What the family discovered was that Robert had, in fact, snatched the grenade from a large group of children he had found playing with it. When one boy pulled out the pin, the bombardier key seized the grenade, fled away, clutching the grenade to his stomach to protect the children when it exploded. To this day, Robert remains a legend in the town of Annison. Robert's nephew, Robert Faber, age 62, said, this news was amazing and completely different from anything we'd known. For unbelievers, and to some degree believers, the sheer scale of the love of Christ is completely different from anything we've known. Many times, we might not be like these people, just thinking bad things about the God, but we don't think much about it. It's just common knowledge. Jesus died for sinners. Oh, here's the Lord's table. If nothing else, then we all come. It doesn't really matter. Here's a command, Jesus said, do this in remembrance of me. Well, if it's convenient, I will. If it's not, I won't. I won't think nothing about it. And I'll read my daily reading and again, just be shallow about the love of Christ, the price that was paid. So, but this is a big deal. that you may be rooted and grounded in love. Well, God is love. And he demonstrated his love at Calvary. And now he goes into giving four dimensions of love. What is the width and length and depth and height to know, to know by experience the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. So, what is it that the Holy Spirit wants to flood our inner man with according to the riches of his glory? with the knowledge and the experience of the love of God that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith. And Jesus says in John 14, 23, if any man loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. So Jesus, the call of this passage And the reason for this prayer and the purpose of this prayer is that we might grow in the experience of settling down in the love of God and fellowshipping with the Lord, him not just being a stranger. A preacher of years ago, was talking to someone about how do I grow in this, how do I make progress in this, and he simply said, you have your Bible and you have your knees, use them. And that's the context of this. If I'm to grow in this experience, I have my Bible, I need to get in it. Whether I'm literally on my knees, but from a spirit of humility. I found the page I was looking for. So let me just read a couple. This is from Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Let us turn to the positive answer to the question of what is meant by the expression by faith. We cannot do better than the description given in chapter 11 of Hebrews, a chapter written in order to give us an account and a description of what the life of faith really is. It's not a passive state, we shall find, but primarily and essentially activity, and the author of the epistle sums it up for us in one verse. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed them, that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. That's Hebrews 11, 13. That is very deep. That's very, that hones it in to get off of generalities into specifics. when we open the Word of God and we're crying out to the Lord, we're listening to Bible teaching or whatever, the Spirit of God wants us to see, to be persuaded of, to remember, to embrace, to confess. In this Romans Who is it that's saved? And this is not just an initial profession of faith, but in the Christian life, Romans 10, 9, those who believe in their heart and confess with their mouth the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved, shall be delivered in whatever situation it is that you're facing. Believing in your heart, confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. So there's something that I must see here. I must be arrested by it. The men depicted in the 11th chapter of Hebrews were laying their lives, or were living their lives in this world, even as you and I are doing, and a message came to them of something very different, very spiritual, something from God, and these men of faith saw it. Most of their contemporaries did not see it. In fact, they ridiculed it. Nothing has changed, has it? Take a man like Noah, for instance. He heard a message that God was about to destroy the world by flood. He saw that message and he did something about it. What differentiates the Christian from all others in the first instance is that he sees something. What do we see? When I open the word of God, am I content just to go through the motions or do I see? I'm really a sinner. Jesus paid my sin debt. Boy, that calls for gratitude. That calls for amazement. That puts a fresh, heartfelt singing of amazing grace. We see something. It makes all the difference in the world. Now, guess what the world's doing? They have a lot of things they want us to see. You turn the television on, you just have to take this in the right spirit, but I saw a part of a football game a couple weeks ago, and I forget, it was a college game. Wherever they were playing, there were like 82,000 people. That's not the largest. But the noise was deafening. And you got these people playing on the field, but you got 80-something thousand people screaming and yelling. Boy, they're into it. They see something. They see excitement. They see thrills. They're experiencing escape from all the things in that world they don't like. And there are things out there that are not sin in and of themselves, but they are put out there and the temptation is that we live for those things. We live for those sights, we live for those sounds, we live for those experiences. We have very little time or energy or thought left to see what's really important. That's one reason why it's so important to read on a regular basis the book of Revelation. Forget about all your theories. Forget about assigning premillennial, postmillennial, amillennial. Forget all that. Look for Jesus. And see Him. And see What's really important? At the end of the day, what's important? There are people, multitudes, anomalous multitude, who in this life had it tough, but now for all eternity, worshiping, praising the Lord. I need to see that. I need to see God's purpose. I need to see where I'm going. I need to see what God is up to. I need to see that what God is up to is so powerful and so central and so important that I'm willing to change my priorities. I'm willing to be unashamed of Jesus because I'm going somewhere. I'm somebody. Oh, not in a pride way, but by the grace of God, I'm a child of God. So, they not only saw them, but they were persuaded of them. They recognize the type of experiences described and grant that it can be demonstrated out of the scriptures and the hymn books, and it can certainly be true of many Christians, but they wonder whether this is the only true but they wonder whether this is the only truth of exceptional people. Some people are not, we're not talking about being mystical here. One might say, of course this is a very wonderful experience and I enjoy hearing and reading about it, but it is obviously not meant for me. I'm a businessman and I'm concerned about the affairs of this life. I'm a professional man and I'm extremely busy. I can see quite clearly that if I had nothing else to do but to spend my days in study, concentrating upon the Christian life, or if I became a monk or a hermit and could readily give myself to the pursuit of this matter, I have no doubt that it would be possible for me. But I'm immersed in business affairs and many pressing problems. It's not just the entertainment world. The simple answer to this is that the Apostle Paul regarded it as a possibility for every one of the members of the Christian church at Ephesus. These early Christians, at least the majority of them, were slaves. They were not masters at all. They were forced to work, to labor, to sweat. They often lacked education and knowledge and culture. But they were immersed in the gospel. I should have printed the next page. Boy, that was good. That's where I quit. Anyway, in all that we're talking about here, we're talking about the glory and the wonder of the indwelling Holy Spirit. And to know this and to live by faith. And we need spiritual strength, we need to focus on this because we have a natural resistance to it. And that's one of the things that we've been seeing here. So he says, rooted and grounded in love. Here's a quote from Spurgeon about rooted and grounded. Two expressions are used, rooted like a living tree which lays hold upon this soil, twists itself around the rocks and cannot be upturned, grounded like a building which has been settled as a whole and will never show any cracks or flaws in the future through the failures of the foundation. And so this is not a side hobby if I get time. Let's look at the verses here that have to do with the width and length and depth and height, the dimensions of the love of God. How wide is the love of God? There are many things that we could say here. It's wide enough to cover all my sin, all my circumstances. The love of God has length. When did the love of God start toward us and how long will it continue? We've already seen that before the foundation of the world. And he says, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. I've loved you, Jeremiah 31 three, I've loved you with an everlasting love. It has depth. Philippians 2, 7, and 8, Jesus made himself of no reputation, took upon himself the form of a servant, became in the likeness of man, being found in the appearance of man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. That's how deep it is. And the love of Jesus has height. How high will his love lift me? not only out of the depths of sin and bondage and habits, but all the way to see him face to face for all eternity. There's so much going on in our world and there's so many earthly fears that we oftentimes allow ourselves to just slide along on the surface. And then when life tumbles in, we wonder why we're so weak. So these are passages to meditate on. These are passages to drink deeply on. Here's a quote. The cross pointed in four ways. God's love is wide enough to include sinners of every nation. long enough to last through eternity, deep enough to reach the worst sinner, high enough to take us to heaven. This isn't speculation. This isn't guesswork. This isn't emotions or feeling. This is something to know, something to believe, because God said it. Father, thank you for this time to spend together. Thank you for the wonders of this portion of your word. Help us to leave from this place with a fresh zeal in our hearts to be rooted and grounded in your love, in your word, to live by faith, to believe you. and we bless you for it. Pray that you'd strengthen and encourage each one of the brothers here. Each one has their own unique situations where grace and faith is needed. Fill each one with all the fullness of your spirit and we bless you for it in Jesus' name, amen.