This is Ephesians, Chapter 3.
While you're turning, we'll just go over briefly
the outline of the study last night.
This could have been Chapter 2.
We spoke of Chapter 2 as being an
exposition of the transforming power of God.
He transforms from death to life, from hedonism
to the heavenly, from law-work to life
-work, from distance to nearness, from entity to
peace, from foreigners to fellow-citizens, and from
the habitation of Satan to the habitation of
God.
Now, tonight, we're just going to press on
into Chapter 3, and we'll read this chapter
together at this time.
Ephesians, Chapter 3.
For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of
Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if ye have
heard of the dispensation of the grace of
God which is given me to you, how
that by revelation he may know unto me
the mystery, as I wrote afore in few
words, whereby when ye read ye may understand
my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which
in other ages was not made known unto
the sons of men, as it is now
revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by
the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow
-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers
of his promise in Christ by the gospel,
whereof I was made a minister according to
the gift of the grace of God, given
unto me by the effectual working of his
power.
Unto me, who am less than the least
of all saints, is this grace given, that
I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ, and to make all men
see what is the fellowship of the mystery,
which from the beginning of the world hath
been hid in God, who created all things
by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now
unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places
might be known by the church the manifold
wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose
which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord,
in whom we have confidence and access, boldness
and access, with confidence, by the faith of
him.
Wherefore I desire that ye think not of
my tribulations for you, which is your glory.
For this cause I bow my knees unto
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of
whom the whole family in heaven and earth
is named, that he would grant you, according
to the riches of his glory, to be
strengthened with might by his Spirit in the
inner man, that Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith, that 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, and to know
the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that
ye might be filled with all the fullness
of God.
Now unto him that is able to do
exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or
think, according to the power that worketh in
us, unto him be glory in the church
by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without
end.
Amen.
You should feel free to come afterwards, and
we can reverse it back again, and you
can copy it after the meeting, or perhaps
some friend has it.
Now let us look to see what the
outline of this chapter is tonight.
First of all, I'd like to point out
that Paul starts off to say something in
verse 1, and then, as it were, he
becomes interrupted in his train of thought, and
takes up a subject in verses 2 through
13, and then in verse 14 he goes
on to say what he had originally started
to say.
Now is that clear?
For instance, he says in verse 1, For
this cause I call the prisoner of Jesus
Christ to you Gentiles.
Now that sentence is really never finished until
you get down to verse 14.
For this cause I bow my knees unto
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me just say it this way.
Paul starts out, and he's going to say,
Now for this cause I bow my knees,
but then he thinks I, Paul, the prisoner
of Jesus Christ to you Gentiles.
Oh yes, and that reminds him of the
mission that God gave him to accomplish in
connection with the Gentiles.
And so in the verses from 2 through
13, he puts in what we would speak
of as a parenthesis.
That's really what it is, a parenthesis on
the subject of the mystery, or the church.
Now this is very beautiful for this reason.
The church itself is a parenthesis in God's
dealings in the world.
Let me explain it this way.
In the Old Testament, God had his dealings
with the people, beginning with Genesis chapter 12,
right down to the end of the Old
Testament.
Then with the coming of the New Testament,
you have in the first book of Acts
a parenthetical portion in God's dealings on the
earth.
And that parenthetical portion has to do with
the church.
This is Israel.
Then God takes up his dealings with the
church.
And Israel today is set aside, scattered throughout
the earth, because of her relationship with God.
Now the church began at the day of
Pentecost, and the church age will close at
the beginning of the Great Tribulation, here
on earth.
At the end of that time, here upon
the earth, where Christ reigns with Jerusalem and
over the earth, is a
parenthesis in God's dealings.
And the beautiful thing is that the truth
of the church is presented in Ephesians as
a parenthesis.
I don't know whether you've ever noticed that
before or not.
And so we would call the first part
of our outline, A Parenthesis on the Mystery.
And this will be letter E, will it
not?
Letter E, A Parenthesis on
the Mystery.
Chapter 3, verses 1 through really 13.
Alright, Paul says in this first verse, For
this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ
Jesus, the Revised says, for you Gentiles.
Now this is perfectly lovely.
Paul was suffering imprisonment at the hands of
the Romans.
But he wouldn't admit it for a minute.
You know, it has been beautifully said that
although this letter was written from a prison,
you don't get the slightest smell of a
prison about it.
Written from a prison?
Where was Paul?
His body was in the prison, but he
was in the heavenlies, wasn't he?
He was enjoying his position that God had
given him in Christ.
And so he refuses to admit for a
minute that he's a prisoner of Rome.
Why is he in prison?
Because the Lord Jesus Christ allowed him to
be there.
And he says, the prisoner of Christ Jesus,
for you Gentiles.
In other words, the thought is, it was
while I was carrying out my mission for
you Gentiles that I was captured, arrested, that
I became a prisoner.
And that's a beautiful thought for all of
us who are Christians, that circumstances do not
control us.
And a man's body might be in a
prison, but four walls can't bind a Christian.
It's a very nice thing to remember that
our peace is in heaven, the Lord Jesus
Christ.
And nothing can affect the joy of the
Christian, because our joy is there at the
right hand of God.
So come what may on the earth, we
can triumph above it all.
For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of
Christ Jesus for you Gentiles.
Now that word Gentile brings something to his
mind.
It brings to his mind the whole subject
of the revelation that had been committed to
him by God.
And so he says in verse two, if
ye have heard of the dispensation of the
grace of God which is given me to
you.
Now the if, once again, does not express
any doubt.
It means since, since ye have heard.
He wasn't doubting that they had heard, but
he knew they had heard, and he's going
on to explain it.
Since ye have heard of the dispensation.
Now this word dispensation can also be translated
fellowship.
If you'll turn over to verse nine it
says, and to make all men see what
is the fellowship of the mystery.
Now the word fellowship there in the original
language of the New Testament is exactly the
same as the word dispensation in verse two.
Don't ask me why they translated it by
different words.
I don't know.
Another meaning of the word is steward.
And what Paul is saying is this.
God gave me a stewardship.
A steward is one who takes care of
the affairs of another.
If I had a thousand acre farm and
hired a man to take care of it,
he would be my steward.
And the way he took care of it
would be the stewardship.
Now God gave a stewardship to Paul, a
dispensation, something for him to take care of.
And the way he took care of it
was called the stewardship.
Now what was it?
Well he speaks of it as the dispensation
of the grace of God.
In other words, during this time that Paul
was preaching and the age in which we
live, God's dealings with his people are characterized
not by law, as they were in the
Old Testament, but by grace.
This does not mean that God was not
gracious in the Old Testament.
He was, but he was testing them under
conditions of law.
Today his grace is going out warm, full
and free to mankind.
So Paul says, since ye have heard of
the stewardship of the grace of God, which
is given me to you.
This work was given to Paul to perform
for the Gentiles.
Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, as
Peter was the apostle to the Jews.
It didn't mean Paul never preached to Jews,
but it meant primarily the people to whom
he was sent were Gentiles.
Alright, now we have first of all, it's
revelation.
The revelation of the mystery, and we'll put
that number one, verses two to four.
A parenthesis on the mystery, it's revelation.
Verses two to four.
He says, how that by revelation he made
known unto me the mystery.
Paul wants to emphasize at the very outset
that the truth, the message that he preached,
was not something he studied in books, not
something he learned from the other twelve apostles,
but it was something that was divinely revealed
to him.
Now frankly, I find this a very difficult
portion of scripture to read, and I suppose
most of the folks here do too.
Perhaps it will help as we go along
just to define these words.
Now this word mystery, if you have not
already marked it down, perhaps you'd like to
note down that the word mystery in the
New Testament means a truth not hitherto revealed,
but now revealed to believers.
A truth hitherto not revealed, but now revealed
to believers.
And you have that in verse five, which
in other ages was not made known unto
the sons of men, as it is now
revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by
the Spirit.
So he says in verse three, how that
by revelation he, Christ or God, made known
unto me the mystery.
That is the truth not hitherto revealed, but
now revealed, as I wrote afore in few
words.
When was that?
What is he referring to in those words,
as I wrote afore in few words?
Well, he's referring to this same letter where
this truth has been referred to, although not
fully expounded.
For instance, in verses twenty-two and twenty
-three of chapter one, the truth of the
mystery is referred to.
It says, And God hath put all things
under his feet, and gave him to be
head over all things to the church, which
is his body, the fulness of him that
filleth all in all.
Then in chapter two, verses fourteen, fifteen, sixteen,
seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, are all allusions to
this truth of the mystery.
So when he says, as I wrote afore
in few words, he's referring to this same
epistle which we have been studying.
Verse four, whereby when ye read, ye may
understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ.
In other words, when you read these previous
portions that I've spoken about, you'll understand how
that by divine revelation, God has made it
known to me.
Now we want to notice next what the
mystery is.
What is it, this mystery?
And so we'll put down here to its
definition.
Definition.
Verses five and six.
Now we've already had a general definition of
the word mystery, and you have that in
verse five, which in other ages was not
made known unto the sons of men, as
it is now revealed unto his holy apostles
and prophets by the Spirit.
And here again we want to emphasize that
apostles and prophets are New Testament apostles and
prophets, not Old Testament prophets at all, but
those raised up of God in the New
Testament did sensation.
Now verse six tells us what the mystery
is, and you might like to write it
down just this way.
Jew and Gentile made one body with Christ
as head.
That's the truth of the church, isn't it?
Jew and Gentile made one body with Christ
as the head.
And that's what you have in verse six,
that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and
of the same body and partakers of his
promise in Christ by the gospel.
Now a lot of folks claim that the
truth of the church is revealed in the
Old Testament, that the church as we have
it today in the New Testament is just
a continuation of Israel in the Old Testament.
But dear friends, you'll search in vain from
Genesis to Malachi for any intimation of Jew
and Gentile ever being formed into one new
man with the glorified Christ as the head.
Jew and Gentile is body and Christ the
head in heaven.
It just is not found in the Old
Testament, and that's why Paul speaks about this
truth as a mystery, a truth not hitherto
revealed.
The church is something new in God's healing.
It was future when the Lord Jesus Christ
said to Peter, thou art Peter, and upon
this rock I will build my church.
It wasn't something that was in existence in
the Old Testament, and the calling of the
church is heavenly, and its destiny is heavenly.
So there you have the definition of the
mystery, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs,
that is, that they will inherit with believing
Jews and of the same body.
Well, you certainly didn't have that in the
Old Testament.
They never were.
And partakers of his promise.
Now I take it that when you have
that expression, his promise in Christ by the
gospel, the word promise usually in the New
Testament, when spoken of in connection with the
gospel, refers to the coming of the Holy
Spirit.
And this verse teaches that the Gentiles are
partakers of the Holy Spirit, along with the
Jews who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now in the next three verses, Paul describes
the messenger, that is, himself.
And so we'll put as number three, his
messenger, he speaks of himself now in some
detail, verses 7-9.
He says in verse 7, "...whereof I was
made a minister."
And the word minister in the New Testament
doesn't carry any thought of officialism with it.
It really means servant.
That's all it means.
Men love to glorify words and glorify offices.
But you know, the whole thought of ministry
in the New Testament is lowly service.
Lowly service.
It isn't aspiring for greatness or a place
among the people of God, but it's just
getting down and washing their feet, as it
were.
"...whereof I was made a minister, a servant,
according to the gift of the grace of
God given unto me by the effectual working
of his power."
Paul says, this isn't a work that I
deserved.
It was a gift of grace.
The fact that God gave it to me
wasn't because I was any better or more
illustrious than anybody else.
It was a sheer gift of grace.
And I don't carry it on by my
own strength, either.
I carry it on by the power of
God himself.
"...according to the gift of the grace of
God given unto me by the effectual working
of his power.
Unto me, who am less than the least
of all saints."
Now don't you kind of wish sometimes that
Paul would move over and let you sit
down beside him on this bench?
But he won't.
He says, I'm less than the least of
all saints.
So why does he say that?
Well, I think Paul could never forget that
he persecuted the Church of God.
He persecuted the Church of Christ.
And even on the day of his conversion,
he was on the road to Damascus to
put to death those who believed in that
precious name.
And he said, that's the one it's to
such an one that this grace is given,
that I should preach among the Gentiles the
unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all
men see what is the fellowship of the
mystery, which from the beginning of the world
hath been hid in God, who created all
things by Jesus Christ.
Now notice that in verses 8 and 9,
Paul has a twofold ministry.
You ask most people today, what's your ministry?
Oh, my ministry is to preach the gospel.
Well, thank God Paul had that ministry too,
but he didn't stop there.
No.
Two things.
Verse 1, verse 8, that I should preach
among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
But then the second part of his commission
was to make all men see what is
the fellowship of the mystery, which from the
beginning of the world hath been hid in
God.
Let me express it this way.
Paul wasn't satisfied just to preach the gospel,
to get men and women saved, and then
leave them there, saved in Christ.
Oh no.
God gave him a commission to lead them
on in the precious truths of the church.
And that's a good pattern for the Lord's
servants to follow today.
Not just to see babies born into the
world and leave them as such.
Oh no.
But to teach them the precious truths of
the faith.
God has ordained that the Christian faith should
be propagated through the church.
It's not our choice.
It's not man's choice.
It's God's choice.
And so Paul was not only concerned with
seeing soul saved, but he was concerned with
seeing New Testament churches planted, New Testament churches
founded, where the saints of God could come
together for worship and prayer and study of
the word of God, and from which they
could go out to all the world with
a precious message of the redeeming love of
Christ.
So his first commission was to preach among
the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Now isn't that a lovely expression?
The unsearchable riches.
Unexplorable, untrackable riches of Christ.
And then to make all men see, and
I take it that men here mean believers,
because they're the only ones who could see,
what is the dispensation or stewardship of the
ministry, of the mystery, which from the beginning
of the world has been hidden God, who
created all things by Jesus Christ.
Now here's another statement to the effect that
the church is something new.
God knew about it from all eternity, but
man didn't.
It was hidden in God.
And now Paul says, I've been given the
glorious commission of making it known to men.
Now Paul wasn't the only one who had
this revelation, but he was certainly the primary
one.
The other apostles were given it too.
You remember Peter had the vision of the
sheet let down from heaven and heard the
voice of God saying what God has cleansed,
call not thou common.
In other words, the Gentiles were going to
hear the gospel and be saved and be
brought into the body of Christ just as
well as the Jews.
And that was the lesson Peter had to
learn.
And so other apostles had this revelation made
known to them, but it wasn't a primary
sense given to Paul to make known to
the Gentiles.
And then you have the purpose of the
revelation, the purpose of the mystery in verses
10 and 11.
Why does God bother with the church?
Let me put it just very bluntly.
Why didn't he just save men, period, and
let them go about their way?
Verse 10, to the intent that now unto
the principalities and powers in heavenly places might
be known by the church the manifold wisdom
of God.
And what does that teach us?
Well it teaches us this, that tonight the
angelic hosts of heaven are looking down, shall
I say, from the ramparts of heaven on
this earth.
And they see something on this earth that
was never seen before Pentecost, that's the church.
And as they see the church and observe
what's going on, it is an object lesson
to them of the manifold wisdom of God.
Now that's quite a thought.
How does the church witness to the wisdom
of God?
Did you ever think of that?
Well, I suggest one way is this.
God in the church reaches down, saves ungodly
sinners, and the next thing you know they're
worshiping him with full heart and going out
and seeking to win others to himself.
And no doubt the angels just shake their
heads in marvel and admiration.
And then I think of how God in
the church brings men of various nationalities and
men of various temperaments together, and you'd think
they'd just be doing like this all the
time.
And instead of that, by doing that, God
is working out graces in their lives that
he could never work out otherwise.
And the angels look on and they see
in the church the manifold wisdom of God.
And then they see God leading this company
of people through this world, through an atmosphere
that's foreign to them, and everything is very
much against them.
And God cares for them, he provides for
them, he hears their prayers, and leads them
on, separate and holy people that they are.
And the angels gasp in amazement.
And then the angels look down and they
see the sick and suffering saints of God.
And they see them going through the fires
of affliction, and yet they see their faith
in Jesus Christ unwavering.
And the angels see in the church the
manifold wisdom of God.
Now supposing you were forming the church, what
kind of a church would you form?
Well, wouldn't you like everybody in it just
to be like yourself?
I suppose we would.
We'd like everybody to have a sweet disposition
just like ourselves.
That would make the ideal church.
But that isn't wisdom.
You see, God does the very opposite.
God takes no account of people like ourselves.
And he saves them, redeems them, and then
grace teaches them.
And pretty soon they're becoming more and more
like the Lord Jesus Christ.
But I think that's what this verse teaches,
to the intent that now, this isn't something
that's going to happen in eternity, now unto
the principalities and powers in heavenly places might
be known by the church the manifold wisdom
of God.
Now, isn't it too bad that conditions have
taken the turn they have in the world?
The church today, you look about you in
every hand, and there's division.
Division and strife among the people of God.
And this, which should have been an object
lesson to angels, causes oftentimes, I'm afraid, reproach
on the blessed name of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
I believe that during this day God is
calling his people, apart from all that denies
his name, to a place of simple gathering
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
to be of pure as testimony to himself,
both to men and to angels.
Verse 11, according to the eternal purpose which
he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, in
whom we have boldness and access with confidence
by the faith of him.
Paul says this isn't something that God just
thought up when Matthew's gospel was written, but
this is something which he purposed eternally.
Even before the world was framed, God had
the church in his heart, and now he
has brought it to pass.
And in Christ we have boldness and approach
to God with confidence through faith in him.
Wherefore, Paul says, I desire that ye faint
not at my tribulations for you, which is
your glory.
Perhaps the people to whom he was writing
might have thought it was a disgrace that
their apostle should be languishing in a Roman
prison.
People would say, Defeat and failure, and the
Ephesians might be ashamed.
Paul says, Don't be ashamed, be proud.
Be proud that I am where I am,
which is your glory.
I am here for the defense and confirmation
of the gospel.
Now the break comes in the chapter, and
he resumes in verse 14 what he started
to say in verse 1.
But again I say, it's beautiful, it shows
the inspiration of the scriptures, it shows the
divine hand that wrote this book, that the
great truth of the church, which is a
parenthesis in God's dealing, should be presented in
the word of God as a parenthesis too.
And so now we come to a prayer
of Paul, and it's a prayer for power.
We'll call this F, prayer for power,
verses chapter 3, verses 14 through 19.
Now he says, For this cause I bow
my knees unto the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in
heaven and earth is named, or of whom
every family in heaven and earth is named.
Now perhaps this refers to the angelic family
in heaven, perhaps it refers to the family
of the redeemed in heaven and the family
of the redeemed on earth, but the thought
seems to be that God is the Father,
and the whole idea of fatherhood originated with
God, and every other family that exists takes
its name from him.
Now Paul prays in this portion for three
things.
He prays, first of all, that they might
comprehend a fourfold dimension.
So I'll just put here, prayer for power,
one, prayer for power, two, to comprehend the
dimension.
You'll probably want to write that, to comprehend
the dimension, verses
16 through 18.
He says that he would grant you, according
to the riches of his glory, to be
strengthened with might by his Spirit in the
inner man, that Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and
grounded in love, may be able to comprehend
with all faith what is the breadth and
length and depth and height.
Now the things that Paul is praying for
are things that you cannot understand in mere
human knowledge.
They are things that can only be understood
by the power of the Spirit of God.
And so he prays, first of all, that
Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.
Now the real meaning of this passage, I
think, is that Christ may be at home
in your hearts, because Christ dwells in the
heart of everyone who is a true believer
in the Lord Jesus.
He dwells there, but is he at home
there?
Well, that depends on our daily living, doesn't
it?
That depends on whether we go through the
day neglectful of him or not, or whether
we go through the day practicing his conscious
presence with us.
Wouldn't it be a nice thing if we
could begin the day with a request to
the Lord that each moment during the day
we might be conscious of his indwelling, of
his presence with us, and everything would be
done with an eye to that?
That Christ may be at home in your
hearts.
How can that be?
By faith.
Faith means dependence, does it not?
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.
Now, you have these four dimensions.
It has often been pointed out that it
does not say the breadth of love, the
length of love, or the depth of love,
or the height of love.
Now, what are these dimensions?
What are the dimensions that Paul is referring
to in this epistle?
Well, one of the first rules of Bible
interpretation is to seek the answer right in
the context.
And I'd like to ask you tonight, what
is the great breadth that is considered in
Paul's letter to the Ephesians?
I wonder if somebody would suggest an answer
to that.
What is the greatest breadth that you have
in this letter?
Anybody?
What is the greatest distance that has been
spanned?
The greatest breadth.
It's right in this very same letter.
Well, I would suggest that the breadth is
found back in verse 14.
The arms of God reaching out in love
and embracing Jew and Gentile.
I suggested last night that the difference between
Jew and Gentile was the greatest distance in
the moral universe of God.
God created that distinction.
And in the cross he has bridged that
gulf, and the breadth is indicated by bringing
Jew and Gentile together in one man in
Christ.
I merely suggest that.
Now it says the breadth and the length.
All right, now what is the greatest length
that you find in Paul's epistle to the
Ephesians?
What's the longest distance in this letter?
Well, let me suggest this.
Back in the first chapter, here's the beginning
of the length.
It says, verse 4 of chapter 1, according
as he has chosen of him before the
foundation of the world.
Now that's the beginning of it.
And then the ending of it is in
verse 7 of chapter 2, that in the
ages to come he might show the exceeding
riches of his grace in his kindness toward
us through Christ Jesus.
In other words, the length reaches back into
the past eternity, according as he has chosen
of him before the foundation of the world,
that in the ages to come he might
show the exceeding riches of his grace in
his kindness.
All right, then it says the depth.
What's the deepest depth that you reach in
the epistle to the Ephesians?
Well, that's in chapter 2, isn't it?
You are to be quick unto a dead
in trespasses and sins, verses 2 and 3,
for in time past ye walked according to
the course of this world.
That's as deep as you go, and we
spoke of that last night in the depth
valley.
And then the height.
What's the highest height in the epistle to
the Ephesians?
Well, it's seated with Christ in the heavenly.
Verse 6 of chapter 2, raised us up
together and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus.
Now, I just suggest that as being the
meaning, but the interesting thing is when you
put those all together, what do you get?
You get breadth and length, and you get
height of depth that forms a cross, and
that's exactly what the cross has done.
That's exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ has
done.
Beginning back in an eternity past and reaching
on to an eternity future, he embraces all
mankind, Jew and Gentile, who put their faith
in him.
He raises them up from the muck of
the mire of sin and degradation, and seeks
them with himself in the heavenly.
And Paul says, now I'd like to, I'm
just praying to God that he'll grant you
to enter into the riches of all this.
All that's comprehended in the cross, all that
the cross means to God, means to Christ,
and means to you.
May be able to comprehend with all things
what is the breadth and length and depth
and height, verse 19, and to know the
love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.
And so that's number two here, to comprehend
the dimensions, two, to know the love of
Christ, that's
verse 19, says that to know the love
of Christ, which passeth knowledge, ye might be
filled with all the fullness of God.
Now, how can you know something that passeth
knowledge?
Well, I think the thought here is that
it passeth human knowledge, don't you?
It's something that surpasses human knowledge, but God
reveals to us by the Spirit of God,
the love of Christ.
A love that loved us in spite of
what we were.
When he loved us, he knew how bad
we were.
He wasn't looking for anything in return.
He knew all the sins that we'd ever
commit.
He knew how we'd grieve him and break
his heart, and he loved us just the
same.
He saw me ruined by the fall, yet
loved me notwithstanding all.
And to know the love of Christ, which
passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with
all the fullness of God.
And so we'll put that in the third
one, that ye might be filled with the
fullness of God, verse
19.
Now, this thought is so absolutely amazing that
it's difficult to know what to say about
it.
To think that one who was a wretched
sinner, and on the way to hell, might
ever be brought to the place where the
apostle Paul can pray for him, that he
might be filled with all the fullness of
God.
How would you ever give an explanation of
a verse like that?
Well, all I can do is just give
the familiar illustration.
The little boy goes down with his thin
tail to the seashore, and he fills his
tail with the water.
And his tail is filled, but the sea
isn't exhausted.
And that's about all we can do, too,
isn't it?
That we might come to the Lord, and
that our empty vessels might be filled with
himself.
Not of self to cloud the glory, not
of earth the light to dim, emptied to
be filled with him.
Telling forth the wondrous story, emptied to be
filled with him.
And of course, that's just the point that
God has put us here, to be his
representatives, to tell forth his glory in the
earth.
That's why God made man in the image
and likeness of himself.
That word image means representative.
And God's purpose in the church is that
those of us who are saved might be
little miniatures of himself down here, little replicas
of himself.
How well have you and I represented the
Lord Jesus Christ today, those of us who
are Christians?
That ye might be filled with all the
fullness of God.
And then in the last two verses you
have what we'll just call G.
Praise to God.
Verses 20 and 21.
It says, Now unto him that is able
to do exceeding abundantly above all that we
ask or think, according to the power that
worketh in him.
Paul says, Though I have made some great
requests for you in prayer, I bowed my
knee and requested these things, but I know
God is able to do not only what
I request, but above all that we can
ask, above all that we ask or think,
according to the power that worketh in us.
Unto him be glory in the church by
Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.
And this verse continues the thought that the
purpose of the church here on earth is
to bring glory to God.
Glory to God in the holy lives of
its members.
Glory to God in the worship that arises
from the church to him.
Glory to God in the service that results
from lives of dedication and devotion to himself.
And so Paul prays, Unto him be glory
in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all
ages, world without end.
Amen.
So shall we just close with a word
of prayer and praise to the Lord.