In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the desperate state of humanity without God and hope. However, he highlights the transformative power of Christ's blood, which brings people closer to God. The preacher encourages the congregation to testify to God's grace and to live a spiritually disciplined life. He also emphasizes the importance of love, referencing 1 Corinthians 13, and the role of the Holy Spirit in strengthening believers. The sermon concludes with the message that through faith, believers can experience the fullness of God and a fellowship of love among brethren.

We've certainly appreciated these reports tonight as a Lord's blessing, and it's a joy to me, after having been here a number of years at Park of the Palms, to see more and more of what the Lord is pleased to do here. One report was not given, however, and it's a negative report, and that is that this Gospel Pioneers crowd is sheep-stealers. They're thieves. They've robbed our Bob and Vera Willis from Southeastern Bible College in Birmingham. But apparently the Lord decided it was time for them to be graduated, and though we didn't have a formal graduation, we're delighted the Lord brought them here. But there's a price tag to that, and you're all hearing me, aren't you? And that price tag is, you must put Southeastern Bible College on your prayer list, if it's not already there, and pray and pray and pray faithfully for the school. Say amen to that. Wonderful. Ah, good for you. Something I forgot. At the end of this hall there's a couple of boxes, and any money put in those boxes is going to Southeastern Bible College. Thank you. I didn't say pry, I said pray. And I want a few times a year for you to send him up there to our board meeting on the third Tuesday night of the month. So stick a credit card in his hand and say, listen here, Brother Willie, I want you to go up there to that board meeting and check up on Gannett and see if he's still in the faith. So you remember that, will you, a few times a year? And you need to get away from his work. All right, Ephesians chapter 3 tonight. It's been a blessed hour, and we thank you for sharing the Lord's blessings with us. Ephesians chapter 3. We've seen together that as believers we are not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God with unconfessed sin. We've seen that we are not to quench the Holy Spirit of God by resisting Him, by saying no to Him. We saw last night together that we are positively to walk in the Spirit, and we may have the privilege, moment by moment, of living in dependence upon God the Holy Spirit. Now I want to see this outworking and experienced in our subsequent messages. May we pray together as we turn to this chapter. Our Father, speak, we pray, to our waiting hearts. We thank Thee again for the Word of God, for a place that honors Thy Word as the Word of God. May it minister to our hearts in the power of the Holy Spirit tonight, as we wait before Thee in Jesus' name. Amen. Now that we've been saved, now that we know the joy of sins forgiven and life in Christ, we have to ask the question, Why did God leave me here after He saved me? It follows immediately that if God were through with me, He would have taken me home. Isn't that right? Why not just save us and take us straight to glory? Well, that would save a lot of problems, wouldn't it? But He's chosen to save us and to leave us here as faithful stewards of the grace of God. God has a plan, an overall plan. In this very chapter of Ephesians 3, He calls it, in verse 11, the eternal purpose. This is a theological term, but latch on to it. What God is doing in these days, He calls His eternal purpose. Now, since we're His children, since we've been redeemed by His grace, does it not follow that whatever His plan is, that should be our plan? Isn't that right? It's that simple. Now look in 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, and that's what He calls this age in which we live, which is given me through you. How that by revelation He may know unto me the mystery. Paul is not saying, I have something mysterious to show you. No, but something that He calls a mystery. How that by revelation He may know unto me the mystery. Verse 4, whereby when ye read ye may understand my knowledge and the mystery of Christ. Now, He defines the term mystery, which in other ages, the days of Adam and days of Noah and days of Moses and so on, 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. He is saying, I am now giving you a truth, I am now sharing with you what He calls a mystery which men in other ages didn't know. God had not revealed it to them if for this dispensation of the grace of God. What is it, Paul? He tells us in verse 6, that the Gentiles, the crowd that had been left out so much of the time during Old Testament history since Abraham, for God's covenants had been with Abraham and with his nation Israel, you see, and the Gentiles got in by means of the Jews, that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs. Fellow-heirs with whom? According to chapter 2, the Jews. And of the same body, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ and fellow-partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel. Now, to explain that a bit more, turn back to chapter 2 a moment. Verse 11. Wherefore, remember that ye, being in time past Gentiles, and most of us here tonight are, in the flesh, who were called uncircumcised by that which is called circumcision of the flesh made by hand, that at that time ye were without Christ before ye were saved, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. Can you think of anything worse? And that's where the mass of humanity is tonight. That's where the multitudes of earth are tonight, the boys and girls of which we've already heard tonight, without God, without hope in the world, if they know not our Savior. But now, says Paul, verse 13, in Christ Jesus ye who were sometimes afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. About this time I'd like to stop and have everybody give a testimony, but you do need to take a bath before morning. So we'll not. But I feel like it, the thrill of being brought nigh by the blood of Christ, the thrill of rejoicing in salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. Verse 14. For he is our peace. Remember how troubled it was before we were saved? Remember the guilt, the misery, the wretchedness of sin before we were converted? He is our peace, who hath made both one, who are the both, Jew and Gentile, one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of two one new man, so making peace, and that he might reconcile both unto God in what? In one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. And he came and preached peace to you that were afar off and to them that were nigh, for through him we both have access by one spirit unto the Father. Now, therefore, you're no more strangers and foreigners. Isn't that wonderful? But fellow citizens, we're the saints of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the buildings, fitly framed together, grow up unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are built together for an habitation of God through the city. That's what God's doing these days. Paul uses two figures. He's building a building. We've been hearing about buildings tonight. He's building a building, Christ the chief cornerstone, the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets. Peter says, we individual believers are living stones that make up the building. And they told me years ago, when I was just a lad, that it looks like the Lord's putting on the roof about now. It's just about complete. It's about time for the Lord to come. Paul also uses the figure of a body. Many times throughout his epistles, he speaks of us as members of the body of Christ. He speaks of us as members in particular, that God has set some members in the body, has pleased him, and you may be part of a finger, and I may be part of a hand, and you part of a leg, and you part of a, I mean, liver, and all the rest of this kind of thing. And we're all members of the body, and God's job is taking unconverted Jews and unconverted Gentiles and making two, one, one body, the church. That's what he's doing these days. That's what he's doing these days. And so Paul says in chapter three, verse seven, Whereof I have 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 the less than the least of all saints, and maybe some of us feel just like that tonight, 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, we've been hearing about that tonight, the fellowship of this mystery, that unconverted Jews, now saved, unconverted Gentiles, now saved, are brought together by the grace of God into fellowship with the Father and his Son and one another in Christ. God's in the business of completing this body. And there aren't many members left to add, if I understand the prophetic scene all right. Not many left. Now God's in the business of completing the body. The writer of Hebrews says, God's in the business of bringing many sons into glory. That's what he's doing. James put it this way in Acts 15, he's taking out from among the Gentiles a people for his name. That was in the context of dealing with the Gentile problem. Jew and Gentile! God's in the business of taking one here, and one here, and one here, and one here, through the gospel of Jesus Christ and putting them in the body of Christ once they've been saved by his wonderful grace. That's what God's doing. That's what God's doing. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. That's what God's doing. Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, teaching them. That's what God's doing. Repentance and remission of sin, that it be preached in his name among all nations, that ye are witnesses of these things. That's what God's doing. As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you. That's what God's doing. Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. That's what God's doing. That's it. He's committed to us the word of reconciliation. We are ambassadors for Christ. We are to be seatsmen in Christ's head to be reconciled to God. That's what God's doing, these days. Since that's what God is doing, then this is to be what you and I are to be doing. That's your reason for part of the promise. That's your reason for Camp Horizon. That's your reason for these chapels. That's why God has kept you here. That's why he hasn't taken you home yet. This is it. Now, every one of us here tonight that's saved, and I trust every one of us has received the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. And one says, Well, preacher, I've heard all this before, and I know that's so. We have to face the solemn fact tonight that most of God's people aren't doing God's business. Oh, we get occupied about lots of things. You know, houses and lands and clothes and cars and stocks and bonds and investments and security and comfort and ease and all the rest. And these things are important in their place. And I wouldn't have any respect for you businessmen if you weren't businesslike about your investments. But all these are for what God's doing! See? So God brought you to the park to retire. Yes. Retire from what? Serving the Lord? No, sir. Retire from bolts and nuts? Maybe. Screw bolts down here at Park of the Palms. They're working on it. They're going to find lots of things for you to do. One of you said to me yesterday, When I come back here next year, I want something to do. My heart said, Amen. I've already told Brother Willie. All right. He'll be working on it. That's right. All right. Now the question is, How are we going to be about our Father's business? What's going to keep us doing the job? Living this day in the light of what God's doing. Living tomorrow, the Lord's day, in the light of what God's doing. My going back to Birmingham on Monday to do what God's doing. And some of you going to Canada and some of you going south and moving back and forth all the time, busy, doing what God's doing. Now, what's going to get me to do it and keep me doing it until the Lord comes or the Lord takes me home? That's the point of the rest of the chapter. And I want you to notice that it's a prayer. So I start right here. We've seen God's program. We're now to look at his prayer or his provision for accomplishing his program. And for Paul to say, Now we're going to get with this gentleman. And the way he says we're going to get with it is that I'm going to pray for you. These were the great ministries God's people had for each other. And it's God's way of getting God's work done, first of all. Look at it. Verse 14. For this cause, I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that 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 unto all the fullness of God. What a prayer! What a prayer! Now, we don't have time to plumb the depths tonight. That'll take eternity. But, in a few moments, let's look at three wonderful truths. One is the power of the Spirit, and the second is the life for the love of Christ, and the third is the fullness of God. the three persons of the Trinity involved in getting us ready to get God's work done. Verse 16. The power of the Spirit that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory. Notice how he piles up this language. According to the riches of his glory to be strengthened. Strengthened with might. Strengthened with might by his Spirit. Boy, he's won something tremendous to accomplish here. Strengthened by his Spirit in the inner man. Why? He tells us that Christ may dwell in your heart by faith. Do you mean this is a problem? Yes. Do you mean it's a problem that moment by moment throughout each day for me to allow and trust the Lord Jesus Christ to live within me? Yes, it is. Why? Because there's an old nature in there, and he's difficult, and he's ornery, and he's stubborn, and he's self-willed, and he's carnal, and he's rebellious, and he's worldly-minded, and all the rest. You got one like that? If you have, say amen. It's just good for our souls to acknowledge this. All right? Now, why, then, does Paul pile up this language in verse 16 about the Spirit of God? He is saying that it takes the might, the power of God, the Holy Spirit to so control our inner desires so that Christ can live in us and through us, I say. It takes all that to get it done. How many of us tonight are praying for a son, a daughter? How many of us tonight are praying for a husband, for a wife, for grandchildren, as you told me, great-grandchildren? Hmm? That God will save them, that God will work in their hearts, that God will bring them through those difficult teenage years, that God will bring them the full and complete dedication to the Lord in His will and to the great commission. Lord, ask for a raise of hands, any number would go up in this room tonight. I'm praying that for our teenage children, for all our children. Now, that's what Paul's praying about here. Now, you Ephesian Christians, he says, you've got a carnal heart, you've got wavered desires, you've got a proneness to wander within you, you've got all kinds of inner desires that are wrong and corrupt because of your own nature. Now, you need the Spirit of God to control them 24 hours a day, seven days a week so that the Lord can live through us with His holy desires and ambitions and purposes that will fulfill what we've just read earlier in the chapter, the completion of the body of Christ through the salvation of precious souls. And so, mark it, beloved, don't stumble over this, that we pray for a fellow Christian that God the Holy Spirit will strengthen his heart. Do you see that? You say, my husband's impossible. I've had more than one wife say that to me. My husband's impossible. Bless her heart. I said, listen, my dear sister, the grace of God is sufficient for your husband. My children are impossible. My grandchildren, oh my, this generation is wild. I grant you they're wild. Wild because we parents produce this context for them. Ooh, that's awful. It's the truth, you know that? Now, how in the world are we ever going to get them straightened out? How are we ever going to straighten out that grandson of mine? How in the world are we ever going to go through his teenage years and this kind of a day? Here's the answer right here. The Spirit of God is working strengthening him, enabling him so that that old carnal desire, that carnal heart is controlled and that now, verse 17, Christ may dwell in your heart by you. Here's the second wonderful person of the Trinity. The power of the Spirit and the length of Christ. Now, isn't that an unusual request in verse 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith? I thought he was already there in a Christian. He is. He comes in the moment you're saved. The moment you're saved. What in the world is Paul praying this for? Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. We need a Greek lesson here and I'm sure you're going to get many of them from Brother Willie. But this is a compound word which means Christ may be at home in your heart. Thoroughly dwell in your heart by faith. Hmm? It's my privilege to be in many, many homes over the course of a year. What a joy it is to go to strange church or strange community and meet my fellow Christians for the first time and have them take me home for dinner and you can see I've eaten well and just feed me more of this southern fried chicken, I tell you. It's great. I've been in some homes where I've been given the sip arm almost. They were almost glad to have me, you know. Nobody else would take the preacher home for dinner so they felt they had to and they let me know, you know. And then most homes, most homes, preacher, the house is yours. Come in for a week of meetings. Preacher, this is your room. Here's your bath. Here are the towels. Here's the kitchen. Here's the refrigerator. Everything's in it's yours. If there isn't something there you want, ask it morning, noon, or night. Help yourself. Hmm? That's the word here. Does Christ feel that way in your life tonight and in mine? Perfectly at home. Nothing inside that rubs the wrong way. Nothing inside that holds a sip arm. Nothing inside that's resistant and rebellious and carnal and Huh? He's perfectly at home. Perfectly at home in your life tonight. Is he? That's why the spirit of God strengthens him. That he might dwell at home in our hearts by what? Faith. There's our principle of life tonight. Now preacher, put this in shoe leather for us. Paul does. Verse 17 through verse 19. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith at ye being rooted and grounded in what? In love may be able to comprehend with all faith what is the breadth and length and depth and height. What's he talking about? Love. And to know what? The love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye might be filled unto all the fullness of God. Paul is saying in a word that the outward expression of Christ at home in our hearts is the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. And ye know there's nothing more wonderful in the world than love. Hmm? Isn't that right teenagers? There's some back here. Yes they are. I looked at them. And you older teenagers? Huh? Some of you have been married forty years and fifty years and sixty years. I've been only married twenty-two and a half years. And as Billy Graham says he gets gooder and gooder and gooder all the time. I wasn't even in love when I got married compared to how much I love my wife now. I love her so much that I could eat her up and no I don't wish I had. All right. No. Love. Now tell me among the God's people there's nothing more wonderful than the expression of the love of Christ. Nothing more wonderful than that. In my own church in Birmingham Chris Line Bible Church while I was away one of our students from the college whose fellowships with us has four children he came by faith to trust God to go through college he and his wife four children and the folk came to the house and went through all their clothes and had to get out in the middle of the night and all that kind of thing and bless their hearts the deacons in the church just went right out and immediately told the Lord's people about it and they took a hundred dollars and they took them down to the dress shop and dressed up the dear wife and took care of them and the kids. This is wonderful. The love of Christ. The love of Christ. Now how do you express love? What is it? What is this commodity? Go back to Galatians 5 Galatians 5 Paul tells us verse 22 and verse 23 But the fruit of the Spirit Ah, you know what we're talking about now He does not say fruit plural He says fruit singular The fruit of the Spirit is what? Love joy peace I wish you could have heard yourself sing that song tonight I was tempted to change the message and preach on the coming of the Lord tonight after you sang that song the way you did What joy when the love of Christ is yet abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit Ah, what joy and what peace what soul rest when God's love is there and we're not at odds with each other and we're not out of sorts with what God's doing but we're open and yielded to the Spirit of God within and my what peace it brings to the heart and no matter what problems arise we dump them on the Lord and we cast our burdens on Him and He says He sustains us and we believe Him and isn't it wonderful to feel that way And then longsuffering Oh when Christians show their carnal nature here's the grace of longsuffering You've tried to overhaul your husband for 40 years some of you Hasn't worked yet, eh? Here's grace Too late? Oh no Grace is still sufficient Okay Longsuffering My wife's still trying bless her heart Longsuffering Gentleness Oh, that sweet Christian kindness this expression of the love of Christ toward one another Goodness Inherent goodness Integrity as we call it and then that beneficent spirit to be a blessing one to another and to help one another and share with one another Ah, what a wonderful expression of love And faith Hm? Walking by faith the spirit of God produces in our hearts the grace to trust the Lord to depend upon Him to expect from Him daily to trust Him for greater things as we heard tonight Hm? Faith And this word is also translated Faithfulness I was telling the men coming up in the car today that our Youth for Christ director was in my office this week and he said Listen Give me anybody who'll be faithful Faithful Faithful Here's the grace of faithfulness Faithfulness in the home Faithfulness in the church Faithfulness in the community Faithfulness in our witness and service to the Savior Faithfulness in prayer and our stewardship Faithfulness in my Bible reading Faithfulness in my soul winning Faith Here's the spirit of God producing this out of a heart of love for the Lord you see And then he says Meekness And that word meekness is more than humility It means accepting one's loss Some of you since you've been here I've been here and shared with me that when the last month God took your companion home the grace of meekness gives you the grace to accept your loss and done Sure Easy for me to preach but there's grace for you to live it too Accepting your loss Accepting your loss Whatever it is Thank you Lord Thank you Lord and by your grace I carry on God's wonderful love gives us this grace And then Self-control That's the word, can't it? Yes A spiritually disciplined life Here's part of the problem Oh where you don't have the rat race you used to have Where you don't have the little ones around your apron strings Mother Father Where you don't have the daily responsibilities of earning a living Nevertheless the grace of self-control spiritually so that each day is dedicated to God Each day is fulfilling the great commission Each day making a contribution Each day disciplining This is lost in action Know anything more wonderful than this? I don't Hmm? Let me take just a moment to just read 1 Corinthians 13 Just three or four verses So familiar to us 1 Corinthians 13 4 through 8 Here's that same commodity of love Love, suffer it long Need lots of that And is what? Kind Love You don't find by seeking and experiencing You don't find the fullness of God by getting some second work of grace then You don't find the fullness of God by trying to speak in tongues then No, no, no A thousand times He tells us right here in the text Christ is the fullness of God And when he lives through your personality and mine you and I are filled with all the fullness of God because we're filled with him And the expression of that fullness is the love of the Lord Jesus Christ Hmm? Well, that's for some preachers and some missionaries, I know But preacher, that's not for me Wait a minute That's not the text there Now unto him that is able able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think unto him be glory in the church What in the world did he put these words here for? They're talking about building new chapels in Florida They're talking about paying for parts of the ponds building new apartments You and I apply this text to 10,000 different things And we may apply it to 10,000 different things because it really is that broad an application But look at it in its context as we close Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think It's in the context of Jesus Christ living through you and through me It's in the context of the power of the Spirit of God at work to enable Jesus Christ to live through us by faith that we might be filled unto all the fullness of God Now it says, Paul, listen God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think in accomplishing this in your life Amen Nobody's got a corner Nobody with a commitment to go to the mission field has got a corner on them Nobody that you look up to in your assembly you think the financial giant has a corner on them Teenager, this is for you tonight Fathers and mothers, this is for you tonight Granddads and grandfathers Grandmothers, this is for you tonight Ah, this is us God's heart for us is I'm able able to do abundantly able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think in making this a practical, down-to-earth reality in your life That's part of the palm from now till Jesus comes You express little love around here like Paul talks about in his text you won't have room for all the folks who want to move parts of the palm Did you know that? From the final analysis, it isn't palm trees that bring folks Hmm? And it's not slanky apartments that bring folks It's a scholarship we've heard tonight among brethren who love our Lord and Princess Hmm? That's it How does all this become ours? Paul says, By faith By faith Last night we walked and walked and walked