The love of Christ

Ephesians chapter 3, let me read first of all at verse 18. 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 with passive knowledge that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Turn back to chapter 2 if you will, just a moment, just want to read, run two expressions in chapter 2, verse 4, but God who is rich in mercy for his great love were with he loved us even when we were dead in sins.

Now the last part of verse 7, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Every believer from their heart appreciates God's great love. John 3, 16 is a verse that never loses its attraction for our hearts.

Thank God for the great truth that God so loved the world. But there is something so very personal about the love of Christ. I'm thinking of Galatians 2 and 20 and it is to me one of the greatest texts in all the Bible, the Son of God who loved me.

So there's something very, very personal about the love of Christ. I want to go back and read at verse 14 with you, Ephesians 3 please. This is the greatest prayer that has been expressed for us in the New Testament.

There's a reason for saying that because you cannot get higher than the fullness of God. And that's where this prayer reaches. Verse 19, that the clothes that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.

So verse 14 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. And perhaps the meaning of that is not that there is one family, but rather that every family ought to take character from the God who is the true Father in heaven and earth. That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory that ye might 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. It's always good to see the setting of such a precious gem as this. The people who make jewelry know that a stone can be made much more attractive by the way it is set.

But the setting has great importance in displaying the beauty of the stone. This is a very precious jewel, and the setting is very wonderful. I think you know that in the Ephesian letter the principalities and powers are described in chapter 1, chapter 3, and chapter 6. Those principalities and powers, those authorities, those names in heaven and earth actually comprehends all created intelligence.

And in chapter 1, the exaltation of the Lord Jesus is that he is far above, not just above, not just higher, but far above all principality and power and might and dominion. In chapter 6, those principalities and powers are under the control of Satan. So there are principalities and powers that are holy, there are principalities and powers that are most evil.

Perhaps we are seeing some of the evidence of those evil principalities and powers today. And when it comes close to home, although much of the rest of the world has known this kind of violence again and again, it has not come to us in this degree ever before. So we are very much made aware of the tremendous powers of darkness.

There is a Lord of the darkness. He is called the Prince of the Power of the Air. Chapter 2 of this very epistle, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience.

So one of our brethren in his prayer tonight said that Satan is behind this. I have no doubt that is true. Satan himself, the great power of darkness, is behind all the evil that this world experiences.

But in chapter 3, the principalities and powers are made students. These must be the holy principalities and powers because God is revealing to them through the church. We are the object lesson.

Look at what it says. I think this is most amazing. Verse 9, to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery.

That mystery is the church which from the beginning of the world have been hidden 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. The next verse is one of those kind of verses in the Bible that sums up eternity according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. God is showing to angelic hosts, to principalities and powers, he is showing his many faceted wisdom in the church, in the testimony for God today that is still in the world.

God is using the church as the object lesson. God is the teacher. The universe is the classroom.

The heavenly hosts are the students and we are the object lesson of the manifold wisdom of God. Now maybe that helps us to understand the breadth and length and depth and height that is referred to in verse 18. Don't think for one moment that this does not mean the breadth and length and depth and height of the love of Christ because it surely does.

But it is actually telling us what that love has purchased. It is actually telling us of eternal glory because of the love of Christ. Just go back for a moment.

This is a little disorder, I confess. I had something entirely different to speak on tonight, but I just couldn't make it go. This is what has impressed me, and when our brother Nick gave out the opening hymn I felt quite confident that this is what I should read.

You notice you have, first of all, that it is in Him. In whom? That is the source of all blessing. It is in Him.

Not in human efforts, not in abilities of our own. Every blessing we ever have is in Him. We, the recipients of that blessing, we have access with confidence.

That is the substance of the blessing. Through faith in Him, that is the means of the blessing. Now, this prayer tells us at least six things about prayer.

I need to learn this again and again. This is a subject we never, never can really get past. We have lessons to learn almost every day of our lives.

I am very much convinced that much of the experiences we have, sickness, sorrow, trials, I am quite convinced that many of those experiences just have this one purpose, to make us know our dependence, to make us know our frailty, to make us sense our need. And this kind of thing in the world that has happened yesterday, what a powerful object lesson of how frail man really is, oftentimes defenseless against violence and evil. So, prayer.

What a blessed, blessed experience to bow our knees to the Father. That's the true posture of prayer. We bow our knees.

Now, we don't bow our knees all the time when we come to a prayer meeting like this, and yet the attitude of bowing our knees must be present, whether we actually, as we do in the prayer meeting before the Gospel meeting, actually bow our knees. It isn't just physical, this is an attitude. And what does bowing knee really mean? It means need.

It means our weakness. It means our own inability to answer ourselves. So, we bow our knees.

Thank God. Here is the practice of prayer. We bow our knees to the Father.

This is a question that came up just the other day. In fact, Brother Louis Smith mentioned that different times when we come to worship, we address the Father, but actually we come as holy priests to God in worship. But as children, needy children, we come to the Father.

I've enjoyed this very much in recent days. The personal knowledge of the Father, and we couldn't have it apart from the Lord Jesus. He revealed the Father to us.

He made us know the Father. I think those are very tender words in the Gospel of John. He said, the Father himself loveth you.

The Father himself loveth you. So, we come to the Father. The purpose is that there might be glory brought to him.

And the answers that he gives are not out of his riches. They are not out of his power. They are according to it.

God is a giver that knows no bounds. You notice the prophet, of course, that he being rooted and grounded in love may be able to apprehend or comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, length, depth, height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. Can I do something very simple? Can I show you in this epistle the breadth, the length, the depth, and the height? Because it's really here.

If you look back with me, first of all, in chapter 2, I'm going to make you read a little bit, but I think you'll understand why. Verse 13 of chapter 2, but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometime were far off, that's the breadth, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. And it speaks of breaking down the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile.

The close of verse 15, to make of the twain one new man. And I think verse 17 is very, very expressive. He came and preached peace to you that were afar off and to them that were nigh.

For to him we both have access by one spirit unto the Father. Therefore, we are no more strangers and thorners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. That's the breadth.

It reaches out to us who are afar off at such a distance with no claim on God, Gentiles, sinners in the flesh. And yet the breadth of this love reached even to us. What is the length of it? I think this is perhaps one of the greatest truths I know.

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. Mr. Mervyn Paul was like a second father to me. I stayed in his home for long periods of time when I was a boy.

There was tragedy in our own family. There was very tragic illness and death. And the Pauls were the kind of people that were always reaching out to someone else.

And they invited the three youngest children in our family to come and stay with them. So I had a great privilege. Not only was he my Sunday school teacher, but I lived in his home.

Mr. Paul was a most unusual man, but as godly as he was. And I scarcely have ever known a man who displayed more spiritual growth and development than he did through all his experiences. And yet when he got sick and old, he said the devil attacked him viciously.

I was with him one day and he said, I'm going to confess something to you. He said, I've been discouraged. He said, I'm getting so feeble and weak.

I can't do anything. I feel so useless. And he said, the devil's been telling me I'm all finished.

I'm done. And he said, I opened my Bible to Ephesians 2 and verse 7. And I put my finger on the verse and I said, there you are, you wolf devil. I've got all the ages to come.

That's a great reality. That actually is the length of the love of Christ. No wonder it passes knowledge, because we have the ages to come in which he will show unfold like the canopy that can never end.

He unfolds the riches, the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. What is the death? Well, that's in chapter 2 again. It's verse 1, 2 and 3. Dead and sense walked according to the course of this world.

We all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And we're by nature, the children of wrath, even as others. Wrath was our portion.

Wrath was our due. Wrath was our inheritance. But the love of Christ reached us even there.

Of course, I don't have too much trouble telling you what the height is, because that is also in chapter 2. If you look at verse 6, hath raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. So the eternal purpose of God is that the Lord Jesus will be honored and glorified. Christ Jesus, our Lord, will have eternal glory.

And the wonder of wonders is we will share it. We have every reason to bow our knees. I don't think any of us would ever profess that we pray as much as we should.

Perhaps it's one of our greatest sins that we fail to pray. Let us bow our knees unto the Father. And what is the result? He will actually show to us.

This is this is amazing. That we may be able to comprehend the love of Christ. Which passeth, thank God.

There's no limits. The love of Christ that passes knowledge.