[0:00] Let us turn now to the chapter we read in the epistle to the Ephesians chapter 3.
[0:13] And we might read from verse 13. Ephesians 3 verse 13. 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.
[0:35] In particular the words that follow, 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 sense 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.
[1:05] Thank you. Generally speaking, the letters of the apostle can be divided into two sections.
[1:33] The first section, which we might say deals with the particular doctrine or teaching that he is unfolding.
[1:46] And then the second section is the application of the teaching to the life of those to whom the letter is sent.
[1:58] And we do as well to recognize in the passing that this is one of the purposes, one of the great purposes, part which we are to fill our minds with the knowledge of the truth, so that it might influence and profoundly influence our lives.
[2:27] Because no matter how much truth we may know, no matter what our hold of Christian doctrine may be, it is of little benefit to us, unless that teaching, that truth and that doctrine is moulding and influencing our lives.
[2:55] Hence you will notice that whenever Paul writes to any of the churches there, in the course of the letter, you will find him using words like these, therefore, for this cause, seeing them, and so on.
[3:18] What he is doing is, he is at that stage going on to apply the teaching to their present particular situation.
[3:33] And you will notice that twice in this chapter, he uses these words in verse 1 and in verse 13. For this cause.
[3:45] And rather verse 14 again, for this cause. Now, that immediately throws us back to the particular cause that he is referring to.
[3:55] And what he is referring to is the unfolding of the teaching in the first two chapters of this epistle, particularly the teaching about the regenerating power of God in the life of the individual believer.
[4:15] And here he is now reaching the stage where he is going to apply this teaching to the situation in Ephesus. But as you know, when he begins to apply it in verse 1, he, as someone has put it, he proceeds into one of his great digressions.
[4:34] His mind is sidetracked, as it were, to speak for the next 12 verses about something that is particularly dear, close to his heart. Namely, the power of God calling him to the ministry of the gospel.
[4:56] And he, as it were, he just can't get over the fact that God has been so wonderfully good to him that he has called him of all people to preach this wonderful message and declare to men the unsearchable riches of Christ.
[5:12] But then he comes back again to the application of this truth, for this cause. Now, before he, and then before he applies the teaching specifically to them, he does something else that Paul is noted for in his epistles.
[5:33] He breaks into one of those great prayers of his for this particular church. And this prayer that we have in the words of our text here to inform one of the most wonderful of all of Paul's prayers, indeed in the estimation of some people, the most wonderful of all of the prayers that he addressed to the Almighty for any of the churches of the first century.
[6:01] We look today at this prayer of Paul for the church at Ephesus. Now, notice before proceeding to it, what gave rise to the prayer in his mind, in his heart?
[6:19] You see, at this time, there are two things that we have to remember to understand in a better way the meaning, the force, and the content of the prayer.
[6:33] We've got to remember, first of all, the situation that Paul himself was in, and then we've got to remember the kind of people that the Ephesian Christians were. Now, Paul was, as we see here, passing through great sufferings for the gospel.
[6:48] I decide, he says in verse 13, that you faint not at my tribulations for you. Paul was suffering, and suffering because he was a preacher of the gospel.
[7:04] Suffering because he was a missionary, engaged in mission work to various churches which were spinning up in many areas, and one of them was the church at Ephesus.
[7:18] Paul was being persecuted. He was suffering a lot as a preacher and as a missionary. And the other thing to remember is this, that the people for whom he was suffering were, in the main, very young, inexperienced believers.
[7:38] Many of them converts from heathenism to Christianity. They weren't established in the faith. And you know that a young Christian is open to all kinds of suggestions and all kinds of emphases and influences.
[7:59] You see, someone may say something to a young Christian today and direct him. Someone will come along tomorrow and say something completely different. And the young Christian is as easily moved in that direction today as he was in the other direction yesterday.
[8:15] A person is easily blown off course. And as I may say so, there was one reason why every minister of the gospel wants to influence and ought to influence, and has a right to influence, as no one else has.
[8:30] To influence and to mould and to direct and to counsel his own young people more so than anybody else. Now, Paul knew that these people were in the indignity of being blown off course of effort.
[8:45] He says, I decide, he says, that ye felt not at my tribulations for you. You see, this was the danger to which the church at Ephesus was exposed at this time.
[8:56] And they would sit back and they would get word of Paul languishing in prison in Rome. And they would wonder why is that man in prison? And they were told, oh well, he's in prison because he's a preacher.
[9:08] What has he done? Well, he preached the gospel to you, didn't he? You believed the gospel? And here he is now, he's suffering because he's a preacher and a believer of the very things that you believe.
[9:19] And then, of course, they were open to the danger, the temptation, while saying that this, well, that's what's going to happen to him. That's what happened to him. What's likely to happen to us? You see, they could become weak in the faith.
[9:36] They might begin to ask questions. Is it worth all the effort? All the struggle? Is it worth it going through this to be believers? Can we not find an easier way of being Christians?
[9:50] The more I read the New Testament, the more I see this danger being exposed in the life of every Christian, the temptation to seek the easy way out.
[10:06] Paul says, Paul recognizes this. He saw the danger to which they were exposed, that they could become weak in their commitment to the Christian faith.
[10:21] So what does he do? He prays for them. I, for this cause, he says, 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.
[10:45] So the first thing he does for these people is, he prays for them. Now, notice, the thing that gave birth to the prayer was his understanding of human nature.
[10:59] His fear that they might weaken in the faith when they considered how much he was going through for the gospel. In other words, he knew that they needed strength, that they didn't have.
[11:12] So what does he do? He prays that they may have this strength. And there are two important things that here we mentioned in the passing in connection with prayer, that again, you and I would do well to remember when we bow our knees before the Lord.
[11:26] The two things are these. First of all, that we may have a sense of need as we bow our knees, and then secondly, that we may have a knowledge of the one before whom we bow our knees.
[11:40] These things are vitally important. And as Robbie Duncan has pointed out, it is probably true to say that you and I are more aware of the first thing very often than we are of the second.
[11:56] In other words, we are probably mostly aware of our need in the presence of God. No matter how deep that sense of need may be, at least we have a sense of it.
[12:09] We know that we need what God alone can give us. But the great question is this. Do we have the second thing? Do we believe that the God before whom we bow will meet our knees?
[12:23] You know, it's one thing to pray. It's one thing to ask God for things. But the other thing is this. Do we believe that God will give us these things that we pray for? Do we believe that he will meet our knees?
[12:34] Now here is a man who bows the knee before God, praying for people who are in need. He knew it. And so he knew what to come with his needs and with their needs.
[12:46] But he also had a tremendous vision, tremendous knowledge and conception of this God, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is rich in glory, or gloriously rich, it may be translated.
[13:02] Now this is important. It's important that you and I know who we are to pray for. So when you hear people, as I said last Sunday night, saying, it doesn't really matter what we believe, that's a lot of nonsense.
[13:13] You've got to believe in this God because he that cometh unto God must believe that he is. There's no other way of praying to God unless you believe in him, and unless you believe what he says of himself in his word.
[13:28] He has revealed himself as a God who is gloriously rich. Now, if you put these two thoughts together, notice the two thoughts that are moulded, wedded together in the mind of Paul here.
[13:40] God, the Father of Christ in heaven, and this God, Father, or this Father God, who is gloriously rich. And notice the importance of having these two thoughts wedded together.
[13:57] You believe in a God who is your Father, and you also believe in a God who as your Father is gloriously rich, with all the riches at his disposal as that infinite God.
[14:10] Well, that's important. The way that some people elicit it in this way, those of you who are here today as parents, let me speak for a minute to the fathers here today, just in the passing to elicit what I'm saying.
[14:22] Look at the way your own fatherly heart operates towards those whom the Lord has given you. Look at, I'm sure that every Christian father here today would want to be as good a father as possible to his offspring, to his children.
[14:42] And one way in which your fatherly heart shows that disposition is in this way, that you wish that you could give them all as much as you possibly could to make them as secure, as happy, as protected, as well provided for as possible.
[15:00] In other words, you will never be able to bestow upon your offspring all that your heart desires for them. Why? Because you are limited.
[15:12] Because you don't have the power backing up, as it were, this fatherly disposition of yours. But that isn't the case with God.
[15:23] Here is a Father in heaven whose heart has, who has a fatherly disposition towards all his children. But if you want to put it at the back of that fatherly disposition, glorious witches, infinite witches at his disposal so that nothing that he purposes for them will he fail to give.
[15:45] He has infinite witches at his disposal. And this man falls down in the presence of that God and he prays for these Christians and he says, May God, may this God, may this Father grant that he may give you these things and he knows that he's not asking for things beyond the ability of God.
[16:09] Indeed, at the end of this chapter, he breaks into this wonderful taxology in which he says, Unto him who is able to give, exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.
[16:24] Why? Because he has witches far beyond our comprehension of God out of which he is able to bestow all that in purposes and far beyond anything that we could ever ask or think of asking of him as we pray.
[16:47] No, it's vitally important therefore that you and I should know what we need, what we need. And that we should know who we are praying to. Get an understanding of this God, a belief embedded in our hearts that he is our Father in heaven who is infinitely rich and never able to give what we pray for.
[17:12] Why does the Bible very often say that we don't get what we ask for? Just because we're not asking the right. And why are we not asking the right? Just because we don't have the right view of God as we ask.
[17:23] We lose sight of him. And is it true of you today, maybe? May I ask in the passing before leaving this, Can it be that you may be here today with a great sense maybe of your own need?
[17:36] Perhaps what you need now together with that is a corresponding sense of the ability of God to meet your need.
[17:49] Well, Paul had that sense as he prayed. What did he pray for? And I just want in the very briefly this morning to deal with these petitions. Five petitions. And see if we can understand what he's saying.
[18:02] Now, what he's saying is this. He prays for five wonderful things for these people. First of all, that they might be strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man.
[18:16] Secondly, that Christ may continue to, that Christ may dwell or abide in their hearts by faith. Thirdly, that they may be groated and grounded in love.
[18:27] Fourthly, that they may go on to know, to comprehend and to understand the greatness of the love of God in Christ. And finally, that they may be filled with all the fullness of God.
[18:42] These five petitions very, very briefly this morning. Now, first of all, that they may be strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man.
[18:52] will start at the end of that petition. Start at the end. The inner man. Now, these are just words that the New Testament used to speak of the soul of man, the spirit of man, how spiritual will be what we are inwardly.
[19:08] The inner man, and all the faculties of the soul. That's what it means. Now, you know that we live in a day when a lot of people are emphasizing the wellness of man.
[19:19] Man is not just spirit. Man is spirit and body. We've been speaking about this in the Congregation Fellowship the past few weeks. the importance that the body has in the life of the individual. Now, it does that no man minimizes the importance of the body in the whole man.
[19:35] We are spirit and body. We've got to look after our bodies. You and I believe, for example, look at what we learn about the commandments that you and I are to take all law from the devil to preserve our own life and the life of others.
[19:53] We've got to look after ourselves, in other words. cater for our bodies and make sure that we don't dishonor them and abuse them and that we use them particularly in the service of the Lord.
[20:08] But at the same time, you cannot, you cannot get away from this that the Bible's emphasis all the time is on the inner man.
[20:19] On the inner man. Of course we are soul and body, spirit and body. Of course we are. But you see, what you and I need above all else is not physical fitness above all else.
[20:32] What we need is spiritual strength. What we need is our inner being, our spirits. Catered for, in other words, by God, the needs made, by the Almighty.
[20:46] God has made us for himself. God communicates himself to the inner man, to the spirit of man, the faculties of the soul, my mind, my understanding, my heart, my conscience, my will, and so on.
[20:57] Now what does he say? God grant, he says, you are in danger of fainting, God grant, he says, that you may be strengthened with might by his spirit inwardly.
[21:09] He prays, in other words, that they may have spiritual strength communicated to them. Who is going to communicate to them? The Holy Spirit.
[21:21] And what is the inference here? The inference is this, the one that is writ large across the pages of the Bible, that without the enabling, empowering of the Holy Spirit in your life and mind, we are weak, impotent, unable to cope.
[21:39] Whatever situation we are placed in, whatever difficulty we are confronted with, what you and I need above all else is the Holy Spirit to strengthen our beings that we may cope with that situation.
[21:58] And the Bible brings us right back to the very beginning of our person's spiritual history for proof of this. Where does our person's spiritual history begin?
[22:09] It begins with the exercise of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is when a person becomes a believer, a Christian. It begins there, it begins there, the exercise of faith in Christ as a Savior.
[22:25] And how weak are we? How unable, how impotent? This is how weak we are. That unless the Spirit strengthens us to believe, we cannot do it.
[22:36] we cannot do it. Oh, you complain. You complain that that's a teacher you don't like very well. Very well, if you don't like it, prove it wrong.
[22:49] You believe without the power of the Spirit in your life. You try, let's see, I'm getting on. You cannot do it, my friend. The Holy Spirit enables us or empowers us to believe.
[23:05] And thereafter, for every step of the Christian's pilgrimage, it is one in which he learns that without the Spirit of God, we can do nothing.
[23:21] We need spiritual strengthening of the words every day of our life. And the Holy Spirit by his power takes up his presence in our hearts to strengthen us for every given duty, for every task, whatever it may be.
[23:39] As I said, whatever situation you and I may be in today, we need the Spirit of God to strengthen us. We need it for every spiritual exercise.
[23:52] Prayer. On Thursday nights here, we've been looking at Romans chapter 8, one section of which lays this great emphasis that there are situations in a Christian's life, no matter how much you may know of God, no matter how experienced you may be, no matter what answer God has given to us, prayer, there are still situations in which he finds himself, and which this will always be true of him.
[24:17] I don't know what to pray for us I ought. Therefore, the Spirit is given to lead in prayer, for the Spirit of penitence, for the Spirit of faith, for the exercise of faith.
[24:28] We need the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. so, the first thing he wants for them then is spiritual power communicated to them in the face of their weakness.
[24:49] that leads to the second a petition that he addresses here for them that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith now one point to make in the passing here and it's important if we are going to understand what he's saying here it is this he was praying for people who were already Christians this is a man who's bending the knee in the presence of God and he says God he says convert these people in Ephesus no he's praying for people who were already converted in Ephesus they were the Ephesian believers so this petition does God strengthen these people so that Christ may take up his place in their hearts Christ was already in their heart a Christian a Christian is a person who's a Christian is a person who is indwelt by the Holy Spirit and indwelt by Christ the Spirit takes up his abode in the heart of the Christian
[26:05] Jesus Christ takes up his abode in the heart of the Christian so the point to remember here is here are people in whose heart Jesus was already present by his Spirit what then does this mean when he says God grant that you may be strengthened so that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith well I would be the very first to concede that there are things about these petitions about taking the first two that I find extremely difficult to understand but so that you and I may have some understanding of what is meant let me put it like this that one effect of the Holy Spirit strengthening the Christian is this that Christ dwells in that heart you could put it another way the Holy Spirit never strengthens that person inwardly without as it were bringing
[27:11] Christ with them or bringing the power and the presence of Christ to bear upon that heart now here we are here we have people who are indwelt by the Spirit and indwelt by Christ through the Spirit and he prays what he is praying for is this that Christ may continue to indwell their heart now of course someone may say but there is not a problem is it not true that when Christ comes into a person's heart that he is always there fine we don't dispute that we don't dispute that but this is the thing that the abiding the dwelling of Christ here may mean may mean the same word as that word I just mentioned which we have in John 15 the abiding of Christ in the heart that I somehow maintain that the word is used is taken from the presence of the glory of God in the Old Testament tabernacle remember in the tabernacle remember the evidence that they had of God's presence in the tabernacle there's a kind of glory that came down and dwelt above the earth remember that the visible presence of God now Christ abiding dwelling in the heart means the presence of Christ manifesting itself in the life and I suggest to you and I know that if you are a
[28:46] Christian here today you'll be the first to agree with me I suggest to you that though Christ may always be in your heart by his spirit that Christ does not always manifest his presence by his power in your life you may be here today who knows a Christian thoroughly converted by the power of God indwelt by Christ but your spiritual life may be quite blighted there may be very little power in your life very little evidence of his presence by his power in your life put very simply this there may not my friend be much contact between you and Christ there may not be much contact between you you know that one of the writers makes an illustration of this take take take the domestic situation domestic situation between husband and wife brother and sister brother and brother parent and child there is that family bond there is a union husband and wife are always united in that bond as long as they are husband and wife brother and sister parents and children and all was united in the bond in that family bond but there are times when the communication within that bond isn't all that it ought to be when the contact isn't all isn't what it ought to be times when for example the communication is broken the bond the bond isn't the union isn't but the communication within it may be so it is in the life of the Christian the union the bond is there
[30:52] Christ is in the heart Christ in dwell the Christian in dwell by the spirit of the Lord but the contact between the individual and his Lord where is it ah you say today it isn't what it ought to be it isn't what it used to be what do you need then to restore it do you need spiritual strength you need the Holy Spirit to strengthen it what is it that brings the contact into being what keeps it in being it is this wee word that he used at the end here that Christ made one of your hearts by faith how was the contact made initially you were strengthened by the spirit to believe how was the contact maintained through the exercise of faith what strengthens faith the Holy Spirit you see the connection here between the two petitions now may you be strengthened by the spirit so that you may retain contact through faith with Christ that's what Christ indwelling or abiding in the heart means do you need this prayer today which leads to the third petition so that you may be that you may that Christ that ye may be rooted and grounded in love now of course there may be a lot of discussion as to what love is this is it our love for him or his love for us well let's not waste too much time on a thing which is not that essential in this particular case because both come into play here you cannot have faith for example in Christ in exercise or strengthen without love being set aflame as well because faith works by now when one grace is set in motion it sets all the graces in motion when you and I are strengthened to believe we are then strengthened to love and if we take it for the moment as the love of the Christian for the Lord if we take it like that notice that that is a love which becomes rooted and grounded it goes down as faith strengthens as spirit strengthens faith to lay hold of Christ so the spirit strengthens love that it may root itself and ground itself what in what in ah what in but in his love for us this is a soil in which it strikes its roots deeply in the soil of his love his love and this is the one that becomes important here in this love not that we loved him but that he loved us and I want to pass on to this fourth petition here without a because here now he's he's begin to speak about the thing that really grips his heart the love of God for him spiritual strength for the exercise of faith spiritual strength for the exercise of love spiritual strength to lay hold of and to understand and to see more of and to realize more of what the love of God for us that he may be able to comprehend with all things what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge now just have we stopped at some of these words so that we can understand what he's saying again you see there are two ways in which you and I can get to know the love of Christ or the love of God in Christ we get to know it intellectually and we get to know it experimentally we get to know it with our mind and we get to know it with our heart get to know it with our heart now notice he wants them to comprehend the love of God you may say that he wants them to know to get to know more and more and more of it with our mind you know my friend you may know a lot about the Bible you may know a lot about what the Bible says about the love of God you could write page after page after page about the way that God manifests his love let me say this to you that's great but you'll never know enough of that fill your minds with more and more and more of it may I say something to the young Christians here tonight today look my friend read your Bible read it read it read it study it fill your mind with what it says to you that's the source from which you're going to drink intellectually get to know what God says about himself in his word and get to know what God says about his love to you and to a lost word in his word fill your mind with the knowledge of the truth
[36:20] God and you know this you need the help of the spirit for this may the spirit he says strengthen you inwardly so that your mind may drink in more of the love of God but you see make sure of this that you fill your mind with that knowledge for the purpose that you may get to know it that it may sink into your experience or as someone has put it that you may have a realising sense of the love of God who is the most effective Christian in the world today this type the person whose mind is filled with the knowledge of his love and the person whose heart has drunken that knowledge the person who has an experience of it who knows it in his and her life because there is nothing that's going to open your heart quite like the love of God and the more open your heart is the more effective you become so that's what he says to him
[37:45] God grant that you may comprehend and know that your mind may be filled with this and that your heart may be filled with it filled with what well the love of God or the love of Christ and also he speaks about this love that you may be able to comprehend and know the breadth and length and depth and height of it now let's not enter into any hansiful spiritualisation here we're not going to deal with that it just terms that Paul uses to speak about the vastness of this love it's so great it's so big it's so wonderful it's so extensive it's so high so deep so long so broad if you were to speak about it from now to the end of time you would still not be able to speak about its vastness he's using terms as someone says to speak about the bigness the greatness of this love how great the love of God and this is how great he's speaking in terms of a building it's as though he was standing beside a building and he's looking he says look at the height of that he's watching people begin the building they're excavating he looks at the hole he says look at how deep that hole is he's looking at its extensiveness it's so broad then he peers ahead and he looks and he says look at how long it is you can't measure this love of God it's beyond measurement as he goes on to say it is a measure
[39:31] God grant he says that your mind and your heart may be filled with the knowledge of this love and all its vastness and as a matter of fact he posed the question how big is it how big is it and there's one word here that he uses to answer that question that you may know the love of God that path of knowledge it is unknowable isn't that wonderful isn't that wonderful the love of God is so big so great so deep so high so broad so long that no matter how much you will no matter how much you read about it no matter how much you may understand of it no matter how much you may feel of it it will always be beyond your understanding always will be beyond your knowledge in other words is Paul here praying for something that these people never get to know exactly he is he is because my friend as long as eternity remains eternity as long as you and I rather as long as you and I are creatures and God remains the creator as long as God is the creator and you and I are the creatures the love of God will always be unknowable because it is the uncreated love of
[40:54] God into which created beings look and they'll always look into it and they will never ever fathom its depth that's that's how big it is but someone may say will it not be known perfectly in eternity oh yes oh indeed it will of course there'll be a perfect knowledge of the love of God in eternity but even then the love of God will be unknowable that's what makes eternity eternity in that sense it will always be unknowable because you remember this that even though you will be perfect in eternal glory you will always be a creature a perfect creature looking into the uncreated love of God and drinking you to that fullness and therefore it will always be unknowable isn't it wonderful to think that your most wonderful moments in this world are those moments when your heart is filled with the love of
[42:12] Christ too overflowing you're never more happy than you are then never more blessed than when your cup is filled too overflowing and isn't it wonderful to think that that will be the state in eternity eternally overflowing with the love of Christ and always will be because that will always be an ocean and you will always be a vessel created to drink out of the uncreated ocean of his love God grant that you may be able to comprehend and that you may be able to know the love of God which passeth knowledge which passeth understanding to write how was it that the hymn writer put to write the love of God could we within the ocean fill and where the skies of parchment made where every blade of grass a quill and every man a scribe by trade to write the love of God to man would drain the ocean dry nor could the scroll contain the whole though stretched from sky to sky the love of God which will always be beyond your knowledge
[43:48] God grant he says that you may continue to know more of it but notice this with all saints you know my friend you're not the only one who's getting to know the love of God there are many people in the world with you and beyond this world who are getting to know this love not just people in your own fellowship in your own community in your own area not just people in your own church but in many areas many communities many churches many places today throughout the world and you're united on this earth with them and with those in heaven who themselves are drinking after this ocean all saints all those who are the called of God you share this privilege with them all throughout the world today God grant that you may drink of it with them all out of this ocean that you will never get to know fully do you know
[44:53] I want to ask you a question have you ever prayed this prayer for someone else you know here's a man who's praying for others that they may get to know the love of Christ has your heart been opened to bring others into this ocean with yourself and do you rejoice to know that when you pray for them you are praying for all saints that they too may drink you to this ocean and then can I ask you another question or can I ask someone else this question have you ever prayed this prayer for yourself and have you ever prayed it for someone else what a wonderful day it would be for you today if you would go home and for the first time in your life pray oh God fill my heart with the knowledge of thy love and then as a result of that bend your knees and pray to God for someone else someone maybe that you never prayed for in all their life that they too might be filled with the knowledge of this love what a wonderful day it would be for you if you were to pray that prayer today for yourself and for them and then he closes with this petition that you may be filled with all the fullness of God now what does this mean the fullness of God well all that
[46:41] God is himself but can God give me or give anybody else all that he is himself in a sense yes you know the way the theologians speak up it this way God has communicable attributes he also has incommunicable attributes there is a fullness of God that you and I will never ever have let me say that what fullness well God is infinite you will never be infinite God is omniscient you will never be omniscient you will never know everything God is omnipotent you will never be omnipotent these are what we call the incommunicable attributes of God the things in God that distinguish God from every other being make him what he is and that he can never give my glory
[47:43] I will not give to another he will not communicate that to anybody but then you see there are things in God that God makes over to you and to me the life of God the love of God the holiness of God the goodness of God the righteousness of God these things these qualities in God that God is able to give to the creatures of his hand like you and me God grant he says that you may be filled with all the fullness of God that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God in one word God grant that you may become like himself fully fully in the manner in which you are able to become like him so that you will have in you all that God is able to give you from himself when will that be at the end of time here's a petition that will be answered fully one day when the
[48:58] Lord's people are made like himself and then you see that day they will drink fully out of the ocean of his fullness and they will never cease to drink out of it and as I said earlier that ocean that love will always be an ocean and they will always be vessels drinking filled to overflowing what a prayer what a petition what a heart this man had towards other people and as I asked you just a minute ago do you have a heart like that yourself today can I close by addressing a word here to the unconverted you speak about the great things that you have in life you speak about a full life and no doubt you may think it is full you may speak like that but here's a life my friend that commends itself to you yet again the fullness of
[50:11] God have you got any bet on that today ah how poor how pathetically insignificant what you have is compared with the fullness of God compared with the fullness of his love and here's a notion that you're very welcome to come to this very moment begin to drink out of it and you may say I wish I could I wish I could well my friend God can fulfill that wish for you you don't have strength to come right back to the beginning of the prayer again God has strength and strengthen you to come and to drink you're filled of this fullness won't you come let us pray oh bless to us thy truth accept our thanks for thy mercy toward us and enable us by grace to rejoice in thee part us with thy blessing prepare us for our evening worship and forgive all our sins for
[51:23] Jesus sake amen