Ephesians 3 will be the portion of Scripture
we'll be looking at this morning.
You can look with me at chapter 3:14.
I might entitle this sermon,
"Expectation."
To those of you that are weary,
maybe heavy-laden,
to borrow a couple Scriptural terms;
Hebrews - you've got the imagery
of somebody's whose arms
are hanging down.
We ought to pray and not faint.
Maybe some feel faint.
Anyway, this message is to the weary,
the distracted.
I'm calling it "Expectation."
Let's look at the verses,
3:14, "For this reason
I bow my knees before the Father..."
Just a reminder,
Paul is telling the Ephesians
about how he prays for them.
"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father."
That's prayer.
"...From whom every family in heaven
and on earth is named,
that according to the riches of His glory
He may grant you to be strengthened
with power through His Spirit
in your inner being,
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith."
Literally, "so that Christ may dwell
in your hearts through faith
in love being rooted and grounded,
that you may have strength
to comprehend with all the saints
what is the breadth and length
and height and depth
and to know the love of Christ
that surpasses knowledge
that you may be filled
with all the fullness of God."
So let's just think about this a second.
Notice, I want to primarily dive into v. 18.
That's the primary text I want us
to be absorbed with.
I'll pull in the surrounding verses
as may be necessary.
But you notice,
breadth - that's got to do with the width.
Length, height, depth.
We've got dimensions that are called out here.
Some would argue
about what breadth and length
and height and depth refers to.
And even before preparing to preach on this,
I've come across that in the past.
Some suggest these words
do not refer to the love of Christ,
but to something else.
Because in their estimation, Paul doesn't
directly say that these words apply
to the love of Christ.
But my question would be,
well, what then do they refer to?
I mean, if you just look at the context,
what are the other options?
What's right before it?
"Being rooted and grounded in love."
And as I sought to make the case last time,
certainly, our own love
doesn't make a good foundation.
The foundation we want to be planted on
is the love of Christ.
And then if you go after,
you go into the following verse 19,
"...and to know the love of Christ."
Now, I recognize that the way Paul says this
is a little odd.
But, think about it, what's he praying for?
He's praying that we would have strength
to comprehend something.
Well, just in the context,
what would we need strength to comprehend?
The love of Christ surpasses knowledge.
That's the thing being put on the table
that is so difficult
and takes a supernatural strengthening
to comprehend.
So, I think you're just left with no other options
and I don't really know why anybody
would want to waste their time
arguing about that.
But now, you notice,
he wants us to comprehend and to know.
You can basically take that "and"
at the beginning of v. 19 -
you know, the height, the length,
or the breadth, the length,
the height, the depth -
that's kind of additional information.
Those are modifiers in there.
Basically what he's saying is this:
he's praying that we with all the saints
would have the strength to comprehend,
and then after that, just take that out.
Everything else in there is a modifier.
But it's to comprehend,
and - you have that "and" right there,
that conjuntion at the beginning of v. 19,
"and to know..."
It's to be strengthened to comprehend
and to know something
that he then immediately turns around
and says is incomprehensible
and unknowable.
Almost contractory.
What sort of talk is that?
I'll tell you this,
it's the sort of talk
that people who are going to live forever
want to hear.
You say, what do you mean?
Well, it means that our Christian life
all through eternity is never going to reach stagnation.
That's a good thing!
That's a good thing for you to know.
If the love of Christ was something
that we might easily measure
and get our hands around
and get an adequate estimation of,
what?
Then we'd be done.
I mean, if I brought out my tape measure
and I measured it,
and it's 24 inches long,
well, that's it.
I mean, that's it. We sized it up.
There it is. There's no more. Now what?
I mean, you know, as I was thinking about this,
just the ideas that are put in the mind.
This comes from the theology
taught by Bugs Bunny.
You know, as a kid,
you watch people die and they float up
and they sit on a cloud.
Yosemite Sam - he's still angry,
and he's up there and he's got the harp.
And you know, you get that kind of imagery.
Well, that idea of heaven is like:
I don't want to go there!
That's like miserable.
This idea of just sitting on a cloud
and that's it. Is that heavenly?
In some people's minds I suppose.
But listen, we are people -
you know it -
we are born to worship.
We are born to admire.
We love that.
We love being impressed.
I was just talking to a brother yesterday,
and he was telling me in his lost days
how he was really absorbed with horror movies.
Well, you know, that ought not to shock us.
Many of us, when we were lost,
we were absorbed with that kind of thing.
And even though it's the kind of thing
where you didn't really want to sometimes
because it left horrible nightmares
and thoughts in your mind,
but there was something attractive.
Why? Because we like to feel emotions.
We like to feel.
We're created that way.
God created us to worship
and you know this very well.
If we're not worshiping God,
we are master idolaters
and we're going to find all manner of things.
We love to be wowed.
We love that!
And listen, if you could bring out the tape measure
and it's like: there it is!
That's it. That's done.
Can you imagine?
You size it up in this life.
That's all there is.
We've basically experienced the fullness of it,
now we got to glory and what?
Same old thing?
No, that's not the way it is.
See, this thing can never be reached.
This thing has no limits to it.
It's way beyond our comprehension
every time - both now
and far out into eternity.
You think about that.
When you've been in glory
for 10 billion - not years -
10 billions ages,
the beauty is it's still beyond knowledge.
All knowledge!
Not God's knowledge, but all of our knowledge.
All the knowledge of angels,
all the knowledge of men.
Even eternal knowledge.
There's always more to explore.
I mean, the very mountain peak of this love -
who's tread there? Who lives there?
Not you. Not me. Not the angels.
We'll never get there.
That's the beauty!
It's like we're climbing this mountain
and Paul's praying:
Go up! Climb higher! Climb higher!
Even though he knows we can never reach the top.
Why? Because going up it is glorious!
And you don't want it to have an end.
Because even if we said,
well, 10 billion ages out,
we're going to get there.
You plant the flag on top.
And here we are.
We made it to the moon
or we made it to the top of Everest.
And now what? You look around.
Man always wants to go higher.
And you know that.
Why? Because it's like the horror movies.
You know, you watch a certain one
and it's like terrifying, but the next time,
you need it scarier.
We always are looking for something bigger,
something beyond, something more impressive.
The picture I had in my mind,
you know those little plastic rulers.
Home schoolers - yes, of course you do.
You know the little plastic rulers
that little kids have.
And the thing is,
we're like little children
with this little plastic ruler.
And we're trying to measure this thing.
And Paul's saying - he's praying
that we'd pull out the Hubble telescope.
But you know how it is with the telescopes.
Every time the new and latest version comes out
and man peers out into the universe,
he thinks, this is it.
Isn't it amazing?
Man always thinks whatever measuring device he has,
that's the limit.
And now we see it.
The universe is this big.
But then they get the bigger telescope
and they look out there and they say, okay, we were wrong.
Now it's this big.
Well, see, that's the thing.
The limit is with us.
And it's like Paul wants us
to put away our little ruler,
and he wants us to take out the Hubble telescope
and start measuring this thing.
But even then, how far have we gone?
With the Hubble telescope,
how far do you think we've really seen?
Because you know this,
they're going to put up another one
this year or next year.
And then what we're going to see
is going to blow our minds all the more.
This is how this is.
Now, I really want to stop at this point.
And I want to press home a reality here.
Because I called this message "Expectation."
We're talking about the love of Christ.
I'm talking about the heart of Christianity.
I'm talking about the thing that makes it worthwhile
to be a Christian.
You say, I thought the thing that made it worthwhile
was the fact that we got to escape hell.
That's just the negative.
That's not the primary glory.
When Jesus summed up eternal life,
what did He say?
He didn't say it's to miss hell.
It's to know. And that's what we have here.
To know the love of Christ
which surpasses knowledge.
It's to know the true and the living God
and the Christ Whom He has sent.
But I want to stop here
and just point something out.
Paul is not telling us to do anything here.
Yes, I recognize
that when it comes to the word "comprehend,"
"know," - we can deduce things
that we can be about
to increase our comprehension
and to increase our knowledge.
I recognize that.
I recognize that you can deduce
something we should do,
but you need to recognize
that Paul isn't telling us to do anything.
Paul is praying for us.
He's asking God the Father
to make something happen.
He's not just praying;
this is an inspired prayer.
God is being prayed to,
but it's God Himself Who is moving upon Paul
to pray this way.
And I want you to feel this.
Now look, Friday,
my air conditioner was making
this horrendous noise.
All through the week,
the pounding in the attic
became more and more violent.
And walking by the air return,
such noises were coming through there
that I recognized, okay,
I better go deal with this.
And when I opened it up,
I found the blower motor was busted.
The squirrel cage fan was busted.
So I took them out and we haven't had
air conditioning since then.
I know this is a lowly illustration,
but I want to try to bring something out here.
My air conditioner - it's broken.
I ran over to Grainger, OEM Motors,
I couldn't get it there.
So, David Luciano works for
John Wayne Air Conditioning.
And so, I looked into them.
I had them come out and give me a quote.
The main reason I had them come
give me a quote
is because David works there.
And he thought that perhaps
he could get a discount for me
because I'm his pastor.
Now, I want to use this example
and I want to focus in on level of expectation.
Just think with me here
because I'm going somewhere with this.
If David didn't work there
and I still thought, okay,
I'm going to call John Wayne.
I'm going to get a quote from them.
What would my expectation level be
of getting a good deal?
Getting a discount?
Low. Very low.
But the thing is, to have somebody
that I know has an "in"
and is going to plead my case?
What happens to your expectation?
It goes up. And it is.
I'm like what can David do for me?
So, yes, it goes up.
But, if I heard that the owner of the company
personally came to David
and he told David,
"David..." David communicated this to me
when I was asking about this.
If he would have said,
hey, you know what?
My boss - the guy that owns the company -
actually came to me six months ago
and he told me
that he has a real burden for pastors,
and he especially wants to try to help pastors.
And he instructed David,
"Make sure if your pastor ever has a need,
I'm determined to help him."
Now, if I heard that,
what do you think would happen to my expectation?
It'd go up.
But if even more than that,
the owner of John Wayne said,
"David, I want you to know this,
that if your pastor ever needs help,
I'm going to help him according
to the riches of the glory of my company
and my wealth.
And David, if you ever have to come to me
and ask me for help for your pastor,
I want you to ask me
and remind me of that very reality
that I told you,
I encouraged you to come ask me
that way - according to these riches."
And then, my expectation
is going to go even higher.
But if on top of all that, I found out
the guy that owns this thing
is a billionaire,
and the riches of his glory are untold,
unfathomable - what then?
See, you have to recognize this.
Paul isn't just praying this.
Paul's under inspiration.
God told him,
"Paul, pray this way,
and I want you to plead
the riches of My glory.
I want you to do that.
Paul, when you see that God's people
need to have their perception
and comprehension
of the love of My Son to them increased,
I want you to ask Me on their behalf.
Paul, I'm inspiring you
to come and plead based on
the riches of My glory.
Do not come and ask less than that."
You see what I'm driving at here?
Brethren, in the weeks ahead,
I want to explore the love of Christ.
But I know this, if we attempt to look
in these coming weeks -
we look and admire - we attempt to -
and delve into the love of Christ,
and you know what?
If six months from now it's like
you don't even remember what I was preaching on
back in June,
you're left unaffected,
you're left dry,
you're left still feeling like "I need revival,"
you're left distant, you're left cold,
you're left calloused,
you're left unmoved -
you know what?
That would be like a billionaire
promising the most astounding air conditioning system
that money could buy -
something so magnificent
as to give expression to the glory
of his riches and the glory of his kindness,
but in the end I'm left feeling unimpressed.
I'm left with a unit out there
that's unimpressive and average.
You know what?
It's unimpressive and average
when we talk about the love of Christ
for people to yawn;
for people to think about
what they're doing in the afternoon.
It's unimpressive and average
for our church to look
at the love of Christ over a number of weeks
and then determine that movies are better.
That's unimpressive.
What I'm saying here is,
look, if God Himself said,
"Paul, I want you to pray
according to the riches of My glory
for them to be strengthened to comprehend
the love of Christ,"
does that sound unimpressive and average?
And see, this is an appeal to God.
If I said, well, you know what this is really about;
you know what Paul's teaching here.
Paul's teaching that we really have to strive.
Now, I'm not saying that we shouldn't really strive.
We do need to really strive,
but that's not the point of the text.
The point of the text
is that God is being appealed to
to give us according to the riches of His glory.
And you know what?
If people are going to prefer sports,
or they're going to prefer the movie,
or they're going to prefer their hobby,
or they're going to prefer some other thing,
the truth is that's normal.
That's man left to his own strength.
Is that an indication of the riches
of the glory of God to comprehend
much more the dimensions of the love of Christ?
I mean, certainly, we would expect
something impressive and life-changing.
Listen!
If God answers this prayer,
what would you expect?
What are your expectations?
You say, "I don't really have any."
I'm saying look at this prayer
and have an expectation!
Listen! If God is telling Paul
to pray for you
and to pray not some meager little thing,
but to ask God and beseech Him,
"Father, according to the riches of Your glory,
make this happen."
I would expect more
than four weeks down the road here,
we're all basically unaffected.
Well, we're just the same as we were
four weeks ago or six weeks ago.
Because then that's like,
"Father, why? Why did You put this here?"
We may say, well, we didn't pray it.
Well, I've been praying it.
And I'll continue to pray it.
And Paul prayed it.
I mean if we get down the road and that happens,
Lord, why would You stir Paul to pray
this way and in inspired fashion,
unless You truly mean to give us
what's being talked about here?
This is a prayer for God to do something.
It's in the song.
We're praying, "God, revive us again."
This is the heart of revival.
This is where it is.
It always has been.
When revival comes, what is it
that happens to God's people?
There's an awareness of God.
There is an awareness
of His love for His people.
Will you be content, brethren,
to be unmoved?
To be untouched?
To not be strengthened?
I would say God forbid
that that should happen.
You know what? You know what came to my mind?
I read in Scripture
that the heavens - the heavens -
we are told in Psalm 8,
it is the work of God's finger.
I asked myself this question:
Does that sound like it exhausted
the riches of God's glory
when it's the work of His finger?
Oh, it declares His handiwork.
It declares something of His glory.
But it's the work of His finger.
When I hear "according to the riches of His glory,"
to me, that sounds bigger.
If I went in my backyard
and I did some work with my fingers,
does that reflect the riches
of the glory of who I am?
Paul wasn't asking that we be strengthened
according to the work of God's finger,
but asking to be strengthened
according to the entire riches of God's glory.
That makes me think something greater
than the universe.
This really ought to give us an expectation
that God will do something.
I have it.
Shall we be content to be confronted
with all of this?
Are you content to just remain unchanged?
Listen, you may be weary
and you may be heavy-laden,
you may be tired, exhausted,
your arms may be hanging down,
you may be discouraged,
depressed,
but is there an ache?
Are you just willing to be content with that?
Or can you look at a promise
and does the Spirit of God give you some hope?
Yes. Yes, there is a promise here.
What I want you to do
is I want you to have your expectations raised.
Like, Lord, if You said this, You mean it.
And I'm going to hold You to it.
And I'm going to keep reminding You of this
until I get this.
I mean, what do you think God wants us to think
when the riches of His glory
are put on the table
as the ground of all this?
You think He wants you to be content?
You should ask yourself that question.
I would say no.
If we get a month down the road
and basically nothing happens -
we can't even remember what was preached,
what shall we say?
I mean, yes, we can say
the problem is with us.
Yes, we can say that.
I mean, brethren, that is exactly
what Paul is praying about here.
We're weak.
And we need to be stregthened.
I recognize the probelm's with us.
I recognize the problem lies in our weakness.
But you see, that's the very thing
Paul is praying
is that our weakness would be strengthened.
Yes, our weakness is the issue.
But the expectation is that God
will do something to overcome our weakness.
Are you feeling lethargic?
Yes, but that's why you need strength.
Or do you feel like you need revival? Yes.
Do you feel cold?
Listen, maybe some of you are
kind of riding a high spot in your Christian life,
but listen, wherever you're at,
there's infinite depths to explore
beyond where you are.
You don't want to be content.
Not at all.
This is the prayer.
He will intervene and come
and strike power into our weakness
and give us comprehension at a level
that we would otherwise never have
if He doesn't come and deal with us
according to the riches of His glory.
That's the issue.
Yes, we're weak.
Yes, we're perhaps dull.
We're forgetful.
Oh, we are forgetful.
Because you know what?
I've had past seasons in my Christian life
that were wonderful, that were glorious,
and that were up there on the plateau.
But I know two things,
one, we're very forgetful -
we forget about how glorious it was -
but two, we don't live too well
on yesterday's manna.
We don't live well on yesterday's revival.
We need it today. We need fresh things today.
Yes, we're slow.
Yes, we're far too content to spend our time
in the lowlands
paddling around the edges of the ocean
when there's such things to be discovered
that we've never imagined.
The question is this:
I ask you, do you expect God
to help us?
To come and empower?
Do you embrace this with a determination
to have God do what He undoubtedly
is promising to do?
He wouldn't have put this prayer
in His Word if it wasn't His desire
to give us a hope that He intends to do
something with regards to it.
Now, look at verse 18.
Do you see the word "comprehend?"
"That you may have strength
to comprehend with all the saints
what is the breadth and length
and height and depth..."
The word "comprehend,"
like I said before,
in an off-handed way, he's praying
that the Spirit would strengthen us
so that we might comprehend.
Obviously, we are not left in a place
where we're just passive.
This implies something.
But he's praying that the Spirit of God
would so blow upon the people of God
that we would be strengthened for this to happen.
Comprehend. What's the word?
It has a prefix: kata,
which brings intensity to it.
It's to grasp with force.
To comprehend.
To lay hold of.
The idea here is to seize,
to acquire with significant effort.
So let's try to grasp Christ's love
with an effort that at least
looks somewhat significant.
We know.
"Work out your salvation with fear and trembling."
And on the other side of the coin,
"it's God Who works in us
both to will and to do of His good pleasure."
We can trust God to do this,
but we need to be putting ourselves
in the place for this to happen.
(Iincomplete thought)
Charles Leiter -
this undoubtedly is in one of his books,
but I just remember him telling me
about how Mona visited
some of these Welsh folks
where Martyn Lloyd-Jones used to vacation.
And they lived in this farm.
They got their power from water
that flowed off the mountain
and turned a generator.
They got their power,
but sometimes their power would go out.
What would happen?
Well, limbs and garbage
would collect in there.
And right before the generator
was a screen,
and so this stuff would come down
pushed by the torrent of water
and it would collect there on this grating.
And if it impeded the flow?
No power. No electricity.
No flow beyond that point.
And so they'd have to go out and pull the stuff off.
Charles talks about that
as being a good illustration
of the Christian life -
keeping those channels open.
There's things that clog the screen.
Putting ourselves in an optimal position
to be visited by the Lord.
Perhaps there's things in your life
that you know they're impeding the flow;
they're grieving the Spirit;
they're quenching the Spirit.
James just this morning
was telling me about a covenant -
reminding me - he'd told me before,
that he made concerning
a certain thing in his life.
Brother Craig just the other day
was talking about earlier back in January
just making a determination about something.
You know, some of us -
and I've been at those points -
where it's just like you get aggravated with something
and you recognize it's impeded
your Christian life long enough.
And you say no more!
I don't want that anymore!
Lord, I'm done with it.
For good.
You want to be careful
when you begin to make vows before the Lord.
Be careful.
But I know that.
I know that inner feeling
when you've had it with something
that has been a distraction to you for too long.
What is it? What's impeding?
See, we want to put ourselves
in the place where God is
most likely to break through.
We don't want to be grieving Him.
We want to try to comprehend the love of Christ.
Get the distractions out.
If you really want to climb this mountain,
because this is what will fuel everything -
you're rooted and grounded in this love.
You're overcome by this.
I remember years ago when I preached on this,
and I think I got this actually from something
John Piper said.
But you know, when you're filled
with the fullness of God
and you're overwhelmed by the love of Christ for you,
you don't easily go out
and have sex with your neighbor's wife.
That might be an exaggerated way to put it,
but you get the reality.
You don't easily go have an argument
with your own wife.
You don't easily just go off into sin.
Because there is something about the love of Christ
that is compelling and constraining.
It constrains us.
It's hard to be melted by the kind of love
we're going to look at in the weeks ahead
and then just to say,
you know, I think I'm going to go get drunk.
Or, well, that's nice, but after all,
"Lord of the Rings" is better than that.
You don't do that.
This love of Christ has an influence.
Well, I'm going to give you some examples here
just to kind of prime the pump.
But before I give you some of those,
the Song of Solomon -
this came up Friday night.
Somebody said - Zach said,
Song of Solomon - allegory?
Oh, I think so.
Listen to the Song.
"Let Him kiss me
with the kisses of His mouth,
for Your love is better than wine."
See, that's the thing.
His love is better.
Better than... you can fill in the blank.
But it's better.
It's not better if you don't experience it.
If it's just theory,
if it's just dry doctrine,
there's a lot of things better than that.
If all we do is get into dictionary definitions
of agape and phileo
and we start sorting through all that,
well, yeah, there's a lot of things
better than that study if all it is
is dry academics.
"Your love is better than wine."
People talk that way
when they're being overwhelmed by that love.
Not just when it's a theory.
Not when you open the textbook
and it's like, okay, today we're going to
study agape love.
That's not what people mean
when they say,
oh, their love is better than wine.
And you just think about Jesus coming
and what in the world was He trying to say
to the world
when His first miracle
was actually to turn water into wine?
It speaks something of this Christ.
The question is this:
Can you say that to the Lord?
Your love is better than wine,
or whatever else you want to fill in to the blank.
I mean the real question is
how much do we know of this?
Is this real to you?
Has it ever been real to you?
When's the last time you felt your heart quickened?
Oh, I know, there's been seasons
longer and shorter.
I know what it is to be studying the Word of God,
and I'll tell you this,
you want to put yourself in the right position
to be overwhelmed?
You want to get the garbage off the grating?
Then exchange a lot of things that you do in your life
for getting into the Scriptures
more often and more deeply.
One of the things that we all need to recognize is this:
Paul does not offer this prayer in a vacuum.
Do you recognize that the people
that were listening to this
heard chapter 1 and chapter 2
just moments before this?
God's people typically
almost always,
they're overwhelmed by expressions
of the love of God
while meditating deeply in the Word.
And if you think about this,
chapter 1 and the beginning of chapter 2
is largely about the love of the Father.
It's really going through chapter 2 -
Ephesians 2, as you move
through this chapter,
it's really about verse 13
where the love of Christ comes in.
That doesn't mean that nothing's said
about Christ before this.
There's lots of references to Christ,
but it's mainly what the Father is doing.
It's here where we're brought near
by the blood of Christ.
He shed His blood.
He Himself - that's Christ - is our peace.
Christ has made us - Jew and Gentiles - both one.
Christ has broken down in His flesh
the dividing wall of hostility.
Christ has abolished the law of commandments
expressed in ordinances.
Christ creates in Himself
one new man in place of the two.
Christ makes peace.
Christ reconciles us both to God
in one body through the cross.
Christ kills the hostility.
Christ came and preached peace.
V. 18, through Christ
we have access in one Spirit
to the Father.
You see, this is what's been talked about.
What I find is this,
historically, when I find men and women
who have really, they're living
in a sense of the riches,
their minds are being strengthened.
These little rulers?
They're our brains.
If you're going to exchange that little ruler
for the Hubble telescope,
that's your brain.
That's comprehension.
That's what's being talked about here.
Comprehension.
Paul prays this prayer
after he's been telling us
these expressions of the love of Christ.
It doesn't come in a vacuum.
It comes in Scripture.
If you are neglecting Scripture
and continue neglecting Scripture,
you're giving a great indication
that you really have no desire for this.
You can't say,
God, please, I bend my knee before the Father
to ask You, please Father,
according to the riches of Your glory,
please strengthen this church.
And then if the church goes on
no more committed to Scripture,
then we're not really taking this serious.
Look, I'm not talking about in theory
knowing that Christ loves His people.
Or even in theory, trying to convince yourself
Christ loves you.
That's not it.
I know this.
I know that some of the greatest
expressions of God
speaking to my own soul -
I'm pondering Scripture; medidating on it,
and I recognize, when you're preaching
week in and week out,
speaking Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday,
and in the Word all the time -
I recognize that if you're preaching,
you have an advantage for being in the Word.
There was a time when I wasn't a preacher.
And I know that you can stay in the Word regularly.
You can be in it a half hour,
45 minutes, or an hour every single day.
And you should be.
There's been times when I've been sitting
in my office and I'm looking,
and suddenly,
something happens.
I mean, I am overcome
by suddenly as the truth of something,
I'm beginning to realize it,
it's as though the Spirit of God
just pours the reality, the riches,
the joy, the love of it
to where I can hardly contain it,
I have to fall out of my chair.
But see, the point is,
it's in connection with the Word.
It's in connection with the truth.
It's in connection with studying
the expressions of love.
See, this is the thing: love.
Love.
It was Peter Marshall -
you guys know who that was?
Scottish preacher.
He was actually in the Congress
as a chaplain.
But I think it was Peter Marshall
who said this, that love is like
the fragrance from a flower.
Who can dissect that?
Lloyd-Jones said all you can do
is say certain things about it.
That's just as far as you can go.
And typically when we talk about love,
we look at what it does.
I mean, we can try to talk about agape,
and we can try to define love,
but typically what you're left with
is what it does.
That's what impresses us about love.
What bowls me over and causes me to fall out of my seat
is not some dry theory
about the different nuances
of the four Greek words
that could be interpreted love.
That's not it.
It's what He's done for me
who does not deserve any of it.
It's that personal -
we're not just talking about
comprehending that Christ is loving.
We're talking about comprehending His love for you.
That's the issue.
Listen to this.
Thomas Charles.
This guy - a Welsh non-conformist.
He studied under John Newton.
He says, "I had such a view of Christ
as our High Priest..."
Now, you probably need to stop right there.
That ought to tell you something.
He was meditating on Christ
as a High Priest.
He said, "I had such a view of Christ
as our High Priest, of His love,
compassion, power, all-sufficiency,
as filled my soul with astonishment,
with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
My mind was overwhelmed
and overpowered with amazement.
The truths exhibited..." See, that's the thing.
Truth.
We're talking about experiences
buried in the truth of Scripture.
"The truths exhibited to my view appeared
too wonderfully gracious to be believed."
Howell Harris.
Another famous Welsh preacher
of the First Great Awakening.
Contemporary with Whitefield.
Daniel Rowland.
William Williams.
He says this,
"Love fell in showers on my soul
so that I could scarcely contain myself.
I had no fear or any doubt of my salvation.
I felt I was all love.
So full of it that I could not ask for more."
William Grimshaw.
Seems like James spoke to us -
gave us a biographical sketch on Grimshaw.
He was another Methodist contemporary
of John Wesley.
He says, "I expect my stay on earth
will be but short."
I think there was a typhus epidemic.
And he died one year older
than I am right now.
"I expect my stay on earth will be but short,
and I will endeavor to make the best
of a short life
and so devote my soul to God
as not to go creeping to heaven
at the last."
Don't you like that?
May God help none of us to creep into heaven.
Kevin, don't creep into heaven.
And even if your life is cut short,
live while you have life.
No creeping.
Church, don't creep!
"His soul at various times
enjoyed very large manifestations
of God's love.
His cup ran over.
Higher degrees of spiritual delight
would have overpowered his mortal frame."
George Whitefield.
"I myself was so overpowered
with a sense of God's love
that it almost took away my life."
Sarah Edwards.
"It seemed to be all that my feeble soul could sustain.
All that fullness of joy
which is felt by those who behold
the face of Christ and share His love
in the heavenly world."
Moody Stewart.
Christian from the 1800's.
I couldn't find out much on him.
"When we were on our knees,
I was so filled with a sense of the love of God
that the joy was too much for me.
It was all that I was able to bear,
and it was with a struggle
that I did not sink under it.
It was a gracious outflowing
of the love of the Lord Jesus
making His servant sick of love."
You say, "sick of love?"
That's an expression from the Song of Solomon.
Sick of love.
May God according to the riches of His glory
teach you what that expression means.
John Owen.
"To give a poor, sinful soul
a comfortable persuasion
affecting it throughout
in all its faculties and affections
that God in Jesus Christ loves him,
delights in him,
is well pleased with him,
have thoughts of tenderness and kindness towards him,
to give a soul an overflowing sense hereof
is an inexpressible mercy."
And it may be.
But inexpressible mercies in my estimation
are right in league with:
according to the riches of His glory.
D.L. Moody. Chicago.
Actually, on this day, he was in New York City.
"Day and night he would walk the streets
desperate for the touch of God's power in his life,
then suddenly, one day in the city of New York,
oh, what a day!
I cannot describe it.
I seldom refer to it.
It's almost too sacred an experience to name.
I can only say that God revealed Himself to me
and I had such an experience of His love
that I had to ask Him to stay His hand."
You know what Lloyd-Jones said about all this?
He said above all,
you have to experience it.
Because hearing these,
I don't know about you,
but if you all came in and said,
"God has taught us, brother.
God has taught us. God came.
There's a revival in the church.
What you asked for that Sunday there in June,
that God would teach us what it means
to be sick of love,
He's taught me."
And if all of you said it,
and God passed me by...
I know Scripture says rejoice with those who rejoice,
but I can tell you, I would weep.
And I would go out of here weeping.
Because the truth is
that love experienced by others
does not satisfy your soul.
And God doesn't intend it to.
What does it say in Jude about the love of God?
"Keep yourself in the love of God."
That doesn't mean keep yourself saved.
Like Andy Hamilton says,
keeping yourself in a sensible sense
of God's love for you.
What foolish people we are
in light of these kinds of realities
to be content.
Our foolishness is found in our contentment
with the things of this world.
You know what? It is really foolish
to be content to be an average Christian
when there's promises like this.
Now, I'll say this,
experiencing deeper and deeper
and deeper revelations of the love of Christ
is being prayed for.
It ought to raise your expectation.
And listen, it's for all Christians.
Not all people - don't get me wrong there.
It's for all Christians.
Look at verse 18. It couldn't be more clear.
"That you may have strength to comprehend,"
with who?
"All the saints."
Not the particularly godly ones.
Not the early first century Christians.
Not the apostles.
That's not what it says.
It's all saints.
Look, of course, the man
who is not a Christian
can't experience these things.
Why?
Jesus Himself said His Father
was going to send another Comforter -
the Spirit of Truth -
Whom the world cannot receive.
You see, the world can't receive the Spirit.
The Spirit is the One that Paul is praying
would strengthen us
that Christ may dwell in our hearts
by faith.
Strenthen us to comprehend.
They don't have that.
But if you're a saint,
you could be the least -
Jesus talked about those people, right?
The least of My brothers.
You can be the least,
but this is for you.
The least Christian can be brought in
and overwhelmed by a comprehension
of this love of Christ.
Brethren, is there an ache?
Is there a desire?
Is there anything in you that wants this?
Or are you just going to be content?
I'm praying, Lord, sick of love.
Teach us.
Men and women have walked before us.
They almost couldn't handle it.
Lord willing, in the weeks ahead,
I want to begin to look into the depths of this
with whatever ability God gives to me.
We want to really start thinking about His love.
Trying to grasp,
trying to get a feel,
trying to absorb the doctrine
and hopefully in the midst of that,
God is going to cause some expansion
in our comprehension
and in our knowledge
and in our experience.
I'm hoping for glory.
Father, please,
You've promised.
You've promised, Father,
and if we are six weeks, eight weeks
down the road and nothing happens
and it's just average
and it's unimpressive,
Father, You stirred Paul to pray
according to the riches of Your glory.
Father, will it not be a testimony
to the riches of Your glory
if nothing happens?
Father, by inspiring Paul to pray this way
have You not put Your own name at stake here?
Are You going to leave us the same?
Lord, we recognize in this prayer
there's an acknowledgement of our weakness.
Otherwise, we wouldn't have to be strengthened.
It doesn't say we're already strong.
It said therefore we should comprehend this
according to the strength that we have.
Paul's praying that we would be strengthened
obviously because we don't possess right now
what we should possess or need to possess,
must possess to be able to grasp these things.
That means You have to give us something.
Lord, we know this, that even if we tried
and put forth our best effort
to not grieve the Spirit
and remove all the stuff on the grating,
to allow this power to flow,
Lord, if You don't come; if You don't help;
if You don't enlarge; if You don't speak;
if You don't give us comprehension;
if You don't stretch us,
then nothing will happen.
Lord, we need You. We need You to help.
And we ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
Whose love it is that we're taken up with.
Amen.