God's eternal purpose is to unite Jews and Gentiles into one body, the church, through Christ. This divine plan, revealed in this age, calls believers to be faithful stewards of God's grace. The sermon emphasizes that the Holy Spirit empowers believers to live in dependence on God, allowing Christ to dwell fully in their hearts. This indwelling Christ is expressed through the fruit of the Spirit, particularly love, which transforms lives and attracts others to the Savior. Ultimately, believers are called to live out this divine purpose, being filled with the fullness of God through faith and love.
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We've certainly appreciated these reports tonight of the Lord's blessing. And it's a joy to me, after having been here a number of years, as part of the ponds 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 Willys 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 bought 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 thoughts. And any money put in those boxes, he's going to South East in Bible Club. Thank you. I didn't say pray. 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 to 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 three tonight. It's been a blessed hour. And we thank you. for sharing the Lord's blessings with us. Ephesians chapter three. We've seen together that as believers we are not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God with unconfessed sin. We have 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 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 experience in our subsequent messages.
May we pray together as we turn to this chapter. Our Father, speak, we pray, through 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'd save a lot of problems, wouldn't it? Hmm? 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 three, he calls it in verse eleven, the eternal purpose. This is a theological term, but latch on to it, isn't 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? That's simple. It's that simple. Now look in chapter three. For this cause I fall the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. If you 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 your word, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery. Paul is not saying, I have something mysterious to show to you. No, but something that he calls a mystery. How that by revelation he may know unto me the mystery, verse four, whereby when you read, you may understand my knowledge in 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, 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's saying, I'm now giving you a truth. I'm now sharing with you what he calls a mystery, which men in other ages didn't know. God had not revealed it to them. It's for this dispensation of the grace of God. What is it, Paul? He tells us in verse six that the Gentiles, the crowd had been left out so much of the time during Old Testament history since Abraham, where God's covenants had been with Abraham and with his nation Israel, you see. And the Gentiles got in by means of the Jew. But the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, fellow heirs with whom? According to chapter two, the Jew. 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 two a moment. Verse eleven. Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles, and most of us here tonight are, in the flesh, who were called uncircumcision by that which is called circumcision of the flesh made by hand, that at that time ye were without Christ before they 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 faces. But now, says Paul, verse thirteen, in Christ Jesus, ye who are 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's the thrill of being brought nigh by the blood of Christ. The thrill of rejoicing in salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. Verse fourteen. 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 are no more strangers and foreigners.
Isn't that wonderful? But fellow citizens were 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, 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 is 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 looked like the Lord is 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 this as members in particular, that God has set the members in the body, has replaced 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. And so Paul says in chapter three, verse seven, Whereof I 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 Hebrew 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 fifteen. 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 will be preached in this name among all nations, and ye are witnesses of these things. That's what God's doing. As the Father has sent me, even so send I you. That's what God's doing. Ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses under me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria, and under 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 seats men in Christ's stead 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 cause. That's your reason for camp arising. That's your reason for these chapters. That's why God has kept you here. That's why I haven'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 the Savior. Anyone say, 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. All 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 business-like about your investments. But all these are for what God's doing. See? Who God brought to the park?
Retire? Yes. Retire from what? Serving the Lord? No, sir. Retire from both and not. Maybe. Screw both down here at Park of the Palm. They're working on this. I'm 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. You'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.
Am I 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? 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 are the great ministries God's people have for each other.
And it's God's way of getting God's work done, first of all. Look at it. Verse fourteen. 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 passes knowledge that she 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 involve in getting us ready to get God's work done. Verse sixteen, 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 want something tremendous truth accomplished here, strengthened by his spirit and the inner man. Why? He tells it that Christ may dwell in your heart by faith. Do you mean this is a problem? Yes. 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 honoring. 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 sixteen 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 like this. 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.
That God will save them, that God will work in their heart, that God will bring them through those difficult teenage years, that God will bring them the full and complete dedication to the Lord and his will and to the Great Commission. If our ask for 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 old nature. Now you need the spirit of God to control them, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
So that the Lord can live through it with his holy desires and ambitions and purposes that will fulfill what we've just read in earlier in the chapter, the completion of the body of Christ through the salvation of precious earth. 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. 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 you. My children are impossible. My grandchildren, oh my, this generation is wild.
I grant you their wild. A 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 is he ever going to go through his teenage years in this kind of a day? Here's the answer right here. The Spirit of God at work in God. Strengthening him. Enabling him. So that that old carnal desire, that carnal heart is controlled. And that now, verse seventeen, Christ may dwell in your heart, life, 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 seventeen 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. Sorrowly dwell in your heart, by faith. 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. Boy, 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, but 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, Preture, 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. 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 the whole de Siva. 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 heart by what?
Okay, there's our principle of life next. By faith, by faith, by faith. Now, preacher put this in shoe leather for us. Paul does. Verse seventeen through verse nineteen. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye being rooted and grounded in what? In love, may be able to comprehend with all saints 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 passes 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 heart is the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know there's nothing more wonderful in the world than love.
Isn't that right, teenagers? There's some back here. Yes, they are. I looked at them. And you older teenagers? Huh? Some 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 loving I got married to compare to how much I love my wife now. If I love her so much, 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, Christline Bible Church, while I was away, one of our students from the college whose fellowships with us had 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 they 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 to the Lord about them. They took a hundred dollars. They were going to go down the dress shop and dress up the dear wife and took care of the mother and the kids. This is wonderful. Hmm? 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 five.
Galatians five. Paul tells us verse twenty-two and verse twenty-three. But the fruit of the Spirit. Ah, you know what we're talking about now. He does not say fruit, squirrel. He says fruit, singular. The fruit of the Spirit is what? Love. Jaw. T. I wish you could have heard yourself sing that song tonight. I was tempted to change the method 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 shared abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. I, 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 long-suffering. Oh, some Christians show their carnal nature. Here's the grace of long-suffering. You've tried to overhaul your husband for forty years, some of you. Hasn't worked yet, eh? Here's grace. Too late? Oh, no.
Grace is still sufficient. Okay. Long-suffering. My wife's still trying, bless her as far as long-suffering. Gentleness. Oh, that sweet Christian kindness with 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. And ah, what a wonderful expression of love. Faith. Hmm. Walking by faith. The Spirit of God produces in our hearts the grace of trustful Lord to depend upon him, to expect from him daily, to trust him for greater things as we heard tonight.
Hmm. 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 will be faithful, 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 of the Savior. Faithfulness in prayer and our stewardship. Faithfulness in my Bible reading. Faithfulness in my soul winning. 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, have shared with me that in the last month God took your companion home, the grace of meekness gives you the grace to accept your loss from God. Great. Easy for me to preach, but there's grace for you to live it too. Accepting your love. Accepting your love. 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, temperance. Yes, a spiritually disciplined life.
You're 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, but nevertheless, the grace of self-control spiritually so that each day is dedicated to God, each day is fulfilling the great permission, each day making a contribution, each day discipline, each day. This is lost in action. You want anything more wonderful than this? I don't. Let me take just a moment to just read first Corinthians thirteen, just three or four verses, so familiar to us. First Corinthians thirteen, four through eight.
Here's that same commodity of love. Love suffereth long. Need lots of that. And is what? Kind. Love envieth not. Oh, that carnal heart, you know, has to be judged. Love envieth not. Love boinkseth not itself. Is not, puffed up. Does not behave itself unseemly. Never indiscreet. Love seeketh not her own. Never selfish. Never demand is right. This is not right. Love is not easily provoked. Thinketh no evil. Rejoiceeth not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. Beareth all things. Believeeth all things.
Hopeeth all things. Endureeth all things. Love what? Never fail. Now this is what is actually expressed through your life and mind. as Christ dwells down deep in our hearts by faith. This is the outliving Christ. This is putting the life of Christ in shoe leather. This is how it works. We're not so heavenly-minded we're no earthly good. We're not living with our heads in the clouds. We're not going around that Bible in our arm and our heads high and ignoring a lost world. Here it is. Isn't this down to earth?
Isn't this practical? And let me tell you, this will attract people to our Savior. This will cause them to want Him, to love Him, to serve Him. When they see this wonderful reality, your life in them. Now notice, back to our text in this verse. Paul's praying to be strengthened by His Spirit. That Christ may dwell in your heart by faith. Verse nineteen, and to know the love of Christ with passive knowledge, that ye might be filled unto, literally, all the fullness of God. If you're a sincere Christian tonight, you have said many times, I want all that God has for me.
And a lot of people who make that kind of statement mean, if it's tongues, I want to speak in tongues. If it's a second word of grace, I want a second word of grace. If it's some special experience, I want that experience. If it's jumping over the pews in a church, I want to jump over the pews. Hold it. Hold it. Paul tells us here how to be filled into all the fullness of God. What is that fullness? In Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Finish it. Ye are complete square in him. You don't find the fullness of God 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 mind, you and I are filled with all the fullness of God because we're filled with him. And the expression of that fullness is what? The love of the Lord Jesus. Hmm? Well, that's for some preachers and some missionaries I know, but preacher, that's not for me.
Wait a minute. That's what the text says. Now unto him that is able, able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask of things. Under him the glory in the church. What in the world do you put these words here for? They're talking about building new chapels in Florida. They're talking about paying for part of the pond, building new apartments. You and I applied this text to ten thousand different things. And we may apply it to ten thousand different things because it really is that broad an application. But look at it in this context as we close. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask for, think, is 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 there's all. Listen, God's able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask the Savior in accomplishing this in your life. Amen. Nobody's got a corner. Nobody with a commitment to go to the mission field. It's got a corner on it. Nobody that you look up to in your assembly. You think the spiritual giant has a corner on this. Teenager, this is for you tonight. Fathers and mothers, this is for you tonight. Granddads and grandfathers and 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, of all that we can ask for you in making this a practical, down-to-earth reality in your life. That's part of the fun. You express this 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 farm. Did you know that? From the final analysis, it isn't palm trees that bring folks. And it's not flaky apartments that bring folks. It's a fellowship we've heard tonight among brethren who love our Lord and King James.
Hmm? That's it. How does all this become ours? Paul says, by faith. By faith. Last night we walked. and walk, and walk.