Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1755
Delivered on Thursday Evening, October 25, 1883
“And to know the love of Christ, whichpasses knowledge, thatyou might be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:19.
THIS is a part of Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian believers. It is the closing clause and consummation of it. It mentions the grandest gift for which he prayed. His prayer was like that ladder which Jacob saw, the top of which reached to Heaven and God—and the Apostle at the foot of it was not asleep—but looking up with eager eyes and marking each rising rung of light. Be it ours by sweet experience to ascend that staircase of light! May the Holy Spirit reveal it to us even now! You must begin to read at the 14th verse—“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”—this is one rung of the ladder. “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”— here comes the second rung—one step helps you to reach the next and you are strengthened that you may rise higher and enjoy a further privilege!
“That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that”—this is the third rung. Oh, that the Holy Spirit may help you at once take a firm footing upon it! “That you, 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.” Surely we are at the top of the ladder now, are we not? What a height! How glorious is the view! How solid the standing! How exhilarating the sense of communion with all saints and with the Lord of saints! Yet this is not the top of it! Here is another step—“that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.” You see that the prayer begins with the gracious petition that we may be strengthened—“strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, according to the riches of His glory.”
The objective is that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith. Before the Lord can dwell in us, we must be strength-ened—mentally and spiritually strengthened. To entertain the High and Holy One—to receive into our soul the indwelling Christ—it is necessary that the temple be strengthened, that there be more power put into every pillar and into every stone of the edifice. It is taken for granted that we have already been washed and cleansed and so made fit for Christ to come and dwell within us. But we also need to be strengthened, for, unless we become stronger in all spiritual life, how is Christ to dwell in our hearts by faith? Unless we become stronger in love and in all the Graces of the Spirit, how can we worthily entertain such a Guest as the Lord Jesus?
Yes, and we even need that our spiritual perception should be strengthened, that we may be able to know Him when He does come and dwell in us. We need that our spirit should be elevated and lifted into a higher condition than as yet it has known in order that we may be on a platform where we can have communion with Christ and may, by a heavenly enlargement of mind and heart, be made able, to the fullest, to entertain the Lord of Glory! We must be strengthened into stability of mind, that so Christ may dwell, abide, reside in our hearts by faith. Oh, Brothers and Sisters, everything has to be done for us, for even when we are made clean enough for Christ to enter us, we are not strong enough! Even when the Lord has taken away the defilement so that “sin no longer lies at the door” to shut Him out, yet even then we are too feeble to entertain so great a Guest!
We should be like Peter, who, when Christ came into his boat and filled it with fish, was too feeble to receive Him and, therefore, cried out in an agony of weakness, “Depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” “Oh,” says one, “I would never say that.” I do not know, Brother. If the Lord were to favor you with such Divine manifestations as He has given to the stronger saints, you might be overcome and swoon with inward faintness, almost desiring that Christ would not draw so near to you. If the Lord should appear to you in His Glory, you would be afraid and, like John in the Apoca-
lypse, fall at His feet as dead. You need to be strengthened, for how else could you endure the vision of His splendor or the divine excitement of His infinite love?
Paul, therefore, begins his requests for the Ephesians with a prayer for more strength for their inner man. Let us pray it tonight—“O Holy Spirit, strengthen my feeble mind that I may be able to receive more of my Lord! Give me more capacity; give me a clearer perception; give me a better memory; give me an intense affection; give me a larger faith.” This is the first prayer that you may be strengthened according to the riches of His Glory with might, by His Spirit, in the inner man. Be eager for this! Plead now with all your hearts for me and for yourselves, that we may all be strengthened by the power of the Spirit of our God!