The Glory of God in His Church part 2

Well take your Bible and turn back with me to Ephesians. We were in verses 20 and 21 of chapter 3 earlier in our scripture reading. Really we started with verse 14, that prayer from Paul. Those were our verses from our message last week. Remember we looked at verse 20 and 21. We looked at some other verses. But this morning we're going to go back into chapters 1, 2, and 3. Now I want to give you or explain to you my approach with the message this morning. I'm going to go ahead and tell you that I'm not going to be exhaustive in our verses. There's no way.

I'm not going to cover every detail and every verse that I read and every verse that I mention. You know my approach is usually to go verse by verse, chapter by chapter through portions of scripture, books of the Bible. Sometimes I'll only take one verse because of time and there's so much there. As a matter of fact, last week or the week before when we finished up in the Sermon on the Mount we covered one verse. That's my approach. But this morning I'm going to be making what I call broad observations which come out of certain portions in these chapters. And this will all lead us back to where we were last week.

It'll lead us back to chapter 3, verse 20, and verse 21. And this will all tie into the message from last Sunday. So if you've not gotten last week's message I encourage you to do that because this all goes together. We're really going one direction. Now before we get into our verses I want to remind you of two situations that we have here. We're really dealing with two contexts here this morning. First we have our context. Our situation is a church. And then second we have the Ephesian situation. We have the context of the Ephesian church.

We really need to see what is going on here in the Ephesian church because it does have a tremendous bearing on our church situation. And we're going to see how all this ties together. And this is really far more serious for us than we know. But remember where we are as a church. Remember where we are as a church. I said this last week that we are on the cusp of one of the most important decisions in the life of this church. Now what is that decision? The decision of relocating as a church. We know that there are many, many physical and pragmatic reasons that necessitate a move. We've gone through that over and over.

I think everyone knows the physical and pragmatic reasons. But the most important reasons are spiritual reasons. Really we're answering the call to be the church of God that He is calling us to be. We see and we hear this call of God to step into our town to worship in Brookhaven. Now notice this. Brookhaven is where most of us shop. Brookhaven is where most of us bank. Brookhaven is where most of us pay our taxes. Brookhaven is where many of us put our children in school. And we want to be accessible to the community. And we want to reach people in our community.

Really that's just an incomplete list because there are so many more spiritual reasons. But back to the Ephesian situation. Back to the context of this letter. In this letter the Apostle Paul is ministering to this church that he knows very well. But this was a church in a very pagan culture. But yet they had great gospel success within that pagan culture. Paul had spent three years there in Ephesus. Many Jews and many Greeks had been converted to Christ. The gospel had spread in Ephesus and really beyond. It had gone all throughout the region the scriptures teach us. Other churches had been started from the work there in Ephesus.

The economy of Ephesus had been affected by the gospel. As a matter of fact the sale of little idols associated with the worship of the goddess Diana. It simply fell off because of the influence of the gospel there in Ephesus. But we must see what Paul is doing in the letter. He ultimately had one desire. Ultimately he had one desire. Now what was that? Now we must listen close and we must get this one desire. Everything that Paul was doing here in the letter was for the glory of God in this church. His church. That was his desire. That was his goal. That's why he traveled thousands of miles, three missionary journeys.

That is why he preached all over the known world to both Jew and Gentile in comfortable circumstances and uncomfortable circumstances. That's why he wrote all of these letters. That's why he suffered so much. That's why he ultimately died as a martyr. Everything Paul was doing was for the glory of God in his church. Last week we started off on the high mountain top. I use that analogy of Paul's doxology. This prayer of praise, this was in verses 14 to 21 of chapter 3. Remember Paul's prayer of praise? It was Christ exalting, was it not? It was power of power. We saw that in the verses. It was man focused praise. It was church center praise.

It was a people priority praise. This great prayer of praise pertained to what? The glory of God in his church. Now this morning I want us to come down off the mountain top of praise that we were on last week. I want us to come down and I want us to come down into the valley and I want us to see more of how, more of how this glory of God in the church is fleshed out. Now question, what does all of this have to do with us? Again, how does this all tie together? Today and as we are about to make this great move, this is how God is to get glory in this church, our church, his church. The church at Ephesus is our pattern.

This is what we should strive for. So this morning we will continue along the same theme, the same title, and we're going to be looking at what I'm calling a part two. This is the glory of God in his church. And like I said earlier, we're going to zoom through chapters one, two, and three, and then we're going to come all the way back to the high mountain top of praise in verse 20 and 21. Now for the sake of time, I will not read all of these passages before we get into the message. This is our habit on Wednesday nights and our study through Proverbs, but we will read the verses as we go along.

And if I refer to a verse or casually read a verse, you just mark that down and you go study it on your own. I promise I'm leaving quite a bit for you to study. So let's notice what we're going to be looking at this morning. This is what I'm calling the glory of God in his church, this Ephesian church. So let's notice number one, the glory of God in his redemption plan for man. We see the glory of God in his redemptive plan for man. This is at the beginning of the chapter, chapter one. Now if you look at chapter one in your copy of God's word, notice the verses, verses one on down to verse 14, but notice that verses one and two are different.

That's really an introduction. It's a greeting. Paul's writing to the church at Ephesus. He's introducing himself. He's greeting those people that he knew and loved. But verses three to 14 all fall under the theme of God's redemptive plan for man. That was Paul's purpose. He was teaching. He was explaining. Maybe he was reminding these Ephesians of God's redemptive purpose and plan for man. Now I want to pause here and I want to be honest with you right here. Here in these verses, we have a difficult doctrine for some. This is right here dealing with the doctrine of election. We see this in verse four and five. Look at verse four and five.

It says he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. Verse five, in love he predestined us. Now listen to your pastor here. We cannot be afraid of one word or one verse in God's word. We cannot be afraid of any doctrine that we might find in God's word. We must let God's word say what God's word says. We cannot pull out one verse or one word and let it form all of our opinions. We cannot run when we come across something in the Bible that scares us or something that we cannot fully understand. Let's just study the entirety of God's word. Let's let God's word speak to us and then let us adjust ourselves to what we see.

So let's submit ourselves to the authority of God's word. So if this subject makes you nervous, take a deep breath and let's trust God's word and let's just let the Spirit of God teach us in this subject. Now we're going to be looking at God's redemptive purpose and plan for man in verses three to fourteen. Again, I'm not going to be exhaustive but I'm going to point out two specifics here out of the verses. First, I want us to see God's electing work. We see God's electing work.

Look at verse four, "Just as He," this God, "chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him." Verse five, "In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the kind intention of His will." Now notice the language. It points to the activity of God. This is all the activity of God. We see God choosing in verse four. We see God adopting in verse five. Verse five says that all of this was predestined. Now that simply means "for ordained" or "that which was decided beforehand." But notice the Spirit. Notice the reason.

Or notice I call it the heart behind all of this work. In verse four it says that "in love." Look back at the verse. "In love." Verse five, it says, "according to the kind intention of His will." Verse six, I haven't read that yet, it says that this was all to the praise of the glory of His grace. So notice, "in love, according to God's kind intention and for His own glory, in grace God chose." In grace God predestined. And He adopted some to be sons of Jesus. Now let's not be afraid of this doctrine. It's truly found all throughout the Scriptures. If you have a good memory, you know that we covered this in John chapter six.

We covered this in John chapter 17. It's in both Old Testament and New. So what do we see here? We see God's electing work in verse four and five. And then second, our second observation, notice man's believing in verses 13 and 14. We have man's believing work. Go back to the verses, verse 13 and 14. "In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view of the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of His glory." Now here we get to the verses which can be familiar for more of us.

Here we see man exercising his responsibility. Man is exercising his responsibility to the gospel message. Now notice what's happening here. Notice this activity. Man is hearing the message of the gospel in verse 13. Man is believing the gospel for salvation in verse 13. And then we see man is sealed with the work of the Spirit of God in verse 14. Now we see this taught elsewhere in the New Testament. Specifically, I'll read you one portion of Scripture, Romans 10, verse 9 and 10. Paul says, "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

For with your heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved." So what do we see here? Man is exercising his will and his responsibility. Man is trusting. Man is hoping. Man is believing in the gospel in Christ so as to be saved. So you can say it like this. Man is expressing faith in Christ for his salvation. Now in summary, what are we seeing here? Again, I haven't been exhaustive. We see God's redemptive plan for man. One commentator described it like this. God's master plan for salvation. We have God's choosing. We have God electing.

And then on the other side of the coin, we have man hearing the gospel. He's hoping in Christ, trusting in the gospel. He's believing in Christ so as to have his sins forgiven. So what do we see? The wonderful, and I use this terminology, the rare coin of the redemptive plan for man. We have on one side of the coin God working, God choosing, God electing, God adopting. And then on the other side of this rare coin, the rarest of coins, we have man believing and trusting and surrendering to Christ. But look at this. Just take a step back with me and look at this. We have the glory of God in his redemptive purpose and plan for man.

This is the glory of God. Look at verse 6 with me. To the praise of his glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved. What do we have? He is saying this is all for the glory of God. So we must see that we have the glory of God in God's redemptive purpose and God's redemptive plan for man. Now an application, what do we need to see here? Really we could go on and on. We could have a whole series on these scriptures. But what do we have? Two things I want us to see here. First of all, this is educational. This is fundamental. This is crucial that we understand this information.

And if we do not get this, we can move into doctrinal imbalance, even doctrinal error. We must see and embrace the doctrine of election. Simply the Bible teaches it. But notice what we have here. When we study and embrace the doctrine of election, we get to peek back before time. We get to peel back time and look into eternity past. Look at verse 4. Just as he chose us in him, notice, before the foundation of the world, we get to take a look into the heart of God. God out of his infinite love, his never ending, never beginning love for man. He chose, he predestined, he chose some for adoption.

This is all out of his love and this is all out of his grace. Now a question for us. What happens if we ignore this doctrine? What happens if we get cold feet here and we get scared and we won't delve into what these scriptures say and many others? If we refuse to believe or accept this doctrine, there is a lot of error that we can fall into. But most importantly, we diminish the sovereignty of God. I need to repeat that. We diminish the sovereignty of God and then we make man bigger and better than he actually is and then we make God smaller than he actually is. We get out of balance and then we can get into doctrinal error.

Now let me pause here before I make a little more application. I can't rectify all this. I can't bridge the gap here. We just declare on one side the sovereignty of God, God chooses, God predestines, God adopts, but yet on the other side we see man choosing and man exercising his responsibility, man trusting by faith. And listen, we never can reconcile these two. We declare them and we believe in them and we trust them. But also an application. We must see the glory of God in his plan, this plan. This is God's master plan for the salvation of man. And listen folks, any other plan is not the master plan, but an imposter's plan. You hear me?

This is the master's plan and any other plan is an imposter's plan. Now for us, remember our context. As we move and we begin to be the church of God, that God wants us to be in the Brookhaven community, we must see that God gets glory in his church, this church, how? Through the gospel of grace. Look back at verse 6. This is the gospel of God's grace for the redemption of man. This is God's master plan to redeem man. And look folks, every boy and every girl and every teenager and every man and every woman that comes to faith in Christ, that is bringing great glory to God in his church.

This is part of a master plan for the glory of God in his church. So let's move on. I want us to see number two, we see the glory of God in the formation of the church, or you could use the word body because that's right here in the verses. We see the glory of God in the formation of the church. Now you see that this is all out of verses 15 to 23 and I'll read them as we go. But here again, we are looking into a big body of verses, but we need to see that these verses fall under the theme of Paul's prayer for the formation of the church. This is what I call Paul's prayer for the formation of the church. That's what we see Paul doing.

He begins to pray. Look at the beginning of verse 16. He's saying that he does not cease to give thanks for them. Then in verse 8, what does he say? I pray. So that's what Paul's doing. He's praying here. He is praying for the formation of his people, these people, the Ephesian people. To me, we have the ultimate destination in the prayer because the ultimate destination is what? The church and the body. We see that on down because he gets to that language, the body, the body of Christ and the church. So here we're looking at this prayer. It's coming from Paul's heart and I want to make several observations here. Several observations here.

First of all, we do see Paul's prayer. Starts in verse 15 and it goes down to verse 19. Now there's a lot here, but we're going to zoom through. In verse 15, Paul says that he has heard a lot about this beloved people. He was absent from them and he had heard a lot about what was going on in the church. And then he moves along to tell them how he is praying for them constantly. And starting in verse 17, we see what he's praying. He prays that they would grow, that God would grow them in wisdom and in knowledge of him in verse 17, that they would be firm in their calling and in the riches of his glory in verse 18.

And then that they would know the surpassing greatness of his power for those who believe in verse 19 and all of this, all of which God brought about in Christ. So Paul is praying for a great inner work in them. That's why I take you through those verses. This prayer is about an inner work in them. But then notice what begins to happen in verse 20. We see this victory, Christ's victory that is for his people. Look at the beginning of verse 20, which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead. Right here, Paul mentions the resurrection.

Although this is very short, Paul is speaking of the great power which Christ demonstrated in the resurrection. And we see this really starting at the end of verse 19. But notice what he says here. These are all in accordance with what? This is all referencing, he's all reaching back to everything that he prayed. He's reaching back to his heart a prayer for these people, this inner work. And he is saying something like this. All these wonderful things can take place in you because of what? Because of the power and the victory in the resurrection. So the only way this prayer can come true is with the victory of Christ.

And then notice we see Christ's position. Notice what he says in verse 20. When he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand of the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the age to come. Here Paul is referencing what took place after the resurrection. After Christ was raised, he was seated at the right hand of the Father. He was seated with all power and all authority and all dominion. So Paul is talking of Christ's great position with all power and authority. So notice how this prayer works.

For this prayer to truly come about in their life, it can only come about because of Christ's victory and Christ's position. But then fourth, notice Christ's possession. Look at verse 22. And he put all things in subjection under his feet. And notice here, Paul is showing the Ephesians that all things are subject to Christ. They are under his feet. Again, we see his possession, but we now see his possessions. Simply everything is under his feet. Now again, notice how this works. Paul is praying this prayer of this great inner work.

It can only take place because of Christ's victory, because of Christ's position, and because they are Christ's possession. But then notice Christ's formation. Go back to verse 22. And he gave him as the head over all things to the church, which is his body. Now to me, I see two words here, which we need to see. The word church and the word body. Paul is referencing the church or the called out ones. And he is likening the church to his body. And here, if we look back over all that Paul has taught and explained in chapter 1, we see the formation of his people.

We go all the way back in chapter 1, and we see God electing and God choosing and God adopting. And then we see man trusting in Christ and believing in the gospel. And now we see the end. We see the formation of his body, the formation of the church. And how? Because of the victory won by Christ in the resurrection, because of his position, and we are his possession, we have this wonderful formation. So simply what do we see here? Paul is praying for their formation. He is praying for a great inner work in them starting in verse 16. And now notice this timeline. Notice the timeline. These Ephesians were already formed as a church.

They were a body of believers when Paul was writing this letter. So he is desiring that God would continue to form them. This was for their continued sanctification. Now look at what we have here. This is the glory of God being made known in the formation of his church, the body. Now an application, what do we need to see right here? Yes, we need to see the sovereign work of God. And then we see on the other side of the salvation coin, we see man trusting and believing. We see man's salvation, but it does not stop there. He forms individuals into his body. He forms the church. He forms us into his church.

And listen, he did it with the Ephesians, and he is doing it with us now. He desires to continue to form us. He calls us, he saves us, and he forms us. And listen folks, when God truly saves one, that is not where he stops. He brings them into the church. He continues to form them. He continues to sanctify them. And when you see someone profess Christ, and they are not in the church, and they are disconnected from the body, listen folks, you might as well cut your arm off and throw it on the floor. Now what am I trying to show you here? No man, no woman can be right with God and be disconnected from the church.

And no man and no woman can be right with God and be disconnected from the church and not be being formed and sanctified. That is why I spend the time here. We need to see. Paul did not leave this church alone, no. Because of the victory and the resurrection of Christ, he could continue to form them. And for us as we move, and listen as we begin to be the church that God wants us to be in Brookhaven, we must see that God gets glory in His church. How? Through forming a people into His body. Through continuously forming a people for Him. It's the church, the body of Christ.

And then third, I want us to see that we see the glory of God in His four ordained works for the church. We see that He gets glory through His four ordained works in the church. Now for this truth, I want us to move on into chapter two. You see that we're going to look at verse eight to ten, primarily verse ten. But for me, when I look at this truth here, really this one verse, verse ten, is sandwiched between two larger portions of scripture. Now what I mean here is we have two themes. We have two themes, one before verse ten and one after. Verses one to nine fall under the theme of what I call a new life in Christ.

Look at verse eight with me. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and not of yourselves." It is a gift of God. What is that referencing? The new life of grace in Christ. But then in verses eleven to twenty-two, it falls under the theme of unity. Unity in Christ, a great unity between even Jew and Gentile in Christ. But to me, I see verse ten sandwiched in the middle. And verse ten is all about the practical reason why God would save us, and that is for good works. Look at the verse.

"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." Now here I want to use verses eight to nine really as an introduction. This sets us up properly for verse ten. In verse eight and nine, we see Paul echo what he had taught earlier in chapter one. Let's look at the verses. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, that not of yourselves." "It is the gift of God, not as a result of works, that no one should boast." So what do we see right here? "Man is saved by grace, and salvation is a gift of God." Verse eight teaches that.

Paul is emphasizing salvation as a grace gift. He said this is not of works. It's sources not from man, and it's sources not from man's works. This salvation is of God and from God, and it does not come from man's works. But we must see the true works of God here. So what do we see here? Why? God saves the man for works. Now real quickly I want us to notice some specifics out of this verse. First I want us to see His workmanship. Don't we see that at the beginning of verse ten? "For we are His workmanship." Here Paul is saying that born-again Christians are God's handiwork. That's an accurate word to use. They are created by Him.

They are made a new creation in Christ by Him. To me, that is why tying verse ten back to verse eight and nine is important. Man's salvation is not from man or man's works. It is a gift from God. So here Paul is emphasizing that we as Christians are God's creation. We are His handiwork. We are His workmanship. But then second, notice God's works or good works. Verse ten, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works." Here Paul makes a transition with the word "for." He says that man was brought into a new saving relationship with God for good works.

From the context of this letter, it should be obvious that these good works were basically seen in three ways. First, the work of sanctification. Yes, that's part of these good works. The work of sanctification. The good works of striving to live a holy life, being sanctified of God. Then second, the work of the gospel around the world. The Ephesian church worked to take the gospel to their city and beyond. Then third, the work of the church. These believers were to do the good works of the church. So Paul here is explaining that they were created in Christ for good works in the world.

And then third, notice this phrase "prepared beforehand." Go back to the verse. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ for good works, which He prepared beforehand." Now here, this is simple. These good works were prepared by God for man beforehand. Just as man's salvation is predestined, God's good works for man, it was predestined as well. These are prearranged. This is a prearranged life made by God for a man. So Paul is explaining that God has prearranged good works for these Christians as they are living in the church and in Ephesus.

But then notice fourth, this phrase, this word "walk" or this phrase "walk in them." What does he say? "For good works which He prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Look at that last portion of the verse. Maybe underline that or note that, that we should walk in them. Now the reason I mention this portion of the verse is the importance of this word "walk." This means to regulate one's life. This speaks to one's conduct or the order of their behavior. So Paul is saying that these Christians were to arrange their life.

They were to arrange their behavior within the sphere or the arena of the good works of God, which He had ordained for these people. So simply, what do we see here in verse 10? What's Paul giving us? Really, this is a lot. In verses 8 to 9, we see that man's salvation is a grace gift from God. And then we see the why. Yes, the why. Man was created in Christ for good works. These are not just any works. These are God's works. They were designed by God for man before the foundation of the world for each individual Christian and for the church.

Paul is saying that we should live out our lives in the arena, the sphere of these good works, in the world and in the church. So look at what we have here. We have the glory of God in good works, the glory of God in good works in the church and in the world. And these were ordained by God for man. Now, in application, we need to see how we fit into this verse. If there was any verse that we were pretty exhausted, it was verse 10. How do we fit into this teaching? Listen, folks, if we are truly born-again Christian, God has four ordained good works for us. Let me say that again. God has prearranged good works for us. Now, a question.

What are these good works? Listen, folks, this is where many, many so-called Christians get off the rails here. I don't have time to get into it, but there are all kinds of so-called Christians and so-called ministers and so-called churches. They're doing all kinds of things out from under the authority of God's Word, and they call those good works, but they're not. They've invented them. But we need to ask the question, what are these good works? Yes, we do good works in the culture. As God enables us and God equips us and God calls us, we do good works in the culture. We do good works for our neighbors. We do good works in the community.

I was having lunch with an individual this week who was in a particular place in the culture where he's able to do good works as a Christian. God's giving him an open door. So, yes, we do good works in the culture, but more specifically and more importantly, we are about two good works. First, the good works of taking the gospel to the lost. Isn't that what the Ephesian church did? Isn't that what Paul did there in Ephesus? First is taking the gospel to the lost around us, and second, the good works of the church. We're to pour our lives into the work of the church.

You can boil it all down to two important works, the work of the gospel and the work of the church. And if you pour your life into those two areas, I'm telling you, you will burn the candle of life at both ends. Now, for us, as we look at this move, as we move and we begin to be the church that God wants us to be in Brookhaven, we must see that God gets glory in his church. How? Listen, through our good works, works that God has prearranged for us as individuals and a church. Yes, doing good in the community, but taking the gospel to the lost and building his church.

And then number four, our last major observation, and this will be a lot quicker. We see the glory of God in his sanctifying work in the church. And we come all the way back to our verses from last week. So here we come back right to where we started. Now, last week, when we started in these verses, this is what I called a high mountain of praise. I said that earlier. This is what I call a high mountain of praise. It starts off with verse 14, starts off in the prayer, but it really climbs to a climax in verse 20 and 20. But here in verses 14 to 19, we see Paul's prayer.

To me, these verses fall under the theme of what I call Paul's powerful prayer. This is Paul's powerful prayer for the Ephesian Christians that he knew so well. Now, notice that Paul's prayer can be broken down into what I see as four requests. And this will be very, very important. I mentioned these last week. Notice Paul's prayer. First, that they would be strengthened by the Holy Spirit in the inner man. We see that in verse 16 in the beginning of verse 17. And second, he prays that with all the saints, they would be able to comprehend the immeasurable love of Christ. We see that at the end of verse 17 and verse 18.

And then third, that they would know the love of Christ, which surpasses all. And we see that in verse 17 and verse 18. And then fourth, that they would be filled with the fullness of God. And we see that in verse 19, the last part of verse 19. So simply, we see that Paul has one purpose in this prayer. Again, this is talking of this inner work, the inner work of sanctification, growth in the knowledge of God and the love of God. This is not external good works here. No. Here, Paul is praying that he will be able to understand the love of Christ. And Paul is praying for a powerful work in them. So notice what we have here.

We have the glory of God in the sanctifying inner work within these people. And for us, as we look to move, as we look to begin to be the church that God wants us to be in Brookhaven, we must see that God gets glory in his church. Now, how? Through this same inner work. Through the sanctifying work of God in us, when God is sanctifying us, and we are growing in the knowledge of God and in his love, and we are living in these verses, what do we see? He gets glory in our lives and in the church. Now, as I begin to conclude the message, I want to take us back to Paul's high mountain peak of praise. Look at verse 20 and 21 with me.

Again, we've come full circle with where we started last week. Look at verse 20 and 21. Now to him, this is God, Paul talking, writing to these Ephesians, to him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly. I used the term last week, super abundantly, beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. Commentators call this Paul's doxology. Really, that just means statements of praise. Now, notice how all of this fits together. Notice how all of this applies to us. I want to take us back to verse 20.

I'm going to give you a pair of phrase. I really just took what some different commentators said and how this verse has come alive for me in my prayer life. And notice what we have in verse 20. Paul is saying that God is able, God is able to do exceedingly, above all things, super abundantly, above and beyond, beyond all things that we can imagine, we can think, and we can ask. All this and more, all this and more, according to the great power of God that is operating where? Within us. Now, you ask to do what? Everything that we've seen. To bring about this great redemptive plan of saving men and women. You see? God is able to use us.

He is able to work with power in us to do what? To bring about this great redemptive plan of saving men and women and young boys and young girls and teenagers and your neighbors and sons and daughters. He is able to do this work within us. And listen, God can work within us to accomplish what He laid out here in chapter 1. What? All for the glory of God in His church. And let me tell you, when one sinner comes to faith in Christ and they are sitting in these pews and growing in grace and knowledge and they're living for the Lord Jesus, they are a part of this great redemptive plan and that brings God glory in His church.

And then God, He is able. He has the power to work within us to bring about this great formation of the church. His body, the church, the work of the church, He is able to do exceedingly above and beyond to work within us and give us the power to do what we can't do. And that is the growth and the formation of the church in His body.

Listen, when we move as we become the church that God wants us to be, as we reach lost sinners, and when we see people grow in grace and knowledge and become the saints of God that God wants them to be, and the church growing in maturity, growing in number with salvation, and then the formation of the church, listen, that brings God great glory in His church. And He can enable us to do it. He can give us the power to do what we can do. And then God, He is able, exceedingly, abundantly, super abundantly, He is able to work within us with power to bring about His foreordained good works in our lives.

Yes, taking the gospel around the world and building the church, and then if we have time, yes, doing good works in the culture, what am I showing you? God can give us the power to do these foreordained works. I am so thankful that He determined my works, and I don't have to create them. And when we discover those works, and when we live in those works, and He gives us the power to do what we cannot do, and we do it for the gospel around the world and in our town, and the growth of the church, listen, that's how He gets glory on earth in His church.

And then God, He is able, super abundantly, beyond, more than we could ever imagine and dream and ask. And He is able to work within us to bring about a sanctifying work of God in us. Listen, I don't think it is coincidental or accidental that Paul seems to repeat himself here. Why? Because that's the most important thing. Listen, folks, we can't operate in good works if we're not being formed into the people God wants us to be. And through the power and the work of the Spirit of God within us, we can grow in our holiness and in our sanctification and in our knowledge of God's love and His Word.

He can just work in us, and we could be a holy people. And when God does that, and we live within the life of the church, what do we see? The glory of God in His church. And why would God do this? Why? Why would God do all of this? Why does God desire to do it in us? There's nothing special about us. It's just so He can get glory in His church, this church, our church. Look back at verse 21. This is where He's going all along. In the very moment He started in verse 1 of chapter 1, this is where He wanted to go. This is the high mountain peak. To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

In my prayer, in your prayer, our prayer should be that we see these things happening in us, in our church. And therefore we can know that God is getting glory through us. Let's pray, and then we'll sing a closing verse.