Ephesians 3:20-21

But we have reached the end of Ephesians three. We've reached the end of Ephesians three. And if you'll remember when we talked about this book being divided into basically two halves, the first half of the Book of Ephesians is about orthodoxy. The second half is about orthopraxy. The first half is about right believing, and the second half is about right behaving. The first half lays a theological foundation upon which we build in the second. Half toward our obedience to God. And so the idea in Ephesians chapters one, two, and three is that we get a picture of who God is. We get a picture of what salvation is, we get a picture of what it means to be. In relationship with God. And in chapter four we get our responsibilities as a result of what we now know and understand and as a result of what God has accomplished in us. Now. The good news is when you look at the first three chapters of Ephesians, you come away understanding that what's required of us, beginning in Ephesians chapter four through Ephesians chapter. Six, we can't do. Amen. We can't do it. So I want to say that before we even get to chapter four. We cannot do what is required of us in Ephesus chapter four. And these first three chapters have been marvelous, they have been wonderful. I mean, we have been lifted to higher heights as we've heard this doctrinal teaching. In the next three chapters, the Bible. Will whip us up one side and down the other in Ephesus chapter four through chapter six. And it's going to get every one of us, because as sure as you come in here one week and Ephesians four is talking about some area where you're strong, you'll put your chest out, and the next week it will talk about an area where you're weak, and you'll go right back now, because all of us have areas in our lives that need. To be chiseled away, every last one of us. But before we get to the second half of this book, he ends with a prayer in fessor Paul looked at that prayer on last week. And then there is a word of praise or a doxology. The Greek word doxa. Is the word for praise or glory, and of course logos means word, so a word of praise, like you go to a funeral and there's a eulogy that Greek prefix you that means good logos for word, there is a good word spoken about the deceased. To the word eulogy means doxology means a word of praise. And so at the end of Ephesians chapter three, Paul gives us a word of praise. He closes his prayer with a word of praise. To God, as though he's saying, are all of the things that God is and all of the things that God has done, and praised God for all that he is and for all that he has done. And then chapter four and verse one he begins with therefore okay, but he ends with this doxologist. Now it's ironic because oftentimes doxology is. Found at the end of a letter. For example, turns to Jude, if you will Jude judas right before Revelation. It's the second to the last book in the Bible. Don't ask what chapter and here's a doxology. Some of your Bibles may even have the word doxology over verse twenty four as a division of this passage, as a division of this text. But it's sort of the last word, and it's a word of praise. That he is with and listen to what he says here. And then we'll go back and look at Ephesians three and look at the similarities. Now, to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you, blame us before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before. All time and now and forever. Amen. And so there's a word of doxology, something that you would expect to find at the end of a book. And now we look at Ephesians chapter three, verses twenty and twenty one, and we find a doxology because he's making a definite shift between the first three chapters and the last three chapters lie verse twenty. Now, to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all. General, forever and ever. Amen. Sounds like the end of a letter, sounds like he's finished. Sounds like it ought to be the end of the epistle. There ought to be first Ephesians and then Second Ephesians. And so this ought to be the end of First Efesians. And it's that distinct, the difference between the first half and the second. Half of the Fijians, that distinct. And as we come to the end of this first half, and as he praised this prayer and offers this doxology, I had to bring in a quote from AA Hodge in his commentary on Ephesians. When he gets to this part, he says, Paul's prayer had apparently reached a height beyond which neither faith, nor hope, nor even imagination could go. And yet he is not satisfied. Much still lay in the future. God was able to do not only what he had asked, but infinitely more than Paul. Knew either to ask or think. I love that he's come to a point in his prayer where words are no longer enough. And in fact, one of the words that he used is sort of a double superlative. As a matter of fact, in your Bible there when it says not to him who is able to do far more abundantly than that, to do far more abundantly than is one word in the Greek. It's one very large bird, and it means he is more able to do more abundantly than more than anything you can barely put into English, the strength of the superlative that he uses there in the Greek referring to what God is able to do. Interestingly enough, though, we begin in the next verse, in verse twenty one, with what he's talking about, the point that he's making, and he's talking about glory to God, bringing glory to God, praising God. How do we bring glory to God? How do we praise God? That's the question that we have to ask. What does it mean to praise God? What does it mean to bring glory to God? What does that mean to you? What does it mean to me? What does it mean to grace family? Baptist Church? How do we bring. Glory to God as a body of believers? How do we bring praise to God as a body of believers? We have an inkling here, a bit of insight, and begins in verse twenty one, to him be glory to whom Well, he's pointing back to verse twenty so verse twenty is all about explaining who the hell is in verse twenty one, to him be glory, and who's to him? To him Verse twenty, who is able to do far more abundantly than we ask or think, according to the power at work within us us. That's the hymn. And so first of all, we bring glory to God by being God sinnered and by acknowledging God for who God is and for what God has done. That's how we bring glory to God. And look at what he does, he says. First of all, he talks about the ability of God to him who is avil. God can no matter what the question. If the question is can God you fill in the blank, the answer is yes, God can. God can do whatever God wants to do. That's what it means to be God. You know, sometimes in theology classes, you know, he us to have all these debates and these discussions. You know, can God make a rock too big for him to move? He thought they were sleep? Can God make a rock to bake for him? If the answer to the. Question is yes, then that means God can make a rock that's bigger than his own ability. If the answer to the question is no, then and God doesn't have the ability to make that kind of rock, they think they're all slick. The answer to the question is God can do whatever God wants to do. Can God make a rock too big for God to be able to move it? The answer is, if God wanted a rock to be unmovable, he'd make an unmovable rock. Period in a discussion. Because he's God, Hey can do whatever he wants to do. But do we believe that? Do we really believe that? Or do we believe that there are some things that are beyond God? Be honest with yourself. Now, be honest with yourself, because if we're honest with ourselves, each and every one of us would have to admit that there have been times in our life when we felt silly about praying for something because we didn't believe that God could do it, or perhaps. We didn't believe that this was within the realm that God works. Perhaps we believe that it was so small and so insignificant that that wasn't the kind of thing that you would go to God and bother him about. Or perhaps we believe that, somehow, somehow that there are certain things that are beyond God because they're in the realm of science. And so we go to our physicians, and the physition tells us this is the answer. This is your problem, and there's nothing we can do about it. There's nothing anybody can do about it. And we hear that from the physicians and in our flesh because of the way we've been conditioned by our culture. We believe in the complete and utter deity and omnipotence of medical science. So when they say nothing can be done, we say, amen, it's over, because we believe that there are some things that are to be for God. Oh over here in this realm, God can work. But once the doctors have spoken, you better ask again. You better ask again, because every physician, at some point in his medical practice has had to eat those words. Every physician, if he's been practicing long enough, has had to scratch his head and say, well, we really can't explain this one. I've been there, We've walked. Through the valley of the Shadow of Death on a number of occasions and had that word that there's nothing that we can do about this, and we've heard the explanation, well we really can't explain this. I remember at one point hearing a doctor say, well, the tests that we took them up before must not have been accurate, because if the tests that we took before were accurate, Then there's no way that what we diagnose. Could have ever been fixed. So the problem must have been with the test brother the problem. The problem is you have no idea that there's a position that's greater than you amen, and that nothing is final until that position says so. But do we believe that? Do we believe that we. Serve a God who is that able? Relational problems in your life? Do we believe that? Do we believe that God is that able? When marriages are in the pits? Do we believe that? Do we believe that God is that able? When our children have gone astray? Do we believe that God is that able? Or do we simply say, perhaps this is an area where either God is not. Interested or God is not able. Look at what Paul says. Now to him who is able to do more abundantly than all, more abundantly. Than all, He is the good news. Regardless of what side of the spectrum that you're on. If you're an individual who's over here and you doubt the ability of God, then God is able to do. Far more abundantly than you think God's able to do. But here's the better news. Even if you want over here and you think that you're a person of great faith because of all the things that you believe God can do and you know God to do, be still able to do more abundantly than the people with the greatest amount of faith in this room can even believe him for, or ask for, or even think about. There's stuff that God is able to do that you don't even have sense and under believers. A man. That's what the text says. Look at what it says again, more abundantly than all we ask or think. So whatever it is you think God can do, there's some stuff that God can do that you haven't even thought of yet. God can do that you don't even have the ability to conceive of. It's not not an That's the God whom we serve. And so praising God begins with understanding who this God is when we serve. Praising God begins with coming to God and saying, no matter what I believe about God, no matter what I'm able to trust God for, this God is far more abundantly able than anything I can imagine, anything I can think, or anything that I have the guts to ask it for. Shut out. You know the story. I love that story. I heard a preacher preach on them one time, you know, the three Ebrah boys, and you know it's outline. It wasn't original, but I'll never forget it. You know, they're supposed to bow down when they hear the music, and then when they hear the music. And everybody bows down, and they don't bow down, and they brought before it never can miser's I'm gonna give you one more. Chance to bow down, and you don't bow down, I'll throw you into the fiery furnace. And they throw me to the fire furnace. And the preacher's outline was they didn't buy, they didn't bend. Then they didn't burn. Amen, they didn't bow down before the statue. They come before the king, and they get another opportunity. They don't bet, not even standing before the king. He throws them in the fire. They don't burn. When they threw him in though, when he threw them in, rather, what did they say to him? They said to the king, bless you, brother, if you do whatever you have to do. But our God, even if he doesn't deliver us, he is able to deliver us. That's important, folks, because here's the mistake that we sometimes make If God didn't do it, he must not have been able to. That's the mistake that we sometimes. And so when something happens in our life, here's the way we act toward God. I am a good person, and I go to church, and because I'm a good person, and I go to church and. I put a little money in there. And then then when terrible things happened and I come to God, God is supposed to look on me and say, you know what, I've seen your attendance record. You're a good person. I'm gonna take care of that. That's how we believe. That's what we believe for God. So when something terrible happens in our life and we prayed to God for that something terrible not to happen, and it actually does occur, then immediately we believe that either number one, something is wrong with our relationship with God that we weren't aware of, or number two, God wasn't interested in us enough to do that. For number three, he just wasn't powerful enough to get that done. When the answer is actually number four, The sovereign God of the universe must not have needed to do that. There must be some other way that God is wanted to be glorified, and he didn't need that for his fulpen the glory that's hard for us to grasp because. We would like to think, now, whatever's best for us, it's got to be best for God. Why would we really we would like to think that. I mean, come on, now, God's gonna be glorified in my life, then that must mean that God's gonna give me a lot of stuff that. I really like so I can brag on how good life. Then than he wouldn't that bringing glory? I mean, come on now, and after all, I'm a good person. I love the Lord, I serve the Lord. Are you better than his disciples? Are you closer to Jesus than Peter? Andrew works by following you. Are you closer to Jesus than Thomas? Are you closer to Jesus than any one of those men? Because here's a newsflash. Here's how they died. One was beaten to death with a branch from an olive tree. One was beenheaded, a couple boiled and oil. One stoned to death. Thomas I believe, was run through with a spear. John the beloved disciple, he starved to death. When they are in the Palace. So evidently being close to Jesus doesn't guarantee ease for the rest of your life. Evidently God can be glorified even in tragedy in your life. Therefore, regardless of whether or not God did what you thought God needed to do, he was still hated. We had got to hold on to that. Otherwise we don't properly grueify God. Because if we only praise God what he does what we want him to do, then guess what. We're no longer God's centered. Now we're man centered and we're me centered. And so we say, God, I praise you because I asked you to do something and you did it. And then if he doesn't, we say God, I curse you because I asked you to do something and you did not do it. Because we want omnipotence without sovereigntyments we want God to be omnipathy, the meaning we want a God who can do anything, but we don't want that God to be sovereign, because we want him only to use his omnipotence to sass. Whether he does what I want him do or not. He's a and he's worthy of my praise, be worthy of our praise, because. We'll give verse twenty one again to Him be glory. To see that first of all, look at the directions here to Him be glory in the Church, to Him be glory in the Church. And so as a church we are to give glory to God. Now, if you look in your worship order this morning, I want you to look back at the catechism that we use for this morning, and it goes back to the Second Commandment. The Second Commandment has to do with no graven images or not worship being idols. But what's the significance of that? What does the second Commandment require? Great question here in the catechism. The Second Commandment requires us to receive, respectfully performed and preserve completely and purely all the regulations for religion and worship that God has established in his Word. And so, according to the Second Commandment, the way. We're supposed to worship God should be the way that God tells us to worship him in his Word. So if we're gonna being glory to God in the church, we must worship God the. Way God says we worship him. Now here's the negative side of it. What does the Second Commandment forbid the Second Commandment forbids our worshiping God with images or in any other way not established in His word. That's where we often fall off the wat What does the Second Manment tell us to do? The Second Commandment says, worship God the way God says in his word that he's supposed to be worshiped. What is the Second Commandment forbid? If he doesn't say that's the way he's supposed to worship him, then don't worship him like that. Some posts of basketlone. We don't have, you know, drum or anything like that. We've had this discussion before. We wouldn't do that. Why because the Bible does not tell us to worship God with drama, which would mean if be a violation and the Second Commandment for us to bring that in If God didn't clearly in his word that's the way it is to be worshiped. God super God wants us to worship him a certain way. He'll tell us how he wants to be worshiped. And he has told us in his word how he wants to be worshiped. And if we're to bring glory to God in the church, then here's what we do. We do what God tells us to do, and we don't do what God didn't tell us to do. Simple It's simple, yes, But people like some of those things that we do that are not outlined. In this scripture. I guess where we just went back to man centered versus God's said tree simplish. Do we worship God in accordance with what we think is best, what we think is most productive, what we think is most attractive, what we think is most desirable, Whor do we actually believe in the ineritsy and the sufficiency of the scripture. If we believe in the sufficiency of scripture, then we worship God in the church the way God has said the church is to worship. And we don't worship God. In the church in ways that God has not said that we're to worship him. To Him be glory in the church. To God be the glory in the church, not that anyone else. God does not share his glory. God will not share his glory with another. To him the glory in the church. Question is always raised when I talk to people about that issue and that principle. It's called a regulated principle. Most of you who have been through membership classes, you know talked about the regulated principle, and when I talk to people about the regulated principle, you know, one of the issues that's always raised is, well, there are some things that you know that that God sor used in my life that you're saying, you know, shouldn't necessarily be part of what we do when we worship God. I mean, God has used that stuff, but I was ministered. Too by some of that stuff. Well, that goes back to the ability of God. God is able to do far more abundantly beyond anything that we could ask or even think, which means that God can even take our polluted efforts and. Use them to bring glory and honor to himself. I was brought up in a single parent home, raised by a single teenage mother who did the best she could with. What she had, who was a Buddhist. I didn't grow up. Going to church. I didn't grow up in the church. And God used that. But does that mean that I am going to promote single parenthood as. A means of ultimately getting people into whatever God wants to get. To know, I would never do that. I would never do that. Can God use it? Absolutely? But does the fact that God has used it in spite of it being Erroninus mean that it is to therefore be accepted and used and promoted and praised. No, it doesn't know, It doesn't. God is to be glorified in the Church. Look in the next part of the text, to him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus. To Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus. That phrase in Christ is used seventy six times in the New Testament, almost exclusively by Paul, and we've seen it use numerous times here in the. Book of Ephesians. That God has done all of these things, have given us all of these things in Christ Jesus, and we have been seated in the heavens in Christ Jesus. We've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. In Colossians, he says that in Christ the fullness of the God had dwelt in bodily formed. In two Corinthians, chapter five, he says that that God was in Christ reconciling mankind to himself in Christ. And so here's the idea. We bring glory to God, all glory and honors. To be to God, all glory and honors to be to God, and my individual life and your individual life. All glory and honors to be to God in the Church, and all glory and honor is to be to God in Christ Jesus, because Christ is the final and ultimate revelation of God. And so when we want to know what God is like, we look to the. Person of Jesus Christ, because Jesus Christ is God personified for us in the flesh. And so we glorify God. In general, but more specifically, when we want to bring glory and honor to God, we look to the person. Of Jesus Christ. And so now we must also be Christ centered in what we do. Christ therefore becomes our ultimate ex en Christ therefore becomes the ultimate individual that is worthy of praise. Christ then becomes. The one whom we follow in an effort to bring glory into honor to God. So we're Christ's sinered. You know, I don't even remember. I think it was a blackaby, he said. And one of the things that has helped him to grow in the graces of growing say is that no matter what he was reading in the Bible, no matter what he. Was doing during his personal reading time, that he was always reading through the gospels along with it, so that whatever he was doing, whether he's in the Old Testament. Of somewhere in the New Testament in one of the letters, he was always in one of the Gospels, because that's the place where you see the life of Christ. And ultimately that's what we're Ultimately. That's what we're How do you know what it means to live a life in the flesh that is honoring to God? Ultimately, the answer to that is in the example of Jesus Christ. Ultimately, he's the only one who ever did that. He's the only one who lived a life that was perfect and completely satisfactory to God. So we bring glory to God. We bring glory to God in the Church, and we bring glory to God in Christ. Jesus. There's another meeting that were there, and that as it is, Ultimately, I cannot, in an ultimate says, bring glory to God un less than I am Christ. I must be in Christ. In order to bring God glory. My life must be hidden in His. My life must be redeemed by His. My life must be shaped formed by his. My life must be. Conformed to His. Turn with me to the left and look at Romans chapter eighteen. Just put a final point on this Romans chapter eighty, and look at verse twenty eight. It reads, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose, for those whom he foreknew. He also pred for what to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the first born among many brothers. Predestined to what to be conformed to the image of his Son. In other words, God called me to himself, not just so that I could go to Heaven when I die. God called me to himself so that. I could go through this process called sanctification. And in this process called sanctification, I am to become more like Christ every day. So to the degree that I'm yielding to this sanctifying. Process, to that degree I am bring more praised and more glory and more honored to God as I am conformed to the image of Christ. So we bring glory to God. We bring glory to God in the Church, and we bring glory to. God in Christ. Next wee what he said in Christ Jesus, throughout all generations, we bring glory to God multigenerational, multigeneration. Our church vision all together now the Kingdom minded Christ, exalting multigenerational community in the family in all generations. In one sense, there is the idea here of the truth of God being passed on from generation to generation, and us bringing praise and honor to God as we pass on His truth from generation to generation. That is the one sense. And so as there's the multi generational aspect of teaching these truths to your children and to your grandchildren. What we're all about here, that's what it means to be a multi generational community. We are all about this process of teaching and training parents how to be multigenerational in their mindset and multigenerational in this process of the discipleship. How do we as parents, disciple, discipline and train our children so that we bring glory and honor to God not just by our own sectrification, but also through the process of passing on what God has taught us to our children, so that the next generation will understand what it means to sing the praises of our God, not just with they're lift, but with their life. And so in that sense, it is multi generational throughout all generations, generation and generation after generation, which means that if the scriptures here say that I am to bring glory to God number one time, to bring glory to God in the church, that means it affects the way we do church. How to bring glory to God in Christ. That means I have to be in Christ, walking in Christ, being transformed, come form to the image of Christ, in order to bring glory to God. And if it says through all generations, if I am to walk in that, then that means I must have a multi generational vision. Otherwise I'm not participating in this docors Holle if I don't have a multigenerational vision. And one of the things that we've done, unfortunately, and the way that. We do church in our culture, is we completely annihilated multi generationalist. It doesn't exist. Is is she not there? Everything is divided up your generation. There's this second. Idea, not just multi generational in the sense that you know, here I am with my children and passing this on to my children, but multi generational in the sense that we're here today representing multi generations. There are multiple generations represented in this room. I praise God for that. I praise God for the multiple generation instead are represented in this room. I praise God that there are people in this room who are you know, perhaps in there, well I'm not even going to go there, but there are people in this room, you know, a lot of some of our little ones who are you know, two and three and four years old, who have the opportunity because it's the way we do church to rebelbows every week with people. Who could be their grandparents or even their great grandparents. Not saying any age. It's a beautiful thing, folks. It is a beautiful thing for a child to grow up and say, there are people and old who worship this. God, who love this God, who know this God. In other words, it's not a phase that you go through at a certain point in your life, but it's multi generational in the sense that whether you're two or eighty two, you can be praise and honor and glory to God, and whether you two or eighty two, you can do it in the same room at the same time. Amen. The phys a final picture to all generations forever, and that God is to be praised. He is to be praised in the Church. He has to be praised in Christ. He has to be praised to all generations, and he has to be praised forever and ever time without it. Some of my favorite passengers is for you shut the book of Revelation. Look with me in Revelation Versus at the revelation of five beginning verse six, and betwe the throne and the four living creatures, and among the elders, I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, set out into all the earth. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty four elders fell down before the lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying. Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals? For you were slain, and by your blood you ransom people for God from every tribe and. Language, and people and nation. And you have made them a kingdom and. Priests to our God. And they shall reign on our turn. With me in Chapter seven we look down at verse nine. After this, I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the. Throne, and to the Lamb. And all the angels were standing around the throne, around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen. God is to be praised forever and ever time without end. That's where we enough. That's how this whole thing culminates with God being praised forever and ever. Amen. God is to be praised. God alone is to be praised. He's intrinsically worthy of our praise. God is to be praised in the Church, and God alone is to be praised in the Church. God is to be praised in. Christ, which means that we praise the Lord Jesus Christ, and we're also sanctified and conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, both of which bring praise to God. In Christ, God is to be praised throughout all generations, not just all generations, but all peoples, which is why Jesus said, go and take the Gospel to penda say every people group. It's the purpose of his church, our mission proclaiming the supremacy of Christ to all men. With a viewtual goubicul conversion and comprehensive discipleship all men. May every people. Grow lie because God is to be worshiped through all generations and from all peoples, forever and ever. Time without end. God has to be praise and God alone. You come as from Buie before the Lord. Just wanna encourage you to examine your own life, to write your own doxology, your own word of praise to God. But I don't want you to write your own doxology based on what you think it ought to be, but your own doxology based on. Where you are right here, right now. It's more in your life. How does your life bring praise, honor and glory to Gods? Back up even further, does your life bring praise and honor and glory to God? Is your life a doxology to God? Because God is to be praised. God has to be praised in the Church. God is to be praised in Christ. God is to be praised throughout all generations. God is to be praised forever and ever. If your life is man centered, it's difficult to write a doxology. If you are not in Christ, it is impossible to write a doxology. And not prayer for you today as that you would address those two issues. Issue number one, whether or not your life is God's centered. Do you see God as existing for your own glory, to meet your. Needs and to satisfy your desires? Or do you see yourself as existing for the glory and honor of God? And are you in Christ? Do you have a personal, vibent, living relationship with the Lord Jesus. Christ as a result of your having understood the Gospel and coming to repentance and faith. Because unless and until that occurs in your life, then will be no doxology.