Let's begin with a word of prayer. Father, we again thank you for the privilege of being here. We thank you for your plan and how you orchestrate that plan and your wonderful, wonderful way. And as we look back, we are impressed. And if we walk by faith, we're impressed also with what is coming our way. But we recognize our frailty and our lack of faith so often. Father, we ask that you would teach us from your word and that we might delve into this wonderful truth of the love of Christ for us. To that end, we commit this time in Jesus' name, amen. Let's go back to the passage we've been in for quite a while now, Ephesians 3. We're looking at learning about the glory of God, wondering how we can show, demonstrate, live out that love of God. And so, let's start in verse 14. It's a prayer of Paul, and he says this, for this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. Okay, here's his request. That he would grant you, put yourself in there, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded Remember, the rooting is a picture of a plant or a tree. Grounded is a foundational term for a building. Both of them speak of stability and strength and the ability to withstand a storm. so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints, all of us together, in the body of Christ, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and, here we go, this is our verse for today, verse 19, and to know the love of Christ. which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now we said last time, I'm gonna give you a little bit of a reminder, we spoke last time about the fact that scripture, when it's talking about the love of God, the love of Christ for us, it binds that love over and over and over again to his death on the cross for us. Get what I'm saying? It doesn't, how do you view the love of God? You see, so often there's a difficult thing in our lives and we say what? Well, I don't see how this is God loving me if he would let this happen. And yet scripture says there's gonna be lots of things like that. The love of God is displayed, manifested, and I guess I would say most powerful when you associate it with the greatest thing that God ever did on your behalf, and that is to send Jesus Christ, who in his own love for us, willingly came to the cross and suffered unspeakable things as he was separated from God under the wrath of God because of our sins so that we could be perfectly forgiven as we're going to see. So let's go to Romans chapter five and verse eight, just a reminder. Here's one of those verses. But God demonstrates his own love toward us. Notice what it doesn't say by giving us a new car. And all of our material desires and making us very, very happy. It says, God demonstrates his own love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, opposed to him, Christ died for us. Let's go also to, let's see, let's go to Galatians chapter two, then verse 20. Paul sees his wonderful truth, which is true for all of us, as believers in Jesus Christ. You have been, by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, something God does on your behalf when you put your faith in Christ. And he unites you, or places you in, Jesus Christ. And that means that when Christ died on the cross, God sees you as dying with him. And when he was buried, God sees you as buried with him. And when you was raised from the dead, God sees you raised up to newness of life. So Paul, speaking of that, says, I've been crucified with Christ. He knows that's true. And it is no longer I who live, because the old Paul was crucified with Christ, but Christ lives in me, that's his new life. And then he says this, and the life which I now live in the flesh, in my body, I live by faith in the Son of God, and then these great words, who loved me. And what does he say? And delivered himself up for me. That's the key message that he has. And then a very familiar passage, but I found something here that just, you know, you think of a guy that's studied these things and re-read the Bible so many times, you ought to see some of this stuff earlier. But let's go to 1 John chapter four. 1 John four. And verse 16 is where we begin. So John is talking and he says this, and we have come to know, we have a good knowledge of, and we have come to know, and then he says this, and have believed the love which God has for us. We know it and we believe it. And that to me is a big thing. In other words, when you recognize your own sinfulness and you see how often you fail, and you liken that to failure of one of your friends, when you fail a friend, and then they're mad at you. And so easy, I mean, in every relationship, there's this thing that goes, every human relationship, there's this thing that goes on that when one person fails in the relationship, there's a real probability that the other person's just gonna be upset. And depending on how great the failure is, So then take that thought and put it in, and this is the problem we have when we're, God says, I love you, and I showed it on the cross. And then we mess up in some horrible way, we sin, and we think, oh, he's really upset with me now. But he's like a father. He is a father, and he deals with this in his loving, careful way, like a good father does, okay? He doesn't hate us. He has not gotten rid of us. He is not, he's still what? Loves us, okay? And so John says, and we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. And I believe what it's talking about over and over again in scripture, abide in that love. What does that mean? That's not talking about, well, we'll be hopeful that God keeps loving you. It's talking about you recognizing that love and living with your reality being that love, even when you sin. Okay. All right. And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love. And the one who abides in love abides in God. and God abides in him. Here we go. All right, what does that mean? If you know and have believed and have grappled with and come to a firm conviction of God's love for you, is that not going to have an effect on how you view, just for my own mind, you're standing in line and you're next. and you're going into what's called the beam of the judgment seat of Christ to be judged, do you go in there shaking? Or do you go in knowing this is my father? He loves me. He did the greatest he ever could do. He sent his son and his son willingly came and died on a cross for me. I remember being back in the military, and you know, there's a huge difference between going before a commander who really likes you and one who doesn't. You know, that's a huge thing. And it affects how you anticipate this, going into that office. Okay. But here's the thing that I had not grappled with before. 1 John 4, 17, by this love is perfected with us that we may have confidence in the day of judgment. Now here's the rest of this sentence. Because as he is, so also are we in this world. Well, that just shook me because when John writes this, Jesus Christ has already gone to the cross, borne our sins, been raised from the dead, has ascended into heaven, and the Father has said to him, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies a footstool for thy feet. And he is in the holiest place, just for my, to express it, the holiest place there ever is, okay, in the presence of the Father, at the right hand of the Father, and so the Lord says, You're just like that. As he is, no more judgment. What does the Romans say? There's no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. as He is, so also are you in the world. In other words, you're here, but you're standing according to the rest of Scripture or the rest of the epistles, is you have a perfect standing before God in Christ. Does that mean we don't sin? No, it doesn't mean that. But it means that our standing and the way he views us and sees us as being in Christ, which is the only reality that counts. Do you realize this? If you don't see it this way, you're wrong. If I don't see it this way, I'm wrong. That's the constant battle of scripture, is that I would see it the way God sees it, because that's all that matters. He's the judge, okay? So, as he is, so also are we in this world. Now, as he is, just think about this. Could he, Jesus Christ, be loved any more by the Father than he is? As he is, so are you in this world. You get, this verse just causes, it'll shake you, you know, because it's such a clear statement of his awesome love for us and the results of that love. Now, let me take you back up to, Verse 19, and read it again. And to know the love of Christ. And the love of Christ eventuated in what? As he is, so also are you in this world, okay? And to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge. Now, I'm not sure I know exactly what to do with that, but I come down to this, that if you know that as he is, so are you in this world. If you know that, is there anything better you could know than that? Is there any more powerful statement? Do you know what I'm saying? It's a summary of this awesome love that God has for those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ. And if you know that, there isn't anything, I'll put it this way, now bear with me. That's really what you need to know. That should carry you day in and day out as you know and understand this and have come to believe the love that God has for you. Okay, but then that verse 19 where we're located says this. That you, last part of the verse, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. There's this, this is that word, pleiro in the Greek, it means to fill all the way up. In other words, so there's no airspace. It's like, have you noticed how many, I don't know, cereals and all kinds of stuff you buy, and you open the box up and you look and a third of it's empty. That's deceitful. They're cheating all the time. But God says there's no airspaces. as full as you could ever be, I will fill you up. You will be filled up to all the fullness of God. And so I'd like to, let's go to Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four, and we're gonna come down to verse 10. Now, it's just a great statement in the word of God. It's talking about Jesus Christ. And it says, he who descended, we look at that, he who descended down into the lower parts of the earth. He who descended is himself also he who ascended, which is up in direction, he who ascended far above all the heavens, and in this word, that he might fill all things. Now, I want to kind of try to develop that. But God's plan for the Son is that he be the filler upper of all things. Whatever it is, and that's what I want to develop some. So, let's go all the way back to the book of Daniel. Daniel chapter two and verse 31. And let me remind you of the background here. So Daniel was a young man, a Jew, a believer, royal blood. I believe you can trace it back to Josiah, some of your offspring and so forth. I want you to try to enter in a little bit into Daniel himself. He's a fervent lover of his people. And he's a fervent lover of God. And I'll put it this way, nothing else matters to him, okay? And just think about this, I get shivers. So what do you think he thought when here comes these Gentile armies of Nebuchadnezzar, and the first invasion, he finds himself probably in shackles, and he's picked out because he's royalty, and he is put on what's commonly called a death march, and he's marched back to Babylon, and he's a captive. And he finds out later on that the Temple of Solomon, where God is worshipped, where his God is worshipped, has been destroyed and taken apart. And he's, I think his mind is spinning. What has happened? God made all these promises in his word about Israel and Judah, the kingdom that he's part of, the southern kingdom. What's going on? And he's taken into Nebuchadnezzar's cabinet, ultimately, he's trained, learns the language, learns the culture and so forth, is educated, he's a brilliant guy. And then, he's considered part of the wise men, and Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. And the dream is about this image. This image of gold, silver, bronze, and iron down below, and iron finally down in the toes. It's an image of like a man mixed with clay down in the toes. And Nebuchadnezzar sends out word that You people, you wise men, you conjurers and all the rest of that stuff, you better tell me not only the interpretation of my dream, but what my dream is. And they all go, nobody's ever been asked, this is crazy. Well, he says, then you're gonna be pulled limb from limb, your house is destroyed, and I will kill every one of you. And they argued with him and he got angry and he said, do it, kill him. And so this man that works for him goes out, and I think at that point, Daniel's still getting trained in class. It's early on, and because Daniel doesn't even know what's going on, and they pull him out, I picture him being taken out of class, and he says, what's happening? Well, they're gonna kill all you guys. Why? Because he had a dream, and Nebuchadnezzar had a dream, and he wants to know what it is. And Daniel says, There is a God, who knows, and that God, and he asks for time to go, he goes to his friends, he says, pray for me, and God gives him the dream. Okay, and the interpretation. So he goes in before Nebuchadnezzar, and he says this, verse 31. You, O king, were looking, and behold, there was a single great statue. that was large and of extraordinary splendor. It was standing in front of you and its appearance was awesome. The head of that statue is made of fine gold. Its breast and its arms are silver. He's taken him down through the great kingdoms of the world, the great world empires, the first one being the Chaldean Empire, the next one being the Medo-Persian, the next one being the Bronze World, down to Alexander the Great and the Greeks, and then finally the Romans and a revived Roman Empire. The head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and clay. And then he says this, you continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands In other words, this is the doing of God. It's not a human doing. This isn't something that the world does. You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands and struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. So now you picture this, Nebuchadnezzar had this dream. Then, so this stone, cut out without hands, smashes into the feet of this, and it says, then the iron, the clay, the bronze, this whole thing is coming down, okay, the silver and the gold were all crushed at the same time and became like chaff. from the summer threshing floors. So what does that mean? As Nezer is watching, this whole magnificent statue just blows away. You know, it comes, it's destroyed, and it's blown away, okay? And the wind carried them away, all the Gentile world empires, so that not a trace of them was found. and here's what I love. That stone cut out without hands is Jesus Christ. and it's the second advent return to this world where he will strike that revived Roman Empire and the unbelievers on earth and the whole rule of all of human history with the Gentiles being at the top, so to speak, that whole thing is gonna come down and be gone, but then what happens? But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain, this is Jesus Christ in view here, became a great mountain and what? And filled, what do we read in the New Testament? He's going to be the one who fills everything, okay? All right, then come down to 44 and 45. Now he's going over this, and you should read this chapter. And in the days of those kings, those represented by the 10 toes, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom. which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will endure forever. Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. The great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future so the dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy. Okay, now, I want you to think about what he said there. He said, since God revealed to you about the stone cut out without hands, Daniel is saying to Nebuchadnezzar, this is like God signed this with his own signature because nobody else knows, nobody would know that this stone is gonna be cut out without hands. And he says, this, he's saying to Nebuchadnezzar, this is certainly from God. Now I want you to think about this. I got such a big kick out of this. Who do you think the dream was for? And we'd all probably say, well, Nebuchadnezzar. And I'd say, wait a minute. What did Nebuchadnezzar do with it? The very next thing we find is he builds this 90 foot high gold statue to himself. He doesn't get it. I believe that this whole thing took place by the sovereignty of God. Think of all the things that had to happen for Daniel to be captured, to be royalty, be taken into the confines of the cabinet, so to speak, of Nebuchadnezzar, just so that he would hear this, because he's the one. Do you know what Scripture says? When Daniel, later in the book, is grappling with these things, He got sick, he got physically sick. He would be sick, he couldn't serve the king because these things were so upsetting to him as he struggled with them. What's happened to my people? What's going on? And you know, a lot of these things you can just read them, but when you look at yourself, you just say, put yourself there. Now, you're separated from your family, this army's come in, maybe some of your family's been killed, and you've been captured, and you're in a different country, and you don't know the language, and you start, wouldn't you say, Lord, what is going on? And especially if you were a Jew, taken out of the land and out of the place where God was worshiped in that temple of Solomon. Okay, now. Go to Philippians chapter two. And we know this passage, but Philippians two, and we start at verse nine. Having talked about Christ dying on the cross for our sins, which we say is the great pronouncement of his love for us, after he died on the cross, was dead, buried, rose again, ascended into heaven. This is what we have, Philippians 2.9. Therefore also God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name. You realize an individual's name speaks of that person and his name is the highest. Okay, by God's design. Because he's the one that God has chosen to fill all things, okay? Bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. Notice, you've never met a person who will not bow to Jesus Christ, the most hostile, the most proud, unrelenting. Every knee is going to bow to Jesus Christ. You'll never meet a person that won't bow to Jesus Christ. And what a wonderful thing to have God so at work in your life that you bow now, that you say, yes, Lord, you're my Lord, you're my Savior, okay. that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, that he might come to have first place in everything, that he might fill all things and so forth, that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And then Ephesians chapter one, And verse 10, this is talking about, again, the plan of God, and it says this. What is God doing? With a view, as we look ahead, to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times. I'm intrigued by, only God knows when the fullness of times are. When is all this gonna be wrapped up with the return of the Lord Jesus Christ? In the fullness. When everything that God has said is gonna take place and everything that's part of his plan is fulfilled at the absolute perfect time, it'll be the fullness of times. And then it says this, that is, what's gonna happen then? The summing up of all things in Christ, everything, no matter what it is, summed up in Christ. I love to think of this how, what do you know of Jesus Christ? And by that I mean, who is he to you? And then I ask this, who is he to the average person? They picture somebody with long hair and a robe, you know, just walking around and he did some good things, but there's stuff that I don't like. Like a guy said to me, I don't like the stuff about sin and he's the savior. Well, then I think of this, that he might have first place. and everything. You have no, the average person, and many believers today don't have a clue yet of how's this all gonna be summed up? What is the end game here? What is going to take place when God brings this to fruition? Go to Colossians chapter one, And verse 18. speaking of our Lord, and says he is also the head of the body, the body being the church, all those who have put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, from Pentecost until now, the church, and he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, then it says this, so that he himself might come to have first place in everything. All right, then finally back to Ephesians 3.19 where we started. And to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge. Knowing the love of Christ does what? That you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. If you don't know and have come to believe the depths of that love, then you're not filled up yet with all the fullness of Christ. This is the core of the gospel. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. All right, Father, I would thank you for this magnificent one, your son, whom you have chosen to have first place in everything. This one who came and, despising the shame, but for the joy set before him. Father, I believe that's his love displayed in those who are his. He endured the cross, despising the shame. Father, how we thank you for him and for what he's done for us. And Father, may this be our reality and may we live with it constantly. so that our worship and our praise is what it should be, we ask in Jesus' name, amen.