Perhaps, singing a hymn like that, I feel like we want to be beside ourselves unto God. I feel like that.
Turn with me to Ephesians 1. We will read Ephesians 1:3-6.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ:
Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before Him in love:
Having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
To the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
I will also read Ephesians 1:13-14.
In Whom ye also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation,—in Whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
Which is an earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God’s own possession, unto the praise of His glory.
Let us pray again.
Father, how we thank You for these precious words. We thank You for choosing us in eternity past for such a high and wonderful position as sons. We ask You to give us a spirit of revelation tonight, that we may see more than we have ever seen concerning Your choosing and Your perfection of these holy sons.
Open our eyes. We really are opening our whole being to You. We want to hear whatever You have to say to us. We pray that Your word will bear much fruit tonight. We pray in Your holy name. Amen.
Now, we want to see something tonight concerning the perfection of the sons, because the sons of God, brothers and sisters, are just the spiritual perfection that we are talking about. This is what God has before Him, and this is what He will have for eternity.
His desire, His holy desire, the pleasure of His heart, is to spend eternity with many holy sons, whom He loves and whom He has perfected and conformed to the image of His beloved Son. This is what we have to look forward to.
Election is the word from which we get “elected.” Well, I think we all know that we have a big election coming. Well, in eternity past there was a big election, and we got elected.
And God voted for us. You know, one vote is already enough—God’s vote. For God, He voted for us. He chose us; that is, He elected us. It is all over, brothers and sisters. The election is over.
And of course, His holy sons were not just elected en masse. They were elected name by name, person by person. We notice from Revelation 13, where it speaks about these sons, that their names were written in the book of life. Their names—your name, my name. Think of it.
Our names were written in the book of life a long time ago, before the foundation of the world. That is the result of God’s election: He wrote down the names. They are there.
And He predestinated us unto sonship. I do not like to read “adoption”; maybe some of you have that in your version. I do not like to use that word, because God does not have to go through the social services to get us.
Of His own will, He begot us to be His sons. We are His sons. We have been born of God, right? But anyway, we just need a little perfecting, and He has provided for that.
We read these verses, Ephesians 1:13-14. After we believed—when we believed—we were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. This is the great promise, the promise in the Old Testament, in Ezekiel 36.
God said, “I will put My Spirit within you,” and He did it. He breathed the Holy Spirit into us on the resurrection day and said, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit.”
And He sealed us. We were sealed. Then, in Ephesians 1:14, it says that the Spirit is the pledge of our inheritance.
I hope this word pledge would be sweet to you. The Holy Spirit, brothers and sisters, is the pledge, or the guarantee, of our inheritance until the redemption of the acquired possession—that is, the sons, until their full redemption—to the praise of His glory.
Now, He gave us the Holy Spirit to do this perfecting work. He has been sent for that. He has been commissioned with that. And He is able to do it, and He will do it.
Our Lord Jesus could say at the end of His life, in His prayer to the Father, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do,” right? I believe the Holy Spirit will say the same thing. He will finish the work which God gave Him to do, and that is to conform us to the image of Christ. He will finish it.
In John 14, there are those precious verses where the Lord said, “I am going away, but I am giving to you the Comforter. You know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you.”
The Comforter. Now, He was speaking in the future tense, but we were singing in the past tense: “The Comforter has come.” Right?
This word Comforter, we know, in Greek is paraklētos, from which we anglicize the word Paraclete. So, Comforter is actually not a complete translation. It is hard to translate this word.
Comfort is true, thank God. The Holy Spirit is a real comfort to us, a Comforter to us; we know that. But He is more than that.
The same word is translated in 1 John 2 as Advocate: “We have an Advocate with the Father.” It is the same word, Paraclete. But Advocate is not the best translation either. What is? It is hard.
Literally, it means one who comes alongside to assist, to meet your needs. This is the Paraclete. He comes alongside. In our case, He is kind of inside, to meet all our needs, to perfect us.
And He knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows us from the inside. Sometimes we do not really know ourselves that well. He knows us very much, and He is able to work, you know, to do a wonderful work. He has an operation going on.
There are two books in the New Testament, brothers and sisters, that speak in a particular way about the Holy Spirit’s work in us: Romans and Ephesians.
These two books actually are the only two epistles in the New Testament which give a great presentation of positive truth. You know, in other epistles there is a problem here, there are some problems in that church—like Corinth. There were many problems there. In Colossians there was a great problem. In Galatians there was a great problem.
But in Romans, there are no particular problems that are addressed. In Ephesians, neither are there any great problems focused on. So these two books are great presentations of positive truth.
Both of these books speak about sonship in a striking way. We want to look especially tonight into Romans and Ephesians, and they speak about this sonship in relation to the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete. We will see this especially in Romans.
Now we want to turn to Romans 8.
This is really one of the outstanding chapters in the whole Bible, I think. A lot of people appreciate this chapter very much. I think it is my wife’s favorite chapter. She is always going to Romans 8.
I wonder how much we really realize the main points in this chapter. Mainly, the main points are two: the Spirit and the sons.
The first fourteen verses concern the Spirit, and from Romans 8:14 unto the end of the chapter, it concerns the sons. The one verse that links the two is verse 14. It is a wonderful verse.
Up to verse 14, the focus is on the indwelling Spirit. Then after verse 14, the focus is on the many sons. Verse 14 brings them together. Let us read it.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
That is the first point: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” See? This wonderful verse connects the Spirit and the sons. As many as are led by the Spirit of God—these are sons of God.
This is a very striking phrase. This verb, led, is used elsewhere. The same word is used in Hebrews 2:10:
For it became Him, for Whom are all things, and through Whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
Usually, I think in your version you may have the translation “bringing many sons,” but it is literally “leading many sons into glory,” to make the Leader of their salvation perfect.
So God has decided, thank God, to lead many sons into glory. The Leader is His Son, and His Son is now abiding in us as the Spirit to lead us. So the Spirit is leading us in everything.
Especially in this context, He is leading us to put to death the deeds of the body, of the flesh.
Now, brothers and sisters, if the Spirit is leading in everything, then we had better know this Spirit. We had better recognize Him, huh? We had better be able to recognize Him and follow His leading.
Because this is the way He is perfecting His sons: by leading them in all things.
So, before you get to Romans 8:14, we have some other verses here, especially verses 5 and 6, which mention something about minding, or setting our mind on, the Spirit. Now let me read them: Romans 8:5-6.
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh;
But they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace.
Actually, in these two verses the word mind is used as a verb. Now, in America, we do not usually use mind as a verb. We use it as a noun, so some versions translate it, “setting your mind on the things of the flesh.” Literally, it is those who mind.
Those who are according to the flesh mind the things of the flesh, and those who are according to the Spirit mind the things of the Spirit. They mind. They mind.
I remember when I was in England, traveling around England, in some train stations I saw this kind of sign: “Mind your step.” Maybe you have seen that. You know, in some places there is a step there, and if you do not watch where you are going, you are going to fall. So they put up the sign, “Mind your step.”
Whenever I saw this, I thought, well, we would never see a sign like that in America, because we do not use mind as a verb like that. We may say, “Mind your manners,” or something like that, but even that is old-fashioned.
But this is setting your mind on the Spirit. Our mind actually represents our whole soul.
Brothers and sisters, we set our heart, our soul, on the indwelling Spirit. We want to be led by Him. We want to follow Him. We do not want to miss Him. We do not want to disobey Him.
When He leads, we like to follow. When He gives us a sense deep within, you know, we like to follow. Right? Sometimes we are careless. This week, we overlook; we do not pay attention.
So the point here, brothers and sisters, is that we need to pay attention to the Paraclete, the indwelling Spirit. We need to set our minds here. He has an operation going on there.
But I am sorry to say, most Christians do not pay attention. They just go about their way, and there is Someone down deep there who is overlooked, who is ignored. I think it must be somewhat a grieving of the Spirit.
The Bible says, “Grieve not the Holy Spirit.” Maybe we have been grieving Him many, many times because we just do not pay attention.
Pay attention, brothers and sisters. This dear indwelling One is within us, and He wants to lead us in many things—in everything.
By leading us, you know, He gives life to us. Already here in Romans 8, it speaks about our body being dead, but our spirit being life.
What verse is that? Verse 10.
And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness.
Thank God, brothers and sisters, He has already given life to our spirit. So the Bible can say, “Your spirit is life.” At least part of you is. Your spirit is life because of righteousness.
Then, if we mind the Spirit, it says that the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. So He will give life to our mind. Imagine that—life in our mind.
Brother Stephen this morning was telling us about His life, which is a life of perfection, right? And He will even give life to our mortal body.
Sometimes we experience that. I surely have had many times the experience of the Spirit giving life to my mortal body in order to accomplish the will of God. At times, you cannot make it. You just do not have the strength. You know the Lord wants you to do something, and you wonder, “How could I ever make it?”
Well, here is the verse we can claim: the Spirit will give life to our mortal body. And He is the promise, and He will. He does, if we trust Him.
So I like to use these two words—we sing them many times—regarding our relationship to the indwelling Spirit: trust and obey.
Trust and obey. To trust means you rely on Him. You totally rely on Him. Trust and obey.
For there is no other way to be happy in Jesus, right? To be perfected, that is—to trust and obey. Anyway, this is the work of the Spirit within. He has come for that: to perfect us and to give life to us.
Following verse 14, it now speaks about the sons. Look at Romans 8:15.
For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Listen to that. We have received a spirit of sonship, in which we cry, “Abba, Father.” There is a relationship with the Father, a very sweet relationship, through that Spirit.
The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God.
Now, what a privilege. What a privilege to be sons.
This side of the Spirit’s work, you may say, is the supply side of our perfecting. The supply side. We are supplied. Whenever we follow the Spirit and are led by the Spirit, we are supplied. We are wonderfully supplied.
But there is another side, another side that goes along with the supply side. I want to mention that briefly. It is the producing side of things.
And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified with Him.
Oh, suffering. “If indeed we suffer with Him” is kind of conditional here, huh? We will be heirs. That means full sonship. To be heirs—that is the goal. That is the final conclusion of full sonship. We are heirs, joint-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified with Him.
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us-ward.
That was Paul’s accounting analysis. The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory of that consummation which is coming—the full sonship.
He speaks later in this chapter more about the sufferings. But here is another book in the Bible. Let me see how well you know your Bible. Where is there another wonderful passage on sonship related to suffering? Where is that wonderful passage?
Hebrews. Hebrews, right? Hebrews 12. There are about twelve verses there in Hebrews 12 regarding suffering in relation to sonship.
Now, brothers and sisters, this is not the supply side, but it goes along with the supply side. We need this side. A good word for it is the educational side. In other words, you have the discipline side.
Brothers and sisters, we need those sides. If you are going to cook something in your pot on the stove, you put some water and some other things in the pot, right? That is the supply side.
Well, even more than that, you need to turn on the flame underneath, right? Then you can cook a good dish.
Thank God, brothers and sisters, He loves us so much. He loves us so much that He not only supplies us, but He disciplines us.
Because He likes to see us suffer? No. Because, brothers and sisters, only by suffering can we learn some lessons. So it happens.
It may seem that He does not love us, but He does. He loves us, maybe severely, but it is His faithful love. He loves us enough to discipline us.
Some versions use the word chasten: to teach us some lessons. And, brothers and sisters, it is a fact that only by suffering can we be freed from certain things.
Nothing else could free us but some suffering.
God knows that some of us—maybe all of us—anyway, there is something in us that needs to be beaten out of us.
You do not like to hear it. I know; I do not like it either. But listen: pride, self-confidence, these kinds of things—they need to be beaten out of us.
The Lord really has a way to do that. He is very wise, and He knows how much we can take. He can just give us that much, until we grow a little more.
But it is a wonderful passage. Let me read to you from Hebrews 12. I will read verses 5-7.
And ye have forgotten the exhortation which reasoneth with you as with sons,
My son, regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord,
Nor faint when thou art reproved of Him;
For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,
And scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.
It is for chastening that ye endure; God dealeth with you as with sons;
For what son is there whom his father chasteneth not?
That is precious. God could never forget what He has in view, what He has planned. We need to learn the secret: He is dealing with us as sons.
The problem with us, brothers and sisters, is that many times, I am afraid, when the sufferings come, we get tired of it. “I cannot take it anymore.” Sometimes we say that. “I cannot take it anymore.” We get tired of it, or we think, “I give up.”
It says that right here. We did not read Hebrews 12:3. Speaking about the Lord Jesus, we should consider Him, lest we grow weary, fainting in our souls.
Sorry, we just do not like it. We all try to avoid it if we can. But the Lord has a way to pin us down, and He uses all kinds of sufferings: health—He really knows how to get us on that one—our health, our children, our jobs, our neighbors, maybe the brothers in the church.
All kinds of sufferings, you know. You may feel like nobody suffers like I do. You have to be thankful that you do not have what others have. You could not bear it. So the Lord does not give that to you; He gives that to someone else.
But anyway, brothers and sisters, this is the educational side, with the supply side. Thank God for the supply side. Otherwise, we really could not take the cost. We really could not take the suffering if we did not have the supply—the inner supply for grace, for life.
But with the grace, thank God, His grace is sufficient. Whereas Paul had a lot of suffering on the educational side, right? The thorn in the flesh. Why did He not remove it? The Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for thee.”
This is the way the sons are perfected. This is the way the Lord Jesus Himself was perfected. Hebrews 2:10 tells us that the Leader of our salvation was made perfect through sufferings.
Now, that does not mean that He had the least imperfection morally. No. He did not have any imperfection at all. He was already perfect morally, but He needed to suffer in order to experience what every man goes through, because He was going to be our High Priest.
So He needed to be perfected through suffering. Then Hebrews 5 tells us that He learned obedience by the things which He suffered, right?
He did not know how to obey? Well, listen, brothers and sisters: He was God. God does not need to obey. God is the One who gives the orders. But as a man, He needed to learn obedience, and He learned it through suffering.
We are talking about spiritual perfection in these days, and we really need these two sides. I hope we could all be impressed.
A lot of Christians, sorry to say, go through life and hardly get any supply at all because they do not pay attention to the Spirit. They do not mind the Spirit. They do not follow the Spirit. Maybe they do not even realize that within them there is such a wonderful treasure—a Perfecter, a Leader.
We really have a treasure within us: Someone who knows us, knows what we need, and is leading us just perfectly for the next step. Follow.
Before you go to bed tonight, He is going to attempt to lead you in some way. Follow Him. And right now, He is trying to lead us. He is within, saying, “Listen, listen. Open your heart. Open your mind. Follow, trust, and obey.”
Now, in Romans 8, we come to verse 28. This is a well-known verse, huh? So many Christians, if they do not know any other verse in Romans, this may be all they know in the whole book of Romans.
And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to His purpose.
Mainly, they just know the first part: “We know that God causes all things to work together for good.” So you can hear Christians saying this sometime during the day. They have lost the keys, or they left something at home, or they had a little accident. “Oh well, all things work together for good,” right?
Have you ever heard that? Have you ever said that? Well, I think mainly the thought when they say that is that somehow God is going to overrule and use my forgetting the keys to somehow bring some blessing to me.
I have a question. When it says that God causes all things to work together for good, what is the good? G-O-O-D. What does that good refer to in Romans 8:28?
That is, God wants to work through all your stuff—and, I mean, through your failures. Many times our failures are a great suffering to us, right? We may say, “Well, that is not God doing it. That is my fault.” Well, listen, yes, it is your fault. You can say that. But God allows you to have it.
Well, good for what good? The answer to that question is in verse 29.
For whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brethren.
Now that is the good. That is the good in verse 28. God is causing all things to work together for this good: to conform us to the image of His Son.
Oh, that puts a glory on it. That is a marvelous goal, right? That He might be the Firstborn among many brothers.
This is the Spirit’s goal within us: to conform us to the image of Christ. Oh, here tonight, I think that is super-excellent.
And can it be that I should be like Thy Son?
Is this the grace which He for me hath won?
Father of glory, thought beyond all thought,
In glory, to His own blest likeness brought!
Yet it must be: Thy love had not its rest
Were Thy redeemed not with Thee fully blest;
That love that gives not as the world, but shares
All it possesses with its loved co-heirs.
I love this. John Nelson Darby wrote this wonderful hymn. It kind of makes me beside myself. I felt that way tonight as we were singing it, especially that last verse. Anyway, excuse me; I do not want to get carried away here.
The rest of Romans 8—Paul is really beside himself here. Sounds like it. He says, “What then shall we say to these things?” Romans 8:31: “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
God is for us. Do you believe it? Just for everyone else, not you, right? Say it this way: God is for me. He is.
He has this great, grand, noble, high purpose, which He will fulfill. Then Paul goes on: “Who shall bring a charge? Who is he that condemneth? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”
Now listen to his list of sufferings in verse 35.
Shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Shall any one of these separate us? No.
As it is written,
For Thy sake we are killed all the day long;
We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
That is what Paul experienced: “We are put to death all day long. We are accounted as sheep for slaughter.”
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We have everything going for us, brothers and sisters, inwardly and outwardly. We are perfected by these two sides: the inward side and the outward side. We are perfected by the Spirit’s work within, by the Spirit’s supply within, and we are perfected by the sufferings from without.
We need both. Do not think that if you get more spiritual, you will have less suffering. You get more spiritual, you will have more suffering. Cheer up.
Because God said concerning Paul, at the beginning of his life and service for the Lord, “I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.” And He did. He suffered probably more than you or I will have to suffer—a lot more.
I want to come back to Ephesians. I do not know if we are going to finish this tonight, but in Ephesians 1 through 3 there are two prayers. We noticed quite well two wonderful prayers: one in chapter 1 and one in chapter 3.
These two prayers, brothers and sisters, we have to realize, are for the sons. That wonderful prayer in chapter 1 is for the sons that they might have revelation. The wonderful prayer in chapter 3 is for these same sons that they might have experience.
Especially, I want to speak something on the prayer in chapter 3 tonight concerning our experience.
There is so much in this wonderful prayer in Ephesians 3. You know, Paul prayed it. It is a prayer that we all should pray. He bowed his knees; we should bow our knees and pray this prayer.
This prayer in chapter 3 is for the experience of sonship. Because it is put in the form of prayer, it shows us the way in. It is really the way to get in.
I remember another sign in England that they used to have in the airports and train stations: “This way out.” You want to get out of here? You follow that sign. Well, we do not want to get out; we want to get in, right?
I did not see any sign saying “This way in,” but you can write over this prayer, “The Way In.”
I believe it starts with Ephesians 3:16.
That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, that ye may be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inward man.
This is the beginning. It all starts here. The way in starts with your inner man.
Everyone in the world, everyone living today, has an outer man. Me too. All people have an outer man. Listen: only we Christians, believers, have an inner man. So we have both an inner man and an outer man.
We have an inner man because the Holy Spirit has come and regenerated our spirit. So there is something alive down deep there. There is an inner man. That is our inner man, but it needs to be strengthened.
Paul prayed that your inner man may be strengthened, and he conditions that with three things: according to the riches of His glory, number one; with power, number two; through His Spirit, number three.
We really do not have time to exhaust this at all. I will only say a few words. But, brothers and sisters, our inner man—we all agree—needs to be strengthened.
Many times our experience of Christ, our experience of Him, is weak, is weak. We maybe do not know how weak we are because our inner man has not been strengthened.
That inner man in us needs to be strengthened with power. That is pretty great power. In Ephesians 1 it says that you need to know the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. That is the power of His resurrection.
Our inner man needs to be strengthened with the very great power that raised Christ from the dead.
Sometimes we just really feel that we are pretty dead. When we get up in the morning, or sometime after work, you know, we need to be renewed and re-strengthened with power according to the riches of His glory.
We just read above in Ephesians 3:8 about the unsearchable riches of Christ. The Spirit contains and embodies all those unsearchable riches. The Spirit Himself, you may call Him the riches of His glory. What riches of the glory of God have been put in us by the Spirit!
Now, brothers and sisters, the Spirit is immeasurable, right? In John 3 it says, “He giveth not the Spirit by measure.” So, whatever we need, if we could touch the Spirit, we would get an immeasurable supply.
One thing this Spirit brings into us to strengthen our inner man is faith. You can tell that by the next verse, Ephesians 3:17: “That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” Well, where do you get that? Faith comes from that immeasurable Spirit.
The Spirit is called in 2 Corinthians 4 “a spirit of faith,” the spirit of faith. Anyway, the faith of the Lord Jesus is in that Spirit. So Paul could say, “I live by the faith of the Son of God.” Real faith.
Sometimes, you know, we feel that we just cannot make it. We do not have faith to make it.
Sometimes I have a burden to give a message, but I feel, “I am afraid it is going to fall flat. I am afraid I cannot do it.” One time, the Lord said, “You have in you a spirit of faith.”
So Paul said, “We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore did I speak; we also believe, and therefore also we speak; knowing that He that raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also.”
Anyway, brothers and sisters, everything we need is in the Spirit in us. Pay attention to Him. Lay hold of Him, set your being upon Him, set your mind on Him. Follow Him, trust in Him, and obey Him.
Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit and faith. When you are full of the Spirit, you get full of faith.
Then Ephesians 3:17 says, “That ye, being rooted and grounded in love.” Brothers and sisters, the Spirit is the Spirit of love. He is called that in Romans, and the fruit of the Spirit is love.
The Spirit is showing us many times our lack of love and our shortage of love—real love, practical love.
The Bible says, “Herein is love: that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” Now, that is love: laying down our lives for the brothers.
Well, we may feel, “I am willing to lay down my life for the brothers, as long as it is acknowledged and appreciated.” Is that love? No, that is not love. You are just for yourself.
But the Spirit will teach us. He will supply us to lay down our lives for the brothers, to sacrifice ourselves for the brothers.
Brother Stephen mentioned this morning that this is one of these steps, one of the signs that we may know we are on the way to perfection: the Spirit, the Spirit of love.
We need it, though. We need more. We need to follow this Spirit, to lay down our lives for the brothers.
Then Ephesians 3:18 says:
That ye may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth.
I would like to go into these four matters now, but I do not want to give you too much. They are really wonderful.
I think we can at least say—and it does not say here, though maybe in some versions it does—not that we should be strong to comprehend, but that we may be strong to apprehend.
The breadth and length and height and depth are too great. We could never comprehend all that. It is too great. But we can apprehend what we could never comprehend. We can grasp it. We can lay hold of it without comprehending it.
Yes, we have got it with all the saints—not by yourself, but with all the saints. We can apprehend something so real, so great. The breadth, and length, and height, and depth are too great.
Maybe tomorrow evening we could go back and enter into that, but I do not want to. It is too wonderful.
But I think, anyway, brothers and sisters, God wants the sons to be spiritually intelligent. He wants to give us spiritual intelligence in the ways of God and in the will of God. We know what God wants, and we know His ways.
How are we made spiritually intelligent? That comes by our inner man being strengthened with power.
Sometimes you see on the billboard of some business, “Johnson and Sons,” or “Johnson & Sons.” That is, the sons are in the same business, working with their father. They are intelligent in the business.
Well, in this universe, thank God, we have God and sons—sons who know what the Father wants. They know the will of God, and they know the ways of God. We need spiritual intelligence. This is part of spiritual perfection.
Then it goes on in Ephesians 3:19: “And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.” Listen to this: to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.
I really do feel that we miss something by always connecting everything to ourselves. We talk about the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, and we just think, “Well, that must be His love for me and us.”
But did we ever think that it might also include His love for the Father? Now, that is a knowledge-surpassing love: Christ’s love for His own Father, that passes knowledge. For Him to become a man and to go to the cross out of love for His Father—think of it. That is knowledge-surpassing love.
Now, do not think you are going to miss something if you do not connect it to yourself. You are going to appreciate it more.
Then it goes on: “That ye may be filled unto all the fullness of God.”
Now, concerning this spiritual perfection: that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.
The apostle John, at the end of his life, wrote in his Gospel, John 1:16:
For of His fullness we all received, and grace for grace.
All his life, he was almost a hundred years old, and he had been receiving from that great fullness right up to that time. “Of His fullness we have all received.” There is an immeasurable fullness we are meant for.
There is such a great fullness in this Spirit for us to receive on the supply side, right? That we may be filled.
Now is the time to be filled with His fullness. In the coming day, we will display that fullness to the universe. But now is the time for us to be filled with all the fullness of God.
In natural things, when you fill up a vessel, there is no room for anything more, right? You fill up this bottle with water, and that is it. You have got it.
But, brothers and sisters, in spiritual things, the more you take in this wonderful life-giving Spirit, this wonderful treasure of the Lord Jesus, the beloved Son, the unsearchable riches—the more you take in of Him, the more capacity you have for more.
Your capacity will grow and grow and grow. The more we drink of this Spirit, do not think that you are going to run out.
In spiritual things, the more we are filled, the more room we have. Our capacity is expanded, enlarged. All the fullness of God.
Now, “unto Him that is able.” I always like to read these words:
Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.
He is able to do super-abundantly above all that we ask or think. Now, during these days and during these messages, we are seeing a lot. We are seeing something anyway. I am seeing stuff. I hope we all are.
We need to ask for that, right? But not only ask for that—think about it. Think about it.
Now, I hope, brothers and sisters, way past midnight tonight, when you go back to your room, ask and think.
Whatever you ask and think, He will do more than that. He is able to do more than that—super-abundantly more than that.
So, brothers and sisters, I hope this could encourage us. Paul prayed this prayer. We need to pray. We need to ask more. Ask something higher. And think about it. Think about it.
This verse says you have to ask and think. It does not say, “He is able to do super-abundantly above all you forget.” Well, He is, but anyway, the word of God is encouraging us to ask and to think.
It is a prayer, so we have to ask. But it has so much in it. There is so much for us to think about. “But unto Him be the glory in the church.”
Now, I think I had better stop right there. I hope, the Lord willing, tomorrow night that we could see more concerning the goal—God’s goal for perfection. It is mainly His administration, His pleasure, and His will, not only in this age but in all the coming ages. It is a great goal.
So let us pray.
Lord, how we thank You for these precious, too-precious words that You have given to us; for the wonderful Holy Spirit You have put within us; this wonderful Paraclete, who is leading us all the way and will bring us through to the goal. We believe it.
We pray that every one of us will trust and obey, and will give ourselves fully to this Leader who is within us.
We pray for this supply side, that we would experience more supply. We also pray for the educational side, that You will teach us many more lessons that we need to learn as sons of God.
We thank You for Your speaking to us. We pray in Your blessed name. Amen.