How is it to be attained? The true characteristic gift of the gospel is the gift of a new power to a sinful weak world; a power which makes the feeble strong, and the strongest as an angel of God. It matters not that many say, "We are rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing"; not knowing that they are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. This is our way to the priesthood and princeliness which the redeeming God bids us come up to and exercise. He alone has that mysterious energy which called everything we see out of nothing. So complex is our nature that it is hardly possible to give an account of it sufficiently simplified to be plain to an unobservant man.I. It was the overflowing of the riches of His power.2. Exterior show is with them life, and they are always dressing. If his connection with Christ is cut off, in an instant he becomes as weak as any other man.(T. The next thing is, the conscious relation to God. God gives Himself to us all, according to our size. God might have given away everything He had made; He might have emptied the exchequer of heaven; but the price would not have purchased the redemption of a single soul. You have been trying often to change the outer man, your conduct, your way of speaking, your appearance in people's eyes! Having dwelt thus far on the supreme importance of spiritual life, and of the extreme need of its Divine strengthening which is occasioned and evinced by falls, let us in the next place seize a truth which we have barely touched yet. But the riches of God are seen in the preservation of all things in existence as well as in their creation. It matters not that many say, "We are rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing"; not knowing that they are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. There is the measure. W. Dale, LL. And, in union the hidden mystic union of God, which is the secret of it all; in which He is, who makes life, the essence of all which is worth the living; a real life, the life of your being. The true characteristic gift of the gospel is the gift of a new power to a sinful weak world; a power which makes the feeble strong, and the strongest as an angel of God. This new life of goodness begins just with the other things we have named. He delivered up His only begotten Son, the Son of His love, that eternal One in comparison with whom the universe itself is worthless. There is a direct passage between God and my spirit. L. Cuyler, D. D.When I was a student at Princeton, Professor Henry had so constructed a huge bar of iron, bent into the form of a horseshoe, that it used to hang suspended from another iron bar above it. It is limitless with the boundlessness of God Himself. It is an intercessory prayer we should pray for one another in the gloomy hours of our brother's fall. that you and I would never cut and divide Christ so as to choose one part of Him and leave another. IV. I look first to conscience. A love which is long enough to last forever (1 Corinthians 13:8). Now, the Christian teaching nowhere leads us to despise manners. THE RICHES OF HIS WISDOM. Oct 23, 1988. Scripture: Ephesians 1:15–21. In every one of these cases, to use language which suggests rather than expresses the truth, the vigour is not derived from the central fountains of life, but from springs that are more or less distant from the centre. It is from this point of view that the riches of the Divine wisdom are seen — not merely in producing good, but in bringing good out of evil; not merely in producing beauty, but in bringing beauty out of deformity; not merely in producing harmony, but in bringing harmony out of discord; not merely in producing life, but in bringing life out of death. Or are both these meanings embraced by the term? It is not a bit of your inward life that is to be hallowed. Our hearts may be made more and more capable of God; and in the measure in which they are capable of Him they shall be filled by Him. The machinist would be wise who could invent and construct a machine which, by the simplest movements, could produce mighty results; but he would be rich in wisdom, who, out of that same machine, when marred and broken, could produce still mightier results. All the active powers of the man, the woman, are concerned chiefly about that — the dress of life — what to wear on the person, in the house as furniture, in the garden as adornment, on the road as equipage. Other topics may be compassed and disposed of in a certain way, but who shall grasp and estimate this? Now notice, next, THAT THIS DIVINE STRENGTH HAS ITS SEAT IN, AND IS INTENDED TO INFLUENCE THE WHOLE OF THE INNER LIFE. When Barbie went to bed at night, Pandy lay next to her. In that "inner man" the "strength," then, must be found — conscience, motives, thoughts, affections, silent teachings, spiritual converse, and the trafficking of the soul with God. And affections — the likes and dislikes; those excellent servants, but horridly bad masters. Everything will go to give "strength."III. Maclaren, D. D.Let us consider that great thought of the Divine strength-giving power which may be bestowed upon every Christian soul.I. But the sad thing is that in some instances that is all that you will see, even when you meet, nothing but the dress. THE TEXT SPEAKS OF "THE INNER MAN." And now, lastly, let me point you still further TO THE MEASURE OF THIS POWER. It was the overflowing of the riches of His power.2. It gives no definition of what the term includes. The rich gift lies in the possession of the faculty to invent or make. )Strength by feeding upon ChristC. find himself? This is our way to the priesthood and princeliness which the redeeming God bids us come up to and exercise. Ephesians 3:14-21 Rooted in Love. Our hearts may be made more and more capable of God; and in the measure in which they are capable of Him they shall be filled by Him.(A. Ephesians 3:16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, (NASB: Lockman). Now we come into the great ethical region of human nature. (2) Faith working by love. THE SOURCE WHENCE THIS STRENGTH IS DERIVED. He created them, because He saw beyond the dark sin of man, and knew that His love could snatch from sorrow and the grave a new creation still. This is our way to the priesthood and princeliness which the redeeming God bids us come up to and exercise. There we behold God not only working and waiting, but making a great sacrifice for the salvation of man. How is this to be discovered? Nothing of an exterior nature can be more charming than graceful, polished, easy manners. They all fall in, and, so to speak, become parts of the found and ransomed inner man, which now needs them, which now uses them, for its own development, outcome, manifestation. I find myself thus introduced into a grand hall; a glorious amphitheatre, a temple of immeasurable dimensions; thronged and crowded with all the saints, all the holy ones, angels and men, into whose society I am strangely and of grace admitted. You must go deeper, much deeper. V. THE MEASURE OF THIS STRENGTH. And He will come into that feeble, vacillating, wayward will of yours, that is only obstinate in its adherence to the low and the evil, as some foul creature, that one may try to wrench away, digs its claws into corruption and holds on by that, He will lift your will and make it fix upon the good and abominate the evil, and through the whole being He will pour a great tide of strength which shall cover all the weakness. Then what becomes of all the outer men, such as those we named? The confusion of soul into which we may fall by having received the vivifying and enlightening of the Holy Ghost, and having afterwards overruled the spiritual life within us by the lower life it was beginning to reduce and subject, is indescribable. The riches of His glory. You and I act upon one another from without, He acts upon us within. We speak of body, soul, and spirit belonging to us. It is a field of truth, and the end of all our searching is to discover that it is unsearchable. Ephesians 3:16 New International Version (NIV) 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, Cross references: Rich as is the power of God, man could not be saved by mere power. Next, motives. From what we already know in this direction we may conclude that the whole of nature is one vast and intricate design manifesting the wisdom and goodness of God; and we are expressly told that all things are working together for good. Our inner man, our innermost man, wants a life and a strength which is not human but Divine. So great is the capacity of the soul, that if a man had the whole universe he would still be poor, being destitute of God. This ought to be our prime passion. It is from this point of view that the riches of the Divine wisdom are seen — not merely in producing good, but in bringing good out of evil; not merely in producing beauty, but in bringing beauty out of deformity; not merely in producing harmony, but in bringing harmony out of discord; not merely in producing life, but in bringing life out of death. Vaughan, M. The text is a prayer. Or as some plant, drooping and flagging beneath the hot rays of the sun, when it has the scent of water given to it, will, in all its parts, stiffen and erect itself, so this Divine Spirit will go searching every corner of the inner man illuminating and invigorating all.III. This might should be sought as from an inexhaustible source.(G. Measure, then, God's love to man by His regard for His own Son! Let us look at them a little more accurately.I. Indeed, we cannot be "strong in spirit" if we divide the supremacy between higher, and lower interests. How little do we know of the greatness of that gift, and of the depth of that sacrifice! It is a mountain of gold, and we have no arithmetic to compute its value. It is the same in the spiritual life. What says the new vegetation to these? First repentance, then cleansing and forgiveness, then gratitude, then filial love, then active goodness. That won't do. Quite the contrary. There are great varieties of experience. Greek: hina d o humin kata to plouto s tes doxes autou dunamei krataiothenai dia tou pneumatos autou eis ton eso anthropon,. Some trees in early spring are yet covered with last year's leaves; all withered now and begrimed. F. Muir, M. Now, the Christian teaching nowhere leads us to despise manners. It is limitless with the boundlessness of God Himself. THE BLESSING SOUGHT IS REGARDED AS A FREE GIFT, "That he would grant you... to be strengthened." So goodness throws off sin, and dresses and adorns the soul in the beauties of God's holiness. God would have been rich in love had He done nothing more than created man, and after that, when man had sinned, displayed the glory of His justice in crushing him forever. Not merely an animated something, to be covered with dress and beautified with manners. Vaughan, M. A.To those who have the misery of weakness — who never keep their better resolves, whose hearts are so divided, who are not really happy, because they have no concentration — to such it may be of immense comfort to know that real religion always gives strength — strength of character. It may be enfeebled when it ought to be maturing through disorders preying upon it from our inferior desires. And, above all, the inner working of the Holy Spirit, which goes on low down in the innermost chambers. A. Man measures by his own ideas of his own need. 2. Notwithstanding all that He has revealed of Himself in the past, there still remain in Him for evermore depths of splendour unrevealed. Sin reduces the soul to utter destitution, and all have sinned. Because God's people are not all they ought to be, therefore these cavillers will keep aloof from the religion which they confess.(American. IV. The Inner Man. Notice, first, THAT IT IS ALL "IN THE INNER MAN." IV. We describe our body by its various limbs and organs. )The wealth of God -- rich in gloryF. Of course there is a working limit at each moment, and that is our capacity to receive, but that capacity varies, may vary indefinitely, may become greater and greater beyond our count or measurement. But with God he has all, and abounds; for the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof. H. Spurgeon.Now this lamb they were to eat, and the whole of it. This might should be sought as from an inexhaustible source.(G. His great and inconceivable act of creation, then, was a demonstration of His perfect freedom and His boundless power. The first thing one human being sees of another, when they are approaching each other, is the dress. There is a spiritual Divine touch, which is such as Christ's touch that healed leprosy and raised the dead. Begin at the centre, not at the circumference; not with outsides. And what is "the inner man"? How does a man reach the centre and fountain of his own being? But perhaps these things, or something like them, will be found in all.1. 4. Then, further, he becomes conscious of goodness as well as of sin. Let Him come with the master key in His hand into all the dim chambers of your feeble nature; and as life is light in the eye, and colour in the cheek, and deftness in the fingers, and strength in the arm, and pulsation in the heart, so He will come and strengthen your understandings, and make you able for loftier tasks of intellect and of reason, than you can face in your unaided strength; and He will dwell in your affections and make them vigorous to lay hold upon the holier things that are above their natural inclination, and will make it certain that "their reach shall not be beyond their grasp," as alas! The whole surrounding world is to them a mirror in which they see only themselves. He recognizes it distinctly, but of course very imperfectly, if yet the inner man, under all this moral action going on above it, lies in the main asleep. )Spiritual weakness prejudicialAmerican.It was an amusing distortion of a good hymn, but there was not a little sound philosophy in it, when the old preacher said —Judge not the Lord by feeble saints.And yet this is precisely what the great majority of unconverted men are doing all the time. God is not just able to do beyond what we ask, but abundantly beyond. Don't Settle For Safe. The manners are beneath the dress, come through the dress, make the dress more or less expressive, impressive, and beautiful. And, in union the hidden mystic union of God, which is the secret of it all; in which He is, who makes life, the essence of all which is worth the living; a real life, the life of your being. The whole inner man in all its corners is to be filled, and to come under the influence of this power, "until there be no part dark, as when the bright shining of a candle giveth thee light." Then each yields, is altered, combines, and makes the one grand product that is sought. 4. Not after them, but with and in them. This is the sphere, the direction, the destination, of the strength prayed for. Sin reduces the soul to utter destitution, and all have sinned. The glory of God is the forthshining of His being, the necessary splendour of His revelation of Himself. It must be "the inner man." Then each yields, is altered, combines, and makes the one grand product that is sought. This might is obtained in answer to prayer. Asleep; by fits and starts perhaps awaking, and then falling into slumber again. For his own wants he would have an immediate supply. It is in the ability to produce that the source of wealth is found. Introduction. And let us humbly believe that it is the prayer Christ prays with us, moved by a consistency in love, and hope, and saving energy which we so sorely lack.III. And what is "the inner man"? Not the old formal goodness; but goodness that is fresh and new and living: with love in the heart of it, gratitude lending it a glow and a lustre, faith building it up. Stop the flow of the current for one instant, and the huge horseshoe dropped. That won't do. It is not any one aspect of it that is to be strengthened, but it is the whole intellect, affections, desires, tastes, powers of attention, combination, memory, will. Let not a bone of Him be broken, but let us take in a whole Christ, up to the full measure of our capacity. But what we have to notice more particularly here is, not merely the wisdom of God, but the riches of His wisdom; and these are seen, not only in the original adaptation of means to ends, but in the way by which God can bring good out of evil. He was rich in love; and His goodness overflowed. The text is a prayer. To this end he wants stronger convictions and motives, clearer principles of action, and confirmed habits of well-doing. And He will come into that feeble, vacillating, wayward will of yours, that is only obstinate in its adherence to the low and the evil, as some foul creature, that one may try to wrench away, digs its claws into corruption and holds on by that, He will lift your will and make it fix upon the good and abominate the evil, and through the whole being He will pour a great tide of strength which shall cover all the weakness. We use the term goodness as a general expression to embrace the mercy, the compassion, the benignity, and the love of God. God is revealed in nature, and therefore the heavens declare the glory of God. We can scarcely look at any work of God with an intelligent eye, but we begin to discover uses and harmonies and proofs of design in it. What else could it be to be sufficient? 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