“The Four Magnitudes”
Ephesians 3:14-21
Scripture Reading
Ephesians 3:17 “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
One expositor has said, “It is wide as the limits of the universe; long as the ages of eternity; deep as the abyss from which it has redeemed us; and high as the throne of God itself!” Dr. R. W. Dale said, “Immensity is,” the only adequate symbol of its vastness.
I. The First Magnitude – The Breadth
a. The inclusiveness of His love – Wide enough to embrace the whole world. The children sing, “Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.”
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
b. The initiative of His love
1 John 4:10 “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
19 “We love him, because he first loved us.”
A certain medieval monk announced he would be preaching next Sunday evening on "The Love of God." As the shadows fell and the light ceased to come in through the cathedral windows, the congregation gathered. In the darkness of the altar, the monk lighted a candle and carried it to the crucifix. First of all, he illumined the crown of thorns, next, the two wounded hands, then the marks of the spear wound. In the hush that fell, he blew out the candle and left the church. There was nothing else to say.
His love is not only universal and also unilateral!
II. The Second Magnitude – The Length
Eternity is the word that comes to mind when we consider the length of God’s love.
a. It’s duration
Jeremiah 31:3 “The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.”
b. It’s durability
Romans 8:35 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 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.”
c. It’s distance
Psalms 139:7 “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.”
IV. The Third Magnitude – The Depth
A song that I enjoy hearing and singing asks the question, “How deep the Father’s love for us, How vast beyond all measure, That He should give His only Son, And make a wretch His treasure...”
a. His love is deeper than our depravity
Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
Property Laws of a Toddler: Some might say this is evidences of Original Sin.
1. If I like it, it's mine.
2. If it's in my hand, it's mine.
3. If I can take it from you, it's mine.
4. If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.
5. If it's mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way.
6. If I'm doing or building something, all the pieces are mine.
7. If it looks just like mine, it's mine.
8. If I saw it first, it's mine.
9. If you are playing with something and you put it down, it automatically becomes mine.
10. If it's broken, it's yours.
Galatians 5:19 “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”
“October 7, 1969 the Montreal, Canada police force went on strike. Because of what resulted, the day has been called Black Tuesday. A burglar and a policeman were slain. Forty-nine persons were wounded or injured in rioting. Nine bank holdups were committed, almost a tenth of the total number of holdups the previous year along with 17 robberies at gunpoint. Usually disciplined, peaceful citizens joined the riffraff and went wild, smashing some 1,000 plate glass windows in a stretch of 21 business blocks in the heart of the city, hauling away stereo units, radios, TVs and wearing apparel. While looters stripped windows of valuable merchandise, professional burglars entered stores by doors and made off with truckloads of goods. A smartly dressed man scampered down a street with a fur coat over each arm with no police around, anarchy took over.”
Just recently we saw this type of lawlessness in London where over $350 millions in damage was done by mobs who roamed the streets looting and burning property and vehicles.
b. His love is deeper than our disobedience
Charles Hodge points out the overwhelming need of humanity:
Our guilt is great because our sins are exceedingly numerous. It is not merely outward acts of unkindness and dishonesty with which we are chargeable; our habitual and characteristic state of mind is evil in the sight of God.
Our pride, vanity, and indifference to His will and to the welfare of others, our selfishness, our loving the creature more than the Creator, are continuous violations of His holy law.
We have never been or done what that law requires us to be and to do. We have never had that delight in the divine perfection, that sense of dependence and obligation, that fixed purpose to do the will and promote the glory of God, which constitute the love which is our fist and highest duty.
We are always sinners; we are at all times and under all circumstances in opposition to God, because we are never what His law requires us to be.
If we have never made it our purpose to do His will, if we have never made His glory the end of our actions, then our lives have been an unbroken series of transgressions. Our sins are not to be numbered by the conscious violations of duty; they are as numerous as the moments of our existence.
c. His love is deeper than our degradation
Romans 1:24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
There is absolutely no limit to which human beings will not degrade themselves or their fellow man. Just when you think that it can’t get any worse, it does!
1 Corinthians 6:9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
Romans 5:8 “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
d. His love is deeper than the difficulties of life
And lest we think that believers are immune from the pain and bitterness of life. In an essay about his life one writer said that, “Charles Simeon tasted heavy losses, crushing sorrows, and bitter persecutions. At one stage of his career at Holy Trinity church in London where he served for 54 years, the parishioners locked up their seats, undergraduates broke up the services, and Mr. Simeon was insulted whenever he ventured on the streets. One particular day when he had been the object of much scorn and contempt he went for a stroll with his Greek Testament in his hand and asked the Lord to give him some word of comfort. He opened his N.T. and his eyes fell on the words, “They found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name; him they compelled to bear His cross.” He said it was the very word I needed. What a privilege – to have the cross laid on me to bear it with Jesus! It was enough! I could leap and sing for joy! “Lay it on me, Lord!” I cried; henceforth I bound persecution as a wreath of glory round my brow.” However deep the abyss, the love of Christ is always deeper!
II. The Fourth Magnitude – The Height
a. It’s immensity – Remember our quote from Dr. Dale? He said that this word, immensity, was the only word sufficient to describe the love of Christ!
C.H. Spurgeon told the story of the preacher who was walking in the country side and stopped by a farm house for a drink of water. The old farmer who lived there went out to talk to the preacher. As they were talking the preacher noticed that the barn had a weather vane on it that was spinning around in the wind. On the weather vane the words "GOD IS LOVE" was engraved.
The preacher said to the man, "I don’t think that is a very good way to talk about God’s love. Are you saying that God’s love is Wishy Washy and changes depending on the way the wind blows?" " No, no" said the farmer. "That Weather Vane is saying, "No matter which way the wind blows, God is Love."
b. It’s incomprehensibility – “…and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge…”
F. W. Boreham said that knowing the love of Christ is like a man who climbs to the summit of a mountain only to find out that there is another peak towering above him and then another and another still. There is always a height beyond a height.
1 Corinthians 2:9 “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
c. It’s investigation –
1 John 3:1 “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.”
The Greatest Love of All
Ephesians 3:17 “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
Everyone of us who is now born-again in Christ Jesus was at one time an enemy of God. We loved ourselves more than God, and we esteemed our sin more highly than we esteemed His salvation. We were fit only for hell and the judgment of God. Scripture says that, "we were by nature objects of wrath."
If you have not yet accepted Jesus as your Savior and Lord, you are, unfortunately, still in this position with God. But, we were changed, and so can you be changed!
Ephesians 2:4 “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:”
Because of His great love! This is the sole reason that any one of us may be reconciled back to God. There simply is no other rationale for us to have been given the opportunity to live in His presence forever. It is because of His great love!
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Max Lucado: "If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If he had a wallet, your photo would be in it. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning. Whenever you want to talk, he’ll listen."
God's love for you is perfect, complete and everlasting. Our human love for one another is fickle and changeable. The dearest of friends may find offenses and part ways. A vow of love at the alter may fail only months or years later. Even a parent may let their love for their own child grow cold, or a child for his parent. But the love of the Lord our God, Creator of heaven and earth does not fail. His love does not grow cold. He says,
Jeremiah 31:3 “The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.”
There is no person, no thing seen or unseen, no trial or hardship that can separate you from the love of God. The apostle Paul, a man acquainted with many trials and much suffering, wrote these words, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8: 38, 39)
If you are reading this and you do not know Jesus Christ as personal Savior and Lord, then God is drawing you now to Him. When Jesus allowed His blood to be shed at Calvary, this covered all your sin and His death paid the penalty for it. You can have a fresh clean start in Christ. He will enable you to overcome any sin that may be keeping you out of fellowship Him and give you the ability to sacrificially love your spouse, children, family members, co-workers and the body of Christ.
Who of you can refuse such a great love? Why would you want to? Asked Jesus to forgive you today! Invite Him into you heart and life while you still have time!
