From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: I should like to call your attention this morning to the words which are to be found in Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, the first chapter and the 19th verse.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us word who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrote in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Let me again remind you of the context of this petition. The Apostle is praying for the Ephesians. He's he's given thanks for them, and now he goes on to make mention of them in his prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: What is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints? And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And have put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. Well, I've read it again not merely because I'm anxious we should all retain the context in our minds, but quite frankly because I like reading it. And because I enjoy reading it. And because I'm moved by the reading of it.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Because it is one of the greatest and most elevating and uplifting passages that even this mighty men of God was ever enabled to pen. But we are in process of considering this great prayer and we've come to this third petition, which is that these Ephesians, which is that these Ephesians, having had the eyes of their understanding enlightened, because without that they can't possibly have this knowledge which he's anxious they should have, but having had the eyes of their understanding enlightened, that they may know this exceeding greatness of the power of God in us who believe.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now, we've considered the way in which the apostle measures the power. The words that he uses, this exceeding greatness, this energy of the strength of God's might. We've considered that. And then we began last Sunday with the consideration of this question. As to why it is the apostle is so anxious that they should know the exceeding greatness of this power in them who believe. And why it's necessary.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And we were considering last Sunday morning that this power is absolutely essential even to believing. We can't start in the Christian life without it. You can't be a Christian at all apart from this power. And we considered that by looking at the conditions which prevail in the natural unregenerate man. And which make it impossible for him as he is, unaided, unmoved by this power, to turn to God with a willing heart and to believe and accept and submit himself to the truth.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: But we must continue. The apostle you know emphasizes this great petition. He's so anxious that these Ephesians should realize this. And that they should realize their need of it. For that is the point. That they become conscious that apart from this great power, they really are quite helpless and hopeless and undone.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: So I would ask again, before we come to open it out once more, are we all aware of our need of this power of God? Are we aware of the fact that this power of God is working in us? Do we realize this moment that we are what we are solely and entirely by the grace and the power of God?

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Do we realize I say in our own personal lives and experiences that it is this exceeding great power of God that accounts for everything in the Christian life? I I put my question again for this reason, that some or another I have a feeling that the main trouble with all of us is our failure to realize the greatness of the salvation into which we have been brought and which we enjoy together.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Surely one can't read the New Testament, one can't read that most lyrical book which we call the book of the Acts of the Apostles. One can't read these epistles and notice their terminology without realizing that there was this lyrical quality about these first Christians, the New Testament Christians. You get it in that epistle to the Philippians, a part of which we read at the beginning. It's a great refrain on the theme of rejoicing. Rejoice in the Lord always and again, I say, rejoice. That's the theme, and that's the theme in a sense of the whole of the New Testament.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The Christian is meant to be a rejoicing person. And yet, let's be frank and honest, have we not to admit that far too often, we give the impression not so much of rejoicing as of depression? As if to become a Christian is to carry a great load upon your shoulders and to have endless cares. Indeed, the world caricatures the Christian in that way because far too often the Christian gives that impression. We live, we scorn delights and live laborious days. How often is that the impression we give?

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And I say this is all due to the fact that we somehow have not realized the greatness of the salvation in which we are. We don't realize the greatness of what has happened to us. We don't realize the greatness of what is happening to us. The process through which we are going even now. And we don't realize the greatness of the perfection to which we are going and for which we are making.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now, I say, it is because we fail to realize this that we not only fail to rejoice, but there does seem to be in us, most of us at any rate, an absence of a sense of wonder. You see, you can't read these epistles of Paul without feeling constantly that the man is amazed at himself. Take that most notable statement of this very thing which you have there in the 20th verse of the second chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians, I live yet not I. I am, I'm not. I can't understand himself. He's become an enigma and a problem to himself. This astonishment at himself, well, why, well, because of this tremendous thing that God has been doing in him.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now, that I say, a very good test. We all ought to be amazed at ourselves. We ought to stand and look at ourselves and say, is it possible? Is it really I? Yet not I, but Christ that liveth in me.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now, that I say is surely the thing that is missing in us at the present time. And the result is, to use again the language of this apostle, we don't stand out as luminaries as lights in the heaven in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation. Some or another, we have missed this idea of this mighty working of God in salvation.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And we far too often think of the Christian life solely in terms of forgiveness. We're all of course interested in forgiveness. And thank God for it, there's nothing apart from forgiveness, it's our first need, it's our cardinal need. But if we stop at forgiveness, if we just regard the Christian message as something which assures us of forgiveness of sins and avoidance of hell, well, that won't give us this thrill and this sense of wonder and astonishment. But far too often, we stop at that. We want to be forgiven, and then we think of the Christian life as just knowing that you're forgiven and our living the Christian life somehow.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And we miss the drama and the grandness and the greatness of it all. And this power that the apostle is praying for. We somehow conceive of the Christian life in terms which don't seem to postulate as an absolute necessity the exceeding greatness of the power of Almighty God. But such is the Christian life.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now, we seem to miss this even, don't we, in our Lord himself? We seem to fail to realize the greatness of what happened when the Son of God came on earth. Go back again to that second chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians that we read just now. And see it there. That's the measure of salvation. The power that was involved in all that.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: We seem to miss the fact that when he died upon the cross, he offered himself, we are told by the Epistle to the Hebrews, through the Eternal Spirit. That was how he offered himself. We've become so familiar with the facts about the cross and the death that we seem to lose this sense of power that was involved there. And then we come to the resurrection and we say marvelous, wonderful, yes, but according to the apostle here, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ was the greatest manifestation of the energy of the strength of God's might that the world has ever known.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Do we realize that? We seem to take it for granted. But according to the scriptures, nothing but that almighty power of God could raise him again from the dead and exalt him to that high position where he is at this moment at the right hand of God.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Well, now then, we miss it, I say, everywhere. We forget that he was declared to be the Son of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead. So we seem to miss this idea of power everywhere in the Christian life.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Last Sunday, as I reminded you, we were considering this power in terms of our initial believing. I say it again. It's a remarkable fact in this world that there's anybody at all who is a believer in the Christian faith. It's a miracle. It's an astounding thing that there is a single Christian in the world this morning. By nature, not one of us would believe it or could believe it. It's nothing but the power of God that ever makes us believers.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: But you see, it doesn't stop there. It is by this self same power that we continue in this Christian life. And if we fail to realize that, it's entirely due to the fact that we do not realize the greatness of what is meant by the term regeneration. Rebirth.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: This thing that brings us into this life in this way and continues, what a marvel it is, what a wonder. The apostle here obviously is comparing it to the resurrection, the physical resurrection of our Lord, as something comparable, he'll work that out in greater detail in the second chapter. But at any rate, he does teach us this much. That it takes the same power that enabled us to believe to enable us to continue at all in this Christian life. That's his teaching here, that's his teaching everywhere.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: We would not stand for a single hour in the Christian life were it not for this power of God that's in us. Even though we have believed, and even though we've come into it, we wouldn't stand for an hour if it were not that the power of God is in us and is working in us.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And when you come to think of the perfection for which we are destined, oh, how obvious it ought to be, that apart from this power of God, the whole thing is utterly hopeless, and we might as well give up at this moment because by our own strength and power, we cannot hope to attain unto it. Well, very well then, that I say, is the teaching of the scripture, that it is this power, this exceeding great power of God alone, that enables us to go on and to continue and will bring us eventually to that final perfection in the presence of God.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now, again, let me support what the apostle is saying here by other statements in the scripture to the same effect. It's such a vital proposition, this. The apostle is praying, he says, constantly that the Ephesians may have the eyes of their understanding enlightened, that they may know this. Oh, yes, they've believed, they've been made fellow heirs with the Jews who've become Christians, they've been sealed with the Holy Spirit, they've got the spirit as the earnest of their inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. All right, says Paul, but why do I want you to know the exceeding greatness of this power that's in you? Why? Well, if they don't know it, and if they don't realize it, sooner or later, if not already, they'll be depressed. They'll be unhappy. They'll begin to wonder whether they're Christians at all. They'll begin to wonder whether they can continue. They'll begin to wonder what's going to happen to them. And they'll thus become victims of the devil though they're outside his kingdom as such.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Very well then, let's see how the scripture teaches the importance and the necessity of this everywhere. The apostle you see in the third chapter says this, 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. There it is, you see, the same thing exactly. He's able to do this exceeding abundant above all we ask or think in virtue of this power that worketh in us already. So we must know this.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Take again his statement in writing to the Corinthians in his second Epistle, the fifth chapter and the fifth verse. He's been looking at those Corinthians and he's saying if our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, we know that we have a building of God and house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Even if we're going to die, if we are killed, it's all right. We know that. And then he goes on to say, he that hath wrought us for the self same thing is God. We've been wrought. We've been made, we've been fashioned, we've been formed by God, by the power of God. For that. That's the hope, that's the thing on which I rest my knowledge. It's the basis of my assurance.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And then take those notable statements of the same thing in that Epistle to the Philippians. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do. Of his good pleasure. No greater statement than that, no greater exhortation. We are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling because it is God himself with this illimitable power that is working in us, both to will and to do.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And you know, the greatest desire of the apostle for himself was this, that I might know him and the power of his resurrection. That's what he wanted to know. This same power, this power of God in the resurrection of Christ that is now working in believers, the Apostle Paul, who had made such glorious strides and advances in the Christian faith. That's the thing he wants to know above everything else, the power of his resurrection.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: That's the thing he's displeased about, not that I have already attained. I want to forget the things that have gone. I don't look back on my initial conversion. My first experience, I thank God for it, but I'm not resting on that. I I don't know enough about this power. I know something, but I don't know anything as it were. I want to know it and know that that is working in me. That's his prayer for himself. The power of his resurrection.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And then there's no more striking statement of all this than is to be found in the Epistle to the Hebrews in the 13th chapter, verses 20 and 21. You remember that great and glorious, that noble benediction? And now may the God of peace that brought again from the dead, the same idea exactly, you see, the God of peace that brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant. Make you perfect in every good work to do his will. Working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight. Who is to work in us? The God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus. It's an exact repetition of this. What he prays for those Hebrew Christians is that they may know this exceeding greatness of God's might and power which he exercised in bringing the Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep from the dead, that they may know that working in them and that it may work in them. Working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight. That's the prayer.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And then let me give you one other example from Peter. Peter says that as Christians, we are those who have been brought again to a living or a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And to what? And to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. Who are kept by the power of God through faith, unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time. You see, we are kept by the power of God. And apart from that, we wouldn't stand for a second.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And again, Peter in his second Epistle puts it, he says, according to his divine, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. His divine power has given them.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: John likewise writing as an old man at the end of his life to encourage the Christians he was leaving behind in this cruel world and who were somewhat shaken by false teaching and false living and practice, he says, it's all right, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. It's all right, hold on, says John, the power in you is greater. Greater is he that is in you. And you remember that benediction again at the end of Jude. Now unto him that is able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. That's it, he is able to keep us from falling.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: But for me to finish my quotations, let me come to the supreme statement of it. It's in the words of our Blessed Lord himself. Here he is under the very shadow of the cross and he prays to his father. And you remember his prayer is this. And now he says, I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come unto thee. Holy Father, keep, keep through thine own name those whom thou has given me that they may be one even as we are one. And again, he repeats it. I pray not that thou should take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil one.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Here he is, you see, with his great heart. He thinks of this little band. He sees the cruelty in which they are set, and his only hope is this, Father, keep them. For if the father doesn't keep them, they're lost. He says, I have kept those whom thou has given me, except the son of perdition. I've kept them while I was here, but I'm going, keep them.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now then, let me ask the question. There is the statement of the truth, the doctrine. Why is this power so essential? Why is it so important that you and I should know this exceeding great power that is in us? Well, there are two main reasons for that. They can be classified as negative and positive. I must know this and realize this because of the power of the forces that are set against me.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The Christian in this life and in this world is like his Lord before him. And there are certain things that we have to face. The Christian in this world is one who is waging a constant warfare. First of all, against the world itself. The mind of the world, the outlook of the world. The whole way of the world. Oh, my friends, are we alive, I wonder, to the subtle power of worldliness? Everything that the world stands for. Again, let me quote John, love not the world, nor the things that are in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye and the pride of life.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The New Testament's full of that. There is nothing that is so dangerous to the soul as just that. And oh, how subtle it is. It meets us at every turn. You start with it in your newspapers in the morning. They never confine themselves only to important international or national news, matters of urgency and of crisis. No, no, in one column you see some grave crisis, threat of war. And then something else from the very pit itself. Suggesting lust to you and desire, and the world and its way and its mind and its outlook. It's everywhere. It comes, I say, in the most subtle forms. Not always in the blatant form of the newspapers and the books and the films perhaps, but in highly respectable and seductive and attractive forms.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: These worldly distinctions that are so the very antithesis of the New Testament view of the scripture, the pride of life. The world is so much with us these days and it's suggesting itself and its outlook to us. The Christian has to wage a constant warfare against this. Because it's so pleasing, it's so enticing. It's so nice and harmless, there's nothing in it. Everybody's doing it. That's the argument. And I suppose that it is the biggest fight that the Christian church in many ways is waging at this present hour. There's been a lowering of the moral standard.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: We've traveled very far from the days of puritanism. The line between the church and the world is almost invisible. We are like the world in almost every respect. And the people of God no longer stand out in their uniqueness as they once did. But the New Testament is full of warnings about this. The subtle power, the tremendous power of the world. Which would drag us away from the Christ in whom we believe, which would make us deny him in practice. Having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. That's it, the power.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And then we go on and consider the flesh. We not only fight the world, but we are always fighting the flesh. And the flesh again would drag us down in so many respects. Not always gross sin. But the flesh can do it in another way in the form of lethargy, for instance. I'm simply picking out one or two at random. Lethargy. Laziness. How easy it is to feel that, well, you're not quite fit physically or intellectually to read the Bible. You've a prompting to read the Bible, something within you, suggest you should read the scripture, but you say, well, I'm rather tired. I've had a heavy day in the office, and my mind isn't quite up to it, and it isn't right to read the scriptures when you're not 100%. You don't do them justice, and you won't take in the message. No, I'm not equal to this, I'll read the newspaper now. Later on, I'll read these scriptures when I'm feeling refreshed and better. But you know what happens, you go to bed and you haven't read the scriptures. Lethargy. Laziness, indolence. Oh, my friends, we've all a terrible fight against this. It's a terrible power that. It can paralyze you, it can hold you down. A little more sleep, says the book of Proverbs, a little folding of the hands, a little more sleep and slumber. I'm going to, when I'm really fit and equal, but it never comes, and it's never done. Lethargy, a kind of fatal lethargy, it's the instrument of the devil. But he uses the body in that way.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And then bodily conditions, physical conditions, ill health. And yet, you know, if you read the lives of the saints, you'll find that the men who have accomplished most in this world have been men generally who've had a great fight with some physical weakness and illness. Count up the number of volumes under the name of John Calvin, for instance. All those commentaries on the scriptures and the other works, and remember that that man was a martyr throughout his life to asthma. And to chronic indigestion and died in the early fifties. But you and I, you see, we we make an excuse of this.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now, I'm simply showing you that were it not for the power of God, we'd never do anything, we'd not stand for a moment. We'd be undone. The body, and then come along and consider the force of habits. How many a man, I wonder, has been stumbled by this? You've come into the Christian life and you've heard the doctrine of regeneration, and of course, you've accepted it, and you say it's wonderful. All things are passed away, behold, all things are become new, and that's an absolutely true statement. Yes, but the Christian convert very soon discovered, soon discovers this, that it doesn't mean exactly what he thought it meant. It's his understanding that was wrong. Because he begins to find that there are certain habits within him, and he finds it rather difficult to break them. Habits remain. The old man is not annihilated, he's still there, he's got to be dealt with. You and I have to mortify the deeds of the body. Don't imagine for a moment that all evil habits are suddenly going to be taken right out of your life. They won't be. Some may be, God in his grace does it sometimes, but then he leaves others. And the force of habit is a terrible power. I say it's as great as this, that there is nothing but the power of God that can keep a man going against the force and the power of habit. It's in us.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Though I've got a new mind and a new outlook and want to be a new man, certain habits drag me back. And it's the power of God that alone can keep me. I don't even mention corruption. The corruption that results from sin. And all the pollution that comes from the world. Well, there it is, the world and the flesh, and then the devil.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: I sometimes think that our failure to realize the exceeding greatness of God's power in us, is really due to the fact that we've never realized the power of the devil. Our eyes may be open to the greatness of God's power in us. For what is the devil? Well, I know this about him. That his power is second only to that of God. Would you know something of the power of the devil? Well, here it is for you. Adam and Eve were perfect. Man was made in the image of God. He was in communion with God. He spoke to God, he knew God. He was in paradise. He'd never sinned. There was nothing within him dragging him down. There was no lust, there was no corruption. He had original righteousness. He stood upright. He was indeed a reflection of God. And yet he fell. And why did he fall? Because of the power and the subtlety of the devil.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And you and I in our folly think that because we are converted that we can stand up against the devil. We don't seem to need to realize our need of this power of God. But perfect men was defeated and dragged down by this powerful foe. Yes, says Jude in his Epistle, if you don't know the power of the devil, the Archangel Michael did. And when he contended with him about the body of Moses, he durst not bring a railing accusation against him, knowing his power, but he said, the Lord rebuke him. The Archangel has respect for the power of the devil. He knows something about it. Yes, says Peter, your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Well, we have to contend with all that.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And there is where the need of this power comes in and the knowledge of it. And then think of it all positively. That's merely the negative. The positive is that you and I are called to keep the commandments of God. Christ calls us to keep his commandments. We are meant to keep the ten commandments and the moral law of God, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. That's it.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: What are we called to? We are called to keep that moral law of God. We are called to live the sermon on the mount. We are called to take up the cross and to follow Christ. Let this mind be in you. We are called to follow him in the narrow way and to live as he lived. That's the calling. Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Read 1 Corinthians 13. That's what you're called to be like. That's what we're all meant to be. That's our calling, not simply that I'm forgiven and that I'm not going to hell, and it's all going to be very nice. No, no, I'm meant to live this sort of life now.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And when you realize that, you begin to understand the seventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. To will is present with me, but how to perform I know not. For the evil that I would not, that I do. The good that I would, I do not. Oh, wretched man that I am, I want, but there's another law. I look at it all again and I say, not the labors of my hands can fulfill thy laws demands, could my zeal no respit know, could my tears forever flow. All for sin could not atone, thou must save and thou alone. We are hopeless. We are absolutely helpless. We wouldn't stand for a second. We couldn't live it for a moment, were it not that this exceeding great power of God is in us.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Let me emphasize that before I leave you. The power I say is in us. What the apostle is praying for the Ephesians is not that they may realize their need of the power and then ask God for it and get it. That isn't his prayer. He prays that they may realize that it is in them. That view of the Christian which depicts him as a man who can go on as a Christian without this power of God and that he suddenly comes to a realization of his need and asks for it and gets it, is unscriptural, apart from anything else. It's not true to scripture.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: My friend, you cannot be a Christian for a second if the power of God doesn't sustain you. Yes, I think it's comparable to this. So many people seem to think of the natural creation in this way. They think that God created the world at the beginning, and then to use the old illustration like a watchmaker making a watch, having made the world, he wound it up, and he allowed it to go on for itself. But that isn't true. Do you know that it's the same God who made this world that is sustaining it every second? If God withdrew his power from the world that he's made, it would collapse immediately. It's the spirit of God that gives life and being and sustenance to all things. God not only made the world, God is sustaining the world. My father worketh hitherto and I work. He's gone on with it. He keeps the creation going, and if he withdrew his power, it would collapse.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Do you know it's exactly the same in the new creation? It's an utter fallacy to think that God makes a man anew, and then leaves him to himself, and that man 40 or 50 years later may realize his need of power and ask for it. No, no. He wouldn't have stood for a moment, were it not for this power of God. It's in him. God starts, God continues. You are a realization and mind of this that there is.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: But from the moment that a man puts that God puts his hand upon a man and gives him this new birth and this new life, he continues this power in him, and it goes on. What does it do? Well, it works like this. It is God that worketh in us both to will and to do. The power of God manifests itself and works in us through the word and through the Holy Spirit. He works in our personality, affects my will, he creates desires within me and longings. Hence, you know it, suddenly this desire I say to read the word, suddenly a desire to pray to God, where did it come from? God working in you, the Holy Spirit generating a prayer. Stimulating you to an activity, to will and to do. He's there constantly working. Did you notice how Isaac Watts put it in our first hymn? He has power subdues our sins. Thank God for that. He is working in us all along, and he uses his own word, and the spirit enlightens the word, and enlightens our understanding, and in these ways, God works in us.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And I hope next Sunday to go on to the other great respect in which it all happens in this way. That being in Christ, he being the head and we the body, the power comes through as it were. I hope to go on to that. But the great thing is, I say, to realize that God is working. And that sometimes when you and I don't know it, he's working. And if we do ignore his promptings to Bible reading and to scripture, well, you may suddenly find yourself in a sickbed. You may find yourself suddenly losing a lot of money. You may suddenly find yourself bereaved and sorrowing. And you suddenly awaken to the fact that you'd forgotten him, and had not needed his strength and power, and back you come on your knees and you begin to pray. What is it? God working?

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: It is a fearful thing to be in the hands of the living God. If your children, says the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, be prepared for chastisement. Oh, if you've got the life of God in you, he's started a good work in you and he's not going to give it up, and he's going to bring it to perfection. And if you won't be led, you'll be driven. If you won't be enticed and attracted, well, you'll be chastised. He's going to make you perfect. And he'll stop at nothing else. He which has begun a good work in us, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. The work will go on, the power of God will be exercised until we are faultless. Until we have become a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that we should be holy and without blemish. In the presence of God. Oh, beloved people, don't you agree now with what I was saying at the beginning? Is there anything more important for us than to know all this?

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: We are in the hands of God and he's working in us. He's given us this power to believe, he's working in us now, fashioning us, molding us, bringing us to perfection. And we can't avoid it, we can't escape it. We are in his hands and he will go on with it. Blessed be his name. Oh, that we might know it more and more. And realize the high privilege of our calling, the marvel, the miracle of this new life, which is all from God. And which is all by God. My comfort, my consolation, my strength, my assurance this morning is this. Is to know that God is working in me. And that he will never cease to work in me, until I stand before him in glory. Amen.