Ephesians 3:16

The Fullness of God, Part 2

Ephesians 3:16

1916

May 21, 1978

Sermon Summary

“Reset: Strengthened with Power in the Inner Man”

Text: Ephesians 3:14–21 (focus on v. 16)

I. Introduction: The “Ignition” Between Doctrine and Life

MacArthur reminds the congregation that Ephesians 3:14–21 is the “ignition switch” between:

Chapters 1–3 – what we are and have in Christ (resources, riches, power).

Chapters 4–6 – how we live in light of those realities (walk, obedience, relationships).

You can know all about the engine (doctrine) and even see the racecourse (commands in chs. 4–6), but unless you turn the key, you will never move. This passage describes how the Christian actually gets “turned on” spiritually so that Ephesians 3:20 (“exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think”) becomes lived experience rather than a slogan.

The prayer is Paul’s plea that already-rich Christians would use their spiritual wealth.

II. The Resource of Paul’s Prayer

— “And the resource for his prayer is in verse 16”

And the resource for his prayer is in verse 16. It is the riches of God's glory. See it there in the middle? In other words, he is saying, "God, on the basis of the riches of Your glory I want You to release this power in the believer?" And that little word riches reminded me that Paul has used that a multiple of times in the first three chapters. Christians are rich. We are so rich that we don't even comprehend how rich we are. In fact in chapter 1 in verse 18, Paul prays his first prayer in Ephesians. And he prays that we would know the riches of the glory of our inheritance.

In other words, it is an inconceivable, incomprehensible richness that we have. And having prayed that we would understand it in chapter 1, in chapter 3 in our text he prays that we would use it. "We are rich," he says in chapter 1, verse 7. "We have the riches of His grace." Verse 11, "We have an inheritance." Verse 14, again, "We have an inheritance. Incredible riches." Chapter 2, he tells us, verse 4, "God is rich." And then in verse 7, he wants to show us the exceeding riches of His grace. So in chapter 1, he says, "We're rich." In chapter 2, he says, "We're rich." In chapter 3, verse 8 - look at it - "That he should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." Once in each chapter, at least, he says that, "We are rich. Unsearchably rich. Incredibly rich. Inestimably rich," and so in chapter 1 he prays that we would understand it. And in chapter 3 he prays that God would enable in us - that God would enable us to use it. It doesn't do any good to be rich unless you use it.

“that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.”

Paul doesn’t ask according to human limitation, but according to the measure of God’s own glory. Earlier in Ephesians he has already used “riches” language repeatedly, so he now reaches back and says, in effect: “God, You’ve made them rich—now cause them to use what they have.”

III. The Believer’s Inconceivable Spiritual Wealth

— “‘We are rich,’ he says in chapter 1, verse 7”

— “Now, just how rich are we?”

Now, just how rich are we? Well I don't know how to illustrate it, other than to say this, "We are so rich," - now get this - "that we own everything God owns. That we possess everything He possesses." In case you question that, you need to read again Ephesians 1:3. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," - now listen to this - "who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ." We are as rich as heaven is. In fact, we have been made, according to Romans 8, "heirs and joint-heirs with Christ." We are as rich as heaven. God is going to, in the ages to come, pour out the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness on us. There's no limit to our riches in Christ.

Paul piles up “riches” language across the first three chapters:

Ephesians 1

v. 7: “the riches of His grace”

v. 11, 14: “an inheritance”

Ephesians 2

v. 4: “God, who is rich in mercy”

v. 7: “the exceeding riches of His grace”

Ephesians 3

v. 8: “the unsearchable riches of Christ”

We are “unsearchably, inestimably rich.” In chapter 1 Paul prays that we would understand those riches. In chapter 3 he prays that we would use them.

To illustrate:

Earth’s billionaires look impressive, but compared to God, they own almost nothing.

God owns everything: all commodities, earth, every planet, every star, every galaxy.

Spiritually, believers are heirs and joint-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8). What God owns, His people own with Him.

Ephesians 1:3: “who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ.”

We are as rich as heaven is rich. The tragedy: most believers live as if they were spiritual paupers—using, perhaps, “one-tenth of one percent” of the power available to them.

MacArthur uses vivid illustrations (Mr. Stamps in Downey, the tramp-like millionaire in England) to show how absurd it is to have great wealth and live as though you are destitute. Many believers are just like that spiritually—running around in the “tattered rags of their own inadequacy” while possessing divine power they never draw upon.

Paul’s prayer is a plea that immeasurably wealthy Christians would actually live like wealthy Christians—spiritually.

IV. The First Step in the Progression: Inner Strength

Here is the first step, "strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man." Now, this is where it all begins if you're going to know the power of God in your life. And you know, most Christians, as I say, never really experience it. They sort of limp along. They can't resolve their home conflicts. They have hassles getting along with their family. They can't seem to adjust to the job. The neighbors give them problems. They're sort of weak. They're sort of infirm on the inside when challenged with an incredible or important opportunity for service to Christ. They feel inadequate. They try to do the best they can to be an example of Christ but they falter. They have internal anxieties and pressures and problems. They've got to go to the Christian counseling center. They've got to get help. You know, most Christians never ever get to Ephesians 3:20. Never. They don't even know what it is to see exceeding abundantly above all they can ask or think operating in them. They don't even know that.

But, it isn't God’s fault. It is theirs, because the energy is there. The availability is there. The engine is there. The riches are there. It's only a matter of appropriation. And it's a sad thing that Christians, as well as the rest of the world suffer from a weak inner man. That's what he is trying to overcome here. The inner man is the real issue. You have a weak inner man. You suffer from frustration and mental strain and emotional and spiritual imbalance.

— “Here is the first step,”

Paul’s prayer unfolds in a sequence of “in order that” clauses (hina clauses):

Inner strength – strengthened with power by the Spirit in the inner man.

Indwelling Christ – Christ dwelling richly in the heart.

Incomprehensible love – comprehending and knowing Christ’s love.

Infinite fullness – being filled with all the fullness of God.

Internal power manifested – Ephesians 3:20 becoming reality.

You cannot skip steps. The first step is verse 16:

“that ye might be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.”

Most Christians never get here. They limp spiritually—unable to resolve family conflicts, adjust to work pressures, or seize opportunities for service without constant collapse. They are “weak on the inside,” burdened with anxiety, emotional imbalance, and chronic spiritual instability. They may even live off weekly external boosts (“John will give us a shot in the arm and we’ll be fine for another week”) instead of daily inner renewal.

The issue is the inner man.

V. The Inner Man vs. the Outer Man

— “Now, we would expect the unregenerate world to lose the battle of the inner man, wouldn't we?”

The inner man = the real you: heart, mind, spirit, soul. The outer man = your physical body, appearance, health, energy.

We take elaborate care of the outer man—clothes, grooming, meals, exercise, diets, “protein drinks.” Yet Scripture says bodily exercise profits little compared to the eternal value of the inner man.

MacArthur points to:

2 Corinthians 4:16 – “Though our outer man perishes, yet the inner man is renewed day by day.”

The Christian’s outer man declines with age: weakening, decaying.

But the inner man, if nourished by the Spirit, ascends—growing stronger, richer, deeper.

Ideally, as we age physically, we grow spiritually so rapidly that we become less concerned about the decline of the outer man. If aging and death terrify us, it may be because the inner man is not ascending in proportion to the outer man’s decline.

We expect the unregenerate to lose the battle of the inner man—driven by sin, emptiness, and lack of spiritual resources. He describes the wild neighborhood party, drunkenness, noise, drugs. That is what people without Christ do with their inner emptiness. They have no resource to control the inner man, so the flesh rules.

But the tragedy is that believers also often lose the same inner battle—anger, lust, despair, disobedience, prayerlessness—despite having the Spirit.

VI. Why Many Believers Lack Inner Strength

— “You say, ‘Well, what's the key?’”

You say, "Well, what's the key?" Galatians 5:16, "Walk in the Spirit and you'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh." That's - it's a simple truth. Walk in the Spirit. The New Testament word walk is the word of daily conduct. Conduct your daily life in the power of the Spirit. Conduct your daily life yielding to the Spirit. Conduct your daily life with a consciousness of the presence of the Spirit of God. That's basic. We must be Spirit-controlled, Spirit-filled, Spirit-conscious and that means walking in the Spirit. You can't just remember the Holy Spirit every so often. Walk in the Spirit. The walk is the picture of a step at a time, every step taken in the energy and the power and yieldedness to the Holy Spirit.

Over in 5:18 of Ephesians, look what it says. "And be not drunk with wine in which is excess, but be filled with the Spirit." The Greek says be being kept filled. Let it be a constant thing. Constantly filled up with the Spirit. Constantly filled up with the energy and the power of the Spirit of God. Now, it's interesting to note that you will never be able to do that unless the Spirit of God is in your conscious mind. In other words, you can't - let me reduce it this way. Living in the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, being filled with the Spirit, being strengthened by the Spirit means that you've got to be conscious of the Spirit. You get up in the morning and it's a question of decisions. Right? All of life is decisions. You decide whether you're going to get out of bed or not. And decide what you're going to eat or what you're not going to eat. Decision, decision, decision, decision. The simplicity of walking in the Spirit is simply yielding each one to the Holy Spirit. Yield each decision to the Holy Spirit.

— “You say, ‘Well how do you do that?’”

You say, "Well how do you do that?" It’s very simple. Very simple. You fill your mind with the Word of God.

You see, in Ephesians 5:18 it says, "Be filled with the Spirit," a parallel passage Colossians 3:16 says, "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly." It’s the same thing. You allow the word of God to saturate you. "Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against You." As I hide the word in my heart, as it saturates me, it begins to control my thinking processes. And as it controls my thinking processes, then the Spirit of God brings it to mind instantly at the point of each decision. And then when I yield to that, one step at a time, I strengthen my spiritual muscle. Every time I yield to the Holy Spirit, I exercise my spiritual muscle and I get a little bit stronger in the inner man. Paul said, "I can do all things through Christ who" - what? - "strengthens me." But, I've got to yield to Him. I've got to yield to His Spirit. I can't do it apart from Him. He - Paul is praying that our inner man would grow strong as we yield to the Spirit. You'll never do that until you're in the Word of God. We all receive the Spirit.

If Paul’s inner man was renewed daily, why not ours?

The answer:

The strengthening of the inner man is the work of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit’s ministry is hindered when we grieve Him or quench Him.

We possess the Spirit (Rom. 8:9). The power is there. But we “cut off the flow” through disobedience, indifference, and unbelief.

The key:

Galatians 5:16 – “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”

Ephesians 5:18 – “Be not drunk with wine…but be filled with the Spirit” (literally, “keep on being filled”).

To be strengthened in the inner man, we must:

Live in daily dependence on the Spirit.

Walk step by step in conscious yieldedness—each decision surrendered to His will.

Let the Spirit constantly fill and control us, as thoroughly as alcohol controls a drunk.

You cannot live most of your life in self-will and then expect “inner man renewal” to show up on demand. Inner strength is the fruit of ongoing, moment-by-moment surrender.

VII. The Role of the Word and Spiritual “Muscle”

— “In fact, 1 Corinthians 12 says, ‘We've all been made to drink in the one Spirit.’”

— “And you know what happens?”

And you know what happens? I've always defined spiritual growth as this: spiritual growth is the decreasing frequency of sin. You see, the more you exercise your spiritual muscle, the more you yield to the Spirit of God, the more the Spirit of God controls your life, the less sin is there. It's never the absence of sin; it's the decreasing frequency of it. And, by the way, the more you grow and the more it decreases, the more heinous it is when it does show up.

To “walk in the Spirit” and be “filled with the Spirit,” you must be saturated with the Word:

Ephesians 5:18 – “Be filled with the Spirit”

Colossians 3:16 – “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly”

These are functional parallels: being filled with the Spirit is inseparable from being filled with the Word.

MacArthur explains:

Life is a chain of constant decisions—what to do, say, think, watch, pursue.

Walking in the Spirit means bringing each decision under His rule.

To do that, the Word must dwell richly in the mind so the Spirit can bring Scripture to bear at the exact moment of decision.

When you choose to obey that Spirit-brought truth, you exercise spiritual muscle.

Every Spirit-led “yes” to obedience and “no” to sin:

Strengthens the inner man.

Increases sensitivity to the Spirit.

Makes the next obedient decision easier.

1 Corinthians 12:13 says we have all been “made to drink into one Spirit.” The problem is not that we lack access; the problem is that some believers hardly “drink”—they rarely feed on the Word; they rarely yield. They never build spiritual muscle.

He challenges the listener:

Add up the time you spend on the outer man in a day (eating, grooming, exercise).

Then spend at least that much time on the inner man (Word + prayer).

That kind of investment would revolutionize your life.

Over time, this pattern forms habits. He uses his own life as an example: he once hated study and did the bare minimum. But as he repeatedly exercised his will to obey God and engage in the Word, the Spirit strengthened his inner man so that now, studying and teaching Scripture is his natural joy.

“It isn’t mystical, and it doesn’t happen overnight. It’s the process of spiritual exercise.”

Spiritual Growth Defined

MacArthur offers a simple, penetrating definition:

“Spiritual growth is the decreasing frequency of sin.”

Not the absence of sin, but:

Sin happens less often,

Becomes more shocking and heinous when it does occur,

And obedience grows increasingly normal.

That is what it means to be “strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.”

VIII. Paul as a Model of Inner Strength

Paul’s life shows what a strong inner man looks like:

Acts 20 – warned of suffering in Jerusalem, he says,

“None of these things move me…neither count I my life dear unto myself.”

2 Corinthians 11 – beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, in danger, hungry, cold, under pressure from the churches—yet not crushed.

2 Corinthians 4 (Phillips) – “We may be knocked down, but we are never knocked out.” The “outer man suffers wear and tear, but every day the inner man receives fresh strength.”

Paul had so grown away from the outer man that he could say, honestly,

“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

Death simply removes the shell so that the inner man’s fellowship with Christ is unhindered.

IX. Pastoral Appeal and Call to Prayer

MacArthur closes by calling believers to covenant before the Lord:

Pray this prayer for yourself daily for a week:

“Lord, strengthen me with might by Your Spirit in the inner man.”

Pray the same prayer for someone else you love (spouse, child, parent, friend).

He believes God answers such prayers, and that a church full of people turning their focus from the outer man to the inner man could see radical transformation:

“Though your outer man got one day older, your inner man got one day stronger.”

This is the foundation for all the later steps (indwelling Christ, comprehending love, fullness of God, manifest power).

Historical / Theological Context

Written by Paul from prison (likely Rome) to the church in Ephesus and surrounding believers.

Ephesians emphasizes union with Christ, the church as God’s dwelling, and the Trinitarian nature of salvation.

Ephesians 3:14–21 is a Trinitarian prayer: the Father (“according to the riches of His glory”), the Spirit (“in the inner man”), and Christ (“may dwell in your hearts”) are all active in the believer.

The language of “inner man” and “outer man” reflects OT and Jewish thought about heart and body, sharpened by the NT’s teaching on regeneration and sanctification.

Key Cross-References

Inner vs. outer man: 2 Corinthians 4:16

Spiritual riches and inheritance: Ephesians 1:3–14; Romans 8:16–17

Walking in the Spirit: Galatians 5:16–25

Being filled with the Spirit / Word: Ephesians 5:18; Colossians 3:16

Spiritual warfare and weakness: Romans 7–8

Perseverance amid suffering: 2 Corinthians 4:7–12; 2 Corinthians 11:23–29

Suggested Memory Verses

Ephesians 3:16 – “that He would grant you…to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.”

2 Corinthians 4:16 – “though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.”

Galatians 5:16 – “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.”

Ephesians 5:18 – “Be not drunk with wine…but be filled with the Spirit.”

Application Points

Reassess Your Preoccupation Compare your care for the outer man (food, grooming, exercise) with your investment in the inner man (Word, prayer, obedience).

Pray Paul’s Prayer Daily Make Ephesians 3:16 a daily, earnest request—for yourself and at least one other believer.

Immerse Yourself in Scripture Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly so the Spirit has “handles” to guide your decisions.

Practice Moment-by-Moment Yielding At each decision point, consciously ask, “What does the Spirit, through the Word, call me to do?” Then say “yes” to Him and “no” to sin.

Redefine Growth View spiritual progress as the decreasing frequency of sin and the increasing normality of obedience.

Loosen Your Grip on the Outer Man As you age or suffer physically, let this push you to value the inner man more and more, like Paul did.

Teaching Outline (Addendum)

Title: Reset – Strengthened with Power in the Inner Man Text: Ephesians 3:14–21 (focus v. 16)

I. The Place of This Prayer in Ephesians II. The Resource of the Prayer – the Riches of God’s Glory III. The Believer’s Spiritual Wealth – “We Are Rich” IV. The Progression of the Prayer – Five Steps to Full Power

Inner strength

Indwelling Christ

Comprehending love

Fullness of God

Manifest power (v. 20) V. The Inner Man vs. the Outer Man VI. The Role of the Spirit – Walking and Being Filled VII. The Role of the Word – Drinking of the Spirit VIII. Spiritual Exercise and Growth IX. Paul as a Model of Inner Strength X. Call to Prayer: For Ourselves and for Others

Discussion Guide (Addendum)

How does this sermon change the way you think about your spiritual wealth in Christ?

In what ways do you see yourself investing far more in the outer man than the inner man?

What does it practically mean, in your week, to be “strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man”?

How have you experienced the tension of Romans 7 (inner desires vs. outward failure)? How does Romans 8 and this sermon help?

What steps can you take to saturate your mind with Scripture so that your decisions are Spirit-guided?

Who will you commit to pray for this week using Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:16?

How might your view of aging, suffering, or death change if you truly believed the inner man can be renewed day by day?

Reference

John MacArthur. https://www.gty.org/sermons/1916/the-fullness-of-god-part-2