But God

But God

Salvation from God’s perspective (Chapter 1)

• Michael Huskey (the importance of growing in knowledge and understanding, and the supremacy of Christ over everything)

Chapter 2 – Salvation from man’s perspective

• This is the biography of every Christian!  If your story doesn’t match up to this passage, I would ask you to consider the genuineness of your salvation.  Scripture calls on us to repeatedly, continuously, test yourself (examine) to see whether or not you are in fact “in the faith”.  

Ephesians 2:1-7

Context/Story 

• John Stott – “Paul first plumbs the depths of pessimism about mankind, and then rises to the heights of optimism about God. It is this combination of pessimism and optimism, of despair and faith, which constitutes the refreshing realism of the Bible. For what Paul does in this passage is to paint a vivid contrast between what man is by nature and what he can become by grace.”

Before Christ (vs 1-3)

• • The Extent of the fall, and the seriousness of the human condition.
    • If you were to walk up to a person on the street and ask them the question, are you a good person, not only would they say yes, but 1 in 2, 50% would say, they are actually the best person they know.  81% would say that people are generally good. 
  • The Bible describes men and women apart from Christ as something very dark, and deeply disturbing…  Sinners are far more evil than they realize.  We are not essentially good, with a few occasional blemishes, no, you and I were corrupt, through and through… Rotten to the core. And before you start to think about how that isn’t fair, or you “aren’t that bad” let me remind you that God knows every sin, every inclination, every thought, you have ever had. (he sees your lust, your greed, your anger, your jealousy, your self righteousness, your posturing, your pride, he knows every thought of man)
    • Dead means dead. Not dying, Not kinda dead, We have been dead since birth.
      1. “You just need a little more of Jesus’ help”   No dead is our natural spiritual state.  
         • Implications of spiritual death (Jesus is not a lifeguard)
         • Cannot Swim, Cannot run, Cannot see, Cannot hear, Cannot comprehend spiritual things apart from a supernatural work of God.
         • We are essentially walking corpses.  
           • Like zombies, they are both dead, decaying, AND walking in opposition to God.  
      2. John 3:3-7 – Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
    • Three Evil Forces to Consider in our dead state from the text

• A soldier in the enemy’s army.

• • • 1. • “The Prince of the power of the air” I don’t know any better way to interpret this than literally.  That the very air we breathe, the atmosphere we live in, is dominated and permeated by the forces of Satan.  He shapes the culture, the patterns of this world, to accomplish His purposes.
         • John 8:44 – Jesus is speaking to those who claim to be followers of God.  You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
           • The course of this world follows the leadership and design of satan.  His soldiers are on the same spiritual wavelength.  

• Following this world

• • 1. • “The course of this world” Like a weather vane, that turns at the whims of the culture around it.  We see it play out every day here in America.  Jumping on the next societal, political, entertainment driven band wagon.  No moral backbone will ever be found in a culture that has abandoned God.
         • And the worst part is that Christians are desperately trying to keep one foot in both worlds.  Believers are willingly fawning over, worshiping, and enslaving themselves to media icons, pop culture, and rampant sin in every way imaginable. 
    2. Carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.  
       • Romans 1:29-32 – They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
       • Sin kills our Innocence
         • Adam and Eve – you cannot go back to how it was before
       • Sin kills our conscience
         • Each time we choose evil, we beat down that God given side of us that knows it is wrong.  And before we realize it, our conscience is so numb and seared that we are calling evil things good, and good things evil.  
       • Sin kills our willpower
         • The more we sin, the easier it is to sin.  Some of you don’t even think twice.  Even now you may have something in your mind that you know is wrong. That you know you should get rid of.  But you justify it away.  (no big deal, i need this, I deserve it, they had it coming, I am the victim)
  • After these verses, we begin to wonder if anything worse could possibly be said about fallen men and women.  It seems as if nothing more could be added… Yet Paul does add something. Something so horrible, something so overwhelming, that the other descriptions actually fade into the background when placed next to it. 
  • We are ALL Under the Wrath of God
    1. There is a cowardice regarding the wrath of God today.  Preachers don’t like to talk about it.  They will do Greek word studies to try to explain it away. “Wrath doesn’t mean wrath…” but the problem is, that 99.9% of the time, the Bible means in the Greek exactly what it says in the English.
       • But Brandon, what about God is love! God is Love! (I feel better) We must be careful not to take one attribute of God and make it all of God.  All attributes of God work together.  (God is described as holy)
    2. the wrath of God should create in us a sense of urgency that we are under a death sentence… the clock is ticking.  After this life there is no second chance, and we better get this thing straightened out with Jesus right now while there’s still time because it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 

• Apply
  • So what are we to do?  Humanly speaking, nothing can be done.  The sinner cannot save himself, nor can he save those around him.  Because of all of this, we are doomed. We have no hope.  But it really sets the stage for a great rescue does it not?
    • The Best Stories
      1. Low stakes, low payoff. (kid lost their bike)
      2. But the ones where the stakes are the highest… stir us from the very depths.
         • We all love a great rescue (We are becoming a dog family)

Because of Christ (vs 4-7)

• • But God 
    • Martin Lloyd Jones rightly says, “These two words in and of themselves, in a sense contain the whole of the Gospel”  They tell us how God has intervened in what was formerly completely hopeless!
      • It describes the way in which God has chosen to save sinners. It has always been by his might, his power, his grace, and his initiative.
        • Joseph – Genesis 50:20a – As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good
        • David
        • Jesus – Matthew 19:26 – But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
      • Isn’t it wonderful to discover that although we run from God, in our sin and rebellion, God has not run from us?
      • Rather he has given us a great deal!
    • Made us alive Together with Christ.
      • Dead children of wrath do not become living, loving children of God but for God.
      • He did so by taking our God-Hating, God-ignoring, God-rivaling, God-wrath inducing sin and placing it on his Son, whom the Bible calls “The Life”, and the Father said: “die”. And so He who knew no sin became our sin for us.   For an infinitely hellish moment, Jesus Christ became a child of wrath…for us — the righteous for the unrighteous, so that we might become the righteousness of God.  
    • Raised us up
      • Spiritual life! – God called us back to life!  Our dead, rotten, diseased, monstrous state was cured through Christ alone.  
      • Elevated our status to the heavenly realm.  Sin is replaced with holiness, the pit is replaced with the heavenly realm, slavery is replaced with freedom, Paupers became princes,  rebels became royalty by the blood of the king. 

• • 3 Great attributes of God

• Great Love

• • • God who needs nothing, loves into existence unnecessary beings, seeing from the moment of their creation the nails that would pierce his hands, the whip that would tear his flesh, the spear that would pierce his side, and the wood on which he would be tortured.  C.S. Lewis – “This is the diagram of love, from the inventor of all loves”

• Great Mercy

• • • Defined – Not getting that bad you deserve
      • Justice is God’s right. He had every reason to dole it out, yet he did not give that which we deserved.

• Great Grace

• • By Grace you have been saved. (unmerited favor)
    • What is the greatest gift you have ever gotten?
      • Wife? Kids? 
      • Your greatest gift is Christ.  

Conclusion

• Did you notice how God replaced all 3 evil forces?  Where once we were chasing the world, he raised us up and made us citizens of a new one.  Where once we were slaves of the prince of the power of the air, He raised us higher than that power, and freed us to reign with the prince of Heaven.  Where once we were bound up in our sinful desires, he caused us to be born again, with new desires, new loves, and gave us the strength to carry them out. 
  • Our response – Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.