They say that practice is supposed
to make things easier. They've never had to try and
do this. It's not getting any easier, folks. If anything, it
may be harder every time you attempt it. Before we start, let's please
bow our head in prayer. Lord, today I come to you with
a very simple prayer for both myself and for all here this
morning. Make that song that we just sang.
Not just come from our lips, but from our hearts. And then
if it be thy will, dear Lord, please apply it to each and every
one of us. Make the Lord Jesus Christ mine. and most especially make me His. The only hope I have, the only
hope any have, is to be found in Him. Amen. Alright, Ephesians
chapter 2. And if this looks familiar to
you, that's good. That means you were here last
week and you were paying attention because this is where Mark came
from last week. And as he was going through those
verses, one verse caught my attention. And I had a thought about maybe
what I wanted to do with that verse this morning, and now I'm
standing up here this morning, and it's dawned on me I never
got to that part. But I still would like to work
on verse 10 this morning. So if you would, let's look at
it, and let's read it for the first time. Verse 10, it says,
for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. So that's going to be my goal
this morning, is to go by this verse really step by step, in
some cases word by word, and go on into it in a little more
expounded version this morning. But before we get to that, I
would like to re-read those same verses that Mark read to us last
week. So with that, we'll begin in
chapter 1, I'm sorry, chapter 2 at verse 1. And Paul writes
here, and you, and you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses
and sins, wherein in time past you walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit thou now worketh in the children of disobedience,
among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in
the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
you are saved. and hath raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that
in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of
his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus under good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. I'm sure some of y'all may have
even a little bit more experience with this than me. But as you
age, things change. My hearing's getting worse. Part
of that has to do with the fact that I think that, especially
growing up, when I was listening to music, if the windows weren't
rattling, the radio wasn't on. And between that and just the
fact that I'm a wood to start with, it's starting to catch
up with me. I don't see very well. I've got these glasses
on and they are helping, but they're about two years old now,
and even they're getting where they don't do any of the job
anymore. But there's one sense I've got
that's actually improved in some ways as I've gotten older, and
that's my sense of smell. Not that I can distinguish things
much better, but if it stinks, I know it. When I come to this verse, it
reminded me of myself and when I go to the refrigerator and
I see something stuck back there in the back and I don't know
who put it there and I have no idea how long it's been there. I'll take that container out
and I'll hold it at arm's length and wish I could do it more and
slowly pull that thing back trying not to get a whiff of it. Afraid
of what it smells like. When I read this verse I lift this verse up and I see
what it's all about. I don't like the way I smell. What I'm trying to say is that
when I weigh myself in the balance of this verse, most especially
this middle part here where it says, unto good works, I just
seem to come up lacking. I just don't seem to have any
good works. I have a problem with myself
and good works. But Paul says we're supposed
to have them. And I detest myself for that. Paul in these verses are strengthening
his readers. That seems to be what he's attempting
to do. But it only makes me detest myself even more. And if you
look at yourself maybe in some ways like I do, well then maybe
this morning I'll have a little something to help you. At least
I hope I will at the end. Probably knowing me, I'll be
out of time and won't even be able to get there. Because there
is some hope in this verse. And I do hope to get there. But
I want to look at the whole thing. Like I say, maybe if you are
a little like me, maybe hopefully I'll have something to say for
you this morning or something to say to you this morning. But
if you've got no problems with your works, you think you've
got plenty of them, you're happy with yourself, well, I'm going
to give you my apologies. I really don't think I've got
anything to offer you this morning. So I'll just tell you that up
front. So what I'd like to do now is
just look at this verse and a little more in detail. And Paul begins
with these two words, for we, for we. So with that, I ask,
who's the we? When you're reading scripture,
it's always a good idea to know just for whom a passage is written
to. So it helps to know who's the
we. Now included in this little two-letter word is, of course,
the author. He's part of this we. And since
he's an apostle, I think we can safely conclude that he is a
follower and a believer of the Lord Jesus Christ. But who else
makes up this we? Well, it's easy in this case
for us to figure out. Turn back over to chapter one
and verse one. Paul tells us in the very first
verse of this chapter who the we are. He writes, Paul, an apostle
of Jesus Christ, how? By the will of God. I'm gonna
be looking a lot at the will of God today. To the saints which
are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. So we've got
Paul, and now we've got two more groups included in this we. First,
we have the saints in the Ephesus church. Not just the attendees
of the church, but the more specific saints of the church. Paul's
not writing to those who are just hanging out there, those
who are just showing up to church because it's good for their public
image to be seen as an upright religious person. He's not writing
to those who are attending church just so they'll be eligible to
play on the softball team this summer. He's not writing to those
who happen to have a good voice and so therefore they're in the
choir. Why? They like their pride tickle
when everybody comes up to them, oh that was a great song you
sung this morning. He's not writing to those folks.
He's not writing to those who attend that church just because
they want their kid to go to that church's private school,
because we know that, you know, the demons attend public school.
There's only little angels in the little Christian private
schools. We all know that, right? And he's not even writing to
those who are there to attend yoga classes headed by the pastor.
And that was a new one on me. Marie caught wind of that the
other day. A church advertising yoga classes. Like I say, once again, I come
up with the conclusion churches are nothing nowadays but adult
daycare centers. That's not who Paul's writing
to. He's writing to people just like himself. He's writing to
saints. He's writing to servants of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And these saints, they're really
a subset of this third group that is mentioned here, and that's
all the faithful in Christ Jesus. The faithful in Christ Jesus.
And when he throws in those words that he's writing to those people,
we can bring this same scripture all the way forward in time to
today. And if you're faithful in Christ
Jesus, Paul's writing to you too. He's got something to say
to you. He's got something to say to
you at this very present hour. So let's see what he's going
to tell us. He continues in this verse 10 of chapter 2. He says,
For we are His. These we, Paul, And those whose
faith lies solely upon Jesus, they belong to God. God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. These we, they're the
adopted children of God. We're going to read that verse
from chapter one shortly. They're brought out of this world
and they're brought into the family of God as brothers and
sisters. with our Lord Jesus Christ. They
are His. They are God's. It says, for we are His workmanship. We are His workmanship. Now the
construction of a fine home or a building, it takes the efforts
and the talents of a lot of people. And they all have to come together
to make sure that it's all completed and done properly. You've got the architect that
comes up with the design. Then you come in with the folks
who lay the foundation. And then you have framers and
carpenters and fine-skilled carpenters and drywall experts, roofers,
floors, all numbered. It's just surprising how many
people it takes to build a single structure like that. That's how it is in the construction
of a true Christian. But in this case, it's the work
of the triune God. And it's His work and His work
alone. And I can think of no better
scripture as evidence to the truth than what Paul himself
has laid out for us right here in Ephesians. So if you would,
turn back to verse 1. And I just want to look at a
few verses where he enumerates some of the work that the triune
God does to As I'm putting it this morning,
to make a believer, to create a believer. Let's just look at
verses 1, chapter 1, 4 through 6 right quick. It says, according
as he, and this is God the Father, As according as He hath chosen
us in Him, as He has chosen this we that we're speaking about
this morning, chosen them in Christ before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself. He's not only predestinated them
in the choosing of his children, but also appointing the times
and the means of when, where, and how he'll bring each and
every adopted child unto himself. By Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will, the same will that made Paul
an apostle. To the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved."
Verse 4 and verse 6, it has those words. He hath chosen us and
He hath made us accepted. This is the work of God the Father
in the making of a Christian. And in verse 7, we move to God
the Son. in whom in the Lord Jesus Christ
we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins
according to the riches of his grace. Now it's a shame that I won't
be able to spend more time on this verse here. But as I was thinking about this
yesterday, There's 19 words in this verse,
if I counted correctly. And as I view them, they're the
most important, and the most necessary, and the most amazing,
and the most wonderful work that has ever been performed on this
planet, from the beginning of time till now. In just those
19 words, Paul gives us an outline here of the work that the Savior
did, both in his life and in his death, both in living that
perfect life, that perfect and upright life, and then dying
on the cross as a sacrificial lamb and as a substitute for
his sinful brothers and sisters. And that acceptance that is spoken
of in verse 6 that I just read to you, it is only possible because
of the work that He did. That shedding of the blood is
a payment for the penalty of His loved one's sins, but also
that imputed righteousness that they wear. The righteousness
that He provided for them is Spoken of, I believe, in the
Revelation by Saint John, he says that they wear robes that
are made white. How? In the blood of the lamb. When he died on the cross, he
secured their righteousness. What's heaven going to be like? What are we going to do in heaven?
Talk to some people that think they're going to throw around
the gold coins all today and drive Cadillacs. Nah. The angels, all the heavenly
creatures, and all these wearers of these white robes of Christ's
righteousness, they're going to be raising their voices in
continual praise for this Savior and for this work that Paul just
told to us. That's what heaven is going to
be like. That's the work of the Son in
the making of a believer. And not last, but just because
it comes in this order, we come to God the Spirit. Look at verse
13 with me, chapter 1. In whom you also trusted, after
that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation,
and whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with
that Holy Spirit of promise. Now this week I happened to listen
to an old sermon of Rupert from a few years back. I didn't even
look at the exact date, but I could tell by what he was saying that
it was a few years old now. And he made the statement in
that that scriptures can sometimes be stingy on the information
that they provide to you on certain topics. I've always found that
in my case, in my experience, I've always found that to be
the case in the work of the Spirit. I'm always wanting to learn more,
and when I do and read and study what little bit I can find, I
just never seem to be satisfied with it. And that's most especially
true right here in Ephesians chapter 1. So I don't want to
overstep my bounds, and I'm not going to elaborate too much,
but I'll just make the statement on what the Spirit does for a
child of God. I'll put it this way. I made
the statement a few moments ago that the time of love and the
time of mercy when God brings His adopted children to Himself,
it's already appointed. It's at this appointed time.
that the Spirit opens the believer's ears of understanding. The truth
of the gospel, the truth of the gospel which is no more, no less,
but the truth of Jesus Christ. That's what it's about. And that
truth that the necessity of having Christ and Christ alone as a
Savior, the Spirit reveals that. to sinners, and He makes them
needy and willing and ready to hear that message when the fruit
is ripe. And look closely at the language
that ends this verse. It says, You were sealed with
that Holy Spirit of promise. The believer is sealed. To me, this gives the picture
of the believer being wrapped up tight and kept until the final
day when he'll be carried home with Christ. This language has the force and
security of a seal that cannot be broken and will not be broken
because it's held tight by the very hand of God. To me, that's
what blessed assurance looks like in the scriptures, being
sealed with the Spirit. But now for a study assignment
for you. Take some time, when you can, and read these first
14 verses of Ephesians chapter 1. And see if you can come up
with an argument against anything that I'm about to say to you.
And that's that the making of a Christian is God's work and
God's work alone. Look at the words in Ephesians
1 very, very closely. You'll find things like this,
or you won't find things like this, that belonging to a Christian
family, it does you no good. You won't find household salvation
anywhere in those 14 verses. Being a member of a church, that's
not salvation, just because your name's on a roll somewhere. Paul's
writing to the saints and to the faithful. He's not writing
to the attendees. A lot of devils go to churches,
folks. He's not writing to those who
are performing and partaking in religious activities and wearing
religious clothing and trinkets and thinking that that makes
them more holy than other folks. That kind of stuff, it makes
you know better than anybody wearing a plain orange jumpsuit
this morning. And if you don't know, that's
what they wear in prison. But take special care when you
read these verses and if you study them, if you take the opportunity
to do it as I ask, you will not see anywhere in these verses
any work done by the believer in the salvation of himself. What is described is the work
done to make a believer and not any work done by a believer.
Works come, but they come later. They're described in our verse
of the day, Ephesians 2.10. Remember this, if you will. Works
are a result of salvation, not the cause of salvation. Night
and day difference. So as we return back to verse
10 of chapter 2, we come up to the next word in our verse, and
it says, for we are His workmanship Created. Created. When this is added, it's as if
to me that the work and the power that it takes to make a believer,
it just turns it up a notch. I think about how we often In
relation to how this word is written here, I think we often
misuse the word created. I'll give you a quick example
of what I'm talking about here. Think of what a sculptor does. He'll take a block of stone,
and he'll chip away at it, and he'll mold it, and he'll sand
it, and he'll polish it, and he'll do this and that. There
are some artists out there who can make magnificent works of
art out of nothing but a block of stone. But sometimes we'll refer to
that as him creating a piece of work. That's not really what
he did. He did not create the stone. He may have chosen that stone,
said, I want to use this one. He may have had it shipped to
his studio where he could have worked on it. But all he does
is change its form. He does not create it. He could
have just as easily have made a statue of Bugs Bunny out of
it. He could have done anything with it, but he did not make
the stone. He did not create it. But that's not so in the making
of a believer. It takes a creation. It takes
God and God alone making something out of nothing. Something out
of nothing. This speaks of two things. First
thing, just what poor shape a sinner is in. See, God, He just doesn't gussy
up the old man. That man is spiritually dead.
He wants nothing to do with the true God of heaven and earth.
It's not that that man doesn't want to be religious. There are
a lot of people who want to be religious. They just don't want
nothing to do with this sovereign living God that we just read
of in Ephesians 1. The God who saves sinners. The
God who makes believers. This man, this old man, he's
dead. Paul's told us right here in
Ephesians 2, he's dead and trespasses and sins. And he faces an eternity
spent in destruction and misery. Now Paul did a pretty good job
right here in chapter 2 of stating the condition of an unconverted
believer. If you look back at verse 3,
you see he writes, among whom also we, the same we, the saints
and the faithful and Paul himself, we had our conversation, or maybe
better translated, Our conduct or our manner of life, we have
that in times past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the
desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we're by nature the
children of wrath, even as others. People just don't want to face
up to the fact that as God views man, as God the Father views
man, and that's all man, right down starting at the lowest,
meanest, foulest fellow you can find, all the way up to the more
upright folk you can find. He still views them all as children
of wrath. All men. Be honest with yourself. Look
at who God's making a comparison to. You and the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ, the perfect sinless man,
never broke the moral law, never broke the written law, never
broke the ceremonial law. Versus you. And if you're like
me, you didn't get out of bed this morning without one or two
sins coming across. We think in sin. Compare yourself to Christ. How do you measure up? Do Paul's words describe you? I've got a bad example here,
but I'll use it anyway. Look at a perfect, unblemished
fruit hanging on a tree, ripe, ready to be taken. Then compare that to an apple
or orange or something that's laid up on your counter for about
three weeks uneaten. Nasty looking rotten on the bottom
where it's sitting all the moisture going out of it In case you're not getting the
comparison this dried up rotting fruit That's you The scripture say for all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God No exception on
a good day, we're rotting fruit on a good day. Yet, even with
that, it pleased God to save creatures, creatures such as
Paul, and creatures described here
in Ephesians 2, or Ephesians, the ones he's writing to. It pleased God to save some to
eternal glory. What a wonderful merciful God
we have, that He would save sinners such as we are. Now Genesis 1-1,
it starts this way. In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth. And I don't know if you've ever
spent much time in contemplation over this subject, but it speaks
to the wonder and the power of God Almighty. The fact that any
of us exist is because God created the first man, and then he provided
him with the help meat. The fruits and the grains and
animals that provide our nourishment, all created by God. What's become a necessary way
of our life, the way I'm bringing this message to you this morning,
electricity. We can't live without electricity
anymore, I do not believe. God created it. It just took
man centuries upon centuries before we discovered it. That's
what all scientific discovery is, isn't it? It's nothing but
us figuring out what God created so long, long ago. It's already
here. We just stumble across it every
once in a while. He allows us to stumble upon
his wonders every once in a while for our betterment. This power that it takes to create
all things that exist, it's the same power that it takes God
to create a believer. And just as Moses in Genesis
and Solomon in the Proverbs, if you'd like to look at Proverbs
chapter 8, I believe it is, it describes the work of creation.
The prophet Ezekiel explains the creation of a believer in
this way. You don't have to turn. You know
these verses. Ezekiel 36, 24 through 27. For I will take you from among
the heathen and gather you out of all countries and will bring
you into your own land. You go back and you reread those
first three verses in Ephesians 2. This is what's being described
here. God bringing a sinner out of
this sinful world. He says, then will I sprinkle
clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your
filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you. That,
folks, is being washed in the blood of that dear, precious
lamb. A new heart also will I give
you, and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will take away
the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you in heart
of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to
walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments and do
them." That is the work of the Spirit. And there at the end, that's
part of those good works I'm going to speak about there in
just a few minutes. So I ask this question, can the
rotting fruit sitting on the counter restore into itself the
life it had when it hung on the tree or the vine? Of course not. Neither can the rotting sinner
do anything for himself. It takes God. God who has the
power as Ezekiel. I just read to you from Ezekiel.
It takes that God to save a sinner. Creation is God's work, both
in the making of the universe and in the making of a believer.
To know that it takes this much power to save a sinner, that's
a statement to just what condition the unconverted man is in. The verse that came to my mind
when I thought about that was what the psalmist wrote. Behold,
I was shaping in iniquity. We are seeing through and through.
It's made in. It takes God to save it, save
us from it. So to continue on our verse.
It goes for. We are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus. And I up front have to give thanks
to Mr. Spurgeon here. I read some of his works on this
passage, and he gave a couple places I could have went to do
some research, but I just didn't have time to do it, so I'll just
borrow some of what the Prince of Preachers thought on this
subject. Now, it doesn't seem that it took the first man created,
Adam, too long to fall into sin. And with that sin, he subsequently,
he stood under the judgment and the curse of God. And every man and woman that's
been born since that time has done nothing but prove that they
are most definitely the offspring of this first man. And they too
are nothing but sin through and through. And like Adam, they
stand under the judgment of God. So for this reason, God deals
with all man through the first man. To put it in terms that
as I look around, I think everyone here this morning has heard it
before, Adam is our federal representative. If you don't believe it, ask
yourself these questions. And think back to Genesis after
Adam's fall. Is the ground still cursed for
you? Does your garden grow weeds easier than it grows fruit and
vegetables? Do thorns and thistles still surround you? Do you have
problems every time you turn around? Everything seems to bar
your way. Do you eat by the sweat of your
brow? Even the rich have many problems
on their minds. do men still die? Adam fail, you fail. Adam's curse
is your curse. Adam is a sinner's representative,
but not so for a believer. His federal representative is
Jesus Christ. That's what Paul is telling us
here in this verse. And that's why the new man, the
new man that Paul speaks of in Ephesians 4, the new man that's
after God, created in righteousness and true holiness, this new believer
is created in Christ. And God deals with each and every
one of those found in Christ, those created in Christ, just
as He deals with Christ. He is their representative. Because
my time is limited and I'll need to move on. I'll put it this
way. Let me see how I want to do to
truncate this. For those who are found in Christ,
God deals with them in love. He loves His Son, and He loves
those who are found in His Son. And this love results in grace
and mercy. grace and mercy that has been
and will be shown to an untold multitude of hell-deserving sinners. So now I go to the part of this
verse that I've already admitted to you gives me a lot of problems,
a lot of consternation. For we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. I sat at my desk this morning,
and I tried to think of maybe a good work I did this past week. And I can honestly say to you,
I don't know that I came up with one. The only thing I think I
came close was I bit my tongue when I was talking with some
co-workers a couple times, but that was only for selfish reasons.
I get so tired of getting on, I just quit every once in a while. Good works just seem to be hard
to find for me. So I'm admitting to you that
I don't know too much of what I'm speaking about here. But
as I thought about it and read and studied a little bit and
truncated some, I'm going to describe good works, the good
works maybe that Paul's speaking of here into two categories. First, there's works of obedience. And that's the keeping of God's
laws and precepts and commands. And I guess as I think about
it, works done in faith, they would be included here. Works
that you do just because they're the right thing to do. Because
it's God's way. And God's way is the only way.
And works that you do in reliance on him, I guess they can be considered
good works. But that comes with a warning.
You do these works because they are the right thing to do and
not because you're angling for a reward. The example I have
to you on that is to think of the rich young ruler. He kept
all the Ten Commandments, didn't he? He told you he did. Didn't
turn out too well for him, did it? Then there are works of love.
Works of love. There's very much evidence of
that here in this place. There are so many kindnesses
and services that so many of you do, not only for one another,
but for your family members and others throughout the community.
Things that you've done for me and my family. I sit back and
I wonder sometime about where some of you get all the energy
and the time to do all that you do do. That love that you display
to others, that's a good work. But I think when you get right
down to it, that this unceasing love and works that you share
with others, It really comes because you have
a love of God. And any work that's performed,
whether it's something that you do for his church, his pastor,
his children, or even for lost sinners, if it's done with its
moting factor being a love of God and most especially a love
for his son, and you also do it for God's glory and not Any
glory for yourself? That's a good work also. I think that might be. A little
bit of the secret behind Matthew 25 and 40 and the king shall
answer and say into them. Barely I say into you in as much
as you have done it under one of the least of these my brethren,
you have done it under me. When the first cause of a work
you do has as its root. A love of God, that's its root
cause. Then and then only can it be
said to be good. Good. Now as I finish up this verse,
time's gone, really gone. I never really wrote a conclusion,
and that's good. I'm not going to get to it. I come up to this last part of
the verse and I think about this bad week I had in the good works
department and I could find a little hope in this part of this last
verse, the last part of this verse. It says, for we are his
workmanship created in Christ Jesus under good works, which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Though
I told you I do look at this verse with a lot of trepidation
because I see so much failure in myself when I think about
the middle part of this verse. I'll grab hold of the last part
of a verse like this with everything I've got and try not to let it
go. Which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. Now with everything I've studied
and looking this up in the Greek interlinear Few more things this
ordained it could just as well have been translated prepared
maybe even better Translated that that way And if God has prepared you for
a good work You can very well trust that when the time comes
for you to do it. You'll do it God doesn't make
mistakes He doesn't do things without a reason. He doesn't
start something that he doesn't finish. And the work that you've been
prepared for, as Paul's speaking about right here, it will be
completed. It'll be completed in a timely
manner, a complete manner. His will shall be done. And if he's going to use you
to do it, You will do it. You might be like those in Matthew
25 and cry out to the Lord, when did I ever do anything for you,
Lord? You're doing what He wants you
to do. He'll tell you when the time comes. Time's gone. I'll just I will
stop right there. I had a few more things I would
have liked to say but I always run out of time and today's no
surprise, but I appreciate your attention and if you will Take
some time study Paul's words all of Ephesians. Just a blessing
especially that first chapter in these first ten verses of
chapter two become awful special to as I've studied on this week
and also with the message that Mark brought to us last week.
Thank you. As bad as it's raining, we might
need to for a little while.