with the saints and of the household
of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in
whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto
an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together
for an habitation of God through the Spirit. I think sometimes people have
a misconception with regard to the truths contained in the Word
of God. And one thing which is clear
as we read through the Word of God is this, there is only one
true church. And what a blessing it is if
you and I are part of that one true church. And God has his
church throughout the world, in various places, in various
denominations, And so often little denominations think that they
are the only right ones and there's no one else. Well, we have to
remember that there is only one church. And the important is
for each one of us to have that understanding and application
from the Word of God that we are a member of that church. That is indeed the great and
important consideration, and that is to be a member of the
Church of Christ. Well, the Apostle here, when
he writes to the Ephesians, it is interesting as he starts it,
he writes to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful
in Christ Jesus. That means he's writing directly
to the Ephesians but to all those elsewhere who are believers. And therefore we should be thankful
that as this is addressed to the Ephesians and all the Christians
as well, it has a blessed and personal application to us here
today. And it's important then that
we realize that it is so. It's not just an interesting
history book. It's a wonderful account that
God gives to us to show us whether we are amongst the true Church
of God or not. And to be concerned that we have
the evidence in our own hearts, in our own souls, that we are,
as the Apostle says here, now therefore you are no more strangers
and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household
of God. Well it's a comprehensive statement
and he comes and he says now therefore and that of course
must refer to that which has gone before in this chapter to
direct us to those who are no more strangers and foreigners
but fellow citizens and how necessary and important it is for each
one of us to know that we are not a stranger, that we are not
foreigners, but we are fellow citizens with the saints and
of the household of God. And one thing is very important
to recognise, at one time we were strangers, we were foreigners,
but what a blessing to know that now we are fellow citizens with
the saints. We're united to the saints of
God. They are our brothers and sisters. We rejoice together to be those
who are of the household of God. Another place we read, the household
of faith. And what a blessing it is to
be one of that great family. There is only one true family,
only one true church. and how necessary for you and
me to have the evidence in our hearts that we are part of the
true family of God. Without a worry about many details,
we have to be concerned to have the evidence that we are one
of the true household of God. Well, the Apostle in this chapter,
he gives us clear views of those who are of the household of God. And it's good for us to realise
that the Lord in his wonderful mercy and love has shown to his
church those clear evidences to understand whether we are
amongst those who are forever blessed and not therefore to
consider these things are irrelevant sometimes people read the gospels
and thinks they're very interested but when it comes to the epistles
the letters that paul and and peter and john wrote they tend
to ignore them and think they're not relevant well they are relevant
and they give us a wonderful insight into those who are amongst
the true household of God. And so the apostle commences
this second chapter by these words, and you hath he quickened
or, as I said in the reading, made alive, who were dead in
trespasses and sins. Well, it's a wonderful blessing. Then, this morning, if you and
I can confirm that we are spiritually alive, that we are not still
dead, with no spiritual life, We're still in that position,
dead in trespasses and sins. What a wonderful blessing to
know that the Holy Spirit has made us spiritually alive. And
it's something that you and I cannot do ourselves. We have no ability
to do it. And the Apostle gives us the
evidence of it. He says we're in time past. ye walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedient. So therefore, the truth is that
if we are not walking in accordance with God's will, if we are still
walking in accordance with the course of this world, And we're following the power
of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. We're still disobeying the great
and glorious Word of God. We're ignoring it. And we're
thinking many things that are not relevant. We should never
think that you and I can trifle with the Word of God. we should
never think that we can skip over certain commands certain
directions and think they don't apply to us and be in that very
sad situation and look around at other people and therefore
judge our actions by what other people are doing or what other
people are not doing the Word of God gives us clear directions
as to what you and I should be doing. And my friends, we should
never, we should never turn our back upon the truth of God's
Word. He's given it to us as a wonderful,
wonderful favour, a wonderful, blessed privilege. And so how
good it is if you and I can trace out in our life and recognize
that we come thankfully under this conclusion those who in
time past walked according to the course of this world according
to the prince of the power of the air that means to be occupied
and satisfied with the pleasures of this world and we are more
keen to walk in those things than we are in following the
truth of God. Well, we have here a significant
warning to us, because if we are doing that, the indication
is that we are still dead in trespasses and in sins, and we
are not amongst those who are classified the fellow citizens,
we're the saints, and are the household of God. And so the
Spirit of God tells us, among whom also we all had our conversation. You see, we were all born as
sinners. We were all born in sin and shapen
in iniquity. But, oh, my friends, what a blessing
if God, in His love toward us, has changed us so that we've
come to that position and as we read this word among whom
also we all had our conversation in times past we were like that
in the lusts of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind and were by nature the children of wrath even as
others so everyone is born in that condition. We were born
in it, every one of us, but this morning How have we reason to
praise and to bless God for what He has done to us? Well, the
Apostle goes on, and this is what he says, having given that
position with those who we can call unbelievers and who do not
have a part in being amongst those who are the family of God,
he comes and says, but God, who is rich in mercy, rich in mercy
now it's God's mercy toward us if we're any different today
if there's been a change that means we remain spiritually alive
the Holy Spirit has come upon us but God who is rich in mercy
that's a great statement isn't it Rich in mercy. He doesn't
lack mercy and he's not mean in his mercy. He's rich in his
mercy. Are we not glad of that? To think
God is rich in his mercy. But God, none less, who is rich
in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us. And the Word of
God does not exaggerate. The Word of God tells us the
truth. And the truth is, for his great
love wherewith he loved us. And if we are amongst those who
have been made spiritually alive, it is because of his great love
toward us and just stop for a moment and think of the greatness and
the magnitude of such a statement to think that the creator of
all things the ruler of the universe because of his great love to
us individually and personally because it is personal yes what
a mercy amazing isn't it that God should have loved us. Well, there's nothing really
in us, is there? We sang together in that hymn
just now. Hymn 440. And the second to last
verse tells us, why was I made to hear thy voice? and enter while there's room. When thousands make a wretched
choice and rather starve than come. That's clear, isn't it?
But it's very true. And so here we have this statement
then. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were
dead in sins. That means we had no life. I'm sure we're aware that a dead
person is dead. No life at all, no movement,
nothing. Cannot appreciate anything. And
that's just how we were, as the Word of God starts and tells
us here, who were dead. in trespasses and sins that's
exactly how we were or perhaps exactly as we are because we
are either dead or we are either spiritually alive and what a
blessing it is today if you and I are indeed spiritually alive
and if we are the reason is this It's because God has loved us. What a mercy, what a blessing
to think that Almighty God has looked down from the heaven upon
you and me as little, totally insignificant specks on this
earth and has set His love upon us and shown us His love because
He does show us His love. He doesn't leave us in the dark.
He brings us into the glorious light of the Gospel, and we can
truly rejoice in it. 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. That means, you see, that we
had no hand in it ourselves. We had no ability to give ourselves
life because we were spiritually dead. There we were, lying, motionless
we might say, no desire after the things of God. Perhaps I
should qualify that and say no true desire. Many people pretend
they want God, many people pretend they're Christians, but the reality
is their life does not demonstrate the truth of it. because Christ
isn't very important to them. They pick him up and put him
down when it suits them. And they're very happy to be
involved, as we read here, in fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind. They're not interested, really,
in separation. They're not interested, really,
in setting themselves apart. No, they want to have God and
the world. Well, the Bible tells us very
clearly you cannot serve God and Mammon. We cannot have a
divided heart. I know we will have a continual
battle with the devil who goes about seeking whom he may devour
and he will never give up. But on the other hand, there
will be in our hearts that desire after spiritual blessings. And
we won't really be happy in the poor things of this world sometimes
we find ourselves involved in the things in the world perhaps
not because we really want to be but you know you will find
that if you are involved in those things you won't really be happy
and there's this statement you possess perhaps an aching void
which the world can never fill and things of time will never
actually produce true happiness. We may kid ourselves and fool
ourselves and think, well, I'm enjoying myself doing this. Reality
is, you're not really. But you see there is true happiness
and there is true joy in the glorious knowledge of the love
of the Lord Jesus toward us. Well, so we have this statement
that God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith
he loved us even when we were dead in sins, have quicken us
together with Christ and then he gives this wonderful statement
by grace ye are saved and we need to understand that very
clearly because God's grace is free unmerited favor and it's
only through that You and I cannot save ourselves. It's through
His grace. And he goes on, of course, in
this eighth verse to fill it out a bit. And he says, For by
grace are you saved through faith, and not of yourselves. It is
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. You see, we are proud people
by nature and we like to often think that we've done this and
we've done that to gain some benefit ourselves. As we're taught
by the Holy Spirit, we would desire to realise it's not of
us, it's all of God's glorious and wonderful grace. And so here
we have this statement, by grace are you saved and hath raised
us up together. That means all the members of
the Church of God, all united. and have 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. That's a big statement
and it's easy to pass over it but the exceeding riches We have
some understanding, naturally, of riches. Some people are very
wealthy, some people are very poor, and we understand something
about riches. But what the Word of God tells
us here, and this is true with regard to all the whole Church
of God, that He will show us the exceeding riches of His grace
in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. And that means
to be shown that the great God, the Lord Jesus Christ, so willingly
came into this world to save an unworthy sinner like you and
me. That's why it's by grace are
you saved through faith and God gives us living faith to believe
this great and wonderful blessing and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. The true Church of God is united
and now united in the central theme of the glory of Christ.
That's what unites. There's many things to separate,
but we need to concentrate on the central theme, that is, to
know that we are saved through the glorious, sinatonic death
of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's not a works,
lest any man should boast, and that's because God will have
all the honour and all the glory, and I'm sure we desire that that
might be so. for we are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them and you only have to go through the
word of God and with regard to the works yes that God has given
us to do and we should not back away from them because we are
here on this earth for a purpose to serve him to do his will and
so we are indeed his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which God hath before ordained, that we should walk
in them. And having given that wonderful
introduction, if you like, to those who are saved, those who
are blessed of God, he then comes and says, wherefore, remember. It's good you and I do remember,
and I hope we remember these things that I've just gone through
this morning. Wherefore, remember. that ye being in time past Gentiles
in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the uncircumcision
in the flesh made by hands that at that time ye were without
Christ being aliens, enemies, strangers from the commonwealth
of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise having
no hope and without God in the world. Well, can you go back
in your life to that situation? Perhaps you're still in it today.
I don't know. You know whether you are still
in this situation. Strangers from the covenant of
promise. The glorious promises of God
have not been made over to you. You're a stranger to them in
actual fact. They don't mean anything to you.
They're not very important to you because you're very happy
with the poor old things of the world. Well, what a mercy then if you
are without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel
and strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope and
without God in the world. Well, you could praise God today
if you can say, indeed with the hymn writer, and such were some
of you, and such I was like that. That was me. And then we have
another but now. The fourth verse is about God.
And now we have a but now. In Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes
were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. This is a great and glorious
truth and a wonderful doctrine. And my friends, I'll tell you
this, it will mean nothing to you The Word of God says, is
it nothing to you or you that pass by unless the Holy Spirit
has convicted you of your sin before a holy God and you recognise
that you are unjust, you are unworthy of any notice. You're
a guilty, hell-deserving sinner. But what a wonderful blessing
if the Spirit of God therefore has blessed you with spiritual
life and given you a concern to know that you are born again
of the Spirit of God. But now, in Christ Jesus, Ye
who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Now let's ponder just for a moment
because what that means is this. You and I were aliens. We were
against God. We were strangers at one time.
We had no understanding really of what the death of Christ meant
to us personally. He just passed over our heads
We perhaps knew it as a theory, but we didn't know it personally,
we didn't have the application of it to our own souls. But what
a wonderful thing it is that now, but now in Christ Jesus,
not out of Christ Jesus, in Christ Jesus, we see and we realise
the wonderful blessing that was granted to the Church of God
through the sin-atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ. the
Saviour of sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ. He came into this
world to deliver us from the wrath to come. He came into this
world to die in our place as our great and wonderful substitute. We won't go into it in depth,
but just remember there was that wonderful picture in the Passover. There was the Lamb slain as a
substitute. for Christ there was no real
saving knowledge in the land but there was in Christ and Israel
saw that natural picture but it was they had to look past
that and through that to see the glory of Christ and of course
John the Baptist tells us in that first chapter of John when
the Lord Jesus came to be baptized, and he said to the multitude
there, behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the
world. And they would have appreciated the significance of such a statement
because there had been the Lamb, the natural Lamb, which had delivered
Israel as the blood was shed and put on the doorposts and
the lintels. But now, in a day and age in
which we live, it's not the natural Lamb It is the spiritual lamb,
it is indeed the Lord Jesus Christ. And ye who sometimes were far
off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. And to think that
the Lord Jesus Christ died upon that cross at Calvary, particularly
to save you, particularly to save me. to particularly save
the whole Church of God. What a wonderful blessing. And
then the Apostle goes on and says, for he is our peace. And the hymn writer has it when
he says, peace by his cross has Jesus made. And there is peace
when you and I, by faith, behold the Lord Jesus Christ shedding
his blood upon that cross at Calvary in order to deliver us
to take away all our sins and remember without shedding of
blood there is no forgiveness but the glorious sinatonic death
of the Saviour has done that for all his church for all that
one church of God For he is our peace, who hath made both one
and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us,
having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments,
contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one
new man, so make in peace. And that he might reconcile both
under God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity
thereby and he came and preached peace to you which were afar
off and to them that were nigh for through him we both have
access by one spirit unto the Father. Well this is a very wonderful
account that the Apostle wrote to the Ephesians and to the whole
Church of God. And it's wonderful if the Holy
Spirit of God opens our heart to receive these great and wonderful
and glorious truths, which they are. And all of us need to understand
in a spiritual way the relevance of them to our personal life,
to ourselves, and therefore have that good hope, through His grace,
that it is well with our soul. And having said that, we then
come, it's taken a long time to get there, but nonetheless,
here we are at verse 19. Now therefore, ye are no more
strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints
and of the household of God. So what do we conclude? We conclude
that If we can trace out the good hand of God in our lives,
we have the wonderful evidence that we are no more strangers
and foreigners, but that we are fellow citizens with the saints
and of the household of God. Well, that would be a tremendous
comfort. That would be a wonderful blessing. Because when it proves
to us that we are complete in Him. It's well with our soul.
Our eternal state is safe. We are redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ. We can truly go on our way rejoicing. And the Apostle really expands
this a little. He expounds it in the building.
And he says, I built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in
whom all the building, that's the whole church of God, are
fitly framed together. They all fit together. Yes, people from this place and
that place, this country and that country, this nationality
and that nationality, the Lord calls them and they all fit together
because they are union, there's union in Christ. Christ is the
glorious head. Christ is their Redeemer. Christ
is the one that they rejoice in, in whom all the building,
fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord,
in whom ye also are builders together for an habitation of
God through the Spirit. We have a picture naturally of
the building of the temple. You may remember that was built,
and it was built to the pattern that was given to Moses, and
thus the Tabernacle was given to Moses, and then it was built
as David was able to provide for it, and Solomon built the
Temple, and it was built by a vast number of people, I think it's
about 150,000, and it took seven years to build. But the interesting
thing is this, it was built with various materials from various
places. There was stone, there was timber,
there was gold. And all those had to be hewn,
had to be dug, dug up gold and hewn and cut down the trees. They were all different, but
they were all brought to shape. They all had a place, a place
in the temple. It took time to do it, especially
some of those stones which were taken from the quarry. They had
to be chipped and worked upon so that they were smooth. You
may remember that they were made exact, so that when they came
to put them in place, in the temple they were exact fit there
was no need for any banging or shoving a metal upon them to
move them around they fit it exactly and that's the truth
with regard to the church of God the Lord works in our hearts
and that work is explained like this we grow in grace and in
the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. God brings
us into situations in our lives to knock off bits which were
wrong, false bits which we may have gathered together and they
weren't really the true religion, they had to be got rid of. And
finally when we were ready for glory, you see there we were
in that perfect and right state that God had worked in his way
for his honour and glory. There'll be no nothing, when
you and I come to pass out of time, we won't be able to come
and say, well, I've reached this state because I've done this
and I've done that. We'll be able to come and say, by the
grace of God, I am what I am. The wonderful favour, the wonderful
love, the wonderful mercy of Almighty God. And we should all
be founded upon the rock Christ Jesus, that good and sure foundation. That's the only foundation that
the Church of God has. It's the only foundation that
a true believer wants. He wants to be on Christ, the
solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. And we have, don't we, that very
lovely example in the end of the Sermon on the Mount on the
seventh chapter of Matthew and also in Luke and it gives us
this picture of those who built their house upon the sand and
built their religion upon the sand. It was very easy It didn't
cost them anything. It was easy. They built it. But
when the storms of life came, it fell. Great was the fall of
it. Whereas we're told that with
regard to the true believer, they dug deep. It wasn't easy. It wasn't easy. But we got down
to that rock Christ. What a mercy it is when God gives
us that desire and that grace and ability to dig. to get down
to that rock, the Lord Jesus Christ. What that means is we
see there, in Him, all our salvation. We see the glory of it. We see
the perfection of the plan of God. We stand amazed that God
should have looked upon such an unworthy, sinful person that we are, that
He's had mercy upon us. It's great mercy, isn't it? It's
amazing mercy. Mercy and love and grace, they're
all joined together. And my friends, also, the blessing
is this. The whole work is completed through
the work of the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. They all have worked together
in unison in the regeneration of our souls to give us spiritual
life. and to teach us and to instruct
us as we journey on through life and to at last receive us into
this heavenly building this completed building where there are no foreigners
there are no strangers we're all one in Christ Jesus now therefore
says the Apostle you are no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens, with the saints,
and in the household of God, and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone in whom all the building, fitly framed together,
groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are
builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. Well, a wonderful blessing it
is. if we have the evidence as we've
already gone through in the earlier part of this chapter to prove
that we have the life of God in our soul and to believe therefore
we are part of this heavenly building and that one day by
his grace we shall be found in glory with the whole living family
and Church of God to reign with the glorious Saviour forevermore. Amen.