Now, if you'll take your Bibles,
please. Returning to the book of Ephesians,
the second chapter. Ephesians chapter 2. Now, my reading will only take
us through verse 10, Ephesians 2, verses 1 through 10. And the title of this morning's
message, if you need a title, The God Who Buts In, B-U-T-T-S. The dictionary says that means
to meddle, and I'm telling you, God meddles. Aren't you thankful? He doesn't wait for our permission,
nor for our asking. He gives us those things in His
grace. And it not only says that it
means to meddle, but it means to interfere. And if you'll notice as we read
these few verses, the beginning word in verse 4 is but God. The God who buts in. Alright,
let's read our verses. Now we must always ask ourselves
this question when we start to read this book. To whom is Paul
speaking? To whom are these words directed? It's not to everybody. But in this case, it is to persons
living in the city of Ephesus and who are converts to the gospel
of Christ and are believers and members of the congregation in
Ephesus. So he says, and you hath he quickened. You has God quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins. Now, only people who are dead
in trespasses and sins need to be made alive. The word quicken
means to make alive. Some people just think they need
a little advice. Others think they need a little
push in the right direction and everything will work out fine.
Well, for people who are dead in trespasses and in sins, it
is God who quickens them. Verse 2, we learn now that this
death that we possess is not physical death. It is, rather,
to be spiritually dead. So the text takes us, in verse
2, into our past, wherein, in time past, you walked according
to the course of this world. And you object and say, oh no,
preacher, I didn't. Then you're still lost. And you're
still doing this, though we deny it. If we don't own up to it,
then we are still engaged in it. Wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the devil, The spirit that now works
in the children of disobedience was in the lives of all of these
persons in Ephesus whom God declares that he quickened. And so we
bring it forward to our day and apply the very same thing. If
we've never been a slave of the devil, it simply means we still
are. And the devil likes religious
people to serve him. He's not, it's not always overt,
you know, terrible acts. It is to become part of their
worship. And unknown to them, they're
worshipping the devil instead of worshipping God. Well, preacher, you're being
awful ugly this morning. Well, I hope God will take somewhere,
somewhere, somehow, sometime and wake us up if we're not already
alive spiritually. We walked according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the
children of disobedience. And speaking of children of disobedience,
among whom also we all had our manner of life in times past. Paul is putting himself as well
as his readers as well as the Ephesian believers. We all had
our manner of life, conversation in the King James, 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. Now listen, there's two roads
that are virtually the same. One's the high road and one's
the low road. But it's the very same end. And the same result. Now we come to that wonderful
statement in verse 4. But God. God buts in. Who is this God who is rich in
mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us? Even when we were
dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ. By grace,
you are saved. and has raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Boy, that's some statement. That
in the ages to come, God might show the exceeding riches of
his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. And
that's exactly why this world was made. That's why it still
exists to this day. That God in the ages to come
might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. And when that last soul is saved,
By God's free and sovereign grace, this world has no longer any
purpose, and it will be ended. Verse 8, For by grace are you
saved through faith, and that, I take that to mean that faith
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. So when people tell
you if you have faith, God will save you, that don't do you any
good. God must give us the gift of
faith as well as repentance. 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 God's workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before
ordained that we should walk. in them. Now that's, there's ten verses
of the most powerful kind anywhere in this book. So let's just look for a few
minutes at this God who butts in, and why he butts in, and
what he does when he does butt in. And what happens if he doesn't
butt in? The Bible is a record of what
we have just read. From Genesis to the Revelation,
this is a book about Christ from start to finish. And it is a
book of God interfering in the lives of men and women just like
ourselves, and claiming those that he has given to Christ as
trophies of His grace. Moses describes the flood when
Noah is building the ark. And he said, And God saw that
the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And he sends the flood. And there
are only eight people saved from that flood in this whole big
world. Eight people. Noah, his sons
and their wives, and his wife. And that's it. Job describes it this way in
chapter 15 and verse 14. Behold, God puts no trust in
His saints, Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight. How
much more abominable and filthy is man which drinks iniquity
like water." You're familiar with these words, but I read
them to you now from Psalm 14. And verses 2 and 3, David wrote
this, "...the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children
of men, And here's what he saw. They're
all gone aside. They're all together become filthy.
There is none that doeth good, no, not one. That's where Paul the Apostle
got part of the words in Romans chapter 3 in our Bibles. It was
true in the beginning. It's true in the book of Job.
It's true in the New Testament. does not save good people, he
saves sinners. Sinners. Let me read you a statement
from Isaiah 64, verse 6. We are all as an unclean thing,
and all our righteousnesses are filthy rags. We all fade as the
leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away,
man at his best state is altogether vanity." The best, the best,
not the lowest, the highest, are altogether vanity. Paul says that we were dead in
trespasses and in sins. Romans 5 and verse 12 says, by
one man sin entered into this world. You know who that man
was? That's our father Adam in the
Garden of Eden. But Eve sinned before Adam did.
That don't count. Adam is a special person. He's
the head of the race. He's our federal head and our
representative, and that means that whatever he does, all the
human race do. It's just like your congressman.
I don't care if you like him or love him, love him or hate
him. Whatever he does, we do. We may not approve of it. We
may bellyache, but it's still done. And we can't raise enough
of us to change it. Why? He's our representative. By one man, sin entered into
the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men, because all have sinned. Now this started with Adam. Here we are on this earth in
the year 2012. I actually got that right, Craig.
In the year 2012. And we're still being born into
this world with the very sinful nature that Adam gave us. And it doesn't take us long after
we draw our first breath to prove that we are sinners. We are purely,
altogether selfish. It also says that we walked according
to the course of this world in Ephesians 2. Isaiah put it, all
we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned every one from his
own way. We followed Satan in will worship. Not God's will, but our own will. Just like the
famous words in Isaiah 14 that Satan is said to have proclaimed
when he was kicked out of heaven in the fall of angels. He said,
I will, I will. And men and women are still claiming,
I will to this day. Religion is summed up in a person's
will. What about God's will? Well,
if enough of us stand up against God, he'll change his will. No,
he won't. We've lost our minds if we think
that to be the case. Our behavior is in the lust of
the flesh, which may not involve morality,
by the way. We just love things, and the
more the better. We come into this world as slaves
to the devil in regard to the desire of our minds. What we
do not do, perhaps we don't want anyone to see us, or we don't
want our reputation to be ruined, but what we do not do, We certainly
think. We do think. And you cannot control the thoughts
that go through your mind. And if you say you don't think
any evil thoughts, I cannot relate to you. I don't even know what
you're talking about. So verse 4 in this chapter, which
says that, but God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith
he loved us. Now one more time, the word us
is not everybody. You remember that little store
down in Sampson County that was Us's Store? Well, there's a lot
of Us's in Sampson County, but everybody in that little tiny
place is not to us on that store sign. This is particular people. So when Paul uses us, and he's
used it a million times in chapter 1, just metaphorically speaking,
you understand, but he's telling us that these are special people. They have a special relationship
to God. So when we come to this statement
in verse 4, God who is rich in mercy for His great love, wherewith
He loved us, my goodness, He's talking about His people, the
very people that He gave to Christ in that old covenant in eternity
before the world ever was. And if you read on from verse
4, let's read through verse 7 from verse 4, and you'll see what
all this entails. But God, This chapter would have to end
right there if the next words were not, but God. But God who
is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us, even
when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ. By grace you were saved and has
raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. Do you see who is doing all the
work? God is. Why does he do it? Here's the
reason. Verse 7, 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 what God is after. And
I might remind you that's what he's already got and that's what
he will have. The Savior must have every sheep
for whom he died because he boasts in your Bible and mine that he
will not lose a single solitary one. Well, preacher, where is everybody?
They sure ain't here. You got that right. Whoever is
supposed to be here is here. If that ain't so, I don't know
what this book is talking about. Why did he save this motley crew? To put his grace on stage and
let men say what they will. about this bunch of rebels down
here at Bethel. If God has saved us, I tell you
that's enough. And if we can somehow or other,
through all of our failures, mistakes, whatever else you want
to call it, if we can bring some little honor and glory to the
God who made us, to the God who saved us, and to the God who
keeps us, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now, time is going to outrun
me this morning. Let's trace these words in our
Bibles, this matter of but God. First of all, in Adam's fall,
do you know that God purposed for Adam to fall into sin? Sure. Surely you don't believe God
can be God and not know the future as well as the past and the present.
Well, if He knows the future, He knows this thing is going
south. And yet, He creates Adam anyway. You know why? We just read it. To show forth the glory of His
grace in the salvation of sinners. And to magnify and lift up and
honor our blessed Savior, God's dear Son. This is why this world
is standing. It's why it was made. And it's
why it still stands. If I could summarize Ephesians
chapter 2, I'd borrow those famous words from Jonah when he was
in the fish's belly, and he declared, salvation is of the Lord. And as Brother Griswold used
to say, that old Armenian fish, when Job pronounced those words
while he was inside that fish, that fish immediately vomited
him out on the land. And he called him an Armenian fish,
which means a free will fish. So whatever you want to do with
that, you just do it. God's purpose is to make all
of His children like Christ. Most religious people want to
talk about what they've done for God and for themselves and
others, like the people in Matthew 7, 21 through 23. Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied or preached in Your name? Have we not cast
out devils in Your name and done many wonderful works in Your
name? And the Savior said He would reply to these people on
judgment day. Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity. Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity. And one more statement. You know
what it is? There were three things he said. I never knew you. You claim to know me, but I never
knew you. Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity." Now, you've been, except for the Bible class, you've
had a pretty smooth go this morning with very little reference, and
so I need just at least one. John chapter 3. When it comes to this matter
of the believer's works, do you remember when we were reading
in Ephesians 2 and we got down to verse 10 and it says, we are God's workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained
that you should walk therein. Alright? Let's see, three verses,
John chapter 3. Now, if you can't find John 16,
you need to get you another Bible or something. But it's a couple
of verses after that. Let's start at verse 19. And this is the condemnation
that light has come into the world. The light of Christ, the
light of the world. And men loved darkness rather
than light. Why? Because their deeds were
evil. Now, I just cited you from the
Savior's own words that on Judgment Day, people would have the audacity
to stand before Him and tell Him what great things they've
done in His name. And in this particular instance
that he relates to us toward the end of the Sermon on the
Mount in Matthew chapter 7, he challenges these people on this
and lays it out exactly like it is. Those works were works
of iniquity. So here we learn why it is that
we love darkness rather than light, because you can't see
very good in the dark. Because their deeds were evil.
For everyone that does evil hates the light, neither comes to the
light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that does
truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest,
that they are worked in God." That God is the author of our
works. It is God, Philippians 2.13,
that works in you both in the willing and in the doing of His
good pleasure. Now let's see if we can find
the end. When we go back to Ephesians 2, Taking those words in verse 4,
but God is rich in mercy. God delights in mercy. God loves to show mercy. Now have you ever been in court
and hear people, either with or without a lawyer, making pleas
before the judge? And some of them Even though
they might be guilty, they cast themselves on the mercy of the
court. Here is a God who is rich in
mercy. In mercy. Now, what happens if
you get mercy? You didn't deserve it. It wouldn't
be mercy if you deserved it. You can plead with a judge on
a different basis. If you're not guilty, you see
what I'm saying? Mercy is for the guilty, not
for the not guilty. You can ask Mary Magdalene, out
of whom Christ cast seven devils, if his mercy is rich or not.
Or you could talk to Saul of Tarsus, if the mercy that God
showed to him is not rich mercy indeed. Or you could ask the
woman at the well in John chapter 4 at Jacob's well. My goodness,
when that woman found out who the Lord Jesus was, she threw
her water bucket down and lit out for town to tell everybody
that would listen. She had found the Christ, the
Messiah. She knew something about mercy.
And when that thief on the cross said to our Lord, Lord, when
you come into your kingdom, Will you remember me?" And our Lord
said, today you shall be with me in paradise. Now, I'm telling
you that's 100% mercy. There's no such thing as deserving
when it comes to God and His grace in Christ. Let me see if I can quote Hebrews
7.25. Wherefore, he, the Lord Jesus,
is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him. And that's just as true now as
when Paul penned those words in the first century. Our sins
should never keep us from Christ because why? Now you ought to
answer this yourself. He came to do what? To save sinners. Paul said, of whom I am chief. It is our false claims to have
a righteousness of our own that is the problem. our inability, our unwillingness
to lay hold of nothing but Christ. You remember this song, some
of you will, I know. I'm just going to try to cite
one of its stanzas. Got it right that time. One of
its stanzas. Let not conscience make you linger nor of fitness
fondly dream, all the fitness Christ requireth is for us to
feel our need of Him." But it doesn't stop there. The Broadman
Hymnal that we used to have here forever stopped it there and
had a chorus that some characters who didn't know anything about
grace wrote as well. Now think of it. Let not conscience make you linger,
nor of fitness fondly dream. All the fitness he requireth
is to feel your need of him. And then the original hymn writer
says, This he gives you, this he gives you, Tis the Spirit's
rising beam. It's the first knowable evidence. It's the first
little beginnings of grace, that a work of grace is begun in the
soul. I wish the world of Christianity
knew what that means. If God doesn't move upon our
souls, we might leave this world happy as a lark, but we're going
straight to hell. Right straight. Then in that verse 4, another
statement, for His great love wherewith He loved us. God's infinite, infinite, glorious,
sovereign, free love in Christ. Oh, how wonderful. How wonderful
indeed. Now, perhaps you might say to
me, Preacher, I notice that you don't
praise men at all. You don't give men any credit
at all for their works. And I answer, there's nothing
about us to praise. Whatever we have that's worth
praising is the gift of God in Christ. Our works by nature are works
of iniquity. Any grace that I have or that
you have is indeed God's grace. Let me read you 1 Corinthians
1, 30 and 31. But of Him, of Christ, are you in Christ Jesus, who
of God is made unto us, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. That according, see it doesn't
end the sentence, that according as it is written, he that glories,
he that boasts, let him glory and boast in the Lord. And that's
where we are. And if you know anything about
it, you're tickled to death. But if you don't know, I'm telling
you, this is how the God of the Bible is to be worshipped and
praised. And we can come to this God as
beggars for mercy. We cannot come to Him to tell
Him what all we can do for Him and how much better off He'd
be if He had my cooperation and so forth. That's ignorance and
stupidity. But there she blows.