Ephesians 2, this chapter, like
chapter 1, is a favor of God's people, a favor of believers.
We often think about it, don't we? We often quote it. I'm afraid,
I'm guilty of quoting, like Ephesians 2.8, to prove salvation is by
grace. And this wasn't written to prove
anything. This was written for God's people's
comfort and joy. That's what I want us to see
here. I don't want to preach to... Well, I do want to preach
to unbelievers that they might believe, but I'm not trying to
prove... God doesn't prove Himself to
anybody. He reveals Himself. And I want God's people I want
us to joy and rejoice in what God has done for us and in us
by Christ. Okay? Do you understand what
I'm trying to say? I'm not just going to try to prove salvation
by grace. Verse 1 says, "...and you." Have tea quickly. We were dead.
Is that you? That's me. That was me. And you? You? Saints? Believers? Verse 4 says
they were chosen. They know it. They were predestinated,
verse 5, and they know it. You know who knows and believes
and loves the wonderful truth of God's electing grace and predestinating
grace? You know who loves and believes
that? The elect. We don't have to argue that,
people. We don't have to try to convince anybody of anything.
Don't do it. Don't do it. It brings God down when we try
to prove something to unbelievers. Don't do that. Just declare it.
And you. And you. Those, verse 13 of chapter
1, heard the word of truth. They heard it. God sent the word.
They heard it. Most people don't hear it. They turn away their
ears. Don't. I did. I did. I don't want to hear that.
I'm tired of hearing that. I'm out of here. I was forced
to hear it as a child and said, as soon as I'm old enough, I'm
not going to listen to this. But God, yes you are, too. And you're going to hear it,
and you're going to believe it, and you're going to love it. As a matter of fact,
you can't wait to come in here. Not me. Yes, you. And you. Is that you? And you. Hath he quickened? What's quickened,
man? He made a life. Made a life. And you. You were
dead at the quicken. That's pretty plain. You were
dead. How did you get alive? You did
it. How plain could it be? You were
dead. Quicken. Made alive. You were
dead. It's something God did to some
people, in some people. Something we had no part in.
You, dead. What does dead mean? I mean, that's one of the plainest
things, concepts, truths you could possibly know. Dead, dead
means dead. Physically, we have five physical
senses, don't we? If you paid any attention to
science in school, if you paid any attention at all, you have
five senses. I had to stop and think about
it. We have hearing, sight, hearing, Smell, taste, and feel it, right? Five senses. When you're dead,
what happens? You have none of those things. You can't see, you can't hear,
you can't taste, you can't smell, you can't feel. You have no feeling. None. You can take a sword, a
knife, a prick, and jab a dead person. They don't feel it. This word is called a sword.
It's called a hammer. It's called a prick. Like a cattle
pry. Dead, you don't feel it. Blind,
I don't see it that way. It can be as plain as a nose
on your face. I don't see it that way. No,
you're blind. Deaf, you can holler, you can
shout, you can laugh, you can cry. Don't hear it, don't see
it, don't feel it. A person can be stinking, rotten,
filthy, vile. Everybody around him smells him,
but he can't smell himself. He's dead. What's dead, man? Dead. Barnard used to qualify
it and say, graveyard dead. Lazarus, what happened to you? I was dead. Stinking dead. And Jesus Christ came by one
day and called me out of death into life. He quickened me. What part did you put? Don't you understand? I was dead. Didn't you accept? Dead. Somebody says, I don't believe
that. I don't believe. You know, those who don't know
what dead means are dead. They're still dead. The only those who know what
dead means are those who are quickened. Only those who really see were
blind. Only those who really hear the
truth were deaf. Only those who really feel their
guilt and their sin, God's mercy, God's love, God's grace, is those
who were dead. Quicken, made alive. Let me just
ask you this quick question. Quicken, made alive. Did anyone
in here give birth to yourself? Give yourself life. Everybody's
smiling right now. Did you? Help your parents out. You were the problem. You didn't want to come out.
Your mother had to force you out. She had your travail. They
did it all and you had no part in it. Did you accept them? Did
you come out and say, I've decided to let you be my mother from
here on out. You laugh, you think, that's
the most absurd thing. No, there's something more absurd
than that. Than for a human being to think
he can, from flesh to spirit, that he can just let God do anything. That's the most absurd thing
you could possibly think of. Well, I decided to let God who gave the Word and created
the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, and still upholds
everything by the Word of His power, keeps you in the palm
of His hand, gives you breath, you're going to let Him do what? Well, I've accepted you as God.
No, no, no. Hold on. He is God whether you
accept Him or not. Well, I've made Him Lord. Hold
on now. He is your Lord whether you know it or not. And it's
His great goodness and mercy and grace that one day He decided,
I'm going to let this rebel know who's Lord. I'm going to break
this rebel and they're going to know. And I'm going to do
it in love and mercy and grace and I'm going to make them my
child. And that's the rest of my story. I'm getting way ahead
of myself. I told you that story. Those
six half-dirty dozen young boys, Johnny and Tommy and Craig, they'd
sit on the back row and rib each other and make fun of the preacher.
Hated the preacher. Hated the preacher. And he went
back and faced them, faced the man. The Lord saved all six of those
boys. Turned them from hating the preacher
to loving the preacher. Brought them from the back road
to the front road. Stopped them from poking fun
of, and rejecting, and rebelling against, and arguing against
the truth, and loving it, receiving it. True story. You had that Gadsby
hymnal in your pew. William Gadsby was a great preacher
and hymn writer. There was a man named John Warburton. And as a boy, he was a hellion,
John Warburton. Now, he and some of his friends
heard that William Gadsby was a famous preacher. He was holding
a meeting in their town, and they were hellions. Nobody could
handle this young boy, John Warburton. And he and a couple of his cronies
decided to go, and they were going to disrupt that service.
They were going to make fun of the preacher and disrupt that
service and just cause trouble. And they went there. And William
Gatsby got up and started preaching, and John Warburton told this
later on. He said, I thought, what is this
old, dumb, ignorant fool going to say? Listen to him. He's just
an ignorant—listen to him. He was scoffing and mocking at
this poor Preacher, you know, what an ignorant. And he and
his buddies started to, they were going to do something to
disrupt the service. And all of a sudden, Warburton
said, I started listening. He said, you know, that preacher,
I was forced to listen. I couldn't help, it broke his
heart. broke his hard, proud, rebellious
heart right there on the spot. He came to make fun of that preacher. He left that place loving him,
loving the truth. And he became a preacher. You're
looking at a young man that rejected my preacher. And here I am. I was smarter
than everybody. Just a smart aleck is all it
was. And this is why I cannot tell
you my story and cannot preach the gospel without these two
words, but God. Rich in mercy and mercy upon
man. And you. Is that you? That's
me. Hath he quickened? You walk,
verse 2 says, you walk according to the course of this world.
Just like the world. Oh, not me. I'm a free thinker. Yeah, right. That's what I said
in the 60s and the 70s. Yeah, I do. I'm a free man. I
do what I want to do. I go where I want to go. Yeah,
right. You're just like an ignorant
cow following the rest of the cows to the slaughter. I did
exactly what Everybody else did. The course of this world. What's
the course of this world? The other direction from God. The way that seems right. This
is the way that seems right. This is the way I'm going to
go. You know how it's going to end up? You know what God said? You're going to destroy yourself. The course of this world, according
to the prince of the power of the air, that's Satan. There's
no devil. That's just a figment of men's
imagination. I don't believe that. The devil
doesn't do anything. Yeah, right. You're under his
control. And you don't even know it. The ruler of the darkness of
this world. You know who talked about the devil more than anybody?
Jesus Christ. When you scoff at anything, you're
making fun of Jesus Christ. And I'm here to tell you, he's
smarter than you. He is wisdom itself. And you don't want to scoff at
the Son of God. The Spirit that now works in
the children to disobedience. Children to disobedience. That's
us by nature, isn't it? That's me and you. That's me. You know, in sin did my mother
conceive me? You know why we come out of the
womb as sinners? Because our parents are sinners.
And we have the nature of whatever, you know, a horse gives birth
to a horse, doesn't it? Dog to dog, cat to cat, fish
to fish. Man is a sinner. Drinks iniquity
like the water. That's what the scriptures say.
And that's how we are born. We're born that way. Disobedient.
Children are disobedient. Disobedient. Disobedient. Rejecting authority. Rejecting
God. Rejecting authority. Any kind
of rules or laws. We just don't like it. You know,
the first thing, word we learn, and we don't have to learn it.
It just comes natural. You know what it is? No. Isn't it? It comes so easy. No. Mindful. Mine. Selfish. No. Don't tell me what to do. Isn't
that right? And you spend all your day, hopefully
you spend all your day correcting your children in that. Say yes,
sir. No. No. Children of wrath. Verse
3 says, fulfilling the lust of our flesh, that is, out for one
thing, to make ourselves happy, the desires of the flesh and
the mind. We're by nature children of wrath, children of wrath. You know, a child can't speak,
and when it's angry, what does it do? It cries. If self is not satisfied, If
we're not made happy, from an early age, from the beginning,
if we're not made happy, people don't make us happy, cry. Somebody
pay attention to me. Isn't that so? Isn't that so? Wrath, angry. We can begin by
crying and pitching a fit. Parents, don't let that happen.
You know how to cure a minor problem? You know how to cure
a minor problem? Don't wait until it grows up. Don't wait. We begin by crying
and then we learn to talk. And what do we do? Sass. Talk
back. And then if it's not put in check,
we start cursing until our mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Have you ever heard a generation
like this one? In our conversation, it says
that's a life, that's a walk, that's a talk, fulfilled living
after the loss. Is that you? Anybody? Now look at verse 4. What's it going to take to change
that rebel? What's it going to take to stop
that man? What's it going to take to break
that pride? What's it going to take? God.
The Word of God. Look at it. Verse 4. Rich in mercy. Rich in mercy. Mercy means kindness. Mercy means willing to spare.
not destroy. Oh, brothers and sisters, you know, we're not, mankind's
not lovable. Mankind's not, doesn't deserve
a chance to be saved. He deserves, the wages of sin
is death, Scripture says. Man doesn't deserve the love
of God. Mercy is not something you deserve. Right? Mercy is not getting what you
deserve. Grace is giving you what you don't earn. Something
you couldn't earn. It's a gift, free gift. That's
the salvation of God. Mercy is something we don't deserve. Love. For His great love were
with the loved us. Who's He talking about? Us. Who's the us? Saints. The chosen. Those who believe. Those who
fear God. His great love. This is sovereign
love. This is sovereign mercy. There's no other kind. Sovereign
love. This is free love. This is God's
free will and free and sovereign love. I will love them freely. This is God setting His love
on something and someone who's nothing lovely about them. That
don't love Him. I tried to come up with an illustration
here. Should we love... Do you love
coyotes? I tried to think of an animal
that, you know, everybody wants gone. You have a dog, you have a cat
that you love. If there's a coyote around, you're
going to kill it. They're killers. They're wild
dogs, aren't they? Oh no, we need to protect the
coyotes. Oh, what if they're extinct?
Come on now. Should we love coyotes? Should
we protect them? I know they're necessary. Clean
out, whatever. But do you love them? You know
they're necessary. You know they're according to
God's natural purpose on this earth. He put them here and there's
a purpose for them. But are they lovable? Do they
deserve to live? No. And if they kill one of your
own, you want them dead. Mankind is an evil creature. Brothers and sisters, it's just
so, isn't it? The whole creation groaneth because
of one animal, man. Man. God is so rich in mercy. He spares
this killer creature called mankind. See, God just came to earth. The Son of God came down to earth. They call Him gentle Jesus, meek
and mild. Never did anything but good.
Merciful, love, kind, gracious. What did man do? Kill him. But God, rich in mercy, for His
great love wherewith He loved us, not all, none lovely, but
His free and sovereign love He chose some, and set His love
upon, and chose to break them. Verse 5 says, Even when we were
dead in sins, Even when we were rejecting him,
even when we were rebelling against him, even when we were poking
fun of his preacher, even then. Quickness. Sent the gospel, sent the gospel,
and quickened, made alive. The gospel is the power of God.
It's life. Give life. What I'm doing right
now, what the world calls foolishness, what I couldn't wait to get out
from under, but God, he would let me get out from under it.
Sent the word. Broke my heart. Verse 5 says, in parenthesis,
oh, he says it's by grace you saved. See that? Just a gift. Quicken us together with Christ.
Quicken together with Christ. Verse 6 says, in Christ. Raised
together, made to sit together in Christ. Verse 7 says, through
Christ. It's all through Christ. It's
all with Christ, by Christ, in Christ, with Christ, for Christ,
because of Christ. Why would God love anybody? Why
would God have mercy upon anybody? Why would God save one of these
creatures that didn't want anything to do with Him? Why? Because
it pleased God. And because Jesus Christ came
to this earth to save them. He did it for Christ's sake.
In Ezekiel 36, I started to have you turn. He said, I'm not doing
this for your sake. When's the last time you read
that? I read it again this morning, first time in a long time. Read
it. He said, now I'm not doing it. All you ever did was blaspheme
me. He said to Israel, all you ever
did was blaspheme me. But here's what I'm going to
do, and I'm not doing it for your sake. I'm doing it for my name's
sake. Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to feed you. I'm
going to water you. I'm going to cleanse you. I'm going to
give you a new heart. I'm going to sanctify you, justify
you, freely forgive you, put my love upon you, have mercy
and grace upon you, make you one of my children. Now, I didn't
do this for your sake. I did it for Christ's sake. Know
that. You're going to loathe yourself,
he said there in that chapter. You're going to hate yourself
for everything you ever did. And you're going to realize that
I did it for Christ's sake. Not your sake. You didn't have
anything to do with it. I did. Like David and Jonathan. David and Jonathan. You remember
that story? Some of you? David had a friend named Jonathan
that he loved as his own soul, which is a picture of God the
Father and God the Son. Okay? Before Jonathan had any
children, And he said, David and Jonathan made a covenant
together, packed together. And Jonathan said to David, I
want you to show kindness to my house after I'm gone. You're
going to reign, you're going to rule on the throne, and I'm
going to be gone and dead. I want you to show kindness to
my house for my sake, for the love you have to me. Show me
kindness. David said, I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll show kindness
for your sake, Jonathan, because I love you. Well, later on, Jonathan
had a son. His name was Mephibosheth. Okay. Where is he? He's down in Lodomar,
a house of no bread. He's laying on his feet. He can't
come to David. He can't. He won't come. He's
one of the intimate. David had seven of Jonathan's
brothers killed. And one day, David sent the word,
go fetch. Mephibosheth. And two men went
down there, picked him up, didn't ask him, picked him up, fetched
him, carried him all the way to the throne of David and set
him in front of David. And David said, Mephibosheth,
this is what I'm going to do. This is what I've decided to
do. According to a covenant I made
with Jonathan, your father, I'm going to spare you. I'm not going
to kill you like I killed your brothers. I'm going to spare
you. I'm going to restore everything to you. And not only that, I'm
going to love you like one of my sons. I'm going to put you
right beside me at my table. You're going to sit with me as
one of my sons forever. And everything in this kingdom
is going to work together to serve you for your good. And
I'm doing this not for your sake, but for Jonathan's sake. Is that
clear? Everything is for Christ's sake.
Christ's sake. So, it says it's all about Christ,
isn't it? With Christ. You know when Jesus
Christ lived, you know who He was doing that for? His people. His people. He was representing
His people. And Adam all died. Born rebels. In Jesus Christ they all live.
Born again. Children of God. When Jesus Christ
died, you know what happened? We died. When He was crucified,
you know what God, the wrath of God came down on Jesus Christ. But He never sinned. No, but
we did. And we're in Him. We're with Him. In Him. And God said, I'm going to kill
all those sinners. I'm going to punish all those
sinners for what they've done. But not one drop of wrath fell
upon one of God's people. It all fell on Jesus Christ. Punished in Christ. With Christ. By Christ. In Christ. When Christ
Jesus rose, it all happened before we were born. Right? It all happened
before we were born. And Christ rose and sat down
at the right hand of God, accepted, loved of God, seated in the heavenly
with the Father, on the right hand of God, just like Omah Fibisheth
with David. You know what? All of His people
were as good as they are. They were there before they were
ever born. That's what God said. He just remains to be seen. In Him, with Him, by Him, for
Him. Quickened together with pride.
Raised, look at this. I've got to hurry. Verse 6 says,
and hath raised us up together. Raised us up together. Quickened,
given life, and raised up. Did anybody hear the radio message
this morning? The prayer of a woman. One of
the greatest in all the Bible. Hannah's prayer. This is what
she prayed. She said, oh, the arrogant are
going to be put down. Mighty men are going to be broken,
going to stumble. Those that are full of everything
are going to be taken from them. The Lord kills, she said. The
Lord makes alive. He brings down to the grave.
He brings up. The Lord makes it poor. He maketh
rich, he bringeth low, he lifteth up. The Lord raiseth up the poor
out of what? The dust. Lifteth up the beggar
from where? A dunghill. This world is a dunghill. It's dust and ashes. And that's
what we're going to go back to. But, God, Raiseth up some of
these out of the muck and the mire and the filth and the dung heap. Paul said, I've lost
everything. Paul lost everything, gave everything
in the world. He said, it's just dung. It's
dung. You know the Greek word for dung,
don't you? It starts with an S. This whole world knows that. It's what everything turns to.
It's all it is. It's what it turns to. And that's
what people live for. But He raiseth up some out of
this. Gives them a sense of smell.
I want out. Feel. Just pull me down. He raiseth up. Brothers and sisters,
look around, look at mankind. You know how low and dirty and
filthy. You know, man was created the
highest life form on earth. Man was created the highest life
form on earth in the image of God. That's because God is high
above all that. And man was the highest life
form on earth. He is now the lowest, lowest. Ox knows his owner, the ass his
master's crib, the birds sing to the glory of God, even the
trees clap their hands. But man doesn't know, doesn't
even believe there is a God. He's lower than below. John Calvin used to say, man's
worse than a beast, but I apologize to the beasts. Man, but God. raises some of
these low creatures, these lowly, vile creatures, and he makes
them a new creation. Now, in verse 10, it says, we're
his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good work, which God
ordained that we should walk. A new creature. And verse 6 says
this, my last poem. He raised us out of this muck,
this mire, this dung, this dust, and made us sit together in heavenly
places. Made us. sit together with Christ. It's all together. I don't have
to go to church to worship God. If you don't consider it your
highest privilege on earth and your greatest desire on earth
to meet with God together and worship God's son, you don't
know God and know you're not part of his church. His church
They all want to go to church. They all want to be with the
church. They come not to hear the music, not to be entertained,
not to do anything, but be with Christ and His people. And all
of heaven throughout eternity is a gathering together of God's
people around Jesus Christ to worship Him. And they're all
so glad to be there. That's what they do together.
But God has to make you sit. That's to make you sit together. There's a story in Mark 5 of
a demoniac in the tombs. He lived among the dead, cutting
himself. He tried to kill himself. That
was me. I didn't literally, but, you
know, I was just like everybody else, doing this and doing that
and running this. I could have easily killed myself,
but God didn't let me. Living among the dead, just like
them, dead. Shouldn't have ran. And this
demoniac, nobody could tame him. Nobody could tie him down, okay? What happened? Jesus Christ told
his disciples, get in the ship. I'm going all the way over the
ship. over this sea to save this one despicable fella that nobody
likes. I'm going over there. Why, Mike?
Why in the world would he go from there all the way over to
save that guy? For his glory! And he did. He went over there,
and you know, he saved that boy. And when they came, the whole
town knew this man. They knew him all his life. He's
a wild, he's a hellion. Nobody could tame him. He's a
wild buck. And so they all came out to see
what happened. And you know what they found
this fellow doing? Sitting at the feet of Jesus
Christ with his mouth shut, with his heart broken, with his ears
listening. with his eyes fixed on life. Who did this? Jesus Christ. He made him sit down, shut up,
hear his voice, made him love God, love the truth, love Christ,
and gave him a broken heart. He did that. He had to. God had to make you sit here.
You like sitting here? Do you like sitting here? Really?
There was a time I thought, really? You really do? Let me out of here. Now God's
people don't want to leave here. You hang around afterward. Who
did this? He made you sit at his feet with
God together. Nobody you'd rather be with. Henry Sword, did you ever know
Henry? Okay, Henry's from Corn Valley,
Virginia. Up with the sticks and that's
the way he talked all his life. But a wise man, he knew the Lord,
he was a faithful man, sat right there until the day he died.
He and I were so far apart. I mean, I'm enlightened. I was from the enlightened in
the 70s, you know, I knew everything. I knew everything. You know,
sit on my roof and cross-legged and gaze at my navel and I knew
the meaning of life. But I wouldn't look down on some
ignorant country hick like that. What's he? Poor ignorant fool,
he believes that stuff. I actually thought that. Poor simpleton. Boy, he joined me with that man.
And I used to spend some of my free time going over and sit
at his feet and listen to him. to learn from him. Nobody would rather sit together.
And I look forward, he's there now ahead of me and I'm looking
forward to going back and sitting right beside Henry Sower for
Corn Valley. And I praise God to high heaven
who took this smart aleck and made him realize he's just a
fool. Just a fool. made me sit in heavenly places,
a heavenly place, in Christ Jesus. And I just can't describe to
you what it's going to be like sitting in that place with Him.
And He did all this, verse 7, He said, He did all this and
in the ages to come He's going to show the exceeding riches
of His grace. We just don't know, do we? Just
don't know how gracious the Lord has been to us. We know a little
bit. And His kindness, His mercy, we just don't realize. How merciful, how good, how gracious
God has been to us. We just don't know. Keep us sitting. Keep us coming.
Keep us sitting. And by grace, you see, it's by
grace you're saved through faith. We believe. I believe. You believe.
Why? Verse, chapter 1, verse 19, is His mighty power. That's
why. That's how. I believe. You believe. It's not yourself. It's a gift
of God. It's not of works. It's His work. Nobody's going
to boast. were his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good work, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. He has to make a new creature,
make us fit to inherit with angels in line. He has to make us fit.
He has to make us sit, make us fit, meet. Okay? Let me give you a closing illustration.
The Ark of Noah. How did animals get on that ark?
And Noah would go out and say, lions, oh lions, do you want
to get on this ark? I want you. Please. I've accepted
all lions who want to come. That's a wild animal. It'll chew
you up and spit you out. Tigers, elephants, coyotes, wolves,
What happened? God made them willing in the
day of His power. God sent Noah, who's Christ,
out there and called them. And they came. He didn't ask
them. He called them. He brought them in. They all came in because
Noah brought them in, okay? And all of God's people come
to Christ because He brings them. My sheep hear my voice. They
come when I call them. They all came in, all right?
And you go in that ark, there's lions and lambs. There's wolves and there's calves
and stuff. Arch enemies. But they're all
lying down together. They're all together, lying down
in peace and harmony. They're not eating each other.
There's no fear. The lamb doesn't fear the lion.
Cat doesn't fear the wolf. They're all lying together in
perfect harmony. And you know what? They're all
eating the same food. Straw. The lion is eating straw. No, it can't be. Yes, it's so.
It's so. You say, I don't believe that.
I do. Because I'm looking at the ark right here. Different
walks of life. Totally different. In perfect
peace. In perfect harmony. Together. They're all together
in peace and harmony. What did God have to do to make
them all dwell in peace? What did God have to do to make
that lion lay down with that lamb? What did He have to do?
Change their nature. That lion says, this is the best
straw I've ever had. I love this straw. I don't want
anything else. Love this peace. Why? It's a change of nature. It's a miracle, isn't it? I'm
looking at miracles. People from all over have been
brought here by the Word of God, by the power of God, by the Christ
of God, by the Gospel of God. It's changed your nature, a new
creature in Christ. You love to just sit right here.
You love this peace you have in Jesus Christ, don't you? It's
a miracle, isn't it? It's all because of but God.
And you? Let go. Okay, let's sing a closing
hymn, brother John.