Turn back to Ephesians chapter
2. Ephesians chapter 2. Wherefore, remember. That caught my attention today.
The reason I read Deuteronomy, folks, is that when you come
into the land, you possess the land, houses and wells and all
those things that you did not build or dig. Don't forget who
gave it to you. Don't forget where God brought
you from, where you're at, and where you're going to. Wherefore,
remember. That's what I want us to do tonight.
I want us just to look at this once again and just remember
what the Lord has done for us. Paul said to preach the same
things to you. He said, indeed, it is not grievous
Not a burden to me. And for you, it's safe. It's
necessary to hear the gospel, to go over the same things again
and again and again. The Word of God never grows old.
No matter how many times you hear it, no matter how many times
you hear a message preached from a certain portion of Scripture,
it never grows old. You know, I like the same food.
I don't change what I eat much at all. I'm really just a bland
person. We go down to La Finca's from
time to time. Every time we walk in, they know
what we want. They don't even have to ask us.
They know what we want to drink. They know what we want to eat.
They just smile sometimes and say, you want polo Mexicano. That's what we eat every time
we go there. I do not have an appetite or desire to eat anything
else when I go there. And I feel the same way about
the Word of God. I don't want anything else. I
don't have an appetite for anything else other than what's between
the pages of this book. And that's what I want. And if
we stay between Genesis and Revelations, we cannot go wrong, by the grace
of God. There's a lot of people who have
gone wrong, By His grace, we won't go wrong. Now, we need
to call to remembrance the mercies of God to us in Christ. Look over in Psalm 103. In Psalm
103, listen to this. Bless the Lord,
O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Bless
the Lord, O my soul, and forget not, remember, remember all His
benefits. When you lay down at night, remember
His benefits. When you wake up in the morning,
remember His benefits. When you go through the day,
remember His benefits. Remember them. Who forgiveth
all thine inequities, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth
thy life from destruction. That's what He did. We were headed
for destruction. The bridge is out. The bridge
is out. And He's redeemed our life from
destruction. Who crowneth thee with loving
kindness and tender mercies. Who satisfies thy mouth with
good things so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle. And
you can go on down through here. He's merciful. The Lord is merciful,
gracious, slow to anger, plentiful in mercy. He has not dealt with
us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
He remembers our frame that is dust. He knows what we are. Oh,
remember! Remember. Remember. Remember
from where He has brought us from. Destruction. Sin and death. That is what He has brought us
from. And to what He has called us to. Glory? He has called us
to glory. And to where we are going? Paradise. The Lord said to the thief on
the cross today, shalt thou be with me in paradise. That's where
we're going. It takes God to enable you to
believe that, doesn't it? That just sounds too good to
be true. That's why faith is of God. That's why He has to
give us faith and work it in us, because what we have here
in Christ is just too good to be true. But it's so. It is true. It's true. And we
are bought with a price. We are not our own. We are not
of this world anymore. We are of the kingdom of God.
We truly live in another kingdom now. I love this country. I pray the Lord bless the United
States and keep it free as free can be in its life. But I'm a
citizen of the New Jerusalem. You are a citizen. You believe
God. You are a citizen of the New Jerusalem. You are a citizen
of the Kingdom of God. And we are under a theocracy,
not a democracy. We are under a theocracy and
we are glad to have it so. Jesus Christ is our King and
we rejoice in it. The Lord reigneth. Earth rejoice. He reigneth. We have so much
to be thankful for and to praise God for. He's plucked us out
of sin and death and destruction as you would pluck a bran out
of the fire. He just lifted us right out of
it. He has loved us with an everlasting
love. An everlasting love. There was
never a time that God the Father The whole Godhead has not loved
me, has not loved you. There's never a time that He
has not loved. It's an everlasting love. It's an unchangeable love. Unchangeable. And He has chosen
us in Christ now to be heirs. To be heirs of salvation and
joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ, His Son. They have a bum off the street.
I mean a bum or just go further than that. Let's take someone
off a death row and make him joint heir of everything that's
coming to you. We were enemies of God in our
minds, it says, by wicked works. But he has made us joint heirs
with himself. We have in Christ everything
that belongs to him. Everything that God is belongs
to us. We have it. And we are to the
praise and the glory of His grace. Now, in these first three verses,
Paul reminds us of our past. He reminds us of this. He says,
you were dead in trespasses and sins. This is the way you were. No spiritual life. Spiritually
stillborn. That's the way we came into this
world. And if God had left us alone,
we would have remained that way, we would have met God in judgment
that way, and we would have perished that way. And our behavior was
controlled by that depraved nature that we inherited from Our parents
running all the way back to Adam. We did not walk after the Spirit
of God. We have not always loved God. We have not always walked
after godliness. No, no, we walked after the flesh,
carnal minded. I know my past. I remember and
I remember and I know what I fight now. I know what I fight daily. I know. Controlled by another
spirit at one time. And our values and principles
Well, you know, as much as mom and dad tried to give us good
values and good principles, it was still shaped by this world.
When I was a teenager, and you girls are teenagers, you wanted
to wear the same thing everybody at school was wearing. I don't
care how short the dress was. I don't care what it was. Well,
everybody else was wearing it. The world shaped our values.
It shaped our values. Didn't want to stand out. Didn't
want to be different. Wanted to just fit in. Wanted
to run with the popular crowd. That's what we were by nature.
That's what we were drawn to by nature, like a magnet and
steel. They just pull together. That's
the way we were by nature. And we were children of wrath,
even as others have said. We had and have. We still have
it. That same nature that those right
now who have perished under the wrath of God, we have that same
nature. It's still with us. We haven't
gotten rid of it. It's still with us. But we have
that. This is how every person is born into this world. If God does not make you and
me alive in Christ, will perish with the rest of them. He has to make us alive in Christ.
He has to bring us to Christ and do something for us and do
something in us. Now, these first three verses
tell us this is the way we were. I think there was a movie back
in the 70s with that title, wasn't there? I don't remember anything
about it, but I remember there was a title, The Way We Were.
This is the way we were. And these three verses exclude
boasting. Just three little verses here
exclude all boasting. Our boasting is in the next verses. But God, who is rich in mercy,
He's rich in it. He has plenty of it. He's rich. His mercy is infinite. If it
was not, I would have used it up. If it was not infinite, we
would have used it up. It's infinite. No sinner is so
far off that God's mercy cannot reach him. Now, you can think
of the vilest person that you heard on the news or whatever.
No person is so far off that the mercy of God cannot reach
him. It reached you, didn't it? It reached me. And if it did
that, we shouldn't give up hope for anybody. No heart is so hard
that his mercy cannot melt it. It melted mine. It melted yours. He's rich in mercy. I'm sure
glad he's rich in it. You can count everything I have.
You can count everything Donald Trump has or Bill Gates, but
you cannot count all that God has. He's rich in everything
God has and everything that God is. He's rich in it. infinitely
rich in it. Psalm 86 verse 5 says, "...plenteous
in mercy." And God who is rich in mercy bestows that mercy on
those whom He intentionally loves. Intentionally loves. Now even though He is rich in
mercy, now listen, He does not throw it around like chicken
feed. Throw it around like chicken feet and see who wants to pick
it up. He does not do that. He abundantly, abundantly bestows
His mercy on the object of His love. That's who He bestows His
mercy on. Those whom He loves. And He did
it even when we were dead in sins. Dead in trespasses in sins. When we were at our worst. That's
what it says over in Romans 5.8. No love to God on our part. I was not born into this world
in love with God. I was born into this world and
you were born into this world with a natural enmity against
God. A natural enmity. No worship
of Him. It used to just drive me nuts
when I had mom and dad making me go to church. And when they
quit making me go, I quit going. I had no worship, no desire. It was just to cramp my style. Sad, but so. But I know what
that nature is all about. I know what it's all about. We
were dead in trespasses and sin. Because I said this is the way
we were. We are not dead now. I know we have that old nature.
I know we sin. But we don't live in sin. We
don't wallow in sin. We don't run after sin. We are
not dead now. We were, but not now. For God
has made us alive in Christ. He's made us alive in His Son.
Why do you have an interest in Christ? You have the life of
Christ in you. That's why you have an interest
in Him. Paul said, it's not I that live, but Christ who lives in
me. In me. Born of God. Raised from the dead by the power,
the same power that raised Christ from the dead has raised us from
the dead in Christ. Same power. And it's by the grace
of God that you are saved. Pure grace. Pure grace. It's not by grace you are saved
if you will accept it. No, if it had been left up to
me, I still wouldn't want to be here. If it had left me like
I was, none of us would want to be here. By grace you are saved. We are saved from the wrath to
come. You know, when Noah When Noah
built the ark, it says he was a preacher of righteousness for
120 years. You know they laughed at him.
But when the door was shut and the rain fell, I bet you a dollar
they were trying to get on that boat. It's as sure as the world
is, it's coming. And he has saved us from the
wrath to come. From the power and dominion of
sin, sin shall not have dominion over you. It will not control
you anymore. And it would say from the guilt
of sin, say from the power of the grave, O grave, where is
your victory? Where is your victory? The grave
is just a resting place for the body for just a little while
till the Lord comes, and it's just a little while. You know,
when you go to sleep, it doesn't seem like that right now, does
it? But when you go to sleep at night, morning comes that fast, doesn't
it? Morning just comes. Sometimes I say, man, it goes
by too fast when I'm sleeping well. It goes by too fast. And that's the way it will be
when we die. They bury us, it will just be
such a quick sleep. for this body, it'll just be
quick. He has saved us from the power
of the grave, from the sting of the law. Oh, I tell you, I
was watching a program the other night and that judge took that
gavel and this was on it. This was a true, it was a court
case. Slammed it down, said guilty. How awful would it be to hear
that sound? Guilty. He has saved us from that sound.
He has saved us from guilty. He has saved us from the curse.
How? By being made a curse for us
just as He was made to be sin for us. He didn't just take the
curse. It says He was made a curse.
for us. And we were saved by the pure,
sovereign grace of God. It came to us unasked for. Were you asking for it when it
came? You asked for it after it came. You didn't realize it. You didn't realize it. You do
now. But you asked for it. It was
unasked for. It was unsought. And it was unearned. And it came to us because of
who He is, not because of who I am. Because of who He is. I was found of them that what?
That was begging for me? Looking for me? Chasing after
me? No. I was found of them that
sought me not. I was made known. I was manifest. I was revealed to them that ask
not after me. When I heard the gospel, I was
going to mom and dad's to eat dinner. I was going to eat lunch
or something. I wasn't going to hear the gospel. I sat down
and heard the gospel. I wasn't looking for Him and
I wasn't looking for the gospel. And all of a sudden, lo and behold,
I hear the gospel. That's how it comes. And God
has raised us up together with His Son. When His Son rose from
the dead, we arose in Him. Every last one of God's elect
were in Him. And when He went into the grave,
we went into the grave. And when He arose, we arose in
Him. And now when we're born again, when a man or woman is
born again, when a sinner is born again, that sinner is raised
to a new life. I promise you, you'll never be
the same. You will not be the same if the
Lord is pleased to say, That God allowed us to die in Adam
and come into this world spiritually dead in trespasses and sins.
That He might quicken us together with Christ. And that He might
demonstrate throughout the ages, throughout our ages here on this
earth and throughout eternity, that He might demonstrate throughout
the ages His rich love and abundant grace which He has bestowed upon
us in His Son. Frank said it right. of His grace. Can you imagine being a trophy
of God's grace? And He did this that His Son
would receive all the glory and that you and I, we need to get
a hold of this, and you and I would share in that glory, joint heirs
with Christ. By grace are you saved by the
unmerited favor of God, you didn't impress God no more than anybody
else. Not at all. By grace are you
saying through faith. Faith is the glass like this
glass. It receives the water, but God
made the glass. Faith is the hand that receives
the blessing, but God made the hand. Faith is the gift of God. How
many people do you meet every day that do not believe an ounce
of the gospel? And yet you do. You can't brag
about it, can you? You cannot brag about it because
it's the gift. God gave it to you. God gave
it to you. You can't boast about it because
God gave it to you. Because He says here, it's not
of works. It's not by keeping some laws, ceremonies. Not by
being moral. It's not that at all. It's by
grace through faith. And that's not of yourself. It's
the gift of God. Any man should boast. And I'm
telling you what, if you gave us just an ounce of it, we'd
boast. You wouldn't even know God existed. We'd boast so much about what
we did. How many converts we had. How
many converts did you have? I ain't had any. I've never had
a convert. God's the only one that converts
sinners. I preach to them, but He's the only one who can truly
convert them. We are His workmanship. Everything about a believer,
from his spiritual life to his faith to his good works, is the
handiwork of God Almighty. It's God's handiwork. And every
believer, everyone whom God sent, knows that. You know that. You know it. And God foreordained
all this before the world began, that we should walk in this prearranged
path of good works. I'm glad He did. Predestination
doesn't bother me at all. I rejoice in it. Scripture says,
Thou shalt choose our inheritance for us. Does not the parent choose the
inheritance for the children? I'm glad he chose our inheritance
for us. I'm glad he did. And every one
of God's children are going to walk after the Spirit and not
after the flesh. Although I do believe some get
sidetracked from time to time. David did. Abraham did. Just
to prove we're still men. Still centers in need of mercy,
in need of grace. Wherefore, remember. Wherefore,
remember this. When you go to bed at night,
remember this. When you wake up, remember this. Remember who
and what you were. Gentiles! Gentiles! Look back at our ancestry. At one time, if you go back far
enough, our ancestry danced around the fires. And they worshipped
the moon, the sun, and everything else coming along. That's our
ancestry. We were left in darkness. After God confused the language
at the Tower of Babel, He turns to Abraham and starts dealing
with that nation, Abraham, and the rest of the Gentile world
is left in darkness. The rest of it is. Wherefore,
remember, you were Gentiles, heathens in the flesh, ignorant,
blind. You worshipped everything except
God. Christ said to that woman at
the well, we worship, we know what we worship. You worship,
you know not what. You don't know what you're worshipping.
You don't know who you're worshipping. You're just going through the
motion. You're worshipping something that doesn't even exist. He said, you worshipped everything
except God. You lived wickedly. And you were
despised by the Jewish race. They despised the Gentiles. At that time, at that time, you
were without Christ. Our ancestry was at without Christ. We were without Him. You had
no part in Him. You had no knowledge of Him.
You had no faith in Him. You were not looking for Him. You were idolaters, idolaters. You were aliens. If you ever
believed in aliens, you ought to read the Bible and find out
we were it. Aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel. You had no part in their worship. You had no part in the covenant.
You had no part in it. Strangers, he says, from the
covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the
world. This was us. This was our ancestry. This was
us by nature. The covenants of promise were
given to the Jews, not the Gentiles. We were the wild olive branch
engrafted into the olive tree. Therefore, being strangers and
aliens from the covenants of promise, we were without hope.
Listen, if you have no place in the covenants of promise,
if you have no place in it, then you are without God in the world
and you are without hope. God, I want you to listen to
this, God only operates in salvation within the covenant of promise. He does not operate outside the
realms of that covenant that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
he said at one time, you had no part in it. How many thousands of years went
by? Several thousand years went by when the Gentile world, our
ancestry, had no part in the covenant of grace at that time. No part in it. He said, you were
without. Outside of Christ and His covenant, there's no hope. Here's our state. Aliens, strangers,
Gentiles, no covenant of promise, without Christ. And we truly
should know that we are saved by grace. that it is all of grace. If there
was ever a hopeless people, it was us. It was us. But now, but God who is rich
in mercy, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were so far away, so
far off, so hopeless and helpless, you are brought near. You are
brought near right into the Presence of God by the blood and righteousness
of His Son. God has allowed you into the
house. He's brought you right into His
presence, right to the throne of grace, right to the throne
of glory. He's brought you in by the blood
of the everlasting covenant. You're now included in this covenant. And the peace we have with God,
the peace we have with one another, is Jesus Christ Himself. He is our peace with God, and
He's the bond, He's the glue, He's the peace that's between
me and you. He's the one who enables us to
get over it. He's the one. He's our peace. He's our harmony. And He's made
both the circumcision and the uncircumcision one. That is, all those who are in
Him, those who are Jew and Gentile, that are saved by Him, He's made
them one. In Christ there's no division,
no respective persons, there are no races. There are no races
in Him. No, not at all. We are all one. That dividing wall was taken
down by Christ. And He did this through being
crucified. He did it by being crucified.
He did away with the commandments and the ordinances and the ceremonies
that stood between us and them. He did that. And by doing so,
it says, He made one new man. And in doing that, He made peace. And here's why he's saying it. Believers love each other no
matter what race they're of. You can't be a believer and be
prejudiced. You can't do it. And I know there's things we
have to overcome. I do know that. And it takes a while sometimes
to get the grave clothes off. I know that. I know that. But
the Lord will bring you around. Whatever race a man is who is
saved of God, he's my brother. He's my brother. He's my real brother. He's the
one I'm going to spend eternity with. And He reconciled both
Jew and Gentile. He reconciled them both to God
in one body. His and His. Through the cross. Through being crucified. Fulfilling
the law by His cross. And He put an end to our differences. There's nothing, there's nothing
and no one that can put an end to our differences, like Christ. He's the only one who can bring
down the walls that we build up. We build walls and He brings
them down, not close them. And He came and He preached.
He came from glory. He came into this world, bone
of our bone, flesh of our flesh. He came into this world and he
preached the gospel of peace and reconciliation to Jews and
Gentiles, to his race. He came to the Jewish race and
to us. He preached peace to us. There's only one gospel by which
God saves a Jew or a Gentile, only one. And it's through the
Lord Jesus Christ, not ancestries, not ceremonies, not rites, but
it's through the Lord Jesus Christ that we, Jew and Gentile, have
access to God by the same Holy Spirit. This is rich. This is rich. You have to take the rest of
our lives to get a hold of it. It'll take the rest of our lives
to get a little bit here and a little bit there and see more
of it. This is a lot to give all
in one sitting, isn't it? We cannot comprehend all this. But now, in verse 19, you're
no more strangers. You're not strangers no more.
You're not foreigners no more. Listen, you have All the rights
of citizenship. All the rights of citizenship.
You know, in Acts 22, they were going to beat Paul. And Paul
said, is it right, is it lawful to beat a Roman that's uncondemned?
And that chief captain boy scared him to death. Just scared him
to death when he found out Paul was a Roman. And he came to Paul
and he said, By a great sum I obtained this
freedom, this citizenship of Rome. It could be bought. And
if it can be bought, it can be lost. And he was afraid that
if this gets back to headquarters, I could lose mine. Well, he could
lose his life if it actually beat him, but I could lose my
citizenship. And he said, with a great sum,
with a great sum obtained I this freedom, this citizenship. How
did a poor man, how did a poor Jew like you Become a Roman. Paul said, I
was born free. I was born free. You see, he
was born in Tarsus, a city of Cilicia. Mark Anthony freed that
city long before Paul was born. And when Paul was born there,
he was automatically a citizen of Rome. Uncondensed. I tell you what, if you're a
citizen of the New Jerusalem, if you are a citizen, it is not
lawful for the law to beat you uncondemned. And in Christ there
is what? No condemnation. None. No, He says you have all the
rights of citizenship. You are God's people also. And
you're built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.
Both the Old and New Testament have one message, one foundation,
and Jesus Christ of Nazareth is that foundation, and He's
that cornerstone. And it's in Christ the whole
building is welded together. It says knit together. That's
welded. It's welded together, and it rises and grows into a
holy temple in the Lord. In Christ. In Christ we are growing
in fellowship with each other, into a building, into a fixed
abode, a dwelling place of God through
the Spirit. That's what's going on. That's
what's going on right now. Throughout the ages, God is building
His church, His building, His fixed abode. God dwells in us. I'll be their God and they shall
be my people and I will walk in them. I tell you what, remember this. Wherefore remember, in a little
while, I'll preach on this again. And we'll remember it again.
All right, Mike.