The lesson this morning is going
to be in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 10. I hope through the
end of the chapter. I want to take these verses and
just do a brief commentary on each verse as we go. And before
I read verse 10, let me remind you that Paul is talking to us
in chapter 2. about the power and authority
of God who has quickened us from spiritual death and brought us
to faith in the living God. And he likens this unto a resurrection,
a spiritual resurrection. We had a legal resurrection in
the person of Christ, being quickened together with Him and raised
up with Him, seated with Him in the heavens. And because of
that legal resurrection. We now have a spiritual resurrection
that comes to us through the preaching of the gospel and the
Holy Spirit of God. And he tells us in as plain a
language as I believe a man could use that this faith is the gift
of God. It's the gift of God. It is not
of works. not in any way, shape, form,
or fashion, is this faith that we're brought to as the free
gift of God, owing in any way to us. It's all of God. Every
bit of it. I'm not saying that you're not
involved in it. I'm not saying that you're not
the one who believes. Understand what I'm saying. I'm
saying that this faith, this ability to believe, is the gift
of God. The ability to hear. Not everybody
preaches the gospel. And there's a lot of grace demonstrated
in that. Not everybody heard the gospel. And not everybody that hears
the gospel believes. It's the free grace of God. It's
not a work. He tells us over in, I think
it's 2 Timothy 1.9, he said, He has saved us and called us
with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace, given us in Christ Jesus before the
world began. It's the free gift of God. And
so Paul says this here, he said, for by grace are you saved through
faith. And that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. So
when it's plain a language as a man can use, he tells us that
this faith is the free gift of God. It's of the power of God. And it's necessary that it be
of the power of God. Ephesians 2.10. For we are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them." Now this word for appears often
in the Scriptures. It appears four times here in
Ephesians chapter 2. And it often appears in Scriptures. And when a verse begins with
this word for, it indicates that what is about to be said is being
based on what has already been said. So when he's talking about
being the workmanship of God created unto good works, he's
not changed his subject. He's still talking about faith.
He's still talking about this work of God that's brought you
by the power of His Spirit to believe. To believe. Now, the subject here, when he
talks about this these good works of faith. The subject is the
enlightened mind and heart. That's what he's talking about.
The subject is the believing sinner. The subject is the spiritually
dead, raised by the power of God and given this gift of faith. And all of the good works that
he's here talking about are the good works of faith. The good
works of faith. The unbeliever or unregenerate
man is said in verses 2 and 3 of this same chapter. Here's where
he was. Here's where he was when God
found him. That he walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
of disobedience that now worketh in the unbeliever, in the unregenerate
man. It's working in him right now,
same as it was in you before God called you. And his whole conversation of
life is a constant fulfilling, Paul said, of the lust of the
flesh and of the mind and by nature. He is the child of wrath,
or in other words, that wrath of God on the unbelieving world
is manifested in him the same as it is in everybody else. In
these chosen of God and in those who are not chosen, that same
condemnation in Adam is evident. It's evident by his works. It's
evident by the lust of the flesh. It's evident by his walk of life.
It's evident by his submission to that spirit of disobedience.
That's what these verses are saying. And sin takes many forms
and fashions. He could be a religious man or
a heathen. He could be as many of the Jews were office holders,
high priests, some of them, Pharisees, teachers, blind leaders of the
blind. Or it could take the form of
a harlot. It could take the form of a tax collector. It could
take the form of somebody whose life was crooked all their life,
which most of those tax collectors were. Now over in Romans chapter 3,
Paul tells us that the Jews, the religious folks, had a great
advantage over the Gentiles because to them were given the oracles
of God. I just follow my reasoning here.
You can read these verses when you get home. He said they had a great advantage
over the rest of the world because to them was committed the oracles
of God. The oracles of God are the spoken
word. That's what that means. The spoken
word. And Paul tells us in Hebrews
chapter 1 that God spake to our fathers through the prophets.
That was the spoken word. He spoke to them through the
prophets. He singled out, He blessed a
man, He made him, put him in a ministry, called him His prophet,
and everything that was to be known of God was known through
that man to Israel. They had the prophets. They had
the oracles. They had the spoken word of God.
They had His design and His pattern set before them to teach them
how to worship in figure and type. They had the tabernacle,
the priesthood, the sacrifices, all of those things. He spoke
to them. They had these oracles of God.
And then He asks down here in Romans Chapter 3, a little further
on, he asked this question. He said, so then, are we, he's
talking about the Jews, better than they? About the Gentiles. We had the oracles, we had great
advantage, so then are we to look at ourselves elevated from
the rest of the world? Am I to look at myself on a plateau
here and everybody else down here? He said, no, no wise. Why? Because he said, I have before
proved that they're all under sin. All under sin, both Jew and Gentile. And this is what I want you to
see. It's the sinful nature of a man that prevents him from
being able to walk with God. He can't do it. It's an impossibility. It tells us in his definitions
and examples of faith in Hebrews chapter 11. I recommend that you study that
chapter, because he tells you what faith is, and then he demonstrates
it some 50 times throughout that chapter. And he starts all the
way back in the beginning, and he comes all the way down. He
tells us that that's how we know the world was formed. That's
how we know why God had respect to Abel's offering and didn't
have respect to Cain's. It's how and so on, so on, so
on. He shows us all these things by example. But when it comes
to Enoch, he establishes this fact. Enoch was translated. God just took him. He was walking
along. He disappeared. He was gone.
But before God took him, he left this testimony that he pleased
God. He pleased God in His walk. He
pleased God in His life. He pleased God in His way. And
then it's quick to tell us in the very next verse, but without
faith it is impossible to please God. You see what I'm saying?
Our sinful nature prevents us from walking a walk that's pleasing
to God. The only way we can do it is
by faith in Christ. Faith in Christ. So unto them, he said, talking
about the Jews, I think it's in Hebrews chapter 4, was the
gospel preached as well as unto us. But the gospel preached did
not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard
it. They tried to walk with God by their own works and by their
own obedience, by their own reasoning, by their own ideas. But it didn't benefit them one
bit. and they wound up dead, and their carcasses falling in
the wilderness. These works are works performed,
and here's what I want you to see, by prisoners set free. They're works of a sinner whose
sins have been taken away. They're works of enemies now
reconciled. They're works of those delivered
out of the power and bondage of sin. That's who's working
these works. And the believer is a new creation
in Christ. That's what he's telling us.
He's raised him from the dead. He no longer walks like the rest
of the world walks. He don't think like they think.
He don't talk like they talk. He don't live like they live.
He's a new creature in Christ Jesus. His standing is no longer
dictated by the fall and condemnation of Adam, but upon the majesty
and success of the risen Savior. And his affection is no longer
bound by deceit and ignorance, but knowing the truth, he is
free to love Him who first loved him." The believer has honored the
law. and honored the justice of God
to its full and glorious perfection in the life and death of the
substitute. And he's no longer subject to,
he's no longer obligated in any sense to the law of God, but
he has by imputation, through faith, the very righteousness
of God charged to his account. John, you go down there and you
got 50 bucks in your savings account. Not enough. And so you go down there one
Monday morning and you look, and there's a billion dollars
somebody put in your account. Didn't have anything to do with
you, didn't have anything to do with anything you did or might
do sometime in the future. But by grace somebody put the
gift, just put the gift and charged it to your account. Charged it. That's how, that's what this
is all about. God takes this righteousness
that was wrought out by the obedience of Christ and he charges it,
he imputes it to us through faith. So we lack lot in Sodom. I won't even speculate on all
the sins and personal transgressions of Lot or David after his adultery
and murder. He called of God a righteous
man. He said that righteous man, talking
about Lot. He does what he does by faith
and out of gratitude and love to Christ which is born out of
believing on Christ. The good works of faith are impossible. Now, I want you to hear me. They're
impossible for a natural man to produce. It ain't going to
happen. He can be religious. He can attend
church. He can sing hymns. He can do
all of those things. But he cannot produce one work
of faith. Not one. Not the first one. Faith often separates us from
those we love. Natural man is not going to do
that. It takes an act of God for him
to do that. He can't do that. He's not going
to separate himself from his mother or his father. It takes
an act of God to convince him of these things so that those
things may or may not take place. But when they do take place,
he'll do it. That's right. Faith often causes
permanent divisions. It says those disciples turned
and walked no more with him. You know what it says? Right. They had a disagreement with
him. He didn't go after them. He didn't go after them. He didn't run along behind them
and say, well, maybe I was a little too quick. No. No. He told them
the truth. And they took sides with her,
and they turned and walked away. And not only did he let them
walk away, but he turned around to those who would be apostles.
And he looked at them. And he said, you going to go
too? Huh? To whom shall we go? Thou hast
the words of eternal life. That's faith. That's faith. You see what I'm saying? Natural
man's not going to do this. I'm telling you, when his friends
all get up and walk out, He's going to walk out with them.
He's going to walk out with them. Faith often calls for great sacrifice. You know there was only about
eight or nine people here when I first came here to pastor?
That's right. It called for a great sacrifice.
None of them were rich either. Or they got me fooled, if they
are. It calls for great sacrifice.
These eight or nine people stood up and said, we're going to support
him if nobody else comes ever. Until we die, we're going to
support him. It calls for great sacrifice. That's exactly right. I told the folks out in San Diego
when I was out there the other day, I said, be careful what
you pray for. You're liable to get it. When
you do, are you ready to go through that door? Are you ready to walk
through the door that God opens? Because it often calls for great
sacrifice. And faith calls for separation
from this world. And I know the unbelieving man
can't do that. He can't do it. He said, if any man loved the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. Faith demands
love, compassion, and unity among the brethren. A faithful man
can do that. The other fellow is going to
get mad. Well, I just won't talk to him anymore. That's not faith. That's not faith. All the good works of faith are
based on love. It's the love of Christ, Paul
said, that constraineth us. Well, how does all this come
to be? Let me see if I can very simply illustrate what it is
I'm trying to teach in this verse this morning. 38 years a man was paralyzed.
38 years from his mother's womb. A large part of that 38 years
he was carried on a stretcher down to a place called the Pool
of Bethesda. Now, the saying is that an angel
would come down at certain times and stir the waters by the commandment
of God And the first to be lowered into the waters was healed. And
this man was carried down, and he laid there often and watched
the waters stirred, but he couldn't get in the waters. He knew where
the life was, but he couldn't get to it. And he laid there,
and he laid there, and he laid there, and he laid there, year
after year after year after year. And he heard those others. There
was great crowds of people they brought all the lame and all
the haughty. They brought him down to this
pool of Bethesda to be healed in these waters. And he listened
to them talk about the angel and all the mechanics of what
was taking place and why it was a sure thing and why this thing
was of God. He knew all the arguments. And
he laid there paralyzed and couldn't get in the water. You had no
man to put him in the water. And then one day, by the grace
of God, the Son of God, the Lord of all glory, walked up to him,
took him by the hand, and commanded him to rise up and walk, take
up his bed, and carry it with him, and heal him. You reckon
he loved Christ? You reckon somebody had to stand
up there and go over to the Corinthians and get on the doctrine of love
and start teaching? He loved Christ. He loved Christ. There was an old filthy leper.
He had been barred from the worship of God and barred from the fellowship
of Israel and carried out there and made to live in a leper colony. He stunk and he was covered in
sores and he was rotting from the inside out. And in desperation
and need, this man came to Christ and just threw himself on the
ground before him and he said, Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. The Lord said, I will. And immediately
he was clean. Do you reckon he loved Christ? Do you reckon if Christ told
him to go preach to those people, those lepers over there, do you
reckon he would have went? I think he loved Christ. That's what
Paul is telling us. That's exactly what he's telling
us. Faith is not learning some facts
about Bible doctrine. It's an experiential knowledge
of Christ born out of desperation and need. God shows you what
you are, convinces you of what you are, and you see that leprosy. You see that madness like that
gadarine demoniac. You see that filth. You see that
issue of blood. You see those things. You see
yourself. And you cry out to him in desperation. And that's where faith's born.
Faith's not born out of learning Calvinism. Faith's born out of
desperation and need. Calvinism will take its place,
total depravity. You'll understand total depravity. So that when faith is given,
the one to whom it's given has nothing in which to boast of
himself. He's been shut up to the grace of God in Christ, and
it always leaves him loving the Lord. When everybody else abandons
him, Christ won't abandon him. When all the other hope is gone,
the hope of the flesh and all of these things that trials reveal
and burn away the drops, it leaves him loving the Lord. The Lord
will not abandon him. And here's what John says, he
that loveth not knoweth not God. You cannot know God in saving
faith and not love. You can't do it. Because that
faith is an experiential knowledge of Christ. Hereby perceive we
the love of Christ, because He laid down His life for the elect. That's not what that says. Hereby we perceive the love of
God, because He laid down His life for them. Ain't what that
says. Hereby perceive we the love of
God, because He laid down His life for us. For us. That's when you'll know it. That's
when you'll know it. And we ought to lay down our
lives for the brethren. This love for Christ born of
faith is the only motivation honoring to God. Everything else
is just spinning your wheels. And the only way it can be known
is for God to raise you from your spiritual death and give
you faith in Christ. Now here's the fruit produced
by this true faith, and faith itself is included in this fruit.
But it's the first of the fruits, and through faith, faith is like
a big channel through which everything else comes. Love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, and temperance. I don't
care how much you know, you cannot produce this fruit apart from
being born of God through the experience of grace. This way
of faith always leaves those to whom it's given with love
and gratitude of heart. Now let me be quick to add this. Faith is a work in progress.
Faith is described in Scripture in its youth, and in its middle
age, and in its maturity. He calls them young men. He calls
some babes, some young men. and some mature, some fathers.
We grow in grace and knowledge of Christ, and as we grow, so
does our love and gratitude to Christ. That's what he's saying
here. We are His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus. Not created apart from Him, but
created in Christ Jesus unto good work, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in it. Now based on this calling and
experience of grace, Paul tells this Gentile congregation in
verse 11 to remember where they came from. He said, don't you
remember? Don't you remember? Wherefore, verse 11, remember
that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision
by that which is called circumcision in the flesh made with hands.
that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise,
having no hope, and without God in the world. It is a strange
and shocking statement to our generation. I said this to that
congregation. I have no idea, but I've seen
some shock on some faces when I said it. I have no idea of
their background. I don't know where they come
from. I don't know who was visitors and who wasn't. And I like it
that way. That way I can just preach. But it's a shocking statement
to our generation to tell them that they are without Christ.
And that's what Paul tells these Gentiles. You remember that?
He said you was without Christ. Tell them that they're without
Christ. Tell them that they're not Israelites. have no covenants,
no hope without God in the world. Boy, I tell you, that's the last
thing a religious man wants to hear, that he's worldly. But
that's what Paul tells these folks. And yet this is exactly
the condition that God finds every Gentile believer in. I
venture to say that most religious teachers and preachers know very
little, if anything at all, of the Christ. What is the Christ? What does the term mean? Christ. I've heard the name Christ all
my life. Nobody ever told me who He was,
or what He was, or why He had to come, or where He went, or
anything about it. The Christ. The Christ is the
promised seed of God, first given back in Genesis 3.15, called
the woman's seed. And all through the Old Testament
Scriptures, He talks about the coming Redeemer. from the Acts
of the Apostles through the revelation of John, the revelation of Christ
written by John, he tells us about this Christ, that this
Christ was promised, He's coming, and then over here they tell
us where He's at, that He's exalted, that He's in the heavens, and
that He's coming back. But Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John said Jesus is this Christ. He is the Christ. But that don't
help you if you don't know what the Christ is. I'll help you
a bit. Who He is. Why it is that He
must come. What He must do and where He
must go. The Christian hope is in a person.
The Lord Jesus Christ. Not in decisions. I do not deny. Don't you go tell somebody, that
preacher don't believe that you even have to make a decision.
I never said that. I said faith is not based on
your decisions. Well, I preachers don't even
believe that you have to be willing. Well, sure I do, but I believe
you have to be made willing. And there's a difference. There's
a difference. Christian hope is in a person.
It's not in these things. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Before God brought us to faith, we had no idea or conception
of the Christ. We were without Christ. And we're
also aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. I used to wonder. I'd go back
there and read in the Old Testament and some of these preachers would
get up and refer to this verse or that verse. And they plainly
say that he was talking to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and talking
to the children of Israel. And what's that got to do with
me? How's that supposed to help me? I'm not a Jew. That's what he's telling them.
You remember, he said, where you were. You had no claim to
these things. No claim to them. Aliens from
the commonwealth of Israel. Gentiles. Heathens. Left to themselves to serve their
idols. Idolaters. Wicked, evil men given
over to themselves to believe a lie and be damned. and they're
strangers from the covenants of promise. How many of you,
before you heard a grace preacher, I want the truth, you just answer
it to yourself, even knew what a covenant was? In all your years in religion,
or all your years without religion, did anybody ever even mention
to you anything spiritual connected with a covenant? I never did. I was in church for 14 years.
Never heard the word mentioned. Had no idea. First time I heard
a man preach it, I thought, what on earth is he talking about?
Covenant. Our God is a covenant God, and
He's always dealt with men by covenants and always will. Men
and women of our day have no idea who God is or how He deals
with men. Listen to this, Psalm 105, verse
7. He is the Lord our God. His judgments
are in all the earth. He hath remembered His covenant
forever. The word which He commanded to
a thousand generations, which covenant He made with Abraham,
swore again unto Isaac and confirmed the same unto Jacob and to Israel
for an everlasting covenant." All His dealings are in the covenant. Not only so, but in this in this fallen world. That's
where we're at. In this world. Verse 13, But
now in Christ Jesus ye who were sometimes afar off are made now
by the blood of Christ. By the blood of Christ. For He
is our peace, who hath made both one, both Jew and Gentile, broken
down the middle wall of partition between us, abolished in His
flesh the enmity, that is what separated the Jew from all other
religions, even that law of commandments contained in ordinances, were
to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace, that
he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross,
having slain the enmity thereby. That is, the issue between the
Jews and Gentiles was one of personal righteousness, and God
took it out of the way. He convinced both that there's
none righteous, no, not one. and then showed us the righteousness
of Christ. And He came and preached peace
on this basis, to you which were afar off and to them which were
nigh, for through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto
the Father. And now therefore you are no
more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the
saints and of the household of God, and built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the
chief cornerstone in whom all the building fitly framed together."
He's talking about faith. This building is put together
by faith. And when it's fitly framed together,
it groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you're also
built together for a fit habitation of God through the Spirit. That's
how we are the workmanship of God. His workmanship. created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. May the Lord teach us this great truth.