Almost feel like I need to change
my text. Everybody here today has brought my message. Paul
Daniels brought it. It was just saying. Ephesians chapter two. Where his workmanship, my message
is his workmanship. It's a very familiar text. Verse one says, And you hath
it quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Now, these
first three verses in this chapter, you're going to see what we were
by nature. All believers were at one time
fitting this description, and everyone here today who's not
looked to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, you still fit
this description. This is what the Word of God
says. You are dead in trespasses and
sin. You're not just a little sick.
You know, I have in my bedroom a little shelf off to the side,
and I've got some day quill and some night quill in there. I'm
not just laying in bed with a little medicine off to the right here
to help me out when I'm sick. That's not what's being talked
about here. We were dead in trespasses and sin. Not just some people
who needed a little help. We absolutely were dead in trespasses
and sin. Needing life. Needing life. Compares us here. He compares
our life in the flesh as being dead bodies. If you've ever been
to a funeral, and I know you have, you just see what you can
get done talking to a dead body. Nothing can be accomplished.
And you know, there's a sense in which what I'm doing today
is absolutely worthless unless God Almighty does something.
Because dead men can't hear. You know, Ezekiel gave a story
of a vision when he was told to preach, preach to a bunch
of dead bones. Now, you know, Ezekiel must have
thought that was a strange thing to do. But he was told to do
it. And that's why we preach. We've
been commanded to preach. And the power to put life in
those bones, to assemble those bones, to put flesh and blood
on those bones, and to breathe life into those creatures. And
the power to bring those creatures together and form a gray army,
not just an unorganized mob. That's a power that God alone
has. God alone has that power. And
it's by the foolishness of preaching that we speak and He accomplishes
these things. It's called the Word of Life.
It's the word of life that we preach. Think of that scene where
our Lord stepped out by the tomb of Lazarus and said, Lazarus,
come forth. He called him by name. That one
at the tomb that day, if he hadn't said the name of Lazarus, everybody
would have come forth. That's the power he had. But
he called Lazarus forth. He stepped out in that graveyard
and spoke to a dead man. Now, that must have looked a
little mad. for everybody that was standing around there, but
that dead man heard because of the one who was speaking. He
was the Lord Jesus Christ, the life giver. And that's the one
who brings us from this state of spiritual death. Spiritual
death. This gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. I love this here. He says, and
you hath he quickened. Do you see it? He. He quickened. Sovereign, discriminating grace. God Almighty quickens whom he
will. The Son has power to quicken
whom he will. That's what he said. And he's
exercising that power on people who are spiritually dead, separated
from God, strangers, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. That's
the description you hear. Look at this. Verse 2 says, wherein
in times past you walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience. We were absolutely
destitute of any hope. Let me show you a verse here.
Verse 11, the same chapter. Look down at verse 11. Now you
remember that it being in times past Gentiles in the flesh who
are called the uncircumcision by which It's called the circumcision
of the flesh, that at that time you were without Christ, being
aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the
covenants of promise, having no hope, having no hope without
God in this world. Until a person sees they have
no hope and they're without God in this world, until a person's
brought to that, that person never will know anything about
the living God. As long as you've got a nickel
in your pocket to pay for your salvation, you're never going
to know Him. Dead in trespasses and sin. Without
strength, Paul said in Romans 5. When we were without strength
in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Unable to lift my
arm. Unable to do anything. And he
talks about our state here as being, you walked. And you see that back in the
text? You walked according to the course of this world. That's
what we did by nature. We came into this world walking
according to the course of this world. What's that mean? That
means our employment, the tenor of our life, everything about
us had to do with this world. This world. The customs of this
world, the manners of this world, The ways and the lives and the
thoughts of men, that's exactly what we came in with. I call it the law of the jungle. Grab it and growl. I have a friend
that tells me when he was young that if there was one or two
pieces of pizza left on the plate, he'd pick them up and lick them
so his brother couldn't eat them. That's the customs of this world. That's the world's values, the
mentality of this world. This is what we lived in in times
past. Hopefully that was times past.
And it's not just talking here about debauched lifestyles. You
know, he talks about ye walked according to the course of this
world, but look at verse 3 here. Among whom, also, we all had
our conversation. Notice that word, we, there.
Paul includes himself in that. Now, if you read the Philippians,
the third chapter, you'll find out that the Apostle Paul was
the son of a Pharisee. He was of blue blood, Hebrew
of Hebrews. The son of a Pharisee. Grew up
in a religious home. That man could say that according
to the righteousness which was in the law, I was blameless.
That's what he could say. Any customs that were required,
anything anybody ever expected from any good little religious
boy that ever walked this earth, he said, I was doing. And yet
he says here, this was, according to the customs, the conversation
of this world. We walked in it. Not just ye,
we. You see, there's a religion that's
common to this world. The religion of man. Everybody's
got it. You come in thinking, well, you
know, I'm not as bad as other people. God's going to look at
my good works. I'm going to look at my bad works.
And if the good works outweigh the bad works, then he's going
to let me go into heaven or nirvana or whatever the place is. Whatever
your particular faith or persuasion might be. It's a religion of
works. It's a religion that goes all
the way back to the very beginning of time when Cain and Abel were
in that garden. And one of them came by the blood
of a lamb and the other one came with some fruit. He managed to
get up off that earth. A man so proud of his pumpkins
and his tomatoes. that he laid them on top of that
altar and said, look at this God, ain't this something. That's
the religion of the world. Look at this God, ain't this
something. And that's the religion you and I were born with. That's
that old time religion everybody sings about. I'm telling you,
we were born with it. And it's nothing but flesh. It's
the course of this world among whom also we all had our conversation
in times past in the lust of the flesh. fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and we were by nature the children
of wrath even as others. You see that? We were just as
much a child of wrath as anybody who lived in any debauched lifestyle
on the earth. Children of wrath. We walked as religious men, but
we were carnal men, natural men. I know what I'm talking about.
I was raised in religion. I was a proud little Pharisee. I had that, you know, those pins
they used to hand out years ago for perfect attendance at Sunday
school. They probably haven't had those in a long time. I was there. Walking according to the prince
of the power of this air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience. You know, we all led spirit-led
lives. Not Holy Spirit-led lives, Spirit-led
lives. The Spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience. Sure. Satan is called the Prince
of the Power of the Air. And he's called that because
he has his residents and all the fallen angels with him in
the atmosphere around this earth. And if we talk about free wills,
let me just tell you something. I want to talk to you about how
free his will is. We're taken captive by him, the scripture
says, at his will. At his will. How free is the will of a dead
man? It's as free as water is to run
uphill. When water can run uphill, a
dead man can will his salvation. That's right. By nature, we're
children of wrath under the influence of Satan. We're in his religion.
And if he don't get us there, he'll let us do what we want
everywhere else. Our Lord said in John 8, 44,
he said to the Pharisees, you are of your father, the devil
and the lust of your father you will do. He was a murderer from
the beginning. And he bowed not in the truth
and because there's no truth in him and when he speaks a lie,
he speaks of his own. He doesn't have to work at lying.
He speaks of his own. It's not hard for him to do.
You don't have to work at it. He's a liar and the father of
lies. And I'll tell you something else. You were born into this
world in league with him and nobody had to work at teaching
you how to lie. You know that? If you ever say
a truthful thing, your daddy and your mama have got to work
it out of you. I know my daughter, my oldest
daughter, used to keep me up Well, I won't just say my oldest
daughter. My daughters used to keep me up when they were mere
infants, screaming at the top of their lungs. And I'm telling
you, there was nothing wrong. They were liars, born in sin,
shape and iniquity. This one in whom we had this life that we had, a life
of the lust of the flesh, a life of religion, a life in which
the spirit of the evil one reigned, we also had to deal with our
natural inclination towards evil. I was talking yesterday about,
a friend of mine was talking about Judo. We were talking about
it. One of the amazing things about Judo is you just take the
other person's weight and throw them. And that's what Satan does
with us. He takes our own natural inclinations
and rolls us all over. And that's the way it is. That's
the way it was. That's the way it's been for
every one of us who's come into this world. Fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and the mind. You know, we're not just corrupt
in our bodies. We're corrupt in every sense
of the word. In the garden, we completely
fell. There is none that doeth good. What's it say? No, not one. What's that mean? That means your deeds are no
good. There's none that understand
it. What's that mean? That means
your mind is incapable of understanding God or your need. There's none that seek Him. What's
that mean? There's none who has the will
to seek the living God. There's none. No, not one. But God, look at verse 4, I tell
you, I can paint that, I can deal a long time with what I
am by nature, but I'd much rather start right here. But God, whose
rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when
we were dead in sins, and quickened us together with Christ by grace
He has saved. All that you read in verses one
through three, everything there is true but God. But God. I love this. Who's rich in mercy.
He attributes. He takes an attribute of God.
God is righteous. God is holy. God is true. God
is merciful. He takes this attribute of God
and says this is the only reason anything's ever happened for
you. It's because of his mercy. It's his mercy. You were delivered
completely because of his plenteous, abundant, free mercy. And he's done this for what?
Listen. For his great love. Mercy completely for love's sake. Completely for love's sake. And
I'm happy to say it's no new thing. You look at this verse.
Wherewith he loved us. Do you see that? It's past tense.
This great mercy for the love He's had for us, He's loved us. Eternity passed before the world
began. Knowing what you would be, knowing
that you would be absolutely corrupt, worthless, not a thing
you could give Him, nothing that you could supply Him that would
make Him happy, for reasons known only to His infinitely holy,
just, perfect mind, He chose you and put you in Christ Jesus
and loved you and decided to show mercy upon you. Oh, my goodness. No reason whatsoever. Even when
we were dead in sins, I think I used to see these movies when
I was a kid, these used to make movies with zombies and people
that were dead walking the earth. God loved some zombies. and put him in Christ. He loved
us. And look at this verse here.
And he quickened us together with Christ Jesus. Now, what's
that mean? Well, first off, it means this. We were represented in a representative
man. That's the whole story of the
Bible. That's the story of the book of Genesis. Adam was made
and we were all in him. Adam was given one commandment
and a perfect man in a perfect world with one commandment dropped
the ball. You and I can't possibly keep
the law now. And when he fell, we fell. And
the sin that he had became our sin. That's what has polluted
this bloodstream to this very day. Every child of God has Every
child of man has got this. And we were represented in Christ
Jesus. We were quickened together with
Him. When He walked this earth, my friends, and this is a lovely
thought, we were in Him. When He was walking this earth
doing good and keeping the law of God perfectly, we were in
this one Christ Jesus. He represented us. He's the last
Adam, the Scripture calls Him. The second Adam. And when He
kept the law perfectly, we did. And when He died at Calvary,
when sin was imputed to Him, we died. We are crucified with
Christ Jesus. And when He rose from the grave,
we rose from the grave in Christ Jesus. And when He ascended on
high and sat down at the Father's right hand, we sat down at the
Father's right hand in Christ. If the head of the Church is
there, the body is going to be there, my friends. It's not going
to be long before the entire body of Christ joins him there.
But right now, we're in him representatively so sure of salvation that we
are already seated together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Now that's, it don't get no gooder. It don't get any gooder. Quickened
us. And secondly, he quickens us
in time. In time, while we're here on
this earth, walking through this earth, the Lord has been pleased
to send the gospel forth, and His people, their paths are crossed
with the gospel. They hear the truth about who
they are. They hear the truth. They find
out their hopeless, helpless estate. They're brought to cry
out to God Almighty for salvation and look to Christ alone. They
see that. They see Him as their only hope.
They're brought to that place. God does that. God does that. And gives them a new life. A
life that He's the author of. A life that He's the cause of.
A life that He's the source of. He is the sustainer of that very
life that He gives them. And all this comes to pass by
grace. I love that little statement
in parentheses. By grace, you say? Any doubt about that? It's one who died. now lives
interceding for us. Look here at verses 6 and 7.
I could go a long time today, and I'll try not to. And He's
raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. That's what I was just saying.
He's raised us up. That in the ages to come, He
might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness
towards us through Christ Jesus. You know what you see here as
you read this, and this is something the pastor's been talking about
a lot here lately, our union with Christ. Our union with Christ. In this bulletin today, I must
have left it. Let me look here real quick.
There's an article in here. I won't go to it right now, but
if you get a chance, Todd has an article on our union with
Christ there. We've been raised up to set together
with him. We're seated with Christ. We're
one with the Son of God. We're loved with the same love. The Father hath loved you, even
as he hath loved me, the Son said. I just can't. The glory
that's the Son of God's will be ours, is ours. There's a real
sense. Now, I want you to get a hold
of this this morning. If you look to the Lord Jesus Christ,
I want you to know eternal life is already in you. You talk about,
I'm going to have eternal life. No, no, no. You have eternal
life. It's in you. Eternal life is
ours in Christ Jesus. This glory, it's begun in our
hearts. We're so much one with Christ.
We're spoken of as having already sat down in the heavenlies with
Him, forgiven, accepted, one with Him. That's true now, and
I'm telling you that will be true throughout eternity. That's
not going to change. Look at chapter 3 here. Look
over here at verses 9 and 11. He's going to make all men see
what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning
of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by
Christ Jesus to the intent that now to principalities and powers
and heavenly places might be made known the manifold wisdom
of God in the church. Isn't that astounding you to
think that there are principalities and powers, there are beings
spiritual beings that we know nothing of who are absolutely
amazed at what God has done in Christ for us. And he's going
to put us on display throughout the ages before these creatures
to make known the exceeding riches of his grace towards us. I love
that word, exceeding. Paul uses that a lot. He says
in one place, this one who we pray to, able abundantly, beyond
and exceedingly above, to do what we even think, much less
ask. He uses that word, exceeding.
I like it because it gets me up from this earth. It makes
me realize just how wealthy I am in Christ Jesus. I'm exceedingly
wealthy in Christ Jesus. And the ages to come, He's going
to show the exceeding riches of His grace, for, look at verse
8, by grace you're saved through faith, and that's not yourself,
it's a gift of God. He just keeps hammering this
home. What's His point? Where His workmanship, where
His workmanship, where His doings. That's the point, and you'll
see that here. What is this gift He's talking about? Well, salvation's
a gift. The wages of sin is death. The
gift of God is eternal life. Eternal life is a gift. Paul writes in Philippians 1.29,
listen to this. Philippians 1.29 makes a statement. If you have a, you may want to
turn over that. The Lord said, Here in this verse,
unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe
on him, but also to suffer for his sake. You see that it's given
to you to believe. It's given to you. Salvation
is a gift. John six. John six. Sixty five. Therefore, I said
unto you, the Lord says this, no man can come unto me except
it were given unto him, my father. It's a gift, coming to Christ.
Salvation's a gift. Faith. I'll tell you, in this
particular verse, he says you're saved by grace through faith,
and that's not of yourself. Even the faith that you have
that causes you to look to Christ is the gift of God himself. Isn't
that right? Can you claim any credit here?
Is it your will that saved you? You were dead in trespasses of
sin. Is it your faith that's failing?
I had a guy tell me one time that faith was like when you
walk in a room and you reach over and flip the light switch,
you just know the light's going to come on. That's faith. Wrong.
Now, that may be confidence in your buddy who put the light
bulb in, but that ain't faith. Faith is a gift of God. Faith
is a gift of God. Grace is the prime mover in our
salvation, and faith, as important as it is, is only a part of the
machinery that God employs here. And our life is found in looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ, not looking to our faith. I'll tell
you, if you look to your faith, you're going to be troubled.
I go up, I go down. There are times I feel like I
could bench press 500 pounds. There are times I don't feel
like I could pick up a peanut when it comes to faith. But I'm
here to tell you, faith is a gift of God. And it's made up of three
things, knowledge, belief, and trust. I'll be brief here with
you. Faith comes by hearing. You've
got to hear the gospel. I can't believe a fact that I'm
not informed of. That's just a fact. I cannot
believe a fact that I'm not informed of. I've got to hear it in order
to know whom to believe. Not just what to believe, who
to believe. As a lot of Jesus is being taught today, I want
the right one. And I've got to hear this gospel,
and then I have to believe what I've heard and trust and commit
myself to it. Faith isn't some speculative
thing. It's an actual commitment to
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's putting all your eggs in
one basket. That's what faith is. All your
eggs in one basket. Spurgeon made this statement.
He says, faith is believing that Christ is what he is said to
be, and that he will do what he's promised to do, and listen
to this, and expecting this of him. Expecting this of him. Believing who he says he is,
believing his promises, and expecting him to do just exactly what he
said he'd do. And that's a gift of God. You won't do that by
nature. I won't do that by nature. It's
the gift of God. Look at verse nine. He just keeps
hammering over it. Listen, it's not of works lest
any man should boast. You think Paul could have been
plainer about this? If faith was some work that you performed,
it was involved in your salvation, then you could boast. But faith
is a gift of God. God calls you from your dead
state, gives you life, raises you up, gives you faith. And
if that had anything to do with you, you could boast here. But
it's not. You have no contribution to make
here. It's all grace. It's all grace. I've got to go
on here. I'll just be safe in telling
you this. No man, woman, or child on this earth will ever have
any claim that they can boast before God Almighty. I don't care how good you've
tried to be. No claim. Why? Verse 10. We are His workmanship. We are His workmanship. Created
in Christ Jesus unto good works which God The four have ordained
that we should welcome them. That's the reason you can't boast.
You're his workmanship. You know, they're building a
subdivision down here. You see me go out today and drive down
there and light up one of my cigars and stand out there looking
at those houses, acting all proud about what they're doing out
there. You might stop and tell me that I've got nothing to do
with those outlets. Just remind me. I'm not building
them. I haven't lifted a hammer. I
have not done anything. And I want you to know, I have
nothing to boast of in this matter of salvation. And neither does
any child of God. You're His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus. He likens this work that He's
done in the heart of a believer to a creation. A creation. I said Paul was getting on my
texts this morning. He sure was. A creation. That's true. A workmanship. I love what the Lord said to
Job. Where were you when I laid the
foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou can understand.
Tell me about it. In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth. The world was void, without form. Darkness covered the face of
the deep. That's me. And the Spirit brooded over it. That's what the Scripture says.
Over the face of the deep, it moved. And God said, let there
be light. And my friends, that is what
happens to every child of God. God Himself says, let there be
light. had nothing to contribute. What
did that mass in the first creation have to contribute? I'm telling
you something now. You hear me. Salvation isn't
taking what you have by nature, a natural thing you have, and
working on it and improving it. That's what I always was taught
as a child. Danny, if you don't cuss, Danny,
if you don't smoke, Danny, if you don't drink, Danny, if you
don't go to the picture show. My mama called me Danny. She'd
say all these things. And I grew up thinking, oh yeah. Without form and void. You just can't take the things
of nature and make them into a new creation. God Almighty
starts anew. Starts anew. And He calls us
by His grace and He accomplishes what He did then the same way.
It's by His Word. We hear his gospel and he speaks
to our heart. The word is used in this creation
here. It's the grace of God. God creates,
creates. Now, I'll let you go here. I
want to tell you something, though. We have been created in Christ
Jesus, ordained unto good works, unto good works. When Adam was
created, that perfect man, the day he was done, God had a garden
waiting for Him. And Genesis 2 tells us that the
Lord put Him in the garden to tend it. You know what? A perfect man still has to have
something to do. That was in a world where there
were no weeds. What do you do in a garden with no weeds? I
guess all you could do is go around pruning the trees and
making them a little bit more fruitful. I guess that's all.
I have no idea. I just know He was putting that
garden to tend it. He had a work to do. Because
Adam was built, he was made in the image of God to glorify God. And that's the purpose of man.
The purpose of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. And
we were created to glorify God. And we were ordained unto good
works. I love that. Not only was our
salvation planned by God, not only did He call us in time,
by His power and His Spirit. Put us in Christ before the foundation
of the world. Salvation completely by His grace. But even our works were ordained. Our works were ordained. Those
who have looked to Christ have been fitted perfectly for what
God has called them to do. You know that? That creation
back there in the garden. God made birds. He made man.
I can't fly. Can you fly? I don't have the
wings for it. But those creatures he made were
fitted for that. And I'm here to tell you, every
one of his people has been fitted for the good works that he's
ordained for them to do in this world. I love it. It's works wherein
they are to walk, not just talk about them. I love that. I'm
glad it doesn't say talk there. It says walk in them. Walk in
them. Walking. Henry used to say. That you can
rest assured that divine wisdom. Has not only prepared you for
the hour. But the hour for you. And it's
amazing to think that you're here. In complete synchronization
with the plan and purpose of God. And that he has made you
what you are. And you are what you are by the
grace of God. And He's given you the gifts
you've got to be used for His glory. And it's all been His
workmanship. And you can't boast about anything. All you can do is agree with
Him. Like He said at the end of the
first creation, He looked around and said, It's good. God said it's good. It's good.