God's Magnificent Masterpiece (Manuscript) Series

INTRODUCTION

Outline.

1. Our Portrait Before Restoration

2. Our Portrait During Restoration

3. Our Portrait After Restoration

Introductory Remarks.

1. In our lesson today, we will discuss: “God’s Magnificent Masterpiece.” We can never hear or read enough about God's grace and how He has made us “a new creature in Christ Jesus.” In this “Expository Sermon," we will be demonstrating the divine process of how God has “created in each of us a Masterpiece.” We will view God’s handiwork in creating us into His portrait of art in Christ Jesus. The elegance and beauty of the "Mona Lisa" fail to compare to the magnificent beauty of what God has created in each of us. We are His work of sublime and radiant beauty, a marvelous portrait of Heavenly Essence! Painted on the portrait of life, [if we can be living epistles…why not lively portraits], “to be known and admired by all men,” 2 Corinthians 3:2. When you feel down and out; –unworthy, unwanted, unseen, unforgiven, and unloved. Remember beloved saints whose you are and by whom you have been created. We are God’s Masterpiece: “Created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which He hath before ordained that we should walk in them,” Ephesians 2:10.

2. First, we will consider "our portrait before restoration." The beloved apostle describes the Ephesians' former state before they were created as God's Masterpiece. He penned: "And you hath He quickened, who (were) dead in trespasses and sins…and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others," Ephesians 2:1-3. Then, we were "without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, we who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ… Therefore, we are no more strangers, and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God," Ephesians 2:11-19. [Text shortened for brevity].

3. Second, we will discuss “our portrait during restoration.” How Paul describes our condition, location, and who we were with when we were painted as God’s Masterpiece. He inscribed: “God who is rich in mercy, when we were dead in trespasses and sins, hath ‘quickened us,’ making us alive, while with Christ.” At that time, when we were together with Christ (by grace, we were saved). The precious hands of Jesus painted our portrait. He has put off the “old man” and put on the “new man” created in Him, unto the “praise and glory of God,” a portrait of unique and splendid beauty.

4. Lastly, we will investigate “our portrait after restoration.” In Christ, we have been created as God’s magnificent masterpiece. A replica of “God in righteousness and true holiness.” If any man "be in Christ, he is a new creation," or God's masterpiece of splendid beauty and heavenly essence! We are now the children of God, "through the faith in Christ Jesus," Galatians 3:26-27. Peter wrote: “According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these we might be partakers of the divine nature (of Christ), having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust,” 2 Peter 1:3-4. You now have “a divine presence, as well as a divine nature” that permits you to talk to your heavenly Father. With this brief introduction, let’s consider the first point of the lesson.

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Beginning of Part I

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Before introducing our first thought,

Please turn your Bibles to Luke 4:16-18.

BODY OF LESSON

I OUR PORTRAIT BEFORE RESTORATION

A. Paul wrote: “You who were dead in trespasses and sins.” The picture under reconstruction, restoration, and preservation has been damaged, abused, and abandoned; in the eyes of many, it is a worthless portrait of art, fit only to be discarded and destroyed. Like older works of art, “many are cast away; burnt up, discarded, with no desire of the artist to restore or make anew!” But with God, these human portraits of life can undergo reconstruction, restoration, and preservation operations, i.e., to repair damaged, abandoned, and worthless portraits of art no longer desired or wanted. Therefore, in Christ, they can be restored, and all old things can become new! 2 Corinthians 5:17.

Jesus’ ministry unveiled

To call, heal, save, and restore, Luke 4:16-18

1. In our former state. We were broken, incomplete, imprisoned, blind, bruised, despised, and rejected ruined works of art: entirely of our abuse, mistakes, disobedience, and sins. Paul wrote Ephesus: “And you hath He quickened…dead in trespasses and sins,” Ephesians 2:1-3. To Crete,

a. He wrote: “For we also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another,” Titus 3:3.