Identity [Ephesians 2:1-10]
*Pastor’s Note: All of my sermons are transcribed by the amazing saints at Barabbas Road Church. The sermons will have minor spelling, gramatical and contextual errors. If you wish to listen or view a sermon from Barabbas Road Church please visit our website at www.barabbasroadchurch.com. Thank you for reading.
Welcome, welcome to Barabbas Road Church. If this is your first time at this church, glad to have you, hopefully you’ll come back. We are going to be in the Bible so we’ll have people handing the Bible out to you. It’s a very big theme of the day here. So it’s good to be able to follow along with what we go over today in the word of God because that is our authority. And so God willing, we’re going to be able to see where we’re getting everything from, from that book, so, I’m pretty excited about that.
As we begin, let’s pray.
God, thank you so much for everybody today in this room that you sovereignly brought. Thank you so much for Ephesians chapter two and I thank you God for what you taught me from this book. I pray Father that those of us that are struggling with various issues today would be willing to hear what you have to say and will actually believe it. I pray God first for the people that don’t know you. I pray Father that they recognize their condition today and that they see their need for you and that they receive you today as Lord and Saviour. I pray for us that have actually done that very thing that we would actually really realize who we are in you God. We praise you so much for that. In Jesus name, amen.
As we get started today, we’re going to be in Ephesians 2. My first slide got erased I believe, so it’s black, but that’s actually appropriate. The message in Ephesians 2 is where we get this doctrine called “total depravity” from. It’s an important doctrine as we begin, but I want to put the whole thing in context for you. So you see, the power of this book that you hold in front of you is unlocked, so to speak, when you let it speak in its own context. And that means that there’s an argument in place. So oftentimes we go to the Bible looking for a verse here or a doctrine there or “how can I find this teaching about that?”, but what you find in the Bible that’s going to give you the most out of it, I believe (and you might find this yourself) is trying to find the argument that’s being made by the biblical author and trying to trace that argument out. That means that there’s usually a theme of a book or a letter, rather. And there’s usually a theme broken down in these paragraphs. And if we can capture that just a little bit, we might see what Paul was actually saying to the original hearers. And it will keep us from going off track on all the various sort of red herrings…these little distractions and rabbit holes we can go into. This Ephesians passage in particular has a few where I’ve heard people preach on it and they’ve talked all about these little red herrings and these distractions and missed the theme of what Paul is saying.
Let me make something very clear at the offset. Ephesians is about God’s sovereignty. It’s about his control. He is the actor. We are the recipients of salvation. Ephesians is describing the great things God has done for us and because of that, some of these great themes of his “election” and “predestination” and his choosing us before the foundation of the earth are in this text, but they are not put there to be controversial. They are put there to be accepted and comforting of you. That’s what they’re there to do.
As we begin in Ephesians two, we’re going to be starting off talking about you and me and people in general. It’s anthropology if you will. There are basically three chapters in Ephesians in the beginning that talk about this doctrinal teaching and he’s going to turn a corner and talk about application. These first three chapters this is how I’ve broken it up and I think you’ll find it appropriate. Chapter one, which we talked about last week, Paul is describing the great things God has done for his glory and his purposes in bringing people to Jesus Christ and saving them and choosing them to be saved and ordering their steps that they’d be saved and doing all these things and he ends that chapter making the bold proclamation that we must know this Christ. We have to know this and he prays that the Ephesians would know who God is.
And so, in all that, in Ephesians one, who are we studying, mainly? God. What are we to learn in Ephesians one? All about God. What is the application from Ephesians one? Know who God is really.
In Ephesians two, Paul makes another case. Not he’s talking about you. He’s going to say; “Here’s what you were. Here’s what God did and here’s who you are now.” He’s speaking to Christians. If you’re not a Christian today, you get to just stay in those first three verses that we’re talking about today and you don’t get to leave until you want to accept the other ones.
And then the next week we’re going to talk about the church. He’s going to talk about the identity of the church. Know what the church is, where it came from and what its purpose is. And this whole thing is about our identity. It’s about the identity of God and who He is. It’s about the identity of us, and who we are and the identity of the church. This gives us an idea about who we are, know our role and what’s our identity in Christ.
So as we begin, let’s read from Ephesians chapter two. If it’s your first time we’re going to be flipping around in scripture and you can find stuff or you can decide just to listen and go later to watch the videos on our website and also in audio. And for those of you out there listening…God bless you.
Here we go, Ephesians two.
Paul’s speaking, he says this:
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:1-10 ESV)
Let’s pray:
God, as we come to this text again, we’re praying to you because we need it. I pray that we would receive these things. In Jesus’ name, amen.
We need to begin this passage today, we’re gonna, um, I don’t know what’s happening here. Oh! They gave me my first slide back.
As we begin I want to start off with the fall. Paul begins the first three verses, and if you’ve got a pen, underline these with me.
Verse one, it says this: “you were.” You see that? Go ahead and underline that.
Go down to verse four and underline, “but God.”
And then go down to verse ten and underline, “we are.”
That’s the outline of the passage today. That’s the outline,
You were. But God. Now you are.
Ok, and that’s what we’re talking about today. Where we came from, what God did, and where we are today because of that.
The main idea of the passage is this; is that we’re dealing with this problem that he’s gonna start off with in the first three verses.
But I’m gonna tell you the main idea right now and if you write it down with the pen that’s still in your hand, it’s this:
You were a dead zombie, but God made you a living masterpiece.
That’s the main of idea of the message.
You were a dead zombie, [makes zombie noise “unghhhhhh”], ok? But God made you a living masterpiece. That’s the main idea.
But let’s begin with the problem. We’re going to read Ephesians one, two and three. Here we go, I’m going to read it one more time.
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” (Ephesians 2:1-3 ESV)
This is not a hard thing to grasp Biblically speaking. That’s because it begins in chapter one, two and three, presumably in chapter three of Genesis.
So let’s take a quick look at a video I think that will put it in perspective.
[pause for video]
And so it begins. That’s where Paul begins. That’s where we need to begin. And before we get into the text too carefully we have to address the possibility of people sitting before us today…some of you yourselves…and thinking to yourself that this is a mythology that we’re talking about. That this isn’t real or this never happened. And yet, all of the Bible is based on the literalness of this event. The idea that a literal man and a literal woman actually fell and actually disobeyed God and actually died on that day and we were separated from God. And that explains man’s inherent sinfulness and no other worldview in the world can do such a thing. Every other idea, every commune, every utopian society fails. Not because the idea isn’t beautiful (it always is), but because they have a false view of man. That man is somehow inherently good. Their view is always disproven because the biblical idea that Paul builds upon is that man is inherently flawed and sinful. We’ve been separated from God. We are born that way. And that’s where Paul begins.
Last week we talked about how great God is, and for us to get to understand who we are in Christ, we have to know where we came from and we have to accept this truth.
And so, as Paul begins, in chapter two, it’s very low and we can’t make it higher. We have to start here just like a diamond and its beauty is always displayed on black velvet…unless you go to Walmart or something, and it’s white. But, in a nice place that has diamonds, it’s always like this black velvet, so you can see the beauty of that diamond and so you can offset and see how wonderful that diamond is and that’s really what we see with Christianity. What begins on this dark velvet and this dark thing to see the beauty that comes out of it and Paul begins chapter two and says this: “And you were…” …he’s talking to believers now. Now, this is the key. You may be offended at me. If you’re not a believer, this needs to be changed to “you are.” And that’s what he’s saying. He’s talking to people who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. And he says that
“You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.” (Ephesians 2:1)
Again, if you are a non-believer you are dead in the trespasses and sins in which you do walk right now. And so, at the beginning of this chapter here, he talks about how they once walked. And at the end of chapter two, verse ten; he’s going to ask that they walk in these good works. This is a contrast that’s going to be brought out at the end of these things.
But in the beginning, before you were a saved Christian, he described the way we lived. And this goes for the moralists and everyone else in between. He says, “you were dead.” Now don’t move past that for a second because all sorts of false Christianity and groups, they mess this part up. They try to say that you’re “sick with sin” and that sin is a “sickness” or a “disease.” But the problem with a sickness of a disease is that you can take medicine or you can go to some kind of thing and take something to heal that disease and there’s hope. A diseased person can ask for help. A diseased person can go to the doctor. A diseased person can do all sorts of things. But a dead person lays there. The only thing a dead person does…you ever see Weekend at Bernie’s? Even him, he didn’t do anything. That was good…everyone else did things for him. A dead person is no good. They only decay. They do nothing for the living but decay. That’s their purpose. That’s what they do. They’re dead.
And so literally, Paul says that the way you were before you were before being a Christian is a dead man walking, or a dead woman walking. All around us, we’re surrounded by Zombies. Literally!
Now I want you to put this in perspective for a second. What in the world does this have to do with Ephesians or where we’re going from? In the city of Ephesus, one of the main things you see is just this rampant idolatry. And we’ve talked about that before. I mentioned it last week. Idolatry…there’s many ways to define it. But it’s giving…deriving your security and your significance from something other than God…other than the real God in the universe. Something that you’re grabbing and securing your significance from that’s not God is really an idol. That’s what we’re talking about. So it can be a little statue that you make. And that was the deal in Ephesus. You remember they were saying, “Great is Artemis!” And they wanted to rebel against Paul when he was turning that city upside down with his teachings. And so all the idol makers were going out of business because people were coming to Christ. There was this battle with idolatry. But for us, today, we don’t really have idol makers, but we have just as many idols, except sometimes they’re just a little more esoteric. They’re a little harder to nail down. You see in our day, in today’s passage in particular, we’re not talking so much about our security, but our significance. And I want you to imagine for a second starting with the fall, where we began. The very first lie in the garden from Satan was that you could have your significance and that you could be somebody if you take from this fruit. You could be somebody. You could be like God. And ever since then, always and forever since then, every single human being, all of us sitting here, have sought to derive our significance from things other than God. All of you sitting here right now do it even today, myself included. We look for our significance from the way our abdominal muscles looks. We look for significance for the way our face looks. Perhaps you were born with a very, uh, what’s it called, uh, nice face here, that goes together. And you like to take your significance from that. Maybe you feel like you’re significant because you’re a good surfer, or that you’re a good business person and you made alot of money and you’re like, “don’t you know who I am?” Or you’re a teacher and you’ve got your cache because of that.
All of us find significance from the things we do. What’s one of the first questions you ever ask someone if you meet them at a party? “What do you do?”
What are you really asking them? “Why are you significant?”
Isn’t it true though?
“Why should I care about you?”
“Why are you significant?”
Let’s just be real though. I mean, I remember when I used to be a lowly personal trainer. Ha, just kidding…we have a bunch of personal trainers in here.
I went with my wife to a party and it was in Williamsburg and everybody there was in law school and doing their things and working with the government. So they were asking me, “What do you do?” And I tell them, “I work at a gym.” And I didn’t say I was a personal trainer and I remember my wife, at the time, she wanted me to seem impressive to them and said, “It’s a very nice gym.” I’m like, “No, I’m a meathead and I tell people to do pushups and stuff.” And I was like getting so much fun out of this, mainly, but in a sense, I was judging them thinking I was better than them. You can’t escape it…we’re all sinners. But that’s what we do. We seek significance from things. We seek significance from teams. Honestly…who cares if your team wins? What did you do? Do you know what I mean? Why did you get significance from it? I mean, you can wear the jersey and it’s fine, but you’re not part of the team. Oh, I’m gonna make a mistake and really think you’re on the Chargers…like, really? I mean, you all are laughing because you know it’s true. You know the things that you look for, you find significance from your car…from your relationships. We like to label ourselves with things…I’m a “hipster”…what’s that mean? “I get my significance from being a hipster…I have a little mustache and I ride a fixed gear bicycle…” and you can go down the line…
[pause for laughter]
It’s the truth. This is an uncomfortable laughter here. But long story short…do we all relate though? Can’t we all relate to this idea? We find our significance from these things, but what Paul is trying to get us to see is that it’s a sin. And that it’s a mistake. And it began in the garden and we’re looking to be somebody. In schools today, they tell kids, “Hey, you’re an accident. You have no purpose. You’re just a number.” but “have self esteem! Think highly of yourself!” It just doesn’t make sense.
What Paul is starting off at…let’s address where we’re at. We’re dead. We’re zombies looking for dead things looking for things that we want to make us alive, but we never become alive no matter how many brains you eat you’re dead. And that’s all your desires are, are dead things. You’re looking at dead things to make you alive and they just won’t. All of creation is dead…we know from Romans.
So when he begins he says you were dead. Dead men don’t ask for CPR. And this is the key. I don’t care what you think about divine sovereignty and how salvation works. How you come into it. You cannot argue that Paul’s point here is that salvation in our sense of the word is completely passive. The word salvation is going to be used twice in this passage in particular. Both times it’s passive and perfect, as we’ll get into it. Meaning, it was done by someone else, to us, already, one moment in time.
And so as we think about this idea, that goes along with how he begins with our deadness, we use this description of it called “total depravity” that does not mean that people are as bad as they can be, but it means that they’re unable and incapable of being alive by what they do.
Let me make it really simple. All people that don’t know Christ are dead. And all people that don’t know Christ are in a state of decay. Some…Grandma Pappy, for example, who doesn’t know Jesus Christ, she’s dead too, she’s in a state of decay but she might not be as decayed as Hitler. He was in decay really literally. But I mean, the state of decay. All people are dead men walking. That is the description the Bible makes of people. That is our plight. That is where we’re at. The Bible makes no sense unless we accept that fact. No one hearing the word of God…it won’t make any sense to them unless we accept that fact. That is where we were. And he says that we were dead in. The word “in” is rife …there in Ephesians as the main theological idea in the whole book is the word “in.”
“You were dead IN your trespasses and sins.”
And we found out last week that we’re alive IN Christ. And these two things are offset by one another.
So you have “in Christ” and you have “in trespasses and sins.” What are trespasses? Well, let’s just use the English idea for a second. It’s the idea of trespassing on property you’re not supposed to go on. It means doing things that you’re not supposed to do. Dead people do that. That’s what you desire. And sins…literally, are going against what God’s image is. It’s taking God’s image and declaring it to be something else. When you lie you just declared God a liar, because you’re an image bearer. When you steal, you just declared God a thief because you’re an image bearer. That’s why all sins are against God. You were dead in those things.
In which, he says, verse two,
“you once walked.”
So this is the implication here, is that as a Christian you no longer walk in those things. Remember last week, I had the idea of a fish bowl. The fish was in the water and you were the fish. You were in this bowl and now you’re in this bowl. It’s a different bowl. You’re not swimming in the same water anymore if you’re a believer. He’s talking about our identity.
“In which you once walked,”
back in the past, or for some of you, today,
“following the course of this world.”
Now, what does he mean, the course of this world? This is a tricky thing. In John, 15, let’s go there briefly, I’m going to flip around just a bit. In John 15, the best way to learn what’s being said here…look at verse 18, we want to find out what he means by “the course of this world.”
Jesus describes it multiple times. I just picked out a couple of passages I thought would be good.
In John 15:18, Jesus says this,
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.” (John 14:18)
So if you’re at your workplace and you love Jesus Christ. If you’re Tim Tebow and Bill Maher says mean things about you. If you’re whoever you are and you love Jesus Christ and people don’t like that fact, guess what? They didn’t like Jesus. They put him on a cross and killed him. That’s what happens. You’re in good company, he says. The world, it was the world that hated them. Jesus came to save the world. He came into the world and the world didn’t want him. It rejected him and killed him.
“If you were of the world,”
he says, in verse 19,
“The world would love you as it its own.” (John 15:19)
This is the number one problem with churches wanting respect from the community. It’s ok to be respect. We need to be blameless so that no one can bring a charge against us. But we don’t need to be liked. The world liking you is a bad thing.
“Hey, guess how much the world likes us?! They’re coming to our church!”
That’s BAD.
If the world loves you, he says, that would mean you’re “of the world.” It would love you as its own. But he says, because you’re not of the world, and then, this is where we got the “Not of this world” shirts because we’re not of this world. But, “I chose you.” Here he is, even in John. “I chose you out of the world.” (John 15:19) Who chose you? God did. God chose you out of the world. As the diamond off the black thing, God chose you out of the world. Therefore the world hates you. That’s pretty clear.
In James 4:4 he says,
“Friendship with the world is enmity with God.” (James 4:4)
It makes you an enemy of God. There’re two systems of thinking here. In first John, let’s go there. It’s after Hebrews and after James. First John, chapter 2, we see something. And leave your finger there after we’re done. First John, chapter 2, verse 15. We see something similar. What does he say?
He says,
“Do not love the world.” (1 John 2:15)
What does it mean to not love the world? Does it mean, “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you World!”?
No.
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. He makes a comparison here. Don’t love the world or these other things. The love of the Father is not in you. Love the things of God. We’re to set our minds on the things of God. We’re to be people that do those things. He says,
“For all that is in the world…”
Now here’s where we get to define the world just a little bit. He says this, this is what we can define it as, this is what it’s made up of, its essence. Ready?
The desires of the flesh.
We’re not going to talk about flesh today, I’m just going to define it for you simply. That’s your body. That’s your base nature. That’s the, “I’m on a diet, but I want ice cream.” Right? That’s your flesh that wants ice cream. I’m not saying that’s a sin, but you get what I mean.
The desires of the flesh. The desires of the eyes. And the pride in possessions. What did Eve do in the garden? She looked…desires of the eyes…she saw that it was beautiful. She noticed it would be good to eat. The pride in possessions. She wanted. She took. Pride in possessions…”mine.” And she ate. The world system of thought. This is a divine conspiracy. Is that there is all around you desires that are coming upon you that are not from God. They’re outside their desirable things. You are literally walking around in a place filled with poison. And your body is like, “I love poison.” And you’re like, “Don’t like poison!” And that’s what it’s saying.
He says the pride in possessions is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
I’ve used this analogy forever…I love it. Imagine being a guy back in the early 80’s and you’re like, “I love VCRs, so I collect them. And I’ve got this whole VCR collection.” Don’t you remember in the Wedding Singer and he’s like, “It’s a CD player and I paid like, 800 dollars for it. It plays CDs.” He’s got this thing, these VCRs. And if you have a VCR today, it’s worthless. It’s a big worthless piece of worthlessness. It’s horrible. You can’t even watch it anymore. And that’s just in a small portion of time that it’s completely wasted. It’s passing away. All the things that you own right now…[mimicking] ”Look, I got this great telephone and it’s…” GONE. It doesn’t even do anything anymore and it’s already done. Or “Look, I got this great computer two years ago.” Wow. That’s nice. You can literally see it…we’re experiencing it and it’s a fact of life. The world is passing away.
Now, keep your finger in 1 John because we will go back to it and go back to Ephesians please. He says again, [paraphrased] “We were dead in our sins and we were following the course of this world.” That means the world tells you that it’s cool to drink beer and go to parties and you’re like, [mimicking] “Ok, I’ll do that.” The world tells you that you need to buy this car…[mimicking] ”Cool! I’ll go into debt and buy these things.” The world tells you that you need significance from your job. [mimicking] “Cool! I’ll try to get the best one!” The world tells you that you need to wear this label. [mimicking] “What kind of shirt is that from??” Blehhh. The world tells you all these things. And we’re like, “Ok!” and we’re like zombies just like, “unghhhhhhh.” Just following it. That’s what he’s saying about where we were. Following.
And here’s another thing. The Prince of the Power of the Air. Who’s that? That’s Satan. In the end of this book, in Ephesians, he talks about standing firm against the devil. He describes the devil. The devil is in view the whole time. The devil is the idea and the devil is called the ruler of this world. The accuser of the brethren. He is literally the Prince of the Power of the Air.
And God has given him reign on this earth right now. Satan rules. There is literally a divine conspiracy and Satan is behind it. That means that Satan is behind all the good ideas that are not of God. Satan is not hanging out at the Satanist church. He doesn’t need to. He can send the baby demons there. Satan is super excited about the people that look like they love people, but they don’t give credit to God. He is the Prince of the Power of the Air. The spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Who’s that? Sons of Adam and Eve. Sons of Adam and daughters of Eve. Ok? He’s at work there. He is the king. And that doesn’t mean that people are demon possessed. It just means that the one guiding what they desire is the devil. You can deny what I’m saying and say, “I don’t believe you.” But don’t say you like the Bible. That’s what the Bible says about you. If you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior right now, your lord is the devil. He just comes in different disguises. He says,
“Among who we all once lived in the passions of our flesh…”
There’s a world of flesh in the devil. That’s our enemies here.
“…carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.” (Ephesians 2:3)
Go to 1 John chapter 3 for a second. Look at verse 7. Look at what he says. We’re talking about nature, children of wrath, the devil, the flesh. He says,
“Little children. Let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness…”
Practicing. Practice every day. It’s work and you do it all the time.
“…is righteous as he is righteous.”(1 John 3:7)
What he’s saying is, righteous people do righteous things. A dog barks because it’s a dog. Good people…that means good, saved individuals, do good saved individual things because they’re good and because it’s their nature. But sinners sin because they’re sinners. Why do you lie? It’s because you’re a liar. Why are some of you in this room adulterers? It’s because it’s who you are…you are an adulterer. You commit adultery because it’s who you are. Why do you want things? It’s because you’re selfish. You don’t do something to become that. You do it because you are that.
That’s what the Bible says about our nature. The reason that we want things that aren’t ours is because by nature, we’re selfish. The reason that we lie to people is because by nature, we’re liars. By age three, normal child development is that your child can lie. That is normal psychological development. Meaning, ipso facto; if your child does not lie by age three then they are abnormal. They might have a disability. There’s a problem there. Wow. That’s how they do that in psychology. Why age three? Cause that’s the first time they can make a sentence. They lie with their cries in the beginning. “I want food! No, just kidding, I just wanted to sit up and see you.” I mean, they’re lying from the start. Ok? That’s who we are by nature. We lie because we’re liars. And he says we do righteous things because we’re righteous. That is, when you’re saved, you’ve been given a new nature. Isn’t it clear when we see it all of the sudden. He says again,
“Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil.” (1 John 3:8)
What does it mean to make a practice of sinning? You know exactly what you’re doing is wrong and you practice it. “I know it’s wrong to do this, but I wanna get good at it.”
“For the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God” [that is born again] “makes a practice of sinning…” (1 John 3:8-9)
Doesn’t mean you don’t sin. It just means you don’t make a practice of sin. You don’t work on it.
“For God’s seed abides in him and he cannot keep on sinning.” (1John 3:9)
He is unable to keep on sinning. Why? It’s not in his nature any longer. I don’t need to tell you, “Try to be a better Christian.” It’s not in your nature because you’ve been born of God.
“By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.” (1 John 3:10)
You can tell right off the bat. That’s pretty clear if you ask me. In 2nd Corinthians chapter 4, I’ll go back to the left of Ephesians just a little bit. 2nd Corinthians chapter 4, verse 4. What does the devil do to people? You don’t have to turn there because I’m going fast.
“In their case (he’s talking about people that don’t hear the gospel) even if our gospel is veiled…”
…that is, people don’t understand it. I’ve preached the sermon here. I’ve had non-believers sit in our midst and they’re like, “I can’t understand what he’s saying.” I’m speaking English. I’m speaking very clearly. You might not agree with what I’m saying, but you ought to be able to understand it. But it says here in 2nd Corinthians that, even if our gospel is veiled…that is something is held over it like a big curtain…even if our gospel is veiled, it’s veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world. Who’s that again? Satan. He’s blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the Gospel, the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. Why? Because God chooses.
As we begin. Where Paul begins, is a pretty dark place. “By nature, children of wrath were dead in trespasses and sins”. States of decay. Dead people don’t ask for CPR. Now here’s why he’s saying this. If you’re sitting here today, it’s so you can recognize where you came from. You can recognize your plight. You can recognize that you didn’t do anything to get here today. You know what your job was to get here today? It was sinning. Sinning. God saved you. Forget the mechanics of it. Forget the whole thing because at the end of the day we see that he was sovereign in all of it. God saved you. He did something special.
One more thing, I’ll make an offset for you. Some people believe, “Well that’s just unfair.” Whenever we use the word, “fair” we’re talking about justice. And the fair thing is that everyone goes and is condemned and goes to hell. Grace is not fair. It’s unfair that you get saved, not that other people don’t. And they don’t want Him. No one wants to go to heaven where God is. They want to go to heaven where they can be God. But they don’t want to go to heaven where actually God is and you spend all of eternity praising him and loving him and having joy for him and the nature that’s going to be around him.
You could say it this way; that God is going to have his arms around you for an eternity for everyone, for all eternal. Some people are going to like it and it’s going to be heaven and for some it’s going to be hell. They don’t have it. That’s what he’s talking about. That’s where we begin. So again, you were dead. In your trespasses and sins. It is our nature. Your kids were born this way. We’re all born this way.
But the next section is the most famous in my mind. The most famous, “But God.” It’s all throughout the Bible, but this one is the one I love the most. He says, “But God.”
Now verse 4 to 7 is one sentence. In this Ephesians letter, chapter 1 verse 3 to 14 is one sentence. That’s a long sentence. And in this one, verse 4 to 7, this whole section is one sentence. In this sentence there is one subject. You know when you diagram sentences, you’ve got an actor, a verb and an object. You follow that a little bit? Who is the subject of this sentence? God. “But God.” And he’s the subject the whole time. There’s three verbs that are main verbs of the sentence. What he did. What God did. These actions verbs are what God did. What did he do? He made you alive. He raised you up. He seated you at his side. Those three verbs, you could sum up into “He saved you.” The verbs are what God did. What are the objects of the sentence? The thing acted upon? Us. We are the object acted upon. Anyone that goes to the Ephesians passage and tries to argue somehow that we have to mitigate what Paul is saying. It’s not talking about synergism. This is complete modernism. It’s what God did. It doesn’t matter. If you want to talk about that, then go to another passage. Paul is emphatic here. The sentence structure is undeniable. It’s one sentence. Do you see this? We can’t argue it. The theme of the thing is what God did. What did he do? “But God.” Now it’s going to describe something about him. Being rich in mercy. This is like a participle; it’s describing something about God.
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us.”
Why did God do it? Because He loved us. Why did he love us? Because He’s great. It doesn’t say because we’re great, it’s because He’s great. He gets the credit for it because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins. What does Roman’s 5 say? “While you were still a sinner Christ died for you.” “While you were still a sinner, Christ died for you.” That is literally…we always think of salvation, that God comes down and saves the victims. You have people in prison and you have prison guards. Right? That’s not the picture here. The picture here is that you have evil people that are doing evil things. You have, literally, someone that’s going to take the bullet and save the one shooting. He came to save the sinner. That is the active person actively in rebellion in God. That would be the movie you’d never want to watch…where you see the Nazi Germans going and doing bad things and someone coming in and saving those guys. You’d be like, “I don’t like that movie. They don’t deserve to be saved!” Exactly! That’s the story that we’re seeing right now. That’s where we have to see it. That’s who God saved. That’s what he did. It’s an amazing and scandalous truth, isn’t it? It’s very scandalous. It’s wonderful at the end fo it, but it’s very scandalous. And it says, “Even when we were dead in our trespasses, He made us alive together with Christ.”
Bam! In one moment he did it. We knew that he was predestined to do it and he chose to do it. And he did it in the instant when we believed. And it says, “Made us alive together in Christ.” These dead zombies, He made them alive. By grace you have been saved. What is grace? Grace is the free unmerited gift of God. That means you didn’t earn it. Mercy is not getting what you deserve. Again, it is saying this. It is saying, uh, “Kaylee, you’re bad and you get a spanking.” “Oh, I don’t want a spanking!” “Ok, I won’t give you one.” That’s mercy! You deserved a spanking and I didn’t give it to you. Grace is, “Oh, hey, how’s it going, what your name? Here’s a Ferrari.” That’s grace. It’s unmerited. You didn’t earn it. You didn’t do anything to deserve it. It’s the word “carris.” That’s the idea of charity. When you go to Salvation Army and give them something because the person deserves it or doesn’t deserve it, you don’t even know who gets it. You’re just giving it because in your heart you want to give. That’s what grace is. It’s all from God. It stems from God. He’s the actor, he’s the lover, he’s the one that gets the praise and the glory and credit. “By grace you have been saved.” The words “have been saved” is a perfect passive participle. There you go, fancy words. Write that down because it might help you. A perfect passive participle is used twice in this passage. In the Greek grammar, the perfect tense is an emphatic use of the past. And what it’s doing is it’s saying it’s point of action in the past. That means it’s not a process in the past. It means it’s an action that was completed in an instant in the past with results that are current and ongoing.
I have been born. When you say you were born somewhere, you are actually using the perfect tense. You’re still born. You’re still alive. I was made alive. I’m still alive. On this day, I was conceived… the whole point is the perfect tense is, “I have been saved.” That means that it happened in one instant, in the past, with results that are current and ongoing and it’s passive. What does passive mean? That it was done TO you. This means that salvation was wrought by God in the past by an agent other than yourself to you, the one acted upon in a passive sense. There’s not a middle voice. It’s a passive voice here. That means that salvation is something past and that God did all of it. We’re talking about big things.
He says, “You were saved by grace.” You have been saved. Verse 6, he’s still in the same sentence, “But God, being rich in mercy made us alive, and he raised us up.” The image that we’re brought to is the idea of talking about who Christ is. How God raised Christ from the dead. Never forget the fact that we always describe God with us, but we somehow, because of our culture, we forget somehow, the glorious fact that we also have man with God. That it was a man. 100% God. 100% man. That it was a man who was raised from the dead. It was a man who was seated at the right hand of the Father. A man just like us. We will be just like him. That man, the humanity of Christ, will never become deity. We will never become deity. There’s a man with Jesus Christ, it’s an amazing thing. As he is, as a man raised from the dead, is a promise…the first fruits of what we will get in his resurrection from the dead. God is making a masterpiece. This is a recipe. This is how he’s doing it. It’s amazing. He raised us up with him and he seated us with him. We talked about our inheritance. How we will be co-reigners and rulers with Christ. It’s beautiful, isn’t it? God did this. We’re still passive. In the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus.
This is exciting. This is a possession and what Paul is doing, he’s not talking about future. There’s other passions where he describes it. The reality of this is going to be seen in the future, but he’s saying that who we are and what we possess right now is right now. He’s talking about the right now of it all. You possess this. If you’re sitting here right now as a believer in Jesus Christ, it’s already done. It’s already done. And it happened before the foundation of the earth, before he created it. That’s how certain it is. It’s amazing truth.
Verse 7, “So then in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Why did he do all this? So that forever and ever, for all the coming ages, people can look at you and me and see God’s grace. We’re a display of his grace. We’re drenched in it. When people see you, they see a picture of God’s grace. That’s what we do. That’s how we declare his glory. As we’re going to talk about it, in creation, even the rocks call out in glory to God, because he made them and that’s their job to cry out to him. Our job to cry out to him is, “We’re grace! I’m a walking, talking, living, breathing portrait of grace!” And that’s what we do. As we think about this idea and as all this happened, what does it show? Not us. If you’re testimony is about what you did, then you’re in trouble. It’s about the immeasurable of HIS grace. The immeasurable riches of HIS kindness toward us. Toward us, in Christ Jesus.
That’s one sentence. Wow.
But he goes on…he says,
For by grace you have been saved. (Ephesians 2:8 ESV)
So, again, perfect passive participle. “You have been saved through faith.” Now he inserts here, the mechanism I wish we can be saved. If you’re not a believer today, how to become one. You begin to believe. You begin to put your faith in him. That’s it. When you do that you’re saved. In that moment, your nature has changed and you’re filled with the holy spirit. We often express this fact by having you pray with us or what have you, but the ultimate expression of that is when you’re baptized. When you’re declaring to the world that you’re not longer in the world, but in Christ. You died with him and rose with him. It’s an amazing experience, that’s why we do it. Baptism is your declaration of faith. “Through faith.” Period. Now here’s the big controversy. He says,
And this is not your own doing. (Ephesians 2:8 ESV)
Now what is the “this” referring to? If you take an arrow and you draw from the “this”, some people make it go back to the word faith. But the word “this” is nuder. The tense of those is matching the tense of the entire clause. This is the best way to take it. You can find plenty of research on it, but it’s the best way to take it grammatically. The “this” is referring to the whole clause. Meaning what?
For by grace you’ve been saved through faith. (Ephesians 2:8 ESV)
Guess what’s been included in that clause? Your faith. All of it.
The theme here is not trying to show you the process, how we get to take a part in our salvation. This whole theme is talking entirely about what God has done, including giving you faith, including saving you by grace. The whole process is by God. It says,
And this is not your own doing. (Ephesians 2:8 ESV)
All of it is not your own doing. You didn’t pick your parents. You didn’t pick your skin color. You didn’t pick the color hair you had, unless you dyed it. You didn’t pick a lot of things like that. You’re just born with it. We recognize that fact. You can’t whine about it all your life. That’s what you were given. And you don’t pick to be saved, ultimately. However, we live in time, and so in our experience, we get to say, choose this day, who you will serve. This is where we give that imperative. But in Ephesians, he’s talking to people who already believe and he’s insuring them that the engine behind the belief is God. The thing that has ordered your steps and given you steps and put you there is God. That God did all of this and gave you that doorway, which “whosoever may believe may enter.” Ok, I’m going to believe, I’m going to choose Christ. Yay! We give everyone the choice of that. We don’t know who God chose. We never know.
You walk through and you’re like, “Alright, cool!” And you go through the other side. You were chosen and predestined before the creation of the earth. God did all of it. He gave you the faith. He gave you the circumstances. Praise Him! To God be the glory!
Wow. That’s who you’re talking to right now. Don’t get distracted from these verses and the main idea of what Paul is saying.
By grace you’ve been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of our own works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV)
Now go to Philippians 1:29 briefly. Just to the right a tiny bit.
We’ll talk about that faith again. 1:29, he says this, he’s talking about God’s decree, His order,
For it has been granted… (Philippians 1:29 ESV)
That means in one moment, results that are current and ongoing…he’s talking about his decree.
It has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ…
For Christ’s glory. Because of Christ’s choice.
…for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake. (Philippians 1:29 ESV)
Where’d the belief come from in this case? It was granted to them to believe in Christ. It was part of the plan from the beginning. It’s exciting. It’s beautiful. It’s wonderful.
He also says, if you go to Ephesians 1, what did he say last week? Again, it’s not as a result of works that no one may boast. Let me remind you what he said in the same letter in one sentence, he says,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love… (Ephesians 1:3-4 ESV)
He predestined us. He did it. For adoption of sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will. To praise His glorious grace with which He has blessed us in the beloved. In Him we have redemption. Through His blood we have forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of HIS grace which HE lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will according to His purpose which HE set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, unite all things in Him. Things in heaven and things on earth. In Him we’ve obtained an appearance having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in Him were sealed with a promised holy spirit who is a guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, the praise of His glory.”
Who is salvation about? Who is the actor? God. It’s settled. So what does it start with? “You were a dead zombie, BUT GOD…made you alive, raised you up and seated you at the right hand of the father. Wow.
Finally, he says, “You are” verse 10. “For” can be looked at because it’s part Here’s the one thing…I broke it apart a little bit. Verses 8-10 are one sentence, ok? But this last clause of the sentence is emphatic here. There’s a change. There’s a crescendo to what he’s saying. This is the ending of a thought. It’s a bold exclamation point. He says this,
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.(Ephesians 1:10 ESV)
Let me grasp this, our works…this passage is not about how works relate with faith. It’s not about how salvation happens through your believing and whether it’s an effort of yours or if God gives you the faith. It’s not about those things, however, let me address it. He says this, “Faith plus zero equals salvation.” Is that complete? Not quite. Now what’s wrong with the bad equation? Faith plus work equals salvation. WRONG! That’s not right. Faith plus zero equals salvation plus works. Salvation that works. It’s your nature. See, the implication of being a Christian is that you’re given a new nature. We talked about this in Galations. You have new desires. You want to do good deeds. A dog barks because it’s a dog, right? You do good works because you’re saved. We messed the order up. We messed the whole thing up. If you’re doing good works in order to be saved, it is the equivalent of someone barking a lot, hoping to become a dog. Right?
That’s what we’re talking about. It’s in the perfect order. I feel really funny today, but I’m not even trying to be. It’s great!
For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. So the good works are there. He doesn’t leave them out. It’s what we’re created to do. But the key for him putting in the good works is that he’s offsetting at verse 2 where he said that when we were not saved we were walking in our trespasses and sins and the works of the devil. And now he’s saying that we’re created in Christ Jesus for good works. There’s an offset. We’re created to walk in these good works rather than the works of the devil. And he doesn’t just say good works in a general sense. He doesn’t mean, like, “Oh, only good works is helping homeless people, or only good people is doing this…” He’s saying something else. “In good works, which” Now the “which” is describing the good works. He’s describing the good works that he means. These are good works, which God prepared beforehand. Now that brings us all the way back to Chapter 1 where we talked about God’s predestination and salvation. It means that God not only saved you and redeemed you, but he also made and created circumstances for you to do good things. They are all around you and there are specific ones that are authored specifically to you. They say these good works are specifically with Sarah’s name on it already…she just needs to do it. These good works already has Matt’s name on it and he just has to do it. These good works already have a name on it and they just have to do it. They are prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
This means that it’s not just you doing one good deed and you’re like, “Cool, I’m done.” It means that that’s where you reside. It’s where you live. It’s where you breathe. It’s where your new nature is. Again, it’s your nature. Does that make sense? It’s really clear. In verse 10, it’s saying who we are. I like the word right after workmanship…”created”. It’s an arrest tense. That means, one moment. It’s not that you were being created. It’s that you were created. It’s already happened. All of the epistles, this was written from prison, all these prison epistles and all the epistles of Paul usually have the same pattern. And that pattern is this: you are this person. You have these things. Therefore act like it. You are a dog, therefore bark. That’s what he’s saying. You are a saint, therefore act like it. It’s in your nature. He just says it in every single book and we can’t ignore that fact. So he’s telling us is this is what God has done. You have security from that. There’s nothing you did to get it. There’s nothing you can do to keep it. It’s yours, you have a new nature. He gave it to you. It’s all yours. It’s exciting! You’re passive in this sense. So where do you come in? He’s giving you the assurance that all around you he’s prepared good works. That’s where you come in. He’s prepared these good works for you to do and he’s ordained that you would do them and enjoy doing them and it would be your nature to do them and that you’re surrounded by them. This is where hospitals get started. This is where people do help homeless. This is where someone takes someone off the street and wants to help them. Not because a church has a program, but because you have a new nature and you can’t help but do something because it’s who you are. You set Christians loose and they change the community because it’s who they are, it’s in their nature. My job, the job of the church, is to make disciples. The job of the people is to be disciples.
And so when we go forward, this workmanship is where we’re going to focus on. The word is, “poemah.” That sounds a lot like another word…poem. You’re God’s poem. But I don’t like that work either. You’re God’s poem. I don’t read poetry very much, but unless you include Psalms, but I like this other word and it’s just as good. The word is “masterpiece.” You are God’s masterpiece. That’s literally what the word means, is you’re his masterpiece.
Now I want you to think about this for a second. What is the purpose of everything?
Go to John 11 for a second. We’re at the end of the message already, it just flies by. John 11 verse 38. There’s this guy named Lazarus. He’s a friend of Jesus and he died and Jesus wanted him to die. I mean, Jesus wanted to raise him up again. Why? To display his glory. He had to have a circumstance. Black velvet, darkness, death, so that he could show the glory of his grace in raising him from the dead. It’s familiar, isn’t it? It says this, verse 38,
Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man… (John 11 Verse 38 ESV)
I love that verse right there…
Martha, the sister of the dead man…
That could be a description of you prior to being saved.
Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see… (John 11:38-40 ESV)
What?
‘…the glory of God’ (John 11:40 ESV)
Is the raising of Lazarus about how cool it was that he was raised or is it about the glory of God in the raising of Lazarus? It’s the glory of God that he’s going to display.
So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” (John 11:41-42 ESV)
He did not raise him from the dead because Jesus just went around doing good deeds. Jesus did good deeds so people would know who he is and believe in him and put their faith in him. It says this,
When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” (John 11:43 ESV)
Augustine, I think it was, said that had he not said “Lazarus”, every dead person in every grave in all the world would have come out from their graves at that moment.
“Lazarus, come out.”
He called him out. He called him from death to life. What did Lazarus do? Nothing.
“Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips… (John 11:44 ESV)
Literally, in grave clothes.
…and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” (John 11:44 ESV)
Literally, take off the grave clothes and let him loose.
My friends, what Paul is doing in the book of Ephesians is trying to declare who you are and the emphatic idea here is, “Take off the grave clothes.” You’re a masterpiece! God wants to put you on display for his glory. For his grace. Take off the grave clothes. Stop acting like a zombie. You’re not one. Come out! You’re alive! Take off the grave clothes. Why?
Go to Genesis 1. Genesis 1, we’re almost done here. I want to talk about the purpose of everything. As we’ve said, we talk about this every week one way or another because everything comes back to it. In Genesis 1, I want you to take a look. I want you to be very careful. He says this,
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. (Genesis 1:1-31 ESV)
God created everything. He’s the creator. Idols, we create. God made us. He made everything and what did he call it? Very good. How did He make it? He said it. And there’s a contrast we’ll get to in a second.
Go to Psalm 19:1 please. We’re at the end of the message. Last verse here.
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.” (Psalms 19:1)
All throughout scripture we see that the stars sing out and cry out to God’s glory. They point to his glory. When you go to the zoo. When you see the stars. When you look through a telescope, you see the glory of God. That’s what they were made to do. Man, in making rockets and creating medicine, as we’ve done these things, is expressing and declaring the glory of God. “And it was very good.” It fell. But it wasn’t his masterpiece. You are his masterpiece. Creation was very good, but YOU are his masterpiece. If you’re in Christ today, I want to say it again…you’re God’s masterpiece. He wants to put you on display. Everything else is on display, right? He wants to put you on display as his masterpiece for his glory. He’s prepared specific good works for you to do this thing. The heavens declare the word of God, but you’re his masterpiece. This is who you are. This is your identity. Take off the grave clothes. You’re meant to be on display. This is what makes you significant. Not your job. Your face. Your team. Those are profane things. The thing that we’re to get our significance from…who are you? You are a masterpiece of God when you go to the zoo, when you look at creation, when you look at telescopes and you see these things that are offset because he said they were good and they fell. But God used a process. He didn’t just say it. He went through a process and he sent his son and he died and he bared his holy arm to save you and to create you, who sit here right now. You’re a masterpiece of God, and if the creation was to declare his glory, how much more are we who sit here, vessels of grace to declare his glory like never before?
Let’s take a last look at a small video. In this video I want to offset pictures of nature and things like that and I want you to remember that that’s not his masterpiece.
As we end this day and as we take communion and think about our identity, that’s what we need to hear. That’s what Paul wants us to see. Offset from the beauty of creation and splendor of the majesty that declares his glory is us and the work he did to create us. What he did, and all the stuff he did to make us and the process he went through to make us. We’re that diamond shining against black velvet. If you’re a believer today, that’s your identify. That’s who you are. That’s your significance. The profane things you look at for significance are sinful. We’re to find our significance and value and meaning from Him. If you’re a believer in Jesus Christ I want you to reflect and think about who you are. I want you to accept your identity. Remember that you’re that masterpiece and that he knew you and predestined you and did all these things for you and it’s a wonderful thing. And if you’re not a believer in Jesus Christ, God brought you here today. I believe in the bottom of my heart that you can become one and that he called you as well and I’m waiting to see you come and know him as lord and saviour. I ask you and beg to please come talk to me or talk to one of us, the Christians that you know, so that you know how to be saved.
God, thank you for our people. Thank you for what you’ve done. Thank you for the saints. Thank you for making us and creating us in the midst of all this darkness. And the process we went through to be refined and to be made into these wonderful vessels of grace. And I pray that God, that we receive this identity that you’ve given us and we know who we are and where we came from so we can act properly. Please God, forgive us for the way that we have sought to find our meaning and purpose and goals and value and significance from idols. We know that you made us, we didn’t make you. We love you God. In Jesus’ name, amen.
