Summary: Sermon from Going from death to life at conversion to the fundament duties of the new life

PREACHING THROUGH EPHESIANS

PART 2

Copyright 1987

By

Bob Marcaurelle

Bob Marcaurelle

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Ephesians-Part. 2 Sermon 1

Bob Marcaurelle Eph. 2:1-8

FROM SIN’S GRAVEYARD TO GOD’S GRACE

When we move from chapter one to chapter two we go from theology to experience. Paul’s description of Christ’s power (1:19-23) reminds him of his conversion and he breaks out in an exciting passage about salvation. The theme is so thrilling to Paul that his writing here is a nightmare of Greek construction. He begins sentences he never finishes. He is pouring out his heart, says Barclay, and the claims of grammar give way to the wonders of grace. Paul never lost the thrill of being saved and neither should we.

Here the plan of God in eternity and the purchase of Christ on Calvary becomes a reality in history. Chapter two tells us two things God does for lost sinners. Number one, He gives them life (2:1-10) and number two, He joins them together, Jew and Gentile, into one spiritual temple (2:11-21). We are taken from the graveyard of sin and placed into the throne room of glory. No wonder Paul was excited.

I. THE SIN THAT RUINS US (2:1-3).

Paul begins the good news of salvation with the bad news of sin. An old country preacher said, “The hardest thing about getting people saved is getting them lost.” He is right. We have a high view of human nature (especially our own) and have a difficult time seeing ourselves as horrible sinners. Paul uses “you” here for the Gentiles and “we” for the Jews and shows that whether we grow up in the respectability of religion or the shame of paganism we are sinners who need salvation.

The reason the Bible is down on human nature is twofold. The first is because it is true. God is like a doctor with a frown on His face telling us what He knows about us. The second reason is so we will seek help and be delivered. In a famous museum there is a display on flies. It shows flies going from a dead dog to a baby’s hand, from a pile of manure to a spoon on the table. At the center of the exhibit is a giant replica of a fly, portrayed with all its hideous ugliness. People see this and then run out and buy the best fly swatter money can buy. They patch the holes in the screens. They kill every fly on sight, It is for the same reason that Paul shows us the ugly horrors of the sin that ruins us. First he gives. . .

1. The Definitions (2:1). “As for you, you were dead in your trespasses and sins” (2:1). In verse one he uses two general words for sin, and combined, they tell us what sin is. 1) To Miss the Mark. The first word, translated “sins” is hamartia and it means literally “to miss the mark.” The picture if that of an arrow that fails to hit the target. We are rebels against God and become twisted perversions of what we were meant to be. We miss the mark of true humanity. Whatever else we say about man, said C.S. Lewis, he is not what he should be. Bertrand Russell said that if there was life on other planets then they must be using ours for their insane asylum.

The concept of missing the mark captures and condemns us all. It is easy to think of drunks and adulterers and murderers as sinners but we are too respectable for such a label. But do we live up to our potential as husband? as wives? as parents? as sons and daughters? as neighbors? Sin means to miss the mark and we are all guilty. Sin is not something the theologians have invented. It is something that soaks and saturates our lives through and through. It keeps us from reaching our own standards, from being what even we know we ought to be. 2) To Miss the Way. The second word for sin, translated “trespasses” is the word “paraptoma.” It literally means “to sleep” or “to fall” and was often used for those who fell away from the right and wound up traveling on the wrong road. We do not fall short (hamartia) reaching for the good. We are on the wrong road altogether. We are headed in the wrong direction. We miss the mark because we are shooting at the wrong things in life. It is not that we try and fail but that we fail to try.

2. The Descriptions. Sin cannot be fully defined with Greek and Hebrew words. We need to look at the awful descriptions of its results. Paul mentions four: 1) Death (2:1). “As for you, you were dead in your trespasses and sins” (2:1). Paul describes sin as living death. What does he mean? The sentence of spiritual death fell on Adam and Eve and the human race when they rebelled against God (Gen. 3, Rom. 5:12).

By death it is meant that we are totally insensitive to the things of God and totally unable to respond to Him or to please Him in any way. The word death really points to separation (Js. 2:26, Is. 59:2) rather than extinction and as dead sinners we are cut off from God like a corpse is cut off from the world around it. When Adam and Eve sinned they did not die physically but a wedge was driven between them and God and between them and each other. Because of sin we are really all alone in the universe, cut off from God and each other and from the person we ought to be.

This is a universal condition. Once again we are all captured and convicted. There are no degrees of death, only degrees of decay. Jairus’ daughter looked like she was asleep and Lazarus had already begun to have the smell of death, but they were both dead. All the lost are dead to God. There are degrees of decay as some are more outwardly vile than others but the most respectable, refined, religious sinner is as dead to spiritual things as the vilest reprobate.

In fact a respectable lost person who goes to church may be more vile in the sight of God than the reprobate in the gutter because he sins against the light and against precious opportunities the sinner in the gutter never had. This is why God said to Israel, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; THEREFORE I will punish you for all your iniquities” (Amos 3:2).

Spiritual death is also a hopeless condition. A corpse cannot make itself beautiful or lift a finger to deliver itself. All the morality and religion of a lost person is but window dressing on a corpse. This is why Jesus called the Pharisees “whitewashed graves,” clean on the outside but dead on the inside.

3. The Disobedience (2:2-3A).

“. . .in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.”

The spiritually dead live! But they live in disregard for and disobedience to the desires of God. They “transgress” (2:1) and cross forbidden lines. Transgression is a way of life and they are called the “sons of disobedience” (2:2, NASV). This is a Hebraism and it means totally characterized by disobedience. God says, “Go this way!” but man replies, “Sorry, I’m going to do my own thing.” Thus man not only misses the mark (hamartia) and goes in the wrong direction (trespasses), but chooses and wishes to do so (disobedience). In our rebellion we have help. We have three horrible allies who lead us down the wrong road to ruin

1) The Devil. First and foremost is a personal, powerful, persistent and ever present devil whom Paul called “the prince (ruler) of the power (kingdom) of the air.” Elsewhere he is called “the god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4). (1) His Power. Paul calls him the “prince (ruler) of the power (kingdom) of the air.” The word prince is “archon” and means that he rules demonic beings in the spirit world. It means that as the “god of this world” he rules those who follow him. In this universe there are powers and organized systems and agents of evil who are at war with God and His people (Eph. 6:12). (2) His Position. Paul calls him the ruler “of the kingdom of the air.” Many take the idea of air literally and see Satan in our air causing storms, hurricanes and the like. The Bible, however, attributes these to God (Ps. 148:8). The idea is probably “ariel” (Hodge, P.C. etc.) as opposed to earthly. He is an invisible spirit being, in charge of invisible spirit beings who fill our universe. Their evil spirits join the evil human spirit and the result is the horrible evils that erupt from humanity. (3) His Presence (2B).

Paul calls him “the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.” The idea is not that Satan is an omnipresent being who personally tempts each one of us. Unlike God he cannot be everywhere at once. Paul could mean He is the spirit Prince in charge of those foul spirits that do tempt us. Since the singular “spirit” is used the idea could be that he works in the evil principles that live in us and in the world (Hodge). The idea may be vague but not the reality. A personal devil, in charge of untold millions of devils, has power to tempt us and to trip us up. In our theology he may not be omnipresent but in our experience, through his demons, he is always active in our lives.

We do not have to build elaborate philosophical theories to prove a personal devil. A look at the daily newspaper will reveal horrible depths of evil that point beyond the human to the demonic. In today’s paper (April 8, 1980) a young boy, age 16, took his five year old cousin out of bed. He sold her to a 41 year old man who had been released from a mental institution where he was treated for having “lewd and lascivious acts” with a child. The boy sold her for $230 which he blew on pinball machines.

We ask how could a boy sell a human being to a friend who told him, “I want to teach her things”? How could he do it for pinball money? How could a man do horrible things like that to children? More important, how can educated officers of the court and educated men and women of the medical profession keep turning men like this back to society? The only answer is the demonic. Those who live apart from God are in the grip of evil forces who know no end to what they will do. (Note: On the next day, when this sermon was preached, the newspaper told of a young man in Boston who took and ax and chopped up all the members of his family.)

2) The World (2:2A). Our fallen natures are enticed and encouraged to sin by the world of fallen sinners all around us and by the world system as a whole. God points in one direction and it points in the other. Any time we have a word from God telling us what to do we will have many others all around us encouraging us not to do it. This world’s values and standards are at enmity with God. It puts self on the throne and selfishness is the motive and purpose of life. Christianity puts Christ on the throne and service is the motive and purpose of life. This is why it is so hard to be a Christian. We are flooded, through TV, music, movies, newspapers and friends, with the ways of the world.

3) The Flesh (2:3A). Evil’s final ally is our enemy within. Paul says lost people live by “the cravings of our sinful nature (flesh)–following its desires and thoughts.” The word for “craving” or “lust” is “epithumia” and it came to mean lusts of the vile and wicked kind. One thing about sin is that like death, its power to decay grows stronger and stronger. At first we hate sin. Then we are tempted by it. Then we do it and feel bad. Then we do it again and do not feel as bad.

Finally it become

s a habit and we do it without thought. Our desires pollute our wills and our wills pollute our consciences and our lower nature gains more and more control. Oscar Wilde had a brilliant mind and as an author won the highest awards of his profession, yet he fell into unnatural vice and came to prison and disgrace.

From his cell he wrote these lines in his book “De Profundis,” “I took pleasure where it pleased me. . .I ceased to be lord over myself. . .I allowed pleasure to dominate me. I ended in horrible disgrace.” Lost people are at the mercy of their passions.

Once again, it isn’t necessary to indulge in gross immoralities to yield to our lusts. The mark of the unsaved is that they do what they want to do rather than what God wants. Their theme is, “My will, my lusts, my desires, my ambitions, be done.” We usually associate the terms “lust” and “flesh” with sins of the gutter but many a lust is satisfied in pews and pulpits. John MacArthur, Jr., is right, “The raw paganism and immorality of the Gentiles and the hypocritical self-righteousness of the Jews are called “the lusts of the flesh.” A person who prays when he wants to, gives when he wants to, witnesses when he wants to and goes to church when he wants to, lives by the desires of his lower nature as much as the person who gets drunk when he wants to.

4. The Depravity (2:3A). When Paul speaks of the “lusts of our lower nature” with its “desires and thoughts” we must see this not as a rebel living inside of fallen man but the sum total of fallen man. From head to toe, in every facet of his nature, man is depraved. This does not mean he can do no good to others. Convicts often offer themselves for medical experiments. It does not mean that they are totally evil and wicked. It means, as Augustine said, “we are capable of every sin that we have seen our neighbor commit unless God’s grace restrains us.”

It means every good thing we do it stained with sinful motives. It means that no amount of good we do can make us good enough for God. It is not that some trash has fallen into the well of human nature but that the water is poisoned at its source. In the hands of Satan and his world we go from bad to worse. The radio show “The American Character” bothers me. It praises heroic acts but never mentions Christ. The man who jumps in a frozen lake to save your child has done a good and heroic thing. But this does not mean he is good. He may commit adultery with your wife before the week is out. This is what is meant by depravity.

5. The Doom (2:3B). “Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.” Because of our spiritual death, disobedience and depravity, we are utterly and hopelessly doomed in the presence of a holy God. Paul says, “Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.” The wrath of God is not just an outdated Old Testament idea. It is a New Testament idea with the full sanction and authority of Jesus. It was Jesus who spoke of eternal punishment and the fires of hell (Mt. 5:23), not some wild eyed Old Testament prophet.

1) The Meaning of God’s Wrath. In speaking of God’s wrath we must not make it the same as human anger. The wrath of God is His settled opposition to sin in every form. It is, in reality, an expression of His holy love. The holy God who loves prayer, sets Himself against curses, who loves purity, sets Himself against impurity, who loves honesty, sets himself against falsehood.

2) The Result of God’s Wrath. The result of wrath is punishment both in this life (Rom. 1:18) and the life to come (Rom. 5:9). In this life sinners are handed over to sin (Rom. 1:24), their way is hard (Prov. 13:15 and they are restless like the waves of the sea (Is. 57:20). In the next life there is only the fearful prospect of judgment and hell (Heb. 11:27). This life is hell to a lost person but it is as close to heaven as he will ever be.

II. THE SAVIOR WHO REACHES US (2:4-5).

“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved” (2:4-5).

Verses 1-3 speak of the utter hopelessness of the human situation. What can the dead do for themselves? Nothing! For that matter, what can we who are saved do for the dead? Nothing! All the preaching in the world will not resurrect a dead man. If you don’t believe that, try holding a service in the graveyard. All the tearful, heartbroken cries and appeals of parents will not resurrect the dead.

Resurrection is the gift of God alone, and Paul, thinking no doubt of the Damascus Road (Acts 9) says He gives it. A man walks an aisle and says, “For thirty years I have lived for myself and thought nothing of God but in this service He has become the most important thing in my life.” This is the work of God! That is spiritual resurrection!

1. Look at God’s Attitude. Paul speaks of three great truths about God that lead Him to reach out and save us. 1) His Great Love. In love He wants what is best for us. 2) His Rich Mercy. Mercy is the capacity to care and to hurt with the hurting. God feels our pain. 3) His Grace. The God who wants the best for us does what is necessary to meet our needs. He gives His Son to die and the gift is undeserved and generous, which is what grace means.

2. Look at God’s Act. Next week we will look in depth at what God has done for us in this hopeless situation. But for now we can simply say - He has “undone” everything sin has done to us. God did not create man in the dark. He knew there was sin in the universe. He knew man would be tempted and that he would fall. He also knew that Jesus would come and heaven would be filled with those who accepted Him. The three results of salvation set us free from everything Paul described in verses 1-3. God’s forgiveness sets us free from depravity in the sight of God. God’s new birth sets us free from death, disobedience and depravity. God’s gift of heaven sets us free from sin’s doom.

People do not remain in sin and go to hell because they were born with a sin nature but because they reject the offer of God’s love. A young boy lived a wild and wicked life. His life ended when, driving drunk, he was involved in a fiery crash. He had broken the heart of his mother and as she walked by his coffin she rubbed his lifeless face and said, “He wouldn’t let me love him. He wouldn’t let me help him.” That epitaph could be written on the tombstone of everyone who dies and goes to hell.

Ephesians - Part. 2 Sermon 2

Bob Marcaurelle Ephesians 2:4-7

SAVED BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH

This has to be one of the ten greatest passages in the Bible. Its theme “salvation by grace through faith plus nothing” was the battle cry of the Reformation. Verse eight could be called “the Baptist verse.” Most of us have known it by heart since childhood. Salvation through faith alone sets Christianity apart from all other religions, which, in one way or another, are based upon salvation by human effort (works). In them salvation is achieved as a goal. In Christianity it is received as a gift. In them the way to God is through trying. In Christianity it is through trusting. Look first at. . .

I. THE GIFT OF SALVATION (2:4-6).

“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” (2:4-6).

1. The God of Salvation (2:4). Salvation begins and ends with God. It is God’s nature to save His people like it is the nature of the sun to shine. It is God’s nature to give salvation like it is the sun’s nature to give light and warmth to the just and the unjust. Paul mentions four characteristics of this saving God. His love wants what is best for us. His mercy hurts with us. His kindness touches us where we hurt. And His grace does what is necessary for our salvation. This is pictured allegorically in the parable of the “Good Samaritan.”

As we lay bruised and wrecked along life’s highway, the despised One came to us. He saw us. He felt our pain. He ministered to our needs. He paid the price for our health. The cost to God and Jesus was Calvary but love cares not about costs, only about helping. The awful situation of death, depravity and doom described in 2:1-3 only stirs up the depths of God’s love.

2. The Gift of Salvation (2:5B). When this great God acts on our behalf the result is “salvation.” This word may have lost its lustre but in it rests all the hopes and dreams of the children of God. 1) The Twofold Meaning. The Biblical word “to save” means to be set free or to be delivered. The First Century world used it primarily of “physical danger from which it delivers and physical disease which it heals” (Maclaren). Thus drowning Peter cried out, “Lord, save me!”, and Jesus said to the sick, “Thy faith hath made thee well” - literally “saved thee.” Applied to salvation, we are SAFE and SOUND. We are delivered from the dangerous peril of sin and from the destructive pollution of sin. We are set on a place of safety and we are being healed of sin’s defects.

Last week we looked at the disease side of sin as it expressed itself in death and decay. Now we add that sin has its dangers. It makes us the objects of God’s wrath (2:3), “without God and without hope” (2:12). There is no honest way to remove the awful truth of hell from the scriptures. I wish I could be an “annihilationist” and believe that God completely destroyed all lost people and put them out of existence. I studied the scriptures hoping I could find this.

I found that the second death could be annihilation and so could the term “destruction.” But one word cannot fit that doctrine, the word “torment.” All who worship the beast in Revelation 14 will be “tormented–forever and ever” (14:9-11). The word “torment” is used for the pain of sickness (Matt. 8:6) and that of a scorpion’s sting (Rev. 9:5). The sad, inescapable fact is that an eternity of pain awaits those lost souls who reject our Lord. There is an awful danger from which we are delivered.

2) The Tenses. This twofold aspect of salvation takes place in the past, present and future tenses of life. Her Paul says that in the past we “have been saved.” This is the justification (being declared right with God) and regeneration we receive at conversion. In 1 Corinthians 1:18 he says “we are being (present tense) saved.” This is the process of sanctification by which the Holy Spirit works out that life planted in us in regeneration. Then the Bible also speaks of a salvation we will receive “at the end time” (1 Pet. 1:5). This is salvations” consummation, glorification, when we are completely and forever delivered from sin with its defects and dangers.

3. The Gifts of Salvation (2:5-6). Here in our text Paul mentions three aspects of salvation - our regeneration, our resurrection, and our reign. These three parallel what happened to our Lord when He died. He was given life when His spirit rejoined His body. He was raised up to a new ministry. He was seated at the right hand of God in heaven. All these, says Paul, are parallels of what happens to us when we are saved. They also parallel the three tenses of salvation. We are converted at our regeneration; sanctified through our resurrection life; and will reign at our glorification.

1) Our Regeneration (2:5). He “made us alive with Christ.” Just as Christ’s body lay dead in the cold tomb, so do our minds, souls, spirits, and hearts lay dead in the cold grip of sin. Then Jesus comes and we are “born again.” His life comes into us and we are “new creations in Christ Jesus” (2 Cor. 5:17). This is a divine miracle like the creation of the universe of the resurrection of Christ from the dead. A man walked our aisle a few weeks ago and with little show of emotion accepted Christ. A few days ago his wife said to me, “Preacher, I don’t what happened to my husband, but I’m married to a new man, and it’s wonderful!” That is the miracle of regeneration. It takes place in a split second, at conversion when God comes to a dead soul and gives it eternal life.

2) Out Resurrection (2:6A). God not only gave us life but “raised us up with Christ.” We are not raised from the dead and then left in the graveyard. When Lazarus came out of the tomb Jesus said, “Loose him and let him go” (Jn. 11:44). In other words, “He is now alive. Get him out of those graveclothes and let him live in the world.” We too are raised to walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4). In sanctification the life imparted in regeneration is expressed. The living faith produces works.

Illustration: There was a dirty old woman in Edinburgh who started coming to hear George Matheson preach. She lived in a dingy, dirty basement with no windows. Several weeks later when some visitors from the church went to her basement home they found she had moved. A fellow tenant told them she had moved up to the attic. When they went in to visit they found the room flooded with light, airy and clean, and decorated with flowers.

Whey they commented on her change of quarters she said, “Yes, I moved. You can’t listen to George Matheson and live in a cellar.” One by one we are to peel off the old grave clothes of sin (4:22) and put on the beautiful character traits of Jesus (4:24). This is the process part of being saved. A Christian may not be able to say, “I am good,” but every one of us should be able to say, “By God’s grace and power I am BETTER.”

3) Our Reign (2:6B). God not only gave us life and raised us up but also “seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” What in the world does this mean? I believe it is divine anticipation. It is in the past that we have been “seated” in the heavenlies. It happened at our conversion but God sees it in the future from the viewpoint of our glorification. How? Because He sees the “end from the beginning.” Paul gives the matter from God’s point of view, and in the mind of God, our position in heaven is already fixed and already certain. Our total salvation, past, present and future, is already sealed and certain with God. It has been signed, sealed and delivered. This gives two great notes of encouragement.

(1) This Speaks of Our Security. In many ways the Bible teaches the eternal security of the saved. Once we are truly saved we are forever saved. One way it teaches this is by using the past tense to describe the future. In Romans 8:30 he says, “And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.” God already sees the saved as victorious and reigning at His right hand in Christ. Our heavenly Advocate, pleading our case and presenting His blood, will not lose a one of us. We are saved! We are getting sound! And praise God, we are safe! We are kept from falling (Jude 24) by the same power that gives us life (1 Pet. 1:3, 2 Pet. 1:3).

(2) This Speaks to Our Suffering. This gives new meaning to our trials and tears. In the grip of agony and pain we look up and wonder if God really cares. We lose our health or lose a loved one and God seems unmoved. Oh, friends, He looks down the road twenty billion years where we and our loved ones in perfect peace and health enjoy Him and each other forever.

If all we see is this trail of temptation and tears, we are doomed to despair and pessimism. But if we can look up and see ourselves twenty million years from now, walking the streets of glory, we can handle anything life dishes out. We talk about “blind” Fanny Crosby. She is not blind. She began to “see” in 1915. At age 92, blind from age six weeks, she died and saw her Master “face to face.” She has been looking at heaven these past 65 years and she will look forevermore. In those dark, lonely, doubt-riddled nights when she turned her sightless eyes upward, God saw her not just as one who was blind but as one who would see! Thus Paul could say the sufferings of this life are not worth comparing with the glory of the age to come (Rom. 8:18).

II. THE GOAL OF SALVATION (2:7).

“. . .in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus” (2:7).

The purpose (in order that) God saved us was to reveal to others the riches of His grace to us throughout the generations to come. The phrase “in the coming ages” can refer to the eternal age (Vaughn) or the succeeding generations throughout history (Hodge). In both time and eternity we are “Exhibit A” of the love and grace of God. Let’s look at it both ways:

1. Grace Revealed in Eternity. If the phrase refers to eternity then grace could be revealed

1) In Evangelization. The vastness of our universe and complexity of our world leads many to believe that there may well be many other forms of life than ours. The “Pulpit Commentary” says, “. . .intelligences that will rise thousands of years in the future will study and adore the grace of God. . .in mankind.” Who knows the work God will have us doing? Will we work with other beings? other races? No one knows, but I agree with Ray Steadman, “There will be tremendous equipment with which to do it.” As John Newton said, “When we’ve been there ten thousand years/Bright, shining as the sun/We’ve no less days to tell God’s grace/Than when we first begun.”

2) In Appreciation. Whether or not God’s grace is revealed in evangelization, it will be revealed in our undying appreciation. Once we get into heaven and see what it is like and once we get a look at the pierced hands of Jesus that made it all possible, we will praise Him forever and ever. Fanny Crosby, the “once blind” hymn writer, said it for us, “Some day the silver cord will break/And I no more as now shall sing/ But, O, the joy when I shall wake/Within the palace of the King/And I shall see Him face to face/And tell the story - Saved by grace.”

2. Grace Revealed in History. While the revelation of grace in eternity evangelistically may be a matter of conjecture, its evangelical revelation in history is not. Our task is twofold - to know Him and make Him known. The best argument for Christianity is a good Christian who lives like Jesus and gives all the credit for his goodness to Jesus.

Illustration: When our astronauts came back with samples from the moon’s surface, our scientists were amazed. They were astonished that the moon was covered with little beads of glass. The crust has great amounts of titanium, in its oxide form, which can bend light more beautifully than a diamond. On the moon there are no trees, no vegetation, and no clouds, only craters and irregular features like the glass on the headlights of our cars. The moon is a perfect reflector. God told us that in Genesis 1. He made it to rule the night. How? By reflecting the glory of the sun! In this dark, dark world of sin, we are, by our character and by our testimony, to reflect the glory of the Son of God. We will do it in eternity. We should do it in history.

Warren Wiersbie has a beautiful three point sermon on this passage - God’s Work For Us (Conversion); God’s Work In Us (Santification); and God’s Work Through Us (Service). It is true that God cannot work for us the miracle of salvation until we let Him. It is likewise true that God cannot work in us the miracle of sanctification until we let Him work in us. Finally God cannot work through us the miracle of helping others find Him unless we are allowing Him to work through us. Are you saved, sanctified and serving? Is God working for you, in you and through you?

“While passing through this world of sin/

And others your life shall view/

Be clean, be pure, without, within/

Let others see Jesus in you.”

Ephesians: Part 2 Sermon 3

Bob Marcaurelle Ephesians 2:8-10

SAVED BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH (II)

III. THE GRACE OF SALVATION (2:8-10).

From the gift and the goal we turn to the grace. The key idea of this whole (2:5-10) passage is that salvation is by God’s grace. He mentions it three different times (2:5, 7, 8). “Grace” has been defined as “unmerited favor.” Roy Angel says it is what we need but don’t deserve. The idea is that God generously gives salvation to those who do not deserve it and in no way can earn it or work for it. In the South, when we have had enough of something, we say we have had “a gracious plenty.” This means we have had all we can hold. This is the way God gives His love - freely and fully.

1. The Reception of Grace (2:8-9). “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast” (2:8-9).

1) The Works Way of Salvation (2:9). Ever since man realized he was a sinner there have been two ways he has tried to be right with God. One is the way of works, the way of self effort, by which sinful man tried to make himself good enough for God. To do this he tries righteousness - has made and kept rules; he has beaten and slashed his body; he has poured rivers of sacrificial blood on the ground and he has slaughtered his own children. He also tries ritual. He tries to make himself right with God by being baptized, confirmed, sprinkled, etc. God says of all this that it is like filthy rags in His sight (Is. 64:6). The great tragedy of our day is that the average man on the street is trusting in the gospel of works. He hopes God will add up all the good in his life and that it will more than compensate for the few really bad things.

Several things are wrong with the way of works. Number one - it cannot alter the past. What is done is done! Shakespeare was right when he said that all our piety and tears cannot erase a single line. Number two - it does not change the heart. We can change what we do but not what we are. Reformation is like pulling talcum powder on cancer. We must be born again.

Number three - we cannot do enough to atone for our sins against a holy God and our fellow men. None of us realizes the horrible depths of sin. We are no better than Pilate or Judas or Simon Peter. Their sins helped crucify the Lord and their sins are our sins. Trying to pay for that foul deed is like offering pennies to a billionaire. The fourth thing is brought out in our text - self salvation leads to pride. Paul says salvation is “not by works, so that no one can boast.”

The worst sin of all is probably pride, for it is the parent of all sins. Pride leads us to defy God and deify self. Grace takes the pride out while “works” feeds it like meat to a hungry lion. D.L. Moody sais that if men worked their way to heaven they would turn it into hell by bragging about how they did it. Our real sin is in our attitude. We are proud rebels against God.

Illustration: We are like the little girl who was refused something by her mother. She stormed upstairs and later her mother found her in the mother’s closet. She opened the door and said, “What are you doing in there?” The little girl answered, “I spit on your clothes! I spit on your shoes! I spit on the floor. And I’m sitting here now trying to get some more spit.” We may seem moral and respectable but when God makes restrictions or demands on us, we are just like that little girl. We are proud rebels.

Many things keep men and women today from coming to God but one of the main things is pride or the feeling of self sufficiency. The gospel of humanism oozes from the pores of our culture. Our arrogant self sufficiency keeps us from humbling ourselves before God. The motto of America, with its moon walkers, computers and color TV’s is that of the Army Corps of Engineers, “The difficult we do at once. The impossible takes a little longer.” Or it is that of Berton Braley as he described those who dug the Panama Canal:

“Got any river they say isn’t crossable?/

Got any mountains you can’t tunnel through?/

We specialize in things thought impossible/

Doing things nobody else ever could do.”

The one fly in the ointment in all this arrogance is man the sinner. He controls outer space but not inner space. He touches a button and changes the course of a satellite thousands of miles away. But with his powers, his pills, his P.H.D.’s, his psychiatrists and his peace of mind manuals, he cannot change the corruption of his world or his own heart. Only God can give new life. You can feed a lost man, dress him up, house him and educate him, but he is still dead in sin, depraved and doomed. With all his efforts of self salvation all man does is shake the bars of his prison and given temporary relief to the aches of his heart. If he is to be changed and cleansed God must do it. He must humbly receive that which he cannot affect.

A final thing wrong with the works way of salvation is that no amount of effort can earn forgiveness. Forgiveness must flow freely from the heart of the one who has been offended. William Barclay gives a simple illustration. A motorist kills a child while drunk. He will be arrested, tried and convicted. He serves time in prison and then he is set free. As far as the law is concerned, the matter is over. It has no more claim on him. But it is different with the parents of the child. He can never “pay” enough to earn their forgiveness. Forgiveness cannot be earned, it can only be given. It must flow freely from a gracious heart.

This is the way we are before God. We have broken His laws and justice must be served. Here is where Jesus comes in. As God in human form He bears the punishment we deserve. He satisfies the demands of law so God can be just as well as loving. But we have also broken God’s heart. We have murdered His Son. And the only thing that makes Him love us enough to pay our sentence and offer us His forgiveness is His gracious heart of love. He gives us what we don’t deserve and cannot earn. How we receive this bountiful and beautiful mercy is seen in. . .

2) The Faith Way of Salvation (2:8). In direct opposition to the self effort plan of salvation by the grace of God and through the faith of sinners. God offers it as a gift (grace) and we reach out and take it by faith. That sounds so simple and yet the ideas of grace and faith, especially as they are presented here. have been the center of theological controversy. Two schools of thought have arisen.

(1) Coercion. The first school is that of strict Calvinism which says that we do absolutely nothing towards of salvation. They say that when Paul says, “and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (2:8), He is referring to faith. Even the faith that claims salvation is totally the gift of God. The Greek construction however, refers “it” and “that” not to faith but to “salvation.” Even a strict Calvinist like Hodge acknowledges this but adds that the gift of faith is included in the gift of salvation. Strict Calvinism says God calls us, confronts us and converts us and we can do nothing to stop it (irresistible grace).

(2) Cooperation. A better explanation of the Biblical materials involves our cooperation with God. God does 99.9 percent but we have a part. It is by grace that we are born, that we hear the gospel, that we understand it, that we see our need, and that we desire its salvation. But in that great moment when God, by His grace, encounters the soul with the claims of Christ, we must reach out and take it by faith. To Jesus, the dying Savior, we give our sins to forgive. To Jesus, the living Lord, the Great Physician, we give our sin diseased lives to control and cleanse. This is not “works,” it is the repudiation of works. It is not self effort, it is the acknowledgment that no self effort will do. It is the diseased patient taking the doctor’s cure. It is the drowning man grabbing the rescuer’s rope.

All of us, realizing the perversity of our hearts, feel the truth of Calvinism. As far as I and my conversion are concerned I can believe it. But when we hammer it out as a theological position we make God a monster and twist all the Bible verses that call on man to respond. An example of coercion is the little boy who said, “God and I did out part. I ran and He caught me.” We all feel the truth of this, yet we feel that another testimony may be nearer the truth. Someone asked a little girl who saved her. She said, “Me and God. I did the letting. God did the saving.” No one put it better than John Calvin, “Faith brings a man empty to God that he may be filled with the blessings of Christ.”

The mysterious doctrine of election must forever be kept personal. The wonder is not those who God appears to have not elected, but that He elected you and me. A man argued with a preacher, “I will show you where God is a tyrant in the Bible.” When the preacher asked where he quoted the passage, “Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated.” The preacher responded, “Brother, the fact that God was against Esau doesn’t bother me. He was cruel, crude and calloused. The question I ask is how God could ever love cowardly, scheming, greedy Jacob and how He could love me or you.” Saved by God’s grace we sing: “Beneath the cross of Jesus, two wonders I confess/The wonder of His matchless love, and my unworthiness.”

2. The Result of Grace (2:10). “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (2:10).

1) God’s Poems. When we say that we are not saved by doing good or trying to build character, we are not saying these have no place in Christianity. In fact, good works and Christlike character is the purpose of God from the beginning (prepared in advance) and the result of our being saved.

Dr. Herschel Hobbs said on The Baptist Hour, “You, therefore, as a Christian, are the product, not the producer.” You might as well say that a piece of metal made itself into a fine watch or that a piece of wood made itself into a piece of furniture, as to say that you made yourself into a Christian. We are not saved by good works but we are most assuredly saved for them. And anyone whose faith does not issue in goodness, says the Bible, is not saved. His faith is dead (Js. 2:17). The word used here “workmanship” means a manufactured produce (Wiersbie). It is the word poiema from which we get “poem.”

God has created a beautiful world but His most beautiful creation is a sinner saved by grace. We are, says Stedman, God’s masterpiece. The most beautiful thing in God’s universe is not a sunset or waving fields of grain. It is a sinner saved by grace who is slowly becoming more like Jesus.

2) God’s Plan. Many fine commentators like Wiersbie and Stedman takee the phrase “good works, which God prepared in advance” more personally than just his general purpose of Christlikeness. The idea is that God has some special good works just for us to do. God has a plan for our lives and our goal in life should be to find it and do it. Thousands have come to Christ Through the ministry of Billy Graham and God purposed beforehand the coming of each one. But we don’t have to be Billy Graham. God has something special for each and every one of us to do. Our task is to say:

“It may not be on the mountain’s height/Or over the stormy sea/

It may not be at the battle’s front/My Lord will have need of me/

But if by a still small voice He calls/To paths I do not know/

I’ll answer dear Lord with my hand in Thine/

I’ll go where you want me to go, dear Lord/

I’ll say what you want me to say, dear Lord/

I’ll be what you want me to be.”

Our problem is that we want to be good “generally” but not obedient “specifically.” We want to be in the crowd that goes to heaven but not in the minority that finds and does God’s appointed will for us while in this earth. God has special lines to write with us. Each one of His “poems” is different. Someone who knows God’s people well wrote this parody of the hymn, “I’ll Go Where You Want Me To Go.” As recipients of God’s grace, which is true of you? Do you really say,

“I’ll go where you want me to go, dear Lord/

Real service is what I desire/

I’ll say what you want me to say, dear Lord/

But don’t ask me to sing in the choir/

I’ll say what you want me to say, dear Lord/

I like to see things come to pass/

But don’t ask me to teach girls and boys, dear Lord/I’d rather just stay in my class./

I’ll do what you want me to do, dear Lord/I yearn for the kingdom to thrive/

I’ll give you my nickels and dimes, dear Lord/

But please don’t ask me to tithe/

I’ll go where you want me to go, dear Lord/I’ll say what you want me to say/

I’m busy just now with myself, dear Lord/I’ll help you some other day.”

I have often called death “a period in the middle of a sentence.” For a Christian in the will of God this is not true. Death is God’s period at the end of God’s poem. To us it may appear brutal and ugly, especially if it involves the loneliness of a nursing home or the ravages of disease. But to God it is precious (Ps. 116:15). It is but the finishing touch of His masterpiece. What a shame to die outside His will. To die unfinished! To die early! What a glory it is to be able to say with Paul, “I have finished the race” (2 Tim. 4:7).

3) God’s Praise (2:7, 8). Why are we willing to yield up our lives to God and let Him write the lines He chooses in our biography? The answer is gratitude. It is grace and not works that produces spiritual giants. In the coming ages (2:7) our boasting (2:8) will center on Jesus. We live for Him because He died for us. We love Him because He first loved us. We serve Him because He serves us.

When Henry Ward Beecher began his ministry he preached Christian duty Sunday by Sunday and his church because worse and worse. He changed his theme to the grace of God in the sacrifice of Christ and his people responded and did their duty. Why? Because love has more power than law.

When the famous poet Joyce Kilmer went out to fight and die for France because he felt it was his Christian duty, he said, “Lord, Thou didst suffer more for me/Than all the hosts of land and sea/So let me render back again/This millionth of Thy gift. Amen.”

Kilmer once said, “I think that I shall never see, a poem lovely as a tree.” I would like to add that we will never see any poem as lovely as the lives of those like Kilmer who repudiate all notions of earning their salvation, who receive the grace of God, and who respond by spending the rest of their lives trying to show their gratitude by doing the will of God and growing more like Jesus.

4) God’s Patience. In closing we need to remember that we are God’s poem in the process of being written. We are the masterpiece God is patiently working on. A little boy misbehaved while his teacher was lecturing on creation. The teacher scolded him, “Who made you, Johnny?” Johnny said, “God did.” The teacher answered, “He didn’t do a very good job, did He?” Johnny came right back, “That’s because he ain’t finished with me yet.” God is never through with us as long as we let Him work in and through us. When the last beautiful line is written and the period “death” ushers us into the presence of God, we who are saved by grace will say with McCheyne:

“When I stand before the throne / Dressed in beauty not my own/

When I see Thee as Thou ar t/ Love Thee with un-sinning heart/

Then, Lord, shall I fully know/Not till then - how much I owe.”

Ephesians - Part 2 Sermon 4

Bob Marcaurelle Eph. 2:11-13

THE PEACE MISSION OF JESUS

One of the tragic effects of sin is separation and division. It is like a huge knife that cuts or a high wall that divides. The result is that we are isolated, lonely and self centered. This separation takes place in two areas. First there is vertical separation between God and man. The Bible says, “Your sins have separated you from your God” (Is. 59:2). God walked with Adam and Eve but when sin entered the situation they ran and hid (Gen. 3:8). Then there is horizontal separation between men. Adam blamed Eve for his sin (Gen. 3:12). Divided from God they were divided from each other.

This separation is not passive. We do not leave each other alone and go our own way. It involves positive hostility and conflict. Cain was hostile to God and to his brother Abel (Gen. 4) and his is the story of our race. The lines between us are battle lines. It is black against white, rich against poor, father again son and brother against brother.

Nowhere was this contempt and conflict more evident that between Jew and Gentile. Racial prejudice was a burning issue in Paul’s day. So intense was this hatred that a Jew would not even render aid to a Gentile woman in her hour of childbirth. When a Jew married a Gentile he or she was declared dead by the parents and the funeral rites were immediately carried out. For a Jew to even enter the house of a Gentile rendered him unclean.

Into this arena of hatred and conflict stepped Jesus, the Prince of Peace. The angels announced His birth this way, “. . .and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests” (Lk. 2:13). Verses 1-10 of this chapter speak of our regeneration. We are give life! Verses 11-22 speak of our reconciliation. We are given love! The life of God results in love. The walls come tumbling down.

This cross is a beautiful symbol of this. The vertical post shows that Jesus reconciles God and man. The cross beam shows that He reconciles man and man. When men get right with God they get right with other. At Calvary God is our Father and all believers are our brothers and sisters. This was God’s ideal and it was being realized in Ephesus. The situation was not perfect but Jew and Gentile were worshipping together there as brothers and sisters in the Lord. Our text shows how Jesus brought this about. Look first at. . .

I. THE SEPARATION SIN BRINGS (2:11-12).

1. Between Jew and Gentile. “Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called ‘uncircumcised’ by those who call themselves ‘the circumcision’ (that done in the body by the hands of men)” (2:11). The word “therefore” calls upon Gentile Christians, in the light of their experience of God’s grace in salvation (2:1-10), to remember the awful condition from which they were saved.

They were the objects of Jewish contempt. Hatred between Jew and Gentile was the order of the day. The Jews, proud of their religious heritage, the sign of which was circumcision, contemptuously called Gentiles “the uncircumcised.” In other words, the Gentile dogs bore on their very bodies the evidence of their paganism. Here we have the pride and prejudice of the Jews that made them feel superior to all those outside the Kingdom of God.

1. Moral Separation. When we apply this in our day to the lost and the saved we need to remember that the Gospel does call for moral separation. The Bible says, “Come apart and be separate” (2 Cor. 6:17). . . “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him:” (1 Jn. 2:15). . . “Do not learn the ways of the heathen” (Jer. 10:2). Our problem is we practice the wrong kind of separation. We do not separate ourselves from the sins of the world, but we do look down our noses with pride and prejudice, at those we imitate. We practice. . .

2. Ritual Separation. Circumcision was a ritual. Like Baptism it pointed to the reality of a life changing experience with God. Too often, for the Jews, as for the Christians and baptism, it was nothing but aa meaningless ritual. They were circumcised “in the flesh” but not in their hearts (Lev. 26:41, Jer. 4:4), ears (Jer. 6:10), and lips (Ex. 6:12-30). We think we are alright because we have been baptized, go to church not and then, repeat a few religious phrases and put a few dollars in the plate.

We may live like the devil the rest of the time, but at least we are better off (we think) than that poor pagan neighbor of ours who never goes to church. How little do we realize that a pagan in church is in ten times more trouble than a pagan who isn’t, because “of whom much is given, much is expected” (Lk. 12:48). We forget that going to church, in itself, is not a virtue. The virtue comes in doing the things we learn in church. If our lives remain unchanged our church activities will be held against us. John Havlic summed up pagan Churchianity with these lines: “A Christian is a man who feels/Repentance on a Sunday/For what he did on Saturday/And will do again on Monday.”

3. Social Separation. Someone classified pride three ways - pride of race, face and place. All too often Christians keep to “their own kind” and practice insulation rather than moral separation. Christianity is fast becoming an in group with our own jargon, our own jewelry, and our own bumper stickers. We go to a Christian barber, a Christian grocer and a Christian cleaner.

The more exclusive we get, the less like Jesus we get, for He spent time with the lost of His world. Of all the sins that cling to the redeemed, none clings as tenaciously as the sin of pride and prejudice. Racially, nationally, socially, educationally, materially and denominationally, we continue to look down our nose at others. Our great task is to practice moral and spiritual separation from the “ways of the heathen” (Jer. 10:2) without isolating ourselves from them and their needs.

2. Between Gentiles and God.

“Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world” (2:12).

Sin also separates us from God. The terrible fivefold description of men apart from God is the avowal of one of the Bible’s deepest persuasions - that all mankind is divided into two groups. We are either dead or alive. We are either saved or lost. We are either destined for heaven or for hell. Look at their bankrupt condition.

1) They Are Without Christ. The sheer horror of this is indescribable. They have no knowledge of Him, no faith in Him and no blessings from Him. They have no one to forgive their sins, to rule their lives. to master their passions, to comfort them in trial, or to open heaven’s door for them. Greek and Roman culture had wealth, wisdom, and pleasures but without a Savior their life was empty.

2) They Are Without Citizenship and Covenants. The phrase “excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of promise” showed that Gentiles (and lost people today) were strangers to the true religion that came down from God to man. Apart from Jesus all religion is idolatry.

This points up the awful loneliness of sin because men worshipping their own private “gods” are cut off from those in the church who worship the true God. No wonder they schedule “happy hours” from five to seven. No wonder they dull their minds with alcohol to get over their day. No wonder the suicide rate rises higher and higher. What is unbearable is loneliness, the price we pay for not loving and not being loved. I thank God for my citizenship in the church, for my brothers and sisters, and for the church sign which read, “This church stands here to say that you need never be lonely again.”

Application: Here a word must be said about so called “Christians” who have no interest or time for the church. Since the time of Abraham God has called His people together in the community of fellowship and worship. The walls between people come down and there is fellowship. The walls between people and God come down and there is worship. Serious doubts should be raised about the true salvation of those who desire neither of these.

3) They Are Without Hope. Without the truth, modern man, like the ancient First Century world, is submerged in pessimism and despair. Our magazines are filled with articles on religion. We dabble in the occult. Why? Because the awful pangs we see in modern life are manifestations of the deep spiritual poverty in our souls. Made for God we cannot feed our souls on money, amusements or power. The future of pagans, says Eadie, is “a night without stars.” Matthew Arnold described their world and ours: “On that hard pagan world disgust/And secret loathing fell/Deep weariness and sated lust/Made human life a hell.” A group of college students were asked to define life. These definitions were published, “Life is a joke that isn’t funny” . . . “Life is the jail sentence we serve for the crime of being born.” Without Christ we are without hope.

4) They Are Without God. The Greek and Roman world, like ours, was full of worship and full of theologies and full of Gods, but Paul said it was barren, pointless and empty. These worshippers were “without God.” Our liberal, tolerant age needs to remember that true religion is not a matter of what you and I think or like or want. It comes to us from God, revealed in Bible history and recorded on the Bible’s pages. We can accept it or reject it but we cannot replace it. Without God our religious rites are chains of slavery. Our religious life is a burden to be borne. Our religious words are empty. Our religious hopes are rotten crutches.

Application: I wonder how many of us who come to worship are really lonely atheists deep in the secret part of our souls? How many come hoping to find God but are never really sure that they have? Aa father heard his five year old boy pray on Sunday night, “Dear God. Today we went to your house two times and you were not there. I wonder where you were?” Until we know Jesus and work Him in to the nitty gritty details of our daily lives we will be without hope and without God in the world.

II. RECONCILIATION CHRIST BRINGS (2:13)

Why has Paul taken us through this journey into darkness? To show us our origin and our obligation; to remind us of our conversion and our commission. He says, “But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ” (2:13).

1. Our Conversion. Verses 13-18 show what Jesus did about the enmity and division caused by sin. The key word is “reconcile” (2:16). By His death (2:16) and through the ministry of His Spirit (2:18) He has reconciled men to God and to each other. Reconciliation is far more than the absence of conflict. The Roman Empire by brute force kept the peace between Jew and Gentile but the fires of hatred were constantly smoldering. Jesus replaces hatred with love and true reconciliation takes place.

Our conversion to Christ is a conversion to love and this love is directed first toward God and then toward all men. Where there is no love there is no life. The Bible makes this very clear. It says, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 Jn. 4:8). And again, “. . .anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen” (1Jn. 4:20). I tremble for anyone who hates anyone for any reason. We talk about not being able to love blacks or Cubans. This is serious business because the Bible says, “Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him” (1 Jn. 3:15).

2. Our Commission. Our love leads us to get involved where others hurt. Our conversion leads to our commission and our commitment. We were saved out of the hell and hopelessness of paganism and we are sent back into it to help our fallen brothers and sisters. It is hard to get these message through the thick skulls of those who grow up in church. Because we were saved early we somehow think we are better than those who live in paganism. Our early conversion was by God’s sovereign grace and it was a salvation from falling into paganism.

Illustration: John Wesley had it right. He grew up as a minister’s son but one day when he saw a man being led to the gallows, said, “There but for the grace of God goes John Wesley.” The grace of God experienced and shared tears down the walls of pride and prejudice. Chuck Colson spent time in prison and now this fashionable lawyer spends all his time ministering to prisoners.

Why? Because he was one of them. Dr. Criswell tells of the old Indian in Oklahoma who was asked how Christ saved him. The old man took some dead leaves, laid them in a circle and took a worm and laid it in the middle. Then he set a fire on the edge of the circle. The caterpillar crawled this way and that way trying to find a way out. Surrounded by smoke and flames it finally curled up in the center and waited to die. As the flames drew near the old Indian reached down, picked up the worm and gently put it safely away from the fire. Then the old Indian said, “That is what Jesus did for me.”

“From sinking said He lifted me / With tender hand He lifted me?

From shades of night to plains of light / Oh, praise His name, He lifted me.”

Application: This praise sounds good but it is hollow unless we who have been lifted become lifters. The hand of God reached us through human hands. There were mothers who taught us to pray; pastors who shared the Word of life; friends who embodied the love of Christ. Now it is our turn to be the hands of God. If we don’t, we will be the kind of church pictured by Bailey Smith. We will be like the luxury liner wailing through thousands of people in the water, waving their hands and screaming for help. The irritated passengers yell out in unison, “We wish you would be quiet. Our pastor is preaching a sermon on ‘love’ and we can’t hear h

Sermon 5

Eph. 2:13-18

GOING FROM WALLS TO BRIDGES

Ever since Cain murdered his own brother in an act of violence we have been hurting each other. The lines between us are battle lines and across them we hurl our insults, our fists, our lies and our bullets. From the nursery where we fight over toys, to our adult years where we fight over anything, our lives are marred by hate. Perhaps the worst hate of all is prejudice because then we hate a person not for anything he has done but simply for being who or what he is, we hate him for being the way God made him.

Into this world of hate Jesus came to bring peace. Paul applied this by telling Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians that all the lines between them were gone and they were one. They were brothers in the Lord. The terrible prejudice that existed between Jew and Gentile was not to be tolerated in the church. The key idea of this complicated passage is that when we get right with God, we get right with our fellow man.

Those outside the church are our potential brothers and sisters. This principle applies everywhere - in the home, where we hurt those we love; in the business world, where a thousand and one frictions drive us to be irritable; and in the circle of our friends, where all of us have problems. If we bicker and quarrel and carry our feelings on our shoulders, the best thing we can do is get thoroughly right with God. The Prince of Peace will give us peace with God, peace with ourselves and peace with others.

This is true not only when people are converted but also when a Christian gets back in harmony with the will of God. When we fail to live up to our ideals and do things we know are wrong, we become guilty. Guilt leads to a low self regard. A low self regard leads to depression. Depression leads to irritability and moodiness. Irritability and moodiness get us in trouble with others. How we could improve our homes, churches and neighborhoods by having clean consciences!

I. THE RECONCILIATION BETWEEN MAN AND GOD

(2:13).

“But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ” (2:13).

In the Old Testament the Gentiles were those who were “far away” from the grace of God. Until we are saved we are cut off from God, “without God and without hope” (2:12). Jesus, by His sacrifice (2:13) has “brought us near” to God and the great term for this is “reconciliation” (v. 16). The idea is that of enemies becoming friends. The reconciliation of God and man involves two things, which come from our conversion at the cross.

1. The Cross and Conversion Remove God’s Wrath. The Bible never speaks of God being reconciled to man. He does not need to change His attitude. He does not need to be persuaded to love. However, the Bible does speak of the wrath of God being removed when we are saved (Rom. 5:9-10). God’s wrath is His holy, just, righteous response to sin. It will punish in time and in eternity. When Jesus pays for our sins and the Holy Spirit gives us the new birth, the just demands of a holy God are met and He can give us love and forgiveness without violating His standards. God does not change. He is still holy, just and loving. We change.

As Dr. W.T. Conner says, “The same sun that melts the candle, hardens the clay. The difference is not in the sun but in the candle and the clay.” Outside of Jesus, a holy God will allow us to go to hell and be punished for our sins. Inside of Jesus that same holy God will allow us to go to heaven pardoned from our sins.

2. The Cross and Conversion Remove our Hatred. Men outside of Jesus are spiritual rebels. Paul says we are the “enemies” (Rom. 5:10) of God. The very word “reconciliation” (v. 16) carries the idea of two people hostile to one another being made friends again. Three other passages speak of salvation as reconciliation (Rom. 5:10 ff; 2 Cor. 5:18 ff; Col. 1:19 ff). Look at what we did to Jesus and you will see we are not indifferent to God, we hate God. We do not ignore God, we attack God. This is why we must be born again (Jn. 3), so the life of Christ, which issues in love for God and man, can be given to us.

The work of Christ on the cross, while it secures reconciliation objectively for the whole race, is no good for us until we yield to it subjectively. Pardon offered by a Governor is official when he signs the release, but it is not actual until the condemned convict accepts it. How sad that so many travel down the highway to hell when Jesus has paid our way to heaven with His blood.

II. THE RECONCILIATION BETWEEN MAN AND MAN

(2:13-18).

When Jesus Christ removes the sin barrier between us and God, He also tears down all the barriers that sin has built between Christians. The social, racial, national, educational, denominational, political and sexual barriers that make us look down at our brothers and sisters are to be rooted out of the church. This does not mean total amalgamation where all distinctions and differences merge, but it does mean total love and acceptance despite our differences. “In Christ there is no East or West/In Him no South or North/Just one great fellowship of love/Throughout the whole wide earth.”

1. The Unity of Christ’s Person (2:14).

“For He Himself is our peace, Who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility” (2:14).

When Paul speaks of a “dividing wall” he probably had the Jewish temple in mind. There were countless walls there. There was a section for Gentiles, a section for Jewish women, a section for Jewish men and a section for the priests. But all of this was only symbolical of all the lines we still draw in our lives, lines which set us off as special or superior from others. We keep to ourselves and as a Dutch proverb says, “Unknown means unloved.”

This division is done away with not by a policy or a law but by a person. Paul says, “He is our peace.” John Wesley had it right when he said to fellow Christians, “If thy heart is like my heart, then give me thy hand.” Two enemies are never reconciled through force or legal documents. Usually it comes through a third party they both love and respect. The tie that binds us is Jesus and if He can’t make us love those who are different from us no one or nothing can.

A word must be said about the kind of unity. The word “one” speaking of unity does not mean “uniformity.” We do not all become sheep who “bleat” alike. This is the problem on the mission field of colonization where we want to make all converts into white, middle-class, American, Southern Baptists. This is the problem in America where the charismatics are trying to get all of us to become extroverted “praise the Lord” Christians. We are one in our purpose to serve God and to love God and to let Him use our gifts. But our gifts and cultures and personalities and expressions of love may differ radically. But that is beautiful. Uniformity is dull. Variety makes God’s church like a beautiful bouquet of flowers with each bud, different from the others, reflecting God’s glory.

2. The Unity of Christ’s Religion (2:15).

“By abolishing in His flesh the law with its commandments and regulations, His purpose was to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace. . .” (2:15).

The Jewish religion with all its sacred rites and petty regulations actually kept people from God. Denominations are necessary and even good, for they point to strong doctrinal convictions for which we stand. But when we elevate trivia and petty peculiarities and let them divide us we confuse lost people and cut them off from God. We need more caring and sharing and cooperating. What we keep are the great moral and spiritual laws, embedded in the conscience (Rom. 1:21), formalized in the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20), and summarized in the law of love (Mt. 22:34–40).

What we throw away are man made laws that only divide us in the essentials. We may keep them because of personal preference, but we must also keep a loving attitude toward those who do not have the same preference. If Pentecostals want to all pray at one time that’s their business. If the blacks want to have church until 3:00, praise the Lord. If the Presbyterians want quiet dignity in worship, more power to them. We are still brothers, fellow Christians, serving Jesus.

3. The Unity of Christ’s Death (2:16).

“. . .and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility” (2:16).

The “body” Paul speaks of here is Christ’s spiritual body, the church. When God makes us right with Him at the cross, in our new birth experience, He puts to death the hostility we felt for Him and for others. He plants the seed of love that we are to cultivate. And the most fertile ground for the flowers of love to grow is at the foot of the cross. Why?

1) It Reveals Our Common Ground. The old saying is right, “The ground at the foot of the cross is level.” Another old saying is equally true, “There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it behooves the best of us not to say anything about the rest of us.” The fine, moral, well-educated person is saved by the grace of God and the blood of Jesus just like the bum in the gutter or the prostitute in the street. There is no difference in lost sinners (Rom. 3:21). We all come through the same door, begging for the same mercy. The cross is our common bond.

In a famous art gallery, a little lady selling flowers paused and looked up at a picture of Christ on the cross and whispered, “I love Him.” The famous artist, standing nearby, put his arm around her and said, “I love Him, too.” Before long fifteen people, from every walk and station in life, gathered beneath the picture to tell of their common love for the Jesus who died for them and also to reveal the common love they had for each other. Their differences didn’t vanish, but they faded into insignificance at the pierced feet of Christ.

2) It Reveals the Result of Hate. The cross of Jesus also brings harmony by virtue of its being a stark revelation of the results of hate. Ray Steadman reminds us that reconciliation was effected not just by the death of Jesus but by His blood (v. 13) and thee cross (v. 16). Jesus did not die peacefully and beautifully. He died an ugly, brutal, gory, violent, bloody death. He was stretched out on the cross, torn and wretched, with blood streaming down His face, down His body and down His cross.

This shows us that violence is the ultimate result of hatred and prejudice. When we build walls we will go on to build crosses. But, praise God, it also reveals the Christian’s response to hate. Jesus loved and prayed for His butchers.

We who follow Jesus are to love as He loved and forgive as He forgave. Often, as a pastor, people will come to me and tell me how someone has wronged or mistreated them. My response is for them to thank God for giving them the opportunity to show Christian love and forgiveness. It takes two to fight and all hostility would leave our homes and churches if we lived by the old Negro spiritual:

“You can talk about me, all you please

I’ll talk about you, down on my knees.”

4. The Unity of Christ’s Spirit (2:17-18).

“He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit” (2:17-18). 1) The Witness (2:17).

Paul now moves to the unity effected by Jesus through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit speaks through the truth of the Word and tells us about peace with God and peace with our fellow man. When Jesus comes into a heart hate goes out. The Bible says, “He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness still. . . We know we have passed from death to life because we love the brothers. . . Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (1 Jn. 2:9; 3:14, 15). As we listen to the witness of the Spirit we are told from beginning to end to tear down the walls and build bridges of love.

2) The Worship (1:18). The Holy Spirit who witnesses to us brings us together in worship and ushers us into the very presence of God. The word “access” here was used of taking people into the presence of kings and queens. In the Old Testament only the High Priest, and he only once a year, could go into the holy of holies to meet God. In the New Testament, all believers, the aged saints and the new converts right out of paganism, have equal rights to enter the presence of God in prayer and praise.

A man sat in my study and gave his heart to Jesus and said, “I just don’t see how Christ could forgive me.” I told him that at that moment he was as close to God as Billy Graham or any other Christian because he was a child of God. As God’s children we have standing access to His presence.

Illustration: Several years ago the Reader’s Digest carried the story of a young woman, horribly burned, who was taken to the burn center in Galveston, Texas. There she prayed to die and refused the treatment. Into her room came the horrible shell of a man burned beyond recognition from head to toe. His name was Joe and his mutilated face broke into a big grin and his voice was full of love, joy and hope. He built a friendship with her and helped her make it through the long ordeal of skin grafts.

When her husband came to take her home she took him by Joe’s room. There by his bed for a visit were his wife and children. Seeing them, her mouth fell open. “Joe,” she said, “I didn’t know you were. . .” The word didn’t come. Joe said, “That’s right, Mrs. ____, I’m black.” She wheeled over to him, hugged his neck and said, “That doesn’t matter to me, Joe. You’re the best friend a girl ever had and I love you.”

In their crisis and concern they were not black and white or even male and female. They were two human beings, sharing a common bond, helping each other. Outward differences disappeared behind inward realities. This is how it should be among the people of God, “just one great fellowship of love, throughout the whole wide earth.”

Ephesians - Part 2 Sermon 6

Bob Marcaurelle Eph. 2:19-22

THE HOUSE WHERE GOD LIVES

The Apostle Paul stayed in trouble with just about everybody. Vance Havner said two things usually happened when he came to town. There was a revival and there was a riot. One reason was that he was an integrationist. The national and religious prejudice that Jews held for Gentiles was equal to any prejudice known today. And yet Paul went up and down the ancient world preaching the absolute equality of Gentiles with Jews when they became Christians and came into the church. He closes this section on their relationship by them, Jew and Gentile, that we are all subjects of the Kingdom of God, sons and daughters of the family of God and stones of the spiritual temple of God.

Application: Whites and blacks will probably never fully integrate the churches of America because of beautiful differences in worship. The blacks do not want our kind of worship. For one thing we quit too early. At twelve o’clock we are finished and they are just getting started good. But God means that all Christians, no matter what their color, are our brothers and sisters and equals, and He means for all churches to be open to all people regardless of color.

I. AS SUBJECTS WE HAVE SECURITY (2:19a).

“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people. . .” (2:19a).

Here we have a political metaphor where the church is pictured as God’s nation or kingdom or city. “Foreigners and aliens” is a comprehensive expression referring to all persons who did not enjoy the rights of citizenship. When we accept Christ we go from “aliens” to “saints.” He is our King, our President, our Governor, our Mayor. He is our Ruler and under this rule we enjoy the security of His protection and His provisions. The first thing we see here is . . .

1. The Security of His Protection. One function of a King or an Emperor in Bible times was to protect his people from enemy invasion. If a foreign power tries to lay hands upon us we have the full power of the American government on our side. In the Book of Acts, when Paul came to Philippi and was arrested, he revealed that he was a Roman citizen and he was immediately released with an apology (Acts 16:39). The power of Rome protected Him. The power and authority that stands behind us is that of almighty God.

The Bible says, “. . .the Lord will go before you and the God of Israel will be your rear guard” (Is. 52:12). The church is an army, under attack and on the attack. We advance against the devil’s strongholds of sin, injustice, heresy and hypocrisy. We receive “all the fiery darts of the evil one” (Eph. 6:16). And all the while, as the leader, the read guard, and the wall of fire around us is our protecting, providing God.

One thing we know as citizens of the Kingdom of God is that nothing can invade our lives without our King’s permission. This doesn’t mean we escape sorrows and hardships, because God does allow these to enter. What it does mean is that we escape the meaninglessness of sorrow. On the forehead of every invader we can read the words of Romans 8:28, “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God.”

2. The Security of His Provisions. A second function of a King or Emperor was to provide for the needs of his people. As Abraham Lincoln said, we are endowed by our Creator, with the fundamental rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The Bible gives us this promise in Philippians 3:19, “And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

Most of our doubts about this come from fears connected with tomorrow. We conjure up all kinds of disasters that we must know God won’t be able to handle. Our lives are ruined by “What if’s.” What if. . .I die?. . .get sick? . . .lose my job? . . .etc., etc. Charles Allen, commenting on Psalm 23, says the words “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want” reveal a confidence on the part of the sheep that the Shepherd had already made plans for tomorrow’s grazing. Before man ever got cold, God filled the earth with oil. Jesus reminds us, “Your heavenly Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

Immediately after World War II the Allied Armies gathered up thousands of hungry, homeless children and placed them in a large camp. The children were well cared for but they did not sleep well. They seemed restless and afraid. It was a psychologist who hit upon a solution. When the children were put to bed they were given a slice of bread to hold. This was not to be eaten but held. If they wanted more to eat it was given but they kept holding on to their slice. The result was miraculous. The children went to sleep, subconsciously assured that they would be cared for tomorrow.

II. AS SONS AND DAUGHTERS WE HAVE INTIMACY.

“. . .and members of God’s household” (2:19b).

Being a member of God’s kingdom is a great privilege, but it is even greater to be a part of His family. We are born again into the family of God (Jn. 3) and we are adopted into the family of God (Rom. 8:15). Jesus is our brother (Heb. 2:11), God is our Father (Rom. 5:15), and we are joint-heirs with Jesus (Rom. 8:17). The Apostle John spoke for us all about the wonder of this when he said, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”

Whatever else you do, do not fail to grasp the fact of God’s intimate, close, personal interest in you and me. As family members we have security like we talked about before. Our Father will both provide and protect, but this security as children will be much better because it will include a beautiful intimacy. A father’s concern and care will always be more intimate and personal than that of a king. A king is interested in our general welfare but a father is interested in our innermost intimate problems.

Illustration: One of Lincoln’s biographers relates a beautiful incident that took place during the civil war when the President was involved in a crucial meeting with his cabinet. They were in the Cabinet room working out their strategy when there came a knock at the door. There stood Willie, the president’s ten-year-old boy, wanting to see his dad. Lincoln stopped what he was doing, left those important men cooling their heels, and talked with his son. Why? Because Willie outranked them all! Friends, this is where I need more faith. It isn’t hard for me to see myself as a subject in God’s kingdom or a soldier in His army. Too many times, I admit, I feel like an unnamed, unimportant private in some rear rank. And all too seldom do I lay hold on the grand truth that I am a precious son in God’s household, a member of the family.

Dr. Charles Allen says that whenever he visits the grave of his dad he remembers the way he prayed for the children. He would say, “Lord, bless Charles. . . Bless John - Grace - Blanche - Sarah - Frances.” There was a special prayer for each one. Our heavenly Father, likewise, has a special, personal, intimate, individual love for each one of us.

III. AS STONES WE HAVE UNITY (2:20-22).

Paul says we are,

“. . .built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit” (2:20-22).

Paul now uses an architectural metaphor and says that we are the living stones (1 Pet. 2:5) God is using to build His dwelling place or spiritual temple. The Greek of verse 21 is ambiguous. It can mean that we are all separate little buildings (ASV) in the temple complex, or (NIV, RSV, etc.) that we are part of God’s one building. Either way, the theme is our beautiful unity in spite of our diversity. God reaches down and gathers all kinds of people with all kinds of gifts, polishes them, and uses them to build His church. He spotted me in Georgia, picked me up in Alabama, polished me in Texas and dropped me down in South Carolina. Each one of us is hand picked and hand crafted. What a building! Look first at. . .

1. The Foundation. Any building must have a foundation. In Matthew Jesus said that the faith of Peter was “the rock upon which He would build His church” (Matt. 16:18). In 1 Corinthians 3:10-11 Paul says he “laid a foundation” and that foundation was Jesus Christ. Some take Paul to mean here in Ephesians the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets but the passage seems to make them the foundation. The idea is that Jesus Christ Himself is the foundation of the Christian church. It is built entirely upon Him - His nature, His life and His work.

But He communicates all this to the world through His holy apostles and New Testament prophets who wrote His revelation down in the Word of God. The church is built on Jesus, yes, but it is not the Jesus of our imagination or depraved reason. It is the Jesus preached in the New Testament and written by the Holy Spirit through the Apostles and Prophets.

“The church’s one foundation, is Jesus Christ her Lord/

She is His new creation, by Spirit and the Word/

Elect from every nation, Yet one o’er all the earth/

Her charter of salvation, One Lord, one faith, one birth.”

2. The Cornerstone. Paul goes on to say that Jesus is the chief cornerstone, or really the foundation of the foundation. This was the center stone of an arch or the great stone of a building that held it together. The idea is that Christ gives His church its unity and stability. We rightly sing about the Bible, “Beyond the sacred page, we seek Thee, Lord.” Our church is not built on cold, dead print, but upon the living Christ Who reveals Himself in and through the Scriptures.

This Stone, rejected by the Jews (Ps. 118:22), which will one day crush all opposition (Is. 8:14) is the rock of ages where we find sanctuary and safety (Is. 8:14). We sing, “Rock of ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee.” If you do not build your life upon Jesus Christ, then Jesus Christ will be God’s witness against you at the Judgment. He will support you or He will crush you. Make Him your Savior now and He won’t have to be your Judge in eternity.

3. The Building Blocks. In this great spiritual temple we are the individual building blocks. We “are carefully joined together with Christ as parts of a beautiful constantly growing temple for God. . .joined with Him and each other by the Spirit, and are part of this dwelling place of God” (2:21-22, LB). The two ideas here, as in the figure of the church as a “body,” are diversity and unity.

1) Diversity. All different kinds of building materials are used in construction and God’s raw materials for His church are drawn from all kinds of people, with all kinds of talents. We can see this in the church universal, where savage tribesmen and Cambridge graduates worship the same Jesus and feed their souls from the same Bible. But we must go on to see this in the local church and quit trying to make everybody else just like us. Some people praise the Lord by saying, “Praise the Lord!!” Others do it by silently meditating. Neither one is necessarily right or wrong, just different. Some are students, and some are craftsmen, but both serve the Lord.

2) Perversity. The Bible speaks of our “stone hearts.” We must never forget that when God finds us we are cold, dead and indifferent to Him (Eph. 2:1). This is true even of us who grow up in church. We may “believe in God” and even believe all the facts about Jesus, but we are dead as stones until the Holy Spirit gives us life and leads us to accept Jews as Savior and to make Him absolute Lord in our lives. God gets His building materials from the gutters and from the churches and in both cases we are dead in sin until the Spirit gives us life. This means we are all brothers under the blood and because of our common perversity we should have unity.

3) Unity. Christians are not part of a mob or a crowd. We are not just in a group of subjects or one of many members of a family, we are part of an army or team working together to build the Church of God. In our diversity we must have unity as we work together like a team, each doing his job, based upon his spiritual gift (Rom. 12, 1 Cor. 12). On a good football team all kinds of players are needed.

The linemen must have huge size and brute strength but not speed or the ability to catch a football. The wide receiver can be as skinny as a bean pole and weak as an accountant, but he must have blazing speed and the ability to catch a football. As different as daylight and ark, these men need each other and complement each other. Together they make a winning combination. Eleven identical players make a sorry team and so would a church full of identical Christians.

Where do you fit in? Are you one of God’s hand picked stones, lying on the ground unused and covered over with the devil’s dirt? Have you discovered your gift? dedicated your gift? developed your gift? As a subject of God’s Kingdom you have security. As a son or daughter of God’s household you have intimacy. Do you, as a stone in God’s temple, have unity? Are you shoulder to shoulder with your brothers and sisters, using your gift, and helping to build the Kingdom and household of God? A brick lying in the back yard is useless and ugly, but a brick in the right place in a house is a thing of beauty and purpose.

Illustration: Wiersbie tells of the missionary who was preaching in the village marketplace. Being a very homely man he drew some laughter from the crowd. He took this abuse for a while and then said, “It is true that I am not much to look at. I am bald. My teeth are crooked. My face is rough and anything but handsome. But I know this, I have beautiful feet!” Then he quoted Isaiah 52:7, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace. . .who proclaim salvation.” A beautiful Christian is not one all dressed up in Sunday clothes. He may be crudely dressed and may have come out of one of life’s low places but He loves God and serves God with the gifts he has.

4. The Dwelling Place of God. Add all this up and you get God’s temple. One little boy asked another, “What’s that big building over there?” The second little boy said, “Oh, that’s the house where God lives.” The little boy was right and wrong. God does not live in a building. But He does live in the midst of and in the hearts and lives of His people, who are the church.