BUT GOD
EPHESIANS 2:1-4
IN THIS SECOND CHAPTER OF EPHESIANS THE INSPIRED WRITER SETS BEFORE US A MARVELOUS CONSTRAST. IN THE FIRST THREE VERSES HE DESCRIBES OUR WRETCHED STATE APART FROM THE GRACE OF GOD. HE PILES ONE PHRASE UPON ANOTHER TO PICTURE OUR LOST AND UNDONE CONDITION. WE WERE DEAD IN TRESPASSES AND SINS. WE WALKED ACCORDING TO THE COURSE OF THIS WORLD ACCORDING TO THE PRINCE OF THE POWER OF THE AIR. THE SPIRIT THAT NOW WORKETH IN THE CHILDREN OF DISOBEDIENCE.
WE HAD OUR CONVERSATIONS IN THE TIMES PAST IN THE LUST OF THE FLESH. FULFILLING THE DESIRES OF THE FLESH AND THE MIND. WE WERE BY NATURE THE CHILDREN OF WRATH, EVEN AS OTHERS.
NOW,IF THE WRITER HAD STOPPED THERE, IF NO MORE COULD BE SAID, IF WE WERE LEFT SHUT UP IN THOSE DISMAL PHRASES, THEN LIFE WOULD BE BUT ANOTHER NAME FOR DEATH AND EARTH AND THE ANTERROOM TO HELL. BUT VERSE FOUR OPENS WITH TWO WORDS THAT SPELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH, BETWEEN SIN AND SALVATION, BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL....BUT GOD.
SIN WAS BLACK, BUT GOD CAME IN AND GOD IS LIGHT. SATAN WAS POWERFUL, BUT GOD CAME IN, AND GOD IS ALMIGHTY. MAN WAS LOST, BUT GOD CAME IN AND GOD FOUND MAN. MAN WAS UNDER WRATH, BUT GOD CAME IN AND GOD IS LOVE.
THE COURSE OF HISTORY REVOLVES AROUND THESE PRECIOUS WORDS. THERE WAS A DAY WHEN THE WICKEDNESS OF MAN WAS GREAT IN THE EARTH AND EVERY IMAGINATION OF THE THOUGHTS OF HIS HEART WAS ONLY EVIL CONTINUALLY, BUT GOD CHOSE NOAH AND GAVE THE RACE A NEW START.
THERE WAS A DAY WHEN MEN FORGOT GOD AND WALKED BY SIGHT, BUT GOD CALLED ABRAHAM TO SET OUT NOT KNOWING WHITHER HE WENT, LOOKING FOR A CITY WHICH HATH FOUNDATION, WHOSE BUILDER AND MAKER IS GOD. THERE WAS A DAY WHEN THE CHOSEN PEOPLE LANGUISHED UNDER EGYPTIAN BONDAGE, BUT GOD CALLED MOSES TO ENDURE AS SEEING HIM WHO IS INVISIBLE.
THERE WAS A DAY WHEN THE BACK SLIDDING PEOPLE HUNG THEIR HARPS ON WILLOWS IN FOREIGN EXILE. BUT GOD RAISED UP EXEKIEL AND DANIEL. THERE WAS A DAY WHEN IT SEEMED THAT HEAVEN HAD CEASED SPEAKING TO EARTH, BUT GOD RETURNED ON THE BANKS OF THE JORDAN TO THUNDER THROUGH THE VOICE OF JOHN THE BAPTIST.
AND THERE WAS THE DAY OF ALL DAYS WHEN MAN WALLOWED IN SIN WITHOUT A SAVIOR, GROPED IN DARKNESS WITHOUT LIGHT, STRUGGLED IN BONDAGE WITHOUT REDEMPTION, BUT GOD SENT FORTH HIS SON TO LIVE AND DIE AND LIVE AGAIN. THE JUST FOR THE UNJUST, THE SINLESS FOR THE SINNERS, GOD FOR MAN.
EVERY SINCE THAT DAY, NO MATTER HOW LOW THE CLOUDS HAVE HUNG EVERYTHING HAS SEEMED HOPELESS. HISTORY HAS ALWAYS TURNED A CORNER WITH THOSE BLESSED WORDS...BUT GOD.
THERE WAS A DAY WHEN THE EARLY CHURCH SEEMED TO FACE AN INPENETRABLE GENTIL WORLD. BUT GOD STRUCK DOWN A REBEL ON THE DAMASCUS ROAD TO MAKE SAUL OF TAURUS THE SPEARHEAD OF WORLD EVANGELISM.
THERE WAS A TIME WHEN THE BIBLE WAS CHAINED, AND SUPERSTITION TOOK THE PLACE OF THE GOSPEL, BUT GOD CALLED A WYCLIFFE AND TYNDALE TO LOOSEN HIS WORD IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE COMMON PEOPLE. THERE CAME A DAY WHEN ECCLESIASTICISM THREATENED TO CHOKE THE CHURCH AND WHEN IGNORANCE BOUND MILLIONS IN THE CHURCH OF THE LAW. BUT GOD TOUCHED A MISERABLE MONK, WORN OUT WITH TRYING TO EARN HIS OWN SALVATION, AND MARTIN LUTHER ROSE IN THE STRENGTH OF THE LORD TO DECLARE, THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.
AGAIN, THERE CAME A TIME WHEN THE NOTES OF THE FREE GRACE WERE LOST IN AN AGE OF WORLDLINESS AND THE CHURCH HAD LOST THE SPIRIT OF POWER IN THE LAP OF DELIAH, BUT GOD WOKE UP ANOTHER GROPING PREACHER, AND JOHN WESLEY WARMED HIS HEART AT LUTHERS FIRE AND WENT OUT ON HORSE BACK TO CARRY THE GOSPEL TO A NEEDY WORLD.
THERE HAS NEVER BEEN AN AGE SO HELPLESS BUT THAT JUST WHEN IT LOOKED AS THOUGH THE DEVIL HAD HAD THE LAST WORD AND HELL HAD TURNED THE TABLES ON HEAVEN, THE HISTORIAN HAD ALWAYS BEEN ABLE TO TURN A NEW PAGE AND WRITE AT THE TOP, BUT GOD.
AND ALTHOUGH WE LIVE IN THE MIDST OF THE WORLD APOSTASY, THE WORLD’S SATURDAY NIGHT WILL TURN INTO GOD’S GOOD MORNING. FOR IN THAT DARKEST HOUR JUST BEFORE DAY LIGHT EVERYTHING MAY SEEM TO BE LOST, BUT GOD IS COMING IN THE PERSON OF HIS SON, TO RECEIVE FROM THE WORLD HIS OWN.
IN THE DARKEST HOUR, THOSE WHO TRUST IN THE LORD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO TURN FROM DISTRESS TO DIETY AND SAY, ’BUT GOD...WHEN ALL ELSE HAS FAILED, BUT GOD. AS YOU LOOK BACK OVER YOUR LIFE, I AM SURE THAT YOU HAVE OCCASION TO THANK GOD FOR THE UNNUMBERED TIMES WHEN EVERYTHING HAD FAILED, BUT GOD CAME TO THE RESCUE. HEALTH HAD BROKEN, BUT GOD. YOUR FRIENDS HAD DECIEVED YOU, BUT GOD. BUSINESS HAD FAILED, BUT GOD. LOVED ONES HAD PASSED, BUT GOD.
WE REASON AMONG OURSELVES BECAUSE WE HAVE NO BREAD AND FORGET HIM WHO SPREADS A TABLE IN THE WILDERNESS. WE MEASURE THE SITUATION BY THE SIZE OF THE ENEMY AND FORGET TO SAY AS DID KING ASA, ’ LORD IT IS NOTHING WITH THEE TO HELP, WHETHER WITH MANY OR WITH THEM THAT HAVE NO POWER’.
WE DECIDE JUST HOW WE CAN OR CANNOT DO AND BE, AND WE LIMIT IT ALL WITH THE OLD ALIBI, YES, BUT MY CIRCUMSTANCES, WHY NOT PUT IT THE OTHER WAY...YES, BUT GOD. IF GOD BE FOR US, WHO CAN BE AGAINST US?
WHAT IF EVERYBODY HAS FAILED US SO THAT WE MUST SAY WITH PAUL,’ NO MAN STOOD WITH ME, BUT ALL MEN FORSOOK ME’. LET US MOVE ON WITH HIM AND SAY, ’ NOT WITH STANDING, THE LORD STOOD WITH ME’. LET US SAY TO THEM AS DID JOSEPH TO HIS BRETHERN,’ YE THOUGHT EVIL AGAINST ME, BUT GOD MEANT IT FOR GOOD.
SO MANY EXPERIENCES BEGIN WITH THE OLD NEGRO SPIRITUAL, NOBODY KNOWS THE TROUBLE I SEE, BUT ENDS WITH GLORY, GLORY, HALLELUJAH. YOU MAY SEEM TO BE VERY MUCH ALIVE, BUT GOD SAYS YOU ARE DEAD IN TRESPASSES AND SINS.
YOU MAY BE MORAL AND IDEALISTIC, BUT GOD SAYS YOU WALK ACCORDING TO THE COURSE OF THIS WORLD. YOU MAY RECOGNIZE THE FACT OF GOD AND CHRIST, BUT GOD SAYS YOU WALK ACCORDING TO THE PRINCE AND POWER OF THE AIR. THE SPIRIT NOW WORKETH IN THE CHILDREN OF DISOBEDIENCE.
YOU MAY SEEM DECENT AND CLEAN AND RESPECTABLE AND CLAIM TO BE A CHARACTER OF INTREGRITY, BUT IF YOU ARE WITHOUT CHRIST, GOD SAYS YOUR MANNER OF LIFE IS IN THE LUST OF THE FLESH AND MIND. YOU MAY TALK TO THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD AND DENY THE FACT OF HELL AND JUDGEMENT, BUT GOD SAYS YOU ARE A CHILD OF WRATH EVEN AS OTHERS.
BUT THANK GOD THE SCRIPTURE DOES NOT STOP THERE. WRETCHED MAY BE OUR STATE AND HOPELESS YOUR CONDITION, BUT GOD HAS DONE SOMTHING ABOUT IT. BLACK INDEED WAS THE NIGHT OF SIN, BUT GOD SENT HIS SON TO BE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. GRIEVIOUS INDEED WAS OUR BONDAGE OF SIN, BUT GOD SENT HIS SON TO BE OUR DELIVERER.
AWFUL INDEED WAS THE GUILT OF SIN, BUT GOD SENT HIS SON TO BE OUR SUBSTITUTE, SIN HAS ABOUND, BUT GOD HAS SEEN TO IT THAT GRACE DID MUCH MORE ABOUND. AS IF IN SIMPLE FAITH WE TURN FROM SIN TO THIS SAVIOR AND RECEIVE HIM, THEN THE REST OF THIS PRECIOUS PASSAGE BECOMES OUR OWN.
BUT GOD, WHO IS RICH IN MERCY, FOR HIS GREAT LOVE WHEREWITH HE LOVED US, EVEN WHEN WE WERE DEAD IN SINS, HATH QUICKENED US TOGETHER WITH CHRIST, FOR BY GRACE ARE YE SAVED AND HAS RAISED US UP TOGETHER AND MADE US SIT TOGETHER IN HEAVENLY PLACES IN CHRIST JESUS, THAT IN THE AGES TO COME, HE MIGHT SHOW THE EXCEEDING RICHES OF HIS GRACE, IN HIS KINDNESS TOWARD US THROUGH CHRIST JESUS.
NO HUMAN MERIT COULD EARN THIS BLESSING, NO WORKS OF THE FLESH COULD PURCHASE THIS TREASURE, FOR BY GRACE ARE YE SAVED THROUGH FAITH, AND THAT NOT OF YOURSELVES, IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD. HOW TO BE BLESSED IS TO BE ABLE TO SAY...ONCE I WAS BLIND, BUT GOD TOUCHED ME. ONCE I WAS LOST...BUT GOD FOUND ME. ONCE I WAS UNDER WRATH...BUT GOD LOVED ME. ONCE I WAS UNDER GUILT...BUT GOD FORGAVE ME. ONCE I WAS DEAD...BUT GOD GAVE ME LIFE.
ONCE I WALKED ACCORDING TO THE COURSE OF THIS WORLD, BUT GOD TURNED ME AROUND AND NOW I WALK AS HE WALKED. ONCE I WALKED ACCORDING TO THE PRINCE OF THE POWER OF THE AIR, BUT GOD STOPPED ME AND NOW I FOLLOW THE PRINCE OF PEACE.
ONCE I HAD MY MANNER OF LIFE IN THE LUST OF THE FLESH AND MIND,...BUT GOD GAVE ME A NEW LIFE, AND CHRIST LIVETH IN ME. ONCE I WERE BY NATURE THE CHILD OF WRATH, BUT GOD HAD BEGOTTEN ME INTO THE FAMILY OF LOVE. BUT GOD.
