The Product Of God’s Love-2

The PRODUCT OF GOD's LOVE[In The Aftermath of Mercy]-II—Ephesians 2:1-10

After ‘Dodging a Bullet’

Attention:

Law Enforcement Officers:

Many of them come face-to-face with death every day.

But how does that encounter effect their daily lives?

Do they stop enforcing the law?...NO! Rather, their lives are of secondary importance to their ministry as law enforcement! They continue undeterred.

Also, Law Enforcement train daily in preparation for such encounters. Otherwise they would be devastated in trying situations.

Likewise, Christians(officers of Christ Jesus) secondarily consider their own physical lives. Likewise, God’s people do not stop being servants of Christ when faced with death. Likewise they spend their entire lives ‘training’ in preparation for such encounters....

And as a result do not lose their effectiveness by retreating into themselves but maintain it by retreating into Christ Jesus Himself as the Rock of their Salvation!

Need:

Christians wrestle with death & life on a daily basis.

But what is the result of such confrontation? What happens in our hearts when faced with life or death decisions?

Do you look at life differently after being freed from death? Does life in Christ take on new meaning as we come face-to-face with physical & spiritual death & loss?

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The apostle Paul explained that the Ephesian Christians were saved because God loves.

Man’s Salvation is the Product of God’s Love.

OR...

Salvation is available because God loves.

What does salvation of God’s love produce?

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Earlier we found that The Product of God’s Love is...

1. The CURE For DEADNESS(:1)

2—The Product of God’s Love is...

The CURE For A WAYWARD WALK(:2-3)

Explanation:(:2-3)

:2—“in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,”

For Christians, our former deadness in trespasses & sins(:1) manifested itself plainly in our life before Christ. As a result, at that time(without Christ) we walked “according” to” “the course”(‘the spirit of the age’) or way that “the world” determined.

1Cor. 2:12-14—“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

The “course/age/way of this world” is not to be taken lightly or nonchalantly. This is particularly so because the world’s way is that which is determined “according to” the devil himself!

Like “the air” itself, the devil’s way is a constant. It surrounds us. It is ever influential & available in this world. Thus the devil is considered to wield “power.” He is “the prince” of that “power” or authority. Of course he is only allowed that authority by God & only for a short time, knowing that even the devil’s limited authority will ‘ultimately’ in the end, accomplish God’s work. It’s not that God ‘approves’ of the devil’s workings.

Rev. 12:12—“Therefore rejoice, O heavens, & you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth & the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”

2Cor. 4:16-18—“Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding & eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Heb. 10:36-39—“For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: “For yet a little while, And He who is coming will come & will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.”

The “spirit” of “the world” & the spirit of “the prince of the power of the air” are one & the same. Thus the devil is that very “spirit who” even “now”—at Paul’s writing—is at “work.” That “spirit”(the devil himself) & that “spirit” which coincides with & flows from him, is the self-same “spirit” which operates “in” those very people who stubbornly abide in direct “disobedience” to God & His way.