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Summary

This audio begins with our Worship Choruses

You Were... but God! I’ve stated this before, but ever since I had privilege to go to Haiti several yrs ago, I don’t complain as much about roads in America. And I certainly realize much more how very rich I am compared to many people in the world, in places such as Haiti or San Felipe, MX. Sometimes you don’t appreciate how good you have it until you see how bad it can be. Someone who has known true thirst or hunger can deeply appreciate water & bread. When you remember how bad it was, you can appreciate what you have been given. I think that might have been Paul’s line of thought when he wrote our Eph.2. Theme for 2013: Household of God – understanding that we are the household of God & seeking to understand what it means to be the household of God. We’ve spent time in the book of Ephesians, a major theme of which, is “The purpose of God in Christ for His Church.” Writing to mostly Gentile believers, Paul had laid out for them, in chap1, a virtual smorgasbord of God’s blessings in Christ. Then he prayed for them, asking God the Father to give to them “a spirit of wisdom & revelation in the knowledge of Him,” that God might open the eyes of their hearts to know/get the full meaning of the hope of His calling, the riches of His glorious inheritance, & the immeasurable greatness of His power at work in us” – the same power that raised Christ from the dead, seated Him at His right hand, above all, put all things under His feet & gave Him as Head over all to the Church. In Ephesians 2:1-3, like a masterful musician, having taken his readers to the heights of God’s glorious blessings in Christ, Paul proceeds to take them down into the depths of despair, before lifting them again. We’ll see that repeated in the latter part of chap2. It seems that Paul’s aim was that the Ephesian believers would be able to appreciate the vastness of God’s love and grace, the rich blessings that they had in Christ, so he reminded them of who they were before Christ. It will also always be helpful for us to remember who we were, the desperation of our situation before Christ, that we might fully appreciate what God has done for us in Christ. Pay attention most of all to the 2 antithetical phrases: “You were” & “But God.” Ephesians 2:1-7 [READ] Again, it seems that Paul was reminding the Eph believers just how bad it was – how deep their despair, the utter hopelessness, how impossibly changeless their situation was, so they could truly appreciate the heights to which God had brought them, the magnitude of His love & grace. Consider 1st of all what Paul writes that the Ephesian believers were, understanding that our situation was exactly the same, & if you are not in Christ, if you have not believed/ received Him by faith, & therefore committed your life to Him, then your situation/standing is presently exactly as Paul describes the Ephesians pre-Christ. YOU WERE: 1)Dead in sin. Now, obviously Paul didn’t mean they/we were physically dead, but that they had been spiritually dead, meaning that they were disconnected from God, unable to know or connect w/Him. We were, as Strong’s puts it, “destitute of life that recognizes & is devoted to God,” which was what we were created for. What put us in such a state? Sin – we were dead in trespasses & sins. Trespasses are “lapses or deviation from truth & uprightness” (Strg’s). To trespass is to fall short, as in Rom.3:23 - “All have sinned & fallen short of the glory of God.” To sin means to “miss the mark.” R. C. Sproul, in his book, The Truth of the Cross, states that sin is “cosmic treason,” & defines it in 3 ways: Debt, enmity w/God, & crime, requiring therefore payment of the debt, reconciliation w/God & justice, meaning punishment for the crime. Thus the necessity of the cross & redemption thru Christ. Paul said that we once “walked” in sin. That was the basic direction & regulation of our lives before Christ. In so living our lives in sin, we were 2)Following the course of this world, world meaning “the ungodly multitude, the whole mass of mankind alienated from God & therefore hostile” to Him (Strg’s). Not only unable to connect w/God because spiritually dead, but moving away from God or even against Him. So we were not alone in our rebellion against God, but following a course that is a beaten path, all mankind plodding along on the same ground, going the same way. Everybody wants to be different, but we were & world is like a bunch of lemmings jumping off a cliff. And that’s exactly as our enemy Satan wants it. We were 3)Following Satan to our doom. Paul calls him “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit…now at work in the sons of disobedience.” Tho God is Sovereign over all & He has given Christ, as Head over all, to the Church, yet in this dispensation Satan is the present ruler of this world order, this realm of oxygen breathers. He has a measure of authority & influence which God allows him to have & wield, for a time. And, he has quite a following. To what does his influence lead us? When we were (or if we are) under his influence, we 4)Lived in the passions of our flesh. Here, the word lived is “anastrepho,” meaning “turned upside down, turned hither & thither” (Strg’s). Why would Paul use that word? I think it’s because God made us w/passions & appetites, & gave us wonderful ways of feeding/satisfying them – glorious beauty to satisfy the desires of our eyes, amazing foods to feed our hunger, sexual oneness in marriage to fulfill that longing, etc. But Satan overturns those things & by temptation stirs up those natural passions & then twists them into unnatural ones. He leads us to satisfy our longings in ways God didn’t intend (which means that we miss the blessing of His design for satisfying them, His gifts). And so, before Christ, we were slaves to our own passions/desires, driven by them. Thus we were ever seeking to 5)Carry out the desires of the body & mind. Instead of being led by our connection w/God, instead of going His way, instead of conducting our lives in accord w/Him, we were no more than animals driven by our sensuous nature. I don’t have to tell you that this is indeed the state of the world today. Which brings us to the bottom of this chasm of despair: We were, by nature, Paul wrote, 6)Children of wrath, like the rest of mankind – the wrath being God’s righteous wrath. He would not be just if He did not punish sin – “The wages of sin is death.” There is coming a judgment day when God will pour out His wrath on all who have sinned & are not covered by the work of Christ on the cross – that means everyone who has not believed on Christ & thus surrendered his/her life to Him. That’s who you were! How desperate, hopeless! But then those 2 glorious words: “But God…” Adam talked about “But God” a couple of weeks ago in his message. Whenever we see those words in Scripture, we can rejoice, because the good, gracious answer of God to the dilemma of mankind is about to be revealed. You were dead in sin, but God… You were following the course of this world & Satan himself, but God… You were sons of disobedience, living in the passions of the flesh, carrying out the desires of the body & mind, but God… You were children of wrath, but God… Why has God done anything for us? Because He is 1)Rich in mercy. God is wealthy, abundantly supplied , abounding in mercy – “kindness towards the miserable & afflicted, joined w/a desire to help them…the clemency of God in providing & offering to men salvation by Christ” (Strg’s). And 2)Because of His great love w/which He loved us – even tho there is nothing in us which would move God to love us, yet He has set His love upon us. Because of His mercy & love, 3)Even when we were dead in sin, before we sought Him, God reached to us – Rom.5:8 - God 1)Made us alive together w/Christ. This ties the mercy & love of God for us to the work of Christ. Our life connection w/God is possible only because of the life & death & resurrection of Christ – His substitutionary work on our behalf. As Christ died on the cross, our sin was paid for, saving us from the wrath we deserve, paving the way for life. Our spiritual death died w/Christ on the cross. Then, as Christ was raised from death, all of those in Christ were likewise brought forth to life, as far as God the Father was concerned. Jesus died & rose centuries ago – long before our physical birth; & there must come a time in our lives when we recognize our need, repent of our life of sin, & turn to God thru faith in Christ. Then we begin in a practical sense new life in Christ. But in God’s timeless economy, we were raised when Christ rose from the tomb. God regenerates us & makes possible our faith in Christ. It’s all grace! But that’s not all God has done. He also 2)Raised us up w/Christ, that is, as Christ ascended into heaven, there is a sense in which we did too, & now our life is hidden w/Christ in God, as Paul wrote in Col.3:3. Our salvation, our eternal destiny is secured in Christ. Satan cannot touch our relationship w/God, tho in this world in which he is the present ruler he tries to steal, kill & destroy us & our life in Christ. He lies to us & seeks to get our focus off Christ. But our life is in Christ alone. Also, Paul wrote that God 3)Seated us w/Christ in the heavenly places. Jesus is seated at the Father’s right hand as a triumphant conqueror over sin/death. And we who believe are in Him, & so we are triumphant in Him, we are victors thru Him. No wonder Paul could write, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” No wonder he could write, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” No wonder he could write, “…we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” (Rom.8:1,31,37) That is our position in Christ: dead to sin, raised to new life, saved from wrath, seated w/Christ, justified, forgiven, w/eternal life. I love vs7. God has done all this for us, so that in the coming ages – when His eternal plan has come to fruition, when Jesus has come & the dead are raised & His judgment is meted out & the heavens & earth are destroyed in the fires of hell, when the new heavens & the new earth are brought into being & we begin to live the eternal life we’ve been given w/our Lord… Then our gracious God will show us – display, demonstrate, prove by arguments or acts, manifest – the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. It’s as if God can’t wait to say to us, “Do you see now? See how it all came together? Understand what I did & how I did it? Can you grasp My love for you now? Do you see My glory in it all?” And we will see! We will see that what we thought was immeasurable grace & love is far greater than we could have imagined. 2 thoughts in closing: 1)For those of us who know that we are in Christ – we believe & have received Christ as Savior/Lord; we’ve committed our lives to His control & for His purposes & glory. We need to keep this very truth in focus – we were…but God. If this is true, then I don’t have to be afraid of anything, for God is w/me. I belong to Him. And tho life may be hard here, it’s but a passing vapor, & I can make it thru because God is w/me to help me, to see me thru. I don’t need & mustn’t want to be tied to this world, because this world’s going down & I am w/,in Christ. 2)To those of you who aren’t sure if you’re in Christ or know you’re not, understand again that Paul’s description of believers before they came to faith in Christ is the description of your life w/out Christ now – spiritually dead, enslaved, children of wrath. But that doesn’t have to be – if you will recognize your sin, believe that Jesus died for you & rose again as Lord, repent of your life of sin – living for self, & turn your life over to Christ; if you will call upon the Lord Jesus to save you & claim you – you will be saved; you will know God’s forgiveness, you will start a new life in Christ, & you will have eternal life w/Him. Then you can say, I was…but God…” Then you can become part of the Household of God! We are the Household of God!