"From Death to Life" - Ephesians 2:1-10

Pastor Brian leads us through his next installment in the book of Ephesians

Transcript

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Preaching from Ephesians chapter 2 today, verses 1 through 10. If you would stand in reverence and honor, because this is the word of God. Ephesians 2, 1 through 10. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our tr transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. You may be seated. Brian, please come.

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Oh, what a passage. What a privilege it is to even attempt at being able to rightly, as Mass said, expound or proclaim or expose this truth. Let's pray, Father, we are desperately needy, desperately needy for your grace, even in the understanding, for me in the preaching of this great passage. Father, we ask you that you would be honored, glorified, exalted in this place for what we see here in this passage. That all of our hearts would be transformed into Christ's likeness all the more today. Go before us, we pray, and they shepherd us. Guide us, lead us to see the magnificence of our King and his gospel. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Oh, it is a passage, isn't it? What a passage today. I would venture to say that this is one of, if not the greatest, gospel treatise we see in the entirety of the scriptures. It's one of the most important passages that there are in the entire Word of God. Do you understand this? This is one of those passages that I would say that you can just sit down at a table and enjoy, no matter what table that is. It could be your dining table for a morning gospel reflection before you head out the door. It could be a kitchen table conversation with this passage with a child in your home. As you further explain the gospel with them in their desperate need for Jesus. It could be around the coffee shop table. Many of you have done this as you show someone the beauty of the good news for the first time as you're discipling somebody in the faith. It could also be that small table in the hospital next to the bedside of the loved one as they're on their deathbed. And you open this passage and you just remind that faithful saint of the Lord's grace. Or maybe it's you're showing that person who needs salvation in those last moments of their life. You show them their desperate need for Christ in these verses. No matter the table you're at, this passage is always a wonderful and great go-to for gospel conversations as you see the beauty of the Lord's grace. Some of you have probably memorized this passage, or at least parts of it. Maybe a few of you have, probably verse 8 as a life verse, probably not verse 1, but verse 8 is a life verse due to its rich truth and just absolutely wonderful content. You may live by it and cherish it each day if you think of the Lord's grades and just abounding loving kindness to your soul. God is so wonderfully gracious and abounding in steadfast love. We see that just jumping off of the pages of this scripture. So many passages like this in the Bible that thrill us to the core of who we are. Maybe think of another one. Your life verse, your favorite, your go-to. I hope this is one of them, maybe. As you've read the Bible, you've probably been thrilled to hear many of the authors or some of the authors of the Bible use this kind of phrase that we see here in verse 4. That phrase that says, What? But God. But God. And we should all be thrilled to hear the Bible say that kind of statement because it means that God has done something marvelous. It's a powerful reminder of God's amazing grace that is ours in Jesus Christ. But here's the thing. To truly understand the enormous implications of the boundless grace of God and us being the true benefactors of it, for us to really understand that, but God's statement here in verse 4, what does that necessarily mean for us? There's got to be something that comes before it, right? There has to be bad news first. You see, this passage isn't complete by just stating verse 8 and just hanging everything on it. We need to know why verse 8 is so powerful, so wonderful, so amazing. And don't worry, we're gonna get there in just a few moments. But follow me to verses 1 to 3 first. Let us not just glaze over these verses so we can get to verse 4 or even verse 8. Because here's why. Without verses 1 to 3, verse 8 becomes cheap and meaningless. You may like the sentiment of it, you may stare at its truth, but to truly capture the beauty of the grace of God, we must know the true depth of our sin. Whether you've been to jail, whether you've done horrible things that would make a lifelong criminal blush. Either way, you and I need to wrestle with verses one to three. And wrestle with them thoroughly. Because today you may be a person who thinks you're doing pretty good. You're a good citizen of your country. Maybe you come to the church on a regular basis, you give to the church, you give to the poor, you help people out all the time, you just try to live right and moral. So overall, not bad, right? Verses 1 to 3. According to these verses, before Christ, before Jesus, before salvation, you were, are a lifelong criminal. You are a disobedient child of the evil one. Ooh. How's that sit? That stings, doesn't it? Good. Let it. Because here's the thing: you can't understand or love the grace of God until you've recognized the weight of your sin. Because then grace is a is a is a, we could call it a coffee mug, bumper sticker expression of pride. As you pretend you're good enough. Until you come to see the hideous nature of sin of your rebellion against God. Only then does grace literally change who you are and cause you to worship humbly before the feet of Christ for saving you and snatching you away from the devil's grip. Only then. So we've got to spend some time breaking down Paul's very accurate charge and accusation against us. We've got to do that before we relish in God's amazing grace, and we will. By his grace. So, first point, as you see in your sheet, we're dead in our trespasses and sins, Paul tells us in verse 1. Dead. Paul begins chapter 2 by saying that you were dead. Who's the you here? We've got to figure that out. He isn't speaking of the world at large. He isn't speaking of those who live in the first world with all their intellectualism and their advancements. He isn't speaking of those who are just moral and decent citizens. He is speaking to the church here. Remember, this is a this is a writing a letter to the church in Ephesus, and of course, from then on to others. Now, if he were to simply say you are dead, then all those other categories and groupings would fit well. And so what we find here in this stinging charge is that wonderful, awesome past tense word, we're. What a great word, isn't it? What a wonderful thing to ponder upon. We're dead. So what were we? What were we? What is it that characterizes the whole world outside of Christ currently? Death. Dead. Not dead in the physical sense as of yet. That's not what he's speaking of. He's speaking of being dead in the eternal sense. He's talking about soul death. That's why he says dead in trespasses and sins. Dead in the things that cause eternal death, and what that signifies is rebellion against God's perfect law. And I would say dead is probably the best word picture you could use, right? What do dead things do? As many of you may have heard this before, dead things can't really do anything but stink, right? Here in Grant County, we have a lot of what I call city deer. Those deer that kind of seem to stick close by. They eat the fruit trees and they fill themselves on the rancher's fields. Now, while it's neat to see all the deer on a regular basis, what is the inevitable result of these deer hanging around in our towns? They will come into contact with humans. And it's really not the humans that they have to worry too much about, it's what we drive. If I were to ask a show of hands of how many of you have hit a deer with their vehicle, I think most of you would raise both up high. Right? Well, what happens when you hit a deer? Not just bump one, but when you hit a deer dead on at 65 miles an hour. What happens besides damage to your car and your heart just going wild? The deer doesn't usually fare well. For those of you who live in Prairie City, that's been indicative or it's been proven true over the last couple of days, right outside of town. That deer will lie there as dead as dead can be. And so you pull over to assess the damage and you see the deer that it's been mutilated, and it's obviously dead, and you drag it off to the side of the road and you and you and you go to get back in your car. After that, do you then just look at the deer and expect it to get up and walk away after that? Of course not. It can't. What about after you link your car to the Autobody shop and you get it right home and the next day you're in your other vehicle or a rental car and you come to that spot and you look over and you see it lying there with birds pecking at it? Do you think to yourself, you know, at any moment it should be able to decide to get up and walk away happily? Of course not. Well, here's the thing, that's us before Christ. Dead. Rotting. Not a great depiction, is it? But we're that dead thing that is rotting and decaying and can't do anything about it without Jesus. That's the picture Paul gives of your soul. Earthly alive, but heavenly dead. I don't know. Maybe we're like zombies. Walking around with that weird limp, just looking to attain the pleasure of self as we drag our way through this life, just waiting for eternal death. Dead is dead, no way to do anything about it. Dead things cannot bring themselves to life. And so what we find is our soul, our souls actually stink with the rotting stench of sin. You see, sin is not merely an accident. It's not a mistake, as so many modern Christian songs on the radio say, as they soften the edges of the gospel. Sin is not something we accidentally or incidentally fall into. Sin is a willful choice that we make because we're born with the nature of it. And we inherited that from our father Adam. And so what we know is that dead things can't get up in the morning and decide to become alive. We're unable to do any of that. The only thing we can do is affect the nostrils of those around us. I know. I know. It's not a pretty picture, is it? Gotta remind you, what Paul is painting here is that unless you come to understand this fully, God's grace in saving you and making you alive in Christ, unless you come to understand it fully, I would venture to say it's just merely a tagline on the end of your occasional prayer that gets said when you feel like you need him. If you don't understand why you need grace. Okay. So with that deadness, that zombie-like existence, what did it look like? Were we immune to the evils of the world just waiting to be saved? Or were we actively fighting against God and how we walk through this existence? Look at verse 2. Look at verse 2. We, again meaning Christians, used to, love the past tense, right? Used to walk according to the world. Now think about walking for a moment. Do you ever accidentally walk? Kind of a dumb question, I know. But do you ever find yourself, I don't know, maybe just sitting and watching TV and the next moment you're up and outside down the street in your pajamas? Like, how'd that happen? Now, setting aside sleepwalking or dementia, do you ever just find yourself two blocks down from your house and look around and go, what is going on? I didn't plan on going for a walk. Of course not. You plan to walk, whether it's when you get up in the morning and you head to the bathroom or it's a 6 a.m. morning stroll. Whatever it is, it's intentional, right? So it is with us. When we were soul dead, separated from God, we then willfully and intentionally instead walked according to the course or patterns of the world. It was an accident. But that begs a question: what does Paul mean by world here? In context, Paul is meaning that which is the system or systems of the sinful realm, humanity and its governing systems outside of Christ, both politically and morally. And I want you to think in that of what the world values. What does the world love above all else? What does it love? Self. Right? We've seen that since 6,000 years ago. Self-worship, self-love, self-pleasure. Think of the shows that are currently on your streaming devices or cable. Think of the music that's on the top billboard charts. Think of the latest fashion trend. Think of the latest political systems. Think of the desires and goals that all humans have in this life. Think of our financial goals as a society. I mean, the list is almost endless, and it almost always focuses on the collective social thought of the world, and that is self. That's what Paul is saying here. And in Romans 12, he warns us not to live according to the patterns of that, but to be renewed in our minds. So that's what we walked in, Paul says. So we just loved the world. That's what Paul says. Next, still in verse 2, Paul says this was all in accordance with the evil one. Now this one really hurts, okay? This hits home. What Paul's saying here is that all humans outside of Jesus Christ are not just in cahoots with Satan and how they live and what they worship, but they are his children. That's a gut punch. We were at one time a willing part of Satan's army of spiritually dead earth dwellers that hated and were hateful, as Titus 3 says, hating one another, yet oddly had the same goals. Following the path of sin that is in line with our Father, the devil, to get and do whatever we can do to make our sinful nature happy. You see, Satan is allowed by God to be the ruler, a prince of this world, as is described here. He says the prince of the power of the air. John says in chapter 12 of his gospel, he's a prince of the world. And we who are born in Adam are born with a sin nature bent on rebellion against God, which makes us, Paul says here, sons of disobedience, makes us sons and daughters of his. That's what Paul's telling us. Do you see the weight of sin? When you think evil, you probably automatically go to what, terrorist groups maybe today, or the Nazis of last generation. And you're right to do so. Incredibly evil. But what God's word says is that your sin and mine, our country's sinful practices and structures, are according to the evil one's influence, and I'll say this: his hopes and dreams. The devil has hopes and dreams. And his hopes and dreams come true when we slaughter our babies in abortion. The devil's hopes and dreams are fulfilled when we lie, cheat, steal, lust, and hate. And when we live according to those patterns. How are we doing? We haven't fun yet? You ready for verse four? Almost there. Almost there. But again, to truly understand the magnitude of his mercy, we must first continue to mind the depths of depravity of what he says here. Look at verse 3. It says that we were living in the lust of the flesh. Remember that part about walking with the world? When's the last time you tried to watch TV without having way too much flesh exposed? When's the last time? I don't know, maybe another one is you listen to the radio. You ever listen to the radio on Saturday afternoons? It's really lame. But Saturday afternoons, those talk shows come on and they're all about finances. You guys have heard those, right? I mean, you have the home improvement ones, but a lot of these are about finances. When you listen to those, do they ever tell you to go give your money to the work of God? Do they say you cannot serve two masters? It's either God or money. Is that the propaganda? When's the last time you heard a radio commercial? You see my my uh my distance from society here. So maybe uh a TV commercial, okay? Um and the commercial that says, you know, pray about it. Take some time to really consider if this is wise in the Lord's sight. Before you buy or before you invest in or before you go and do, instead of have it your way. You get the point. This could go on and on like the Sahara Desert. Before Christ, we were bound and therefore chained to the desires that gratify our flesh and our thoughts. And guess what? Marketers have figured it out pretty quickly. If we thought it's gonna please us, then by all means we must do everything we can to get it or do it, even if it hurts others or goes against God's truth. It doesn't matter, we're like three-year-olds. I want it. Lust of the flesh. So that's us. That's us before Christ. Spiritually dead, living for self, walking with the evil one, seeking to gratify only us the world, the flesh, and the devil. Isn't that a powerful trinity of evil? It's so evil that this causes us to be under the righteous wrath of God. And it had to be this way. Sin, willful rebellion, tyrannical transgressions, must be met with unrelenting punishment by a good judge. Now, maybe you're saying to yourselves right now, I know I've sinned, but I do some good too. I've done some good. I'm not as bad as you make me out to be, or as Paul's saying here, I'm overall a good person. I'm a good citizen of my nation, my state, my county. There are those people out there, but that's not me. I know I need Jesus for salvation and stuff, but I'm not that bad. If that's you this morning, I want you to hear this. I'll give you, you may be partly right. You may have done some good things, at least in the eyes of humanity. You may have helped some people out, you may constantly help people out. You may not be like Hitler or bin Laden. But here's the problem with that line of thinking, that line of thinking that you're better than, or at least you're not that bad, besides the fact that mindset actually diminishes God's grace. Here's the thing: whatever you do, whatever you say outside of Christ, whatever you think outside of Christ has at least a hint of original sin in it. Here's what I mean. Since the fall of man in the garden, there is nothing in you that is righteous or perfect or even pure. Therefore, everything you do apart from Christ has the lace of sin through and in it, woven in there. Here's an example. If I were to take all the ingredients for the best cake in the world, obviously a German chocolate cake, and I were to put them in a bowl, okay? And I were to, I mean, that's not even questionable, okay? And I were to begin to mix all of those ingredients together. And while I was doing that, I just grabbed just a pinch, just a pinch of mice poop. Okay? And it was known to have the hontivirus in it. And I mix that into the battery. Is that edible? Would you eat it? Without the Spirit of God residing in us by faith, we can't do a nice thing or say a nice statement without some sort of pride or vainglory mixed in. It's just how it is. Why? Because it's our very nature. It's who we are, Paul says. It's not just what we do. It's who we are outside of Christ. Our depravity. Here's the devastating part. This is why we're spending so much time on this. Our depravity is complete. It is thorough. The curse has been inherited from the garden down. I know it's really hard to hear. But we need to know it. We need to internalize it. We need to know the bad before we get to the good. We must recognize his holiness in light of our sinfulness and acknowledge that our sin is really that bad. And that's why grace is so good. It's why grace is so good. So, with all that said, I want us to just together be overwhelmed with awe as we look at our second point. Christians have been made alive together with Christ. Is that you? Have you been made alive? Have you gone from death, true death, rotting death, to life in Christ? I want to read you something amazing from the Word of God before we get to verse 4. This is helpful in putting what I call a word picture to what we're about to see. Familiar passage, maybe to many of you, Ezekiel chapter 37, verses 1 to 10. This is what the word of the Lord says there. It says, The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley, and it was full of bones. He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and lo, they were very dry. And he said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, you know. And he said to me, Prophesy over the bones and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin, and put breath in you that you may come alive, and you will know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded, and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling. And the bones came together, bone to its bone. And flesh grew on them, and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God, from the four, come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain that they come to life. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet an exceedingly great army. What part did the bones play? Verse 4. But God. But God. Nevertheless, God. However, God, you could, whatever we, despite all that, God, be that as it may, God. Nonetheless. God. Being, look what it says, being rich in mercy. He caused my dry, dusty, decaying, lifeless bones, my very soul to come alive. Because of his great love with which he loved us, because of the incomparable mercy drawn from the treasury of his grace, he took that which is dead, decaying and rotting, and he made me alive. Is that you? And not just alive and existing, but alive, it says, with Christ. God went to the casket. He went to the casket that held our souls. And he just spoke mercy over us in his loving kindness. And we ended up rising up out of the casket of living for the world. And now we're alive with Christ, living for him and his will. And heavenly flesh began to grow upon dead souls. Sinews of joy began to form. You could say cartilage of trust filled in the place of carnal thoughts. Veins of righteous living began to wrap around our souls so as to affect even the mind and the heart. Spinal fluid filled the once dormant spine. And we were just launched to our feet to now walk in newness of life. I don't walk according to that life any longer. Abundant life, life with Christ forever. Is that you? What does your life look like? What are you walking on? What are you walking toward? Look at verse 6. If you're in Christ, the Bible says here that you are already seated with him in the heavenly places. His rich love that has been eternally lavished on us is so thorough, so complete, so marvelous, so wonderful that he says we're already seated with him in heaven. What this means is that your salvation cannot be taken. We're seated in a place that is safe and secure from all alarms, we love to sing, from all dangers, all toils, all snares. Even when we were dead. At the time when we were at our most decayed point in our walk of sin, Christ made. Not helped, not assisted, not came alongside of our effort. He made us alive in him. From the lowest point possible to the highest conceivable, totally bypassing mediocrity or average gifts. We went from running the fiery streets of hell with Satan to now running the streets of gold with Christ and our eternal family. Are you blown away at his kindness yet? Remember verses one to three. And now look at this. For eternity. Try to process that in your finite mind. Try to take time out of the equation from your vocabulary or way of thinking, and try to think that for eternity, our great God will always, perpetually, continually, lovingly show us the richness of his grace. For his glory. Because here's the thing: Jesus Christ sees you, if you're his, he sees us, his bride, his church, as a prized possession. Do you feel like a prized possession? Oftentimes I feel way more like verses 1 to 3. But the Bible tells us we are his prized possession, and so he therefore determines us to continually, eternally, without end in heaven, show us the richness of his grace. I mean, the Father shows us his grace as he opens our eyes to the need for salvation and the beauty and majesty of his son, the King, Jesus. He then shows us grace every day as we are allowed and commanded to live for him and given everything we need for godly living. But that grace and his kindness doesn't simply end when you and I die here on the earth and we go to be with him. The grace of knowing and cherishing Christ is eternal. And so in heaven, he will show us this grace endlessly and boundlessly. Because in heaven Christ will be adored. And it is therefore by his grace that we're able to do that which is now for our greatest good. Death to life. In a casket, in the valley of dry bones, in the grave, in the pit of despair, to eternal and abundant life, to being seated with Christ in safety and sweet joy, raised with him, resurrected to newness of life, transferred, Colossians has transferred to the kingdom of his beloved son, the kingdom of light, no more dark and dank living. What a transaction. What an exchange. What a beautiful thing the cross provides for us humans. Death to life in an instant in a flash. The question is, how? How does this happen? How could this happen? Maybe some of you are asking. Could this really happen for me? I feel as though I can't. I'm so bad. I've done so much wrong. I've caused so much pain around me. Could it be? Could there be hope yet? Enter verse eight. Oh, verse eight. Oft quoted, well loved, divine truth, it is so good to hear every day. It's by grace, my friends. By grace, eternally unmerited favor, sovereign blessings, by deserved, undeserved divine kindness that we are saved. We are freed, we are forgiven, radically transformed into God's adopted children. Oh, I love this verse. Here in this passage, I mean, we've seen so many gospel words being spoken of right here. We have in verse 8 the word faith. As we know, it says it's a gift of God's. And as the author of Hebrews reminds us of, it's what? The assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not yet seen. How do we come to have faith? Well, guess what that is? That's grace. God's eternal blessing. Grace is what saves, and faith is the way in which we receive that grace. It's the vessel, if you will. We also see the word mercy here. We talked about this on Sunday school a little bit, but uh I've heard this before. I love this statement. I've heard it said that mercy is that which slams close the gates of hell before us, and grace is that which opens wide the doors of heaven to us. For by grace you have been saved. Saved from what? Yeah, verses 1 to 3. There's nothing in you and I that can accomplish this. Grace, faith, mercy. They're all gifts of God bought and paid for by who? Jesus. The one who came and lived the life that we could not, he died the death that we deserve, absorbed the wrath of the Father, meant for us, resurrected to newness of life, and now because of his work we get to live in the blessing of knowing Christ forever. Grace. And so now, as verse 9 essentially points us to, what could we possibly boast of in life other than Christ and his cross? I mean, as much as Americans have traditionally loved to boast about, works can't get you to heaven. Okay? Just to be clear. You can't reason enough in your mind to get to heaven. You can't work hard enough with your hands to get into heaven. You can't perform enough good deeds, give enough money, fight enough evil, or bless enough people to even get you close to the gates of heaven. It's all a gift of grace, period, full stop, no arguments otherwise. It's not even a mixture of both. It's either one or the other, and I'm gonna take God at his word and say it's all of his grace. Praise be to God. It brings him glory. If you think works can get you to Jesus in his heaven, then it's as if you're climbing a wall and it's called Babel. Sure, it may have little notches for your feet and your fingers, sure you can climb it with all your might. You may actually eventually reach the top, but guess what? You will then be standing on top of that wall, far short of God, alone, afraid, proud of yourself, but you will have achieved only a great fall when those walls come tumbling down as the Lord so moves, and truly and deep and great is that fall. Remember? We're dead. And so all your works are done in evil before Christ. Remember what Isaiah says? All our works in that life outside of Christ are just filthy rags. Filthy rags done before the sovereign God. It means nothing. It's disgusting. And so it takes his grace, his gifting of forgiveness and salvation to be seated with him eternally. Look at what it says, lest we should boast, because that's what we would do, isn't it? I know I would. I did this. God, aren't you impressed? I deserve it now, don't I, God? You and I can't earn it. We may pretend that we earn things on our own, in our own volitional ability, but even the money you receive, for an example, is owned by him and given to you daily as his grace gift. I want you to picture a scene for me. A father gets a phone call in the middle of the day as he's at work, and he and the call says that his precious daughter has been in a car accident. She's in the hospital and it's critical. Now, what I want you to know is that this father is a doctor who is out of town helping at another hospital that's short-staffed. So, what does he do? He runs to his car, he races home, breaking the speed limit all the way to get to his daughter. He knows that if he can get there, he can just he can definitely help because that's what he does. He's actually a renowned ER doctor who has saved many people just like this. He's got to get there. As he approaches a hospital, his car comes to a screeching halt, he throws it in park, not quite in the parking spot, jumps out, runs in, only to see his wife and other family members with tears and blink looks on their faces, and he knows the look. There are looks of uncertainty, looks of fear and trepidation. So he he makes a dash, he runs through the ER doors, he throws them wide open, he runs to the sink to wash his hands, and as he turns around, another ER doctor meets him and informs him there's nothing you can do. You didn't get here in time to help. They've already saved her life. And she's on the road to recovery. But despite all his effort, despite all his passion, all his attempts to get there, to do what needs to be done to be the savior, not only is he unneeded, his daughter is saved, and he had nothing to do with it. And so his highest hope in that moment has been accomplished, and he did nothing to attain it. That's us. All to him we owe. By grace you have been saved. It's a gift of God's. You cannot add a single work to the mix. If you did, you are condemned. Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. But here's the thing. With all that said, dead to alive by his grace, there's still verse 10, isn't there? How does verse 10 fit in with this? Well, first, before we think of these good deeds or works, I want us to just marvel one more time briefly at God's grace again. This verse begins by stating that you and I, if you're in Christ, are God's workmanship. Think about that for a moment. I know we look at that verse and maybe you think, like, yeah, yeah, I got good works to do, God has given. Great. Do you ever actually ponder that you're God's workmanship if you're a Christian? We are his saved saints, therefore we are God's work of art. We are, in fact, those who are saved, are the pinnacle of his creation. Those who are his children, saved by his grace, you could say we're his magnum opus. And we have the love of the loving Savior's masterful strokes all over the canvas of our newly crafted lives. You ever pondered one of God's creations for a long time? Like maybe you took a leaf of a tree with all its intricacies and just stare at it? Maybe you're as high. Powered binoculars to look at the details of the Strawberry Mountain. Maybe this morning. The snow came down. There's still some green. It's pretty, isn't it? I gotta say, you know, we see that here in Prairie City, and the best time is when it's bright green on the fields and on the base of the mountain and there's snow still on it. Oof. Glistening. It's beautiful. Maybe you love to go to the wagon at night and you see the starry hosts and you just marvel at them. How about when that baby takes its first breath of air outside the womb? You marvel at what God has done. Well, how about when God decides to save a soul and there's new life in Christ? That's the pinnacle of his workmanship. That's his bride. Far more than all of the rest of the awesome creation he made, far more than seeing the biology of plant life, we end up being the master seminal work of creation. But the question remains: what do we do in light of all that? We were dead, made alive, saved by grace through faith, nothing in us can attain that. Now what? Now what? We worship, we live thankful lives, but we also get to work. We have work to do. This actually evidences God's grace in your life. Luther said justification is by faith alone, but not by faith that is alone. I've heard it said, you've probably heard me say this before. I've heard somebody else say this, I don't remember who. Works won't get you to Jesus, but Jesus will get you to work. And so here's the thing: our salvation, our new life, our life with him is so thoroughly equipped, so thoroughly drafted by his grace. I mean, think of the blueprints of this one, that he even designs and creates the opportunities that we have to work for him, and it was all done beforehand. We now have a new walk, no more limp, no more, what are the animal? The chronic wasting disease? We don't have that anymore. No more deadness to our walk. We are now alive with him and for him, and so we walk according to the pattern that he has established for us in his word, and it is for our greatest good by his grace. This must mean that he's given us everything we need to accomplish these works. Think about it, even the right disposition as a person, the right passions, the needed physical abilities, the fervencies that come at the proper time in their proper context, all was done before he formed you. Before he ever knit you together in your mother's womb. What a gift of grace. Remember, James says faith without works is dead. Is your faith a living faith? Or have you stunted your growth by reaching back and clawing for the devil's hand again, wishing you were still of the world? Are you walking side by side with your Savior, dependent on his grace for each thing you do, looking forward for what he has for you on that day with joy? I mean, think about it. If he prepared it for you, then it is yours alone to accomplish. And you've been given everything you need to make it happen. Is that your life? Is it one of worship, service to God, service to his people, your church? Is it one of being his witness, of proclaiming his grace and excellencies to the lost nations, to the lost county we live in? As you dwell on the grace that is yours in Christ, as you recall to mind the realities of the cross, as you sit stunned at the heavenly seat that you now have with Christ, do you then just sit still? Do you sit stirred with trite thankfulness, yet unstirred in action? Then it's proving something according to this passage. It's proving you may not know him. I pray that you cannot simply hear of God's grace without being lifted up in thankfulness so as to then make his name known and his fame spread by how you live and what he gave you to do. And if you're thinking right now you're kind of unsure on what he gave you to do, then it's time to pray. Pray that he would open your eyes to two things. One, very quickly, you don't need to travel the world to work for him in your hometown. Work for him right where you're at. Look, it says you've been given good deeds to do. May not seem like much from our human perspective, but the little things are huge in the kingdom. And two, pray that you would live faithfully. Live faithfully. Because this alone prompts good deeds for his glory. Why can I say that? Because he's already prepared them for you and it's your new nature. And here's the thing: you may be working really hard in your life right now. You may be exhausting yourself in so many areas of life, work, play, volunteering, but I want to tell you that working for the Lord is the only way to truly live. Otherwise, you're just simply not dying as of yet. You want an adrenaline rush? Maybe some of you in here? You want to feel good because you worked hard? Do good works in his name, for his people, before the world. That'll be an adrenaline rush. See the responses you come up with. Brothers and sisters, what I'm saying is bear the fruit in keeping with repentance and his grace. A life that has been transformed by his grace is a life that bears the fruit of salvation by how it goes on living. You were once dead, even though you had earthly life in you, but now by his grace, the master has saved you. He's seated you with Christ in heaven, and he's just simply awaiting your homecoming. What are you going to do with this knowledge and this new worship? Maybe a life of consecrated worship and obedience to what he's called you to do for his glory. What else can the Christian do? When you look at this, what else can we do? When we look and we agree with God that verses 1 to 3 described me. Praise God He's allowed me to do that. What do I do with that? And then I read on from verses four to nine, and I'm just overwhelmed at His grace. What do I do with that? I live faithfully. By his grace. His power. For by grace you've been saved through faith. And that not of yourself is a gift of God. Not as a result of works, so that no one can dust. Who are you today? Are you dead? Are you alive with Christ? Father, I thank you for your word to us this morning. I thank you that you have given us all things for life and godliness. I thank you that you have blessed us with your grace, that you have overwhelmed us with your truth. You have made us alive in Christ. Knowing who we have been, knowing who we can still be on occasion. Father, I just thank you for your mercy, for your love, for your grace. Continue to cause us to live for you before a dying world, a world so desperate to know our Savior. Give us passion, give us boldness to first live for you in light of the grace we've received. And let that spill over to a watching world that needs you. We pray all this in Christ's name.

unknown 52:41

Amen.