Sunday Morning Service

Ephesians 2:1-18

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“Salvation On The Ground Floor” • 8.11.13 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service

Intro.

- In chapter 1, Paul broke into Ephesians with a veritable song of praise, highlighting the kindness and wonder of the Trinity in providing salvation for men.

- God the Father conceived the plan, God the Son carried out the plan and God the Spirit continues the work in believers in time, giving them clarity and confidence.

- In the chapter before us, Paul brings salvation to the human plane where salvation intersects with men. It begins a three part movement that will continue into chapter 3.

- We'll look at the first two pieces this week. We'll look at salvation's implications as

I. God Relates To Man (v.1-10)

II. Man Relates To Man (v.11-18)

Text

I. God Relates To Man (v.1-10)

• Ephesians 2:1-3 : "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 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, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others." : The words "He made alive," are absent in the Greek, as indicated by the italicized text.

- They were provided for us readers, and while it's helpful, it does detract from the sentence, as Paul seeks to establish our condition in time, prior to our acknowledgment of God's salvation.

- We were dead in trespasses and sins. There are two ways to consider the concept of death scripturally. Obviously, there is physical death. In this case, Paul is referring to spiritual death.

- In Genesis 2:17, God told Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in that day, he would surely die and he did. Then he lived for 930 years! Death is separation.

- Before Christ, you and I were spiritually unable to respond to God resulting in an enjoyment of the corroding work of trespasses and sins.

- A trespass is a deliberate challenging of divine boundaries, while the word sins refers to missing the mark, an archer's term for missing the bullseye.

- In life, unregenerate people are either complete rebels or complete failures in terms of relating to God! They are separated from the God who makes life possible!

- But this was the way that you and I repeatedly conducted ourselves! We walked along governed by the course or the age of this world.

- The sense here is that in any age, whatever the fashion of that moment was, we subscribed to it. The world's mottos were your mottos. Their philosophies, your philosophies!

- Even worse, beyond being trapped in the course of the world, you were under the influence of the prince of the power of the air! The chief leader, Satan, once controlled your life!

- "Wait!" you say, "I was never a Satanist!" No, you were not, but understand that if you walked according to the way of the World, you were not submitted to God.

- Satan does not want your worship. He simply wants you not to worship the living God! By not worshipping God, you were falling right into Satan's plan for your life!

- He's doing the same thing today in the lives of those who have refused the Lord's rule in their life! He is leading them toward their own death, separation, and ultimately, their destruction!

- He is working this way now in their life! The sons of disobedience, rebellion, wickedness are being led to further acts of the same! Don't look down on them!

- You and I once acted the same exact way, living for the the desires, the cravings of our flesh.

- The word "conducted" in verse 3 is picturesque and perhaps one that provides a dangerous self-portrait. It speaks of turning oneself toward something, either back or to the side.

- The concept is that you were walking straight toward something and when you saw an opportunity to the left or to the right to engage your flesh, you took it gladly!

- You did it until you fullfilled, or carried out each of those desires to it's fullest. Some of you remember too closely! What we did not know was that we were children of wrath!

- Our fallen, adamic nature leads only toward a road to God's wrath or the punishment that God will rightfully inflict upon those who continually reject Him!

- What a miserable condition! What a horrifying place to be! Sadly there are those who have no idea that this is what they are headed for! We were in their company once, but note the next verse!

• Ephesians 2:4-7 : "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the 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 in Christ Jesus. " : But God. That is such a great interjection, for without God, there would be no interruption!

- We would simply have continued down the corridor of death leading to death until we met our end in all of our sin! But God, who is rich in mercy did something!

- Thankfully, He is rich, abundantly wealthy in the characteristic of mercy or kindness. Mercy is not giving us what our actions deserve and God is marked by this.

- And here is a tremendous consideration for you and I. A Sovereign being can be merciful and still not be affected toward the ones He has been merciful toward.

- But God did this because of His great love for us which He had for us even in the midst of our being dead in trespasses.

- God did not wait for you to respond to Him. He did not love you or I because we loved Him. He loved us before we even knew about Him and His mercy and love worked together to produce life!

- He made us alive together with Christ. This is one word in the original which speaks to seeds springing to life. He infused or endowed us with spiritual power to raise us from death.

- Yes, it's grace, favor that has saved us! You could not have done this for yourself. You could not have affected this change.

- You needed a Savior whose grace, mercy and love was also equipped with the power to bring life!

- When God raised Christ from the dead, it was the beginning of what He would do for all believers in every age! God has taken us from earth bound sinners to heaven bound saints!

- Notice that He has raised us up and He has made us sit together in the heavenly places. What does Paul mean? Certainly we are not living somewhere heavenly are we?

- God has caused a resusitation to take place and has established a place where we can expect to be seated. He has fixed a place for us!

- Today, we can experience that wherever we are physically. We can come aside in prayer and reading, sitting alone and communing with the Lord through His Word.

- He can raise us above our circumstances and let us sit with Him, that wherever we are, there is a heavenly place just around the corner!

- Ultimately, we will be in the heavenly place that is foreshadowed by our individual retreat places now! Someday, we will be in the very house of our God!

- What will take place? In the ages to come, as our perception is tuned to the ebb and flow of eternal life, God will show or demonstrate the great riches of His grace!

- Every moment of our time before God will be pure, unadulterated awe and wonder as He impresses us again and again with fresh expressions of His kindness toward us in Christ!

- If eternity were not endless, there would simply not be enough time for God to reveal just how great He is! That's why we will need a forever relationship!

• Ephesians 2:8-10 : "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,  not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." : There are verses and sections that every Christian should have memorized. This is one of them!

- He will show you all of His favor in heaven because it has been His favor on earth that has changed your life! It's by His grace that you have been saved!

- You have been rescued and made safe! You have been delivered from the enemy, from your sins and even from your self! You are saved right now!

- You are justified in Christ, you are being sanctified by His Holy Spirit and you will be glorified, given a new body which will be perfect for an eternal life with God the Father in Christ!

- You experienced all of this through faith. Faith in Christ was the vehicle that drove you into the garage of His grace! Faith in Christ opened your heart to receive God's grace.

- This brings us to this next phrase: "And that not of yourselves." Certainly, grace is not of ourselves, therefore, salvation is not of ourselves.

- We cannot generate either of those two realities. Only God can decide to be gracious and only He can save. But the rules of grammar dictate that the phrase modifies the last noun or verb.

- In this case, it seems that this refers to the word faith. It is faith that is not of ourselves! "Wait!" you say: "I know that I put faith in God." Yes you did! It is your faith, but it's not from you!

- That faith comes from God and is the faith of the Lord Jesus Himself! He believed and was willing to put His life in the hands of the Father. I would submit that this is what Paul is referring to.

  - That faith is a gift, not an obligation. He gave it to you. You did not earn a thing! Salvation is a gift from God, lest anyone have a moment to brag about their accomplishments.

- All we have is the ability to be thankful in response to what He has given.

- Which brings us to verse 10. We are His workmanship. We are His poem. His masterpiece. His work of art, which expresses His genius to the world.

- He created us, forming and shaping us in Christ Jesus for good works. What are these good works? It's important to understand that they are not works leading to salvation.

- They are works which stem FROM our salvation! These works in one respect, are as unique as you are. They belong in the context that you find yourself.

- Good works will always be reminiscent of what Jesus has done. He touched people that were unlovely. He healed the sick. Comforted the downcast.

- Any and all of these are good works, which are extensions of what Jesus would physically do. Every time you respond to the Lord's Spirit, you are carrying on the good work that Jesus began!

- God prepared them before hand, before we were saved, and we should conduct ourselves in them. Our walk ahead should be strewn with good, responsive and obediently performed works!

- Looking back over this section, salvation's implications from God to man are clear: God saved you from yourself, rescuing you from the path leading to eternal separation from Him.

- He saved you for Himself, that He might reveal to you eternally the kindness and grace that our earthly experience only teases!

- And He saved you so that you could be an expression of Himself to the world, continuing the good work that He began! These are salvation's implications from God to man.

II. Man Relates To Man (v.11-18)

• Ephesians 2:11-13 : "Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands—that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." : Before Christ, the church of Ephesus were simply Gentiles, "the Uncircumcision" according to the Jews.

- This was not derogotory, though the category presumes superiority. The point is that there was a separation. They were named and therefore, excluded, but only on a superficial basis.

- Paul makes that clear by speaking about the circumcision as those who were circumcised merely in their flesh, made not by God, but by a Rabbi's hands!

- When they were in that condition, they were without Christ. This is important to understand: Life is filled with time spent apart from Christ and then, when one responds, a change can occur.

- Nobody on Earth has ever been born into or been a Christian from birth. We are born, as these particular Gentiles, without Christ.

- They were aliens, the word meaning to be estranged, from the rights of being citizens. The Gentiles were foreigners to any dealings that God has made with His people.

- They had no idea of the promises made to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses or David. There is a culture that they did not understand.

- They, and by the same token, you, had no hope before Christ. The unbeliever understands that there is an expectation of fear if they are honest.

- They are without hope and without God, literally "athiests" in the world.

- It's not that God is not in the world if you do not honor Him. You can't make something that exists not exist simply by not believing in it!

- The sense here is that they have no relationship with Him and no resource in Him.

- Yes, He provides their sunshine and rain, but a creature and creator relationship is much different from a Father and son or daughter relationship!

- That is the state of pre-conversion. But now! One who has put their faith in Christ, having been far off, at a great distance away, has been brought near. How? By the blood of Christ!

- There is no relationship with God and no way to traverse the distance between us and Him, except by the blood of His Son Jesus Christ!

- And the Gentiles, who once were way out there, deemed unsalvageable by the Jews, were brought near into Christ!

• Ephesians 2:14-16 : "For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity." : The blood of Christ brought us near. His life keeps us near! He Himself is our peace. Right now, as He presently lives, He is our abiding peace with the Father and each other!

- He has made both Jews and Gentiles one. He unites the two groups into Himself.

- He has broken down or dissolved the partition that stood between the two groups.

- What was the wall? That brings us back to Paul's introduction of the law, which the Gentiles were foreigners to. Jesus abolished the curse of the law which formed the hostility!

- There is a wall in Jerusalem that stood near the court of the men, which warned Gentiles of their impending doom if they dared come near!

- For the Jews, the law firmly separated the two groups and caused great hostility in their relationship to the Gentiles. Jesus became the symbol of that curse.

- He took those laws and the regulations that came from them and loosed them away from this new man, created in Himself! That's how He made peace!

- Jesus fulfilled the law, thereby destroying it's significance as a structure that kept these two parties apart.

- The law remains a tutor that drives the unrepentant unbeliever to the Cross, that they might find justification in Christ. Paul means here that the law no longer divides the two groups!

- Jesus has reconciled them both to God in one body through the cross! Both Jew and Gentile were at odds with the Lord. Both had offended His Holiness. Both are brought back into harmony!

- Any Jewish person and any Gentile person in Christ is brought back to harmony through the body of Christ on the Cross! There is not a Jewish way of salvation and a Gentile way of salvation.

- There is one way to salvation for all! Only through the cross of Christ is a man, woman or child reconciled, brought back into harmony with God! Otherwise, there still remains hostility.

- They could be the nicest people that you know. They could be the most moral, hardest working, most kind individuals on the planet. They are still enemies of God because of their sin!

- "What sin?" The sin of seeking to be justified by any other means save the sovereignly appointed, God approved method, which is to surrender at the foot of the cross of Christ!

• Ephesians 2:17,18 : "And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father." : Jesus came and preached peace to you. How? Through the Apostles, who announced the good news of Christ's resurrection!

- Those who were afar off were the Gentiles and those who were near were the Jews. He is not implying that when it comes to salvation, one is closer than another.

- Rather, the Jews had the covenants, the history and the word of God. By virtue of that body of knowledge, they were closer, but were still enemies.

- But through Jesus we both, both Jew and Gentile alike, have access. We can now approach God by the Spirit of God!

- You might say, "So what?" Believe me the Jews and Gentiles had deep hatred toward one another and Christ brought them together, healed the divide.

- Today in the body of Christ, republicans worship with democrats, blacks worship with whites. Jesus is bigger than any divide we have. Human beings find their peace in Christ!

- There is no divide that He cannot heal. All we need to be is willing to see it closed in Jesus!

Conclusion
- God has brought you near, saved you from yourself, for Himself and to be an expression of Himself! What freedom that gives you! As He is enjoyed and loved, you are raised to greater heights!

- Thank God He has saved you and made a way for the most impossible relationships to be healed in Him because He lives!

- Each of us carry our prejudice and preference, but today, we must surrender them to the Lord who lives to bring people together under His banner for a purpose far greater than themselves.