But God (Ephesians 2:4-10)

Father in Heaven, we thank you so much for all that you've

given us this day. We thank you for Your holy Word.

And now, as it is read and preached, we pray that it would

fall upon good soil for those who are already in Christ to go

deeper, to understand more fully who we are in you.

For those this day who are here, not yet in the fold, not yet

aware of what it means to be a believer in Jesus.

Oh God, would you open those hearts even this day.

Thank you, Father, for the Holy Spirit, the one who illuminates

these truths, who brings us this resurrection life and

resurrection power. Do this all for your glory and

the good of your people. We pray in the name of Jesus,

Amen. This morning we'll be hearing

from the book of Ephesians, chapter 2, beginning at verse 4.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

Best pray there. And Will Steinbrook are here to

read the passage for us. So come on over.

Ephesians 2. Four through 10 But God, being

rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved

us even when we were dead in our trespasses, 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 coming ages He might show

us the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness toward us

in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved

through faith, and this is not your own doing.

It is the gift of God, not 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, that we should walk in them.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God you may be

seated. Thank you, Best.

Thank you Will. So grateful this morning as we

move into this portion of Ephesians.

We'll be in the same exact text next week, so we will get as far

as we can today and then pick up where we left off.

If you were not here last Sunday, you missed a powerful

sermon on the 1st 3 verses of chapter 2 preached by Rob

Rucker. He set this up encouraging you

to return. You have to come back and why?

Because of the 1st 2 words of Ephesians chapter 2 verse 4.

Ephesians 2:4

But God, these are two very significant words in the gospel.

In fact, Martin Luther or not Martin Luther Martyn Lloyd Jones

says these things about these two words.

These two words in and of themselves in a sense contain

the whole of the gospel. Why would he say that?

Doctor James Montgomery Boyce commenting on this passage,

these two words specifically said this may.

I put it simply, if you understand those two words, but

God, they will save your soul. If you recall them daily and

live by them, they will transform your life completely.

But God, we are in a community that is often referred to as the

Bible Belt. And in this community there are

things that become so normal. Ways of doing discipleship, ways

of participating in the church that can often take us to a

place is not central to what God's Word teaches us.

As we look over the next two weeks at this incredible section

of Ephesians, you're going to hear things that those to whom

this letter was written heard for the first time.

Truth about who God is and who they are saved by God in Christ.

Maybe one helpful way to think of it is going to be this way

every person's life, every person since the fall, every

person's life begins as A1 volume biography.

Or if you prefer, the stage of one act play, there isn't a

second act, not originally From birth to death.

The details of this first volume, this one volume life,

this one volume biography from birth to death, operates

according to what Paul labored to write in Ephesians 2, one to

three. This is true of every person

ever born except for the Messiah.

Listen to what Paul says. And you were dead in the

trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the

course of this world, following the Prince of the power of the

air, the Spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience

among whom we all once lived, in the passions of our flesh,

carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.

And we're by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Every person that's born, has ever born, born, will ever be

born. From the fall of Adam, to the

250 babies that were just born in the last minute, to the

15,000 babies that will be born worldwide.

During this one hour of worship, everyone is born.

And this is the one volume biography.

This is who we are. We are not born sick.

We are not born just immoral. We are not born a little bit

dirty. The temptation for us is to

minimize what Paul is saying, to think of ourselves a little

better than we are. But something happens to those

who come to saving faith in Christ, and that something is

but God. And when that but God takes

place, those who once like everyone else in the world, only

have a one volume biography, they now have a second volume.

And so great is that but God that the first volume,

completely past tense, it is finished, is no longer being

written. But God being rich in mercy

because of the great love with which he loved us even when we

were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with

Christ. And what happens is that's the

beginning of the second volume that is written.

And your life in Christ has been marked by a union with Jesus

that is far greater than what most of us have been disciple

with, far greater in understanding than what most

Bible studies and ministries are like around us here in the Bible

Belt. Here's what I mean.

I was called to serve as the youth pastor of this church in

2003. I had Will Washington's job.

I remember scanning the the the land of where the students went

to school. Lots of students went to

Highland Park High School, but there were many schools

represented, private Christian schools, other private schools,

public schools. I remember coming from Saint

Louis, which is not the Bible Belt, to Dallas, which is

probably the buckle of the Bible Belt.

And I remember learning about how many Christian workers were

pursuing these schools. And I made this statement that I

don't know of any other city where more Christian workers are

pursuing more high school students than anywhere in the

world. We alone as a church had 14 full

time staff people for our youth ministry alone.

And then you take all the other churches and all the other para

churches. And I remember saying frequently

to our elders, I've never seen a place where Christianity looks

more screwed up. And the reason it looks screwed

up was because what the focus was, the focus of Bible studies,

the focus of disciple making was on behavior.

Students centered their accountability around did you do

this? Did you do this?

Did you do this? Or did you not do this?

Did you not do this? Did you not do this?

Behavior matters. It's a sign of fruit.

But what's most important is to focus on the identity of the

person in Christ and understanding more fully the

connection we have with Christ in our union with him.

That then not only motivates us to follow the perfect example of

Christ, but gives us the power, because of our union with Him,

to be the obedient children He's called us to be.

So often our Bible studies are centered on behavior.

Yes, that needs to be talked about, but not first, and not

most frequently. It's our identity.

Paul is writing to a young church that he planted.

Most of us when we came to saving faith, we're rightly told

to get a Bible, or we might have even been given a Bible and we

were told told to read the Gospel of John or maybe the

gospel of Mark. And that's really good and

important advice. But I want to tell you, we get

to these letters like Ephesians too late, and we don't stay in

these letters long enough. Here's what I mean.

When Paul was writing to this church, they had the oral

tradition. They had the ability to tell the

stories of what Christ had done. But as individuals in Ephesus

were coming to faith in Christ, they didn't have New Testaments,

they didn't have gospel, the Gospel of John to hold in their

hand. They had the instruction that

Paul was given them, and the instruction which is so mind

blowing in Ephesians, saturates the understanding that we need

to have about who we are in Christ and what has happened.

When we only focus on behavior, there's not much power.

When we only focus on disciplines, there's not much

power. But when we understand who God

is telling us He is and who we are in Him, then the power to be

the people we're called to be is present.

This is not something that we're just spiritualizing or something

that we're actually even ignoring, which would be easy to

do in this text because the things that Paul is saying are

true of you who are in Christ, true of those who are living the

second volume of their biography or living in the second act of

their play. They're unbelievable.

They are remarkable. They're not something that is

far off one day, a long ways away.

They're the real presence and power of God-given to us now.

John Stott, Speaking of the Christian, says this.

Our biography is written in two volumes.

Remember, this is true of the Christian.

The non Christian only has one volume and that will remain true

as long as they continue to reject Christ.

They will only have one volume, one God, and it's not the Lord

Jesus. They will be bound to sin and

Satan for all eternity. That's their volume.

But God, when one comes to saving faith, they now have a

second volume, a second act, and listen to how Scott describes

it. Our biography is written in two

volumes for Christians. Volume 1 is the story of the old

man, the old self of me before my conversion.

Volume 2 is the story of the new man, the new self of me after I

was made a new creation in Christ.

Volume one of my biography ended with the judicial death of the

old self. I was a Sinner.

I deserved to die. I did die.

I received what I deserved in my substitute, Jesus, with whom I

have become one. That's union.

We're going to hear a lot about that.

Volume 2 of my biography opened with my resurrection.

My old life having finished a new life to God has begun to

today. Are you living in the first

volume? Has the but God become a reality

in your life. If not, listen to what I'm about

to say and if it has already. If you know you're living in

volume to that whole story is also written by a sovereign God.

But we have the privilege of living out that one volume seen

by scene. But Paul is going to tell us

three things that are true of ourselves right now.

These three things are in parallel to what he said at the

beginning of chapter 2. At the beginning of chapter 2,

what did he say? You were dead.

But God, for those who are in Christ, you've been made alive.

He's going to speak about how we are slaves to sin, carried along

by the Prince of the power of the air.

He's going to talk about what it means to ascend with Christ.

Then he's going to talk about what it means for us to be bound

and deserving wrath. And he's going to say we have

been seated with Christ on his throne.

These three things are significant.

Here's why. In order for Paul to convey

these truths found in these few verses, he had to coin 3 brand

new words, taking the Greek prefix sun and adding it to

these verbs. Which is the first one?

Well, let's go back to Ephesians 2, verse 4.

Ephesians 2:4

But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with

which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trans passes,

made us alive together in Christ.

What does Paul mean when he says God being rich in mercy?

This is the most beautiful news. You and I could never count,

even on a given day, how many times we have sinned against the

holy God. The Holy Spirit will bring

things to mind. We can make a list.

I was lustful, I was pride prideful.

I had a quick temper. I did not love as I should have

loved. We can actually keep a score

part card, but it would never be perfect.

But when it comes to God's account of mercy, when it comes

to his statement of mercy, there is no end.

God's mercy will always outnumber your sins.

But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with

which he loved us. We love to talk about God's

love, but most of us, in fact all of us, can only get a

glimpse of how great is love is. Years ago, in our very first

silent retreats, I took our elders, many of them that wanted

to go for four days of silence up to Colorado.

At the end of the time together, the overwhelming theme that

would be presented by each elder was over the four days of being

in the Word of God and nothing else, just the Word in the

Spirit illuminating the text. Every man to a man said I never

knew how much God loved me. And that became the theme that

would be true of almost everyone who participated in those

retreats. God's love for us is perfect.

If He could love you more, He would.

So Paul's telling us that motivated by a desire for mercy,

motivated by this love, these three things happen.

First, he says He made us alive together with Christ.

Look with me at verse 4. But God being rich in mercy

because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we

were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with

Christ. That's the first word Paul

coined. What does it mean?

Well, it means what Paul said it means.

At the beginning of chapter he said, chapter 2, he said, and

you were dead in the trespasses and sins.

Now he says it again in verse 5, even when we were dead in our

trespasses. And I'm telling you, most of you

don't believe him. You don't think you were dead.

You think you were spiritually sick, a little bit immoral, a

little dirty. But when you begin to compare

yourself to other people who are really sick, who are really

dirty, you might say, well, those are the ones who are dead.

That is not what the Bible teaches.

It's not what Paul teaches. And this really matters because

if we don't understand the depth of what Paul is saying, the but

God doesn't really matter. Tim Tinsley, one of our pastors

for many years here, in fact the very first youth pastor ever

hired. He's now in the presence of the

Lord. He loved the movie The Princess

Bride 1987, that great story. Do you remember this scene where

Miracle Max played by Billy Crystal is down deep in the

dungeon and Wesley, the love interest has been brought in and

Billy Crystal as Miracle Max says?

It just so happens that your friend here is only mostly dead.

There is a big difference between mostly dead and all

dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive.

We are not slightly alive spiritually.

Our one volume biography tells us that spiritually we were

fully dead. You and I had no desire for God.

We were God haters. We had no desire for His Word.

We had no desire to pray to Him except maybe when there was an

emergency. The only way we could ever have

spiritual life is if Christ. Breathed life into US.

Commenting on this verse, John Calvin says there is no other

life than that which is breathed into us by Christ, so that we

begin to live only when we are engrafted into him.

That's the language of union, and enjoy the same life with

him. So what Paul is teaching the

Christians, the Saints of emphasis, is this, that your

life in Christ means that like Christ who has been raised,

resurrected, you also have you who were once dead, you have

been made alive. Maybe the the the easiest

picture for us to understand this is Lazarus, John 11.

Lazarus is dead. Not mostly dead.

He's been in the tomb for many days.

The decaying of his body, the lady say, will create a great

odor. The only way that Lazarus can

live again is if God speaks life into him and he does.

Jesus was not waiting outside Lazarus's tomb, waiting for

Lazarus to do something. There's nothing that Lazarus

could do in Christ with a loud voice, says Rise.

Some of you, including me, wish I could have seen that.

I mean, it would have been as made as amazing as if today.

Later in the afternoon, you saw on the news that over on

Northwest Highway at Sparkman Hillcrest, during a graveside

service where an individual who had been in a coffin many days

as being lowered into the ground, suddenly the coffin

opened. They stood up and began to walk.

That's what happened. Some of you find it hard to

believe. It's what our Bible teaches.

It's not just true of Lazarus spiritually, It's true of

everyone who has came to say come to saving faith.

But God hear this, If you're in Christ, you were Lazarus.

You have been brought from death to life, made alive in Christ.

And when that happens, everything changes.

We sing about it. This is the 5th Sunday of

Easter. On Resurrection Sunday we lifted

our voices with these words. So are we now where Christ has

LED, following our exalted head. Made like him, made like Him,

made like him, like him, We rise, ours, the cross, the

grave, the skies. Paul moves in to that ascension

language is he brings the second term he coined.

You see the pattern here of the resurrection of Christ, the

ascension of Christ and then we'll see the reign of Christ

verse 5 again. Even when we were dead in our

trespasses made us alive together with Christ.

By grace you have been saved. We'll spend more time there next

week. Then verse 6.

And raised us up with him. And seated us with him in the

heavenly places in Christ Jesus. What does this mean?

3 words He coined. One, made us live with Christ. 2

And raised us up with him. The ascension of our Lord Jesus

does not get the attention it deserves.

We need to do a better job of focusing on that more often.

Before Christ died, I preached this on Easter in the Gospel of

Matthew. He says all authority on heaven

and earth has been given to me. And then he says, behold, I will

be with you always. What a promise.

This promise was a real promise. It wasn't something that we just

spiritualize. We who are in Christ, who are

now living that second volume, who are now living in that

second act, we have been made alive and we have been raised

with Him. We've been seated with him.

By the way, and this is really important.

Each of those words, though, they speak of our present life

in the second volume, in the second act, all three of them

are in the past tense. They're in the heiress.

That means that these things have already happened.

So if you're in Christ, these are not things that are only out

there for someday. These are the real promises that

God has given us. Now Calvin says the ascension

and sitting in heaven are not yet seen by mortal lies.

And he's right. We don't see it yet.

He writes as if those blessings were presently in our

possession. He states that we have received

them. This is who we are, and this is

what most of us are not focusing on in our Bible studies and in

our devotions in the way we're seeking to make disciples.

Instead, we're running to the behavior.

The behavior must be discussed, but not first, and not most

frequently, because if the behavior isn't there, it has to

do with a misunderstanding of who we are already in Christ.

You and I, living in the second volume, were dead.

That curtain closed the second act open, the first page of the

second volume, the title of that scene.

But God, it's amazing. But what does it mean to be

raised up with him? I'm going to close with this

one. We'll pick up being seated with

him next week. But hang tight.

I didn't say it was done. I want you to hear this.

It's easier to understand. But I've already said we have a

difficult time believing that we were really dead.

We could not breathe one ounce of air spiritually apart from

Christ breathing into us. We did not have one heartbeat

for the Lord. But God changed all that.

He made us alive, fully alive in Him.

But what does he mean if we've been raised up with him and

seated with him, was focused on the Ascension part?

James Montgomery voices it this way, that we have been given as

Christians, as those now living the second volume, the second

act. We have been given a new

environment. We are no longer creatures only

of this world, bound by what we can see, touch and smell and

cure and taste. We are now creatures of the

greater heavenly realm who now because of our union with

Christ, it's a real union. We think and work and speak in

spiritual categories. As Christ ascended into His

rightful place of the realm of glory, we who are sinners saved

by His grace presently share in the ascended glory of God's

Incarnate Son. Where He is, there we are.

How much of that language is making its way into your daily

devotions? How much of that language is

present in your small group Bible studies?

This is the rich stuff for us to talk about because this is who

we are. What has happened is a change in

citizenship. My home is not on Post Drive in

Midway Hollow. Your home is not in Dallas.

Your home is not in Texas. It's not in America.

Your home as a believer living in the second volume, in the

second act of your life is heaven.

And that is a reality that is not only going to be true one

day, it's true now. If you were to give someone like

we used to a business card and the business card had your home

address and your work address. Richard Phillips says your home

address as a St. is heaven earth here.

This this is where you work. That's why we're so often

homesick. We're homesick because we were

created for what is ours in Christ.

Now, yes, we don't know it fully, but already these things

that Paul is saying are true of us.

We have been made alive. We have been raised up with him.

We have been seated with him. If we just spiritualize this or

what most often happens, just ignore it.

We are not living in the power of who Paul tells us we are in

Christ. And that is why Paul prayed at

the end of chapter one that the people in Ephesus and wherever

this letter would circulate all the way to even this Sunday, he

was praying that the eyes of your hearts would be

enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has

called you, What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in

the Saints? Why did he pray for the eyes to

be opened? Because if he doesn't open our

eyes, we will never see, but he does.

And if you are in faith in Christ, he did, but God began

the second volume of your life. There won't be another volume

language in that volume. It is finished.

But a word that we will never say in that volume is the end

for all eternity. What is true that Paul is

preaching? It's true of us now.

Lord Jesus, these are your words.

Your Spirit carried the apostle Paul along to write them.

That even thousands of years later, your church, in which you

are the head, which we are, the body united to you, would be fed

and encouraged to think rightly about who You say you are, what

you say you have done, and what you say about who we are in you.

Father, as we sing now, closing the service, let us think deeply

of the mercies, even this day, that You've given us.

We could count with no great effectiveness our own sins,

though you could know them by exact number.

But we come to a God whose account of mercy is abundant,

overflowing, never withdrawn, all because of your great love

for us. Thank you, Jesus, we pray in

your name, Amen. Please stand.