Guest Series | Alive With Christ (July 25, 2021) Jordan Coros

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the Spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

The morning Redemption Church.

It is great, great, great to be with you again this morning.

It's always a great privilege for me to come and be with you to see so many familiar faces and some new ones as well.

And uh love you as a church and as a people.

It is a great blessing for us at Harvest and Barrie to partner with you in the gospel.

And we pray often for you.

We love you, we love your staff.

I love uh Pastor Mike deeply, and it is a great privilege for me to be able to fill the pulpit for him this morning.

And so if you've got a copy of God's word, grab it, open it up to the book of Ephesians, chapter two, which is where we'll find ourselves today.

Now, I am proudly a girl dad.

Uh my wife Emily and I have two daughters, Annie, who is two years old, and Elle, who has just turned five weeks old.

Uh yes, I remembered that, and no, I don't have that written anywhere in my notes.

And uh when Annie started walking, of course, that was a momentous time in our family.

That was a big deal.

And of course, we were overjoyed as a couple, as a family, to see her take her first steps.

Overjoyed very quickly turned into terror as we realized just how dangerous our house is, as everything seems to be in the reach of a toddler.

Now, I don't know about you, but I'm frequently brought to tears when I see videos on social media of those who have been told they would never walk again, take their first steps after months and months and months of therapy.

And then of when, of course, near the end of the lives of the elderly, walking is no longer possible, it grips them and everyone close to them with sadness.

You see, walking is a big deal in our lives.

And it's no wonder that walking is used as a metaphor for the Christian life because there are at times in our lives when walking with Christ is easy.

It feels as if he's right there beside us.

Times of great blessing, of great joy, of great growth.

There's times in our walk with Christ when it seems near impossible for us to take a single step, pushing against the current of sinfulness, of trials of this world.

And then there are times when, whether willfully or not, we are unable to walk in the ways that He has called us to.

Or we are walking in the opposite direction.

You see, walking is a big deal.

And this morning, as we turn to Ephesians chapter 2, we come to a passage of unbelievable and absolutely wonderful gospel truth.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

And we'll ask ourselves the question this morning: where is the evidence that I am walking with Christ?

It's a tough question for us to ask ourselves, but we'll seek to put our relationship with Jesus under the microscope this morning and to deeply consider our walk with the Lord.

So before we come to God's word, let me pray for us and then we will read it together.

Father, we thank you for this morning.

God, we're grateful for the chance to be able to gather together in this way.

Lord, we've sought to worship you, to give you the glory that you rightfully deserve in this place.

And now, Father, as we come to your word, as we crack the book and stare into your very face, we pray, Father, that you would meet with us here.

God, we are a people in need of a word from you.

Lord, the last 16 months have been different for all of us, some coming into this, God, on the other side of great trial, some in the middle of it, some who are experiencing great joy and blessing from you as we seek to walk with you and follow you.

But God, we recognize that your word is living and active, that it is sharper than any two-edged sword, that it is piercing to the division of soul and spirit and joints and marrow, that it is discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart, and all are laid exposed before the one to whom all must give account.

And we pray, Father, that you would work in us this morning.

Change us, Lord, we pray.

Spirit, do a mighty work in our hearts, wherever we may find ourselves this morning, for your glory.

It's in Jesus' precious name we pray these things.

Amen.

Amen.

Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 to 10.

Ephesians 2:1–10

Follow along with me as I read.

These are God's words to us this morning.

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 were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

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 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.

Where's the evidence that I am walking with Christ?

That's the big question that we have in front of us this morning as we seek to look deeply into our lives and consider our own personal walk with Jesus.

And as we seek to answer that big question, I have three additional questions that will help us to analyze where we are truly at.

I hope you'll ask these of yourself.

See this first.

Am I aware of how lost I was?

I'm sure most of us professing believers have an idea of how lost we were before we came to Jesus, but I'd contend this morning that we don't appreciate the extent of how lost we were.

So let's allow God's word to remind us of that.

Check out verse 1 again.

Paul writes, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.

Dead, Paul says.

That's how he describes the pre-Christ state of his readers.

Not physical, literal death, mind you, but spiritual death.

With the condemnation of eternal second death hanging over us.

In the Gospel of Luke, chapter 15, and the parable of the prodigal son, which I'm sure some of you are familiar with.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

Of course, the son runs off and goes to live his life on his own.

And the father calls his son dead.

But when his son returns, the man cries out, this is Luke 15, 24, for this my son was dead and is alive.

Again, he was lost and is found.

You see, death, as Paul mentions here in Ephesians 2, and as the father of the prodigal son mentioned, is this idea of being separated or disconnected.

And in our case, we are spiritually separated from God because of and in our sinfulness.

This is, make no mistake, a hopelessly desperate state of moving closer and closer every single day to complete, irreversible separation from God in hell unless something changes.

We understand that the act of sinning against God is a violation of his commands.

It is a missing the mark that he has set.

And sin, of course, entered the world first through Adam and Eve and was imparted to all who have come after them.

And it causes us to be cast out of fellowship with God, as Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden in Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

See, because of our sins, we have alienated ourselves from God.

We cut the cord.

We jumped ship.

We wandered off and got lost instead of following God and living or walking, as Paul says here, in his ways, free from sin.

We were, verse 2, 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.

First, we see to the course of this world.

In our dead, sinful state, we were following and under the influence of the evil of the present age.

I feel as if I don't need to go into detail as to all the evils that we see in this world today, do I?

Or we know it all too well.

Peer pressures, the ideologies, the systems that are in place in this world, all of these things that can quickly trip us up if we're not careful.

John Bunyan wrote in The Pilgrim's Progress of the Worldly Man, Mr.

Worldly Wise Man is not an ancient relic of the past.

He is everywhere today.

Disguising his heresy and error by proclaiming the gospel of contentment and peace achieved by self-satisfaction and works.

If he mentions Christ, it is not as the Savior who took our place, but as a good example of an exemplary life.

Do we need a good example to save us, or do we need a savior?

Secondly, we see that we gave ourselves to control of the Prince of the Power of the air, which is Satan himself.

That's who Paul is speaking of here.

Satan, of course, who operates in some semblance of control in this world for a time, of course, but for now, he is the puppeteer pulling the strings behind the scenes of this world and of those who are dead in their sins as they are controlled by him, as he operates in the air, Paul says, in the unseen spiritual realm.

He is the spirit that exercises control over the sons of disobedience, over unbelievers who willfully disobey and rebel against God, unwilling to turn to him.

Among whom, Paul says, we all once walked.

And I hope you notice there the difference in persons that Paul is talking about from verse 1 to verse 3.

At the beginning, he starts accusative, pointing the finger at the Ephesians, you were dead.

And here in verse 3, he says that we all once lived as sons and daughters of disobedience.

He's including himself in this.

We all at one point in time held the title of disobedient.

As we were controlled by this world, Satan, its ruler, and finally were controlled by the passions of our flesh.

Before Christ, while we were dead in our sins, it was our own innate sinful desires that held control over us.

Genesis 8.21 says it clearly, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth.

This answers the question: is man inherently good?

No.

Sinfulness is our factory default setting apart from God.

We are slaves to it, unable to escape it on our own.

The image of God that we were created in is broken because of our sin.

It affects every aspect of who we are: heart, mind, body, will, emotions.

And that is what has divided us from God and destined us for an eternity without Him.

Bringing the title of Children of Wrath, like the rest of mankind.

The author William Klein wrote about God's wrath in this way.

He said, Wrath is God's settled stance against sin.

The response demanded when holiness encounters sin and evil.

You see, to be called children of wrath means that we are subject to God's just and deserved punishment against sin, as he is a holy God, perfect and righteous in all that he does, who cannot allow such things to go unpunished.

And that was the reality for many of us.

That possibly is the reality for some in this room.

Without Jesus, we were desperate, depraved, and destined for destruction.

Lost without hope, like the rest of mankind, with absolutely nothing we could do to change that.

This nonsense idea of God helps those who help themselves is completely destroyed here.

In fact, what Paul is saying is God helps those who realize they have no ability to help themselves.

There's nothing we can ever do to change the reality of what our sin brings us.

On our own, we are under the dominion of our sinful desires and the course of this world and Satan's schemes.

And this understanding of just how lost we are.

Or were, but also the reality that we have had no chance of finding our own way back is what helps us to see just how magnificent the gospel is.

And just how completely ridiculous what Jesus Christ did for us is.

What's the evidence that I am walking with Christ?

See this second.

Am I awestruck by what he did to save me?

And we come to verse 4 here in Ephesians 2.

And the greatest single two-word declaration in all of human history.

Look at it there.

Paul says, but God.

Highlight that, underline that, whatever you need to do, make sure you point that out in your Bibles because this in these two words is all of the beauty of the gospel contained.

I was lost in my sin, enslaved to it.

I was desperate for hope.

I was an enemy of God, but God moved to save me.

I was an addict, tearing my family apart, but God.

I grew up in the church, but I thought that I could somehow earn my way to salvation, but God.

By grace you have been saved.

See, the salvation we've received is a move of God's mercy, love, and grace.

And these are movements of his very nature, not because of anything good in us.

In the riches of his mercy, God moves to save the most undeserving of people.

Mercy, we understand, is the staying of God's hand of wrath.

It is us not getting what we do deserve.

And as God is holy, just and truth, so also God is merciful and he acts that way because of who he is.

God is rich in mercy.

The storehouses of his mercy will never run out.

You know, our governments are really good at spending money they don't have, aren't they?

Not the case with God.

He's got the cash flow to back it up.

He's good for it.

There's no mercy debt on the horizon with God.

And he makes that available to you through his son Jesus Christ.

Just as God was compassionate and merciful to the Israelites, his people, over and over again in the Old Testament, even when they failed, even when they didn't hold up their end of the bargain, even when they broke the covenant.

God was merciful.

And so also Jesus is merciful toward those who come to him.

Because in the person and work of Jesus Christ, we see God's richness in mercy personified.

In his incredible book, Gentle and Lowly, Dane Ortland writes, Therefore, when we look at the ministry of Christ in the four gospels, we are seeing what rich in mercy looks like.

How rich in mercy talks, how it conducts itself towards sinners, how it moves towards sufferers.

Jesus not only proved that God is rich in mercy by going to the cross and dying in our place to secure that mercy, but Jesus also shows how God's richness in mercy actually looks and speaks.

Thanks be to God.

See, God has decided to have mercy on you and I and to spare us from his wrath.

The punishment that we rightfully deserved, which flows from his loving heart, as we see here, as he has great love with which to love us.

But not just to deliver us from judgment in mercy, but God also pours out his grace upon us in salvation.

And where mercy and grace differ is mercy is us not getting what we do deserve, and grace is us getting what we don't deserve.

It says pouring out of deliverance on the undeserving, where mercy takes away punishment, grace pours out the blessings.

And our salvation comes to us sola gratia by grace alone, sola christus through Jesus Christ alone, which is what we see Paul go on to summarize, and he's talking about when he's talking about our salvation and what God in his mercy, love, and grace has accomplished for us, and he details that in three ways.

First, that we have been made alive together with Jesus Christ.

You see, Jesus' resurrection from the dead wasn't simply so that he could come back to life and all of the glorious nature of that, but by virtue of his resurrection, we, as those who have received salvation by his death and resurrection, are also made alive, born again along with him.

Once we were dead in our sins, now we have been made alive together with Jesus Christ.

Just as the spiritual death that we lived in was real, so also the life that we find in Christ is real.

And while we still have the vestiges of death attached to us, in that we still struggle against sin here and now, we are made alive together with Christ.

Those sins no longer have any power over us.

The full realization of which comes when we are raised together with him in the last days, and while we await that future, glorious resurrection of our perfected bodies at the end of the age, we understand that our salvation is not just physical, but spiritual.

And we enjoy in the here and now a spiritual resurrection from the dead as we live in the power of the Holy Spirit, which comes to us at the moment of conversion, confirming our salvation and empowering us for the life that we are called to live.

See, to be made alive is the main act of salvation that we receive in Jesus.

And to be made alive with Christ brings the blessings that Paul goes on to detail for us in the two ways that he, the final two ways that he summarizes our salvation.

In that we are raised up with him and seated with him in the heavenly places.

See, in Luke 24, after Jesus is risen from the dead, he appears to many, and then of course we know he ascends to the right hand of the throne of God, which is where he is seated, reigning and ruling even now.

And Stephen details that for us in Acts chapter 4, after chapter 7, as he was full of the Holy Spirit, and he gazed up into heaven, and he saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus sitting there at the right hand of the throne of God.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

And as Jesus rules and reigns over the powers of this world, so also we who have been made alive with him are empowered to share in that power that he has.

The authority that he wields over this world, Satan himself and the power of our sinful flesh.

You see, we today live in this tension between the now and the not yet of what is to come.

And while we eagerly await that second coming of Christ to bring about the fulfillment of all things and the inauguration of the new heaven and the new earth, we are granted newness of life here and now.

And that ought to be a game changer for us.

No longer are we wandering, lost in our sinfulness.

No longer should we be associating ourselves with the ways of death, the former things that we once walked in.

But you've been made alive.

You are raised together with Christ.

Seated with him through what he's accomplished for you.

So why would we continue to wallow in the mud of this world?

Seems that we have a problem, we have no problem choosing heaven over hell.

We have no problem choosing God over Satan, but when it comes to choosing God over this world or God over our flesh, it's a little tougher, isn't it?

So often seeking to have one foot in both worlds instead of living in awe of the salvation that we have received and having that completely transform us in every aspect, we hold on to little pieces of it.

Allowing our flesh to continue to have greater power over us, crawling back to this world and its passions.

Listen, it's awesome and it's necessary.

We can all agree to have things open back up again.

But listen, if you care more about going to the gym or going to have drinks in the patio or going to a Jays game than you do gathering in person with the members of your small group, being here for worship and God's word or hosting believers in your house in your house, I'd be concerned about how much you are living in awe of your salvation.

Verse 7.

So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

You see, Paul gives us here the reason for which God saved us and poured out his mercy in grace.

It is so that in all things, as in all things, his glory might be on full display in the revealing of his grace and kindness.

The end game of all God does is for his glory, and so it should be for us also.

That we may know the love he's shown us, that we may love the salvation we've received, that we may celebrate and stand in awe of all that God has done for us for all of eternity, that we may show his glorious grace that we have received to others, and be examples of his immeasurable kindness because, verse 8, for by grace you have been saved through faith.

And that is not your own doing.

But it is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

See, we've seen it already that salvation comes solus Christus through Christ alone, sola gratia through grace alone.

And as Paul brings up here, this third aspect, sola fide, through faith alone.

Not saved because of our faith.

Let's make that distinction.

There's no amount of works we can do, no accomplishment that we can achieve that could change our status before God.

Our faith is a gift from Him, as our salvation is a gift from Him.

And to receive that gift, one must acknowledge who Jesus is, admitting our sinfulness and our need for a Savior, and understand what He did for us and accept His gift, which, by the way, if you haven't done so yet, you can do right now.

To cry out to Him for the salvation that you need.

The words Paul uses here to describe how we receive salvation should be unbelievable to us.

Salvation comes as a move of God's mercy and love through the power of his grace and kindness, and it is a gift that we receive, and I hope that leaves you in awe of him.

I hope that this isn't something that you hear and are underwhelmed by.

I hope you're not just sitting there thinking, oh, it's just another message on the gospel.

I've heard that a million times.

I hope that this is changing something for you.

The gravity of how our salvation comes to us should be something that we continuously grow in awe in.

As we grow in our understanding of who God is and the reality of what he's done for us, and as we work out our salvation with him, which leads us to this final question.

Where's the evidence that I'm walking with Christ?

Well, am I active in working for him?

Am I active in working for him?

There's a decided past, present, and future nature to this passage and our salvation.

And Paul details that.

We were dead in our sins.

We have been saved by God's mercy, love, and grace.

We live in that salvation every single day.

And then as we get to verse 10, we see this future element.

Take a look down, verse 10, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

See, as those who are new creations through the work that God accomplished in Jesus for us, we are called to be active in doing the work that He has set out for us to do.

This is the narrow path that we are called to walk.

As Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7, verse 14, for the gate is narrow, and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Matthew 7:14

Because salvation is more than just a forgiveness of sins.

God's grace and mercy do not enable you to chart your own course in this life.

Our sovereign God has charted the path for believers in eternity past, and instead of participating in this world or in this flesh, we participate in the works of Christ as his workmanship.

Thanks be to God that he has not only set the course for us, but he has made it possible for us to walk in his ways.

Through the Spirit at work in us, and our role is to live in that spirit every single day, so that we may be able to declare that which we read in Romans 11 36.

For from him and through him and to him are all things.

To him be glory forever.

Amen.

So do you believe that the spirit of Christ in you is stronger than your flesh?

Do you believe that the spirit of Christ alive in you is stronger than the spirit active in this world today?

Are your works lining up with the salvation that you claim?

Are you being refreshed and made new by the fruits of the Spirit?

Are your priorities and passions aligned with Christ Himself?

Are you showing love to all those you are called to show love to, which includes your enemies, by the way?

Are you eradicating the sinful and shameful ways in which you once walked, which God has freed you from?

See, interestingly enough, the religions of the day, as Paul is writing this, had a decidedly reciprocal nature.

Those who worshipped the small g gods back in this time thought that as long as they did what it is they were required to do, the gods would bless them.

The soil would be fertile, the crops would grow, families would expand, etc.

And it's interestingly enough that the prevailing religion of self today has a similar mindset.

Is what I'm doing gonna benefit me?

Is this gonna come back better for me?

Is this gonna get me that promotion?

Is this gonna get me more followers?

Am I gonna have a bigger platform?

Am I gonna have more influence?

See, the message of the gospel is that an all-powerful, holy God gave it all up for you while you were still his enemy.

It's not at all about what you can do for him, so stop believing like it is.

He said this a few years ago at a conference.

We know the scriptures so little.

And if we're really honest, we love the Lord Jesus so little as well, that if someone put us into a room with no distractions and said, I just want you to sit there and think about the Lord Jesus for five minutes, many evangelical Christians in the Western world would find that an enormous trial.

Because we don't know five minutes worth of the Lord Jesus.

And perhaps you're responding right now upon hearing that the same way I did when I heard it.

You're getting your backup.

Of course I know five minutes worth of Jesus.

Are you serious?

But as I considered it more, it stopped me in my tracks.

Considering all that takes up space in my mind, in my conversations, in my heart on any given week, let alone any given day, do I really pay my relationship with Jesus as much mind as I ought to?

Can I be so bold to say that this is something that many, if not all, of us, struggle with?

What evidence does your life show of your walk for Jesus?

When was the last time you truly considered the depth of your desperate nature and how lost you were in sin?

When was the last time that you wept in awe of all that was accomplished for you?

Or have you sat here bored with just another message on the gospel that you've heard a million times before?

Oh Lord, let this never become commonplace for us.

But let it translate into lives that look like yours, Jesus, and actively walk in the ways that He has called us to.

Amen.

Let me pray for us.

Almighty and sovereign God, we thank you for the clarity of your word.

But Lord, we recognize and we admit freely that it is often hard for us to hear.

We are a stubborn and stiff-necked people.

We are people who fail so often to give you what you are due.

We so often seek to live with one foot in this world.

Forgive us, Lord.

Forgive us, Father, for not dwelling on the reality of what you have accomplished for us through Jesus Christ.

Forgive us, Father, for thinking that the gospel is just something that we need to give to those who need it, but we can move on to bigger and better things.

God, would our lives be founded on the truth of the gospel so that when we hear this, Lord, our hearts leap out of our chest in gratitude for you and our lives are actively changed because of it.

God, I pray for everyone who's here in this room and any who are listening online.

I pray, God, that their lives would change today by your spirit.

I pray my life would change, Father, by your spirit through the power of the gospel at work in us.

God, we long to see you face to face.

We long to be in your presence.

So would we live our lives in light of eternity?

We pray.

Thank you for this time, for being long suffering and patient with us.

We thank you, Lord, for your Son Jesus, and it's in his name we pray.

Amen.