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Number 99.
Chapter 2.
First three chapters of Ephesians are what God is doing.
And chapters four to six are exhortations and how what we're to be doing.
And quite often when we're together, it's we want something, we call it practical, that tells me how to know the will of the Lord in my life and how to get through today and tomorrow and the next day and so on. But I think we might find our hearts encouraged to spend a little time together thinking about what God is doing. And we it may be an encouragement to our souls as to the practical walk that we live.
Ephesians chapter 2.
And you, as he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins, were in in time past. He walked according to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, and the loss of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.
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And we're by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace you are saved, and have raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches.
Of His grace and His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them.
Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh.
Who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh, made 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, ye who sometimes.
Were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
For He is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances. For to make in Himself of twain, 1 Newman soul making peace, and that he might reconcile both unto God.
In one body, by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.
And came and preached peace to you, which were far off, and to them.
No.
For through Him we both have access by 1 Spirit under the Father.
Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the Saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself.
Being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the buildings fitly framed together, grow us unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit.
This is not a chapter of exhortation. I don't think there's a single exhortation or to us in the first three chapters of the book of Ephesians, the 1St 3 chapters. In chapter one we have God having certain purposes in himself. He didn't consult with us, but even before He created this world, He purposed certain things to come to pass.
According to his perfect and will and love. And so we learn a little bit about them and the OR a lot about them in the first chapter. But those purposes include people.
And they include people in this room.
And.
When God came to take up the people in this room, He didn't find us in a very suitable condition to fit in with what He was doing and purpose to do, and so He had to do work. He didn't say to us, you do the work and then you can fit into my program and my purposes. We do have that side of it elsewhere, but not here, the emphasis here.
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For our blessing is to see what God is doing.
To accomplish what he has purpose to doing and how we fit into it and, uh, what the result is for God and for us. And, uh, it's wonderful. Jim, in the last meeting, uh, brought out the subject of prayer. And in fact, in the first three chapters, there's two prayers of the apostle Paul and the first one in chapter one, he says.
I pray that God will open your eyes to see.
What he's doing.
And what he's doing for you.
In chapter 3, praise again and his prayer has to do with the working of God in US.
And the power of that work in us to accomplish the end result that God of what God is doing. And so this chapter begins, uh, with continuation of what's in the previous chapter, but it's starts out and you who were dead.
That's where we begin in this story, if you will. There's a bunch of dead people, spiritually dead, not physically dead, but God chose not to leave us in a state of spiritual death. But if we were going to.
Be to his glory. And if he was going to accomplish the purpose of his love to the glory of his Son, then we have a place in that plan. And uh, that place required God to do work on us.
And so the position in which we are when he starts the work is, it says here you who were dead.
Thank God He can work with dead things. Most of us aren't capable of working with dead things. We're really we have to begin with something's living or we work with it as dead. They're not having life and we don't change that condition either. But here God wanted to start with us and bring us into this blessing.
Denote separation. Doesn't it end? It's the fact that we're dead in trespasses and sin, naturally speaking, that has separated us from God. And that's why later on in the chapter we'll notice that he speaks of being brought nigh through the work and the blood of of blood of Christ. Because as it says in the Old Testament, your sins have have separated between you and your your God, and we're dead intra in trespasses and sin.
And so death is taken up in different ways in the Scripture. There's physical death, there's the second death for those who reject God's salvation. And here, as we've been, Don has been saying it's in connection with with spiritual death, but it always denotes separation. And in the chapter before, he's brought before us the wonderful position that we've been brought into the relationship, the position seated in heavenly places in Christ, chosen, predestinated, and all these wonderful things.
But he pauses, does he not, to remind us what we were. He told us what we are, what we are by grace, and what we've been brought into by grace in the first chapter. Now he says, lest you forget, lest you forget, I'm going to remind you of what you were. And that as you say, Brother Dawn, this is all a work of the Spirit of God, God himself. And when you and I get to glory in a coming day, we will have nothing to boast in, because I suggest we will realize, perhaps in a way we've never realized before.
Just what has been brought before us that there was nothing that we could do.
We were dead, a dead person. You can talk to the mall day. You can encourage them and admonish them to do something, but they're not going to going to respond. And you and I by the grace of God have had divine life imparted to us so that there was a response and he's going to take that up later on. It's not really that I noticed Dawn when he quoted this first verse. He quoted, I believe more accurately than we have it here. It's not so much in you Hathi quickened here. That's true. We get that later on, but you notice it's in italics added by the translators, the Hathi Quicken. It's just in you who were dead in trespasses and sin fact.
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No, no doubt about it, no disputing this, naturally speaking, dead in trespasses and sin. But then he's going to go on to bring out how that there's been a marvelous work, not of anything to do with us, but of God, to bring us back nigh. We're separated by sin, but we've been made nigh now by the blood of Christ. But, brethren, we never want to forget, do we, what we were.
Because if we understand what we were, it gives us a greater appreciation of what we are. If we understand that we were dead in sins, it's going to give us an appreciation of the work of God to not only impart divine life to us, but to bring us into the enjoyment of salvation and the full standing that we that we have. The minute I think there's something good in myself. The minute I think that there was some response in myself.
And even after we're saved, it's God that works in us, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. But the minute I think it's of myself, I've lost the real sense of the grace of God and the extent of the awesome work that He has accomplished and is accomplishing in each one of us.
Is found in John 10 where it says, umm, I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. Uh, that verse indicates that our real true condition naturally as being born as children of Adam is that we were in the condition of of being in spiritual death. No life towards God at all, but the Lord, the purpose of the Lord's coming.
Into this world was that.
We might have life.
Verse two, I'm just gonna get a little piece out of the new translation, he says, in which he once walked.
That is, he's addressing people who once walked a certain way and now walk a different way. He's addressing, as Jim said, looking back at the condition they had once been in, but he's speaking to them now as the condition that they are in.
I was thinking about it in a little different sense.
And that has to do with the fact that we look at the world today.
And most people would say it's in a mess and it is. We wouldn't deny it isn't. And we look at it and we say it's getting worse. And, uh, so we assume that because it's getting worse that the Lord's not going to let that go on indefinitely. And he will not. And so he's going to bring his judgment upon it and he will in his time.
But we want our eyes open.
To recognize that a tremendous positive work is going on in the world at this moment.
There's a great work going on. It's a work of God, and when we see the results of some question came up.
Maybe lunch time today, I think at the at the dinner table about how many people there would be in heaven and only God knows.
But anybody ask would say, well, it's probably a pretty big number and, uh, that's part of.
This day's work, God. Before this day is over, we can say with confidence, I think that there'll be lots more people added to the collection of those that form the building, which is what brought this chapter to my mind when we sang the opening hymn. View the vast building, see it rise. What a great plan behind it. What a great work In the building seen in this chapter is a building of God, and it's built on the living stone.
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The Lord Jesus Christ and, uh, God's patiently but very efficiently doing a great work in the world today. And we will see when it's all done, how mighty was the work on this day and each day of this period in which we call it the day of God's grace. Because remember, grace is what God's doing.
Man had his 4000 years of his doing and didn't really accomplish anything that's gonna last in his effort. But God has spent the last 2000 years approximately in His doing, and what He's doing is gonna last for eternity and includes our personal and collective, uh, eternal joy. And so there is the time passed.
But also we want to recognize through this chapter there is.
The presence and and the presence of mighty work is going on for God, by God.
We look around us.
And we can see the truth of the latter part of this verse, the spirit that now worketh, and the children of disobedience.
We see the.
Ruined lives, wretched ways of man.
Violence, corruption everywhere and we could be distracted or discouraged by it. The spirit, the spirit that now worketh and the children, disobedience. But I can look around this room.
Let's see a contrast, and that contrast is.
Stated in the third chapter.
Verse 20 Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly, above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in US.
So how does it work in each one of us here?
No, it's not they're not finished products yet, but that it says here he is able to exceedingly abundant above all that we ask or think according to the power works in.
US and we I look at my my brother and I look at myself and see faults that there is a perfection.
Think statements, all inclusive statements here, doesn't he? Because the building material that God had to start with, with each one of us was all the same, dead, rotten through and through. And the Apostle Paul, he was a religious man and you get his credentials, so to speak in Philippians and so on. Pharisee of the Pharisee, upright citizen and so on. Very religious, but he says among whom also we all.
Includes himself. And so it's not a question of a good side of the broad road or a bad side, a dirty side of the Broad Rd. It's not a question of some being almost dead and some dead and some good and some and a spark of divinity in this one and not in that one. No, this is all inclusive. And the apostle Paul includes himself and everyone of the Ephesians that he was writing to.
And so again, we need to realize that. But isn't it beautiful then to turn from that as John has brought before us and to see that the place we've been brought into and the work we that that has brought us positionally before God in Christ is the same in each one of us too. It there's we're all blessed with all spiritual blessings. You don't have any less blessing than the person sitting beside you. I don't have any less blessing than than you have.
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There may be a measure of enjoyment, appreciation of it according to our walk and so on, but everyone here has had the same, who knows Christ has had the same work of grace and has the not only the the same blessings, but the same power and resources for the path of faith here in this world to live for God's glory. Dawn pointed out Paul's prayer for the Saints in the first chapter. He didn't pray that they'd have more power.
What he did pray was that their eyes would be open to see the power that they did have and that they would avail themselves of the resources that they did have. You know, it's interesting, the book of Ephesians, as you go on in the later chapters, as Dawn pointed out, is a very, very practical book. Yes, it begins with these precious doctrines and the posi heavenly position and the blessings we've been brought into. But it's interesting that beginning with the second verse.
There are 7 exhortations in connection with our walk, beginning with the fact that we once walked according to the course of this world. I'll just point them out for your meditation very quickly. But in the 10th verse of this same chapter, the 2nd chapter, he says, For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them. So we walked according to the course of this world at one time.
But that's not what God has for us now in his workmanship. In regard to each one of us, there's a new course.
And again, it's not ourselves, it's all his workmanship if you have any desire.
In your soul to please the Lord, if there's been any walk according to his will in your life. It was all his doing. It's all been his work and, uh, with, in you and with you. But then notice in chapter 4, when we get into the practical side of the epistle, you have the third exhortation in verse one. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation.
Where with your cold. And so he's brought before them their calling in the first three chapters. Now there's a walk that's in keeping with that there we need to walk worthy of that which we have been brought into. And then in verse 17 of chapter 4, this I say therefore, and testify in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their minds. So again.
It's extorting them not to go back and walk the way they once walked and the way others that aren't the Lords.
Still walk and then we have the fifth one in chapter 5 and verse two and walk in love as Christ also loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour. And then just drop down to the eighth verse of chapter 5. For we are for ye were sometimes darkness, but now our light in the Lord walk as children of light. So we're not just a walk in love, but we're to walk as children of light. There's a position we've been brought into and then the 7th 1:00.
Is in verse 15 of chapter 5. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise. And it's a wonderful meditation. You can go back and meditate on that. So it's very, very practical. But as we've been reminded, it all begins with his work for us and in US.
Realize that in this chapter the Lord only spends 3 verses talking about what we were, what what our true condition was. And I think it's good for us to meditate on what our real condition was. Is He doesn't spend much time outlining or instructing us as to the the ruin of of of what we were as children of Adam, but he does take 3 verses in doing it because he wants us to understand.
What we were.
We can't, truly.
Lay hold of God's grace and mercy unless we have a clear understanding of how what we were and what he delivered us from. And so I think that that's really the thought in in in the Lord in the Spirit of God. First of all, recording these very unpleasant.
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Versus that that don't pull any punches, as it were, that lay it right on the line so that we get a clear understanding of how doomed and ruined we were. And it says in verse 2, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world. How did this world begin as it's Speaking of in this verse? It began by man departing from God and deciding he was going to.
Create a system that was, that wouldn't need God, would not need a relationship with God. The only way for man to have a relationship with God is for man to obey God. And very quickly in man's history, he decided he didn't want to obey God. And so he created a system in which he could be satisfied without the requirement of being obedient to God. And So what happened then in the next part of that verse it says.
According to the Prince.
Of the power of the air. Well, when we decide that we don't want to be under God's authority and we do not want to be obedient to God, we immediately become under the authority of Satan. We immediately find ourselves under a very, very.
Umm, powerful influence who? And really, it was man that gave Satan this advantage.
Satan became the Prince and the power of the air because of man's disobedience and departure from God. And so here we are now we we have created a system that doesn't wanna be under God's authority. We find ourselves under the authority of Satan with no, absolutely no ability to be delivered from that condition.
Umm.
The spirit that now worketh and the children of disobedience. There's a spirit and natural man that is that that really is is is the spirit of of, of, of the devil. And what are the results? Disobedience. I I think that we've gotten a good taste of that this week here in Saint Louis at the beginning of the week.
When man was basically given an opportunity that he's not usually he doesn't usually have, and that he is, he can resist.
The Authority.
That usually he has to submit to but under the circumstances that were created that authority was hindered from subduing man's will and so for maybe a night man was able to run free of the authority that usually he has he is he's bound to resulted in all kinds of chaos and.
We see that just a it's a rare glimpse of what happens when the power of Satan is unleashed and and unhindered. It's not a very pretty picture, but really that's the heart that's really seeing the heart of man.
Completely unleashed. It wasn't a very pretty picture. None of us really like to think about what was going on.
The world of flesh and the devil, we have all three of them. In these verses two and three. Already comments have been made about the world and the course of it. A system of things that was just said, that man is set up for himself to live without God.
And secondly, the power of Satan, who is a presently the usurper of God's authority among men in this world, not by right, but he has power over man. And then chapter verse 3, then we have the third one, the flesh in US, and it says we were by nature. What we're looking at is a picture of God that says this is what your nature was.
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And your nature was being controlled by its lusts.
And by the will of the mind and.
And the will of man is for himself, regardless of what God's will is. I want what I want. And that's his will of man. And what I want, I want, whether it's good or bad for me, I want it. He has a nature, We have a nature which is sinful. And so this was the, the condition of man totally under the control of that which was the enemy of man. Uh, Satan's power, the world system.
And the worst enemy of all ourselves, that is the fallen nature within us, that is against us. And so with that backdrop, he then goes to verse four and he says, but God.
Thank God for the **** God.
Otherwise, we wouldn't have anything more to talk about. We wouldn't even bother to be here this afternoon. Uh, except we can. But God, that is. God comes into the picture. We see what we are, but now we're going to see what God is, and that's the source of all our good and blessing.
We have that we.
Should be to the praise of his glory, her first trusted in Christ. That's really.
From among the Jews, isn't it?
And in our first verse of this chapter, you is pretty much the Gentiles.
And verse two, ye more the thought of the Gentiles.
But certainly true of all. But there's three, among whom also we all.
You get God working, don't you? I was thinking of an Acts 15 where we get the.
Coming together.
Over the question of whether to put the Gentiles under law.
For salvation.
The word that could not be settled merely by.
Paul and Silas at.
Antioch.
And the.
Or the apostles.
Uh, which follows an apostle and he was at Antioch.
But they went up to Jerusalem and there we get an, as you might say, sort of like a care meeting, but it's when the assembly acted.
And it was seemed good unto them and the whole church.
But Peter comes up with the.
Verse uh.
18 says Known unto God, are all his works.
From the beginning.
Of the world wherefore my sentences that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God.
That we write unto them that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
And so forth. And it's first.
25.
Seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord.
Verse of.
To send others, send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth, what seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us.
To lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things.
That Ye abstained from meat of her idols.
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And from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication, from which, if you keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fear ye well.
So they.
Were dismissed. They came to Antioch when they had gathered the multitude together they delivered the Epistle, which, when they had read, they rejoiced for the consolation.
But it was really.
The acting of.
The church together, the assembly there.
Sending out that good news. But the fact was they were opposites. The Jew, the Gentile, the Lord Jesus said in John 4, salvation is of the Jews.
And people don't like to admit that God had one source, that salvation came through the Lord Jesus Christ. It's God acting and he's bringing.
Companies together that one thought they were doing all right and the other definitely wasn't. But the really it characterized both dead.
So that's what it says. Verse three, we all.
That is, whether you are a Jew with your privileges and opportunity and social situation, or whether as addressed here to the those in Ephesus, the Gentile. What was true underneath the surface of all the different cha relationships they had even outward relationships to God. It had to be said in verses two and three. We all had our manner of life, our conversation characterized by the flesh.
The world.
Even the Jew at it by the world and.
By the.
Satan behind the working of it all says he said the Jews brought the Lord Jesus to Pilate the Gentile and he had to say the Lord Jesus had to say this is your hour and the power of Satan. Satan was behind the work in the Jew, he was behind the work in the Gentile, unitedly so to bring the Lord Jesus to the cross, to his death.
And so regardless of what our background may be, some of us in this room may have had a very, umm, Christian upbringing and others perhaps not in a Christian home, but what characterized us in our natures was these three things. And so it's in verse four. But God and then it's loved us who's the US loved us who were Jews and loved us who were Gentiles and.
So when it gets to be God's work, man may have had different opportunities, but if there's going to be a good result.
Then it has to go back to the work of God to produce it, and so it's God. Rich in mercy to the Jew, rich in mercy to the Gentile.
By his great love. Great love to the Jew, great love to the Gentile.
Then he says wherein he loved us, us, whether we were whatever our background may have been, religiously or otherwise.
We're all come under the common need of the grace of God to work for our blessing.
I like this verse four about being God who is rich in mercy for his great love or with he loved us.
The the Gentiles, they did not have the exposure to God the way the Jews did. And and so when God sent his Son the Lord Jesus into the world, he made a way for the Jews.
To come to God through the blood of Jesus Christ. But he also extended that to the Gentiles. And I'm glad about that because I'm a Gentile and there would be no other way for me to come into a relationship with God except by Jesus Christ. And so in verse two, it talks about verse one is being dead. Umm, I want to point out some opposites here. Umm, when the mercy and the love of the Lord comes in.
There's a change.
And there's a change to the opposite. And maybe it's not a change, but it's a new a new thing that that comes in. So it says we're dead in trespasses and sins. But you go down to verse five. We who are when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ. And so quicken means we're given life. And so we're dead in our trespasses and sins. We're given life. Those sins are gone.
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We have life, we have eternal life, the life of Christ and then in verse two says wherein in times past ye also walked according to the course of this world. That might be someone who has been deep, it's depraved.
For depraved, we're walking in the in the lowliness, the sinfulness of this world, all that this world has to offer according to the course of this world. So then you go down to verse 6.
And it says he hath raised us up together and made us sit and sit together in heavenly places, in Christ. We're no longer people of this world, we're people of heavenly places, and it's in Christ.
It's nice to see that all of these blessings are in Christ. We're quickened together with Christ. We're made to sit in heavenly places together in Christ Jesus and then back up in verse 2.
We have a we're reporting to the Prince of the power of the air, so that's of Satan. Anything with Satan is diabolical. And so the opposite of The Walking according to the power of the Prince of the air.
There's a change that's come in in verse seven says that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace.
In his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. So there's a change from the power of Satan to the power.
Of the grace of God that's working in US. And that again, is true Jesus Christ.
And then the last part of verse 2.
Says the the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience as Gentiles were dead, were depraved. It's diabolical and it's disobedience. But now you go down to verse 10 and to see the the opposite to change.
The new thing says, For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath ordained, hath before ordained, that we should walk in them. So we are his workmanship now.
Were created unto good works as and as has been said to walk worthy in light and love. We've been created in Christ Jesus. And so I like to see the opposite from what we were to the to what we are now in Christ.
Just say 2 The.
Old Testament placed in the best of circumstances to show really what all of humanity was, was like. It was just a sample, but it was really a reflection of what all humanity was and it left to itself. And so when you read the first few chapters of the book of Romans, you see that all have sinned and there's no difference and and so on. But I was thinking too, in connection with what our brother Tim said of another contrast, and that is.
Satan is the Prince of the power of the air here in this chapter, and we don't want to underestimate the power of Satan. He is a powerful enemy, a powerful foe, and he's opposed to everything that God has set up and established. He's opposed to everything that is of Christ and of of the truth. But isn't it wonderful that in the fourth verse it starts but God now you notice here it's not doesn't say but the Father but God.
Because when it's God, it's the source of power, and there's one who's greater than the power of the enemy, who's brought in something now that super supersedes the power of the enemy. Left to ourselves, we'd still be dead in trespasses and sins. Left to ourselves, we'd still be following the course of this world. Left to ourselves, we'd still be the children of wrath. Perhaps it's feebly illustrated in the Old Testament.
The contrast when the children of Israel were under the power and authority of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, a very graphic picture of Satan and his hosts. But you know, there was another power that was greater, a power that was not only going to redeem them, but was going to deliver them. And when they got got to the Sinai side of the Red Sea and looked back, they rejoiced that there had was one who was more powerful than the enemy.
That powerful enemy sought to to come after them and to drag them back as slaves into Egypt. But by the power of God, Moses lifted up his rod and the sea was split. They went through on dry ground.
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Moses lifted up his rod, and the sea came back, and that powerful enemy was drowned there, and they saw their enemies dead, and they saw them no more.
And so there was a power that was greater than the enemy. And thank God, there's a power greater than the enemy. So it's but God.
And then what God has brought in and do and done, God in his power, God with with his resources, and that has far superseded the Prince of the power of the air.
Operated by the love of God, it says. But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us.
No, mercy is not giving somebody what they really deserve. And sometimes that might be hard for us. We look at it, we we look at a circumstance or an individual and we say, you know, that that person is really earned.
Umm, uh, whatever we feel that umm, is, is a result of what they've done and, and sometimes it's hard to show mercy because that person has earned it. They deserve it, but.
Love is a source that does things because of what it is. It does, it does things God has reached out and brought us into this, this place of life and, and blessing and, and, and good works because of his part of love of who he is. And that's, that's what enabled God to be merciful and not give us what we deserve because.
He is a God of love. And so we might say, well, how can I respond to react in kind as God has responded or reacted towards me? And it's only going to be that we show mercy because of divine love that works within us, that gives us the ability, the ability to not react in ways that people might.
Really deserve to be treated. If I love is a powerful thing and it it's it's it's something that has been given to each one of us because we have a new life and a new nature.
Wonderful change of association and relationship.
We were once children of wrath.
Identified with Satan, identified with the world, and dead toward God.
But what a change of by contrast to us, the Lord Jesus came into this world, and in some respects he was a man alone.
He was not understood completely by a single person. What motivated him? What characterized his life?
Couldn't be understood by natural man.
God worked in the disciples, the true disciples, and gave them a life that they could begin to understand, but at that point they were not intelligent about it. They didn't have the indwelling spirit at that time to give them intelligence. But it's all changed now. If you notice in verse six or verse five, it says we were once dead in sins. Well, we were dead in our sins. Christ was physically dead.
And, uh, what was also mentioned says quickened with him, that is, he was, he died and he was put in the grave. And quickening doesn't mean new birth. That's a different sense, different thought. We won't dwell on that at the moment, but, uh, to be quick and means to be given life when you're in a condition of death. And so he was in the grave.
And on the third day, he was quickened.
He came into life and he's in life forevermore, but it says Christ, and when it says Christ, the thought is generally.
What when it associates us with Christ, It's our place before God in his person. It's the place we occupy with God in him, and we occupy a place of togetherness and oneness with God in him. God looks at us and says, you're one and my son in my eyes. And so we when he was raised from the dead, having accomplished the mighty work that he came to do.
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And he was quickened and brought out of that condition of death and then raised up from it to have his place in chapter one in the glory God says, well, you were dead. But when I raised my son from the dead, you who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ and the the doctrine of that is explained elsewhere, he says you.
I read your in my eyes. You're raised with him too.
And uh, I have brought him up here. Will you come? You're part of it, and you come up here with him and our place before the eye of God this afternoon. We're physically on earth, but as it says here.
To sit down together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. In a spiritual sense, that is our present position that we occupy in Christ before God. And so our association, our company, our place is with him. And what he is before God, he has brought us into that same place of relationship. And not only that, when it's a new creation in Christ Jesus.
He said, well, you, if you're gonna have that place, that position where you need the nature too. So I'm giving you a new life with a new nature. That is the life of Christ. So that you might have, uh, be comfortable in the new position. No longer a child of wrath with the nature of the first Adam, but you now have the nature of the one that you're associated with the life of Christ before God.
In chapter one and verse 19 and 20 then.
Right before we get too far verses two and three, I'd like to draw attention to a couple more contrasts that I find wonderful. In the end of verse two were described as children of disobedience and we.
Don't like disobedience? That is our nature. I That's what we were by nature.
And then I said to verse three, children of wrath. That was our condemnation.
By contrast, we have in chapter 5, verse one.
The King James Version says dear children. The new translation says beloved children, it's not a question of what we are by nature at all. It's the nature of God.
God loved us.
And we're objects of that love. We're beloved children. Well, what about? What about?
Our fitness go down to verse 8.
Ye were sometimes darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as not walk to be, but walk as children of light.
The water condemnation to being a wonderful contrast to being children of wrath. Well, children of light were forbid for his presence.
Time is gone, but it's beautiful to see, isn't it, that not only has he and does he love us with a great love, but there was the power and resources to bring us into a position where we could enjoy that love, bring us into a new standing. How many times has someone stood beside the bed of someone that they really loved and watched their life slip away and not had any ability to do anything about it?
How often have we loved someone so dearly and they're going through a circumstance or a situation?
And our hands are tied, so to speak, we say we don't have the power and resources to to help them. But God not only loved us, but he had the ability to bring in something of himself, something in spite of us and to impart divine life to us, to bless us with all spiritual blessings, to seat us in heavenly places in Christ, to give us a wonderful hope, to give us the resources for the path of faith now and so on. All these things that are brought before us. So it's beautiful. You may love someone very much and not be able to to help them. But here was a love that also was coupled with the ability and power, the desires to.
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Bring in that which would bring a person, Bring us into the full sunshine and good of that love.
We sing 296.
296.