Thank you very much, Alistair. Good morning, everyone. Good morning here in the hall and good morning to you watching from home or from wherever you may be.
It's a joy to be with you this morning. And please do keep your Bibles open at that passage that Alistair just read to us there in Ephesians chapter 2.
One of the additional, possibly unrecognized physical manifestations of COVID is going to be larger ears.
We're all going to end up with cauliflower ears with these masks that we're having to wear.
I'm very conscious of the fact that my ears are coming out like that.
My wife actually said that she quite prefers the mask.
She thinks it brings its own air of mystique and it might be a bit of an improvement me wearing a mask,
but it's definitely having an impact on the lugs. They're getting larger the more I wear the mask.
So that's probably in years to come. They're going to do studies into this.
Either our hearing will be improved or dissipated through it. Certainly it doesn't improve the looks, I don't think.
But there we are. I get to take mine off. You're stuck with yours for a little while longer.
But of course, there is a serious side to where we are at the moment.
The government's around the United Kingdom today worrying about the possibility of another COVID spike.
But I think we need to issue another health warning, a more serious one this morning.
There is the potential of there being a spiritual pandemic that has come as a result of the physical pandemic.
There is something that seems to be affecting those who appear to be committed Christians.
And this is impacting, it's not killing them physically, it's not affecting them physically,
but it might be doing significant spiritual damage.
I've heard from pastors all over the UK and even some further flung places around the world
who tell me that some of their church family are not in a big hurry to return again to physical assembly,
to being together, even with the restrictions that we have at the moment.
They're just a sort of a deterioration in the desire of people to get there.
And it's not for the reasons we might expect.
It's not for the kind of good reasons that there might be those in a certain age group
or with some form of compromised health that might make it more dangerous and difficult for them to gather,
although amazingly every provision is made to make this safer than almost anything.
But it's not for any of these reasons.
It's because, and I know nothing about your own situation.
Nobody has told me anything about your situation.
So I'm not trying to be smart when I say this.
I'm just telling you about an observation I'm making around the country and around the world.
It's because that in a relatively short period, when we weren't able physically to gather,
for some of our brothers and sisters, the Sunday habit has been displaced by other habits.
And those in spiritual danger now would say, actually, they prefer just to watch online from home.
It's a lot less hassle than having to get the family ready and get down to the hall and get a parking place
and get them in and get them marshalled and get them to keep their masks on and all that kind of stuff.
They report that they're enjoying a huge time saving because they can budget for maybe an hour or just less than an hour
for viewing an online meeting.
And they might not even do it on Sunday.
They might bank it and do it some night lying in bed on the iPad before they fall asleep.
So that ticks the box without them having to get on with all that's involved in being with the people of God.
And it frees them up to do other things.
They suddenly realize they have a whole extra day in their week that they didn't used to have on a conventional Christian Sunday.
And they can get so much more done or they can just have a pajama day.
Now who doesn't like a pajama day?
And I would admit I've had to catch myself on with this myself.
I certainly found that I missed being with my church family during lockdown.
But it was amazing how attractive on a Saturday the thought of a leisurely breakfast on a Sunday morning was.
And the fact that we were having our lunch at half past one instead of three o'clock.
It really was lovely.
And of course there's nothing wrong with enjoying the upside of that very weird season we went through during the peak of lockdown this year.
But brothers and sisters what's happening is that with some in the church families and it might be you and it might be me and it might be people in my church family and it might be people in your church family.
What is happening to some in our church families the world over is that the Lord Jesus and his day and his word and his family are being devalued.
And that's happening because of a sight problem.
That's happening because we're losing sight of the wonder of the Lord Jesus.
We're losing sight of the Lord and what he's done for us historically and what he's doing in us as his people, his church in the present day.
The word is being choked and making it unfruitful because other desires are coming in.
Where it once seemed to have been bearing fruit in our lives.
Now the good news is that none of this takes the Lord Jesus by surprise.
He warns us about this doesn't he?
In the passage I've just quoted to you about other things coming in, other desires choking the word and making it unfruitful.
He warns us for example in Mark chapter 4.
Or he warns us in Matthew chapter 24 verse 12 that because of lawlessness, the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold.
So he pleads with his people.
He reaches out to his people.
He says be warned about this.
Be warned about your love growing cold.
And I don't think Paul would be at all surprised to know that it's possible for Christians who know and love the Lord to begin to lose sight of the Lord and lose sight of what he's done for us.
A sight that dominates our lives.
And lose sight of what he is doing among us.
A sight that ought to order our lives.
I don't think Paul would be surprised that that is beginning to happen.
Because he prays for his readers in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 16.
Have a look at it with me.
He says I don't cease to give thanks for you.
Remembering you my prayers.
And here's what he prays.
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom.
Oh that he would make us wise.
And revelation in the knowledge of him.
That you'd increasingly know him.
Verse 18.
Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened.
In other words, having the eyes of your hearts with their cataracts removed so that the light, the truth, the reality of the Lord Jesus and his gospel floods your life.
The lamp of the body is the eye.
Your heart has eyes.
It sees.
It assesses.
It appreciates.
It longs for.
And here's Paul praying that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened.
That we would know the hope to which he has called us.
And the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.
And the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe.
See when the eyes of our hearts have cataracts removed.
And see to focus again on ultimate reality like that.
When our eyes are open to see the endless hope.
And the glorious wealth.
And the immeasurable power that belongs to our God.
And that he deploys for his church.
Then nothing else in the world takes the place of that treasure in our lives.
And we're safe again.
We're safe again.
Nothing else comes in to displace his lordship.
And it is so that our eyes can be freshly and constantly enlightened.
That Paul then goes on in the chapter that we are looking at today.
In chapter 2.
To show us the very things that we so easily.
And so disastrously potentially lose sight of.
So that's what we're looking at today.
The first 10 verses of chapter 2.
And that's why we're looking at it.
We're sitting in behind Paul.
He was praying for the Ephesians.
That their eyes would be illumined.
That their eyes would be enlightened.
That light would flood into the eyes of their hearts.
And it would change them again.
And that's what I want for myself.
And that's why we're looking at this today.
Now how are we going to tackle it?
Well twice in these verses.
Once in verse 5.
Once in verse 8.
Paul writes the phrase.
By grace you have been saved.
So let's pray that the eyes of our hearts will be freshly enlightened.
As we think about what this means to be saved by grace.
And there are three main things I want to draw your attention to this morning.
Number one.
Why we need saved.
Number two.
How we are saved.
And number three.
Why we are saved.
So let's look at the first of these together.
Why we need saved.
So you might be a Christian listening to this.
Many of you are I'm sure.
You might not be a Christian listening to this.
So why do we need saved?
Why this talk in the Bible?
Well there are three answers.
In this passage at the beginning of chapter 2.
The first of them is this.
We need saved because number one.
We were dead.
Chapter 2 verse 1.
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you used to walk.
I'm using ESV.
I know you read from NIV.
Transgressions.
Trespasses.
We'll come to that in a moment.
But here's the big idea.
Why do we need saved?
Because we were dead.
Now we talk about dead in an unusual way, don't we?
We sometimes go.
You may have been to a restaurant during lockdown when the restrictions lifted.
And had a nice meal.
Maybe paid half price for it.
And then next day you're talking to someone on the phone or on yet another Zoom call.
And they say, did you go to that restaurant last night?
And you say, yeah.
And did you have a good time?
Yeah.
And what was it like?
Well it was a bit dead.
It was a bit dead.
Now a restaurant can be a bit dead.
A bit quiet maybe.
That's what we mean by that.
But a person can't be a bit dead.
The doctor doesn't go to the bedside and do what he does and then say, well he's a bit dead.
Paul says, you were dead.
Not just a bit dead.
You were dead.
Not poorly.
Not, you know, spiritually struggling a little bit.
No, dead.
Not could be better.
No, dead.
Not suboptimal.
No, dead.
We had no knowledge of our spiritual condition and no concern for our spiritual condition and no power to improve our spiritual condition.
We were dead.
That's why we needed saved.
Now this is spiritual death, not physical death.
It's death to God.
Just no link there at all.
No connection at all.
Just as if he doesn't exist.
As though we exist totally without him.
Dead to him.
Dead to all that he is to us and all that he's done for us.
Dead.
And this condition of spiritual death, it does point to us being inactive and unresponsive towards God.
But it points beyond that.
It points us downright towards us being downright offensive to God.
We were dead in our trespasses or transgressions in the NIV and sins.
Trespasses.
Transgression is when we deliberately cross a set of boundaries.
I remember as a young boy, my mom and dad taking us on holiday down to that beautiful town in the Thames, Henley.
And as we walked along the banks of the River Thames, just a few days after the regatta, if I remember rightly, and the schools were still in.
That was always a big treat for me being in holiday in England when the schools were still on, when I was running about enjoying the freedom of that.
And we saw a guy in a school uniform sitting under a tree.
And we got talking to him and my dad said to him, is this part of the school grounds?
And he said, no, no, I'm out of bounds.
He said it in a much more posh voice than that.
But he said, no, I'm out of bounds.
And I thought, age seven, I thought, oh, I can't wait to go back to school and go out of bounds.
That sounds really, really cool.
Made it sound attractive to me.
But the whole of humanity is out of bounds.
Since the Garden of Eden.
That's what transgression is.
That's what trespass is.
And sin is not quite the same.
So there is an active part of this and there is an inactive part of this.
And the inactive part is this idea that we just fall short of the mark.
That God has said, this is how you should live.
And we just always fall short of it.
So these two things, transgressions, trespasses, and sins, point to the activity that comes with this spiritual death.
That's why we needed saved.
Number one, we were dead.
Number two, we were duped.
Still in verse two, here we are.
Dead in the trespasses and sins of which we once walked, following the course of this world,
following the prince of the power of the air.
The spirit that's 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.
Now have a look at this with me.
Because if our deadness was just described by verse three,
we might get the impression that we were at least enjoying our existence.
At least we were enjoying our complete independence of thought and action.
We were really doing what we wanted to do.
We were dead to God, took everything he had to give us and ignored him.
But at least we were carrying out all our passions.
Everything that we desired in the body and mind, we just did.
If that was the only description of what it was like to be a dead person walking,
spiritually speaking, then we might get the impression,
well, at least there was some real liberty there.
And of course, that's a huge attraction to people in not being a Christian.
One of the reasons our friends that we're trying to reach with the gospel
are very suspicious and don't want to get too close to this is
they think they'll lose this amazing freedom they have.
But it's a complete illusion.
We are, verse two, following the course of this world.
Following.
Just zoning in on it.
Following the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.
People who celebrate and cherish their apparent freedom
from having to love and serve God
are blinded to the reality that they're actually,
according to verse two,
they're actually enslaved followers
of demonic spiritual currents in the world.
Whether they realize it or not,
they're just like,
they're just following the current of the river
in the way that dead fish follows the current of the river.
They follow the course of the world in rebellion to God.
And whether the world, meaning not the planet,
but the whole system,
the whole of humanity instinctively ignoring our maker
and rebelling against them,
whether the world realizes it or not,
we do not live like this entirely by ourselves.
It may appear to suit us at times,
but we nonetheless take the lead of another.
We are being led.
And we are duped.
And we are following a current.
And we are following a spirit of disobedience
who is as prevalent as the air we breathe.
What was it?
I was thinking about it coming through in the car this morning.
Was it the Hollies who wrote the song,
Sometimes All I Need Is The Air That I Breathe?
And the devil, that's all he needs,
is the air that we breathe.
Because anywhere there is air,
he can be there.
And he can be there with a spirit of disobedience.
He can be there polluting the air, as it were, spiritually.
And we're all rightly concerned about air pollution and air quality.
But nobody cares about this.
That there is a spiritual enemy of the human soul,
that there is a spiritual enemy of God Almighty
who pollutes the planet and pollutes the universe
and pollutes the air, as it were, spiritually speaking.
So that disobeying God is as natural and comfortable
and almost as essential to life as breathing.
And the only clue that we're given here,
that we're not as free as we think we are,
in verse 3,
comes into view when we take stock of the havoc
that our freedom unintentionally causes us.
Why do we so invariably hurt our loved ones
as we pursue our own agenda,
as we do our own thing,
not believing that we're being duped by anyone?
Why is it then,
if we're not duped,
if we're not following someone else,
if we're not marching to the beat of another
drama, demonic influence,
why then is it that doing our own thing
involves hurting our loved ones
and often harming ourselves?
That's the clue that we're not really achieving what we want,
that we're not really just doing what we want,
that we are in the thrall of another.
And to be as successful as he has been,
Satan needs to be prepared himself,
not to be believed in.
And that's perfect for him.
He masquerades as an angel of light.
He doesn't need people to believe in him
for him to be most effective.
Humanity is dead to God,
duped by Satan,
hopelessly in his throne.
That's why we need saved.
We need saved because we're dead,
because we're duped,
thirdly because we're doomed.
Verse,
the very end of verse 3,
we were by nature children of wrath
like the rest of mankind.
We were,
the believers.
This is meant to be opening our eyes
to something glorious God has done.
And this element of our desperate need
to be saved takes us beyond this life,
however it may work out for us,
and into the eternity that lies ahead
of every human soul,
either cut off from God in hell
or with him in glory.
And Paul underscores the offense
of our rebellion against the God
who's given us life and breath
and everything else.
And he points us to the catastrophic impact
of our deadness to him,
of our trespasses,
of our sins.
It means that we're children of wrath.
That doesn't just mean we've got a temper on us.
That may or may not be true.
It means that we inherit
the just, pure,
undeniably deserved wrath of God upon us.
His wrath is not an outburst
of his bad temper.
His wrath is his,
part of his perfection.
It is his permanent,
steady state,
invariable,
settled hostility
to the rebellion
against him of those
to whom he has given life
and everything.
And because we've rebelled
against an infinitely glorious being,
our sin is infinitely offensive
and grievous.
It is an infinite crime
and therefore the final experience
of that wrath upon us
is infinite punishment.
More dreadful than we can even think of.
And we are the children of wrath.
NIV, I think,
says the objects of wrath.
We attract his wrath
in the way that a magnet
attracts iron filings.
Or a way,
in the way that a friend of mine
seems to attract wasps.
Friend of ours,
she hates wasps,
but she just seems to attract them.
We are wrath magnets, friends.
This is part of the wonder
of the gospel.
We are wrath magnets
and we wouldn't even know about that.
We wouldn't believe in it.
We wouldn't care about it
unless God told us about it
in his word as he does.
Now, it doesn't get any darker than this
in understanding what we are
basically like dead
and duped
and doomed
to face the wrath of God.
Paul wants our eyes
to be open to this afresh.
Why we need to be saved,
there's the answer.
We're dead.
We're duped.
We're doomed.
Now then,
that's why we need saved.
How are we saved?
Well, there could hardly be
a greater contrast.
Such a blessing
to get out of the tunnel
into the daylight,
the stunning daylight
of verse 4.
But,
God being rich in mercy,
because of the great love
with which he loved us,
pause there.
There's the first answer
to how we're saved.
The first thing to notice
is that we're saved
because God treated us
with love.
He treated us with love.
His love of wrath magnets,
sinful, ungrateful,
rebellious,
dismissive sinners
against him.
His love for us
is the engine room
that powered our salvation.
He is rich in mercy.
Notice verse 4.
He's rich in mercy
because of the great love
with which he loved us.
There's so much in that for us.
So he loved us
and he loved us
with a great love.
And that great love
resulted in
glorious riches of mercy
towards us.
We are saved
because he has the capacity
to infinitely love
those who
infinitely
disrespect
and hate him.
How are we saved?
Number one,
God treated us
with love.
Number two,
God gifted us
with life.
Verse 5.
Even when we were dead.
We've talked about that.
In our trespass.
We've talked about that.
He made us alive
together with Christ.
By grace
you have been saved.
How are we saved?
He treated us
with love.
He gifted us
with new life.
New spiritual life.
And he did it
by grace.
I've already pointed out
that Paul uses
this phrase again
in verse 8.
By grace
you've been saved.
But it's as though
with his forensic mind,
his amazing forensic mind,
led by the Holy Spirit.
He wants us
to understand
when I talk about grace,
this is the picture
you've got to have in mind.
And he does that
by the language
and the imagery
that he's used
about our deadness
and our dupedness,
not that there is
such a word,
and our doomedness,
not that there is
such a word.
But they're the pictures
he uses
to make it crystal clear
that we are saved
entirely by God's initiative.
It's a thing
that God did
for the dead
and duped
and doomed.
That's what God's
grace is.
It's the unearned,
undeserved action
of God
to treat us
in the opposite way
to how we would be.
He would be
entirely justified
in treating us.
And it's necessarily,
entirely at his instigation.
It has to be
because we were dead
entirely by his execution.
It couldn't be more clear,
could it?
When we were dead,
he did something
to make us alive.
That's grace.
We didn't long for him
until he awoke
that longing within us.
So you might be thinking,
I don't know about that.
I think there was something
in me that began
to reach out to God
and then he responded
to that.
No, it's the other way around.
Yes, you did begin
to long for him.
Something did awaken in you,
but it wasn't you
that awakened it.
We didn't feel
the conviction of our sin
until he blessed us
with that conviction
by the work of his Holy Spirit.
We didn't decide
to follow Jesus
in and of ourselves.
We were dead.
We were duped.
We were doomed.
He did the work.
He brought to life
our spiritual corpse.
We had no part in this.
Verse 8,
By grace you've been saved
through faith,
and this is not your own doing.
And this refers to both
the grace by which
you've been saved
and the faith
that connects us
to that grace.
We didn't even have it in us
to work up the faith
to act towards God.
Both the grace that saves
and the faith
that by his grace
connects us to his grace
is not our doing.
It is the gift of God.
It is not the result
of our works,
my works,
my dead,
duped,
doomed works
so that no one may boast.
Friends,
are our eyes open
to this wonder?
Are our eyes open
to this wonder?
Do you see how stunning
this work of grace
is in your life?
But we need to know
how we are saved
a bit more.
We need to know
the mechanics of salvation.
What was it he did?
How did he make
wrath magnets
love magnets?
How did that happen?
Did he just change
his mind on a whim?
Well, I hope not
because he might
change it back
on a whim.
Of course he did.
Did he begin
to recalibrate
his feelings
of appalled
abhorrence
towards our rebellion?
Did he begin
to sort of just
move things
that were crimes
into not being crimes?
Did he decriminalize
some stuff
just to give us
a bit of a pass?
No.
He achieved
something stunning
in and by his son,
the Lord Jesus.
He treated us
with love,
he gifted us
with life,
and he seated
us with Christ.
There's the third answer,
verse 6.
This is how he did it.
He raised us up
with him
and seated us
with him
in the heavenly places
in Christ Jesus.
Now this is
theological shorthand.
Paul expects us
to remember
what he's already said.
God didn't just
make us alive.
He didn't just
gift us with life.
Notice verse 5.
Even when we were
dead in our trespasses,
he made us alive
together with Christ.
Together with Christ.
There is something here
about the way
that he has connected us
to his son,
the Lord Jesus,
that makes this gift
of life a reality
for us.
Why did his son,
the Lord Jesus,
need to be made alive
as well?
Why did he need
to be made alive?
Well, remember
chapter 1,
what you've already seen.
Chapter 1, verse 6,
to the praise
of his glorious grace,
with which he has
blessed us
in the beloved.
That's Jesus.
In him,
we have redemption
through his blood,
meaning through
his blood shed,
meaning through
the giving of his life,
through his death.
We have redemption
through his blood,
through his death,
the forgiveness
of our trespasses,
according to the riches
of his grace,
which he lavished upon us
in all wisdom
and insight.
God sent his perfect son,
who was entirely alive
to him,
unlike me,
who's dead to him,
who was never duped
by Satan,
unlike me,
who was entirely unworthy
of God's wrath,
unlike me,
and he sent his son
to join us
in death
by bearing our sin,
the awful offense
of it on the cross,
and bearing the wrath
of God for it
on the cross.
Listen to this little poem
written by
Lance Pibworth.
You may not have heard
of him,
but listen to this.
All my sin of every kind,
all the thoughts
that stain the mind,
all the evils
I design,
laid on him.
All the ways
my feet have strayed,
all the idols
I have made,
all the times
I have not prayed,
laid on him.
All the told
and acted lies.
All success
and all the tries,
sins that I legitimize,
laid on him.
All that sinks me
in the mire,
all the times
of base desire,
all that needs
a cleansing fire,
laid on him.
All my misdirected powers,
all my many wasted hours,
all my dreams
of ivory towers,
laid on him.
All that makes
my spirit cold,
all that keeps me
from the fold,
all that dims
my father's gold,
laid on him.
All the times
I've grieved the spirit,
all the nature
I inherit,
all the punishment
I merit,
laid on him,
God's own dear son,
laid on him,
the holy one,
blotting out
the noonday sun.
when laid on him.
That's the reality
of what happened.
That's why Jesus
had to be raised
from death,
because that's the death
he died.
And we already know
chapter one,
what is the immeasurable
greatness of his power
towards us who believe,
according to the working
of his great might.
Verse 20,
are you following?
that he worked in Christ
when he raised him
from the dead
and seated him
at his right hand
in the heavenly places.
Job done.
Forever.
God's wrath
satisfied
because it was laid
on him,
poured out on him.
His love for sinners
upheld
so the wrath
magnets
could become
love magnets
because the wrath
was transferred
onto Jesus.
And the perfection
of the Lord Jesus
was put onto those
who would put their
trust in him,
who were awakened
to have the faith
to trust in his grace.
That's us
if we're in him.
And so his death
was my death.
His grave
was my grave.
His resurrection
will be my resurrection.
And when he sits
in glory
at the right hand
of the Father,
he makes it possible
for me one day
to sit in glory
at the right hand
of the Father.
So in effect,
now that has happened
because he has done
everything for me.
Everything that he's done
is what has been done
in the name of those
who trust in him
by his grace.
And therefore,
because God has raised him
and seated him
at his right hand,
that's us.
Who are there,
a man in the glory,
keeping our seat.
No social distancing.
So we're saved
by our union
in death
and resurrection
and kingly reign
with the Lord Jesus.
Now as we close
this morning,
why are we saved?
Why we need saved,
how we are saved,
why we're saved.
Very briefly,
two reasons
that this passage gives us.
A future reason
and a present reason.
The future reason
is verse 7.
So that in the coming ages
he might show the kindness,
sorry,
show the immeasurable riches
of his grace
and kindness towards us
in Christ Jesus.
It's amazing, isn't it,
how Ephesians takes us
from eternity past
when we were chosen in Christ
before the foundation
of the world
to eternity to come.
Verse 7 just about explains
why everything is
the way it is.
It is so that
in the coming ages
he might show
the immeasurable riches,
immeasurable riches
of his grace
and kindness
towards us
in Christ Jesus.
Our eternal,
ever-increasing delight
and satisfaction
will be in him.
That's why we're saved.
God wants people
to be able to
adore that forever
and flourish in that.
And it's not just
that we won't get tired of it.
You know how sometimes
you go to somewhere lovely
and the person who lives there
in a beautiful place
they tell you
how every morning
they get up
and they open the curtains
and they see the view
and they say,
I never tire of it.
Well, that's a lovely thing.
But this picture here
in verse 7
is not just saying
don't worry,
you'll never tire of it.
It's saying the opposite.
It's saying
you will never cease
to be increasingly
thrilled by it
for all of eternity
because it's immeasurable.
Why are we saved?
We're saved for his glory.
And we are most,
most happy
when he is glorified.
We are fed
and nourished
and satisfied
eternally.
Every longing
satisfied.
Everything we long for now
that we are sure
is not found in God
when we get to glory
we'll find it was
always found in God.
Why are we saved?
Verse 7
the eternal perspective
and then verse 10
the present thing.
Where is workmanship?
Interesting,
at the end of verse 9
not saved by works
so that no one can boast.
It's almost as though
Paul says now.
Funnily enough,
talking about works,
talking about works
that don't save you.
We are his workmanship.
We are the output
of God's work.
He had some corpses
and not only
were they spiritual corpses,
they were duped.
They were completely
in the thrall
of Satan
and demonic forces.
and they were doomed.
They were under
my wrath,
says God,
and I had this mess.
And now look,
they're going to spend forever.
Magnify my son,
glorying in
my eternal kindness to them.
We are his workmanship.
But he has work
cut out for us.
Notice verse 10.
Created in Christ Jesus
for good works
which God prepared beforehand
that we should walk in them.
You know that phrase,
you've got your work
cut out for you.
Well,
God has got your work
cut out for you,
sisters and brothers.
If you belong to him,
if this gospel is yours,
if this experience is yours,
if you read this this morning
and hear this
unpacked and say,
yeah,
that's me,
that's exactly
what God has done.
If he's begun
to open your eyes again to it,
there's work for you
to do now.
And we're told
in this passage
that we're saved by grace
and we're also told
that we serve by grace.
There's work to do.
But the work
does not
pay God off
for his grace to us.
The work that we do
for him
is by his grace.
It is as though
if I take out
my debit card,
I wouldn't do this
in Aberdeen,
but I'll do it in Edinburgh.
I'll take the risk.
I'll take out my debit card.
It's as though
rather than me
trying to do things
for God
to pay him
and to respond to him
for what he's done,
I'm actually putting myself
further in his debt
because the bill
goes to him
every month
for the grace
that I need
to serve him.
And he delights
to pay it.
He doesn't hold me
accountable for that.
So we're saved
by grace.
I'll now put this
carefully away.
We're saved by grace
and we serve
by grace.
And God has good works
prepared for us.
We just need to rescue
that as we close from,
we need to rescue
good works
from the bad books,
don't we?
Isn't it strange
that we live in a world
where being a do-gooder
is a negative thing?
But it has that kind
of horrible,
prickly person
who thinks they're
better than everybody else
and goes through life
doing good
to make it look
how good they are,
to show their own goodness.
That's not what
this is about.
That's not gospel good works.
As you crack on
through the book
of Ephesians,
especially when you get
to chapter four,
to the end of it
you're going to see
a list
of supernatural
ways to live,
being kind
to one another,
forgiving one another,
submitting to one another,
husbands and wives,
children and parents,
and slaves and masters,
employees and employers,
and all the rest of it
that's there.
That's what Paul's
pointing to
in Embryo now.
And when you get there,
maybe you'll remember
that we're as workmanship,
we're created in Christ Jesus
for good works
that God prepared beforehand
that we should walk
in them.
So my friends,
I'm finishing now.
And I wonder
where you are
with this this morning
as we draw it to a close.
I wonder,
have you seen that
just as I came in
this morning
and was asked,
have you any
COVID symptoms?
And I was gladly
able to say,
no I don't.
But I wonder
some of the other
symptoms of the whole season.
Are you beginning
to find your eyes
growing dim with cataract
towards the Lord
and what he's done
and what he is doing?
Your heart growing cold
towards him.
It's interesting
that the whole book
ends like this.
Grace be with all
who love our Lord Jesus Christ
with a love
incorruptible.
Incorruptible.
that can't be corrupted
by all that life
can throw at it
to take our eyes
off the ball.
May that be true of us.
And for anyone
who doesn't know
the Lord Jesus
this morning
who by his grace
might recognize
themselves
in this passage
because of the fact
that,
because of what
Paul says here,
that the potential
is amazing.
you're now listening
to someone
who was by nature
an object of wrath
like the rest
of mankind.
I once was lost
but now I'm found.
I was blind
but now I see
and that can happen
to you.
And if you sense
that God is
doing a work
in your heart,
if you sense
that there is
just the beginnings
of a stirring,
then by his grace
get hold of that.
and move towards
the Lord Jesus
for salvation.
Father,
please,
we pray,
help us,
have mercy on us.
We so easily
become calcified.
We so easily
become dead
and blind
to the wonders
of what you've done.
We so easily
become enthralled
by nothing
of any lasting
consequence.
We lose our
footing.
Our hearts
grow cold
towards you.
Please rekindle
in us
by the eyes
of our hearts
being enlightened
to see these things.
For the glory
of our Savior
we ask it.
Amen.
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