BUT GOD... (Eph 2:4-5)

Well, come on in here. Let's find out find some seats and while you're finding a seat I Before we start our service.

I just wanted to say thank you to those of you that that have been So helpful to our family this weekend and we're so grateful for a church family that comes alongside us and cares for us and Provides for us.

We've had food. We had many of you many of you ladies that helped out with the reception yesterday

Which was a tremendous blessing and so much food and good food

And it was it was extremely helpful for our family We've had we've had some of you members that showed up with lawnmowers and mowed all of our grass

Cleaned up our yard. We have been blessed. We are truly a blessed people and that's what being family is, right?

so I just want to say thank you, we're grateful for you and Again before we start our service every week.

We try and pray for a local church, don't we? Because we want to be reminded that we're not alone in this that there are other

Saints all over this community that are gathering together today to worship to pray to sing to hear the word proclaimed and Today, we just want to pray for Finch Baptist Church I don't know if you're familiar with where that is

If you go down 351 and it comes to a dead -end, I think it's 358 and go left

You'll see the big graveyard over there and the church there Marty easel is the pastor there.

I've met with him a few times We have become friends and I just want for us as a people to lift them up in prayer

Finch Baptist Church And pray that God would work in their midst this morning as they gather. So pray with me dear

Heavenly Father We come to you this morning and we are so Overwhelmed by your your grace that you have poured out on us your people through the the common means of grace

Lord you've told us not to neglect the gathering of the Saints and and Lord you have done.

So not as a strict rule, but as a great Benefit to us your children because this is what you use in our lives to mold us this is what you use in our lives to To be encouraged to look to the cross to be encouraged to to fight sin in our own hearts and our own minds

This is what you use as a body as we spoke about a moment ago And so God we just want to lift up our brothers and sisters at Finch Baptist Father I pray for them as they gather today.

I pray that you prepare their hearts to worship you together God I pray for their pastor

Marty I pray that you would give him boldness to proclaim the full counsel of God I pray that he would speak truth from your word.

I pray that in his study this week he has just been immersed in in your good grace and the beauty of the

The truth that comes only from your word and and now he just is bursting

With it and that he proclaims it with clarity and boldness Lord prepare the the ears and the minds of of their people

Lord, I pray that you bring about awakening and revival in their hearts Or that you use them mightily as they minister to to that community that part of this area

Lord I pray that that many would come to know you Lord that that many would come to know you and then that church would be able to turn around and then disciple those those people

We thank you for them in Christ's name. Amen All right. Well, let's stand. Let's start our worship this morning our our call to worship comes from first Peter 2 and and it's a it's portions of verses 2 through 10 and a read in response where Peter writes like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk that by it we may grow up into salvation as You come to him a living stone

Rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious We are to be holy priest a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ That we may proclaim

The excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light

Once we had not received mercy and all of God's people said

Father Lord, we we come to you this morning We humble ourselves before you

Lord, we are so blessed to be able to come and gather here Or in sing praises and worship in your name

Lord I pray that you would bless this worship board Or this worship belongs to you

Lord, thank you for all of your goodness. Thank you for your kindness. Thank you for your son Or thank you for my salvation

Lord we praise you. We love you. Thank you for loving us

We ask all these things in your heavenly name in Jesus name and all of God's people said

Oh The sons and the daughters

People of God Oh People of God with the freedom of hope in our hearts

Christ alone Christ Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Christ has been raised from the dead

The first fruits of those fallen asleep as my man came dead by man came also the resurrection

What shall we see Christ he lives

Christ he listens We'll have a dream

Seeing life

Christ See Beyond all measure

That he should give his only son to make precious treasure

How great the pain of searing loss the father turns his face away

As wounds which mar the chosen one can be sons to glory

A man of sin upon his shoulders

Ashamed I hear my mocking voice

Understand It was my sin that held him there

Until it was accomplished

His dying breath has brought me life

I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything

No power, no wings But I will boast in Jesus Christ His death and resurrection

I will not give an answer

For this I know with all my pain

My soul is a lonesome

Protected, gathered up We will peace in the house

Stay together in the darkness

My soul has done great things

And he loves

Zion With our hearts restored

He has done great things We will stay together

We will peace And we know

The Lord gives the word Most The kings of the armies

They flee, they flee The women at home divide the spoil Though you men lie among the sheepfolds

And the wings of the dove Covered with silver Its pinions with shimmering gold When the

Almighty scatters kings there Let snow fall on Zalmah O mountain of God Mountain of Bashan O many -peaked mountain

Mountain of Bashan Why do you look with hatred O many -peaked mountain At the mount that God desired for his abode

Yes, where the Lord will dwell forever The chariots of God Are twice ten thousands

Thousands upon thousands The Lord is among them Sinai is now the sanctuary

You ascended on high Leading a host of captives in your train And receiving gifts among men

Even among the rebellious That the Lord God may dwell there Blessed be the Lord Who daily bears us up God is our salvation

Our God is a God of salvation And to God the Lord belongs Deliverance from death

But God will strike the heads of His enemies The hairy crown of Him who walks In His guilty ways

The Lord said, I will bring them back from Bashan, and I will bring them back From the depths of the sea

That you may strike your feet in their blood And their tongues of your dogs

May have their portion from the foam Your procession is seen, O God The procession of my

God, my King Into the sanctuary The singers in front, the musicians last Between them virgins playing tambourines

Bless God In the great congregation The Lord, O you Who are of Israel's fountain

There is Benjamin, the least of them In the lead, and the princes of Judah In their throng, and the princes of Zebulun And the princes of Naphtali Summon your power,

O God The power, O God, by which You have worked for us Because of your temple at Jerusalem Kings shall bear gifts to you

Rebuke the beasts that dwell among the reeds And the herd of bulls with calves Of the people, trample under feet

Those who lust after tribute Scatter the people who delight in war Nobles shall come from Egypt Cush shall hasten to stretch

Out her hands to God O kingdoms of the earth, sing to God Sing praises to the

Lord To him who rides in the heavens The ancient heavens, behold He sends out his voice

His mighty voice, ascribe power to God Whose majesty is over Israel And whose power is in the skies

Awesome is God From his sanctuary, the God of Israel He is the one who gives power

And strength to his people Blessed be God Let's pray this one Heavenly Father, we want to thank you so much

For all that you have Blessed us with God, we take this time

To give worship Through our giving And so God, please help us to not do this with a

Begrudging heart God, please help us to do this out of love and thanksgiving For what you have first given

To us Lord, we love you We pray that we would remove all distraction this morning And that we'd focus on your truth

And it would sanctify our hearts We pray these things in your name, Jesus Amen Y 'all ready to jump into God's word?

I'm ready, I've been ready Go ahead and open your copy of God's word To Ephesians chapter 2

Ephesians chapter 2 Last week we jumped right in To verse 1 But today our primary text is going to be

Verses 4 and 5 but I want us to Start reading there in one so we can be Reminded of where Paul's train of thought

Is headed here in this section of scripture So there in Ephesians chapter 2 Starting in verse 1

The apostle Paul says And you were dead in the trespasses and sins In which you once walked

Following the course of this world Following the prince of the power of the air The spirit that is now at work

And 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 What a Beautiful truth that we come to Today in scripture

All of it's beautiful isn't it But sometimes we get the glimpse of one like this That reminds us of where we've been

And where we're What position we have now right So let's pray that God would illuminate our hearts and minds

To this truth before we dive in Dear heavenly father Thank you for your word

Father thank you for allowing us to worship you In spirit and truth this morning And the only reason we get to do that Is because of the righteousness of your son

That is imputed onto us And we get to come to your throne room with Boldness That we get to read your word

And since we now have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit Within us we can actually comprehend

These great Truths not in full Not completely and sometimes we misunderstand them

So father we ask that you would Illuminate our hearts and minds To this truth

Or guard my speech from error I am a fallible man That can misinterpret things

Father but I pray you guard me I pray that you guard the ears Of the hearers that they would judge every

Word that comes out of my mouth according to your Scripture because that is the only standard We thank you for it in Christ's name

Amen Well as I said a moment ago last week We looked at verses 1 through 3

Of this great text where we saw Really let's be honest Kind of a bleak Picture of the state of mankind

Right One that leaves no room for hope A picture of Who we were and who

All of mankind is that Leaves no room for pride That leaves no room for Celebration in and of ourselves

Just a A stark reminder That every human

Being is spiritually dead And we've seen throughout

The whole of scripture That they're spiritually dead From the very moment of conception right

That we were All born into As we talked about last week The sphere of trespasses and sins

It's not that we were born Sinning we were born within The realm of sin because we were dead

In our trespasses and sins Which then lead us to sin And that is

The reason that we followed the course Of this world as Paul said That we followed

Blindly and obeyed Completely the prince of the power of the air Satan himself

We carried out the passions of Our own body and our own mind Because that's what we

Desired That's what every man left to himself Desires Is to follow

The world Follow Their desires Which their desires

Lead them to sin Because as we said If you remember

We sinned against God Because we were already sinners by default

And that's what we saw In verses 1 through 3 And as a result what did Paul say

We were children of Children of wrath We like every other person

We're guilty and fully deserving Of God's righteous holy wrath That's who we were

And why did Paul give us Such a grim picture Of the state of mankind

It's because at the end Of chapter 1 Paul had prayed didn't he He had prayed for us those the readers

He had prayed for the saints in Ephesus He had prayed for us believers And what did he pray

He prayed that we would comprehend The immeasurable greatness Of God's power towards us That's what he desired for us to grow

In the knowledge of the great power That the triune God Had Used to save us

And so as soon as He wraps up that prayer there At the end of chapter 1 He begins here in chapter 2

To tell us what we need to know In order to grow in that knowledge So that's what builds us here

Therefore he must remind Us of where we were He must remind us of who

We were He must remind us of why we were In that state In order for us to better understand

Or to have a greater comprehension Of to have a greater Appreciation of the

Unmeasurable Power of God And thankfully

Paul does not leave And lead us to This point This cold walk

Down memory lane Of our evil God hating past very long

He walks us through it But he doesn't walk us through it long Though severe

That reminder was brisk And hopefully if you were here

Last week you know why It was necessary Oh but it lead us to the greatest pairing

Of two words in all of scripture These two words together

Change everything They change everything But God Paul walks us down that That path of Hey let me show you your past You need to be reminded

Where and who you were So that now you can see This beauty

Of but God Because of Adam's sin In the garden you and I and all of mankind

Were subjected to death weren't we Subjected to Both spiritual death

And physical death And because of this spiritual death We were as Paul said children of wrath

But God Christian don't be numb to that I want you to think about this

For a second but God That was the position That you and I were once in And the rest of mankind

Is in in this moment And there are other brothers and sisters out there That are currently dead Walking in the trespasses and sins

Living in the sphere of that And are children of wrath Oh but God we'll save them

All of this is true about us But God This was the worst case scenario

For all of mankind But God You and I were as far from God As it gets

And let me tell you something Not only were we as far from God as it gets We sought to go even further

We sought to hide From the great God of the universe Because of our great hatred for him

We ran from him But God You and I were blind right

But God You and I were lame But God we were deaf

But God and you and I were dead But God Being rich in mercy

Because of the great love With which he loved us Even when we were dead

In our trespasses And made us alive Together with Christ Our Savior And then we declare

Oh by grace We have been saved Because of God You see what

Paul just did there in verse 4 As I've said He showed us The depth of our pitiful state

To then turn around and point us To the glorious state that we are now in One that we couldn't earn

One that we didn't deserve Did we? Because we had run from God We hated

God We knew it had nothing to do with God Oh but his grace Is so great One of my favorite songs that we sing

Here is a sobering And glorious declaration All I have is

Christ We don't sing it often Enough around here. We need to sing it more But I was reminded of this verse

The second verse of the song As I was reading through this text Because by the time we get to this verse as we sing it

I can barely hold back my tears Because it reminds me of this Glorious truth The song says but as I Ran my hell bound race

Indifferent to the cost You looked upon my helpless state

And led me to the cross And I beheld God's love displayed

You suffered in my place You bore the wrath reserved for me

Oh now all I know Is grace What a beautiful truth

You know it's good to be reminded of who and where we were But here's the thing

Christian We don't live there anymore That's not our

That's not the state of our life any longer That's not the sphere in which we

Reside Paul tells us why

He tells us why we've been made new Creatures here Look here Look at verse 4 again

Says but God Being rich in Mercy What is mercy?

Mercy is not getting What we deserve isn't it? God has shown great mercy

Upon us It's not getting what we deserved And this word rich That Paul uses here

This word it actually Refers to an abundance It refers to a

Surplus Of something And I've heard people say

You know you just don't know How wicked I am You don't know the things

That I've done You can't even comprehend it Because I am just so Too far gone

I am too far gone for the mercy Of God That just shows that you do not

Understand the riches The surplus Of this great mercy

The depths The endlessness

Of this great mercy of God There is no Debt expensive enough to Even put a dent into this surplus of mercy

You know sometimes as Christians I don't know about you but I struggle with doubt

I struggle With With My own conscience And I see my own sin because Let's be honest we sin right

I've sinned already today I was telling Somebody earlier we're all sinning Every one of us has We're all constantly sinning

And so I internally start looking at myself And I start going oh man I know God's shown me mercy

I know he has But I've got To have been testing that mercy

You know you'd never really Say that but you start thinking that And you start feeling like oh man

God can't possibly have any more Mercy for me He can't possibly

Have that but here Paul says that the riches The abundance

The surplus Of his mercy And why does

God have such mercy Why does God show So much mercy

To us creatures who Defied him who ran from him Who hated him Who murdered his son when he

Showed up Why does he have such mercy For us Well number one it's because of his

Nature God is a merciful God we only know mercy Because it is an attribute of God mercy comes from God that is who

God is God Is a merciful God he is a long Suffering God but this is Who God is it's in his nature

He is a merciful God And for those of us who are recipients Of this great mercy we

See why he's so rich and generous With it look at the verse But God Being rich in mercy

Because of the great Love with which he

Loved us Paul had already told us

Of this great love back in chapter one Hadn't he look back there at Chapter one verses four and five with me

I want you to see it I want you to be reminded even if you've been With us in this study look back at it chapter one

Verses four and five Paul he says even as He God the father

Chose us in him Christ the son Before the foundation

Of the world That we should be holy and Blameless before him

In love He predestined Us to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will remember this

This wasn't arbitrary This choosing This great love that he had loved

Us with in order to adopt us and bring Us in as sons and heirs In his kingdom it wasn't

Arbitrary God did not go Eeny meeny miney I choose you That's not the purpose that's not

How God chose he chose because Of his great love for you He chose you because he

Loved you but remember not because You were lovable That's the mercy of God You and I weren't lovable We were enemies

We hated him Oh but his love for us Was so great and he

Sought after us he found us He brought us to himself He chose you

And he has a Never ending storehouse of this mercy Reserved for you

Because of his great love For you You see

It now we we need to be Reminded of who we were Oh but we don't stay there

I've mentioned it before we like to call it worm Theology oh I'm a worm Oh how low am

I But That's not what God's called us to God's essentially

Said oh yeah you were a worm Oh but I made you a son That's your identity now

Your identity is in Christ It's no longer Nathan Hargrave The sinner

It's the beautiful Majestic savior So when God looks down That's why we get to sing today right

When we're worshiping today when we're singing praise To the great God and we're singing these These beautiful truths and our hands

Go up and our eyes are closed and we pray And we go to the father we can Come into that throne room

Without fear Without reservation Without hesitation Now when

I say fear Without an unhealthy fear But we all have the fear of God Just like you have a fear of your father right

A healthy fear An honoring fear but we come into that throne room Because he is our father

Because I know that when my father Looks at me he doesn't see me He sees his son And that perfection right

Oh that's mercy What mercy is this It's endless

It's a storehouse of it Now yet again you may say

Yeah I can see that being true For people who have it all together Of course

God Loves the goody two shoes Of course God loves Those that seem to Have everything put together

They've got the nice clothes for church And they show up They never say a bad word

They don't like dirty jokes They don't smoke they don't drink and they don't dance God of course loves those people

Oh but Paul crushes that excuse Doesn't he Look at verse 5 He says even when

Right He loved you Even When We Were Right remember past tense

That's a past tense that's were It's something that we were We were dead in our trespasses

In that sphere of Trespasses and sins Every single one of us

I don't care if you look at Somebody that's outside of Christ And they seem like the best person you've ever known

In your life they are honest in their dealings They are kind and they are gracious They do everything

Seemingly right on the outside Let me tell you something Paul says That to God that's

That's filthy rags They're in the sphere of trespasses And sins There's no one

No one is worthy of his mercy No one is Worthy of that grace

But not only that Not only is no one Worthy of it Even the worst among us

Are recipients Of this mercy As God chooses and God loves The people that God has

Poured his mercy out onto Were not children of Disappointment They were not children of disobedience

They weren't even children His children at all But just as he said back in Verse 3 of this chapter

We were children of wrath Not everyone is a child of God are they?

Only those that he's shown His mercy on, those that he loves But we were

Once children of wrath as Paul says And Paul Telling Timothy in 1

Timothy 1 -15 he said That Christ Jesus came into the world To save The decent people

That's not what he said is it?

He said God came Into the world Christ came into the world to save sinners And what does

Paul say about that? He says of whom I am the foremost You see if God's mercy

Was sufficient for a murderous Christian persecuting Religious zealot like Saul Who says he was

The foremost sinner It's sufficient It's sufficient for you and I isn't it?

This is what allows us to see The depths of God's mercy and love This is how we see

God for who he is Who he truly is No one person is too far gone

Don't you hear me out No one person is too far gone For the mercy and love

Of God Because we were all too far gone

Catch that? Not one person is too far gone We were all too far gone

We were too far gone That's why it took an eternal Holy, perfect, merciful, gracious Loving, long -suffering, just And righteous

Triune God To redeem us From that hopeless pit This is the beauty of God The beauty of a

Triune God Who the Father Who loved us And set his love upon us

Before the creation Before he had ever breathed Anything into existence

The Son who purchased us The Son who redeemed us With a blood ransom And the

Holy Spirit Who seals us for that day Of glorious redemption

This is a Triune God A work that only he could do That's why we have to see this But we were in a hopeless pit

Oh, but his mercy and love Go even deeper than that pit You see, he didn't just reach down into that pit

Of hopeless despair To bring us into light and warn us Hey, Nathan, you know what?

Watch out for that pit, don't fall into it again You know, it's right there

I've brought you up into the light You're free, just watch out for that pit No, no,

God He said in verse 5, look at it He said, even when you were dead In your trespasses and sins

Made us alive Together with Christ We were dead

And now we're alive We were blind

And now we see We were lame, but now we walk In the spiritual

Truth of God's mercy And Paul doesn't Paul doesn't mean here

Lazarus alive You see, he means Jesus Christ alive Okay, what do

I mean by that? Some of you are like, I don't know where you're going with this, pastor Okay, bear with me, you remember the story of Lazarus, don't you?

We've talked about it quite a bit here Jesus comes to the tomb Lazarus has been dead for days now

He's already buried And Jesus has the stone rolled away from the tomb And Jesus says,

Lazarus Come forth, and he Speaks life right back Into Lazarus And Lazarus comes out of the tomb

Alive after being dead For days What an amazing miracle, right?

What a great resurrection story But here's the thing That wasn't true resurrection to life

You're like, whoa, what do you mean? Here's what

I mean Lazarus eventually died again Lazarus died again, didn't he?

Lazarus isn't roaming around Here today Right? He died However, the resurrection of Jesus Was categorically different That's what made the resurrection of Christ So glorious For Jesus rose eternally

So when I say that our spiritual death to life Is not like a Lazarus resurrection But like a

Christ resurrection I'm referring to the fact that Our newfound spiritual life

By the mercy of God Is rooted in and founded on Our Savior, Jesus Christ As Paul says here in the text

Paul says that we are made alive Together with Christ Paul said in 2

Corinthians 5 17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ He is a New creation

The old has Passed away What's the old?

Death Death has died Death is gone The old is no more

It cannot be resurrected Death doesn't have a Savior Oh but we do to life

Behold the new has come This is a great truth We no longer have to Wallow in or fret

About our previous state of death We don't have to look back at it In fear That old man is gone

Death is no more For you God no longer sees it because We've been brought into True life in Christ Now we get to look back and see where Our great

God and Savior has brought us from And rest in where He has brought us to And where has he brought us to?

Life in Christ Union Union With the Triune God By the righteousness of the

Savior And the mercy of God Sharing in that righteousness So lastly, notice how

Paul interjects This well -known And loved declaration It's like he just has to throw it in here

Right in the midst You can see it's got these I don't remember what they're called But the little dashes right before and after It's almost like, you know what?

I'm just gonna throw this in there real quick He says, by grace you have been saved By grace

You see, the other side of God's endless Mercy is his glorious grace, isn't it? It's like the two sides of one coin

You got mercy and you have grace Together, and if mercy is not Getting what we deserve, then what is grace?

Takes it even further, doesn't it? It's getting what we didn't deserve Not only does he not give us

What we deserve, he then turns around And gives us what we don't deserve We were children of wrath

And not only did God not Pour his wrath out upon us But upon his own Son at the cross

Showing us tremendous mercy He then lavished upon us His glorious grace

By giving us what we don't deserve And what did he give us? Sonship Inheritance That righteousness

It's not by mercy you have been saved Notice That's part of it But Paul says it's by grace

That you've been saved Grace, grace God's grace

Grace that is greater Than all our sin By it we have been redeemed

We've been brought from death to life Life everlasting, real life

Not this counterfeit This is an area for us to sojourn in Until God redeems it

Fully Brings out the new heavens and new earth

And says oh no, this is life And this is life eternal What I create is good

What I create has no death in it any longer What I make has no more sin

You're not going to fall back into that pit There is no fear of falling back into that pit There is only glory

Because of the great Mercy and grace of our Heavenly Father who is a merciful

And gracious God And when we realize This truth Of but God We get a greater glimpse into that That power don't we

For how would we understand The mercy and grace of God Had we not

Been reminded of Where he had brought us from So church

I want us In light of this great truth This text I want us to be a people who rest in it

I want to be a person who rest in it Pray for me I don't rest in it as I should

It's so secure And I still don't rest in it as I should I want us to be a people

Who rest Let us today truly rest in Christ Let us realize that great mercy

Let us see that glorious Grace Let us know Let us experience

That Security that comes with this Because There is therefore no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus Why do we live like there is

Because we're not Gazing upon the power of God We're not

Looking to the glorious grace And mercy of This great God So now let's prepare

As we do every week to See this Great truth in the ordinance

Of the Lord's Supper And in this I want this to be An outward expression of our rest

Right We're being served these These elements The wine and the bread

These are These are free gracious gifts To us That we partake in As we remember the sacrifice

Of our Savior And as we go back to our seats And we take of these elements

I want you to be reminded of that That sacrifice That sacrifice And as you take of them knowing that I share in union with This glorious Savior Because of what

He has done He alone Not me Such mercy Such grace

Such beauty Such rest Let us rest Let's pray

Dear Heavenly Father Lord help us

Never to forget Where you Came down into the pit

To the depths of our depravity And our enmity with you And pulled us out

Made us alive Gave us Hearts of flesh And made us new creatures

Made us sons and heirs With Christ Father we

We don't need to Forget this glorious truth Because we often do

And we begin to be internal And we get stuck in our past We get stuck in thinking about where you

Brought us from but we then don't Take that next step and are reminded Of where we've been brought to Oh Father help us to be a people

That rest in it God I pray that you'd be honored in this Time of us partaking of these

Elements Lord search our hearts Lord I pray if there be Unrepentant sin in My heart and any of our hearts

That we would lay that before you If we have something against A brother or sister here help us to get that Right so that we can come to this table

And union together as a church body Father we

Are so grateful for this This ordinance Of the Lord's Supper Be honored in our worship in Christ's name