Book of Ephesians - Ch. 2, Vs. 10-18 (07/29/2001)

I was told that we stopped at Ephesians chapter 2 Verse 10 is that close enough?

Did did we actually do verse 10 some of you look and see if you got notes?

about that We're starting on 10 Okay You may be but I'm not because I didn't study 10 no now we can start with 10

Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 8 9 and 10

Let's pray and we'll get started father. We thank you for your word we thank you for the joy that it gives us to study it in the presence of your

Holy Spirit and the one who searches the mind of you the deep things of God and the only one who can know those things and Lord you you've

Placed The Holy Spirit within our hearts and lives to then come and teach us those things

According to your will and according to your timing and what a blessing it is So help us to learn today what we ought to in Jesus name.

Amen Ephesians 2 8 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 and A lot of folks like to stop right there and not not go with verse 10

But verse 10 is such an important part of that whole process For we are his workmanship

Created in Christ Jesus unto good works Proves very clearly that a Christian doesn't get saved by doing good works that the works are a result of his nature that has been given to him at salvation by the

Lord and Also a result of God's sovereign For ordination and I should say pre ordination and Predetermination and all these aspects of God it simply says we are his workmanship that started a long time before we had the

The when and the where you know how people you say when and where'd you get saved long time before you had that experience this workmanship began and It found its fruition at The point of salvation or not really its fruition, but it's budding and it will find its fruition.

I suppose At the rapture and even beyond so it is a continuing work of God in us

And that's why we're called his workmanship now For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus We Have to be in Christ in order for the workmanship to take place or to take effect and We're created with a purpose and that purpose is good works.

So the works obviously cannot cause the salvation They have to be a result of it

They have to be a result not so much of an it as it is of the one who is working in us

We are his workmanship. Remember the he behind that we're his workmanship Which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

It's interesting to look up the word should in a Webster's dictionary you'll find that the older meaning of the word should is actually the word would and Look it up.

You'll find I'm telling you the truth this time I'm not just preaching but should means would in this verse

In fact in most cases in the Old English where you see the word should it means would? Look at it find an old dictionary get one of those big fat ones and look the word should up You'll see that that's the case

But this means that we're ordained that we would walk in them Not that we should we will walk in them if you're saved you will walk in good works

Because that's your purpose. That's why God placed you here And that's how he is working in us and we studied that obviously in Sunday school now

Let's move on into some of the areas that I wanted to discuss Verse 11 wherefore remember remember that when you see the word wherefore it ties in with the previous material

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.

I need Jason to do me a favor. I Meant to do this and I forgot would you look in the office over there on the side where those nice cabinets are and the first?

One you'll come to open it up that lower cabinet and you'll find a stack on the bottom shelf of booklets like this

I'd like every couple to get one So bring about 10 or 15 and make sure every family gets one

No a family every every family You yourself and the other one

There's a little section in this booklet I'd like you to get a little bit familiar with it anyway Because it's a great Bible study to give a new

Christian And I really think it worked to give it to someone that you see the Lord is dealing with them and they're responding

Because that that's all such a mystery to us. Anyway, we think they get saved when they come down the aisle sometime

But they're already saved before they get here, you know all that's going on and God's working So if you see God working in someone's life, you might want to give them one of these to go through that talks about salvation

But there's a specific Passage in here. I thought might be kind of fun for us to do together when he gets back if you have a pen or a pencil get that out and Turn to page 10 of this little booklet a lot of this

This is question number 8 on page 10 And a lot of it you'll find is Ephesians chapter 2 verse 12, which is the verse we're on this afternoon

So as you get the little booklet Just keep this one for yourselves. And if you enjoy it then share it with others

There may there I will have to say this there may be a couple of places. I need to amend as I wrote this

Probably I'd only been saved probably Three or four years when

I wrote it, so I may have learned some things I hope since I wrote so overlook if you see some blatant

Arminianism in there just overlook it No, I don't I don't think you will. I don't think you will I think it's pretty pretty good because it talks about it uses physical birth as as God's beautiful example of spiritual salvation

But there may be one or two bloopers But not on this passage. We're looking at so look at page 10

And let's look at question number 8 list 9 things that God says we were before being born again and A couple of them are not in this passage.

So let's go ahead and look those up. Somebody look up John 3 36 The second half of the verse and somebody can look up Ephesians 5 6

We'll get these out of the way that are not in our passage Okay Let's try to figure out what we're getting at here

What are some of the things that we were before we were born again who would read the second half of John 3 36?

For me birds you got it All right, read that one 5 6 yeah read that one

Okay Now we're gonna look for a similar word in this other verse to give us a cue cue which word we're looking for here

Who's got John 3 36? Okay, so what are we under when we're not born again the wrath of God so put wrath just put the wrath of God there

Okay Now how about Romans 5 10 and In James 4 4

Romans 5 10 and James 4 4

See, I've already found one. I don't agree with first one If you're a sheep you're not under the wrath of God those are the children of disobedience, but you will think you are

Yeah, you won't know the difference and just a slight little Tweaking of knowledge if you read

Ephesians 5 6 carefully You'll see that it's talking about the people that are continual fornicators filthy talkers

Whoremongers unclean idolaters and so forth and it says Understand that the wrath of God is upon you

Well, you know, we we learn as we go that there are lost sheep and saved sheep found sheep

Even though at the time you were lost you thought you were under the wrath of God now looking back on it You know, you weren't you were under his protection.

So there's a slight tweaking. I would do of that one In other words, I would probably leave that one off If the person is

Non elect it would certainly apply and since we don't know the difference It's probably okay to leave it there for a lost person

He's gonna see he's gonna be under the chastening and all different things of God to get them to the right place

They'll be with his wrath All right. What about Romans 5 10? Who's got that, okay

Okay when we were enemies who has James 4 4 Yes, ma 'am

Okay. So what's the key word their enemy? So we were enemies of God and this definitely does apply to us even as lost sheep

We were adulterers and adulteresses Religiously before we got saved and sometimes we do that after we're saved when we're not walking in the spirit

We'd go after the world But you you cannot any longer be an enemy and the point is it calls you an enemy.

What's what's the third thing now? Let's now we're gonna get into more of the area of the study this afternoon Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 & 5

Who would like to read the first one Ephesians 2 1 All right, and how about Ephesians 2 5?

You can stop right there. So what were we? We were dead you need to put dead or you can put dead in sins

Okay, so there's three things we were under the wrath of God we were although I don't believe the sheep or that that would

Be an interesting study to do my my My red flag is going up on that one.

No You could certainly say we run the chastening of God We were enemies of God and we were dead to God what's now let's go to Ephesians 2 12

Which is literally our verse for today and we're gonna find all the rest of these in that one verse So, let's see if we can find six more things

In that well, one of them is in 13, but five more things in verse 12. So let me read it

That at that time you were without Christ So wouldn't that be a good one put you were without Christ just put without Christ and Then it goes on to say being aliens and that's something you were an alien

You were from a different place Okay, so put aliens from the

Commonwealth of Israel All right, you were strangers from the

Covenants. So put strangers From the

Covenants of promise Having no hope

So put without hope Isn't this amazing to look at?

and then Is it even better when you write them down and look at them and without God in the world?

You were in the world, but you were without God. So put without God Now we go to the next verse to get the last one but in Christ Jesus you who were sometimes a far off so you were far off That's it's interesting because it's given all this from your point of view not from God's It's your point of view.

You were the one that was the enemy You and I were the ones that chose to be aliens.

We were the ones that Stayed far off arms linked from God because even before you were saved

I'm sure you can remember knowing that if he got you you couldn't live that way anymore Your life would change and you knew that and I knew that and we kept him afar off as long as we could

And there came a point when that light came on and all we could do is look up and say

Lord What would you have me to do? But before that point you were all these things with the possible exception of a up there at the top

I'm having problems with that one. So there are at least eight things that we were before we were saved now turn the page

Of your little booklet over to page 12 number 5 list nine things that God says you are now that you're born again and Most of these will be found in the same verses though Some of them are in different places now what

I want you to do I'll give you a hint to find the right answers is they're going to coincide With the other nine things only they're gonna be the opposite So you may see two or three things in some of these verses but look for the one that's the opposite Or as close you can get to the opposite of the one listed on the other page.

So Colossians 114 who would read that one? Okay, and how about Colossians 2 13?

So what words in both of those verses and it's kind of the opposite of being under God's wrath You're forgiven

So now now on the other side of salvation we were under God's wrath and on this side we are forgiven

You know, I'm The a of the other one the wrath if you look at that purely from a human viewpoint it does it is one

But if you look at it from God's viewpoint, it's not so that's one of those interesting Sovereignty versus responsibility

Ideas, but from the human viewpoint we were under the wrath until the point when we were forgiven And the human viewpoint has to be just as real as the divine viewpoint in order for salvation to work

No, man can be saved outside of receiving Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior at which point they are forgiven

Okay, what let's see if we can find the second one that would be the opposite of being enemies of God someone read

John 15 14 What do you think the word is?

friends we used to be the enemy of God and Now we're the friends of God All right, and now let's look for the enemy.

I mean the opposite of being dead in sins Ephesians 2 1 and 5 again

And I gave other verses too, but I think we can figure it out from Ephesians 2 Verse 1 and 5 we've already read him.

It says and you has he quickened Who were dead and in verse 5 says even when we were dead in sins hath he quickened us together with Christ?

Notice that together with means at the same time. Isn't that amazing when Jesus came out of that grave?

You did too So you were dead now you are quickened which means alive so you need to put quickened or you can put alive

Made alive. All right now What is the opposite of being without Christ?

Look at Ephesians chapter 1 verse 13 and Whom he also trusted after that you heard the word of truth

The gospel of your salvation in whom also after that you believed you were sealed

With that Holy Spirit and I would bet that if we read all of those verses

I listed you're gonna find out that rather than being Without Christ, you're actually indwelt by Christ you're indwelt by the

Spirit of Christ and That's a whole lot different than being being without him it's amazing the difference

Okay now the next one Without Christ number five is aliens.

Let's look up Galatians 3 26 Somebody read that one to me.

Mm -hmm Okay, so we were aliens and now we are sons what a transformation that is

You go from being something that's totally different from a completely different world to being of the same genetic makeup

That's quite a change folks you move from being an alien to being a son of God You think that's something that we could have caused ourselves?

Could we have transformed ourselves from an alien to the same species and and genetic

Material as God a Spiritual viewpoint, that would be absolutely impossible

Okay, so we went from being aliens to sons. Now. What about the opposite of the word stranger?

Look at John 10 14 Somebody read that one for us

Okay, so we go from being strangers to being a sheep and being known

How about if you put a known sheep? All Right And then not only were we strangers we were without hope.

So let's look at first Peter 1 3 and Hebrews 6 19

Anybody have one? All right.

What about? Hebrews 6 19 I'll read it.

It says which hope we have as an anchor of the soul Both sure and steadfast and which entereth into that within the veil

We have so many wonderful verses isn't amazing You get into some really good ones and you forget about some of the other ones then you got to get into them man

That's a good one. But but we were without hope. What are we now? man

Yes, what what was that phrase in in yours brother bill? Lively, yeah, not.

Yeah, we're with a lively hope so put lively. Hope I like that adjective a Living hope

Okay, and then without hope the next one says we're without God so look at first Corinthians 3 16

Okay, we once were without God and now we're his tabernacle We're the place in which he lives

And then lastly far off how about Ephesians 2 13 Gives the other side of that too

It says but now in Christ Jesus you who were once upon a time far off are now made nigh

By the blood of Christ, so just put made nigh by the blood Now if we look at those nine things we were and we look at the nine things

We are now we get a graphic view of our transformation And the more we would study those things the more graphic the view would be and the more miraculous

We would see that it is and the more we would have to say that God saved us

We did not save ourselves the people who believe that they played a large role in their own salvation Don't really know from whence they have come or where they're going

But they'll learn if they are saved God will take them through the scriptures and they'll they'll learn these wonderful things

Okay, let's go back into Ephesians chapter 2 then that takes us through verse 11 and 12 and 13

Made nigh by the blood of Christ just think about that for a little bit made nigh

You know what we can learn by that little phrase Is We are not made nigh by our religiosity

We are not made nigh by our obedience We are not made nigh by our lack of sin

That's one thing we could have gotten into in our Sunday school lesson as we were talking about the sin and these different things where?

They're good or bad and just depends on the viewpoint that you're talking about it about But the thing is one thought that came to my mind by the way

During that discussion was this a lot of times God lets us learn spiritual things

With just if we look at our own family lives If we have had children or grandchildren, and I've always believed that if you have grandchildren

You probably had to have children first, but if you have had either You know full well that there are two ways you could look at this thing

For instance if you want to talk about your child sinning Now and you catch them and you could ask the question were you angry with the child

Because they sinned Or you might ask it this way is a better way

You've just had this child who has sinned you might ask the question. Are you pleased with the child?

That's the best way to ask it. Are you pleased with the child in a quick answer? You'd say no, but upon more reflection the answer really is yes or no

Because if you focus in with a microscope the answer is no you're not pleased with the child because they just did wrong and you're

Going to deal with it in their life But if you back up and you look at it with a telescope You're pleased with the child why because they're your child

They are your child and nothing changes that position Nothing they can do ever changes that position

You don't kick them out the door over to the neighbor's house and say you're not my child anymore because you sin So you're always pleased with them, you know why the pleasure doesn't come by what they do

Come by who they are and so when God says that we are made nigh by the blood don't ever forget that you you're

Satan will lie to you and say boy you backslidden you've gotten in trouble now You better go climb those steps on your knees with glass.

You better go do this good work. You better go do that You better go confess tell the whole church what you did

You better get up and just tell them all just to just spill your guts. Tell them all what you did It'll make you feel better It'll make you so much closer to God and on and on and on you can go

None of that makes you night of God. None of it. What makes you night of God? And what does it specifically say?

the blood of Jesus Christ so it's what he did it is what he did that makes us near him not what we do

I was thinking about that during the whole discussion in Sunday school in a way But it's so true and so you can see how some of these questions are you know

They're difficult to answer because it depends on how you if you look at the real near view Well, yeah, I'm displeased with this child because they just broke this hundred -year -old base that's been in a family for however long but really in truth

I'm not displeased with the child because they're my child and I know that even through this they're going to learn and be

What they need to be so We're not made not by anything other than the blood of Jesus Christ and what he has done is finished work is continuing work

What he's doing now and what he will do in the future. That's what makes us not in that beautiful Man, man, you know what else comes along with that?

Look at verse 14 Did you know that peace will not come through through all of these? Things that you could go out and try to do to get close to God Peace won't come from any of it

You can be the busiest worker in any church in the world and be in turmoil in your heart while you're doing it

Because peace doesn't come from those good works peace comes from the same thing for he is our peace

Peace comes from the relationship Not any religiosity or religious works or system of rules that you can keep or not keep

And don't ever think we're not saying rules aren't important It's just this passage isn't discussing them. This passage is talking about the one who gave the rules and It all is important or God wouldn't have given it

But when you're really down to the nitty -gritty and you're trying to please God and you're trying to have peace with God Don't look to yourself for it

Our peace is he He is our peace who hath made both one now this begins to discuss

The Jew and the Gentile in this passage starting right there and going down through a large part of it

It begins to discuss that there are differences But then it begins to show there are similarities and the reason there are now

Similarities is because of what comes next it says he hath made both one That's the Jew and the

Gentile and Broken down the middle wall of partition between us that means between us as humans and God remember the old

Jew had that curtain that kept them out of the Holy of Holies and when

Jesus Christ was in the process of being Crucified that was torn in half by God himself from the top to the bottom and that was about this thick

There's no human alive that could take that and tear it and so God tore that down Remove the middle wall of partition and now because of the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ And because you've received him as your personal

Lord and Savior. There is no wall between you and God So that wall is not made

Are removed by works of any kind it's removed by what Jesus did his finished work on the cross.

He did the work Verse 15 says having abolished in his flesh the enmity.

It is Jesus Christ that the father is pleased with The only way he's pleased with us is in Jesus Christ So what you you if you if you think of works in the wrong way

It'll get you in trouble if you think of it in the right way it won't you go all the way back up to verse 10 What's the right way to think of good works?

They are for ordained and you will do them The wrong way to think about them is that they make you closer to God Because they don't

They usually become because you are close to him If you really think about it unless you're thinking in the wrong way trying to please him by doing them

But I mean most of the time in your life when you do a good work for God if you reflect upon it

You'll see it's because he's moving in your life and because you have the closeness that you have with him And so it doesn't cause the closeness.

Are you with me on that? It's not what causes the closeness But anyway, so he has abolished in his flesh the enmity

Even the law of commandments contained in the ordinances or to make in himself of twain

That's the Jew and the Gentile one new man. That's the church Are you with the language there?

It's kind of interesting, but that's what it's talking about So making peace and so this is a new organism that never existed before a lot of people will debate you on that The non dispensation, you know, we talked about ultra dispensationalist you go off too far and you end up like Church of Christ But the non dispensationalist who says there are no dispensation at all

He is wrong because he wants to say everybody's always been saved the same way Well, it depends on what you mean by that.

I mean if the answer is by faith, well in a sense, that's true but you can't say the mechanism is the same before the cross as it is after the cross because After the cross we have been baptized

Into a living organism which Jesus calls his bride or the church that never happened before So it's not exactly the same.

Is it it is different. We have to see these dispensational changes and Differences or we will never make sense out of any of the

Bible But we see here that he has taken the Jew and the Gentile he's put him together in the promise in the fulfillment of the promise that was given to Abraham and When it said

Abraham's children would be like the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore

There have never been that many Jews That's talking about all of the spiritual children of God that come in through the promise

Which is Jew and Gentile and that's exactly what this means here Is that he's abolished the enmity even the law of commandments and so forth

And he's made of the two the Jew and the Gentile one new entity one new organism

One new creature and That's how he made peace not only made he peace between us and himself

But also between the Jew and the Gentile if you find a born -again Gentile and a born -again Jew, they can be buddies

If you find too lost of anybody they have a hard time, but especially a Jew and a Gentile I mean, they're gonna have problems.

They are just gonna have a natural animosity towards each other unless they're both born again But when they get saved they're brothers and there is no difference at that point

So this peace is made verse 16 and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross

Having slain the enmity thereby Still talking about the same thing and came and preached peace to you who were once afar off now.

Who's that? That's not the Jew That's the Gentile We were aliens from the

Commonwealth of Israel We were once so far away that there was no hope for us to be saved seemingly and that's why the

Jews had to see Tongue -speaking and all this stuff going on or they wouldn't even believe the Gentile would say And they saw the

Gentile get saved and the Holy Spirit would come upon him in the same way that he did the Jew and He had to say God's doing something different here.

He's saving Gentiles the same way He's saving us and it all came to pass there in the book of Acts and or it records it anyway

And it came and preached peace to you which were afar off and to them which are not who's that?

That's the Jews Or through him we both have access

See they didn't have access That's the sad part about it Once you get into the law now and the promise

God offered it through Abrahamic promise God offered this access They said no, we don't want that.

We Moses you go up talk to him. Come back. Tell us what he said We will do it, but don't don't make us go in his presence at that So get a little bit too.

We lose too much control if we go in his presence We just have to fall down and worship him and we can't be us anymore.

So you go do that that's it that's attitude a lot of Christians try to have but Man, the thing is to go up on that mountain right in that smoke, isn't it?

Isn't that the thing? Go in go out there in that tabernacle like Joshua and Moses may leave but just sit stay out there for a while That's the whole answer in our age it's not a bunch of rules

It's it's the presence of a person and a relationship you develop with him and it's so beautiful and we miss the boat on it

So much by getting back into the rules and all these things And it's just being out there and just staying with him and you don't have to be out there by the way anymore because guess where?

That tabernacle is now It's your your body He lives within you you can we are probably the the first dispensation of humans

They can be going about our work and doing things like this and and still be in that Tabernacle with him in that mindset worshiping and being with him now

There are times you'll want to withdraw but you don't have to to be with him You can be spirit -filled while you're working you can be spirit -filled while you're shopping you can be spirit -filled the grocery store at the gas station

No one ever had this privilege like we have it far be it from us to fail Now He says they came and preached peace to you who were far off into them or not for through him

We're both have access by one spirit unto the father

That's something to think about this week. Is that access who turns that on and off? us

And The Old Testament the access was determined by God in the sense that he only let one man come in his presence one time a

Year, that's the high priest now. You are a priest You are a priest and you have the access at any moment that you choose to take it

You want to get on the human side the human viewpoint a little bit and live in the area of responsibility a little bit

What will you choose as far as access this week because you have it it's oh it's open it's an open door

It's like a father. It's like a father's study Is open to the little children to come in no matter how what he's doing in there

He's working hard and they can still come in and sit on his lap and we're that way with the father and And we're the first dispensation to be that way other than maybe the innocence in the garden when they walked

But even then God came down when he chose to come down and then they could walk with him Even when

Jesus was walking on the face of this earth The Apostles could only be with him when he came into their presence and now you make the choice of access because it's all been made available by the blood of Jesus Christ and all the finished work and the baptism into The body and all the things that we have what a great study of the dispensation of the grace age right there in that little passage

Let's stand and have prayer together Father thank you so much for your word it enriches our lives so much we can get enough in one time together to go a whole week and think about these things and Lord Keep us close and contact and connection with you

So that we would avoid sin in our lives and father we thank you that you are our father our

Abba father and that you've given us the spirit of Abba father not a spirit of fear and Lord, we pray that you would cause us to shine as bright lights

This week in this world until the Lord Jesus Christ comes back.

We pray in his name Amen Let's see brother Otis Let me tell you where we stop so you'll