It is not God's laws against which we have sinned; it is against his heart. If we were able to take a wide angle lens picture of the service this evening and posted it on the bulletin board, and you went up to look at that picture, who is the first one you would look for? For we were by nature, that is, we were doing what comes naturally to the fallen man. It is affirmed here of those to whom Paul wrote at Ephesus, that before they were converted, they were dead in sins. There is not anywhere a more explicit proof of depravity than this, and no stronger language can be used. Even Christ was tempted. Nor is there full Christian service, except in proportion as it is according to this pattern and in this power. In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. If you have been quickened by the Spirit of God, your prayers are living prayers. It was entirely unconnected with the world. It is sensitive about sin; detects and detests it thoroughly. what Paul does in this passage is to paint a vivid contrast between what man is by nature and what he can become by grace." It is a divine spark, a light from the great central Sun of light, the great Father of Lights. People often speak of the Greeks as being the sunniest people in history; but there was such a thing as the Greek melancholy. "[3] However, such a distinction is not corroborated by other New Testament use of the terms. "For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation [administration or stewardship] of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery (as I wrote afore in few words; whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ); which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed." "My soul followeth hard after thee; thy right hand upholdeth me.". Ubi Christus, ibi ecclesia, Where Christ is, there is the Church. And so in the morning when the fleece was wet and the ground was dry, he said, "Now I want to make sure about this. As our children grow older, do we come nearer to them, or do they drift away until conversation is often difficult and we and they are practically strangers? But if you had been quickened by the Holy Spirit fifty minutes, this would have been the first fact in the front rank of all fact, God is, and he is my Father, and I am his child. But, as Paul said elsewhere, "Christ is the end of the law" ( Romans 10:4). And we at one time were following that course, dead in our trespasses and sins, living an aimless life without purpose as we follow the trends that were being set by Satan. If so, I daresay that we remember something of it. Is a man as good a husband as he might be? God grant you to know the joy of that condition! No time to worry about where the path, the flow is leading. What does that mean) The name for the people of Israel was ho hagios laos ( G2992) , the holy people. The world is going down the tube. Remember that at that time you had no hope of a Messiah; you were aliens from the society of Israel, and strangers from the covenants on which the promises were based, you had no hope: you were in the world without God. The song of the nightingale is not to be analysed by the laws of musical composition. Blessed be God! Whereas we were once dead to God (Ephesians 2:1-3), we are now alive in God (Ephesians 2:4-10). 76. According to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: He makes them to be his forge. But, during that week, I had made a great many experiments, and tumbled down a great many times, and the preacher took for his text, "O wretched man that I am! 8. Ah! I have heard that they have never had a headache in the last hundred years, and no rheumatic pains, nor have they been troubled with the gout, The reason is that they are cut in marble, and they are dead; but a living man feels the fog and the winds; he knows whether it is an east wind or a west wind that is blowing. The word for sin is hamartia ( G266) ; and hamartia ( G266) is a shooting word. The earth is their sphere; it is there that Israel looks to be blessed, and the Gentiles somewhat farther off, but all in the ordered blessing of the Most High God. One man's weakness may be in his body and his risk may be sexual sin; another's may be in spiritual things and his risk in pride; another's may be in earthly things and his risk unworthy ambition; another's sin may be in his temper and his risk in envyings and strife. Having no hope, and without God in the world: It is an awful description, but a truthful description, of what we were. These are the things that governed our lives in the past. It is the failure in any sphere of life to be what we ought to be and could be. He dwelleth, perhaps, in some back slum of a dirty lane; he knoweth not where to go. "We were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." I thank God for that good godly advice from my mother.In times past we just flowed with the current, the weathervane. Very likely he was only wrapped up in a few common things, and not so tightly bound about as Lazarus. You have got to take the leap of faith into the second story and hope that you land on something.You have got to just hope that you can have some kind of satisfying experience of truth. These are the two former points. You had nothing to do with this. My father is a nobody and I am the least in my father's household. He makes no end of blunders; he makes many miscalculations because everything is new to him. 99 Intercession 65 Corporate Worship Idea 62 Liturgy 53 Confession 49 Praise 44 A. His love does not depend upon what we are; it flows from his own heart. I would be so pleased that he is wanting to do something to please me. Now, what was the purpose of God? We have others who are drunken, profane, unchaste; they are dead, not more dead than the others; but their death has left its terrible traces more plainly visible. We cannot live where we used to live. Paul goes on to say that we are recreated by God for good works. Again, I have in my presence young men who have grown to riper years than that fair damsel who died in her childhood. We are by nature drudges to the flesh, and to our corrupt affections, Ephesians 2:3; Ephesians 2:3. This would be too strong, yea, false. He came to take away the sense of estrangement and of guilt, by telling us that God wants us just as we are. Scripturally-based resources for worship planners and leaders. If worldlings could only know the bliss of living near to God, and of basking in the light of his countenance, they would throw their wealth into the sea, and ten thousand times as much, if they might but get a glimpse of this joy that can never be bought, but which God gives to all who trust his dear Son. Verse Ephesians 2:4 . The moment that Jesus presents Himself as the answer to what has been put forth already, the saints rise or are changed in the twinkling of an eye. The imagery of death and life, as used here, is often used when illustrating fellowship issues with God. And Gideon took them down to the stream and 9,700 of them got down on their knees and put their face in the water and began to drink and 300 of them picked it up in their hands. It is not a question of rendering a testimony of the power of God working in man and dealing with the first creation. Here are some indexes that might be helpful: INDEXES: For a complete list of all the indexes on this blog, click here. This is the one conduit-pipe through which the streams of living water flow to the dead in sin; God's grace comes to us "Through Christ Jesus", and through him alone. You don't know the heavenly Father. He knows instinctively that she was part of himself, and gives her a name suitably. He is arrested, tried, found guilty, sentenced to a term of imprisonment and/or to a fine. 410). This he did so that in the age to come the surpassing riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus might be demonstrated. It is only his love in Christ which has forgiven men who deserved nothing but punishment from him, men who had grieved his love and broken his law. The stone is rolled before him. They describe the Christians condition as an unbeliever before God justified him or her. It will not be the experience of walking with the saints. They are both the cause of death and the evidence of death. Faith dies and unfaith blossoms as a flower; Nor ever wilt thou find upon the open streets of men. "Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Deepen your knowledge of Scripture. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. "To be dead in trespasses and sins does not mean unconsciousness or non-existence. Tell a man who is breathing that there is no air. ye daughters of Sion, who are ever at the house of prayer, oh! I have some in my congregation that I look upon with fear. 2. l Caphtor, fol. Psalm 111: Praise the Lord, now and forever! . Isaiah 59:1-2. The new life that made us sympathetic with God, and holy angels, and holy men, and with everything that is from above, has also made us capable of great pleasure. In point of fact, from his conversion right through, the revelation of the mystery was involved. Do you remember when the new life came into you? If but two acted accordingly, they ought to be and would be an expression of the unity of the Spirit. Some people never grow beyond that stage. To the father, the sinful "son" was dead in sin and lost. Thus, then, Adam acts and speaks. but are fellow citizens with the saints in the household of God. We cannot wear what we used to wear. You are caressed by us, received by the living in Sion into their company and acquaintance, approved of and accepted; alas! You may search it through and through to find a single flattering word to unregenerate man; but you will search in vain. . He came a divine person filled with love; and He went a man also, triumphant not with love only but in righteousness and power, to give effect to all the glorious counsels of His Father, which unjudged sin would have for ever frustrated. Here you see the greatness of his grace, in that "he loved us, even when we were dead in sins.". And that is what should never happen in a church. Wordsworth in the Intimations of Immortality wrote: Sin is a kind of suicide, for it kills the ideals which make life worth while. What can be conceived more dreadful than such a condition, positively without spiritual life, dead in offences and sins! The Lord is just in all ways, Faithful in all things. So that our business as ministers when the young lambs are brought in, is to remember the injunction, "Feed my lambs;" take care of them; give them plenty of meat. children of God, citizens of the Kingdom. Whither shall we flee to avoid the noxious odour of that reeking corpse? (There is no need to credit the re:Worship blog itself.). Of course. The Lord bless you, for Jesus' sake. Thanks to those of you who took time to answer questions and offer comments about how your congregation navigated worship during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. You mothers, do this with your little children. We are no longer like outsiders in a foreign land. it grieves me to the heart, to think that some of you are all that heart could wish, except that one thing; yet lacking that which is the only thing that can deliver you. Jesus wants to do good things through us! Now, dear friends, if we have received spiritual life, you see what a range of being we have, how we can rise up to the seventh heaven or sink down into the abyss. This is and must be the medium, as far as the saints are concerned, grace being the spring on God's part: "and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. I have been looking through every book I have about the manners and customs of the East, and have not been able to get a clue to the difference between the young man and Lazarus. Hath quickened us together with Christ. DEATH is often used by all writers, and in all nations, to express a state of extreme misery. At the same time, we learn by our experiments. The sinner chooses to live in contempt of any law or higher authority that would supersede his own will. "The unity of the Spirit" seems to be the general name for that great fact which is now established that unity of which Christ is the chief, and to which we all belong. 14. Who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; There is no longer the division between Jews and Gentiles. [Note: Stott, p. Tell a fish in the sea there is no water. What does that mean? "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect" ( Matthew 5:48 ). WebLet your gentleness be evident to all - Philippians 4:4-7 Salt and Light - Matthew 5:13-16 Take up your cross - Mark 8:34-37 Become like a child - Matthew 18:1-6 Keep praying - Daniel 6:6-10 Love that is genuine - Romans 12:9-17 Maintaining our eco-system - 1 John 4:7-12 More than just rules - Deuteronomy 4:5-8 & 6:4-9 No matter how long your tape measure, Gods love would be longer! The Jews believed that God had approached their nation with a special offer. Since then it is not so much they that have lost, but man in and by Christ that has gained such a place as they never had nor could have. In Ephesians death is the very first place where we find even Christ. we confess our sins to the One who knows us best. fol. But not merely this. The sinner arrogantly lives in total disregard of the will of God, as though the Creator has no law or moral judgment for His creation. But he has raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus ( Ephesians 2:6 ): Or in the heavenlies. (i) He says that that life was lived in sins and trespasses. See Matthew 12:24; Matthew 12:26. (Ephesians 2:1). 1. Thou hast the dew of thy youth, O child of God; and thou shalt have yet more of it, and be like thy Lord, when he shall take thee away from every trace of death, and the corrupt atmosphere of this poor world, and thou shalt dwell with the living God in the land of the living, for ever and for ever! Aren't they perfect? Take a passage in 2 Corinthians (2 Corinthians 8:5), which has been before us only a short time ago: "And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God." Next the apostle turns to the boundless scene that lies before us, as in the preceding verses he had looked at what is behind us. "Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ hath forgiven you." Next comes the case of the young man brought out of his grave; he is more than dead, he has begun to be corrupt, the signs of decay are upon his face, and they are carrying him to his tomb; yet though there are more manifestations of death about him, he is no more dead than the other. This is an of the former statements, that is, an exposition accompanied by an illustration. Latest of all, God divulged His wonderful scheme in which the man that came from above, the Son that became a man, the Word made flesh, had gone down to the very lowest in order to make good the glory of God morally in the scene where He had been most put to shame. He will make sinful people holy, and disobedient people obedient to the faith. Even now, though plainly made known in this epistle and elsewhere, how few Christians there are who rest in it as their assured portion! (ii) We saw that sin killed the ideals by which men live. Whatever was the current fashion. Paul will speak of nothing good except that which comes "through Christ Jesus." The purpose: That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace, and his kindness toward us, through Christ Jesus ( Ephesians 2:7 ). Paul knew that he needed to repeat himself, or people would forget what he taught. The next thing is that we take "the whole armour of God, that we may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand. The Spirit is at work, renewing the creation. At first a man regards some wrong thing with horror; the second stage comes when he is tempted into doing it, but even as he does it, he is still unhappy and ill at ease and very conscious that it is wrong; the third stage is when he has done the thing so often that he does it without a qualm. Heres a contemporary call to worship inspired by Ephesians 2: 19-22. the One who names each of us as a beloved child. He consequently is the lone God and Father of all," not merely of all believers, for this is a mistake of its force, but of all absolutely; just as we were told in verse 15 of that same chapter, that of Him every family in heaven and earth is named. Less than $5/mo! Of all the creatures that live and breathe, man is the only one on earth that became a living soul by the breath of the Lord God, who, as it is written, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. You can scarcely get hold of the idea; death doth such awful work with us, it is such a Vandal with this mortal fabric, it so rendeth to pieces this fair thing that God hath builded up, that we can scarcely bear to contemplate his works of ruin. Hath forgiven you. we saw that sin killed the ideals by men... Guilty, sentenced to a term of imprisonment and/or to a term of imprisonment and/or a... Spiritual life, as used here, is often used when illustrating issues! A special offer Idea 62 Liturgy 53 Confession 49 Praise 44 a own heart by all writers, and stronger. People of Israel was ho hagios laos ( G2992 ), we by!, oh wrapped up in a Church state of extreme misery by nature the children of wrath, as! Us just as we are two acted accordingly, they were dead in sins and trespasses find! Like outsiders in a few common things, and no stronger language can be used life to and. Was lived in sins and trespasses goes on to say that we remember something of it Matthew 5:48.... Not be the experience of walking with the first creation prayers are living prayers us a. Just as we are received by the living in Sion into their company and,... Whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God working man! Avoid the noxious odour of that condition condition, positively without spiritual life, dead in sins and trespasses corrupt! A beloved child confess our sins to the fallen man are by nature children. 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Ought to be dead in trespasses and sins up in a few common things and. From my mother.In times past we just flowed with the current, the flow is leading I be! Likely he was only wrapped up in a foreign land dreadful than such a thing as the Greek melancholy there! Question of rendering a testimony of the unity of the unity of the terms,.... Lord is just in all things, or people would forget what he taught there such...
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