But God! - Ephesians 2:1-9

with that really looking forward to what the Lord has for us in His word today on Sunday mornings prior to the prophecy update w're going through the Epistle to the Ephesians and today we began a new chapter in chapter 2 our text will be verses 1 through 9 I'll invites you at this time to turn there and once you do if you're able I'll ask you to stand you can follow along as I read if not that's all right where you're seated we'll begin in verse 1 where the Apostle Paul by the Holy Spirit is writing to the church in Ephesus and says as for you you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you follow the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient all of us verse 3 also lived among them at one time gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts like the rest we were by nature deserving of wrath but God verse 4 but because of his great love for us God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions it is by grace you have been saved and God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus in order verse 7 that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus and then verses eight and nine for it is by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not from yourselves it is the gift of God not by works so that no one can boast let's pray if you would join with me loving Heavenly Father will You at this time as only You can take this portion that we have here before us in Your Word and by the Holy Spirit bless it to our lives into our understanding the application of it Lord to our lives we don't want our time together today here and Your Word to be a waste of time so Lord speak we pray Your servants are listening in Jesus' name Amen you can be seated thank you so the title for today's teaching my two favorite words in all of the Bible and for a number of reasons not the least of which is that these two words change everything But God But God please know that I in no way wish to with what I'm going to say be for lack of a better word canned or even cliche when I say this but it doesn't matter what's going on in your life as difficult and as painful as it might be because of these two words you know recently I've been on the receiving end of many a brother and sister in Christ some of whom are here on our fellowship that have been on the receiving end of a devastating diagnosis of cancer in many cases just had a phone conversation with a dear friend of mine on the mainland yesterday and his wife has a cyst and they won't know until Wednesday whether or not it's benign or malignant cancerous I'll tell you there are times in our lives as Christians where the reality of life hits and certainly we're experiencing this by proxy if I can say it that way on Thursday nights in our study through the book of Job if there was ever a man that was on the receiving end of unthinkable suffering and pain and difficulty it was Job but God and again I don't want to be dismissive or make light of the enormity or the intensity of the trial that you're in but I promise you on the authority of God's Word that these two words are going to change everything for you but God yeah but pastor you don't understand it's a it's really bad I know but God but God and this is what we have before us today and truly replete throughout scripture both old and new Testament we see but God throughout one of my favorites and we talk about it often maybe I could be rightly accused of talking about it too often but it's in Genesis chapter 50 verse 20 with Joseph when he reveals his identity to his brothers who had left him for dead sold him into slavery betrayed him he had been through so much for what is likely about 17 years of his life where it would seem that everything in his life contradicted the promise and the goodness of God and here finally now his brothers are there and he reveals his identity to them and he says to them you meant this for evil but God but God I want you if you don't mind to throughout our study here in Ephesians chapter 2 view everything through the lens of but God and what I mean by that is you take the template of whatever it is that you're going through in your life and you superimpose those two words on it and at the end of it and I promise you that you will see the goodness of the Lord but God but God and this is what we have here in our text today in verses 1 through 3 Paul begins by reminding them of what they were and how they lived before their lives in Christ he says that specifically they were dead in their trespasses and sins and they were following the ways of the world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air then he goes on to say about how we used to live gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires which by nature are deserving of His wrath this is what I call the big three the world the devil and the flesh but God I hope you don't tire of me saying those two words but God in verses 1 through 3 he paints a very dismal picture of what we were prior to our lives in Christ and then in verse 4 he says but God but God because of HHis great love for us and being rich in mercy made us alive in Christ in verses 4 through 7 he continues by saying that God raises us up with Christ seating us with Him in heaven to show His incomparable riches and grace it's what he says next in verses 8 and 9 which are well known verses and for good reason that I would like for us to look at and talk about he says it's by grace that we've been saved through faith and it's not from ourselves there's nothing that we bring to the table of salvation there's no work no thing that we can bring it is the gift of God and as such there's no way that anyone could ever boast about having anything to do with that which only God can do and God has done and here's where I'm going with this and here's why I lay this foundation and I want you to think this through if our salvation is by grace then here's the question wouldn't it stand to reason that so too is our sanctification also by grace so if we're saved by grace wouldn't it also mean that our sanctification in concert with our salvation would also have to be by grace absolutely if you'll kindly allow me to I want to explain this and talk about this for the remainder of our time together in Ephesians in order to do that I need to preface this with the presupposition that we fully understand what salvation by grace means now we're prone to define grace as unmerited favor and certainly it is that and thank God it is that there's no thing that we can do to merit it it is the grace of God that we are saved by and grace by its very definition completely eliminates any possibility of any merit on anyone's part now you might be saying okay pastor why are you making such a big deal about this because if you and I miss this at this point forget it what do you mean well if the foundation is faulty because we don't fully embrace God's grace then there's not going to be any fruit no fruit can come where no root has been established let me say it this way I know it's kind of corny a little bit but a good root equals good fruit if it's not right at the root forget about the fruit a bad root equals bad fruit or worse yet no fruit and certainly this is true when it comes to a fruitful Christian life that has its base in God's grace let me say it this way if we don't understand the grace of God we will misunderstand the trials that are allowed into our lives we'll misinterpret those trials and why God has allowed them in our lives if we have not fully embraced the Grace and the goodness of God stay with me please you've heard it said and I know it's again maybe canned and hollow and cliche but we tend to say it's all of grace it's all of grace the grace of God we toss it out like candy the grace of God by God's grace listen do you know what the grace of God is for you think about this there cannot be anything in your life or my life that God's grace is not sufficient to get you through and again I don't care what it is I know that might sound kind of cold and even callous but no I don't care what it is that you're going through as difficult and as painful as it might be the grace of God is sufficient for you the grace of God is all that you need one of the things I'm learning in my own life is that no matter how bad it is it cannot change how good God is one of the things that the Lord really ministered to me when our daughter Noelle died as bad and as unspeakably painful as that was is that God was going to have the final word and He did that's probably amongst the most powerful but God stories in my life because as painful as that was God's grace was sufficient listen I've been saved by grace and so have you so what's God going to do is He just going to say okay I saved you by grace now you're on your own you better figure it out work it out I saved I did my part I saved you by grace through faith now you better get with the program shoot me now I need God's grace after salvation as much if not more than I did need God's grace for salvation but God your daughter's going to die sir but God I don't know how I don't know when I don't know the way I just know that God is good 45 days after Noelle went to be with Jesus my wife comes to me and says I want to have another child and I like Sarah this time laughed because you know that ship is kind of sailed a little bit and not that easy and but God allowed us and enabled us to conceive first time but God our baby girl Noelle died but God gave us our daughter Sabia but God but God that's how powerful those two words are again I know I run the risk of maybe not saying this the right way I'm learning that it's not so much what I say but it's how I say what I say but I don't know what you brought to church with you today as difficult as it is and I can't I don't really care what it is because I know that God is good yeah but pastor it's really bad I know but God is good yeah but it doesn't look good the marriage my marriage it's really bad my kids they want nothing to do with me they want nothing to do with the Lord it's really bad but God and by the way for any parent who may be here today with a wayward child I want to encourage you with something the Lord ministered to me concerning my own children He loves them more than you ever could and He wants them right with Him more than you could ever want them right with Him you hang on to that yeah but they're in a bad way they're hanging out with bad people they're doing bad things but God but God you don't give up you keep praying for them God hears God sees and God knows God loves them more than you'll ever know and He can be where they are you can't and He can send the Angels given charge concerning them to wherever they're at that's the power of God's grace that's the power of God's love yeah but pastor I you don't understand I mean I just don't know how God's going to bring good from this you have no idea how perilous and perplexing and distressing this situation is have you ever wondered how it is that God will allow something so utterly impossible into your life so that you have no other alternative but to throw up your hands and say God this is impossible I almost imagine God responding with ya think now that's not mean I don't want you to think that God's being mean but have you ever wondered that maybe that's why God allowed that to come into your life yeah but why doesn't He take it away and make it stop it's too painful and I don't know how much more I can handle and I don't know if I can go on God's grace is sufficient come on well listen to what the Apostle Paul said in his second epistle to the Corinthian church in Chapter 12 I want to read verses 8 through 10 he says concerning this thing what's this thing in your life for Paul it was this thorn in the flesh which has led many to speculate what that was whether it was a physical infirmity some believe it was a problem with his eyes due to malaria others suggest other things we don't know but that's not the point he had this thing in his life he describes as a thorn and by the way don't imagine it being a little thorn on a rosebush this is like a in the original language it carries with it the idea of a tent spike and by the way if there was anybody that knew what a tent spike was it was Paul he did and did tents for a living he's describing this tent stake that's in his flesh that was tormenting him and he's begging God he's pleading with God he says I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me and you know what God's response was He said to me My grace is sufficient for you really come on let's be honest real talk can we can we talk for real here we want God to get us out of the trial but what if God wants to give you the grace to make it through the trial I mean certainly he could effortlessly take you out of that situation you're in in an instant but He doesn't why is He being cruel absolutely not He wants you to taste from the cup of His grace in ways that you could never have had He not allowed this thorn in your flesh embrace God's grace he says my grace is sufficient for you and then he says this my strength is made perfect in weakness oh my goodness therefore most gladly Paul says I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me therefore I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in needs in persecutions in distresses for Christ's sake for when I am weak and this is the conclusion of the matter for when I am weak then I am strong how does that work oh that's how grace works I realized that this is a paradox of paradoxes but that's how grace works and even grace works is sort of a paradox in and of itself this is how grace perhaps better said operates this is when grace is operational and functional in the life of a Christian in order for God's grace to sufficiently work or operate if you prefer I have to come to the end of myself and for those of us who are stubborn I won't ask for a show of hands you know who you are the obstinate amongst us the stubborn amongst us we fight this with everything in us don't we and we do so to our own peril this is what one has called the three step programs step one realize I can't step two know He can step three let Him let Him again maybe that situation in your life has been allowed by the gracious hand of a loving God to get you to that place where you just throw up your hands and you say God I just can't it's impossible and that's when God rushes in that's when God's grace in all of its sufficiency and adequacy comes and that's only when it comes that's when the but God moment arrives I can't but God can won't you let Him won't you let Him oh excuse me you're still trying to figure it out I caught myself praying this the other day and I asked the Lord to forgive me I said Lord I I'm trying to figure this out and it was like the Lord was saying you are you're still trying to figure it out in the energy of your own strength in your own flesh in your own savvy well let me know when you're done because when you figure out that you can't figure it out I'll be here waiting hopefully the sooner the better that you come to that place because I have all of this grace it's just waiting for you all that you need is here yet you stubbornly arrogantly want to do it yourself and you can't and God is so gentle with us isn't He I think of what Isaiah says that He doesn't crush a bruised reed he doesn't you know snuff out a smoldering wick He's so gentle and He's so long-suffering and He's so patient and He just waits for us to come to that place where we're ready for God's grace you know one of my favorite and there are many but I just really love Gideon I love this guy God used him to defeat the army of the Midianites and it's not so much that God did it it's how God did it if there was ever a man with a but God story it was Gideon it was only possible for God when Gideon realized that it was absolutely impossible for him he was still trying to figure it out in the math he's got 32,000 men the Midianite Army has a hundred and thirty-five thousand men he's trying to figure out how is 32,000 men going to defeat an army of a hundred and thirty-five thousand men and God saying you're still trying to figure that out I'll help you out you won't figure it out because it's not gonna be thirty two thousand I want you to take those thirty two thousand men I want you to go down to the springs and for those of you who have been to Israel with us we go to these Springs where it's believed that Gideon took his army of thirty two thousand men to this is I want you to separate the men that cup the water and bring it up to their mouth from the men that just stick their face in there and drink I want you to put those guys over here and then the guys that cup the water I want you to put them over here now here's Gideon right you know what is God up to you ever asked yourself that question God what are you you're up to something yeah I know you just wait you'll see what I'm up to so he takes the men down there to the springs and what happens I could just imagine what is going through Gideon's mind ten thousand men pardon me I need to back up at 22,000 men take and when he says if you're afraid you can just go before he takes them to the water sorry it must be the antihistamine so he takes them and he says to them if you're afraid you know you can you can go home and twenty-two thousand men go home now he's down to ten thousand that's the number that he takes to the springs and as they are cupping the water nine thousand seven hundred men cup the water and bring it to their mouths and three hundred men stick their face in the water and drink so he's got three hundred men the other way around I'm sorry yeah thank you boy better not take any more antihistamine for second service thank you for correcting me so three hundred men cup the water nine thousand seven hundred men stick their face in the water now he separates them and then God says I want you to send the 9700 home who stuck their face in the water and I want you to take these 300 men who cupped the water now you've probably heard this taught that it was because these were the mighty warriors who were on guard they wouldn't stick their face in the water and drink their they're on guard they're watching and they're cupping the water on guard watch these were the best of the best no here's how I heard it taught and it makes more sense to me and it fits with the entirety of the Gideon but story but God's story the 300 men who cupped the water did so because they couldn't bend down to stick their face in the water why because they were older perhaps infirmed crippled maybe and they couldn't that fits what do you mean well think about it when God appears to Gideon where is he he's hiding from the Midianites in total fear threshing the the wheat at the wine press hiding and God appears to him and says Gideon o mighty warrior to which I can just imagine Gideon responding with where where's the warrior me yeah you I'm going to use you to deliver the Midianites into the hands of the Israelites and what does Gideon do oh he starts off right out of the chute no God you've got the wrong guy you don't understand God I'm the black sheep of my family and my family is the black sheep of my tribe and my tribe is the black sheep of all of the tribes of Israel three strikes I'm out God says no you're not I'm going to use that's in fact why I'm going to use you God chooses and uses the weak to confound the strong right so that's when Gideon then puts out the fleece and says okay God I need confirmation here so let there not be any dew you know around and then not on the fleece and then God does it and and God says I want to be Gideon says I want to be really really sure so now I want You to flip it around the other way have the dew be on the fleece and not on the ground around and God does it Gideon realizes he's got to do this and he's the least of the least of the last of the last and that fits with the 300 men who also had to be the least of the least and the last of the last see even if they were 300 green berets so to speak top guns if you will think about it wouldn't they still want to try to take the credit you should have seen us man with that Midianite army the 300 of us doesn't work imagine on the other hand if they're elderly men infirmed and unable and imagine them going back to the camp of the Israelites after defeating the Midianites and trying to take the credit for it boasting about it you should have seen those doesn't work does it that's God's grace they did nothing in and of themselves in their own strength God's strength was manifest in their weakness that's grace that's how grace works and that's how grace works in our lives Gideon even makes it into what we affectionately refer to as the Hebrews Hall of faith where he's listed amongst those of whom we're told in chapter 11 verse 34 had escaped the edge of the sword whose weakness was turned to strength did you hear that whose weakness was turned to strength Paul my grace is sufficient my power my strength is manifest in your weakness and that's when Paul says I will boast Gideon will say I will boast I am weak but God is strong when I am weak God is strong I am strong when I'm weak and that's how it's all of grace let me close this way every single one of us here today has our own but God story to tell but here's the thing the one person that you need to tell your but God's story to is you what do you mean great pastor's suggesting that we start talking to ourselves actually I am David did now this is different than self talk this is talking to self in the Psalms David starts off and I mean it's perilous like here in verses 1 through 3 we're dead in our transgressions and sins deserving of wrath but God and the Psalms kind of are the same way they start off and it's desperate its despair it's dismal but God and then David sort of sits himself down and says sit down boy you need a talking to and he starts talking to himself he gives himself a good talking-to and he says o my soul why be in such despair you will again have reason to praise God maybe you need to have that much-needed reminder of what God has done for you in the past because of what you're going through in the present I think of what David did when he arrives on the battlefield after Goliath this uncircumcised Philistine is blaspheming the name of his God for 40 days and 40 nights David hears at one time that's not okay that's not okay one time and he goes to the king who's crippled and fear Saul and he actually has to convince Saul to let him go slay this uncircumcised Philistine to shut his mouth so that he never blasphemes the name of his God ever again now what does Saul do he's come on David stick with the harp this champion which is what Goliath means and very interesting David never once refers to him by that name he always says of him he's an uncircumcised Philistine who blasphemes my God never calls him Goliath meaning champion he's no champion and so Saul says here Dave you don't understand he's been eating kids like you for lunch and spitting out the remains longer than you've been alive oh Saul but God delivered into my hands a bear and a lion and if God can do that then surely God can deliver into my hands this uncircumcised Philistine and He does and interesting side note parenthetically for those of you that are interested in the significance of numbers in Scripture you know the number five is the number of grace grace I find it interesting that David would take five stones some suggest maybe there is merit to it that it was because Goliath had you know five brothers or four brothers for a total of five but he took five stones and saved Israel by grace the number five you know the fifth commandment of all the commandments is the only commandment that has any grace all the other Commandments are thou shalt not and we get to number five and it's thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother so that the days upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee may be long yes I have it memorized my parents made me the only commandment with any grace the fifth commandment here's another one lastly this is amazing to me so Abram and Sarai their names are changed how God takes the fifth letter in the Hebrew alphabet Hei and places it in the fifth place in their names and changes everything Ibrahim and Sarah number five grace changes everything let me say lastly won't you today embrace God's grace but God it's all of grace and that will change everything I promise you I promise you I promise you on the authority of God's Word and God's goodness let's pray Father in heaven I just feel that absent Your Holy Spirit taking this teaching as grand and glorious as it is concerning Your grace that unless the Holy Spirit takes it and now blesses it to our hearts and to our lives so that I didn't even come close to even scratching the surface as we say so Lord will You take it from here Lord we don't want to leave this here we want to take from this into our lives so that it's real that Your grace is real especially for anyone here today that's really struggling Lord I pray that You would encourage them encourage their hearts strengthen their hearts thank You Lord in Jesus' name Amen

Channel: J.D. Farag

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Keywords: Prayer, Jesus, Weary, Discouraged, Despair, Quitting, Kindness, Compassion, Humility, Brokenness, Gentleness, Financial Problems, Marriage Problems, Family Problems, Trials, Pain, Difficulty, Depression, Galatians, Holy, Joy, Bible, Hope, Love, Help, Free, Life, Strength, Peace, Truth, Happiness, Rest, Harmony, Light, Freedom, Happy, Salvation, Forgiveness, Gospel, Holy Spirit, Lord, Pastor, Grace, Mercy, Ministry, Messiah, Heavenly Father, Hebrew, Preaching

Id: U1Q9FPXzFeU

Length: 44min 9sec (2649 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 04 2018