7-8-2023 Daytona Beach Seventh Day BAPTIST Pastor Gregory “But GOD” Ephesians 2;4

[MizKJVOnly]

7-8-2023 Daytona Beach Seventh Day BAPTIST Pastor Gregory “But GOD” Ephesians 2;4

 

 

Its not about us, but it is all about God. Our text says “But God who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us”. As I was preparing for this message, all that kept coming in my spirit was “But God”. I could have been dead or lost my mind. And this could have happened or that could have happened. But God and His Grace has brought us together one more time to hear His Word. I pray that we are not just hearers of the word but be doers of the word.

In our natural state we were all spiritually dead because of sin and the fall of man. In Genesis chapter 3 and in Psalms 51;5 it says we were shaped in iniquity and in sin did our mothers conceive us. There was nothing we could have done to bring ourselves back to life. No matter how much good we had tried to do, we were all still sinners. The body and mind were under the control of Satan and consequently we were rebellious against God. Such rebels do not deserve God’s love. But God, But God. He loves us nevertheless. God does for sinners what we cannot do for ourselves. He gives us new life. He does this on the basis of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.

By God’s grace, Jesus not only died to bear the penalty for our sins but He rose to glorious life in the heavenly world. This is so that repentant sinners like us can have a glorious life in Him. Sinners cannot save themselves. Through their faith they can only turn to God in their helplessness. And they humbly accept the salvation God offers by His Grace. With Grace, if you take the letters G-R-A-C-E, it is God’s Redemption At Christ’s Expense. Good works cannot earn us salvation. But once we are saved, our lives should be full of good works. When God gives us this new life, we must live a new life. In Corinthians 5;17 it says if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away. Behold all things have become new. In Ephesians 2;1 it says “And you hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins” Paul is reminding the Ephesians of the reality of personal sins. Like them we must never forget our past or the conditions from which Jesus Christ saved us from. These memories are the best fuel for our gratitude to Jesus for all He has done on our behalf.

When we think about our life, replay our life, we think on all the things we should have done and didn’t do. Also on all the things you did do and should not have done. Just think about all the times you didn’t do what God required of you to do. We were not even trying to pay attention to God. We were selfish. We were in the flesh going about our own ways. We were dead in trespasses and sins like Paul described the Ephesian’s former life and our former life. Being dead in sins describes a spiritual condition. Right now there are so many people walking around dead. How are they walking dead? Because they are spiritually dead and have not come into the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He took all our sins on the Cross.

There was no spiritual goodness and no eternal life in us before accepting Jesus. There was eternal life but it was eternal damnation. A dead person is completely helpless. Prior to salvation we had no ability to please God in any way. Even the good we do is as filthy rags in God’s sight. That is in Isaiah 64;6. We are all as an unclean thing. And our righteousness is as a filthy rag. A new birth is needed. Also a spiritually dead person cannot see or understand the things of the Spirit. Neither can he take the initiative to seek after God. Ephesians 2;2 says “In times past we walked 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.” The way we used to live. Every time I think about the way I used to live, I get goose bumps. I get scared about the things I did in my life that were not pleasing to God.

But God….But God. The Ephesians had a radical life change after they were born again. After salvation, they did not live the same way as before. Paul implies in the text that every believer’s life has a clear change in direction after they are saved. If a person claims to have given his life to God and yet lives exactly the same way as before, then there’s a good chance that their decision was not genuine. I hear people say they were saved and then backslid so they are not saved anymore. That’s not a true statement. Once you are saved, you are saved. You cannot be unsaved. The reason people say they were saved and are not saved anymore is because they were not saved in the first place. The Bible says once you are in God’s hand, no man can pluck you out. Now we can still sin but we have God’s grace for that. In verse 3 it says that when we were back in our former lifestyle, we fulfilled the lusts of the flesh and the lusts of the mind. We were by nature the children of wrath. We must not be as some Christians are and be pointing out the faults of others while forgetting that we used to do the exact same things. We must remember that every time we point at some body, we have three fingers pointing back as us. We can never knock anybody down just because we now know Jesus.

Our mission is to let people know about Jesus Christ. There are a lot of spiritually blind and spiritually dead people walking around. Its our job to tell them about Jesus Christ. We have to try to live the way Jesus wants us to live and we will be blessed. The ruler of the kingdom of the air is Satan. He has been given dominion over this world. When Satan tried to tempt Jesus, he took Him to a mountain top and offered to give Jesus the kingdoms of the world. But you cannot give what you don’t have. Satan will try to trick you in anyway he can. He told Jesus that if He bowed down to him, he would give Jesus all these kingdoms. How can you give Jesus what is already His? You have to watch what you listen to because Satan is trying to get into our minds and trick us.

Paul says Satan is working in those that are disobedient to God. Satan uses every tool he can to get people and governments to follow him. He uses the internet, television, media, magazines and people to get us away from Jesus. Verse 4 says But God has mercy and love for us. God gives us Grace and a bridge that we can cross over back to Him. The bridge was gone but Jesus came and He became our bridge back to God.

 

AMEN