Title:
Riches of the Gospel
Text:
Ephesians 2: 1-7
Date:
September 6, 2012
Place:
SGBC, New Jersey
Ephesians 2: 7: That in the ages to come he
might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us
through Christ Jesus.
We
delight in the gospel of our Redeemer because through the gospel God shows his
child our sin and shows the believer the
exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ
Jesus. This is the truth of God
whereby the Spirit of God makes Christ the life and breath of our inner
man. This is the truth whereby God makes
a man entirely new, entirely what he was not before, and makes all things
entirely new unto us.
I. WE SEE THE RICHES OF GOD TOWARD US BY HOW
HE WAS LONGSUFFERING TOWARD US WHEN WE WERE IN OUR NATURAL STATE.
EVERY
MAN AS WE ARE BORN INTO THIS WORLD IS DESCRIBED HERE. When you hear me use
terms such as, “the old man”, “the flesh”, “the unregenerate”, the old nature”
and so on…this text describes it.
Dead
Ephesians 2: 1: And you hath he quickened,
who were dead in trespasses and sins;…
“Dead”
says it all.
·
Not hurt—dead!
·
Not wounded—dead!
·
Not paralyzed—dead!
·
Not almost—completely dead!
Illustration: Life goes out of
a body. No pulse, no heartbeat, not a
spark, or twitch, a cold lifeless corpse.
Application: This is the spiritual condition of everyone as we are
born into this world the first time—of some sitting here now. We are born with no spiritual life, no
spiritual movement, no spiritual ability to save ourselves from this condition,
as spiritually lifeless as a corpse in a coffin. Fallen man is worthless! Dead men can do nothing. Lifeless men are not looked to or depended
upon for anything. That is what every
man is as he is born into this world—including every chosen child of God.
Illustration: If our
condition of being spiritually dead was on a scale as—“0”—now we are going
further backwards into the “minus” direction.
Dead and Corrupt
As if dead were not enough—it is added—v1:…dead in trespasses and sins.
Illustration: A dead carcass is bad enough. But worse is a dead carcass covered in ants
and maggots and rot.
Natural man is not only spiritually dead, We are covered over—immersed—in our own
corruption. We are crawling with the
filth of our own trespasses and sins.
Swept
Away
Ephesians 2: 2: Wherein in time past ye
walked according to the course of this world,…
Natural
man is swept along with the current of the world.
Illustration: Rip tide down the shore. Living folks are able to fight
against it, but a dead man is merely swept away by the current.
The believer strives against being conformed to this
world. But natural sinners not only do not fight against the course of this
world—but gladly are swept along with the flow!
Application: Since Adam sinned and death passed upon all men, mankind
has progressed further and further away from God. It is the course of this world to go away
backwards from God.
·
From the vilest to the one who appears best
·
From the poorest to the richest
·
From the filthy gutters to the pristine
cathedrals
All natural men are in the same polluted ocean, swept
away by the same “course of this world”, not toward God, but only further away
from God.
Under Power of Darkness
But we go backwards even further—Paul also says natural
man is under the dominion of the devil—v2:…according to the prince of the power of the
air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
2 Corinthians 4:4: In whom the god of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not,…
Why is it that the natural man cannot receive the things
of God? Why is there no delight in
Christ? Why does the natural mind not
see the exceeding sinfulness of sin? Why
does the natural mind not sit at Christ’s feet, in our right mind, delighting
to hear of these riches bestowed upon God’s saints? The prince of the power of the air has
blinded their minds.
No Exeptions
There
are no exceptions, this was so of each of us whom he has called. v3:
Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others.
Some of
these lusts and desires were the obvious polluting pleasures of the flesh. But there were some who appeared good—their
lusts and desires were the intellectualism of the mind:
·
Philosophies
·
Vain deceit
·
Feigned faith perhaps as was Paul’s.
God's
elect were put in Christ by God the Father before the foundation of the world.
Ephesians 1: 3: Blessed be the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in
heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of
the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
God’s
elect were sanctified, justified and accepted in Christ our Surety before the
foundation of the world. So there is no
possibility that any of God’s elect shall perish under the wrath of God.
But "by
nature," in our natural state, even God’s elect were “children of wrath,
even as others.” The principles and motives of our natural heart was no
different than any other sinner. We were
as ignorant of God as any other. Our
natural heart was enmity against God just like every other sinner. We deserved the wrath of God like every other
sinner.
II. WE DELIGHT IN THE GOSPEL BECAUSE IN THE
GOSPEL WE HEAR OF GOD’S RICHES OF MERCY, LOVE AND GRACE TOWARD US.--Ephesians
2: 4: But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5:
Even when we were dead in sins,…
But God who is RICH in Mercy
Mercy is God withholding from us what we have
fully earned and fully deserved. Angels
fell but God showed them no mercy. But
when man fell it was the mercy of God that did not immediately destroy the
whole human race.
Illustration: Why do you always preach about sin?
We can
never appreciate the riches of God’s mercy until we know the depths of our
sins. Truly in proportion as we see how great
a sinner we are the more we will value the riches of God’s mercy. But we can’ t know the riches of mercy till
God makes us to know the poverty of our sin.
Illustration: Luke 7: 37-47
It is painful when God makes us to know our
sin. But it is the only way we will
rejoice in the riches of God’s mercy—but
God who is rich in mercy.
His Great Love
But
God…for his great love wherewith he
loved us even when we were dead in sins,…God’s love for his elect is
unsearchable.
Ephesians 3: 17: That Christ may dwell in your hearts by
faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18: May be able to
comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and
height; 19: And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye
might be filled with all the fulness of God.
Something of that love is revealed in that
God’s love was great toward us—even when
were dead in sins. Sin is an
abomination to God—a stench, a thing abhorred by God.
Illustration: When you come upon a dead animal in the woods covered
with maggots—the stench of it, the vileness of it—causes us to turn and go the
other way. Could you love something like
that?
God is
infinite purity, perfect holiness. God
hates sin with perfect righteous hatred. But God who is rich in mercy with his
great love wherewith he loved us EVEN when we were dead in sins. This mercy and love are never at the expense
of justice. Christ bore the penalty we
owed divine justice.
Romans 5: 6: For when we were yet without strength, in
due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7: For scarcely for a righteous man will
one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8: But
God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. 9: Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be
saved from wrath through him. 10: For if, when we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we
shall be saved by his life. 11: And not only so, but we also joy in God through
our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
Christ
Jesus is Salvation. Jesus Christ is God
come from heaven in the flesh of like those he came to save. He is the One Holy and Righteous Man of
God. He was made under his own law. He fulfilled—honored and magnified—his own
law in precept and penalty. He justified
every elect child of God. He purged all
the sins of every elect child of God by his own blood. And because this Faithful
Man is God the Son everything he accomplished for his people is eternal. Nothing can be added to it, nothing can be
taken from it—not now, not ever. And the
GodMan Mediator now reigns upon his own throne the mercy seat.
With
mercy and love came the riches of his grace.
Ephesians 2: 6: (by grace ye are saved;)
Grace
is the favor of God.
·
Free grace—there is no worthiness, no merit,
nothing of value in those God chose.
·
Sovereign grace—it is God’s right to choose
whom he would
·
Distinguishing grace—Jacob have I loved, but
Esau have I hated
·
Superabounding grace—“Moreover the law
entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much
more abound:” (Ro 5:20)
(By grace ye are saved;) If God demanded the least work from us in order to
be saved there would be no hope for any sinner—but salvation is all of grace!
Ephesians 2:8 For
by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift
of God:
Romans 3: Justified freely by
his grace through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Romans 11: 5: Even so then at this present time also
there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
It is the grace of God that makes guilty
sinners white as snow. By grace we are
accepted in the Beloved. By grace we are sanctified in Christ by the Spirit of
God. By grace we are saved with an everlasting salvation. Nothing melts the heart of stone but grace. Nothing brings a sinner to rest in the
obedience of Christ alone but grace. Nothing
makes the believer delight to walk after God but grace.
Illustration: All we heard at Danville was how God has saved us by
grace? Did it make you want to sin
against God? It made me want to honor
him in this life.
III. WE REJOICE IN THE GOSPEL BECAUSE WE HEAR
OF THE RICHES OF ETERNAL LIFE BY CHRIST JESUS--See the three things he says here. v5: God hath "quickened us together with Christ."; v6:
"Raised us up together with Christ”, "And made us sit together in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus."
He "hath quickened us together
with Christ."
Christ
really laid down his life and was buried in a tomb. But by the operation of the Holy
Spirit--"quickened by the Spirit"), by the power of the Father, by
His own divine power, Christ raised up His own body. All the elect of God are
members of his body. When Christ was quickened—all the elect of God were
quickened in him. Not in our experience
of grace, but in Christ. And it is
because we were quickened in him that Christ brings the gospel to us and the
Holy Spirit enters in and quickens us to newness of life. "You hath he quickened who were dead."
We experience true God-wrought conviction of
sin only when we have been made alive. We
only begin to fear God when alive . The
spirit of prayer enters in when we are quickened. Only when alive do we begin to beg God for
mercy!
Raised us up together with Christ
Then
Christ arose from the grave and all the elect of God arose in
him--"members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones." Likewise, when we experience this quickening
grace, we are not left in the tomb of sin and misery. Once we have been brought to come to God not
on the grounds of our works but on the ground of Christ’s finished work, Christ
says, “Lazarus come forth!” The Holy
Spirit applies to blood inwardly and purges our conscious.
And
made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus
All the
benefits and blessings of His death and resurrection floods our soul. We behold Christ ascended up where He was
before, at the right hand of the Majesty on high. But now we behold that when
he arose, we arose in him.
We
cease living for ourselves, for this world, and our affection is not set on
Christ above. Sin is dethroned in our
hearts. The fear of death and hell and
Satan has lost its grip upon our souls. We
see Christ having conquered all and we trust him to keep us. Christ in glory is our hope, our assurance,
that one day we will be with Christ in eternal bliss.
Application: Now how did all this come about? Why did God quicken
your soul? Was it because you and I did something? No way! It was because God put you in Christ--you
were a member of Christ. We were raised
to "a good hope through grace"? Because, as a member of Christ's mystical
body, you have already ascended, and are already sitting at the right hand of
God with Christ, who is sitting as the head of His body there. Then the gospel becomes a delight of riches
freely bestowed upon us:
·
Total depravity becomes glorious because by
the depths of our sins we see the heights of his love.
·
Election is precious because Christ is the
Elect in whom God chose us.
·
Particular Redemption is glorious because by
Christ redemption of his particular people our sins have been put away.
·
Irresistible grace becomes precious because
we behold how the Spirit raised us from the dead and the flesh profited
nothing.
·
Preservation of the saints becomes precious
because it is by this same power we persevere—kept by the power of God.
The
riches of God’s mercy, love and grace becomes one harmonious gospel that delights
our souls!
Ephesians 1: 17
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give
unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: 18 The eyes of your understanding being
enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the
riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his
power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, 20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised
him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
21 Far above all principality, and
power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this
world, but also in that which is to come: 22
And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over
all things to the church, 23 Which is
his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
Ephesians 3: 19: And to know the love of Christ, which
passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
Colossians
3: 1: If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where
Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above,
not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ
in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also
appear with him in glory.
Amen!