Series: Ephesians
Title: His Power to Quicken and Convert
Date: June 30, 2013
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Ephesians 1: 15: Wherefore I also, after I
heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, 16: Cease
not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; 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.
, our subject will be: His Power to Quicken and Convert.
It was not merely God’s power that Paul desired
for them to know. It is the exceeding
greatness of his power “to usward who believe.”
Proposition: The exceeding greatness of power that God works mightily
to quicken and convert a sinner to faith in Christ is the same mighty power God
worked when he raised Christ from the dead and gave him all this glory.
Divisions: We will
see that the exceeding greatness of power that regenerated and converted us is the
same as that power that raised Christ from the dead by comparing: 1) Our Deaths;
2) Our Obstacles; 3) The Means Used; 4) The Effects Produced
I. FIRST, LET’S COMPARE OUR DEATHS.
The Death of Christ Was Real Death
When the Lord Jesus lay in the tomb there was
absolutely no life in his body. (John
19) The work of declaring God just
and of Justifying God’s people on the cross was the most important event that
has ever taken place in the history of this world—think of that! There have been some enormously
important events take place in history—but none as important, none as necessary,
as what took place on that cross over 2000 years ago.
Christ had to bear the sins of his people in
his own body on the tree to manifest the righteousness of God. For God to be
just in pouring out divine judgment on Christ in place of his people, the LORD
had to lay on him the iniquity of all his people. He had all the sins and trespasses of his
elect people put upon him
If the fit man who led the scape goat into the wilderness
had to be washed because ceremonially, in type, he was unclean by his contact
with the scapegoat—then we know that Christ really bore our sins in his own
body on the tree because Christ is not the shadow, but the express image of
that one foreshadowed in the scapegoat.
His bearing the sin of his people in his body was as real
as Christ bearing the punishment for his people. Therefore, Christ Jesus the Son of God really
did give up the Ghost and die. No man
took his life, he laid it down of himself and he had power to raise it up
again. But his death was real.
His
bearing our sin was real; his bearing our punishment was real; his declaring
God just was real; his satisfying justice for us was real. Because when Christ Jesus really did die, the
old man of sin in each of his elect really died.
Let me
show you the reality of what took place on the cross:
John 19:30: When Jesus therefore had received the
vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
31: The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should
not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high
day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they
might be taken away. 32 Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the
first, and of the other which was crucified with him. 33 But when they came to
Jesus, and saw that he was dead alredy, they brake not his legs; 34 But one of the soldiers with a spear
pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. 35 And he that
saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith
true, that ye might believe. [Truly this was the Son of God.] 36 For these
things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall
not be broken. 37 And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him
whom they pierced. 38 And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of
Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take
away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore,
and took the body of Jesus. 39 And there came also Nicodemus, which at the
first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about
an hundred pound weight. 40 Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound
it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. 41
Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a
new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. 42 There laid they Jesus
therefore because of the Jews’ preparation day; for the sepulchre was
nigh at hand.
So we see there was absolutely no life in our Savior’s body
when he was laid in the tomb.
The Death of His People was Real Death
Likewise, there was absolutely no spiritual
life in us before regeneration—Ephesians
2: 1: And you hath he quickened, who
were dead in trespasses and sins;
Brethren, we had none of the spiritual senses
that make up spiritual life which we now have:
·
No eyes to see Christ
·
No ears to hear his Voice
·
No hands to lay hold of the skirt of his
garment
·
No feet to be led of the Spirit of God
·
No nose to smell the sweet smelling savor of
Christ’s offering
·
No heart to beat after Christ
·
No tongue to confess our sins and beg mercy
of him
·
No inward hunger and thirst after
righteousness.
We were totally, thoroughly, completely dead
in sin.
Application:
Imagine a preacher at a funeral, saying to the corpse in the casket, “God wants
to save you if you will just let him. If
you take the first step God will do the rest.”
It is no less absurd for a preacher to say that to men and women, dead
in trespasses and in sins. Sinners can do nothing to be born again.
New Birth, New Creation
The new birth is a creation which is entirely the work of God alone. No man has ever created anything; God alone has
power to create a new man within these bodies of death. God does not use parts
of us that already existed. He creates
something which before was not there—a new man.
Regeneration is a new creation.
Ephesians 2:10: For we are his workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus…
Ephesians 4:24: And that ye put on the new man, which
after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Colossians 3:10: And have put on the new man,
which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
2 Corinthians 5: 17: Therefore
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away;
behold, all things are become new. 18: And all things are of God, who hath
reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of
reconciliation;
The exceeding
greatness of his mighty power is effectual, irresistible, none can stop him
from doing this work. Christ told Nicodemus, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God…just as the wind
blows where it will, so the Spirit of God blows where it will.” (John 3: 3) Each of God’s elect shall be born again and
given faith to believe on Christ.
John 6: 37: All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast
out.
So first of all, we
see that we were dead like as Christ was dead.
God receives the glory for regenerating his children to life. Ephesians
2: 1: And you hath HE QUICKENED, who
were dead in trespasses and sins;
John 1: 13: Which were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
II. SECONDLY, LET’S COMPARE OUR OBSTACLES (Matthew 27)
A Stone and Armed Guards
Guarding Christ’s tomb was a stone sealed in
place, along with armed guards to make sure Christ’s body would never leave
that tomb.
Matthew 27: 62: Now the next day, that followed the day
of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, 63:
Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After
three days I will rise again. 64 Command therefore that the sepulchre be made
sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away,
and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be
worse than the first. 65 Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way,
make it as sure as ye can. 66 So they went, and made the sepulchre sure,
sealing the stone, and setting a watch.
Likewise,
believer, a stone was sealed, keeping us in our grave—our own stony
hearts. While in that state, if the word
of God came to us we did like those of old,
Zechariah 7: 11:
But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their
ears that they should not hear. 12: Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant
stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts
hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath
from the LORD of hosts.
Our hard hearts had no
understanding of our sin, no understanding of the true and living God and his
Christ, and we had no desire to know, the gospel was foolishness to us.
1 Corinthians 2:14: But the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto
him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
We not
only had no spiritual discernment, we actively pursued all things ungodly--Ephesians 2: 2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to
the course of this world, [Our
affections were totally set on things of this earth]…3: 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; [“the desires of our mind” were those dreams we
followed after, deceived, thinking we
could find lasting value in this world] and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. [Full of enmity against God, full of pride,
unbelief, and self-righteousness, with the wrath of God abiding on us.]
In addition to the stone, there
were armed guards standing watch over Christ’s tomb to prevent him from
being raised. Likewise, we had plenty of armed guards around us as well.
The devil himself—Ephesians
2: 2: We walked…according to the prince of the power of
the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Every unregenerate, unbelieving, disobedient
child of Adam is guarded by Satan. (2 Tim 2: 26; Heb 2: 15) We were entirely THE DUPES OF SATAN, the
strongman—the spirit that now works in those here who have not repented from
their sins and believed on Christ. The Lord Jesus made Paul an apostle, to
preach the gospel for this purpose:
Acts 26: 18: To open their eyes, and to turn
them from darkness to light, and from THE POWER OF SATAN UNTO GOD, that they
may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are
sanctified by faith that is in me.
Also, we were
guarded by our worldly friends and family. They urged us not to get too
involved with the gospel.
Some of us were
just the opposite: but we had false preachers and vainly religious friends
guarding us to make sure we continued living among the dead. A false profession
in religion is so deadly.
Matthew 23:15: Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is
made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than
yourselves.
Illustration: Most
preachers are sculptors. They take a sinner and they chisel here. Cut
there. Sand down this part. Hammer and saw and form and sculpt. (Isaiah
41: 6-7) Until they’ve made a man look like
a godly man—but he is only a statue. a “form of godliness.”
2 Timothy 3:5: Having a form of godliness, but denying
the power thereof: from such turn away.
Illustration: Near
Knoxville, the Tennessee River flows
southward but near Jackson, it runs north. Yet, even though it has changed
directions, it is still the same old muddy water.
When a sinner turns his life around himself,
gets baptized, joins the church, does good works, cuts his hair, trims his
sideburns, throws away his music collection and engages in a frenzy of church
activities though he is zealous and sincere, though the preacher calls it “a
work of grace”, it is the same muddy water flowing in a different
direction.
Outward reformation is not regeneration. A new lifestyle
is not a new nature. An outward form of holiness is not sanctification of the Spirit.
To have the form without the power is to be worse off than before—for then a
man thinks he has life, when he is still dead.
Be sure to hear this: The single greatest problem with self-made religious
men and women is this:
Matthew 22: 29: Jesus answered
and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of
God.
It takes the exceeding greatness of God’s
effectual, irresistible power by which he raised Christ from the grave, to
create life within a dead, stony hearted, guarded sinner.
Christ is that Power and Wisdom of God
When he cast devils out of a certain man on
the Sabbath day, the Pharisees accused him of doing it by the devil. Christ
said,
Matthew 12: 28: But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of
God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. 29: Or else how can one enter
into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong
man? and then he will spoil his house.
It took nothing less than God
himself taking our flesh, taking the sin of his people in his own body, to
suffer the divine justice his people deserved, to purge the sin of his people
and put an end to death for us—that was the binding of the devil.
Hebrews 2:14: Forasmuch then as the children are
partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same;
that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15 And deliver them who through fear of death
were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
And it takes nothing less than the exceeding
greatness of his power working WITHIN his child to overcome the stony heart and
the powers and principalities guarding that captive sinner. This is the power of God that those with a
form of godliness deny! Because sadly, they
know nothing of it!
III. THIRDLY, LET’S COMPARE THE MEANS GOD
USED (Matthew 28)
An Angel with a Message
God
sent an angel with a message to the tomb of our Savior.
Matthew 28: 1: In the end of the sabbath, as it began to
dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other
Mary to see the sepulchre. 2: And, behold, there was a great EARTHQUAKE: FOR
the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and ROLLED back the STONE
from the door, and SAT upon it. 3: His countenance was like lightning, and his
raiment white as snow: 4: And for fear of him the KEEPERS did shake, and became
as DEAD men. 5: And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not
ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. 6: He is not here: for
he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. 7: And go
quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he
goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.
Likewise,
at the set time, in the exceeding greatness of his mighty power, Christ sends a
messenger—a preacher—to his lost child.
Illustration: Think of the obstacles that he overcomes to do that: it
is a long, winding road, over 14 years long, from south Arkansas to central New
Jersey.
Christ
first fills his preacher with the treasure of his gospel riches—that gospel “is
the power of God unto salvation.” (Rom 1: 16)
But the preacher has no power to work effectually in the hearts of his
hearers. He is no match for the stony
heart, no match for Satan, the strongman, no match for the host of armed guards
surrounding a sinner. But in God’s
wisdom, there is a reason his preacher has no power to work effectually.
2 Corinthians 4:7: But we have this treasure in earthen
vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
Power is of God
The
exceeding great effectual power is of God, of Christ our King, of the Holy
Spirit. As his gospel goes forth, the
Holy Spirit creates a great earthquake like when Christ was raised. He rolls away our stony heart and sits upon
it—subduing our old stubborn fleshly man.
He overcomes all who guarded us, making them to become as dead men.
God works mightily,
effectually in the exceeding greatness of his power to create a new heart—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, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye
are saved;).
Ezekiel 11:19: And I will give
them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the
stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh.
In that new heart that he made, for the first
time he convinces us:
·
“of sin: because we believed not on the Lord Jesus
Christ.”—He convinced us we died in Adam, that our best works were all
sin, that WE were sin, we were convinced our chief sin was not believing God’s
word concerning his Son, Christ Jesus—we were “without Christ, without hope, without God in this world.” (John
16: 9; Eph 2: 12)
·
Convinced of righteousness: we heard the same good news they heard at Christ’s tomb,
“Fear not. Jesus Christ is risen! He has
gone before you into glory! And because God received him, it means God accepted
his sacrifice; the work of redemption is accomplished. Christ is our
Righteousness.”
·
Convinced of judgment: we
beheld that Christ had put away all our sin, that there was now no condemnation
to us because God had put us in Christ
Jesus. Satan who once ruled us, was cast out, and Christ now had dominion over
us.
And by
the exceeding greatness of his power, God gave us the gift of faith, purging our
conscious from dead works—Ephesians 2:
8
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it
is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest
any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus…
Having
cast all our care upon Christ, God gave his verdict in our conscience: made the
righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, justified from all sin, forgiven…Ephesians 2: 13:…now in Christ Jesus ye who
sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
Paul
says this is Eph 1: 19: 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,…
Paul
knew because he was quickened and converted the same way you and I were.
Ephesians 3:7
Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God
given unto me by the effectual working of his power.
1 Tim. 1: 12: He counted me faithful, putting me into the
ministry, I that was before a persecutor and blasphemer; and the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ was exceeding abundant.
IV. LASTLY, LET’S COMPARE A FEW FRUITS OF THIS POWER—
Christ Sat Down
When
Christ ascended to the Father he sat down because our high priest finished the
work of perfecting forever them that are sanctified. Likewise, the first thing
the believer does when God brings us to rest in Christ our Righteousness is to
cease from our works of trying to earn acceptance with God by the law.
Hebrews 4: 10: For he that is entered into his rest, he
also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
Raised to Die No More
Christ
was raised to die no more,
Romans 6: 9:…Christ being raised from the dead dieth no
more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10: For
in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto
God.
Likewise,
each of us born of the exceeding greatness of his power, shall die no more.
John 11: 25: Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection,
and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
26: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou
this?
Walk in Newness of Life
Like as
Christ now lives unto God, so do we who believe.
Romans 6: 4:…like as Christ was raised up from the dead
by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life….11:
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto
God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Bear Witness of
Christ
Christ is Head over his body the fullness of him and he
is filling all in all. He does so partly by sending us forth as his witnesses
to declare Christ and his finished work.
So our great work here on earth is to bear witness of Christ as he is
revealed in the scriptures.
Whatever we are doing, as unto the Lord, the ultimate end
should be to promote his gospel—for his glory and his people’s good. V10: For we are his workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should
walk in them.
Ephesians 4: 1: I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord,
beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, 2:
With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in
love; 3: Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace….29:
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good
to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. 30: And
grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of
redemption. 31: Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil
speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: 32: And be ye kind one to
another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake
hath forgiven you 5: 1: Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; 2:
And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us
an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
Amen!