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Sermon message:

Ephesians 2:1-11

June 28, 2020

Thank Pastor Lang for the opportunity to stand here in this pulpit.

The message the Lord has given me, I hope that it will benefit someone here today.

I have to believe that it will. The bible tells us that His word will not go out void but will accomplish that which it was sent to do.

This morning’s message has two points that needs to be addressed;

His workmanship verse 10 and;

Our works verse 11.

First His workmanship. His workmanship has to do with the way we were before salvation and how we live afterwards. That would be what the Lord does in our lives after we are saved.

Much like the before and after diet pictures, these verses should be a picture of the before and after salvation. In most advertisements of diet or exercise products, we are shown before and after pictures.

In other words, if you looked at the before and the after pictures and couldn’t tell a change, would you buy their product?

If God took a picture of your before and after profession of conversion, or salvation, and He did, what would it show? Would it show a difference?

Verses 1-3 are the before and verses 4-10 are the after.

Since the bible gives us the before pictures first, we will read and look at them first. That is the way we usually like to look at these pictures, first the bad news, the before; then the after, the good news. We usually do not like the before picture and if we do then something is wrong. However, we take delight in the after picture and we rejoice when someone comments on the difference.

Before we get into the text of the message, I want to draw your attention to some of the past and present, the before and after observations given by the Apostle Paul when writing this epistle or letter; first the past tenses, the before, of these verses;

Notice in verse 1 that it says “who were.”

Then in verse 2 it says, “In times past ye walked.”

Verse 3 take note that it says “we had.” And were by nature.”

And then we see in verse 5, “when we were dead…”

And last, verses 11-12 we were in times past, verse 11; and That at that time ye were without Christ; we had no hope, and without God, verse 12.

Now let’s look at the after or present picture;

Verse 5 “hath quickened us together.”

Verse 6 “And hath raised us up together.”

Verse 8 “are ye saved.”

Verse 10 “For we are His workmanship.”

What I am getting at is the before and after pictures. There needs to be a definite, visible difference
What makes the difference? That is what this message this morning is about.

Read verses 1-3. The before picture.

We were dead in trespasses and sins. The trespasses are those areas where we have crossed the line. It is where we have taken it upon ourselves to define what is sin and what is not; or what is acceptable and what is not. This is usually determined by political correctness; by our own sense of right and wrong. It can be determined by how we were raised or how we were not raised.

Sins on the other hand are where we have fallen short and missed the mark. We see our sins when we look into the word of God and see what the Lord God says is an affront and an abomination to Him.

Trespasses speaks of man as a rebel and sins speaks of our failure to measure up to God’s standards. We were and are, both rebels and failures.

Once we were children of the devil, Satan, and prone to do his bidding. We were acting out of our flesh nature that came by our first birth. It is at enmity with God (verses 15,16), meaning that we were in opposition and hostile toward God, even if we did not recognize or acknowledge it. James 4:4 tells us that friendship with the world is at enmity with God and whoever is a friend of the world is the enemy of God. There is no fence sitting for true Christians. The before and after pictures will tell the true story.

Then it says in verse 2 (read) that we walked (past tense) according to the course of this world. This course is what the world has laid out for all the earth’s inhabitants. It goes on to say that these influences are according to the prince of the power of the air. In other words, Satan, the spirit of disobedience that worketh in the children of wrath. The world’s influences dictate that we should live our lives in its mold. This is the entertainment world, whether it be Hollywood, sports or politicians, the world of amusement; the fashion world that tells us to dress immodestly; and the personal activities that we enjoy and will take us away from Christ and does not draw us closer to Him.

In verse 3 (read). According to verses 1-3 we were dead in trespasses and sins; 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; and we had our conversation, our lifestyles, in the lusts of the flesh and of the mind; and by nature, meaning our natural birth; our sin nature that we inherited from Adam; the old man, the flesh nature, and were the children of wrath.

This was the before. We were lost and without Christ and without hope (verse 12 of our text of Ephesians).When it says that we were dead in trespasses and sins it is saying that we were;

Slaves to our old nature. We took pleasure in the sins of the flesh. We lived like the world, we talked like the world, we dressed like the world, we listened to the same things and watched the same things. We were no different than the world because we were of the world.

Just like the before diet pictures it isn’t very pretty. It is not something we are proud of. It is something that needed to be changed, but we had no power to change it.

Romans 3:12 says in part that there is none that doeth good, no not one. And verse 23 of the same book and chapter tells us that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Here we find more of the before picture of our lives, more of the Devil’s spirit of disobedience. Here it says that we lived in the lust of the flesh, by fulfilling the desires of the flesh and mind; This is Satan at work in the lives of all unsaved people. We like everyone else that has never been born again were children of wrath.We also find that the word of God also says that we were blind (2 Corinthians 4:3-4);

We were a slave to sin (Romans 6:17);

We were a lover of darkness (John 3:19-20);

Sick (Mark 2:17);

And under the power of darkness (Colossians 1:13).

We would all have to agree that this is not a very pretty picture we have of the before salvation.

The degree of sin in our lives played no part in how lost we were. All have sinned and come short of God’s perfect standard.

It is very true that there are exceeding sinful people, and there is good moral, sinful people and they are all lost and going to a devil’s hell together. God has one standard, perfection; Be ye holy for I am holy.

This was the before. We were lost and without Christ and without hope (verse 12 of our text of Ephesians).

There was nothing we could do about it. It had to come about by a new birth, one from above, and that is what Jesus has done for us, He died on the cross, shedding all His blood, buried in a tomb and raised again on the third day and then forty days later ascended into heaven with the promise to come again.

(Read verses 8-9). This new birth came by grace through faith It was the grace of God, the unmerited love of God in Christ that brought Him down from heaven to be born of a virgin and live the sinless life to make Him the perfect sacrifice for us. It was purely a gift from God, undeserved and unmerited.

It was by faith in these acts of God in Christ, shown by His love for the world that activated His grace. And now we have a new birth. His grace is always present but it takes faith to make it a present reality in the life of a sinner.

Nobody that tasted the wine that Jesus made from water wanted the wine that was served before.

In just the same way, those that have tasted of the heavenly gift of salvation; or tasted the good word of God and the power of the world to come would desire the old life.

Ephesians 2:10 says that we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. So, what is His workmanship? Well, let’s talk about this for a few minutes.

First of all, we are new creatures. This is an act of God the Holy Spirit. When we accepted Jesus as our Savior, we were born again, that is born from above. We have a new heavenly Father.

This new birth came by grace through faith (verse 8-9). It was the grace of God, the unmerited love of God in Christ that brought Him down from heaven to be born of a virgin and live the sinless life to make Him the perfect sacrifice for us. It was purely a gift from God, undeserved and unmerited.

It was by faith in these acts of God, shown by His love for the world that activated His grace. And now we have a new birth. His grace is always present but it takes faith to make it a present reality in the life of a sinner.

God expects His creation to be perfect. And since He knows that we have this natural propensity to rebel against Him, or flesh nature, He demanded a perfect sacrifice, a holy sacrifice to be made for sinful man; A perfect and holy sacrifice, one without spot or blemish. Jesus was that sacrifice.

We on the other hand fall so very far short by choice. We have shown in our lives that we don’t deserve God’s heaven but rather Satan’s hell.

That is not a very pretty picture is it? This is the before picture.

Then beginning with verse 4, we start to see the after picture.

“But God,” don’t you just love all those but God’s in the bible? They show the Lord God’s intervention in things that we cannot do anything about. It shows the Lord God working in our world in a way we cannot. I cannot make the sun to stand still but God did. No one could make the river dry up so Moses and his people could walk across on dry ground but God did. And I cannot make the barren womb fruitful and the virgin to bring forth but God did. I cannot forgive my own sins, but God can and did. I cannot save myself from condemnation, but God can and did. I cannot answer my own prayers but God can and does.

Here in verse 4 it begins with “but God.”

It says “but God who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us.” Notice that it says He loved us; when did He love us? Answer; when we were dead in sins. It was when we were at our worst that He showed us His love, not at our best. Actually, according to God, we had no best before we were saved. It was all the before picture, not pretty, nothing to be proud of, nothing to boast about to God.

If you desire to be anywhere but in the house of worship; if you desire to be doing anything more than serving the Lord; if you desire reading anything above the bible; if you forsake the times of prayer because you would rather be doing anything else or to be anywhere else, you are still in the image of the before picture.

We have seen in verses 1-3 Satan’s work. This again is the before, now we will see the Lord’s work, the after picture.

The first work of Jesus accomplished on the cross is that God hath quickened us together with Christ. God can, and does make us alive who were once dead in sins and trespasses. This is the first or beginning of His workmanship in us. Before He could work in us, He had to work on us and make us alive to Himself.

His second work on and in us is that of our position in Him (verse 6). He has made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Notice that it says that we are sitting in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, not with Christ Jesus. Jesus is in heaven and we are in Him, and He is in us.

Colossians 1:27 tells us that it is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

In Christ Jesus is our position in Christ. One day when we actually get to heaven we will sit with Christ Jesus. He shared in our death so that we can share in His resurrected life.

The result of His workmanship in us and on us is found in verse 7; That in the ages to come, (the eternity of eternities), He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

Don’t even begin to try to imagine what this means. It is beyond our comprehension. Paul says in 1Corinthians 2:9 that eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him. We think in the mindset of the world to come, and we should; but there is more, much more.

And before we get the idea that all of His exceeding riches of His grace is reserved for the eternal state it should be pointed out that in this life, we are saved to do abundantly above all that we can think. Many common, ordinary people have done great things for the Lord, things they would have thought impossible except for the mighty power of God working in and through them.

God has a plan for your life and mine that would completely amaze us. He will have us do things that we thought were impossible to do. More about this later. However, let us not stop there. God will create everything new. This creation is for this life, the new creation will be totally different. Nothing of this life will pertain to the new creation. Nothing in this life will compare to the eternal creation. It is much like our new life in Christ, our new life has nothing in common or relates to our old life.

In verses 8-9 (read). Here we find the source of His workmanship. It is our salvation by grace through faith. Paul cannot speak of this work of God, without reminding us that it is a gift of grace, given to the undeserving. We are not even saved by our faith, but by grace through faith.

We can think of water going through a hose. The water is the important part, but it is brought through the hose. Here is an illustration of this: When Connie or I go out to water our small garden, we take the hose, stretch it out, turn the water on. The hose does not water the garden; the water does. But the hose brings the water to the place the garden can benefit from it. It is the conduit for the water. Faith is the conduit that grace uses to benefit the person.

This then begins the new birth process. This begins the new life, the new person. The old man is to die daily. We gain this new before picture one day at a time, one denial at a time. We make ourselves to put to death the many things that would draw us back into the image of the old before picture. This means that we are to crucify the flesh and the lusts of it. This begins the after picture.

We could not save ourselves. “But God who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherein He loved us.” It was His grace, His love, and He held it out to us as a gift. It was nothing that we could do but accept it thankfully. His free gift cannot be added to or anything taken away from it. It would be a presumptuous sin to add to it and thievery to take from it.

Not of works, lest any man should boast. If this were not true, can you picture heaven with all the people walking around heaven in their newly created bodies, with their chest puffed out proudly proclaiming how much they had done to get to heaven and that Jesus owed them a great debt of gratitude? Remember the “before picture?” It was ugly. There was nothing to boast about.

We have nothing to be proud of. It was all of His workmanship. All of His obedience to His heavenly Father. It was His death on the cross. His resurrection, His Holy Spirit working in our lives. It is all of Him and nothing of us.

As I said at the beginning, this message has two parts: His workmanship and our works.

Verse 10 read. His workmanship in us; the after picture that He has done in us was for a reason. No person that has been saved by the grace of God, and that is the only way a person can and will be saved, no person is saved to just sit and enjoy the benefits of salvation.

We were not saved just to escape hell. That certainly is a great benefit, but that is just the beginning of our salvation. It should never end there. We were created in Christ Jesus for much more.

Ephesians 2:10 says that we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. So, what is His workmanship? Well, let’s talk about this for a few minutes.

First of all, we are new creatures. This is an act of God the Holy Spirit. When we accepted Jesus as our Savior, we were born again, that is born from above. We have a new heavenly Father.

Here in verse 10 we see that we were created in Christ Jesus, the after picture, unto good works. He has saved us that we may show forth the virtues of Him who called us from darkness into his marvelous light. For though we are not saved by our good works, yet we are saved that we may perform good works, to the glory of God and the benefit of man.

So, what do we mean by good works? It is simply and basically this; It is the works that are pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ. It is works that are done in complete faith in Him. For without faith it is impossible to please Him (God).

It is works that are faithfully performed. We are not to be slothful servants. We do not just work when we want to. It doesn’t begin and end at our convenience. It is to be done faithfully, not on an on again, off again basis.

It is works that are done with the proper and right motive. It is not done for self-glory, self-gratification or self-serving or self-promoting.

It is works that are sacrificial in performing. Work that sacrifices nothing accomplishes nothing.

It is works that benefit others rather than self.

It is works that builds up rather than tears down.

It is works that we will be pleased to offer to Christ.

It is works that when are finished, God can and will say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

There may be many other things that could be shown here but you get the picture. It is really the works that will be rewarded at the Judgment Seat of Christ. It will be works that will be of gold, silver and precious stones that will stand the test and not works of hay, wood or stubble that will be burned up when it goes through the testing fires of Christ.

We cannot do these good works without Spiritual tools. These Spiritual tools are provided us when we accept Christ as our Savior, never before. The first tool is the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes to abide in us forever, we are sealed until the day of redemption, which is the ultimate destination of every believer. The Holy Spirit guides you into all truth. John 14:17 calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of truth. He speaks nothing but truth.

The Holy Spirit teaches us all things (John 14:26). I know that Jesus is telling His disciples this but we need to remember that the word of God is of the Holy Spirit inspiration and this word of God is what teaches us all things pertaining to life and godliness.

The Holy Spirit reproves us (John 16:8). When we are about to do something that we shouldn’t He says no, no, no. He also reproves us of sin that we have committed, and urges us to repent and confess it.

The Holy Spirit also provides us with the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-24). If we desire the lust of the flesh (Galatians 5:16-21) then again you are showing the old man, the before picture.

The Holy Spirit grants us gifts of the Spirit (1Corinthians 12). These are to be used by Christians in their ministry to Jesus. Primarily in the confines of the church but not limited to just in church but everywhere we are.

The Lord has given us His protection. Nothing can happen to you without the permission of the Lord. You will not die; you cannot die until He calls you home. This cannot happen until He has accomplished everything He has designed for you. Paul said that he had fought a good fight, he finished his course, he had kept the faith. He had accomplished everything that God had for him to do. He knew that soon it was time for God to call him home. It was time for Timothy to carry on the work that was begun by Paul.

On many occasions Paul set before us his before and after picture. It began on the road to Damascus and ended in a prison cell in Rome. He was not proud of his before picture, he counted it all as dung. He was however pleased that God gave him a new life, his after picture, and he proclaimed it wherever he went.

The Lord has given us a before and after picture of salvation. Where do you stand? Which picture of yourself do you see? How about you this morning? Do you really prefer the old picture of your life before salvation? Is there a real difference? Can you tell the difference? Can others tell the difference? If you cannot answer in the affirmative, you need to do business with the Lord.

I want every head bowed and every eye closed while I ask a few questions. Do you know that you have really and truly been saved? Has your life shown a newness?

Has your life really changed for the good? Does it reflect the image of Christ or self? Does it want to do good works for Him or does it want to do things forbidden and rejected by the Lord? Are you drawn more to the works of the flesh or the fruit of the Spirit? Are you one that has been created in Christ Jesus unto good works that God re-created you for? Are you willing to step out on faith, step out of your comfort zone and be used by the Lord?

The altar is open.