Law and Grace - By grace are you saved

Good morning. First, some of you may be curious about my dad. I spent from Monday, almost two weeks ago, until Wednesday in the hospital with him, dealing with a stroke that he had. And so anyway, I may be one of the few people that was born in a barn and lived in a hospital. But anyway. His home has been since Wednesday, and the rest of the family is shouldering the responsibility. So anyway, I appreciate your letting me have that time to focus on helping my dad and mom out. And just in case you're wondering, this is Holly Hills. That's her name, anyway. OK.

Now, today we're going to be We're going to be moving into the book of Ephesians. We had a good eagle's eye view from Roger this last week. Sorry about that. Anyway, from Roger this last week, we're going to be moving into, as Wayne read for us, into the second chapter.

So here in the New Testament, right here in Ephesians, starting with chapter 2, verse 4. And we're going to be looking at selected passages in Ephesians here, shedding light on law and grace. Now, this Sunday we'll look at Ephesians 2, 4 through 10. And notice we're skipping the first few verses. And Sunday we'll look at Ephesians 2, 14 through 22. So that'll be our pattern here this Sunday and the next.

Ephesians is just this phenomenal book. It is breathtakingly gracious. Breathtakingly gracious. As a point of comparison, compare Ephesians 1-3. You've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. If you're a believer, you've already been blessed. Everyone in Christ in the heavenly places. Compare that to Deuteronomy 28, where the Jews had to obey the law, and if so, and only if so, were they blessed in the land of Israel in earthly ways. Sharp contrast.

Compare Ephesians 2.7 which says, in the rolling ages to come God will show, that means visibly demonstrate his grace to us. So forever we will have grace demonstrated to us by God.

Compare that to Deuteronomy 29.29 where the Jews will have the law forever. Law and law and more law.

Compare Ephesians 4.32 Forgive one another as God in Christ has already done, has forgiven you.

Compare that to Matthew 6.14 and 15 out of the Sermon on the Mount which says you will not be forgiven by God unless and until you forgive others. Unless and until you forgive others.

Ephesians 4.32, immensely gracious. You've already been forgiven, so therefore forgive another. As opposed to the threat in Matthew 6, 14 and 15. Said by Jesus, Sermon on the Mount, but said to the Jews who are under the law.

Alright, now what about, why am I skipping Ephesians 2, 1-3 and 2, 11-13? They're certainly extremely valuable passages, it's just that those talk about particular conditions, and let's illustrate what they are. Ephesians 2, 1-3 tells both Jewish and Gentile believers about their hopeless position and desperate condition before they were saved by faith in Christ. Before you were saved. So twice in that passage, formerly, formerly. Ephesians 2, 11-13, which is kind of in the middle of the sandwich here in Ephesians chapter 2, tells all the Gentile believers what they were missing out on and excluded from by not being of Israel before they were saved by faith in Christ. So both of these passages, each of them three verses, talk about before you were saved by faith in Christ.

The first one being all, whether Jew or Gentile, and in this case, in the second passage, exclusively pointing to the Gentiles. We'll get to more of the reason for this second passage and its importance this next Sunday. The rest of chapter 2 is what God did about it, what God did about the problem. You are dead in your trespasses and sins, and so here's what God did.

So here you have on page 1, in a slightly expanded, and what I wanted to do here is bring out some of the Greek that doesn't typically come out, and in somewhat poetic form. But the God is actually the way it is in the original language, and the reason for pointing that out is, think about this, the people he is writing to have all been brought up with a whole bunch of gods. So he needs to make the distinction. He needs to make the distinction with them.

We're talking about the one specific God, not all these multiple gods that you are accustomed to thinking of. The God, the real one, the singular one. And so then the other thing to notice is we've indented the things that have to do specifically with our identification, together with the Messiah, with Him, with Him, in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, and finally in Christ Jesus. So we've indented those identification points there in this passage. Let's take a look here. God acted in the past, is acting now, and will act because of his changeless character. And this passage brings out God's changeless character in several different ways.

So let's take a look at them. One of the things you'll notice here is I've got, let me describe what I've got here. This is part of a room full of gold bricks. full of gold bricks. Now, to give you an idea how much wealth is in this room, see that gold brick that we've got pictured there, that single one? That's about 400 ounces of gold, and at the closing price on Friday, That means that this one bar of gold is worth $667,000 in that one bar. And what you see is many, many, many bars and that's not all the bars in the room in that picture behind it. You're talking about a lot of immense wealth right there in front of you and then more around the room that's clipped off in the picture. What does Paul do?

He describes here, God is rich in mercy. God has a character that is wealthy in mercy. God is wealthy, just like we look at this pile of gold bricks and say, boy, that is a lot of wealth. God is wealthy when it comes to mercy. He is rich in mercy. He's got a spectacular amazing amount of wealth when it comes to mercy. So that's the first point.

It's God's character that drives this. God didn't just sort of somehow get a whim and think, you know, I think I'll be merciful today. It's God's changeless character that drives this. The next thing, great love. And notice that Paul doesn't say mercy and love and grace here and just leave him at that.

He puts descriptions to it so that we get an idea of the magnitude of it. God doesn't just have mercy. God is rich in it. He's wealthy in it. Great love. He doesn't say God loves you and leave it at that. He says great love. Mega love. God is a character of massive love that is always unconditional. God doesn't say, when you guys are nice, I'll love you. When you guys shape up, then I'll start loving you.

And it'll be worth it. No, He loves unconditionally and He loves greatly. The next thing, surpassing riches of His grace. So notice two things. One is it's not just rich Grace. Rich in grace. Rich is plural. A plurality of wealth. So mercy is singular. Grace, there's a plurality. But that's not enough. He says surpassing. That word means overthrown. Over the top. Way over the top.

Multiple, multiple wealths of grace. God is rich in mercy, but way, way over the top wealthy in grace. His grace, I mean, the mercy is just phenomenal, impressive. But the grace is way, way beyond that. I mean, way beyond it. Way over the top. Overblown and overthrown. We're talking in orbit and beyond. Now, to get an idea of what's the difference between mercy and grace, I'll give this illustration.

Here is Holly Hills from the air, courtesy of Google Maps. So here's Holly Hills from the air, and it shows the parking lot. Matter of fact, I can even identify some people's cars here. And I think this one, this little silver one, that's Nancy's and my car. And then out in the front here is the street.

Now, they've got some kind of fairly reasonable speed limit out in front of here, but if you go like 70 miles an hour past here, you're just asking for a ticket. All right, so let's take the scenario that Vern is really late getting to church and he knows how important it is to be here on time. So Vern just comes screaming up to Holly Hills ready to pull into the driveway at about 60 miles an hour, right? Okay, so a cop finds me doing that and pulls me over, okay? So Nancy and I, oh no, I'm really going to be late now, okay?

And he finds me doing that. Now he comes up, right? He comes up. And here I'm thinking, oh no, this thing's way into the triple digits, you know. I'm going to have one whopper of a ticket. And he comes up and he says, okay, driver's license and registration please, you know. Okay, I got that.

Oh no. And he says, don't drive like that. Have a good day. Whoa. That's mercy, okay. He's withholding. a deserved judgment. I should have gotten a whopper of a ticket. Instead, he lets me off with a, don't drive like that. That's mercy. Now, here's how grace looks.

For something that probably should have put me in the slammer, instead, I go before the judge, right? And the policeman is there. He's standing there, and the policeman's there, the ticket's there, the judge is looking at him. The judge says, did you do this?

Yeah, I did it. OK. Well, guess what? I'm not going to put you in the slammer, but that's going to be five big bills. Oh, whoa. OK. And I'm thinking, oh, wow. How am I going to do this? To my great surprise, the policeman comes up and writes out a check for $500 and pays it for me. And then asks me, what are you and your wife doing for dinner?

That's grace. That's grace. So mercy is withholding judgment. Grace is benefits way, way beyond what I deserve. That's the distinction. OK, now, finally, in kindness. God is not cruel as many of the pagan deities were. God is not cruel, but wishes us well and has good intent. As a matter of fact, two times in the first chapter, it talks about the kind intention of God. I think it's verse 5 and 9. Kind intention of God. God has good intent. God does things with good intent, not the sort of might-be-good, might-be-bad intent of the pagan deities. This THE God is very different in character. He is a God rich in mercy. He is a God as rich as of grace, great love and kindness, good intent. It's out of God's changeless character that He does what He does. By God's doing, and this passage is one of those that spells these things out, we've been identified with Christ in his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding in the heavenly places.

I'm not inclined to get TATS myself. I only have an accidental one where I stuck myself with a pen some years ago. But if I were to get TATS, I would have those on each digit. See, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding. So that way you'd remember them real easily. So those five things, we've been identified with Christ in those five things. And we put it pictorially in this way. Crucified so as to be dying and dead, buried because you're dead and guaranteeing that you are in fact dead, made alive and raised, is the next one, ascended into the heavenlies, and then seated with Christ.

Those are the five identification truths, the five ways in which the believer was identified with Christ. You were not identified with Christ as Christ crossed the Sea of Galilee in a boat. You were not identified with Christ as He walked on the water. Those things really happened, but you weren't identified with Him in those things. You were identified with Him specifically in these five ways. Now, this passage assumes our identification with Christ in His death and burial, and it starts with being made alive and being resurrected. Stating our co-resurrection, that's the alive and raised, our ascension is implied.

Why do we say that? Because What it next talks about, there's an explicit statement that says we are co-seated with Christ. We are seated together with Him. So there's that explicit statement, and we're seated together with Him where? In the heavenly places in Christ. So those five things, and what's explicitly stated here particularly is about the resurrection, made alive and raised, and then explicitly seated with Christ in the heavenlies.

Those things are clear and explicit. The others are assumed or implied. So we have it pictorially here, crucified, which also means died, and buried is implied, and then made alive, which is in this passage, and raised is the next one, stated explicitly, ascended is implied, and then seated is specifically stated here in 2.6. So that's how we put it together. Ultimately, what do we do? We put together a number of different New Testament passages to get all five of these truths presented clearly. Now, he said he made us alive together with, and I have in the translation, the Messiah.

One of the several best-kept secrets in Ephesians, beginning with Ephesians 1.10, is that Christ is, in the Greek text, the Christ. When Caiaphas asked Jesus if he was the Messiah, and by the way, Caiaphas didn't believe that Jesus was the Messiah, because he didn't believe in a Messiah, because he was a Sadducee. But, he thought he'd ask, and this was as ludicrous as it could be, because he didn't believe there was a Messiah at all, as the Pharisees did.

Nonetheless, are you the Christ, just like here in Ephesians 1.10, and just like in this passage that we're studying now? So that's why I translate it, the Messiah. That's how they would have understood it. Are you the promised one, they say, is going to come to earth, the anointed one who is going to reign over Israel as Israel's king?

That shows up, believe it or not, starting with Ephesians 1.10, 23 times in Ephesians.

I have yet to see a translation that brings it out. Very interesting. Very interesting. None of the major translations bring it out, but that's why I wanted to point it out and have a kind of a custom translation in your handout there. It shows up here in this passage. He made us alive together with the Messiah. Now, some people will look at that, well wait a minute, isn't it mixing up to church and Israel? Well, no it isn't. Here's why. We have the church, the body of Christ, won't have any problem at all seeing Jesus Christ as the Messiah, which is very Jewish, right?

When we view him as the one we're coming back with. Are you going to come back with Jesus, the Messiah? to rule and reign? Yes, you will. So there is purpose in spelling out Jesus as the Messiah 23 times in Ephesians. You will come back with the Messiah to rule and reign with him. If you haven't been to Israel, you're going to be. You're going to make a trip to Israel, it's going to have a route through heaven first.

So that's a key thing to point out and why it's translated the Messiah. And we have no problem with that because we realize, oh, we're going to come with Him when He returns as the Messiah. Because of God's character, that is, the mercy, the riches of mercy, the great love, the surpassing, the over-the-top, the overthrown riches, plural, of His grace, because of the kindness of God, you and I have this new spiritual history. Did we earn the right to be identified with Christ in these five things?

Did we merit it? No. Did we do nice things so God said, oh, they're so cute? No, we didn't. We didn't earn it. We weren't cute. We did nothing. And how do we get this? All we did was believe. And we didn't even have to believe we were identified with Christ in order to get it. Isn't that amazing? We get something we don't even know about. It's like we're born with amnesia. Spiritually born with amnesia and we've got to be taught it all over again. Because of God's massive mercy, lavish love, and gargantuan grace, we have all been identified with Christ's death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating.

God who did this. It's God's character that caused him to do this. And it wasn't just a whim or a, hey, I think I'll do this, or let's try and see what happens. It's God's eternal character that he always had, has now, and always will have. God isn't going to go, you know, today I'm not feeling so merciful. Sorry. It's not going to happen that way.

We have been radically and permanently changed from our history in Adam. We're sorry, it's thumbs down, okay? You're burnt toast, okay? That's what we deserve, okay? Radically and permanently changed from our history in Adam and everything that that results in. to history in Christ that we have been made to share an identity with His history. We now have a replaced history.

Can you imagine that? If I were to ask any of you, well, tell me your life story. You'd say, well, I was born here and I went here and did this and did that and I didn't do this and didn't do that other thing. And you would tell me various things about what happens. But if you're a believer, spiritually speaking, this is your new history. This is your new history.

And it's done and accomplished by God entirely by grace sprung out of God's mercy and God's love and grace and kindness and none of those are wimpy. Not wimpy mercy. Not just a little tiny pinch of love. Not just mini grace. Not grace with a little lowercase g in a small font. And it's not kindness like, you know, boys will be boys.

These are massive in magnitude. We now have, because of God's character, a brand new history. And guess what? You're not going to fall out of it. Nobody gets unseated with Christ. That doesn't happen. You're not going to fall out of it. You're not going to go, whoops! Sorry, I tried. That Vern guy, he's a real tough cookie. No, this doesn't happen by percentages. It doesn't reverse itself accidentally. God doesn't attempt to do it and sometimes shrug his shoulders.

It gets done all the way permanently forever. You have a brand new, totally, completely new history in Christ. You've been identified with Him in these five things, and it's going to stay. It's going to stay. Because God's character doesn't change. And what God accomplished here isn't going to change.

He says here, by grace you have been saved. Verses 5 and 8 both say, by grace you have been saved. Both those verses say the same thing. Is Paul just repeating himself? Well, we'll see about that. This is the but-God grace. As a matter of fact, we even say, but THE God, because that's literally what it is. God is gracious in who He is. That's His identity. That's His character. And gracious in what He has done through Christ. Amazingly graceful. And that is why God can say, through Paul, surpassing riches, and not just wealth, wealths, plural, over-the-top wealths of grace. Over-the-top wealths of grace.

Did I deserve this? Not at all. Vern deserves to be burnt toast. I get this by grace. That's it. He's accomplished it through Christ. Saved here is in the perfect tense and passive. Now let's talk about that. That doesn't mean you're supposed to get perfectly tense about it. And it doesn't mean you're supposed to be passive. That's not what he's talking about. What does he mean?

God did the saving. We're the recipients. That's the passive part. We don't do something to make ourselves receive these things. We are on the receiving end of it, and all we did was believe. All we did was believe that's it. Entirely by grace. We're on the receiving end, and that's what passive means.

Perfect tense means this. It's a completed past action with ongoing results into the present and into the future, implying permanence. That's what it means to have the perfect tense. So when it says saved, God isn't going to come up and say, you know, we got you about 50% saved, but we just can't do anything with the rest of it. It's a completed past action with ongoing results in the future. And by the way, when Jesus said, it is finished, which means paid in the original language, that also is in the perfect tense. So here's Jesus on the cross. He says, it is all paid. Completed past action, ongoing results on into the present and on into the future, implying permanence. Permanence. Done deal. Done deal. Now, so what will we be doing in eternity? What will we be doing? Do you ever have people talk about it? I wonder what we're going to do? Endless harp lessons. Oh, I don't even want to play the harp, you know? I guess I'll like it, you know? Will it be heavenly thumb twiddling? Just kind of do this and you get to like it. You know, is that what it is?

Maybe it's, we'll play games with God, it'll be endless games of rock, paper, scissors. So, at any rate, so we got that. Is that what we'll be doing for eternity? What this passage puts the focus on is this. Are you kidding? God is the one who will be doing something for eternity, not us. God gave you a new history in Christ so that, and this tells you that here's the why, and this is God-guaranteed as the outcome. God's going to make this happen. It is going to happen. It's not just, I hope so.

He will show us in an objective demonstration. This word show is the word in the Greek of the Old Testament where God's going to show some things to Pharaoh. I mean big stuff like the Nile River just turned red. The whole country just gets covered with frogs. That kind of show.

He's going to show us the way over the top, awesome, stunning, fabulous, amazing, astounding, and very, very, did I say very? Very impressive grace. He's going to show us that. So you know what you're going to be doing forever? Gasping in awe. over God's objective, we'll all see it, in public showing of grace. Wow! Did you see that? That was cool! Really cool!

What's next? We're not looking for the next coffee break. Oh, I can't wait to get that coffee. Or, boy, my seat is tired, you know, I gotta get up off this pew. No, none of that. We will be going, wow! When I was over in Uganda teaching at the seminary, I was going through this, you know, and I just yelled out with the guys in order to give them the idea. I said, Wow! Wow!

And funny, they all remember that. This is wow kind of stuff because it is so awesome. It is so awesome that God says, you know, I'm going to show them this thing, my grace in the rolling ages to come and they will not be bored and they will not be looking for the next coffee break. I'm going to show them my grace and when we've been there 10,000 years, right? Bright shining as the sun. We're going to be going, wow. Wow. And God will say, you haven't seen anything yet. Just wait or don't. to keep your eyes open for the next one.

In verses 2, 8 through 10, we have a similar expansion in poetic form. For by the grace you have been saved, and it's the grace actually, by the specific grace. Why does he do the grace? Because it's the God who has the grace, it's specific. You have been saved, and again that same thing applies, it's permanently saved. through faith, and that's an additional insight given in this passage, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not out of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus, there's the identification truth, for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we would walk in them. Now, so why does Paul repeat himself in verses five through eight? Is that a little puzzling? Why is he saying the same thing again? Oh, man, I forgot that I wrote that.

Oh, well, it's in ink. No. For emphasis, even though it is one of the best kept secrets in all of Christendom, for by grace you've been saved. So what we want to do is tweak grace and tweak saved, right? No. We don't need to do that. It's astounding as it is. The grace is amazing. The saved is forever. And it's God accomplished. The first, by grace, is in the context of God's character. We've focused on that. Mercy. Love. Massive mercy. Lavish love. Gargantuan grace. And kindness. Kind intent. The second, by grace, in verse 8, is the context of grace versus works. Grace versus works. That's the context.

And talking about good works. for the Christian, but not as the basis for your salvation. Not as the basis for your salvation. It is through faith. Through faith. Our works don't get it done. Our works that we do by ourselves to try to impress God are only a problem. God is not impressed by what many people think God is impressed by. It is faith in Him and who He is and His works. You see, faith isn't something that I contribute. All I'm doing is believing what He has done. All I'm doing is believing what He has said. I'm believing what He has accomplished. That gets it done and it gets it done permanently and forever.

So when we believe the gospel, and let me spell out the gospel here, that Christ, the Son of God, died for our sins, was buried, and rose again, that's the gospel. When we believe that, God does all the rest. God says, that's all I need! And He's going to do a whole bunch of other things, including identifying us with Christ. And God does it all. We only believe in what He has done, is doing, and will do, and in who He is. It's through faith. It's entirely through faith, and that's not a merit. We don't merit faith.

Now, so the question here, and this is a biggie, what is the gift of God? Going through this passage, what is the gift of God? Is it the faith? Well, those of the Reformed and Calvinist bent will say that the gift of God is faith. That's what they'll point to. That's the gift. God does it this way. In the Calvinist Reform view, this is how it happens. You're out on a slab cold dead.

God chooses and elects you and then makes you alive. Then he gives you the gift of faith. And then you believe and then you're saved. So the first thing he does after choosing and electing you is to make you alive. Believing is right towards the end. While we've been studying in the Gospel of John elective, these things are written that you might believe, and that believing you may have life through his name. Does life come before or after believing? It comes after, right? It comes after. Now, and the other problem is the Greek grammar says that it is not faith as a gift, but salvation is the gift. The gift of God is salvation. You and I are saved by grace through faith as an absolutely free gift.

Don't let anybody ever give you an invoice. Don't let anybody give you an invoice. In fact, we even try to sing songs that don't talk about what we owe God. God doesn't give you this gift and then give you an invoice along with it. Be careful about opening that card. You don't know what's in it, right? No, God does not give us an invoice. It's an absolutely free gift.

He does not give a gift with the invoice attached. I don't owe God because I could never pay Him back. Never. Not a chance. The reason God had to do this for me is there's no way I can't pay for my own sins. I can't pay Him back. Nothing. It's entirely by grace. That's what it means. It's completely free.

Remember just just before I came to Holly Hills. I was finishing up. You know Greek translation classes I'm going through the first John chapter 3 first couple of verses there And I just got through translating and I also just couldn't see the screen I Looked oh wow Behold what and I translate behold what quality of of permanent love. The Father has grace given to us that we should be called the sons of God.

Not a chance you're going to pay that back. He's grace given it to us. Not because we merited it. Not because we can pay it back. Never can. It's completely by awesome, amazing grace. Grace that is so awesome and amazing that God's going to show and demonstrate it to us forever. And we're just going to keep going wow. If it means anything, thousands and thousands of years. Wow, wow, wow.

And I won't burst your eardrums with how loud the wow is. There is no catch. There is no gimmick. The grace is absolutely, totally free. No paybacks. No invoices. Salvation is not from living by the law of Moses or any principle of law, not even one.

A person will not be justified, Paul wrote in Galatians, by works of the law. Not going to happen. You will not be ever declared righteous. You know how many people get declared righteous according to the law? Zip! None! Nobody gets declared righteous according to the law. A person cannot gain life by works of the law. One of the points we made in recent weeks was how many of the laws will give you life? None. Not going to happen. None of the laws will give you life.

It doesn't matter whether you're talking about one. It doesn't matter whether you go after all 613, and good luck with that, or 10 or any other number. The law isn't going to fix it. a person won't find any empowerment in the law of Moses and we don't get Israel's new covenant.

Israel in the coming millennium, and that millennium could start as soon as seven years from now, okay? Israel in the coming millennium will be empowered to know all 613 laws and to live them out. That's not us, okay? We, in sharp contrast, are an island of grace, a pure grace.

We don't have empowerment to live out the Law of Moses, we instead have the very life of Christ. The Law of Moses, even those Ten Commandments, are just lethal. 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 the law of Moses and I'm talking to the Ten Commandments Okay, the lithos the stones the ones that God wrote on with us with his finger those Commandments those Ten Commandments everybody goes and beats everyone over the head with those Ten Commandments Paul calls a ministry of death. Oh One more he calls it a ministry of condemnation Okay, how many want to volunteer for that ministry, okay Be a rock collector? Yeah. That's great, isn't it? The Law of Moses, even the Ten Commandments, are completely lethal. A ministry of death.

Only God's workmanship counts. Only. We who believe are God's workmanship. God does not expect us to work on ourselves, or to create ourselves, or even to recreate ourselves. That's not our job. It will do no good to believe in yourself. You ever see TV programs and different, you know, kind of inspirational programs put on? Oh, I learned to believe in myself. You've got to believe in yourself. No, won't do any good. Won't do any good. So that's not going to work. It would do no good to be a self-made man or woman. That's not going to work either. It will do no good to be good.

I was fascinated this last summer as I was anticipating an all-classes reunion for the little tiny high school that I went to. Graduated so long ago, I just can't believe it. Anyway, this little tiny high school, I was emailing with a couple of my classmates and within days of each other, they each used the same little phrase, try to be a good person. First of all, good luck with that.

But the other thing is, tell me about good. How do you define that? Be of no use to try to be good, whatever that is. The only thing that will do any good at all will be to understand God's workmanship. workmanship did God do? What does that mean? That's the only thing that's going to do any good.

Ephesians 4.24, about this idea of created in Christ Jesus, has an insight. So it's just a couple chapters later. This is a fresh translation, so it isn't exactly what you'll find, but I have it here. And have put on, so that's past tense, the new man which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. So they're created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

Is Christ our righteousness? Yep. Is Christ our holiness? Yep. Is Christ the truth? Yep. Created in Christ Jesus. He has those qualities, all of them. So your spiritual creation was God's workmanship. It was done in Christ Jesus. You see, God said, you know, I'm going to do things in Christ to these saints here. A whole bunch of things are done in Christ, including I'm going to create them in Christ. Okay? Created in Christ Jesus.

Done in Christ Jesus for the very purpose of carrying out good works is what this passage is telling us. So does God want good works from us? Yes. Does He want us to try real hard to do good works? No. Huh? Yeah! Let's talk about those good works. Let's talk about the good works. There is no good work that any of us has to do but the ones that come out of our being God's workmanship and having been created in Christ Jesus. Do you know how many things you have to do that's outside of that? How many good works you need to do outside of those things?

None. Zero. Further, there is no good work that any of us has to do that God has not totally prepared beforehand. I can't find some really good work that God has not prepared beforehand. I'm not going to go up to God and say, God, look what I did. Aren't you impressed? He's going to say, that's not what I prepared. Oh. There's no good work that's of any value that God hasn't already prepared before. He's laid everything out.

Every perceived need is not a call or requirement. This is something that's important for Christians to understand the will of God. Everything that's laid before you as a need that looks, oh, this needs to be done, that needs to be done, you know, this ought to be done, this ought to happen. No, everything that's laid before you as a perceived need is not necessarily God's call.

And it's not necessarily God's requirement. We have to ask the question, is this the good work that God has prepared beforehand? Or am I just cooking something up? Okay? Am I just responding out of compulsion and guilt? Very important point. Now, so that we would walk in them. God has not predestined that we would walk in the good works that he's prepared beforehand. It is possible that we could miss good works that he's prepared. But, okay, we're not Christian robots. Okay? We're not Christian robots. God does call us to the good works for which he has created us and the works that he has prepared.

That's why we find this word walk starting in Ephesians 4, 1 and then more in chapter 4 and more in chapter 5 to tell us in a negative and in a positive statement what this walking looks like and the good works look like. Here's the one example we have in Ephesians 5, 1 and 2. Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children and walk, and by that it's imperative, you must walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us. An offering and a sacrifice to God is a fragrant aroma. That kind of exhortation occurs several times in chapters 4 and 5. So he's going to spell out what that looks like.

They say, look, there is nothing that you're called to that God hasn't prepared you for and prepared before you ever came there. And there are no brownie points for trying to cook up something else. You should not go about feeling guilty. You should not go about motivated by, I got to do more, I got to do more. We're human beings, not human doings. who have been created in Christ Jesus. Notice here's a point of comparison and contrast.

Unbelievers walk in their trespasses and sins. Ephesians 2, 1 and 2. You were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked. So there's walking for the believer before he believed. The unbeliever. Now here in Ephesians 2, having believed, by grace you are saved through faith, believers have the opportunity as his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to walk in good works that God has prepared beforehand.

Does the unbeliever have any comparable opportunity? No. He does not have a chance. What is the one spiritual opportunity for the unbeliever? To believe. That's his only opportunity. He can't do this. But you and I, having believed, are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to walk in works that have been prepared beforehand by God. It doesn't get any better than that. What an opportunity.

Now, we have as the title of this slide here, God does not ask us to do anything. Well, let's qualify that. God does not ask us to do anything that He has not already prepared in our eternal position, and for which we have been enabled, empowered, and energized. He has made us who we need to be to do anything He wants us to do. He's made us who we need to be in order to do anything He wants us to do. And He doesn't just say, okay, go do it. The New Testament makes it plain. We are enabled, empowered, and energized to do it, and those are ministries of the Holy Spirit. Those are ministries of the Holy Spirit.

Next, God does not ask us to do anything apart from or in addition to the life of Christ living in and through us. He doesn't ask you. There is nothing that you and I have to do for the rest of today and for the rest of your life. There's nothing that you and I have to do that is apart from Christ living in and through us. God will not be impressed by anything else. God is not asking for anything else. The life of Christ living in and through us.

That's all He wants. It's that simple. Why do we make it so complicated? I don't know. Anyway, God doesn't ask us to do anything that He has not prepared beforehand. He has prepared all of the good works that you might walk in them. All of them. Everything. He's got it all set up.

And He's not asking you to go around and look for more. He's not coming up to you and saying, I've got to do more, I've got to do more, I've got to do more. Drink a lot of coffee. Because you've got a lot to do. Right? So who wants to sleep? Right? No. This is not what he has in mind.

We're not to go around in some hyper mode. Oh, I've got to do more, I've got to do more, I've got to do more. We only have to do what he's prepared beforehand and nothing else. And finally, God does not ask us to do anything outside of ongoing fellowship with him. God does not ask us to do anything outside of ongoing fellowship with him.

If I, you know, let's say I'm going to go and help some old lady across the street. So how about that? An old man walking an old lady across the street. And I come up, and she doesn't really want to go across the street. And I come up and say, well, you will, because I've got to do some good things, you know? So anyway, I take her across the street, you know? You might call it a good thing, right? Or maybe not.

But what God wants first and foremost is our fellowship with Him. All the stuff we gotta do, that'll come easily if we're fellowshipping with Him. If what we're doing is going around thinking, boy, I feel guilty, I gotta do more stuff. Some churches will even feed into that. Boy, as soon as people get saved, we get them busy. What we said just a couple weeks ago is, don't just do something, stand there! Because why? Because as we look at this, our fellowship with him is what counts. It is first who we are. That's why Paul delays things to do in the book of Ephesians until the last three chapters.

Here's these people, they've got stealing problems, they've got lying problems, they've got problems with forgiveness, they've got problems with anger. They just start off by saying, Hi, I'm Paul, stop being so angry and stop stealing and stop lying. Does that make sense? No. Hey, you liars and stealers and angry people who won't forgive, guess what?

You've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. How gracious is that? God does not ask us to do anything outside of ongoing fellowship with Him. So rather than going around looking for more stuff to do, fellowship with Him. The rest of it will come piece of cake. No problem at all. Will you miss God's will? Not if you're fellowshipping with Him. Yeah, that's all there is. Fellowship with Him. Walk with Him. That's all He wants. He's done everything else. Let's pray.

Lord, we do, as we look at this passage, boy, it is, your grace is amazing. Your mercy is amazing. Your love is amazing. All these things are astounding. Oh, awesome what you have done. We pray, Lord, as we look at these things, that you would bring these things home to our hearts. that we would see that what you've called us to is not just deciding to do the good things and deciding not to do the wrong things. You've not called us to guilt and condemnation. As a matter of fact, you've done away with those things. But what you've called us to is a life of fellowship with you, a life of growing in who you've already made us to be. Thank you for that. How amazing is your grace. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.