We'll open up to Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1-10. Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1-10. Our family enjoys finding things of value. We've been praying about future college money and things, and we found eBay to be a little bit of our friend, and the kids have enjoyed that a little bit. So we enjoy looking on Gumtree, that's our place to find used things, or Facebook Marketplace. Our favorite place are probably antique shops and charity shops, like Goodwill, and that type of thing. You know, you've got to identify something of value to know what you actually hold in your hand. You can pick up something at a charity shop and it's incredibly valuable and you wouldn't even know it. Maybe even some experts might not know it. I saw a BBC article this past week about a fake Botticelli, I don't even know who this man is, but Botticelli painting. And the article said, fake Botticelli painting is from artist's studio, English Heritage says. They thought that was just a reproduction. It's obviously a copy of another work of art that Botticelli did. It's a much bigger work of art. But as they examined this copy, They've used infrared technology, x-rays, and they studied the materials poplar and the resin that was used, and they came to the conclusion that this was actually not a fake thing, it's a real thing. It was made by the artist's business itself and his studio. And so it's a Renaissance masterpiece of itself. You know, our text this morning speaks of a masterpiece from the studio of God. It says at the end of our text, we read this morning, when we get to verse 10, it says, we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus. You know, it ought to be clear to us, it ought to be clear to us and to others that we are God's workmanship. It's important for me to understand, I have on the helmet of salvation, that I know today that I am God's workpiece. It's important for others that they look at us and they identify us as God's work piece. And so, are you God's workmanship in Christ Jesus this morning? Is it evident that what God has done in your life is the real thing and that it's not a fake? And so that's the idea of our text this morning. I'm going to title my message this morning, God's Workmanship. And let's pray and ask the Spirit of God to speak to our hearts as we consider God's Word this morning. Father, we're thankful that you are working. And Father, we've already touched on it this morning in prayer, the idea that sometimes behind the scenes there's a way in which you're working that is beyond our ken. And Father, I praise you that you are working. And Father, we pray for that in our community. We pray that you just keep reaching out and touching the lives of people, trying to get them into your workshop. Father, where you can make them into a masterpiece. And Father, for us that are born again, Father by your grace, we are part of that great shop where you are making things that are priceless and beautiful for your glory. And Father, I pray that the Holy Spirit give me wisdom as I preach. When I say it in Sunday School, I say it often, as I pray, before I preach. I can't preach without your help. And Father, I need the Spirit of God to guide me as I speak. I need Him to guide my thoughts, my heart, my mind. Father, we need Him to guard this time and to give us good attention to the Word of God and open our minds to truth. And Father, we pray for the good work that you desire to do today to be done in our hearts and lives. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. You can identify God's work, and that's what we're going to look at this morning, ways in which that, if we brought this in, say we had a little study on, is this a masterpiece of God's creation or not? We can identify it as a masterpiece based on things that the apostle tells us about in Ephesians chapter 2 and verses 1 through 10. So if we're looking at God's work, and it really was God's work, God's work is life-giving. So if it has the principle of life, It is then the candy work of God. And so the Bible says in verse 1, "...and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins." Okay, this person, we've studied this in detail in Sunday school, it's going to kind of tie in at different times today and what we're studying in Romans chapter 5. But this person is not dead physically. They are dead spiritually, even though they're alive, okay? Even though they're walking around, there's an aspect that is dead. They can't see, they can't hear, they can't think spiritually, because they're not alive unto Christ. They don't have life. My wife had a teenage sleepover in high school in a very frigid location. She lived in Michigan, grew up in Michigan. The girls walked out the next morning, and the girls' house at which they were staying had a cat. And you get up the next morning. I mean, it would have been cold. And I'll say in Celsius, probably like minus 30, minus 34, something like that. And so they get up the next morning, and the cat is on the doorstep. And sorry to laugh. I really shouldn't laugh. You're a pet person. Forgive me. But when somebody can reach down and pick up a cat by its tail and keeps the same shape, And they say to the person, oh, and say her name, look at your cat. And the girl bursts into tears and comes up crying. That cat, to bring it to point this morning, could not any longer hear, oh, kitty, kitty. You know? Kitty, kitty, you know? That cat's not going to respond. There's not going to be any knowledge or perception or movement on the part of that cat, because that cat is beyond ability to hear. It's dead, OK? The problem with us, before salvation, and the problem, we face this all the time, knocking at the door, I don't care, I don't think about it, I don't care, I don't think about it. And I used to think, people, you cannot be telling me the truth that you never think about eternity, but I believe they are telling me the truth. It's because they're dead. There's no life in them. How are they dead? They're dead unto God. Mark 4 11, He said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables. that seeing they may see, and not perceive, and hearing they may hear, and not understand, lest at any time they should be converted, and their sin should be forgiven them. I can take the Word of God today, and the Spirit of God going with me, and knock on their door, and begin to speak to them about the Lord, but having the Word of God, having the Spirit of God in me, does not make it possible for them to perceive without the gracious work of God, okay? And without Him taking Him into their workshop and opening the ears of their understanding that they can hear. When you got saved, salvation was that point where your ears opened up. That's where God made it possible. That's why a newly saved Christian will often say, I get it, I understand it. I don't understand why I didn't get it before. I mean, I was there, I was hearing it, I don't understand it. It made me feel like nobody ever told me before, nobody ever said it before, but it's because they couldn't get it, they couldn't perceive it, until they were saved. The Bible says, John 10, 27, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. Why can't they hear? Because they're dead to God. Okay? He made them a liar. And by the way, it says they were in this position, doesn't it? But they were also dead in sin. They were dead in sin. I witnessed, I mentioned going to Rosewell on Monday with Tommy in Sunday school. The great divine appointment God gave. Tommy, Alec, you'll appreciate this, I'll tell you, because you weren't here in Sunday school. Tommy and I began speaking with a woman, sharing the gospel with her, and it turns out that this woman was Tommy's first cousin. Their dads were brothers. They didn't even know each other. And the Spirit of God revealed that. It's a neat story. Later on, as we're going about, we're just about ready to go. There was a man sitting on a step in a house that already put a flyer to it. I said, I said across the lawn to him, I said, did you get the flyer? And he goes, I don't read that rubbish. Not exact word that he used, but similar to that. And I repeated back to him what he said. And I said, it's not that. It's not. And I started to speak to him about God's love for him. He's smoking a cigarette and this guy's coughing. And I said, you know, God can set you free from those addictions. Speaking specifically about the cigarette. He said, I like it, I like my cigarette, I like my coffee. And I said, then why do you come out on days where the wind is blowing and it's raining and you're shivering in the corner trying to smoke your cigarette? And I said, you're enslaved to it. It costs you a lot of money. You know what, when I got to it, it cost you a lot of money. He agreed with me. But he's dead in his sin. He might think, I do this because I enjoy it. He does it because he's enslaved to it. He's dead in his sin, trespasses in sin. And they're being physically killed by their sin. James 1.15, I did speak to him about that as well, cancer and things. James 1.15, then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. And sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. The end of sin is death. If you stop to think about sin, I've asked young people at different times, name one sin that's good for you. They can't. Because the end of sin is death. Sin destroys. If you don't believe that, just research how many gamblers commit suicide. There's a young man, Daniel Clinkscale, that committed suicide, I think this past year, at 34 years of age. He committed suicide after having gambled away his entire wages for the year, 43,000 pounds. The coroner, Dr. Harrowing, said, it's clear to me from the evidence provided to me and from the note that Daniel left, that he could not face the future, and I believe that was down to his gambling addiction. And then it says, the article goes on to say, there are more than 400,000 problem gamblers in the UK, according to the Gambling Commission, and more than 2 million people are thought to be at risk of addiction. If that statistic is true, Britain only has 70 million people, it's like 3-4% of the population are struggling with gambling addiction as they identify it. How many drug addicts, alcoholics, smokers die from their addictions? NHS website says alcohol and tobacco are by far the biggest threat to human health around the world, while illegal drugs harmed don't even come close. The Independent reports that this news site writes about a recent report that provides the most up-to-date in 2015 information. about the global use of alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drugs. They looked at how common the use of these substances was, how many people were dependent on them, and the public health harm they caused. Across the countries that they looked at, nearly 20% of adults reported drinking heavily in the last month. Around 15% of adults smoked daily, about 4% had used cannabis, and less than 1% reported using opioids. amphetamines or cocaine in the past year. Out of every 100,000 people around the world, 111 are estimated to die from tobacco-related causes, 33 from alcohol-related causes, and 7 from illegal drug use. I looked actually at Scotland in this past year. They're really concerned about the number of deaths. The number of deaths in Scotland from illegal drugs, not talking about alcohol and cigarettes, which is killing far more. A thousand people in Scotland, a country of four and a half million, died this past year from overdoses. That's their medical report. They're being killed by their sin. They're unawake to eternal death. Romans 6.3. says for the wages of sin is death. We talked about this in depth in Sunday school, but the wages of sin, my kids, I mentioned again, we're seeking to get them jobs or things that they can do to earn money. The money they earn is their wages. It's what they deserve because of their work. The Bible says that what mankind has earned because of their sin is death. You know, I can look at that young man sitting outside. It was another sunny day out today. He's sitting out there having a cigarette and his coffee. But you know, I look at him and he's having life. And actually, that was one of the first things I said. He said something like, I don't need that rubbish. I said, it's not rubbish. And I said, you'll think about it for all eternity. And at some point there, I said, in hell. And I don't say it, I didn't say it mockingly, I didn't say it cruelly, I said it honestly. Because the wages of sin is death. And for all eternity in the lake of fire that young man is going to look back at that opportunity that he had to accept Christ that he didn't take. Revelation 21 verse 8. says that the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall depart in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. I was at T.K. Maxx, I think yesterday I was there at T.K. Maxx, and a thought just came to my mind as I looked at the people And they're so involved in what they're doing. I mean, they're so focused. They're going and looking at clothes, and they're looking at stuff, and they're materialistic, and that is their life. But if they would get put in hell for one second, or 30 seconds, and they could come back, they'd be here this morning. They'd be in the house of God. Why? Because they'd realize, my life brings death, but God's masterpiece brings life. I mean, that's incredible that God is taking something that is dead and he's bringing it into his shop and he's working on it. The first thing he does, he gives it life. He gives it life. If you've got life today, you've got it because you're God's masterpiece. God's working your life. And then God's work is liberating. It says we're in times past He 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, among whom also we all had our conversation, our lifestyle, in times past in the love of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. And what the Bible is speaking about in verse two and three is speaking about those that are captive, They're held captive. We had a situation in Wisconsin this past year. Just recently, this took place in the last six months. A young lady's home was broken into. Her mom and dad were killed. She was abducted. Nobody knew what happened to her. And they're doing this massive search for this young lady. They found her about three months later. She had been held captive by the man that had murdered her mom and dad. She was liberated. You know, you can rejoice in that. It's so sad what she had to go through, but you rejoice that she was found. And the parents, grandparents, I remember them saying, we didn't think this day would come, but she was set free. There's a captor that has captured people, but God sets free. Notice what it says in verse 2. We're in in times past. Paul's speaking to God's workmanship. And he's saying to them, in times past, this was your condition, pre-Christ, before being brought into that place where God was working in your life. He had several chapters, one is the world. It says, when in time past he walked according to the course of this world. Have you ever crossed this stream? We went this past Friday up to a place up north of Perth called the Hermitage. Have you been there? The Hermitage? Alec? It's heading towards Inverness on that road. It's the oldest, or not oldest woods, but most mature woods in the United Kingdom. The tallest tree in the United Kingdom. I think they're Janet Redwoods is what they look like. Massive trees. Beautiful waterfall. Very fast flowing. But it flows down, this river actually flows into the Tay. The Tay comes out of Dundee. A massive river. And I saw it in the warnings about crossing, trying to cross the day. You walk out there, and one of the warnings was swift current. It doesn't look that swift, but powerful current. Water is powerful. I remember in Colorado, crossing rivers in the mountains of Colorado with my dad. My dad holding my hand, and those round river rocks rolling under your feet. If dad didn't have your hand, there's no way you're going upstream. And there's every chance you're going to go downstream. But it's only the hand of the Father that sustained me in that case. And it's only the hand of God that allows us to stand cross-current in the world in which we live. And the world is still against God. I was witnessing yesterday to a man... And I said to him, just to illustrate to him, because he was a nice man, didn't believe in God, but he wasn't opposed to people believing in God, and he didn't view church as important. I said, well, church is different than what you think of, because he was a Catholic from Glasgow, and they think of church as a place of coldness and religiousness, and you sit there and you have a religious feeling, you know? And I said, it's not like that. I said, what it is, is this, as a newborn believer, you put your faith in Christ, Christ was saved, He was persecuted, you need a family to come along and encourage you in the Lord and strengthen your hands, and to encourage you to stand for Jesus. And I said to him, I said, you'd be surprised, and I said, this may surprise you, I said, but the world is very against God, and I said, in fact, just, I can tell you this, you disagree with Genesis chapter 1 verse 1, the first verse of the Bible. And I said, that verse says this, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. If I stood down, just that first verse of the Bible, I stood down at Princeton Street Gardens, I'd say, hey, world, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. People are going to plug their ears and they're going to hate me. Why? Because this world's current is contrary to that completely. I read about Christina Wilkinson, a head teacher of a church in England, primary school. and she's been mocked on Twitter after claiming that evolution was a theory. There was more evidence she said that the Bible was true. Christina Wilkinson of St. Andrew's Church of England School in Oswalt's Twistle, Lancashire, made the remarks in a tweet responding to London headteacher Tom Sherrington, who urged teachers to stick to science when teaching the origins of life. Wilkinson wrote, evolution is not a fact. That's why it's called a theory. There's more evidence that the Bible is true. Wilkinson's assertion was met with scorn on the social media site. One person suggested she retain as a vicar, while another said, that's an unacceptable level of stupidity from a head teacher. Liv Borey tweeted, this is horrifying. I'm still holding out hope her response is some kind of a performance art. Please, please, please, tell me this lady doesn't work in education. Please. Sherrington wrote, sigh, I sincerely hope your students aren't told that. Take them to a natural history museum. He's actually right. Take them to a natural history museum. There's lies everywhere. Go down to the National Museum of Scotland. It's evolution, evolution, evolution, evolution. Why? Because the current of this world is against God. God set us free from it. How could somebody get saved that is in that current? It's liberating. Praise God somebody gets saved or set free from that deception. And that's the second chapter is the devil. It says according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. God's got us now in his workshop. Before that Satan had us in his. He now worketh in the children of disobedience. There's an activity that's taking place here where people say, that's a nice person, that's a kind person that we're talking to. But the reality is, that person is being affected by Satan's lie, or Satan's deception. Have you never marveled? that the faith evolutionists have, their science, can't even answer basic questions. Just ask an evolutionist and say to them, say, you know, I just got a very simple question for you, where does life come from? And evolution goes, blink. You know, they have no answer to say, you know, we have it in the first verse of the Bible, in the beginning God created, but they say, well, life comes from life, okay, fine, where does life come from? Life comes to life. OK, where did it start? What is the origin of life? Why is there a status? I mean, that's a simple question, isn't it? I mean, I'm looking back here today, and I see beautiful people, I see a beautiful environment, I see a beautiful flannel graph. I walk outside, I see beautiful leaves and beautiful trees, and then I pick something up, and it's amazing that dirt through a tree can become fruit, and I can taste it, and I can eat it, and it tastes good, and I've got relationships, and I've got joy, and I've got sorrow. And evolution can't explain it. That's right. Why do you hate God if He doesn't exist? I mean, if you ask people that evolutionists, these evolutionists you follow, do they have a bias? Or are they okay? Are they open to God? They have a bias. Why do they hate God if He doesn't exist? Why can't the Bible be disproven? BBC would love that, wouldn't they? I mean, I hate to slander BBC, but I don't think it is slandering to say that. They would love to take this book and say, see, it's false. See, Jesus Christ never existed. But the problem is, there's extra biblical sources that verify that Jesus Christ exists. This man I witnessed to yesterday, I was at least thankful to hear him as a modern, he loves modern history. He said, well, I do believe that Jesus Christ was a real man. I said, well, that's great, because there's so much information about Jesus Christ, you can't deny that he was. Right? The Bible can't be disproven. were the odds that every single incredibly complex living thing could just happen. I mean, to say a piece of dust happened, I mean, that's one thing. But to say you just happened? To say my finger just happened? To say a cell just happened? And not that it just happened, but billions and billions of all complex life just happened? Surely today, as we talk about that, we can understand that there's a captor that is fully man-captive. and not letting them see the light that the Word of God pulls out. And that's what the Word of God says. 2 Corinthians 4 says, In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine to them. Satan is actively seeking to keep men in bondage to their sin, in bondage away from God. He does not want them to leave his workshop of death to go to the workshop of life. Well, God can set him free. And God set us free if we're in God's workshop. And then the flesh, the flesh is the third chapter. It says in verse three, where it, among whom also we all had our conversation, our lifestyle, in times past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Our world is very perverse and it's getting exceedingly more perverse. The further it gets away from God, the more it rejects God in light, the more wicked our society is becoming. It's grievous. We just went to, I already mentioned we've been out shopping yesterday, and just going to the shops and hearing the wicked music and seeing the wicked lifestyle of people, it's grievous. Because they're corrupted by their flesh. And their flesh is addicted to pedophilia, raping, murdering, killing babies, drinking, pornography, blasphemy, rebelling, rocking, and the music industry, the entertainment industry. And they're just seeking after the flesh. Daniel's mom, that gambler, that committed suicide, said his name was Daniel. He died that night for a reason, a reason that should be heard, that's in the public interest, said mom, Josephine Holloway. We're looking to use his death to save the life of others. He had an addicted, she said, illness. He had an addicted flesh. A gambling addiction that drove him to gamble when he didn't want to, to keep gambling when his losses were huge, and to gamble until he had nothing left to lose. The only thing that stopped him was running out of money. Only when he was broke did he feel for a short while relieved and free of the intense hold it had on him until, as he said, the next payday wound. in bondage. Now there's people like this. I mean, we don't have this conversation a lot with different people, but you might look at somebody and say, why is your life like that? And if they were honest, they'd have to say, my life is like this because I can't get away from this. I want to be set free from this. And I know a story, and this is just kind of a secondhand story of somebody I don't know, if I can say it this way, but Baptist College of Ministry, there was a young lady whose brother was not saved. And everybody was praying for his salvation. She called him and basically said, get off the phone. I don't want to talk to you. He was up to drugs. He was $40,000 in debt because of that. I'll tell you what happened is even in the shower, he wrote in the fog in the shower, I need help. And God broke his heart and he said to God, God, if you'll take this addiction away, I surrender. And he got saved. And God set him free. God provided a job where within a year he was debt free. He went to Bible college. He's a missionary with Baptist World Mission. I can't think who it is right now. But my mom told me this story because it came to our church. But that's what God does. God sets free. So praise God. John 8 32 says you shall know the truth and truth shall make you free. Have you been set free? Are you guys an asterisk? You know God when God gave you life God also gave you the ability to live life victoriously not in bondage to Sin not in bondage to Satan not in bondage to the world. God set us free praise that right? Have you been liberated? And then God's work is willingly commissioned God's work is willingly commissioned. My brother-in-law and my uncle were just here, and we took them on a... They helped install a kitchen, is what we've just completed. Very busy when they're here. I mean, they work sunrise and sunset. But one day, we had a nice morning. It was kind of a bad week when they're here. You've got decent weather right now. And cloudy, rainy, windy, you remember when they're here. And we got a nice kind of sunny morning like this, and I said, we better take it. We went down to Eyemouth. And in Eyemouth, we stopped at the church. The church there in Eyemouth, pastored by Stephen Bender, is in a building program. And it's progressive for Scotland, very progressive. They have a building, they're building onto it. and the foundation's been laid. And I wanted to see it because Steve Benner had told me about it, and we had talked to him there, but I talked to him earlier, and he told me this. He said, we're getting stained glass for the building, which I think is neat. That would be important to the people in the community to come in. This is actually a church, you know, to them. And so he said, there's a lady, she's a local artist, and she has accepted a commission do this artwork for us. She only accepts three a year. I think that's great, right? They wanted to get that done and now they can do it. You know, if you're not God's work today, and you want to be, God isn't too busy like this woman is. She can only take three. But see, God's willing today, if the Spirit of God spoke to somebody's heart and they thought, you know what, I'd like to get out of the devil's workshop, I'd like to get into God's workshop, do you think that God would have any interest in being commissioned to do a work in my life? And the answer, obviously, we know from the Word of God, is absolutely. God's work is willingly commissioned. It says in verse 4, but God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us. Okay, so he's willing to commission first of all because the riches of his mercy toward us and toward you. Mercy is God taking us out of the devil's workshop and putting us in his own instead of in the lake of fire where we deserve to go. God could just, he could just take us and destroy us. But the riches of His mercy is what allows Him to take us into His workshop. You know, I read a headline this past week about a mother's feeling for a man who killed her child. She expressed it like this, I can't wait for him to die. Why? Justice. She longs for it. He killed her son, or daughter, or whatever it was. I didn't read the story. And that's the thing that first got me as, oh, that's hard. It's hard to live with that anger. But it's understood, isn't it? That's justice. Justice is, you took my son's life. You deserve to die. Think about it today. How many people are living that put Jesus Christ on the cross and crucified the Son of God? Isaiah 53 verse 6. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. See, before salvation, that's us too, our sin crucified Christ. You want to look at the murder weapon, look in their hands because it was the sin of the world that put Christ on the cross in obedience to God the Father. That's true. Right? And so, and yet God can look at me and say, you know Benjamin, I love you today even though you killed my son. That's mercy. Yes. Amen. I prayed for that man and said, I don't need that rubbish. Why? Because Jesus died for him. I mean, he might be more verbal than somebody else that just is nice but bends it. God still loves him. No matter what he does. John 3.36 says, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not in the Son of God shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. You know, it's kind of like this, the devil's workshop's hanging over hell, and it's just the mercy of God keeping that floor from parting. Because that floor ought to part. Those people in his workshop ought to be cast into the lake of fire. But he's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repent. So in his mercy, he sustains that person's life. And in his mercy, if they repent, he'll forgive them. Praise God. God's works are willing in the commission. Why? Because of his great mercy. Secondly, because of his great love. We're with he loved us. Isn't that what it says? For his great love, we're with he loved us. I think of Betsy Tinboom. If you know the story of Corrie Tinboom, Corrie Tinboom was in Holland. Her family had a watchmaking business. And when Nazis invaded Holland, they rescued Jews in their home. They had a secret room up in their loft that they built to hide these people. But they were caught. They were put into a prison camp. And one day, Cory and Betsy saw a prison guard beating a prisoner. And Betsy uttered these words, I feel so sorry for her. And it was a female prisoner, a female prisoner. I feel so sorry for her. And Cory thought, I do too. She felt so bad for that prisoner. But then she realized that Betsy was speaking about the prison guard. Betsy had a great love, an unusual love, a love that God gives that she didn't look at that prison guard and pity that prison guard because she had to love God. Corrie had to practice that love later. She lived, Betsy died in a prison camp. Corrie lived, and Betsy kind of told Corrie about the great ministry God was going to give, and God did give it, where she got to travel and speak around the world about what took place and the goodness of God and what God was doing in helping them and their ministry that they did. But Corrie, after speaking about God's forgiveness, had an opportunity to meet a man that had been a prison guard in Ravensbrück. And he comes up and he said to her, you mentioned Ravensbrück in your talk. I was a guard there. But since that time, I've become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there. But I'd like to hear it from your lips as well, Fräulein. Again, a hand came out. Will you forgive me? And I stood there, and I whose sins had again and again to be forgiven and could not forgive. Betsy had died in that place. Could he erase her slow, terrible death simply for the asking? The soldier stood there expectantly, waiting for Cory to shake his hand. She wrestled with the most difficult thing that she ever had to do, for I had to do it. I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition, that we forgive those who have injured us. Standing there before the former SS man, Corrie remembers that forgiveness is an act of the will, not an emotion. She said, Jesus, help me. And she prayed, I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling. Corrie thrust out her hand. And as I did, she says, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arms, sprang into our joined hands, and then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes. I forgive you, brother, I cried, with all my heart. For a long moment we grasped each other's hands, the former guard and the former prisoner, I'd never known God's love so intensely as I did then, but even so, I realized it was not my love. I had tried, and did not have the power. It was the power of the Holy Spirit of God. Cory had the love of God, the love that reaches out and says, hey, you killed my son, but I love you. So it's willingly commissioned. God is not willing to get any superiors. It's not God's desire today that somebody stay in the masterpiece place of the devil. It's God's desire to bring them into his workshop and begin working them. God's work is willingly commissioned. God's work is honorable. My grandpa was in the military, I think the Navy, and recently I saw some pictures of a ceremony, or it might actually, it was a video, of a ceremony where he went and quilters had gotten together, they made quilts of honor that they presented to the military. And so grandpa got him up there, they read his service, his record, and what he had done, and then they honored him. You know, Grandpa deserved honor, because he had served in the military. As you think about the workshop of Satan, nothing in that workshop deserves honor. There's nothing honorable about that, but that God, as he takes us from that place of awfulness, God makes us into something that is worthy of honor. God makes us honorable. It says in verse 5 and 6, even when we are dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ, by grace you are saved, and has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Former Chairman Bradford, SS guard, and George Minsik, a former leader in Al Capone's gang, and if you know the story there, and his salvation, and other people, and us included, a life of dishonor made to sit together in honorable places in Christ Jesus. And nobody could point a finger at that person saying, you don't deserve to be here, you're such a wicked person. Because as they point that finger, God says, wait, forgive them. Praise God. It's the prodigal son, and I, for sake of time, won't read the story, but as he comes to himself, he says rightly, I'm no more worthy to be called my father's son. It's not right that I go home and just act like, hey dad, I'm back. He doesn't deserve that. So he goes back and says, I'll just be a hired servant. Make me as one of thy hired servants. And the father, the Bible says, fell on his neck and kissed him. And as he confessed, the father said to his servants, bring forth the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat, and be married. For this my son was dead, and is alive again. He was lost in his town. And they began to be married. He smelled, he was dirty, he had wasted, he had lived with harlots, and despised his family upbringing. But the father took him and brought him into the house, and he dressed him up honorably. Listen, by the grace of God, when somebody gets saved, think about it. I mean, this is what we rejoice in as a church. This is what we want to see in a church, is somebody that life is despised by the world, and they look at it and say, your life is horrible. But God in His mercy transforms them and makes them a vessel of honor. And so God's work is honorable. God's work is life-giving. God's work is liberating. God's work is willingly commissioned. And then God's work is priceless. Verse 7, it says that in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace. In His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus, For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. Nobody can get out of this workshop and into that workshop by saying, I'll do this, and I'll do this, and I'll do this, and I can do this, and I'll work my way into that workshop. It's only by the gracious extension of a loving God, it's a gift to allow that person to enter into that place. It's the richest of its greatest. I'd love to own that Bocelli painting that I mentioned, probably mostly because of the work, all right? Have something down there. But if I said to the curator of the museum, if I said, oh, you know, I'll do this. I'll work all these years, all these hours. I'll just do all this stuff. He'd look at me and say, wait a second. That's a Botticelli. That's priceless. You can't afford it. There's nothing that you could do to get this. How can man begin today to think that he could earn salvation? God crossed this path and purchased us by His precious pure Holy Son in His death on the cross to ransom us from that place. It's priceless. That's what makes you so precious today. Isn't that it? I mean, you've been purchased at an incredible price by God. The value of your life is the fact of what God paid to set you free. It's a price only He can pay. It's priceless. Because of that, there's a great responsibility. And so the Word of God says, and 1 Corinthians 6 20 for you're bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirits which are God's when God reached over into the devil's workshop and brought you over to his workshop there's a reason it's what we talked about already that there's honor who gets the honor from a Botticelli Botticelli does who gets the honor from a work that God has done God does yeah and so what So that Botticelli painting had tarnished. It had aged. People thought it was a fake. They had to come and take it, restore it. It's beautiful now. If you saw it, you'd see it's beautiful. The difference between past and present is enormous. But it used to look this good. It looked this good until the years came, and the corruption came, and it hid it until they restored it, and they opened it back up to glory. You know, God wants us to live in original glory. But sin creates sin. And so the Bible says in verse 10, We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. God's desire for us today, as part of His thing, is be here in church. Be in the Word of God. Be in prayer. Be a testimony. I said to my neighbor, as we had her in yesterday, I said, as I told her about what God's doing with her kitchen, it's turned out lovely. I can't wait for everybody to see it. And she was, wow. Did you have the plans drawn? I said, no, I just prayed about it. And God gave wisdom. And as I spoke to her about the story of how it all took place, I really spoke to her about what God had done. Why? Because it's letting our light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. What would be sad today is this, and this is most sad about, not just our attendance today, our attendance is low today, but our attendance on any day, no matter how many people we have, the saddest thing about the fact that people are not getting saved is there's very few examples of this to this. And so what? God doesn't give glory because it's not being seen. So it's sad to think today, people think, well, there's no more masterpiece. There's no more, in Borticelli's, there's no more what God has done and has glorified His Son in. It's not there. Because it's either hidden somewhere, or it's covered by sin. So what? If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. Keep it new. And so the Bible says in James 1.27, Why? Because if you let yourself get spotted, God's glory isn't seen, and the world gets confused. Isn't that a vote of charity or not? Is that God's workmanship or not? Has the master actually done a work there or not? And if he has, let it be seen. And by the way, Botticelli and all these artists, and I like to use his name, sounds like an artist, doesn't it? I don't even know. But they're good at what they do. That's why they're famous. See, God is good at what he does. It is disgusting today how many partial births take place in being born again. God doesn't do that. God's desire is darkness to light, and walk as children of light. And so, this Vodacceli painting was revealed by expert analysis. Experts looked at your life today, what would they see? Would they see a work of God? Is it obvious that God has done something? Do you have the principle of life in you? Do you know today that you're passed from death unto life? As the Bible speaks about in John chapter 5 verse 24, we have passed from death unto life. Do you know that today? Is that God's witness in your heart? Have you been set free? Because God's work is liberated. 2 Corinthians 5, 17, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, all things are become new. It's not that we're perfect, it's that we're not in bondage anymore. We're contraworld and we're with Christ. God's work is willingly commissioned. You might be here, or somebody could be listening to this online and think, you know, would God do that for me? Would He change my life? Yes. Revelation 22, 17. The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let Him that heareth say, Come. And let Him that is a thirst come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. It's like God is here in His workshop saying, If you just come, I'll change your life. If He does, then our life becomes honorable. Praise God. May we sit together in heavenly places in Christ. God's work is priceless. Not because of us, but because of what He paid. And then God's work is good. So that people look at it and say, wow, that's what God did. Are you bringing glory to the Master who created you in Christ Jesus? Are you His masterpiece? Let's pray. Father, we pray that you'd open up business in Lonehammer. Father, we begin to see the workshop flourishing, to see lives coming in, being touched by the Master's hand, given life, being set free, being made honorable. Father, you paid a priceless price for their salvation, Father, being ordained to good works. Father, I pray that we could see it. We can't change others, but God, you can change us. And Father, I just praise your God before you right now. Father, are we the masterpiece that we ought to be for the Lord Jesus Christ? Father, I pray, put us in the most public place possible. Father, put us where we can bring the most glory to God. Give us grace to shine and not have people today walking about and saying, I guess God's not working anymore. And Father, I pray for new works of the glory of God. And so Father, would you bless this passage to our hearts this morning. Thank you for it. Thank you for speaking to our hearts. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Kid 328, only trust him. 328.