Trust his word. Jesus made each star in heaven. He created earth and sea. He's the keeper of all knowledge, what is past and what will be. Yet He offers His great wisdom, so you will not lose your way. Like a lamp, it glows, every step it shows, you can know His will each day. Trust His Word. Trust His Word. All God's promises are true, trust His word. When your pathway disappears, when your joy gives way to tears, when you're plagued with doubts and fears, trust His word. He is not a distant stranger. He can be your closest friend. And He'll always listen closely when you share your heart with Him. Jesus walks the path beside you. He has been there all along. And He'll guide your feet when your step is weak, and your strength is almost gone. Trust His Word. Trust His Word. All God's promises are true. Trust His Word. When your pathway disappears, When your joy gives way to tears, When you're plagued with doubts and fears, Trust His Word. I was reading last night about King Hezekiah and Sennacherib and the armies of, what is it, Assyria or something, come against the city of Jerusalem. And over and over again, it's like they say the same things. Don't trust your God. Your God will not deliver you. Don't trust, don't trust, don't trust. And it's precious to know this morning, we can trust God completely, entirely, no matter how much it seems like things are going God for us, God is faithful. All right, Maisie, you can head to your class, and I forget, does Matthew go to class on Sunday mornings? Six and under can head to class with Mrs. Shore in the creche. The rest of us can take our Bibles. And again, we're back in Ephesians chapter two, and I probably, if I was preaching a series, I might preach this the other way. Last week we looked at lost and found, and how our condition without Christ was Christless, hopeless, godless. We talked about the search that took place, how Christ came to earth, how he died on the cross for our sins. We talked about how you can be found, that you become Christful, if you want to put it that way, godful. You have that relationship with God, you're part of God's family and all those things. And now we're going back to the beginning of the chapter for some reason, just because I honestly, I didn't notice that I was preaching from the same chapter until I looked at the bulletin. to change my scripture. That's how, it was just different ways God led me to this text that we're in. And so, it's interesting though. And it'll go, I think it'll tie in at the end because of what we're looking at. Because what we looked at last week is what we've become. And kind of what we're gonna look at this week is how we got there. And so, it'll make sense. You know, I speak to people a lot of times about the gospel and as I do, I like to ask them, you know, if you died today, you know, where would you go? I like to ask them, you know, why they think they'll go there. And a lot of people say, you know, everyone says, I'm going to heaven. It's only rarely Either I meet somebody that's blasphemous, hates God, anti-God, and just says I'm going to hell, or somebody sincerely, honestly says, you know, I'm probably, I'm going to hell. You know, and when they say it like that, I appreciate it, but when they blaspheme, I don't appreciate it that way. But most times, people say I'm going to heaven. And most often, the reason for them saying they're going to heaven is I'm a good person. If you press them on that and say, why are, you know, how are you a good person? And they go, well, I've never murdered anybody. And it's kind of funny to think about it, if that's like the category for being a bad person. I mean, it's interesting, but because there's a lot of other bad things, isn't there? But I'm not a murderer. You know, it's interesting. I say to those people, as I'm speaking to them, I said, you know what, murderers can't go to heaven. And I'm glad they can, because frankly, you and I fall into that category. If you go back to Matthew chapter five and look at the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said if you hate somebody and have that hatred in your heart for them, and you wish they were dead, it's the same sin as killing them. It obviously has less physical consequences, but in eternity the consequences are the same. But anyway, murderers can go to heaven and they'll look at you like, oh come on, how could that be? Because their concept is, no wait a second, good people go to heaven, how could a murderer go to heaven? But the truth is this, the Apostle Paul was a murderer, he's the author of the majority of the New Testament, and it says in Acts 26.10, "'Which things I also did in Jerusalem, "'and many of the saints did I shut in prison, "'having received authority from the chief priest, "'and when they were put to death, "'I gave my voice against them.'" Paul was called on trial with these people, and Paul would say they're guilty and worthy of death, and they'd be put to death. He had some children who lost some parents because of the Apostle Paul. Later in life, Paul probably met believers who had been impacted by his sin against God. I mean, it's no wonder Paul at times said, I'm the chief of sinners, and he hated his sinning. And he had, as most of us do, regrets about the way that he had failed God. But he was a murderer. He killed people. And yet he's in heaven. And the logical question that they have is, how can somebody who is so bad become someone who is so good? It doesn't make sense. So they would say things like, so they just say, I'm sorry, and that's it, and they're forgiven. They can't comprehend that because they think you have to change and be good to earn favor with God to be accepted by God. They don't understand what the Bible speaks about when it speaks about our goodness, all right? And so that's where we're at here in Ephesians 2, and really this morning I'm preaching a topical message, but we're gonna start in this passage, Ephesians 2, as we step out into what we're gonna look at. But in Ephesians 2 here it says, verse 8, Alright, what I'm going to do for a little bit here, I'm just going to take an introduction for a while before we get into the actual message of what I want to share. And really the introduction is gospel and some of the application of what we're actually gonna look at goes beyond the gospel. So it's gonna hit all of us this morning. But let's just pray and ask God to bless as we look to his word. Father, it's good to be in the house of God. It's good to be here with these that have gathered this morning. I've been encouraged lately, Lord, when I think about the fact that Jesus, how you would love to stand in this pulpit today and share your word with those that are gathered here. And I pray that you could do that today. I pray, Father, that I could just be a vessel, by the grace of God, unto honor sanctified me for the Master's use. I pray, Father, that the water of life would flow freely from my life. I pray, Lord, that nothing in me would hinder you today. I pray, hide me. And Lord, less of me, more of you. I praise you, Lord. When we listen to Pastor Gorman preach, I very rarely focus on the man. And the message just came through. And I pray, God, help me to be a preacher like that. And I pray, Spirit of God, you speak to each heart. May you give grace to each one to consider your truth this morning. And Father, I pray, use this message to strengthen us, to help us. Lord, may it be a fruitful message. May it be a good sowing time. May it be a good watering time. May it be protected by the Holy Spirit. So, God be glorified. Help me now as I speak. It's in Christ's name I pray. Amen. All right, so that passage right there is what we're gonna look at here as we get started. So, for by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourself, it's a gift of God, not of works less, any man should boast. So I'm gonna begin with this salvation and what the gospel is, or what salvation is. Salvation is first of all by grace. It says for by grace, R-E-C. Very simply, grace is God doing for us what we can't do for ourselves. It's God's gift, it's His unmerited favor, it's His ability to do something in our life that we can't do. It refers to God's good will, His loving kindness, and His favor. Grace is like the queen when she comes to Holyrood Palace, which I know her husband was here this past week, but she comes every summer and has a garden party about this time of year, I think. But when that takes place at Holyrood, it's like the queen sending me an invitation by her grace saying your presence is requested at this garden party in this state. And it allows me to go up to the gate there at Hoi Ri Palace and show them that invitation and demand entry because I've got the Queen's grace. I can't do that on my own. I can't knock on that door and expect to enter into that party that's an elite party. without anybody. And it's only grace that gives that to me. I can't, as far as I know, it's not something you could buy. Maybe it is, but as far as I know, it's not something you could get in any other way. It just has to be given or given through somebody to you so that you can go. You know, God's grace is like that. It's God saying to everybody, hey, "'I've got a party I'd like to invite you to. "'There's a wedding feast that's gonna take place. "'I want you to be there. "'My son dies so that you can have access to this "'and my grace offers this to you.'" And he does so freely. Luke 14, 23, the Lord said unto the servant, "'Go out into the highways and hedges "'and compel them to come in that my house may be filled.'" I like that verse more and more as we get closer to the end times. I feel like it's highways and hedges ministry. The vast majority, they're too busy. They got too many things going on. They're not interested in God. And God says, look, just go populate eternity. Try to get people to come. My grace is reaching out and say, hey, it doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter where you're at in life. I want you there so you can come. Praise God. I mean, that's the drug addict, or the drunkard, or the adulterer, or the fornicator, or the whatever it is in somebody's life, the embezzler, or it's us, isn't it? The liars. And it's God saying, hey, I want you there. I want you there. Salvation is by grace. Secondly, salvation is by faith, not works. Salvation is by faith. It says saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, not of works. Salvation's through faith. You know, there's this idea, I talk to people about faith. If you believe it, that's good for you. It's kind of like this placebo effect. You know, if you think it's good for you, it's good for you. You're kind of this, oh, you know, belief in God is your crutch, and it helps you. You go through a difficult time in this. And even though they say, I don't acknowledge God exists, I don't think God exists, but you believe in God, that's good for you. That's not faith. Biblical faith is active, not passive. Biblical faith, because of what they understand, based on truth, there's a decision that takes place that is a very concrete decision based upon the truth. For instance, back in Noah's Ark, when the flood was coming, because Noah believed God about the flood, Noah built a boat. Because his family believed God about the flood, they got on the boat and they were saved from the judgment of God. So faith is active. Somebody could have been outside that boat, heard Noah preach. The Bible says a preacher of righteousness saying, hey, God's judgment's coming. He's going to send a flood. And explaining what a flood was and how the water was going to rise and how that boat was going to be the only way of salvation from the wrath of God. If somebody believed that, they could repent of their sin and say, yeah, my life stinks. God's wrath is coming because of my sin. I repent of that most are not Moses. No, I want to help you with that boat and get on that boat in DC It's acting or it's like in the time where the children of Israel are under the judgment of God the serpents have Come into the camp and a bit and then and God says to Moses Moses. I want you to raise up a Pole with a bronze serpent on it. By the way, I see all the time over here on ambulances and things, you'll see a pole with a serpent on it, the symbol we take as medical, it's from this passage. It's a bronze serpent that God said to put up, why? So that people that were bitten, if they believed God, because God said if they'll look at that, they could be saved. And it's kind of the idea where we get the song, look and live, my brother, live, all right? It's look to Jesus now and live. Then it was look to that serpent on that cross. pull and limb. And if they believed God when they were bitten, they ran to that, they looked at it, and it's a great picture of salvation, because just like sin is like that serpent that's bitten us, it's killing us, it's gonna take us to hell, but we can look and limb. And so for us, the activeness of it, and this is faith, is I believe God, and so I'm gonna pray, and I'm gonna confess to God that I believe Him, I'm gonna accept Him as my personal Savior, and I'm gonna get saved. Alright? Salvation is by faith. It's by faith. Alright? Next, salvation is a gift which must be received. It's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. To go back to the Garden Party illustration, if I got there without an invitation to the Queen's Garden Party, and I say to the soldiers that are there, look, I am worthy to go in. I'm a good person, I'm an upright citizen. You don't understand how much I do for this nation. I demand entry. You know what the Queen's gonna say? You're a foolish, proud person. The only people that come to this party is by my gracious invitation. Do not demand entry. It's not allowed. You know, God is not gonna say to somebody that gets to heaven, they feel like they're a good person, and now they wouldn't say it this way, but in reality, what they're saying to God is, God, I'm so good. God, I've done so many good works. God, I'm a good citizen. God, I'm all this. And they stand before God with all their goodness, and they demand entry. And God says, well, it's by grace. It's a gift. And it's kind of more like this, and I used this illustration yesterday with the young lady I was witnessing to, but I said, you know, it's like me giving somebody a diamond ring that has a two million pound diamond in it. They can't afford it. And I offer it to them, and they say to me, well, I'll wash your car for it. And I say, well, wait a second. First of all, you understand the value of this is way more than you could ever earn, and it's a gift because of that. It's priceless. And see, God looks at us and goes, you know what, you can't afford it. It took the sinless son of God coming from heaven and dying on a cross for your sin. Your goodness can't earn it. It's a gift, it's the grace of God, and you gotta receive it. To receive it, you gotta have a humble heart. James 4, 6 says, but he giveth more grace, wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud that giveth grace unto the humble. It's somebody that understands, look, I'm not worthy to go to the women's garden party, I'm not worthy to walk into your presence, but I'm so thankful that I've got this invitation I've received and I'm gonna go. But I'm not going because of who I am, I'm going because I've received this gift. And it's the same with somebody that gets saved, they understand, it's not me, it's not my goodness. It's like Naaman, we preached a message on Naaman a few weeks ago. And Naaman had to humble as hard as he went under the water, and he's baptized, as it were, seven times in the Jordan River, and then he's healed. But think of the humility it took for this great man to do that. And it takes the Lord doing that kind of humbling in a man's heart to bring him to a point of salvation as well. And so, now, Here's where we're going, and I feel a little bit this morning like we've kind of gone all over the place to get here. But what God did in my heart, I was reading this passage, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourself. It's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. But then it says what? For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. We don't do good works to get saved, but the question is, how can a murderer have a transformed life? How can a murderer have such a changed life? They don't understand it, because they go, what, they just say they're sorry and that's it? No, it's more than that, because when they get right with God, God changes them. And what I wanna look at this morning is how God changes somebody. Like Paul, here Paul wrote the majority of the New Testament. How does God do that? And so look at verse 10 again. It says, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Have you been to the woodworking shop in Peebles? Anybody been there? I think Alec, you and I might have gone in there one time. It's a nice wee shop in Peebles, a little village about 20 miles from here. But in that shop is not just your ordinary block of wood. It's not a branch of a tree that a dog carried in, you know, and sat on the floor. These are things that a workman has taken, he's crafted, he's made them beautiful. He's made some of them tools, he made some of them toys, some of them just works of art to put on the wall, you know, clocks and that sort of thing. But he's made them, he's made them presentable, he's made them acceptable. And so it is with us this morning. It's that when we get saved, God does a work in our life that changes us and makes us something that is acceptable, something that could actually do things that pleases God, does good works. And so this morning, how does God work in us? How can bad men become good? And this idea of we are his workmanship, okay? And if you are preaching this message, you'd be able to say probably different things than I'm gonna say. Because in reality, as we now look into just some simple points about what God does, the list, by the way, I've given these guys permission to stand in the back. Since they flew through the night yesterday, I told them, please feel free to do that. So I'm glad that you feel free to do that. You could come up with tons of ways that God works on us. And they'd be different, maybe ideas than what I've got this morning. And we can't look, we can't begin to look at all the ways God works on us. But I just wanna consider some of those ways. And so we'll begin with, God works on us by putting us under the blood. He works on us by putting us under the blood. And I wanna go to Isaiah, you can turn there if you want, but we're just gonna jump to different passages now. Isaiah 118. It says, come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. So again, you go back to that murderer. How can a murderer go from a murderer to a good person? Well, first of all, when they go to God for salvation, there's a cleansing that takes place. And it's a soul cleansing. You know, I was speaking with somebody a couple weeks back about, Asking them because they're a different kind of religion or they wouldn't even necessarily say it's a religion But how do you get rid of your sin? How do you cleanse your soul? And they said, the same way you cleanse your body, you just scrub it. You know, and really, honestly, and I've never heard somebody necessarily say it that way, but just, you know, they're thinking cleansing in the sense of, you know, you go on a diet and you purge your body of different things. I mean, it's just that idea. But you know, the Bible says in Jeremiah 2.22, You know, it doesn't matter today how much somebody wants to scrub to try to clean their life or try to take a hold of the outside of their life and make themselves a better person. You know, it might be a person that has been a drunkard or something. They want to clean up the outside and maybe they would think in cleaning up the outside that they're acceptable to God and that they can please God, but it doesn't clean the inside, does it? And so there's a need that that person has for a soul cleansing by the blood of Jesus. Revelation 1.5 says, Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. We got saved. God washed us from the inside out. He cleansed us. I am so thankful. I can say before God, I've got a clean heart. I'm so thankful that I've been cleansed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not my goodness that got rid of my sin. It's that God took the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, applied it to my heart, just like the blood on the doorpost in the story of the Passover. and that blood is there and that God sees the blood. I'm so thankful for that. Praise God for the cleansing blood. I've told the story before about George Minsik. George Minsik was a gangster in Al Capone's gang in Chicago. He got saved at Marquette Manor Baptist Church. George Minsik was made fun of by the gang. They would come and make fun of him as he worked as a street sweeper on the streets of Chicago saying, George, God's treating you really good, isn't he? But George started preaching in the prisons. And so many prisoners got saved and so many lives were changed that the city of Chicago took the record against George Minsik and burned it. You know, one of the crimes that George Minsik was likely guilty of was murder. Yeah, he was in a gang. He was a part of that gang. It's very likely that if he wasn't directly involved in murder, he was probably involved in other ways in murder. But George Binsick had to change life. Why? Because of the blood of Jesus. Isn't that awesome? Praise God. And unbelievers don't get that, because they're thinking good works and a murder is really bad, and so they gotta do a lot of good things to get rid of the bad things. But the thing is, it doesn't matter how bad somebody is, when they pass under the blood, the blood cleanses them completely. And so God begins to work on us. How? By putting us under the blood. By putting us on his altar. Now, if you want, you can turn to Romans 12.1. Romans 12.1, by putting us on his altar. It says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Okay, after you get saved, God says, now, live a holy life. Bring that life to God. Say to God, God, here's my life, a living sacrifice. And by the way, the great high priest is the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't believe that it's us actually necessarily putting ourselves on the altar as much as offering ourselves to God to be put on this altar. And that our life is in his hand. Revelation, this Thursday, we're gonna speak about the prayers of the saints that the Lord Jesus Christ offers to his Father in heaven. And so it's an offering acceptable to God, but you know, like salvation, much of the work God does on our lives is through our willing submission to God. Somebody gets saved, how? They submit to God. Somebody's life gets changed, how? They submit to God, they put it on the altar and they say, God, there it is, do with it as you please. I just heard yesterday from my brother-in-law, Kirk, back in the States now, God is, by the way, pray for them, they are, They've made an offer on a house five minutes from the school where he's teaching. He's got a longer contract now with that school, so God's been good there. But Kirk, when he was over here, he was doing tutorial teaching at the University of Dundee. And he would say that sometimes half his class was absent. They just didn't come. And they wouldn't be there. And you know, if they weren't there as a tutorial teacher, my brother-in-law's impact on them was minimal. There was only so much that he could do in the life of somebody that's not there. They had to be there for him to work on. And you can look at believers today and you see some believers really developing for the Lord and becoming a great work of the grace of God, others not as much. And you can say, well, why is it? Well, have they put themselves under the Lord? Are they there? Are they submitted to the Lord? Sometimes part of the workmanship is just us presenting our life to Him and saying, God, I just want you to work in my life and be there for God. Hannah. Remember Hannah praying and asking for a son. When God gave her a son, what did she do? She took her flesh, her son, and she gave her son back to God. What a great picture. And Samuel became a great man for God, but what a great picture of this Romans 12, one passage of us presenting ourselves to God, a living sacrifice. And so have you presented your flesh like that to God? So, By putting us on his altar, he works on us. By putting his word into us, Romans 12, two, okay, the next verse in that same passage, by putting his word into us, Romans 12, two, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. You know, in that song I just have sung before I preach, did you notice it said, you can know his will each day, Isn't that awesome? You can know God's will today. You can know God's will tomorrow. You can know God's will the next day. As you're serving God, as a believer, you can know God's will. And that's exactly what this verse said. Do not conform to this world, be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And it all goes back to what? Being transformed in your mind, with the renewing of your mind. You know, one of the key tools that God has on his bench as he works on us is right here, praise God, in front of us today. It's this book. And again, it comes down to a lot of what God does in our life has to do with us. We can neglect this book, set it aside, not read it, not care about it, not listen to it, not sit under the preaching of the word of God, the teaching of the word of God. And you know what? Not much is gonna change our life. Our thinking isn't gonna be impacted, we're not gonna be renewed in our mind, but the Bible does change and renew our mind. 2 Corinthians 3.18 says, but we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. beholding as in a glass, just like a mirror that, rather than just purely reflecting us, also reflects Jesus Christ. And when we see Christ, we see, in our life, we see things that, you know what, that's wrong. That's wrong. Just like I look in a mirror and I go, you know, that hair's out of place, or that needs to be wiped off, or that needs to be changed. The Word of God does that. I look at it and I see Christ, and I see myself, and I go, that needs to change. and I reduced my mind and I began to understand the truth as God wants me to see it and it changes my life. So by putting his word into us, again, that's one of the best tools God has. How much time do you spend in this book? I've been challenged by that. This past year, I've been challenged in my personal Bible study time. As a preacher, I'm studying the Word of God to preach, but I need to study the Word of God personally just to let God have his way in my life. By God's grace, right now, every night as I go to bed, I'm spending time in the Word of God. I told you recently I got a new Bible, a Bible that I loved. All Bibles are the same, but this Bible's a study Bible. that has a Hebrew Greek, study helps in the back, has plenty of room to mark in it. And I'm just enjoying marking a new Bible and having that time with the Lord. You know, that's good. Why? Because that's gonna grow us. That's gonna make us into his workmanship. How can a bad person become a good person? Again, as God works on us with his word. But then as well, by putting pressure in just the right places. If you wanna turn there, Jeremiah 18. by putting pressure in just the right places. Jeremiah 18.6, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter, saith the Lord? Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hands, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel. All right, God dealt with his people, hell, as a potter. Have you watched a potter before? You ever seen a potter? A potter takes the clay, and I don't know that they do this, but I mean, there might be some punching of the clay, or some twisting of the clay initially, and then, you know, they wet it, and then they got the wheel, they're spinning it. If it gets messed up, they gotta start over, re-break it, put it back in, it's gotta be fired. Okay, if that's a picture of God working on us, How comfortable do you feel? And it's kind of a painful process. We ought not expect, people have this idea of Christian life, oh, you know, it's supposed to be a life of ease, a whole health and wealth gospel. You know, you give your, that means God's just gonna make you rich. Your life's gonna have no problems. You're gonna have perfect health. Well, wait a second. God's gonna use pressure, pressure, and God knows where to touch us to make us what he wants us to be. And he's gonna work on us just like that. I read a verse in Isaiah. I think it was in Isaiah. It's in the bulletin. I'll tell you where it is. On the front page. Ecclesiastes, I'm sorry. 3.11 says he hath made everything beautiful in his time. You know what that verse reminds me of? It reminds me of, is it Romans 8? I think it's Romans 8 or Romans 5. All things work together for good. Yeah, all things work together for good to them that love God. Why? Because God's gonna make it work together for good. He makes all things beautiful in His time. He's doing something with our life. He's fashioning us. He's getting ready to display us as trophies of His grace, now and in eternity, as far as what His grace did. And praise God, He's working. We may not like it at times, but He's working on us. And so praise God for that. And then how else does He work on us? By putting us into His service. Romans 6.13. If you wanna turn to your Romans 6, 13, putting us into a service. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto whom, if you're there, unto God. Do you know, We use writing instruments. Some of you guys are taking notes. That's an instrument of writing unto you. It's something that you use. The Bible's saying, don't yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin so that Satan can pick you up and use you to do Satan's things, just like we looked at here in Ephesians chapter two. It says, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. He's active, not passive in the lives of those that are unbelievers. He's there. We talked about that last week. And God says, hey, that was you before, now you're safe. There has to be a change that's taking place, because we are His workmanship unto good works. How does that take place? Well, we become tools that God can use. We become something that God can pick up, and that God instruments a righteousness unto God. I've told this story before, of our cat. I've told a story about our cat probably too many times, different things about him. But our cat, Missionary, and we called him Mish, but he got grumpy. The older guy just got grumpy, cantankerous, you know? Then my brother backed out of our station wagon, out of our garage, and ran over Missionary right across his stomach. My mom saw it and said the cat just kind of spun. And then ran up into the top of the garage for a few days and we thought, oh great, he's going to die up there. We didn't really want him to die, but we didn't want him to die up there either. But then after three days, He comes down, and he was a totally different cat. He was sweet, he was kind. It's almost like he looked at his life and thought, you know, life isn't about being grumpy. Life is about this. You know what we need to do this morning? We need to remember as believers, life isn't about this anymore. That's the stinking life that put Jesus Christ on the cross that is against God, that is anti-God. What's our life for? It's to live for God. We looked at it in Sunday school. It's my old man died with Christ so that I can live for God. How can somebody go from a bad person to a good person? It's because all of a sudden there's a new purpose to life. It's not an instrument of unrighteousness anymore, it's an instrument of righteousness. Here's another verse, I can quote it, but I'm not sure exactly where it is, but, that we be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use. You know what that means? Meet for the master's use means it's a very easy thing for God to take hold of us and use us. So we're holy, sanctified, set apart, and prepared unto every good work. You know, God wants to do something, he does it, because he's got a hold of us. That's great. Not only is God working on us, but we're a tool for God to work on others so that God can impact others with his truth. And so putting us into a service. And then by putting us under his chastening, Hebrews 12, 11, if you want to turn there, Hebrews 12, 11, putting us under his chastening, that's his discipline. It says, now no chastening for the present, seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward, it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Exercise never sounds like a fun word, but especially not in this context, right? unto them which are exercised thereby." I mean, God is chasing, God's disciplining those that he loves, and it's not joyous, it's grievous, it's like, ugh, but it's for our good. You know, we don't always respond the way that we should to that, but the Bible tells us, Proverbs 3, 12, for whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth, even as a fatherless son, in whom he delighted. If I love my children, I correct them. I praise God I had loving parents. They disciplined me. You know, one time, I hesitate to say this because I don't want kids to pick this up as a good thing. I liked to play with fire when I was a kid, and that's not a good thing. Stay away from that. We would, and I probably, I don't know if I should tell stories, but I'm gonna just briefly. We would take paper plates, pieces of paper, and our church, Rock Lake Baptist Church, near Watertown, Wisconsin, near Maranatha, my dad was a pastor there. And here's the pastor's kids at the church, out on the back, kind of flat roof of part of the church. cement on top, thankfully, with nice bushes that are the type that would have just flamed like a torch, using magnifying glasses and burning bits of paper. Not too smart, right? Fun, but not smart. My mistake was I forget, you know, some things smell when you burn them, and I decided to burn incense in our garage one time because the incense burner was there. We picked it up out west or something. of fun, but of course my parents smelled it. You know what happened because of that? I was disciplined. Why? Because mom and dad knew that fire could kill me. My youth pastor had nothing to do with me at that time, but my youth pastor at five years old set his bedroom on fire. Okay, don't mess with fire. It's bad stuff. What does God do because he loves me? He sees me messing around with sin and he goes, no. Why? Because he loves me. Praise God. Aren't you glad God loves you this morning? Enough to say, no, no. So he disciplines us, same thing we do with our children. Proverbs 29, 15 says, the rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame. If we just let our kids grow up without discipline, they're gonna break our hearts. But if we love and discipline them, just like God does us. And then by putting himself upon us, Romans 13, 14. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. And so God is working on us. He's desiring to make us into the image of his son. And so he says here in his word, put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. How do we become from? bad to good by putting on Christ and letting Christ be seen in us. And it's something God helps us do. Back when I was a kid, my brother had a Commodore 54, I think, or a Commodore 64. It was like an original computer and you look at computers nowadays and it just blows you away the difference between the old stuff back in the 1980s and the stuff that we have now. Why? Because externally with monitors and things and internally with memory there's just a vast difference. You know, when we got saved, God took out the old, he put in the new, and he allows us to put on the new, to put on Christ. Again, he works on us from the inside out and on the outside as well. Barry Webb, that was here in January. We enjoyed having the Webbs with us, but Barry Webb had that ministry of ventriloquism or puppetry, remember that? But everything that Barry Webb did, had an element of himself in it, didn't it? Because he is inside the puppet. He's the one controlling the puppet and making the puppet be seen. It's the same idea this morning. How does somebody go from being like this to being somebody that can honor God? It's because Christ is in them and helping them. So what stood out to me, again, as we just look back at it again, if you go back to Ephesians chapter two, and beginning at verse eight, Says, 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. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them. You know what's neat to me? Is God's working on me this morning. God's making me into what he wants me to be, and that God, takes somebody from where they were and takes them to where He wants them to be. You might be here this morning thinking, I can't get saved, why? Because I'm not a good person. I mean, there's people that think they've got to change themselves so that God will accept them and God will allow them to come into His family, but it's rather the opposite. It's that God takes us where we are and then He changes us into his image as we accept the gift that he offers through salvation by faith. So I hope that's encouragement to you this morning. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Let's pray. Father, we're thankful for the word of God this morning. Father, we pray that the spirit of God just take it deep into our hearts. And Father, give us grace to yield. And there's so many different ways that we can look at this morning, ways that you're working in our lives, ways that you're changing us. This is just a brief overview of some of those ways, but we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus onto good works. Father, it's not the kind of works that people think about to try to achieve salvation. It's just the fact that Christ could be seen in our lives. And Father, that there is a change taking place, and there is a change that is taking place. I pray this morning, Father, if there's anybody that has struggled with salvation because they thought they're not good enough, that they'd understand that it's not dependent upon our goodness, but it's dependent upon us receiving the gift of salvation by faith, through the grace that you offer to us, and that you'll change us. And it's a process that takes both us yielding ourselves to you and also you doing the work in us. So I just pray, Spirit of God, encourage us in that today. Father, you use your word. I'm thankful for it this morning. Thank you, God, for your grace and your help. It's in Christ's name I pray, amen. All right, our hymn. Hear this as we have a hymn of invitation. It's 251, near the cross, 251.