It is now time for the reading of God's Holy Word. Would you please stand with me as I read for you from Psalm 51, verses 1 through 8. Again, Psalm 51, verses 1 through 8. The Word of the Lord says, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your lovingkindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done this evil in your sight, that you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part you will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones you have broken may rejoice. May God add a blessing to the reading of his word. And now would you turn with me to the Gospel of John, chapter 12, as we read verses 27 to 36. John chapter 12, verses 27 to 36. Beginning in verse 27, Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. Therefore, the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thunder, Others said an angel has spoken to him. Jesus answered and said, this voice did not come because of me, but for your sake. Now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to myself. This, he said, signifying by what death he would die. The people answered him, and we have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is the Son of Man? And Jesus said to them, a little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. He who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. while you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light. These things Jesus spoke and departed and was hidden from them. All flesh is like grass and all of its glory is like the flower of the grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord abides forever. And all of God's children said, Amen." Please be seated. If you have not done so already, I would like to ask you to turn with me to Ephesians 2, verses 1-10. Ephesians 2, verses 1-10. Would you pray with me? Gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, we pray that by your grace and your mercy you would help us to come before you at your feet and to hear from you and to learn from you that you might be glorified through us. We pray that by your grace and your mercy that we would understand the deep things that our brother, the Apostle Paul, has written. Lord, that we might leave this place differently than the way that we came. Be glorified in the hearing and the doing of your word. For it is in your precious name we pray. Amen. So if you did not know, I'm sure that all of you do, Rachel and I have been gone on, I guess, our anniversary trip. We've been married for 13 years. We went to Grand Haven. We had a good time, but we are glad to be home. Amen. We have missed you. We have missed the worship of our God with you. All of the other nuances of missing you we have. But we are glad to be here with you again this morning. I'd like to begin a little differently by reading our text for you this morning. So if you would, please follow along with me. Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 through 10. and you, he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as others. But God, who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, By grace you have been saved and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." Well, this morning our sermon is going to get a bit theological. But I pray and hope and ask you to kind of stick with me as we work through the text this morning and some difficult things. By God, or rather by God's grace, He will help us to understand. And in the end, we will, as always, apply all of the things that we are taught in God's word to our lives. And hopefully then, when we walk out of here having learned something new as well as understanding how these things inform our lives. It's been my prayer all week that as difficult as some parts are of this passage, that by God's grace we would learn at the foot of our Savior for His glory. But Paul's argument, as we look into Ephesians as well as all of Scripture, is that our salvation is not the result of our doing something good that pleases God. We aren't earning salvation with our merits, that is, good works. But salvation, rather, is solely the work of God in us. To put what Paul is declaring to us here in its context with the rest of redemptive history or all of Scripture, God in the covenant of grace is bringing a people of His very own to Himself to be His people, and to that people He will be their God. This covenant of grace where God the Father covenants to elect some for salvation from eternity past. The Son covenants to willingly purchase the salvation of those who the Father has chosen through his perfect obedience to the law and death on the cross. and the Spirit covenants to move in the hearts of those who the Father has chosen and who the Son has died on the cross on behalf of, so that the elect will repent of their sins and place their faith upon the finished work of Jesus Christ." What Paul is talking about here is the process the Spirit works in us so that we might believe. and therefore why he does it. Theologically, what Paul is describing to us is what is called regeneration or internal or the effectual calling. Scripture is proclaimed, is preached, calling sinners to repent and believe in Jesus Christ. And that preaching is called the external calling. but the effectual calling, where the word that is proclaimed is also made effective in our hearts through the operation of God the Holy Spirit. The effectual calling is how you and I come to faith in Jesus Christ. So what Paul is describing for us is, first of all, verses 1 through 3, why salvation is the result of God's initiative. Secondly, verses 4 through 6, how God saved us. And thirdly, verses 7 through 10, what the result of that salvation should be in our lives. Again, verses 1-3, why salvation is the result of God's initiative. In other words, why did we need to be elected in order to be saved? Secondly, verses 4-6, how God saves us, that is the effectual calling. And thirdly, verses 7-10, what the result of that salvation should be. Let me begin in verses 1 through 3 with why salvation is the result of God's initiative. Beginning in verse 1 of chapter 2, And you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air and the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others." Paul begins here with a discussion about God's initiative. He begins this very encouraging ten verses by describing first our pre-Christian past. Notice first of all, verse 1, that Paul writes that the elect are those who were made alive in spite of the fact that he says we were dead in our trespasses and sins. This word dead, the Greek word nekros, means literally to be unable to respond to or to be unable to perform an action, to be powerless. He writes, we were dead in our trespasses and sins. Trespasses, the Greek word paratoma, refers to the breaking of the law of God and knowingly doing so. The idea here actually points backwards according to the Apostle Paul in Romans 5, verse 14, that when God came to Adam, as we will see in the covenant of works, And he tells Adam that you are able to eat of any tree within the garden, but you cannot eat, according to my word, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, otherwise you will be like me, knowing the difference between good and evil. He told him not to do it. And what Paul writes in Romans 5.14, is that in his rebellion against God and eating of that tree which God told him not to, not only did he do it knowing that God had commanded him not to, but he set a course for all of humanity after him that when we sin, we sin knowing that we are living in rebellion to God. He trespassed. What Paul is telling us is that even though we may intellectually, apart from Christ, know that we are sinning and rebelling against God, because we are dead in our sins and trespasses, all we can do is continue on in that life of sin. You'll notice that both of these words, trespasses and sins, meaning they are plural. There wasn't one sin that somehow separated us from our Father in heaven. There were multiple trespasses and sins that our entire life is designated towards rebelling against Him because of what is called the depravity of man, that we are dead in our trespasses and sins." Unable to do anything about our trespasses and sins. Look at verse 2. "...in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience." This word walked, peripateo, It means to live or behave in a customary manner. The idea is that in this world of depravity, that we are dead in our trespasses and sins, this world is set up in the rebellion against God because of Adam's first sin to operate in such a way that you and I will go along, apart from Christ, doing all of the normal things that people do to live in rebellion to the Lord our God. Notice that Paul says we walk this way according to two things. He says in which you once walked according to the course of this world. It may surprise you, but this word according to the course of this world, course, is this word aeon. It refers to a duration of time. In other words, what Paul is describing in the deadness of our sinfulness and trespassing against God, if God does not intervene, we are going to continue to live in sin. Secondly, Paul also writes, according to the prince of the power of the air, who is the prince of the air, that is Satan, The idea here is one long line of people following after, not being able to think, not being able to change their behavior, simply following after the prince of the power of the air as he leads them straight into hell and damnation. Verse 3, "...among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath just as others." So Paul brings us to the troubling reality that apart from Christ and His work in our lives to transform us, that we would still be pursuing everything that God hates and calls sin. And that we would be, as Paul calls us, children of wrath. The picture here, and it does look to be bleak, he is intending for it to be bleak, is that apart from him and his electing work in our life, there is no hope for us. That is the simple picture of what Paul is describing. Our sinful condition would never change. We would never get out of our own, through our own thinking, our own behavior, out of the deadness of our hearts. We would continue to live in trespasses and sins. apart from the Spirit's work in us, through the effectual calling, through regeneration, where God awakens us to our sinful condition through the proclamation of the Gospel of Christ, who then leads us to repentance in faith, not only would we look to satisfy our every sinful desire, we would have no hope of ever wanting any other lifestyle and no hope of ever improving our standing before God. In other words, what Paul is telling us here is that even if you grow up learning all about God's word, you learn all of these things, if God isn't quickening your heart, leading you to repentance, There is no effort whereby that we can set forth, somehow make ourselves good enough before the Lord our God. But it gives us good news, amen? Look with me if you would at verses four through six, how he saves us. But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So in verses 1 through 3, the Apostle Paul paints the absolute bleakest of pictures for us in describing our depravity. Not only are we dead in our trespasses and sins, we follow after the prince of the air, Satan, and cannot do anything about it. And we don't want to do anything about it. But the Apostle Paul here in verses four through six paints for us what ought to be encouraging to us in that God did for us what we could not do for ourselves. And he gives us the why and the how here that God saves us in spite of our depravity. First of all, verse four. but God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us." So what Paul gives us here, according to the covenant of grace, is the why God saves us. God's merciful love. He's motivated by love apart from anything that we can do to achieve right standing before God. God elects some and lovingly chooses to be merciful to those who he has elected. In fact, this word mercy, the Greek word eleos, is both the forgiveness of sins but the removal of sins' guilt. Therefore, mercy is not simply getting God's kindness, when we don't deserve it. It is God in His election of us according to His covenant of grace that forgives us when you did not know that you had offended Him. And it is God removing the stain of that sin from our consciences. Notice what motivates His mercy. He says, because of His great love. This word love is the Greek word agape. It means to have a high regard for, an affection for. The idea here is that God doesn't intellectualize a love that he has for us. He graciously serves us in a way that we cannot yet understand apart from faith in Jesus Christ, and he calls us to himself. In his mercy, in his grace, He saves us, He demonstrates His love by extending the call to be His people. Did you know that this word agape, which describes the love of God in His electing purposes, John chapter 13 verse 34, Jesus tells the disciples is the same type of love, the same type of sacrificial love that we ought to have for people who do not deserve our love. In other words, because he has loved us, elected us, served us through the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, and we therefore become his adopted children, that we ought to then love people who don't yet love us. Paul's point is very simple, that this mercy that God shows His own is based upon His love that comes from a covenant promise to save those who the Father has chosen. So what Paul is actually getting at here in Ephesians 2, verses 4-6, is that this love that He has given to us through His mercy and love isn't something that we deserve. Secondly, verses five and six, Paul gives us the how God saves us, his power. Beginning in verse five, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. By His power, He has made us alive. The word made, in some translations, the word is translated quickened. It's the Greek word souzopoeo. It means to make someone able to respond. Again, theologically, what we're talking about here is what is called the effectual calling. whereby God, by His Spirit, makes the proclamation of the gospel of Christ effective in our hearts. We are awakened unto faith and trust upon Jesus Christ, our Savior. He talks about this in Colossians chapter 2, verses 13 through 14. He writes, and you being dead and your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made us alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross." Notice that through this merciful act of love, it says in verse 6, and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. You know what that means? It means that not only did Jesus Christ save us from our sins, but because we are in Christ, the very thing that the Father did for the perfect righteousness, both His active and passive obedience in the resurrection and the ascension where Jesus Christ now sits at the right hand of the Father interceding for us. Although we're not going to be worshipped, the very thing that God did for the Son God will do for us who are in Christ Jesus. Not only are we given the promise that through Him and His electing purposes are we saved, but we are guaranteed through His death to be with Him in eternity. We're not going to be worshipped in heaven as He is, and yet we're going to be with Him in the resurrection for His glory. That, my friends, no matter how many times we hear it, ought to be the best news that we could possibly hear. Amen? Finally, verses 7 through 10, what is the result of this work in our lives in the here and now? He says, verse 7, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Verses 1 through 3, we learned about the depravity of man, our sinfulness, our transgressions against the Lord. Verses 4 through 6, we're talking about the work of God through the effectual calling of the Spirit, regeneration. And now in verses 7 through 10, we see that our salvation should mean in our lives a purpose of proclaiming that grace and mercy with which he has loved us. It tells us, verse 7, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. What Paul is essentially telling us here is that in Christ raising us, that is, the elect, we show off his mercy towards those whom he has chosen to give his mercy. The idea is that people would see just how loving he has been towards us for the praise of his glorious name. The irony here is that this isn't an area in which his people get to boast. We aren't acting superior to anyone because of this grace. And yet what it ought to do is point us to a humility because He has loved us with a love that we did not deserve. It tells us interestingly, verses 8 through 9, it tells us again that this loving act is not the result of something we have done. Our faith is not the result of something we have worked within ourselves. It is the result of God's love. that our faith was a gift given to us by God. Why is it necessary that Paul reiterates for us that his love and our faith are the results of God's grace? He tells us, verse 9, "...not of words, that is, our faith, lest anyone should boast." Lest anyone should boast. What that means is that as the Apostle Paul iterates for us, the fact that our salvation and the newness with which we walk, that our heart's intention goes from pursuing worldly things to the things of Christ, that didn't happen because of something we chose or worked within ourselves. Therefore, there is no boasting within us as to how good we are to get to this new place of found righteousness. See, when somebody says, I chose Jesus Christ to be my Savior, even though the Word of the Lord tells us that we were dead in our trespasses and sins, they are boasting. when somebody says that I crawled out of the muck and the mire on my own and just happened to find Jesus Christ and therefore believed in Him because I'm a good person, they're boasting. In fact, this word boast in the Greek is a word that literally means vain or empty confidence. The idea here, the reason that the elect have confidence in Jesus Christ was because it was not based on our effort, but His alone that transformed our lives. When somebody says, I chose Jesus Christ, or my salvation is the result of the good work of having faith, they're boasting in something that will not stand. notice something very interesting he says verse 10 for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them see within God's sovereign plan for each and every one of our lives for those who he is calling to himself he has not just saved us but He has saved us to be His workmen." Some people have misread this and they get the idea that somehow God wants them to be like the energized bunny. I don't know if they still have commercials like this, but back in the day, the Energized Bunny, I think, was pink, and he had a big old drum, and he just beat the drum, and he went from end of the earth to the other end of the earth, because the battery power that powered him would never die. Amen? The idea here is not that God, after we have become His children by His work in our hearts, the idea here is not that God suddenly wants you to be His little worker bee or the pink bunny walking from one end of the earth to the other, beating the drum. What it means very simply, beloved, is that what God puts before you to do, we do for His glory. It doesn't matter if we're the president of a company, if we are a stay-at-home mom, if we are in school, if we're retired, if we work for the Air Force, or we preach sermons on Sunday morning, because He has transformed me by His grace and mercy, the very thing that He has called me to do, I'm called not just to do it, but to do it for His glory. Amen? It's a beautiful thing, although it's hard to hear. It's hard to hear because we're living in a country that tells us we're good people. We're constantly inundated with the idea that because I tell my parents or my siblings or my wife or my children or my husband that I love them, that I must be a good person. If I yearly pay my taxes, I must be a good person. If I'm polite to people, I must be a good person. If I pay the waiter or the waitress a tip, I must be a good person. But what the world tells us is fundamentally opposed to what the Word of the Lord tells us. Because if in this life we spend even one millisecond of our life not giving Him the glory that is due Him, we are living in sin. And yet by His grace, He transforms us that we might live in the newness of life for the glory of his name. There are three points of application that I would like to offer to you. First, earlier this week I was reading in the Gospel of John. I read in John chapter 9 and I read verses 1 to 34, which is a very interesting story about Jesus Christ healing this blind man. He's walking with his disciples. They happen to see a blind man standing off to the side. And it's interesting, the disciples, or rather the culture's view of people who are living with various types of disabilities, whether it's blindness or it's muteness or You can't speak or something is physically wrong with your body. The idea in their day is that if a person was born with that issue, that either that person had the issue because of sin they committed, or it was because of some sin that their parents committed. And so the disciples see this man standing off to the side. He's blind. He has been so since he was born. They ask him, Rabbi, who sinned? his man or his parents that he was born blind. You can imagine their opinion of him. They're walking with Jesus Christ. They believe themselves, at this point, they still don't yet understand that Christ is a servant, that he's going to suffer and die that we might live. He must die on the cross to give eternal life. Therefore, that there's a part of them still that thinks they're superior to this man because none of them have those issues. What does Jesus say to them? Verse 3, Jesus walks over to this blind man. He grabs dirt or clay and he slaps it on this man's eyes. And he gets him real deep. It, excuse me. He tells the man to go over to the pool and wash your face. You see this man stumbling over to the pool. Maybe people are getting in his way. Obviously he's blind, so finding his way there might be a little bit difficult. But he washes his face like he's never washed his face before. Suddenly he can see. You know what the Gospel of John tells us happened next? People were irritated with him because suddenly this beggar who was begging for money can now see. They can physically see that this man is not who he once was. He can now see, he can get up, he can walk. The question, well, why did I point you to this passage? Because as this man is getting razzled by people, why you were healed, you're poor, you're a beggar, you were blind, why do you have sight? Who did this for you? Were they a sinner? How were they able to do it for you? He says, verse 25, The point to that story with the passage that we're looking at here is that Paul doesn't argue why God elects some. The fact of the matter is that at the appointed time, God works in our hearts. He transforms the way we think. He feeds us a regular diet of God's Word, and slowly but surely, we, over the course of time, become more like Jesus Christ. So the issue here isn't the inner workings of effectual calling. It isn't to dissect a complete thorough understanding of election. It's that when you wake up in the morning, the person you were is no longer, and therefore, in light of Christ, I don't have to live in shame and condemnation for what I had done. That's the point. We're like the beggar who is suddenly made to see. I don't know how he did it, yet now I can see. Everybody can see that I can see for His glory. Secondly, you see in the text here that the reason the world pursues sin and a greater degree of sinfulness, sins and transgressions, is because they're following after the prince of the power of the air. Amen? Unless the Lord our God somehow intervenes and changes them from the inside out, guess what they're going to continue to do? As hard as it may be to hear, they're going to continue to pursue the sins of this world. The point that I'd like to make to you is that because we know that they're following after the prince of the power of this air, we understand why they are following after the prince of the power of this air. And therefore, we don't need to walk around surprised by all the sinfulness of a sinful world. I admit, sometimes what you hear on the news is rather shocking. Some of the things that you see is rather atrocious, but we need to think biblically that the reason they're following after the prince of the power of this heir is because God in his mercy has not chosen to change their hearts. Thirdly, as we remember what Christ has done for us here on the cross of Calvary, which we are getting ready to remember and celebrate that this ought to drag up a certain sense of humility. I don't care how long we've been walking with the Lord, every time we hear this about what He has done and we remember what He has done and we reflect on what He has done and are spiritually fed by the sacramental elements, we should grow in humility. not because we're walking around in guilt and shame, but because we didn't deserve it. The Lord calls us to be his workmen because of what he has done for us on the cross. Do we take the relationships that we have been given and share the hope that is within us? Do we work as to the best of our ability, whether we are in high school or we're working every day or we're retired, whatever it is that God has called us to do at this season, in the humility of the knowledge that he has saved us when we did not deserve it? I wonder if we could just for a moment silently close our eyes And think about just that, that we don't deserve it, that it was an act of His grace. If we could just take a moment to close our eyes and bow our heads. And after so long, I'll close us in a word of prayer and we'll move to the sacrament. Let's pray. Our God in heaven, you are good. Your mercy endures forever. We pray, Heavenly Father, that as your elect people, we would stand in humility, knowing that you have saved us from a wrath that is most assuredly to come that we did not deserve. You did not deserve your grace or your mercy. I pray, Heavenly Father, that you would help us to remain humble by what you've done. That we would become better because we're forgiven at being forgiving. When we're wrong, we don't hold grudges, but we're quick and ready, as you were, to forgive us. even before we knew that You were even there. We pray, Heavenly Father, that You would guide us mercifully this week and help us to walk in the newness of life. For it is in Your precious name we pray. Amen.