Saved For A Purpose (Ephesians 2:8-10)

God has saved you for a purpose. The final verses of this passage give us a glimpse into the future. Why doesn’t God just take to Heaven those He saves right away? Because there are good works to do. Good works do not earn God’s favour, but they are a necessary response to God’s favour. Good works do not save us, but they do give great evidence that we are saved. Paul says as a result of our salvation, as a result of the ‘but God,’ moment that moved us from death and the devil and hell to life and Christ and Heaven, there are things we have to do.

But what things are they? We’d love to know wouldn’t we? What is God’s will? 1 Thess 4:3 tells us, ‘for this is God’s will, your sanctification.’ God’s plan for Christians is to make us more like Jesus. He wants us to love Jesus more and the world less, he wants us to show people around us that we are saved by good works. So which college should I go to? The one that helps me love Jesus more. Which girl should I date? The one that helps me love Jesus more? Who should I be close friends with? The ones that help me loive Jesus more. What job should I work? One that helps me love Jesus more.

We get so bent out of shape looking for God’s secret will for our lives. God has told us His will for our lives. Do good works, which show that you love Jesus, and help you love Jesus more.

I hope this spiritual x-ray has revealed some things to you. If you’re not saved, I hope you’ve seen yourself as dead. Not as having a great time away from Jesus, but as the hopeless slave of the devil. And I hope it’s made you want to come to Jesus. If you are saved let me close with another illustration for you. Hetty Green was known as America's greatest miser. She managed an inherited fortune so shrewdly that she was also considered the greatest woman financier in the world. In 1916 she died leaving an estate that was worth nearly 100 million dollars. Yet she would eat cold oatmeal because she didn't want to spend the money to heat the water. Her son eventually lost his leg from a relatively minor injury because she took him to a number of free medical clinics instead of calling for a doctor. She had tremendous resources but didn't make use of them.

Christians, Jesus has given you tremendous resources. Use this x-ray to see yourself as you really are, and give your life to good works for the glory of Jesus, as He showers you with His kindness and love.

But God! (Ephesians 2:4-7)

Verses 4-7 show us what a wonderful life Christ promises us. But God might be the sweetest phrase in the whole Bible. We were dead, ‘but God’ made us alive. We were hopeless, ‘but God,’ gave us hope. We were helpless, ‘but God,’ gave us help. We were devil worshippers, ‘but God,’ has saved us. God has stepped in to deliver us from death, to deliver us from hell. He has done this by joining us to Jesus, He has saved us by giving us what belongs to Him. In these wonderful verses we see three things. God’s motivation for saving us, God’s action to save us, and God’s purpose for saving us.

Four things motivated God to save us. Verse four mentions His great love for us. God’s great love. Not His grudging love, or His miserable love, or His dutiful love…His great love. Jesus loves us so much that He was motivated to come and die in the ugliest way possible to save us. God is rich in mercy. Rich! His mercy overflows to us. We didn’t deserve saving, and we don’t deserve keeping, but God’s rich mercy overflows to rescue us from sin. Three times Paul mentions God’s grace. Our salvation wasn’t prompted by us, it was total, undeserved favour. In verse 7 we read of God’s kindness. He was kind to do for us exactly what we needed. What motivated God to save us? His love, His mercy, His grace and His kindness. What a wonderful God!

Secondly, in these verses, we see God’s action, what He has actually done because of His love and grace. God has made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up and seated us with Him in the Heavenly places. Wow! Doesn’t that sound better than a life dominated by the devil? Wouldn’t you rather be alive with Christ, under the influence of Heaven, that dead with the devil under the influence of hell? Paul shows us what the devil offers us, and then he shows us how Jesus totally outbids what he offers. Jesus is better, Paul says, come to Him. We benefit from the position and power of Jesus, if we are saved.

Finally we see God’s purpose for saving us in verse 7. This is so good we need to stop and read it together. I love that verse. The immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. Amazing! God has saved us for Himself, that He might show His grace and kindness. When we are saved, we are, forever, the subject of God’s grace and kindness. The devil is neither gracious, nor kind, why would you choose him over Jesus? Jesus has saved you not to ruin your fun, not to make you miserable or boring, but to be kind to you.

A Depressing X-Ray (Ephesians 2:1-3)

Let me tell you about one of the most painful experiences of my life. I was probably 7 or 8 years old, and walking across our living room one day I suddenly got the most ridiculous pain in my right foot. It was so bad I couldn’t even stand on it. I was a bit of a hypochondriac in those days, so my parents weren’t altogether sure there was something wrong with me. But there really was. Two days later, when I was still in agony, and still couldn’t put any weight on my foot, they took me to the doctor for an x-ray. The x-ray showed the problem, I had a three inch long needle inside my foot. It had gone in so deep that you couldn’t see it, I needed an x-ray to be shown the cause of the problem. That same day I had an operation, and I still just about have the scar on my foot to prove it.

It took an x-ray to show what was wrong, and here, in Ephesians 2:1-10, Paul shows us an x-ray of our hearts and lives. He shows us what we were like before we are saved, what some of us are still like today, then he shows us what we are like now we’re saved, and finally, he shows us what our lives should be like now. A spiritual x-ray is what we need, whether or not we are saved. If you’re not saved here this morning, Paul is about to show you what you look like, he’s about to show you the problem. Just like I couldn’t see the needle in my foot, neither can you see the problems in your heart without an x-ray. And if you are saved, you need to be shown what is true about you. Just like I needed to realize what was wrong with my foot, so I could get back to my normal life, so we need to realize what Jesus has done for us, so we can live our lives for His glory.

Our first x-ray, from verses 1-3, tells us that we are dead without Jesus. These verses are depressing to read aren’t they? Paul tells us that even if we look nice, or normal, on the outside, we are dead inside. Sin and death are connected throughout the Bible, because it is sin that cuts us off from God, the source of all life. These verses show us what we were like before we were saved, or what we are like now if we’re not saved. We were dead in transgressions and sins according to verse one, verse 3 tells us that God saw us as children of wrath. That God was angry with us, whether we felt it or not. Verse 2 tells us how we behaved in those days. We followed the course of this world, we lived in the ways of the devil, and we were ruled by the desires of the flesh.

Before we were saved, three awful enemies, death, sin and the devil had complete power over us. The devil ruled our desires, our plans, our dreams and our actions. The devil is described as ‘the prince of the power of the air,’ not meaning that he has power over the oxygen we breathe, but that he sets the atmosphere on Earth. It’s the devil that influences a political agenda for the apparent harm of God’s Kingdom, it’s the devil’s influence that means we use hell to describe good things (it was a hell of a game) and Jesus Christ as a cuss word. And what’s even worse is that before we are saved, we love this world. Before we are saved not only does the devil rule the atmosphere, he rules our desires, and we can’t help but follow them. Verse three tells us that we carry out the desires of the body. We are under the control of the devil, and we love to do his work.

Isaiah 59:16-17

I've been reading Isaiah in the mornings over the last six mornings, what a book! Full of comfort and consolation, but also judgement and devastation. God is the God of victory for His people. He is the God who is crushed, and through that crushing comes victory.

This morning i read 59:16-17. If you came from Mars, and heard of a God who was perfect, and powerful, how would you expect Him to deal with the problem mentioned in verse 16? No one in Israel, not one of God's people interceded, no one was standing. You might expect this sovereign power to rise and rage, the judge and destroy. But, Martian friend, you'd be wrong.

What happens next? 'then his own arm brought him salvation.' God provided a man, who would stand, a man who would bring salvation. There was not a single Israelite with the law written on his heart. Jesus came, with the law written on His heart. There was not an Israelite who kept the law. Jesus came and kept the law. There was not a King who loved the Lord with all His heart, all His mind and all His strength. Jesus came, and Jesus did. He came and brought righteousness, His righteousness upheld Him. There is no one else in all of history of whom this can be said.

What does Isaiah say next? 'He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head.' Well hang on, this is Ephesians isn't it? We all know that famous passage. Jesus wore the breastplate, of His own righteousness first. Jesus can wear the helmet of salvation, because it salvation belongs to Him.

We can't work our way to God. The Gospel is all about Him coming down. And down He came. What does Paul want us to out on in Ephesians 6? Not disconnected truths about Jesus...we need Jesus Himself. His righteousness, His salvation, His good news.

This morning we worship a good God, a rescuing God, a God whose name is Jesus. He comes and gives. He gives His life, He comes and gives righteousness and salvation. Bless the Lord oh my soul, and forget not His benefits...

You really should listen to Glen Scrivener on Isaiah. Really!