Ephesians chapter 2 starting in verse 1, it'll be 1 through 10. I want to give a long introduction here. Let's pray again. Lord, we now come to your word. I pray that you would bless it. Lord, bless our hard work and our hearts and use your word. Lord, I pray that you give me strength and that you would bless today for your glory. In Christ's name, amen. The message is God's plan, God's works, and God's glory. Ephesians 2, one through 10. Like I said, quite a bit of introduction here. God's ways are far above ours. Now, many times, and I think more often than we realize, we try to understand God by looking to our own image, since we are made in the image of God. But we're like a reflection. We're like a reflection of a, think of a building being reflected onto the water, a building that's next to some still water and it's being reflected onto the water. It is an image of that building, but that reflection doesn't tell us what's in the building, doesn't tell us what's behind the building, maybe even beside the building. It doesn't tell us anything about electrical system, plumbing system, anything that's in there. So it's very limited, that reflection is very limited in what it can tell us. So we do see some things. We are made in God's image, but we're just an image. There is more mystery to God than what is revealed in us or in creation. You know, creation, yes. The heavens declare the glory of God. But we need the word of God to tell us more about who God is. Because there are things about God that were not communicated to us. And there are things that were communicated to us. I think there's a lot more mystery and there is to God than what is revealed in us. And just as there is more to the house reflected in the water than there is in the reflection. Now, I'm gonna talk in human terms about God, but realize that that is imperfect. We don't have, we can't perfectly, we can just do the best we can. A reflection can never perfectly explain the thing reflected. So, imagine that God has a decision to make after Adam sins. There are two choices. He can either wipe out Adam and his creation and start over, or he can allow a sinful Adam and Eve to exist. God doesn't really make a choice, like a human makes a choice, but in our understanding, it is a choice. First off, he loves his creation and loves Adam and Eve, so he will act according to the divine nature, which is love. Secondly, for love to be profound for anyone, they have to know each other and interact. Of course, God knew. He knew Adam and Eve perfectly. But how deeply did Adam and Eve know God? How much could someone love you if they didn't even know you? Doesn't that? Doesn't that drive you crazy when you see a politician or a singer or someone up on stage? And I love all of y'all. He's like, you don't even know these people. It's like, oh, he loves me. What? I don't even know who you are. Anyway, that was a little bit of a rabbit trail there. What about Adam and Eve loving God? truly understanding who he is in a deeper way. Adam and Eve knew God before the fall and they loved him. But could that love be with more understanding? Could that love be deeper? Did they understand how deep God's love was for them? Truly understand. The Bible says that there isn't any greater love than if a person lays down their life for another. Did Adam and Eve understand that type of love that God had for them? Did they know and understand all the ways that God's love could be expressed? How that he could be patient beyond their current understanding? Did they know that depth of love? Did they know that he would die for them if God could die? Did they know that he loved them enough to forgive any sin? Did they truly understand how much love he had for them? No, but God had a plan to reveal his love to them. They would get to know him far more than they had ever known him before sin came into the world. But they would also grow. Their appreciation for his righteousness would grow. They were righteous before the fall into sin, but did they fully understand what they had You know, it's been said before many times, I never really appreciated that until I didn't have it. Did they understand what they, did they appreciate what they had? Because they had never known anything else. How many times, how many times do we, And hopefully we are constantly fighting the flesh. How many times are we fighting that flesh and we're like, oh, just to be free from that. You know, many times we know what is right, right? And we want to be that. It's like, Lord, I want to love you more. How do I do that? How do I love you perfectly? We want to be. We long for that righteousness. You know, if I had always lived in a mansion, always had the best food, best clothes, and all needs supplied, I would be content and appreciate those things to a certain extent. But what if I had to work by the sweat of my brow and suffer? What if I grew up without all the comforts? Would I understand more what I had been given if I was then given a mansion? Would my love be deeper for the one who provided all those things? What about righteousness? Did Adam and Eve fully appreciate how blessed they were to be made perfect? To an extent, they would be thankful because they had no sin, but their knowledge was not as full as it could be, and therefore their appreciation for righteousness could not be as full. Something that is in the soul of all those who are born again is that longing for righteousness. There's a longing to be like Adam was originally made. Only we will have something that Adam did not have before the fall. We will know in a more profound way what a blessing it is to be made righteous. We need to remember that we cannot fully see the contrast now because we still have the sinful nature. We don't see the contrast like Adam did because he had experienced a world and an existence without sin. We have not experienced a world without sin. We can't see the contrast as fully. We have some contrast because we have the down payment of the Holy Spirit within us and can contrast the righteous desires we have now with the sinful desires. But there's coming a day when the contrast will be perfected, when we experience the restored state of complete righteousness. The contrast then will be complete. We will have a more complete appreciation for the way we are created in his image. Perfect righteous, perfectly righteous. So in human ways of understanding, in human ways of understanding, God made a choice, a loving choice. He let Adam and Eve live. and therefore let us, his offspring, live. I think the hardest part for us to understand and to even accept is that God did not choose to rescue everyone. And it won't satisfy our question why, but there is an answer. If he did not save everyone then there would be a more profound understanding of God's hatred for sin. His holiness would be understood in a more profound way. Another thing would happen that would give us a more profound appreciation. We would also appreciate the eternal joy we have been given as it is contrasted with the eternal loss of those who refused eternal life. I remember, I've told this before, but it does illustrate a good point. I remember a person saying to me, I wish God would just take all the bad things out of the world right now. And I don't know why he doesn't. She was mad at God. And I said, you don't really want him to do that, do you? Because you'd be gone. Of course, she did turn to me and say, but I've never done anything bad. So there's that. It's like, well, OK. I'll move over here so I don't get hit by lightning. But anyway. We say people will hate on God. because evil exists. You know, God could have wiped out Adam and Eve, started over, but you know, none of us would be here. How does any of this work? How does any of that work? If we were the ones who saved ourselves, if we are the ones who were smart enough or holy enough to change ourselves back to sinless and somehow atone for our own sins, it doesn't work. God's grace is not then displayed. His grace is no longer grace if we earned anything. No, when God created Adam, he knew Adam would fall. Why? Because man is changeable. He can change. Theologically, he's mutable. He can change. God is different. He can't change. Theologically, he's immutable. But man is not God. He can change. God would create man anyway, knowing he would change. It was part of his plan for Adam to know things about him. It was part of God's plan to pay for Adam's sin and to restore Adam. and not only Adam, but also people he elected to save who would be descendants of Adam. So again, you would say, I wish God had never allowed evil to exist. If you say that, you are wishing, you are saying that you wish forgiveness and grace had never been manifested, had never been seen. had never existed, at least as far as you're concerned. You're saying that you wish man could never have the deep understanding of God that came with it. You're saying that you wish the understanding of the depth of God's love had never been manifested, never existed. If evil had never existed, the sun would still have existed. since he is eternal, but there would have been no need for him to take on human flesh. He would never have been touched with the feeling of our infirmities. The God-man would not have manifested love and sacrifice. He would not have manifested humility that reveals his giving nature. We know that God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son. Great love. You know, he loved us before we loved him. He loved us first. That's great love. To wish that evil had never existed would be to wish that we never had God's love displayed like it has been displayed. We would not know God like we know him now, and we could not be conformed to the image of God as deeply Because when would we lay down our lives for others? Not that we could atone for anybody's sin, but we lay down our lives for others. When could we ever, why would we do that? Would be no opportunity for that. We could never display God's image, something that's inside that house that we couldn't see. unless evil existed to forgive. A forgiving God. We could never have that image in us of being patient and expressing the fruit of the spirit to others. So God made a choice to love and to reveal himself to man. so that man could know him and love deeply with understanding and be conformed to his image within things we couldn't see any other way. So Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is going to explain to us some of these deep things. In Ephesians chapter two, starting in verse one, says, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Quickened means to make alive. We were dead morally, spiritually dead. Not that our spirits were dead, but that they were morally dead. The spirits of the lost people do many things. but just not anything truly good, not for the right motives, not for the right reasons, because of a relationship with God. Dead, dead to God. No relationship in a way that it's supposed to be. Well, there's a relationship, but just not in the way it's supposed to be. I mean, I have a relationship. I can have a, I don't, Sounds like I've got a bunch of enemies, but I could have a relationship with an enemy, but it wouldn't be the same thing, okay? Verse two says, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince and the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. So our spirits were like the evil prince and power of the air. Our wills were taken captive by the devil and the sin he brought into the world. Verse three says, among whom also we all had our conversation, or behavior, in time past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. We were just as dead spiritually as everyone else. There wasn't some spark in us, and we were just a little better than others. God didn't come to save those who think they are righteous, but to save sinners. He wants his grace to be displayed in salvation. So basically he isn't wanting to display your spark you think you have. He isn't seeking to take the little bit of goodness you have left and magnify your goodness for the whole world to see because you don't have any goodness. You're spiritually dead if you don't know him. No, he wants to display his grace, his plan, and allowing man to exist was to display his grace, was to display his grace, not our spark, okay? There is no spark, okay? People aren't a little bit dead. They either are or they aren't. He wants to display the love he has for us that he had before the foundation of the world. So continuing on verse four, it says, but God who is rich in mercy, For his great love, wherewith he loved us. Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. So what's the driving force there? Love. But God, who is rich in mercy, is revealed. He's been revealed, he's rich in mercy. And for his great love, wherewith he loved us, his love is revealed. even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace you are saved. You know, it was love that moved him, not our spark. It was grace that moved him to save us, not a little piece of us that still looked appealing to him. You know, it isn't like the world is a field full of strawberries and some that are totally rotten, some that have a little bit of rot God can cut out and still find you useful. or find the strawberry useful. We are not useful and needed, we are wanted. If anything, we're like Paul, the chief of rotten strawberries. He chose the most rotten to touch with his power to reveal who he is, his power to make new again. It's all about him revealing who he is, and so that we might be conformed to his image in a greater and a more deeper way. So again, verses four through six says, but God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace you're saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. You know, everything in this passage is God doing things. It's all about God, isn't it? We're dead, okay? Everything else, it's about him. This is about our unity with Jesus. We are in him. We are under his authority and we are his responsibility. His inheritance is ours. We are subjects of his kingdom and members of his family. And why did God do this? That God would be just to manifest things like forgiveness and grace. things that could only be manifested in the way they are manifested if sin existed. that in the ages to come, he might show, here we go. And hath raised us up, we're on verse six, and hath raised us up together, made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come, he might show, or shew, the exceeding riches of his grace. So there's a reason for it. He's saying this is the reason for it. That in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Jesus Christ. There's your purpose. What? It's like there doesn't seem to be any purpose to all this stuff that's happening in this world. There doesn't seem to be any reason. What's the purpose of all this sin and destruction and despair and all of that in this world? There's no purpose. There is a purpose. That in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. It says through Christ Jesus. His grace and kindness are revealed to us through Christ. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. So it's, Here's the great creator created in Christ Jesus unto good works for that purpose which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. He ordained something before. What did he ordain before and before when? He ordained that we would be restored to sinlessness like Adam had before he fell. God didn't just plan to allow Adam's fall only but to rescue Adam and restore him to what he was before only You have to understand what I mean by better there, in a more deeper way. We would know things about God, or he would know things about God he could not have known. He will understand more deeply, experience God more deeply, and love more deeply. He will be grateful for things about God that he never even knew existed before. A couple of things I want us to remember about God. He does all things well, and He does whatever He pleases. Isaiah 46, 9 and 10 says, Remember the former things of old? For I am God, and there is none else. I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. What he has planned is to make known his grace. It wasn't... his plan to make known our righteousness, or to make known what little righteousness we had. That's why it says, lest any man should boast, right? For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Now, when the Bible speaks of salvation, it speaks really, you can put it into three classifications. It speaks of three ways that God saves us. He saves us from the penalty of sin, meaning he saves us from death and hell, the penalty of sin. He saves us from the power of sin. meaning that he gives us spiritual life by indwelling us. He saves us from the world of sin, meaning that when we die, we are transformed and no longer live with the freshly sinful nature or in this sinful world. If we get confused about what exactly God is saving us from in a passage, then it makes contradictions in the word of God in our minds. Let me give you some examples. Here's an example of God saving us from the power of sin. Look at Philippians chapter two. Saving us from the power of sin. So if you look at Philippians two, 12 and 13. So he saves us from sinful desires by giving us new desires that we then need to act upon. He gives us that life and then we need to act upon those things, but he saves us from that overwhelming sin that dwells within us. And Philippians 2, 12, and 13 says, Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. What kind of salvation? Salvation, it's salvation from the power of sin. So you've been saved, you've been given new life. You've been given an understanding of faith. Your eyes are opened. You see God for who he is. You've been given spiritual life. You're no longer dead in your trespasses and sins. Now, work that out. That needs to come out. It's in your heart. Now it needs to come out. For it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. It's the salvation. in this passage is not salvation from penalty in hell, but rather salvation from the power of sin in our hearts. It has nothing to do with earning salvation. God indwells us with His Holy Spirit, giving us the desires to do good things, but we must act on those desires. God gives life to a person who is dead in their trespasses and sins. There is work to do. not work to earn anything, but work to kill wrong desires, work to do those things that are righteous, to love like God loves, to reflect a deeper image from within. You know, a dead person can't work, but a spiritually alive person can. We are working out the salvation of being made alive, not working how to atone for our sins. Jesus did that alone. Don't boast in anything except the cross of Christ. When people want to use verse 12, though, to prove that we work for our salvation, they will leave out verse 13. Have you ever noticed that? For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. This is just what we read in Ephesians, Ephesians 2 10. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus under good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. He's working out his good pleasure. We were dead in sins. Now we are alive. If we know him, we've been born again. So this verse in Philippians is not about the type of salvation that means being saved from the penalty of the law. It is about being saved from the power of sin that dwells in our members. Work out the life you have been given, which is salvation from spiritual death. The verses in the Bible that mention salvation or being saved seem to me to almost always be about salvation from the power of sin, being saved from the power of sin. When we think of being saved, We are usually only concerned about being saved from the penalty of sin. Therefore, we read into these passages being saved from hell, but they're actually about being saved from the power of sin that dwells within us. Yes, it is wonderful to know that God planned to atone for my sin, and I don't have to be worried about the penalty of sin. Since Christ paid that price with the cross, I am justified. But God also planned to save us from the power of sin. Christian doesn't have to worry about the penalty of death and hell. Our sins have been atoned for and we are clothed with his righteousness. But he is still saving us from the sin that so easily besets us. This was his plan from the beginning, to transform us. And even that type of salvation isn't anything we can boast about. It is God that works within us both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Now, if it is God that works within us, both to will and to do of his good pleasure, then are we stronger than God and wear him down? You know, he planned to transform us from the foundation of the world. If God is the one who saved us, does there come a time when he goes, whew, too much work, next? I mean, to me, that's demeaning to God, really. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Now the book of Isaiah has been called the fifth gospel before. It is no wonder that many of the same truths that Paul explains were in the book of Isaiah. Look at chapter 61, Isaiah 61 10. Notice how the fulfillment of God's plan to make a holy people and to make people holy. is mentioned Isaiah 61 10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord my soul shall be joyful in my God for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decked herself with ornaments and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. To God be the glory for all he has done to save me. It is his work alone that saves me from the penalty and atones for my sin on the cross. It is his work alone that saves me and gives me a new heart and the power to do righteous works. And it is his power alone that saves me from the wrath to come and the eternal death that is awaiting all those who do not put their faith in Christ. God's plan, God's works, and God's glory. For by grace, Are you saved through faith? And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus under good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Here's our purpose. Our purpose is to glorify him, to praise him, to not glory in anything else but the cross for atonement, to not glory in any other reason because we're different than the world, than the fact that God chose to do a work in me. And then reflect, reflect who he is to others. Be conformed to the image of Christ. If you don't know him, oh, the joy, the joy of knowing him. knowing that forgiveness, of knowing that fellowship with his spirit, of walking by faith. And if you know him, don't forget your first love. Again, I'm available to speak to anyone at any time. Catch me after service. I don't know, I guess you text me, whatever. There's not just a certain time right now that you can be saved. God saves people all the time. He'd give your life a much greater purpose than what you have now. Lord,