And so these gifts are given, as it is said, "till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man., unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up unto him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.". according to the prince of the power of the air, that even now works in the children of disobedience ( Ephesians 2:2 ): Now, there may have been a time in the history of the world that a person would challenge the fact that Satan is behind the course or the flow of the world. [Note: Wiersbe, 2:17. Israel had always had the radiant hope in God which burned clearly and inextinguishably even in her darkest and most terrible days; but in his heart the Gentile knew only despair, before Christ came to give him hope. At the same time there is no exclusion of Gentile believers, but the reverse. Isaiah 59:1-2. WebClick on "Find Related Songs" to search for worship songs for a given service. I really thought it was worthwhile having. Keep your mind always employed, and so you will escape him. Sin is the failure to hit the target of life. New to this blog? Praise to the Father of Lord Jesus Christ! i Zohar in Gen, fol. But, as Paul said elsewhere, "Christ is the end of the law" ( Romans 10:4). "Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Put away your previous way of life, your old self, corrupted and deluded as it was, and be renewed in every aspect of your thinking. Perhaps you can scarcely, in the moment I can afford you, appropriate the idea to yourselves. Jesus could occupy Himself in divine love. That is exactly the right that Jesus gives us in regard to God. Is it so? What was to be done? Connected with nature, He has sealed us, as it is said here and elsewhere; and connected with relationship, He is the earnest. It is not God's laws against which we have sinned; it is against his heart. Here are some indexes that might be helpful: INDEXES: For a complete list of all the indexes on this blog, click here. Grace alone would not suffice, glory alone would not serve, but both. But in Ephesians we are in presence of a new creation in Christ, where claim is out of the question. Merciful God, we celebrate the way that you chose to bring unity and peace to peoplethrough the gift of your Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. Those who walk in trespasses and sins, and according to the course of this world, walk according to the prince of the power of the air. But we are not at liberty to set aside the declarations of our Lord and of the Apostle Paul, that, while we remain in Adam, we are entirely devoid of life; and that regeneration is a new life of the soul, by which it rises from the dead. God is King! [Note: Stott, p. Unregenerate souls are dead in trespasses and sins. Call to Worship (Psalm 145:13b-14, 17-19) The Lord is trustworthy and true, Faithful in all of Gods ways. Many a man's life is embittered because he feels that he has never had what his talents and his work deserve; but in the sight of God no man deserves anything but condemnation. It creeps along, pleased to make any kind of progress; and when it gets up on its little feet, it moves from one chair to another, trembling at every step it takes, and presently, down it goes. I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character, and that therefore what one has done in the secret chamber, one has some day to cry aloud from the house-top. Not so Lazarus; the Jews came to weep at his tomb. dead -- Refers to being separated from God and under the rule of the evil one (see v. 2 and note). The practical outcome of all this, that some of you do not know anything at all about it. When the life begins to come to him, he feels as he never felt before; sin that was pleasant becomes a horror to him. Click for: HYMN No. Paul had begun by saying that, as we are, we are dead in sins and trespasses; now he says that God in his love and mercy has made us alive in Jesus Christ. We are by nature the children of wrath, even as others. I mean, that they like the amusements of the world; they like to put on their shroud sometimes just for a treat. Hence it is that righteousness disappears in this epistle. WebCall to Worship: Ephesians 2: 19-22 Heres a contemporary call to worship inspired by Ephesians 2: 19-22. No man ever made himself to live. They have to be covered up in the tomb of secresy; for men would scout them from society, and hiss them from existence, if they knew all. Such is, in fact, the condition of a sinful world. If there be a divine life to which you are a stranger, how long will you be a stranger to it? I don't think that that would be challenged much anymore. That is, you really didn't have any real eternal purpose. Those things result in death! But when presented to him, he knows all that it was meet for him to know then. (i) He made both Jew and Gentile into one new man. When you see a person meandering you get the impression he is not really going anywhere and he doesn't have any purpose. How everything is connected with Christ! The Church will realize her unity only when she realizes that she does not exist to propagate the point of view of any body of men, but to provide a home where the Spirit of Christ can dwell and where all men who love Christ can meet in that Spirit. Who could, before He revealed His purpose, have so much as conceived such a dealing possible? He knows instinctively that she was part of himself, and gives her a name suitably. God then brings out His own secret, after having kept it hidden from all past ages and generations, though, of course, it has been before Him from the beginning. Which is the worst state of all, far worse than being without circumcision. I might be stumbling onto a phenomena of nature that I don't understand. Ah, such were some of us; but we are cleansed! The only thing which can restore his relationship to her is an act of free forgiveness on her part. Now my eyes will be open and my ears will be attentive to the prayers offered in this place. So the flow of the world, you just flowed with it. Glory from the church, glory from generation upon generation. The ancient world was full of barriers. The word course has its root meaning in Greek weathervane. No one calls him respectable. "Youth's beauty fades, and manhood's glory fades. Now, notice verse Ephesians 2:5 , "with Christ," verse Ephesians 2:6 , "in Christ Jesus," verse Ephesians 2:7 , "through Christ Jesus." It cannot be otherwise. WebReflection/Call to worship - based on Ephesians 2:11-22 118 views Aug 1, 2021 A short reflection with pictures and music that can be used personally or in a shared act of And yet these putrid ones may live; these last are not more dead than the maiden upon her bed, though the death has more fully revealed itself in their corruption. When Isaiah received his vision of God, his first reaction was to say: "Woe is me! Take heed, I beseech you, ye fairest, youngest, most upright, and most honest; when the dead are separated from the living, unless ye be regenerated, ye must go with the dead; though ye be never so fair and goodly, ye must be cast away, unless you live. and unless the Spirit quicken thee, thou shalt be cast into the valley of Gehenna, to be the food of that worm which never dieth, but eateth souls throughout eternity. Most wholesome blessedness! At the same time, we learn by our experiments. But it is not so with the revelation of the mystery. As spiritual death is nothing else than the alienation of the soul from God, we are all born as dead men, and we live as dead men, until we are made partakers of the life of Christ, agreeably to the words of our Lord, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. (John 5:25). No parent, however prayerful, no teacher, however tearful, can make a child live unto God. Those who had been far from God were brought near, and the door was shut to no one. Now, if a man should miss the hoop, then he was called a sinner, you have missed. And what is the first lesson of the truth as it is in Jesus? There is no consciousness of greatness in all the world like that. He came to take away the sense of estrangement and of guilt, by telling us that God wants us just as we are. They can se flattering speeches in addressing the ungodly; but the Holy Ghost never does. Good works cannot earn them salvation, but once they are saved their lives should be full of good works. Call to Worship from Ephesians 2: We are saved by Gods grace. 2:11-12 So then remember, that once, as far as human descent goes, you were Gentiles; you were called the uncircumcision by those who laid claim to that circumcision which is a physical thing, and a thing produced by men's hands. "In whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise, who is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.". Greece was made up of famous cities--Athens, Thebes, Corinth and the rest and it very nearly encountered disaster because the cities refused to cooperate to meet the common threat. The Unity In Christ ( Ephesians 2:13-18 Continued). Ah! This is the moral nature which God confers on us who are born of Him. At its heart is a desire to rediscover and refresh the best of past Wesleyan hymns and write new congregational worship that is a call to justice, compassion, mercy, Everything else in Ephesians 2:1-7 is of subordinate importance. in the lust of our flesh, as we were fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; as we were by nature the children of wrath, even as the others ( Ephesians 2:3 ). Since then it is not so much they that have lost, but man in and by Christ that has gained such a place as they never had nor could have. One of the regular passengers commented on the change. He always comes back to that theme. It has its heavenly association as the one body of Christ; it has its earthly place and responsibility as the "habitation of God through the Spirit." - FSB. We remember with gratitude how people shared their faith with us so that we are no longer strangers and aliens. I live in him. Whatever was the current fashion. Our first birth, the natural life was of the flesh. yea, impossible? But then I confessed my sin and God forgave me my sin completely. That is living prayer. For the mass subsequently brought in were Gentiles, and the gospel of salvation they forthwith received, without going through the intermediate steps that the others knew. And what a wrong concept people have of what it means to surrender your life to the will of God.For once a person does, they find as, Jesus said, "I delight to do thy will, O Lord." It is in vain to look for the church's prosperity, if saints individually do not grow up unto Christ. A. Spurgeon's Verse Expositions of the Bible. Our present position is this, first, that we are raised from the dead. Those who were once "dead in sins" are now alive in Christ (Ephesians 2:1-10); and those who were once "aliens and strangers separated from God" are now members of God's family (Ephesians 2:11-22). Come, friends, let us confess our sins to the Lord. Death is a separation, physical death is a separation of the spirit from the body, and spiritual death is the separation of the spirit from God. Web14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its ", In the Homeric Hymns the assembly of Olympus is charmed by the Muses who sing "of the deathless gifts of the gods and the sorrows of men, even all that they endure by the will of the immortals, living heedless and helpless, nor can they find a cure for death, nor a defence against old age.". That is, it may not be sincere, nor even doctrinally the truth that is held; but we hear of lone faith" in contrast with Judaism on one hand, and with Paganism on the other. But he has raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus ( Ephesians 2:6 ): Or in the heavenlies. "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints; and for me [as the apostle blessedly adds], that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel" (what a gracious way of encouraging and strengthening saints, giving them a feeling of the value of their prayers, both in the sight of God, and in fellowship with the most blessed apostle that God ever gave the church!) When young people are converted who have not yet acquired evil habits; when they are saved before they become obnoxious in the eyes of the world, the command is, " Give them meat ." I believe it to be true; and believing it to be true, I feel its living force upon my nature every day. It is in the tomb. The tendency is ever to set aside what is personal for that which is corporate. young man, I weep, I weep over thee; thou art not yet so far gone, that they have rolled the stone against thee; thou art not yet become obnoxious; thou art not yet the staggering drunkard, nor yet the blasphemous infidel; thou hast much that is ill about thee, but thou hast not gone all the lengths yet. Would God send out and bring in the Gentiles to fill their place? Call to Worship (Psalm 107, Ephesians 2, John 3) God loves us with a steadfast love. See Matthew 12:24; Matthew 12:26. there are some of the merchants of London who practise lusts that are abominable. WebThanksgiving and praise are called forth in response to a gracious God. What is the effect of this life upon us? Man by his very nature cannot bring perfection to God; and so, if ever man is to win his way to God, it must always be God who gives and man who takes. Just as Christ is the sample and model whether of nature or relationship, so the Holy Ghost is not without His own proper place in bringing the saint into the reality, knowledge, and enjoyment of both. Then we have in the centre of this chapter no longer the unity or the gifts differing, but the moral walk of the saints. "Ay," she said, "I have. The sinner arrogantly lives in total disregard of the will of God, as though the Creator has no law or moral judgment for His creation. The Holy Ghost is here viewed according to these two. The barrier between Jew and Gentile was absolute. Sir Philip Gibbs in The Cross of Peace wrote: "The problem of fences has grown to be one of the most acute that the world must face. Let this then rest in His hands. God has made our conscience quick as the apple of the eye; he has made our soul as sensitive as a raw wound, so that the very shadow of sin falling on the believer's heart will cause him great pain; and, if he does go into the actual sin, then, like David, he talks about his bones being broken, and it is not too strong a figure of the sorrow that comes upon the believing heart when sin has been committed, and God has been grieved. . I fear that some people go to a place of worship because they get a better sleep there than anywhere else. Jesus came to tell men that they cannot earn God's approbation by a keeping of the ceremonial law but must accept the forgiveness and fellowship which God in mercy freely offers them. Latest of all, God divulged His wonderful scheme in which the man that came from above, the Son that became a man, the Word made flesh, had gone down to the very lowest in order to make good the glory of God morally in the scene where He had been most put to shame. We are not always alike. Are we as good parents as we might be? When the believer is at his worst, he is better than the unbeliever at his best; his reasons for happiness are always transcendently above all the reasons for joy that worldlings can never know. This, then, was what was needed for the principalities and powers, and this is what they behold in the church of God. "Oh!" He is arrested, tried, found guilty, sentenced to a term of imprisonment and/or to a fine. Not a word is said of sending Him into the world, or of His life and labours there, any more than of our doing this or being that. A religion based on all kinds of rules and regulations, about sacred rituals and sacrifices and days, can never be a universal religion. So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners resident in a land that is not their own, but you are fellow citizens with God's consecrated people and members of the family of God. 'Spiritual Resurrection' and 'Life from the Dead'. P: Gods light has come to us! Therefore it is the failure to reach the goal we ought to have reached. P: We come to celebrate Gods abiding love! Come, let me just press this matter home. Once more, we are told, "He hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." For the first time in his life Little Billee has taken part in a drunken debauch and has himself been drunk. Nor dare I tell the character of some men present here. In Christ the great mystery of God is revealed; In Christ we are called to be blameless and free. It is not the wants of man in any sense, either positively or negatively. Faith dies and unfaith blossoms as a flower; Nor ever wilt thou find upon the open streets of men. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whosoever believes in Him does not perish but has everlasting life. Once is enough for the intelligent. He prays for the saints "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory [for this is what his mind connected with it], may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints." And note, too, that this young man, though carried out to his grave, was not like the maiden; she was in the garments of life, but he was wrapped in the cerements of death . And they seem to have no qualms yielding and flowing with the will of Satan, which will lead to their ultimate destruction. For the Jew history was always going somewhere; no matter what the present was like, the future was glorious; the Jewish view of history was essentially optimistic. Observe, therefore, that what was the first in counsel is the last in revelation. But there is love after a divine sort in the new nature, which is said to be light, because this is the necessity of the new nature. Sin is an organic epidemical malady, a slow devitalizing poison issuing in moral necrosis; not a stage of arrested or incomplete development, but a seed-plot of impending ruin." He had a brilliant mind, and won the highest academic honours; he was a scintillating writer, and won the highest rewards in literature; he had all the charm in the world and was a man whose instinct it was to be kind; yet he fell to temptation and came to prison and disgrace. Not yet had the loving finger closed the eyelid; there seemed to be a light still lingering in her eye; like a lily just nipped off; she was as fair as life itself. 17He came and preached peace(AL) to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. Ah, whither shall we flee? P: Lord, open our hearts and let us share your Good News. There is some perplexity in the language; but, if we attend carefully to what the apostle says about those two parts, the meaning is clear. Accelerating into traffic, I looked up and saw a billboard with 6 words, 2 sentences, 1 sign of an imploding culture in two foot high letters. Carefully remember this. In 1871 one of these prohibiting tablets was actually discovered, and the inscription on it reads: "Let no one of any other nation come within the fence and barrier around the Holy Place. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK" 463, 476, 461. We are his workmanship say some of the translations of Ephesians 2:10. When a man tells you that his creed is a dead thing, do not deny it for a minute; there is no doubt of the fact. To the new-born soul everything is a surprise. In Romans the sinner is regarded as alive in sins; and death, the death of Christ, is the means of deliverance. we would seize the opportunities to serve. I mention this, because it is a striking proof that an error imported into Scripture leads even right-minded men into sad evil. Now, the highest being that of the Son, we accordingly are brought into that relationship, though not, of course, in the sense in which He was eternally so. Thanks Be to God For This Change - v.8-10, 2:110 Pauls prayer (Eph 1:1523) refers to Gentiles (non-Jews) becoming part of Gods family. Paul's theme in this chapter continues to be the glorious blessings of the saved "in Christ," as contrasted with their former state of being without any hope whatever. He found her in an attic room. He makes no end of blunders; he makes many miscalculations because everything is new to him. 407 Spirit Divine, Attend Our Prayers CALL TO The gospel of God's grace proclaims the very reverse. What has it to do with a happy life, so long as every sentiment of the mind, and every act of the will, is death? The same "Beloved" who accounts to us for the counsels of God has brought in redemption. This he did so that in the age to come the surpassing riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus might be demonstrated. Alas! * The Lord Jesus is repeatedly called , translated "son" and "child" in the English version of the Acts of the Apostles, but more properly God's servant as Messiah. It is not so in the word of God. But if you had been quickened by the Holy Spirit fifty minutes, this would have been the first fact in the front rank of all fact, God is, and he is my Father, and I am his child. The sight of that Cross awakens in the hearts of men of all nations love for Christ, and only when they all love Christ will they love each other. What it means is that these words were added by the translators. He went up after all the working of evil had been really defeated and destroyed in the sight of God. in Num. The new life that made us sympathetic with God, and holy angels, and holy men, and with everything that is from above, has also made us capable of great pleasure. You have got a wrong and blasphemous concept of God. I knew that no man but a Christian ever could or would cry out against sin with that bitter wail; and that, if the grace of God was not with him, he would rest satisfied and contented; but that, if he felt that sin was a horrible thing, and he was a wretched man because of it, and must be delivered from it, then he surely must be a child of God, especially if he could add, "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.". (v) It is the life which follows what the King James Version calls the desires of our flesh. conceived before the foundation of the universe. The stone is rolled before him. I do not deny but that a Christian may slip elsewhere. Thank God, dear hearer, if you have living pangs. The evil spirit has been driven out, and he no more works in us. The father affirms, "for this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found" (Luke 15:24 NASB). WebEvil Eyes Exaltation Exhaustion F Faith Faithfulness Family Father Fear Fear of the Lord Food Foreigner Forgiveness Freedom The Future G Gates Generations Gentleness Gifts A religion based on love can at once be a universal religion. Nostrums and palliatives aggravate rather than allay the disease. But the father said to his slaves, "Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found." When the moon has become black as sackcloth of hair, the life that is within us shall be as bright as when God first gave it to us. Indeed, these are the very qualities of God Himself. And there may be a marathoner in the group that will get within a mile of the shore before he goes under. "And so God provided the way for the forgiveness of our sins, and having forgiven us our sins we became alive in the spirit, or were born again. For we are his workmanship.". What was our lifestyle? What a sad and tragic picture of man apart from Jesus Christ.It is interesting to me how that so often people fear the will of God. Do you remember when the new life came into you? Dear God we are sorry for not loving people like you do. No God? 13). The priest said that he was very sorry but in that case he could not permit burial in his churchyard. thou art dead! fol. That would cease, for God is a Spirit, they that worship Him worship Him in Spirit and in truth. Alas! We wait for nothing greater nor its match; we await the results of this glorious power for the body and the creation; but we look for no new putting forth of power which can enter into competition with that which God has already shown in Christ. we all say together We are one in Christ. It is not a mere aggregate of Gentiles into the well-known line of old blessing, but one new man, not merely fresh in time, but of an absolutely new order, never seen or experienced before. As the hymn has it: The Work And The Works Of Grace ( Ephesians 2:4-10 Continued). Man may cavil and murmur now in unbelief; but God will vindicate them every one when man shall be silent for ever. They are still natural men, dominated by their fleshly needs, and if they don't find satisfaction they scream and holler and yell and flail and kick.But I was born again by the Spirit of God, a spiritual birth. As a Christian you're going to have to learn to go against the current. He abolished rules that restricted life and replaced them with the new commandment to love as he did. Both are shown to have been alike guilty and in need of God's mercy. Evidently also, it is no essential matter for present practice of faithfulness, whether few or many see and feel it: this is a question for God's will, who will act for His own glory, whether by many or by few. From the beginning, through all the crises of our times, until his kingdom fully comes, God keeps covenant forever. Such is the measure, if measure it can be called, of the grace wherein we stand. God made known His choice, not when the creature was to be proved, but when it had failed to the uttermost; but the choice itself was decided on by God Himself before the creature came into being. Their very wife, when they go into the house, rushes upstairs to be out of the way. (Ephesians 1:1) It was pre-eminently for this that he had been chosen as an apostle; and he represents his apostleship not here as a question of calling, but "by the will of God:" everything in this epistle flows from the will of God; "to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.". I remember the first week of that new life, and how, on the second Sabbath, I went to the place where I had heard the gospel to my soul's salvation, thinking that I would attend there. Christ is not darkness but light, and puts all in the light; He makes us to be children of the light, that so we may be able to judge ourselves, not discerned by man as such, but capable of discerning whatever claims our attention. There is a world of difference in being dead in sins, as here, and being dead to sin in Christ Jesus. (E) 3All of us also lived among them at one time,(F) gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a](G) and following its desires and thoughts. More than this; for "no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church."
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