09 Ephesians 2:4-7 The Good News

Title: The Good News

Text: Ephesians 2:4-7

FCF: We often struggle keeping God’s work and purpose in salvation primary.

Prop: Because God intervenes out of mercy and love to make us testaments or His grace with and in Christ, we must repent and believe on Christ alone.

Scripture Intro:

[Slide 1] Turn in your bible to Ephesians chapter 2. In a moment we’ll read from the Legacy Standard Bible starting in verse 1. You can follow along in the pew bible or in whatever version you prefer.

The letter to the Ephesians begins with Paul enumerating all the blessings from the Holy Spirit which are given to those who are God’s people. From before the world was created God lavished blessings on those He predestined to be adopted as His children by choosing them to be put into the representation of His Son. God has given us hope in calling us, value in purchasing us, power in changing us, and purpose in uniting us to Christ.

But why did God’s work have to begin so early and do so much?

Because we were dead in sin. Trapped and unwilling to leave. We did what we naturally desired in our sinful flesh and our corrupted minds. We lived according to rebellion under the rule of Satan who ruled over our spirit trapping us in unbelief and sin. From our very birth – we were objects deserving of God’s wrath.

That… is the bad news.

But today… Today we will hear the good news. Praise God for the good news!

Please stand with me to give honor to and to focus on the Word of God as it is read.

Invocation:

Merciful, loving, omnipotent, and gracious Father, You are worthy of all our praise. Though you are transcendent, you interceded for us. Though you are Holy, You came to us. Though you dwell in unapproachable light, You came to be the light in the darkness. Though You are Righteous, Your Son became sin for us so that we might become Your righteousness. Great and Good God, we must be in awe of You. Thank You for being Who You are and never changing. May we praise you and live as walking advertisements of your infinite grace now and forevermore. We pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Transition:

[Slide 2] “The grace of God does not find men fit for salvation but makes them so.” Augustine of Hippo

“Saving grace makes a man as willing to leave his lusts as a slave is willing to leave his galley, or a prisoner his dungeon, or a thief his bolts, or a beggar his rags.” Thomas Brooks

[Slide 3] “Our salvation is all of grace. The one thing necessary is the one thing we ourselves cannot perform.” Sinclair Furgeson

“Grace is to corruption as water is to fire.” John Flavel

[Slide 4] “The law tells me how crooked I am. Grace comes along and straightens me out.” D.L. Moody

“Grace is power. It does not instruct, it energizes, and what dead men need is energizing, such energizing as raises the dead.” B.B. Warfield

Let these thoughts prepare our heads and hearts to hear from the Word this morning.

I.)                 God intervenes out of mercy and love to unite us with Christ and place us into Him, so we must repent and believe on Christ alone. (4-6)

a.      [Slide ] 4 - But God, being rich in mercy

                                                              i.     After describing the former state of all believers before hearing and believing the gospel of Jesus Christ, Paul now moves to explain what happened to take us out of that state. What changed?

                                                            ii.     Notice that Paul does not simply say that we heard and believed the gospel.

                                                          iii.     Paul does not see our hearing the gospel and believing it as the mechanism or the instrument by which we have left that former state.

                                                          iv.     Paul understands that God, and God alone, is responsible for the change from what we were formerly to what we are now. In this way God receives all the glory for His work to redeem us.

                                                            v.     Paul begins with what are often called the two most beautiful words in all the scriptures.

                                                          vi.     “But God”

                                                         vii.     God intervenes. God intervenes for His people. Not just corporately but individually. Each of us were children of wrath by nature, each of us were among the unbelievers trapped in sin and unbelief, so each of us must have God intervene on our behalf.

                                                       viii.     But why would God intervene?

1.      Notice that Paul uses the word “being”. This communicates something that is a quality of existence. In other words, this must be an attribute of God. What attribute?

2.      Mercy. Mercy is what we might call an immanent attribute of God.

3.      By immanent attribute I mean an attribute that He displays in relation to His creation.

4.      It is important to note that God did not BECOME rich in mercy when He made us alive together with Christ.

5.      If we go back to chapter 1, we know exactly what God consulted when He planned to save us before the foundation of the world. It was the counsel of His own will. God did not look outside Himself to determine to save us. Meaning He didn’t even look at our plight. He consulted His own wisdom and desire.

6.      God acting from His character may lack dramatic flare or the romance that God acted out of pity for us, but Paul makes it clear in Ephesians that God is who He is and acts according to His nature not according to what creation does.

7.      Paul sees that God making us alive together with Christ is an outflowing of God’s essential nature. He did this being rich in mercy.

8.      In this, God does not have to have something to show mercy on in order to be rich in mercy. At his essential nature He possesses the potential for rich compassion.

9.      I hesitate to bring an illustration here since all illustrations break down when we talk about an infinite being such as God, but nevertheless let me give it a go.

a.      Several years ago I became a father. But fatherhood is a direct product of my nature of being a man. I cannot be a father if I am not a man. In this sense, my nature has given me potential.

b.      Now do I have to become a father to possess the potential to be one? No. I do not. Am I any less of a man if I am not a father? No. But now that I have become a father, that potential is realized.

c.      In a similar way God in essence is rich in mercy. And that doesn’t change regardless of whether or not there is someone to show mercy to.

                                                           ix.     However, His being rich in mercy is not the only reason He chose to intervene for us.

b.      [Slide 6] because of His great love with which He loved us,

                                                              i.     God’s love is yet another attribute of God. But I would not classify it as strictly an immanent attribute.

                                                            ii.     God’s love is not simply displayed to His creation but exists within the Godhead as well.

                                                          iii.     Before the creation of time, matter, or space, God existed in an eternal unity with Himself in three persons.

                                                          iv.     His name reflects these concepts… I AM. Not I become. Not I will be. Not I was. I AM.

                                                            v.     Other passages of scripture tell us that God… IS… love.

                                                          vi.     Therefore, I would classify this as both an immanent and a transcendent attribute of God.

                                                         vii.     Furthermore, this functions similarly to mercy. Paul does not say God became love or loving when He made us alive together with Christ. Instead, He made us alive together with Christ BECAUSE of His great love.

                                                       viii.     And this attribute of His love is what He directed toward us. It existed already but God chose to point it or communicate it to us.

                                                           ix.     What makes that so amazing?

c.      [Slide 7] 5 - even when we were dead in our transgressions,

                                                              i.     Again, we must remind ourselves of the bad news. Why?

                                                            ii.     Because Paul does! Paul doesn’t want us to forget the bad news. The bad news is absolutely essential to understanding the good news.

                                                          iii.     We were dead in our transgressions.

                                                          iv.     Notice Paul uses the third person plural. This explains that all believers were formerly dead in transgressions and sins.

                                                            v.     So, what is the bad news again?

                                                          vi.     We were trapped in the state of sin, we were living according to the rebellion of the world, in submission to the Satan, who had controlling influence over our spirit which was working to keep us in unbelief and sin. We were living out the defective lusts of our flesh and our mind and were by our very birth, deserving of God’s wrath.

                                                         vii.     It was in that state… where we were in rebellion against God and did not want to change… that God intervened. Being rich in mercy, because of His great love… He…

d.      [Slide 8] made us alive together with Christ

                                                              i.     Paul now gives us the main verb of the sentence. And he will follow this main verb with two other verbs. The interesting thing here is that each verb is given the Greek prefix, Syn, which means “with”.

                                                            ii.     These verbs are set in the verb tense emphasizing the fact of their action as a present reality.

                                                          iii.     Therefore, we cannot assume this means to be made alive at the resurrection – for we are not yet made alive in that way. Furthermore, by context, just as being dead in sin could not refer to physical death, so being made alive cannot refer to physical life.

                                                          iv.     Once commentator had this to say

1.      [Slide 9] “In his introductory prayer, Paul extolled the incredible power of God for us who believe (1:19). These three verbs now explain in large measure what Paul means. In the latter part of the prayer, Paul describes God’s display of power in making Christ alive by raising Him from the dead, and seating him at his right hand. Now Paul explains how he has powerfully and dramatically changed our status from “dead” to alive by enabling us to participate in Christ’s death and resurrection. He does so by adding the proposition “with” to the key verbs.”

2.      [Slide 10] In each verb we see Paul tying the verbal action to some kind of union with Christ.

3.      Commentators struggle to understand this union exactly. The New Testament is not overly clear how Christ’s physical resurrection is able to make us spiritually alive.

4.      Faithful and brilliant theologians and thinkers admit that there is some union here and our destinies are tied to one another but it is most likely a mystical union which God does not choose to elaborate on.

5.      We know the fact, the power, the wonder, the glory, the mercy, the love, and the grace of that union, but not the mechanics of it.

                                                            v.     Careful interpreters also observe that rather than Paul giving us three sequential things that God interceded to do, instead Paul gives us the head verb “made alive together with Christ” and then uses the two following verbs to encapsulate exactly what that means.

                                                          vi.     So although I’ll attempt to explain what being “made alive together with Christ” is, we won’t see it truly fleshed out until we get through verse 6.

                                                         vii.     Since we must see life and death as polar ends. Therefore, in order to understand spiritual life, we simply need to observe it as the opposite of spiritual death.

                                                       viii.     If spiritual death means unable and unwilling to leave our sin, break our master’s yoke, say no to our fleshly and distorted mind’s desires, and avoid our destined wrath, then spiritual life must mean that we are made willing and able to leave our sin, that we are freed from our slavery to living according to the world, slavery to Satan and our lusts, and freed to live in obedience and inherit the blessings Christ has purchased for us.

                                                           ix.     It is a change of our very nature which was destined for wrath. It is a change of master. It is a change of desire. It is a change of sphere.

                                                            x.     In this way, to be made alive with Christ is to upend everything that verses 1-3 has described.

                                                           xi.     We also must look back at the previous thought from chapter 1.

                                                         xii.     How did God raise Christ from the dead? He raised Him by the limitlessness of His sovereign power.

                                                       xiii.     Indeed, what else could bring something alive from the dead?

                                                       xiv.     And now God has made us spiritually alive together with Christ.

                                                         xv.     Our question should be… how? Is it by His power?

                                                       xvi.     Yes and no…

e.      [Slide 11] —by grace you have been saved—

                                                              i.     Here is my best biblical argument for God’s grace being God’s power given of His own free will to enable people to be and do what they are unable and unwilling to be and do on their own.

1.      God’s power raised Christ from the dead.

2.      Paul says that God’s grace has made us alive together with Christ and thus we have been saved.

3.      I am not saying that God’s power and grace are the same. I am saying that they are both essential attributes which function together to change us from what we were, unable and unwilling… to what we now are… willing and able.

4.      If we connect God’s grace to God’s mercy and love, we must also connect it to God’s power contextually as well. 

5.      And this isn’t the last time Paul will connect God’s grace to His power. This occurs again in chapter 3 where Paul was made a minister of the gospel according to God’s grace given by His working power.

                                                            ii.     In this way we recognize that the only way to get out of spiritual death and to be made alive with Christ is by the powerful grace of God.

                                                          iii.     The word “by” here expresses instrumentality. It is the mechanism or the tool used of God to accomplish something.

                                                          iv.     Grace is the instrument God uses to make us alive with Christ and to save us.

                                                            v.     Paul also uses a somewhat confusing Greek expression. Were we to render this literally it would be, “by grace you are having been saved.” 

                                                          vi.     When writers in the New Testament do this, it is to emphasize a present reality.

                                                         vii.     In verses 1-3, Paul spoke of what they were, using words like “formerly”.

                                                       viii.     Now Paul emphasizes what they are now. They ARE made alive with Christ.

                                                           ix.     What exactly does that mean?

f.       [Slide 12] 6 - and raised us up with Him,

                                                              i.     This word for raise speaks to both getting up, stirring, reviving and to waking.

                                                            ii.     We might be tempted to interpret this either as the same thing as being made alive with Christ, or as the future resurrection of the body.

                                                          iii.     But as we said, this verb simply serves to explain the main verb more clearly.

                                                          iv.     Therefore, we should look contextually to what might be meant by raised up. And in chapter 1 we find our answer. Paul’s prayer becomes our guide to what Paul is saying we have spiritually inherited from Christ’s work.

                                                            v.     In chapter 1, God’s power raised Christ from the dead, this is the same word he uses here to raise us up with Him.

                                                          vi.     To be raised with Him then, is set in opposition to when Paul talked about living according to the lusts of our flesh and minds, and being by nature children of wrath.

                                                         vii.     To be raised up is to be transferred from death to life.

                                                       viii.     We are not only made alive we are recreated. We can see later that Paul will say in verse 10 that we were “CREATED” in Christ for good works to walk in them.

                                                           ix.     If our nature is deserving of wrath, then our nature must be remade. Reforged. Created anew. We must be a new creation to walk in obedience and not in our own lusts of our flesh and mind.

                                                            x.     But we still have not talked about our external tempters. Being raised up with Christ helps us internally – but we are weak to the external tempter and temptations are we not?

                                                           xi.     He continues.

g.      [Slide 13] and seated us with Him in the heavenly places

                                                              i.     Once again, we go back to chapter 1. We connect how God’s power raised Christ from the dead and God’s power seated Him at His right hand and above all other rulers.

                                                            ii.     Now God’s mercy, love, grace and power is doing the same for us.

                                                          iii.     In keeping with the other two verbs, Paul’s emphasis is on the here and now. Although we certainly will reign with Christ one day in the new Kingdom, Paul is saying that in some way we are reigning now. How could this be?

                                                          iv.     What could this mean spiritually?

                                                            v.     Well in verses 1-3 we were described as living according to the world, in subjection to the devil, who rules over our spiritual person to keep us in sin and unbelief.

                                                          vi.     Being seated with Christ, who is over all these rulers and principalities, grants to us, today, right now, the breaking of all of that.

                                                         vii.     In James, the apostle says that if we humble ourselves, submit to God, and resist the devil, he will flee from us. That doesn’t sound like we are ruled by the devil.

                                                       viii.     In 1 John, the apostle says that if we love the world the love of the Father is not in us. That doesn’t sound like we live according to the world any more.

                                                           ix.     Earlier in Ephesians Paul said we were sealed by the Holy Spirit. It isn’t just our spirit working in us – God’s Spirit not works in us and through us. 

                                                            x.     And being seated with Christ we are now no longer citizens of the domain of the forces of darkness. We are children of the light. 

                                                           xi.     But how? How are we given all of this “WITH” Christ? Again, we shouldn’t expect an intricate explanation. Paul only gives us three words.

h.      [Slide 14] in Christ Jesus,

                                                              i.     Once again, we are placed INTO Christ.

                                                            ii.     Again, the mediatorial headship of Christ takes center stage.

                                                          iii.     In the same way we were dead INTO sins… we are placed INTO Christ.

                                                          iv.     Christ’s obedience and sacrifice gives all those who are under His headship and representation, His obedience and connects them to His sacrificial atonement.

                                                            v.     This is the gospel. God intervenes out of His mercy, love, grace, and power, to bring you to life with and into Christ so that you can inherit all He inherits just as He paid all you owed.

                                                          vi.     Hallelujah. What a Savior.

i.        [Slide 15] Summary of the Point: What has God done? Everything that was said about our sorry and hopeless condition in verses one through three has been powerfully and graciously changed by God. In uniting us with Christ as He placed us into Christ. The gospel is that Jesus Christ is the only Savior and He is Lord of Lords. That is good news. Because the plight we were in needed a Savior and needed a King. A Savior to change our nature and empower our obedience and a King to guide us and free us from our oppressors. God did it all, with Christ, in Christ, because we could do nothing. Since we must be placed into and united with Christ in order to be saved, our only response is to joyfully repent of the sin that damned us and hope only in Jesus Christ.

Transition:

[Slide 16 (blank)] We’ve seen what God has done for us now. We’ve seen what God has made us to be in Christ. What we must see now, as another aspect of the good news, is why. Why has God done all this?

II.)               God intervenes to make us trophies of His infinite grace both now and forever, so we must repent and believe on Christ alone. (7)

a.      [Slide 17] 7 - so that in the ages to come

                                                              i.     The words “so that” reflect purpose.

                                                            ii.     What is the reason that God has intervened for us? Why has God done all of this?

                                                          iii.     He has done all of this for an eternal purpose.

                                                          iv.     God started all this before time began. Before He spoke the world into existence.

                                                            v.     And God’s purpose for this extends for the “ages” to come.

                                                          vi.     The bible only really speaks of two ages.

                                                         vii.     There is the present age, which God’s wisdom and decrees existed before ( 1 Corinthians 2:7) (Psalm 93:2)

                                                       viii.     And then there is the age to come. Which speaks of God’s eternal Kingdom.

                                                           ix.     There is some uncertainty about whether this only speaks of the eternal kingdom or includes the present time and the eternal kingdom as well.

                                                            x.     Since Paul has been emphasizing the present reality of their new standing with and in Christ, it seems best to interpret ages in the plural and basically translate this, “so that now and forever.”

                                                           xi.     God’s purpose then in intervening is an eternal purpose which begins right now.

                                                         xii.     But what is the eternal purpose of our salvation?

b.      [Slide 18] He might show the surpassing riches of His grace

                                                              i.     God wishes to show, make visible, or demonstrate something.

                                                            ii.     To whom?

                                                          iii.     Paul doesn’t specify. However, contextually we know that God’s reconciliation plan is a cosmic plan. One that is for the whole of creation and not just for humanity.

                                                          iv.     Therefore, it seems likely that God’s demonstration or revealing is to all of creation.

                                                            v.     But what does He wish to show?

                                                          vi.     The surpassing which is the same word when we talked about his power in chapter 1. So His abundant wealth.

                                                         vii.     Wealth already means abundance so adding surpassing to it simply intensifies it. Meaning we should see this as superabundant.

                                                       viii.     Superabundant what?

                                                           ix.     Grace.

                                                            x.     His grace will be the talk of all creation for all eternity.

                                                           xi.     His freely given divine power borne of his mercy and love toward undeserving, unwilling, and unable recipients to rescue them from their inescapable plight and give them more than they could ever have hoped to receive will advertise to the whole of creation that God is superabundant in grace.

                                                         xii.     My friends, if you want to know what our purpose is in this life and the next, it is to be the masterpiece of God’s grace. 

                                                       xiii.     This is what we were created to be in Christ. A workmanship or a masterpiece. God’s grace changing us from what we were in verses 1-3 to what we are with and in Christ… that makes us the walking promotions of His infinite grace.

                                                       xiv.     We are His trophies displayed to all of creation.

                                                         xv.     So much so that Peter says that this grace that came to us is something into which even angels long to look.

                                                       xvi.     How is God’s superabundant grace displayed to all of creation?

c.      [Slide 19] in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

                                                              i.     His kindness toward us is how this grace will be shown.

                                                            ii.     On account of His Son.

                                                          iii.     God is kind to us because we are in His Son Christ Jesus.

                                                          iv.     This kindness He gives us is not something we have earned.

                                                            v.     And thus, because His Son purchased us with His blood, His superabundant grace in kindness will show us off, for all eternity, as a testimony to all of creation of how gracious and good He truly is.

                                                          vi.     And that starts today. We are the testimony of His super abundant grace. His kindness toward us in Christ is the proof that He is to be praised for His glorious grace. 

                                                         vii.     In essence, this is a remaking of the image of God in us. We were designed to look like Him. To bring Him glory. And we have now been re-designed to do the same, forever.

d.      [Slide 20] Summary of the Point: Paul answers the purpose of God’s intervention into our hopeless state. What is God’s goal in doing this? So, from now to forever, we would display the proof, the evidence, the advertisement of his infinite grace to all creation. We are His masterpiece. We are His workmanship. We are the reward of Christ’s suffering. Knowing this is His purpose, we must joyfully repent of the sin that damned us and hope only in Jesus Christ who re-creates us and gives us purpose.

Conclusion:

So, CBC, what have we learned today that refines or corrects our beliefs and guides and shapes our lifestyles?

Basics of Faith and Practice:

[Slide 21] After giving the sobering reality of our natural state, Paul explains what is the essence of the good news. The good news, at its core, is that being merciful and because of His love, God intervenes to unite us with and place us into Christ which undoes our natural state and recreates us in Christ to be His masterpiece displaying His glorious grace to all creation both now and forever. Much like God intervened for Noah and His family by placing them into an ark, so God has intervened for us by placing us into His Son. So, we must repent of the sin that damned us and trust only in Christ to save us.

Let us explore this a little more both in what we must believe and in what we must do.

1.)   [Slide 22] Mind Transformation: “What truth must we believe from this text?” or “What might we not naturally believe that we must believe because of what this text has said?” We must affirm that God intervenes because of who He is.

a.      As we saw, Paul says that since God is rich in mercy and because God is great in love which He directs toward us, God intervenes for us. God makes us alive with Christ, raises us up with Christ, and seats us with Christ in heavenly places.

b.      God acts to save us because of who He is not because of what we were, are, or could be.

c.      God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. While WE might be moved to do something based on external causes, God is moved by His very nature. He acts because of who He is.

d.      And while that may not be romantic – it is certainly secure. Why? Because God doesn’t change.

e.      Acting based on who He is, and Him never changing, means He won’t grow tired of our failures one day and choose to undo what He’s done.

f.       He always acts according to His nature. What He has decided, He will do.

2.)   [Slide 23] Mind Transformation: “What truth must we believe from this text?” or “What might we not naturally believe that we must believe because of what this text has said?” We must affirm that God intervenes by mystically uniting us to and placing us into Christ.

a.      I confess to you that I cannot explain what it means to be united to Christ in this way.

b.      I have no idea mechanically why Jesus’ death physically becomes our death to sin. 

c.      I have no idea why Jesus’ resurrection physically becomes our spiritual resurrection.

d.      I have no idea how we can be seated with Christ, who is in heaven, while still here on this earth.

e.      All I know is that Christ’s death, resurrection, ascension, and presiding in heaven at God’s right hand, has secured the undoing of our natural state of wrath and sin.

f.       All I know is that when God chooses us into Christ, He gives us all that Christ has earned and deserved.

g.      In a real way, we do believe in a works-based salvation. But it is the perfect and perpetual work of Christ on which we are trusting and hoping in.

h.      All our eggs are in His basket, because we have no other Representative, we have no other Savior and we have no other Lord.

3.)   [Slide 24] Mind Transformation: “What truth must we believe from this text?” or “What might we not naturally believe that we must believe because of what this text has said?” We must affirm that everything about our spiritual death has now been upended into spiritual life. 

a.      Look at what we were and what God has made us to be.

b.      We were dead in the sphere of our trespasses and sins, unable and unwilling to leave. Now we are alive with and in Christ.

c.      We were living according to a world system ruled by Satan who ruled over our spiritual selves to keep us in unbelief and sin and now we are seated with Christ who is over the world, Satan, and we have been given His Spirit to train us in righteousness.

d.      We lived in the desires of our flesh and mind being by birth destined for wrath. Now we live unto Christ being His workmanship created for good works to display the infinite grace of God to all creation now and forever.

e.      So, what must be our response?

4.)   [Slide 25] Comfort: “What comfort can we find here?” or “What peace does the Lord promise us in light of this passage of scripture?” As believers, we must praise God for the glory of His grace.

a.      Look what God has done! He has completely reversed sin’s curse on us!

b.      We were lost, now we are found. We were blind, now we see. We were dead, now we are alive.

c.      Is there any news that could be greater?

d.      As bad as the bad news was… the good news is infinitely better than the bad news is bad.

e.      My friends – rejoice in the intervention of our God.

f.       Because of who we were in verses 1-3, your heart should never get tired of praising God for who He has made us to be in verses 4-7.

g.      And we should do something else too.

5.)   [Slide 26] Exhortation: “What actions should we take?” or “What is this passage specifically commanding us to do that we don’t naturally do or aren’t currently doing?” For believers, we must display God’s glorious grace in living in obedience.

a.      If we are God’s masterpiece, a glorious inheritance, which He intervened that in His kindness toward us in Christ He might display His infinite grace… then my friends, we have a calling to live up to.

b.      This is the essence of what Paul will tell the Ephesians when he gets to chapter 4. He has a lot more to say to build up to that… but ultimately it is appropriate for us to understand that we must be what God has intended us to be.

c.      We must be the best trophies we can to show off how amazing His grace truly is. How?

d.      By living the way God prepared for us to live. In obedience, in righteousness, in holiness, in love, in mercy and in power.

e.      My friends, we are the proof of His grace. We are the product of His power. We are the testimony of His mercy. We are the walking advertisements of His love.

f.       Let us be the church so all may know our God. 

6.)   [Slide 27] Evangelism: “What about this text points us to Jesus Christ, the gospel, and how we are restored?” All who are still in their hopeless sin state must embrace Jesus Christ as He is offered to us in the gospel.

a.      There are plenty of versions of Jesus out there.

b.      But how is Jesus pictured here in Ephesians?

c.      He is Savior and He is Lord. He is our only hope and in Him alone there is victory.

d.      My friends, if you are here today and you have not trusted in Jesus alone. If you have not turned from the sin that damned you and to Christ who alone can save you… I beg you. I plead with you.

e.      Turn from your sin before it is too late. You have heard the gospel… now believe it. When God unties us to Christ and puts us into Him – everything about our hopeless state is upended.  

f.       Put your hope in Him and He will make you new.

[Slide 28 (end)] Let me close with a prayer by the Scottish Preacher Thomas Chalmers

My God, let the idea of you as my Creator come to me not just in words, but in power.

May I experience that subordinate and complete submission I owe to the mighty sovereign who made me, and who is all in all.

And may Your Spirit, who caused this world of beauty and order to emerge from chaos, operate with the same result on my dark, murky, ruined soul. I pray for the light that shines in the heart. May Your Spirit awaken me, and may Christ give me light.

Do not let me forget the likeness in which I was created, nor the promised restoration of what has been lost. As I look to the one who made the worlds, O God, may I be transformed into His image. May I strive to recover the image of God, and to be perfect even as my Father in heaven is perfect.

All things were very good as they came out of Your hand, Lord. You made humans upright, but they sought their own ways. Corruption springs from the creatures; they are led away by their own lusts. So let me look outward from myself, upward to the only source of every good and perfect gift.

You have never changed. We want to look to Him who is the brightness of Your glory, Your image incarnate, so we may be transformed into Your own image by studying and imitating the character of Jesus Christ.

He is the same today, yesterday and forever. Amen.

Benediction:

Now to you from Him Who is, and Who was, and Who is to come… from Jesus Christ, Who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth, May grace and peace abound to you.

Go now, until we gather again for the Lord’s table tonight.