for I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips" ( Isaiah 6:5). We saw that there were three things involved in being dead in sins and trespasses. 4But because of his great love for us,(H) God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions(I)it is by grace you have been saved. The increase of immorality, the increase of pornography, the acceptance of abortion, and homosexuality, and these other trends that we see, Satan is behind them orchestrating as he is leading the world to hell. And then maybe we can do a little water skiing in the afternoon, and I would be looking for those things that we could really enjoy together. These demons were not all bad, but many were, out to propagate evil, to frustrate the purposes of God and to ruin the souls of men. The Holy Ghost is here viewed according to these two. When the Rabbis spoke about accepting a convert into Judaism, they said that he had been brought near. for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones." hath he quickened, is not in the original text, but is supplied from Ephesians 2:5, where it will be met with and explained: here those who are quickened with Christ, and by the power and grace of God, are described in their natural and unregenerate estate. This could not be true of us. though we never earned it and dont deserve it. It becomes the pleasure, the delight, the thrill of our lives. Dear God, we like people who look like us. God grant you to know the joy of that condition! But, during that week, I had made a great many experiments, and tumbled down a great many times, and the preacher took for his text, "O wretched man that I am! There is nobody here who would like to go and live in a grave. Jesus has something to do about each of them. Ah! What reason have sinners then to be looking out for that grace that will make them, of children of wrath, children of God and heirs of glory! "But to every [each] one is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ." Of course, this does not mean that they were in all respects dead. The priest sprinkled the blood around the altar because it was atonement for the soul. As soon as the maiden was alive, Christ said, "Give her meat;" as soon as the young man was alive "he delivered him to his mother;" as soon as Lazarus was alive, he said, "Loose him, and let him go." He had looked at sin before, but had never seen it to be sin. Then come the slaves similarly. A thing which is kainos ( G2537) is new in the sense that it brings into the world a new quality of thing which did not exist before. In the next verse we have that which has been justly designated the unity of profession, where all things may come in to mar. (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. The course and tenour of their lives are according to his suggestions, and in compliance with his temptations; they are subject to him, and are led captive by him at his will, whereupon he is called the god of this world, and the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. The corpse looks like life still; yet is your beloved one in the coffin as dead as the mangled bodies on the battle-field. That law had been worked out into thousands and thousands of commandments and decrees. There is no escape. If a person had never lived before, and had come into life a full-grown man, everything would be as strange to him as it is to a little-child; and everything is strange to a new-born man in the spiritual realm into which he is born. Down among the foundations there may be a Saxon crypt; on some of the doorways or the windows there may be a Norman arch; one part may be Early English and another Decorated and another Gothic; some may have been added in our own day. Altogether differently here "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" has blessed us where Christ is on high. It is not carnal blessing such as was in measure given under the law to Israel, and will be under the new covenant by and by; it is spiritual blessing. Isaiah records, "your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear" (59:2 NASB). This is true of Jews and Gentiles alike. And yet, people so blindly flow along with it. Change). In Du Maurier's novel Trilby there is an example of that. Our duties flow from what we are, or are made. God would have us set thoroughly clear and intelligently appreciating our individual place and relation to Himself. That is the way we are to God. dear friends, I cannot take you to see Lazarus in his grave. You feel him; his presence is photographed upon your spirit; your very heart trembles with awe of him, and you say with Jacob, "Surely God is in this place." (There is no need to credit the re:Worship blog itself.). And so in the morning when the fleece was wet and the ground was dry, he said, "Now I want to make sure about this. This would be too strong, yea, false. As it moved as it meandered. Is it so, beloved? That is what Paul is doing here. There he blows his coals, there he fabricates his instruments. There you are, now youll all dressed up and ready for anything! One thing more, and I have done. Many wonder that such truths as these should not have more words used in communicating them. Thus Israel stands in the permanent remembrance of power that redeemed them from the land of Egypt, and in the anticipation of a still greater manifestation that will eclipse whatever had been seen of old. It needs a Milton to conceive of the walk of God; but he that hath the divine life walks with God; and sometimes he seems to step from Alp to Alp, from sea and ocean, accomplishing what, unaided, he would never even attempt. This divine life usually begins with pain. Once more, we are told, "He hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Now the very baptism of a Christian man is the confession of the truth, that God has in Christ judged flesh root and branch. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------. He has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, "that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." The Temple consisted of a series of courts, each one a little higher than the one that went before, with the Temple itself in the inmost of the courts. What a difference that news would make! [2] Francis W. Beare, The Interpreter's Bible (New York: Abingdon Press, 1953), Vol. It is not the source of the blessing (Ephesians 1:1-23); nor the place into which we are now brought as being made one with Christ (Ephesians 2:1-22); nor the objects to whom we are bearing testimony. It is not in treaties and leagues to produce peace. It is on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles that you have been built up; and the corner stone is Christ himself. I speak to you who are quickened by grace. There are all kinds of architecture; but the building is a unity because through it all it has been used for the worship of God and for meeting with Jesus Christ. The re:Worship survey on pandemic worship practices has been completed. The word for desire is epithumia ( G1939) which characteristically means desire for the wrong and the forbidden thing. 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 What does that mean) The name for the people of Israel was ho hagios laos ( G2992) , the holy people. Note, too, that in the case of this maiden, whom we have introduced to you, the daughter of Jairus, she is yet caressed ; she has only been dead a moment or two, and the mother still presses her cheek with kisses. It was God's gift to you. I think there is something in this. STOP delaying to get to know the Bible better! God Himself is acting for His own glory and according to His own love. Modern progress has made the world a neighbourhood: God has given us the task of making it a brotherhood. This declaration does not mean he is not a son, only that he does not consider himself worthy of such a position. In Romans, in 1st and 2nd Corinthians, and in Galatians righteousness was largely used. We have not only left the dead, and become joined to Christ, but we are made to sit in heaven with Christ. In the lives of so many there is a kind of tragic process. That is a perfectly possible translation; but the word Christos ( G5547) is not primarily a proper name although it has become one. Would God send out and bring in the Gentiles to fill their place? Call to Worship from Ephesians 2: We are saved by Gods grace. 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. Come, let us worship God. I took pleasure where it pleased me, and passed on. forgiven and free, through what Christ has done for us. This clearly is of the deepest possible interest to the saints. And every believer is where his Head is; and if we are members of Christ's body, we are in heaven. The Lord bless you, for Jesus' sake. These are the things that governed our lives in the past. The have but anticipated the statement of the fourth and fifth verses: "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.". Lastly, "one God and Father of all." I have in my congregation some blessed beings, fair to look upon; fair, I mean, in their character, as well as their outward appearance; they have about them everything that is good and lovely; but mark this, if they are unregenerate they are dead still. It is impossible for flesh to be true to it. But it is not merely a thing imparted. "To be dead in trespasses and sins does not mean unconsciousness or non-existence. Such seems to have been the measure of Adam's wisdom and prudence. Paul will speak of nothing good except that which comes "through Christ Jesus." It is in the tomb. I should like some of you young men who do not pray at the prayer-meeting to make a start. Such an one is the openly profligate, to whom we give wide quarters, lest we touch him. "Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. This illustration of spiritual fellowship lost does not end sadly. When persons are only learning the elements of truth, the grace of God provides precept on precept, line on line, for those who want it. (i) Sin kills innocence. The conflict is against Satan and his hosts. He gave us life when we were born; but he has given us now a higher life, which could not be found anywhere else. So long as the object falls upon the retina. , . Whether it was so or not, I do not know. Besides, there is love, the activity, as well as, the moral qualities, of His being. It was just that kind of news that Jesus brought. Let this, then, be held as a fixed principle, that the union of our soul with God is the true and only life; and that out of Christ we are altogether dead, because sin, the cause of death, reigns in us. WebWe were living. And so I gave myself to understanding and to wisdom, I said, 'The answer must lie in knowing,' and so I applied myself to wisdom until I was the smartest man in the world. Yet nothing is more certain than that God so speaks to our faith. Intended for Reading on Lord's-day, July 31st, 1892, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, OUR TRANSLATORS, as you observe, have put in the words "hath he quickened", because Paul had thrown the sense a little farther on, and it was possible for the reader not to catch it. You are peers of the court of heaven: "and the household of God. We know ourselves called, but were so easily distracted. The consequence is that we find the Spirit of God, now sent down from heaven, not only putting the saints into relationship with the Father, but, besides, dwelling in them and making them God's habitation through the Spirit. 2:19-22 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. They are put into the grave, in order that all may be hidden. No; the first thing he did was, he put his hand, not on him, mark you, but on the bier ; "and they that bare it stood still." Our state and course are such as deserve wrath, and would end in eternal wrath, if divine grace did not interpose. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. John 4:19-24 Grace alone would not suffice, glory alone would not serve, but both. We hear the great message of Jesus reconciling people to you, O God, and to one another, and yet we still hesitate to reach out to people when they are different in some way from us. That at that time ye were without Christ. But Satan has so lied to people about God, about the nature of God, that it has caused people to oftentimes fear submitting their lives to God.Now, when I was a child growing up in church, so many times I would hear people say, "You be careful what you say you are not going to do, because that is exactly what God is going to make you do. There we have tongues, miracles, etc. "Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ." Here again the apostle brings in the relation of the Holy Ghost to the new things. The next thing is that we take "the whole armour of God, that we may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand. The essence of the world's standard is that it sets self in the centre, the essence of the Christian standard is that it sets Christ and others in the centre. in being constantly visited by penitents I have sometimes blushed for this city of London. So we have many who are lovely, amiable, morally admirable, like him whom the Saviour looked upon and loved; yet they are dead for all that. He does so by conscience, the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking within us; he does so by giving to men the wisdom and the commandments of his book; he does so through the advice of good and godly men. 2 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom It is in a common love of him that people come to love each other. (AP), 19Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers,(AQ) but fellow citizens(AR) with Gods people and also members of his household,(AS) 20built(AT) on the foundation(AU) of the apostles and prophets,(AV) with Christ Jesus himself(AW) as the chief cornerstone. Paul was the chosen witness to fill up that blank. But it is by grace, God's glorious gift of love to me. From the beginning, through all the crises of our times, until his kingdom fully comes, God keeps covenant forever. In body and mind they are under the control of Satan, and consequently are rebellious against God (2:1-3). I cannot help reminding you, that you must not overlook the fact that Paul will not go a hair's breadth away from Christ. You have to wait till another season, and then your soul is like a hind let loose. 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 Greek words used there is poeima, the very word from which the English Word poem is derived. Suppose two people have a difference and go to law about it; and the experts in the law draw up a document, which states the rights of the case, and ask the two conflicting parties to come together on the basis of that document. 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 1.And you who were dead. ", 15, 16. Moses took the book of the covenant and read to the people. It is the rockiest city in the world. And as the unity flowed from the power of the Spirit sent down from heaven; so now when we come to gifts, it is expressly connected with Christ in glory. But, besides, we have relationships; and now we have God manifesting Himself in each of our positions, and showing us that these are meant to give us opportunity of glorifying God by the good works that were before ordained of God. He made for them, and in them, new heavens and a new earth.". You are a living man. To keep the men from glorying or boasting in what God was going to do. Evidently it was just a little bit to heavy. If you haven't previously submitted something but would like to, you can find my email address by clicking on my name in the "About Me" section below. The Papists, who are eager to seize every opportunity of undervaluing the grace of God, say, that while we are out of Christ, we are half dead. It is an adjective meaning the anointed one. So we pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to bind us together in love and peace, building us up as awitnessing, welcoming and forgiving community of grace. Visit that site for many other excellent lectionary-based worship resources. Reader 1 Remember a time when you were without Christ. Paul closes this passage with a great exposition of that paradox which always lies at the heart of his view of the gospel. Are we in life where we ought to be? The King James Version has it that they were without Christ. Nostrums and palliatives aggravate rather than allay the disease. When God made the world, it was a wonder, and the angels came from afar to see his handiwork. , , SSL- . Trespass, is taking the wrong road when we could take the right one; it is missing the truth that we should have known. No God? no one has any special standing or bragging rights. 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