Paul can never have too much of Christ. He felt his need and that of the work. I am inclined to think that the difference lay in the difference of their wealth. who were dead in trespasses and sins; not only dead in Adam, in whom they sinned, being their federal head and representative; and in a legal sense, the sentence of condemnation and death having passed upon them; but in a moral sense, through original sin, and their own actual transgressions: which death lies in a separation from God, Father, Son, and Spirit, such are without God, and are alienated from the life of God, and they are without Christ, who is the author and giver of life, and they are sensual, not having the Spirit, who is the spirit of life; and in a deformation of the image of God, such are dead as to their understandings, wills, and affections, with respect to spiritual things, and as to their capacity to do any thing that is spiritually good; and in a loss of original righteousness; and in a privation of the sense of sin and misery; and in a servitude to sin, Satan, and the world: hence it appears, that man must be in himself unacceptable to God, infectious and hurtful to his fellow creatures, and incapable of helping himself: so it was usual with the Jews to call a wicked and ignorant man, a dead man; they say i, "there is no death like that of those that transgress the words of the law, who are called, , "dead men", and therefore the Scripture says, "turn and live". Your self-made man usually worships his creator very earnestly; and your self-saved man glorifies him that saved him. Man merely needs teaching. But no matter how hard we may try to hit the mark, none of us have really hit the mark that God has required for man. Forgive us when we fail to take risks for the gospels sake. Christianity demands forgiveness, but the ancient writers said it was a sign of weakness to have the power to avenge oneself for injury and not to do so. It is revealed to us here. I don't want to commit myself to God." 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. The central idea of sin is failure, failure to hit the target, failure to hold to the road, failure to make life what it was capable of becoming; and that definition includes every one of us. Here the prayer is not, as in the first chapter, that they might know the power that had wrought toward them; it is now that their hearts might be in the secret of His grace according to the power that works in them. Looking for something? Have I any such here? He sought to get Jesus to worship him during His wilderness temptations ( Matthew 4:9 ). If a Jew married a Gentile, the funeral of that Jew was carried out. That law had been worked out into thousands and thousands of commandments and decrees. Knowledge of standing and a, state answering to Christ's love, are the basis of a walk worthy of our calling. Ah! Walls of prejudice still exist and barriers of racism still hold people back from reaching their true potential. They tell me that "creeds are dead." * CALL TO WORSHIP From Ephesians 2 Leader: We were once dead through our trespasses and sins when we followed the course of this world. Reader 1 Christ came and proclaimed peace. Such seems to have been the measure of Adam's wisdom and prudence. The chapter itself is a parenthesis. Were there an interval of one instant between the Father and the Son, did the Father exist in any respect before the Son as such, all the truth of God as revealed in the Bible perishes. Beloved, "It doth not yet appear what we shall be." "I should break down," says one. 19. Hence the expression does not go beyond the riches of God's grace. (ii) Paul says of Jesus that he wiped out the law of the commandments with all its decrees. (Note also Romans 5:12; Romans 5:21; James 1:15; James 5:20; Romans 7:5; Romans 7:10; Romans 7:13; Romans 7:24; John 5:24.). All this wondrous scheme is to the glory of His grace. They had a distinguished place before the Son became man. 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. , . In another description he says of the second court of the Temple: "This was encompassed by a stone wall for a partition, with an inscription which forbade any foreigner to go in under pain of death" (The Antiquities of the Jews, 15, 11, 5). I have been born again by the Spirit of God through Jesus Christ. We need both motive and object, and hence could not be said to be love; because not we, but only God acts from Himself, as much as for Himself. Now he unites both in this place of richest blessing; for He has even "made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." I really thought it was worthwhile having. In Du Maurier's novel Trilby there is an example of that. But when Christ makes the new creation, they will say no more that God made the heaven and the earth, but they will say in higher strains, "He made these new-born men and women. And that is what should never happen in a church. Of all the creatures that live and breathe, man is the only one on earth that became a living soul by the breath of the Lord God, who, as it is written, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. We have had the gospel thus in all the epistles that have gone before. Praise the Lord! This cheek might mantle with a blush to tell the deeds of darkness which some of the ungodly of this world habitually practise. Christ is Victor; his rule has begun. The hand of God was heavy on my life. The first was the young maiden, the daughter of Jairus , who, when she lay on her bed dead, rose up to life at the single utterance of Christ, " Talitha cumi !" It is the failure in any sphere of life to be what we ought to be and could be. The first saints and faithful in the city of Ephesus, asActs 19:1-41; Acts 19:1-41 shows, were persons who had been baptized with the baptism of John, and afterwards brought from Jewish to Christian ground by the apostle Paul. That in fact is always what love does. Death always implies a change from the state of being alive. You cannot resolve to "groan at one o'clock, and weep at three o'clock." Matthew 12:35; Matthew 15:18-19), and not because of sins of other (Ezekiel 18:20). Each circle hitherto was getting larger and larger. "But now". As the hymn has it: The Work And The Works Of Grace ( Ephesians 2:4-10 Continued). 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 Hence the apostle Paul, in what is by no means the simplest utterance he has given, writes in few words. 2:13-18 But as things now are, because of what Christ Jesus has done, you who were once far off have been brought near, at the price of the blood of Christ. Submissions: I am so grateful to those of you who send me your own material to post! The first thing is to "be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might." I am having fun. 1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. and after that, without touching the young man, he said in a louder voice, "Young man, I say unto thee, arise!" He sees no beauty in religion; he hears not the call of God; he is unaffected by the dying love of the Saviour; and he has no interest in eternal realities. Such rebels do not deserve Gods love, but God loves them nevertheless. Ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. It is the word used of bringing a sacrifice to God; it is the word used of bringing men into the presence of God that they may be consecrated to his service; it is the word used for introducing a speaker or an ambassador into a national assembly; and above all it is the word used for introducing a person into the presence of a king. He made for them, and in them, new heavens and a new earth.". Satan is allowed to go on for a little while longer, because God is gathering out the joint-heirs, while the evil develops itself in a new form Man had been shown to be the enemy of all righteousness, and now betrays himself the enemy of all grace. Throughout all eternity, God's grace and love and mercy being revealed. He consequently is the lone God and Father of all," not merely of all believers, for this is a mistake of its force, but of all absolutely; just as we were told in verse 15 of that same chapter, that of Him every family in heaven and earth is named. The re:Worship survey on pandemic worship practices has been completed. I mean, that they like the amusements of the world; they like to put on their shroud sometimes just for a treat. Thus we have a new nature which hates sin, and the Holy Ghost which gives power for that which is good. He does not need resuscitation; he needs resurrection. Thanks to those of you who took time to answer questions and offer comments about how your congregation navigated worship during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. And he never recovered the full use of that most precious faculty, the boon of youth and happy childhood, and which he had once possessed, without knowing it, in such singular and exceptional completeness. Oh, to live in heaven, to dwell there, to let the heart be caught up from this poor life into the life that is above! Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: neither give place to the devil. He always comes back to that theme. One of the tragedies of the nineteenth century was the career of Oscar Wilde. Sinners cannot save themselves. Now the word conversation is an old English word, and we have a new definition for that word today. Therefore it is the failure to reach the goal we ought to have reached. 2As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,(A) 2in which you used to live(B) when you followed the ways of this world(C) and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air,(D) the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. I believe that God liked it better than many of the collections. Tell a man who is breathing that there is no air. Yes, but He did not go up as He came down from above. ", 20, 21 Upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom, You see, it is always that, in him, in Christ: "in whom". Its tougher than titanium and softer than a feather, more electric than lightning, more vast than the universe. Ubi Christus, ibi ecclesia, Where Christ is, there is the Church. Does she really take an interest in her husband's work and try to understand his problems and his worries? "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in offences and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." That is, when you see a person walking you make an assumption he is going someplace and he has a purpose in mind. And they began to be merry (Luke 15:21-24 NASB). He abolished rules that restricted life and replaced them with the new commandment to love as he did. A day he wants to share with his dad. Then he adds the great exemplar and spirit of it all, according to the forgiveness with which God met us in Christ. One might be altogether a stranger to him that adopts. ~ written by Thom Shuman (2009), and posted on. Before their regeneration, believers were spiritually dead, separated from God, and unable to have fellowship with Him (cf. Observed, 1. They should thank God there is an escape, it has been provided by Jesus Christ. So many times we think that God started loving us when we started being loving. The first place where Christ is seen is in the grave whence God according to the mightiest action of His almighty power raised Him up. Outsiders, rank outsiders, far away from any rights, or any participation in the rights of God's children. He will make it good. But hamartia ( G266) brings us face to face with what sin is, the failure to be what we ought to be and could be. 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. This and nothing less or else is what He chooses us to be before Him chooses us to be in Christ in His own sight, and therefore with the fullest certainty that it shall be according to His own mind. The foreigner was always regarded with suspicion and dislike. Web2 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 of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. (v) It is the life which follows what the King James Version calls the desires of our flesh. My dear friends, you who are quickened, let me advise you to take care of the devil; he will be sure to be after you. He may sit in the heavenlies; Christ is there as his Representative. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice! In this passage Paul makes a kind of list of the characteristics of life without Christ. They come to us, and ask, "What is this? He broke down longstanding walls of prejudice and hostility between Jew and Gentile,male and female, slave and free. Few would venture on so bold a statement as that; but if you boldly do the thing, I must speak of it. Let us take a crude and imperfect analogy. And by that very rekindling, life is set climbing again. The first thing he did was to go back to his ferry-boat and polish his engines until every part of the machinery shone like a mirror. This, then, was the way in which the new life, spiritual life, came into us. And God was almost a boogieman to us. Revealed to all the apostles and prophets of the New Testament, to one as much as another, it never seems to have taken such a hold of the others as of Paul. There has been the full unfolding of God's love, and the answer to it in the saints here below in their nature, and in the ways that manifest the new nature. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:21-23 NIV). 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. Oh, hideous spectacle! So you see what the divine life does when it comes into the soul. There you are, now youll all dressed up and ready for anything! We are by nature the children of wrath, even as others. He Himself is the measure of the walk of the new man, and the manifestation of it is Christ Himself. We are not always alike. In body and mind they are under the control of Satan, and consequently are rebellious against God (2:1-3). Say that you had been dead fifty years; that is nearer to the mark. And what will happen to you when the word of God is, "Depart, depart, depart, depart," and unto the graveyard of souls, to the fire that never shall be quenched, you and the rest of the dead are taken away? 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