Sermon – “What We Were and What We Are”

going to look at if Asians Chapter 2 verses one through 16 but let’s go ahead and pray to begin with because I know that I’m going to stop in the middle of this and so let’s pray Heavenly Father we do praise you magnify you because you are worthy of all praise an abberation Father God we do thank you for your grace if we know that is by your grace that we are saved by that we just sank you that you have freely given that to all and Father God we just have to receive it and believe and trust in your Son Jesus Christ and father we just thank you for that knowledge with thank you for your word that you’ve given us and Father has prayed as we open your word today that your spirit would dispute to our hearts help us to receive what you have fours father made you receive all the gore and the honor for everything that is done father whether it is spoken here of the things that we go and do father may it be for your glory that it will lift up your holy name father may we just be willing vessels to tell others about your kingdom and about your son and about your great love your amazing love father just prayed she would be with us than this again bless us with your glorious presence in Jesus’ name amen

ps in Chapter 2 verses one through 16 here the word of the Lord and you he made so he made

alive you he made alive. Who were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the curse of this world according to the prince of the power of the air the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience Now this is Paul speaking this to the fusion church but believe me the devil is still at work today and still is now working in the sons of disobedience today as we speak among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath just as the others but God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved

that’s that is again worth repeating by grace you have been saved there is no other way by which men can be saved but by the grace of God Period

End of conversation we can do all kinds of good things but when it comes to salvation no other way but by grace you were saved and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of His grace in his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is a gift of God Not of works lest anyone should boast you know if I had to pick out I don’t think I could possibly pick out one verse in the Bible and say this is my favorite verse but I could probably pick out a handful.

I love 1st John 513 by these things are written that you may know the job eternal life and the couple verses of followed of course John 316 but I assure you this would be in my top 5 because there was a time when I felt that you had to do these works to be saved you had to be good you had to do all the right things dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s but whenever I’ve found this is by grace you have been saved through faith that is not of yourselves it is a gift of God Not of works so that no one can boast

I was like wow when it found me soak in soaked into this hard head of mine not here but I was like this hard head I’m on I’m like praise you lord

it is a gift

whenever you get a present on your birthday or Christmas time did you earn it

it is a gift from that loved one so God’s gift to man is his grace it is His Son Jesus Christ there will be no boasting when we stand before God all God Remember all the great things I did for you

know we won’t will humbly

they lowered thank you for your Son Jesus Christ thank you for that wonderful gift there will be no boasting for we are His Now this is so interesting that I we read this in what Paul follows it up with for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works

so I just said it is by grace that we are saved through faith not of works because no one will boast but we are created for good works

we are saved by the grace but because we are saved we will do good works. We are created for good works that’s why he created us God did not create us for evil for lust and for all those sayings he created you and I for good works and we should be so thankful and grateful for his gift of salvation that we do good works Amen

so we are created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them therefore remember that you once Gentiles in the flesh who are called on circumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hand the flesh by hands that at that time you were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel in strangers from the covenant of promise Had he no hope without God in the world but now in Christ Jesus you who wants were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ for He himself is our peace who has made both one and broken down the middle wall of separation having abolished in his flesh the entity that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances so as to create in himself one new man from the 2 thus making peace and that he might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross there pop therefore putting to death the entity Praise be to God praise him for his holy word Amen so Paul here the beginnings of this passage seems to put an emphasis an emphasis on the you he is making it personal friends because it is personal

don’t say they are we it is you. You he is of course speaking to the church of emphasis speaking to that church but I believe the Paul’s word I know the Poles word is for all mankind it is for you personally you

were once then

I was once then in my trust passes and sins

and I noted I can say we can all say that I was once dead in my trespasses and sins because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God right

so what is trust passes trespasses is stepping out of the bounds of God’s moral law

so when we look at all of the law

if you think well I’m going to I’m going to be a good man and I’m going to obey every bit of the law if there’s hundreds of laws say that says you pick a number there’s 300 laws that we absolutely have to obey if you abate 299 and break that one guess what

you have no hope

you’re lost you’re dead in your trust passes and sins if you break that one

so friends we have no hope with the law

what is sin many define sin as missing the mark

missing the mark Have we not all missed the mark it’s some time or other in our lives it can be a failure to do what is right

that to a sin

so that attitude is well I’m really not that bad of a person I’m pretty good I’m better my neighbor down there I mean he’s pretty wicked guy I just blows out of the water Don because I too have missed the mark you know the Apostle Paul does not sugarcoat the message of the Gospel when he speaks of their former condition they and we were dead walking dead you Miles will say walking dead spiritually dead.

And you know I think Paul is very blunt and to the point and strong in these words because whenever a man comes to the realization a man or woman comes to the realization of their last Miss or that’s real We’re the last of us apart from Christ it might be then that they realize their need for forgiveness

how greatly We need forgiveness but the problem my friends is so many people don’t realize they need forgiveness they think they’re OK

They think I’m a pretty good person I’ll probably go to heaven they don’t realize how lost they are I found an illustration a neat little straight and it exemplifies this a father told this story how his family every Christmas rechristen a season would travel and visit family he says Each year we brought our family to spend time with grandpa and grandma and visit the museums this was in Chicago and he said This year we decided to finish our Christmas shopping at the suburban Woodfield Mall in the midst of all the fun and excitement one of us noticed that little 3 and a half year old Matthew was gone he said terror immediately struck our hearts we had heard the horror stories there were children kidnapped in the malls rushed into the restrooms doand in different clothing and altered hairstyles and then swiftly smuggled out never to be seen again he said so we split up each taking on the sign location he said Mon was the parking lot he said I’ll never forget that night picking through the fallen snow calling out his name to the top of my lungs he says up felt like an object for he said Yes my concern for the safety must son outweighed any other feelings unsuccessfully says I trudged back into our meeting point he said my wife Marty had not found him nor had my mother he says and then my dad appeared holding little Matthew by the hand. He said our hearts Lepper joy interestingly enough little Matthew was on traumatise he hadn’t been crying to him there had been no problem I asked my father where did you find him the candy counter he replied he said you should have seen him his eyes came just about as high as the candy his little hands behind his back moving his head back and forth surveying all the luscious candy Matthew didn’t look lost he didn’t know that he was lost he was oblivious to the phenomenal danger that he was in

my friends we are living in a candy counter culture today

where people don’t know that they’re lost they don’t look lost

they are just gazing at the candy counter the world lusting after all of the sweetness that it has to offer clueless to the fact that they are spiritually lost

gazing at the candy and there’s a lot of sweet things out there that are sinful unaware unaware that they are lost how do we get them to awaken to the truth that they need Jesus Christ that there is no hope without God no hope apart from His Grace how do we get them

how do we get them to understand

1st Corinthians 118 in 1000 says for the message of the cross is fully snus to those who are perish ing but to us or being say that is the power of God For it is written I would destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the Prudent the world thinks that we are fools

but how can we get them to listen how can we get them to listen to this

you know I’ve asked people before you saved Oh yeah I’m saying yeah.

I’m saying good person is going to have an I think pretty sure thing so you know I don’t know maybe we should instead say Are you lost

they probably look at us kind of funny last night I know where I am no I mean are you lost spiritually you know what some people might become offended when we ask them that but could it be that it might make them stop and think Well well you know maybe I am

because it was the understanding of my last miss that helped me find this passage in a phase in chapter 2 that I was spiritually lost

and maybe that’s maybe

something we could ask people Are you lost you know your way do you know your way to God you know how you can be saved through Jesus Christ

you know I think I challenged the church a few years back to pick someone pick someone that you know whether it be a family member a coworker or a neighbor or whatever pick someone that you know that does not have a relationship with Jesus Christ and earnestly pray for that person pray for their soul pray that they will come to the realization that they are loss because James Chapter $516.00 the last half says the effective fervent prayer of the righteous man of Vail’s much my friends there is nothing more important

then to pray for those that are lost to pray that they would come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ absolutely nothing more important that’s more important than praying for the have their health is their eternal

destiny their turn and salvation pick someone pick a handful people I don’t care but earnestly pray dedicate to praying for them daily and see the power of God. Watch the power of God pray for an opportunity to maybe be that one the witness to them or put God put somebody in their path to witness to them that they might find Jesus Christ my next point is the oneness of the believers of Paul speaking of verses 14 and 15 said for he himself is our peace who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation have been abolished in his fleshly entity that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances so that so that as to create in self one new man from the 2 thus making peace Romans $31020.00 says Now we know that whatever the law says it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justice justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin

Jesus Christ Himself has broken down that wall of hostility that wall that great hatred between the Jews and the Gentiles Jesus has broken that down you know there are so many walls that people build between themselves and those that are different than them is there not there are so many walls sometimes they are actual physical walls that we build but other times it is that invisible wall that we build in our minds in our hearts around our selves against those that are different than us.

The wall that separated the Jews in the Gentiles was both physical and in their minds and in your hearts because in their minds and in your hearts they thought they are they work God’s chosen people but not that they would separate and not share God’s love with others which is what they did but they shouldn’t have what they thought they were better than everybody else they thought they were heathens there was also a 5 foot wall a barrier put between to keep the gent in the Gentile court to keep them from going any farther than that on that wall and words of that it appeared description to the Gentiles warning them to go no deeper into the temple precept because if they did their death would be on their own hands so they were not to go any farther than that wall that physical wall that was erected

there also they had such contempt for the gentiles that if a Jewish person offered aid to a gentile woman that was giving birth

desperately needing help

they would be unclean they could not go and help that person in great need if a Jewish man married a Gentile woman they would actually have a funeral service.

Because they considered them dead or vice versa man or woman so if a gentile married a Jew they would have the Jews would have a funeral service for that person just considered them dead because they married a heathen as far as the Jews were concerned my friend it’s a miracle one of the greatest miracles of New Testament was the inclusion of the Gentiles into Christianity that is for all mankind.

We know that whenever Jesus Christ died the one song spoke of it the veil was torn into.

The veil was whenever Jesus breathed his last upon the cross. Immediately the veil of the temple I think they say was like 3 inches thick musher out tall was I think 30 feet possibly torn in 2 from top to bottom that signified God open it up God being able to be reconciled to man but it’s also that all men all men could come unto Him not just the Jews but the Jews and the Gentiles my friends honestly what does the Scripture what we just read he made one man of the 2 so there is not Jew nor Gentile there are sons and daughters of the Living God there are Christians who say Are you a gentile No I am not a gentile I am a child of God I am a Christian or you would you say no I am not a Jew I am a child of God I am a Christian because God has brought the 2 together and made one

you know we must love walls of separation because there are so many around the world in our hearts and physical ones

in Korea the Korean Peninsula is an example of a place that has to be divided a great nation a barrier put up this divided border is called the D.M.Z. the demilitarized zone and this thing was created in 1953 so what do the math 66 years ago Korea was separated into 2 countries by United States in the Soviet Union at the end of World War 2 My friends it’s so sad that 67 years later that division still continues today there are families that were separated there are friends that were separated torn apart lives broken

by the wall that was erected in that nation

so much despair and hatred and sadness anger division hopelessness. They say that there is metal fences at the vide and people leave letters and notes and flowers and trinkets in the fence left by family members and strangers to express the pain and the longing to be united to come back together to want one they want one Korean stead of 2 the people want to be united

with the leaders do not allow and

walls need to come down the walls that we build around ourselves need to come down

the relationships can be repaired

my 3rd point we are I spoke of we were separated we were dead in our trespasses and sins but we are made alive we are made a live in Jesus Christ but God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us by which he loves you

which he loves you care which he loves you Scott which he loves you Judith you John he loves you even when you were dead in your trespasses He made us he made you alive with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus

Joe Gregory the pastor preached at the Southern Baptist Convention in 1980 and he built his sermon around a gripping illustration he told how there was a castle on the English coast owned by a landlord but no one was currently living in the castle vandals were coming in and destroying the place so he hired a contractor to build a nice rock wall around the castle to prevent intrusion. The fee was agreed upon in the contract to began his work but after a short time the contractor began having trouble finding rocks for the walls so he called the N. and complained about the situation and uner owner sharply replied I don’t care where you get the rocks I want you to build that wall to some time later the owner came to see how the progress was coming and he found a beautiful high wall he was so impressed with the fine work that the contractor done it was a perfect wall for his castle but then he went through the wall and was stunned to find there was no castle.

Contractor explained there was all those beautiful stones in that rundown old castle so I used them.

That is the folly of anyone who is so prejudice that they do not open themselves up to the grace of God they can come through another human being

even those that are different than us right we think we are protecting ourselves when we build those walls keep the bot protecting that Cherry’s thing but that wall that we build

is hopelessness Paul says the secret is that both are brought to God’s

one body through Jesus Christ you see the closer we get the God

If we expect to get closer and closer to God we can have a wall around ourselves we cannot have a wall of prejudice around ourselves and get closer to God because everyone seeking to come close to God is different than we are so how are we going to get close to him with a wall of prejudice built around ourselves

we cannot do it

that thing which we think is protecting ourselves tears us apart destroys us our friends he is our peace we were dead in our trespasses.

Romans 3 says What then are we better than they not at all for we have previously charged both jew angry that they are all under sin as it is written there is none righteous no not one

that I’ll probably would add this passage to my top 5 is Romans 58 through 10 and now we have been made a live through Christ because of God’s great love which he demonstrated and that while we were still sinners Christ died for us much more then having now been justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him for if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his son much more have been reconciled we shall be saved by His life

my friends to me

again your I just said at the some of my favorite passages in the Scripture I love the book or Romans I love the fish and bottle of it all but there are these explain his grace in such a wonderful way

to me I think it is so amazing that while we were still sinners

God sent His Son while we were sinners our friends we cannot clean up our act and make ourselves good enough

to be saved we’re talking about salvation here we cannot one or make ourselves good enough to be saved the said in the very beginning it is only through Jesus Christ through God’s amazing grace the gift of His Son is by grace that all of us are saved and can be saved that is the good news we were dead but now we are alive in Jesus Christ amen.