In the Word

Pastor Mike Warren: In my favorite book. When I first started setting scripture to my heart and my mind, it was in this chapter that I first memorized scripture. I just knew that I wanted it. Then the first chapter I ever memorized was chapter three of Colossians. But when I started memorizing books of the Bible, Ephesians is what I came back to. At one time, I can't say I can do it now, but at one time, I could quote the whole book of Ephesians. But I'm old.

I can barely remember my name now. At least I know how to turn to the book of Ephesians, and it's there for us. Let me just say this as a way because I want to give you some more updates on what's going on. I think so that you understand the time that we're living in. When Jesus was asked the question in Matthew chapter 24, he gathered with his disciples and they asked him, "What will be the sign of your coming and the end of the world?"

Jesus said, "Well, deception will be the first thing. A falling away from the biblical faith, an apostasy," and Paul tells us about that as he writes to the Thessalonians. We're seeing that today. A falling away from biblical Christianity, a falling away for the church built on solid Bible doctrine. Certainly, that was the first thing he said. But then he went on to say that there will be some birth pangs.

How many of you have had children? You know before the birth comes, there are pangs. That's when you look at your husband and you say, "You did this to me." "Don't touch me, don't look at me." You know how they go through all of these emotions. I've never had a baby, so I don't know, obviously. I've looked at times past like I could have had one, but birth pangs—wars, rumors of wars, earthquake, famine, pestilence.

It's interesting when you look at these things, and you can do a study on your own, Google them. It's simple. You'll find that every one of those categories exponentially is off the charts in the last hundred years. I mean, way off the charts. But he said those were only birth pangs. He tells us the main indicator is that the love of many would wax cold and lawlessness will abound. Do you see any of that?

We are living so close to the coming of Jesus. I say all that to say this. Before Jesus left, he gave us a commission. Do you know that? In fact, some people call it the Great Commission. I think it's a commandment. In fact, you better have another one that supersedes that one if you're not obedient. What is the great commandment? "Go ye into all the world and preach this gospel to every living creature."

I want you to raise your hands once again this morning, just in case you forgot last Sunday. Go ahead, raise your hands. This is very important. Raise your hands. Raise your hands. Every one. I'm not going to say anything until everybody's hands are raised. I ordain you, because it's my authority to do so, as a minister of the gospel. Go out when you leave here. See this sign that says right here as you're leaving the sanctuary?

What does it say? How many have just never read it, just kind of blast through the doors on the way out to get the cookies and the treats? It says, "Now Entering the Mission Field." We've got a short amount of time. Prophecy is given to us for one reason, actually two. The first reason is that we purify ourselves as we wait for our Messiah to return for us. But the second thing is that we'd have a sense of urgency, a sense of expectation.

That would drive us. It would motivate us to be a witness. That's my exhortation. Time is short, laborers are few, pray the Lord of the harvest that he would send more laborers because the day's going to come when the door in the ark is going to shut again. Whoever you love and care about you haven't shared the gospel with, it'll just be too late. One other thing I want to say, plant those seeds.

I've had some of you come and say, "Well, my uncle, my aunt, my brother, my sister, they're so hard-hearted, they just so reject it, they don't want anything to do with it." Plant that seed. That seed may not germinate before Jesus comes for the church. But I guarantee you during the tribulation, it will germinate. God will fertilize it. There will be a lot of dead things around to fall on it to fertilize it. So keep about the Master's business.

Okay, Ephesians chapter two, let's pray. I am not even going to worry about time like I normally do. I'm not going to do it today. I don't know how far we're going to get, but I'm not worrying about it. Then we're going to have communion. I'm not going to apologize either. Sometimes I do that. So just loosen your belt, relax. Some of you will go to a movie, and you know what I found out about movies? The average movie is two hours and 20 minutes. Did you know that's what they shoot for?

I think I should be shooting for two hours and 20 minutes. We'll see. Father, we thank you this morning for your word. We've got an exciting study for us this morning. It's my favorite. So Lord, we pray that your Spirit would speak to our hearts through your word. Then Lord, having spoken to our hearts through your Spirit and your word, give permanency to those things we pray, in the mighty name of Jesus we ask. All God's kids would say amen.

Get your pad and pen out. Interesting book. There are two statements in this book that will blow your mind. Then I want you to see that Paul actually gives an outline to this book as it were. There's a key verse to understanding this chapter. So notice in verse four, I'm going to give you kind of pay attention as we get to that section. In verse four, two greatest words in all of scripture are put to paper by the pen of the Holy Spirit.

You know what those two greatest words are? "But God." You can't get... I went to get the license plate for that when I first got saved and I found out it was already taken in California. Years later, I got to know the pastor up in Paradise, Dave Sweet. So we were up there visiting one day, went up to take him out to lunch. As we're getting ready to go out to lunch, he opens his garage door because he said, "Hey, I'll drive, I've got a restaurant I want to go to, I don't want to give you directions, just leave your car here, we'll get in mine."

He had a Harley Davidson parked in his garage, and guess what the license plate said? "But God." I said, "You dirty rotten thief. If you truly were a man of God, you'd give that to me." But God. But the second greatest words ever mentioned in scripture are also in chapter two and it says, "But now." Because here's the outline of this chapter and this is why this chapter is so important. In verse 11, he's going to tell us to remember something.

He has to tell us the older we get to remember things. To remember something. There's something we should remember. In fact, as we come to the Lord's table, many churches on their communion table have the word "Remembrance." Because that's what Jesus said as often as we're going to do this morning, you drink this cup and eat this bread, I want you to remember something. We need to call it back to the fore of our minds.

We need to set it there again, as it were, upon the throne of our heart. There's something we need to remember and there are three things, if you want to write this down. The first is that we are called FROM something. Paul is going to remind us that our calling calls us away from something. It calls us out of something. We are the called-out ones. It calls us from something. What it's calling us from is sin, death, and the wrath of God.

Do you understand you're the called-out ones? What God called you from was sin that brings death, that brings the wrath of God. Those things are no longer a part of our life. We're called from those things and Jesus, as we're going to see this morning, put those things to death. He abolished those things. He abolished the payment and penalty and the power of sin in our life. He abolished death. We're going to see this morning that Jesus never came to make bad people better.

That's what religion does. That's why I don't want anything to do with religion. I get around religious people, they're so critical. They're so judgmental, they're so self-righteous. They think if they've obtained a little thing that they've got the right to judge the whole world. Have you ever been around those people? I get around those people and I want to go take a shower afterwards, spiritually speaking. I'd rather be around someone who knows that they're all messed up.

I'd rather hang out with sinners like Jesus did than to hang out with Pharisees. Or Sadducees. You know they're sad you see because they don't believe in the resurrection or spirits or eternal things. But those people think that God came to make bad people good. He did not. He came to make dead people live. We're called out from sin that brings death because the wages of sin is death. We're called out from sin that not only brings death but it brings the wrath of God upon those that are caught up in it.

We're called out from that, but we're also called TO something. It's not just called from, but we're called to righteousness, to life, eternal life, and to peace. We're going to see this morning that God's at peace with us. He gives us his peace. Jesus said, "My peace I leave unto you, not as the world gives I give unto you." So there is a peace of God that comes to us, but that's not what he's talking about here. It's peace with God to the degree we're going to see this morning that God is no longer and never will be ever again angry with you.

We saw there in chapter one, we're brought into sonship. That's the word. It means we're born again, we become part of the family. We'll see that this morning. We're his children. We'll see that this morning, we're his children. He may get disappointed with us because the sins that we fall into so easily sometimes, they hurt us. He may get disappointed, but he'll never be angry. He will correct, but he will never punish.

Listen, if you're being corrected this morning by something going on in your life, God's not punishing you. He's only correcting you. So we're called to something. We're called for something this morning. We're going to see we're called for fellowship and relationship with him. So we're called from sin, death, and the wrath of God, number one. Number two, we're called to righteousness, life, and peace. Number three, the reason for it is that we're called to have fellowship with him.

That fellowship was broken back in the garden when sin came in. God has longed for the moment when we could be brought back, reconciled. We're going to see that word this morning. Reconciled, brought back into favor, back into fellowship, back into that intimacy, back into that relationship with him. That's why Paul, who once was religious and got saved on the Damascus Road, the cry of his heart from that moment on was, "I count everything before, everything that was religious, I count it as dung."

This is a scholar using words like that. I think he could think of nothing better. He said, "I count it but dung that I might know him." Do you know him? Is he speaking to your heart today? Did he speak to your heart yesterday? Did you fellowship with him? Were you in prayer without ceasing? Did you feel his presence? Did you feel his Spirit? Did you hear his words ringing in your ear? Do you know him?

You see, that's what we're called to, to know him. So that's kind of the outline of the book, so let's dive in. I'm going to get as far as I can and I'm just going to not take and worry about time. But listen to what it says. Now, we have the seven blessings in chapter one that are ours in Christ. You remember those, right? Chosen. Remember you're chosen? And you're adopted and you're accepted and you're forgiven and that you're given an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, fades not away.

You've been given that. You've been given wisdom and you're sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Then as Paul moves into the rest of the chapter, there's a prayer there and there are five things he prays for us. We saw that last week. But now in light of the seven blessings and the five things that he prays and the most center point of that prayer is that the eyes of our understanding would be enlightened that we could conceive and receive by revelation what God has done for us.

That would be brought back into fellowship with him. Then as he moves... notice, when they wrote this there were no chapter breaks, no verses. It was one continual letter. But as he moves into chapter two, and I thank God for chapter breaks and verses so that we can put addresses to it when we memorize it, but listen to what he says as he moves into this. He says, "And you," that's us. Are you a you? Yeah, you are.

"And you hath he quickened." Maybe you have a New King James Bible that says, "You hath he made alive." You see, that was the whole reason Jesus came. He didn't come again, as I just said, to make bad people good or to make bad people better. We're going to see in a few moments that you were dead before he found you. You were dead in your transgressions and in your sins. When Adam sinned in the garden and he let his wife into sin... you know, I've always noticed, isn't it interesting that when you read that passage there where the serpent, which is Satan, tempts Eve and she plucks from the fruit and she eats, nothing has happened yet until her husband shows up and he gives it to him and he eats?

The moment he ate as the spiritual leader, they realized they were uncloaked. The Shekinah glory that once clothed them was gone and shame came. Shame came and guilt and all of those things we wrestle with came. At that moment, Jesus started a process because he knew that he was crucified before the foundation of the world to redeem us from those things because he's coming to make us alive again. Because at that moment... of course, the promise was or the commandment to them was, "Listen, the day you eat of the fruit you shall surely what?"

They didn't die physically, but they died spiritually. Do you know what the biblical definition of death is? It's not clinical. We have a lot of nurses that attend this church. If you get in a motorcycle accident... I was talking about Ron about why I don't ride motorcycles. If you got into one and you whacked your brain hard enough that... that's why they have that helmet, it just keeps everything in one place after you whack it really hard. They call it a brain bucket for a reason.

So you and they run you to the emergency room and they can keep your heart beating, they can keep your lungs breathing, but they put wires on there to see if you have any brain activity. If I ever go to the hospital, don't let them pronounce me dead because they can't find any brain activity. I do very well without sometimes brain activity. But they call that clinical death and then they'll come to the family and say, "He or she's dead. We're just keeping them breathing, we're keeping the heart pumping and we need to unplug them."

Then they die. We think that when this body ceases to exist that that's death. That's not death. Because whether you're saved or unsaved, you're going to live forever. Your spirit and your soul lives on past this body. Each one of us, whether resurrection to life or resurrection to eternal judgment, every person ever born of woman into this life is going to experience a resurrection. What the Bible describes as death is being separated from God.

That's the second death, when they're cast into outer darkness away from him. Listen, we were aliens, we were alienated, we were at a distance from God, we were separated. There was an enmity, there was a division between us and the one who made us, the one who loves us, because he's holy and pure and now we're sinful. God had to bridge that gap and Jesus became what we would call the Daysman, our mediator who put his hand on us and put his hand on God and bridged the gap once again.

So Jesus came to take the life that only abides in God Almighty, his Father, and take his hand and put it on that and then put it on us who are dead that we might be born again by the Spirit, we might have newness of life. So when the Bible's talking about terms of death, it's not talking about clinical death, it's talking about being separated. You could be here this morning walking, living, and breathing and be dead.

Or you could be here this morning dying or we'd have to take you to the hospital before the service is over or after the service and you could die, but you could still be alive because we're talking about eternal life. "For you hath he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins." I just want to read you... read from Romans because I think Paul just makes the statement and he passes on, but in when he writes to the church at Rome in chapter five, we'll start at reading in verse eight on through verse 18. I think he makes it even clearer here.

He said, "But God commended his love toward us." This is the motivation for our salvation, this is the motivation for our justification, this is the motivation for our redemption is because God commended his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, dead to him, running as fast as and as far away we could from him, Christ died for us. Much more then, now being justified, made just as though we never sinned by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath through him. We're never going to face it.

In fact, we don't face it now. I'm going to read a passage back in verse one of this chapter where he says later on that having been justified by faith, we now have peace with God. God's not angry with us. "For if when we were his enemies, we were reconciled, brought back into favor, brought back into fellowship to God by the death of his son, then much more being reconciled, brought back into fellowship and favor, we shall be saved by his life."

Saved from the wrath of God. That's where we get our word for the study of salvation, soteriology, it's *sozo*. It means to be saved spiritually, that which is dead to be born again, to be made alive. "And not only so, but we also joy in God through the Lord Jesus Christ by whom we now have received atonement." The best way to understand this word is at-one-ment. We're at-one-ment with God. We're brought back into fellowship with the Father through his son and through that work of his Spirit that regenerated us and renewed us.

"Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world." Can you imagine being Adam when we all get to heaven? I thank God that we get all new names because you don't want somebody walking up and going, "Mike Warren, Mike Warren. Oh, Mike Warren." But you want them going up and saying, "What was your name again?" "Oh, that's a cool name." We get new names. But can you imagine being Adam? The Adam?

Yeah. The original? Yeah. The one that instead of being the godly man of your home that listened to his wife and ate? Yeah. The one that got us in all of this trouble? Yeah. Oh, that Adam. Listen, we're getting a new name. "For as by one man sin entered the world and death by sin. So death passed onto every man, for all have sinned. For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin was not imputed until the law was given."

So now we know that there's a standard and we break the standard because we are sinners by nature and then later by choice. That sin brought death. You and I were dead. "Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses and over them that had sinned in a similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offense is also the free gift."

Listen carefully, very important. "For if through the offense if through the offense of one many be dead," listen to the logic of God. If it were possible, and it was, if it could happen, and it did, that by one man's sin a whole not just generation, a whole race of people are now sinners—David said, "Conceived in sin, born in transgression." You come into this life fallen, you come into this life messed up, you come into this life, listen carefully to me, you come into this life with a heart that is desperately wicked. You come into this life dead as far as spiritual things go. Because we're created in the image of God. He's Spirit, soul, and body, that's how he created us. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

When man sinned and Adam did so in the garden, that spirit part died and we became soulish. The spirit's the part that God communicates with. The soul is the mind and the will and the emotion, and then you have your body, your five senses and this physical vessel that contains our soul and our spirit. Without the spirit, listen, we just do whatever like a dog would do. We have a mind, we have a soul, we have emotion, and our body appetites dictate to our soul what we should do and how we should act.

But when we're born again by the Spirit of God, now God sets himself up in the place of leadership in our life. He puts his throne back in our hearts and we're born again. So by sin, Adam's sin, sin came into the world and it brought death. "But not as the offense, so also is the gift. For if through the offense of one many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man Jesus Christ," listen carefully, "hath abounded unto many."

"As not as by the one that sinned, so the gift. For judgment was by one to condemnation," he brought it to us, "but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. For if by one man's offense, death reigned by one." You see, that's the problem with the world today. That was my problem before I got saved. I was dead. I was dead to the things of God. I was dead to spiritual things. I was under the influence of the god of this world, the wicked one.

He owned me, he was my master. As a carnal man, I couldn't even understand the things of God. I couldn't perceive them, I couldn't know them. God had to do something for me for me to understand who he is. That's why Paul prayed that prayer back at the end of chapter one, that the eyes of your understanding would be open, that you would have that revelation experience of who he is and what he's done for you and that the Holy Spirit that he put in you is the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead.

But I can tell you that night I got saved up with 30 other hippie kids in the mountains, my eyes were opened, my heart was opened. There was a wisdom and a knowledge and experience I'd never had before because life came to me. I was dead at one moment and then alive the next. Listen carefully. "For if by one man's offense death reigned by one, much more they which receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteous shall reign in life by one man Jesus Christ."

Now I said all of that and Paul did too, to say the next verse. Listen carefully to verse 18, very important. "Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation." Listen, if you're not born again, if you're not filled with the Spirit, religion can be boring. You can go through the motions, but you're a dead man walking. I'm not a dead man walking. Listen, I used to be a dead man walking. I went to the Mormon Church for a while.

I went to the Jehovah Witness Church chasing this girl. I tried to be religious. I thought religion was where it was at in my misery and I found it made me more miserable. All the rules and regulations and the do's. They kicked me out. The Jehovah Witnesses finally said, "Don't call us, we won't call you." Man, I didn't fit in the world, I didn't fit in the church. I was messed up. Then Jesus. It's always been Jesus.

You could be here this morning, you be extremely religious, and you're dead. You're just a dead man walking. But I'll tell you when you're born again by the Spirit of the living God, there's something that transcends this life that comes to you. It rips open your heart. It makes God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit real to you. It causes you to want to raise your hands in surrender and get really radical when you worship.

Makes you want to paint your face and make signs like you do at a football game because we're fanatics because we're fans of Jesus. We know what he's done for us. Listen, the saddest thing is that people who are dead come to services that are alive and they hear the gospel and they never respond. One day God's going to say, "You had an opportunity in life, why didn't you take it? Why didn't you take it?"

So he says here, listen to this last verse. "Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness," listen carefully, "of one, the free gift came upon all men justification of life." So what are we talking about this morning? We're not talking about religion. We're not talking about bad people becoming better or even good. We're not talking about rules and regulations.

We're not talking about the 16 tenants of faith of some church. We're not talking about some moral creed, some religious creed. We're not talking about any of that. We're talking about being born again by the Spirit of God. We're talking about life coming into your heart and into your mind and you being transformed from the inside out. We're talking about walking in newness of life. We're talking about Jesus setting up his throne in your heart.

Man, that's what we're talking about. We're talking about dead people that are made alive again in Christ. You see so clearly all of a sudden. Man, you see so clearly. You know things that you can't know any other way because the Spirit leads and guides you into all truth. You are convicted to the core of the old manner of life, and he gives you the power to say yes to him and no to those things.

He delivers you from the god of this world that you were once in bondage to and he's no longer your master. You can go "neener, neener, neener," as it were, to the god of this world. I don't have to listen to you anymore because I have a new master. The master I have now is a benevolent dictator. Oh yeah, he's got commandments and rules. His word is irrefutable. But everything he commands me to do is for my best interest, to protect me, to lead me, to guide me.

Are you born again? Jesus said you must be born again and that's what Paul's talking about here. Listen. "And you hath he made alive. You're alive!" Do you understand that? And you'll never die. Oh, you'll move one day. This tent that we live in now, listen, one of these days you're going to fold it up and you're going to move into a building not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. It's reserved in heaven for you, it has your name on it.

You already possess eternal life because the moment you were born again, this is what Paul said back in chapter one, the same power that raised Christ from the dead now abides in you. Man, do you feel it? Do you sense it? Does your family and friends around you that are dead, do they not witness it? My dad, when I came home and I got saved, my mom, I just kicked open the door because you always know where home's at when your mom and dad live, you never have to knock.

You just open the door and walk in. I walked in and I said, "I'm saved!" My dad looked at me and then he said to my mom, "What trip is he on now?" "No, I'm saved!" "Was something chasing you and you came in the door?" "No, I'm saved!" You know and they look at you like, "What is going on?" See, it makes sense to you, because you know you're saved from sin and death and wrath and you're saved to righteousness, to peace, and to life.

There's a transformation that has taken place. You're walking in newness of life. Understand, saint, that's what Jesus came to do. Came to make dead people live. And you and me, who were once dead in our trespasses and our sins, hath he made alive in Christ. "Wherein in times past we walked." Very interesting. Circle alongside, put the notes in. But if you don't mind, circle your Bible. There's some words here that'll give you greater understanding what he's about to say.

"Wherein in times past we walked." Circle the word "walked." It means to walk around in the Greek. It literally has the meaning of "meander." If you guys don't know what meander means, go with your wife to the mall and you will see what meandering looks like. It'll be an illustrated sermon. We men, we hunt. If I need a new pair of shoes and I know that the place that I like to buy my shoes is in the mall, I walk into the mall, I walk straight to that shoe store, I look at the ones I like, I buy them, I put them in a bag and I walk straight out of that mall right back to my car and I go home.

Because we're bagging it, we're hunting it, we got it. But you ever know how these malls are designed? Man, they got all these benches out in the middle. You know what they're for? Us men. You go out there and you sit on them and you look at each other and go, "How long?" And they say, "Hours." "How long for you?" "Hours." What are we talking about? Our wives meandering through the mall.

They don't have any purpose for being there. They don't have any rhyme or reason. They're not hunting anything, they're just looking at everything. Then they put these signs out that says "On sale." You just got to have it. Why? Because it says it's on sale. They can mark it up 10% and say, "Listen, they lie to you," but you'll go buy it. That's called meandering. We in times past we meandered according to the "course."

Circle the word "course." It's the same word for weather vane. Whichever way the wind of this world blew, that's the way we went. We were never doing our own thing. I can't tell you how many times before I was saved I used to say, "I'm just doing my own thing, man." I wasn't. We're going to see this morning I was under the influence of the god of this world. I was captured by the spirit of this age.

I was captured by the spirit of the wicked one. I was in bondage and Jesus set me free. Once in times past we just meandered aimlessly through this life without any direction or insight or wisdom. Whatever way the wind of this world was blowing, the course of this world and according to the "prince of the power of the air," we were under the complete influence and bondage to the wicked one. The spirit, that wicked spirit, that demonic spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.

There's a spiritual battle going on around us and there are people that have been captured and they're in darkness and we need to bring the truth of the light so they could come to the light and know Christ. There's a battle raging around us. When we get to the end of this book, he's going to teach us about it. Hope we get there before Jesus comes so you can engage in it. But there is a spiritual warfare that is taking place.

Some of these people, they can't come to the truth because the god of this world has captured them. Just like he captured me for the first almost 20 years of my life. But Jesus came and set me free. I was in darkness and death and Jesus came and brought me to life and light. "Among whom," listen to the next verse, "among whom also we all had our conversation." Don't look at each other. Every one of you were sinful to the core before you were saved.

And some of you still working on the sanctification stuff, and that's okay because you're saved by grace. "Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." That's what we were before Christ. Before Christ, we were dead, spiritually speaking. We were dead.

We were dead because of sin and because of sin we were under the wrath of God. It would have been right, it would have been just, it would have been righteous for God to pour his wrath out upon us because we had violated his commandments, we had broken his laws, and we had alienated ourselves from him because of our sin. That's what we were. But we're called from that. We're called from sin and death unto life.

"But God," two greatest words, transitional. Two greatest words. When I got saved that's... I read this, I go, "Whoa, that was me. Dead, but God alive. Under his wrath, but God now have peace. In darkness, but God now light and light." For me, I'll tell you when I got saved it was like somebody turned the light bulb on. In a nanosecond, death gave way to life, darkness and hopelessness to light and peace, misery and pain with love and joy.

It flooded my soul. It was like it was a dam that God finally just opened the gates and it flooded, it flooded me, it overwhelmed me. The tears just began to roll out of my eyes, those warm tears of righteousness and repentance that cut grooves in my cheeks. For the first time, it felt like I stood up upright. For the first time in my life, there was hope, there was peace, there was serenity.

There was a transformation and what Paul is saying to this church, "But God, you used to be that. But God who is rich," circle that word, it means "lavishly wealthy." You can't use up his mercy. He's lavishly wealthy in mercy. You know, the Bible says he gives you mercy new every morning. Some of you, when you order stuff from Amazon and you can put on there, "I need it shipped here every day or every week," you can set it up so that it just keeps coming.

God's mercy, not getting what you deserve, flows to you. He is lavishly wealthy in mercy. "For the great love wherewith he hath loved us." Get your hands around that. World may not like you, friends may leave you, and even sometimes divorce may happen to you. But God says, "I love you." And he's going to tell us that the love he has for us is for the eons of time, for the ages to come.

It's going to flow in different waves, different dimensions, different intensities, you'll never get bored with it. In fact, when I hear people out on street corners... and there's a lot of street preachers today if you've noticed, stop and listen to their message. It's a message of judgment, it's a message of condemnation, it's a message, "Repent, you sinner!" Before I was saved, I knew I was a sinner, didn't need him tell me to repent.

I was trying to invent new ways to sin, I thought it was a funny thing that you would call me a sinner. I had the concept that it's going to be a big party in hell. Satan's going to be there, it's going to be a riot, man. So that doesn't work because the Bible says it is the love of God, it is God's goodness that leads to repentance. So many people misrepresent God today. They misrepresent my Father, they misrepresent my Lord and my Savior, they misrepresent the Holy Spirit.

Just like Moses at the waters of Meribah. You remember the people were thirsty and the water from the rock that was following them had dried up and God says to Moses, "Listen, my people are thirsty, I want you to go out and speak to the rock." Because the rock was a type of Christ, it was only to be smitten once. And Moses gets mad with the people and he goes out and said, "You stiff-neck rebellious bunch of people, you ought to repent, now do I got to strike this rock again?" Pow!

And water came out and the people, their needs were met. But God said, "Moses, we got a problem, you need to come here. You misrepresented me. I wasn't angry with them. They had a legitimate need and I wanted to meet it, and you went out and misrepresented me. And now because of that, you will not be allowed to lead them into the promised land." Moses made it into the promised land on the Mount of Transfiguration, but he didn't get to lead the people into the promised land because he misrepresented the Lord at the waters of Meribah.

Never misrepresent the Lord. The message that we've been given and entrusted with to take to this world is a message of love. It's a message of peace, it's a message of reconciliation, it's a message of restoration, it's a message of forgiveness, it's a message of hope, it's a message of life. Come out from among them and be separate and have life. God will put his hand of blessing upon you, he'll be your Father, you'll be his sons and daughters.

That's the message. Listen to how God revealed himself to Moses. This is amazing to me. You remember that the nation of Israel finally was delivered from Egypt and they go out to Mount Sinai and there's the fire and the smoke and the thunder. God says, "Listen, I'm an all-consuming fire, put a fence around the bottom, don't come too close lest my holiness breaks out. But Moses, come up here and I want to put it in writing for you what it is I require of my people."

He gives the Ten Moral Commandments that we know. While he's up there, and I would have done the same thing, so would have you, after God gets done with his finger writing on the tablets of stone, Moses said, "Hey, while I'm here, can I get a glimpse? I'd like to see you." And of course, you know that in our fallen state, if we saw him, we would be like post-toasties, burnt offering.

So God says, "No, you can't see me and live, not in that state. Here's what I'll do. I'm going to hide you in the cleft of the rock. When I pass by, my afterglow, my Shekinah, just the glow of my presence, not my presence, just the glow of my presence." And ol' Moe was aglow after that for a long time. Remember when he came down from the mountain they were freaked out, "Is it a ghost? What is it?"

Because he was glowing. In fact, they said, "Put something over your face, you're freaking us out." Until it kind of faded. Can you imagine being up there for 40 days and never eating? He didn't eat. He was sustained by the presence of God. But the remarkable thing for me is as God passes by Moses, he declares his name. In the Old Testament, and it should be that way in the New Testament, names meant something.

They really were given to somebody because of a hope that they would be that way or because their father was that way. There was a rhyme and reason for it, it wasn't just random. I remember when we decided to have children, I told my wife I had read and studied that David named every one of his sons a particular name because it told a story. And I said, "I want our family to tell a story."

So she gave me permission, reluctantly, but she did, agreed to allowing me to name the first three. Now, she took away from me the right to name the fourth and I thought she was going to mess the whole story up. But we named our first-born Destiny because I want her to know that she had a destiny that transcended this life. It's not about here, it's not about now. Look a little higher, you have a destiny.

We're destined to something. So when the second one came, I named her Charis. Not Charis, not Karese. Charis, the H is silent. Because it's the Greek word for grace, for beauty. And so the second part of the story is we have a destiny because God is gracious. So my third daughter came along, I said, "I want to name her Charity." Charity also is a Greek word for love. We have a destiny because of God's grace.

Because of his grace, he loves us. And so when we got pregnant with the fourth, I said, when we found out it was a boy, "I want to name him Christian." My wife said, "We're not going to name him Christian. You got the first three, I get the last one." I said, "No, don't you'll mess up the story!" She said, "The Lord already told me what we're going to name him." How do you argue with that when your wife says, "The Lord told me"?

It's a trump card you can't mess with. "What do you mean the Lord told you?" "The Lord told me." And I said, "Well, what did the Lord tell you?" She said, "His name shall be Micah." He who is like God. "Oh, that's what Christian means." She goes, "See, I hear from God." We have a destiny because God is gracious. Because he's gracious, he loves us. Because he loves us, he's going to make us like him.

When God revealed his name to Moses, listen to what he says in Exodus chapter 34, just verse six and part of seven. "And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed," that is to proclaim his name, "The Lord, the Lord God." The Lord of gods. None other is to be worshipped. "And this Lord of gods is merciful and gracious. He's longsuffering, he's abundant in goodness and in truth, keeping mercy to thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression of sin." That's his name.

As Paul puts pen to paper under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he says, "But God who is rich in mercy, lavishly wealthy, for his great love wherewith he hath loved us." Get your hands around that. Love's a verb. He loves, he continues to love us. When did he love us? Even when we were dead in sins, hath he made us alive together with Christ. We have resurrection life.

"For by grace are you saved." Favor against merit. You didn't earn it, you didn't deserve it, you didn't do anything to obtain it. Because God loved you. Because God loved you. Because God Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, loved you. He sent his only begotten son to pay the penalty for your sin in the shedding of his blood that he might reconcile, bring us back together. And he had to do it by himself because there's no way we could have fixed it.

We came into this world so messed up we couldn't have fixed it. So he sent his son. "For by grace," favor against merit, "are you saved; and hath," circle that word, it's in the past tense, "and hath raised us up together." It's the same idea. This Greek phrase is interesting. It's the same idea when Jesus showed up to the tomb of Lazarus and he called Lazarus forth from the dead. He raised him up from the dead.

What did God do when he saw us in that condition? He raised us up from the dead. He raised us up just like Jesus was raised from the dead to walk in newness of life, to never taste death again. "And he hath raised us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Again, the theme of this book is in Christ. Are you in Christ? Because if you're in Christ, you're walking in newness of life.

If you're in Christ, you're born of the Spirit. If you're in Christ, you have an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled that is reserved in heaven for you. If you are in Christ this morning, God loves you. He loved you before you were in Christ and he loves you how much more after? Because you're in Christ, you have been raised from the dead to walk in this newness of life. In fact, you've been raised far above any principality or power, you are seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus.

"That in the ages," the eons, whatever eternity looks like, he's describing it here, "that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches, the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." Can you imagine what heaven is going to be like? Every time you see Jesus and you see the scars of slaughter on him, they're not there to condemn you, they're there to remind you, "This is how much I loved you."

Remember in the Old Testament one of the minor prophets, I think it was Zechariah—it is Zechariah, I just now remember. See how the brain, when you get older, you have to work on making the synapses catch each other. But in Zechariah, he says, "They're going to say, 'Where did you get those scars? Where did you get those marks of slaughter? Where'd you get those wounds?'"

Historians of the day tell us he was unrecognizable as a human being, he was so battered. The scourging alone would have stripped all the muscle and flesh to the bone of his back, and as it ripped onto his sides and the rib cage, the entrails would have been hanging out. His face was beaten. The word is *pugilism*, he was beaten to the point where he's so swollen, he didn't look human. The crown of thorns would have pierced his scalp, which you know if you ever have a scalp, how much they bleed, and the blood would have just ran down his face.

"Where'd you get those?" He said, "I got these in the house of my friends. This is what it cost for me to reconcile you back to me. I got these from you and for you. That's how much I love you." Oh, when that flooded my soul, my response was, "Lord, I will hold nothing in reserve. My life is not my own." It wasn't my own before I realized now I was under the control of the god of this world.

But now that you've delivered me, you're my master. He tells us here, listen carefully. "That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through faith." God's unmerited favor has been given to you because you believe the scriptures. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word. "For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves." You didn't add one iota to it.

I'm glad God showed me that. I was running as far and as fast as I could from him. I wasn't seeking him when he found me. I was seeking to end this miserable existence, this life that I had wrecked and ruined. I had wrecked and ruined it to the point where I had to look up to see down. It was a throwaway for me. In fact, I was going to throw it away the very night that Christ found me.

I did not find him, he found me. See, that's why I can't buy into this seeker sensitive stuff, it's garbage. Don't let anybody tell you any man has ever sought God, unless God put it in his heart to do that. Because the Bible tells us "All like sheep have gone astray each one to our own way and none of us have sought him." He sought me. He sought me till he found me. He broke me to the point where there was nothing left in me and I cried out, "If there's a God in heaven, man, I need you."

He revealed himself to me. "For by grace are you saved through faith, that's not of yourself, it's a gift." You didn't earn it, God gave it because he loves you. He loved you before you were even saved, he loved you when you were dead in your sins. When you opened your mouth and confessed what was in your heart, "Father, I need you. Please save me," he gave to you this gift, the gift of God. Not of works, lest we could boast.

And some do. That's why I can't be around religious people. What do you have to boast of? When he writes to the Corinthians, Paul does, he says, "What do you have? Think about this for a moment. What do you have that you didn't receive? And if you received it, why do you glory as though it came from you?" I'm going to tell you this morning I have nothing of any importance or value that didn't come from him.

And if I received it, why do I glory as though it came from me? So he says, "For you are his *poema*." We get almost a direct transliteration of that word, "work of art," "poem." You are his workmanship, you are his work of art. Now notice as Paul moves from eight and nine, he moves into 10, they're connected. One is justification and the second is sanctification. Oh yes, you're saved by grace through faith, that not of yourself, it's a gift, not of works lest you could boast.

"For you are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath foreordained that you should walk in them." Don't tell me you're saved, filled with the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, and still desiring to walk in sin. Because if you're habitually practicing sin as a way of life, you know not the grace of God that I got. It doesn't mean I don't still make mistakes because I do, but it grieves me. It grieves the Holy Spirit in me. I don't want to sin.

I long for the day when this flesh... because like Paul said, "When I sin, it's not me, it's this flesh, it's this sin that's still in me." When I strip away this body, I'm going to be the happiest guy on earth. Well, I won't be on earth anymore. I'll be the happiest guy in heaven because no more sin. I'm not going to get to where I wanted to get. Well, let's do one more verse. Told you I wasn't going to watch the clock and I just did, I lied.

"Wherefore remember that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who were called uncircumcision by that which is called circumcision in the flesh made with hands. That at that time you were without Christ." You were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, you were not God's people. You were strangers from the covenants and the promises. This is me: having no hope and without God in this world. That's what you were.

That's what God called you out of. That's what he called you from. But this is what he called you into. We'll just get that for this morning. "But now," here's the second transitional thing. "But God, but now in Christ Jesus you who sometimes were afar off you have been made near." That word means "brought back into favor, brought back into fellowship, reconciled by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who have made both one, Jew and Gentile," doesn't matter.

You know what? That's the problem. This whole thing of dividing by race and culture and creed and this whole thing of male and female, all this... it's demonic. It's demonic. Anti-Semitism, all demonic. Because by the grace and blood of Jesus Christ, he made all flesh one. If you are prejudiced, you need to go to God and get that thing straightened out. Yellow, black, or white, we're all precious in his sight for Jesus loves the children of the world, all of them.

He made both Jew and Gentile one in Christ. He broke down the middle wall of barrier. Okay, we'll just... let's pick up on verse 13. I got so much to say about verse 13. But what I want you to know is that he called you out of darkness into the light. He called you from death to life. He called you from the wrath of God into the peace of God.

You're born again, you're filled with his Spirit, you have a hope. All of this has come to you because he is gracious and he is loving and he loved you and he loved me when we were dead in trespasses and sins. He sent Jesus to make us alive and to give us the gift of eternal life. Amen? So it's not religion. Religious people crucified Jesus. Not religious. Don't be religious. Have a relationship with the one who loves you, with the one who made you, with the one who paid the price for your sins on Calvary's cross.

Be in love with that one. Amen? I've been that way for 46 years. I started off with a bunch of people, started off with a bunch of pastors after I became a pastor, and I watched slowly as what once was relationship became religion, became duty, it became a profession. And I watched them as they burned out and retired.

How do you retire from the love of God? How do you ever stop wanting to tell people like Jeremiah said, "It burns in my heart. God loves you, he saved you. He listen, he's got a place prepared for you, you're going there and none of it came to you because of you"? How do you stop doing that? I don't know how. I don't know how. Because he's my Master and I love him more today than when I started this journey 46 years ago.

Retirement, I was just telling the guys before the service, telling Carl, the guy behind the curtain up in the top there running the sound. He goes, "How you feel?" I said, "I feel good." I do. I'm 65 and I think that if Lord tarries for the next 10 years, I'll still be good at this. I want to go like Chuck Smith, my pastor, went. 86 years old with oxygen preached one of the best messages out of Romans that I'd ever heard him teach on a Wednesday 2013 on a Wednesday, October the 13th, he stepped out of this life and he heard those words, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant," and he stepped into eternity.

You know what I want to do? I want to preach... this probably wasn't my best, but I want to preach my best message. I want it to be so good that I want to take notes. And then I just want to fall over right here in front of you and go to be with the Lord and then you can deal with the carcass because I won't be here. Because my hope is in him. I don't worry about anything else but pleasing him. Amen? Let's stand.