THE EPHESIAN BRETHREN, BEFORE AND AFTER CONVERSION Eph' Chapter 2

1
(No Transcript)
2
THE EPHESIAN BRETHREN,BEFORE AND AFTER
CONVERSION(Eph. Chapter 2)

• V. 1, Dead!
• All people not baptized into Christ are dead
• Why? Sin, trespasses
• Isa. 592, your iniquities have separated
  be-tween you and your God, and your sins have hid
  his face from you, so that he will not hear.
• Jn. 824, I said therefore unto you, that ye
  shall die in your sins for except ye believe
  that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.
• Rom. 623, For the wages of sin is death.
• (Spiritual) Death (spiritual) separation (from
  God).

3
You did he make alive -- (Italicized
interpolated, understood from 120, and 25).

• How did God make them alive?
• 113, heard gospel, believed (Mk. 1615,16).
  See Acts 195. When they heard, they were
  baptized!
• Cp. Acts 188.
• V. 2, Walked daily manner of life
• Course of this world pop culture, a
  God-hating world and proud to promote their
  willful way.
• 1 Pet. 118 also describes the word culture.
• It is Satans realm of influence. Shun,
  despise it!
• Spirit here the disposition to do Satans
  will.
• Sons of disobedience people characterized or
  identified by disobedience (to Gods will).
• This is the world that is dead!

4
V. 3, lived walk (v. 2)

• The dead world is occupied with fleshly lusts.
• Consider todays movies, music, entertainment,
  language, dress .
• Doing walk (v.2), lived (v.3), day-in /
  day-out life.
• Desires of the flesh and the mind what carnal
  man wants and thinks. Such is the hedonism
  (pursuing pleasure) of the day.
• Were by nature
• Note were, not are! (Calvinists, Ed
  Fudge, purposely misread the tense of the verb!)
• Nature (Gr., phusis) long established
  practice by a moral sense of ought. Not an
  inborn, inherited sinful nature).
• Compare Rom. 214, Gentiles do by nature the
  moral instructions of the law of Moses.

5
Compare also 1 Cor. 1114, phusis, Doth not even
nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long
hair, it is a dishonor to him? 15 But if a
woman have long hair, it is a glory to her for
her hair is given her for a covering. Nature
long established practice, normal practice, the
common way of things.

• Children of wrath people identified with
  wrath from God.
• Even as the rest the unconverted world about
  us under the sentence of death and awaiting the
  wrath of hell.

6
V. 4, Gods doings compared to what the Ephesian
Christians used to be.

• God, motivated purely by love, acted in mercy.
• How different from the carnal, selfish
  (loveless) actions of man in general (todays
  undisciplined).
• V. 5, Gods love magnified by the contrasting
  state of the ones that God loved!
• Dead! See 417-19, 31 our world today!
• God gives life to the dead, in connection with
  who Christ is (our Savior).
• Giving life to the dead saving us.
• This life-giving salvation is by (proceeds
  from) Gods grace (and not by anything man alone
  can do or has done).
• The dead cant do anything. Yes they can,
  Jn. 525!

7
V. 6, Christians are dead people raised up (from
spiritual death) even as God raised Jesus from
the (physical) dead (120).

• Made us to sit with him in the heavenly.
• Note past tense, made us. Christians sit
  with Christ in his heavenly reign NOW!
• in the heavenly (no word for places in the
  Greek text) used here and in 13 to represent the
  church of Christ, which is the heavenly kingdom
  of Christ. Christ in heaven rules his church,
  his spiritual body of which he is the head
  (122,23).
• In Christ Jesus in connection with who Christ
  is the Lord and Christ (Acts 236). He orders
  their lives.

8
V. 7, Gods kindness (grace), in raising man from
the death of sin, is an everlasting monument of
his love for ages to come.

• Where has such love ever been demonstrated to
  man in human experience? Nowhere! Nor can it!
• In Christ Jesus in connection with who Christ
  is in fellowship with him, 1 Cor. 19, God is
  faithful, through whom ye were called into the
  fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
• How does a sinner get into Christ?
• No Scripture says believe into Christ, nor
  repent into Christ, nor confess into Christ. But
  Gal. 327 says, For as many of you as were
  baptized into Christ did put on Christ.
• Are YOU baptized into Christ? or, are you dead?

9
V. 8, the word for introduces the explanation
of what has just preceded it has all been done
on the basis of Gods grace.

• by grace through faith. Gods grace, which
  in-structs man (Acts 2032 Titus 211,12), saves
  only the man who acts by faith.
• (Otherwise, universal salvation)
• that not of yourselves. That what?
• Calvinism That faith
• Paul that salvation by grace through faith.
• Greek text that is not feminine, agreeing
  with faith, but neuter, to express that which
  was just affirmed by Paul that is, salvation by
  grace through faith. THAT is what is not of
  mans doings.

10
That salvation is Gods gift (an unearned
present)

• V. 9, not of works the salvation of dead
  sinners to life in Christ was not accomplished by
  mans doings apart from the gospel! It was not
  by the works of the law of Moses, for no Jew kept
  the law without sin.
• Here works is not used to refer to what one must
  do to be saved! Herein the Protestant Reformers,
  and denominationalists of today, err greatly,
  applying to gospel obedience the term works of
  this verse.
• When people asked what to do to be saved, they
  were told what to do! (Acts 237,38 1630,31
  2210).
• Works in Eph. 28 has no reference at all to
  what one must do (including baptism) in obeying
  the gospel!
• Dont let the perversions of men fool you!

11
that no man should glory. Gods plan of
salvation leaves man with no basis for self-glory

• Salvation cannot be earned, bought, acquired,
  apart from the gospel of Christ!
• The next verse gives the reason why.
• V. 10, for we are his workmanship Salvation is
  not mans doing, but that which God has worked
  out!
• created in Christ Jesus the existence of the
  church (saved) of Christ is something God
  created, made, established, built!
• Why, then, would man want to be in a church
  founded by men, created by men, and wearing mens
  names and designations?
• walk in them practice them in daily living

12
The church doesnt have to organize, cultivate,
or promote so-called good works.

• God has already set forth the only good works
  that should concern the Christian. They are set
  forth in the N. T. scriptures.
• Calling an unauthorized church-work a good
  work does not make it one! It certainly is not
  of the good works that God has ordained for his
  children to practice in their daily living.

13
V. 11,12, Wherefore remember.(what they were
before their conversion)

• separate from Christ
• aliens (as to the commonwealth of Israel)
• strangers from the covenants of the promise
• without hope, without God, in the world
• V. 13-21, But now .. (that they are Christians)
• made nigh (near)
• one new man (neither Jew nor Gentile) at peace
• reconciled in one body (church) unto God
• have access in one Spirit unto the Father
• no more strangers and sojourners
• fellow-citizens with the saints
• of the household of God
• a holy temple for Gods habitation

14
The Ephesians, dead in their sins, were made
alive!

• How?
• By obeying the gospel
• Who made that possible?
• Our gracious, loving, kind, God!
• Could they have accomplished the same by their
  own doings?
• Absolutely not! Salvation is by grace!
• It is by grace alone?
• No, or else every sinner would go to heaven,
  for God is no respecter of persons (Acts 1034).
• Does man, then, have a part in his
  salvation? Yes (Acts 240) he must believe /
  have faith.
• Is it by faith alone?
• No (Jas. 224) it is by a faith that obeys!
  (Heb. 59)

15
Are you like the Ephesians before their
conversion, or after it?

• Are you dead or alive?
• Are you ready right now to leave this life?
  (Many who arose from their beds this morning will
  not go to bed again!)
• Think about it and imitate the Ephesian
  Christians!

16
(No Transcript)