God's Power that Saved You #1

What you are about to see, I promise you if you are in Christ, will invigorate you with a fresh sense of joy over the power of God that saved you from sin.

This is very sacred ground that we're treading. How much say did we have in our salvation, even a little? Well, as Pastor Don Green will remind us today on the truth pulpit, spiritually dead people can't say anything. Hello again, I'm Bill Wright, and today we begin the series, Your Sin and God's Salvation, with part one of a message titled, God's Power That Saved You. And Don, what Paul has to say in Ephesians should not just be glanced over, should it?

Well, no Bill, not at all. Ephesians 2, my friend, is one of the truly great chapters of the Bible, and it is pivotal in our understanding about the nature of God's salvation. And you see the sovereignty and the grace and the glory of God and his purposes for us, unfolded with such majestic clarity in what we're about to study. I'm really glad you're with us as we study God's Word together here on the truth pulpit.

Thanks, Don. And friend, let's join our teacher now in the truth pulpit. Here in Ephesians and at the end of chapter one, verses 15 through 23, Paul has been praying for his readers. Let me remind you of the context, especially those of you who are visiting here today. It's wonderful to have you.

We hope that you come back many times in the future. In Ephesians chapter 1, verses 3 through 14, Paul has been praising God for the greatness of the triune work in salvation. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then he ticks off line after line after line of the work of God to save us, and he's just praising God for the majesty of it all. As you go into verse 15, Paul says, for this reason, because of the greatness of salvation, verse 15, look at it with me.

Put your finger right on the text there. He says, for this reason, I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus, which exists among you and your love for all the saints, verse 16, do not cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers. Now, listen, in what follows, verses 15 through 23, Paul is praying. He is not lecturing on theology, he is praying. And he is praying with a pastoral, apostolic heart that says, I want you as my readers to grasp and understand the magnitude of what it means to be a Christian.

The wonder of what it means is something that would pass your mind and you would miss it if God didn't do a work to help you grasp it. And so, Paul says, I am praying for you, verse 16. He says, I'm praying that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. I'm praying that you would understand that God would open your mind and illuminate your understanding so that you could see the greatness of the things that we're talking about.

Now, time out at that point. Look, in some ways, when we get so familiar with certain passages of Scripture, it almost works against us, because familiarity tends to breed contempt. Familiarity tends to breed an attitude that I already know this, I've already seen this, I've read this a number of times, but I want to step back and have you think about what we're talking about here, right in the middle of Paul's prayer. Look, the Bible is inspired by God. God the Father planned out salvation before the beginning of time, from the greatness of His loving, great heart, from His great wisdom, He planned the whole method and plan of salvation from beginning to end before He ever created things in Genesis 1-1.

And so, even from that limited perspective, we're dealing with something vastly greater than anything that we've ever seen before. In verse 15, Paul brings the Lord Jesus Christ to bear upon it. And he says, I'm praying that the God of the Lord Jesus Christ would help you understand. We have been saved by the blood of Christ.

We were regenerated by the Holy Spirit. And now, in that great triune work of salvation, and Paul, an apostle, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit Himself, with all of that power and all of that knowledge of God operating, Paul goes further, and Paul, filled with the Spirit, prays to God the Father and says, Oh God, help them understand even more. There is a great power of God that is at work in this passage in inspiring the Scripture, and Paul, who wrote it, now is praying that the people that he's writing to would understand. He's asking God, who by His power created all things, God, who by His power is inspiring the apostle as he writes, saying, God, I want you to exercise another aspect of your power and help these people who are reading to understand, so that what we see is this immense, staggering, wonderful work of God that from so many different dimensions, the inspiration of the Scripture, Paul praying to God, and now the God that dwells within us, being called upon to use His power in us to open our understanding, understand that there is an exponential majesty of power that is at work in the passage that we're seeing here. God's power is on full display and in full operation with what we're looking at. This is no superficial issue that we're dealing with. The power of God is at work, and the power of God, Paul prays, would be exercised to help us understand even more.

This is very sacred ground that we're treading. This is majestically wonderful truth that God has given us the eyes and the understanding and the ears to hear. And so with this explosive, wonderful power, strength, and might of God, Paul prays that we would understand still more. Look at verse 18 where he says, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you would know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. This whole passage is about Paul praying that God's power would be understood by those who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ.

Apparently it's really important because God inspired it, and Paul is praying that we would understand that this must be vital to a healthy, constructive understanding of what it means to be a Christian. And so Paul wants his readers to understand the power of God in their lives, and then he goes in verses 19 through 23, which we saw last time. He says this is the same power that raised Christ from the dead and exalted Him. Look at verse 19. I want you to understand this power.

You might ask, what is this power? Paul says in verse 19, I'll tell you. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might. You see all of those synonyms of power, strength, might, energy, which He brought about in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.

God raised Him from the dead, and He seated Him at His right hand. Verse 22, and He put all things in subjection under His feet, and He gave Him as head over all things to the church. This is about God's power in salvation. Paul is praying that we would understand it, and as he draws these verses that we now know as chapter 1 to a close, he is finished on the high note of the resurrection and the exaltation of Christ as, get this, that is the measure by which you are to understand how great the power is. See, it's one thing to say God is strong and mighty. It's another thing to say that He is so strong and mighty that He could raise Christ from the dead, exalt Him to heaven, put Him at His right hand where He rules over the universe and where He is head over the church.

One thing to say that God is powerful, it is another thing to explain what that power can do and has done. All right? And so, end of chapter. End of chapter 1, we end up in heaven with Christ over all. Now, but for what I told you at the beginning of this message, you might think that Paul was moving to something new because we're going into a different chapter now. And you say, okay, he's going to pivot and talk about something else.

Let me see what else he's going to talk about now. I can put chapter 1 behind me because in my journey I've come to Ephesians chapter 2. But that is not the case.

Look at Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1. And, stop right there. Are you kidding me? You're going to expound on the word and?

You bet I am. Because expounding on the word and here is vital for your spiritual well-being. It's vital for your Christian understanding. The word and means something additional is about to come. It means moreover. It means further than this in addition to what I have already said.

It joins a parallel thought with another parallel thought. Paul isn't changing his subject in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1. He is continuing the discussion of the power of God that he's just been expounding on that we saw as so very important in verses 15 through 23. And, and. What we're going to see as we start to dip our toes into Ephesians chapter 2 is we're going to see three aspects further about Paul's prayer for the Ephesians that are going to give you a foundation of joy and understanding that will invigorate your life for Christ.

You must see this. You have no option but to see this and to understand. Paul is talking about something else that displays the power of God. He's not changing the subject. He's continuing the subject, and I want you to see that with all clarity here. Chapter 2 verse 1, And you were dead in your trespasses and sins.

All right? First thing that I want you to see is that the power of God is measured in part by your past condition of death. That's point number one.

Your past condition of death. And what we are studying here is God's power that saved you. And I want you to see this as this unfolds. We're only going to introduce the passage, but we're going to introduce it in a way that is utterly overwhelmingly humbling and encouraging and invigorating for every true Christian.

I won't repeat myself, although I want to. We're talking about God's power. What happened at the end of chapter 1, that same topic is being continued in chapter 2. You know that by the word and. Even if I hadn't given you any kind of introduction, you would be able to see with your own eyes that and is designed to be a bridge between what happened before and what now comes next. It's a bridge connecting two things, not a bomb that breaks up the two things.

This is so important. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins. And so somehow what's about to be said is a further explanation of the power of God in your salvation.

What can we say about it? The power of God is so great that not only did it resurrect and exalt Christ, which we saw at the end of chapter 1, it even raised you from spiritual death. Look at verse 1 with me now. I'll actually read the whole verse.

Chapter 2 verse 1. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins. Look over at verse 5 where it says, Even when we were dead in our transgressions.

Paul is saying that you were in a hopeless condition before you became a Christian. You were dead. There was no spiritual life in you. There was no spark of divinity in your soul that could be blown upon and flame up into eternal life. You were a spiritual corpse.

You were under bondage as we'll see next week. You were under bondage to the devil. You were under the wrath of God and you had no power to save yourself. Those of you who are Christians, those of you who, like me, came to Christ a little bit later in life, if you would look back on your spiritual condition, you would realize before you became a Christian, you would understand that it was miserably impossible for you to generate any spiritual desires that had any lasting effect in your life. You can't make your sin-dominated mind by your own power and say, Okay, I'm going to be a spirit-filled Christian now.

You don't have that ability. You were dead. And in that hopeless condition of spiritual death, of bondage to Satan, of being a child of wrath even like the rest, in your hopeless, weak inability in that condition is the point God brought you to life. Chapter 2 verse 1, And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. You walked in accordance to the spirits that dominated you in that black realm of unbelief. Verse 3, Among them we too all, formally, we were all there. We lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest.

Dead in sin, dominated by the devil, doomed to suffer the wrath of God. There was nothing in you. You had no ability whatsoever to save yourself, to get out from under the bondage of sin and Satan. You had nothing. There was no man that could come and help you.

Heaven knows there was no priest that could sprinkle water on you and make that better, as if dripping H2O on your skin could somehow cleanse the dirt that was in your heart. You were helpless. You were dead. And you were held in chains by the devil. And God condemned you for your sinful nature, your sinful acts, and your spiritual indifference to Him.

Listen, beloved. You couldn't turn away the wrath of God on your own. You had no power to snap the chain by which Satan held you, and you had no power to turn the spiritual death in your heart. A dead man can't do anything, and a spiritually dead man can't breathe himself into new life. Your situation was desperate, hopeless.

So was mine. Paul says in that condition, the only way to describe you was dead. And if you've seen corpses, you know that nothing helps. You can blow in their ear. You can shake them.

Nothing happens. That was you spiritually before Christ. And those of you who were enslaved to habits that you couldn't get out of, you know something about it. It was in that condition of yours that God intervened and saved you by the power of the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 4. This is all about power is Paul's point. He says, verse 4, But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions...

Remember, he's talking about power. That's the whole context. But God, while you were like that, verse 5, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. And so he's saying that while you were absolutely out, the lights were out.

It was black and dark and there was no light switch to turn on. God stepped into your spiritual misery, your spiritual absence of life, your spiritual darkness, and He turned all the lights on and brought you to life by the power that He has to rescue sinners from the dominion of sin. And Paul's point is that that is one great power. That's the point.

That's the point. You could not do it on your own. You could not rescue yourself from sin, Satan, and God's wrath. It took a great spiritual power to deliver you from that depth of spiritual death. How great is the power of God? It's so great that it even brought you to spiritual life.

It brought you out of death into spiritual life. That's how great the power of God is. So that his point is, in the whole big context of things, he's saying, I'm praying that you would understand the power of God.

Do you understand? Do you realize that it raised Christ from the dead, exalted Him to heaven at the right hand of God, from which position of authority and favor He rules over the universe and He is head over the church? And, while I'm at it, let me tell you something else about the power of God. It raised you from your condition of spiritual death. God didn't use His power just to raise Christ. He also displayed it in its magnificent working of strength by raising you from death to life. He brought spiritual life out of spiritual death.

That's something no human being could do. That's how great the power of God is that's at work in the life of every true Christian. Now, look, beloved, to one degree or another, most of us come out of situations where we were taught different things about the reality of salvation and what it meant to be a Christian. We were taught that there were rules and rituals that we needed to keep. We kept them long enough that maybe the good would outweigh the bad and we could go to heaven. That's a demonic lie.

We've been conditioned over time to focus on external things. How, you know, the way we dress, what kind of music is played in the church. These are the things that you have to do and the external things to keep if you want to be a part of a church or you want to call yourself a Christian.

Listen to me. Do you see by comparison how cheap and tawdry and worthless all of that stuff is compared to what Paul describes here in Ephesians about the greatness of salvation? When you talk about spiritual resurrection power, when you talk about raising Christ from the dead and exalting him to heaven from which he reigns, to substitute in this man-made junk and say that's what salvation is, you can see why God so greatly hates false religion. It utterly robs him of his rightful glory.

It utterly redirects things and makes people think that they can do it on their own. And they look to their own effort and in pride they start to say, I'm good enough. You weren't good enough and neither was I. And we could never be good enough. And as long as we think that we could, and as long as we focus on these silly externals, we take a big, broad, black paintbrush and just paint over the glory of God so that it can't be seen. False religion is a great, great sin against God. It's easy to take salvation for granted if you forget the hopeless state we're all in apart from the grace and mercy of God. As Pastor Don Green re-emphasized today, if God had not acted first, we could have done absolutely nothing about our condition. Well, next time here on The Truth Pulpit, Don will have the conclusion of his message, God's Power That Saved You, as we continue the series, Your Sin and God's Salvation.

So be sure to join us then. Right now, Don's back here in studio with more exciting ministry news. Well, you know, my friend, one of the exciting things about ministry is to see the doors that the Lord opens to you that you never could have planned for yourself.

I'm about to describe that here. What's happened in Truth Community Church is this, is that somehow the Lord has opened a door for us to send sermon transcripts to prisoners throughout our region who are reading these matters, coming to Christ, growing in Christ, and sharing the material with others. We'd like you to be a part of that. Maybe you have a friend or a loved one who is in prison.

Do this for us, if you would. Go to our website, give us the contact information for your loved one, and we'll be glad to add them to the list in case they want to have access to God's Word, as you've enjoyed it here on The Truth Pulpit. Friends, just visit us at thetruthpulpit.com for further information. I'm Bill Wright, and we'll see you next time on The Truth Pulpit.