Mercy for the Ages #2

We don't congratulate ourselves in Heaven. We see His goodness on display, and we praise Him for it.

It is about displaying who He is, not who we are. Welcome to The Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Hi, I'm Bill Wright, and Don is continuing our series, Your Sin and God's Salvation, with part two of a message titled, Mercy for the Ages. Last time, Don provided the first two of three main points, the mercy of God and the action of God.

Because of His mercy toward us, He made us alive when we had been spiritually dead. Today, Don will get to the why of the matter, the glory of God. So have your Bible open to Ephesians, chapter two, as we join our teacher now in The Truth Pulpit. Verse 14, having canceled out the certificate of debt, consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us, and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Verse 15, remember, we said last time, you were captive to evil powers. You walked according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. You were a child of Satan, the father of lies.

What did God do when He made you alive? Verse 15, well, when He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He disarmed those spiritual forces that were over you. You know, some professing Christians, we won't get into all of this, but some professing Christians worry about whether they can be possessed by demons and they worry about what Satan is doing all over them. And they just live in constant fear of what Satan is going to do.

Well, if that's you, listen, I've got good news for you. God delivered you from that captivity of Satan. And it says right here in verse 15, He disarmed those rulers and authorities. God didn't save you to suddenly leave you vulnerable to an overtaking of the devil. We still have to resist the devil, but Scripture says when we resist him, he flees. We don't live in fear of Satan anymore. We don't trifle with his power, but we don't worry about him taking over because the greatest power of all, God has disarmed those and released us from that captivity.

There is no fear. There isn't that craven fear that Satan's going to jump out from behind a rock and really mess up my life. Your life isn't under the hand of Satan. Satan is not sovereign. God is. And God has been merciful and good and loving and gracious to you with an intention to display that throughout all of eternity.

He's not going to abandon you and turn you over. He's disarmed that power. He forgave your sins. Verse 15, I'm not sure I finished reading it. When he had disarmed the rulers and authorities, he made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through him.

The triumph is completed. And so God forgave your sins when he raised you up with Christ. He gave you the ability to function spiritually, to communicate with him because you've been reconciled to him and adopted into his family. He freed you from the demonic powers that held you captive and blinded you to the gospel. You're not blind to the gospel anymore.

And as we saw last time, that was one of the primary objectives of the work of the devil is to blind people to the truth so they can't believe. Well, you believe now. You've been brought out of that. He gave you new life and desires. You've been raised up with Christ to a position that you did not have before, a position of security guaranteed by the mercy and the love and the power of God. He raised you up. Go back to Ephesians chapter two, verse six. He raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

So you see three verbs here. God made us alive together with Christ. He quickened us. He regenerated us. He raised us up with him. He raised us out of that captive realm in which we had previously lived. And he seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. He seated you with Christ.

Now let me make what I think is an obvious point here. Paul is not speaking in geographic terms here in verse six. We are physically still on earth while Christ is physically in heaven.

He's talking about a different reality than a physical translation into another geographic time and space place. I think the commentator Charles Hodge nails it when he says, and I quote, talking about what this heavenly places is that we've been seated in. The heavenly places is that state of purity, exaltation, and favor with God into which his children are even in this world introduced. Christians belong not to the earth but heaven. We are within the pale of God's kingdom and have in Christ a title to its privileges and blessings, end quote. Paul says our citizenship is in heaven in Philippians chapter three. We've been brought into a new realm of existence, taken out of that captive, that realm of captivity and judgment and placed into a realm of freedom in Christ belonging to him where we have all of the blessings now with the full manifestation of them.

We have titled all of the blessings with the full manifestation of them still to come when we are with Christ physically in heaven. We have been seated with Christ. He has blessed us and brought us into a state of favor with God that is irreversible. God didn't save you by his power suddenly to leave you to keep your own salvation in your own power and strength and with your own obedience.

Why would he do that? God doesn't rest. A God of this great mercy, a God of this great power, and as we're going to see, this great purpose wouldn't suddenly leave the design and the outcome of salvation to your own imperfect obedience and your vacillating desires for Christ. No, what guarantees your salvation is not you, but the power and the mercy of God that started it in the first place. Oh, we have to persevere. We have to continue in the faith. But what guarantees that is the power that is at work in us that came from Christ rather than a power of self-effort. And so when Paul says here that he seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, he's saying that he lifted you from that prior evil realm to a position that is now above the wickedness that once enslaved you. Beloved, rejoice.

Be encouraged. Be strengthened. The same spiritual life in Christ is now at work in you. His grace and power have given to us a disposition toward God that is foreign to a non-Christian. What God worked in Christ, he has worked in us. You are joined to Christ in a vital relationship, a real spiritual union that is often called our union with Christ. And we call it our union with Christ because the power that is animating him is the same power that is animating our spiritual life now. He is in us, and we are in him. Just as a vine flows with the life-giving sap and extends it into the branches, so the life-giving power and mercy and grace that animates Christ spreads out through his believers as well.

The same life principle. God has withheld nothing from you. Let me remind you to go back to chapter 1, verse 3 of Ephesians. God hasn't held anything back. There's no second blessing to seek for the Christian.

He's already given it all to us. Chapter 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

He didn't hold anything back. His mercy was so boundless and so free that he poured it all out on you right at the start. If you're a Christian, you receive the Holy Spirit the moment you believe because Scripture says if any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him at all. And so we're joined together with Christ. And one theologian, I won't pretend that this is an easy subject to get all your mind around, but Scripture is pointing toward a shared life, a vital reality that is true about Christians that indicates that somehow what's going on in Christ is also in some measure somehow some capacity going on in us as well. And one theologian defines it like this, and I quote, Union with Christ is that intimate, vital and spiritual union between Christ and his people in virtue of which he is the source of their life and strength, of their blessedness and salvation, end quote. In other words, there is a vital connection between you and Christ, my brother in Christ, my sister in Christ, Christ who died and rose again and now is in heaven where he intercedes for you according to the will of God. That Christ is the one who saved you, the one who died for you, the one who redeemed you, and the Spirit that makes him so great and exalted he has shared and brought you in to share in the benefit of that.

You drink from that same fountain. The same spiritual water flows in your veins. Christ himself is the source of your life. Christ himself is the source of your blessedness. Christ himself is the source of your salvation. And as we sing sometimes in a hymn that we should sing more often, I am his and he is mine because I am loved with an everlasting love. You see, I say this a lot. I'll say it again. To be a Christian, to be a true Christian is by far the most noble thing in the world.

There is no political position of power. There is no fame. There is no achievement on earth that could ever begin to approximate, to get within seeing distance of the glory and the majesty of what it means to be a true, born again Christian who is really a child of the living God and in union with Jesus Christ.

Nothing compares to that. And that is what God has done for you in his mercy and love. He has graciously brought you out of death to bring you into a place where you can share in that blessedness. As wonderful as everything is that we've said about the mercy of God and what he has done to liberate us from sin and judgment, as wonderful as that is, the best is still to come.

This is just not what you would expect from human wisdom. You know, you can get so wrapped up into the text, you can get so wonderfully as we should, you know, and try to get our minds around so that we understand the doctrine of what we're talking about, and you just get so enmeshed in it that it would be possible for you, if we walked out right now, to miss the most important question. We could go out rejoicing and yet find that our joy later we would find was incomplete because we didn't finish the sentence that Paul wrote.

He hasn't finished his sentence yet. Verse 7 is a continuation of everything else, and it brings us to the third point, which is the purpose of God in salvation. We've seen the mercy of God in salvation, the action of God in salvation, but there comes a point where you should step back and say, why would he do this? What's in it for God? Why would he do that?

We've already ruled out the fact that it's something that we deserve, so what would be the point? Why would a God who is sufficient within himself in all of the perfection of his being, needing nothing from the creature? I mean, he was self-existent and independent before Genesis 1.1, and the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit had perfect fellowship and communion together before time began.

Why would he do this? And that's where verse 7 comes in. The purpose of God in salvation.

Let me hopefully cut another tether that connects you to your sense of self-importance. Salvation freed us and secured for us a place in heaven. That's true. It's wonderful. It's glorious, and I am delighted to know that I'm going there when that time comes.

That's wonderful. But if that is the only way and the only perspective from which you think about salvation, you're kind of missing the point. You see, salvation was not primarily and first of all about you. You were a means to another end. God's love for you is real, genuine, and he has shown mercy to you, and we love him for that, and we're on the receiving end of so much goodness. But just think for just a moment. Let this conscious thought sink into your brain and make its way down to your heart.

Surely the ultimate purpose of salvation must not be about me because that would make me the goal of it all, and that couldn't be. That couldn't be. That can't be.

That is not. It's wonderful that God loves us. It's wonderful that he saved us, but I don't think it's too much to say that's not the main point.

How can you say that? Well, look at verse 7. Remembering that Paul is continuing the sentence that he had started before.

Let's rehearse it. Verse 4, God being rich in mercy. Verse 5, made us alive together with Christ. Verse 6, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Why? Why did you do that, God? Verse 7, so that, here's the purpose of it all, so that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. We are going to be in heaven one day with Christ and with the redeemed through all of the ages, and what is going to happen there is what's going to be on display captivating our attention, captivating our praise, captivating our worship is that God has been surpassingly rich in his grace toward us. So that we don't congratulate ourselves in heaven, we see his goodness on display and we praise him for it. It is about displaying who he is, not who we are. And yet, because we love him, because we've denied ourselves, because we're not interested in our own glory anymore, we crucified that a long way back because his glory is the highest affection of our heart. To see his glory on display is going to be the highest fulfillment of our aspirations. Your joy will be perfect in heaven because this father who saved you, the Christ who died for you is going to be on display and everybody, angels and redeemed humanity alike are going to look and say what a wonderful God, what a wonderful mercy, how rich his grace, how good his kindness toward us who believe. I'm ready for the rapture right now. If I could jump up and make it happen, I would.

I want to go there right now into that realm. Look at what it says here in verse 7. In the ages to come, like wave after wave crashing upon the shore in a never-ending display of ever-unfolding wonder, God will be displaying and showing the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Eternity will not be long enough to put his goodness on display. It's not going to be long enough. I'm glad it doesn't end.

And I've said this before too. I want you to know, I want to assure you on the authority of God's Word that that display of his grace will never get old to you. The best things in this life are going to diminish into nothing of frivolity compared to the glory of being with Christ in this display. I want to show you one final thing here.

That's the purpose. It's that God would put himself, his glory on display and we would rejoice in that and honor him and glorify him in response for it. Look at this though in verse 7. He's going to show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. If it didn't take me so long to preach verse by verse, that would remind you, that would sound like something that we've heard before. Ephesians 1 verse 19. This is so cool. Paul verse 18, I pray that you'll know what the hope of his calling verse 19.

Look at this. And what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe? Salvation displays the surpassing grace of God because he showed favor to you that you didn't deserve. It displays the surpassing power of God in that he did something that was humanly impossible when he raised you from spiritual death and made you alive in Christ. Everything about your thinking about salvation should come down to the fact that this is so surpassingly great in power and in grace that all I can do is fall down in worship because this is beyond human capacity to understand.

So gracious, so mighty, where do I look? It captivates the believing heart in ways that never grow old. Beloved, what God has done for you in salvation is shown you such unprompted generosity that the glory of that will never dim.

The majesty will never weaken. Our hearts will love him more when we're with him than they do now and we'll be undistracted by the remnants of sin. This worldly environment will be undistracted and unhindered by Satan and his demons. We'll be set free perfectly to see all of the surpassing glory on display, unfolding, unfolding, unfolding, more and more and more. That's where your heart walks. That's where you're headed, Christian. You're headed to that great place, that great vision. What will consume you is not, wow, look at the redeemed people that I'm with and, oh, I'm with my family. No, what's going to captivate us is the surpassing greatness of the glory of God.

I can't wait. Can you? That's Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, with part two of his message, Mercy for the Ages, and we'll continue the series, Your Sin and God's Salvation, next time here on The Truth Pulpit, so don't miss a moment. But right now, friend, if you're facing trials in your life, listen up, because here again is Don with some encouragement. You know, my friend, I was recently talking with someone from our congregation who was going through a difficult time and it just seemed like the waves of trial were washing over him again and again and he couldn't get his head above water in order to catch a breath.

Maybe you've been like that. Let me encourage you to think about them, perhaps in a little bit different way than what you've done in the past. It's so common for us to want the earthly relief and, you know, when I'm in trial, I'm anxious to get earthly relief myself.

I'm not critical of that. But there is something greater that can bring you a deeper hope than that. Remember always in the midst of your trial, if you're a Christian, that the outcome of your life leads you into the perfect bliss of heaven, where you will see Christ face to face.

You'll be made like him because you will see him as he is. That really puts our earthly trials in perspective. They're temporary.

They're passing. They're really just being used by God to shape us for the great glorification that he has ahead for everyone who believes in Christ. My friend, even if earth is bringing you trial, heaven is on the way. Christ will complete the work that he began in you and that brings you hope even if your circumstances don't change. That is where you can find your real peace and your real comfort in the midst of those very real and difficult trials that you're going through today. Thanks Don. And friend, don't forget to visit TheTruthPulpit.com to learn more about this ministry. I'm Bill Wright. See you next time on The Truth Pulpit.