Where God Lives (Part 1 of 2)

Is it possible for any of us to be certain that we're actually following Jesus?

Does your faith in him distinguish you from the surrounding culture? Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg takes a look at the real and observable differences that separate true Christians and unbelievers. Well, I invite you to take your Bible and turn with me to Ephesians chapter 2, from verse 19 to the end of the chapter.

As you turn there, let me read them for us. So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Father, we pray that with our Bibles open that the Spirit of God will be at work in our thinking so that as we understand the truth of the Bible, that we might then be embraced by it, that we might live in the light of it, that we might increasingly become all that you intend for us to be. For we ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, we said before that the flow of the second half of this chapter, the section that begins in verse 11, can be seen by noting three straightforward phrases, the first of these in verse 11, at one time—therefore, remember that at one time, that's the first phrase—and then in verse 13, but now in Christ Jesus, and then in verse 19, so then you are no longer. I just reminded myself of what we have recorded for us here by means of an acronym, and that is art, that we were alienated, we have been reconciled, and we are transformed. Let me just tease that out for us for a moment.

First of all, at one time. The reference there is, of course, to the pre-Christian days, particularly of these Gentile believers. And when we studied that, we noted that it is actually a description of humanity without God. And while all of us lived in that realm, whether we understood it, whether we were graphically aware of it or not, the fact is that what it says there concerning us is true—that we did not believe. In fact, by nature, we are unbelievers, that we did not belong to the community of God, and our behavior testified to the reality of that. Back at the beginning of chapter 2, we were those who lived in the passions of our flesh. We carried out the desires of the body and the mind, and we were by nature children of wrath.

That is all covered by at one time. And what Paul says there at the beginning of chapter 2, by way of summary, is that we were absolutely helpless. If you think about it, what can a dead person do to make themselves alive?

Absolutely nothing. And so he says, we were spiritually dead and unable to quicken ourselves. We were helpless. And in the second half of the chapter, essentially, he goes on to say, and we were hopeless. In fact, in verse 12, he uses that very phraseology, having no hope and without God in the world. Now, it's very important that we understand that that is a description, not of a special group of people that happened to be living in Ephesus at the time of this letter, but that it is descriptive of men and women by nature without God.

Second phrase is in verse 13, but now. But now we were previously at one time alienated, not only from God but also from those who loved and followed God. And now, but now, we are reconciled to God through the cross. And that reconciliation that we now enjoy with God, who once was predisposed to us in his wrath, has been dealt with in that Jesus has borne God's wrath, has settled our account, and we have been put in a living relationship with God, who made us for himself and with one another. And so he's saying there that all the kind of barriers that are inevitably erected, whether it is the barrier between a Jew and a Gentile or whether they are barriers of race or of class or of culture, these things have now been dealt with in Jesus. At one time, alienated, but now reconciled, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens. In other words, the result of the work of Jesus is that for those who have believed, there has been a change in our nature, and there has been a change in our status. As a result of Christ's achievement, as a result of the announcement of that achievement to these people in Ephesus, they have come to believe, and having come to believe, they now belong. So to the extent that it is helpful to you, if you just think art, then you can remember, at one time alienated, but now reconciled, so then transformed. Now, let me pause here for just a moment and acknowledge something with you. You will notice what he then goes on to do is to speak, first of all, in negative terms.

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens. In other words, you are no longer what you once were. Paul is not describing here some kind of marginal shift in thinking, a sort of rearrangement of philosophical underpinnings or a gradual slide from one religious persuasion to another religious persuasion. No, what he's describing here is a decisive and a dramatic change. And what he's pointing out is simply this—that there is a real and observable difference between the Christian and the non-Christian. If, however, by Christian we simply mean somebody who is remotely interested or tangentially interested in the things of Christianity, then we use a description that is not the way in which Paul is addressing it here. And we belabored that, didn't we, a couple of Sundays ago, in Christ Jesus. To be a Christian is to be placed in Christ Jesus as a result of God's grace, a disfavor, as revealed in Jesus, as accomplished by the work of the Holy Spirit. All of a sudden, the person says, I am a new creation, no more in condemnation, and here, in the grace of God, I stand. And that means that I am now markedly different from what I was before.

I want to say to you again that it is important we recognize this. Now, in Paul's case, his conversion was dramatic, wasn't it? You can read of it in Acts chapter 9, a voice from heaven and a light that shone brighter than the noonday sun, and him being struck with blindness and so on.

All of that was unique to Paul. I'd be surprised if anybody here professing their testimony as a Christian would be prepared to say that a similar thing had happened. But it may be that you have had a very dramatic conversion. You may have found yourself completely up against life. Perhaps you were at life's extremity, and when you turned in childlike trust and believing faith, your life was turned upside down so amazingly and instantaneously that the people in your office, in your school, in your home, knew something dramatic has happened to this girl, has happened to this character.

And there again, it may not be that for you. Over a period of time, as you listened, as you read, as you thought, you suddenly realized that your heart was being changed, that your mind was being opened to the truth, that your eyes were being made clear, and you suddenly realized that the way you had begun to sing the songs and listen to the Bible and appreciate the fellowship was an indication of the fact that God had actually changed you. You see, when a person is truly converted—truly converted—they will have an awareness of these things. A truly converted person has an awareness of the at-one-time. At one time, I once was lost in darkest night and thought I knew the way. The person who's sort of just marginally interested in religious things doesn't use terminology like that.

That's the terminology of a Christian. I once was lost in darkest night. I know that because that's what the Bible says. I actually was going to church as a small boy and so on, and I didn't realize what a rascal I really was. I knew enough to know that I needed a Savior, but I didn't know I was lost in darkest night and thought I knew the way. But now I know that.

And I know that if I'd continued in that position, I would have been… There's no saying where I might have ended up. So they have an awareness of what they once were. They have an awareness of the love and the mercy of God. Verse 4, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us. So the person is saying, you see, I was overwhelmed by the love of God. And when it suddenly dawned on me, this good news story, that it was while we were enemies that God reconciled us to himself, the love of God for me overwhelmed me.

I was caught up like the prodigal son in the Father's embrace. And that is my testimony, you see. I have something to say about what I used to be. I have something to say about the love of God. I'm convinced about the saving work of Jesus. And I am also aware of the fact that although I have come to this position as an individual, that God has brought me into an entire company of others who love Jesus.

And it is this which has actually, in this community, given me the structure, the framework, the teaching, the accountability, the opportunity to discover my giftedness, and so on, and I'm converted. You see, the converted individual doesn't ask, Do I have to go to church? A converted individual does not actually ask, Why do I have to go to church?

A converted individual is not saying, Why is the church so important? I have an iPad. I have a phone.

I can do this here. I can listen on my own. If you're truly converted, you may think that from time to time because you want to do something other than attend church because it puts a demand on you. But in your heart of hearts, you know that's not what you're saying. If you're converted, well, you see, the converted person is saying, Where can I find God's people?

They go out of town on a business trip. And they say, I need to find some people that love Jesus. The converted individual is saying, Where can I enjoy Christian fellowship? The converted individual is saying, Where can I hear the Word of God taught to me?

Where can I hear the Bible expounded? You see, the non-Christian doesn't say that. An unconverted person doesn't say that. It never, ever occurs to them. I guarantee you, you can walk up to somebody in the street and say, When's the last time you were walking down the street and you said to yourself, Where can I find the Word of God taught to me? And if they answer yesterday, then you know the Spirit of God is at work within their heart, so you get the four spiritual laws out and take care of the problem right there.

Okay? The fact is, it is a radical, and it is a dramatic change. Faith makes the greatest of distinctions. Faith in Jesus makes the greatest of distinctions. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. There's one group. But to those who received him, who believed on his name, there's another group.

You can't be in two groups at once. By nature? No, thank you. By grace? Amazed. Now, you see, this is what Paul is making absolutely clear. And that's why I'm making it clear to you. Because of the hundreds and thousands of people that come in this building, week by week, it is incumbent upon me, as a shepherd of the flock, as a teacher of the Bible, to labor as I'm enabled to say to you, loved ones, Do you believe in your heart that God has raised Jesus from the dead? Do you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord? You say, No. Then you are unconverted.

Do you? Matson, who was born in Hackney, West Hackney in London in 1833, went to St. John's College, Cambridge, wrote a number of hymns. Probably the best known is his most autobiographical. And this is how his hymn begins. Lord, I was blind. I could not see in your marred visage any grace. That's his testimony. Lord, I was blind. I couldn't see it. I went to the Easter services. I read the Bible.

I heard people talk about things. Never got it at all. Till he was twenty years old at Cambridge University, and the lights went on. His hymn continues, Lord, I was blind. Lord, I was deaf. Lord, I was dumb. Lord, I was dead.

And here's the triumph of the close. For thou hast made the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak, the dead to live. This, you see, is conversion. And when a man is converted, when a woman is converted, then they are no longer what they once were at one time. But now, so then. Now, let's come to the so then. So then what? So then, what is the implication?

What is the result of this? Well, it's not the complete result, but it is the result that Paul, by the Holy Spirit, wants us to focus on just now. We are now, he says, fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Now, remember, when we were studying this earlier, we said that by nature we were both stateless and friendless. We were outsiders. We did not belong, verse 12, at that time, separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel.

We were far away. But now in Christ, he's gone on to say, we have been given a new identity, and we have been made part of a whole new community. We are, if you like, kids of the kingdom. We are citizens in God's kingdom. And our new identity secures us, because now we belong, and our new identity transforms us, because now we behave.

Now, you see, we're surprised by the behavior as well. If you've come to faith in Christ, you know what your Sunday usually was, just by way of example. I used to do this, I used to do that, I would get up, nobody could take me from this or from that. It was sacrosanct for me and so on. And I don't know what in the world's happened to me. I got up on a Sunday morning, and I said, You know, I want to go with the people of God. Well, you've been made a citizen. You see, you're now a citizen of the kingdom. Before this, you were stateless. You did not belong.

You had no access. It's an amazing thing, you see. And as a result of that, we have all the rights of being members of the kingdom. I lived for a long time before I became a citizen of the United States of America. But on that day, when I did, when I went down there to East 9th Street and did what they said I should do, then everything that was my wife's by birthright, having been born in these fair shores, became mine immediately. All of the rights, all of the responsibilities, all of the privileges, because now I was included.

And you see, when a person is made a citizen of the kingdom of God, then all other citizenships fall into line. People want to know all the time, What is that pin in your lapel? It simply says Scotland.

Okay? I happen to like it. But I also wear one that has a Scottish flag and an American flag often when I travel.

I like that too. But it's very subservient, because the real citizenship into which we've been brought is that we're made citizens of the kingdom. That's what Paul is saying in Philippians 2, isn't it? You know, they were separated from Rome by distance in Philippi, and he's reminding them, Actually, you're separated from the kingdom to which you really belong by virtue of your engagement here in Philippi. And the great concern of being a member of the kingdom of God, of being a citizen, is that we will long to see his kingdom extended. That's why we sang this morning, Jesus shall reign, where'er the sun.

I know you're fed up with me mentioning it, but it never stopped me before and won't stop me now. But remember when Eric Liddell left Edinburgh to go to China, and eventually he was to die in China? Eric Liddell was 1924 Olympics, won gold, made a new world record, played rugby for Scotland, was highly intelligent, well respected, and yet he gets on a boat and buries his life in China to teach boys and girls not only mathematics but about Jesus. What in the world are you doing, Liddell? Are you crazy? And when his train pulled out of Waverley Station, the last thing that he did before he left was roll the window down and lead the vast crowd gathered in Waverley Station underneath the castle.

Many of you have been there. And he led them in the singing of Jesus shall reign, where'er the sun doth his successive journeys run. And his kingdom stretched from shore to shore, till moon shall wax and wane no more. Why did he do that? Because he's a citizen of the kingdom. You have been made a citizen of the kingdom.

That's what he's saying. And the mystery of it—you go back all the way to chapter 1. Before the dawn of time, he loved you. He drew you to himself.

He made you what you've never been. Not in order that we might just enjoy ourselves and sit down and please ourselves, but in order that we might understand what a mystery it is that I have become a citizen of this great kingdom. And let that also help us in our citizenship in this kingdom. And that's what Paul is saying. At one time. But now.

So then. Citizens. Secondly and quickly, members, included with the saints, all of God's people, made members of God's household. God as a house, as it were.

There's a metaphor here. It's a picture of… The same word in Greek for family and for household is virtually synonymous. So members of the household of God are members of the family of God. The church, you see, is not just an aggregate of diverse people. The church is individual people united to each other on account of their union with Christ. That's the church.

That's the membership. You know, attachment to a local church by means of profession of faith and whatever else is involved is simply to give an outward, understandable dimension to an internal, decisive reality—that you belong to me and I belong to you in Christ, whether you like it or not. You can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family. And you can't choose your church family. You love your sister, don't you?

I mean, she's a pain in the neck sometimes. I'm talking about your siblings now. Sometimes your brother's a little uppity. In fact, a lot of times he may be that and maybe many more things. But the Bible's realistic about this.

That's why the picture of family is so helpful. At one time, all of us were alienated from God. But now in Christ, we're brought near. We're reconciled. So we are to no longer walk as we once were.

Our lives should reflect that transformation. You're listening to Truth for Life. That's Alistair Begg with part one of a message titled Where God Lives.

We'll hear the rest tomorrow. Now, October is Pastor Appreciation Month. And to thank pastors and to offer encouragement, we have put together an assortment of books and studies and articles recommended for pastors that help address how to be successful leading a congregation, how to enhance personal time with God, how to handle the challenges that come with pastoral ministry. You can visit truthforlife.org slash pastor and browse through the recommended books, the audio studies and the articles that we have carefully curated to help serve you in ministry.

And we have something special for your wife as well. The role of a pastor's wife can differ notably from church to church. Some pastors' wives play the piano, others help lead children's ministry, others serve behind the scenes. Regardless of where a wife serves, there's no doubt that her role is vital to the local church and to her husband's work as a pastor. We want to recommend to you today a book called Partners in the Gospel. This is a collection of devotions for the wives of pastors and elders. It reflects on both the joys and the challenges that come with being married to a pastor or an elder. Be sure to request the book Partners in the Gospel when you give a donation to Truth for Life at truthforlife.org slash donate. I'm Bob Lapine. Thanks for listening. Be sure to join us tomorrow to find out how to become what you are. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Where the Learning is for Living.