Transcript

Grab your Bibles and let’s go back to Ephesians, we’re in Ephesians 2. I actually didn’t intend to just stay in Ephesians but I keep wanting to be there so we’re going to stay in there. We come to Ephesians 2 and we have this powerful statement there about being his workmanship. Look at it there with me, Ephesians 2:10. Paul writes to the church at Ephesus, building principle upon principle, glory upon glory, then he comes to verse 10 and says,

10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

You know, all that exists is God’s workmanship. Even the most hardened unbeliever could not claim that mankind somehow created the galaxies or the solar systems are the stars or the planets. No man pushed up the Rocky Mountains. No man smoothed out the Great Plains. No man dug out the Grand Canyon. No man filled the Atlantic Ocean. All of this is God’s workmanship. It’s his workmanship which means it’s all a grace gift. In other words, we just received it. You look up at the stars when you look at nature and you marvel some at that. That’s grace. That’s what we call common grace. In other words, they are common to all mankind. A lost man can look at the nature or look at the stars or look at the creation and marvel and get pleasure out of the wonder of it. Even though he rejects it, there is a God who made it. It’s a common grace. It’s given to all of us and in common grace God blesses each person with special and unique gifts, combinations of beauty and talents and personality and strength and intellect or aptitude. Just a marvelous work of grace. It’s all grace. It is all his workmanship. It’s a gift of common grace and one thing about common grace is that all men can see common grace. I mean, the very air you breathe, the moment you take the next breath, that’s a gift of common grace. All men can see common grace, saved, lost, and all in between. The Bible says God brings the rain on the just and on the unjust. Common grace.

So common grace is the work of God, the gifts of God, in what we call and the Bible calls, the first creation and it is marvelous in our eyes, yet it’s not even to be compared with God’s work of the second creation or the new age, sometimes we call it the new creation. You see, the first creation is of one man and all that he did or all that came out of him, you might say, a better way to say it, but the new creation, this second creation work God is doing is of another man.

Turn back to the left just a few pages to 1 Corinthians 15. Would you do that? Go back to 1 Corinthians 15 and look at verse 45. 1 Corinthians 15:45 and notice how Paul here contrasts the first creation with the second. He says in verse 45, “So also it is written, ‘The first man, Adam, became a living soul.'” Now, that first man Adam is the Adam of the Garden of Eden. Then notice what he says in verse 45, “The last Adam,” that’s Jesus, “became a life-giving spirit.” He said the first Adam was a living soul and all of us descended from him, we got our physical being from him, but he says the second Adam, Jesus, gives a different kind of life. He can impart spiritual life. It’s a different starting point altogether.

He says in verse 46, “However, the spiritual is not first,” you can never experience spiritual life the moment after your physical birth, no, you’re born physically, that’s the first, he says, “but the natural is first; then the spiritual.” Verse 47, “The first man is from the earth,” Adam came up out of the earth, he’s “earthy; the second man,” Jesus, “is from heaven.” Adam came up out of the earth, he is made from the dust of the earth, but Jesus came from the heavens. He was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary of no agency of a human father but of the Holy Spirit. He’s a heavenly one and came from heaven.

Verse 48, “As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy.” Now, if you’re just born as a descendant of the original Adam in the Garden of Eden which all men are, then that’s all you are, you’re just earthy. “And as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly.” But if you’re born again in the new creation, the second creation, you have a new source, a new nature that came from the heavens. It’s heavenly, not earthly.

Then he says in verse 49, “Just as we have borne the image of the earthy,” we’re all born physically, have the image of our forefather Adam from the Garden of Eden, he says, “we will also bear the image of the heavenly.” So he says all of us were born and we were descendants of this fallen man, Adam from the garden of Eden, and we are all just physical beings. He said but Jesus, if you’re truly born again, if you’re truly saved, Jesus gives you a heavenly being and a spiritual heavenly nature and that’s the second creation.

That’s the new creation and the second creation is this work of the second Adam, Jesus, and it’s what we call redeeming grace or saving grace. All of the first creation, common grace, everything through Jesus in the new creation or the second creation is redeeming grace and the moment you became a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you were birthed into a new kingdom, you were birthed into a new spiritual race and you were birthed into a new creation that God is continuing to put together and it will come to fruition one day when the Lord Jesus returns. It’s just now getting going good. You can’t see much of it. The Bible says we can only see it through a glass dimly but one day we’ll see it clearly, we will see face-to-face. But it’s active and it’s moving and it’s working now. But this redeeming grace is far greater and far more glorious and this is only a work that God does in some. Now, where all people are a part of common grace, only some are part of redeeming grace but they are all the work of God.

And Brother Tom, since the Bible tells us that there is a glory in the original creation, we sing about that, but there is far more glory in the new creation. So probably about at least 80/20, we ought to 80% of the time be focusing on redeeming grace and the new creation but to give some to the common grace because it all came from God. But his great glory is in the second creation. In other words, when you look at the Rocky Mountains, when you look at the sun and the sky, when you look at the glory of the moon and the beauty of a sunset, that’s awesome but the word of God says not even to be compared with the glory, the wisdom, the power and the beauty of what God is performing in the new creation, the second creation, and you’re just now getting a little taste of that. As a matter of fact, you get a little taste of it when you begin to realize what a wretched sinner I am, what a woeful, fallen, depraved soul I am and how could I even have an aptitude and an appetite for the true and wondrous glories of God. You see, that shows you how wonderful God is. And folks, we’re just now getting a sip of the glories and the beauties and the wonders and the mysteries and all the pleasures. We’re going to be swimming in oceans of it one day. That’s all in the new creation.

So when you come to Ephesians 2:10, that’s why Paul says, “For we are His workmanship.” He’s talking about this second work, this new creation. We are the result of his doing. As a matter of fact, in the Greek you really need to say this, “His workmanship we are.” That’s the way he wants you to say it. His workmanship we are. This verse is a climactic crescendo. Paul began writing in Ephesians 1:1 laying out truth after truth, glory upon glory, precept upon precept, building the great and awesome and wonders story of sovereign grace, salvation, and he goes all the way through chapter 1 and he comes all the way down through chapter 2 and he comes to verse 10 and then says Paul is writing and he is overwhelmed with the climactic point he has come to and he says, “Man, hallelujah! His workmanship we are.” That’s what I don’t lose my salvation, that’s why I don’t struggle with eternal security, that’s why I believe in the perseverance of the saints because it’s not about me, his workmanship we are. What a truth that is.

Now he says here, “For we are His workmanship,” and the next word after that in Ephesians 2:10 is “created.” The word “created” here is the very same word that is used in the Scripture for the creation of the first or physical universe. Now let me ask you something: how did the physical universe get here? Well, originally there was only God and God spoke it into existence out of nothing. Now let me say something to you: when he looked on your soul and said, “I want to re-create that one, I want to make that one born again,” he more marvelously than the first creation made something out of nothing and you were born again and you became his workmanship. He began a work in you which the Bible tells us he will perform it or complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. So salvation is the miraculous creative work of God.

A couple of cross-references. Colossians 3:10, “and we have put on the new self,” you could say the new man, “who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.” That new thing that happened in you, there is a new self that was formed in you by the agency of the Holy Spirit and the power of God and that was created by Jesus Christ. He’s the Creator of all just like he was the Creator of the physical world. 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new,” what’s the word? “Creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” So God is both Artist and Creator and he does these things to manifest, to show forth, his great power and wisdom and glory.

So he took man as man was fallen in sin and ruined, and with matchless skill and wisdom created something out of him, created something new, a new creation. It is a masterpiece work to which nothing will compare. Listen to me: when the eternal state is settled and there are angels and there is still a physical earth but glorified, there is the eternal cleansing and holiness of all that there is, the masterpiece crowning work of the wisdom, power and beauty of God will be you. You are the masterpiece of God. Not because there’s anything special in you but because he wanted to show what he could do with nothing and he’ll show you off, if you will, for all eternity as his masterpiece work.

Now, one of the things preachers do and they get into a lot of trouble and I’ve had to repent of this some myself, is you jump to a verse like Ephesians 2:10 and you forget Ephesians 1 through chapter 2, verse 9, and you forget all the context that that is built upon. So let’s go and briefly run through the context that comes up to this point of his masterpiece being proclaimed.

First of all, let’s notice back at the masterpiece planned. The masterpiece planned. Look at chapter 1, verses 4 and 5, “just as He chose us in Him,” when? “Before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love,” here he says it again in a different way, “He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will.” So God said, “I want to do a masterpiece work in some of my creation and some of my people.” And God planned and ordained that he would perform this masterpiece work, verse 4 tells us, before the foundation of the world. And he determined, “I’m going to do such a work in these fallen sinful ones,” he says it there in chapter 1, verses 4 and 5, “that they will be holy and blameless before me in love.” Some of you need to be shaken with the magnitude of what God did to cause you to stand today as holy and blameless in his sight. Can you even fathom the depths of the glories of that statement? That’s what God planned. Listen, he predetermined to do that in you before – listen – he planned to do that in you before he called Abraham to be the father of a great nation. He did it before the foundation of the world. But it all happens as verse 4 says, in him, through the agency, the merit, the work, you might say, of his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the person of the Godhead through which all this work was accomplished and performed.

Well, the masterpiece planned, now secondly, II: the masterpiece provided for. The masterpiece provided for. Verses 7 of chapter 1, and then verse 19. Look at verse 7, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.” At the set time after God had planned to do this, he sent his Son Jesus to shed his blood and perform part of the work, part of that masterpiece work, of saving us.

Now we have a little bit more in verse 19, if you will, look there at verse 19, it says at the last half of verse 19, “These,” that means all God has done in saving us, “These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might.” He did it. He provided it. He performed it. Then look at verse 20, “which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.” So Jesus Christ in his mighty power came to the earth and he died and he shed his blood, then he was raised for our justification, then he goes up into the heavens and he sits down at the right hand of the Majesty on high where he faithfully intercedes for us and the Bible says that work, all that God did for you, was a glorious part, as a matter of fact, the central part, the foundational part, of the masterpiece work of God that he is doing in and through you.

So the masterpiece planned before the foundation of the world, the masterpiece provided for through our Lord Jesus Christ’s death, burial and resurrection and intercession for us in heaven. Now thirdly: the masterpiece applied. When was the application of this work to take effect, to have a practical working out in our own lives? Well, look at verse 13 of chapter 1, “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation – having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.” Well, the masterpiece is applied when you have listened to the truth and believed the truth. Listened to the truth and believed the truth. That’s why we constantly emphasize preaching the word, teaching the word, exhorting people from the word. You hear it and then you believe it.

Now again, this is not just some mere intellectual assent. A lot of folks in the Bible belt while they are raised in church and they hear these kind of things, they never say anything bad about the message of Jesus, but from their hearts they have never, here’s what I like to say, come to a settled rest on the truth they’ve listen to. Settled to a convicted resting on those truths that, “I am God’s masterpiece. He has performed this for me and I believe it’s finished in him, by him and through him.” You might organize it this way, “I’ve come to a settled rest and a conclusion about the fact that I am a sinner. I am as Romans 5 says, an ungodly one before him. I was as the word of God teaches in Romans 5, an enemy before him. And I was as Romans 5 teaches, helpless before him. I don’t wrestle with that, fight with that, explain that away and say, ‘Yeah, but, no.’ I am completely at rest. That’s true of me. I’ve listened and I’ve believed that I am a sinner. I’ve listened and I’ve believed that Jesus has provided all that is necessary to forgive me of my sin and calls me to stand as holy and blameless in his sight.”

Have you come to that place? Now, I’m convinced a person can be fully converted and saved but yet not yet grown in their understanding to really rest there but that’s where God wants to get you. You have at least the seed, the germ of that trust. Some of you need to develop it more and the more you sit under preaching and study your Bibles, the more you will grow it. But you need to come to a settled rest, “Christ and Christ alone has finished the task. He has done all that is needed for me to be forgiven and for me to stand as holy and blameless in the sight of God the Father.”

And number 3, not only have I come to this settled rest that I’m a sinner, a settled rest that Jesus has done all necessary to forgive me, but thirdly: that Jesus is the only true and wise Lord for my life. I have abandoned – listen to me – all confidence and all hope in everyone else but him. Amen? You’d better not be thinking Donald Trump is the answer. Sometimes I don’t think he’s got even a 35 IQ. Now, I did reluctantly vote for him but that doesn’t mean anything. I mean, the choices weren’t very good, you understand. My point is we have to be involved in things on the earth, I understand that and I encourage you to do that but, folks, at the end of the day there is something in your heart when you come to faith that says, “Only Christ as he is revealed through his word can give me the wisdom and the authority and the guidance to live my life by. I have listened and believed.” This is when the masterpiece work is applied to your life. That’s what the writer is saying here. So he doesn’t take the human equation out of it but – now listen to me – while you must listen and you must believe, when you take the balance of the whole context, the Apostle Paul writing to the Ephesians straps you to one side of the perspective, to the God-ward side, causes you to marvel over all the sovereign work of God in your salvation, and it is even the sovereign work of God that you listened and that you believed.

Well, not only the masterpiece planned and the masterpiece provided for and the masterpiece applied, but next: the masterpiece preserved. The masterpiece preserved. When God does a great work, he loses none of his work. It never gets away from him. It never perishes. It’s never diminished. Listen, everything is right on track and every single one of you that are saved, he’s begun that masterpiece work and he’s going to finish it all the way home to glory.

Look at it there in verse 13, if you will, the last half of verse 13 of chapter 1, “having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.” Now, here’s what the original Greek is not saying: it’s not saying after you believed you were sealed in him. What it means is this is one whole package of simultaneous events. You’ve listened, you’ve believed, you were sealed. The sealing of the Spirit is not dependent upon your merits of believing although they might be simultaneous. Now, there is some debate here but, now, if you strap me down and say, “Pastor, now which one comes first, the work of the Spirit or believing?” 100% of the time, not 97, not 98, not 99, 100% of the time I’m going to tell you on the overwhelming consistent teaching and weight of Scripture, I’ll tell you the work of the Spirit had to come first though they are so simultaneous at times. You see, I think sometimes we try to dissect things and put it into some sort of format and some sort of computer procedural step thing but it doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t mean after you believed you were sealed, it means having been one who believed, really you could amplify it out and say: that showed you were a sealed one. Are you with me? It says the Spirit did the work, he did the work of convicting, he did the work of regenerating, he enabled you to come to faith and all of that showed forth that you were one of his sealed ones. Now, you don’t understand that when you’re converted, all you know is you believed on Jesus. That’s why you need to sit under preaching so you can learn the glories and the wonders and the beauties of all that God did and all that God does.

So he puts the Spirit in you as a seal. I like to call it the amen of the Spirit. That’s one of the ways you know you’re saved because there is something inside of you that’s bigger than you and wiser than you and when you hear the truth of God’s word preached or taught, sometimes it contradicts you but there is something in you that says, “Amen. That’s right.” There is the amen of the Holy Spirit in there that overrules you and aren’t you thankful for that? Haven’t you come to the place in your pilgrimage sitting under the preaching of the word where you begin to believe things you didn’t think you believed before? That’s the Holy Spirit. He enables you to receive spiritual truth and rest in it and stand on it.

I love this image of a seal that Paul uses because in this day a seal had an imprint pressed on it from the king’s signet ring and the king pressed that seal of the king on that document or whatever it was that meant all the authority of the kingdom stood behind it. And that’s why they put that seal on the tomb on the rock that was rolled over Jesus’ tomb and the Roman Emperor put his seal on that stone to say all the authority of Rome says this stone better not be moved. Of course, God doesn’t respect the authority of Rome so God moved the stone. But the image for us is all the authority of the Godhead, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, there is a seal on your soul and it’s got the signet ring of the Godhead on you. It means all the authority of God says, “This is my work. This is my workmanship. It shall not be tampered with.” And also it means you are authentically a member of royalty. All the members of royalty had that insignia, maybe on their clothing, maybe on documents, maybe imprinted in a ring but that means you are stamped with authenticity. You are God’s child. You are God’s workmanship.

Well, Philippians 1:6 reminds us, “He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” John 6:37 reminds us, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.” That’s preservation, folks. John 6:39, “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.”

Masterpiece planned before the foundation of the world. The masterpiece provided when Jesus died, was buried, rose again and intercedes for us in heaven. The masterpiece applied when we have listened and believed, that means it’s been applied to our lives. The masterpiece preserved, his Spirit is in us keeping us, sanctifying us, sealing us as God’s property and authentic royalty of the divine King. Now lastly: the masterpiece proven. The masterpiece proven.

Look if you will at verse 10 of Ephesians 2, the verse we used as our main verse this evening. Just reading it all it says, “For we are His workmanship,” or as Paul is really saying, “His workmanship we are created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” So Paul writes to the Ephesians, “God has done this glorious, marvelous, second creating work, the new creation, the new birth, and he is creating all these new works and he’s doing it in the hearts of people and he has foreordained,” that’s what prepared beforehand means. In other words from the foundation of the world God intended that his masterpiece work in you would produce good works and that’s one of the ways you approve, you show forth, you are one who has experienced the new birth, that you’re a child of God.

In 2 Corinthians 3:2, Paul speaking of the Corinthian says, “You are our letter, known and read by all men.” His point was surely the Corinthian culture can look at you guys and say, “You guys are different. You’re not the way you used to be. There is a difference in you.” All that new deep anguish and realization of our sinfulness and our wretchedness before a holy God. That new deep love for Christ and thankfulness and gratitude for his forgiveness. That new love and attraction and drawing to the Scriptures and the preaching of the word. And that new Gospel humility whereby other things just don’t seem to matter anymore because I have grasped who I am as a sinner and how grateful I am to my Savior.

Can I tell you something? If you’re God’s, these three words will be in your life. Now, it can be that you’re in a spot, in a situation where you haven’t had the chance to grow much and you’re not realizing these but given time and the right nurturing, you’ll see these three aspects proving you are God’s workmanship. Here it is: you will love the true word. You will love the true word, and I might go further there to the major means God has of building us in the word and that’s the preaching of the word. You will love the preaching of the word. Now, it doesn’t mean that you’re hop, skipping and jumping and shouting every time you come to church but you get away from it for two or three weeks and something in you says, “I’ve got to go and get in the word. I need to get into the word of God.” There is just a love for the true word. Secondly, there will be a love for true Christians. As you mature in Christ, you’ll find yourself having this deep attraction and love and appreciation for genuine believers in Jesus Christ. Your love for the true word, your love for true Christians and your love for a true church. You will want to be in a church that is striving to be all that Jesus has called the church to be. I don’t have time but I can give you a mountain of Scripture to back that up.

But not only will you have a love for the true word and a love for true Christians and a love for a true church, you will learn to hate and despise the counterfeit. Are you hearing me? There will be something in you as you grow in Christ that will nauseate you when you see a guy down at the shop, down at the office, at the school, down at the plant, who claims to be a Christian and he’s vile and he’s dirty and there is not the love of God. It will just grieve you deeply because you know how deeply that guy is misrepresenting and dishonoring your Christ. The counterfeit will just grieve you and you’ll despise it.

The counterfeit Christian, the counterfeit use of the word of God. When you see a man mishandling the word of God and misusing the word of God and not really being glory of God focused and Christ honoring and Bible foundation and local church centered, you’ll say, “That grieves me. I don’t like to see a person use the Scriptures for man-centered ends.” You’ll despise the hypocrisy.

You’ll despise the counterfeit and, of course, you’ll despise a false church. You might wonder sometimes, “Pastor, you’re always picking on the Catholics and where Baptists have gone and other things.” Do you know why? Because the church is the centerpiece of God’s purposes and God’s glory and it grieves me. Look, I can love and accept and work with anybody who is trying to reform their churches to be what God wants it to be and that’s just the God’s truth, but what I can’t stand is the willful intentionality of using the church for self-pleasing religion and not God’s glory and God’s purposes.

A love for the true word, a love for true Christians and a love for the true church. Those are works. Now, you see, you need to get out of this thing of, “Well, did I think a dirty thought this week?” Well, you may or may not do that but that’s not the kind of works you need to be looking for. You need to repent of those, “Well, did I get angry this week?” Well, that’s sin if it’s an unrighteous anger but that’s not the kind of works you need to be looking for. You need to be looking for Gospel kind of works. A love for the true word, a love for true Christians, a love for the true church. Is that there? Is there at least the germ of that in there? That’s evidence that you’re one of God’s great masterpiece works.

I was telling Pam this week that I had a friend many many years ago, actually high school, early college, and this friend always talked about, “Man, while we’re young and we’re not attached, we ought to see the world and explore this and go there.” Like a Mountain Dew commercial or something. “Just go out and conquer and grab for all the gusto.” That dates me, doesn’t it? That advertisement was a long time ago. And by the way, I’m not saying all of that is wrong but I would always say, “I don’t care anything about that. I’m just a country boy. If I can fish, hunt a little bit, and feed my family, I’m just fine. I don’t really want any of that.” Then I got to thinking the other day, trying to preach the Gospel and plant churches and mentor pastors around the world, I’ve been everywhere. Now, I didn’t get to stop and enjoy a lot of it because I was busy but I’ve been everywhere. I’ve been to the Amazon jungle. I’ve been to Iguazu Falls in South America. Do you know what one of our presidents said when he saw Iguazu Falls? He said, “Poor Niagara.” Iguazu Falls is, I mean, you can’t even see it all. It takes about a day to drive to see it all. It’s a marvelous thing. I’ve been to the horn of Africa. I’ve been on an African safari. I’ve been to Hawaii. I’ve been to the Rocky Mountains. I’ve just been about everywhere and I’m telling you, our creation declares the glory of God and even the most hardened believer has to humbly admit that the physical universe is not the product of man’s doing, it’s the workmanship of God. However, the physical universe as great and as glorious as it is, is not even to be compared with God’s masterpiece work of saving sinners through the merits of his Son. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

I hope that humbles you a little bit. I hope you go to bed and think, “You mean the hand and the power that set the galaxies in their places and holds them there, the hand and the power that put the solar system around us and the planets in their orbits and the moons around them and holds all that there, the hand and the power that created everything I see in the natural universe, has done in me a work far far greater than all of that?” Here’s what I’m telling you: yes. And when you see the finished product in heaven, you’re going to say, “Wow, we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we would walk in them.” Praise his name.

Let’s stand together and pray, all right?