That girl, dead in the room, upon her bed, had little about her that could show her death. This covenant relationship involved not only privilege, but also obligation. He means far more than sexual sins. God himself has had dealings with us. "Oh!" I was born in a body of flesh, and from the beginning my fleshly appetites were dominating me. And I was fearful that God was going to suddenly start making me do all of these distasteful things that I said I would never do.What if my son should come to me, and say, "Dad, I have been thinking, I really had a good life, you have always provided a roof over my head, you have always provided food on the table, I always had clothes to wear. Take heed; thou wilt go further still; there is no stopping in sin. P: We come to celebrate Gods abiding love! Now my eyes will be open and my ears will be attentive to the prayers offered in this place. I tell you, I would be so shocked if I had one of my sons come and say something like that to me. And every believer is where his Head is; and if we are members of Christ's body, we are in heaven. He says that the Gentiles are no longer foreigners but full members of the family of God. That is the message of the young people of Europe today. (b) God is love; sin is therefore a crime, not against law, but against love. He came so as to be left absolutely free to occupy Himself in love for God's glory and our desperate need. Life will not be bound like that, I love to have an appointed season for prayer, and woe unto the man who does not have his time for prayer! This is the great point to seize always throughout Scripture. So should our walk be. Pelagianism asserts the convalescence of human nature. There is his pleasure-seeking: he has given it up; but how often will his companions be after him, to get him to go with them. You know what that means? All rights reserved worldwide. But now appeared something altogether new. Was there not positive love, far beyond forgiveness? What is that? We may put this very simply; it is through Jesus that we are at home with God. The next verse shows that this is not forgotten, for account is taken of the fact, and it is provided for. At the same time, we learn by our experiments. Now we must turn to the diversities. In their natural state, all people are spiritually dead because of sin. Such is the place of a Christian, and a wondrous place it is, flowing from the nature and relationship which we possess by the grace of our God. WebReflection/Call to worship - based on Ephesians 2:11-22 118 views Aug 1, 2021 A short reflection with pictures and music that can be used personally or in a shared act of But in Ephesians we are in presence of a new creation in Christ, where claim is out of the question. So with the sinner in regard to the spiritual and eternal world. My life was ruled and dominated by the lust of my flesh and by the lust of my mind. When the worm is there, you cannot put your finger on it, and say, "Stop; eat no more." , : , 196006, -, , 22, 2, . It is not only the full extent of glory, but the sole satisfying spring, Christ thus dwelling in our hearts in the consciousness of His love "to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." Are you. When the believer is at his worst, he is better than the unbeliever at his best; his reasons for happiness are always transcendently above all the reasons for joy that worldlings can never know. We have others who are drunken, profane, unchaste; they are dead, not more dead than the others; but their death has left its terrible traces more plainly visible. Sin brings forth death, and death brings forth corruption. Greece was made up of famous cities--Athens, Thebes, Corinth and the rest and it very nearly encountered disaster because the cities refused to cooperate to meet the common threat. Look at me, I believe." He gave Himself for us. New to this blog? (i) Paul insists that it is by grace that we are saved. Space, time, matter, and energy were all created by him, which means that he himself does not consist in space, time, matter, or energy. These verses continue the theme of redemption (Ephesians 1:7). They are still natural men, dominated by their fleshly needs, and if they don't find satisfaction they scream and holler and yell and flail and kick.But I was born again by the Spirit of God, a spiritual birth. He was raised up as the great manifestation of divine power for effectuating God's counsels as well as redemption. Angels are not adequate judges of what pertains to us; they may be witnesses, but not judges. Series A: 2022 - 2023. We saw that there were three things involved in being dead in sins and trespasses. It is the gift of God and our part is simply to accept it. It is simply an inevitable law of love. That peace is won at the price of his blood, for the great awakener of love is the Cross. [1] John William Russell, Compact Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1964), p. 476. He Himself is the beginning, He Himself the end, He Himself all the way through. Remake us, Lord, again into your image, for we choose to imitate you. "Rejoice, O my soul, in thy youth; soon shall other men be in life, "No mortal is happy of all on whom the sun looks down. One of the regular passengers commented on the change. The chapter itself is a parenthesis. 17He came and preached peace(AL) to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. my brother, alas! Accordingly, when all was complete in the communication of God's plans in the Bible, there was one subject that was left a blank. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice! It is not a conferred position, however blessed, but practical enjoyment even that Christ Himself might be habitually the object before them, now that all question of deliverance and blessing was settled in their favour. What reason have sinners then to be looking out for that grace that will make them, of children of wrath, children of God and heirs of glory! Both are shown to have been alike guilty and in need of God's mercy. at the price of the blood of Christ. The world as it is has invaded our souls. Next the apostle turns to the boundless scene that lies before us, as in the preceding verses he had looked at what is behind us. But as long even as he is merely in conflict with his own nature, he can hardly be said to be on Christian ground at all. (ii) It is life lived under the dictates of the prince of the air. On the other hand, for the Gentile history was going nowhere. We cannot live where we used to live. And they don't know the joy that we have in the presence of the Lord as we worship Him and as we sing unto Him our love and our praises and our thanksgiving. God would frame a new sort of workmanship worthy of Himself; and therefore all question of antecedent measures disappears. You are peers of the court of heaven: "and the household of God. Call to Worship (Psalm 107, Ephesians 2, John 3) God loves us with a steadfast love. WebCall to Worship: Ephesians 2: 11-22 We gather together in the name of Jesus Christ members of Gods family, and brothers and sisters to one another. And as for Lazarus, he is shut up with a stone. That is all the worship a great many render to God, just getting to a place of worship, and there sitting still, and thinking of nothing at all. Now I am too busy. I figured it was all right because there were so many around town. He was a sinner. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. (E) 3All of us also lived among them at one time,(F) gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a](G) and following its desires and thoughts. That is exactly the right that Jesus gives us in regard to God. Thus we have at last the church developed in its two main characters. But the saints, now being made the objects of these heavenly counsels of God, have a wisdom and prudence of their own, quite peculiar to the new creation in Christ, and its proper relations: God puts no limits to it. we confess our sins to the One who knows us best. In truth it is His grace to the full, and for heaven (not earth), though given to us to know here before we get there; "for by grace are ye saved." What does that mean? The tendency has always been when we send missionaries abroad to produce people who wear English clothes and speak the English language. Our English word sin comes from a root "to miss." What a difference that news would make! have been brought near by the death of Jesus on the cross. Psalm 111: Praise the Lord, now and forever! It will be as much as he can do to pull off his grave-clothes, to get rid of his old habits; perhaps to his death he will have to be rending off bit after bit of the cerements in which he has been wrapped. See Matthew 12:24; Matthew 12:26. And you think that I would think of every dirty, miserable task around the house and send him to do them? And sometimes if they didn't feed me when I wanted to be fed, I would flail and kick and scream and holler. Note, too, that in the case of this maiden, whom we have introduced to you, the daughter of Jairus, she is yet caressed ; she has only been dead a moment or two, and the mother still presses her cheek with kisses. Neither can he describe his new birth; that is still a greater mystery, for it is a secret inward work of the Holy Ghost, of which we feel the effect, but we cannot tell how it is wrought. God has made our conscience quick as the apple of the eye; he has made our soul as sensitive as a raw wound, so that the very shadow of sin falling on the believer's heart will cause him great pain; and, if he does go into the actual sin, then, like David, he talks about his bones being broken, and it is not too strong a figure of the sorrow that comes upon the believing heart when sin has been committed, and God has been grieved. I. I shall begin by noticing, then, first of all, THE CONDITION OF MEN BY NATURE. ye young men who come up to the house of God, and who are outwardly so good; alas! . (i) Paul says of Jesus, "He is our peace." The sword must be the real intrinsic power of the word wielded in the Spirit, which does not spare anything. And as the unity flowed from the power of the Spirit sent down from heaven; so now when we come to gifts, it is expressly connected with Christ in glory. It can never rise above its human source. Our world belongs to him! He's just sort of wandering, meandering. But hamartia ( G266) brings us face to face with what sin is, the failure to be what we ought to be and could be. Hence in the latter we find, not exactly choosing, but predestinating us: "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.". God has given us a life that is more precious than the Koh-i-noor, a life that will outlast the sun and moon. "Well, I would like to know that for sure. '', "no man is called a living man, but he who is in the way of truth in this world.----And a wicked man who does not go in the way of truth, is called, , "a dead man". Call to Worship #1: L: Darkness is banished! Lastly, "one God and Father of all." The English translators did not know what to make of the apostle, and so they changed it to "high places," which was an unwarrantable liberty, and gives the most perverse meaning. They have tried everything. "You hath HE quickened." Thanks to those of you who took time to answer questions and offer comments about how your congregation navigated worship during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Utter strangers to the covenants made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Ephesians 4:1-32 begins the proper exhortatory portion, and here, first of all, urges a walk in view of such a calling as is ours, diligently keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. He knows instinctively that she was part of himself, and gives her a name suitably. L: We gather to share our witness to Gods This also answers to the grand doctrine of this epistle. There was a time, more than four hundred years before this, when Greece was threatened with invasion by the Persians. I am inclined to think that the difference lay in the difference of their wealth. Because if you face reality, truth doesn't exist, and thus you will only end in despair. Sinners in their pre-Christian state were "dead in sins"; but that deadness was not something they inherited, but came about through the guilt of sins committed. It needs a Milton to conceive of the walk of God; but he that hath the divine life walks with God; and sometimes he seems to step from Alp to Alp, from sea and ocean, accomplishing what, unaided, he would never even attempt. Paul was one of those; and there were others at Ephesus, as we well know in point of fact the first nucleus of the assembly there. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.". C. H. Spurgeon at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens. says one, "I have lived fifty years, and I have never felt anything of God." No God? That is not worship which consists in doing as Hodge did, when he said, "I like Sunday, for then I can go to church, and put my legs up, and think of nothing at all." Here you see the greatness of his grace, in that "he loved us, even when we were dead in sins.". And you -- God is referring to the non-Jews reading the letter. Let the earth be glad! Thus, first blessed, strengthened, and enjoying the grace and truth of God in Christ, we can then go out with the sword of the Spirit to deal with what is contrary to His nature, which Satan would use to obstruct our realization of our heavenly privileges. Not that we love God, but that God loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Reconciliation with God involves and necessitates reconciliation with man. What could this possibly be? 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