Walk in the Spirit- Our relationship with God (a gospel detour from Ephesians)

Pastor Jason

Ephesians - We are the Church • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

Grace

Gospel

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Introduction

When we become a new creation IN CHRIST One of the most significant changes that takes place is our relationships.

Our relationship with others is now different , our relationship with our spouse is different, our relationship with our children is different and our relationship with those we work with is now different.

Over the next few weeks we will be looking at how each of these relationships is changed when Christ becomes the center of your life.

But before we look at the impact jesus has on our earthly relationships I believe we need to take a short detour from our text in Ephesians to look at how our relationship with God has changed because of Christ.

Please turn with me in your Bibles to Ephesians 2:4-9 as we look at our relationship with God

Ephesians 2:4-9 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ!......8 For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast.”

Paul reiterates this same idea in Colossians 2:13–14 “And even though you were dead in your transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God nevertheless made you alive with Christ, having forgiven all your transgressions. He has destroyed what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.”

IN These two complimentary passages We find our Big Idea for the day!

BIG IDEA: MAN’S DELEMA AND GOD”S SOLUTION

As we begin this morning I want to ask each of you to consider your answer to the most important question in your life.

If you where to stand at the gates of God’s perfect heaven and He were to ask you Why should i let you into my perfect heaven?, what would your answer be?

Think about- it - You are standing at the gates of all eternity- about to enter your eternal destiny. and God asks you why do you deserve to go to heaven?

Put simply what are you banking on in your life that is good enough to get you into heaven?

Let me be Honest with you..... God’s Word is crystal clear on what it takes for you to be acceptable to God in order to gain eternal life.

But before we look at the Solution to the question.... lets take some time to look at Man’s dilemma.

MAN’S DILEMMA

To understand mans dilemma lets turn in our Bibles to Matthew chapter 19

Matt. 19: 16-27 “19:16 Now someone came up to Jesus and said, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to gain eternal life?” 19:17 He said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” 19:18 “Which ones?” he asked. Jesus replied, “Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, 19:19 honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.” 19:20 The young man said to him, “I have wholeheartedly obeyed all these laws. What do I still lack?”

Jesus knowing the mans heart - 19:21 Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 19:22 But when the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he was very rich.

This man kept the other laws but he failed at living generously, and trusting in God to provide.

19:23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven! 19:24 Again I say, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter into the kingdom of God.” 19:25 The disciples were greatly astonished when they heard this and said, “Then who can be saved?” 19:26 Jesus looked at them and replied, “This is impossible for mere humans, but for God all things are possible.”

Jesus is telling His followers that God demands perfection for us to gain eternal life.

and when He said this -his disciples said Lord than who can be saved- there is no one on this earth who has ever lived up to your perfect standard.

and what was Jesus’s Response in verse 26- “ you are right this is impossible for mere humans to do “

As mankind we are in a deep predicament without anything we could do to escape. .

OUR DILEMMA IS THIS: God’s demand for perfection in order to gain eternal life is impossible for any one of us to obtain.

Eph. 2:4 -9“We are DEAD IN OUR SIN, this means there is no life in us -

We are completely Hopeless when it comes to gaining eternal life in heaven.

You may be saying to your self this morning “ but pastor jason, Im not that Bad of a person. I am confident that when God looks at my life my good will out weigh my Bad.

- What I can say to you is this that even if you are the best human being on earth - Jesus is still saying to you that that is still not good enough.

The Problem is this — We like to compare our goodness against other peoples rottenness.

But that is not the standard by which God is going to judge your life.

Psalm 14:2-3 “The Lord looks down from heaven at the human race, to see if there is anyone who is wise and seeks God. Everyone rejects God; they are all morally corrupt. None of them does what is right, not even one!” NET

Paul reiterates this truth ....

Romans 3:10 “just as it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one,”

Isaiah 64:6 “We are all like one who is unclean, all our so-called righteous acts are like a filthy rag in God’s sight. We all wither like a leaf; our sins carry us away like the wind.”

Even if we add up all of our good works it still leaves us short of God’s Perfection.

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

“to fall short “means missing the mark.

.This is an archery term that means anything less then a bullseye is short of the mark.

The Bible calls missing the mark of God’s perfection “Sin”-

This means that even with your righteousness your good works , your sin still leaves you short of God’s demand for perfection.

Anything that Goes against God’s perfect law is sin.

If you are like me- it doesn’t take me to long to realize that I have failed at living a perfect life and have fallen short of what God requires for eternal life.

Romans 6:23 tells us that missing the mark doesn’ requires us to spend an eternity apart from God Forever in a place called hell.

Rom. 6:23 “For the payoff of sin is death,

Notice it doesn’t say ‘ the payoff of a life filled with sin is death, but what it is saying is that the payoff of every sin that we have ever committed is death.

DEATH = Seperation from God forever in a place called Hell

The Bible Describes hell in a very real and vivid way.

I beleive that we need to understand the magnitude of what God thinks of our sin, and so I don’t share these verses to scare you from Hell but for all of us to understand how much God hates sin.

Matt. 13:50 “and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Mark 9:48 “where their worm never dies and the fire is never quenched.”

Revelation 20:15 “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, that person was thrown into the lake of fire.”

Revelation 14:11 “And the smoke from their torture will go up forever and ever.

We need to understand this morning that God Hates sin and there is no place for sin in Gods perfect heaven.

In fact if your sin was allowed in heaven then heaven itself would no longer be perfect.

MAN’S DILEMMA-

Our dilemma is that not only does our own sin keep us from being acceptable to God, But it also condemns us to an eternity in hell apart from God

WE ARE IN DESPERATE NEED FOR A SAVIOR

and this brings us back to Our verses in Ephesians where we find the 2 most beautiful words in all of scripture

God’s Solution

Listen to the words in Ephesians 2:4 “But God, -

GOD OFFERS THE SOLUTION TO MAN’S DILEMMA!!

But God.....

The perfect creator- The God of the universe

The own whose greatest desire is for all men to live with Him in heaven for ever,

..... being rich in mercy, - Having the ability to withhold what we deserve for our sin. because of his great love with which he loved us, even though we were dead in transgressions, - He chose to love me- even when I was full of sin- He chose to make us alive together with Christ!......8 For by grace - Not only Does he give us his mercy by withholding what we deserve from us, He also Gives us what we don’t deserve and that IS Grace-

God offers us what we don’t deserve- We don’t deserve to go to heaven because we failed at living perfectly on this earth.But its His grace that offers us redemption through Jesus and its through Our faith in Him that we receive this gift of Mercy and Grace.

it is the gift of God; why- so that we understand that because we were dead in our sin there is nothing we could ever do to gain eternal life and it took a supernatural God to step in and to give us what we could never get on our own.”

John 3:16 so beautifully describes this supernatural miracle for us,

For God [the supernatural Holy creator] SO loved the World, [ that’s us - Dead in our sins, and completely hopeless in our humanity , He loved us so much that he said I would do whatever it takes to redeem you from your eternal debt. and so what did He do? ] He sent His only Son Jesus[ a perfect supernatural solution to our delemma. and whoever BELIEVES IN JESUS- Will not Perish [ in hell] but will have ever lasting life in Heaven with God.

There is only ONE WAY for you debt of sin to be paid in full and that is with a perfect sacrifice. There is ONLY ONE WAY for you to receive the righteousness that God demands from you to enter into heaven.

John 14:6 Tells us the only way that is acceptable to God is through Jesus - “Jesus replied, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

In order to go from DEATH in Hell to life Eternal you must go through Jesus.

In order for your debt of sin to be paid in full- you must go through Jesus

“Jesus said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

GOD’s Solution to Man’s dilemma is JESUS

The Question we must ask our selves then is this - What does it mean to believe in Jesus?

To Believe in Jesus more than just believe that He is true.

It means Trusting in Him completely - putting all your eggs in One basket.

It means that your belief in Christ is so strong that you would change everything about your life because you believe that it is the only way for you to become right with God.

Think about it this way- 4 years ago I went out to camp in Eastern Ohio and the had ta challenge course with giant telephone pole that had climbing pegs going all the way up to the top.

The point of this challenge was to put on a harness and be strapped to a rope that dangles above your head. and as you climbed up the pole someone else had the job to hold onto that rope to make sure you didn’t fall and hit the ground. But whats even more crazy is that when you got to the top of the 25 ft pole You had to climb up on top and stand without falling. But it it gets crazier than that- Once you have your balance they want you to leap off that pole far enough to hit a ball 8 ft away.

When I put on my harness - I said I believe that the harness would hold me, I believe that the rope would hold me, I believed that the person holding the rope would hold. But my words were not really belief unless I started climbing up the pole. But even as I climbed up the pole- I still wasn’t putting ALL of my trust in those things, I STILL WAS HOLDING ON TIGHT TO THE POLE. and as long as I was holding the poll I still felt in control of my life.

and as I climbed all the way up to the top - I had to let go of the pole- and stand up on top of that 8 inch platform. But even then, I still wasn’t completely trusting in the harness and the rope and the belayer to keep me safe- was still in control as long as I was standing on that pole.

In order for me to truly put ALL OF MY BELIEVE IN the safety equipment I had to give up ALL of my control of the situation,- all of my safely in my ability to keep me from falling and I had to leap into the air without anything for me to grab onto.

I had to completely put all of my faith in the ability of that harness and the rope and the belayer to hold be up.

its the same thing with Jesus- We can believe that he is exist, We can believe that He is Gods son, we can even believe that He has the power to forgive our sins and to give us Hi righteousness, But that is not saving faith-

To believe in Jesus is to commit your entire life to him through faith. to trust him completely for your salvation without holding on to anything else for your security.

EPh. 2:8-9 “For by grace you are saved through faith,

Saving Faith is going all in - Its holding nothing back Its giving up total control of your life and your eternal destiny to jesus.

BRING IT HOME

We have going through the book of Ephesians - Walking through the doctrine of the church and the practice of the church. As we move on in Chapter 5 we will be looking at our earthly relationships and How Christ gives us a new perspective as believers.

But before we delve into our earthly relationships we needed to understand our relationship with God first.

We cannot have a good relationship with anyone else If we do not first have a relationship with God.

This morning if you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your savior- you are the enemy of God. You have no relationship with God. and this means that you are still indebted to your sins. YOu will be held accountable with your life, You are without hope because no matter what you try to do to gain eternal life with out Jesus You will always miss the mark. .

If God is speaking to you this morning and you know that you are not redeemed than response that God will accept is for you to BELIEVE IN JESUS- Let him take your sins and nail them to his cross. Let him wipe your debt of sin clean this morning, and let Him give you His righteousness.

Its so simple- Romans 10:9-10 says9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.’

To accept Jesus as Your personal Savior is simple confess with your mouth that you are a sinner and You need Jesus to pay your debt. and Believe in your heart that Jesus is willing and sufficient to pay for all your sins, than you will be saved.

“-Jesus- I give up total control of my life to you- I put all of my belief in you- I trust you completely to forgive my sins and to give me your righteousness. I ask you to come into my life and be the king of my heart. “

and at the moment of belief your debt is paid in full, and your unrighteousness is completely replaced with Christ Righteous.

and now when you stand before the perfect God and He says to you.

“why should I let you into my perfect Heaven your answer can be- Because I believe in Jesus. He has paid the debt of my unrighteous and has given me his perfect righteousness.”

The Bible tells us that when you are in christ God no longer sees your sin but only Christ perfection.

Christ Righteousness is the only answer that God will accept at the gates of eternity.

I close with this” Will that Be your answer?

Pray

Communion- See Booklet

this morning as a church we want to remember what Jesus Did for us on that Cross when he took our place and paid for our sins so that we could have eternal life.

In our church we have open communion. This means that anyone who has put their faith in Christ alone for salvation is welcome to participate this morning with us.

We believe that communion is only a symbolic time for us as Christ’s Church to remember what He has done for us.

Communion doesn’t bring us more grace- It doesn’t make us more righteous with God- Because at the moment of your salvation Jesus gave us all of His righteousness - there is nothing left for us to earn.

1 Corinthians 11:23-24 “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread, and after he had given thanks he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”” ...

1 Cor 11:25 “In the same way, he also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, every time you drink it, in remembrance of me.””

1 Cor 11:26 “For every time you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

This means that if you have never accepted J.C. as your savior you do not have a personal relationship with God and that means that you