Iowa RP Family Camp 2019 - Talk 2

Welcome to God's Word for You from Ministry of Sharon Arby Church in Southeast Iowa. We want to thank you for listening today and we pray that you'll be blessed by both hearing God's Word as well as having it applied to your life and your heart. So for you today we have more fill in the vast space on the sheet for you. Let me read our verses.

They're Ephesians 2, 4-10. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved, and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith.

Prayer for Illumination

And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works. so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Let's pray. Father, help us as we come to your word this morning Remove distraction far from us. Help us to hear that still small voice, to know your voice as you speak to us through your holy scriptures. Fill up my weakness with strength. Fill up our hearts and minds with your spirit and your promises to us. I pray in Christ's name. Amen.

Sermon

Well, we started a little bit of a motif last night, thinking of where we were born, where we're from, what it's like to move to someplace new. We won't follow that through on every jot and tittle, because it'll get a little wonky if we do. I think it helps establish in our minds the fact that we were born in a different state, in a state that was one of sin and misery. When I teach on the covenants, I usually ask, what if someone were to show up on your door and tell you a distant relative has died and left you in a foreign country, in a state?

You say, Tell me about this place. Well, the estate has a name. Oh, what is it? And you're expecting Shangri-La or, you know, milk and honey or something. Well, the name of the estate is Sin and Misery. I'm not sure I really want to go visit. But that's the estate that we have inherited from our first father, Adam. Is this one of Sin, misery of being dead in our trespasses and sins as we saw quickly last night. Holding hands with the world and the flesh and the devil and liking it. Enjoying it.

And then this contrast comes in that we're titling the structure for change. We saw last night our need for change. But what is the structure for change? What is the skeleton that is presented to us that then Paul begins to put muscles and tendons and then flesh on as we go through the book of Ephesians? The structure for change is fourfold. As we see, it's God's love, it's union with Christ, it's God's grace, And then, seemingly ironically, it's our good works. And so we'll see where those come in. But God being rich in mercy. God's rich mercy. His love with which He loved us. Even when we were dead.

We bring nothing to the table. We add nothing to the equation. There is no benefit to God in picking us to be on His team. There is nothing good in us that we bring that the Heavenly Father should act in such a way toward us we were dead to him in our trespasses and sins.

One of the greatest moves in history, we were given a little motif of moving. One of the greatest moves in history was God's people from Egypt to the promised land. And as we think about this rich mercy that God has shown us in our deadness to Him, in our trespasses and sins, our minds might go to those opening words of the giving of the moral law summarized in the Ten Commands in Exodus 20. And God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. And he goes on, you shall have no other gods before me, et cetera, et cetera. God did not give the law to the Hebrews while they were enslaved and say, when you learn to follow these, I will take you out into a good and pleasant land. He didn't do that. Why? Because they were slaves. It was impossible. They could not release themselves from slavery. They could not move from a state of slavery to a state of sonship of their own will. They needed God to act on their behalf. They needed Him to look down in mercy and in love and send that great Redeemer of God's people, Moses. to come and to do battle on their behalf against the powers that held them captive.

And just as God showed His love to the Hebrews while they were in captivity, God has shown His love toward us while we were dead. while we were enslaved to our sins. Jeremiah 31 has a great comment on that era in redemptive history. Verses 2 and 3 of Jeremiah 31 says, Thus says the Lord, the people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness. It actually talks about that Mosaic period as being an era of grace for God's people. in the wilderness. When Israel sought for rest, it goes on, the Lord appeared to him from far away.

I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, I have continued my faithfulness We hear a lot about needing to be faithful to God, being faithful to our vows, faithful to the history and doctrine and practice of our church, but we need to remind ourselves that that is not the root of our joy and peace and satisfaction in the Savior. The root is His faithfulness to us.

One of the challenges I put forth to Baptist friends, other than water conservation, I used to tell my Baptist friends in Sterling, Kansas, I think we would have you on water conservation alone, but you clearly need a more theological argument, but is baptism us making a statement to God? Or is it God making a statement to His people? That's a very important question. Who is doing the talking? in baptism. Is God submitting to our testimony or are we submitting to His?

That He is faithful generation after generation. And God has said here, not because of our obedience, not because of our covenantism, not because of our faithfulness to historic biblical worship, not because of our personal covenanting, not because of anything in us, but because of His love He has maintained faithfulness to His people. He has loved us with an everlasting love. We hear this love also in Ephesians 1 starting in verse 3 where it says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth." Now you hear the God word focus and emphasis on that. It was His plan. It was His will. It was His design. It was His love. It was His blessing. It was His mercy. It was His grace.

And all of it is coming to us. To us. To us. None of this is from us.

But how and why Did He choose us in Christ? Well, He predestined us in love to be adopted as sons. God's love is the foundation for the change that is so necessary in our lives. Again, there is a holiness that is required without which we cannot see the Lord. And as Christians, we desire to see Him, not just in those certain ways, working and moving in our life, even in the changes that we do see in our hearts and minds, but we desire to see Him fully on that last great day. And there is a holiness that is required and it is all of Him. His love makes that possible as He predestines us, as He adopts us, as He elects us in love. Well, the second part of this structure for change is union with Christ. Our union with Christ is really key to understanding the basis and motivation of our change because it's an identity issue. It's an identity issue.

I've lived many places in my life and in those places are always people that were born and raised there and they can't imagine anything other than what it is to live there. They have no desire to live anywhere else. And then there's always also people who live in an area who were not born there, did not want to move there, do not want to live there, and yet they are there anyway. And then there's, I can make some counseling appointments later, Ben, if that would be helpful to you. They live there and they function there, but they do not identify with there. And then there's generally a third kind of people, those who weren't born there, but got there as soon as they could type people.

They love it. They can't get enough of it. I think of somebody like Pastor Borg, who just loves Winchester, Kansas, and just loves Northwest Kansas, and wants to just be there all of his days. We at the Jerusalem Chamber try to do things occasionally to thank him. He does all the editing and everything for our podcast. So this year, Pastor Eshelman had the idea.

We bought two burial plots in the Winchester Cemetery. If for no other reason than we're low budget, and we told Kyle, we're not going to buy you any more gifts until you use the ones we have already gotten you. But he loves Winchester, Kansas. And he wasn't born there, but he got there as soon as he could. And he's loving every minute of it.

Identifying with Christ, knowing that this is not who I am naturally. This is not where I belong naturally. What do we deserve naturally? If I can paraphrase a little bit the Shorter Catechism, we deserve for every day to be the worst possible day that we could ever have. We deserve to die an excruciatingly painful death. And after that, we deserve to be tormented in the fires of hell forever. That's what we deserve. being from the state from which we come. That is what we deserve.

Young people, next time you're being mistreated, or you perceive that you're being mistreated and you think, I don't deserve this, stop and praise the Lord that you're not getting what you deserve. Older people, Next time you think I don't deserve this, stop and praise the Lord that you're not getting what you deserve. Christ has taken it for you. And in our identity with Christ in that great exchange, Christ took all of the things that we deserve.

He died in our place. He was harassed in this life with no deserving of it. Think of just those moments in the wilderness. We have our father Adam, who is in a perfect environment, with a perfect character, a perfect wife, perfect environment, perfect provision, perfect relationship with God, and yet he gave it all up in a moment. believing the words of the enemy over the words of the Father. And here we have Christ, who has not eaten for 40 days or nights, and probably has not slept. He's been harassed by the animals around him. And here comes the enemy. And Jesus stands firm. against the temptations of the evil one. We should also take comfort though that Jesus didn't do anything in the wilderness that we can't do. He didn't zap the devil. He didn't teleport somewhere else to get away from him.

He stood there with the sword of the Spirit in his hand and he wielded that sword. He quoted scripture. That's how He fought back the temptations of the enemy. Jesus was the perfect man. He used God's Word to stand strong against the enemy. Jesus didn't leave room in that moment for us to say, well, of course, Jesus resisted temptation. Look at how He did it. He fought temptation as the God-man. It's the perfect man. That's how we're to fight temptation also.

Being in Christ. Here in Ephesians 2 we're reminded that we're raised up with Him. We're even seated with Him in the heavenly places. And we know that there is a fullness coming. someday where all of the riches of grace and kindness toward us in Jesus Christ will be exposed to us. We do not see yet. We already experience the benefits, but we do not know the fullness of it yet.

Galatians 2, Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. We want to take anything and turn it into a covenant of works.

But God, look at what I have done. But God, look at how I've obeyed. But God, look at how I, look at how I, look at how I. And the Spirit comes and He convicts us of sin and He reminds us, yeah, look at how you how even in your worship you have done so in pride, in condemnation of others and those around you. Look at how you have served and consider yourself better than those that you are serving. Look at how you, look at how you, look at how you.

There is no righteousness that we bring that does anyone any good as regards salvation. Christ died for a purpose and therefore our righteousness through the law does nothing. That leads us to the next supporting beam in our structure for change. And that's God's grace.

Those great theologians, the newsboys, reminded us that when you get what you don't deserve, that's a real good thing. A real good thing. And that's grace. Getting what you do not deserve. Because we were born in a state of sin and misery, rebels against God, spiritually, relationally dead to Him, we do not deserve in any way the grace of God upon our lives. But here in Ephesians 2, We are informed of this simple fact. That God's love, His grace, His mercy, the whole complex is a gift. It's a gift. For by grace, You have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. What is the this? The this is that whole previous thought, the grace and the faith. This is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Can you imagine if there were somebody who could be saved by works? The right they would have, the bragging rights that they would have? I did it. You could not. Can you imagine the arrogance that they would be justified in having if God the Son had to become incarnate and come and lay down His life for sinners, but this was the one person who was able to circumvent that whole system somehow? The bragging rights they would have? But there is no one like that. No one.

The only person with bragging rights is Christ. And He has chosen to take those rights and give them to us. Why Paul said, if I boast, I boast in the Lord. Paul didn't say, I never boast. I'm a humble guy. I'm an RP, you know. We're a humble, simple folk. No, Paul did boast. He boasted in the Lord. Because Paul knew his sin. He knew the right that He had to hell. And He knew the right He had in Christ to all of the riches of glory and in Christ alone.

This is not our doing. This is not our doing, but it goes deeper than that. That makes it sound like just this isn't something that we have done. But that line, this is not your own doing, really goes deeper than that. It is a denial of the whole person. It's taking action, it's a synecdoche, it's a part for the whole. It's not our action, it's not our motive, it's not even our conception or our idea.

It is all of the Lord, the grace, the mercy, all of it is His. Isaiah 55 verses 8 and 9 are probably verses that you've heard quoted before. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. I want you to stop and think for a minute what kind of context that you've heard that quoted in before.

When do people take comfort in those verses? Well, God's ways aren't our ways. His ways are higher than ours. We can't understand them. When have you heard those quoted before? Sorry, I'm asking you to talk. I won't ask you to say amen, but I will ask you to respond to the question. Times of suffering, trial, loss of job, wife develops cancer, The husband loses a limb in an accident, right?

You don't get into that college you want to get into, young people. You get into the college, but not the program that you want to get into. Well, listen, God's doing something you don't understand here. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts, right?

Those aren't necessarily sinful ways to take comfort in those verses. But remember, context is very important. Very important. And what is the context of those verses? What is God talking about around those verses? Anybody tell me? It's not suffering. It's not loss of job. It's not disappointment and collegiate advancement. Salvation. The context is sinners forsaking their ways.

The context is the Word going out and accomplishing that which the Lord intended it to accomplish in its going forth. That are the thoughts and the plans of God that are so much higher than we could conceive of. Why? What's the best religious idea that humans have ever had?

It's purgatory. I can pay for my sins. In fact, young people, you have a bad hair day, which I won't say who might be having that today, But you have a bad hair day, you wake up for that event, you got a big zit right on the end of your nose, and you think, I am paying for something. Your friends abandon you, they curse you, they walk away from you.

You think, God, what have I done to deserve this? I must be paying for something I have done. It's much like that stuff that was going around when I was in high school and college, that God won't send you that special someone until you're content only with Him. And you think, well then I'll just hurry up and be content with just God, so He'll send me that certain someone, right?

I must be having this horrible moment in my life because I must be paying for some sin, so let me just get through this, and then I can pay for that sin, and then I can get on with having a better day. It is completely wrong theology that is very destructive because for all of God's people, Christ has already paid for all of our sins.

In fact, if you read the book of Job well, you come to understand that Job's suffering was not because God was getting even with him or was proving a point to him. unless you understand that that point God was proving to Job was that God loved him. It was God's idea that he suffered because he was his faithful servant. God loved Job and that's why he suffered. He was proving his love to him and upholding him in the midst of the suffering. God's grace for us. His grace is way more and beyond and higher than we naturally conceive of. Because our natural bent is back to the covenant of works.

I can do this. I can pay for this. I can make up for this. And then fourthly, This might seem like a little bit of a record skip. Children, what that means is there used to be these things called vinyl records and you would lay them on a spinning table. and you'd take a needle and you'd put on there and the needle would read, feel the vibrations of the grooves and it would then transport the sound to the speaker. It's a much better way to listen to music than digital, but anyway. That's not your fault. You were born when the Lord intended you to be born.

And so sometimes there'd be a scratch or something or there'd be a bump. They used to actually have, maybe some of you had these, they had the old 78 record players in cars and it was a spring loaded needle. Did any of you have that in a vehicle at any point? Probably about as effective as the swamp coolers that would attach to the window, you know, to cool down the car. Probably almost that effective. But there would be a bump or a scratch and it would just totally skip off.

So we've been listening to this beautiful orchestration of God's grace, and His mercy, and His love, and His gift, and we can't do anything that's profitable or meaningful in our salvation. And then all of a sudden, Pastor Joel says, the fourth plank is, our good works. What? This guy has lost it. Yes, but not for this reason. Sometimes my son looks at me and says, am I crazy or is it this? And I say, no, that's not the case. I mean, you are crazy, but not for that reason. It's a totally different reason that you're crazy. But we have our good works and we go there because that's where Paul goes in the text. We're not just trying to sprinkle our little pixie dust on it and say, but we do nice things also.

We've heard we're dead in our trespasses and sins, but what is the most glorious fruit you can think of for someone who is formerly dead? Is it to just lay in a bed on a ventilator and just lie there and be fed through a tube and just exist? Or would it be for that once dead person to now be up and functioning and being what we might call a contributing member of society and doing something that is adding to the lives of others? And see, God doesn't just keep us ventilated and keep us fed through a tube spiritually. He doesn't just bring us from dead into a coma. He doesn't even bring us just from dead to cognitively aware but a quadriplegic. He brings us from death unto life. It's spiritually a complete reversal.

And so this isn't the root of God's blessing and grace and mercy and love. It's the fruit of it. When something is dead and God chooses to place His love upon it and make it His own, the natural spiritual result is life and fruitfulness. And that's what happens to us. Paul says, for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Now, what's beautiful about this verse is that it's still all of God.

We're like this appendage in that verse. Why? Because We are His workmanship. We're not the master craftsman. We're the block of wood. We're the lump of clay. He works on us and in us. We were created in Christ Jesus for good works. We've been given a purpose. What is the purpose of a corpse? What purpose does it serve? Lays in the ground and rots. Well said. You might write a poem or a song about that. Yeah, I mean we, there's no purpose to it. But in Christ, we've been given purpose.

And young people, the temptation will come to think, you know all this Christian stuff, I want to do something significant with my life. Listen, if you want to have purpose, if you want to have meaning, If you want to have identity, there's nothing greater in this world than the gospel for you, than Jesus Christ for you. And some of you might be at camp right now just to get away from mom and dad, get away from what is, and you think, you know what, I know there's still going to be that Jesus stuff there, but at least it won't be mom and dad's Jesus stuff. And maybe you're tempted right now to just use camp as an off-ramp into whatever you would rather be doing than all this gospel garbage.

And you will find that you will lose your identity. You will lose your purpose. You will lose the reason to live that you have. There's a reason as our culture sinks deeper and deeper into itself that it sinks deeper and deeper into suicide and self-destructive behavior. It's because the only real meaningful identity and purpose is found in Jesus Christ.

God has created you You are His workmanship and He's created you for good works. He hasn't created you to just sit up on the shelf or lay in the hospital bed. No, He's created you to be up and moving and doing something with your life. But what has He created you to be up and doing with your life? Things that He has prepared for you to do. So He doesn't even just leave it on us to come up with it on our own. What we think would be neat. Once you get to know me, you'll know that neat is not a complimentary word, generally in my vocabulary. As I say, all good heresies began with somebody in a meeting saying, you know what would be neat? Not neat.

So God has even prepared the good works for you, and now we take the life, the strength, the motivation, the purpose that He alone can give us, and we simply walk in the good works that He's prepared for us. Now, when Paul uses the word walk, though, he's not just talking about taking a stroll. Paul uses the word walk in Ephesians to speak of this totality of life. He's constantly warning, watch how you walk. Don't walk as other Gentiles walk. Why? Because the Ephesians as Gentiles have been saved out of that culture. out of that just murky soup of paganism and idolatry and all of these things going on.

And so when we walk in these things, it is a whole life reality. The change that we need and that the Spirit grants for us to desire, that transition from friendship with and love for the world, the flesh, and the devil, that change and that transition works its way out in seeking to live a life that is honoring to the Lord in every way. That is the change. That's the fruit of the change. that the Spirit of God works in us, as He applies to us, Jesus Christ, all that He is and all that He has done.

But we know ourselves, we know that we're still sinners. Even after God saves us, after God redeems us, He gives us His grace, He gives us His mercy, we know that we still do sinful things. If you do not know you still do sinful things, come and talk to me after the service and I will slap you and you'll get mad and I can show you. See, you still do wrong things. Right? We know we're still sinners. So how can we, as still being sinners, how do we do this?

How do we start to live out a whole life that is focused on the good works that God has given us to do. Stemming from that life and that power and that motivation, that purpose that God has given us. Where do we get the power to change those things that we cannot seem to change on our own? That's where we'll go next as we consider Ephesians. So what are the four parts of our structure here?

God's love, union with Christ, God's grace, and then our good works. May we know the grace and mercy and love of our Heavenly Father. May we know the power of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in our lives. And may we know the power and presence of the Holy Spirit as He applies to us the person and work of our Savior and our Lord.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Father, we delight in the truth and reality that we cannot save ourselves We know that if perchance there was a moment of righteousness in which we had sensed that we had earned something, in the very next moment our pride would destroy it. We are weak, dead, and hopeless without you. So Father, I pray for each one here, particularly our young people. I pray that you would save their souls. I pray that you would put upon them your electing love, your grace and your mercy.

That they would see that they have been created in Christ Jesus to not just function in this world, to not run away from the truth of your word and your gospel. But they have been created for good works that you have ordained for them. So Lord, change their hearts, change their minds, raise them up with Christ, seat them in the heavenly places, Lord. Cause them to love you, to seek after your will all of their lives.

Lord, help each of us to revel in the fact that we belong to you. In our baptism, your name is put upon us. We are engaged to be Christ. And we get to see unfolding in our lives that love and that relationship in ways that alter us and change us. to be people who actually desire the things that you have so freely given us. It would help us to walk in all your ways. We ask these things in Jesus' name.

Amen. Thank you for listening to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. We pray that you would be blessed as you grow in your love for God, your love for His Word, as well as your love for His people. Until next week, God bless you.