David Macdonald - June 2, 2019 - a podcast by NBC Podium

But God… Raised You From the Dead!
Simple words – powerful truth
The Great Interrupter
45 times in the Bible
D. Martyn Lloyd Jones –
“these two words in and of themselves contain the whole of the gospel of Christ.”
“But God” – radically transforms who we are
But + God = nothing is impossible
Eph 2:1-10
We Were Dead – vs. 1
Eph 2:1 NASB And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
Separated from God
Unbeliever is dead – lack capacity or desire to respond to or understand spiritual things
Spiritual death began with Adam’s sin – “by one man…”
Dead person – cannot improve their condition
Only remedy – must be born again – John 3:7
Eph 2:1 NASB And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
Sin – hamartia – “miss the mark”
Could be unintentional but still an offence
173 times in NT
Trespass – paraptoma - cross known boundary – side step
Deliberate action
Willful act
We Were Wandering – vs. 2-3
Eph 2:2 NASB in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
Walked – peripateó,– “tread all around”
Could be also interpreted as meander – wander without goal or purpose – like browsing a store and buying unintentionally
All we like sheep have gone astray (Isa 53:6)
Robert Robinson – Prone to wander
We Were Made Alive – vs. 4-5
Eph 2:4-5 NASB But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, (5) even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
But God!!! – “Understand those words – they will save your soul” – J.M. Boice
Contain the whole gospel – M. Lloyd-Jones
Saved person - has “but God” moment
Understood need, repented of sin, trusted God through Jesus Christ
I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now I see
Why did God do it?
Rich in mercy – vs. 4
Lamentations 3:22 – through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed
Because of His great love
John 3: 16
Made alive together = quickened (KJV) suzóopoieó = reanimated conjoined with – made alive
When – at a time when you were in rebellion, while we were sinners (Rom. 5:8)
We are in a New Place – vs. 6-7
In Christ – 85 times in Paul’s writings
Positionally – in heavenly places in Christ Jesus - now
Literally – in heavenly places – later
Living and looking for heaven in our walk today
Looking to Lord Jesus Christ’s return
Not an event but a person
We will be with Him
Ages to come - riches of His grace in kindness toward us
We are His Workmanship – vs. 6-7
Eph 2:10 NASB For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Vs. 10 – 2 parts:
God’s work in you
His workmanship - poiéma—an exquisite masterpiece which is made from fabric
Liberated from stone – illus.
God’s work through you
Created in Christ for good works
Works with the weakest of us
"God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise" (1 Corinthians 1:27)
Very important – Saved for good works not by good works (vs. 8-9)
Philippians 3:20 - For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;
1 Thessalonians 1:10 - and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.
Titus 2:13 - looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus

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