What The Lord Has Done In Me (Ephesians 2:13)

Introduction

For those of you that hear me on a regular basis, yes, this is a familiar refrain, but we have a lot of visitors. Marveling at God, how important it is. Who he is and the depths of what he has done. But not only a God who has acted amazingly and wonderfully in the past, but a God who still acts today in our world to accomplish his goal and works in the lives and hearts of his people even now. Without such marveling and deep appreciation, we will likely not find the motivation to be what he calls us to be. We have just sung these words, what the Lord has done in me. Let the weak say I am strong, let the poor say, I am rich. Let the blind say, I can see.

It’s what the Lord has done in me. And if this sounds familiar, it is because Scott led it last Sunday. And when he led it last Sunday, I thought I wanted to say more about that. And the text that I want to use this morning is actually an old testament text from Isaiah chapter 6. And Isaiah tells us in Isaiah chapter 6 and verse 1 that this was in the year of King Isaiah’s death. This was, of course, a transitional time for the people of God. Rough times were on the horizon. And so it’s appropriate that he would receive the vision at this time. More about its placement in the text of Isaiah in a moment. He says, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of his robe filling the temple.

Imagine yourself the scene that Isaiah is describing, a scene that he sees. Seraphim stood above it, each having six wings. With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, Holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, and the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, Woe is me, for I am ruined. I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.

Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs, and he touched my mouth with it, and said, Behold, this has touched your lips, and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is forgiven. Some have described Isaiah chapter six as both a worship experience and a conversion experience. And as a result of what he saw, as a result of what the angel does to him in the removal of his sin. He hears the voice of the Lord in verse 8 saying, Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? And he said, Here am I. Send me. I believe this story unfolds in chapter 6 rather than chapter 1. Obviously, in some ways, this is Isaiah’s commission to be God’s prophet in this time and in this place.

But the reason why it comes so late in the narrative is that in chapters 1 through 5, we have been given a description of the very sinful people that he talks about. A sinful people that God is going to judge in the very near future, because they will not turn from their wicked ways. And so the audience that Isaiah describes in chapter 6 as he lives among a people of unclean lips, we have already seen in the narrative. And then he too acknowledges sin in himself.

Am I not right?

Were you out in the midst of all of that madness? Some people, it’s just a joy. To be out there in the massive throng, I love the videos of the people fighting over stuff. And it’s just really, we’re going to fight over material things. So maybe you were out in the midst of that. Some people go out in the middle of the night. I’m always thankful to Brad’s dad who got Brett that laptop in the middle of the night on Black Friday, way back when it was the greatest Christmas ever in our home. Brett can tell you about it. He’s here today. Or even better yet, for guys like me, Cyber Monday. That comes up tomorrow. I’ll probably won’t buy a thing. But look at the deals in the world of electronics online.

Cyber Monday is coming. And then after that, it’s buying all the gifts for people who really don’t need anything. And trying to make sure that you have just the right gift. I need about three to four months for this. And they only give you about 25 days to get it all done. And so we feel a little bit distracted. And so I wanted to preach about Isaiah chapter 6 today to tell you, in the midst of all the hustle and bustle of the holiday season and all the distractions that abound, that God still sits upon his throne. And we shouldn’t forget that.

So overwhelmed with gratitude that he is even allowed to live. When the question is asked, who will be my representative? Who will do my work? Whom shall I send to go for us? He didn’t say, Lord, send someone else. I’m not the guy for your job. Somewhat like the call of Jeremiah or the call of Moses in Exodus chapter 4 at the burning bush. Instead, Isaiah’s response, so overwhelmed by the vision of what he is seeing, the magnificence of God, and by what he has received, the cleansing at the hand of the seraphim. He just responds and bursts forth, Here am I, send me. And while none of us are going to be called for a prophetic task like Isaiah was, we are called to be the workmanship of our Lord in Christ Jesus, Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 10.

1. Like Isaiah, We Were Undone in Our Sins

And the observation that I want to make is that we are a lot like Isaiah. And if we realize that we were like him, that we too could find motivation and be compelled to seek God’s will for us and for others, as Isaiah did, we are more like him than we think. Because we too, like Isaiah, were undone in our sins. Whenever I read this text in Isaiah chapter 6, I immediately think of the text of Ephesians chapter 2, when Paul simply says at the beginning of that chapter, flowing from the thoughts in chapter 1 of the amazing things that the righteous have come to in Christ as they sit in heavenly places. He says, And you were dead. You were undone. You were dead in your trespasses and your sins, and the way that you formerly walked behavior matters.

As Isaiah had said, I’m a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips, which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, and the spirit of disobedience and rebellion against God, he mentions, indulging the desires of the flesh and mind. He says, You were by nature as a result of that lifestyle and walk. You were by nature children of wrath. The wrath of God that is going to come upon the sons of disobedience. We read about in many texts, including Colossians 3.

Without the Lord and having been transgressors of their will of his will.

Hypocrites, religious hypocrites, fail to see it. The unbeliever doesn’t want to see it, oftentimes, and convinces himself or herself that their behavior isn’t as bad as others. And so it’s not really that significant. It’s not my undoing. The scriptures tell us otherwise. I like Psalm 50 in this regard. After a variety of moral failures are catalogued in the hearts and lives of the people, they participate with those who thieve and commit adultery, whose tongues spew evil, and they’re treacherous in their behavior toward others. God observes in Psalm 50 and verse 21, when you did these things I kept silent. And so often it happens with people that are undone. Nothing happens to them. God doesn’t declare in some thunderous voice from heaven, you are undone. You are unprepared for the judgment day of God.

Eternal torment awaits you in the next life. You are not ready for the final day of reckoning. And because there’s no voice that comes from heaven, because God is seemingly silent, though he has spoken in his word, God is seemingly silent. People say, or God responds, you thought that I was exactly like you.

2. We Can Be Unbroken

But now, but now I arraign you and set my accusations before you. Consider this, you who forget God, or I will tear you to pieces with no one to rescue. Let me tell you about undone. One day, no matter how strong your objection, no matter how strong your refusal, one day you will see the horror of being undone. But like Isaiah, on the basis of what our Lord has done, there is hope. We can be unbroken. I realize that we often use this term in English to speak of the continuance of a state that perhaps prevents us from being broken. But I’m using the term in the sense of repair this morning, the fixing of what is broken. And that’s what Paul goes on to say in Ephesians chapter 2, that God, because he was rich in mercy, again, let’s marvel at what God has done.

So many passages that speak of salvation in the New Testament are admonishing us to look at what God has done. God is rich in mercy. God in his loving kindness appeared. Titus chapter 3 and verse 4. Yes, there is the washing of regeneration that is involved in our salvation. But it is on the basis of God’s kindness and his mercy that such is even possible, like the seraphim that flies and touches Isaiah’s lips with the burning coal. God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us.

Even when we were dead in our transgressions. It’s not like we had made any steps to repair the situation, or could make any steps. He made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated with him in the heavenly places. And then he goes on to describe, after he talks about the salvation by grace through faith in verse 12, he talks to Gentiles, most of whom are in this audience this morning. Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel. You were on the outside looking in, he says. Strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. That’s undone. But, love that contrasting word.

Now in Christ Jesus, you who were formerly far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Have you shattered a jar lately? Perhaps it was a precious item to you.

Maybe one of the kids grabbed a hold of it. We’ve got a lot of kids in the audience this morning. I’m sure they’ve broken something that you really wish they had not broken. Perhaps you were drinking coffee as I was one day, when the mug just fell right off the handle. Oh no, this is my favorite coffee cup. And all I’ve got there’s gorilla glue. And so you gorilla glue it back together, and that works for about another 24 hours. A gorilla glue is great, but it’s not that great. Or the proverbial shattering of the egg. Have you ever thought about what it would be like to put an eggshell and the yolk and everything back together? It’s impossible, right? If we only saw our situation in sin as just as impossible to repair or fix.

And yet God has made it happen. Redemption is truly an incredible story. May it never become old hat to us. Oh, yeah, we’ve heard it a million times. The unleavened bread and the fruit of the vine. The foolishness of the message preached. To us who are being saved, it is the power of God. It is the wisdom of God. And the foolishness of God is stronger than men. And men can be so carried away with themselves and what they think about life and how it ought to be lived, but man at his best. Cannot eclipse God at his worst, although God never has a bad day. Foolishness of God is stronger than men. What an incredible message of salvation. And another way of looking at it, as we have seen how we were afar off and brought near.

3. We Are Unbound

It’s not only are we unbroken, we are unbound.

Again, a lack of perception of where we were, undone in our sin, enslaved so often the New Testament talks about this condition. As Paul is describing in Romans chapter 7 a little bit later on, when he says, Oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death. I may have some inclinations to do right, but the evil that is present within me, I have a problem that cannot be repaired by anything that I would do. And he has just explained in chapter 6 how that this body of death has been removed thankfully by the death of Christ, as he was immersed in water, his body of death was removed, and he was able to rise to walk in newness of life.

And so now in Christ, there is no condemnation anymore. We are unbound by the sin that had so entangled us. Peter describes that in 2 Peter chapter 2. Slaves to corruption and lust that cause us to be entangled in sin. An entanglement that only God can repair. We have become unbound. Yes, it is to slaves of Christ we read in Romans chapter 6, we were slaves to sin, but now we have become slaves to Christ. But I got to tell you, this servitude so far exceeds where we were. And the hopes and promises that it brings that it is called freedom and liberty. It was for freedom that Christ set us free. We were undone. But now what was broken has been repaired. And we are now unbound by that which would have destroyed us forever.

4. Once in Christ, the Work Is Unfinished

But once we are in Christ, the work is unfinished. I want to take you to 1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3, verses 14 and verse 15. I marvel at these verses. We’ll look at a similar text in John in just a moment. We know that we have passed out of death. That’s what we’ve been talking about. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. Where’s the evidence in our lives that we have truly become unbound, unbroken? Because we love the brethren. He who does not love, who does not realize what God has done and brought us to, he who does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. We’ve been talking on Wednesday nights about pursuing love in the local church and how significant it is.

And of all the things that God expects of us, as we talked about his expectations, a holy God wants his people to pursue holiness. Of all the expectations that God has, certainly up here at the top of the list is more than just refraining from intoxication, but the way we regard others. The one who has passed out of death and into life loves his brothers, and everyone hates his brother is a murderer. Your attitude toward your brother matters. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. There’s an implication there. There’s an implication that the one who loves his brother has eternal life abiding in him. Ah. Not only have we come from being undone to unbroken and unbound, we have eternal life abiding in us.

Those of us who are in Christ, as Jesus would say in John 5 and verse 24, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He doesn’t say he will have eternal life. He says he has eternal life. And does not come into judgment, but has passed, as we see this similar language in 1 John, he has passed out of death and into life. Jesus came that we might have life and might have it more abundantly, John chapter 10. And so when we embrace this, we possess a life of eternal quality and ultimately duration. Now there must be an ongoing process of belief. I believe John 5 is saying that. I think 1 John chapter 3, verses 14 and 15 are saying that.

But we need to appreciate that we who were undone, have now come to life. A life, the tentacles of which reach to eternity. We have eternal life abiding in us unfinished. While eternal life abides in us, there is work that must continue, that must continue in me. This work in me. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds. Romans chapter 12 and verse 2. The fact that was stated to Christians suggests something. And as I read the epistles throughout the New Testament, the same message is uttered over and over again. This transformation process, the repair that has taken place, the eternal life that abides in us involves an ongoing process of faith and molding ourselves after the likeness of Jesus.

This work continues in us. It must continue. We must not leave off in the pursuit of it because the Hebrew writer says we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. We must be undaunted in the pursuit of that transformation. Because there are many divergent and false messages and tantalizing and destructive detours that the devil tries to get us to embrace. You don’t really need to serve the Lord. Happiness is in loving the world and all that it can afford. I think he’s preaching that one this month. Or perhaps December. That’s where true happiness is the stuff. You don’t need to serve the Lord. Self-restraint, prayer, commitment, and participation among the Lord’s church.

Ah, that’s not preferable. To serving your own desires. You see, he’s feeding us these messages continually because he wants to take that eternal life that resides in our hearts and quench it. This work continues not only in me, but in others. His work through me. The Lord is not slack concerning his promises, some men count slackness, but is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter chapter 3, verses 9 and verse 15, account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation. That’s the reason why we have a November 2018, or perhaps a December 2018, is because the Lord is looking to save and rescue more souls, that they might enjoy this salvation that we have enjoyed. But yes, his work completely perseverance is necessary.

Conclusion

Finally, in 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 10, and when you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. And ultimately, the work will be finished. I will rise from waters deep to the saving arms of God. I will sing salvation songs. Jesus Christ has set me free. Hosanna to the worthy Lamb. Are you in this audience this morning in an undone condition? Needing repair through the great and merciful blood of Jesus Christ. Do you need to confess him? Declare your loyalty to him, turning from sin and be immersed in water, that your sins can be washed away and that body of death can be removed, that you can rise to walk in newness of life and enjoy the saving embrace of the arms of God.

Only God can heal you. Won’t you come while we stand and sing?