We Are His Workmanship, Part 1

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces Ephesians 2:8-10, highlighting Paul's repetitive and negative qualifying statements to emphasize that salvation is entirely by grace, not works, and is meant to…

A parent repeatedly emphasizes a 10 PM curfew to their child, using positive and negative statements. This illustrates how Paul uses repetition and negative qualifiers to drive home the central truth of salvation by grace.

Try to transport yourself into the home of one of our church members, who is found saying to his son or daughter, calling him by name, I'm giving you permission to spend the evening with your friends, but I want you home in this house at 10 p.m. sharp. Now do you hear me?

1:02 - 1:25 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If all the preceding verses have shot them dead, verse 10 is the grave digger that buries them forever.

If preceding verses dealt a 'death blow' to works-righteousness, verse 10 'digs the grave and buries those thoughts.' This emphasizes the conclusive nature of verse 10 in refuting salvation by works.

Here he conclusively and irrefutably establishes that the deliverance of dead bound guilty sinners can only be by the grace of God and not by the works or performances of the sinner. Now, if everything in the preceding verses has dealt. The death blow to every form of works, righteousness and self-salvation, then verse 10 digs the grave and buries those thoughts. If all the preceding verses have shot them dead, verse 10 is the grave digger that buries them forever.

4:40 - 5:19 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If all the preceding verses have shot them dead, verse 10 is the grave digger that buries them forever.

If preceding verses acted as an 'executioner' to works salvation, leaving it in its death throes, verse 10 is the 'coup de grace,' the final shot that ends it all. This further stresses the finality of verse 10's argument.

To change the analogy, if what the Apostle has taught us in the preceding verses has acted as an executioner to this culprit called works salvation. So. That that very thing lies in the throes of the twitches that precede death. This verse is the coup de grace, the final shot in the head that ends it all.

5:20 - 5:43 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If all the preceding verses have shot them dead, verse 10 is the grave digger that buries them forever.

If preceding verses were 'shock troops' driving away works salvation, verse 10 is 'setting up operations to drive out every last vanquished enemy.' This highlights how verse 10 ensures grace alone triumphs.

Again, to change the figure, if the preceding verses have performed the function of shock troops and the landing assault that have driven away salvation by works and raise the flag of victory for salvation by grace. Then verse 10 is the. Setting up operations to drive out every last vanquished enemy from the field so that grace alone has the day. Now that this is the connection of verse 10 to precede to what precedes is obvious from the fact that it begins with the word for.

5:43 - 6:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Get your works in the right place: they are the goal of the new creation, not its basis.

A king adopts an orphaned pauper and endows him with wealth and name, not because the pauper already had them, but so he may have them. This illustrates that God creates us anew 'unto good works,' not on the basis of them.

Suppose a king should say to an orphaned pauper, I will adopt you, and then I shall endow you with all of my wealth and the glory of my name in order that you may have legal parentage and a subsistence now and for all of your days.

33:01 - 33:25 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third question, 'What is the nature and origin of these good works?' is answered: 'which God aforeprepared that we should walk in them.' This means God planned and purposed…

When God makes an apple tree, He 'aforeprepared' the fruit it would bear by giving it its nature. This shows that the good works believers perform are simply the outworking of God's eternal plan and purpose for them, not a basis for boasting.

In the sense that when God made an apple tree, He aforeprepared the fruit that that tree would bear. By giving it such a nature, He's appointed the kind of fruit it will bear, the time of its fruit bearing, and the measure of its fruit bearing. And when you see the apples upon that tree, you can say, this is fruit which God aforeprepared that this tree should bear. Now, that's exactly what the Apostle says here.

36:40 - 37:08 Read in full sermon