Rochester Conference Part 1: The Corporate New Man in Ephesians (1996)

Ephesians 2:1 – And you were dead in your trespasses and sins.  I want to go through the whole book. How many did we end with last? There were 31 “you’s” in chapter 1. Everybody who would stand with me and make this a singular, will you please raise your hand? Okay, thank you. We will make it singular even though I’m wrong. I know I’m wrong, but I just don’t want anybody in the world to be able to come up and say that one was singular. And that’s why I’m doing this; I’m really trying to do this strictly. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins.

Now, brothers and sisters, the next word is in verse four. “But God being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us” is actually what comes after that opening sentence. I’m going to read it again, “and you were dead in your trespasses and sins. But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us even when we were…” let’s do it again, “we were dead in our trespasses He made us alive,” thank you very much, “He made us alive together with Christ.”

Now I want to go back and read the parentheses. That’s at the end of verse 5. We have how many? 36. All right. Now I’m going to read the parentheses which is verse two through three, “in which you formally walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air of the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience among them, we too all formally live in the lust of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest.” Do you see how that’s a parentheses? Paul has a tendency to wander.

Now we’re going to count two and three, see what we’ve got in here. “In which you formally walked.” I’m not going to let you have that one. “According to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.” We don’t want to count that one at all because we’re looking for that which refers to believers. ‘…among them.” What number is that? 37 “to also formally live in the lust of our flesh.” 38, “indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were” but there’s a “we” in there isn’t there and it’s really true that I have to agree with you there’s a “we” in there, “and we were by nature children,” children, children. How many is that? 40. “Children of wrath, even as the rest.” We won’t count that. Okay. “But God in His mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us.” We’ve already counted that one. “Even when we were dead in our trespasses and made and made us alive together with Christ.”

You know, brother, you actually lose your count number in verse one when we get to five, do you understand that? But I’m still going to let you keep them. You’ve lost every one of your singulars when we read long enough. Is that not true? Every one of them, because there’s definitely a “we” there, which would mean he’s speaking in the plural, but some theologians back there would say we’re leaving out the individual salvation of man, and I don’t want to do that.

Now we’ve come to another parentheses, and this one is sometimes included in scripture. Does anybody have a parenthesis in verse five in their book? Okay, good. “Even when we were dead in our trespasses, He made us alive together with Christ.” Parenthesis, “by grace you have been saved.” Parenthesis, we’re going to stay singular there. For by grace, you have been saved. Okay. So, I go back and read, with the great love with which He loved us, and He made us all alive together with Christ and raised us. Six, what number is that? We’re in verse six. …raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.

Now, why are we seated with Him? And I doubt anybody in this room can give me the answer to that based on this book alone. Come on, show your ignorance; you should know on the basis of last night. I’m giving you a big hint. Why are we seated with him? Not because we’re in Him. No. Because He has been given to us. It’s right in the book; He has been given to us. Therefore, we are seated where He is seated. Okay. You can say because we’re in Christ, but I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to say because He has been given to the church. We are seated with Him because we own Him. We own the Lord Jesus Christ. This one who was seated above all things has and His head has been given to the church by the Father. Isn’t that unbelievable? Isn’t this much more positive? I’m not trying to hide anything negative in this book. It’s just a positive book, and has seated us, did we count that one? With Him in the heavenlies. And we’re seated with Him in the heavenlies because we’re in Him, but He still is our gift.

 In order that in the ages to come, the Father… is that the Father or Christ? I’ve forgotten. …the Father might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Now, if you’ll stop in verse 7 and just turn around and look at everything else that’s been said, then this verse says that in order, that in the ages to come, or we don’t know what’s out there, but there are going to be some witnesses, I guess, the Father might show everything and everyone in the ages to come His surpassing riches of His grace. And that’s everything from chapter one, verse one, right here to verse 7. And His kindness toward you and me who are in the church in Hierapolis in Christ Jesus. He wants to show off His mercies and His kindness.

Now this theme of mercy, kindness, grace, and glory is all the way through the book of Ephesians, and we haven’t even touched on it. But God is merciful, He’s kind, He’s gracious, and there is so much glory in that grace. And in the ages to come, He will show the richness of all that He has done toward the body of Christ. Not toward you, the individual, but toward that girl, toward that assembly you meet with. Those are the dwelling places of the kindnesses and the riches and the glories of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  And we have here another parenthesis. So, I’ll go ahead and read beyond the parentheses. …towards us in Christ Jesus that we, and we drop down to verse 10…for we are His workmanship and…nope, okay, alright.

I want to just stop here to be very personal. Does anyone in this room remember Howard Butt Jr.? The HEB grocery stores in South Texas were started by a man named Howard Butt Jr., who was saved on the Baylor campus in the great revival that swept this country in my day, when I was a 17-year-old kid. And Howard Butt Jr. could burn down a pulpit when he spoke, and he was a layman. Howard is dead now, but I can get past that purse. I was in the Southern Baptist Retreat ground in North Carolina. The place is called Ridgecrest, North Carolina. That’s where all good Baptists go, and young Baptist people go. And he spoke that day. “Oh, we are God’s masterpiece. We are a masterpiece.” Michelangelo, every time he did anything, it was a masterpiece. I already mentioned it was a masterpiece. Boy, what with God to pull off when he decided to make his masterwork that is more beautiful than all of creation.

We corporately are the masterpiece of God. That word can be translated: we are the masterpiece. Now, we’ve gotten that far counting, is that correct? Well, let me go back to the parentheses. We corporately are His masterpiece. Alright, I’m going back to the parentheses. For by grace, you have been saved through faith. Brother, you’re going to get another one. How many do you have now? This might be literally, honestly, a single one. We can’t take this one away from you. “For by grace you have been saved through faith and not of…” Now, I think you just lost it, brother. Okay. “For by grace you all have been saved through faith and that not of your own efforts.”