Dad’s Sermon

“BUT GOD-”
EPHESIANS 2:1-10
Rev. Thomas C. Waldecker

In the second chapter of Ephesians Paul sets before us a marvelous contrast. In the first three verses he describes our wretched state apart from the grace of God. He piles one phrase upon another to picture our lost condition. “We were dead in trespasses and sins.” “We followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient following its desires and thoughts, and were by nature objects of wrath.”

Can you imagine a more formidable array of words, a more terrible stacking of expressions to declare the state of mortal man apart from the redeeming grace of God? Now if Paul had stopped there, if no more could be said, if we were left shut up in these dismal phrases, then life would be but another name for death & earth the anteroom to hell.

But v. 4 opens with two words that spell all the difference between life & death, between sin & salvation, between heaven & hell: “BUT GOD “! Sin was black, but God came in & God is light; Satan was powerful, but God entered the picture, & God is almighty, man was lost, but God came in and found him! Man was under wrath, but God came into the picture & God is love!

The course of history revolves around these precious words. There was a day when the earth was without form & void, but God said, “Let there be light & there was light. There was a day when “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and…every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,” but God chose Noah and gave the human race a new start. There was a day when again men forgot God & walked by sight, but God called Abraham to set out not knowing where he was going, he went looking for a city which has foundations, whose builder & maker is God. There was a day when God saw His people slaves in Egypt”, but He called Moses to endure as seeing Him who is invisible. There was a day when the backsliding people hung their harps on willows in a foreign land, but God raised up Ezekiel & Daniel. There was a day when it seemed that heaven has stopped speaking, but God returned to thunder through the voice of John the Baptist.

And then there was the day of all days when man wallowed in sin w/o a Savior, groped in darkness w/o light, struggled in bondage w/o redemption, but God sent forth His Son to live & die & then live again, the Just for the un¬just, the Sinless for sinners, God for man!

Since that glad day, no matter how low the clouds have hung, no matter how dark the night, nor dreary the age, just when everything seemed hopeless, history has always turned a corner with these blessed words, “BUT GOD-.” There came a day when the early church seemed to face an impenetrable Gentile world, But God struck down a rebel on the Damascus road to make Saul of Tarsus the spearhead of world evangelism. There came a time when the Bible was chained and superstition took the place of the gospel, but God called Wycliffe and Tyndale to loosen His word in the language of the common people. There came a day when ecclesiasticism threatened to choke the church & when ignorance bound millions in the clutches of the law, but God touched a miserable monk worn out with trying to earn his own salvation, & Luther rose in the strength of the Lord to declare, “The just shall live by faith.” In the process God also raised up a Calvin to set forth in logical manner the truths of Scripture. Again, there came a time when the notes of free grace were lost in an age of worldliness & the church had lost the spirit of power in the lap of Delilah, but God woke up another groping preacher, and John Wesley warmed his heart at Luther’s fire and went out on horseback to carry the gospel to a needy world.

There has never been an age so helpless but that just when it looked as though the devil had had the last word & hell had turned the tables on heaven, the historian has always been able to turn a new page & write at the top, “BUT GOD-.” And although we live in a world of apostasy, in a world that is being challenged by the religion of Islam, and in a nation where “blame America First” is rampant, God is still writing the pages of history. The world’s Saturday night will turn into God’s good morning, for in the blackest hour just before daylight everything may seem to be lost, but God is coming again in the person of His Son to receive from the world His own.

What is true in general is true in particular in the experience of individual believers. In the darkest hour, those who trust in the Lord have been able to turn from distress to Deity and say, “BUT GOD-.”

Psalm 41:4-10. David moans over his sad state, but in v. 10 he says “But you, O Lord, have mercy on me, raise me up…”

Psalm 102:1-12. Again, David moans over his sad condition, but presently (V. 12) says, “But
you, O Lord sit enthroned forever.” God. Has not abdicated His throne.

Jeremiah in Lamentations 5:1-18 gives us verses of pure misery, but he ends by saying. “You, O Lord reign forever…” (V. 19)

Micah 7:7. Micah paints a picture of times so dismal—good men have perished, rulers are sinful and in collusion with one another, friends cannot be trusted. Then he says, “But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.” All fails…BUT GOD-!

As you look back over your life, I am sure that you have occasion to thank God for the unnumbered times when everything else has failed, but God came to the rescue. Health has broken, but God sustained! Friends have deceived you—but God! Business has failed—But God. Loved one have died—but God! In spite of all God has done, proving Himself again & again a very present help in time of trouble, we have left Him out of our plans. Too often He is a last resort. Even when we do that, He is ready to help us in our time of need. We look at our bare cupboard and forget Him who spreads a table in the wilderness. We measure the situation by the size of the enemy & forget to say as did King Asa, “Lord, it is nothing with you to help with by many or with them that have no power.” We decide just about how much we can or cannot do and be, and we limit it all with old alibis—“Yes, but my family, Yes, but my nerves. Yes, but my circumstances. Why not put it the other way, Yes, but God!” If God be for us who can be against us? What if everybody has failed us so that we must say with Paul, “No man stood with me, but all men forsook me”? Let us move on with him and say, “Never the less the Lord stood with me”! What if men do conspire against us? Let us say to them as did Joseph to his brothers, “You thought evil against me; But God meant it for good.”

Adoniram Judson caught a vision of taking the gospel to Burma. “Impossible,” you say. Certainly, that is true if you leave God out. Moody, on his first evangelistic mission to England said, “I go to win ten thousand souls to Jesus Christ.” Impossible, you say? Yes…but God! Why do we today not follow in the train of giants of old? Are we afraid to attempt great things for God? Moses argued with God in such terms as these: “Yes, but I am not eloquent; yes, but the people will not listen to me.” God answered, “Tell the people…I AM has sent me to you.” In other words, it is as if the Lord said, “It is not a matter of who you are but of who I AM.” So in our unworthiness, let us, like Amos of old, say, “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but the Lord took me.” Nothing in myself…but God!

Look again at words found in Ephesians 2. You may be moral & idealistic, but God says you walk in the ways of the world. You may recognize the fact of God and His Christ, but God says you walk according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now is at work in those who are dis¬obedient. You may seem decent & respectable and claim to have a character of integrity, but if you are without Christ, God says that your manner of life is in the lusts of the flesh and the mind. You may talk of the Fatherhood of God and deny the fact of hell and judgment, but God says you are a child of wrath even as others.

But, thank God, the Scripture does not end there. Wretched may be your state & hopeless your condition. But God has done something about it. Black indeed was the night of sin, but God sent His Son to be the Light of the world. Grievous indeed was our bondage to sin, but God sent His Son to be our deliverer. Awful indeed was the guilt of sin, but God sent His Son to be our substitute. Sin has abounded, but God has seen to it that grace did much more abound. And if in simple faith we turn from sin to this Savior and receive Him, then the rest of this precious passage becomes our own: “But because of His great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ & seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, express¬ed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus (2:4-7).

No one could earn this blessing; no works of the flesh could purchase this treasure, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast (2:8-9). How blessed to be able to say, “Once I was blind, but God touched me. Once I was lost, but God found me. Once I was under wrath, but. God loved me. Once I was under guilt, but God forgave me. Once I was dead, but God sent His Son to die for me in my place. Once I walked in the ways of this world, but God turned me around and now I seek to walk as He walked. Once I was in submission to the prince of the power of the air, but God stopped me and now I seek to follow the Prince of Peace. Once my life was lived in the lusts of the flesh and mind, But God gave me a new mind with new desires, and Christ lives in me. Once I was by nature a child of wrath, but God has begotten me into His own family.” And all of this is a free gift of grace by faith in Jesus Christ. What is true of me may also be true of you. The words “But God” open a new beginning, a new life, and a new destiny. Of all the words that give meaning to life, none are more important and encouraging than those two words—BUT GOD!

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