Ephesians 2 verses 4 to 10 “But God who is rich in mercy, for his great love where with he loved us. Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ [by grace ye are saved] And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That in the ages to come in might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus His Son.
I have enjoyed thinking of everyone here the last couple days. Even by the outward most of us can tell everyone here is at some different stage in the will of God. There are some the work has not begun yet, that would be the case with the children. That is what Paul was reminding the Ephesians that we are His workmanship. God wants to do a work in us. We are the most valuable natural resource on the face of the earth.
You Australians would be aware that your country has many natural resources in the mines, but that is a natural resource. It is there, and it is not useful until someone does some work with it. That is what God meant for us and as we stand we are only a natural resource and there has to be more work done for us to become more than that. I am aware that some sitting here today, are almost a finished product, it will not be long before the work is done. And some of the work is not begun, and the rest of the people are somewhere between those two. I do not know how far the progress is in your life, you do not know how far the progress has gone in my life, but I know when I am tempted to condemn, I have to stop and think that is a working progress, it is not done yet. And sometimes work takes a big change in a very short while.
There were many different things I did before I went into this work, before I went into the ministry. One job I really enjoyed, I worked falling timber and worked in a sawmill, one of our friends owned it. I would go there in the winter time and fall the trees. Sometimes I would wonder as I tipped over a big Douglas fir, I wonder where this tree will go. I did not have to wonder that, before I cut that tree down. If I never cut the tree down, it was not going to go anywhere, no wood was ever going to be produced. I found a satisfaction you could say to be the first one to begin the work in that tree, to be the one that cut it off from the ground and started the process. I would never ever see the finish of it.
I read some books that you folk had in your homes, about the early workers coming to this land. They were like me they could not comprehend what is here today. What they began and by the will of God and by the power of God, not by their works, but by the will of God He used them. Today we see the beginning and we have no idea where it will be 1000 years from today, or even to the beginning of eternity. We do not know the greatness, of the Word of God. We do not want to under estimate what God might do individually in our lives and collectively in the fellowship of His people. We do not know, we are a working progress, it is happening today and if the world stands it will happen tomorrow.
The first work to begin, we must be cut off from the earth. The part of the world that I come from, the trees are one of the greatest natural resources there is in that country. I lived surrounded by hundreds of square miles of timber. It is the most abundant resource known in that country. And even today it may be still one of the main natural resources. The harvesting of that was one of the greatest works going on in my young life. I knew when I stepped up to a big fir tree, if I do not cut this tree off from the ground, I knew its end without question. But if I do cut it off from the ground, then I cannot comprehend where it might go. I knew certain parts of those trees were decimated for other parts of the world, it is quite an export business in Douglas firs, most of it went to Japan in those days, and various other parts.
When I was in the sawmill stacking wood, it was a pretty plain piece of wood, but it could become a part of a mansion somewhere. Someone’s mansion is going to be built out of this very same wood. Some may have gone for firewood, some for a mansion, all wood was going somewhere to be used, but if not separated from the earth, it would rot off, then it would fall over, then the bugs would start eating it, and it eventually would disappear back into the earth from which it came and it would never be seen again. I don’t know if it was because of that, or just my nature, I enjoyed working with wood. When I still get the chance to make something once in a while, it still brings joy to me.
A lot of you people would have wood in your homes, but when I look around this hall, the only wood I see is on the back wall and I do not know if it is fake or not. I know a home and really it is pretty much only a shack, it is old and it has not been kept up well, but they put a new door on it a few years ago. A friend of theirs said let me put a new door on your shack, that is his specialty he makes doors for very expensive houses. Now in this old shack there is a beautiful Cyprus door, it costs thousands of dollars, I wouldn’t be surprised if the door is worth more than the shack. You know what the difference is the man that specialises in these doors gets the old logs out of a swamp. They are dying and sometimes he catches them when they’re just about gone, then he turns it into a beautiful door. There are many beautiful things you can do with wood.
What is the difference between the beautiful Cyprus door and an old log in the swamp? It is just one thing, it is workmanship that is all it is, and they took this and changed it to this. What is the difference between a child of God and just a human being? It is just workmanship, the work of God. Paul reminds us twice in this chapter that this is not of yourself, by grace are we saved and not by ourselves. He mentions that with other letters also, he was assuring those people that he bought the gospel to it was of God. Paul also wrote except God continue this work it would be in vain. He who started this work in you is able to continue it. We need to be reminded of that over and over again. The one who began the work, is the only one that can finish it.
There are a lot of steps in this workmanship and there are a lot of changes to change this life that is destined to go back into the ground and to become part of the dust. We are the most valuable natural resource on the earth today, and God has made it that way, and it will always be that way. God cannot wait for a soul to submit to His work. My hope is not in this world, it is in the journey in the hands of the workman our God and that is where our hope is.
I used to tip over the big trees and then I would walk down the top of them, taking off the branches, everything that would identify that tree as a fir tree had to be removed. They are not a pretty tree and a lot of people love trees and they have a great purpose, and millions of fir trees and the only purpose they will serve will be a little shade for some animal, for a little protection when the snow is falling, a place for a bird to build a nest, and may be for three weeks, until a young ones are gone, and as important as they may sound, they will end up as dust. When that tree is cut down and all the branches are cut off, and it loses its identity, it is not called a tree any more, it is called a log. That is a rough term for something that used to be a tree. Have you ever looked at a log lying on the ground, you can tell it was a tree, but it is not a tree any more, it is a log, because it is a working progress.
Then it will go on to the carriage into the sawmill. You put it on a little device and dog it down so it will not move and it is put through the saw, you start turning it and cutting it, turning it and cutting it. Pieces are coming off, and if the tree was able to talk, it would say what are you doing to me? Why are you taking so much off? Look at all this that is going to waste? But with every step of the process, what is left is a lot more valuable than it used to be. I don’t remember all the statistics, but this will give you some idea. We called it stumpage, when you sold the trees in the forests that were still standing, I can remember this, about the time I was getting out of high school and a tree was worth about $100.00 as it stood. The time you got one good beam out of it, it would be worth a lot more than a $100.00. The value just kept increasing, why was that, because the usefulness of it kept increasing. The smaller it got, the more valuable it got. It really sounds backwards in our mind doesn’t it? You would think if something got bigger it would be worth more. We are worth more when we get smaller.
You know what John the Baptist said John 3 v 30 “He must increase, but I must decrease.” When I am decreasing, self-love is ceasing Christ is increasing. That is the way of God, when I am decreasing, Christ is increasing. If a tree could talk be made to understand the smaller it gets the more valuable it is, it would never resent decreasing. It would never resent being made smaller, it would never resent all that seemed waste, it was adding to its value. The further the work goes, the more the identity goes.
I have been in a few homes here, and I have very interested in Australian wood, because most of it I have never seen before. I see these big gum trees and a man has promised to bring me some spotted gum in a few days, so I can see what it looks like, he showed me the tree, I want to see the wood. The tree is no representative of the wood, he tells me what the spotted gum is used for, I am not sure about that, when he shows me the wood I will be able to tell. I am anxious to see that. There are a lot of trees in the forest, there are a lot of people in the world, until they lose their identity, it will never be seen what they could be.
Ephesians 4 verses 12,13. “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the Ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, the end result of the workmanship of God. I suppose every soul would have the right to ask what are you going to make of me? If I surrender my life to God, what is He going to do with me? That is a scary prospect to most of us, especially in the young lives as we have all life ahead of us, maybe 50, 60, 80 years ahead of us and we could do big things in this natural life. Even if you did big things it would all end in dust. If I surrender to God all my dreams, all my plans, all my hopes, I am nothing. The most a tree can hope for is that some deer will rest in the shade of it someday, the most tree can hope for naturally, that some bird will build a nest in it. If it is lucky it may even end up as firewood, if not it will just go back to dust. All your hopes and all your dreams and all your desires that are connected to this earth will go back to dust one day.
We have such a hard time having faith in the workman, believing He can build something with my life, better than I can even dream of, if I submit to this work of God, what will He do to me. It will change my identity, it will change who I am, what others think about me, it will change all that. Who would we be then? You would be a child of God, you could be just like Jesus. The only desire we should have is that the workman would make us like Jesus. God sent Jesus down-to-earth so we could get a visual picture of what He wants to make of you and me. God will reveal things to our heart, and it will be seen in Jesus. It may not have much value on the earth, but it has a divine value in heaven. It so supersedes anything on this earth. Your life is a natural re-source and once a work begins, there is no way to compare it with what it was. It goes from something natural to something divine. Something God wants to keep in His own home, not just do live on the earth and go back to the dust, God has made our life to fulfil a useful place in His house. That they would all be like Jesus.
I have a friend who has mastered a certain art, and that is wood carving with a chainsaw. We had a lot in common one time and now he has become this artist, I had heard about it and he even sent me pictures of it. His specialty is carving out bears. He carves out bears of every size. He takes a log, stands it on its end, and then he takes this chainsaw and next thing it is a bear. Then a tourist comes along and pays him hundreds of dollars for it. He is a lot smarter than I thought he was.
I wondered how he could do that so quickly. He has made so many of them, he doesn’t have to draw a picture and cut to the line, right there in his mind and in his eye he knows what to do, he cuts out a big chunk and the chips are just flying, and he has made a bear very quickly. He knows what he wants to make, he has in his mind what this is going to be, and he has done it so many times. When we think about turning our lives over to God and He wants to make another child for Himself, just like Jesus, and we sometimes act like He does not know what He is doing. We sometimes want to tell Him where to cut, and what to leave and we can become very opinionated. We forget God has done this thousands of times. God has done this more times than you and I would ever know. God started back with Adam, we have no idea how many people He has made something out of people, and we do not have a clue. It will work, it will come out exactly like He wants it.
I remember a story about a famous Italian sculpture, he worked in stone, and this is hundreds of years ago. He could take a block of stone, he can make a life size, live looking man out of it. Every muscle and almost a twinkling in his eye. And even the skin looks like real. Someone said to him one time, how can you do that? It was really beyond comprehension, he said it is very easy, he said the man is in there all the time, I just take away what doesn’t belong to the man. That is what God is doing, the first thing God does is put Christ into our life, He puts His own Son, the spirit of His own Son in us, then God starts to do His work. Start moving the man, so that Christ can be seen. Sometimes an awful lot of flesh has to go.
John the Baptist told that so well, I must decrease, I have to get rid of more flesh. The only way that Christ will increase, is when I decrease. It is no different today, things have not changed in 2000 years, not changed since Adam, Abraham, Noah and Moses and Joseph and all the ones we heard about, and He wants you and He wants me and He wants to do a work and He wants progress. I hope we will be willing for the separation, for the process, for the progress so that we can be something divine in the will of God.
Truth Archive 