July 2. "And Hath Raised us up Together" (Eph. Ii. 6).
"And hath raised us up together" (Eph. ii. 6). Ascension is more than resurrection. Much is said of it in the New Testament. Christ riseth above all things. We see Him in the very act of ascending as we do not in the actual resurrection, as, with hands and lips engaged in blessing, He gently parts from their side, so simply, so unostentatiously, with so little imposing ceremony as to make heaven so near to our common life that we can just whisper through. And we, too, must ascend, even here. "If …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

October 1. "That in the Ages to Come He Might Show the Exceeding Riches of his Grace" (Eph. Ii. 7).
"That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace" (Eph. ii. 7). Christ's great purpose for His people is to train them up to know the hope of their calling, and the riches of the glory of their inheritance and what the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe. Let us prove, in all our varied walks of life, and scenes of conflict, the fulness of His power and grace and thus shall we know "In the ages to come the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness to …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

God's Workmanship and Our Works
'We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.'--Eph. ii. 10. The metal is molten as it runs out of the blast furnace, but it soon cools and hardens. Paul's teaching about salvation by grace and by faith came in a hot stream from his heart, but to this generation his words are apt to sound coldly, and hardly theological. But they only need to be reflected upon in connection with our own experience, to become vivid and …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

'The Chief Corner-Stone'
'Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief corner-stone.'--Eph. ii. 20 (R.V.). The Roman Empire had in Paul's time gathered into a great unity the Asiatics of Ephesus, the Greeks of Corinth, the Jews of Palestine, and men of many another race, but grand and imposing as that great unity was, it was to Paul a poor thing compared with the oneness of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Asiatics of Ephesus, Greeks of Corinth, Jews of Palestine and members of …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

'The Riches of Grace'
'That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.'--Eph. ii. 7. One very striking characteristic of this epistle is its frequent reference to God's purposes, and what, for want of a better word, we must call His motives, in giving us Jesus Christ. The Apostle seems to rise even higher than his ordinary height, while he gazes up to the inaccessible light, and with calm certainty proclaims not only what God has done, but why He has done …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

Salvation: Grace: Faith
'By grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.'--Eph. ii. 8 (R.V.). Here are three of the key-words of the New Testament--'grace,' 'saved,' 'faith.' Once these terms were strange and new; now they are old and threadbare. Once they were like lava, glowing and cast up from the central depths; but it is a long while since the eruption, and the blocks have got cold, and the corners have been rubbed off them. I am afraid that some people, when they read …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

The Resurrection of Dead Souls
'God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ.'--Eph. ii. 4, 5. Scripture paints man as he is, in darker tints, and man as he may become, in brighter ones, than are elsewhere found. The range of this portrait painter's palette is from pitchiest black to most dazzling white, as of snow smitten by sunlight. Nowhere else are there such sad, stern words about the actualities of human nature; nowhere else such …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

The Scripture Way of Salvation
"Ye are saved through faith." Ephesians 2:8. 1. Nothing can be more intricate, complex, and hard to be understood, than religion, as it has been often described. And this is not only true concerning the religion of the Heathens, even many of the wisest of them, but concerning the religion of those also who were, in some sense, Christians; yea, and men of great name in the Christian world; men who seemed to be pillars thereof. Yet how easy to be understood, how plain and simple a thing, is the genuine …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

Spiritual Resurrection
The apostle is here speaking, you will observe, of the church at Ephesus, and, indeed, of all those who were chosen in Christ Jesus, accepted in him, and redeemed with his blood; and he says of them, "You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." What a solemn sight is presented to us by a dead body! When last evening trying to realize the thought, it utterly overcame me. The thought is overwhelming, that soon this body of mine must be a carnival for worms; that in and out of these …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 3: 1857

The Agreement of Salvation by Grace with Walking in Good Works
I shall call your attention to the near neighborhood of these two phrases, "Not of works," and "Created in Christ Jesus unto good works." The text reads with a singular sound; for it seems strange to the ear that good works should be negatived as the cause of salvation, and then should be spoken of as the great end of it. You may put it down among what the Puritans called "Orthodox Paradoxes," if you please; though it is hardly so difficult a matter as to deserve the name. Not long ago, I tried …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891

Life from the Dead
"And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins."--Ephesians 2:1. OUR TRANSLATORS, as you observe, have put in the words "hath he quickened", because Paul had thrown the sense a little farther on, and it was possible for the reader not to catch it. The have but anticipated the statement of the fourth and fifth verses: "God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ." Here is the point. God …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 38: 1892

The Tabernacle of the Most High
When men talk of holy places they seem to be ignorant of the use of language. Can holiness dwell in bricks and mortar? Can there be such a thing as a sanctified steeple? Can it possibly happen that there can be such a thing in the world as a moral window or a godly door post? I am lost in amazement, utterly lost, when I think how addled men's brains must be when they impute moral virtues to bricks and mortar, and stones, and stained glass. Pray how deep Doth this consecration go, and how high? Is …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 5: 1859

A Solemn Deprival
WE SHALL have two things to consider this evening--the misery of our past estate, and the great deliverance which God has wrought for us. As for:-- I. THE MISERY OF OUR PAST ESTATE, be it known unto you that, in common with the rest of mankind, believers were once without Christ. No tongue can tell the depth of wretchedness that lies in those two words. There is no poverty like it, no want like it, and for those who die so, there is no ruin like that it will bring. Without Christ! If this be the …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 61: 1915

All of Grace
OF THE THINGS which I have spoken unto you these many years, this is the sum. Within the circle of these words my theology is contained, so far as it refers to the salvation of men. I rejoice also to remember that those of my family who were ministers of Christ before me preached this doctrine, and none other. My father, who is still able to bear his personal testimony for his Lord, knows no other doctrine, neither did his father before him. I am led to remember this by the fact that a somewhat singular …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 61: 1915

Our Glorious Transforming
"But now in Christ Jesus, ye, who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ."--Ephesians 2:13. I DO not want you to feel at this time as if you were listening to a sermon, or to any sort of set discourse, but rather I should like, if it were possible, that you should feel as if you were alone with the Saviour, and were engaged in calm and quiet meditation; and I will try to be the prompter, standing at the elbow of your contemplation, suggesting one thought and then another; and …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 62: 1916

"There is Therefore Now no Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
Rom. viii. 1.--"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, &c." All the promises are yea and amen in Christ Jesus; they meet all in him and from him are derived unto us. When man was in integrity, he was with God, and in God, and that immediately, without the intervention of a Mediator. But our falling from God hath made us without God, and the distance is so great, as Abraham speaks to the rich man, that neither can those above go down to him, nor he come up to them. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

"Who Walk not after the Flesh, but after the Spirit. "
Rom. viii. 1.--"Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." It is no wonder that we cannot speak any thing to purpose of this subject, and that you do not bear with fruit, because it is indeed a mystery to our judgments, and a great stranger to our practice. There is so little of the Spirit, both in teachers and those that come to be taught, that we can but speak of it as an unknown thing, and cannot make you to conceive it, in the living notion of it as it is. Only we may say in general,--it …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

"For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus Hath Made Me Free from the Law of Sin and Death. "
Rom. viii. 2.--"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." That whereabout the thoughts and discourses of men now run, is freedom and liberty, or bondage and slavery. All men are afraid to lose their liberties, and be made servants to strangers. And indeed liberty, whether national or personal, even in civil respects, is a great mercy and privilege. But alas! men know not, neither do they consider, what is the ground and reason of such changes, …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The Scriptures Reveal Eternal Life through Jesus Christ
John v. 39--"Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me." Eph. ii. 20--"And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets." As in darkness there is need of a lantern without and the light of the eyes within--for neither can we see in darkness without some lamp though we have never so good eyes, nor yet see without eyes, though in never so clear a sunshine--so there is absolute need for the guiding of our feet in the dangerous …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

"For what the Law could not Do, in that it was Weak through the Flesh, God Sending his Own Son in the Likeness of Sinful Flesh,
Rom. viii. 3.--"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh." For what purpose do we meet thus together? I would we knew it,--then it might be to some better purpose. In all other things we are rational, and do nothing of moment without some end and purpose. But, alas! in this matter of greatest moment, our going about divine ordinances, we have scarce any distinct or deliberate …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners Or, a Brief Relation of the Exceeding Mercy of God in Christ, to his Poor Servant, John Bunyan
In this my relation of the merciful working of God upon my soul, it will not be amiss, if in the first place, I do in a few words give you a hint of my pedigree, and manner of bringing up; that thereby the goodness and bounty of God towards me, may be the more advanced and magnified before the sons of men. 2. For my descent then, it was, as is well known by many, of a low and inconsiderable generation; my father's house being of that rank that is meanest, and most despised of all the families in …
John Bunyan—Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners

Sovereign Grace
Sovereign Grace Its Source, Its Nature and Its Effects By D. L. Moody "By Grace are ye saved."--Ephesians ii. 8 With Three Gospel Dialogues Chicago New York Toronto FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY London and Edinburgh Copyrighted 1891 by Fleming H. Revell Company. …
Dwight L. Moody—Sovereign Grace

Our Death.
"You who were dead in trespasses and sin."--Ephes. ii. 1. Next in order comes the discussion of death. There is sin, which is deviation from and resistance against the law. There is guilt, which is withholding from God that which, as the Giver and Upholder of that law, is due to Him. But there is also punishment, which is the Lawgiver's act of upholding His law against the lawbreaker. The Sacred Scripture calls this punishment "death." To understand what death is, we must first ask: "What is life?" …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit