Now, you turn in your Bible to
the book of Ephesians. Last week, we brought a message
from Ephesians chapter 1 about the work of the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit in accomplishing our salvation. And today, we
want to take a brief look at Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1,
down to verse 6 or 7, around in there somewhere. But I'm taking the title for
the message from what is said and what just leaps out at my
heart in verse 4. In the way the Lord does this,
He paints such a black, black picture of what we are by nature. And then He shines that diamond
of His grace against that black cloth of our depravity. And then
He says, but God. You see that verse 4? But God. But God who is rich. He is rich
in every aspect of His holy character. He's rich in holiness. He's rich
in mercy. He's rich in His love, for His
great love were with He. He loved us. He committed His
love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. I'm thankful for those two words,
but God. But God. So the title of the
message will be, God who is rich in mercy. God who is rich in
mercy. If you missed the message from
last week, you can find it on Sermon Audio. And you can listen
there at your leisure. Now, as we look at Ephesians
chapter 2, two things will be most evident as we look at this
portion of Scripture. The first lesson we see here
is our own exceeding sinfulness. Our own exceeding sinfulness. We were by nature, and we are
by nature, born in sin and iniquity. We were dead, dead, dead in trespasses
and in sin. We're born that way. We come
forth that way because of what Adam did. The wages of sin is
death. So we see the exceeding sinfulness
of our sin, but also see in the Lord Jesus Christ the exceeding
richness of His grace. Notice verse 7. Ephesians 2 verse
7, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches
of his grace. Sovereign grace, eternal grace,
electing grace. Riches of His grace, exceeding
riches of His grace in His kindness toward us only through Christ
of His fullness have we all received grace for grace. And then down
here in verse 13, Ephesians 2, it tells us in verse 12, everything
we are by nature. By nature, verse 12, without
Christ. being aliens, strangers from
the covenants of promise, by nature having no hope, by nature
without God in this world, but now. There's those two words
again, but God. But now in Christ Jesus, you
who sometimes were far off or made nigh by the blood of Christ.
He reconciled us unto God by his blood. Now go back to verse
one, and you, Take this personal. And you,
and you, and you, who were dead in sin. Those three
words, hath he quickened, actually belong over here in verse five. But he's talking about here,
and you who were dead. We were dead in sin. Dead in
trespasses. and in sin. Now here's a vivid
description of what mankind and humanity is by nature. S-I-N. That's what we are. That's what
we are by nature. Dead, dead, dead to God. Having no life. Without God,
without hope, and without Christ. Physically alive. In the flesh,
we have physical life. but spiritually were born dead
in sin, having no life at all. Dead in and through Adam's sin
and rebellion against God. Don't turn, but let me just read
it again. This all sin entered in and death
entered in because of what Adam did. God told him, don't eat
of that tree. He said, God said, in the day
you eat of that tree, you'll die. And he died. He died, and
we all died in Him. Romans 5, 12, let me read it
to you one more time. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, death by sin, so death passed upon
all for that or in whom all sinned. We are sinners through and through. And if we say we have no sin,
As John said, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves
and the truth is not in us. Now I want you to hold your place
here in Ephesians 2. I want you to turn to this one.
Paul uses the same language over here in Colossians. Turn to Colossians
chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2, verse 13. Colossians 2, 13. And you being
dead in your sins. Now that's our state. and standing
in Adam, dead, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened
together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which is
contrary to us, took it out of the way, nailing to his cross,
having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of
them openly, triumphing over them, and the reference is himself. He triumphed over them by himself,
with himself. And Adam all died, and Christ
were made alive. Death by sin separated us from
God. Isaiah 59 said, but your iniquities
have separated you between you and your God. Our sin has separated
us from God. We're born without hope, without
God, and without life. Dead without God, dead without
spiritual life. Someone said, how dead? Graveyard
dead. Graveyard dead. No spiritual
life. Now we have physical life, but we have no spiritual life.
We're born dead in trespasses and sin. Graveyard dead. Dead
and rotten. Dead and smelly. Smelly rotten. I'm thinking of that scripture
over there in Isaiah. I think it's Isaiah 64 where
it talks about we're all as an unclean thing and all of our
righteousnesses are filthy rags and God said, it's smoke in my
nose. Stink. Like Lazarus was four
days in the grave. You remember? Our Lord told the
women and the men to remove the stone. And they said, you don't
want to do that. He'd been dead four days. Graveyard
dead, dead and rotten, dead and smelling. And that's us before
God. Dead in trespasses and sin, therefore
guilty, guilty, guilty before God. In Roman chapter 3, it says,
there's none righteous, no, not one. There's none that understand
it. There's none that seek it after
God. They're all gone out of the way. There is none righteous,
no, not one. Not one, not one at all. And
then it says in that same chapter, Romans 3, let every mouth be
stopped and all the world become guilty, guilty, guilty before
God. completely unable to produce
anything good. The only thing we can produce
is sin. God says so. God said so. Listen to this scripture. Genesis
chapter six. God saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Then it says, but Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. Now, was Noah one of those to
whom the Lord said every imagination of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil continually? Did God have mercy on Noah because
he was different? No. Noah was just like the rest
of all mankind. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Sovereign mercy, sovereign grace.
The Lord will be gracious to whom he will. The reason of the
spiritual deadness in sin is because of Adam's fall. When
he fell, and when he sinned, and when he fell, we sinned in
him. In Adam, all died. In Adam, death. The wage of sin
is death. In Christ, we're made alive.
God's going to deal with all men and those two representative
men. By one man's disobedience, many
were made sinners. By the obedience of another,
shall many be made righteous. In Adam all died, in Christ shall
all be made alive. Those two representative men.
We are sinners in Adam, we're sinners by original sin, and
we're sinners against God by actual sin. We have all sinned. and come short of the glory of
God. This corrupt state of sin and guilt and spiritual deadness
is passed from one generation to another. Sinners can only
produce sinners. All my children, all my grandchildren,
They're just like their grandpa and their dad, born in sin, shapen
in iniquity. As David said, I was born in
sin, shapen in iniquity. The heart of man is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. You got the idea of what
God is saying here? Dead. Dead in sin. Dead in trespasses
and sin. We've transgressed the law of
God. Our understanding is darkened.
Turn over here to chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 18.
Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life
of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the
blindness of their heart. Our understanding is darkened.
Our will is perverted. Our affections are void of true
love. We love darkness rather than
the light. Our mind, our thinking is all corrupt. We call that,
they have a theological phrase for that. You know what it's
called? Total depravity. Total depravity. That's what
we are. We're total sinful. Now, if we
deny this, if we deny this, you say, hey, well, I'm not a sinner.
You only deny that the truth's not in you. If you believe this,
it's because God in His mercy has taught you that salvation
for sinners. We read in Romans 6, when we
were yet without strength, without strength, without righteousness,
without anything good in us, Christ died for the ungodly. The ungodly. If I can ever find
somebody that's really ungodly and sinful and dead in sin, I've
got good news. The Lord came to save sinners.
He came to save sinners. So you, that's me, that's you,
that's every man by nature, we were dead in sin. Dead in trespasses
and sin. And because of that, we walked.
Wherein time passed, you walked. You walked according to the course
of this world. According to the prince of the
power of the air. the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience, among whom also we, Paul includes
himself in this, we all had our conversation, and that word is
behavior or conduct, in time's past, in the lust of the flesh,
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we
were by nature children of wrath, even as Others. What a vivid description. Walking here denotes continuous
practice or tenor of life. Sin and evil is the path, the
direction which all unbelievers walk. This is the path of darkness,
the broad road that leads to eternal destruction. Yet this
is the path the unbeliever chooses and approves of and delights
in. By nature, He wants to stay right there. We walk according
to the course or the path of this ungodly world that is away
from God, not to Him. According to the Prince of the
Power of the Air, Satan has a great influence over our depraved and
sinful flesh. The Prince of the Darkness, as
it says there, the prince of the power of the air, that spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Satan finds
much in our depraved sinful nature that he finds to use against
us, to sin against God. He does have the power to blind
men's understanding, to fill their hearts with evil, and to
lead them into great religious sin, self-righteousness. The greatest deception that Satan
uses against sinners is self-righteousness. Did you know that? His apostles appear as angels
of light. and ministers of righteousness,
but they have nothing but death. Unbelievers walk this way by
nature in rebellion and pride, seeking to do everything but
the will of God. It is the spirit that now works
in the children of disobedience and rebellion against God. Verse
3, we all had our conduct, our way of life, this way before
our conversation. before our conduct, rather, in
time past. This is the condition and walk
of life before we believe the gospel. Paul includes himself
in this. Hold your place there. And find
over here, remember his testimony in 1 Timothy, I want. Turn over there, 1 Timothy. Oh, 1 Timothy chapter 1. He said,
we all had our conversation in time past. Now remember who Paul
was before he met the Lord, Saul of Tarsus, a very self-centered,
self-loving, self-righteous Pharisee. In 1 Timothy 1, he says, I thank,
verse 12, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who enabled me, for
that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry,
who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, one who caused
injury, but I obtained mercy." There's that word again, but.
I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly, I did it in unbelief,
and the grace of our Lord Jesus was exceeding abundant with faith
and love which is in Christ Jesus. Verse 15, this is a faithful
saying. And worthy of all acceptation,
the Lord Jesus Christ came to save sinners, of whom I am chief. We were by nature children of
wrath, even as others, seeking to satisfy the lust of the flesh.
But something happened. You know what happened? Grace. God stopped us. and God made us to differ. Verse
four, but God, but God who was rich, he's rich in mercy for
his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead, dead
in sin, has quickened us together with Christ. That is he made
us alive and it's all by the grace of God and has raised us
up together with him and made us
sit together in the heavenlies in Christ, that in the ages to
come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
toward us through our Lord Jesus Christ." A glorious intervention
of God. Who makes you different from
another? What do you have that you didn't receive? Can't every
believer, every believer says this, I am what I am by the grace
of God, a glorious intervention. The only reason for salvation,
our salvation or any sinner's salvation, is the Lord's purpose
and grace given to us in Christ before the foundation of the
world. God commended his love toward us and that while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us. Now it says there in verse
four, but God, talking about God who is God, the Almighty
God, the God of electing love, the God of sovereign grace. He
is rich in mercy. He is rich in mercy. I want you
to turn back over here just past Timothy to the book of Titus,
the book of Titus, and look at chapter three. He's rich in mercy. rich in mercy. He will have mercy
on whom he will have mercy. In Titus chapter 3, look at verse
3. For we ourselves also were sometimes
foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lust and pleasure,
living in malice, envy, hateful, and hating one another. Well,
that's the same description that we just read, isn't it? Paul
said, we also, for we also, we ourselves also were sometime.
But, verse 4, Titus 3 verse 4, verse 4, and here's his word
again, but, but God, but after that the kindness and love of
God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy, according to His
mercy, He saved us. by the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace,
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
It all gets back to the grace of God, does it not? The God
who is rich in mercy. He said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. You cannot exhaust the storehouse
of God's mercy. We read in scripture, he is plenteous
in mercy. It's free and infinite mercy
in Christ Jesus. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we're not consumed. The Lord Jesus Christ is rich
in all aspects of His person and the fruit of His glorious
redeeming work. He is rich. Look over here in
chapter 1 verse 7. Remember this? He's rich in mercy. He's rich in redemption. Ephesians
1 verse 7, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness
of sins, according to the riches of his grace. It all gets back
to grace, does it not? He's rich in grace. Turn over
here to 2 Corinthians chapter 8. 2 Corinthians chapter 8. Look at verse 9, 2 Corinthians
8, 9. For ye know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, Yet for your sake
he became poor that you through his poverty might be rich. We enjoy the richness of his
grace through the Lord Jesus Christ taking our sin to himself,
impoverishing himself with our flesh and with our sin. He is rich unto all them that
call upon him. Sinners can appeal to the Lord's
mercy for he's rich in mercy. Think about this, David did.
King David, he said, Lord, have mercy upon me according to thy
love and kindness, according to the multitude of thy tender
mercies, blot out my sin. How about the publican? He cried
out for mercy, didn't he? Lord, be merciful to me, thee
sinner. And the Lord said, he went home
justified. How about blind Bartimaeus? The blind man sitting by the
wayside, begging, hearing that the Lord Jesus Christ was passing
by, and he cried out for mercy. Thou son of David, have mercy
upon me. And the Lord healed him. The
point I'm coming to is this. The Lord has never turned a mercy
beggar away. Hebrews chapter 4 says, therefore
let us come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in our time of need. Mercy is found
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Seek mercy where it's found,
in Christ. But God who is rich in mercy
for his great love wherewith he loved us. We only love him
because he first loved us. He loved us and he gave himself
for us. His great love to us is a never-lasting
love. His great love to us is electing
love. It's sacrificial love. It's saving
love. It's sovereign love. It's unconditional
love. It's never-ending love. Nothing
can separate us from the love of God, which is in our Lord
Jesus Christ. I can't mess it up. Salvation
is by the sovereign mercy, grace, and love of God. It's unconditional
election. It's effectual calling. It's
irresistible grace. And I can't mess it up. If I
could, I would. Salvation is all of God's grace.
Look at verse 5. Even when we were dead in sin,
Our sin was not a roadblock to stop His mercy. Our sin was not
a roadblock to stop His love. He's loved His people with an
everlasting love. Therefore, with love and kindness,
He draws us to Himself. Even when we were dead in sin,
what did He do? He quickened us together with
Christ. Now, this word quickening, you know what it means? To make
alive. We were dead. How are you going to raise a
dead man? only by the power of God. Now
it gives that to us in chapter 1, Ephesians chapter 1. He says in verse 18, the eyes
of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the
hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his
inheritance in the saints and what is exceeding greatness of
his power to us were to believe according to the working of his
mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him
from the dead and set him at his own right hand in heavenly
places. The Lord Jesus Christ was delivered
for our offenses and raised again because he justified us. We are
quickened together with him. We were dead in sin. He said,
sinner, live. And he gives us life. He gives
us life. His sovereign love reached down
to us where we were, in the vilest, deadest condition, and he says,
live, live. Our sin and our depravity was
no hindrance to the Lord's love and mercy. For we read in Scripture
that He didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. We read a moment ago in Romans
5 that Christ died for the ungodly, that He came to save those who
were lost. The Lord by His mighty power
has raised us from the grave of spiritual death and made us
new creatures in the Lord Jesus Christ and in all His doing. Let's see if we can find that
in Scripture. Turn to John chapter 1. John
chapter one. John chapter one, the gospel
of John, chapter one, verse 11 said, he came into his
own, his own received him not, but as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become sons of God, even to them that
believe on his name, which were born. Here's the reason they
were born. They believed that they were born, which were born
not of the will of flesh, not of the will of man, which were
born not of blood, that is, fleshly inheritance, nor the will of
man, nor the will of flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.
The reason you believe the gospel, because you have been quickened,
which were born. Not of the will of flesh, not
of the will of man, but born of God. If His own will beget
He us with the word of truth. This quickening power. Turn to
John chapter 17. Turn over there. The Lord said,
I'm come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.
I'm the Good Shepherd that lays down His life for the sheep.
Remember John 17. Turn there. Verse 1, these words spake Jesus
and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has
come. Glorify thy son that thy son
also may glorify thee, as thou has given him power over all
flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou has given
him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee the only true God, Jesus Christ, whom
God has sent. He must quicken us. He must give
us life. We cannot raise ourselves up
from the dead. Of His own will beget He us with
the Word of truth. In regeneration and in the new
birth, the sinner is brought forth from darkness to light,
from death to life, from sin to salvation. And it's all His
doing. He quickened us when we were
dead. The only reason you believe the Gospel is because God has
given you life. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. God alone, by His sovereign grace,
has made us to differ, being justified freely by His grace
through the redeeming blood that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians
chapter 2, even when we were dead in sin, verse 5, hath quickened
us together with Christ By whose grace you were saved. It's by
his grace that we're saved. Grace alone. Look at verse six. And hath raised us up together
and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of
his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For
by grace are you saved through faith. And that not of yourselves,
it's a gift of God, it's not of works. It's not of works,
lest any man should boast. We are made one with Christ,
together with Him. And notice it says we're quickened
together with Christ. We're quickened together with
Christ. We're raised up together with
Christ. He came as a representative man.
He lived as a representative man, as our substitute. When
He went to the cross, He went to the cross as our substitute.
We have always been in Him. When He lived, we lived. When
He died, we died. When He ascended, we ascended.
When He is seated in the heavenlies, when He sat down in the heavenlies
on the throne of God, we sat down in Him. What's true of the
head is true of the body. He's raised us up together. You
see what that's saying there? Every believer is already ascended
and seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus right now. He's our representative. Where
He is, we are. What's true of the head is true
of the body. Where He is, we are. He has raised us up together
because He's quickened us by His grace and made us to sit
together. in the heavenly places, in the
Lord Jesus Christ. That, verse 7, in the ages to
come, He's going to show us off in glory at trophies of His grace. He's going to show us off in
glory. He's going to present us to the
Father, holy, unblameable, unimprovable in His sight. He's able to keep
us from falling and to present us faultless before the presence
of God's glory with exceeding joy. And we know it's by grace. The
riches of His grace. For by grace you have been saved
through faith. And that's not of yourself. That's
the gift of God. It's not of worth, as any man
should boast.