The passage this evening, Ephesians
chapter 2 verse 1, it begins with these two words, and you. And you. Who? Well, back in Ephesians 1, 1,
to the saints. to the sanctified ones, the faithful
in Christ Jesus. Those who were put there by God's
decree, God's choice, God's purpose, and kept there by the power of
God. Verse 3 said, those who are Blessed
of the Father. That's what Scripture says, verse
3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
has blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places
in Christ. Now, I'm going to be honest with
you. One of these days, by the grace
of God, we're going to understand. We're going to understand this.
We know it. And God's people believe it.
But oh, the depth, if we could just enter in. I pray that the
Lord bless these words. What blessings? All spiritual
blessings. Verse 4, according as He has
chosen us in Him, before the foundation of the world that
we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Predestinated us unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. Verse 7 says we have
redemption. Through His blood, listen to
this, the forgiveness of sins. according to the riches of His
grace. Look at verse 9. And He's made known unto us the
mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He
purposed in Himself, that we know it, that the Lord would
reveal this to us. Many of you grew up in this church. You came up here in the gospel. You came up hearing a faithful
pastor preach the truth to you. A lot of you. You've heard this
since you were this high. I remember a time in my adult
life when I heard that for the first time. I'd come up in church, just like
I was, Mark. First time I ever heard, I'd
never heard of election. I'd never heard of predestination.
I'd never heard of being chosen in Christ. Started looking through these
scriptures and it was everywhere. The Scripture says, it's spiritual
blessing, having made known unto us the mystery of His will according
to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself, that in
the dispensation, in the stewardship of the fullness of times He might
gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in
heaven which are on earth even in Him. Departed saints, the
angels that didn't fall, those creatures that He created that
are ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation, and the saints
that are still on the earth, in the dispensation of the fullness
of times, He's going to gather together in one, in whom we've
obtained, verse 11, inheritance. being predestinated according
to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel
of His own will, that we should be to the praise of His glory,
who first trusted in Christ." That is the Father who first
trusted in Christ. But all of it is trust in His
Son, the Redeemer, and you. And you, hath He quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins. He made you alive spiritually. Before, I thought I was alive. I thought I was alive because
what I had done, I did what I was told. I was told to do certain things
and I did those things. Oh, but in the good providence
of God, placed me, placed all of His
people, and His purpose to save, placed them under the sound of
the gospel. The Spirit of God blessed the gospel to them. The
Lord gave them a new heart, gave them a new mind, new will, new
love, quickened them. made them alive, and you hath
he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins." We were
dead when Adam sinned against God. God told him, the day you
eat, you're going to die. And the day he ate, he died. The evidence of his death, he
knew that he had no covering before God. Realize that I'm naked against
God. Going to have to make me a covering. Took him some fig leaves. People
say, that's so ridiculous to try to make yourself a covering. That's what man does by nature,
Chuck. I'm going to make me a covering
before God. Dead spiritually. And I inherited
that nature. I was born dead just like my
father Adam and you were too. Dead in trespasses and sin. And the evidence that I was born
dead was because I act dead. I manifest, I evidence my deadness
before God. Therefore being born dead in
trespasses and sins Ephesians 14 verse 3 says, there's none
that doeth good. No, not one. I'm not good in
word, I'm not good in thought, I'm not good in deed. I'm dead
in my understanding of God. I'm dead in my understanding
of His will. I'm dead as far as my love toward
Him. I have no affection for God. Dead in trespasses and sin. Dead in ability. to be able to
do anything. What am I going to do for God?
What am I going to do to reconcile? How am I going to make myself
alive? How is a dead man going to make himself alive? He can't
do that. And what were we doing when He
quickened us? You hath He quickened. What were
we doing? Verse 2, wherein in time past
ye 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. Every one of us were born walking
in that broad road that leads to destruction except God Almighty
arrest us because he's found a ransom. That was our continual
tenor of life, walking according to the course of this world.
Now what is that? What is the course of this world?
Walking according to the course of this world. Well, I'll tell
you this, it's a course, it's a way of walking, it's a manner
of walking by which a dead man magnifies himself. A dead man. It's a course by
which a dead man wants to abase God. He wants to make God a beggar. That's the course of this world. A course where a man trusts himself
that he's righteous, like that Pharisee. Two men went into a
temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, one was a
publican. One trusted in himself. that he was righteous. And according
to the scripture, it's a course directed by Satan. Wherein in
time past 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. It's a course
that wants God's right to rule. It's a course that desires God's
prerogative to show mercy. A course that calls God a liar. That's the course of this world
according to the prince of the power of the air. That spirit
that now works. And when I say it wants to call
God a liar, Just remember what Satan said to Eve. Hath God said? Hath God said that you're going
to die? That's what he said. He said,
you're not going to die. You know what he said? God's
a liar. You can't trust Him. You can't
depend on Him. It's a course that is dictated
by the prince of this world, by Satan himself. It's a course
that does not believe the truth concerning the Lord Jesus Christ
as he is set forth in God's report. Who has believed our report?
Who's believed the gospel? Well, here's the next question.
Well, to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? That's who believes
it. That's who believes the truth.
This walk was the original walk of everybody. No one is exempt. I'm talking about those of you
that grew up hearing the gospel. As opposed to those of us that
grew up under a false gospel. There's no difference in any
of us. Verse 3 says, among whom also we all had our conversation
in times past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. We all had our lust. in the corruption
of our flesh, our old nature. Fulfilling, doing, doing, fulfilling,
performing the desires, the wills of our flesh and of our mind.
Doing what we did because that's what we wanted to do. That's
what we knew was the right thing for us to do. We were by nature,
this was our nature, Children of wrath, even as others. Wrathful children. Now remember,
Almighty God has never, we were not, God's elect were not appointed
to wrath. God has not appointed us to wrath.
But this children of wrath means our attitude toward Him. We were
all children of wrath, wrathful children, living in malice, hateful,
resentful against God and his people. I told you the first
time I ever heard, the first time I heard it in truth, I was
sitting under a faithful gospel preacher. First time I ever heard
it, I was just talking to somebody. And they brought this up, and
I was listening to them. And I remember thinking, you
are the most delusioned person I've ever heard in my life. Where
did you get that? That cannot be the God of this
Bible. The God of this Bible does not
choose That was my attitude. That was my thoughts. Living
in malice, resentful, hateful against God and against God's
people. Anybody that believes that has
got to be blind too. Hating the gospel, hating His
mercy, hating His right to do what He will with whom He will. That's what he said, that's what
he told Moses. I will have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. I thought,
that can't be. That's not the God that I've
heard. We all had our conversation in
time past, fulfilling the lust, the desires, I mean, of the flesh,
of the mind, and were by nature wrathful children, children of
wrath, even as others, but God. Oh my, what a breath of fresh
air. Just those two words, but I think
of where Almighty God would find me. This rebel. This rebel that the scripture
reveals he found dead. in trespasses and sins, like
that child, his navel wasn't cut, wasn't swaddled, wasn't
supple, lying in his own blood, and he said, I pass by you, and
I said unto you, live, live. But God, what a sound of hope,
This is me, dead in trespasses and sins, walking according to
the course of this world. That course is dictated by the
devil himself. Wrathful against God, wrathful
against his gospel, wrathful against his love, his mercy,
but God. But God who is rich in mercy. Copiously abounding is what it
means. But who can fathom the depth
of His richness in mercy, in compassion. It's right here that
a believer is brought to behold the mercy of God. This is what
a believer says, I am, as the scriptures say, I was in Adam
before he quickened me, I was just exactly, and still have
an old nature that's still there, just like it. But God, who is
rich in mercy, rich beyond comprehension, and rich in the mercy, as I said
a moment ago, that He gives to whomsoever He will. Rich in mercy
for His great love, wherewith He loved us. That great love. That great love
that never started. Before, there was an actual human
being. The Father knew all of His people
because He had chosen them in Christ from before the foundation
of the world. I love that passage when He told
Jeremiah, He said, before I formed you in the belly. Now you think
about that. Jeremiah's mom and daddy, they
happened to get married and they had a boy. Not according to God's
Word. He said, before I formed you
in the belly, I knew you. And I ordained you a prophet. God, before the foundation of
the world, ordained Jeremiah to be a prophet. And he has ordained,
predestinated, the adoption of children through Jesus Christ
to himself, all of his people, but God. who is rich in mercy
for his great love, that eternal love. Yea, Jeremiah 31 3, I have
loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving
kindness have I drawn thee. I drew you because I loved you. And I loved you because I chose
to love you. As I said, there was nothing
in any of us that Almighty God would look upon and say, now
there is a faithful man, there's a faithful woman. There was none
good. Not one. We were all just like
this. That great love, it's great because
of Him. who is the great God. It's great
love because it does not change. Boy, aren't you glad for that? It does not vary and it arises
totally out of the Lord Himself who changeth not. Can't be measured. I am so thankful
that by the grace of God, according to His character, there's nothing
that I can do to cause His love to change for me. There's nothing that I can do.
I don't want to. But there's nothing I can do.
Thanks be unto God. But God. But God. My love varies. My love is fickle. Something happened to me, something
changed my environment or something, I just, I flare up, you know. Not him. He said, I change not,
therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. According to his
great love, We were quickened. According to that great love,
the Father sent the Messiah. I know it's because of His love.
John 3.16, for God so loved the world, so loved the arrangement
dealt with that Sunday, that He gave His only begotten Son. He would not Allow the order
of man to perish. Leave man to himself. Leave a
man alone. Adam fell in the garden. If Almighty
God does not intervene, I'm telling you the whole human race is going
to hell. No ifs, ands, or buts. No one
would be saved. No one would be rescued. No one would be preserved. But
God, according to his great love, we have a substitute. We have
one that bore our sins in his own body. And who did he die
for? His sheep. Greater love hath
no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. And then he said, you're my friends. If you do whatsoever, I have
commanded you." What is His command? What is His work? Good Master,
what must we do to work the works of God? And the Lord says, this
is the work of God that you believe on Him whom God has sent. According to that great love,
we have one who answers for us. We have one who intercedes for
us. We have one who presents our
prayers to God and accepted totally on His merit, totally according
to His grace, His mercy. And finally, His great love was
not based on anything that we did, certainly wasn't based on
our love for Him, because the Scripture says, that great love
wherewith He loved us, listen to this, even when we were dead
in sins, right back where we started. Even when we were dead
in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, By grace, you're
saved. Brethren, He must have loved
us first, before we loved Him. There was no love in us toward
Him. There was no faith in us toward
Him. even when we were in rebellion. Now listen, here's the reason
that God would show mercy. He purposed to. But Almighty
God has shown mercy to His people because of His Son. That the
Father saw that blood shed, that lamb slain from before the foundation
of the world, all of those chosen in His Son, the Father saw the
satisfaction of justice in that slain lamb. The Father beheld
the one in whom He trusted actually accomplishing, and in time He
did. I came into this world, and that
high priestly prayer that we've been looking at, Lord Jesus Christ,
Father, I finished the work You gave me to do, and the redemption. Even when we were dead in sins,
and that's when He called us, that's what we were doing. We
were doing all these things, dead, disobedient, wrathful toward
Him. Man, I'm telling you, that's
mercy. You take a rebel, one railing
on you, I'm not going to have that man rule over me. I'll not have him lord over me.
And almighty God in mercy and power gives a new heart. It's like that thief. Lord, when
you enter into your kingdom, Remember me, Saul of Tarsus. Lord, what would you have me
to do? God Almighty, when it pleased
Him, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, made us
spiritually alive. By giving us life in Christ and
the life of Christ, quickened us together with Christ. by His Holy Spirit through the
preaching of the gospel. And that was the first time that
we saw ourselves for what we were by nature, sinners, rebels. You'll never hear, I've said
this before many times, you'll never hear a believer argue with
you about what he is being born in Adam. Not a believer. You
tell him what he is and you just, I mean, just be real honest with
him. Low, rebellious, scum, worm. And that believer will say, if
he doesn't say it outwardly, he'll say it inwardly. He'll
say, you don't know the half of it. You don't know the half
of it. Then, when he quickened us, That's
for the first time that we beheld our righteousness in ourselves
to be filthy rags. All of that which we trusted
before, dung, dung. Again, only a believer will admit,
will tell you, that works, the works that I thought I had done
to merit. Whatever I did, whatever you
call it, like I said, every denomination's got their own shingle. Hang out
on the front door. You've got to do ABC. You got
to do D, E, F, 1, 2, 3. You got to do this, you got to
do that. Only a believer will say everything that I ever did
thinking that I had merited righteousness before God, it was done. Filth. Filth. And that's when we behold
His righteousness. that imputed righteousness of
His holiness, that which He earned as a man, the God-man, that's
when we behold His righteousness to be our only covering before
God, robed in His righteousness. Truly, truly, by grace are you
saved. By grace are you saved, not of
yourself, It's the gift of God. May the Lord bless these words
to our heart. Make them alive to us for Christ's
sake.