Turn to Ephesians chapter 2.
Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians verse 1 here tells us what we were. I titled the message, What We
Were and What We Are, where we've been and where we are at. You
know, Paul lays this out under the power of the Holy Spirit,
of course, so beautifully. After telling us in chapter one,
the work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, And after
praying that God would give us understanding, understanding
of His will, that our eyes would be enlightened, and we would
know what the hope of our calling is, and what the riches of the
glory of His inheritance in the saints, after doing so, He comes
to this verse 1 in chapter 2, and of course, the Bible was
not written in chapter and verse as we know that, But it tells
us what we were. And you, that's you, all of you
who believe, you, you, and you, and you. This is to us. This
is to me. This is to you. It's personal. Now, you notice Hethi Quicken
is in italics. That's not in the original Greek.
Actually, that doesn't come in until verse 5. Even when we were
dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ." It reads
like this, "...and you who were dead in trespasses and sins."
Paul was pointing out here our spiritual condition before salvation. Oftentimes, we need to be reminded
of this. This is our condition by nature.
We were void of spiritual life. We did not have spiritual life,
which is the life of God. We had this natural life, this
life of this flesh, natural life. But we did not have the life
of God. We did not have life, light, understanding. We didn't have
it. We were dead. I don't know why
I say that, because I know why. I say this every week, don't
I? I know why people don't understand it, because they're dead. But
that's easy to understand. If I tell you somebody died this
morning, so-and-so died, he's dead, would anybody have a hard
time understanding that this morning? you would know exactly
what I'm talking about. But when it comes to spiritual
things, and we say that we are spiritually dead, it's like,
well, how dead am I? How dead are people? Well, I
don't know. How many degrees of dead is there?
None. Dead is dead. And this is what
he's pointing out to us. You were dead, but you were dead
in trespasses and sins. This was your life. He's telling
us our life. This is the life we lived. Trespasses, that's
going beyond the mark. If you drive down the road and
there's a sign that says, no trespassing, and you stop the
car and you walk across the line, guess what? You've broke the
law. You are trespassing. And that's
what trespassing is. You and I have broken God's law.
We went across the line. We're dead in these things. The
law says do or don't do, and you and I just walk across that
line constantly. We're trespassers. Dead in it. We're dead in trespassing and
sins. Sins is what we do because of
what we are. And this is the way we are born.
We are spiritually stillborn. We are born dead. Dead to God. Spiritually. Every person that
is born into this world comes into this world in this condition.
We don't become lost or dead at a certain point or a certain
age. We are born this way. It says in the Psalm, they go
forth from the womb speaking lies. We could say crying lies
until they learn how to speak. We're dead. Separated from God,
that's what it means. Separated from God, that's what
this is talking about. Now, there's an interruption
here, verse 2 and 3 from verse 1. Because verse one here is
still connected with what has been said previously. But he
says here, staying on this thought, 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 works in the
children of disobedience. This verse two and three, And
verse 3 says this, 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. These two verses tell us the
way that we lived while in this condition. This is how we lived. And this is what we were under,
the power of darkness. Spirit of evil, we were under
that power. We were directed by it. Those
who believe not are under the power of Satan. I don't care
if you're born into a believer, a home where parents believe,
we're all born this way. All of us, we're under the, if
we're not under the power, and direction of the Holy Spirit,
we are under the power of darkness. We are under the power of this
spirit, this evil spirit, that just identifies this age, and
every age, as far as that goes. And this is the way we walked.
A walk is a tenor of life. It's a tenor of life. We're in
time past, you see. You notice back in verse one,
who were dead. You're not dead anymore. He's
speaking to a people that's not dead. They've been given life.
And he's gonna point that out as we go through this chapter.
You're not dead anymore. You've been made alive in Jesus
Christ, but you were dead. You were spiritually dead. You
didn't know God. You had nothing to do with God. You had nothing
to do with Jesus Christ. You were dead. And you walked
according to the course of this world. Your life was dictated
by the principles of this world. That's how you walked. You walked. You see this especially in school,
high school, peer pressure. You want to dress like everybody
else dresses at peer pressure. You want to walk like they walk,
and they want to walk like you walk. And you want to walk like
each other. It's the course of this world.
The course of this world is disobedience. Disobedience to parents, disobedience
to authority. That's the course of this world.
It's a course of disobedience. Well, where do you get that?
Well, first of all, that's the nature you're born with. Then
you're under the power of Satan who is disobedient. And so you walk this way, this
was according to the course. This is how the world is. According
to the prince of the power of the air, you walked according
to his influence, his power. Even over God's elect, he had
power over them while they walked in darkness. God allowed him
power. And you walked according to the
prince of the power of the air. One of the, several of the translations
are you walked according to the demon spirit of the air. That's, that's how you walk.
If you don't believe, if you don't believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, you're not under the power and influence of the Holy
Spirit. You're under the power and influence of a demon spirit,
Satan being the head of it. The spirit, that same spirit,
that same demon spirit, that's what he's talking about there,
that spirit, that little S, that same demon spirit that now works
in the children of disobedience. That to me is scary, but it's
powerful. It's powerful. This is, they're
under, you know, there's a, I think, and I believe this, that every
generation is, you know, there's a spirit that just identifies
every generation. An evil spirit, a dark spirit
identifies every generation. You can just pretty much go back
and look at it. Among whom also, we all had our
conversation or lifestyle. Our lifestyle is according to
the course of this world, according to the spirit of the power of
the air. Our lifestyle is according to
that. We all had our conversation in
times past. You're not that way no more,
but in times past it was, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind. We spent our time Trying to fulfill
the desires of this flesh. And he's not talking about skin
here. He's talking about the nature. Somebody made lust for
power. And you spent your time trying
to get it. Climbing your way to the top. Stepping on whoever
you had to step on. You know, we can lust after many
things. We lust after money, material things, power. It doesn't matter what it is.
But whatever, He says, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind. And you were by nature children
of wrath even as others. You had the same nature as everyone
else. When you strip away everything, when you strip away everything,
take all the veneer off that we put, you know, we always put
something out there in front of us. Nobody ever really sees
us, only God. We want people to see what we
want them to see. I know a man who has a very successful
business. Very successful. And it was a
multi-million dollar business. I went to school with him. He started this business from
scratch. And he started it not knowing this particular part
he was in, business he started, he didn't know anything about
it. He didn't know the first thing about it. He was an excellent
salesman, though. Excellent salesman. He didn't
know anything about it. He made this statement. He said,
I just have to make them perceive that I do. And he was good at
it. And he hired some men that did
know how to do it. But when he went out to sell, he made this
perception. Someone said, perception is 90%
of it. Make them perceive it. It's what they do. We were, by nature, children
of wrath, even as others. We were just like them. Even
though we might try to make it not look that way, but when you
take everything away, we're all depraved. You believe that? You really believe that you're
completely depraved, that the human race is completely depraved?
That's probably one of the most unpopular statements you could
ever make if you're on television. Because the world doesn't want
to believe that. They want to believe there's
some good, we're mostly good, and there's some evil. No, we were by nature children
of wrath, even as others. Now he comes back to his thought. But God, don't ever forget this. Don't
ever forget this. But God, who is rich in mercy, Marner said, that means He's
got plenty. He's rich in mercy. For His great love wherewith
He loved us. He loved us before we loved Him. He loved us with an everlasting
love. And that love must be expressed. It has to be expressed. You can't
love someone, I mean love someone, and not express it, and not do
something for them. You know, if you love someone,
they're in need, you're going to do what you can to meet that
need. You're going to. And God loved
us, and this love was found in Himself. And He must express
this love. And it wasn't because of something
that He saw in me, because I was a child of wrath by nature like
everybody else. I wasn't any better than anybody
else. You pick anybody on this earth, and I am no better than
them by nature. None. But God who's rich in mercy,
this is where it starts. It starts with God. The difference
between us now and the children of disobedience is God. God being
merciful to us, giving us what we don't deserve. He's the one who made the difference.
I didn't create the change. God did. He did. And he did it because he's rich
in mercy. And he did it because of his
great love that he has to us even before the world began.
It's an everlasting love. How great must that love be that
would cause him to give his son to die for me and you? How great
must that, that's love beyond comprehension. That's love beyond
understanding. that He would come into this
world and die in my place. What love! What love! And listen, even when we were
dead in sins, before we were even capable of loving Him, while
we were at our worst, while we were enemies in our minds by
wicked works, Even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us
together with Christ." While we were still dead in sins, He
put us in Christ and He made us alive in Christ. Whatever
Christ is, we have. He said, I'm the way, the truth,
and the life. The life. Even when we... Dead in trespasses
and sins. He didn't wait until we loved
Him. He didn't wait till we loved Him. Because that would never
happen. It wouldn't happen. God so loved us that He acted
on it. He acted on it. And He acted
on it even when we were dead in sins. And He has quickened
us, He's made us alive together with Christ. And all of this
by grace. All of this is by the grace and
mercy of God, the sovereign grace of God. By grace, He says, you
are saved. And by grace, you are being saved.
And none of it had anything to do with us as far as what we
do or don't do. It had nothing to do with that. If it did, we would never be
saved. And He has raised us up together. You see, this whole work of salvation
is of God. He has raised us up together. And He made us sit together, Jew and Gentile. People out of
every kindred, tribe, tongue, and nation under heaven is seated
together with Jesus Christ at the throne of grace. Right now. Right now. He's made us sit together in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Where He is, we are. I don't think we've ever really
tried to get a hold of that. This is where assurance is. It's when you get a hold of what
you are and have in Jesus Christ. Not what you feel. It's not what
you feel, it's what you have. According to the Word of God,
it's what you have in Christ. God the Father has raised us
up from the dead. We have spiritual life in Jesus
Christ. First of all, this is positional,
and then in time, it's reality. Positionally, we have been raised
up in Christ. Listen, when He died, we died. You believe that? You believe
that when Jesus Christ died on that cross, you, you died. Well, the same, when He rose
from the grave, you arose from the grave. See, He started out
in this chapter, and you, I'm speaking to you. You who believe,
He's speaking to you. This is positional, He raised
us up in Him, we died in Him, raised us up in Him, we are seated
in Him. And then in time, we are raised up spiritually, we're
given spiritual life in Christ, and when we die, we're gonna
go to be absent from the body, be present with the Lord, and
we're gonna be seated with Him. And He tells us why He did it
in verse seven, that in the ages to come, from ages to ages in this world,
then when this is over, eternity throughout eternity. In the ages
to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace." You know,
we who believe, there's nothing greater than
grace, is there? But we haven't even began to understand grace
until we're there. We have an understanding now.
But like Paul said, you know, We see through a glass darkly,
and our understanding is that way also. We understand in part,
and that's why we preach in part. There's a whole lot more here
than I... I'm not even going to scratch the surface this morning,
I'm telling you. I won't scratch the surface as long as I live,
and stand here and preach. You talk about amazing grace,
we sing it now, but someday we are going to really sing amazing
grace. We are going to understand, but listen, throughout the ages,
we are going to constantly understand and grow and come to more knowledge
of the amazing grace of God. That in the ages to come, He
might show the exceeding riches of His grace. In His kindness. Oh, how kind God is to us. In
His kindness toward us through Jesus Christ. For by grace, grace
are you saved through faith. God saved, but He uses means.
He's a God of means. And the means here is faith.
And that doubt of yourselves, What's he talking about there?
That's not of yourselves. Well, he could be saying that faith
is not of yourself. It is the gift of God. Faith is the gift
of God. But what he's saying here, this salvation that he's
speaking of. This salvation, this being made
alive, this being raised in Christ is not of you. The whole process
of it from beginning to end is all of the grace of God. It's
all of grace, it's not of works. lest any man should boast." But
now, I never really thought about this. I mean, it just didn't
really hit me until I was studying this this week. It's not of works. There are some Jews reading this. There are some Jews in that crowd
reading this who had been under the law and God had saved them.
And they were struggling. They were struggling to let that
law go. You know, just like the way we were raised, A lot of
times it's hard to let those things go. And you know, if you're
raised under religion, under a false religion, sometimes it
takes a while to let things go. And here it says, not of works.
You see Paul's writing to Jews and you'll see this. If I have
time here, you'll see this here in a little bit. It's not of works, lest any man
should boast. They said, we be not sinners. We're not sinners. We keep the
law. We obey the law. That rich man, that young rich
man said, all these have I kept from my youth up. No, it's not
of works, lest anybody should boast. For we are his workmanship. Are you a believer? Do you believe
this morning? You are the workmanship of God.
You're the handiwork of God from start to finish. We are His workmanship. And oh, what workmanship. What
workmanship? Only God can take a wretch like
me and you and make us believers and turn us into men and women
who love God, who want to know Him, who seek after Him, who
want to walk a godly life. I want to walk in godliness.
You want to walk in godliness? That's the workmanship of God.
For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. We don't walk according to the
course of this world anymore. We don't do that. I'm not saying
we don't sin, but that's not the tenor of our life. The tenor
of our life is after godliness. The tenor of our life is to know
God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. That's the tenor of
our life. And we walk in a sphere of good works. Godliness, moral behavior, which God hath before ordained,
prepared. He prepared this all before creation,
that you and I should be conformed to the image of Christ and walk
even as He walked. How did He walk? Well, he walked
by faith. He did that as a man. I mean,
he walked in obedience. And you know that obedience?
He wanted to. He wanted to. Those Jews didn't
want to obey the law. They did it because of the rewards
they thought they were going to get from it. Because the Lord
said to those Pharisees, you bind burdens on men too heavy
to be borne, and you won't even take one finger and help lift
it. That's because you don't want
it. He's like, I ain't doing that. You're going to do it,
but I ain't doing that. No. We are his workmanship. Isn't
that something? You think God will ever let his
workmanship fail? I had a man that worked for me
years ago in the machine shop. And you could take the parts
that he did. And you could take the parts
of everybody else in that shop, everybody else, you could take
their parts, and you could lay them all side by side, and I
could tell you which one was that man's parts. It was D-bird,
it was shiny, it was right on. I mean, he was meticulous. Everybody else was like, well,
it works. It works. God is meticulous. He's going
to conform you to Christ. You're going to be like Him.
God's going to populate Heaven with a people just like His Son.
Holy, righteous, meek, lowly, kind, gentle. You can't even imagine how we're
going to treat each other there. Compared to that, we treat each
other all right. Better than we used to. But my,
there, it's going to be perfect kindness, perfect love. Glad
to see you. Really glad to see you. Oh, where is workmanship? Boy,
what workmanship. Now remember this, lest you forget
it, because we have short-term memories. that you being in time past Gentiles
in the flesh. Now he's not, he's not just,
he's talking here about this is not just a nationality thing,
but this is, you were heathens. You were just a bunch of heathens.
And that was us. That was us by nature. That's
us. That's our ancestry. He's talking here about our ancestry.
Let's read this. Let's read this with some interest.
This is our ancestry. Remember this, that you've been
in time past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision
by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands. Those
who just had the outward sign, they called you the uncircumcision,
they called you dogs. This was their attitude towards
you. There's been no people on this earth that despised each
other more than the Gentiles and the Jews. There was a real
animosity there. That's why Jonah didn't want
to go to Nineveh. That's why he didn't want to
go to Nineveh. He didn't want to see God have mercy on them.
There was so much hatred and friction between them. He didn't
want to see that happen. He said, I knew you'd have mercy
on them. Isn't that what he said, basically, paraphrasing? He didn't
want to see that. I knew you were a merciful God.
He wanted to sit out there on that hill and watch it burn. But now this enmity that was
between the Jew and the Gentile, Jesus Christ broke it down. The
enmity that's between anyone, I don't care what nationality
they're from, when they believe the gospel, that wall comes down. It comes down because in Christ
we are one. Watch this. Wherefore remember,
you've been in time past, Gentiles in the flesh, you're called to
uncircumcision by that which you're called to circumcision,
that at that time you were without Christ and you were without Christ. They were in darkness. Our ancestry
was in darkness. You were aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel. You were aliens from salvation. And here I believe he's speaking
of the true Israel of God. And you're a stranger from the
covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the
world. I'm glad I wasn't born then. Seriously, I'm glad I'm
born in this day when the gospel's preached throughout the world
to Jews and Gentiles. Because there was a time it wasn't.
But now in Christ Jesus, you who sometimes were far off, you're
made now. You're brought into the family.
You're family. It's been made now by the blood
of Jesus Christ. How powerful is that blood that
breaks down all these walls and things that kept us apart. For
He is our peace. This is more than saying that
He made peace for us. He Himself is our peace. My peace sits at God's right
hand. My peace is a person. My peace
is a person. Jesus Christ. He's our peace. Our, our, our, our peace. Who's
our? Jew and Gentile. "...who hath made both one."
He made us one in Him. And He has broken down the middle
wall of partition that is between us. What's that middle wall of
partition? The law. He fulfilled the law and he made
it inoperative. That law that separated the Jews
and the Gentiles, they weren't to marry the Gentiles, they were
not to do that. They were not to basically have
anything to do with them. But that law, the law and the
ceremonies and all those that was given to Israel wasn't given
to the Gentiles. And He says He's removed that,
that wall that kept us apart. He's broken down the middle wall
of partition, having abolished in His flesh the enmity that
would separate us. Even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances, for to make in Himself of two one
new man, so make in peace. You and I, and it doesn't matter
who it is, or where they're from. You and I are brothers and sisters
in Christ. Are we not one in Christ? We have the same Spirit, we have
the same Father, same faith, same hope, same love. We're one. We are one in Christ. In verse
16, "...and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body through
the cross," or by the cross. He might reconcile both. You know, it's like they're shooting
at each other. You know, the only thing that's
going to bring two people together and make peace is the cross of
Christ, Jesus Christ Himself. Other than that, whatever peace
they might be, they might sign a peace treaty. They might quit
shooting at each other for about a day or two, but they're going
to go back shooting at each other. It's going to happen because
of that enmity that's there. But my soul, if you and I meet
together in Jesus Christ, we're going to love each other forever
and ever and ever. And that love is just going to
grow. It's just going to grow. that He might reconcile both
unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.
And He came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and
to them that were nigh." He preached the same gospel. Our Lord preached the same gospel
in Samaria that He preached in the temple there in Jerusalem.
He never changed the message. The message is the same. You
know where the change has to come? With us. He has to change
us. He doesn't change. He's the same. He changes not. Jesus Christ
is the same and His message doesn't change. And He came and He preached
the gospel to us. For through Him we both have
access by one Spirit unto the Father. In this verse, He's teaching
us the Trinity. Through Jesus Christ, we have
access by the Holy Spirit unto the Father. We, Jew and Gentile. That's what this section here
is about because there are Jews sitting in that congregation.
And there are some of them, no doubt, as we read through the
New Testament, they've struggled with it. And he's saying here
that you all are one. That Christ fulfilled the law
and it's inoperative now. Now, therefore, you're no more
strangers and foreigners. Your fellow citizens. Your fellow citizens of the kingdom
of God. Your fellow citizens with the saints and of the household
of God. And you're built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets. And this is interesting because
the message of the apostles is the same message of the prophets,
see? See how he connected those together? You're built upon the
foundation of the apostles and the prophets. Those who look
back at the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, he's saying that the
apostles have the same message. It's the same foundation. They're
not laying a different foundation. It's not different. Jesus Christ
Himself being the chief cornerstone in whom all the building fitly framed together. You know, God
is putting together the church, the body of Christ, He's putting
together the body of Jesus Christ fitly. He puts the windows where
the windows belong, and the doors where the doors belong, and all
those things it takes to build a house. They are in the right
place. They're in the right place. And
God is building it. In whom ye are also built together
for a habitation of God through the Spirit. God inhabits you. God's going to live in us, dwell
in us, walk in us, as He does now, except it's going
to be without sin. It's going to be in an atmosphere
that's nothing but holy and where you and I can grasp without sin what He's teaching us. We can grasp something greater
than we can now. God Himself. God Himself. But He's made us both one in
Christ. We who were dead in trespasses
and sins, and I like the way He says that, and you, He's not
saying just you Gentiles, even though he's speaking to the Gentiles
at Ephesus, but you Jews also. You Jews also. This is the way
you were. They lived under the ceremonies
of self-righteousness, and we lived in heathenism and superstition.
Both were lost. Both lost. Both need saved. This is what you were, and now
this is who you are. All right.