Good Ephesians 2, where you were
a few moments ago. It's good to be here. It's been
a while. A lot of familiar faces. A lot of folks I don't know,
but there are some folks I know real well here. Ephesians chapter
2, it says here, And you have be
quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. That's quite a way
to start this chapter. We were dead. It starts out by
describing what we were by nature. We're dead in trespasses and
sins. We weren't just a little sick.
As I said, that's something I was taught all my life. I was always
taught that any time I wanted to, I could get up and make my
move by my own free will towards the Lord Jesus Christ. And he
would just be so pleased if I did. But the fact is, I was dead in
trespasses and sin, and I couldn't move any more than any other
dead man. Just a fact. He said, you have bequickened
who were dead in trespasses and sin here. Our salvation, our
conversion here is likened unto a resurrection from the dead.
That's what it is. And you think, well, if it's
a resurrection from the dead, Preacher, why do you bother to
speak to people? This is obviously something that takes great power.
But we preach because we believe that the Lord will call the dead.
Call them out of their death just like Ezekiel when he was
told to prophesy over a bunch of dry bones. That wouldn't have
made any sense for anybody standing by. And I tell you, it didn't
make any sense the day our Lord stood outside Lazarus' grave
and told him to come forth. Anybody watching such a thing
might have thought that rather strange. But the fact is, our
Lord does call people from the dead. Calls them from the dead. And this gospel, this foolishness
of preaching is the word of life. It's the gospel which is the
power of God unto salvation. And you and I, who are believers,
He has sent it our way. And you know, as many as were
ordained into eternal life believe. And that's why we go out preaching.
That's why we do this. We know that the Lord's sheep
are there. You know, Paul thought about leaving Corinth and the
Lord told him, you stay put, I have many people in this city.
And I can't help but think that that's one of the reasons the
Lord's brought a gospel preacher to this town, is that he has
sheep here. He has sheep to call, and he
quickens them. He quickens them. You notice
that word, he quickened. He quickened. Sovereignly, he
quickens. People that are spiritually dead.
People who were separated from God. Aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel. Strangers to the covenants of
promise. Without God and without hope
in this world, he quickens them. You know, just like I told you
a few moments ago about Joseph and his brethren. There was a
famine and Joseph and his brethren were in the same situation as
everybody else. Even though they were loved of
him, they were just as dead and just as much children of wrath
and just as hungry as everybody else. And you and I, my friends,
we're without God in this world. We had no spiritual ability to
do anything good. Sin was imputed to us in the
Garden of Eden, and my goodness, how it took hold. It did now. If you had children, and I'd
say most of you do, if you don't believe in depravity, you haven't
been paying attention. These kids are depraved. Our
children are by nature. They're rebels. Tell them not
to do something and leave the room. It doesn't take long before we
start manifesting our death. From the fall of man in the garden,
we have been completely corrupted and ruined, every bit of us. And he describes this in verse
2, he starts manifesting this. Prarien, in times 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. This is how we walked. That's
what he's talking about, how we walked. Our manner, our tenor
of life, our tenor of life. By nature, we walk according
to this world. What's that mean? Well, it just
means it's It's the way we are. It's our custom, our manner,
our thoughts. If you want to call it the law
of man, that's fine. Call it the law of man. That
grab it and growl mentality. Grab it and growl. That's what
we walked. That's how we walked. And that
was true in the past. I'll tell you, when Paul's describing
here, When he's describing this walk in the past, he's not just
talking about the evil and lust of our flesh. He's talking also
about religion. Did you know that? Look at Colossians
2. Do you notice how he said we?
We walked in times past? Look at Colossians 2. I want to talk to you about walking
in times past according to the lust of the flesh. Here, Colossians
2, verse 20. He says, wherefore, if you be
dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though
living in the world, are you subject to ordinances, touch
not, taste not, handle not, which all are to perish with using
after the commandments and doctrines of men, and which things, indeed,
to show of wisdom and will worship and humility and neglecting of
the body, not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh.
He's talking about religion. Touch not, taste not, handle
not. Boy, that's the way I was growing up. People still honor
that. You go and you watch the Amish, and everybody talks about
what fine folks they are. Why? Because they wear black
clothes and have beards. There's nothing holy about them.
They've got a show called the Amish Mafia. There's nothing
holy about them people. That is not holiness. And this
is all part of the way in which we walked. We had our conversation
with worldly religion. Walking after the course of this
world's religion, its customs, its manners, its thoughts, we
follow these things. We follow them so because it
was the old time religion. Traditions. And it goes on here. It says
that wherein in times past we walked according to the course
of this world, And we had another guide, too, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience. Did you know that? Everybody
in this world walks, spiritually walks, in one of two ways. They're
either led by the Holy Spirit, which dwells in their hearts,
or they're led by the spirit of disobedience. Does that sound
black and white? That's black and white. That's
black and white. Satan's called the prince of
the power of the air, Because he has residence around us, he
has access and he has the ability to blind the eyes of men. Look at 2 Corinthians 4. He has
the ability to blind the eyes of men. To fill us with hatred and prejudice. This is what he says in 2 Corinthians
4 verse 3. It says, if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost.
In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them
that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ,
whose the image of God, should shine unto them. Satan has power,
my friends. Great power. Great power. Look at John chapter 8 for a
moment. We're talking about that old time religion, John chapter
8, verse 44. Verse 43, I love this. Verse 42, Jesus said unto them,
If God were your father, you would love me. For I proceeded
forth and came from God, neither came I of myself, but he sent
me. Why do you not understand my
speech? Even because you cannot hear
my word, you are of your father the devil, and the lust of your
father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning
and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. And
when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar
and the father of it." You don't hear me because you're of your
father the devil. And that's the case. We are led
spiritually by this one. Paul says in 2 Timothy 2.26 that
they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who
are taken captive by him at his will. At his will. Everybody
wants to talk about free will. Let me tell you something. There's
no man alive who's got a freer will than the devil's got. And
ultimately, there's only really one free will in the universe,
and that belongs to the sovereign God of heaven. The sovereign
God of heaven. Not enough said about His free
will. We are by nature inclined to all the customs of the world,
and the prince of the power of the air uses this inclination
that you and I have by nature and uses it against us. That's
right. It's like I watch these guys
Doing judo. You swing at a man and he takes
your weight and he throws you. That's exactly what Satan does.
He takes advantage of these inclinations and uses them against us all.
Against us all. And he says here in verse 3 in
the text, among whom also we all had our conversation. That's
what I was saying a few moments ago. We all had our conversation. Every one of us. had our conversation
in times past in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and we were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others." Fulfilling the lust of the flesh is what
he talks about. Now this is anti-Christ. The
course of the world is anti-Christ. And that's the way you and I,
we came up. We were anti-Christ. We said,
we'll not have this man reign over us. The fool has said in
his heart, no God. No God for me. No Lord for me.
You know who that was? Me and you. You can read that
in the Psalms when that's quoted and it's quoted over in Romans
chapter 3. Look at that for a second. Romans
chapter 3. If you read all of Romans 3,
you'll find out that when Paul is quoting these verses, he's
combining a couple of psalms that start out with the fool
has said in his heart, there's no God for me, no Lord. And here's
what it is. Listen here. Chapter 3, verse
10, as it's written, there's none righteous, no, not one.
That's in that text in the Psalms. Psalm 14, I believe, about the
fool that sinned. There's none righteous, no, not
one. There's none that understands.
You understand that since the fall of the garden, we do not
have the ability to understand. None of us are righteous. There's
none that understands. There's none that seeketh God.
You don't have the ability to seek God. The Father's got to
come looking for you and put you on His shoulder and carry
you home. You can't seek Him. They're all
gone out of the way. They're all together become unprofitable.
There's none that do us good. No, not one. If you read this,
their throat's an open sepulcher. Their mouth's full of cursing.
Their feet, their fingers, the whole description right down
to their eyes is just how wicked you are from top to bottom, head
to toe, as a result of what happened in that garden. And we've been
left in this state. We've been left in this state,
my friends, unless the Lord does something for us. And we were
doing this and we were fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, our wills, our thoughts. Everything we had was set on
this. Our affections were corrupt.
Everything. We sin because we willed to sin. It's not just a matter of you
having a sinful nature. No, sir, you loved it. Job said
we drink iniquity like water. We drink iniquity like water.
My goodness. But God, but God, my friends, who is rich
in mercy for His great love, Wherewith He loved us." Rich
in mercy. Everything we read in those first
three verses, just as disgusting as all that is, we're like Joseph's
brother. Not a one of us any good. It's
amazing Joseph loved him. It's amazing the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's amazing that He loved us. It says here he's rich in mercy. Now, listen to me. Mercy is an
attribute of God, just as surely as His justice is, just as surely
as His righteousness, the goodness of God, the righteousness of
God. All these things are attributes
and mercy is one of His great attributes. And our deliverance,
my friends, is attributed here completely to God's plenteous,
wonderful, amazing mercy. It's rich. You've got no idea. We won't know until we finally
see Him just how rich that mercy is. And I'll tell you what the
reason for this mercy is. You want to know what the reason
is? For the great love wherewith He loved us. Mercy for love's sake. Now, this
love is no novelty. Did you notice it's past tense?
It's with the mercy, the great love, wherewith He loved us from
the beginning. It's hard to conceive of this,
but before the world began and eternity passed, when there was
nothing, not an angel's wing was heard, This One chose to
make mankind, knowing that mankind would fall. And in the mass of
those fallen men, He looked down and said, I'm going to love these
people. And I'm going to save these people. I'm going to send
My Son who's going to bear their sins and keep the law for them. And I have an eternal love for
them. I'm going to draw them to My side. I'm going to bring
them to Me. Just like Joseph saw that all
his brethren were brought to him. The great love wherewith
He loved us. And we didn't give Him any reason
whatsoever to do so. He loved us even when we were
dead in trespasses and sin. You think there's any reason
He loved you? Did you give Him something and
He owed you something? Could He look down through eternity
and see what a good soul you'd be? My friend, it would take
an electronic microscope to find anything good in anybody in this
room. There was nothing that was ever foreseen in us. Nothing. He just chose us because He would.
Even so, Father, so it seemed good in my sight. We're out here doing the bidding
of Satan himself. Too stupid to know it. And he
loved us and showed mercy. And he quickened us. Quickened
us in Christ Jesus. He quickened us in Christ Jesus,
together with Christ. Together with Christ. What's
it mean He quickened us? Well, in the Garden of Eden,
Adam represented you and I, and Adam sinned and we fell. If he
would have stood, we'd have stood. But that wasn't going to happen.
He fell. And this one who came, Adam was a picture of. He was
a picture of the one who would come. That second Adam, that
last Adam, and that One stood. He obeyed God's law perfectly.
And not only did He die on behalf of you and I, but He lived on
behalf of you and I. The righteousness that you have
is the righteousness He had when He kept every piece and every
scrap, every piece of the law on behalf of us. That's why He
was baptized. That's why He was circumcised
the eighth day. It was for our sake. For the sake of His people. He lived for Him, He died for
Him, and when He died, He arose, and we arose with Him, meritoriously,
so much so that we are in Christ Jesus, He's quickened us together
with Christ. Now that's true, meritoriously,
and that's also true in your life, in my life. There comes
a time in the life of a dead dog sinner when God sends a preacher
in front of them, and that preacher preaches the gospel, and the
Lord moves in a room and picks that sheep up on His shoulder
and carries them home. He quickens it. They've got a new life. New life. Nothing they ever had
before. A new life. Christ is the author
of it, the cause of it, the source of it, the sustainer of it. Ah,
they're quickened together with Christ. By grace, you're saved. That's where you got that money
in that sack. By grace, you're saved. By grace,
you're saved. No mixture of any works. Christ
died on our behalf and rose again. And He has the power to quicken
whom He will, just like He said. And that's what He does. I believe
in a victorious Christ. I don't apologize at all for
it. And I don't beg people to accept Him. Ann has raised us up together. and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come, He might
show the exceeding riches of His grace. Boy, I love words
like that. The exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness
towards us through Christ Jesus. You see, I was talking about
that union with Him, raising us up. You know, when Joseph
got around to revealing himself to his brethren in chapter 45,
I didn't get to today, the first thing he said to them is, I'm
Joseph. The first thing he did was identify
who he is. And that's what happens when
the Lord reveals himself to His people. He tells them, I am the
sovereign Lord of heaven and earth. The second thing he did
is say, you come closer to me, I'm Joseph, your brother. He
reveals his relationship to them. And I'm telling you, there's
a relationship you have with the Son of God if you're one
of His. You're His brother. You're His brother. He's the
firstborn among many brothers. And you're going to be conformed
unto His image. And we have this union. We've
been raised up together, set together in heavenly places in
Christ. We're one with the Son of God.
We have the glory that's been bestowed upon Him. It's just
a matter of time. And eternal life has begun right
now. Now. We have it right here. We're so much one with Christ
that we are spoken of as already having sat down in heavenly places
with Him. We're loved eternally. We're
forgiven eternally. We're justified eternally. We're
righteous eternally. I tell you, I used to pray through
every Sunday and fall out every Monday. That's no longer the
case. My Lord has redeemed me. And
it's now. And we'll have this joy and this
peace with Him throughout eternity. And we're going to be on display.
Did you notice that they might see, ages to come, He might show
the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness towards us through
Christ Jesus? Look at chapter 3, verse 9. And to make all men see what
is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the
world have been hidden God who created all things by Jesus Christ
to the intent that now under the principalities and powers
and heavenly places he might might be known by the church,
the manifold wisdom of God according to the eternal purpose which
He purposed in Christ Jesus, our Lord. The church is a beautiful
symbol, a beautiful display of the manifold, many-faceted wisdom
of God in revealing His people. Principalities and powers are
going to be amazed at it throughout eternity, looking at you and
I. Now why? Because we're something they
don't know anything about. Those angels in heaven that never
fell don't know anything like you know. That's right. A sinner
that's been redeemed by the grace of God is going to be able to
outsing any angel up there who never fell, didn't know anything
about sin. The voices of 10,000 angels?
Could not express my gratitude? Oh yeah, that's right. By grace you're saved. Isn't
that wonderful? For by grace you're saved. Through
faith that's not of yourselves, it's a gift of God. What's the
gift of God? Salvation? Yeah. Grace? Yeah. Faith? Oh yeah. That's what that's
talking about. By grace are you saved through
faith. And that not even yourselves. You and I don't possess the ability
to have faith by nature. Philippians chapter 1. Little things like this. Chapter
1 verse 29. I know the world says that faith
is just a matter of a man going out and getting in his car and
turning the key and knowing that the motor is going to turn over.
No, that isn't faith, okay? It says here in chapter 1, verse
29, For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only
to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake. We have
been given faith. Faith is the gift of God. Now
listen. First of all, I want you to realize
this. Grace is the first and last cause
in salvation. That's right. And faith, as important
as it is, is only a part of the machinery of our salvation. We spend our life, we started
our life out by looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. We never looked
to our faith. Never looked to our faith. If
you do, you're going to find yourself let down. It's an important part, but it's
not the main thing. It's looking to Christ. Faith,
as I was told and taught and I believe, faith is made up of
three things, basically. Faith is made up of knowledge.
That's why we preach the gospel. Faith cometh by hearing. You
hear. You hear the Gospel. You know
what's being said. You cannot believe a fact that
nobody's told you of. And when that fact is presented
before you, if you acknowledge that fact and then believe that
fact, by that I mean basically believe what you've heard, and
then you take that third part, that step of faith that's called
trust. Trust. I know whom I have believed,
and I'm persuaded that He's able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day. You know what faith is? Faith
is putting all, I mean all your eggs in one basket. All of them. That doesn't make sense in the
world. But it's true. All your eggs. Committing to Christ Jesus. Venturing
everything. Faith is believing that Jesus
Christ is just exactly who He said He is. Faith is believing
that He will do just exactly what He promised to say and said
He would do. And faith, faith my friends,
is expecting Him to do just exactly what He said He'd do. Believing
Him. Looking to Him. Find any place in the New Testament
where the Lord Jesus Christ let anybody down that came to Him.
Just find me a place. He healed them all. When He said,
I'll in no wise cast them out, He wasn't kidding. People say,
well, Dan, you sound like an Arminian. No, sir, I'm not an
Arminian, but I'm here to tell you there's a Savior that will
receive sinners. And I implore all men, all men,
to do that, to come to Him. I don't know who His elect are.
But I know this, I know that this is a gift of God. And why
is it so important that I point out it's a gift of God? Because
verse 9, it's not of works lest any man should boast. Your faith
is not of work. Your faith has got nothing to
do with works. Every natural man wants to have
something to glory in, something that he can say he contributed
to his salvation, whether it's his tithe, whether it's his time,
whether it's his whatever. You know, I remember years ago
they had that TV commercial where the mom would make a chicken
dinner at night and the husband would say how good it was. And
she'd say, well, it's shake and bake. And the daughter would
say, and I helped. Everybody wants to help. You don't help
the Lord Jesus Christ in salvation. You're not going to pay a nickel,
not a bent nickel, towards your salvation. It's not of works
lest any man should boast. Grace, salvation, in the final
analysis, is all God's doings. Why is that? Because you won't
be allowed to glory in anything. That's what he says, verse 10.
For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus and to good works.
You realize you're never going to be able to stand in glory
and tell everybody about how you earned your big mansion.
No, sir. If you say anything at all when
you get there, you're going to say, I'm His workmanship. Start to finish. Start to finish. Who brought you here? Who brought
you unto the Gospel? You live in neighborhoods and
you deal with people constantly who read their Bibles and have
never had a preacher of the Gospel standing for them. What made
that happen in your life? You're His workmanship. And you're created in Christ
Jesus on two good works which God hath before ordained that
you should walk in. Created. Created. I love that
word. We're not our own doings. Look
at Psalm 100. Psalm 100, verse 3. Now listen, know ye that the
Lord, He is God? It is He that hath made us, and
not we ourselves. We're His people, the sheep of
His pasture. We didn't make ourselves. Not
at all. Recall the creation. You've got
no more right to glory in what you've become than what you could
say you added to the creation of this world. The Lord asked
Job, where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Where were you? Declare if thou hast any understanding. Job said, I just put my hand
over my mouth. And my friends, it's the same
way in this second creation. Where were you when all this
was planned? Just put your hand over your mouth. This is the
grace of God for His people. He planned it. He purposed it
before the mountains were ever brought forth on this earth.
And what takes place in our lives and the works that you and I
are enabled to do, the things we're called to, the graces and
gifts that the Lord gives us, are all the result of His workmanship. He created us in Christ Jesus. And He did it the same way He
did the first creation. Our Lord could have simply willed
everything into being. Do you know that? Just go...
But He didn't. What did He do? He said, let
there be light. The Lord always works through
His Word. First creation, second creation. And I hope He says, let there
be light today. Let there be light. A believer
isn't just something that evolves. You know, the world tells me
this world evolved. I guess I'm old-fashioned and
people might think I'm stupid. This world didn't evolve. And believers don't evolve. Just like the first creation,
we are made from nothing. The Lord doesn't take you and
make you a religious man And when He converts you, as my pastor
used to say, you're not an old man living in the jailhouse of
religion. That's not what happens. He speaks life into the heart
of a man. And the Spirit of God broods
over the face of the deep, just like in that creation when there's
nothing there, and He brings forth life, and He brings it
forth bountifully. Everything took place through
His Word. He created. And we've been created. And that object of creation,
that first one, He spoke and it was done. And that object
of creation in the beginning was the glory of God. And that's
the object of this creation I'm talking about today. The glory
of God through the salvation of worthless, vile sinners who
are void and without form, without hope, damned and doomed just
like everybody else. But God. You get the impression there
won't be any glory. You've got some good works to
do. You've been ordained to them. Even the first creation, there
were no thorns, thistles. You'd have thought that Adam
would have just laid around all day, but that's not what the Scripture
says. Adam was put in a garden, a place prepared for him. A place
prepared before he even arrived, for him specifically, and he
had work to do to tend that garden. And you and I, wherever the Lord's
brought us, is a garden He's prepared for us, and we have
work to do according to His plan, His purpose, and for His glory. Because we're His workmanship.