May I be seated? Our Lord said, Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst, after righteousness they will be filled. to receive a blessing, thirst
is the requirement. Last Wednesday night in the men's,
when we meet together to read the scriptures, Brother Dan Ogle
read from Ephesians chapter 2, and that's where we'll be studying
this morning. And in spite of how many times
I've heard that read and read it myself, it was still such
a blessing when he read that, and I immediately knew what we
would be looking at today. But we need to go back now. You
can't just begin in chapter 2. You've got to start from the
beginning. There's so much error going on
today. People misapply in the scriptures,
and it doesn't apply to everybody. This is a letter, for the epistle
means, a letter written to someone, by someone, about something. And it tells us in chapter one,
to whom this is written. Verse one of chapter one, Paul,
an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, to the which are at Ephesus, and to
the faithful in Christ Jesus. Saints and faithful. Believers. This is written to believers,
because it's going to tell us, it's going to tell them, what
God did for them in chapter 2. It's not written to everyone,
but to believers, written to those who have experienced this,
what he's going to talk about. Now, this is where we begin. He says to the saints and to
the faithful, to believers, verse 1, And you hath he quickened,
the word means made alive, and you hath he made alive who were
dead. Not physically dead, but dead
in trespasses and sins. And verse 2 and 3, he goes on
to tell us what it means to be dead and trespasses in. Verses
2 and 3. In time past, you walked according
to the course of this world, that is, the thoughts, the opinions,
the beliefs, the desires, whether it is the irreligious world or
the religious world. He walked according to the thoughts,
opinions, beliefs, desires, the direction of this world, every
one thing in it, according to, verse 2, according to the prince
of the power of the air. And I quoted to you this morning
from 1 Timothy where Paul said that man, unless God Almighty
does something for them, they're captives of the devil. That's what Paul said. All men
and women are not born children of God. No, they're born in captivity,
and they're dead in trespasses and sin until God Almighty adopts
them into his family, until God Almighty quickens them, and we're
going to see how in a minute. Well, you walked according to
the course of this world, according to the dictates of the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience. What does that mean? Well, everyone is not an outwardly
immoral person, everyone is not outwardly or openly wicked and
profane, but now Romans 8 verse 7 says the natural man is enmity
against God. The natural man does not believe
the God of the Bible. The natural man does not love
the God of the Bible or the Christ of Scripture. The natural man
loves his conception of God. The natural man loves a Jesus,
but it's another The natural man, the religious
people, are the ones who killed Jesus Christ because of what
he said about God, about what he said about them, and what
he said about himself. Everyone hated him. And so did
we, until God Almighty, we're going to see where it's down
to this enmity. Enmity, that's what we're going
to see in a minute. reconciles it. Disobedience means here not
necessarily an immoral person. Someone can think that they keep
the Ten Commandments. Someone can believe in the Bible
and be a moral person and so forth, but reject the true and
living God and reject God's word. such as what our brother read
in chapter one. Come to a word like predestination,
the majority of people will immediately get their back up. They don't
even like the sound of the word. Why not? It's four times. It's God's word. It's a glorious
word. Election. Words like that. God's
worth, because man doesn't love the truth by nature. He doesn't
love it, he rejects it. Children of disobedience, that's
what it means. Reject God, reject his word,
reject the truth until God gives us a love for the truth. Our
children are born rebels. We don't have to teach our children
to lie or to steal or to rebel. Do we teach our children to rebel?
Hmm? While you spend the rest of your
years trying to teach them not to rebel. And isn't that the
indictment against this younger generation that has been left
to others to raise and so forth? Are they rebels? That's what Paul described in
the last days, that it would be disobedient to parents. This
is the most rebellious and authority-hating, despising generation next to
mine, next to the one I grew up in in the sixties and seventies.
That was the rebellious generation. They were all children of disobedience
by nature, rejecting the truth. And it says in verse 2, verse
3, "...among whom also we all had our conversation of life
in time past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and the mind. And we are by nature the children
of wrath, even as others." In other words, if it feels good,
do it. If we like it, do it. If we believe
it, we'll believe it. If we don't like it, we won't
believe it. So this doesn't just talk about open immorality. talks about the truth, about
God's word. And people, I run into people
all the time, very nice people, openly moral, religious people,
who, when confronted by the truth, go angry at it. by nature, children of wrath,
even as others, and so were you. Everyone in here before hearing
the true gospel, and there's a difference. There's another
gospel being preached. Upon hearing the true Christ,
and there's a difference because Paul said there's another Jesus
out there. He's not the Jesus Christ of Scripture. And upon
hearing that, you're angry. Children of wrath. even as others. Verse four, but God. People, this is salvation in
two words. But God. It starts out, and you. This describes every one of us,
beginning with the preacher, by nature, and you. Who, me? Not me, yes, you. You see, only guilty people get
mercy. Salvation is all about mercy.
Salvation is all about grace. Salvation is all about being
spared what we deserve. Only the guilty receive mercy,
and unless a person has been absolutely guilty. They don't
get mercy. Grace is for the helpless. Grace is a gift, and I'm getting
ahead of myself. That's in verse 8. But only the
helpless have this gift. God doesn't, it doesn't say anywhere
in the scriptures, God helps those who help themselves. That's
an old wives' fable. It doesn't say that anywhere
in the scripture. God, it does say he helps the
helpless. They're the ones that need it.
It does say he saves the unrighteous. He saves sinners. He said, I
didn't come to call the righteous to repentance. They don't need
it. They don't have any sin. They're good people. They don't
need, they just need out of their little mess they get in every
now and then. They get sick. They need Jesus to heal them.
That's not who this salvation is for. This salvation is for
guilty sinner. And you. And you have to quicken
made alive who were dead. This is life is for the dead. And here's salvation in two words
and you. This was you. Maybe still is
someone right now and you and you and you and you and you and
you and me, but now. Men say, God won't violate a
man's will. People, where does it say that? Salvation is for God Almighty
to violate a human being's free, hellbound, sinful, rebellious,
God-hating, truth-hating will. That is salvation. It's for God
Almighty to get a rebel who hates the truth and violate their will. He said, My people, Psalm 110,
verse 3, Thy people shall be willing when? When will anybody
bow to the truth? When will anybody believe the
God of the Bible? When will anybody see their need
of this salvation? In the day of thy power, I said. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of his power, and not until then." People get religion
all the time. People make decisions all the
time. Because someone makes a decision, doesn't mean it carries any weight
with God. The only decision that matters is
the one that God makes, right? But here it is. Here's salvation. First of all,
but God, who is rich in mercy. Mercy, salvation is all about
mercy. What does mercy mean? Listen
to me. You'll hear another thing. Listen
to this. This is what this whole book
is about. The mercy of God that's in Christ
Jesus. Mercy means not getting what
we deserve. Mercy means not getting what
we deserve. A man that's on death row, he's
guilty. The law has found him guilty.
The evidence is against him. He's been sentenced to die. That's
what the scripture says about all of us. In Romans 2, it says,
all have sinned and come short of the door of God. Does it not?
He said there's no difference. It doesn't matter if they're
religious or irreligious. They're still guilty. They're
born guilty and will die guilty by nature. But there's only one hope for that
man on death row, and that's if the highest man in the land,
the President of the United States, issues a free, unconditional
pardon based upon his word and his honor. That man can make
all the decisions he wants to. I've decided to go free. He can't. There's only one way. If the
President of the United States says, I'm going to show mercy
on whom I will show mercy. There's plenty of death row inmates.
He goes free. Whoever the president decides,
so is the salvation of God. That's the God of the Bible.
He said in Exodus 33, I will show mercy. It's mercy that he
shows mercy. Nobody deserves it. You see,
this is why people get mad at God's sovereign
mercy when they don't understand what mercy is. Nobody deserves
salvation. Everybody doesn't deserve salvation.
Preachers have told people for so long now that God loves them,
God needs them, can't do anything without them, and that heaven
won't be the same without them, and won't they let God do this?
God doesn't need man! Why does it say God needs man
in the scripture? Man is a guilty creature. Man, the Scripture says, is under
the wrath of God, not the love of God. And this is what this world hates,
the sound of cyber-mercy. But now, a guilty sinner like
these people, who've got mercy at the hands of God, they don't
rebel against. They realize what they were by
the mercy of God. He's the one that makes them
realize it. And he shows mercy on them. I'll tell you what that man on
death row, if he's delivered, he's not going to rebel against
mercy. All the days of his life, he's
going to be singing the praise of the president. He showed mercy
on me. I didn't deserve it. He spared
me. I should be dead right now. I was a dead man, guilty. You see, that's the salvation
of this book. The salvation of this book is
for no good sinners. Not for good people. They don't
need mercy. But now for guilty sinners. And
it's God's mercy if he makes you realize what you are. If
he makes us realize. Everybody doesn't realize it. Christ saved sinners. Christ
came to save sinners. And he's going to save every
single sinner. He said, wait a minute, if people go to hell,
but they weren't sinners, ask them. It's something that everybody
in hell has in common. None of them ask for mercy. Our Lord said there was many
that came to him on that day and said, well, we've done this,
we've done that, we've been good people, we, Lord, Lord, Jesus,
we've done this in Jesus' name, and that, and many wonderful
works. And he said, I never knew you.
Get him out of here. Everybody in hell, none of them
cried for mercy. Every one of them feel like they've
been framed. And folks, that's pretty much the way it is on
death row, isn't it? I was framed. I wasn't guilty. And everybody in heaven has this
in common. Every one of them asked for mercy
in Christ Jesus, every one of them. Asked for mercy. Lord, be merciful to me, the
sinner. Two men went into the temple to pray. One of them was
in a church all his life. And he stood and prayed with
himself. He loved to have everybody hear him pray. He loved the sound
of his own voice. He said, I thank you, Father,
I'm not like other men. My liquor's never touched my
lip. I've been in church all my life. I'm sure not like that
old publican back there. Aren't you glad to see me, God? And that old publican that nobody
liked, that everybody hated, he knew what he was, and they
knew what he was. All he could say, all he could
cry out to God while he beat on his breast was, God be merciful
to me, the sinner, the cheat, the worst. I'm the worst of the
bunch. Did the Lord justify of those
two men? The publican. He said, I say
unto you, this man, the publican, went down to his house all chargeless,
justified completely. While the other man's condemned.
Get him out of here. We don't want these self-righteous.
But God. And you hath he quickened, who
were dead in trespass and sin. I tell you what, I don't want
my daughter to go through the gutter like I did, literally.
I don't want her to. I don't want her to go through
what I went through. I don't. But if it means you
come and understand what you are by nature, if God just leaves
you to yourself, so be it. I tell you, the most dangerous
place to miss Christ is sitting in a church pew. Yes, it is. Well, the preacher talks about
sinners, and that person, thanks, was talking about everybody but
me. But God. You see, salvation's
in these two words. But God. Yeah, you know. But God, who's rich in mercy. Read on. For his great love wherewith
he loved us. Who's he writing to? The saints
and the faithful in Christ? Those who believe? Those verse
four. Look at chapter one, verse four.
Look at this. Chapter one, verse four. Quoting
as he hath chosen us. Not us, him. Nobody chooses him
unless that he first chooses them. Nobody. Quoting as he hath
chosen us. When did he do it? When we believe? No, sir. before the foundation of the
world. Why? That we should be holy and without
blame before him in love, having predestinated us under the adoption
of children. He decided who's his children.
They don't decide to be his children. Nobody decides to put themselves
in the family of God. Did your children decide to be
your children? You say it's ridiculous. It's
even more absurd and foolish and it's even blasphemous for
men to think that they put themselves into the family of God. That's
sharing his glory. My daughter is a product of my
wife and I getting together by the power of God to produce something
she had no say in. She doesn't get the glory for
being born. She didn't get herself born Did
she? She hadn't one day decided to
be born. No, she was born by someone. So is it with everyone
who's born into the kingdom of God. That's what Christ said
to that religious leader, Nicodemus, in chapter 3. He said, Nicodemus,
you're a master in Israel. You read the Bible and you can't
understand. That which is born of flesh is flesh, that which
is born of spirit is spirit. You must be born again, not get
born again. You must be born again. So is
everyone who is born of the Spirit. It's God the One who gives birth
to His children. It's Christ the One who prevailed
in birth until His people were born. It's the Holy Spirit who
gets the credit for their faith, for their repentance, for them
coming to Christ. God gets the glory, salvations
unto his glory. Eric, like my daughter doesn't
share in her birth. She thanks her mother for travailing.
The seed came from her father. God gets all the glory and salvation.
Yes, you who were dead, but God. But God. He's quickened. Who quickened who? He had quickened
them. made us alive. And his great
love where he loved us, people, it's a miracle that God, it's
amazing that God loves you. Let me shock you, and some maybe
won't shock some, but God Almighty doesn't love everybody. There are too many scriptures
that say the contrary. and say the wrath of God abides
upon the ungodly. Psalm 55, God hateth all workers
of iniquity. Proverbs 6, Psalm 117, 7-11,
just on and on you go. Malachi 3, Romans 9, Jacob have
I loved, Esau have I hated. Now, the problem is not what
men get mad at. It's God hating Esau. Men get mad when they think that
God doesn't or shouldn't love everybody. That's not the problem. The amazing thing is that God
would love anybody. Ask Jacob. Jacob never got over the fact,
why would God love me? And not Esau. Esau didn't deserve
to be loved. We saw in his story, he didn't
deserve it. He got what he deserved. And so do all men and women by
nature. But, God. You see what salvation is? It's
in these two words. But, God. And you. You're not
lovely. We're not lovely by nature. Remember
talking about the children of disobedience? I hope no one in
here is rebelling against it. I don't like that. Our nature,
our self-righteous feel good about ourselves. deserving God
loves nature. He doesn't like that. And boy, an old sinner, by the
mercy of God. And this is what all the people
in heaven have in common, too. From time and eternity, what
they're going to be singing about is not how much they love Jesus.
They never said that one time. But they're singing unto him
who loved us. John wrote, he said, here in
his love, not that we loved God, but that he first loved us. But God, who's rich in mercy,
sparing some, sparing many, sparing many as the stands of the sea
and the stars and who for his great love were with
he loved us." God's people, saints, faithful, those chosen in Christ,
given to Christ, predestined, adopted into the family. That's
who the essay is, isn't it? That's who he's writing to. Read
on. Verse 5, "...even when we were dead in sin." Oh, my, it can be said about
every one of God's people. that there's somebody only God
could love. And I know they said that about
me. Well, that's a boy only his mother could love. Well, yes
and no. But God, even dead in sin, quickened us
together with Christ. Quickened again. He made us alive
by grace. Read on. I've got to hurry. By
grace you're saved, by grace you're saved. Quickened means
made alive. The heart is dead, the mind is
dead to God. Very much alive to the things
of this world until God. He said in Ezekiel 37, a new
heart I'll give Over and over in that chapter, he said, I will
do this. I'll take away that stony heart and give him a new
heart. I will wash them. I will. I will. I will. I'll be doing all. I'll do all
this for them. This is salvation of the Bible
when God says, I've chosen him. I will love him freely. I will
work on him. I will send my son to die for
him. I will send my Holy Spirit to
convict him, grant repentance, faith in Christ. I will freely
give it all. He didn't earn it. He doesn't
deserve it. I will. And you shall. And he shall. He shall repent. He shall call
on me. He shall believe. He shall come
to Christ. He shall be willing in the day
of my power. And he hath quickened it by grace,
you say, verse 6, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." In other words,
when Christ lived, I lived. No, you lived. The believer lived.
When Christ lived, he lived that perfect life, that holy life
before God Almighty. It's the only time God ever said
from heaven, I'm well pleased. He said it about one man. He
said in the psalm, well pleased for his righteousness sake. A righteous Lord can only love
perfection. Our Lord lived the perfect life
as a man, and God saw him well pleased. But he didn't do it
for himself. He didn't do it to prove he could do it. He didn't
do it to show us how to do it. He did it as a substitute. He
did it as a representative. He did it for the chosen of God. He lived that perfect life, and
it's called a robe of righteousness. So every one of God's people
is going to be wrapped in this robe of righteousness, and it's
as if Christ made this perfect life of a man with his own work
for thirty-three and a third years, and somehow took it off
and puts it around all his people who are naked, sinful, in rags. Even though they've got a robe
they like real well, Isaiah 64, 6 says, our righteousness is
filthy rags. Our religion, our works, everything
about it has got holes in it. I'm going to tell you, Brother
William, you'll love this illustration. Man's works, man's religion,
man's goodness, Scripture says we don't have any. Doesn't it? Man did. No, not once. Our righteousness
that we work out and we think God would accept it and be pleased
with us is like a hospital gown. Those things just don't cover
people. They just don't cover you. You may think they cover
you, and you may put up a good front, but don't do hardly anything
or you'll reveal yourself. and be incredulous that God doesn't
think that they've been good boys and girls. Plead it! Look what we've done all our
lives. Is that for nothing? For nothing! Why? Christ gets all the glory. He's
not going to share it with a human being. That's why he lived for
thirty-three and a third years in this cesspool, perfectly. He didn't have to come down here.
He did it freely for the great love of the earth he loved his
people, because he was going to do it for some people, and
many people. And he shouldn't have to go to
the cross and take their guilt and their sin and their death
and their punishment, and him pay for it. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his
great love. Sin is fine. Verse 7. See, this is it. Verse 7, that
in the ages to come, he's going to show the exceeding riches
of his grace in his kindness toward us. How? Where? Through
Jesus Christ. In the ages to come, he's going
to show his exceeding riches of his grace. This is the reason
I resent every time Dick and Harry sing in amazing grace. Rock stars, music stars that
don't know anything about the grace of God. The grace of God to a believer
is amazing. Exceeding riches of his grace,
it says. Exceeding of his grace. Mercy means not getting what
we deserve. Grace means freely getting what we don't deserve. Do you understand that? Again,
if you don't hear anything else. Because twice he said, now by
grace you're Mercy means not getting what we deserve. Every
one of us deserves death. We don't deserve the love of
God. We don't deserve heaven. We don't deserve mercy. It can't be mercy if you deserve
it. Mercy means not getting what
you do deserve. Grace means getting what you
don't deserve. Grace is a gift. Paul went to
great lengths to say this in Romans, he said, Now, if it's
grace, it's great. If it's works, it's worse. It
can't be grace and works. Otherwise, grace is not works
or work. Grace is not grace and works
is not worse work. Let me just illustrate. If I
give Stan Anderson. Well, it won't be much. I'm not real gracious right now.
I'm for it. Dollar! Even if I give you a
dollar. If I give you a penny. And he's done nothing to deserve
that. If I just give it to him. Not offer. This grace, this salvation
is not an offer. It doesn't say that anywhere
in this book. Salvation is a gift that he bestows,
and what you say, a man must receive it. Yep, John 1, 12 says
that. As many as received it. Verse
13 says, Forborn of God. And John said, John the Baptist
said in chapter 3, he said, A man can receive nothing except it
be given him. You can't even receive receiving
it. Unless you get that from above,
by grace you're saved. Now here I take a penny, and
I give it to Stan. I give it to him. He didn't do
anything. I give it to him. Here, there's a penny. That's
grace. Even if it's just a penny. What if I gave him one million
dollars? Don't, Stan, don't. Don't get your hopes up. I gave
him a million dollars or a penny. Either way, it's grace. He didn't
do anything to deserve it. Now, wait. If he goes over to
my house and cuts my grass, And we agree to a price, I'll give
you five dollars for cutting, well, about two acres. Twenty-five
dollars to cut my grass. That works. Right? I didn't give him that money.
By grace, you see. Look at verse eight. And it's
all through Christ. It's his gift, verse eight. It's
his to give. By grace you save through faith. There you are, preacher. You've
got to believe. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. But where did you get it? Even faith's a gift. Verse 8. By grace you save through faith,
and that's not of yourself. It's the gift of God. It's not
of works. You see that verse 9? It's not
of works. Some people make faith a work.
Some people make a decision a work. Well, I made my decision. That's not salvation. That's
not what God's people are saying before God Almighty. They're
not saying, I, I, anything. God's people don't bring up the
word I. The only time they bring it up
is to say, I am a rotten sinner, but you. And the only time a true preacher,
a true preacher doesn't make people feel good
about themselves. A true preacher is set to make
people feel real bad about themselves so much so that they'll turn
only to Christ and only feel good about him. Only look to
him. Now it works. Nobody's going
to boast. Nobody's going to boast in heaven
of having made a decision, of having been baptized, of having
done anything. Believing? Nobody. By grace you're
saved. The topmost stone is going to
be laid on this temple with shouts of grace unto us. And if you know that story, blessed
are you. For we are his workmanship. Verse 10, we're his workmanship. You see that? Created in Christ
Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that
we should walk in them. And I've got to quit. Well, he says, we're his workmanship.
Who made this planet? Who made this planet, everybody
and everything in it? God did, didn't it? I mean, there
was nothing. There was nothing here. In the
beginning, the world was without form and void, but God. And God said, let there be life. And God said, let there be the
firmament. And God said, let there be the
creeping things, plants and animals, and let us create man in our
own image. Man had nothing to do with it,
right? God created all things, did he not? God gets all the glory for creation,
does he not? Nobody would argue that, except
an evolutionist. Who creates the sons of God? Who does this work of salvation? Who is the author and the finisher
of salvation? Who does the work from start
to finish? Who gets the glory? God does. You are His work. If you believe, thank God. Thank God. If you believe, it's
by grace. It's by grace. Flesh and blood
doesn't reveal it, but thy Father which is in heaven. All right,
I hope you do. I hope you do. Let's sing in closing a good
hymn, 474, 474. This is a good hymn. I'm sure if you'll come up. It
begins this way, not have I gotten. I hope you can sing this. We
can sing this from the heart. Nothing have I gotten but what
I've received. Grace hath bestowed it, since
I have believed. Boastings excluded, pride I base. I am only a sinner, saved by
grace. I hope you believe that. Let's
stand as we sing. Not have I gotten the God I receive,
Grace hath bestowed it since I have believed. Oh, still excluded, pride I face,
I'm only a sinner, saved by grace. Let me just read verse 3. Tears unavailing. No merits had I. Mercy had saved
me. or else I must die. Sin alarmed
me, fearing God's faith. Now I'm a sinner, still a sinner,
still a sinner, but saved by grace. Let's sing the fourth.
After a sinner whose heart overflowed, now he is saved, I can get what
he owed. Once more to tell him what I am brave, I'm only a sinner saved
by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace.