Welcome to the Reign of Grace
radio broadcast. My name is Bill Parker. I'm the
pastor of the 13th Street Baptist Church in Ashland, Kentucky.
This program is sponsored by the members of Eager Avenue Grace
Church in Albany, Georgia, located at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany,
Georgia. I'll be bringing you a gospel
message of the sovereign grace and glory of God in the Lord
Jesus Christ from God's Holy Word. And now, the message. From the book of Ephesians, chapter
2. And I want you to pay particular
attention to these verses that I'm going to read and preach
on today. I've entitled the message, Why
Man Needs Mercy. Now in these scriptures, we have
one of the most descriptive passages that tells us of our sin, fallen
sinful human nature. And it describes it as being
dead in trespasses and sins. And speaking of spiritual death,
in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1, The Apostle Paul writes to
the believers in the church at Ephesus, he says, and you hath
he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Now if you're
following along in your Bibles and you have a King James Version,
which is the version I use, you might see the words hath he quickened
in italics. What that means is that that
phrase was supplied by the translators And it really appears later on
in the passage but in the context the truth of it is right there.
To be quickened means to be made alive. So what he's speaking
of is people or he's speaking to people who at one time were
dead and then were made alive. Now to be made alive also in
the Bible is called being born again by the Spirit. It is the
new birth. The Lord Jesus Christ taught
that doctrine plainly to a man named Nicodemus, and it's written
in John chapter 3. When he told Nicodemus, he said,
you must be born again. And he says, if you're not born
again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. Now the word see there
means not to see with a physical eye, but to see it with a spiritual
eye, That is, to understand it, and to know it, and to love it,
and to understand the glory of the kingdom of God in Christ.
Many times when the Lord spoke to religious men and women, such
as the Pharisees, He informed His disciples that they have
eyes, physical eyes, but they don't see. They don't have spiritual
eyes. Many times He'd say they have
ears, physical ears. They can hear what I'm saying
physically. but they don't love it, they
don't believe it, they don't have spiritual ears. The Bible
speaks of the work of the Holy Spirit in the new birth as regeneration. That means it's generated again. That is what man lost in the
garden in Adam, spiritual life, is given to him again in the
rebirth, in the new birth, being born again of the Spirit. Christ
went on to tell Nicodemus, he said, except you be born again
you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. That is in your mind
and understanding and by faith. You see, faith is the gift of
God, that's what Ephesians chapter 2 teaches, but it is not in man
by nature as he is born into this world. Man is born in sin. Man is born of Adam spiritually
dead. We're going to talk about that
and describe it here in Ephesians 2. But until he is born again,
he cannot and he will not believe. You see, faith is not something
you have on your own. Saving faith that leads a sinner
to Christ and causes a sinner to trust Christ is not something
you or I have in us by nature. It's not the product of a decision
we make or our free will. It's not. In fact, the will is
not free if you follow the Scriptures. Man can make his choices. That's
true. Some say he's a free moral agent. That's true. But his will is
in bondage to sin. Now that's what this passage
teaches. You who were quickened, he says, who were dead in trespasses
and sins, And that dead there means everything that death means.
Now, in spiritual death, it doesn't mean you cannot respond to the
gospel message preached. It means you cannot respond in
faith. You cannot respond in repentance. You cannot respond in love. You
cannot respond positively. Left to yourself, if God left
us to ourselves, we would reject Christ and the gospel. And that's
an evidence of spiritual death. So when we talk about being regenerated,
being born again, it takes two things. It takes the sovereign
power of the Holy Spirit to give life, to quicken, to be made
alive, to impart spiritual life and knowledge, and it takes the
Word of God, which is the Word of Life. The Holy Spirit, God
the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, uses the Word
of God to give life to spiritually dead sinners. The book of James
chapter 1 describes it this way, that those who are born again
are begotten again by the Word of Truth. So when he says, you
hath he quickened, he's speaking to born again sinners, born again
people, those who have been regenerated, Those who have the Spirit of
Christ within. Those who have been given a new
heart. The heart has been circumcised.
The filth of the flesh has been cut away spiritually. Now, without
that new birth, there's no quickening. Without the new birth, you are
spiritually dead. Well, he says in verse 1, "...and
you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins."
Now, the trespasses and sins are the evidences of spiritual
death. Now, we think about death. You
know, death is described in many different ways in the Scripture.
We always think of physical death. We know that we're going to die
physically. The Bible says it is appointed
unto men once to die, and after that, the judgment. Now, we know
according to the Scriptures that when the Lord Jesus Christ comes
again, when He returns in His glory, That there are going to
be those who are alive at that time who will not suffer physical
death in the same way that those who have died and gone into the
grave suffer it. It's going to be different. I'm
not sure how because the Bible doesn't give us a lot of details.
But I do know this, those who are alive at the coming of Christ
the second time, they will be changed in the twinkling of an
eye. And that's the equivalent of physical death. You see, this
vile, corrupt body cannot live forever. It is marred and contaminated
and it degenerates because of sin. Sin, see, is the cause of
it. And the process of aging, the
sickness, that's all the result of sin. Now those who are alive
when Christ comes again, this vile body will be destroyed,
it will be shed, and they will be changed like everyone else
who died in Christ, and they will be given a new glorious
body. This corruptible, the scripture
says, must put on incorruption. and we will exist forever, live
forever with Christ in glory, with no sorrow, no tears, no
pain, no death, all of that in a spiritual body. But you see,
spiritual death is something else. There is legal death, for
example. What is legal death? Well, that's
a person who is under the sentence of condemnation. Adam fell under
condemnation. He brought the whole human race
under condemnation. And that sentence of legal death
must be lifted. The only way it's lifted, though,
is not by what you do or what I do. It's lifted only by what
Christ accomplished on Calvary. When he died for the sins of
his people, he took their place under the law. He became a curse
for them. He was condemned under the wrath
of his father for the sins of his sheep legally accounted and
charged to him. And he died and he drank damnation
dry. He paid the debt in full. He
satisfied law and justice and brought in everlasting righteousness
by which God the Father justified his people. So that He, in His
obedience unto death, removed the condemnation from His sheep,
His church, His people, God's elect, all who will come to faith
in Him. And He brought in the ground
of their justification. You see, that's why we can say
boldly, we who know Christ, we who are in Him and who by faith
rest in Him, We can say with the Apostle in Romans chapter
8, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's
God that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died, yea rather is risen again and seated at the right
hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession for us.
Romans 8, verse 1 says, there is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ, who walk not after the flesh
but after the Spirit. Well, here in Ephesians 2 and
verse 1, he's speaking of spiritual death. Now, spiritual death is
a state into which all men and women born of Adam are born naturally. This is the human fleshly birth.
And that's why Christ told Nicodemus, you must be born again. Because
that which is born of the Spirit is spirit, and that which is
born of the flesh is flesh. All the flesh can produce is
flesh. In other words, a fleshly physical
birth cannot produce spiritual life. So that when we're born
naturally in the lineage of Adam who fell, we are born spiritually
dead. Now, what does that mean? Well,
that means without life, spiritual life, without a knowledge and
an understanding of God, without any desire toward the true and
living God. And he says, you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins. Now why does he say trespasses
and sins? Aren't they the same thing? Well,
in essence they are, but it describes two sides of the sin nature,
sinful human nature as we're born. For example, you know what
it is to trespass, that you might go through a neighborhood or
out in the country and you might see a fence surrounding a huge
piece of land, and on that fence there might be a sign that says,
no trespassing. That means you can only go so
far, and if you go any further, you're trespassing. So what does
trespass mean? It means to cross the line. Well, you see, when Adam sinned
against God, when he rebelled against God and disobeyed God,
he crossed the line. God drew the line. The line was
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He told Adam and
Eve, he said, you can eat of every tree of the garden except
one. The tree of the knowledge of
good and evil you cannot eat of. That tree represented God's
sovereign rule and authority. You see, man cannot cross that
line. God blessed Adam and Eve in the
garden so much with everything that they wanted. They had dominion
over the earth, but they could not have dominion over God. And
it is God who sets the rules, not man. Well, Adam lifted up
in rebellious pride, and he said, well, I can set my own rules.
And he trespassed, he crossed the line. Now, sin, literally,
trespasses and sin, now sin literally has to do with missing the mark.
The Bible says in Romans 3 and verse 23, for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. That means literally miss
the mark. The mark is absolute perfection under the law, and
man in sin, dead in trespasses and sins, man born of Adam, spiritually
dead, always falls short of the mark. The mark is perfection. It was identified and exemplified
in the work of Christ, in His person, and in His obedience,
and we miss the mark. We're sinners, and that's why
we need mercy. That's why man needs mercy. So
what he's saying here is this. Spiritual death is evidenced
by two things. Number one, we always cross the
line. Man in his religious pride, man
in his rebellion. We're born rebels. That's what
the scripture teaches. Now, I know people don't like
to hear that, but it's true. You see, this is why this book
is the Word of God and not the Word of men. The Word of men
will build you up. The Word of men will puff you
up. The Word of men will lie to you.
But the Word of God hits you with the bare truth. What are
you by nature? What am I by nature? I'm a rebel.
I'm against God. I'm a rebellious, sinful person. And secondly, I always miss the
mark. At my best, I miss the mark.
The Bible says man at his best state is altogether vanity. You can take the best of men,
the most religious, the most sincere, the most zealous of
men, and they still fall short of righteousness. That's why
Christ told them in the Sermon on the Mount. He said, except
your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and the Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom
of heaven. In other words, you've got to,
in order to be saved, in order to get to heaven, You and I must
have a righteousness that no man on earth, no man born of
Adam, not even the best of men, can produce. That's what God
requires. And that's why we need mercy.
That's why we need grace. That's why we need Christ. He's
the only one who produced such a righteousness. He's the only
one who did not rebel against the Father, but he always did
the Father's will. He's the only one who did not
miss the mark. He died for the sins of his sheep,
and he drank damnation dry, and he brought forth an everlasting
righteousness of infinite value, whereby God could be just and
justify the ungodly. So there's the evidence. Now,
these to whom Paul is writing are born-again people. They've
been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. They've been converted.
The Holy Spirit indwells them. Christ is within them by His
Spirit and by His Word. And now Paul is reminding them
of where they were brought from. Here's what you were. Here's
what you are. And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses
and sins. Now we're still sinners, even
as born-again people. But we're not spiritually dead
anymore. And look at what he says. Now, he goes on with this
description. Look at verse 2 of Ephesians
2. He says, wherein in time past
you walked according to the course of this world. Now listen to
that phrase. According to the course of this
world. According to the prince of the power of the air. Now
that's a way of describing and referring to Satan. The prince
of the world. The prince of the power of the
air. What he's talking about is spirit.
In other words, Satan is a spirit, not a physical being. He's an
angel. He's a fallen angel. He's an evil, wicked angel. And
he says, "...the spirit that now worketh in the children of
disobedience." Now, the children of disobedience is referring
to those who are not born again. It's referring to unbelievers,
those who have not been quickened by the Holy Spirit. And then
verse 3, he says, "...among whom also we all had our conversation
in times past in the lust of our flesh. Paul is saying this
is the way we all are born into this world in Adam. This is the
way we all are before we're quickened. Before we're made alive by God
the Holy Spirit. Before we're born again. And
we had our conversation. Now conversation here means more
than just your talk. It means your walk. Your course
of conduct. It includes your talk. But it
also includes the motive, it includes the goals, it includes
your conduct, everything. And what he's saying is this,
when we look at the children of disobedience, those who are
not born again by the Spirit, who are unbelievers, we can look
at them and say, that's what I was before God saved me. Now,
what made the difference between me, a born again person, and
one who's not born again? What made the difference? Most
people today would say, well, it was their free will. Not so. If that's the case, you don't
need mercy, my friend. You need your free will. Some
would say, well, it's my faith. Not so. You don't have faith.
You were born spiritually dead, just like me. Faith is the gift
of God. It comes by the Spirit in the
new birth. You see, sinners are not born again because they believe. The Scripture teaches that. They
are not born again because they believe. Sinners believe because
they're born again. The Bible tells us that plainly
in John chapter 1. That they're born again, not
of blood, nor the will of flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. It's the will of God and the
power of God. So Paul is saying, when I look
at a person who's an unbeliever, who has not been born again by
the Spirit of God, what made the difference? I'll tell you
exactly what made the difference. God's mercy. God's grace. God made the difference. Not
me. Not you. We have nothing to brag about
or boast in. I can't stand up in both. Well,
look at me. I'm born again because I exercise
my free will or I'm born again because I exercise my faith.
Listen, I have no spark of goodness within me by birth. That which
is born of flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit
is spirit. You see, it's only by the grace
and mercy of God that makes us to differ, so that we have nothing
to boast in. Well, he says here, he says,
among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in
the lust of our flesh, and he goes on, he says, fulfilling
the desires or the wills. That word desire means the will.
In other words, being spiritually dead, our wills were in bondage
to spiritual death and sin. So he said, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, that's a spiritually dead mind
now, and were by nature, now that means as we were born of
Adam, born into this world naturally, the children of wrath, even as
others. Now those for whom Christ died
are not children of wrath because Christ is life. But as we were
born into this world, We were by nature as children of wrath,
even as others. In other words, you couldn't
tell any difference between those for whom Christ died and those
for whom he didn't. By nature, they're all the same.
By nature, they're all spiritually dead. By nature, they're all
dead in trespasses and sin. In other words, by nature, they're
all rebels and they all missed the mark. By nature, they all
walk according to the course of this world. Now, let me say
a word about that. Now, somebody says, well, by
nature, we're not all the same. Well, there are a lot of differences
in some areas. We can talk about differences
of sexual differences. There's male and there's female.
We can talk about racial differences. There are different races on
this earth. We can talk about social differences.
We can talk about economic differences, national differences, we can
talk about differences in likes and dislikes, all kinds of differences.
But there's one area in which there is no difference at all. And what is that area? Paul says
it, among whom also we all at our conversation in the lust
of our flesh. In other words, we're all by
nature born spiritually dead. where all by nature rebels, trespass
against God and we all by nature miss the mark. That's what the
book of Romans chapter 3 means when it talks about for all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God right before that
it says there's no difference. There's none righteous no not
one. Now amongst those who are not
righteous you might have immoral people You might have out-and-out
rebellious people, rebellious against society, rebellious against
the law. And you might have religious
people, dedicated people, sincere. But among all of them, say, born
of Adam, by nature, there's none righteous. There's none who have
a righteousness that answers the demands of God's law and
justice. There's none who have a righteousness
that equals what God requires for salvation. And by deeds of
law, there shall no flesh be justified, it goes on to say.
It even says this, it says there's none good, no not one. That is
according to God's standard. That's why we need mercy. That's
why we need grace. That's why we need Christ. So
when the Bible makes a statement like this, that in time past
we walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the children of disobedience,
what's it talking about? It's talking about one who has
crossed the line, one who has missed the mark. Over in the
book of John, chapter 8 and verse 44, there's a startling statement
made. Now, most of us, when we think
of children of disobedience, we can easily see people in this
world who are children of disobedience. Like, for example, those who
are thieves and robbers, drug pushers, whoremongers, all such
people like that. But there is a crossing the line,
a trespass, and a sin, a missing the mark, that we don't see by
nature until God reveals it. Here Christ is speaking to the
Pharisees, dedicated religious men and women, or men, who appeared
outwardly righteous unto men. And He told them, He says, you're
of your father the devil, and the lust of your father you will
do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and a bode not in
the truth, the truth of the gospel. the truth of Christ and Him crucified,
because there's no truth in it. And when he speaketh a lie, he
speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it."
Now this is the issue, this is the state of man by nature, and
this is why we need salvation. This is why we need not just
salvation, but salvation by mercy, salvation by grace. Now where
is a sinner? going to find mercy and find
grace. There's not but one, and that's
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. My friend, do not for another
moment seek salvation based upon your own righteousness, based
upon your religious works or your free will. That's trespassing. That's crossing the line. Don't
for another moment seek salvation by your works of the law. You'll
miss the mark. The only thing that that can
do for you is evidence your spiritual deadness. You'll cross the line. That's a rebel. God commands
in the gospel for sinners to seek the Lord, the God of all
grace, to submit to Christ, to plead his blood alone for all
the forgiveness of sins. to plead His righteousness alone
for their justification, to rest in Him and trust in Him and forsake
their own works and their own righteousness. And for a sinner
to continue to do that is to cross the line and miss the mark. If you want to know something
about spiritual life, eternal life, salvation, look to Christ
through His life. He said that. He said, I am the
way, I am the truth, I am the life. life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. If you want life, come to Christ. There's only one way spiritually
dead sinners can be made alive and that is in Him who is life,
the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope you were helped by this
message. I hope that you'll get a copy
of it. If you'd like to receive a copy of this message, listen
to the announcer and he'll give you all the details that you
need to order it. The title of the message is,
Why Man Needs Mercy. We're glad you could join us
for today's message. If you would like to receive
a copy of this message, or if you would like more information
about Eager Avenue Grace Church, remember we are located at 1102
Eager Drive in Albany, Georgia. You can call us at 229-833-7000.
432-6969, or visit our Reign of Grace website
at www.rofgrace.com. Thank you, and may the Lord be
with you.