Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program. Again,
I'm glad you could join us and I hope that you will enjoy the
message. And if you would like to follow along in your Bibles,
I'll be preaching again from Ephesians chapter two, beginning
at verse one, I've been going over the subject of spiritual
death and spiritual life. And so this is the second message
on that subject. And, uh, Talking about in Ephesians
chapter two, verse one, where the Apostle Paul writing to the
church at Ephesus, and he's writing by inspiration of the Spirit,
he says, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sins. And of course that quickening
there has to do with giving life. Now obviously he's not talking
about physical life. That's certainly the work of
God. He gives physical life, brings
life into existence. Man cannot do that. But as I
mentioned last week, as we fell in Adam, ruined by the fall,
we are all born naturally, spiritually dead. And that spiritual death
has to do with the absence of spiritual life. A lot of times
when I hear people talk about sin and how they try to describe
it, you know the Bible uses metaphors or symbols, descriptive language
to talk about sin, for example. Whenever we see some passages
talking about sin, it can be described almost like a sickness,
a physical sickness, like leprosy. Sometimes, you know, Isaiah described
it that way in Isaiah chapter one, talks about the whole head
is sick, the whole body, you know, from the top of my head
to the bottom of my feet, it's nothing but putrefying sores
and all of that. Well, that's metaphorical language
to show how sin pervades our whole being as natural people,
as we fell in Adam. And sometimes righteousness is
spoken of metaphorically, like for example, imputed righteousness,
which is the only ground of salvation. The righteousness of Christ,
imputed, charged, reckoned, accounted to His people, is the ground
of salvation and the source of spiritual life. It's sometimes
described as a cloak you wear. like the garment of righteousness,
a coat of righteousness. Now that's not literal language.
Righteousness is not something I'm wearing on the outside of
me today. But it's a language that shows
how God legally charged my sins to Christ, the debt of my sins
to Christ, and legally charged his righteousness to me and thereby
I'm justified. I'm not guilty. I'm righteous
in God's sight, and it's not by my works. It's not by who
I am. It's by Christ's works and who
he is. He's God in human flesh. I stand
before God in him, having his righteousness charged, reckoned,
accounted to me, imputed to me. That's what Paul meant in Philippians
chapter three, when he says that I may be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ. And so when God the Holy Spirit
quickens me in the new birth, He shows me my sinfulness, my
depravity, the fact that I cannot earn or deserve salvation, that
if God ever gave me what I earned or deserved, it would be eternal
damnation. and he drives me to Christ for
salvation. It's all by grace. So that's
the quickening, who were dead in trespasses and sin. Well,
these two verses coming up here, I read them at the end of the
message last week, but I wanna say a few more words about this.
Ephesians two and verse two. What is the evidence of spiritual
death? How do you know if a person is
either spiritually alive or spiritually dead? Well, he says, you hath
he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, but you've
been made alive. Verse two and three, he describes
this condition, the state of a person's heart. And look at
verse two, he says, wherein in time past you walked according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience. Now, when you read those words,
who do you imagine they describe? And this is a problem that I
think with many, many people when they read the Bible. They
make the sad and tragic mistake of reading passages like that.
Look how he described it. You walked according to the course
of this world. He says, according to the prince
of the power there, that's the devil, Satan. The spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedient. Who's he talking about? Somebody
might say, well, he can't be talking about me. I've grown
up in religion. I'm American. I try to do the
best I can. Well, let me tell you something.
If you say that, you're wrong. And you'll miss the boat here.
You'll miss the whole point. That describes all human beings
by nature who fell in Adam. And that's all of us. Have you
ever quoted Romans 3.23? For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Well, sure. Are you a sinner?
Well, that describes you by nature. Now, have I been quickened by
the Holy Spirit? Am I now spiritually alive? Well,
that's another matter. And I'm gonna show you that in
just a moment. That's a sinner saved by grace. But what's he
mean here? Wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world. Well, what is the course
of this world? You say, well, that talks about
thieves and robbers and murderers and whoremongers and drug pushers
and things like that, child molesters. Well, certainly they are sinful
people of the world who deserve nothing but condemnation and
death. But my friend, this also describes
the most moral religious person who does not know Christ and
believe in Christ. does not know the gospel of God's
grace. Do you realize that you can be
sitting in a religious building, a church building, and still
be walking according to the course of this world? Do you realize
that? Well, how would I know that?
What gospel is being preached from that pulpit? Is it a gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace through the God-man, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and based on his righteousness imputed and received
by God-given faith? Or is it a gospel of work salvation,
free will, all of that? Does it talk about how there's
a spark of goodness in everybody? Well, that's not the Bible. That's
not the gospel of God's grace. And you make the difference,
salvation conditioned on you and not on Christ alone. These
are the things you need to see. You know, somebody said, well,
why do you push your books so much on this program? I wrote
these books because I call it, because I see a great need for
all of us who claim to be Christian to examine ourselves, you know,
to check the Bible. And so I wrote the book, What
is a Christian? I wrote the book, What is Salvation? I wrote the
book on scriptural interpretation. If you claim to be a Christian,
examine yourself. You're commanded to do that.
And those books take you through the scriptures to show you what
a Christian really is and what salvation really is and how we
get these things from the Bible. So think about that. Well, but
now here he says, he says, you walk, not only walked according
to the course of this world, but according to the prince of
the power of the air. That's Satan, the spirit that
now worketh in the children of disobedience. The children of
disobedience in the Bible are unbelievers. But let me show
you something about this walking according to the prince of the
power, that's Satan. Over in John chapter eight, The
Lord Jesus Christ is speaking to Pharisees. And the Pharisees,
now you need to understand something about the Pharisees. I heard
a Jewish rabbi speaking on a program one time, and they asked the
rabbi what he thought about the New Testament. And he said, well,
the New Testament is a partisan document. In other words, it's
not a true document. but it's just written based upon
a bias that Christians have. Well, that's not true. But he
also said this, he said, and it does a hack job on the Pharisees. Well, the thing about it is the
New Testament does not do a hack job on the Pharisees. It just
tells the truth. But here's the point. A lot of
people's thinking of the Pharisees is pretty much a hack job. For
example, if you think of the Pharisees, you think of people
who are self-righteous, hypocritical, and all of that. But most people,
when they describe a Pharisee, they're thinking of someone who
is insincere and not dedicated, maybe not even moral, like a
religious huckster. Well, let me tell you this. There were probably some Pharisees
who were insincere, not dedicated, even religious hucksters. Somebody
said, well, the ones who ruled the temple in the time of Christ,
they weren't Pharisees, they were Sadducees, and that was
the political wing. You know how politics goes. But
my friend, the Pharisees were looked up to by the people. They
were the most sincere, dedicated religionists of their day. Just
like in our day, we have religious people, religious leaders who
we know are charlatans, hypocrites, hucksters. And then we know some
who everybody looks up to. Well, the Pharisees were the
same way. But listen to what Christ says about the Pharisees
here in John chapter eight and verse 44. He said, well, verse
43, look at this. He says, why do you not understand
my speech? Even because you cannot hear
my word. Now they heard what he was saying, But they didn't
understand it and they didn't believe it. They didn't see the
glory of it. Remember what we're talking about
spiritual death? They were spiritually dead. They
didn't have ears to hear and eyes to see. The natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Neither can he
know them. They're spiritually discerned.
Well, here's what Christ says in verse 44 of John 8. You are
of your father, the devil. even in their religion, even
the most sincere and dedicated and the most moral among them,
the most honest. And the lust of your father,
you will do the desires of Satan. He was a murderer from the beginning.
Now, what did he do in the beginning? He brought the whole human family
into sin and death by enticing Eve and seducing Adam. And he says, he abode not in
the truth, You know, that's how you murder people spiritually.
You tell them a lie. Remember Satan told Eve, he said,
thou shalt not surely die. That's a lie. God said, you will. I'm telling you today, if you
don't know Christ as he's revealed and identified and distinguished
in this book, as God in human flesh, as the Lord, our righteousness,
you will die eternally. Now, some false preacher may
come along and say, oh, he's just a doctrinist, he's just
a Calvinist, or something like that. You're all right. Well,
they're preaching Satan's message. You shall not surely die. Think
about that. And it says, because there's
no truth in him, and when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of
his own. In other words, when he tells
his lie, he's just saying what comes naturally. You know, when
a false preacher preaches a lie, he's just telling what's natural
to him. for he's a liar and the father
of it. And then one other passage, turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter
four. Now let me show you something
about what the Bible says concerning how Satan works. You know, people,
people today, you know, they say, well, some heinous crime
happens and Satan made that person do it. You remember the old comedian
back in the seventies, he used to say, the devil made me do
it. You know, most crime and heinous crimes are just the outcroppings
of the natural man, where the hand of God is removed and no
restraints. But Satan works in subtle, deceptive
ways. And you know what his main goal
is? Is to keep you and me from hearing and believing the gospel
of the glory of God in Christ. Over in 2 Corinthians chapter
4 and verse 3, It says, but if our gospel be hid, it is hid
to them that are lost, in whom the God of the world, this world,
that's Satan, hath blinded the minds of them which believe not,
lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the
image of God, should shine unto them. Now Satan's desire and
goal is to have people blinded from the glory of God in Christ,
from seeing and believing the gospel of God's grace, the power
of God unto salvation. And let me tell you something,
if he can have you sitting in a false church, listening to
a false gospel, clinging to a false Christ and a false refuge, he's
just as happy as if you were out robbing a bank. In fact,
I believe he's happier because people who are entrenched in
false religion Well, I'll tell you, it takes a work of God's
grace to get them out of there. Well, it takes a work of God's
grace to save any of us. Well, look back at Ephesians
2. Now, that's the children of disobedience. It's an unbeliever.
It can be an unreligious unbeliever. It can be a religious unbeliever.
It can be an immoral unbeliever or a moral unbeliever, but it's
an unbeliever, one who does not know, who's not submitted to
Christ as the end of the law for righteousness. Romans 10,
four says, for Christ is the end, the finishing, the fulfillment
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
We'll look at verse three of Ephesians two, 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.
Now, to illustrate this, go back to Cain and Abel. Both Cain and
Abel desired salvation. Both Cain and Abel desired acceptance
with God. Both Cain and Abel desired blessings
from God. Abel's desire was a holy desire. Cain's desire was a lustful,
unlawful, fleshly desire. Why was Abel's desire a holy
desire? Because his desire was the product
of God's grace and power, who gave him eyes to see and ears
to hear, quickened him. And he desired salvation not
based on his works or his will, but based upon the righteousness
of another, the blood of another, the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's a holy desire, separated
from the world. Cain's desire was salvation by
his works, his efforts. That's a lust, that is evil. in God's sight. And so he says
in verse three, and were by nature children of wrath even as others.
A child of wrath is a sinner who's spiritually dead, ruined
in Adam, spiritually dead, who goes through all this life never
seeking the Lord, never coming to a saving knowledge of Christ,
Maybe one who's religious and thinks when he dies, he'll wake
up in heaven, but based upon a wrong ground. You may say to
yourself, I know when I die, I'm going to heaven. Well, is
your assurance there? Is it based upon the right ground
of salvation, which is the grace of God in the imputed righteousness
of Christ? That's why I say, examine yourself,
do it now. When you die, it's too late.
But now those who die in unbelief, as the scripture says in John
three, those who believeth not, the wrath of God abides on them.
Well, by nature, as I'm naturally born, I'm no different than them. So if I'm saved, if I'm quickened,
who made the difference? Well, look at verse four of Ephesians
two. But God, who is rich in mercy,
For His great love wherewith He loved us. Even, verse five,
even when we were dead in sins. In other words, my believing
didn't get God to love me and save me. His love and His grace
got me. See? And it says, even when we
were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ. And
in parenthesis here it says, by grace. Are you saved or by
whose grace you are saved? Grace, grace, grace. I always
think about Noah back in Genesis chapter six, where the Lord starts
out in that chapter describing the depravity of the whole world.
He talks about how men just laughed. In other words, as time went
on before the flood, all things going the way it went, man did
not improve. Man did not get better. Now, there were technological,
even scientific, economical achievements, but as far as salvation from
sin, As far as being cleansed from sin, as far as a right relationship
with God, man made no progress and he still hasn't in himself. And so as time went on, the Lord
looked upon the earth and he was displeased with it. And it
says in Genesis chapter six, but Noah was a better guy than
the rest of them. Doesn't say that, does it? But
Noah had faith in the Lord. It doesn't say that. Now, Noah
did have faith in the Lord, we learn later on. It says, but
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. That's how it says. And when I see myself as a sinner
saved by grace, and I look at even the dregs of society, you
know, we always make that statement. It's not a biblical statement,
but it's true. There but for the grace of God go I. In other
words, if it weren't for God's grace, I would have no salvation.
I would have no quickening. It's mercy. But God, that's the
key. You know, preachers today, they
preach this way. They say, you're by nature the
children of wrath, even as other, but you. But you did this, you
did that, but you believe. They don't even say that. Well,
we do believe, but that's not what made the difference. Why
do I believe and others don't? Is it because there was a spark
of goodness and I found an eloquent preacher, dynamic preacher, charismatic
preacher who fanned that fire with his eloquence and got me
to walk on, is that what made the, no. But God. who is rich in mercy, and his
mercy is in Christ. The mercy of God here is not
just some blanket pardon, if you'll accept it, because if
that's the truth, none of us will accept it. Somebody said,
well, salvation is a gift and you must receive it. Okay, but
here's the point, by nature, being spiritually dead, It's
a gift that none of us want and none of us will have. We'll always
reject it. I don't want that gift. But when
we're quickened, when God gives us life, when he gives us eyes
to see and ears to hear, hearts and minds to understand, he brings
us to receive it. That's what the scripture says
in John chapter one about those who received Christ. They were
born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of
man, but of God. God made the difference. His
grace in Christ makes the difference. And it's not our love for Him
because by nature we don't love Him. We love our ideas of God. By nature we love a God who's
like ourselves. But the God of the Bible, we
don't love Him. The Bible says in 1 John 4 and
verse 10, here in his love, not that we love God, but that he
loved us and gave his son to be the propitiation, the sin
bearing sacrifice who brought satisfaction to God's justice,
a propitiation for our sins. That's God's people. That's who
that's talking, that's believers, who that's talking about. And
it's His great love wherewith He loved us, not when we believed,
but even when we were dead in sins. That tells us that God's
grace, God's mercy, and God's love is never earned and never
deserved And his love brings about this. Now, if God loves
his people, and he does, here's how you know. Here's the result,
here's the fruit of that love. Verse five, hath quickened us
together with Christ. Now I'm gonna talk about that
next time. That quickening together with Christ. By grace you are
saved. Now what that's referring to
basically is the work of Christ on the cross in his death, burial,
and resurrection as the surety and the substitute of his people,
God's elect. The ones whom he described in
John 6, 37, he said, all that the father giveth me shall come
to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. And he went on to say that this
is the will of him that sent me that of all which he hath
given me that all which he hath given me should not perish, but
have everlasting life. All which he hath given me, I
should raise him up, shall come to me and I'll raise him up at
the last day. That's the work of Christ. Assurity,
what is assurity? Assurity is one who takes the
total responsibility to pay the debt of another person. Now,
God's elect, God's people, sinners saved by grace, We ran up a debt. We run up a debt to God's justice
when we fell on Adam and when we sinned, all the sins that
we commit. Well, the debt of all of our
sins, original sin and our personal sin, was all charged to Christ
as our surety. He was set up from the beginning
to be the surety of his people, the surety of a better covenant,
Hebrews 8 says. And he took responsibility to
pay the debt in full. Now, what did he have to do to
pay that debt? Well, the wages of sin is death. So he had God the Son, the second
person of the Trinity, every bit deity, had to come to this
earth and take the form of a servant. He was conceived in the womb
of the Virgin Mary, his humanity without sin. And he had to walk
this earth and be obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. And in his death, he satisfied justice and brought forth righteousness
that is charged to the account of God's people. And that righteousness
demands that they be born again, that they be quickened. that
they be brought to faith under the preaching of the gospel and
repentance and the obedience of faith. I hope you'll join
us next week for another message from God's word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
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at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia, 3-1-7-0-7. contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
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today and may the Lord be with you.