Well, good morning. If you would open your Bibles
with me to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians, the second chapter. Before we begin, let's bow before
our Lord in prayer. Our Father, we bow before you
this morning. A humble and a needy people.
Father, we've gathered here together out of the world to come together
on this first day of the week seeking a blessing from thee,
seeking a word from thee. Father, I pray you'd give us
that word, a word from your heart to our heart, that you not just
let us go through the motions of religion, but Father, that
you'd speak to us through your word and enable us to see the
Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I beg of you that you
send your spirit upon us. And this might be the day that
you'd be pleased to reveal your son for the very first time to
one of your children. And that you'd be pleased to
reach into the hearts of your people and feed us and comfort
us and edify us by your word. Let us feed upon your word, Father,
we pray. And while we pray for ourselves,
we pray for our children's classes and we pray for your people,
wherever they might meet today, Father, bless your word, we pray.
We pray a special blessing, our brother Eric, as he's away preaching,
that you bless him in preaching and give him traveling mercies
as he comes back home to us. Father, all these things we ask,
and that name which is above every name, the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, for his sake and his glory, we pray, amen. Now, I've titled our lesson this morning,
Our Sin, But God's Grace. And I would like in the next
few minutes to be able to paint our sinful condition by nature
to be as black and as vile as it really is. I'd like to be
able to accurately paint the picture of our hopelessness by
nature, as hopeless and as dark as it really is. And then in
contrast, I would like to be able to paint the believer's
condition in Christ as bright and as beautiful as it is. I
like to be able to accurately paint a picture of God's grace,
as glorious and as beautiful as it really is. Now, I know
from the start, I know I'm going to fail in that endeavor, but
I'm going to give it my best shot. By God's grace, give it
my best shot. And when this lesson is finished,
my prayer is that each of us will see what makes the difference. What makes the difference between
the saved and the lost? What makes the difference between
the righteous and the unrighteous? What makes the difference between
the living and the dead? The difference is this phrase,
but God. But God. At first, I want to
look at our spiritual death and our spiritual life. And the difference
between those two things is but God. In verse one of Ephesians
chapter two, Paul writes, and you hath he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins. Now Paul is writing to believers
who've been quickened. You who believe Christ, you've
been given spiritual life now, haven't you? God's birthed you
again. He's caused you to have spiritual life right now. But
you didn't come that way, did you? Every believer was first
born as a son of Adam, and we were born spiritually dead. We're
no better. God's elect. God reached down.
He chose them from the fallen lump of Adam's humanity. God
set his love upon them. God chose to save them. But when
we're born in this world, we are no better off than any other
son of Adam. Every believer was born with
and still has a nature that's just as vile, just as wretched,
just as sinful as any other son of Adam, the worst sinner that
you can think of. And Paul says, when we're born,
we're dead in trespasses and sins. And when he says we're
dead, he doesn't mean like a freshly dead body. I've seen several
folks who just had died. And to see their body, you'd
think they're still sleeping, they're still alive. Paul's not
talking about a freshly dead body. You and I have been dead
a long time, long time. And just like a corpse that's
just been left out in the sun It just nobody does anything.
It just lays there for long. That corpse stinks. I mean, who
it stinks. That's you and me by nature.
We're dead. We stink, stink. We are a stench
in God's nostrils. We're offensive to God. That's
what Paul's talking about here. You know, a corpse begins decaying
the very moment that it dies. It begins decaying and going
back to the dust from whence it was made. And if you don't
bury that corpse out of sight pretty quick, that corpse is
going to get so ugly you can't stand it. You can't stand to
look at it. You can't stand the smell of
it. Both the sight and the smell
of that corpse is offensive to us. That's why we bury our dead.
Well, that's us by nature. We're offensive to God. We're
offensive to his holy sight and his holy smell. That's all of
us. That's all. But every one of
us here this morning, there's none that do it good. No, not
one. We're all offensive to God because
we're the opposite of God. Paul says we're dead and trespasses
and sins. And what that phrase means is
we're given over to trespasses and sins were directed by trespasses
and sins, seeking out ways to trespass against God, to sin
against God more. That's what we are by nature.
And the believer who God has quickened, we still carry that
nature around with us, don't we? Well, what happened to cause
that dead person to live? Verse four says, but God. But
God, who's rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he
loved us, but God. Now salvation swings upon this
hinge, but God. On one side, all there is is
darkness and blackness and sin and unbelief. And on the other
side of that hinge, but God, is holiness and light, righteousness
and purity and faith in Christ. Let me give you a few examples.
One day God looked down from heaven and he determined that
the sin of man was so great he was going to destroy man. from
the face of the earth, man and beast. He was going to destroy
them all with a great flood. Every last one of them. But God,
but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The Lord saved him
alive in the ark because, but God, God intervened to save that
guilty man, to spare that guilty man by his grace. You remember
the story of Joseph and his brothers, how his brothers mistreated him.
They sold him into slavery. They told his father he was dead.
And in the end, they'd all come to Jerusalem. Jacob had died,
and the brothers thought, Joseph's gonna get us now, isn't he? He's
gonna get us now. He's gonna give us what we deserve
now. And Joseph told his brothers, calm down now. You meant it for
evil, but God. But God meant it for good. to
save, as it is this day, many people alive. In 2 Chronicles chapter 20, Israel
was surrounded by the armies of four or five companies. They're
completely, or countries, completely surrounded. And certainly, they
would be destroyed. They're so far outnumbered, and
people were worried. And a man named Jehaziel stood
up, and he told them, be not afraid, nor dismayed by reason
of this great multitude, for the battle's not yours. but God's. Oh, if the battle's the Lord's,
we don't have to worry, do we? You don't need to be afraid because
of but God. Then many years later, the leaders
of the Jews and the Gentiles gathered together and they killed
the Lord Jesus. They wanted to be done with this
man, Jesus of Nazareth. It was their determination to
be done with him and they slaughtered him. And Peter, preaching to
them afterwards, told them in Acts 13, you killed him. You
did what your wicked hearts desired to do. But God raised him from
the dead. You did what you wanted to do,
but God made sure his will, his purpose, was done. God used that
death as a sacrifice to put away the sin of his people. But God.
The difference is but God, isn't it? You and I were born. into
this world spiritually dead. We're born more sinful, more
vile, more wretched, more deformed by sin than we really know. I mean, we know we're sinners. We have, we have, Lord's given
us some sight of our sin, but I'm telling you, it's far worse
than what we know, what we think. Or is there any hope? Is there
any hope for such a guilty, vile, wretched sinner? Well there is
in this phrase, but God. Is there any hope for that sinner?
There is, but God. But God gave his people life.
He says in verse five, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ. By grace you're saved. See, we
were dead in sin, but God quickens his people. He gives his people
spiritual life and the new birth. And that new life that God gives
his people, It's not like the life that we received from our
parents. The life we received from our parents is physical
life, but it's spiritual death. That's what it is. And we have
spiritual life, but our sin demands we lose that spiritual life for
too long. And after that, the judgment. Spiritual life that
God gives can never be lost. It can never die. And this spiritual
life, it doesn't live on physical things. It lives on spiritual
things. It feeds on Christ. It's the
life of Christ that's in us. It's his life that's given to
us. This new life, the new birth that Paul's talking about here
is to have the nature of Christ formed in us. Christ in you,
the hope of glory. That's our life, and that life
can never die. Now how does a person get this
life? How does this dead sinner become living? It's by God's
grace. He gives it to his people by
his grace. Now, you know what God had to
do. He determined to give life to his people. He determined
to redeem a people. Do you know what God had to do
to give his elect life? He had to slaughter his own son.
The son of God had to die as a substitute for his people.
See, God loves the people. God determined he would save
a people. He's going to show his mercy, but God's justice
must be satisfied. God's holiness must be satisfied. God's justice stands up and says,
I demand death for sin. That must be death for sin. I
must be satisfied. Mercy stands up and says, but
there must be life. There must be life. I demand
life. I demand that there be forgiveness
of sins. And how can both of those attributes
ever be satisfied at the same time? How can there be death
for sin and forgiveness of sin? How's that possible? Well, it's
only possible in the death of Christ as a sacrifice for the
sin of his people. Christ must die as a sinner substitute. And when the son was made sin
for his people, the father slaughtered him in justice. He gave him a
full outpouring of his justice and his wrath against sin so
that he died in the place in the stead as a substitute for
his people. Christ died so that his people
would live. I'm telling you that's grace.
If I've ever heard it, grace is God giving me what I do not
deserve. Well, I don't deserve life. I don't deserve God's mercy. I don't deserve His forgiveness.
I do not deserve for the Son of God to die in my place. I
don't deserve that. But that's what God did. See,
but God. But God did that to save His
people from their sin. Remember a minute ago I told
you our sin is greater. It's worse. It's more vile than
we can even imagine. Well, but God. But God's grace
and God's mercy is greater than all of our sin. That's how we're
given life. That's how the dead are given
life. That's our spiritual life and our spiritual death. The
second thing I want to look at is our walk. The walk of the
flesh and the walk of the spirit. They're walking in two totally
opposite directions. What's the difference between
the walk of death and the walk of life? It's but God. Verse
two, Paul says, we're in a time past. When you're dead in trespasses
and sins, 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, what Paul
describes here is the way of all flesh. It's the way of my
flesh, the way of your flesh. It's the way of the flesh. It's
the way of our nature. Our nature walks according to
the course of this world, the way of this world and the course,
the way this world is going. The way of the world. Now I want
you to listen to what Scripture has to say about the way of the
world. And this is the way all of us
walk by nature. The way of the world is to not
know Christ. In John 1 verse 10, He was in
the world, the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him
not. Here He came, the Son of God
came into flesh, and people saw Him physically. They watched
Him grow up. They said, isn't this the carpenter's
son from Nazareth? We watched him grow up. We know
him. But they didn't know him, did
they? The way of this world is to not know Christ and not know
that he's the Savior. The way of this world is the
way of our flesh. It cannot receive the Holy Spirit. Our flesh doesn't have a place
to put the Holy Spirit. In John 14, verse 17, Savior
said, even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive.
The way of the world can't receive the Holy Spirit, because it seeth
him not, neither knoweth him. The way of the world is guilt. The way of the world's not righteousness
and peace, the way of the world is guilt, the guilt of sin. Romans
three, verse 19. Now we know that what things,
whoever the law saith, that saith to them who are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world, they become
guilty before God. The way of the world is guilt
before God, before the judge of all the earth. The way of
the world is to appear before him guilty. And because our minds
are dead, we think we appear before the Lord pretty good.
I know I'm not perfect, but pretty good. We don't know we're guilty. The way of the world is to appear
before the God of all the earth in judgment as guilty. Look over
at Colossians chapter two for a minute. Colossians chapter
two. There's a religion of this world,
a way that seems right under this world, and the religion
of the world cannot save your soul. The religion of this world
can't touch your soul because it's fleshly, it's material,
not spiritual. Look at Colossians two verse
eight. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy in vain
to see after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the
world and not after Christ. Now Paul here, he's, he's talking,
he's not talking about the philosophy of the world and science of the
world, you know, and it, you know, at this time people thought
the earth was the center of the universe and the sun rotated
around the earth and he's not talking about those scientific
things, whether they, you know, they're right or wrong. That's,
He's talking about the religion of the world. Don't let them
spoil you. It's man's philosophy. Their
doctrine is man's philosophy, not something that's taken from
the world. Their religion is the rudiments
of the world, the elements of the world, stuff that you can
touch and feel and taste and handle. That's their religion. And Paul said, don't let that
spoil you and take you away from Christ. Look down at verse 20. I'll show you that's what he's
talking about. Wherefore, if you be dead with Christ from
the rudiments of the world, these things do not affect the rudiments,
the elements of the world, they don't affect your soul. If you're
dead from Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though
living in the world, are we subject to ordinances, the law, touch
not, taste not, handle not. Don't touch, don't taste, don't
like these physical things of the world. But you're all to
perish with the using. And where do these things come
from? after the commandments and doctrines of men. You don't
find them in the word now. These are the commandments and
doctrines of men. Which things indeed have a show of wisdom,
and will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body, but
not any honor to the satisfying of the flesh. These things, these
commandments and doctrines of men, they have a show of religion. Boy, they can put on a show of
religion. Oh, they act. They act all humble. And boy, they're religious. They
neglect the body. They don't eat things that taste
good. They don't drink things that taste good. You never see
them taking a sip of alcohol or anything, you know. Oh, they
look pious, don't they? All that is is will worship.
It's the worship of the, what can I do with my flesh? That
religion of the world cannot save anybody. Because it's fleshly. It's material. Salvation is a
spiritual thing. That's the way of the world.
The way of the world has that religion that's just fleshly.
Then the way of the world is to hate Christ. Oh, they're religious. Now, I mean, they're religious.
I grant you that. But they hate Christ. They're
following after their religion, the doctrines and commandments
of men, but they hate Christ. Our Lord told his disciples in
John 15, verse 18, if the world hates you, You know this, it
hated me before it hated you. The way of this world is to hate
Christ and to hate those who love him. And you know what? The feeling is mutual. Christ
the Savior hates the world just like he hated Esau. Christ the
Savior does not pray for the world. John 17 verse nine, he
says, I pray for them. I pray for those that you gave
me for them. I pray not for the world. So much for God loving
everybody, huh? He said, I pray not for the world,
but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine.
Now by nature, we're in the way of the world. We follow the way
of the world, the way that's against God, the way that hates
God and the way which God shall destroy. He's going to destroy
it. And then Paul gets even more offensive to the flesh. Next
he says, not only do we walk after the ways of the world,
we walk after the way of Satan at verse two, according to the
Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now work with
and the children of disobedience. That's Satan. You know, we think
of Satan, we think of the very embodiment of evil, don't we? By nature, that's who we follow.
The very embodiment of evil. We're under the influence of
Satan and we follow him willingly. Well, what is the way of Satan? The way of Satan is to lie on
God. The way of Satan is to twist
the word of God to suit our own desires. Isn't that what Satan
did with Eve? He twisted the word of God to
deceive her. And the way of Satan is to try
to have the throne of God. See, Adam ate that fruit with
his eyes wide open. He was doing the same thing Satan
did. He wanted to be God. He wanted to be the one to make
the rules, to say what's good and what's evil. The way of Satan
is to try to take God off his throne. That's why God cast him
out of heaven. And that's our walk too. That's the way that
we go. We want to be God. We want to
be, don't want to have God over us. We'll not have this man to
reign over us. That's our way. That's the way
of Satan. And the end of Satan will be
eternal damnation. And by nature, if God leaves
us alone, that'll be our end too. That is exactly what our
sin deserves. And here's how black and how
vile our condition is by nature. We deserve to be damned. just
as much as Satan does. That's offensive to the flesh,
isn't it? But it's so. It's so. Thank God that's not
the end. But God. Oh, we're guilty. We deserve damnation. We deserve
condemnation. But God. But God doesn't leave
his people in Adam. But God does not leave his people
under the control of Satan. God takes his people and puts
them in Christ. Yes, they were born in Adam,
but God puts his people in Christ. And since we're in Christ, we're
not under the direction of Satan. We're not under the influence
of Satan anymore. We're directed by Christ. Since we're not under
the law, but under grace, the believer's walk is not directed
by trespasses and sins. It's not directed by the way
of this world. Our walk is directed by the grace of God that's found
in Christ Jesus. He says in verse six, now we
were in Adam, but God hath raised us up together and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Now the believers
in the world, but now we're not of the world anymore, are we?
We've got a nature that's been born from above. We don't walk
in the way of the world anymore. The believers in Christ and the
believer is so fully in Christ. We would never imagine this.
What in the word of God, the believer is so much one with
Christ. You're already seated with Christ
in heaven places already seated there in him where the believer
is now because, but God is in Christ, right? Here's the third thing. It's
our conversation. It's our conduct and our conduct
is determined by our citizenship. Verse three, Among whom also
we all had our conversation in times past, in the lust of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.
And we're by nature, the children of wrath, even as others. Now
our conversation, it's our conduct. It's where we live, our citizenship,
where we live, and what we live for. And by nature, we're born
into the kingdom of sin. We live there and we liked living
there. This is the way the kingdom of
sin goes. We're always trying to think
up new ways to sin. Doesn't it seem like what the world, I'm
asking, how do people come up with this? Thinking up new ways
to sin. Thinking up new ways to offend
God and sin against God. A new way that I can sin more
than ever before. That's our conversation. In times
past, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the flesh, More sin,
more depravity, more for the flesh and just more sin against
God. Fulfilling the desires of the
flesh, fulfilling the desires of a dead mind. Just thinking
up new ways to sin more than ever I've sinned before. Finding
more pleasure and more sin. And Paul says we're the children
of wrath. We hated people and we hated God. Not only do we
hate God, we hate people, just hate people. Isn't this generation
more hateful than any generation ever before? I mean, just hateful.
And we're children of wrath who deserve God's wrath. Because
of our sin, because of our hatefulness, because of our disobedience,
we deserve God's wrath. The end of that has to be damnation,
doesn't it? Has to be. Was there any hope? Is there any hope to escape this
kingdom of sin, this dominion of sin? Is there any hope? Well,
there is. But God. In this but God, in
this phrase, but God, verse four. But God, who's rich in mercy,
for his great love are with thee loved us, even when we were dead
in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace you're
saved. Oh, we can't even describe how
sinful we are. How sinful we are. But God saved
us by His grace. God translated us from the kingdom
of darkness, put us into the kingdom of His dear Son. And
aren't you glad Paul says here, by grace you're saved. When you
look at our condition by nature, our works can't save us, can
they? Our works can't recommend us to God. Oh, thankfully, salvation
is by grace and not by our works. He says that in verse eight.
For by grace are you saved, through faith. And that faith is not
of yourselves, it's the gift of God. Not of works. Not of works, not of works, not
of works. Oh, if we get that through our
head, it's not of works. Lest any man should boast. And
when God saves his people by his grace, he forgives their
sin. And he forgives sin by his grace.
The only way God can forgive sin is by sacrificing his son
in our place, by killing his son in our place. And God gives
his people a new nature in the new birth. He gives it by grace. And when he does, now once we
got a new nature, our walk is going to be different. Our walk
is going to be changed. See verse 10, for where his workmanship
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before
ordained that we should walk in them. See, now there's a new
wall. I'm not saying that the believer
doesn't sin anymore, because that's all we do. All we do is
sin. But now there's a new nature. There's a desire to be helpful
rather than to be sinful. That's what a good work is. A
good work is done to help the body of Christ, to help the people
of Christ. Just giving somebody a drink
of cold water in the name of Christ. Scripture calls that
a good work. Now you imagine wanting to be
helpful. instead of being a child of wrath anymore. What happened? How was this great
change? How did that happen? How could
that possibly happen? But God. That's how, but God. He put a new nature in you. I
can't stress this enough. I know we're not able to do it
perfectly, but don't let that stop you. You think, I can't
do that perfectly. Maybe I shouldn't do this. Some
of y'all think that's dumb. Maybe I'm doing it to try to
get some self glory. Forget all that, because everything
we do is mixed with sin. That's a given. We already know
that. But God lays something on your heart, a way to help
somebody. Just act on it. Just do it. God
calls that a good work. And that old nature is still
there. That old nature is still there. That's why the believers
in a constant state of civil war, it's the flesh lusting against
the spirit, warring against the spirit. Like I showed you a few
weeks ago, That new man, he's going to be stronger. Just like
Jacob was going to be stronger than Esau. Jacob was going to
rule over Esau, even though Esau was physically the stronger.
Jacob ruled, didn't he? Jacob ruled because that was
God's will and God's purpose. And that new man, he'll be stronger
than the old man. That new man will keep you believing
in Christ. He'll keep you looking to Christ. And brother, when
we're looking to Christ, We're feeding on Christ. We need Christ.
We've got our eyes on Him. Our walk's going to be different.
It won't be perfect, but it'll be different. Why? But God. No reason found in us. It's all in God. All right. I
hope the Lord will bless that to you.