And before I start into this,
I would say this as Paul, the apostle writes to these believers
at Ephesus. And that is who he's writing
to is believers. Please understand the new Testament
epistles are not given to this God hating world. They're all
written to believers. This one specifically. in chapter
one, verse one, Paul, the apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will
of God, to the saints, which are Ephesus, and to the faithful
in Christ Jesus, not necessarily faithful to Christ Jesus, that's
our goal, but the beauty is faithful in Christ Jesus, and all the
Lord's people are. So as he writes this, Paul is
well aware and conscious of the circumstances prevailing in the
city of Ephesus to the saints of whom he's writing this letter.
And there's four things I'll mention about that quickly, circumstances. Paul is well aware of the idolatry,
almost unanimous, that prevailed at that time in the city of Ephesus. Ephesus is the city of one of
the seven wonders of the ancient world, the revered and greatly
worshiped goddess Diana and the temple
of Diana and the shrine measuring 225 feet by 425 feet. This temple, it dominated the
city of Ephesus, center of idolatry. And a second thing, Paul is well
aware of the strong animosity and hatred toward those who believed
in the Lord Jesus Christ and were committed to following after
the Lord Jesus Christ. That hadn't changed, by the way. We're in a day At least in our
little world, little part of the world, little private society,
when about everybody says they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,
but very few are following after him. So Paul knew about this
animosity and this hatred personally. He knew it personally because
when he was at Ephesus, His preaching of Christ had caused such a stir. Listen to this. Let me read you
in Acts 19. I've lost my place. This is how these
folks at Ephesus thought about him. For a certain man named
Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana,
they sold these little idols, brought no small gain unto the
craftsman, whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation
and said, Sirs, you know that by this craft we have our wealth. Moreover, you see and hear that
not alone at Ephesus, but most throughout all Asia, this Paul
hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they
be no gods which are made with hands. He says that our shrines,
our idols that we make are not gods at all. So that not only this, our craft
is in danger to be said it not, but also that the temple of the
great goddess Diana should be despised and her magnificence
should be destroyed. whom all Asia and the world worshipeth. And when they heard these things,
these sayings, they were full of wrath and cried out, saying,
great is Diana of the Ephesians." So Paul is well aware firsthand
of this hatred toward those who follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
And a third thing, Paul was well aware of the false teaching,
not just the idolatry, but the false teaching even among the
ranks of so-called Christianity. And so it is today. Instead of
outright denying the gospel of Christ, the religious world has
tried to attach a truckload of garbage to it, to put restrictions
on it and add commandments to it. and enforce legalities concerning
it. And it has grown and grown until
man's input and desecration of the gospel has clouded the minds
of millions to the simplicity that is in Christ. What did the
Bible say? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. He didn't say anything about
getting a haircut and not getting a tattoo. I've got convictions about those
things, but believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the gospel. And then a fourth thing Paul
is well aware of. He is well aware of the weak
heartedness of these young believers to whom he's writing. How easily
discouraged, how easily defeated. How easy to forget that Christ
himself is our life and our victory and our strength. And so it's
under these prevailing circumstances that Paul writes to dear believers
in Christ, not fully established in the faith. And so it is today. People are full of fears, full
of uncertainties as to what the future holds. Well, in this chapter
two begins with the word and, and you see that. And is a conjunction. That means it is connecting what
has already been said to what's about to be said. And it marks
a continuation. of the central theme of the entire
epistle that's already been given us in chapter one, namely the
glory that's due to the triune God for his great work of salvation
for and in his people. A quick glance at chapter one,
I'll show you this where the Trinity is acknowledged in this
work. After the introductory verses
one and two, verses three through six in chapter one described
the work of God, the father and chapter six says to the praise
of the glory of his grace. This is about God. Then verses
seven through 12 are about the work of God, the son, Christ
Jesus. And verse 12 says. that we should
be to the praise of His glory. This is about Christ. And then
verses 13 and 14 are about the work of God the Spirit, the Holy
Ghost. And verse 14 concludes, unto
the praise of His glory. How appropriate then that we
sing sometimes praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. This is about God, not us. Now,
just religion, may I say common religion, modern day religion,
is geared to the praise of our glory. Look at us, how special
we are. But this Bible is geared to the
praise and glory of God and His grace. That's why a lot of folk
are miserable in church sitting this morning. They're miserable unless you're
willing to throw the Bible out the window and create a circus
where everybody can perform, make it into some kind of a competition.
Karaoke, we don't have karaoke around here. We have people who
use their talent to sing to the glory of God. That's what it's
about. And that's what this pulpit's
about. It's not about me. It's about who I feel impressed
of the Holy Spirit to have to stand here from time to time.
And so God could get along just fine without any one of us, but
not one of us could get along fine without Him. So this is
the theme, God's great work of salvation for and in his people. And chapter two begins, and you,
talking to believers, hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses
and in sins. Without question, the death referred
to here is spiritual death. Dead in trespasses and sins. very much alive physically, but
very dead spiritually. And you say, what does that mean?
It means simply this, simply put, it means a person without
the Spirit of God living in their heart. Spiritually dead. Spiritually
dead does not mean non-religious. A person may be very religious
and yet be spiritually dead. Spiritual death does not mean
an immoral person. A person might be morally upright
and respectable in society and yet be spiritually dead. So I repeat, spiritual death
means the absence of the Spirit of God living in the heart. And
spiritual life is the Spirit of God living in your heart. It's the Spirit of God that loves
God. It's the Spirit of God in you
that loves holiness. Nothing else in you does. It's the Spirit of God in you
that hates sin. Nothing else about you does.
See, the Spirit of God is the one that makes all the difference. And so Paul said, you were dead
in trespasses and sins, but you hath He quickened. And you know
that word quickened means to make alive, to make alive that
which was dead. Only God can do that. No preacher
can do it, no church can do it, only God. Now, a lot of preachers
and a lot of churches can excite folks emotionally and they can
charm your flesh and they can make you feel good to the extent and make you become religiously
involved. They can make you feel religiously
alive, but still spiritually dead. But the Spirit of God will do
this. Hold your seat. The Spirit of God will bring
you to love God more than you love yourself. The Spirit of God will not bring
you to love God just a little bit. while you greatly love yourself. No, He will bring you to love
God more than you love yourself. He will bring you to love this
Bible more than all the religious trinkets and toys of our day
and time in so-called churches. The Spirit of God is the one
who will bring you to die before you'll forsake the truth of this
book and its teaching. He alone will do that. I think
of Joseph back in the book of Genesis. Why didn't he give up? I'll tell you why. Because the
Spirit of God didn't give up. What about Daniel? What about
David? What about the three Hebrew boys? What about Naboth? You ought
to go read his story in 1 Kings 21. He didn't give up. He died, not
for his vineyard, but for the principle that it was his God-given
inheritance and it wasn't for sale. If the Spirit of God does
not live in you, you're for sale. I don't know what the price is.
You don't know. But I promise you, apart from
the Spirit of God living in you, Satan will come up with something
to turn you against every preacher and every church and every believer
where you're likely to hear God's truth. He'll settle you into some flesh-pleasing
religious mess and make you feel good about yourself all the way
to hell if the Spirit of God don't live in you. I'm telling
you the importance of the Spirit of God and the difference between
spiritual death and spiritual life. So Paul is writing to folks
who have been quickened initially These saints of Ephesus, but
this being part of God's word by divine inspiration, he's writing
to you and I who have been quickened today. How the spirit of God
living in us. And in the next few verses, he
emphasizes two things, the adversary and the advantage. So let me read and then we'll
talk about that. And you hath he quickened, who
were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye 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. 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 were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich
in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when
we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ by grace,
you're saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages
to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. that can be interpreted lest
every man should boast. For we are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. That's reading verses one through
10, Ephesians chapter two. The adversary is Satan. The advantage
is God. This world is not a picnic for
God's child. It's a battlefield. And Paul will tell God's children,
in spite of all you're facing, you can make it. You will make it because it's
not really you that's making it. It's God. It's God. I do not expect to get to heaven
and see anyone, me or anyone else, you or anyone else, that's
there with the idea that I finally cleaned my act enough to make
it in. No, no. The story is going to be, it's
been God all the way. It's not been God and me, it's
been God in spite of me. That's the story. So the adversary is who's against
you. The advantage is who's for you. Which one is bigger? Romans 8, 31, if God be for us,
who can be against us? I like to quote that like this.
If God be for us, what difference does it make who's against us? All right. So first let's look
at the adversary for a few moments. When you were dead in trespasses
and sins, there was no life in you to desire God. And preachers talk to their blue
in the face and preach their lungs out, trying to get you
to desire God. But when you're dead in trespasses
and sins, there's nothing in you to desire God. No corpse laying in the casket
is interested in strawberry shortcake. Now the rest of us are. but not
a corpse, see? And a spiritually dead sinner,
no life, the life of God, no nothing of it, has no desire
for God, nor can. Satan has free access in the
mind, the heart, The will, the life of the dead sinner. He controls the will. It's not
free. That's why verse 2, we walk 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. See the three things in that
verse. First, there's the course of this world, the broad road,
the easy road, the road that said, forget God, the non-offensive
road. Oh, it might be a religious road.
But they'll promise you if you'll come to their church, there'll
be nothing to offend. Why? Because they don't throw
the Bible out the window anyhow. There is no such thing as an
inoffensive gospel. It's offensive, this filthy,
rotten flesh of mine and yours. So the broad road, it's a downhill
road. It's comfortable to the flesh, the course of this world. And
second, he mentioned the prince of the power of the air. The
air here implies a foggy atmosphere, a cloud of
darkness. Satan prefers People be in darkness
rather than light. He works to keep God's child
in darkness rather than light. And in John 3, 19, John wrote this and Christ said
this, this, this, this very thing is the condemnation. The condemnation
by which men are condemned is this, that light has come into
the world, Christ is the light, and men loved darkness rather
than light. The third thing in this verse
is this, not only the course of this world that prints the
power of the air, but he said the very spirit that worketh,
now worketh, See that word now? Now worketh in the children of
disobedience. Disobedience. Now granted, we're
all guilty of disobedience at times. The fellow that says that's
not so is lying. But this is referring to those
spiritually dead who walk continually in thought in desire, in actions,
in disobedience to God, and don't intend to do any different. Now in verse 3, Paul reminds
us that we were all in that condition before God quickened us. One liberal fool said John Newton
might have been a wretch, but I never was. He was a wretch
then and didn't know it. We're all wretched, vile sinners. Among whom, among those who disobey
God, desire nothing else, determined to do nothing else, among whom
also we all had our conversation. Conversation means lifestyle,
it means manner of living, we were all in that boat. In times past, the lust of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. Before God's quickness, we were
disliked. The lowdownest scoundrel that
ever walked this earth. And like every ungodly scoundrel
you know, apart from the quickening power of God, we're all had that
same nature. What nature? The rebellious nature
of Adam. The nature that said, I'll be
my own God. I don't need God, I won't hear
God, I'll do my thing. And that nature was inherent
in us all. Romans 5, 12, For as by one man
sin entered, that was Adam, and death by sin. So death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned. Well, I hadn't sinned,
I wasn't even born back then. No, but you're just Adam reproduced. That's what we all are. Sin. Come from our mother's womb,
speaking lies. Inherit. And that nature made
us what? Children of wrath. Children of
God's wrath. Now understand, God's wrath is
not uncontrollable anger. Not at all. God's wrath is the necessary
and deliberate commitment to his own holiness, to the satisfying
of divine justice. God must punish all sin and reject
all sinners forever. And that's why we're without
hope, except God himself make a way. We can't make a way. We're not looking for a way. And he made that way. He did
it in Christ, in his death on the cross. He made the difference. And here's
the advantage now. Paul makes the transition in
verse four, but God, wow, what two blessed words,
but God, nevertheless, God, in spite of all of that, God, all
of the above be true and true of you and I. God who is rich in mercy. Not God who finally looked and
saw something worthwhile in you. I've heard a lot of people say,
I don't know what God ever saw in me. I'll tell you nothing.
Nothing. There wasn't nothing but dung
in you to see. That's what Paul said. He saw you in His Son. in Christ. That's where his mercy come in.
But God who is rich in mercy. Peter called it abundant mercy.
Meaning plenty. More than enough. Rich in mercy. For his great
love wherewith he loved us. He loved us. Nothing we did for
him, but he loved us. Now verses 5 and 6, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with
Christ, by grace you say, and hath raised us up together and
made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ. What's the advantage? Well, now
in those two verses we just read, 5 and 6, We read the word together
three times. Did you see that? He's quickened us together. He's
raised us up together. And He's made us to sit together
in Christ. We are not on our own in this
world. You need to know that. You need
to get a hold of that. You said, oh, but there's such
difficulty in my life. There's such trouble. I'm facing such a mountain that
I can't get over. Hey, you need to know that you're
not alone. You're not alone. Apart from Christ, we are nothing. Apart from Christ, we have nothing. But together with Christ, we
are everything and have everything. Life together with Christ in
this world is no bed of roses. And if that's what you want,
you'll have to shun Him and reject Him to have the bed of roses
you're looking for. Just look at how He had it in
this world. How did he have it? Well, he said, the foxes have
holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath
not where to lay his head. He was homeless. Under the bridge, in a cardboard
box, so to speak, that's the God of the universe.
in human flesh. How did he have it? Rejected. He said in the Psalms, I am a
worm and no man. I'm looked down upon as the scum
of humanity. No man cared for my soul. That's
how he had it. How did he have it? He's called
a bastard. He's not this Joseph's son. We
know him. Wasn't she pregnant before her
and Joseph got her? Yeah. But he's the son of God. But that's how he had it. He's
a blasphemer. He's a lawbreaker. We know that
this man is a sinner. That's what they said about him.
That's how he had it. How do you expect to have it
any better if you're his child? Finally, he's the subject to
the cry, crucify him, crucify him. This world don't need the
likes of him. That's what they say about you
if you're God's child. But together with Christ. Together
with Christ. And here's the thing. Where we
miss. We're not called to a bed of
roses in this life. We are called. First Corinthians
one were called under the fellowship. Of Jesus Christ, our Lord. You're
not in this by yourself. So this morning, listen carefully
If Christ is not the life of your life, you don't have life. I didn't say if you don't have
a tiny little place in your life. I didn't say that. I said if
Christ is not the life of your life, you don't have life. Religion has thrown you a curve.
God's work of quickening comes with a new heart, a heart for
him. And he'll work in you for it
to be an undivided heart. We must forfeit everything of
Seth's glory, Seth's will, and commit to honoring him in everything. But I fear for us in this generation. Those three things in verse two,
the course of this world. Well, that's just the way how
things are nowadays. Is that so? Well, everybody's
doing it. Is that so? The course of this
world, the Prince of the power of the air, the attacks of Satan
to keep you in the dark. and the spirit that now worketh
in the children of disobedience." Nothing's wrong anymore. I'm afraid these things have
so overwhelmed us and so have taken our eyes off of the Lord. Many have given up. What's the use? I just can't
make it. You never could. Don't give up. Don't give up. I heard something
the other day. Y'all know what it means when
a preacher looks at his watch? Nothing. I heard something the other day
about training elephants. They take a baby elephant, tie
the chain around one leg, drive a stake deep in the ground to
where it can't pull loose. And that elephant tries and tries
and tries for days and weeks and maybe months and can't pull
loose and finally gives up. Gives up. But when the elephant is grown,
and is very gentle and trained for the circus and is performing
in the circus every night. They take the elephant out, this
huge elephant, and take the stake and drive it just very shallow
in the ground. Shallow enough that when they
get ready to put him in the trailer, a man can come along and pull
it up. It's so shallow that the elephant could pull it up and
walk away. very, very easily. But guess what? He never tries. He's given up. He gave up a long
time ago. And I fear that's what the world,
Satan, and religion has done to a lot of folks. But I'm not
wanting to talk to you about Satan. I'm not wanting to talk
to you about the world. I'm not wanting to talk to you
about religion. I'm wanting to talk to you about our advantage
in God. He's everything to us and for
us. Now I realize this morning some
of you need a miracle in your life and in your family. But you've almost given up. I
want to say, you don't have to. Commit yourself wholeheartedly
to Him. Commit everything to Him with
a determination to obey Him and honor Him from this day forth. A person said to me who was seeking
God's blessing the wrong way. And this is where some of you
are at. He said, I don't know what else
God wants. He wants you. He wants you. He's not interested in anything
you've got. You don't have anything he hadn't
give you. It's you he wants. And then,
and only then, you'll possess far more than
you've ever given him. We're promised peace and privilege
in Christ beyond our imagination. in Him now, quickened now, raised
up together now, seated with Him now. It's never ending. And verse 7, that in the ages
to come, this world is not the end of it. Oh no. That's the way the world thinks.
It's wonderful while they're here, but every little bit you
hear about a some celebrity or some movie star passed away. They lived to be the ugly old
age of 100 or something like that. And they were such a famous person. And of course, they're on the
news for a night or two, and they put them in heaven and talk
about how wonderful they were. And guess what? Never mentioned
again. That's the end of it. That's the end of it. God's child
has no end. It's going to be glory and bliss
for eternity in Christ. In Christ. That in the ages to
come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. It'll take eternity. It's going
to take eternity to reveal how merciful and gracious He's been. That's God's child. And all this religious bunch that so hates who God is and would put it in your hands
to make a decision and back Him in a corner to save you and bless
you, that bunch is going to be in hell. And there's multiplied thousands
of them standing in the pulpit right now. Well, they're too late. God's
finished His work. He's blessed us, chapter 1, verse
3 said, with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. And so if you don't know Him
today, I would say this. You don't have to be a genius.
That's got nothing to do with it. Just cry to Him. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. That's all. Amen.