We've been thinking about spiritual
blessings, and last week we looked at spiritual blessings applied
when we saw in the middle of chapter 1, verse 17, Paul praying
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened,
that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what
the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. And
so he goes on. spiritual blessings but spiritual
blessings applied in that you don't just know about them up
in here it's not just things that you know about like you
know about Henry the eighth and you know about other facts of
history or of science or of technology these are these are blessings
that have felt You experience them. The believer experiences
these blessings when you have that spirit of wisdom and revelation. I was saying last week, everything
has become new. For the child of God, if anyone
is in Christ Jesus, he's a new creature, a new creation. Old
things are passed away. All things are become new. The
way you look at everything is new. You're in a new place in
Christ. You have a new standing before
God in Christ. You have a new membership, because
as he gets towards the end of chapter one, he talks about the
church. He is head over all things to the church, which is his body.
The church of Christ, the people who are his believing saints,
his believing people, they're his body, it says, and he is
the head of the body. You, if you're in Christ, you
have a new membership in his body, the church. And there's
a new world awaiting for you. Look in verse 21, far above,
he's Christ's above all things, far above all principality and
power and might and dominion and everything that is named,
every name that is named, not only in this world, but also
in that which is to come. That is yours in Christ. That is yours. We used to sing
a chorus, count your blessings, count them everyone. How little
believers we count our blessings. We think on how truly blessed
we are. What a changed perspective it
gives us on everything. Do you realize what you are?
If you're a believer, do you realize what you are? You know,
you see situations, you might have even experienced it, when
you come across somebody who thinks himself to be very important,
you know? and you're not aware of it, and
you're not behaving as if you need to bow and scrape before
this important person. And he says, do you not know
who I am? Ah, if only you knew who I am,
you'd bow and scrape before me. No, I don't actually, no. But
you know, do you know who you are? If you're a believer, do
you know who you are in the Lord Jesus Christ? Let's just read
the first ten verses of Ephesians 2. So this is going on from the
church, which is his body, made up of members, even you, verse
1, and you, if you believe, 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 lusts 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
ye are 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 in his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any 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. What is it to be a believer in
the Lord Jesus Christ? What is it to be saved? That's
what I want us to think about this morning. What is it to be
a child of God? We've looked at this passage
before, I was looking it up, it's nearly six years ago the
last time I preached on this, so it's not as if it's coming
around too often. But what is it to be a believer
in Christ? What is it to be a child of God?
What is it to be what the scripture calls a saint? You know that?
You are. If you're a believer, you're
a saint. You're a set apart one. Set apart by the sovereign grace
of God. One who is elect of God. How
do we know? How did Paul know the Thessalonians
were the elect of God? Sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth. It's good to be reminded how
richly God has blessed us with his salvation. On Facebook, some
people post a lot of things and I tend not to do much at all,
really not. One friend, good friend, posted
the other morning, and he'll know who I mean as soon as I
say it, but it really struck me, I didn't tell him at the
time, I just put, I liked it, and I'm not gonna say who it
is, but those that read it will know who it is, but he put a
post on saying how he struggled with prayer. Don't we all, believers? We struggle with prayer. It doesn't
flow easily a lot of the time. But he said what he'd discovered
was thinking on the blessings of salvation in Christ truly
helped his prayer. So he says he starts off not
by trying to string out a list of requests, but by thinking,
what has God done for me in Christ? Where am I now in Christ? What
is my standing before the justice of God? And that motivates and
enables prayer. Let us remember this morning
what we are by nature. In this passage we'll see it.
What we are by nature. But in response to that, the
rich blessings of mercy and great love from God, and the salvation
by grace that he has accomplished, arising from that mercy and love,
and the resulting blessings of a new life in Christ, a spiritual
life that you didn't have before, a resurrection in Christ with
him, raised with him, just as you died with him, you're raised
with him. And where you are in fact now, seated in heavenly
places, This is what I've called the anatomy of salvation, what
it's made up of. First of all, let's look at what
we are by nature. What are we by nature? Now in
a sense, This applies to everybody that ever existed, but in this
context particularly, we're thinking about what we as believers are,
by nature. And you! And you! Who? Who? You who believe the gospel. You who, in chapter 1 and verse
1, are the saints which are at Ephesus, and the faithful in
Christ Jesus, and even here, not just Ephesus, but everywhere.
You who believe the gospel of his grace, you believers, you
saved sinners, you were dead in trespasses and sins. You were
dead. What does dead mean? It means
you were as dead spiritually. You say, I've got life, but no.
Spiritually, in respect of a relationship with God, in respect of communion
with God, in respect of knowing who God is and having God's voice
speak to you and you hearing God's voice, in those respects,
you were dead. You were dead. You were as dead
as a corpse in a coffin. Just up the road is a funeral
director's. And I've no doubt that this morning,
in a box lying up there, waiting either for cremation or burial,
there will be a dead body. Maybe two, or more. You know,
it's a sobering thought, isn't it? It's a sobering thought.
The Bible says, Paul says to believers, as far as relationship
with God is concerned, you were dead. You were dead. You were
like Ezekiel's valley of dry bones. Do you remember the valley
of dry bones? When in that vision, he saw that valley of dry bones
and that valley of dry bones, he says, they were very, very
dry. Meaning what? They were long,
long dead. You know, People have a rare
steak and they joke that a good vet could probably bring it round
because it's so alive. No, not this. Dry bones. Very
dry bones. Well beyond the help of any vet. That's what we are. But not only
are we dead in the respect of a dead body, I imagine if you
went up to the funeral parlour, up the road, and you looked on
whatever dead body is there, you would think, oh, they've
made a nice job of that. They've made a nice job of that. No,
he says you were dead in trespasses and sins. And the picture here
is of being dead in the foulest corruption in the sight of God's
holiness. This is the picture of what we
are by nature. We do not see what we truly are
by nature before the justice and holiness of God. Dead in
trespasses and sins, dead in foulest corruption. Irrespective
of what we are by grace. And by grace we know from the
scripture. By grace we know that if we're in Christ, believing
in Him, we were chosen before the beginning of time. We know
that we were justified from all eternity in the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. Revelation 13, 8. The Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. Yes, He came in time. He came
in human history. to accomplish that, to satisfy
justice. But in the purposes of God, outside
of time, He's the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
And by nature, we were just like everyone else in Adam. That's
what we are, by nature. In our natural fleshly state,
just like everyone else, children of Adam. Children of Adam. God said to Adam, in that state
of innocence in the garden of all these things you can do but
this which I've forbidden doesn't matter what it is this which
I've forbidden of that tree you shall not eat in the day that
you eat thereof you shall surely die what do we read in the scripture
thereafter all the descendants what's the final word three words
and he died Methuselah did this, lived the longest that anybody
had ever lived, and he died. Enoch, well Enoch didn't because
he was translated, I picked the wrong one there, didn't I? But
Noah, and he died. Lot, and he died. They all died. They all died because in the
day that you eat thereof you shall surely die. We're dead
by nature in the foulest corruption when viewed in God's light. That's
the thing, when viewed in God's light. And look at verse two,
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. Walking
means living, living in accordance with the course of this world.
What's this course? It's like a river, you know,
like the course of a river. how it flows. And it flows downhill. And the picture is one of a river
flowing away from the goodness of God to the corruption of hell. To the lostness of hell. A river
flowing away from God to hell. And Jesus pictures it like this.
Walking down the broad way, the broad way, the easy way, the
wide way, that leads to eternal destruction and not on the narrow
way that leads to life swept along by it. Do you remember
those pictures? It's twelve years or more ago,
it's nearly thirteen years ago now, isn't it? The tsunami that
struck the Indian Ocean. Oh, well, there was one in Japan,
wasn't there, when the nuclear reactor was struck. And you saw
those pictures of anybody that was there in the street when
that wave came along and they could do nothing about it. To
fight against it was futile. You just went with it. They were
just swept along with it. They could do nothing about it.
This is what it is. Walking according to the course
of this world. It's that river flowing away
from the goodness of God and all that is good down to hell.
Walking that broad way that leads to destruction. And acting according
to the prince of the power of the air. Who's he? It's Satan. According to the directives of
Satan. inclined by nature in our natural
state to listen to Satan's lie. What did Satan first lie in the
Garden of Eden to Eve? Has God really said? Has he? No, come on. God wouldn't say
such a thing. No, God hasn't really said. And
Satan still says to the natural man now, God hasn't really said
that, has he? Has God really said that? You
know, This book is about Christ, but it's also full of directives
for every aspect of life and how often we fly in the face
of it and say, has God really said? Because Satan says to us,
has God really said? Yes, he has. Yes, he has. We should listen to the voice
of the living God. We're inclined by nature in this
flesh to listen to Satan's lie. What's Satan's lie? Fundamentally,
it's a lie of eternal good without the satisfaction of divine justice.
Do you know, in the economy of God, in the scheme of God revealed
in the scriptures, there is only one possibility for good, and
that's if his justice is satisfied. There can be no good outside
of the satisfaction of the justice of God, but the lie of Satan
is that everybody, it seems to be, all around us believes, yes,
you can have good, you can have eternal good, without the satisfaction
of divine justice. However you perceive that eternal
good, whether you perceive it as an annihilation that leaves
you responsible for nothing, or whether you perceive it as
a heaven achieved by your own good works, it's the lie of Satan,
because it doesn't satisfy divine justice. And the natural man
by himself is convinced of his own self-righteousness. I'm good
enough, or at least I'm not as bad as the rest. And they excuse. We naturally excuse our sin. Naturally excuse it. Believing
the voice. Remember in Revelation we saw
Satan's antichrist and Satan's false prophet. That's what's
directing the thinking of the political world all around us. groups of people, of individuals,
they're listening to the voice of Satan's antichrist and his
false prophet. And that's what we are by nature. That's where we are by nature. Verse three, among whom also
we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others conformed
to the world around. You know, not going against it,
but going along with it, happily communing with the world around,
driven and motivated by what? What God requires? No, just what
the flesh and what the mind wants to do. It's It said in the book
of Judges about the people at that time when they periodically
kept on losing sight of the truth and the law of God, that each
man did that which was right in his own eyes. There was no
objective standard. Everybody, whatever they thought
was right and they fancied doing, that's what they did. That's
what this is talking about here. having our conversation in times
past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind, and by nature as a result, in our natural
flesh as a result, the children of wrath. What that means is,
what that phrase is very much like is a phrase used in the
Old Testament, you read it again and again, when somebody was
guilty of something and they said, he was worthy to die. He was worthy to die. You are
by nature worthy to die under the just condemnation of God. Just like everybody else, even
as others. deserving of divine condemnation. That's what it is. Children of
wrath, deserving of divine condemnation, owing a colossal debt to the
law of God, and spiritually bankrupt, with nothing with which to pay,
impotent, utterly incapable of earning the required currency
to give us that which we need to pay the debt to the offended
law of God. This is what is meant. You know,
you've heard of the five points of Calvinism. good summary of
the true gospel but the first one, tulip is the word that summarizes
it, tulip, T, total depravity this is what it means total depravity
is this, utterly in yourself without any capability of thinking
or leaning or inclining towards the things of God will you appeal
there? for a response, to believe the
gospel, to believe God's gospel. You know, some do, so many do. They say, ah, there's just about
good enough left in people. You know, Christ's death is sufficient
for all the world if only they would believe. So we'll go out
appealing to them, and we'll go out appealing to them because
we think there's just about a little bit of ability in them to believe
that gospel. This is what is at the root of
the majority of error in our day. If you believe the scripture,
there is no ability whatsoever. Dead in trespasses and sins.
Dead. How dead? Dead, absolutely. Dead in the foulest corruption.
But look at verse four, but God. Don't you just love it when the
scripture says, but God. But God, the riches of mercy
and the greatness of his love. What we are by nature is appalling. But God, the riches of his mercy,
the greatness of his love. 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, brought us to life, together
with Christ. Christ, by whose grace you are
saved. Mercy which God, it's said, is
rich in, God who is rich in mercy, mercy is an attribute of God
that is only brought to the fore, that is only brought into play
by the sin of man. Without the sin of man, there
is no mercy from God. It's the same with us, one to
another, isn't it? We are merciful to somebody if
really they've done us a serious wrong. And the ball is in our
court to forgive them and be merciful. You see sometimes about
drug traffickers. You know in some of these countries
in the Far East where they have very very strict laws about drug
trafficking and anybody caught, the basic justice is you lined
up before a firing squad and shot. And we've seen one or two
cases where British people have been conned into trafficking
drugs and they've been found guilty by the court and they've
been sentenced to die by firing squad. There's going to be soldiers
lined up with guns and they're going to shoot them and they
plead. What can they plead? I didn't
do it. No, no, the courts found you guilty. No, no. They plead
for mercy. They plead for mercy. And sometimes
we know the court, the ruler of the land has granted them
mercy. But do you know what? It's at
the expense of strict justice, isn't it? In granting mercy,
they've turned justice on its head because that person trafficked
the drugs and was caught and was sentenced. And the sentence
was never paid. And the law cried out for death
of that person. And the court was merciful. Not
so with God. God is never merciful at the
expense of his justice. To declare a sinner just requires
mercy in proportion to the depth of the sin, but not at the cost
of violated justice. God will not be merciful at the
cost of violated justice, but what could drive the mercy of
God? His great love, wherewith he
loved us. His great love, loved with an
everlasting love. This is it. Can I explain it?
Can I understand it? Absolutely not. His great love
wherewith he loved us. God is love, says John. His great
love wherewith he loved us. How great love this is. What
great love it is. He's of purer eyes than to behold
iniquity. God is repulsed by sin. God hates it. It's a stench in
his nostrils. He hates sin, but his love is
so great that he commends his love to us. Paul tells the Romans,
Romans 5, 8, God commends his love to us in that while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us. Christ died for those who
were not lovely. He died for those who were sinners,
revolting, repulsive, obnoxious in his sight. but not without
cost, for the clue was there in that verse. He died. He died. That's it. His death was the
thing that made it that justice was not being violated. The price
of satisfaction of divine justice was the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He commends his love in that
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. He died
for those who deserve the wrath of God. That justice might be
satisfied but yet at the same time God might be merciful. He might show mercy. And so we
see in verse 5, salvation by grace, even when we were dead
in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by whose grace ye
are saved. I know it just says by grace
ye are saved, but it's by whose, by Christ's grace, ye are saved. Salvation from just condemnation
for sin arises from love. It's the love of God. The love
of God drove God to be merciful, but only at great cost, which
satisfied his justice. Let me explain. You see, there
are angels in heaven who have never fallen, they've never sinned,
they're perfectly holy, and God loves the holy, unfallen angels. But God has never shown them
mercy, He never showed them mercy. He never needed to show them
mercy. They never sinned. Likewise, there are angels who
were in heaven, and when Satan fell, they fell. And they joined
him in rebellion. And he showed no mercy to them. There's no mercy on the fallen
angels, only strict justice and wrath without mercy, which is
yet to be fulfilled in its fullness. but for his saints, for his elect
whom he loved with an everlasting love, Love and mercy came together
to produce grace. And grace justified the ungodly,
while satisfying offended justice. We read in that Psalm 85 earlier
on, Psalm 85 verse 10. Mercy and truth are met together. This is it. In the death of Christ,
the strict justice of God which cannot be altered, and Christ
dying to pay the penalty to satisfy that justice, met together with
his love for his people. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other in him. Christ died for his ungodly people,
his people who are ungodly by nature, as we were seeing in
the first four verses. Christ died for his ungodly people
to pay their debt to violated divine justice. So God remains
a just God. but fully able to justify and
save sinners. Isaiah 45 verse 21. He calls himself a just God and
a savior. A just God whose justice cannot
be violated, otherwise he would cease to be God, yet he can be
merciful and save that which has violated his justice. How?
in the death of his son, a just God and a saviour. Romans 3.26,
that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. Think on these things. Think
on them. Meditate on them. When you come
to prayer, chew these things over in your mind. Think on these
things. And the consequences of them,
as it goes on to tell us in Romans 8, if God be for us, who can
be against us? If these things are for us, if
God and all that he's done in his love and mercy and grace,
in satisfying his justice on our behalf, If he can be for
us, what can possibly be against us? What peace that this gives. Who shall lay any charge to God's
elect? Who shall condemn or accuse them
before the justice of God? Nobody. Why? Because Christ has
satisfied that justice. Who shall separate us from the
love of God that is in Christ Jesus? And Paul goes on to say,
can anything at all? Nothing can. Do you struggle? Like I often do to pray, I'm
sure you do. Think on these things. Think
on these things. Where does it put us? Verse 6,
He's raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. So then, Let us see the result
of this salvation that he's accomplished. Salvation from such depths to
such glorious heights. In verses five, six, and seven,
when we were dead in trespasses and sins, he has quickened us
together with Christ by grace are ye saved. And has raised
us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places 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,
quickened, raised and seated. Though dead in sin by nature,
dead in sin by nature, shown that we are loved from eternity,
chosen from eternity, redeemed by the death of Christ, justified
in all that he has done to satisfy the law in the place of his people.
The Holy Spirit has come and quickened the believer, because
I tell you this, God never, ever, ever saved, God never ever will
save anybody that he doesn't make fully aware of it, fully
conscious, fully alive to it. He quickens, he makes alive,
he breathes new spiritual life, he gives a new birth with Christ. except a man be born again, said
Jesus to Nicodemus, he cannot see the things of the Spirit
of God. But the Holy Spirit comes and
gives him a new birth of a new man, a new man who cannot sin,
a new man who is after the mind of Christ, a new man that has
the nature of Christ, comes in to that fallen state. And there's
a new nature within, a nature which is inclined to the things
of God. So that John says, 1 John 4, 17, as he is, as Christ is,
as Christ is. Where is Christ? Seated in heaven.
Christ is glorious, having fulfilled all things. He's in heaven. He
says, as he is, so are we in this world. Meditate on these
things. As Christ lay dead in the tomb
after his crucifixion, before his resurrection, And his people,
we read, had died in him. I am crucified with Christ. I
was crucified there with him. I was so united with him, I was
crucified with him. And so I lay dead with him in
that tomb. So he was quickened by the Holy
Spirit prior to his rising. And his people quickened in him. Together with him. Together with
him. He's quickened us together with
Christ. When Christ was quickened, leading
up to his resurrection. We were quickened in him. In
every believer there is a new man, born of God, with the nature
of God's Son, with the righteousness of God in Christ, because Christ
has made us that righteousness of God in him, by him being made
the sin of his people, who knew no sin. And he's raised us up
together. As he rose from the dead, his
people rose in him. And this is what is pictured
in baptism. We saw it a few weeks ago, when Jill and Michael were
baptized. The burial in the water is a
symbolical union. It's a testimony, it's a witness
of union with Christ, that I am with him, and when he died, I
died in him. And when he rose from the dead,
By the power of God, I rose from the dead in Him. I have a new
life. I have a spiritual life. A life
which cannot be taken away. A life which goes on into eternity.
Eternal life. He that believes in me has eternal
life. Romans 6 verse 4. Like as Christ
was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even
so we also should walk in newness of life. He is the head of the
body, the church. That's at the end of chapter
one. When he was raised for our justification, Romans 4.25, lifted
up for our transgressions and raised for our justification,
we were raised in him to newness of life. And he's made us sit
together in heavenly places. You're as good as there. You
may not feel like you're there now, but you're as good as there.
As he is there, we are there in him. And the guarantee of
where we will be, when we die we go straight into his presence.
This day you shall be with me in paradise, he said to the thief
on the cross. We're effectively now in heaven
before we get there if we're believing in Christ. Verse 7. that in the ages to come he might
show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward
us through Christ Jesus. Exceeding riches of his grace
in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. All of this, it's
by grace. Through faith. By grace you are
saved. Through faith and that not of
yourselves. It is the gift of God. The gift of God. Not of
works. It's entirely of grace. God's
riches at Christ's expense. Based on what He did, God has
given us all His riches, all of it, through faith. We apprehend
it through faith. which God the Holy Spirit comes
and gives to his people. Not of works, because there was
a hint of work in it. We would boast. Even belief,
even faith is not your work. It is the work of God. For we
are his workmanship. We are his workmanship. What
is the work that we should do to do the works of God? The Jews
asked Jesus, John 6, 29. He said, this is the work of
God. This is the work of God. This
is God's work. That you believe on Him whom
He has sent. Who's that? The Lord Jesus Christ.
That you believe on Him. What must I do to be saved? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And you shall be saved. Believe
in Him. I don't understand everything.
It doesn't matter. Believe on Him. He will show
you. the blessings of truth. He will show you. We're learning
every day, line by line, precept by precept. But believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. And in believing, have eternal
life. There is no other way. As Peter
said to the crowd in Jerusalem, there is none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Do you see
what a transformation there is from what we are by nature to
where he has put us, justified, glorified, seated in heaven with
Christ. The psalm speaks about that horrible
pit, that horrible pit of sin and corruption. He's taken his
people, taken them, lifted them out of the miry clay of sin and
set their feet firmly on a solid rock, and that rock is Christ. Amen.