I know that most of you are very
familiar with the scripture, but contrary to the world's philosophy,
the world's philosophy is this. Familiarity breeds contempt,
and they may have a point there in some areas. But familiarity
with God's Word breeds confidence and assurance and hope. The better
you are acquainted with His Word, the more confidence and assurance
and hope, better hope you'll have. And I'll preach this morning
from this text, Ephesians 2, and the Lord willing again tonight,
And this morning I have a very simple outline. First, what we were. Not some
of us. All of us. What we were. Dead. Dead in trespasses and
sin. And secondly, what God has done
for us in Christ Jesus our Lord. We were dead, but God. It's not but we, but God. The disciple said, Lord, who
can be saved? He said, with men, impossible. But with God, all things are
possible. And then the third point of the
message is what we are now. What we are now and shall be. I've occasionally met people
who are offended by that song that we sang a few moments ago.
Only a sinner saved by grace. They resent being called sinners
because now they're saved and not sinners anymore. But if you'll
turn to Matthew 10 for a moment, I'll give you a good scriptural
reason for calling yourself what you were. When God saved Matthew,
who wrote this book, Matthew's Gospel, whom God used to write
it, when God saved Matthew, he was a worthless publican, a worthless
publican, a tax collector, a traitor to the Jewish nation who worked
for the Romans. He actually worked for the enemy.
We used to call them quizlings in World War II. Worked for the
enemy. Well, when Matthew named the
twelve apostles, he came to his own name. I want you to see how
he referred to himself. Now this is after the Lord called
him, made him an apostle, gave him the gospel. Now listen to
Matthew 10, verse 2. He's writing himself. Now the
names of the twelve apostles are these. The first is Simon,
who's called Peter. Andrew, his brother. James, the
son of Zebedee, John, his brother, Philip, the fallen youth, Thomas,
and Matthew, the publican. He didn't call the rest of them
publicans. He didn't call the rest of them
sinners. But he knew what he was. He knew what he was. And he said, Matthew, incidentally,
the publican, now saved, Like Paul said, Christ came into the
world to save sinners, of whom I'm the chief. Let's go to our
text. Saved by grace. First what we
were. He says in chapter 2 verse 1,
And you hath be quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin. Not physically dead. Not physically
dead. But worse. spiritually. Verse 12 sums it up. Look at
verse 12 of this same chapter. Verse 12 says, At that time you
were without Christ. You were aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel. You were strangers from the covenant
of promise, having no hope. No hope. And without God, without
Christ, without hope, and without God, dead in trespasses and sin. Now, how did we get in this mess?
God didn't create us dead. How did man get in this mess? God created man, the scripture
says, and he created man, male and female, in his own image,
and he said good. And Solomon wrote, God created
man upright. Upright. But man sought out many
inventions. Well, how did we become dead?
Not physically, but spiritually dead, separated from God. Well,
let's go back to the beginning and see. I think to find out
how to understand spiritual death, we're going to have to read When
and where it happened, in Genesis 3. Genesis 3, a man created in
God's image, upright, without sin, holy. Verse 1 of chapter
3 says, The serpent was more subtle than any beast of the
field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman,
Yea, have God said you shall not eat of every tree of the
garden? The woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit
of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which
is in the midst of the garden. God has said you shall not eat
of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. Lest you die
a spiritual death. And the serpent said to the woman,
you'll not die. God does know in the day you
eat thereof your eyes will be opened, you'll be like God. knowing
good and evil. And the woman saw that the tree
was good for food. It was pleasant to the eyes,
the tree, the desire to make one wise. She took of the fruit
thereof and did eat, and gave to her husband with her, and
he did eat. And the eyes of them were opened. They knew they were
naked. They were naked before and didn't
know it. They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves
aprons. They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the
cool of the day, and Adam and his wife heard them and said,
they didn't hide from God before. They weren't afraid of God before.
And the Lord God said, where are you? And he said, I heard
your voice, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid.
Who told you you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree wherever
I command thee that I shall not eat? And the man said, the woman
Thou gavest me, she that gave me the trees, your fruit, I did
eat." You see, Adam and Eve didn't
die physically. They lived on 700, 800 years,
but they were dead spiritually. How did that affect us? Well, turn to Romans 5. The life of God left them, the
life of holiness. eternal life, spiritual life,
divine life, let them. In Romans, chapter 5, verse 12,
now listen. Wherefore by one man, as by one
man sin entered this world. That was when Adam defied God,
disobeyed God. The representative, the one man,
God created. head of all men, the root and
seed of all men. By one man, sin entered this
world and death by sin. So death at that time passed
upon all men, for all sins. That word have can be left out
there, because in Adam we fell, in Adam we sinned, in Adam we
died. That's what it says in 1 Corinthians 15, very strongly, 1 Corinthians 15. It says this in 1 Corinthians
15, verse 20, 21. For since by man came death,
by man came the resurrection of the dead. For in Adam all
died. all die. Now, we need to understand there
are different kinds of life. There are different kinds of
life, and this is helpful. It helped when I first understood
this or saw this, this illustration, it helped me. You see there are
many kinds of life. There's a life, there's mineral
life. There's plant life. There's animal life. All those
things live. The plants live. Minerals have
energy. And plants live and animals live. And human beings live. But there's
a spiritual life. There's a life of God. There's
a divine life. When God created Adam in his
image, he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. He became
a living soul, made in the image of God. He had physical life
and divine life. He walked with God. He didn't
know any sin. He didn't know any fear or shame
or nakedness or anger or hatred. He didn't know those things.
He couldn't lie, because he was holy. He couldn't hate. He didn't know
anything about it. But he lost that life, that divine
life, the life of God. He died, he was flesh. He felt
like a fleshly person now. Now that's what it says in our
text, you have two victims who were dead. Trespassers and sin. There's this world out here.
He's dead in trespasses and sin. Now, let's move on in our text.
What we were. We were dead, and then verse
2, we walked. Weren't in times past, we walked.
We walked physically, and we walked mentally, and we walked
emotionally. We walked according to the course
of this world. What is a person's walk? A person's
walk is the tenor of his life, the bit of his will. It's what
it is. It's a continuous path, a direction,
a practice. And we have two terrible guides.
Listen. We walked according to the course
of the world. The world dictated to us our
walk. We tried to please the world,
and the world pleased us. We walked according to the world,
and then our other guide, we walked according to this world,
and we walked according to the prince of the pious, Satan. He was our influence, our motivator,
the world and Satan. And God said, when he looked
down on men, he said this in Genesis 6 verse 5, before he
destroyed the world in the flood, he said, God saw the wickedness
of man was great in the earth and every imagination. of the
thoughts of his heart with evil continually." Psalm 14, you do well to turn
to this. Look at Psalm 14. Psalm 14, verse
1. The fool has said in his heart, No God for me. They're corrupt,
they've done abominable works, there's none that do us good.
The Lord God looked down from heaven upon the children of men
to see if there were any, any that did understand and seek
God. They're all gone out of the way, they're all together
become filthy, there's none that do us good, no not one. Can the
leper change his spots? Can the Ethiopian change his
skin? That's what Jeremiah asked. But no, that's his nature. His
spot's on the outside because of the spots in his nature. If
you open it, it's black on the outside because that's his nature.
Neither can you and I do good that are by nature, centers. We were dead, we walked, motivated
by the world and the devil. And look at what he says about
this The devil. It says in verse 2, he's the
spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. The
same Satan that motivated that man to go in the church. Now
you came in the church this morning to worship God. He came in to
kill down in Texas. He came in with guns and ammunition
to kill people. to spew out hatred for God and
people who worship God. What motivates him? Satan. The
same spirit that works in the heart of that man was a spirit
that was in our hearts before God saved us. That's what it
says. We want, verse 2, in times past,
according to this world, according to the devil, the spirit that
even now works in the children of disobedience. Among whom, and what's that?
We were dead, we walked according to the world and the devil, and
listen, among whom also we had our conversation in times past
in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling. We fulfilled. What we fulfilled? Having no spiritual life, having
no heavenly God, having no path of righteousness, we gave in. We gave in, we fulfilled, we
gave in to the lust of this flesh. The desires of this flesh, the
contrary thoughts, the wicked thoughts of his mind. We just
gave in to them. Gave in to them. Gave in to them. Had our conversation in times
past in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling, giving in. to all these wicked desires.
And listen, we were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others. Preacher, I've heard you often
say that God loved his people from the foundation of the world.
And quote Jeremiah 31, I've loved you with an everlasting love.
with loving kindness have I drawn you? What does this mean we were
by nature the children of wrath even as others? How can God always love us and
yet us be under his wrath? Two words. Listen. By nature. By nature. We were children of
wrath by nature. By conception. By birth, by nature
in Adam, we were with the whole world under the judgment of God. Under the wrath of God. All sons
of Adam. And the other two words is in
Christ. And we need to learn where the
love of God is. Turn to Romans 8. We need to
learn where the love of God is. Got to learn where the wrath
of God is. It's in nature. It's in Adam. The wrath of God
is in Adam. In Adam all die. In Christ, God loves people. Now look at Romans 8, verse 38
and 39. I'm persuaded that neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's where God's love is. That's
where God's mercy is. That's where God's grace is in
Christ. This is talking about what we
were by nature. Because of the fall of Adam,
we were dead in trespasses and sin. No spiritual life. No desire
for God. We walked. Motivated by the world
and the devil. Giving in to the things of this
flesh and this mind. We live by nature with the whole
world under the wrath of God. Under the judgment of God. That
accounts for God destroying whole nations. You read in the Old Testament,
God through Israel destroyed whole cities. Take Sodom and
Gomorrah. God destroyed the entire city. The only people that were delivered
from Sodom was Lot and his two daughters. The rest of them,
infants, young, children, young people, middle age, old people,
were consumed by the wrath of God. The nature of sin and evil,
God hates. God hates the workers of iniquity. God's angry with the wicked.
And when we were considered only an Adam, we were under the wrath
of God. Now when God considers us in
Christ, through a covenant of mercy, gave us out of Adam's
race, out of every tribe, kindred, nation, tongue, and hair, gave
a people to Christ, and put them in Christ, In purpose, in promise, he loved
them then because of Christ. You see that? That's what he
said. We were by nature, by conception, by birth, by identification with
Adam, children of wrath. But in Christ, sons of God, loved
with an everlasting love. That's covenant by Jesus. Turn
to 1 Corinthians 15 again. Let me show you this in verse
47 and 48 and 49. 1 Corinthians 15, covenant verses. In 1 Corinthians 15, 47, the
first man is of earthy, nothing but earth. The second man is
the Lord from heaven. As is the earthly, such are they
that are earthly. That's what we were by birth,
earthly. And as is the heavenly Christ,
such are they that are heavenly, as we're born in the image of
the earthly. And God can't love the image of the earthly and
be God. We shall also bear the image
of the heavenly. Covenant mercies and grace. All
right, let me move on. Chapter 2 of Ephesians, what
we were. Dead in trespasses and sinning. Walked according to the course
of this world and the motivation of Satan. Fulfilled the lust
of this flesh and the desires of this mind. Were by nature
under the wrath of God. Cursed is every one that continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law of Judah.
While you're not under that curse, you haven't fulfilled all things
written in the book of the law, you're in Christ. That's the
difference, by nature, in Christ. Now what God has done, verse
4, but God, who is rich in mercy, my friends, God is sovereign, majestic, sovereign. God is holy. God is just. Truth and verity,
and judgment, justice, are his kingdom. God is righteous. But
God, the scripture says here, is rich in mercy. God is, mercy
is an attribute of God just like his holiness. Justice is an attribute of God,
but mercy is an attribute of God. Grace and mercy and love. Turn with me to Psalm 130. This
is what David is saying. Psalm 130, God who's rich in
mercy. God's rich in holiness and righteousness
and justice, but he's rich in mercy. In Psalm 130 it says,
Out of the depths out of the depths, and that's where we cry
for him, out of the depths. And I cry unto thee, O Lord,
let hear my voice, let thine ear be attentive to the voice
of my supplication. If thou, Lord, shouldst mark
connectment to who would stand, what gives David the idea that
such a God would hear him? God considered in his holiness
and majesty and justice and truth. Why would he hear somebody crying
out of deadness, walking according to the course of this world,
fulfilling the desires of the mind? By nature, children of
wrath. What gives David the idea of
God even hearing him? Listen. Well, there's forgiveness
with thee. There's forgiveness with thee.
that thou mayest be feared and worshipped. Forgiveness. God delights to show mercy. God
is plenteous in mercy. He said, I will be merciful.
And so our text says, but God, who is rich in mercy, listen,
for his great love, wherewith he loved us. Where? In Christ. He loved us. Three marvelous facts. He loved
us. eternally, unchangeably, infinitely
in Christ. He loved us even when we were
dead in sins. He quickened us to God. I told
you to watch these three words, this word used three times. But
God, who is rich in mercy, by his great love, wherever he loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, in this terrible state,
He quickened us together with Christ, together with Christ,
by grace you say, raised us up together with Christ, and made
us sit together with Christ in the heavenly places. Why? That in the ages to come, he
might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
toward us in Christ Jesus. through Christ Jesus. Not because
of anything we've done. He's not going to show the marvelous
works we've done. He's going to show the exceeding
riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Now,
in closing, what we are now. Number one, mercy received by
grace, by the free grace of God, by an act of God, by the mercy
of God. by the death of his son, we're
saved. Now that word saved has fallen into bad company. It's
like the word Christian. It's fallen into bad company.
It's used meaningless, carelessly, saved. So people go, are you
saved? I'm saved. I mean when I got
saved. What does the word save mean?
You who are dead are now saved. Well, the word saved means delivered. That's what the word means, saved,
delivered. When a person's drowning and
he's brought out of the water, he's delivered. He's delivered
from the danger. He's delivered from the water
that was taking his life. He's delivered from the prison
of the sea or the river. He's delivered. And that's what
the word means. Turn to Colossians chapter 1. I'll read you several verses.
The word saved means delivered. Colossians 1 verse 13. Listen. First let's read verse 12. Giving
thanks to the Father, who hath made us qualified, made fit,
sufficient, to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints
in life, because he hath delivered us. He hath delivered us. He delivered us. I didn't got
saved. I didn't save myself. He hath
delivered us from the power of darkness, from the power of death,
from the clutches of Satan. He hath literally saved us. He's literally translated us,
delivered us from that kingdom of darkness, translated us into
the kingdom of his Son. We're out of the clutches, prison
house, darkness, bondage, kingdom of Satan. He's delivered us. So when you ask somebody, don't
ask somebody to save you, ask them have they been delivered?
And they'll say delivered from what? And then you tell them. What salvation? It's to be delivered.
It's not to change a few customs and habits and traditions. It's
not to align with a church. It's to be delivered. Turn to
Job 33. This is awesome over here. Job
33. Say, who hath delivered us from the
kingdom of darkness, to the kingdom of your son, made us meet sufficient
to be, to walk into glory. You know, we tell people to die
and they're going to walk into glory. Walk into glory? Are those
gates going to open for you and me? Who are dead? Who walk according
to the will? Who fulfill the lust of the flesh?
Lift up your heads, O ye gates, be ye lifted up, ye everlasting
doors, and the King of glory will come in. You go in with
him, in him, through him. Listen to Job 33, verse 22, his
soul doth near to the grave, his life to the destroyers. Oh, if there be a messenger with
him, an interpreter, You know, I got to thinking that'd be a
good thing to call a pastor, an interpreter. That's what John
Boone had called him, wasn't it? His pastor was his interpreter.
He went to the interpreter's house, didn't he? Interpreter. Is there an interpreter? That's
what Christ is. He's a preacher. More than a
thousand. To show him to man his uprightness. Whose uprightness? God's uprightness. Christ of Christ, Christ's righteousness.
Is there an interpreter? Is there one in a thousand who
will show these men the right righteousness of God? Deal with
it if there is. He's gracious unto him and says
deliver him. Deliver him. From going down
into the pit, I found a ransom. I found a ransom, I found an
atonement. Is that in your Bible in the
center? I found an atonement. Deliverance! For one reason,
I found a ransom, an atonement. Then, his flesh shall be fresher
than a child's, and he'll return to the days
of his youth, and he'll pray unto God, and God will be favorable
to him. And he shall see his face with
joy, and he'll render unto man his righteousness. Oh my goodness,
listen. He looketh upon me, and if any
of them will say, I've sinned, I'm dead, I perverted that which
is right, profiteth me not. He'll deliver his soul. He'll
deliver his soul from the pit, and his life shall see the light. The word saved by grace are you
delivered. Delivered. Another word it means is redeemed. Did you know there's a price
on our heads by nature? Cursed is everyone that continued
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.
You go down to the post office, used to, not now. They don't
have those posters anymore, do they? I used to go to the post
office down in my little hometown and I'd read these wanted signs. All these little fellas pictures
there, you know. Wanted for murder, wanted for
theft, wanted for something else. Pictures there. The law wanted
them. The law had a price on it, and
you and I were wanted by the law. But God sent a Redeemer, and
He paid all the debt. He paid all the debt and set
us free. So we're saved. We're saved. Or if what we are now, we're
saved by grace, verse 8. Not of works. Verse 10. What
are we? We're saved and we're his workmanship. We're his workmanship. We're
his creation. When you say a person's workmanship,
it's their creation. They didn't create it out of
nothing, but they took the things, the different products and they
put them together. And that's some creation, like
a flower design or something like that, that's a person's
creation. Well, we're his creation. That's right, we're God's creation. And I can explain that this way.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh. A mother gives birth
to a child who's the seed of a father, and he bears the likeness
of his father, nature of his father. But that which is born
of spirit is spirit. And that baby has ears and eyes
and a heart and a will and a mind. But this creation of God has
an ear, a hearing ear. The hearing ear is of the Lord.
The seeing eye is of the Lord. The believing heart is of the
Lord. The willing spirit. Thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power. That's a belonging.
The obedient walk. We walk. He leadeth us in prayers
of righteousness. So this whole new person is the
workmanship of God. The creation of God. He had ears, but he didn't hear.
He had eyes, but he didn't see. He had a will, but it was perverted.
He had a heart, but it was deceitful. He had a walk, according to the
course of this world. But God made him new. And the
hearing ear, and the seeing eye, and the willing spirit, and the
believing heart, and the righteous walk is of the Lord. See what I did? See what I made. You don't give that credit to
Who led me to Christ? No human being led me to Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ came and
found me and called me and created me a new creature in Christ Jesus
to Him be the glory. We've got this thing all backwards. We're His workmanship and we're
created, in this case out of nothing, And we created on two good works. One time we walked motivated
by two, the well and the devil. Now we walk motivated by two. Who are they? The word of God
and the spirit of God. Not the word of the well and
not the spirit of Satan. But this new man walks motivated
by the word of God, the will of God, and by the spirit of God. That's
right. We're here at workmanship created
under Christ Jesus on two good works which God has ordained
that we should walk in them. Ordained it. He's ordained it
for three reasons. Number one, that our faith be
confirmed. Faith without works is dead.
The confirmation of faith is godliness. That's right, godliness. A godly will and a godly walk.
That's a confirmation of faith. We know we pass from death unto
life because we love the brethren. That's how we know. God has ordained
that we walk in righteousness and holiness to confirm our faith
to us. Secondly, to confirm our faith
to others. By this shall all men know ye
my disciples, if ye love one another." See what I'm saying?
God's ordained that we walk in his will to confirm our faith
to us and to others. And thirdly, that his purpose
and will might be accomplished. He said, go ye into all the world
and preach the gospel. As my Father sent me, I send
you. And he that heareth you, heareth
me. And he that despiseth you, despiseth
him that sent me. And by your preaching, God has
chosen to save those that believe. So ordain the good works to confirm
our faith, to us, to others, to accomplish his purpose. By
grace, you say, all right, I hope that's a blessing to you. Let's
sing number 332. My Jesus, I love thee, I know
thou art mine. The Lord willing, I'll tonight
pick up at verse 11 and continue this message.