Shall we turn in our Bibles now to
Ephesians, the second chapter?
Paul is going to talk about someone tonight,
very interesting.
You.
Well, at least you're interested in the subject.
For many of you, it's your favorite subject.
If we were able to take a wide
-angle lens picture of the service this evening
and post it on the bulletin board, and
you went up to look at that picture,
who's the first one you'd look for?
Of course, and you, Paul said.
Now, notice the words, hath he quickened, are
in italics.
What it means is that these words were
added by the translators, that they do not
appear in the original Greek text in this
place.
Now, they do appear in the original Greek
text down in verse 5, but it does
not appear here at the beginning of this
text.
And so, they wrote hath he quickened in
italics in order to indicate the fact that
they themselves added those words.
They are not a part of the original
text.
And you, evidently it was just a little
bit too heavy.
The things that Paul has to say about
you, so that they tried to sort of
cushion the whole blow by giving you a
peek ahead at what he's going to say
about you.
But at this point, Paul is just saying,
and you who were dead in your trespasses
and sins.
God said to Adam, in the day that
you eat thereof, you will surely die.
Talking about that forbidden fruit in the Garden
of Eden.
God was talking about spiritual death.
That awareness of God, that communion with God,
or that fellowship and oneness that God intended
that man should have with God.
That would cease.
For God is the Spirit.
They that worship Him, worship Him in spirit
and in truth.
The relationship with God would cease the moment
man disobeyed the commandment of God.
The moment man transgressed.
And so, and you who were dead, really
as the result of your transgressions and sins.
The Greek word for sin, harmatia, is a
word that means to miss.
Our English word sin comes from a root
to miss.
In fact, it comes from a game in
archery that the British used to have.
They put a hoop on a pole.
And each man would take his quiver of
arrows.
And shoot his arrows through the hoop, one
at a time.
And so maybe you'd have five men in
the contest.
Each of them with ten arrows.
And one after another they'd shoot their arrow
through the hoop, there at the top of
the pole.
Now, if a man should miss the hoop,
then he was called a sinner.
You've missed.
And he would have to treat the rest
of the fellows to the drinks.
He was a sinner.
He had missed the mark.
Now, by the very root of the word,
it does indicate, which is also true, that
it is possible to be a sinner without
wanting to be.
It is possible that you would be trying
very hard to hit the mark.
But no matter how hard we may try
to hit the mark, none of us have
really hit the mark that God has required
for man.
All have sinned or missed the mark and
come short of the glory of God.
Now, some may have come closer than others.
If we decided to go sailing out here
in the channel and maybe sail to Catalina,
but halfway across the channel we spring a
leak in the boat and it starts to
go down.
And some of you who can't swim go
down with the boat.
Others who are novices at swimming may swim
a few feet and then go down.
Some who are strong swimmers may swim for
a mile or two before they go under.
And there may be a marathoner in the
group that will get within a mile of
the shore before he goes under.
Someone may even make it almost to the
pier, a hundred feet off the pier.
Now, you've all come short.
No one made it.
That's what God says about us.
You may come closer than others, but we've
all come short of the glory of God.
We've all sinned.
We've all missed the mark.
There is none righteous.
No, not one.
That means that we all need help.
None of us can make it on our
own.
The mark that God has established for you
is perfection.
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father
in heaven is perfect.
And then the scripture says, none of you
are perfect.
Now, do you agree with that or not?
If you don't, your wife does.
All of us have sinned.
All of us have missed the mark.
Even though we may be trying our best
to hit the mark, we've come short of
the glory of God.
And as the result, the soul that sinneth
it shall surely die.
The wages of sin is death.
The loss of fellowship with a holy God.
So, and you who were dead because of
your trespasses and sins, wherein in time past
ye walked according to the course of this
world.
The word walked here, as we've pointed out
in Greek, is a word that should be
translated meandered.
That is, when you see a person walking,
you make an assumption he's going someplace and
he has a purpose in mind.
When you see a person meandering, you get
the impression he's not really going anywhere and
he doesn't have any purpose.
He's just sort of wandering, meandering.
So, this Greek word, meander, is the word
that Paul uses here.
It's translated walked.
But in times past, you were just meandering
through life.
That is, you really didn't have any real
eternal purpose.
You were really not going anywhere.
You were just existing.
But there was no real purpose to your
life.
In times past, you meandered according to the
course of this world.
The word course has its root meaning in
Greek, weathervane.
That is, whatever way the wind is flowing,
that's the way you turn, that's the way
you go.
So, the flow of the world, you just
flowed with it.
Whatever was the current fashion, whatever was the
current fad, here I am flowing with it,
you know.
Everybody's doing it.
Get on board.
When I was a small fellow, I used
to often ask my mother if I could
go a certain place, do a certain thing.
And if she'd say, no son, you can't.
I'd say, why mom?
Everybody's going.
Everybody's doing it.
And she used to say, son, it doesn't
make any difference if everybody is doing it
or not.
If everybody is jumping in the fire, are
you going to jump in the fire?
As a Christian, you're going to have to
learn to go against the current.
Any dead fish can float down the stream.
It takes a live fish to swim against
the current.
I thank God for that good, godly advice
from my mother.
In times past, we just flowed with the
current.
The weather vane.
As it moved, as it meandered.
Following the crowd, following the course of the
world, following the fads.
But then Paul gives us an awesome insight.
And that is that these fads and fashions
of the world are really being directed by
none other than Satan.
According, he said, to the prince of the
power of the air that even now works
in the children of disobedience.
Now, there may have been a time in
the history of the world that a person
would challenge the fact that Satan is behind
the course or the flow of the world.
I don't think that that would be challenged
much anymore.
As we look at the course of this
world, as we look at the way things
are going.
As we look at the latest rock stars.
The latest idols.
They've become quite obvious.
Of the bondage and of the chains.
And of the cruelty.
And of the evil by which they are
inspired.
In Copenhagen, we saw these posters all over
town.
In fact, I ripped one off and brought
it home.
Figured it was alright because there were so
many around town.
I didn't think anybody had missed the one.
I really thought it was worthwhile having.
I have asked the Lord to forgive me.
But I ripped off this poster that was
there because it was so intriguing.
The poster has the picture of a young
man.
Blood all around him.
Tied with chains.
And in big letters it said, No escape.
That's the message to the young people of
Europe today.
There's no escape.
There's bondage.
The world is going down the tube.
And there's no escape.
That's the world's message to the world.
Paul said, How shall we escape if we
neglect so great a salvation?
Thank God there is an escape.
It's been provided by Jesus Christ.
The glorious salvation that He has given to
us.
But outside of Christ, the message is true.
To those who want to reject Christ, the
message is true.
There is no escape.
Satan is behind.
The world's fashions, the trends, directing, orchestrating those
destructive damning forces that we see pervading our
society.
The increase of immorality.
The increase of pornography.
The acceptance of abortion and homosexuality and these
other trends that we see.
Satan is behind them, orchestrating as he is
leading the world to hell.
And we at one time were following that
course.
Dead in our trespasses and sins.
Living an aimless life without purpose as we
followed the trends that were being set by
Satan.
What a sad and tragic picture of man
apart from Jesus Christ.
It is interesting to me how that so
often people fear the will of God.
Having walked in the will of God, I
cannot understand why any man would fear it.
But Satan has so lied to people about
God, about the nature of God, that it
has caused people to oftentimes fear submitting their
lives to God.
Now, when I was a child growing up
in church, so many times I would hear
people say, you be careful what you say
you're not going to do because that's exactly
what God's going to make you do.
The boogeyman will get you, you know.
And God was almost a boogeyman to us,
just waiting to prove us wrong.
You say you're not going to do something,
uh-huh, you just wait, you know.
The moment you yield your life to God,
that's exactly what He's going to make you
do.
And I was fearful of yielding my life
to God.
There was a lot of things I didn't
want to do.
And I was fearful God was going to
suddenly start making me do all these distasteful
things that I said I would never do.
What if my son should come to me
and say, Dad, you know, I've been thinking,
I've really had a good life.
You always provided a roof over my head.
You always provided food on the table.
I always had clothes to wear.
And I really appreciate all that you've given
to me, Dad, and all that you've done
for me.
And to show my appreciation, Dad, I just
thought that today I would come over and
just do whatever you'd like to have me
do for you.
Any task that you may have around here,
I just would like to spend the day
with you, Dad, doing whatever you'd like for
me to do.
Now, as a dad, do you think that
suddenly I would think, all right, I've got
this kid now where I want him, you
know.
Boy, I had the worst time with him
trying to get him to, you know, hoe
weeds in the backyard.
So I'd say, all right, start out in
the backyard, that weed patch back there, you
know.
When you're through with that, wash out the
garbage cans.
Do you think that I would think of
every dirty, miserable task around the house and
send him to do them?
Well, if you think I would think that,
you don't know me.
I'll tell you, I'd be so shocked if
I had one of my sons come and
say something like that to me.
But pleasantly shocked that I would want to
make that one of the greatest days of
his life.
A day he wants to share with his
dad.
Well, why don't we, you know, head on
down to Huntington and spend a little while
surfing, you know.
And then maybe we can, you know, do
a little water skiing in the afternoon.
And I'd be looking for those things that
we could really enjoy together.
I'd be so pleased that he's wanting to
do something to please me.
I would want to make it a great
day.
Now, do you think that our Father in
Heaven is any different?
Do you think that when you finally come
and say, Father, I do realize You've been
good to me.
You've done so much for me.
You've blessed me so much.
I just want to, you know, do whatever
You'd like me to do today, Father.
I'd like to just commit my life to
You.
And we somehow have an impression that God
then is going to just get all these
dirty, nasty things that we said we'd never
do and say, all right, start here.
You know, they're there.
And God is going to lay some heavy,
heavy trip on us just because we've submitted
ourselves to His will.
Not so you don't know the Heavenly Father.
You've got a wrong and blasphemous concept of
God.
Who just delights to spend pleasant days together
with you.
Who is delighted when He sees you happy
and joyful.
Who wants to see you enriched in all
things in Christ.
Now, on the other hand, Jesus said concerning
Satan that He has come to rob and
to kill and to destroy.
Satan's purpose for you is your destruction.
And so as He is guiding the course
of the world, it is a destruction derby.
It's a course that is leading to destruction.
And yet people so blithely flow along with
it.
No worries, no concerns, no consideration.
Talk to me later, man.
I'm having too great a time to worry
about where the path, the flow is leading.
And they seem to have no qualms yielding
and flowing with the will of Satan which
will lead to their ultimate destruction.
Whereas, you talk about submitting your life to
the Lord.
Oh no, I hate that.
When I get to my deathbed, maybe, you
know, I'll consider turning my life over.
No, no, I'm too busy.
You know, I'm having fun and all.
I don't want to commit my life not
to God.
And what a wrong concept people have of
what it means to surrender your life to
the will of God.
For once a person does, they find as
Jesus said, I delight to do Thy will,
O Lord.
It becomes the pleasure, the delight, the thrill
of our lives.
Now, the other people looking at us can't
understand that because they don't know what's going
on inside.
You mean you go to church on Sunday
evening?
And you listen to a Bible study?
Man!
And they don't know the joy that we
have in the presence of the Lord as
we worship Him and as we sing unto
Him our love and our praises and our
thanksgiving.
And then as He begins to minister His
truth to our heart and it begins to
really speak to us, they don't understand that
thrill of God's Word really ministering to our
lives and to the things of our lives.
And so looking from the outside in, they
can't understand.
But once we're on the inside, walking in
fellowship with God, experiencing His presence and His
joy, we understand what it's all about.
And it's just such a joy and a
pleasant delight to gather with God's people and
just to experience God's love and the love
within the family of God and the warmth
of God's truth as it just bears witness
to our spirits.
But Paul said that we were all once
in that boat where Satan was guiding, leading
to a shipwreck, among whom also we all
had our conversation.
Now the word conversation is an old English
word and we have a new definition for
that word today.
Conversation, we're talking with each other.
This old English word conversation doesn't really give
you the true meaning of the Greek word,
which is our manner of living.
It isn't just our talking, it's our whole
manner of life.
Among whom we all had our manner of
living, our lifestyles in times past.
What was our lifestyle or what was the
manner of life that we lived?
What kind of a life were we living?
We were living in the lust of our
flesh as we were fulfilling the desires of
the flesh and of the mind as we
were by nature the children of wrath, even
as others.
That is, we were living by the lower
nature, the animal nature.
Living after the lust of our flesh and
the lust of our minds.
These are the things that were the motivators
behind our lives.
These are the things that governed our lives
in the past.
My life was ruled and dominated by the
lust of my flesh and by the lust
of my mind.
I spent my life trying to satisfy my
fleshly desires.
We read concerning Solomon the king as he
was trying to find meaning in life.
How did he pursue so many different directions?
First of all, he felt that it must
lie in riches, which often many people feel.
And so he began to amass to himself
wealth until he was the richest man in
the world and silver was as common as
rocks in Israel.
And if you've ever been to Jerusalem, you
know how common rocks are around that city.
It's the rockiest city in the world.
Imagine in Solomon's day when silver was as
common as rocks.
And he said, I looked at all of
the wealth and I said, how dies the
rich man like the fool?
This is emptiness.
And so I gave myself to understanding and
to wisdom.
I said, the answer must lie in knowing.
And so I applied myself to wisdom until
I was the smartest man in the world.
And I said, how dies the wise man
as a fool?
This too is empty.
It doesn't satisfy.
And so I said, it must lie in
leaving great monuments.
And so I applied myself to building and
I built all of these great monuments around
Jerusalem.
And when I looked at all of these
great buildings and all I said, this too
is empty.
It doesn't satisfy.
Until he finally concluded that life was empty
and frustrating.
There was nothing worthwhile under the sun.
That's after it says, I did not withhold
from myself anything that my heart desired.
You see, after the total indulgence of the
lust of his flesh, not withholding anything from
himself, he came to the conclusion, life is
empty and frustrating.
There's nothing worthwhile under the sun.
Sort of concluded you might as well just
bomb out and stay drunk.
No, there's nothing else.
Too much pain to try to face reality.
Sort of the philosophy that a lot of
people have taken today.
They've tried everything.
They've jaded themselves.
They've run the full ten yards.
It's still empty.
You might as well just, you know, get
into a fuzz of drugs or into the
folly of liquor because there's no sense of
trying to be sober.
Reality is hopeless.
Isn't that what existential philosophy pretty much declares?
That reality will lead to despair.
Therefore, you cannot face reality.
You've got to take the leap of faith
into the second story and hope that you
land on something.
You've got to just hope that you can
have some kind of a satisfying experience of
truth because if you face reality, truth doesn't
exist and thus you'll only end in despair.
There we were.
Tripping right along with the crowd as they
were trying to satisfy the lust of their
flesh and the lust of their mind for
we were by nature, that is, we were
doing what comes naturally to the fallen man.
We were by nature the children of wrath
even as others.
The fallen nature of man which is dominated
by his flesh and thus is ruled by
his fleshly desires.
That's the natural man apart from Jesus Christ.
And you, black, black is this picture that
Paul paints of you and of me.
Verse 4, now he takes this canvas in
which he has painted all of this charcoal
slate black and he begins to splash on
it some brilliant colors.
But God, in contrast to the blackness of
my own past, now God, who is rich
in mercy, brilliant colors flashed across this black
background for His great love wherewith He loved
us even when we were dead in sins.
God commended His love towards us in that
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
the ungodly.
Here in His love, not that we love
God, but that God loved us and sent
His Son to be the propitiation for our
sins.
For God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes
in Him should not perish but have everlasting
life.
But God, rich in His mercy, in His
love wherewith He loved us even when we
were dead in our trespasses and sins.
When did God start loving you?
So many times we think that God started
loving us when we started being loving.
When we started being sweet and kind and,
you know, generous and good and when we
started just living such a perfect life, God
said, My, isn't that lovely?
Aren't they perfect?
My, I love them.
When did God start loving you?
When we were still dead in our trespasses
and sins.
God loved us.
God has loved you from eternity.
There's never been a time when God didn't
love you.
There will never be a time when God
doesn't love you.
But God who is rich in His mercy
for His great love wherewith He loved us
even when we were dead has made us
alive.
Now it is here in the Greek text.
Finally we've got it.
He's made us alive together with Christ for
by grace you are saved.
So I was once dead because of the
trespasses and sins, but through Jesus Christ, God
has provided the forgiveness of my trespasses and
sins.
So with the psalmist in Psalm 32, I
can say, Oh, how happy is the man
whose transgressions are forgiven!
Oh, how happy is the man whose sins
are covered!
When I tried to hide my guilt, I
was miserable.
The hand of God was heavy on my
life.
I thought I was going to die.
But then I confessed my sin and God
forgave me my sin completely.
Oh, how good it is to have God's
forgiveness.
Oh, how happy is the man.
And so, God provided the way for the
forgiveness of our sins and having forgiven us
our sins, we became alive in the Spirit
or were born again.
Our first birth, the natural life, was of
the flesh.
I was born in a body of flesh
and from the beginning, my fleshly appetites were
dominating me.
I was a pretty good little kid until
my fleshly appetites took over and then I
began to yell until they took care of
feeding me.
And sometimes if they didn't feed me when
I wanted to be fed, I would flail
and kick and scream and holler.
I was a natural man dominated by my
fleshly needs.
Some people never grow beyond that stage.
They're still natural men dominated by their fleshly
needs and if they don't find satisfaction, they
scream and holler and yell and flail and
kick.
But I was born again by the Spirit
of God.
A spiritual birth.
A new life.
I no longer relate back to Adam, my
Father after the flesh, but I now relate
back to Jesus Christ, my Father after the
Spirit.
I've been born again by the Spirit of
God through Jesus Christ, you see.
And now this spiritual birth.
My Spirit is now alive.
With my Spirit alive, I now have fellowship
with God.
I've been joined back together with God through
the Spirit.
And His Spirit is bearing witness with my
spirit that I'm His child.
And because of His Spirit bearing witness with
my spirit, I cry Abba, I cry Father.
Very naturally.
And I worship Him in spirit and in
truth.
And so, He's made us alive.
Alive spiritually.
For by grace are we saved.
That is, we don't deserve it.
That is, we can't earn it.
There is no work that you can do
that can make you alive spiritually.
That is not the result of some great
effort on my part.
That is not the result of killing the
seven-headed dragon and grabbing the three golden
apples.
But it's by grace.
God's glorious gift of love to me.
By grace are you saved.
Now, not only has He made me alive,
but He has raised us up together and
made us sit together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus.
Or in the heavenlies.
Notice, places again is italicized.
So, it's far more than just saving me
from my sins.
It is making me alive unto God and
then raising me up into the heavenly levels
where God now seats me together in Christ
in these heavenly places.
Or in the heavenlies.
This new walk and life that I have
in the Spirit.
This resurrected life of Jesus Christ.
The purpose?
That in the ages to come, He might
show the exceeding riches of His grace and
His kindness towards us through Christ Jesus.
Now notice verse 5, with Christ.
Verse 6, in Christ Jesus.
Verse 7, through Christ Jesus.
All of these things that God has done.
He has done for us in and through
and by Jesus Christ.
Now, the glorious future that awaits us.
As Paul prayed in chapter 1 and we
studied last week, he prayed that they might
know what is the hope of their calling.
God has called you to be His child.
Do you know what that means?
That means throughout the endless ages to come,
you're going to be dwelling with God in
His eternal Kingdom as God is revealing unto
you the exceeding richness of His mercy and
of His kindness towards you through Christ Jesus.
The psalmist said, as high as the heavens
are above the earth, so high is God's
mercies towards those who fear Him.
And God throughout eternity is going to be
revealing the exceeding greatness of His mercy and
of His kindness.
These things that He has given and provided
and done for you through Jesus Christ.
You'll never discover it all.
Eternity isn't long enough.
Throughout all eternity, God's grace and love and
mercy being revealed.
For by grace are you saved through faith.
And that not of yourselves.
What not of yourselves?
Faith.
You say, well, I believe God.
Look at me.
I believe.
No, no.
That not of yourselves.
The faith didn't come from you.
Even the faith was the gift of God.
You remember when the Midianites had covered the
land like grasshoppers, were ripping off the crops
from the children of Israel.
They were hiding their food in caves and
all.
And Gideon was in a cave as he
was threshing the wheat to hide from the
Midianites.
And the angel of the Lord came to
him and said, Gideon, go in this thy
might and deliver the children of Israel from
the oppression of the Midianites.
And he says, hey, who are you?
And you've got the wrong address.
My father is a nobody and I'm the
least in my father's household.
You can't be meaning me.
And the Lord says, yes, I do mean
you.
Well, I'd like to know that for sure.
Let Me put out a fleece of wool.
And in the morning if it's wet and
the ground is dry, then I'll know that
it's you.
So in the morning when the fleece was
wet and the ground was dry, he says,
now I want to make sure about this.
Tomorrow morning, let the ground be wet and
the fleece dry.
I might be stumbling onto a phenomena here
of nature that I don't understand.
But the morning when it was reversed, then
he came to the realization it was God
and he blew the trumpet in Israel and
gathered together 32,000 men to face the
135,000 Midianites.
And God said, Gideon, the men that are
with you are too many because I know
the heart of this people.
And if I would deliver the Midianites into
the hands of the 32,000, they'd go
around glorying in themselves.
So, go out and tell all those men
who are afraid to go to war to
go home.
Gideon went out and faced his troops and
said, alright, fellows, all of you that are
afraid to go to battle, you can go
on home.
22,000 of them turned on their heel
and left.
Left him with 10,000 men to face
the 135,000 Midianites.
And the Lord said, Gideon.
Yes, Lord.
The men that are with you are too
many.
I know the heart of this people.
If I would deliver the Midianites into the
hands of the 10,000, they would go
around boasting in themselves and glorying in themselves.
Take them down to the stream and let
them get a drink of water.
And all of those that get down and
put their face in the water, send them
home.
Those that pick it up in their hands
and drink out of their hands, then with
these will I deliver the Midianites into the
hands of Israel.
And Gideon took them down to the stream
and 9,700 of them got down on
their knees and put their face in the
water and began to drink.
And 300 of them picked it up in
their hands.
And so Gideon took the 300.
Now what was the purpose of God?
To keep man from glorying or boasting in
what God was going to do.