 Chapter 2 Ephesians, I'm going to begin reading at verse 1. I'll read to verse 3 and we'll get into our study. Paul writes, And you, he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. And so I'm going to be laying a basic foundation so that we can understand the passage before us and we begin actually, we're going to be looking at verses 1 through 10, but we begin actually with what sometimes people have referred to as beginning with the bad news in order to get to the good. And so Paul is going to speak to us here in Ephesians chapter 2 concerning what we have been in the past, what we were prior to our conversion before we got saved. I was 20 years old when I first went to Calvary Chapel. I was raised in the Roman Catholic Church, which means I really didn't know the Lord because I really didn't pursue him at all. I was water baptized at the age of around four months. When I was around seven, eight years old, I received my first communion. When I was 12 or 13, I received my confirmation, and that was probably pretty much the last time I went to church at around the age of 13, except for the occasional weddings or funerals or things like that that were conducted in the church. And so I didn't have a real relationship with the Lord. As a matter of fact, I had anything but a relationship with God. When I was around 15 years old, I began to experiment with alcohol, moved into drugs, and for the next few years was involved with alcohol and drug abuse. That's just what my life was like. Yet, if you'd have spoken to me, if you'd have asked me about God, if you'd have asked me if I believed in God, I would have said, yes, I do. If you'd have given me some questions, I could have answered them because I had memorized my catechism as a little boy. I was able to say things to you that were pretty much what I had been taught through the catechism classes. I believe that there is a God. I believe that there's a Jesus. I believe that there is a Holy Spirit. I believe there's a heaven. I believe that there is something called sin, that the Bible is the word of God. I had all of those beliefs, but I was missing heaven. I believed certain things, but I was missing heaven by 18 inches, the distance between my head and my heart. I had information, but I had no transformation. I had never assimilated to be transformed. And so what had happened is I was able to speak to you. As a matter of fact, you and I could have had arguments. If you didn't believe in God, I would have argued on God's behalf. As a matter of fact, I had a cousin. His name was Carlos, and Carlos and I would argue. He was a Jehovah's Witness. I was a Catholic. And we would argue about religion and faith in a well-smoking pot. I still remember that. And you know, talk about the blind leading the blind. And so I believed, I mean, I would argue with you. I thought you were foolish if you didn't believe in God. Everybody knows there's got to be a God. And yet the problem was my sin nature. There was a division between God and me. And I did not realize that that sin nature was so intense and it was so permeating. And so when I was around 20 years old, my friend Bill began to invite me to go to a church, a small church called Calvary Chapel. And it was in Costa Mesa. And back in the summer of 1970, I went to Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa for the first time. I went to church. But as I went to church, I had just smoked some pot. I drank some beer. I was barefooted. I was a hippie. My hair was touching my shoulder. You know, and I was just a lost kid. So I went to church with him. He kept insisting. And as a Catholic, I thought that I was in the right religion. He was in the wrong one. I believed that I was going to possibly go to heaven. But the way I was going to go to heaven was I was going to marry a good Catholic woman who was going to pray my soul out of purgatory. That's how I was going to make it, if at all. You know, I was taught purgatory, you know, place where sins are purged. You know, the Catholic church teaches in purgatory. Protestant church doesn't teach purgatory. Except we do have a form of it. It's called junior high ministry. But I went to church. I was a little high. And I heard the music and listened to the message. Didn't commit myself to Christ. But I thought it was a good thing. A few months later is when I finally was taken to here. The gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed very clearly at a place just like this. Where there were a lot of people. We were hippies, we sat on the floor. But there were a lot of people who were inside of a meeting. There was music, messages, an invitation. And that's when I first came to realize that I have been at one point dead in trespasses and sins. Paul is making it very clear here that we at one time, before we came to faith in Christ, notice verse one, were spiritually dead. We were dead in trespasses and sins. So he's saying before God saved us we have no spiritual life within us whatsoever. We may be physically alive indeed. But we are spiritually dead. Now all of us are acquainted with the reality of physical death. Physical death simply speaks of when the soul separates from the body. It's like what it says in the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 12 verse seven where it says there the dust will return to the earth as it was and the spirit will return to God who gave it. Spiritually dead speaks of the soul being separated from God, the absence of fellowship. The Bible tells us in Isaiah 59, two, your iniquities have separated you from your God, your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear. So physical death speaks of when the soul separates from the body but spiritual death speaks of the soul being separated from God. And so before we were born again we are spiritually dead. As the Bible says here in verse one, we're dead in what are called trespasses as well as sins. The word trespass speaks of turning from the right path. It's used 21 times in the New Testament. The word sins means to, in its most basic form is a variety of words translated by the single word sin but it basically means to miss the mark. It's the word that is generally used for sin in the New Testament used some 250 times. We are by nature sinners. We are by nature sinners. We are in constant hostile opposition and we war constantly against God. The Bible tells us in Romans eight, seven the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God's laws. It never will. Now when you think about it originally Adam, the first man was created perfect but he fell through willful disobedience. God commanded him not to partake of the fruit of a certain tree and he disobeyed. And that resulted in what is called the fall and his nature is corrupted by sin. Romans five 12 says sin entered the world through one man and death through sin. And in this way death came to all men because all sinned. Adam is referred to as the federal head of humanity. When he fell we fell within him. It's called seminal theology. We receive his nature. And so he's only able to begin after his own nature and therefore those whom he begets are sinful just as he is. So we received his fallen human nature. A fallen human nature which is in total constant rebellion against God. We receive that nature. Romans five 19 says through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners. So life became a life consistently lived in trespasses and sins because it is our nature to sin. It is our nature to sin. We are born sinners. Those who would say that children are born without a sin nature don't have children. It's that simple. They don't have kids. Because those babies would tear you apart. They'd gum you to death if they could if you don't give them the things that they want. You know that and I know that too. They are prone to sin. They are rebellious monstrous little things. And it's by their nature that they are. Ecclesiastes seven 20 says there's not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin. Psalm 51 five says behold I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me. I'll have sin and fall short of the glory of God. There's not one righteous. The Bible says no not one. And so we're all sinners by nature. And as sinners by nature we have a lifestyle. He speaks of that in verse two when he says in which you once walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. Before giving our lives to Jesus Christ I want you to notice this he says you once walked according to the course of this world. That word walked can be translated in a variety of ways but it has the notion of wandering aimlessly. It speaks of being without stability any direction and he even can pertain to the satisfactions that life can give to you. Someone translated the word and I appreciate this word because it speaks to my heart the word walk can also be meandered to aimlessly go through life. Just moving from one thing to another from one relationship to another from one marriage to another from one job to another from one degree to another tasting of it and never being satisfied by any of it. Tasting and enjoined for a short time and then saying is this all there is there's just nothing to it it's empty it doesn't fulfill me. Paul says that without God in your life life will never have a taste. You'll just meander you just move from place to place even though your body may remain in a certain location and you may retire from a job at the end when you retire finally you'll say you know I wish I'd have done something else with my life it just didn't fulfill me it just didn't do anything for me. You live a life that meanders it's aimless there's no stability no direction and no satisfaction. There's a woman in the Bible the woman comes to a well it's in a region called Samaria she's called the woman of Samaria the Samaritan woman. There's a Jewish rabbi who's there by this particular well we know the story and as this woman approaches it's noon and as she approaches the well the rabbi initiates a conversation with her give me something to drink. She looks at him amazed that a Jewish man would speak to her for she's a woman of Samaria John has to tell us in John chapter four that the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans it was improper for a man to speak to a woman in such a way in public it was unheard of beyond that there was hostile antagonism between the Jews and the Samaritans. The Samaritans were regarded as a hybrid race they were a mixed race the Assyrians had come and invaded in that region they had brought several different people groups and people groups had remained and when they remained they brought their gods and created a hybrid religious system and Jews did not honor it did not recognize it knew it to be wrong so there was so much antagonism between the Jews and the Samaritans it became proverbial but here's this rabbi and he's speaking to this woman he's saying to her give me something to drink how is it that you speak to me a woman of Samaria is her response and Jesus begins to speak to her and it makes it very clear to her that what he has to offer is much better than what she's come to get you know we already have an insight into this woman just by the fact that she comes at noon because during that day because it's so hot that when the women came to draw water they would do it either in the morning hours when it was cool or they'd come in the evening hours when it was cool but they wouldn't come at noon because the well was a place not only of drawing water but it was also a place of social communion that's where the women would come and they'd spend some time with the other ladies in the village and enjoy themselves but this woman came at noon and it tells us something about her it tells that this is a woman who's an outcast and as this woman comes she's coming for some water and she thinks that the water's gonna satisfy her and Jesus has to speak to her and make it very clear that no matter how she's living no matter what she's doing she's still meandering she hasn't had any satisfaction and what she's trying to draw for herself will not satisfy her either Jesus said in John 4, 13 through 14 whoever drinks of this water will thirst again but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst but the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life give me this water that I may drink it's a response go and get your husband and bring him back I have no husband in this you've spoken truly you've had five and the one you're shacking up with right now is not your husband interesting isn't it how Jesus says that you may be living with somebody but you're not married to them you've had five who you've referred to as husband and when you're shacking up with he's not your husband what's interesting about then there's so many things you can take from that passage is that this is a woman who's gone through six men six men looking for satisfaction she finally comes to the seventh man the seventh man in scripture the seven represents perfection you've gone through six but now you came to the one who can satisfy you that's what Jesus does in our lives guys no matter what you go through if you end up with him that's what matters that's what matters Jesus these men never gave you anything but Jesus says I can give you what you desire we wandered aimlessly why we are spiritually dead we don't know our purpose and so we once walked notice again in verse two we once walked according to the course of this world the word course there speaks of a flow the flow of this world and he's saying the flow of this world is directed by satan who is the prince of the power of the air this is the world the word world is used in a variety of ways in scripture and one of the ways that the word world is used to speak concerning the demonically energized satanic system that is complete hostility opposed to God it's a death system and it is a satanically energized death system opposed in all ways to the Lord and the Bible tells us do not love this world nor the things that offers you for when you love the world you do not love the Father you do not have the love of the Father in you for the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure a craving for everything we see pride in our achievements and possessions these are not from the Father but are from the world and this world is fading away along with everything that people crave but anyone who does what God what pleases God will live forever this world is fading away and everything that people lust after you learn that or you should learn that just by life you wanted something desperately you knew that if you didn't have that you'd never be really satisfied so whatever way you could do you finally got it whether it was a car whether it was a sound system whether it was a computer what it may have been it doesn't matter but you saved you scrimped you sacrificed you finally got it you set it up there it is your 19-inch TV that was my thing and if it was color and you're rolling color TV and you get it and then before you know it you go to somebody's house and they've got a whole wall that's a TV it's just that way isn't it guys I mean I started out with wanting a I'll date myself why not nobody else will date me but I started out wanting a 45 we used to have record players that you could hook up on under the dashboard of your car you could get a 45 and you could drop that 45 in and you could drive and then you'd get and drop another one in and then they got album players so now you get the whole you know album guys the young guys there's things called albums and you threw it in and man as you rolled now you play the whole album you better have good springs on your car or on that system because when you hit a bump it always bounces and scratches your record but guess what somebody came up some genius came up with something called four tracks now you got the four track man and you drop that thing in and you could play fours and then you flip it over and oh man you're rolling you're really you're really big now you get the eight track but every time you get it from the from the 45 to the album notice it's always progressing to something else and now you get whatever you have now you know it's it never satisfied it's always moving and what's weird about this is that when you were young you know the idea of having a phone that you carried around with you some of you guys can remember the phones they're like they were like huge you know how you doing yeah man I'm on my phone when I was in Europe in 75 we'd call the United States and you have to call the operator the operator has connections she calls back to your room and says we got your party on the line now you get you pull your cell out bang bang bang bang and you get mad because it takes three seconds for you to connect with Sweden it just shows what happens nothing satisfied it doesn't it's that way it's it's salt water the enemy gives you salt water it looks like it's going to satisfy but it's salt water it only drives you the more thirst and it eventually kills you if you consume it long enough we need the Lord simple man can come to basic agreement concerning what is right and what is wrong it develops what is called a common culture the problem is common culture does not line up with what God's word says is right or wrong so you end up having people who bless bad things and condemn the good as a believer in Christ I say that marriage is between a man and a woman that's what the word of God teaches that's what it teaches but when you say that you have people saying you're a hater well in Isaiah 5 20 and 21 what are those who call evil good and good evil who put darkness for light and light for darkness who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter what are those who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight God says what is right and God says what is wrong and so what we end up with is a common culture a common culture that is is satanically energized and what we have here is we have a spirit and it says it here again in verse 2 we once according to the causes world according to the prince of the power of the air the spirit who now works in sons of disobedience and so we have a spirit who's working or energizing the enemy is energizing those who are in opposition to God Satan is disobedient to God and those who don't know the Lord are also disobedient and he says it that's the way of life we once lived notice in verse 3 he says among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh in the mind and we're by nature children of wrath just as others so before we received Christ we were satisfying our basic needs like mere animals it was what I'm going to eat what I'm going to drink what I'm going to put on that's more important to me than eternity but now I'm in Christ now I have the power to resist now I have the ability to change now I can live a life that is pleasing to him it says that the lust of the flesh speaks of the lust of the flesh that speaks of doing what feels good and deliberately choosing to sin again we're most concerned about food, drink, clothing and money but Jesus said take heed and beware of covetousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses we fulfill the desire of the flesh we fulfill the desire of the mind when he speaks of desire that refers to the desire to seek something diligently by nature sinful man craves to satisfy their inclinations doing whatever they choose to do and as a result before we're saved notice again we are by nature children of wrath that means that we're worthy of receiving just punishment for our sinful lives in Psalm 711 it says God judges the righteous and God is angry with the wicked every day we are hopeless we are helpless but now we have good news because he says we were by nature children of wrath just as the others verse 4 but God but God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in trespasses made us alive together with Christ by grace you've been saved raised us up together 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 in Christ Jesus for by grace you have been saved through faith that not of yourselves it's a gift of God not of works lest anyone should boast we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them but God we were lost we were miserable we had no purpose we were dead trespasses and sins but God came to the rescue God was moved by his mercy God is moved by his love towards us God demonstrated his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners the Bible says Christ died for us God is rich that word rich means to be without measure it is unlimited God is rich in mercy mercy is compassion it's a disposition to be kind it's a disposition to forgive mercy and truth are met together the Scripture says righteousness and peace have kissed each other God is rich in mercy because of his great love he desires us to have a relationship with him God loves you even as Brian said the word of God teaches that guys grab hold of that if you could walk out with anything today walk out with that God loves you God loves you understand that that's where a lot of men are failing in their walks with God they're trying to do something to be made more beautiful to God for God to love them he already does when my wife Marie was pregnant with our baby our first one I was one of those goofy weird guys that actually was glad that I was going to be a dad and as Marie's abdomen began to swell she began to show and then the baby began to move and there was life in the womb that we were noticing because Corinne was kicking in things I would put my face next to Marie's belly and I would yell hey baby and I would shake her stomach so that Corinne inside was being moved around at least I thought I was trying to move around then I'd put my face next to the belly again and I'd yell baby daddy loves you daddy loves you and the day came finally Marie walks up to me she says my water broke I said it's too early for that man get up later on and off we went to the doctor and long story I made short 33 hours later yeah thank God I'm not a woman 33 hours later doctor takes out this little bundle they throw her under some light dabber wrap her up bring her like a little burrito to me and they handed her to me and there's this squashed up human like face staring back at me if you move it in the right direction it looks normal right ugly little thing looked like her side of the family and as I was looking you know she's watching right now she's watching I'll get in trouble when I get home and I kissed that ugly little face I loved that baby I loved her from the day her mama told me she was carrying her I love her to this day of course I do and every day in her life you love her if you're a dad they don't always do the things that please you sometimes they break your heart sometimes they aren't what you raise them to be but you still love them because they're yours guess what you ugly little thing God loves you too He loves you too He loves you too and there are times when I had to discipline my children I still do to this day in one form or another dads give lectures dad give encouragement that's what we do but there's never anything but love coming from those encouragements and there's never anything but love motivating those things because that's my baby stand with them through thick and thin stand with them with the wrong or the right they're mine I love them my God loves me and that has set me free God is rich in mercy there have been times when I have told my kids when they were small please stop stop you're moving into the area where I'm going to have to discipline you I don't want to but I will you need to stop stop before you cross the line stop before you move into that area of chastening I don't want to have to chasing you I want to bless you I told Marie this and this is the truth then is true now I didn't want to hear my kids cry I wanted to hear them laugh and I certainly didn't have to want to be the one who made them cry I didn't want to be that man who made them cry though chastening is something necessary it's part of being a father chastening it's always done through love that the desire to see them right and bless with God and guess what God loves us God has done a work in us look at the Bible says that we were once dead in trespasses but he made us alive together with Christ by grace so grace mercy and love has prompted God's action towards us we who could not help ourselves because we're spiritually dead have been made alive in Jesus Christ that's what he says in verse five we were made alive together with Christ we've been made alive with him and in verse six and we were raised up together with him we're no longer living according to this this present age we've been rescued and we have life he says to us also we were made to to sit together in heavenly places in Christ so positionally in Jesus Christ believers are considered to already be seated in heavenly places in him why do you do that verse seven that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace salvation has a purpose of manifesting God's incredible grace forever it openly demonstrates the incredible grace and love of God you see in verse eight by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves it's a gift of God not of workless anyone should boast that's where many of us have made our great mistake we think that we somehow have to do something to deserve God or to deserve heaven we cannot do that there's nothing I could ever do that is good enough what can I ever give that is greater than what God has already given when he gave his son there's nothing that I can do but that's part of the human core that's part of man that's our nature we think that we somehow can do something to make God love us more or do something on our behalf simply because he owes us God owes me nothing but judgment but he gave me his grace and mercy and I need to understand that there's nothing I can do to make him love me more he has chosen to love me and he's given his grace to me and what I do is by faith I receive the gift that has been offered and as I receive that gift I live out that gift for those men who are married in this room I pray that you have a great marriage if not I pray that God will work in you and in your wife so that your marriage does become great it can, through Christ it can the man that is standing up here right now is a different man because of my faith in Christ but it's also a different man because of the woman that God gave to me my uh if I'd have married any of the other women that I wanted to marry who refused to marry me they had too much common sense I would be a different man because I have learned to respond to the way my wife is my wife has certain qualities that have actually honed mine my wife's love has made me a greater person who can love great more greatly my wife's patience has made me more patient my wife's goodness has helped me to become a good man what a blessing it is to have a good wife he who finds a good wife finds a good thing and so when the Lord works through that he changes you that comes by the way fellas through fellowship it comes through connection it comes through relationship see so I became better because my wife is good and she helps me to be a better man if my wife were evil I'd have been pretty much the same guy before evil but my wife is good and because my wife is good I'm responding to her goodness and as I respond to her goodness I become a better man as I'm in the word of God seeking the Lord filled by his spirit looking at his word and doing it my life changes and conforms to him but it also works better with her because she's doing the same thing you see and all of that comes because of a loving relationship what God wants from us is to realize that we're connected with him that that comes through grace that we have placed our faith in him he has transformed us and now we can live out what God is already working in us and what he wants us to do in verse 10 is he wants us to walk in these good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in so the Lord Jesus Christ has given to us the ability to live a life that is entirely different man God has not called you to take his grace and to continue in sin God did not give you his grace so that you could shack up with your girlfriend God did not give you his grace so that you could continue being a drunk God did not give you his grace so that you could still use God didn't give you his grace so that you could still steal God didn't give you his grace so that you could still be profaned God gave you his grace to rescue you from the evil life you once lived in that's why you got grace and to continue in sin to continue in sin is to do so in despite of the grace of God not because of it there are a lot of believers in these last days who are living sinful lives sinful lives God is calling us to live holy lives be holy for I am holy now that isn't something that we make ourselves just because oh I'll stop doing this we can become great Pharisees if we do that God is simply saying can you not understand who you are can you not understand what I've done can you not understand what I can do why don't you yield yourself to me and watch the work that I will do in you fall in love with me and watch the transformation that take place in your life walk away from your sin and walk to the Lord Jesus Christ and say God here I am I'm a miserable sinner you know I had a friend of mine one time telling me well you can't drink because you're a Christian I said man I can drink if I want to drink you don't know me well you can drink I said yeah I can drink well why don't you I don't want to I said I want to please the Lord I had enough of the old wine now I have the new the new is much better than the old much better I've never I've never had a Holy Ghost hangover I never have I've never awakened one day in one morning saying oh man what did I say yesterday under the influence of the Spirit that I'm going to have to apologize for today and the Holy Spirit is active in your life and he just transforms you he makes you more like Jesus he gives you such joy and such peace and such hope and such love there's a sense of forgiveness and purpose there's a sense within you that you belong to something greater and you actually begin to love in the way that God loves and your family life begins to change your relationships with your friends begins to change and at all because of the grace and goodness of God that comes through Jesus Christ and so what we need is we need to yield ourselves to him today