back to index2-19-20 Bible Study Eph 2:1-5
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Okay, so I want to first do a quick quick rundown review and then jump into reading 00:00:24.040 |
So we recall that in chapter 1 verses 3 through 14 was a long long magnificent sentence, big 00:00:31.120 |
paragraph, which showed to us that every spiritual blessing of God is in Christ Jesus, right? 00:00:38.280 |
All the heavenly blessings are to us in Christ. 00:00:42.160 |
And those heavenly blessings included everything from being chosen, predestined, adopted, revealed 00:00:47.680 |
to us the mystery, the inheritance, sealed, all that stuff, right? 00:00:51.880 |
Amazing things that we can spend, you know, hours and hours just discussing. 00:00:57.360 |
So oh, it's not coming out on the thing right now. 00:01:06.120 |
So again, just by way of review, it is all of those blessings are in Christ by God's 00:01:17.360 |
It was just amazing just, you know, flow, flow of praise given to God in verses 3 through 00:01:29.120 |
And then in the next portion as well from from verse 15 to 23, Apostle Paul said, "Upon 00:01:40.160 |
If I just showed you like this incredible mass of blessings are in Jesus and because 00:01:46.760 |
I heard that you have faith in Jesus, I am so thankful, right? 00:01:52.280 |
And what's more, I'm praying for you that you would know what are the hope, the riches 00:02:05.080 |
What's happening is he said, "The power that I want you to know and understand," if you 00:02:09.320 |
recall in the previous passage, he said that this is the power in which God has exercised 00:02:17.920 |
But then he starts to describe how he exercised this power, having raised Jesus, seated him 00:02:24.020 |
above everything else and has lifted him up on high above all authorities, rulers and 00:02:29.360 |
powers and that he's made him head over the church. 00:02:40.560 |
And then what we have here then is our passage that is connecting to that expansion of the 00:02:49.800 |
So there is a logical flow here, aside from just saying, "You guys need to remember the 00:02:58.080 |
He's saying this is the power of God and you will see the connection later on. 00:03:02.460 |
So what we're going to do now is let's read our passage one time through, but we will 00:03:24.960 |
Let's read the passage and it says this, "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 00:03:33.020 |
in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the 00:03:37.040 |
print of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 00:03:43.880 |
Among them, we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging in the desires 00:03:48.700 |
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 00:03:55.440 |
But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when 00:04:02.320 |
we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have 00:04:09.520 |
And he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ 00:04:18.840 |
Verse seven says, "So that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches 00:04:23.360 |
of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. 00:04:27.000 |
For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. 00:04:30.520 |
It is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 00:04:36.720 |
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand 00:04:46.480 |
So today what we're doing then is technically we are taking a middle chunk of a flowing 00:04:54.160 |
What Apostle Paul wants us to see is the incredible, the gracious, and loving and purposeful 00:05:01.240 |
power of God displayed primarily in what Christ or what he has done in Christ and that by 00:05:09.960 |
us being in Christ, he has done towards us, right? 00:05:14.160 |
And so we're jumping down into it, but as you guys have already seen just from the reading, 00:05:19.280 |
today is talking much about the backdrop, the context of where God is exercising his 00:05:26.440 |
And so we go to the very first verse of what we're studying tonight. 00:05:35.560 |
And so we go to verse one and it says, "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins." 00:05:44.160 |
You can tell that this is that topic sentence again for the paragraph. 00:05:50.080 |
I mean, can you imagine someone even just saying that to you, right? 00:05:55.520 |
Now we asked the question of good observation and said, "Okay, as this is a heading sentence 00:06:02.160 |
that we need to pay attention to, we have to ask the question, what does it mean to 00:06:09.920 |
Someone could ask, "Is this kind of like a figure of speech? 00:06:12.560 |
You know when the son ran away from home and said, 'Give me your inheritance,' and then 00:06:17.620 |
And then the father thinks like, 'Oh, how sad. 00:06:22.200 |
Is this the kind of deadness we're talking about? 00:06:24.760 |
Where there's like a relational separation or I'm no longer even going to consider you 00:06:28.680 |
in existence anymore because we have nothing to relate to each other. 00:06:34.120 |
Now, if you do the word study, you will probably find that the word just means, it's pronounced 00:06:48.400 |
And so there you have a visual graphic there for you. 00:06:52.200 |
Now, when you think about that though, you should be thinking lifeless, right? 00:07:01.440 |
Now in order to really appreciate the whole sentence, there are these other two terms 00:07:08.800 |
He says, "Not only just are you dead, but that you're dead in your trespasses and sins. 00:07:13.020 |
So we have to ask, what is the difference between trespasses and sins?" 00:07:16.860 |
Now I'm not going to take a long time to describe this, but I think what he is saying is by 00:07:23.320 |
using this idea of trespasses and sins, there is a bucket saying the all encompassing, both 00:07:36.420 |
Trespasses is more like when you cross the boundary, when you deviate from the path that 00:07:43.820 |
Sin is typically a broader term that says simply means missing the mark, failure, right? 00:07:49.580 |
Unable to accomplish what was set for you because you missed it. 00:07:53.060 |
There is the other idea of trespass, it already sounds even more severe, where you're crossing 00:07:59.020 |
When you're stepping out of line, that kind of thing. 00:08:01.840 |
So a lot of commentators will say, typically when you use two synonymous terms, what you're 00:08:06.220 |
doing is saying, "Hey, it's inclusive of all the stuff." 00:08:08.860 |
The stuff that is a failure and you make a mistake or whatever it may be, plus the intentional 00:08:13.260 |
stuff that you're committing, all of it, right? 00:08:16.820 |
Now when you think about this though, I want to quickly show you something that I think 00:08:20.300 |
is going to be important for us to appreciate and understand this passage later on, which 00:08:26.460 |
Within the realm of the trespasses and sins, you are dead. 00:08:35.580 |
A face value, it's still hard to describe what that means. 00:08:39.900 |
And so we're going to do a kind of methodical walkthrough of what it could mean. 00:08:50.940 |
One, to say that you are dead could potentially mean that you are doomed because of the consequences 00:09:01.000 |
If I accidentally, when I was, I remember, you know, we would say this all the time between 00:09:05.460 |
If I accidentally hit my older brother on the face or something like that, or I threw 00:09:08.580 |
something and it landed on him, he looks over at me and says, "You're dead." 00:09:17.300 |
Does this passage mean that we are going to be facing the consequences of our sins ultimately, 00:09:23.820 |
which is at the hand of God because that is exactly what God said. 00:09:28.380 |
When you sin, when you disobey, when you eat of this fruit, you will die. 00:09:35.420 |
And scripture straight up says, "What do you think, oh man? 00:09:38.860 |
Do you think you will escape the judgment of God?" 00:09:41.100 |
That's Romans chapter 2, 3 when he's trying to convince everybody. 00:09:43.740 |
"You are a sinner, you are a sinner, you're all sinners, Jewish people. 00:09:48.540 |
Although you've teached the law, do you think you will escape because you taught the law? 00:09:58.820 |
So, theologically speaking, it is consistent with the rest of scripture. 00:10:02.360 |
To say you're dead in sin can totally mean that yes, you're looking at doom. 00:10:08.280 |
But what's more, most commentators and a lot of people believe more so that to be dead 00:10:13.840 |
in this trespasses and sins means that you're lifeless spiritually. 00:10:19.720 |
Because you are in living your life, your existence is only contained within this sin 00:10:27.080 |
and therefore you're lifeless to everything else. 00:10:30.120 |
So, a lot of people talk about how you have no sense to God, no sense to his word, you 00:10:35.920 |
have no ears for him, you have no eyes for him, you have zero of the possible senses 00:10:49.600 |
And we want to take a moment to think about this a little bit because we want to also 00:10:58.480 |
I remember as I was studying this, a lot of the commentators started really thinking 00:11:04.840 |
Unfortunately, in hearing the gospel in our day, we've heard lots of like kind of slightly 00:11:16.120 |
Perhaps we've heard that like, you know, the person who is out on the sea, you have this 00:11:21.440 |
little wooden raft, you're sinking and you're crying out for help and God comes by and he 00:11:27.320 |
drops you the line with a little vest or whatever it may be, right? 00:11:35.920 |
Sproul, he describes it, he says, "No, there is no bobbing for air, there is no boat, there 00:11:42.920 |
is no raft, there is no broken pieces of wood, there are no bubbles in your lungs, you're 00:11:47.520 |
dead, you're in the water many, many feet below." 00:11:54.760 |
It describes a scenery that if we believe that God is the one who is to throw the vest, 00:11:59.120 |
can you imagine what a feeble God we believe? 00:12:05.640 |
If scripture is saying you're dead, how idiotic would it be for a God to throw a vest to somebody 00:12:15.480 |
If you saw a corpse floating in the water, let's say he wasn't underneath the water but 00:12:19.200 |
he was floating, and you saw somebody say, "Here," and he threw the vest, you would be 00:12:30.680 |
As a matter of fact, the way that this passage is describing it, you're dead in your sins. 00:12:36.480 |
You're not just trying to get out and floating, you're already done. 00:12:40.720 |
Another commentator says, "Many people think that prior to becoming a Christian, you're 00:12:49.400 |
However, yes, the scripture says that Christ has come for the sick, but the scripture describes 00:12:59.440 |
We have not even the power to swallow the medicine." 00:13:02.160 |
I thought that was powerful because we appreciate then this thought to be spiritually lifeless 00:13:18.320 |
But what's more, to be dead then also could mean relationally dead, meaning we are dead 00:13:28.120 |
Scripture says in Isaiah 59, "Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your 00:13:32.720 |
God and your sins have hid his face from you so that he does not hear you." 00:13:43.280 |
There is such a massive chasm between you and God that you can never see him. 00:13:52.600 |
There is nothing relationally you can do to say, "Please, come bless me." 00:13:58.240 |
The Jewish individual has been crying out for God to bless him for generations, right? 00:14:12.040 |
But Scripture says there is such a chasm between unholy man that there is such a complete void 00:14:18.040 |
of the relationship and to be away then from the source of life is death. 00:14:25.880 |
Okay, now if you notice I put two stars by the bottom one because I think that after 00:14:31.840 |
looking over this passage and mulling over it and thinking like, "What could this mean?" 00:14:36.320 |
And reading the commentaries and just kind of thinking through not just commentaries 00:14:43.400 |
I actually more so think that you are dead in the sense that you are like a puppet. 00:14:49.800 |
You are like a lifeless sock puppet that Satan has his hand in and is just moving you. 00:14:57.080 |
I think this passage is telling us you are so dead that sin and trespass is controlling 00:15:04.480 |
This passage is highlighting to you that there is such an influence on you. 00:15:09.520 |
You're actually enslaved and in that way you're dead. 00:15:14.240 |
You're like the doll that people move around. 00:15:18.240 |
I want you to think about that for a moment as you look at this passage. 00:15:21.960 |
Because he says you were dead in your trespasses and sins and the rest of it connects in which 00:15:33.080 |
According to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of 00:15:36.360 |
the spirit that is now working in where in the sons of disobedience of which what we 00:15:46.480 |
Sock puppet, spirit of disobedience, all up in you moving you because you are not free. 00:15:53.720 |
Among them we too all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging in the desires 00:15:58.620 |
of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest. 00:16:07.920 |
First we're moving on now to section two, the control of sin. 00:16:11.400 |
And I'm making the point to you that my thought of you are dead in your transgressions and 00:16:15.760 |
sins is highlighting to you the incredible force of sin under which you live. 00:16:27.920 |
As we think about this and make observations, I want to make this first point to you. 00:16:34.960 |
So on your notes, I should have a little blank there for you. 00:16:42.120 |
You walked, you lived, you indulged in sins, in trespasses. 00:16:48.140 |
These things are the context in which you were operating, right? 00:16:53.280 |
And so my argument still is you are completely under its control. 00:17:00.360 |
You are living a life that was completely patterned after sin. 00:17:05.680 |
You lived in it, you loved it, and you ate it up and you indulged in it. 00:17:10.200 |
And this spirit, notice how it says this, this spirit is now working in the sense of 00:17:19.720 |
What's more, look at the influences that are upon you. 00:17:24.780 |
It says there are four different sin influences that is upon you or you're walking in accord 00:17:34.800 |
And it says you were formerly walking or you walked according to the course of this world, 00:17:41.160 |
according to the prince of the power of the air, according of the spirit that is now working 00:17:52.180 |
To describe your deadness, you have such a force that is moving you like a puppet. 00:18:04.880 |
Brothers and sisters, in later on in Ephesians, Apostle Paul will describe to you a spiritual 00:18:09.680 |
reality where this world is so dark, it is covered in layers of darkness. 00:18:16.720 |
In chapter six, it'll describe this world and you could even draw it as like a world 00:18:21.040 |
of darkness, an air of darkness, the heavenly realms of darkness. 00:18:27.980 |
And so to think that you're going to engage in this world without getting hit and confronting 00:18:40.360 |
The kind of generational fads, the trends, the thoughts, the kind of philosophies and 00:18:47.560 |
ideologies that is around us, it's seeped in sin. 00:18:56.280 |
Somebody texted me and asked, "Who is this prince of the power of the air?" 00:19:03.840 |
Now I want you to take a moment to think though, okay? 00:19:13.500 |
There is a powerful intellectual being who is scheming to cause you to sin. 00:19:21.960 |
Even though you're a Christian sitting here, this intellectual person, like person, is 00:19:30.120 |
But previous to Christ's powerful work in us, that individual was our master. 00:19:46.240 |
It'll make you take a moment and be like, "What the?" 00:19:48.680 |
Because that's not stuff we can see with our eyes. 00:19:52.120 |
The spirit is now working in the sense of disobedience, causing rebellion, and then 00:19:56.040 |
our flesh constantly wanting us to lust, to fixate on stuff. 00:20:01.360 |
I used to make excuses like, "I just have an obsessive personality." 00:20:05.400 |
I know some of us have obsessive personalities, but sometimes it's just you want something 00:20:15.000 |
All of that to summarize and say, when we're thinking about death, there is complete, complete 00:20:28.160 |
When you think about death, I ask you to think about lifelessness. 00:20:31.760 |
So if you think about that in concept, there is so much, not just simply wickedness and 00:20:36.480 |
evil, there is such an inability, such a void of power. 00:20:51.640 |
So let's take a moment to meditate because again, some passages like this, it doesn't 00:20:56.680 |
have a, "And therefore you shall go home and read your Bible," right? 00:21:10.600 |
For some of you, have you ever felt both the eeriness of knowing that there is darkness 00:21:20.280 |
Have you felt the frustration of the no power in your flesh or the too much sinful power 00:21:29.120 |
Have you felt the kind of devastation when you're ashamed because there's so much sin 00:21:37.320 |
Have you felt what it, it's like the realization like, "Oh my goodness, there's this kind of 00:21:46.620 |
Have you felt the frustration that Apostle Paul will say, "Who is going to save me from 00:21:57.120 |
People have been asking recently a lot of questions about their testimony. 00:22:01.680 |
This is one important question for you to ask. 00:22:04.760 |
If you're wondering like, "Is that person saved? 00:22:07.600 |
And you ask this question, there has to be at least some kind of realization that your 00:22:12.440 |
deadness means separation from God, impending judgment, or complete domination by sin, the 00:22:18.600 |
filling up of sin in your life, whatever it may be. 00:22:21.120 |
There's a spiritual reality you have to be awakened to to realize like, "Oh my goodness, 00:22:33.360 |
But then on the flip side, then has there ever been a time when you realize, "But in 00:22:41.480 |
Just this morning I was driving over to church, it was midday after taking care of some stuff, 00:22:47.040 |
and then I just happened to flip to Dave Ramsey. 00:22:49.320 |
I'm not sure if you guys listen to that show, it's a financial advisor. 00:22:55.520 |
This guy calls in and is like, "Dave, I was in $30,000, 30K in credit card and student 00:23:08.360 |
Dave Ramsey goes, "You know what you're going to do? 00:23:10.960 |
Then you're going to scream like William Wallace, and you're going to say, 'Freedom.'" 00:23:18.400 |
And they count down, "One, two, three," and he starts screaming like, "Freedom." 00:23:22.440 |
And I'm just laughing like, "This guy, dude." 00:23:26.680 |
Think about this, if you were in $30,000 in debt, now some of you guys are looking at 00:23:38.360 |
You know what it feels like to have some kind of cloud over you, and then you know what 00:23:44.400 |
it feels like, you're anticipating the day when that cloud will be gone. 00:23:49.080 |
But the gospel we believe is magnified that by millions and billions. 00:23:56.760 |
But sometimes people have none of that, no trace of that in their testimony. 00:24:09.880 |
The next point, if you take a look at this, he says, among them, you notice he says, "We 00:24:20.640 |
Now you might be asking, before in the beginning, he started with a very confrontational statement, 00:24:29.960 |
There was a pointing finger I felt from the Bible, and I was just convicted, right? 00:24:35.960 |
Now it could be that he's just sympathizing, it's like, "Okay, I said you, but we all." 00:24:42.440 |
Because come on, let's be real, we're all sinners, right? 00:24:46.720 |
But I don't think that's necessarily the point, okay? 00:25:08.600 |
He could, he could easily have been like that. 00:25:13.000 |
He's looking at mankind, and the more that people multiply, there's a mounting sin, right? 00:25:21.080 |
This sin doesn't just go deep, it goes wide to everybody. 00:25:27.560 |
Mankind and all of its children are ripe for judgment. 00:25:39.720 |
For Christ, there is intensive sin, and there is extensive sin. 00:25:46.080 |
If you guys recall, for those of you guys who were in our Leviticus study, Pastor Peter 00:25:49.840 |
was talking about there is this weird, weird judgment upon sexual act, and how unclean 00:25:57.800 |
Because there's a multiplication, oh, sorry about that, multiplication of sin where it's 00:26:00.280 |
extending out, and the world is being covered with sin. 00:26:06.040 |
You think about it from God's perspective, that's no good thing. 00:26:10.480 |
Now, what's really interesting about this is Apostle Paul highlights, when I framed 00:26:15.840 |
it for you guys, I highlighted the fact that he makes mention that we were, by nature, 00:26:22.800 |
children of wrath, sons of disobedience, he says. 00:26:27.440 |
Now as you think about that, I'm going to be honest with you, I tried to do that another 00:26:31.720 |
like what could this possibly mean, and man, my head was spinning, right? 00:26:35.440 |
Oh my gosh, to think that, you know, it's like, maybe we could, it's palatable, it's 00:26:41.920 |
like, oh, you know, sorry, you know, it just so happened you were born in Antarctica, life 00:26:45.880 |
is hard, you know, like, what can we do, born in Antarctica, you know? 00:26:49.760 |
But when he says, no, no, by nature, your nature, your very being, I want you guys to 00:26:59.160 |
If you were a defensive person looking at God saying, like, what, what are you trying 00:27:08.960 |
But let's take a moment to meditate upon this, and this is where I go back to this diagram, 00:27:14.120 |
because we really have to see the depth, the extent, the pervasiveness, the intensity of 00:27:24.000 |
the sinful and dreadful state that we are in before Christ, before Christ ever enters 00:27:31.760 |
If the scripture is saying that you are, by nature, children of wrath, then essentially 00:27:37.160 |
you are a spawn of that which needs to be judged. 00:27:41.880 |
You're a spawn of that which needs to be destroyed. 00:27:45.760 |
And the only thing I can think of is like fungus, as soon as I thought of spawn, I thought 00:27:51.200 |
If by nature you are fungus, you will decay everything that you touch. 00:27:56.900 |
You will contaminate all that is around you, and you will multiply that contamination. 00:28:01.560 |
And it fits, because it says you're dead and you're a decaying corpse. 00:28:05.800 |
And that which is decaying corpse needs to be put outside and burned. 00:28:11.520 |
Because God says that which he's going to judge, he's going to cut, put outside, and 00:28:19.480 |
And you think about that, and you're like, whoa. 00:28:32.440 |
What is the appropriate way to think of ourselves without Christ? 00:28:38.400 |
If Jesus is not in my life, what is the appropriate way to view myself? 00:28:45.160 |
And you know that this theological question is foundational to the gospel, to the church, 00:29:00.800 |
But to answer that question, and I hope that we are accepting this truth, you are that 00:29:10.840 |
But what's worse is you are that lifeless corpse on the floor in jail, because you're 00:29:21.920 |
You cannot escape the influences of this world of Satan and of the flesh, because you're 00:29:31.960 |
But what's worse, every single person around you is in the same boat. 00:29:35.920 |
So all of mankind, everyone is in that state. 00:29:40.600 |
And what's worse, when it says you are children of this kind of disobedience, you are children 00:29:47.240 |
What I think is you, perhaps in a desire to grasp for some hope, you look down to your 00:29:53.360 |
You look to the past, and then you realize this bleak, bleak, hopeless truth that every 00:30:03.520 |
This reminds you of some kind of computer virus that has destroyed your computer, right? 00:30:12.680 |
I hope I depicted that for you, because what you see then is just incredible sin in this 00:30:22.680 |
If you guys do color coding, it's just all red right there. 00:30:26.040 |
It's like everything's red, because it's all covered by that kind of sin. 00:30:35.920 |
So if you summarize this and you start meditating, think about the crazy, imprecise way we talk 00:30:44.720 |
I'm going to be honest, I hate listening to the radio sometimes. 00:30:51.160 |
And they say stuff like, "You know, we're just all hurt people." 00:30:53.880 |
Okay, I get it, we have hurts in our lives, but we're not all just hurt people. 00:31:03.240 |
Because that means I would have to look to God and say, "God, wait. 00:31:09.160 |
You don't have to jump into the water to go save me and my corpse down below at the bottom 00:31:17.280 |
Give me a little bit of your love and I'll be fine." 00:31:24.600 |
Because it's just a simple question, what is your problem? 00:31:29.800 |
And when we get that wrong, we absolutely get the gospel wrong. 00:31:36.320 |
The problem is prior to Christ, we're lifeless. 00:31:42.440 |
I want you guys to think about that because the mounting, this incredible rebellion against 00:31:47.360 |
this holy God, God is going to say that that stench of the fungus rises to him. 00:31:54.400 |
And when it hits his metaphorical nose, it angers him. 00:32:03.800 |
But in order to even appreciate this and meditate upon this a little more because, honestly 00:32:07.960 |
speaking, the application of passage like this is we have to meditate. 00:32:12.160 |
You got to start thinking honestly, what do I think about myself? 00:32:25.200 |
But I started thinking like at the end of this, because there was just so much red on 00:32:36.960 |
I know some of you guys have hurt people in your life and you're very sorry about it. 00:32:42.680 |
There are people who you love and you hurt and you're very sorry about it. 00:32:57.160 |
And then you can be like, "I didn't mean to do it," because that could be true. 00:33:01.500 |
But other things in your life, you can't say that. 00:33:04.840 |
Because you meant to do it and you meant to hurt somebody. 00:33:07.180 |
So you need to go over there and you need to confess. 00:33:14.440 |
Sometimes you do certain things for such a period of time, that kind of, "Oh, my bad," 00:33:21.840 |
Sometimes you do certain things to hurt somebody and you can't take it back. 00:33:26.960 |
Certain relationships, they break, they fight, certain things are said, certain things are 00:33:34.160 |
You can't even say, "I'll make it up for it." 00:33:37.840 |
Because your sin or your offense or your hurt was too much. 00:33:43.040 |
And then I started thinking, "Well, I don't think I've done this yet, but what if I did 00:33:52.000 |
I pray that never, ever happens, but what if, let's say, I'm like, "Oh, my gosh, I'm 00:33:56.040 |
in such a hurry and I drive out this parking lot too fast. 00:34:07.080 |
Me running to the parents and saying, "I'm so sorry." 00:34:17.520 |
Should I run over to them and say, "Please forgive me. 00:34:25.580 |
When certain sins are so insurmountable, I would just sit there, dejected and wait. 00:34:31.520 |
And I would just say, "I can't even approach you. 00:34:34.800 |
If you invite me to come over and say something, I will. 00:34:48.300 |
Because this mountain of sin in verses one through three is so huge. 00:34:53.920 |
How can anybody come before God and say, "Do you think you could forgive us for thousands 00:35:01.580 |
of years of offending you, for the kind of blasphemous things that come out of our mouths, 00:35:08.880 |
for the idolatry, for the complete rejection of your son, for the defaming of your name, 00:35:22.240 |
As though God is supposed to just love us, right? 00:35:30.460 |
As a matter of fact, that's when we move to the next point, right? 00:35:35.160 |
When we understand our wretched state of sin before God, the next verses almost doesn't 00:35:47.360 |
But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when 00:35:55.560 |
we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. 00:36:04.940 |
So our salvation is not something we could have even asked for. 00:36:08.520 |
Our salvation is not something we could have even said, "Hey, God, I have an idea." 00:36:18.960 |
Mercy means that the judgment you rightly deserved was withheld. 00:36:25.240 |
But if you have no depth of understanding of your sin, that mercy is not rich. 00:36:36.600 |
The great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in transgressions. 00:36:42.960 |
If you don't understand how dead we were in our transgressions, how is that love great? 00:36:56.360 |
And so we say, today we're focusing in on verses one through three, and it's impact 00:37:15.760 |
It impacts what you think is worth it, not worth it. 00:37:19.220 |
What you think is really bad, really horrible, really good, okay? 00:37:27.120 |
And so as a challenge to us, again, the application would be, please meditate upon these truths. 00:37:34.560 |
Do you have a working understanding of what it means to be dead in sin? 00:37:40.060 |
So I want to conclude with this last kind of thought that I had. 00:37:45.880 |
I was talking to some people this week, and I realized, my goodness, we have a wide range 00:37:55.260 |
And especially because we're prepping for our baptism, I read through lots of testimonies, 00:38:02.720 |
And some testimonies, people are like, you know, I just had a plain old testimony. 00:38:07.360 |
I grew up in the church, never did crazy stuff. 00:38:13.720 |
But when I was young and I heard the gospel that if I don't know Christ, I will go to 00:38:23.400 |
I think God's going to send me to hell, right? 00:38:30.320 |
It's because some people think that testimonies are dry or testimonies are colorful and testimonies 00:38:37.040 |
are really dynamic because of certain things here or that, okay? 00:38:41.600 |
But please remember, you do not have to be a gangster or like the guy who just did drugs 00:38:47.280 |
every day to be like, I really know the grace of God. 00:38:53.440 |
Because even the guy who was a gangster and did drugs every day does not understand, if 00:38:58.880 |
he hasn't seen this, this depth of sin, right? 00:39:09.740 |
For whatever experience you have in your life, to have an equalizer, because no individual 00:39:19.360 |
And also no individuals will be like, you know what? 00:39:21.360 |
I really get sinned because look at all I've done. 00:39:25.040 |
No, your sin ran so far deeper than just what you've done. 00:39:31.640 |
Because this pastor says you are by nature, children of wrath. 00:39:36.680 |
You come from a long lineage of people who have sinned against God. 00:39:41.400 |
And so on that way, I hope you realize that it's not just your experience that's going 00:39:44.680 |
to cause you to really come to grips with our sin, but it's upon hearing these words