Good morning. We are going to continue our study in the book of Ephesians. We are actually getting into chapter two today, and we're going to be looking at verses one through six. So I'm just going to read it to you and then we're just going to jump into it. It says, and you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in what 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 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. 00:00:46But 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 have been saved and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And so as we get into this, I think it's so important. Obviously there's this amazing shift that happens in verse four. But in order for us to fully appreciate the impact of verse four, five and six, we have to really understand the, we were in. 00:01:26We have to understand the reality of verses one, two and three. And so we're going to spend some time doing that. It starts off in verse one saying that we were dead. We were dead. And the power of that, the fact that he made us alive, cannot be fully grasped until we understand and accept the fact that before Christ we were dead. 00:01:53Okay? Colossians 213 says this. And you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive, together with him having forgiven all trespasses, he made us alive. And the dilemma that we face as humans is accepting our condition, accepting the fact that before Jesus we were dead. And I, and I think that is hard for us to hear, and that's hard for us to believe and even accept because we have a hard time realizing that we are the truth of who we really are. 00:02:38Okay? We like to believe that we are better than we are, all right? And so we have to first accept the truth, right? That before Christ we were not misguided, we weren't just a little lost. We weren't just kind of doing our own thing apart from God. 00:02:59Before Jesus came into my life, I was dead, all right? And I was dead in trespasses and sins. That's what it says. And that word in is sobering, because it literally indicates the realm in which unregenerate sinner exists. Now, I need you to understand this. 00:03:22We were not dead because of the sinful acts that we committed, all right? We were dead because of our sinful nature. Okay? Our sinful nature then caused us to carry out these sinful acts. Okay? 00:03:43It wasn't vice versa. It wasn't. Oh, we did sinful acts, and then we had a sinful nature. No, see, our very nature required us to commit these sinful acts. We could not help ourselves. 00:03:56We could not help ourselves. There was nothing that we could do in that state to take us out of that state. In fact, our very nature before Christ demanded it. All right? Matthew 15. 00:04:08I want to read this to you. Matthew 1518 through 19 says this, but those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man, for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. Okay? This is who we were. This is who the world is. 00:04:32When we look at the world and we see the world struggling and we just see the corrupt depravity of the world, we have to understand who they are. We have to understand that reform is not the answer. Okay? We have to understand that laws from without are not the answer. Okay? 00:04:52The only answer, the only thing that changes, that brings something that is dead and makes it alive, is a radical transformation. It is what the Holy Spirit does in our life when we receive Christ. Okay? So reform is not the answer, friend. It's radical transformation. 00:05:09And so this is a picture of our state before Christ. This is a picture of our state, all right? It says in Ephesians, chapter four, verse 17 and 18. Listen to this. This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, okay? 00:05:41This is the state of every non believer, all right? Their walk is futility, which means devoid of truth, all right? Their understanding, if we go back to the scripture, their understanding is darkened. They are alienated. And that means to actually, literally be shut out from the life of God. 00:06:07They are ignorant. There's a blindness of heart. And as we read these things, it should fill us with compassion with the people in our world that do not know Jesus. You see, there has to be a shift that happens in our heart as believers of Christ. Where we recognize and realize, you know what? 00:06:25That's who I was, and that's now who they are. And instead of criticizing and judging and trying to hold the world to our standard, a standard that they could never reach or ever keep, we should have compassion upon the world and say, they are living devoid of truth. They are alienated. They are literally shut out from the life of God. So why would we ever expect something from them that in their very nature, they don't have the ability to achieve? 00:06:55All right? It says in verse two in which you once walked. That's talking to us. Paul's talking to the believers. He's like, hey, you once walked like this, 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. 00:07:14He's like, you were there. That's who you were. That's who I was, friend. That's who you were before Jesus. We once walked that way, okay? 00:07:24But we no longer do. In fact, it reminds me of psalm one when it says, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. That's how we used to walk. Happy is the man who doesn't walk that way anymore, who doesn't walk in the path of sinners or sit in the seat of the scornful. You don't do those things anymore. 00:07:46No, you're happy now because your delight is in the law of the Lord, and you meditate on that law day and night and filled you with joy and happiness. But before you walked that walk, don't forget where you came from. Don't forget who you were before Christ, because not only will it fill you with thanksgiving, but it'll fill you with compassion for those around you who are stuck in that state, in that sinful nature, okay? Before Christ, the walk was futility, alienation, blindness. And the truth is this. 00:08:22We thought we were so deceived. We thought that we were walking our own walk. We thought we were just living our own life. But the truth was this. The truth is this. 00:08:33That we were prisoners to our sinful nature, okay? The lie. The lie the world thinks, well, I don't need God. I mean, God gives me rules and regulations, and right now, I'm just free to do whatever I want. Why would I want to come under that reign in my life? 00:08:53But the truth is this, friend. The truth is this. Apart from Christ, those who are walking this alienated, blind walk, they are imprisoned. They're literally slaves. To sin, okay? 00:09:06And so that is the. That's the truth. That's the truth. And that's the truth that comes and enters our hearts and sets us free so that we actually can live and serve him freely, okay? They are walking. 00:09:19It says in the verse here. In verse. I don't know verse one. No, verse two, it says that they are walking according to the course of this world, all right? So the course, when that word course means world's order, okay? 00:09:34So remember I said they think they're doing their own thing walking, but they're not. They're literally walking according to the course of the world, okay? According to humanity's values and standards, okay? The world we live in today has certain characteristics, and we are pressured by this world. Even as believers, we feel this pressure, okay? 00:09:57That's the struggle between the flesh and the spirit. Even though we're not of this world, we live in this world, and we are pressured by this world to adopt these characteristics, all right? We are pressured towards conforming to their standard, okay? That's the pressure that we face, all right? And so it's interesting, because, you know, everybody nowadays is about being, like, a non conformist. 00:10:24I'm not conform
