Okay, friends, if you have a Bible, if you would please open with me to Ephesians, chapter two, Ephesians chapter two. As we've learned in our series, A Beautiful Mess, the book of Ephesians, it is the book that Paul wrote. It is a letter. It is an epistle, which is another way to say a letter. It was written to the Ephesian church, not because there was a scandal to be addressed or there was an issue to be resolved, or it was simply written by the Apostle Paul to the Ephesian church to show them what the church ought to be.

It is a beautiful mess. It is mysteriously broken. It is a community that needs to continue to be sanctified, and yet, despite all of that, it is beautiful. Because it is where the triune God, by His Spirit, changes people. And we have seen all throughout chapter one, if you've been with us, that it is all about what God has done, how He predestined us.

If that's a new word for you, you can go back and listen to the series from the beginning. How He called us, how He opened our heart to believe. The first part of the verse, the chapter opens up with this one long sentence, from verse 3 to verse 14, the longest grammatical sentence in the Greek New Testament.

It's beautiful. And then He goes and He writes in two verses. Uh, verse 15 through 23 to talk all about what we now have in light of what Christ has done. And when you get to chapter two oh, when you get to chapter two, Paul teaches us that there is a reality about sin that every person in the world needs to recognize and the point that he makes the big idea.

is that the gospel is not about making good people better. It is about raising dead sinners to life. Only the dead can live. Let's look together at Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 to 5, about what that means. Would you stand with me as we read together? Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 to 5. And you. We're dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work, and the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature Children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. Hallelujah? The grass withers and the flowers fade, but God's Word stands forever. This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated.

Please, this morning we're going to look at what it means to be spiritually dead and why we're in this condition, and most importantly, how the mercy and grace of God breaks in to make us alive in Christ. Are you ready, class? If you're going to get this, if you're going to understand it, the first thing you have to do is you have to recognize your true condition.

You have to recognize your true condition. Listen, most people today assume that humanity's biggest problem is ignorance, or it's injustice, or it's their environment, or it's the lack of opportunity. You hear it all the time. If we could just educate people more, if we could just create a fairer economy, if we could improve our mental health, we could fix what is wrong with the world.

And no doubt, there is nothing wrong with each of those things, and they are good and right. But they don't want to address the heart of the issue with what's wrong with society today, do they? Because the problem in society today, the heart of the matter is the heart. We are not merely flawed or struggling.

We are dead in sin. Paul gives us a far more radical diagnosis than our culture gives us. And you were dead in the trespasses and the sins. In Greek, paratomason, trespasses, harmatia, sin. He uses two words as though to say, let me get both my arms around you to show you that you are completely enveloped in sin.

You have gone off course, you have crossed the line, and you have also missed the mark. You are dead in your trespasses and sins. And if you're dead, I want you to think about what that means. A person who is sick can seek treatment, and a drowning person can cry for help, but a dead person, what can a dead person do?

That's right. Nothing. They are unresponsive, they are powerless, they are incapable of change. And if this seems harsh, let's examine the evidence that Paul gives us. Paul gives us three forces that keep humanity in bondage. He describes them here. We are enslaved to the world, the devil, and the flesh. Look at the text with me.

Look at your Bibles. It says first that we are enslaved by the world, verse 2. We are following the course of this world. To follow the course. It is Aiona in Greek. It is the spirit of the age. You follow its course. Paul reminds us in Romans, uh, chapter 12, verse 2. Don't be conformed to the pattern of this world.

You remember that? But be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So that you may, by testing, be able to discern what is good. What is good and acceptable and pleasing. Listen, the world constantly adopts, absorbs you into its discipleship program and you are good students of it without even realizing it.

John elaborates on this idea in 1 John chapter 2, he says, Don't love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, and the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

That is to say, the world's systems, its values, its desires, are opposed to God and blinds people from knowing and following Him. Paul said something very similar to the church of Colossae. In Colossians 2. 8, he says, See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

Cultural philosophies and traditions blind us to God's truth. Every generation has cultural blind spots. And some parts of the world that are highly individualistic, Western like we are, tend to overemphasize the individual at the expense of the community. They're blind to the needs of the other because they're so consumed with the needs of the self.

In other traditions, in the East in particular, they're so aware of the needs of the community that sometimes they don't actually know what they themselves as an individual ought to do. But the gospel says both can be blind.

The world blinds our eyes to the truth of the gospel. One aspect of this, this room to help us understand that your sight, the way you see the world is so important to us. If you, if you look over here on these, these are called rude screens, R O O D, and the point of these Is that in the medieval church they built up screens to separate the clergy from the laity so that the clergy would be on one side and the laity would be on the other.

We would, we, the laity, I mean the clergy would be the holy ones and the laity would be the ones who were as holy. But that is no longer the case in the Reformation. They brought them down. They pushed them back so that we all worship in the same space before the triune God. And on our rude screens there are little shields.

And these shields are the pictures of the covenant. Come look at them after worship and see them. The covenant that God made with Adam, the covenant of grace. And then with Noah, for all of creation. And then with Abraham, and then with Moses, and then with David. And then the new covenant. And these are pictures of how we look out into the world through God's covenant promises and covenant lens.

And there are, no doubt, covenants of modern life that you look at the world and see through. Education. Athletics. How well supported I am for my retirement. How well put together my life is. And these are the false gospels of the world that we just take in hook, line, and sinker. He says the evidence, first of all, is that you follow the course, the aeon, the spirit of the age.

And not only the world, but secondly, he says, you follow the prince. of the power of the air. Behind the world's rebellion is a real spiritual enemy. Satan is real, personal, and he is after you. He prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 says, In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers.

Same word, God, Prince, Archangel. Kanta, in Greek, same word. He has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. Not only does the world blind us, but Satan also blinds us. 1 Peter 5, 8, Be sober minded and watchful, as I just said.

The adversary prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. The devil is active, and he is deceiving. He is the accuser. He's not just a symbolic idea. He's not just a spiritual force. He is real. John 8, 44 says, You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desire, Jesus said.

He was a murderer from the beginning, and he does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Satan. is the source of deception. Now, the Bible is clear. There is a personal and there is an active accuser who is the source of evil in the world.

Not only the world, but also the devil. And thirdly, what does it say? Thirdly, the flesh. Verse three. Carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. This isn't just speaking about physical desires. This is speaking of our pride and our selfishness, our ambition, and our rebellion against God. Sin is not just external actions.

It is in our nature. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it? Romans chapter 7 verse 18, For I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. Our fallen flesh is by nature totally affected, making people unable to do good on their own.

Are you with me? It is the world, it is the devil, and it is the flesh.

Now, let me say something, um, as directly as I can. The biblical view of humankind is almost the exact opposite of the way that you were raised. No matter if you public school, private school, or homeschooled your children, or experienced it yourself. We absorb the discipleship of the world like breathing in oxygen, almost without oxygen.

The biblical doctrine of original sin teaches that fallen human nature is now inherently sinful due to Adam's fall. Not only Ephesians chapter 2, but also Romans chapter 5, verse 12, if you're taking notes. Secondly, people are not born morally neutral, but they are born with a will that is dead in sin.

Psalm 51, verse 5. Third, salvation is entirely of grace. Humans cannot save or morally improve themselves without God's intervention. Just as, uh, Katie and James read earlier, We wait and hope for the He is the one. No eye has seen or ear has perceived a God like ours, who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.

He is the one who first moves to open our hearts. Why? Because we're dead. What can dead people do? Morally dead people cannot do anything unless the Lord comes to revive our hearts. And this is important for us because the default American sentiment contradicts the biblical view of sin in almost every way.

And we have to recognize not only our condition, but we have to recognize the default American cultural creed is the unspoken narrative that so many of us believe.

While the environment, uh, we would say, uh, matters. Paul says it is deeper than the environment, it is a matter of the heart. What is the American creed? I pledge, I pledge allegiance to myself and to the freedom of my own truth. You know what I'm talking about. One people basically good with self esteem and self growth for all.

Isn't that what you hear? It's a background rhythm and melodic line of every Disney movie you've ever had your children watch. The creed goes like this, that people are basically good. Evil is not inherent in human nature, but comes from bad influences. Poverty, lack of education, bad parenting. And the solution is you fix the environment and the people become good.

There's nothing wrong with fixing an environment, of course, but it doesn't get to the heart, because the heart of the matter is the heart. People are basically good, and also you define your own morality. Right and wrong are subjective. Whatever feels right is right for you. That's called moral relativism.

And we drink it up in droves. Don't think I'm preaching to somebody else. Oh Christian, we are all in this together. So the solution is follow your heart and be true to yourself. Third, the key to happiness is self esteem. The biggest problem in the world is not sin, but it's low self worth. Believe in yourself.

Avoid negative influences like guilt or shame. Get the toxicity out of your life. Have you heard this before? You may have even told people that. There's nothing wrong with getting the toxicity out of your life, but how do you get the heart out of your heart? You have to be regenerate, made new, born again.

People can fix themselves, the fourth part of this creed. Given enough education, therapy, or self improvement, humans can become their best selves. So work on yourself, and you can become a better person. We don't need a savior. This is article number five in the American Creed. We just need personal growth, and the idea is that we need grace to save us.

That is offensive, because it implies that we are helpless. Self help, psychology, positive thinking. Ah, that. replaces religious depe uh, dependence. Do you see how these are almost directly opposed to each other? The Bible says that we are born with sinful nature, but the cultural creed is that people are basically good.

Morality is objective. It is rooted in God's law, not personal preference. But we hear all the time, we define our own morality. The repentance and grace, not self affirmation. You have affirmation because you're a daughter or son of the living God. We hear the key to happiness is self esteem. Humans cannot overcome sin by their willpower.

Only grace can restore them. We hear all the time people can fix themselves. Christ is the only solution to the human condition because only Christ deals with the heart of the matter because the heart of the matter is the heart. Only the dead can live. We hear all the time we don't need a savior. We just need self improvement.

Now, I know I'm meddling, and I'm doing it for a reason, because this affects the way that you parent. The modern view is if we just educate our kids properly, we boost their self esteem, they will naturally do the right thing. But the biblical view, Pauline view, says that even with the best education, children are still affected by sin, and they need discipline, training, and grace.

Some people may say, Oh, that sounds great, Pastor, but Jesus never taught original sin. Oh, yes, He did. Amen. Luke 11, 13, what does it say? If you who are good, you who are evil, he says, you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more your Father in heaven does He know how to give?

Jesus called His disciples who had been with Him, a pretty holy group relative to me, He called them evil. How much more the depth of the need of the human heart. Are you tracking me? Listen, we absorb this stuff. We could just, we could just stay in Ephesians chapter 2 for months because we are been discipled with a perspective of humankind that is almost the exact opposite from the way the Bible speaks of it.

When you think about criminal justice and psychology, people commit crimes because they're bad environments, not because they're sinful. Ever heard that? The biblical view is that while the environment, yes, it matters, sin ultimately is a heart issue. This is Jeremiah 17, 9. The heart is deceitfully sick.

Who can understand it? And when it comes to religion and personal faith, the modern view says religion is about self improvement. It's being a good person. Let's come here to Trinity to have a little character shaping. Oh, that would make very good Pharisees. The world does not need another self righteous group of people.

We come here because the church is the only organization in the world Where the requirement for membership is the admission, just like you saw these three young ladies make, the requirement is to admit that you don't belong. You don't deserve it, because you're saved by grace.

The biblical view of religion and personal growth is Christianity is about being rescued from sin. It is not just learning to behave better. The gospel is not about making good people better. It is about making, raising dead sinners to life. And when you understand that, you will be a better person. You will run and skip in joy because the duty of the law becomes a choice, and you're glad to obey it because you have a new nature, no longer of the flesh, but now of the Spirit.

The consequences of rejecting original sin. It leads to moral relativism, it leads to self justification, it leads to a shallow spirituality in the church, and it leads to false solutions because you're constantly dealing with the symptoms but never with the roots. And those of you who are in healthcare know what that's like because you see patients all the time.

And you're trying to get to the root of the root of the root, the heart of the heart of the matter. And the gospel says that the heart of the heart of the heart is the heart. And so if we're going to recover Paul's view, we have to understand that this creed feels so natural to us, but the gospel is completely counter cultural.

Are you willing to stand on the truth of the gospel in the midst of a culture which preaches almost its exact opposite? I wonder if that's true of you. The church ought to be Christ's countercultural community. Martin Lloyd Jones once said that man is not merely imperfect, he is spiritually dead. He does not need encouragement or instruction, he needs life.

And the greatest offensiveness of the gospel is the idea that you are dead in your trespasses and sins.

Now, if I ended the sermon here and I told you to go with four steps of how to be a better person, you would leave this place with eyes open, but with burdens too busy, too heavy for you to carry. And the next words in this letter are the greatest words, arguably, in the New Testament. But God. But God. We have to receive God's rescue.

Notice what he says in verse 4. But God Notice his character as we confess in the Confession of Sin. Being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us. Sometimes people say the whole idea of God's wrath just seems, ugh, offensive to me today. But don't you know that God has a wrath?

Because He has a great love. You can't have one or the other. He hates sin. He fiercely hates sin. Because He's so angry about it. Because He loves you so much. Those of you who see somebody who is walking away, and you love them deeply, your anger, your frustration at the sin and the environment and the situation is in proportion to your love for them.

You're just, you long for them to come back to Jesus. Those of you who are praying for your kiddos know what I'm talking about. Your love is so deep. And you're so angry at the influences that have led them astray, and you just long for them to come back. God also, He hates sin, and it is worthy of His eternal wrath.

And that's the case because of His great love for you. But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even, it says it again, it's the first same five verb, uh, verses, uh, words that start the Greek text in verse one, except for the different pronoun. When we were dead in our trespasses.

He made us alive together with Christ. Not only do you need to recognize your condition, but you need to receive God's rescue. The analogy is that, imagine a man who is drowning at sea, and the ship of salvation passes by. And he's waving, Hey! Look at me! Look at me! And the captain of the ship sees this struggling person in the water yelling for him.

And he goes and he throws a life preserver to him. And the guy swims to the life preserver. And he is pulled up to the boat. And he's saved! Isn't that amazing?

It is amazing. But it is not the picture of what you see in the Bible. The picture of what you see in the, she, they're more awake than some of you, by the way.

The picture of what you see in the Bible is that you are dead on the bottom of the ocean floor with a mouthful of sand and seaweed. You are lifeless. You are totally unable to even flag that boat down. And Jesus, the captain of the ship, no, he's known you since before the dawn of time. And he says, I've got the coordinates and I'm going after him.

It may have been after that breakup, it may have been after that failed course, it may have been after that car wreck, it may have been some low point in your life. But Jesus says, I know the coordinates and I'm going after them. He's known you since before the dawn of time. He pulls that ship of salvation by you.

He jumps off the boat. He comes in the incarnation. He comes and He lives a life that you could not live. And He dies the death you should have died. And He pulls you up out of that water. He breathes new life into you, the ruach, the breath of God. He breathes new life into you and He regenerates your heart.

He makes you alive again. Regeneration just means to be made alive again. And He gives you the beauty of life eternal. Hallelujah. It is beautiful. Jesus knows you. You are dead in your trespasses and sins. And I wonder if you would be willing to receive that rescue. Some of you who are children who have grown up in this church, listen, some of you know all about the Bible stories, but you've never really admitted that your heart is dead in sin and that you can't be saved except for the work of Jesus.

You can know His love by placing your faith in Him. The good news of the gospel is not that He makes bad people good, it's that He raises dead sinners to life. And if I could just offer a couple of comments on these words, mercy, love, regeneration, and grace. You see mercy in verse 4, God in his great mercy withholds judgment, the judgment we deserve, instead he offers us salvation.

He does not give us what we deserve, he gives us mercy. Love, God's great love is the driving force behind our salvation. Even when we are, Paul just ratchets it up. Even when we are dead in our trespasses and sins. Even then, because of His great love, He loves us. Do you know that you're loved? Run to this table in just a moment with the joy of knowing that you are loved by your Heavenly Father and believe in Him.

Stop turning to your self saving strategies that can't bring life and place your faith in Him. Regeneration. It is a word that is a big theological word that just means to be made alive again. Re generate. Though we were spiritually dead, God made us alive with Christ, giving us new life and grace. If mercy is God not giving us what we, not giving us what we do deserve, then grace is God giving us what we don't.

We are saved by a gift of God's grace, not something that we could ever learn. How about you? Do you truly understand your need for grace? Do you know that you live in an environment with a very real adversary called Satan, who is after you, in a world that is constantly discipling you? And the problem is not just him, not just out there.

The problem is the heart of the heart, the flesh. And unless we deal with the flesh problem, the heart problem, the sarkos in Greek, the flesh, we, like the world, are without hope, as Paul says, with the rest of mankind. But if you understand that you can recognize your true condition in it, and you also can receive God's grace, then what's the fruit?

Number one, it should humble you. If you grasp your spiritual deadness, it should humble you. And there should not be an error of spiritual superiority anywhere in your orbit because you know how desperately you need grace. Secondly, it should deepen your gratitude. It should make you profoundly grateful because we were children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

And thirdly, it should motivate and it should sharpen our evangelism. Our evangelism, you say. Yes, our evangelism. Because while God knows all who are His, it is our job, responsibility, and duty, and joy to preach the gospel to everyone that they may hear. And to do it in a way that is intelligible and that makes sense with good, rational arguments for why we believe what we believe so that we can have a good conversation about it.

Even in a world of moral relativism, all the more important for us to proclaim good news so that people have a rock to stand on amidst the mishiness of moral relativism in the world. It should sharpen our evangelism. Because we know that we were shared, we had the gospel shared with us at one point in time too.

We know what it's like to be brought from death to life.

It should also destroy our self righteousness and it also should give us assurance. And let me close by just speaking to four groups of people here as directly and as pastorally as I can. If you think of yourself as a religious person, the greatest two words in all of Scripture are here in verse 4, but God.

You were dead. You were utterly helpless in sin. Without hope, unable to save yourself, but God. And it wasn't just at your conversion, but God. It is also in your sanctification, but God. It is the same way that you became a Christian through faith and repentance, that you grow now in becoming more holy, through repentance and faith.

And so if you are a religious person, you were made alive, and you have nothing to offer Him. And that means that your salvation is not based upon your performance, but on His grace. And if that truth really settles in, it'll change everything about the way that you view yourself and your failures. It is a miracle of grace.

And to the person who has been burned by the church. Our culture tells us that we find ourselves, we improve ourselves, we save ourselves. But Paul gives us a more radical diagnosis. He says that we were dead. We weren't struggling. We weren't in need of guidance merely. We were dead and dead people don't revive themselves.

And that means that your salvation is not based upon your performance either. It is based entirely on your actions. His grace, and it's not based upon the performance of others. Have a huge view of God. Keep your expectations of people pretty manageable. Because the church is being conformed into His image, but it's not there yet.

And if you've been burned by the church, I am so sorry. And you will probably be disappointed with this one too at some point. But we want to run to repentance. The mark of the elders of our church It's not that they're the most holy in the room, although we pray that they're growing in holiness, it's that they are the ones who are the lead repenters.

And that we run back to the gospel of grace week after week after week after week, even as we try to lead you. To the perfectionists and the overachievers, here's the deal. If God so loved you at your worst, then nothing you can do will make Him love you anymore. Because He already loves you infinitely.

Lay down your perfectionism and see that you were dead in your trespasses and sins, but God made you alive in Christ Jesus. And those of you who are struggling with assurance, lastly, know that the heart of the gospel is God didn't come to make bad people good or weak people strong. He came to tell you that salvation is entirely a work of God.

That means it doesn't depend upon you, it depends upon Him. And He's got you. No one will snatch you out of His hand. You were dead in your trespasses and sins, but He made you alive. And He will be faithful to you, His promises, no matter how much you feel like He loves you or not. He says He loves you because He loves you.

And to prove it, He gave the life of His own Son to die for you. And He rose again on the third day to help seal your assurance that you may know, that you may know, that you may know that you're His. And he gives you a body of believers called the church to remind you of that great truth. And he helps you walk past the, the fount of baptism every time you come into this room to remind you that his covenant promises pronounced over your baptism are true regardless of how you feel about it.

Because they are rooted in his triune life and they are true to his character. And he will be faithful to complete what he began. If you're a believer in this room, though you were dead in your trespasses and sins, you now are in Christ because of the words, but God. Despite yourself, he moved to save you.

You were dead, but God made you alive. You were enslaved, but God set you free. You are under wrath, but God, rich in mercy, loved you with a great love. Friends, this is the miracle of grace. Have you grasped it? Let it humble you, respond with humility, repent of your self righteousness, run to share the gospel with the world, invite others to fill the empty seats in this room, share the gospel with them, give a reason for the hope that you profess, because you are being discipled by the world constantly, but yet dead in our trespasses and sins.

We look out into the world through His covenant of grace, and we say, but God, who is rich in mercy. Because of the great love with which He loved us has made us alive together in Christ. Hallelujah. Oh, Father, the depths of the riches of the wisdom of the knowledge of God. Lord, you who are able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power that is at work within us.

To you belong glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations. Would you open our eyes to see your truth? And we pray all these things in Jesus name. Amen.

Sermon transcript is computer generated.