We're in Ephesians chapter 2. Brother Rob read to us out of Ephesians chapter 1 this morning in our Scripture reading. of this book, it teaches us the blessings that we have in Christ. You see Paul's prayer there for the believers to understand the greatness of God's plan for us, and the greatness of his power that's available to us as Christians, and then also the greatness of God himself, his person. That He is the sovereign God of the universe. That He is in control of all things. And chapter 1 is just describing for us God and who He is. When we get into chapter 2, now the Spirit of God is describing you and me. He's describing man. and he's describing who we are. And in the text that we're looking at this morning, these first seven verses, we're really looking at a portrait. And if you could just picture the master painter, God himself, he's taking what we might call an infallible paintbrush, and on a palette of absolute truth, with that palette, and his infallible paintbrush, he is painting a picture. And the picture that he's painting is a picture of you and me. And I want you to note, and I think you easily will this morning, what a huge contrast in the colors with which the Lord Jesus is painting this picture. He is painting in one sense A black that is so dark, you know, sometimes we use the expression, that is just pitch black. And we use that phrase to describe something that's really black, really dark. You go into that room and wow, it's just pitch dark in there. We're describing, it's just you can't see anything. And what we're seeing this morning in this picture is something that is, if I could use the word piteous, the piteous black that you could ever imagine. And then opposite of that, you also see a white. A white that is so bright and that is so dazzling as the white of a snowfall. Just a pure white. And that's what we see here this morning. Scripture always paints man. when it's describing us in the darkest tense of our humanity and then also in the brightest white, if I could say it that way, of our possibilities, what God can and desires to do in us. Nowhere else do we find such sad and such stern words about human nature as what we're going to find right here that we're going to read in just a moment. And nowhere else do we find such glowing and wonderful words about the possibilities that God wants to work in every human being. This master painter is also the great physician. He knows he can cure the worst of diseases in man if man will but take his medicine. The doctor of doctors that we're looking at today, he's under no temptation to minimize the severity of the symptoms, nor is he trying to mask the fatality of the disease that we're going to see this morning. And we have both sides here in the text. We have the actual condition of man, And we're going to see, as the Bible says, he is dead in trespasses and sins. That's what God says about us. And then we also see the possible condition of man. That man dead in his trespasses and sins can actually be made alive. The darkness can be turned to light. And he's made alive only by Jesus Christ. That dead man can be given new life. And that's the title of the message this morning, New Life in Christ. I think you'll see this as we read this morning. And I really want to encourage you to follow along. Follow along in your Bible. Pull up the scripture on your device. Pick up the Pew Bible in front of you. I really want you to follow along because I want all of us to see this morning that what we are describing, what God is describing is you and me. This is not me describing us, this is God describing us. And what Bethany sang this morning about this book, the truth of this book, the power of this book, the way God uses this book, it's the only book that you and I have that God gave us. It's the only one. And so I want us to see that this morning, that as we are looking in this book today, we are hearing what God is writing. We are seeing what God is painting about you and me. We're just going to read the first seven verses. So we're going to pick up the beginning of chapter two. Rob left off at the end of chapter one. And here's what the picture is that God is painting. of you and me. He says this in chapter 2 verse 1, And you hath he quickened, hath he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." That's a dark picture, but that's what God has painted. of you and me. But then look at what he says in verse four. Here's the contrast. But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath made us alive, hath quickened us together, the scripture says, with Christ by grace. You are saved and has raised us up together and 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 the kind in his kindness toward us through. Christ Jesus. So that's the picture. That God is painting for us today. Jesus Christ is the only one who can change the dark, the gloomy portrait of man. But what a change he can make. And that's what we're looking at this morning. And it's all about the new life that we have in Christ. Now you may, as we read that this morning, you may have thought, well, there's some of those words there I didn't quite get, and I'm not sure I followed everything that was there. As we work through this this morning, I hope to just unfold this for us so that we can easily understand what God is saying about us as we currently are in our coming to the world in our human condition, and then what He can make us through Jesus Christ. That's what we're going to do this morning, so let's pray. and ask God to guide us. Lord, we pray that you will help us today. Thank you for this book. We do believe it. We believe every word of it. We believe that it is from you as you have told us that it is. And we desire today to understand it. And so we pray that your spirit would help us. We are not sufficient. We cannot do this. And we need you to illuminate our hearts and cause us to understand truth and do, God, what only you can do. This morning we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. I want you to notice three truths this morning about new life in Christ. And here's the first one. Every man needs new life in Christ. Every man needs new life in Christ. That means you need it. That means your children need it. That means your parents need it. Your siblings need it. Your neighbors need it. Your co-workers need it. Everybody that you know needs new life in Christ. Now, that's a that's a pretty inclusive statement, but that is the truth. That is the way the scripture presents us there. Well, you say, well, why does every man need new life in Christ? Because of this picture. I want you to notice here's why you need new life in Christ. I need new life in Christ. Everybody that we know needs new life in Christ for this reason, because, number one, We are dead. And that's exactly what the scripture says. Didn't it say that? And you, verse 1, hath he quickened. And how is Jesus describing us? You were made alive who were dead. We're dead in trespasses and sins. All of us are alike. Unregenerate human nature is fallen. It is corrupt. It is so corrupt that Paul refers to that nature as one refers to death. Now you think about death, just for a moment. I mean, a cadaver is a solemn sight wherever it is seen. You've seen some of those in the news this past week with the devastation of the storm. It is a solemn sight. wherever it is seen. There are no degrees of death. You think about 12-year-old Jairus' daughter that we read about in the New Testament. She looked like she was asleep, but she was dead. And then you look at Lazarus. When Martha, Lazarus' sister, When Jesus said, roll the stone of Lazarus away. And do you remember what Martha said? Martha said to Jesus, no, no, no, no, no. You don't want to do that, Lord. He's been dead for four days. He stinks. And she's painting a picture there. She's describing that there are no degrees. Whether you're talking about Jairus' daughter who looks like she's asleep, But she's dead, the scripture tells us there. Or you look at the picture of Lazarus in a grave who's been dead for four days. There are no degrees, even though things may look a little differently. You take an embalmer today, an embalmer in the funeral home. He can make or she can make that loved one look like they're asleep. You can have flowers, you can have soft music to try to cover the harsh face of death, but it is still there. In all of its tragic sadness, it's still there. And that's the picture that God paints of you and me. He says we are dead, that's a powerful word, in trespasses and sin. Psalm 51, David says this, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. He's saying there that he was born, when he was born, that just running through his veins was this black drop of death. And that's true for all of us. We understand that you do not have to teach a child to be selfish. They're that by their very nature. You don't have to teach that child to lie. It's one of the most sobering things about parenting, when you're a little child that you love, that you just care so much for, and you're trying to raise, and then they tell you a lie. You don't have to teach them to do that. It's part of their very nature that God is describing here. We are all that way. We are dead. in trespasses and sins, and sin is ever present. All the education in the world will not eradicate it. This is who we are, as God has described us. We are dead, so I need new life, you need new life. Everybody that we know needs new life, number one, because we are dead in our trespasses and sins. Number two, we are dominated, the Bible says. Wherein, he says, in time past you walked. This is not some new thing to us. This is something that's completely dominating us. And we are dominated, first of all, by the world. Wherein in times past you walked according to the course of the world. In a state of spiritual death, The only walking or living a person can do is according to the course of this world, the scripture says. That's the world's system of values. What we value today in the human condition, we value ourselves. We believe that we have it. We believe that we are the end of it and that we can just do whatever we need to do. We value material things. We value sensual things, immoral things. And that's not hard to see. You look all over the place in our world today. And our life, we want it to center around us and we love our stuff. And we read constantly about the challenges of an immoral world in which we live. That's the human condition. And so as a lost man, I'm dominated this way. I come into this world dead in my trespasses and sins. I'm dominated by this worldly thinking. I didn't have to be taught it. It was part of my human nature. I'm dominated by the world. Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. He's talking about the devil. So I'm dominated by the devil. This world system in which I live and the devil in his leadership in this evil world is controlling me. He's the ruler of this world. And that's what the scripture teaches us. And since fallen man and Satan's host exist in the same spiritual realm, it's quite natural that his spirit is the same as the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. This prince of disobedience is working in all of these willing followers because we're dead. And we're dominated by this world system, we're dominated by the devil himself were dominated, thirdly, by our flesh. Did you notice that? Among whom, he says, verse 3, we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Lusts are strong desires, and the life of the flesh is a life that comes When one is abandoned to do whatever feels good, whatever I want to do, these are my lusts. And we all come into this world this way, just dominated that way. I was reading earlier of W.A. Criswell, pastor for years in Texas, in his commentary on the book of Ephesians, he says this, he said, I read of a hunter in India. While he was hunting, the river overflowed and there was a great flood. He escaped to a little island of high ground. And while he was there, a tiger swam out of the swift moving current and came to the little island with the hunter. The tiger was wet. He was afraid and coward like a domestic cat. Nevertheless, the hunter took his gun and shot it. And he says, one might have thought what he did was an inhuman and inhumane and cruel act on his part, but the hunter was wise. He had sense enough to know that while the flood raged and while they were on that little island together, if the hunter went to sleep or turned his back, or as the days passed and the tiger became hungry, being carnivorous, He would eat that man. It was the nature of the beast. The tiger was born that way. And he's using that illustration to say that you and me, we are born that way. We have this nature about us and by nature we are dominated by these lusts of our flesh. So we are dead in our trespasses and sins and so we need new life. We are dominated by the world and by our own flesh and by the devil, so we need a new life. And then thirdly, we are actually doomed. Did you see what he says at the end of the verse? We were by nature the children of wrath. This is what God says about us. We are the children of wrath. This is actually a Hebraism. If someone is poor, we might call them a child of poverty. God says here, we're all children of wrath. We are children of condemnation. The judgment of death is born with us. We did not learn it. It was something that we did not acquire by practice. We were born this way. We were shaped in iniquity, as the psalmist says. And apart from reconciliation through Christ, every person, by nature, because he's a human being, is the object of God's wrath, his eternal judgment and condemnation. And we're talking about new life in Christ and our need for that new life. And the reason that we need it is because we're dead, we're dominated, we are doomed. And this is true of all of us, among whom, did you see that? Among whom we all, the scripture says, had this. It's universal. Everyone, that's why we say everyone has this need for new life because everyone has this corrupt human nature, every single one of us, everybody that we know is this way. And here's what God says in other places. Ecclesiastes 7 in verse 20. I have these verses on the screen. There is not a just man upon the earth. That doeth good and does not sin and sinneth not. There is no one like that. Now this is God speaking in another part of the Bible. There is not a just man upon the earth that does good and does not sin. That means all of us are this way. Romans 3 and verse 23, a more familiar verse, for all have sinned. We have all come short of, we have missed the mark. We've come short of the glory of God. God is perfect and all of us are not. We have fallen short, even though we're made in God's image, we have fallen short of that. because of this human nature that we have. Romans 5 and verse 8, Wherefore, as by one man, Adam, sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so that death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. So we are all dead in our trespasses and sins, and therefore we need new life. That's the dark picture. That's the bad news. that Paul is revealing here, that God is painting here. But then you look at what, when we said there's a huge contrast, you have the blackest, darkest, pitch black condition, and then you've got the brightest, white, the possibility, what God wants to do in humanity. And look, you see now, not only does every man need new life in Christ, here's what he says next, new life in Christ is a gift. It's a gift, and God wants to give it to you today if you don't already have it. He wants to give it to everybody that we know. Anyone who doesn't have it, God wants to give this. Did you see the contrast? You see the little word, but. And you know that always means there's a transition. Well, I know this, but. And your children will come and say, Daddy, Mommy, can I do this? And you'll say, no, honey, you can't because of this. And then they'll say, well, I know, but. They want you to change your mind. They want a contrast here. They want you to do something different. Well, there's something very different here. But. God is telling us something about God. He's just told us about us, but then he says this, but God is God is the giver of this gift. And God, this giver is, do you see what he says in verse four? God is rich in mercy. Amen. We need mercy, right? because of who we are. And everybody we know is this way. So we need help. We need somebody to come along and show us some mercy and show us some kindness. And that's exactly what God is painting here of himself seeing us. He is rich in mercy, He is great in love. Do you see that? But God who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us. Think of it this way, the Father God is looking down on the cemetery. And the great truth that we learn here as that the divine love of the Father bends down over His dead children and He cherishes them still. Even in our deadness, even when we were dead in sins, the Bible says. So here we are, a cemetery. The world is all these people dead in their trespasses and sins. And God is rich in His love and in His mercy. And He's looking down on the cemetery. And even in our deadness, He has compassion on us. He has mercy on us. He is moved when He sees us the way we are. And He knows we need help. And He has ordained it such that His Son would be the only one who could give us the help. And so He sent us Jesus. It's like, you remember the Old Testament? In your Old Testament history, you remember King David. King David hears of the death of his darling son who was caught red-handed in treason. He's plotting against his own dad and when dad David hears that his son is dead, he is so grieved by this and the scripture says he begins to wail, oh my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, oh Absalom, my son, my son. Here his son wickedly is devising treasonous acts against his own dad. And dad looks down on his son and is so grieved that he is dead. That's God with you and me. We are all God's absolums. We have all failed. We are all dead in our sins. And God is so rich. in mercy and love for us. And then look at what he does. He's the giver of the gift, but then verses five and six, you see the contents of this gift. What happens when a person asks Jesus to save him from his dead condition? When I am lost in my sins, and I was, as you've heard many times, a nine-year-old boy, When I first became aware, though I'd heard the gospel many times, but God began to really convince me that I was a sinner and I was forever separated from God. I was, though I didn't understand the context of being a child of wrath, I really came to grips with the fact that I was on my way to hell. And my twin brother and I, the same night, we bowed our heads, called Mom and Dad in. Dad came in, sat down with his Bible on the edge of our bed, walked us through the scripture again, scriptures that we knew. And Don and I both bowed our head that night and asked Jesus to save us from our sins. We went from darkness to light, from death to life, in a moment. And it describes that. Verse 5, you see the establishment of this new life. Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us, is the King James Word, the Old English. It means made alive, and if you have a different translation, that's probably what it says. Made us alive. Even when we were dead in sins, we have been made alive. By Jesus Christ quickened us together. He's talking about the salvation that we give when a person understands, I am dead in my sins. I am a sinner and I know that I don't have to be convinced of that. My sin is separating me from God. I need help. And we cry out to God and we say, God, help me. I do believe that you sent Jesus Christ to die for my sins. Help me. I want to depend on him to take care of my sins, to rescue me from me. And when a person does that immediately, that person becomes a new creature. He has new life now, new life in Christ. We're no longer alienated. From this life of God, we become sensitive to God at that very moment. Paul calls it walking in newness of life in Romans 6. We have this new life for the first time. I can understand spiritual truth. I have a desire for spiritual things. Lots of times with us before we come to Christ, especially as we get older, we enjoy the things of the world. There's something about our flesh that just loves it. We ultimately find it empty and so we run after something else and then we chase after this and this and this and we're always chasing after other things because God designed us with eternity. That we have a soul that's gonna live somewhere forever, we'll never be able to be satisfied with finite things and that's why as a human being, without Christ, I'm constantly having to jump from one thing to the next to make me happy, to give me some sense of satisfaction. But God designed it so that I could only have new life through his son, Jesus. And when I trusted Jesus, I began to want the spiritual things. I began to desire those kinds of things. I wanted to read my Bible. I wanted to be with God's people. I wanted to come to church. I wanted to sing. I wanted to be a part of the people of God. That's what God does. We get this new life. Then there's the enablement of this new power has raised us up together. We have this new power. A living person cannot function while he's wrapped in all the trappings of death. And just like Jesus said to Lazarus, get up. The moment we got saved, that's exactly what God did. He loosed the chains of death and the sin and the condemnation that enslaved us and he freed us. I wish we had more time there, but we don't. And then there's the enthronement of a new king and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. The word sit is actually in the past tense. Oftentimes when God makes a promise in the Bible, he speaks of it in the past tense. And it is so certain that it's going to be an event that happens, that God is in his infinite mind and wisdom, he's making it as though it's already taken place. And we have these things to look forward to. But then I want you to notice finally in verse 7, this new life in Christ has tremendous impact. It lasts for eternity. Think about that. God has given you something as a Christian that will last for all of eternity. You and I were dead. We absolutely did not deserve it. But God was rich in mercy and his great love wherewith he loved us and he sent us Jesus and he gave us new life when we ask him and it will last for all of eternity. That in the ages to come, it lasts for eternity. And then that new life, it exalts God. It exalts the grace of God that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. It exalts God's grace and it exalts the gift of God, which is his son, Jesus Christ. I so wish we had time here, but we don't. But imagine in heaven Every one of us who knows Jesus Christ in the ages to come, we are going to be one testimony of the mercy and grace of God after another. And that's what it's going to be like. That in the ages to come, God is going to show His richness, His power, His love and tenderness and mercy. It's going to be on display for everyone to see. And that's going to give God great glory when a person dead in sin Ask Jesus to be his savior and he gets new life. His whole destiny has changed. Everything about him has changed. He has new life. Now let me ask you this morning, do you have this? Do you have this new life in Christ? Has there been a time when your life, I mentioned to you, I shared with you just briefly in my testimony when I was a nine-year-old boy. Do you have a time like that in your life? Has there been a time? There has to be some time like this. No one gradually becomes a Christian. No one gradually is dead and then gradually gets life. The only way we get new life is through Christ. And that doesn't happen gradually, it happens instantaneously. The moment I begin to understand I am dead and I need help and I ask Jesus to save me, and I call upon Him and I ask Him to save me, at that moment, I get new life. Have you had that moment? Have you had that moment? What we're doing this morning is we are celebrating what we have in Jesus Christ. In just a moment, we're going to observe what we call communion or the Lord's table. It's the way Jesus wants us to remember what he did for us when he died on the cross for our sins. And at our church, we do this once a month, as you know. And we're constantly wanting to remind ourselves that Jesus Christ gave us new life. He's our Savior. And if you're here this morning, we invite you to join with us as we celebrate this today. If you have this new life in Christ. If you're not certain about that, please stop me on the way out. And please don't feel like you have to respond to anything when a cup is passed to you or a plate or anything like that. You can just let it pass right down the aisle to the next person. You don't have to take this. Please don't feel like you need to do that there. This is for people who have new life in Christ. But if you're uncertain about that, please stop one of us. Stop me at the back. I'll be at the back right after the service or out in the lobby as well. We'd love to show you how you can have this new life in Christ. Well, we're going to observe the Lord's table now. As our custom is, we have juice and we have bread that reminds us of the body and the blood of Christ as we are taking these things this morning. But I just want to emphasize with us this morning the soberness with which we take this bread and drink this cup. And Jesus is clear about this in the Word, as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 11. Something, our sin was so ugly, our condition was so dark, our portrait was so black that it was going to require nothing less than the death of Jesus Christ to cover us and to give us new life. That's a sobering thing. It's a joyful time that we remember. And we're remembering today the cost of what Jesus did when he died for our sins. And so we approach this table reverently and soberly, not flippantly or casually or anything like that.