Let's read again from the Word of God, turning this time to Ephesians and to the second chapter, Ephesians chapter two. And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you 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. The book of Ephesians is not an easy book to understand, and certainly the first chapter can confuse many. And as we read through it, perhaps it is necessary to read it many times, and even then, coming to the end of those many readings, still very complicated for us to get really, get a hold upon. And this second chapter, well, it builds upon the first, and the third also upon it. Probably the fourth and the fifth chapters are the easiest to get hold of, and the sixth chapter, because they speak about things which we understand, in that they speak about the sins which we do so easily commit, and how we are to strive and to fight against sin. Well, we understand sin, but understanding the deep things of God, that is a lot more difficult for us. I want to think about the second chapter with you, but not in its depths of theological difficulty, but just really to scrape the surface and to see some of the things which are revealed to us concerning our salvation and our condition before salvation, which is revealed in this chapter. So I want, first of all, to think with you concerning the deathly condition which is spoken of here, and that really is found in that first verse, but we'll look at other verses too. You, Hathi Quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. Secondly, I want to consider the dynamic conversion which is spoken of here. In verse four we read, but God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us or made us alive together with Christ. And then finally, the divine company which we are drawn into when we are connected and joined to Christ. By the Lord's grace, we will see these things this evening. First of all then, the deathly condition. I don't call it a deadly condition, but a deathly condition for a particular reason. Because the things which are spoken of here are not things which bring us to death, but they are things which occur in death. It seems to be a great desire in this day and age to look at programs that contain zombies. And there is a program on television, which I have to say has no attraction for me whatsoever, called The Walking Dead, and it's about zombies. Well, I have no interest in zombies whatsoever, and, well, Can't see the attraction at all, in actual fact, in watching it. But nevertheless, there is that program. There is something also which is sweeping the internet about the zombie apocalypse and being ready for the zombie apocalypse and how people can fight against zombies and how they can overcome them and so on. Strange things that go around this world, strange ideas and strange courses of this world. But I was thinking about that the other day, and I was thinking, do you know what? We live in a world which is full of zombies. Because a zombie is the undead. A zombie is one who, in this modern idea anyway, not in reality, in reality it's something else altogether, but in this modern idea of a zombie, it is someone who's been killed and then brought back to life by some organism so that they can still ambulate around the planet and kill other people and infect them so that they also become zombies. So it is a life of one who is dead. And that's exactly what the scripture speaks of all the world. that we are dead while we live, that while we walk around this planet, while we interact one with another, we are dead. And here in this first verse, it says, and you who were dead. You'll see the words hath he quickened are in italics. That's because the verb which comes into this is not found until the fourth verse, where we read there, hath he quickened, hath quickened us together with Christ. That's the verb which applies to these four former verses, and that's why it's put in by the translators. But just look at the words as they are without the italic. and you who were dead in trespasses and sins. And the word there is not a word which means you who will become dead, or you who will die, or even you who are dying, but it is a word which means you who are dead, or who were dead, because it's speaking in the Ephesians to those who are now alive in Christ Jesus. So it's not a deadly condition which kills us, but it's a deathly condition, one we are already in, unless we have Christ. So first of all, I want to consider this in the fact that we are dead in trespasses and sins. And I call this the catacombs of willfulness, the catacombs where there are so many dead bodies lost and stuck into the walls and memorials set up for people who have died in the past. But here is a catacomb, a catacomb of willfulness, because we're not speaking about a physical death here, but a spiritual death. So that we, like zombies, walk about with an understanding, but not a true understanding. Not a real understanding of things as they actually are, but things as they appear. And the scripture makes it plain that unless we have Christ, we are dead. We are born dead. We are born into this condition. Dead in trespasses and sins. And when I think about the wandering in the catacombs, these catacombs of willfulness, there are two words which are used here. They were dead in trespasses and sins. What are trespasses? Trespasses or transgressions, a similar word and a similar meaning means overstepping what we are allowed to do. God has given us a law. God, who is the creator and has made us and set us upon this planet, not only made us with an understanding, with a sentience, but also gave us parameters within which we should walk in morality. And this trespass, this transgression is overstepping what God has told us. It is treading on sacred ground. It is climbing over the fence which God has put around us, the hedges to protect us and to keep us in. It is as Adam in the first instance took of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil when God said thou shalt not eat of it for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Here was the law, don't eat of it. What did he do? He trespassed. He trespassed. He went where he should not go. He took what he should not take and he ate what he should not eat. And as a consequence, he died, and all of his posterity inherited that infection, that infection of sin. So it is, of course, in life. So often, we see those who have been infected by something that their forebears have done. The scripture speaks about God visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate him. And I believe that the Lord does indeed do that. He visits those generations which have followed, one who has fallen into some corruption, some sin, or into some folly. And when he visits them, he finds that there is an effect. There is an effect of that sin. There is an effect of that folly. There is an effect of that transgression. You can come across people who might have been earls or dukes or some other inherited title, but it was lost at some point in the past. Someone had done some great work and had their title inferred to them, and so they received it. And then their offspring did something foolish. Perhaps they had become a gambler or a drunkard, and they had lost the whole inheritance. Perhaps they had committed some crime against the state and lost their title. And every one of their offspring afterwards had lost the title too, and lost the inheritance also. This is what happened in Adam. Adam lost the inheritance and in him we all lose the inheritance. Adam becomes infected and in him we are all infected. We are all dead in trespasses and sins. And look at these words, for it says, you who were dead in trespasses and sins were in time past, you walked according to the course of this world. You who were dead. So even those who are Christians, even those who are saved, even those who have been redeemed, who have been washed, who have been accepted, who have been drawn back into communion with God, even they have to say, we were sinners, we were lost, We were in that condition, and we, of all the men of the world, confess that. The world, of course, does not confess it, and thinks to themselves that they walk in righteousness when there is no righteousness about them. So here are the catacombs, then, of willfulness. First of all, transgression, or trespass. But then there's also this word sins, and sins is a catch-all word, I suppose, in Christian circles. But if we hold it strictly to its meaning, it means falling short, not coming up to the standard. And you might say, well, I don't really trespass against God. We might be like that rich young ruler who can say to the Lord, all these have I kept from my youth. But have we kept up the standard of God? Have we been perfect as the Lord is perfect? Do we do all that is required of us? Not only do we break those commands which God has given us, but do we do what God has commanded us to do? And here, all men fall. And all men, if they are honest in themselves, must have to say, we have fallen short of the glory of God. I was speaking to a young man one day at the door of our house. He was a Jehovah's Witness. And he was trying to convince me that Jesus Christ was not God, but that he was just a first created being. And he says, well, why do we need God to save us from our sins? Because all he has to do is to die on the cross for the things that we have done, and we haven't necessarily done those terrible things. We have sinned, yes, and we have done bad things, and when Jesus died on the cross, this first creation of God, when he died on the cross, he paid the penalty, and God was satisfied with that penalty, and so that's all we need. But of course the issue isn't this. The issue isn't that we have sinned and so the penalty has to pay for what we have done. The issue is that we have fallen short of the glory of God and how do we make up that shortfall? How much is the shortfall? If I in my life commit one sin, or if I in my life become the most wicked man who has ever lived, how far short of the glory of God do I fall? when God's glory is infinite. If I've sinned once, I have fallen infinitely short of God's glory. And if I've sinned in the most wicked way all the way through my life, I have fallen infinitely short of God's glory. Which of these infinities can be fulfilled in a creation? Who can give their life to bring back to fullness? that obedience to God, but one who is infinite himself. This is the Lord Jesus Christ. So these catacombs in which this deathly condition takes us and causes us to wander are between sin, falling short of the glory of God, and transgression, stepping over the mark which God has set around us. We are all found in this condition. We walk, the Bible goes on to tell us, according to the course of this world, according to the age of this world. And of course the ages change and there are different things which come upon all ages. There are different distractions, there are different sins, there are different fashions which take hold of us. There are times when there seems to be a kind of a righteousness in some nations for a short time. The sins soon reoccur and people begin to follow one another like sheep. There's the term coined, the sheeple. The sheeple. Because the sheeple do whatever is in fashion. And when there's a new fashion to wear, they wear the fashion. When there's a new way to dress, or a new way to walk, or a new thing to do, or a new group which comes on the scene, or a new player comes to their football team, everybody falls into line. And there are a few who know how it is to walk their own path and not be interested. But I would suggest that to some extent, anyway, we're all sheeple, because we do tend to go about in crowds. We do tend to follow this, or to follow that, and to join with this, or to join with that. And the course of this world, which is being spoken of here, this is the corruption of the world. And this is the way men walk. that they might follow in the paths that everybody else follows. They don't want to be different. They don't want to stand out from everybody else. We read together from Psalm 36, and there we read the transgression of the wicked saith within my heart that there is no fear of God before my eyes. We've often puzzled over those words, saith within my heart, but it is of course because every child of God has been in that condition of wickedness. Every child of God has been in the situation where there was no fear of God before his eyes. He's learned to fear God. He has understood his condition and called upon the name of the Lord for salvation, but he understands perfectly the way that people think. In 1 Corinthians, we read the same thing, that we can understand the natural man, but the natural man cannot understand the spiritual man. It goes on here in Psalm 36 in verse two, for he flattereth himself in his own eyes until his iniquity be found to be hateful or full of hate. hate of God, hate of the things of God, hate of righteousness. I was listening to someone just the other day preaching and he was speaking about the situation where people came across from America and were wanting to visit schools and to do what was called the silver ring thing, I think it was. It was about people deciding that they would remain in their chastity until they were married. And they were being slated on the radio because they were coming to bring this message to young people. As if it was some sort of corruption. As if they were preaching some kind of pornography. As if it was completely the opposite to what it was. Instead of preaching righteousness, they wanted them to continue in corruption. This is the world. This is the way of the world. This is the course of the world. Let us get into sin. Let us enjoy sin. Let's do whatever the world does. Let's just live. You see a bumper sticker sometimes, one life, live it. What does that mean? It means get into anything you like. If you die early, at least you'll have fun before you die. But what darkness, that men and women would get into all kinds of corruptions, die early, stand before God with nothing, and die eternally. the course of this world. It goes on to speak not just of the course of this world, but according to the prince of the power of the air, the prince of the power of the air, the control of the wicked one. We think of the air, the word in Greek for air here is the word air. It's not spelled the same way, but it is the same word air. When we think about air, speech carries upon air. You know, James talks about the tongue. He talks about the tongue being set on fire of hell, that it be full of deadly poison. Why do we walk according to the course of this world? Because we hear it. Because people around us are talking it. Because work colleagues or school friends or in this day and age, the internet is all full of these things which are coming to us through the air. and we hear them, we see them, and we want to partake of them, and our minds are corrupted by them. Although we know that television programs and radio programs are not actually broadcast on the air, but by radio waves, and we understand that in this day and age, but nevertheless, you will still see, if you go into a studio, a sign which comes up over the studio, and it says, on air, on air and the media puts these things across to us and we can so easily be under the control of the wicked one according to the prince of the power of the air the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, and it says then in verse three, among whom also we all had our conversation, or our behavior, or conduct, or manner of life 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. The children of wrath. And this is the fourth thing of this deadly condition, the children of wrath. We looked there in the Psalm 36, I don't know if you picked up the word, which I sought to Emphasize in verse two, it says, for he flattereth himself in his own eyes until his iniquity be found to be hateful or full of hate, full of hate. The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. He hath left off to be wise and to do good. He deviseth mischief upon his bed. He setteth himself in a way that is not good. He abhorreth not evil. He is full of wrath, wrath against God. Wrath against righteousness. Spoke about those against the silver ring thing. Why? Because there was a wrath against righteousness. There was an anger against all which is clean and all which is good. People mocked the President of the United States when he said he wanted the young people of the United States to be like the Waltons rather than like the Simpsons. Why did they mock? Because the Wartons was pure? Clean? Because there was a moral teaching? Because they want people to be like the Simpsons, which is full of rebellion and uncleanness? What is it in this world that men and women seek after uncleanness? It is a wrath. It is an anger against God. In this world there are some rich, there are some poor, there are some black, some white, there are some kings, there are some paupers, there are people of all walks of life, in all conditions, in all nations. But the scripture concludes us all under sin. We are all one in sin. We are all corrupt. We are all unclean. That's what we read here in these opening verses of the second chapter. Dead in trespasses and sins. Zombies dead but still walking around. But we are thankful to know that there is offered here and shown here a dynamic conversion The word dynamic comes from the Greek word dunamis and dunamis means power. It's the same word from which we get our word dynamite, power. And here there is a dynamic conversion because God brings his own power in to change us from the children of wrath and the children who are dead in trespasses and sins to quicken us. There again in verse 5 we read even when we were dead in sins have quickened us or made us alive together with Christ. It's a wonderful thing to read this. God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us. God who is unaffected by the course of this world. God who is unaffected by the prince of the power of the air. God who in Christ Jesus was able to say that the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me. God. who is able to look upon us and see our condition. Even though man may say within his heart there is no fear of God, in my eyes, God understands the truth. And in his rich mercy and his great love wherewith he loved us, moves by his own power to intervene. Here we see this intervention of the Creator. He saw man before man fell. He knows what the end of man is in their corruption. And he knows what it might be in Christ Jesus. The intervention of the Creator. This is what the Gospel is about. This is what the Bible is about. This is why we preach week by week. To say to men who walk in their darkness and in their deadness, but God, God in his grace and God in his mercy, who sees your condition, who knows and understands it for what it is. God has moved to come into this world to save souls, to redeem men and women, young people and boys and girls, to give them life when they are dead. Not that it should be like the modern understanding of zombies that you can be infected and become a zombie, but the other way around. you are zombies but Christ has come into the world that he might heal you and give you life and you might walk in righteousness in these zombie programs people use all kinds of weapons to defend themselves and ironically in this world the zombies use all kind of weapons to defend themselves against the gospel children of wrath children of anger. Don't preach that stuff to me. I don't want to hear about Jesus Christ. Don't preach it in the schools. Take it out of the lessons. We don't want any kind of a worship service at the beginning of the day or any other point. We don't want to hear it. Stop the prayers in Parliament. Stop the prayers in councils. Take the gospel out of everything. We don't want to know it. And it's the zombies. who seek to defend themselves against the living. How sad. How sad that is. But we continue. We seek to bring them to a knowledge of the truth. We seek to bring you to a knowledge of the truth because the Creator has intervened. and he has given us life. For every child of God here, every Christian who is trusting in Christ here, these words are written to, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Among whom also we all had our behaviour, our conduct, our manner of life, in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, in time past. But he has given us sight? And how has he done this? this intervention of the Creator. He has done it by an integration of the Christ, an integration of the Christ, because Christ Jesus came into the world and took upon himself our flesh. Not the flesh of a zombie which was corrupted, but in purity as Adam was when he was first created. And he was tempted in all points, like as we are, yet without sin. And he gave himself upon the cross of Calvary and died there that we might be raised together with him. So the verse 15 in this chapter. It speaks there, well verse 14 really, beginning of the sentence, for he is our peace, that he is Christ. For Christ, let's put his title in there, for Christ is our peace, who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity even the law of commandments contained in ordinances for to make in himself of twain one new man so making peace. How did he do this? He does it in himself and in his flesh. It is Christ who has come into this world that he might take upon himself our flesh and that he might raise us together with him. We'll see how he does that in just a moment. Go back to chapter 1 and verse 10 and there in verse 10 we read We'll go from verse 9 once again to begin the sentence. We won't do all the sentence though because it's a very long one. But in verse 9 it says, Having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he has purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him. see there is an integration it is because Christ has become man it is because we are invited into Christ it is because he died upon the cross that he might be dead as we are but rose again that we also might live with him that he might impart to us life the question comes in John chapter 14 In John chapter 14, the disciples are together around the Lord and Thomas says to him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest and how can we know the way? But what does he say before this? Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions, or many abodes. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And whither I go, you know, and the way you know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? And Jesus saith unto him, I am. the way. Not I will show you the way. Not I will lead you in the way. But I am the way. You see, our salvation is in Christ Jesus. It is communion with Christ. It is Christ in our hearts and we in Christ. There is an integration of Christ with his people. The church becomes one in him. Again, verse 15. For to make in himself of twain one new man, to make in himself, who is he bringing? The Jews and the Gentiles, to make one new man, so making peace. We are in Christ Jesus. This is the resurrection. This is the life. It's a dynamic conversion. It's a powerful conversion. It is a conversion of life, an influx of life. And that life is the life of the Lord himself. And we see then also the integrity of the church. The integrity of the church. The church is not the building. The church is the people. They are all those who are redeemed in Christ. But it says there in verse 19, now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom, in whom, note the words, All the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in whom, notice the words again, ye also are built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit. We are built together. We are one with Christ. Christ is the cornerstone. We are living stones in that temple, the dwelling place of God. And there is an integration. And when we think of that integration, Then we come to consider also the divine company. The divine company, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we have all of these things. There are six things here, we'll go through them very, very quickly, in verse five. In verse five we read of our revival in Christ. And for we read these words, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened or caused us to live together with Christ. By grace, you are saved. Together with Christ. There is a revival in Christ. Not the revival of a revival of the church, but a revival of our very life. For we were dead in trespasses and sins, but we are revived. We are raised together with him. There is a resurrection involved. The life in Christ. In verse 10, secondly we read, for we are his workmanship created in Christ. You see, we are renewed in Christ. Renewed. There is a creation. We have spoken already of the intervention of the creator, he who made us. But we are his workmanship. We are created, we are born again in Christ Jesus unto good works. In verse 6 we find that we are raised in Christ. In verse 6 there we read, and hath raised us up together. Raised us up together with Christ. Not after Christ, or because of Christ, but together with Christ. Because we are in Christ. In verse 13 we find that we are reconciled, but now in Christ Jesus we read, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Made nigh, drawn near to God. There is a reconciliation in Christ Jesus. We find also that we rest in Christ. Go back to verse 6 once again. And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places or in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. May us sit together. There is a rest. There remaineth a rest to the people of God. Do we rest? Do you rest in Christ? Do you rest from your own works? Do you rest from the struggles and strifes of this world? Do you sit together in Christ? And finally we find here the riches which are in Christ in verse seven, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. The riches of his grace. All of this which God has done that we might be redeemed is because of his grace. The intervention of the creator to look upon the dead and to give us life. to bring us not just into life, but into communion with himself, that we are one with Christ Jesus. That Christ can say that you may sit in my throne with me, that we dwell in the beloved. And we think about these riches that we have in Christ. And there, if you turn just to where those riches come up in the scripture, there are riches of kindness as we see there in verse 7 and in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us the God would be kind child of God what kindness there is toward us how long suffering is with our feebleness and our lack of faith and the minds which we are so slow to deal with so that oftentimes we are still affected by the course of this world when we ought to be apart from this world. Love the Lord. In chapter one of verse seven, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. The forgiveness of sins. These are the riches of Christ. All the sins that we have committed forgiven never to be remembered before the throne of God in that day of judgment. In verse 18 of that first chapter we see these words, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. An inheritance forgiven for sins, an inheritance, as Peter says, in the heavens, undefiled and that fadeth not away. In chapter three in verse eight, it says, unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. What is this? It is the gospel given to us. Tonight you have a taste of the riches of God in the gospel as God offers to you salvation. As God offers to you life. that you walk no longer after the course of this world in this zombie-like fashion following the course of the world and according to the prince of the power of the air but renewed in Christ, raised in Christ, reconciled in Christ, resting in Christ, revived in Christ. This is the message. And finally in verse 16 of that third chapter where we read that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man. We strive, we strive with that old mind, that old mindset, that course of this world which surrounds us and invades our space. and seeks to cause us to follow after the paths of the world even though we have been delivered from it. But God gives us power. God strengthens us with might by his Spirit in the inner man. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Are you filled with all the fullness of God? Do you have the expectation to be filled with all the fullness of God? Do you desire to be filled with all the fullness of God? This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. From a zombie-like state of death, in trespasses and sins, to be filled with all the fullness of God. Or that you might turn from the world, the course of this world, the disobedience of this world from the prince of the power of the air and that spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience that ye might turn to know the fullness of God in your heart. May the Lord bless his word, cause us to ponder it and not to say in our hearts, there is no fear of God before my eyes. Let us pray. Our gracious Father, we ask that Thou wouldst continue to work. We thank Thee that Thou art not dependent upon preachers to speak and to convince, but the Spirit of God convinces and convicts. Lord, though the preacher goes not with every heart and with every soul and with every person, Yet the spirit can go where the preacher cannot go, and go even in the person's mind, that they might understand, that they might be enlightened, that they might call upon my name and be saved. Bless thy word tonight, we pray thee, for Jesus' sake, amen. We're gonna sing together our last hymn, which is the hymn number 183, 183. speaking about Christ, the one to whom we are joined if we are redeemed, if we have come to trust in him. And it speaks of his death. He dies. He dies. The lowly man of sorrows on whom were laid our many griefs and woes. Our sins he bore beneath God's awful billows and he hath triumphed over all our foes. He lives. He lives. He comes. He comes. Oh blessed anticipation. Let's think about the words as we sing them. As we sing them to the glory of God. 183.