Our scripture passage this evening will come from Paul's letter to the Ephesian church. We'll be reading the first 10 verses of Ephesians chapter 2, looking at our Lord's rich and indescribable mercy towards us. It's found on page 1038 in your Pew Bibles. Ephesians chapter 2, beginning at verse 1, congregation, hear the word of the Lord. And you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, 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, among whom also we all 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. But 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, that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Thus far the reading of God's holy and infallible word. Perhaps you've heard this following analogy for how salvation comes to us. The analogy goes like this. A man is laying on his deathbed. He's so weak that he can't even lift a finger. He can't communicate except for maybe a murmur here and there. Well, the good news is that the doctor has come. He's brought him some medicine that will heal him. But this man can't even bring the spoon to his mouth. The doctor gently brings the dose of medicine to the man's lips and pours it into his mouth. But for the man to survive, for the man to be saved, he must swallow that medicine. He must take it to the back of his mouth and swallow it into his stomach. The doctor cannot make him swallow the medicine. The doctor has done all that he possibly can. But at the end of the day, the man's life is squarely within his own hands, whether or not he will swallow the medicine. And so it is said, God has done all he can to save your soul, but you must choose for Christ. But congregation, do you see a significant problem with this analogy according to what we just read here in Ephesians chapter two? Paul is telling us that our problem, sin's corrupting effect upon us is far greater than a grave illness. It's even worse than being in a coma. No, our problem is far worse than sickness. We who, as verse one of Ephesians two says, we who were dead in trespasses and sins in which we once walked. Being able to quote unquote choose is not even the issue that is at stake here. Spiritual death means that we would turn our heads to avoid that medicine if the doctor brought it to us. We would spit it out. Our desires are not to be saved or even to come back to God. And so we will see this afternoon or this evening that in His rich mercy, God doesn't heal the sick. He quickens the dead. And so we'll do this in three points. First, dead in sin. Secondly, saved by grace. And third, alive in Christ. Dead in sin, saved by grace, and alive in Christ. So first, dead in sin. Well, what's the cause of this death? What's the diagnosis? Well, as we read very quickly in verses 1 through 3, we see that it's trespasses and sin. Read with me again verse 1 of Ephesians chapter 2. And you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the course, the power of the prince of the air, the spirit who is now at work and the sons of disobedience. This doesn't mean that we were simply in danger of spiritual death. It doesn't mean that we are borderline death. It means that we were dead, all the way dead in sins and transgressions. And so think of what spiritual death is. It's separations of one soul from God. We talked about that a little bit this morning, that to be without the spirit working upon our hearts means that we are separated from God. We're dead, spiritually speaking. Kelvin says this. We are all born as dead men and we live as dead men until we are made partakers in the life of Christ. Notice that we are made partakers in the life of Christ. No, we're not half dead before the work of the Spirit. Something that maybe that would be an overstatement to say dead. But who are we to tell God or his servant Paul that they are overstating this case? We are not at liberty to set aside the declarations of our Lord or the Apostle Paul, his servant, the one whom the Spirit inspired. And so, if spiritual death is being separated from God, as we saw, that this living apart from God walk according to the course of the world, according to the power of the Prince of the air, if that's what this is, then true life is being in union and communion with God through the one mediator, Jesus Christ, our only Lord and Savior, and only by the power of the Holy Spirit. You see, there's not any gray area at all here. Either we are in union with Christ, or we're not. We are either submitting ourselves to God as the creator and the king, or we're not. Children, consider this with me. If you follow half of your parents' instructions, have you actually followed your parents' instructions? And adults, this goes for us, too. If we're told to clean up our room and the only clean part of the room by shoving some of the toys under the bed, perhaps putting some in the closet, one or two under the pillow, but the floor is relatively taken care of, have we actually done our job? Have we listened to our parents if this is how we've done our duty? Well, of course, the answer is, Certainly not. There's not a gray area there. No, outside of Christ, we are completely dead because sin, the cause of our death, has corrupted us to the core. And without the work of Christ, death reigns in us. The way of death reigns in us. And what we're going to do is we're going to follow the princes of the power of the air, the devil himself. Well, how do we know that the sin has led to death? But Paul says it's evidence in our former walk. You see, the condition of sinfulness shows itself in our external actions. Being sinful doesn't mean that we simply make a bad choice here, maybe a little mistake here, a white lie, a little problem here and there, nothing major. No, sin is an offense against the holy law of God. And even the smallest sin, or so we think of it as being small, is enough to merit God's wrath. And so sin isn't a little isolated action. Sin is the condition out of which we act sinfully. We are corrupted to the very core of our beings, left to ourselves. Well, how bad can it possibly be? Well, Paul will tell us in Romans chapter three. Turn with me there if you would. Romans chapter three, we'll begin reading at verse 10. Looks like it's on page 1,000 in the Pew Bibles. 1,001. As Paul says here in Romans chapter 3, verse 10, as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is none who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues, they have practiced deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. In the way of peace, they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes." And sure, we could say that without God's gracious intervention, men, women, and children are completely spiritually dead. In fact, they're enemies, willful enemies, no less, of God. Depravity, as we can call this, is a universal disease which has infected each and every one of us from our very conception. No one is immune. The King David, the psalmist, knew this. He says in Psalm 51, verse 5, Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. David knew that sin was not a matter of making a little mistake, a mere mistake here or there. He says in 51 verse 4 to the Lord, and this is after his sin with Bathsheba, against you, you only have I sinned. So at its core, at its root, sin is an offense to the holy God. And in verses 10 and 11 of Psalm 51, David knows what the solution is. He knows what he needs. David says, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. You see, David knew that sin comes out of a sinful heart. He knew his own corruption. And so he knew that for him to change, that had to be taken care of. And so again, even in our passage here in Ephesians 2, when Paul says in verse 2 of our passage, 2 verse 2, that we walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air. What is he saying there? He's saying that we aligned ourselves with the devil himself. We stood directly against God and we hated him with all of our being. Again, there's not a gray area here. If one is not in the kingdom of God, then he is by default in the kingdom of the power of the prince of the air, meaning that he has aligned himself with our mortal enemy, Satan. And when the apostle says in verse two that we walked and stepped with the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience, he's saying we were part of that outside of the redeeming work of Christ. He's saying that with the rest of humanity, we were corrupted to the core. We were disobedient. And so once again we see that the natural condition of man is disobedience towards God and to be his enemy. We again see how deep this corruption goes. It's not a mere mistake. Look with me at verse three. Paul says that we walked among whom, the sons of disobedience that is, also we conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, And we're by nature children of wrath just as the others. And so if we think back to the poor, sick man earlier, all he needed to do was to swallow that medicine down to be saved. That's all he needed to do. But Paul is saying it's not a matter of choosing that. We won't. It's a matter of the heart. We would never choose to take that medicine on our own because we are enemies of God. We have in ourselves no positive desire for Christ. We have no desire to even be saved. What would we do, in fact, on our own? Verse 3, again, lists several things that we would do if we're left to ourselves. We would fulfill the blissful desires of our flesh. We would fulfill the sinful desires of our flesh and the mind. We would do, in a short sentence, whatever sounds good to our corrupted hearts. So this could be all sorts of things. Spending time on the internet on certain sites we know we shouldn't be at. It could be letting our anger go, yelling at our wife once again when we know we should have stayed calm. It could be greedy. It could be greed, knowing that I just want to accumulate more and more for myself. It could be losing patience with our children, knowing we should have been patient, but not having the desire to do that. We follow what? We follow desires of our flesh. So where does it lead? If we stay here, following the desires of the flesh, following the lusts of the mind, where does it lead? Well, the end of verse three tells us, and we were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. You see, God created man good, but in Adam we fell. Our nature has been corrupted by sin ever since. And without a mediator, without a Savior, without God's direct intervention in our lives, that's exactly where we would remain. There would be no forgiveness of sins, there would be no hope for us whatsoever if we stay right here. And so I ask you this evening congregation, have you grappled, have you wrestled with how serious your sin is? Have you seen its weight? We always want to downplay sin in our hearts. We always want to say, well, my sin isn't as bad as someone else's sin. You know, it's not that big of a deal. Even though we say we don't do this, we do it often. But if we see sin as a condition, a corruption of our beings, which leads to sinful and rebellious actions, we realize that ultimately this will lead us to the wrath of God. So yes, indeed, the bad news really is that bad. We're helpless, and without any help outside of ourselves, we will receive the wrath of God. Once again, if we think back to our original illustration of the man on his deathbed, we can now recognize that this man was not teetering on the abyss of death. He was not in need of any medicine. No, this man on his deathbed was in need of nothing less than resurrection. And so congregation, Praise the Lord that the story does not end here in verse 3. For however bad the bad news is, all the good news is so much sweeter. This is the second we see this afternoon that we are saved by grace. We come to one of the greatest small phrases in all of scripture. Two little beautiful words that make an indescribable amount of difference in our lives. Two little words. But God. But God. Could have been children of wrath, just as the others. But 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. We just witnessed how dark and how bleak the picture of humanity was. The world was lost in sin. We were enemies of God. And we were, by nature, children of wrath. A dark picture, indeed. But now what? We read, but God, who is rich in mercy. Suddenly, a beautiful burst of light shines through these two beautiful words. And notice earlier in our passage, Paul was saying, you were this, you were this in the past. And why can he say you were? Because of these words about God. And so immediately after we hear this about God, we learn two things about God. Right away in verse four. First that he's rich in mercy. And why has he done this great act of mercy? Because of his great love with which he loved us. Our Lord has lavished mercy and love upon those who were his enemies. Incredibly, he has done this, as verse 5 says, even when we were dead in our trespasses. And later in verse 5, he runs back to the grace. By grace, you have been saved. And in verse 8 and 9, he can't stop running back there. For by grace, you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. You see, In the Reformed faith, we often get a bad rap within the broader Christian circles because of our recognition of this total depravity which we've been discussing. However, congregation, we are rightfully recognizing that we cannot save ourselves. We were dead in our sins. We see through humanity's true colors for what they really are. And we see that only an act of sovereign grace could save us. You see, depravity takes sin and its consequences very seriously. We know that we are helplessness because even whatever our Lord Jesus Christ told us. He says in John 6 verse 44, no one can come to the Father, come to me unless the Father draws me who sent me and I will raise him up on the last day. You see, this is why the gospel is such good news. This is why we can give God all the glory and praise, because our salvation comes from Him, not from ourselves. Start to finish, God's work has been our salvation. It's by grace alone. No, we haven't been nursed back to health. We haven't been cooperating with God to get ourselves back to full health. No congregation, we have been raised from the dead. We've been raised from the dead spiritually and because of that we can one day look forward to being raised from the dead physically to the glorified body. It's by grace you have been saved and Paul can't help but run back to the steam over and over again. His language is emphatic. Our father loves his children so much that he sent his son to die for them and he gave his spirit to apply that salvation, to create faith in the hearts. of His elect. All throughout the Bible, this theme is explained over and over again, God's rich mercy, but especially here prevalent in the New Testament. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21, for He made Him, that is Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. In 1 John 4 verse 10, we read, and this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins, the one who would pay the penalty for all of our sins. And again, in verses eight and nine of our passage, Paul offers this wonderful summary. We have not been saved by ourselves. He says, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God. Not of works lest anyone should boast. Our salvation is by faith, and that faith is a gift from God. It's not by works. There's no room for our boasting. All the glory goes to God alone. And so congregation, this is a message which sounds too good to be true. But it's not. Hearing of God's rich mercy demands a response from us. If this message is not received in repentance and faith, then what happens? And the hearer remains dead in his sins and trespasses in which he once walked and will continue to walk in them. But for those who hear this good news with faith, those who turn away from the ways in which they once walked, by God's grace. His love and mercy are greater than all their sin. His love and mercy are more marvelous and deeper than we can possibly imagine. And so celebrate this glorious hope with me, the hope of this glorious good news. Remember that you can never earn God's favor, you can never turn his wrath away by your own strength, because another has already done that for you. Christ, his only begotten son, The one whom we sent into the world to die for sinners, transgressors like you and like me. And so, congregation, we were dead in our sins. We were saved by grace. And thirdly, we are made alive in Christ. But what does it mean to be made alive in Christ? Well, our passage emphasizes four different things which point us to a fuller picture of what it means to be made alive in Christ. We read this in Ephesians 2 verses 5 through 7. And so the first aspect of being made alive, and Christ may seem a little bit obvious, but it bears repeating. The first aspect of being made alive in Christ is that we have life. We've been raised together with Christ, says the first half of verse 6. Dead souls are alive. Our hearts are beating once again. Our love turns from ourselves. It turns from Satan and the kingdom of Satan to love for God, love for neighbor. We can't help but rejoice in this new life and to praise our Lord and Heavenly Father, to give him all the praise and the glory. We begin to bear fruit and to put on the fruit of the Holy Spirit and to bear it as He works within our hearts and our lives. And so the second aspect of being made alive with Christ is reigning or ruling, the second half of verse 6. We will reign with Christ in the age to come. God's story does not end here. In our union with Christ, we have dominion with Him. His decisions, of course, are always final. But we pray together, we go before the Father asking His blessing, we ask for His will to be done. And as we bear the name Christian, we go out in His name to bring the good news of the gospel to the nations, to transform the world into His kingdom. And the third aspect of being made alive in Christ is that we are objects of His kindness and mercy. See verse 7. We are made objects of kindness in the ages to come. Read with me verse seven of Ephesians chapter two. That in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. You see, God displays his mercy in us for all the world to see. That indeed he is a loving and merciful God. He takes care of us in such a way that not a hair can fall from our head without his will. Our lives become witnesses to the world of the gospel of God. Our lives become witnesses, manifestations of His rich mercy. This has always been true. Think of the nation of Israel. She was set apart from the other nations that they could see who God was, His holiness, His kindness, His love for His people. We could think of all sorts of characters within the Bible in whom this was true of on a smaller scale. Think of Ruth, a Moabitess, a foreigner who God brought into his kingdom. Not only was she a foreigner, but she was a widow. And God showed his people rich mercy through her life. And so finally, the fourth reason that we have been made alive together in Christ is found in verse 10 of Ephesians chapter two. Look with me there. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. You see, congregation, we are God's workmanship. We're not our own people. We've been bought at a price by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. We've been raised from the dead. We're being conformed to his image. We're being made ready to serve and to obey him, not because in service and obedience to him we will be saved. We serve and obey him because we have been saved. We do this as those who have been raised from the dead, those who have been brought from darkness into life. And so doing these good works which the Lord had prepared beforehand is our grateful life of gratitude. God has purpose in what he does. Nothing he does is done randomly or off the cuff. So when the Lord chose us, he chose us to be given to the Son who would die for us, that the Spirit would apply to our hearts by faith, and that the Lord would establish for us things to do in his kingdom, to serve him and to serve his people. His good works, again, are a result of our salvation. The Lord prepared these before time in Christ. to see that the lengths that the Lord has gone for us, not to put a smile upon our face. You see, we can't do anything good apart from the Lord doing this operation within our hearts. Nothing we do will be good apart from His mercy. The Christian life covered in God's mercy is lived out in repentance, shutting the ways in which we once walked, even though we feel like we go back to them. We stumble, we fall, but we continue to turn away in repentance from our former walk. This is the battle that we have to fight every day with the flesh. So congregation, let us say together in our hearts this afternoon, thanks be to God for this indescribable gift. As we celebrate and as we serve the one and only God, who indeed is rich in mercy. Amen. Let us pray. O Heavenly Father, we stand before you humbly, knowing that we were those children of wrath whom you set apart to be objects of your mercy, of your tender love and kindness, those who were set apart to be in Christ Jesus, those who were to be adopted, those who were to be sealed by your Holy Spirit. And Father, those who now serve you in gratitude, imperfect as it is, we thank you for that redeeming work of Christ. And Father, we praise and glorify you for all that you have done for us. We do this in the name of Jesus Christ, our one Lord and Savior. Amen.