Let us turn back to Ephesians 2. We can read together verses 4 and 5. Ephesians 2, we read in verse 4, 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 together with Christ. By grace ye are saved. We hope to look at these verses from the beginning. Down to verse 10, the first 10 verses in this chapter. Today, as we come closer to the Lord's day and coming to the Lord's table, it may help to stop for a moment and think about what the Lord has done for us. Tomorrow, God willing, we'll come to His table to remember His death. Today we may, with God's help, stop and think for a moment of the significance of that death for you and for me who believe today. What has the death of our Lord Jesus Christ taken us from and taken us to? These are the two things we'll look at. What he has taken you from and what he has taken you to. And hopefully, friends, it'll help us to think maybe a bit more clearly about the things that the Lord has done in our lives. And the apostle here in chapter two of Ephesians moves on from some of the most deep and profound teaching that we find in chapter 1, where he's explaining, expounding, and making clear the wondrous teaching of God's predestination, that God has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without spot before Him in love. A wonderful truth, a very challenging truth, a truth that sometimes can leave people Christians and people seeking the Lord in a position where they're very uncertain. How do I ever know that I belong to this group of people? If God has chosen some and not all, how do I know? How can I be sure I belong to that number? How do I know that I am a Christian? Sometimes this doctrine of predestination can become a bit of a stumbling block because we cannot fathom, we cannot enter, we cannot probe. the who that are involved in that number. But when we come, for example, to 1 Thessalonians 1, we find the Apostle Paul making a quite profound statement where he says that we know, brethren beloved of God, your election. So he tells the Christians in Thessalonica that he knows they are among the elect people of God. Well, how does he know that? How does he say that? Was it a matter of specific revelation he received? Well, in the context, he explains why he says that. There were certain evidences that came about in their lives. The gospel had such an effect upon them that they became a completely different people. Our word, he said, didn't come to you in word only. But it came in power in the Holy Spirit with much assurance. There was a life changing effect taking place through the ministry of Paul and others with him. And because of that, Paul is saying, we know your election. Election is seen through the calling, the effectual, the irresistible, the life changing calling of the Holy Spirit in a man, a woman, a boy or a girl's heart. The life has changed. So friends, today you might, for all I know, be troubled by this very teaching. It might be something that keeps you back from publicly professing your faith in Christ, because you maybe feel, I don't know if I am among those whom God has ordained to like. And what if I profess faith and actually am? Well, you know, friends, that's not really where you and me should start at all. We should start, I think, with the other end of the scale. Have we the evidence of having been called effectually? You know in Romans 8 that the connection is made very clear by Paul. That who God foreknew he predestined, and whom he predestined he called, and whom he called he justified, and whom he justified he glorified. There's an inseparable connection in God's order of salvation that those he ordains to life he calls. And those he calls will be seen to be those who are called by the evidence, by the change, by the resulting. newness that comes into their lives. Now what makes the difference today in Ephesians 2 as we come to look at it, is that the people in Ephesus, the Christians who were once Gentiles, heathen, like you and me without a care in the world, without any thoughts about the gospel, they were changed because of this effectual call. God had broken into their lives irresistibly through the ministry of the gospel. And they were changed. And Paul is bringing out, look, this is how you used to be before the Lord came into your life. This is where you were. This is where He found you. And what a picture it is. What does he say? The first thing he says, you were dead in trespasses and in sins. You have He quickened on us, made alive, who were dead in trespasses and in sins. Of course, this is not meaning physically dead, because they were alive and well as far as physical life was concerned. But he's saying in a spiritual sense. You Christians in Ephesus, you were spiritually dead. In you, he says, there was no spiritual life whatsoever. What does this absence or lack of spiritual life mean? Well, among other things, surely it means that they were insensible. They were unmoved or unconcerned or they were completely oblivious to spiritual realities. They spent their lives without a clue about what the gospel meant in reality. They didn't know God. God meant nothing to them as far as the God of the Bible is concerned. Yes, God's of their own imagination. God's made in their own image. Yes, God's in that sense. But the God of the Bible, they didn't have a clue about Him. They didn't have a clue about Christ. They weren't moved. They weren't affected. They weren't challenged. They were completely numb and lifeless towards Christ. He didn't mean a thing to them. They were dead in their trespasses and in their sins. The gospel meant nothing. Because being dead in trespasses and sins resulted in no awareness of being dead in trespasses and sins. When someone is dead, they are completely, as far as you can see someone who has passed away, you look at them, and they're not moved or affected or influenced by anything around them. They're completely still, completely lifeless, unmoved. They fell in Adam. They lost that communion with God. They fell into a life of sin. In that life of sin, they were dead spiritually. And as well, someone who's dead is not only insensible, unaware and unmoved, but also motionless. Could not do anything to please God. unable to do any spiritual good. Dead in trespasses and in sins means being alive to sin. Oh yes, living a life, very much alive as far as sin is concerned, but dead as far as God and Christ are concerned. Now, he's saying, you people in Ephesus, this is how you were. And people today, you and me, this is how we were. We were dead in our sins. We didn't realize. We didn't have the awareness of what the gospel meant. We had our own ideas of God and of Christ. We had our own ideas of ourselves. But in that state we used to live in, he's saying, we were dead. What a fearful situation to be in. Dead, he says, in trespasses and in sins, but as well, he says, You were disobedient. See what he says in verse two. He unfolds this. What does it mean to be dead in trespasses and sins? Wherein, he says, wherein when you were dead in trespasses and sins in times 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. You were disobedient, he says. Well, how does Someone who is dead and trespasses and in sins be recognized to be such. Well, they live in a way that is characterized by this world. We walked according to the course of this world, followed the disobedient, the rebellious, the God forsaking attitudes and lifestyles of the world. The whole world lying in the wicked one. Rebelling against God. Having nothing to do with Christ. He says you walked in this way. The present. The here and now. The course of this world. This is all we lived for, he's saying. This is all you existed for. The here and the now. The present world. In this life of disobedience. We were just like the Jews who would have had Barabbas instead of Jesus. Away with him. We don't want him. We want this man Barabbas who is the embodiment of rebellion against God. Who speaks to us of disobedience. We will have him instead of Jesus. Away from us. Away with him. Take him away. We want nothing to do with this man. Walking according to the course of this world. Indulging also in sin. Indulging friends in sin. You know, when we were in the world, we weren't following Christ. We would have nothing to do with this man. We wouldn't have this man to rule over us, but we were following someone else. Christian friend today, before you and I were believers, we were walking according to the Prince of the Power of the Air. We were under the tyrannical influence of the devil himself. He was active in our lives. He was blinding our minds to the Gospel. He was leading us in paths of sin. He was and is the dominating, as far as It goes in one sense, not in an absolute sense. It is God who is ruler, God who is sovereign in all things. But in this world, he's spoken of here as the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works on the children of disobedience. You know, friends, we often think of the activity of Satan, sometimes in the extreme, that those dark places of the world and those dark people in the world immersed in occultism and things like that. Well, there is where the devil is working. There is where he is reigning. There are lives abandoned to Satan. No offense. Everyone who is dead in trespasses and sins. You and I, before we were saved, we were following the devil. We were walking in his ways, under his influence, under his sway, gladly. According to the Prince of the Power of the Air, the Spirit, who now works, in the children of disobedience. You know, friend, if you're not a Christian today, Satan is working in your life. He's not just working around you. He's working in you. And he's doing everything to keep you from seeing your need to be saved. He's blinding you to your own sin. He's blinding you to the glory of the gospel. And he wants to keep you chained in the way you're living. He's working in you. Christian friend, he was working in us. We were his willing slaves. We went wherever he would have us go. Our sin leading us, yes, but he leading us even when we were in our sin. What a state we were in. We weren't just worldly, following the world's ways, forsaking the ways of God and the gospel. We were in allegiance with the devil. Living lives of rebellion against God. And I'm sure some of us remember times when, as at the end of Romans 1, we took pleasure even in those who lived unrighteously. Knowing the righteous judgment of God. Knowing about the Gospel. Seeing people who lived lives against the Gospel. Oh, we wanted to run with these people. And we wanted to maybe spur these people on even further. To keep them away. from the gospel. And how did we react when we saw someone converted? How did we treat someone who found the Lord when we were still in the world? Christians today, we know what the Lord has done for us. We can see the way we used to be. But when we were in that state, did we not mock people sometimes? Maybe you remember that. Maybe in your heart, you maybe never said a word to them, but maybe you ridiculed. Maybe you mocked because we didn't see the reality of what had taken place. We were following the devil. Indulging in sin. Among whom, verse 3, we all had our conversation in times past. You notice that Paul turns from referring to the Ephesians as you. You, He has made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of the world, according to the Prince of the power of the air, the Spirit that now works among the children of disobedience. See verse 3, among whom also we all had our conversation. Paul is saying, yes, I wasn't living an abandoned, heathen life like you people were. I didn't walk in open sin like you did. I was a religious, a self-righteous man. But, he says, among whom the children of disobedience under the prince of the power of the air. We all had our conversation, including himself. Religious people are in the same category as people who are living prodigal lives, people who come to church, people who listen to the gospel, people who maybe read their Bibles and say their prayers, as it were. Trying to please God without having Christ as their only hope and righteousness. Paul saying, look, I was in the same situation as you. Though if you put us both together, we would seem worlds apart. I was religious. You weren't as far as the religion of the Old Testament is concerned. But we were all in the same situation in times past. In the lusts, the sinful desires and inclinations of the heart and of the flesh. We were fulfilling them. The desires of the flesh and of the mind. We were immersed. We were entangled in these sinful risings and ensnarements that come from within. That are connected with the body and that rise in the mind. Oh, we were sinners, he says. Every one of us. You and me, we were all sinners together. I'm sure, friends, today maybe you're feeling that there's so much about your life before you became a Christian that you wish were never true. You see, we don't look at our past with any pleasure. No matter how young you maybe were when you came to Christ, you wish surely today that you came to Him when you were even younger. But there's much about our lives that cannot be undone. It is there, but we wish it were not through. Living lives following the course of the world, led along by this prince of the power of the air, indulging, unrestrained indulgence in the sinful desires of the flesh and of the mind. And this need not, friends, have been anything public. Paul says, look, I was like this. I was fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. I was just like you, but it was in a different way. Sin is so ensnaring, isn't it? A life of sinful indulgence is one that, when we're in it, we maybe think, well, surely this will satisfy the cravings. We're not maybe reasoning at all when we're in this situation. We go from one stage of sin to another. We think that sin will always repay. That the desire for sin, when the desire is fulfilled, we think, well, that'll be it. But sin isn't like that. The more someone sins or follows the course of sin, the further in that course of sin they will go. Sin never satisfies the cravings, the sinful desires of the flesh. It's always more. It's always going that next stage. It's like the bait. Satan will bring us further. He'll take us further and further away from God. Further and further into sin. And nearer and nearer to hell. Chasing what we never find. Trapped and ensnared by our sin. What was the outcome of this? Having such a nature as we did. having such sinful hearts and minds that led us into lives of rebellion against God. We were, he tells us in verse 3, by nature, we were the children of wrath, even as others. We were in this situation having such hearts and sinful natures that we were as deserving of hell, friends, as anyone else. The fact that God, as in chapter 1, had predestined a certain number to be saved by Jesus, for whom Jesus would come into the world and die, and who in the fullness of time would apply to them this salvation that he laid down his life to purchase. Even we, he says, we were by nature, because of our sinful nature, we were the children of worth. We were as deserving of condemnation as everyone else. And this left us, verse 12, having no hope, having no hope being without God in the world. We cast our eyes back, friends, to where we were, what we were like, who we were. And we were living in a hopeless situation. But the sad thing was that for many of us, we didn't even know it. Some of you maybe weren't in the habit of going to church and being under the gospel. So these things didn't trouble you. Maybe you thought that you were quite happy, you were quite content. Maybe you thought that you had All that you could ever want in life that didn't realize that you were without hope. What he's taken us from, a fearful pit. But you know, friends, some of you today are in this very situation. Maybe someone here today is not a Christian. And you know, this is a description of where you are. That you've got this very same nature that every Christian here today has. But the difference is you're still walking and living in your sin. You're without hope. You're without God. You're without Christ. And you are by nature a child of wrath. And you know, my friends, if you don't find the Lord, if you don't seek the Lord, if you don't become concerned and if you don't search for him, there's no hope for you. You're hopeless without God. There's no hope in yourself. But you know, the hope is for you and for me in the gospel. The way of salvation. What He's taken us from. Dead in trespasses and sins. Walking according to the course of the world under the power of the devil. Fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. We're children of wrath, even as others. But, he says, in verse 4, but God, who is rich in mercy for his great loves, wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins, has quickened or made us alive together with Christ. Very often in the writings of Paul, and other places in the Bible, when you find the word, but, very small word, when that comes in, in the course of an argument, or in the course even of a narrative, a story, the whole thing changes from having been this way, to becoming this way. And the dark, and the dismal, and the hopeless situation that we were in before we were saved, it changes. Not with us, oh, but we decided to do something. No, Paul says, but God, It is God who took the initiative. It is God who made the difference. He moves to show us the sovereignty of God. The absolute priority that lies with God in salvation. But how does He speak about this? What does God do? Oh, well, friends, in the wonder of it, He says, But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us even when we were dead in sins. when you and I were living in the world, rebelling against God, going away from Him and following the devil's leading and sin. Paul is saying, Ephesian Christians, even then, God loved you. What a wonderful truth that is. Even when we were dead in sins, He loved us. Oh, He didn't look upon you or me and see something beautiful in us. and then said, I must love this person. He looked on us and saw nothing in us to draw his love. By nature, children of wrath, dead in trespasses and sins, but he loved us. God did not need to love anyone outside of himself. God was not in need of love from anyone else outside of himself or bestowing love upon anyone else outside of himself. He didn't need that. But in the mystery, the sovereignty, the glory of his own will and purpose, he chose to. And he chose to love sinners. We speak of the many wonders there are in the world. Friends, there is no wonder like this, that God loves sinners. John in chapter 3 verse 16, doesn't he bring this out so clearly? God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish. We maybe think My, what a vast amount of love it must take to love such a vast amount of people. But friends, I think the point is, what an amazing kind of love to love such a kind of people at all. We maybe think, my, well, Jesus died on the cross to make God love me, to make God love sinners. Is that how we maybe think that sometimes, do we? that Calvary was the point at which the wrath of God was changed into love. No, it wasn't. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. Calvary is an expression to us of the love God had for sinners from before the foundation of the world. You know, friends, it wasn't even Calvary. that won the love of God over to us. Calvary is the expression to us and the declaration to the world of the love God has. God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us. See how Paul puts these words together. God is it's not just that God is merciful, which he is. He is rich in mercy. And it's not just that he had love for sinners, which he did and does. But his love, he says, is great. It's great, friends, because it's a love that is seen as falling upon and terminating upon sinners like you and me. When we were dead in sins, he loved us. What a fact of Scripture that is. Verse 17 tells us about Jesus, that He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. Jesus came and preached peace. When did Jesus come and preach peace to you? Well, we know that Jesus secured peace on the cross. He secured reconciliation But He came and proclaimed peace and reconciliation. Paul says to you who were a pharaoh, when did Jesus come to you and me to preach peace? He came in the preaching of the gospel. He preached peace while He was in the world. While He was in His own ministry before He went to the cross, He preached peace. But Paul is saying He came and preached peace to you who were a pharaoh. You who never saw Him with your own eyes, you who never heard that sweet voice with your own ears, He preached peace to you. Oh friends, He preached to you in the Gospel. He preached peace to you in the Gospel. When you heard the Gospel like never before for the first time, you were hearing the voice of Jesus. The ministry of the Gospel isn't just any man coming and bringing a message from the Bible. Through the ministry of the gospel, it is God personally speaking to you. It is Christ personally speaking to you. How do we know that? Well, Paul tells the Corinthians, he says, we are ambassadors for Christ. Paul is saying, and all his companions, and by implication, every man God appoints to preach the gospel. He says, we are ambassadors for Christ. We are here representing Christ. And he says, it is as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you, we plead with you in Christ's stead. He's saying, look, it is not Paul. Is it not Apollos? It's not any of us. When you're listening to the gospel, it is God who's speaking to you as though God were right here in the pulpit, as though Jesus were right here in the pulpit. They would be saying to you the very thing we are saying. Be reconciled to God. Preaching peace, reconciliation. Christ came. Friend, do you remember that time today? When you heard the Gospel like you've never heard it before. When you heard it for yourself. It was for someone else before then. Or it was for him. Or yes, it was for this woman over there. But the time it came to you, it came to me. And we heard the voice of the Son of God. As Jesus says in John that the hour is coming and now is when those who are in their graves will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those that hear shall live. Oh, friends, you're not saved today. You know that Jesus speaks to you in the gospel. God speaks to you in the gospel. It's not the minister. It's not your minister who comes here every week and speaks. It's not just your minister, friends. This is the great obligation that rests upon you as you hear and receive the gospel. Oh, Jesus said about his disciples when he sent them out, he that receives you receives me, and he that receives me receives him who sent me. It's not just men who minister to you. It is God himself. He came and he preached peace. And in this message of bringing peace, he made you alive. Verse 1, it is in italics, but the meaning is there. You have He quickened, or made alive, rose from the dead who were dead in trespasses and sins. You have it in verse 5 again. Even when we were dead in sins, He has made us alive together with Christ. We were spiritually dead. But in that state and existence of spiritual death, God loved us. Seen by Calvary. Experienced when the Gospel came and Jesus preached peace to us. And He didn't just come with a message of peace. He powerfully and effectually brought the relationship of peace. It's seen in that He rose us, resurrected us spiritually from the dead. You has He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. Don't you remember that? when you became alive from spiritual death, when the minister started sounding better, when you started thinking that God knew you inside out, when you started becoming aware that God was working in your life, when sin became a reality to you, the world and all the old ways and all the old friends and all the old lifestyle and all Changed in your estimation. And the most important thing was having Christ. It was being saved. It was having the Lord. It was being with his people. You came alive. Things to which you were dead and oblivious in the past became all important and central to you then. Oh, friends, when the Holy Spirit comes with the gospel, He raises the dead. What a wonderful thing to see. What a wonderful thing to experience. What a wonderful thing to know for ourselves today. To be alive from the dead. But notice that He made us alive together with Christ. I think this is speaking to us of the mysterious union and nearness or relationship the people of God have eternally had with Christ. Our identification with Christ. When He was condemned and when He died on the cross. I was condemned and died with Him. When He rose from the dead, I rose from the dead with Him. When He ascended to heaven, I ascended to heaven with Him. When He was sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, I sat down with them. Oh, friends, we weren't even born. But our identification with them, our union to them, mysterious, unfathomable in many, many ways, is nonetheless real and taught. The accomplishment Jesus made secured our spiritual resurrection, our physical resurrection, our ascension to heaven and our being in glory with Jesus in heaven. There's such an identification between us and Him that His accomplishment of redemption guaranteed the application to us of that very same redemption. So that things still future for you and me are spoken of as already done. The security, friends, you and I have as Christians We can never be lost. We can never perish where God begins this work. He will bring it to perfection. And it is a work that he begins that was rendered certain and eternally sure when Jesus accomplished that very work. You notice the way he says it. Verse 5, when we were dead in sins, He's quickened us together with Christ and has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ. He's speaking of us as already in heaven with Jesus. Oh, it's so sure, friends, it's so certain that the accomplishment guarantees the application and the fulfillment of all that it means. He saved us by faith. The gospel came to us. Jesus in it preached peace. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we entered a spiritual resurrection. We received Jesus by faith. It's the contrary. It's the opposite of what we so often think. And many people, even faithful and diligent churchgoers who are under faithful preaching can very often think that they are to earn the favour of God. We will be at peace with God by keeping the commandments. Good master, what must I do that I might inherit eternal life? My idea, this man was saying, is that I will obtain eternal life and be in heaven on the basis of things that I do. As the minister was saying last night, we put God in our debt and under obligation to reward us. Oh, this is not the gospel. The Gospel is where God, through Christ, has accomplished and finished everything. He has perfectly met all the demands of God's law for obedience and God's justice for condemnation. That all we have to do is receive Jesus and His salvation by faith alone. Empty hands stretched out to a full Saviour. And we receive Him in all His fullness to ourselves. We're saved by faith. Verse 8, By grace you are saved through faith, that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Oh, see the sovereignty of God in all of this. The very faith by which we receive, and in which we receive Jesus and are saved. It's the very gift of God. It's not of ourselves. The Gospel brings all glory to God. It leaves us lying in the dust when it raises us to the highest heavens. Who is like God, who comes to sinners like you and like me and takes us lovingly, willingly, gladly, gloriously from a life of spiritual death, rebellion, having natures worthy of damnation, friends? He loves us in that situation. He rescues us from that situation. He raises us to the highest heavens. He takes us from the lowest depths to the highest heavens through the finished work of His Son. And all we do is receive Jesus and it's ours. All praise and thanks, all glory and honor go to God, not to us. even the very works in our Christian lives. Even our obedience and living for God that follows our conversion comes from God too. Verse 10, We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. every single aspect of your salvation and mine today has come from the Lord. As you come to the Lord's table in His will tomorrow, you know only too well that you're not coming presenting anything that you've done or me. We're coming receiving everything. And we're coming receiving Jesus and trusting in Jesus as we did the very moment we believed. We don't only believe in Him and trust in Him for the past, but we do so in the present and for the future. He is our peace. Friends, as we come in preparation, let's ask ourselves again, do we see the wonder of what God has done? Can we see our own past? as Paul describes it. Can we see our past, as he explains it, being changed by the Holy Spirit with a spiritual resurrection? And do we see ourselves today as debtors to God, to His free, His sovereign, His undeserved, His unearned, His unmerited grace? Well, friends, hopefully we can relate to this in a way. and that we can then come praising Christ for all that he's accomplished on our behalf. May God grant it to us. Let's pray.