I appreciate Brother Adam. Tonight, I've enjoyed getting to know him more. I enjoyed fellowship and find him an encouragement and one to be willing to challenge me and the rest of us preachers here. And I'm just so grateful to have Brother Adam and his family as part of HMBC. as long as the Lord would allow them to serve with us. And it's always kind of with that in mind, as we have ministers here in our church, there's a place for everybody God calls to work, to labor here beside us. And I ask tonight that you give him your attention, and I pray tonight that you will seek to have an open heart to what the Lord would have you to hear. And with that, I'll just turn things over to Brother Adam. All the Lord. My mic on brother Stanley Thank you, brother. You would open your Bibles with me tonight to Ephesians chapter 2 Ephesians chapter 2 I'd like to read to you Verses 1 through verse 10 I'd say it's a privilege to be here tonight, and I thank everybody for giving your time, coming out. I know it's a rough time of year, and we just look forward to what God's gonna do this week. We've got expectations, I hope we all came with expectations. Prayer requests and everything else to offer to God, and that's what he does, he answers those things. Ephesians chapter two and verse one, and you hath he quickened 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 conversations in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. 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 you are saved. And hath raised us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show his exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them. Let's pray. Lord, I just thank you for the privilege to be at your house again tonight. I thank you for all these brothers and sisters that have come out. I thank you for our church here and the blessing it's been to us and the strengthening that we've received. God, we pray for this revival, Lord, We just know tonight is nothing without you. It's just a waste of time. God, if you show up, God, it's worth everything. God, just to feel your presence, to get close to you, to know you, to hear your word, hear the songs. God, just to give praise to you. God, we just pray that you'll be with each and every preacher this week, each and every person that tries to come out, that you'll put a hedge around them, protect them so they have safe travels, everything so we can get to church and get close to you and these things we ask in your name. Amen. Verse 7 says the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. If you ask a lot of people, what is God's grace? You get different answers. It's God overlooking sin, or they might say God giving us a second chance, or God helping those who try to help their selves in life. But I'll tell you tonight, brethren, that none of those definitions of grace will survive Ephesians chapter two. Paul knocks them dead. God's grace provides us with the means to have a relationship with him. Grace explains where we were, why we could not save ourselves, and how God intervened through Christ. I submit to you tonight that in Ephesians chapter two, Paul is telling us that we move from a position of alienation to appeasement and then to acceptance. And it's all by God's grace. One of them. So let's start with alienation. What does it mean to be an alien, alienated from God? Paul tells us in the first verse, and he says, you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Now we look at that word dead, it's very plain, it's very simple, but if you think about the scientific definition of life, it's defined, the scientists define life like this. Life is anything that can correspond with its environment. So if you can move from the bacteria to the virus to humanity, if you can move and correspond, that's their definition of life. The opposite of that would also be true in death. What Paul's telling us is you're a corpse, we're a corpse in sins. I can't respond to the charges that God has laid against me. I have no ability on my own to get saved, to be born again. And so Paul uses the phrase here that we are dead in trespasses and sins. And I believe Paul is thinking here of the sin offering in the Old Testament, in the book of Leviticus in chapter six. You don't have to turn there, it's verses 24 through 35. I want to describe some of this, sin offering that we see there. The animals that were involved in this were male or female. They were of the herd, the flock, or the turtle dove. They were young pigeons. They could be a tenth of an elk or a flyer on it. And then God specified some things about this sin offering. One of the things was it depended on who was going to offer it, whether it was a priest, a congregation, whether it was a ruler, whether it was the individual out there, but each one had a set of rules that had to be obeyed. Because God takes sin extremely serious. It affects each and every person, brethren. after he identified who the offerer was. So in the Old Testament, you go to the sin offering and you begin to realize that God, how serious he takes these things. He identifies, if you're a priest, you've got to do this. If you're a lay person, you've got to do this. If you're a ruler, you have to do this. He laid all these things out and then you would have to give the sin offering. And it was to be carried outside the camp and it was to be burned completely, 100% burned. To see how serious God is upon these things, he enumerated the parts of the animal. He lists them out of how they have to be offered, how they have to be put upon the altar. The first thing we see in Leviticus in 4.11 when he's talking about this is the skin. The skin had to be completely burnt upon the offering. This entire offering that a man or his family or the community was given to God represented the sins of the community, represented the sins of the individual, represented the sins of the priest or the ruler, and it had to be completely burned. If we think about the skin, brethren, we think about the attractiveness of sin. Sin seems to attract us. Humanity, sin seems to draw us in to things. Crystal and I have raised four kids, and you know what never happened at our house? Not one time did we ever sit down and teach our kids how to lie, or steal, or cheat. We never had any kind of conference on that or anything. It just seems to come natural for humanity to do those things, doesn't it? There's some kind of attractiveness to not getting in trouble, some kind of attractiveness to sin. And we can't even view it as God views it, but God views this. And he says the penalty of sin is death. The penalty of sin is death. So sin can be attractive, and it draws us in. It's what happened to Eve in the garden, wasn't it? It's attractive to what God said not to do. And then the second part of the animal that would be offered up is the flesh. This is unrestrained sin. Would turn with me just back a page to Galatians. I'd like to see how Paul describes these sayings. In verse 19 he says, now the works of the flesh are manifest. Which are these? Adultery, fornication, uncleanliness, stiffness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, immolations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envians, murders, drunkenness, Ravellings and such like of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in the past that they which do such things shall not Shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven. I Don't want anybody to raise their hand tonight But is anybody would is there any part of that list that would affect any of us? And we know the answer to that So we understand where God's perspective is on sin, we understand why the sinner is bound for hell. The flesh, brethren, the attractiveness of sin, the flesh, speaking of the unrestrained sin, and then there's the head. All of this had to be put on the altar there, speaking of the willingness of sin. We in humanity, we have a willingness, we want to do wrong a lot of times. Not because we think it out or logically, but it is just drawn to us, brethren. And so this sin offering that God has put before the nation of Israel was set there to cleanse these things that was gonna come about. Then there's the legs, there's the waywardness of sin. Isaiah 53 and six. we have all gone astray. That is the plot of humanity, brethren, tonight. I would like to say that humanity's in good shape. I'd like to say that humanity would get whatever chances it needs. But the Bible doesn't teach that. It isn't appointed unto man once to die, and then after this, the judgment. Man will have to stand before God. And then to go beyond that, there is the part of the sacrifice, the dong, speaking of the wastefulness of sin. Everything on this animal had to be absolutely burnt to completion. That's identifying to us what God thinks about sin. And it was so much so, you know, there were, what happens if something fell off? What if a leg fell off? What if a piece of flesh fell off on the ground? God had ordained it to have flesh hooks. He made instruments, told them to make instruments to take that, pull it up off the ground, and get it back on the altar. Every single bit had to be burnt. That's how serious God is against the sinfulness in our life. Then he says we're dead to God in trespasses offering. There's an amazing thing. There's also a trespass offering. There's a sin offering in the Old Testament and that we are dead to be able to accomplish and we are also dead to be able to satisfy this trespass offering. Now, the sin offering emphasizes the principle of sin, I believe, while the trespass offering views the practice of sin. The view of sin, we are born, brethren, into sin. We get that from Adam and Eve. It is what we call the original sin. But there's also the practice of sin. Now these sacrifices use the same as a sin offering. The only difference you'll find in there when you read it is there was a recompense there of 20% of anybody or anything that was offended and that speaks towards the offense of God. When we offend God by sin, it's costly. So there is a trespass offering, brethren, that covers the transgression, but there's There's also the thought here of what happens, is it a criminal offense? Is it a civil offense? You know in the Old Testament there is no offering for a criminal offense. There's absolutely nothing that man can offer if they disobey God. They had to follow the Ten Commandments. They had to follow the rules. These offerings right here, brethren, they deal with sin, they deal with trespasses, they deal with those things, but if you're like Achan, they come out of Jericho and we wonder, why did God kill Achan? Because it was commanded straight from God what not to do. That was a criminal offense. So we're dead, according to Paul, brethren, to sin, we're dead to recover from it. I can't move in any way to solve this issue myself. We're dead in trespasses, those things that I might not even know that I did wrong. That's what the trespass offering was for. If I had crossed the line, I didn't know there where we come from trespass. We're trespassing on somebody's property, right? We walk across the line, somebody comes up and says, what are you doing here? I was just walking. I had no idea I was trespassing. God provided a trespass offering for that. How serious is sin? Too many times we wanna think that God just lets these things ride. And he won't even let sin ride, it's accidental. Verse two says, when 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. We are dead to sin, we're dead to trespasses, brethren, and we're disobedient to God, walking according to the course of this world. You don't have to look around very long. You can see these things in the different culture aspects of our society, religion. A lot of religion wants to lead men to work their way to heaven, buy your way to heaven, baptize your way to heaven. But the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ. We see it in philosophy. Philosophy leads men to trust in their own understanding. Try to understand what's going on in this world and comprehend what's taking place. But the Bible plainly tells us where we're from, the condition we're in, and the condition of where we're headed to, and that we are completely alienated from God because of our natural sin and because of the sins that we commit. Because of our disobedience, we are alienated to God. Science. leads men to trust in materialism. We place a high, our culture places a high value on materialism and material things, especially money. And because we place it on money, because money can, it can buy everything else that's materialistic. And so what do we put our trust in? Art, brethren. We think about our disobedience as a society to God, we look at art. Art leads men to trust in their talent. and try to find happiness outside of Christ. But you and I will never do that. We can try, every society has. Education. Humanism places man above all else. You've heard the old saying, man is the measure of all things. But in the end, what we'd really like to do is make ourself God. So my own subjective ideas. is what I want to live by. We hear that term a lot in our society about subjective thinking, as if there is no true objective thing in this world. There is one true objective truth, and his name is Jesus Christ. And so much so, he said, if you need something, look at me. Jesus said that. Jesus said, look to me. You want to know the truth? What did he tell Pilate? Pilate asked him that very question, and what is truth? That's humanistic thinking. Jesus said something that no other man can say. I, I am truth. Pilate, you're looking at objective truth when you look at Jesus Christ. Lost person here tonight, you need to find truth in salvation, you'll find it in him and nobody else. We walk in disobedience to God, is to think that we can live by our own presuppositions. I can live by my own ideologies. I can build my own standard of life for this world. God will never accept that. That is the things that will lead us to the point where God will say, depart from me, you work of iniquity, I never knew you. God demands a sacrifice. Brethren, we are defiled by natural desires. Look at verse three. among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. We seek unspiritual things, and we are the children of wrath, born after Adam and Eve. The best thing a person can come to realize in their life is that they are a sinner before God. That is the beginning of wisdom. That is understanding where a person has to get to. That's man's alienation. We are alienated to God's righteousness. We're alienated to God. We are without hope. Brethren, we are lost and condemned. You won't make it to heaven. till you realize you're lost. That you and God are two different creatures. There's an appeasement God made. I call this, or the theologians have called this, God's common grace. And we call it that because it is common to all men. In the book of Genesis, when Adam and Eve had sinned, and you know the story as well as I do, and they're walking through the garden, and all of a sudden they realize, hey, we need some clothes, and they get the fig leaves, God shows up and says, hey, who told you you were naked? Good and evil, they realize that. So God's righteousness, his holiness is offended and the penalty is death. But he makes an appeasement on these things. And common grace falls out to all humanity. It doesn't matter if you're Muslim, It doesn't matter if you're Hindu. It doesn't matter if you're Christian. It doesn't matter what country, what time you live. God's common grace falls to all people. And we see God's common grace in creation. And it reflects the grace of the creator. So what we mean by common grace is the air we all breathe. They breathe it all around the world, don't they? It is given to all men by God's grace on his creation. Jesus reminded his hearers in Matthew chapter five and verse 45, he said, the sun shines on the just and the unjust alike. Everybody gets to experience God's common grace. We see God's common grace in his control of society or we could say inside of government. And I know a lot of governments are bad and they're terrible and they've done terrible things in the past. There's also a lot of governments that have been good and have provided for us protection. The government was instituted by God himself. And if it wasn't for government, brethren, we would all fall into chaos. Paul teaches us about that, Romans 13, verses one through seven, that to resist this is to resist an ordinance of God. You know, what else? We have control over his family. God instituted the family. God's common grace. Family, you find them all over the world. Husbands and wives and these, now I know different cultures view them differently and they may have different numbers and things like that, but it's awful odd that the entire world seems to have some type of family structure. That's God's common grace to mankind. When it works properly and you've got a husband and a father and a mother and a wife and you've got all these people working under the ordinance of God, it does some really great things in our society. And everybody can participate in those things. We think about common grace, brethren, we think about the conscience of man. God has given us a mechanism to discern right and wrong. That's common to all mankind. Something bothers, and I know there's exceptions to these things, but for the most part, all men have some kind of conscience to know how to treat their fellow man. Why do we think that's important? Brethren, it's God's common grace why we're here tonight. God's creation allowed us to be here tonight. Control, God's government and God's family is what got us here tonight. Some of you are here tonight because mom and dad brought you. Some of us are here tonight because our conscience has guided us to do the right thing, to come to God's house, to get here, to listen to the word, and listen to the Psalms. Think about what God has spent through eternity just so that we can have this moment, us and everybody else in the world, to have the opportunity to hear the gospel being spoke. Do not kid yourself tonight and think this is all accidental. Don't kid yourself tonight and think you got here by your own ideas or thoughts or whatever. God put it, the wheel's in motion. You're here because of God, and I'm here because of God's common grace. But while God's common grace can appease God's righteousness, it does not give us his approval. His approval is different. It is God's specific grace. It is by God's means of a specific grace that the Christian is saved. But it is by the word of God and God's grace that all of Christianity We'll give honor and glory to God one day. And not to ourselves, not to the church buildings, not to anything else. It is a specific grace. Now, what does it provide for us? Paul said we are dead in trespasses and sins. We've lost our inheritance. Adam and Eve did that. You were born lost, every one of us. Every one of us hopefully were brought to church under the institutions of common grace and then we come to specific grace. Two things, brethren, a man has to have to be redeemed. One is there's a thing called the age of accountability. And a lot of people like to argue that fact and say, well, you can't find that term in the Bible. No, you cannot. But what you can find in the Bible is where Jesus said, men will give an account for every single word. Accountability. Romans 14 and 12 says that every man shall give an account of their life. And what does that tell us? That tells us at some point, When the conscience of man is ready and we can understand right and wrong, we begin to be held accountable for those things by God. And we say that that loft center reaches the age of accountability and they're held accountable. When that happens, the next thing takes place. John chapter 16, verses one through 11 describe to us the work of the Spirit of God. And it says in there that the Holy Spirit convicts What does the spirit do? To gain redemption, brother. When the age of accountability comes in our life, then the spirit begins to convict us. What it means, we're convicted, we're guilty. The word means what it says. The spirit of God comes to us and says, look, you're guilty of what that old bald-headed preacher is saying up there tonight. You're guilty of what the Word of God says you're guilty of. If you're here tonight and you're lost, brother, you can't escape that any better than any of the rest of us could. You have to face that conviction and talk to the Spirit of God and say, God, I need to be redeemed. I need to be saved because God is seeking to save. I love what Paul put in here in verse four. Of all the things he says to us in verses three and verse four, he gives us that contrasting conjunction, but God. Not but Adam, not but by the law, but God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, then he loved us. He brought about this specific, brethren, grace that we can be redeemed. When Peter preached the gospel of Jesus Christ at the day of Pentecost, brethren, the men there said they were cut to their hearts. That's the convicting power of the Spirit of God. None of us, none of us can generate that tonight. We're completely dependent on the Spirit of God. But brother-in-law sinner, tonight, if the Spirit of God is convicting you, you need to come and get saved. You need to get born again. What are the means of redemption? What is, how does God's specific grace to the sinner, not to the whole world, but to the individual, to the person that has reached the age of accountability and to the person that knows that they're lost and they're being convicted, how do you get redeemed? One, the Holy Scriptures. All of us, brethren, all of our faith is derived from the word of God. We don't get it from anywhere else. Not from the Pope or the priest or any other person that's not seen an angel or anything else like that. Where does it come from? It comes from the word of God. Everything you and I believe about Christianity comes from the book, brethren. John 20 verse 31 says, but these are written that you might believe. The word of God is written so that man can believe. After you've reached the age of accountability, the conviction of the Spirit of God is crushing your heart and soul. We learn from the Word of God. Second, 1 Corinthians 23, we preach Christ crucified. We bring good news. Good news. If I just get down to verse three, And Ephesians 2, brethren, I am doomed. I'm dead. Paul tells me, look, you're a corpse. You can't fix the sin problem. You can't fix the trespass problem. You can't fix your disobedience problem. You can't fix any of this. But God, but God can. We preach, we proclaim the gospel. That's not just, just means preachers behind the pulpit. That means every day in life. Everybody we see, everybody we come across, We think about our conclusion tonight as the song leader comes and we give an invitation. I know it's Wednesday night, so we'll go as fast as the Lord will allow us to. Romans 10 and verse 13 says, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. This is the but God. This is the beautiful gospel. If you know that you've reached the age of accountability, and you know that if you know right and wrong, you know that God is in heaven, and you know the things of creation are testifying to you, you're at the age of accountability. If your heart is under conviction tonight, there's no better place to get saved than God's house. God has built a hedge of protection around you tonight. He has got people around you that love you, care about you, He has done everything he could to get you in this position so that you can be born again. Take this opportunity. Take this moment. Let's sing a song of invitation.