Dearly Fathers, we've been going through the center and the grace of God these Sunday mornings. One thing we can see from the Scripture is that the only way we can have a passion for you and a love for you is you have to put it there. We can love ourselves. We can love the world. We can replace you with something else. And I love our own choosing. And we can just be wicked, vile people without the Lord. God, you have made a change in so many of us. You have saved our souls and given us hope of eternal life. And you are making us into what you would have us to be day by day. Help us, Lord, as we serve you, as we surrender to you every day, as we listen to the Spirit's leading, as we read your word, as we pray that we indeed would have a passion for you. And to that passion, Lord, would change us daily and make us more like Christ. I know, Father, it's a process. It's not accomplished all at once. It's a lifetime journey. But as we do so, may we rejoice in what we are now and how far you have brought us from where we were. And so, God, we commit now the word back to your keeping. Help me as I share it with these people that the Spirit of God would speak to every heart, whatever the spiritual need may be. And Lord, that the results would be eternal, life changing, and we'll carefully give you the thanksgiving and the praise for it. And we do ask all of this in the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus. Amen. If you'd be seated, please take your Bibles and we're going to go in them to a couple of places, one to Ephesians chapter two, and the other is Romans chapter number one. Ephesians chapter two, Romans one. We'll come to Ephesians in a little bit. On Sunday mornings, we've been looking at the sinner and the grace of God. The sinner and the grace of God. And we'll continue that today. This is our third study in that series. Now, as we consider the theme I have a desire to be that will be accomplished from our study of this thing, and that's that we might see what the scripture says we were before we experienced the grace of God. And that this. Present spiritual condition. Is found in all who have not come to know the grace of God and have come to Christ as their Savior. This is the condition, the Bible says, of every lost individual. So those family members that you have that know not Christ as Savior, that co-worker that knows not Christ as their Savior. That employer that you work for that does not know Christ as Savior. Our government officials that do not know Christ as their Savior. This is what the Bible says they are like spiritually. I said this a week or so ago, and I'll say it again this morning. Sometimes we expect more of lost people than they're able to give. I'm not giving them an excuse for their sinful behavior. But if we can understand the spiritual condition of people without Christ. It'll help us better to understand why people do what they do. People behave out of the sinfulness of their own heart. Jeremiah says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? And only God can look at a human heart and determine what's in it. There's enough potential in us, even as believers in our old nature to quickly destroy our testimony as a Christian. And it's only the grace of God and the mercy of God and our depending upon God and resting in Him that keeps that from happening. It's not our goodness. It's not how wonderful we are as a Christian. It's what God is at work doing in us. Paul says, I am what I am by the grace of God. And he went on to elaborate in Romans 7 about the warfare that goes on inside of his own heart and mind. And we as believers have that warfare. But as we look at what the Scripture says about the unsaved, we learn some things that help us to better see the need of sharing the gospel with them and praying for them and asking God to bring them to a place of salvation themselves, as he has done with us. So we can see how sinners are without Christ. We can see where we are before God saved us, and we can see the change that God has been making in us since he has saved us. And we can rejoice in what he's doing for us and have a greater burden for those that do not know Christ. The hope of the world is salvation. not a better government, not one of the political parties, not capitalism, not socialism, not communism. The hope of the world is Jesus Christ, and he is the only one that will change the outcome of the way this earth is traveling. And therefore, you and I have a responsibility before the Lord to be a witness as God allows us to be that witness and to share the gospel with those whom God allows us to share the gospel with because they need the Lord, as we will see in these verses. Now, we have been looking in our study point number one thus far in our study at the center of the grace of God, we've learned a that the center has an irreparable relationship with God irreparable, he can not repair it. Man can not make his relationship with God better. Because everything that man does without Christ is sin. We've also seen point B that the sinner is destined for a future that is beyond comprehension. In Romans chapter 2, verse 8 and 9. Today, we're going to look further at this fact that the sinner has an inexcusable attitude, action and thinking. The attitude of the sinner, the action of the sinner, the thinking of the sinner. When I say sinner, I'm talking about a lost person, one who does not know Jesus Christ as their Savior. It is inexcusable before God. And we'll see what the Bible says, why God says it's inexcusable. Because, you see, it doesn't matter what you and I say about people, it's what God says about them. Because in the end, we all will stand before the Lord. The believer will stand before Christ to receive our reward. The unsaved will stand before Christ to be judged by the things they have done in their unsaved life, to receive their degree of punishment as the believer will receive their degree of reward. And so it's what God says about people that matters. And that's what we're looking at in our study. Point number two. The actions of the unsaved are a direct result of their attitude and their thinking. That's why I said earlier, sometimes we expect things from the unsaved that they just cannot produce. They are lost. They are born into the world with a sinful nature that controls and dominates them because It is under the control of Satan himself. And Satan is the great deceiver because he himself is deceived. And believing that he can overthrow God and become like God, and he's been trying that down through the centuries and has continuously failed, even though he has tried hard and has come up with really good counterfeits of what God does. But nonetheless, he is the deceiver and he controls the unsaved. So their attitude, actions and thinking, according to Scripture, is inexcusable, as God says. But it's the direct result of their attitude and thinking. Let's look at the Scripture. Romans chapter one, verse number 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, A, who hold the truth in unrighteousness." They hear the truth. They receive the truth. In our very first study, we looked and saw that man is inexcusable because God continuously gives him a testimony of his existence. And if man will respond to that testimony, then man can receive a greater testimony from God, which will bring him to a place of repentance. And that testimony is creation. And so when people suppress creation and turn it into evolution, then they're taking the righteousness of God and turning it into a lie. They do that by choice, by choice. We did not start off in our educational system teaching evolution. We started off in our educational system teaching creationism. That there was a God and that he did create the earth and he did do it in seven days, literal days and nights. And we planted our society on that truth. But now, As time has gone on and man's sinful attitude has continued to control his behavior, we see the result of it today. The unsaved hold truth in unrighteousness. In verse 19, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for that he has showed it unto them. Their action is a direct result because that which God has revealed to himself of himself to them They have it. They have it. It's there. It's obvious. It's obvious to them. It's obvious to us. It's what they choose to do with it. Point C, the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood. Even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they're without excuse. God says, I show man my Godhead and my power through creation. I show man that I have created this. If man chooses to reject that truth, then he is inexcusable. He's inexcusable. Someone's traveling down the highway. They look in the rearview mirror and they listen in their ears and they hear sirens and blue lights. They pull over to the side of the road. The officer comes up to the side of the car and he says, the reason I pulled you over is you were speeding. And that person looks at the officer and says, officer, I didn't know I was speeding. And the officer says, you just passed the speed limit sign back up the road a quarter of a mile that said whatever the speed was and you were exceeding that by X number of miles. Well, but I didn't know I was speeding. I'm sorry, but the sign was there. You ignored it. Now, I must write you a ticket as punishment for your breaking the law. And that driver can sit there until they're blue in the face or till the police officer hauls them off to jail because of their rebellion. They're still going to be guilty of speeding because the law was there. They ignored it. God's testimony is here. People choose to ignore it. And that's why our school system is in the situation that it's in, because the unsaved have chosen to deny God and have chosen to reject God. And it's our responsibility as God-fearing parents and grandparents to make sure that we train our children in the truth of the word of God so that if and when they hear it in the school system or even in society, that they will know that that is not so. That is not what the Bible teaches. D, when they knew God, they chose not to glorify Him as God, and they weren't thankful. That's why we as Christians ought to be the most thankful people in the universe. And there's nothing any more ungodly than when believers are unthankful, because it's a characteristic that God says belongs only in the unsaved. Because the Bible says in other places, in everything give thanks. That's written to the believer. Here God says the unbeliever is the unthankful one, not the believer. They're unthankful. They know about God, but they chose not to glorify him as God. E. They became vain. They become vain in their imagination. And their foolish heart is darkened because they choose to reject truth and receive the lies of their own hearts and of their own spiritual father, the devil. And they choose to embrace that as truth. They bring blindness and darkness to their own heart. And their imagination becomes vain. And they come up with some crazy, off-the-wall idea that the world happened by an explosion. That's absurd. Explosions produce chaos. They do not produce order. And we have order in our society. Not in our social society, but in our creative society and that which God has created. We have order. We're coming into springtime. Nobody's going to stop it. Nobody. It's going to happen. Pollen is coming. You've been warned. I forewarned you. Nothing's going to stop it. Nothing. Because it's God's order of things. But man, when he chooses to reject God, becomes vain in his imagination and his foolish heart is darkened. Point F. In reality, he replaces, the unsaved replace God with something or someone inferior due to their own unbelief. They create their own God. It may be something or it may be someone. So their actions are a direct result of their attitude and their thinking. Point three. The inexcusable attitude, actions and thinking of the sinner. Verse 22 to 32. By the way, these verses won't impress you with the greatness of man. Attempts are often made to get us to believe that people are basically good morally and everything is getting better. The opposite is really the truth. And God bluntly says so, and that's a quote from the Koening Commentary on the Bible, a good thought. We're looking at these verses, verse 22 to 32, point A under three. Sinners are proud and arrogant. Now, remember, I'm talking about lost people here. Please differentiate between unsaved and saved. We're talking about the unsaved. So saved people should not display these qualities. The unsaved are proud and arrogant. Verse 22, boasting or professing themselves to be wise. They became fools. The word professing means to boast or to pretend to be that which one is not in order to deceive other people. More and more and more, the evolution theory is being broken down by their own scientific studies. I'm not amazed at that. I'm not surprised at that. Because thinking themselves wise, they became fools, and now they, little by little, are showing how stupid they really are. And more and more intelligent scientists that are unbelievers are coming to a place in their own thinking they have to acknowledge intelligence behind what we have as a universe. More and more this is taking place. Thinking themselves wise, they became fool. The word wise means having sound understanding. Listen, if your understanding and your logic and your reasoning and your conclusions do not agree with what the Bible says, it's not sound. It's unsound. It's unsound. And so if you have practices in your life that you think are acceptable because it makes good sense to you, but it does not agree with what the Bible says, it's unsound. It's unsound. And you are thinking yourself to be wise, but in that particular area, you're being very foolish. God's word does not change for anyone. And the best counsel we have in all the universe is the word of God to they are in reality fools thinking themselves wise. They became fools. The word became means Adam was not created a fool, he became one by his own sinful behavior. Now, this word fool is not a word that we should loosely use. It's not a word that we ought to be describing other people by. Unless we fully understand the definition. Because this word in scripture is associated with the unsaved, point one. It's associated with the unsaved. So when you talk about somebody being a fool, you're, according to the scripture, calling them unsaved. Because the Bible says in Psalm 14, 1, the fool says in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt. They do abominable deeds. Therefore, there is none who does good. Proverbs 1, 7 says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1.22, How long, ye simple ones, will you love simplicity? And the scorners delight in their own scorning, and fools hate knowledge. Proverbs 14.8, The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way, but the folly of fools is deceit. Proverbs 14.9, Fools make a mock at sin, but among the righteous there is favor. So, in reality, these who profess themselves to be wise are fools, according to the Scripture. Now, let me encourage you. Please don't walk up to an unsafe person and call him a fool. It's not good counsel. You will know it in your own heart, in your own mind, because of what the Scripture says. And it'll help you to understand why they're behaving the way they are. Because they're foolish in their behavior and thinking. They're unsaved. And it'll help you to be more understanding of their great need of Christ. It will not help you to excuse or tolerate their sinful behavior. But it'll help you to deal with them more patiently and more lovingly. And you won't be praying so many of them that God would just send them straight to hell. You'll be praying that God would save their wretched souls. The greatest need of the world is salvation. The greatest need in the White House is salvation. The greatest need in Columbia is salvation. The greatest need in Greenville is salvation. Greer, Taylors, Tigerville, the greatest need of the world is salvation. And we need to be praying that God would save souls and calling people out by name. And when we see them thinking themselves wise, but demonstrating a foolishness, it ought to drive us to pray that God would somehow deliver them. So sinners are proud and arrogant. B. Sinners devalue the glory of God. Sinners devalue the glory of God. Verse 23. They change the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like of the corruptible man, the birds, the forfeited beasts and creeping things. What that means is, number one, they there is a rejection of God in all of his glory. I will not acknowledge him to be God. I will not acknowledge that there is a being that deserves that kind of recognition. Instead, I will replace him with a God of my own creation. Because he doesn't exist. So there is that rejection in their heart. They don't have to be an atheist. Listen, if every lost person truly believed that there was a God and that he meant what he said, they all would be getting saved. Because if they believed that there was a God, they would also believe that there is a hell and they would believe that they're going to go there when they die. You know why I got saved? Because God told me I was going to go to hell if I didn't. That's why I got saved. I did not want to go to hell. That was the main motivator that drove me to my knees in repentance of my sin. How about you? And if the lost person truly believed that God is who he says he is and is going to do what he says he's going to do, they would all be coming to Christ. So every lost person is really atheistic in their thinking. And they all reject God in his glory. The glory means majesty, excellence, brightness, honor. It is all those things that make you and me as Christians want to fall on our faces before him and worship him. That's his glory. Notice they change the glory of the uncorruptible God. Meaning he cannot be corrupted. So he's not going to change what he said for anything or anyone. One under be the supreme one who cannot be corrupted by anything or anyone to no matter what man may try to make God out to be, the creator will never be dethroned or made inferior by his creation. And the unsaved are a part of God's creation. He has created them. God created human beings. And every person is a creative act of God. It means also that they have, number two, reassigned the glory of God to inferior things. They take that which belongs to God and they give that to someone else. Those who deliberately break the law do that. Those who deal in drugs and narcotics and immoral activities, knowing what the law says, choose to take the respect that should be given to the law and they give it to their wickedness. They give that respect from authority down to their own chosen things. And they respect that which they can gain from their alcohol and their drugs and their immoral activity. They have chosen to reassign the glory that belongs rightfully to the authorities. It says you can't do that, therefore not doing it because they've chosen to do it. They've taken that respect, that glory, and given it to that which is ungodly and wrong and sinful and destructive. Lost man takes that which belongs to God and gives it to something or someone else. And it doesn't matter what or who he gives it to. He has taken away the glory of God. In his own mind and only in his mind, not in reality, but we see that they take the glory of God and they change it into something that is inferior. See, sinners devalue the truth of God. They devalue the glory of God. They devalue the truth of God. Verse 25, who changed the truth of God into a lie. Now, please, you've got to follow through with this. We're not talking here in this context about Bible. We're talking about God. Many have taken that to say people change the Bible. Many have used that as an excuse to justify why they don't believe we should read from any other translation than one particular translation. And they say what they've done is taken the truth of God and turned it into a lie. They devalued this translation by giving us some other translation. Going to have a hard time proving that from scripture. Sorry, it's just not there. The scripture doesn't tell us a particular brand of translation we should read from. In reality, we have the original writings were inspired. Beyond that, we have translations and transcripts. Copies. So it's not talking about that. What is it talking about? It's talking about truth as to who God really is, not a reference to the scripture. They change the truth of God into a lie. They say he doesn't exist or he will not do what the Bible says he will, and they change God. This is about what the lost people do in relationship to their creator. God is not going to send anybody to hell because they misquoted a verse deliberately or made fun of the Bible. All people that are in burning fire forever will be there because of their unbelief. and rejection of God the Son as their Savior. Because they reject God, they will be in burning fire forever. Not because they read from some translation or because they misquoted or made fun of godly things or the Bible. The unsaved changed the truth of God or the truth about God. into a lie. That's why you and I, as believers, need to be very careful what we say about God. Not that we're going to lose our salvation, but because the characteristic of the unsaved is to change the truth of who God is into something that is a lie. And we want to be very careful that what we say about our God, our Father, is accurate. None of us would like us going into a company of people and hear somebody talking about our parents and saying something that was not true. We would feel a need of correcting that, of correcting that person. Well, what has happened here is they've taken the truth of who God is and changed it. They've exchanged the truth, point two, of who God really is. There is nothing left But falsehood to embrace and acceptance of spiritual falsehood leads to idolatry. Anytime you replace anything about God with anything else, it becomes idolatry. Three, idolatry is simply replacing God with any other thing. When God does not rule on the throne of one's heart, that person is guilty of idolatry. So you see, believers, if we're not careful, can fall into idolatrous positions. Because we take God from the throne of our life and put something or someone else there. Our goals, our ambitions, our money, our jobs. Our mates, our children, our grandchildren. Our possessions. If any of those things are more important in our life to us than God is, we are acting idolatrously. And we need to give that some serious thought. God should be first and then everything falls under the heading of God according to the way He has said it falls into importance. God, spouse, children. grandchildren. That's the family order. Our children should never take the place of our spouse, nor our grandchildren take the place of our spouse. That's God's order. And we can look at all the different elements of life and see the order that God has placed them in. And we must be sure that we're following God's pattern of order, or else we could very well be practicing idolatry. and not really think about it that way. So we find here that they devalue the truth of God. D, sinners devalue the worship of and service to God. Verse 25, who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator who was blessed forever. Worshipping the one true God is unimportant to them. I don't need to go to church. I don't need to be around Christians. I don't need to read my Bible. I don't need to pray. I don't need to memorize scripture. I don't need that. That's the attitude of the unsaved. It should not be the attitude of the believer. God has laid down guidelines for us to conduct our lives as Christians, and we need to follow His guidelines and not devalue the worship and service that we owe to Him for all that He has given us and that we are. Two, worship of and service of God is replaced by their idols, earth and earthly things. How much more prevalent the words or the phrase Mother Earth is becoming. And all the green people. I'm not opposed to being conservative. I've always tried to be careful not to abuse this earth. Not because I worship it, but because God created it. And he taught me in his word to respect it. But it is not my God. One day this earth is going to burn. No matter how well we take care of it. And I don't see that as an excuse to abuse it. I don't litter and I don't want people to litter. I try to be careful. But my God is not going to be replaced by the Earth I live on. But for the lost, they don't see a need of having God in that position. They would rather worship that which is not of God. 10. E. Sinners devalue the moral standards that God has established in his word. They devalue moral standards. Verse 26, for this cause, God gave them up unto vile affections, or you could say a shameful heart, for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise, also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burning in their lusts one toward another, men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error, which was meat. So they devalue God's moral standard. One, leaving the worship of God and abandoning his word and the truth about him leads to embracing depravity in the fullest sense of the word. And it usually shows up in immorality. It usually shows up in immorality. Now, how do we know that? Because God said so. God said so. We just read it. He calls it, A, vile affections. That's shameful and disgraceful passions and desires. Shameful and disgraceful by God's standard. Not by the worlds, because the world's definition of shameful and disgraceful is continually changing and becoming worse and worse every day. In this passage, God describes two particular areas where this happens. He calls it perversion. Point B, the changing of something good, true or correct into something bad or wrong. In verse 26, God calls it women with women or lesbianism. And 27, men with men or homosexuality. We don't use those words much these days, do we? Because they're not acceptable terms. We call them gay. But yet if you go back and read some of the old writings and even read some of the old hymns, you find the word gay in them. It makes you stop for a moment and think, wait a minute, why is this word in here? Because it meant joyful, happy, excited. It was a good type of fun and joy and happiness. But we've taken a word, a term and turned it into that which is now vile and sickening instead of calling sin what it is. Now, let me emphasize here, I keep saying sin, not sinner. We are to hate sin, not sinners. And if lesbians and homosexuals want to come and visit our church, we will shake their hand and welcome them like any other person. But we will not allow them to influence our audience by their ungodly lifestyle. And if they want to stay very long around here and come to many services, they're going to have to change. They're going to have to change. And the preaching of the word, like I'm doing now, will either drive them to repentance or drive them out the door. Our goal is not to drive them out the door. Our goal is to drive them to Jesus Christ. But we must not and cannot tolerate that type of lifestyle and count it as acceptable behavior. We can love the sinner. We can work beside in a factory that person who is a homosexual or a lesbian. And we can be decent and respectful. We can carry on conversation. But every opportunity that God gives us, we're going to inject something about the Lord in there. We're going to let them know that we're a believer and when they want to talk about their lifestyle, we're going to, in a kind, gracious way, let them understand that we don't want to hear about it because we don't agree with it. We think it's wrong. We don't believe that gay marriages is of the Lord. It's wrong. It's immoral. It's destructive. And we will hate the sin, but we will ask God to give us a love for the sinner. And I'm going to tell you, only God can do that. In my own strength, I can be as self-righteous as the next person. I can condemn every sinner to hell and feel good about it, because after all, I don't do that. But in reality, I'm a sinner myself. Paul says, when I judge someone else of something, I'm guilty of the very same thing myself. It's God that judges, not man. But there are certain standards that he has laid down that we understand to be right or wrong. And we cannot accept what he condemns and condemn what he accepts. So we must have this godly position and we learn from the scripture as the lost person devalues the glory of God and devalues God and replaces God, the natural progression or digression, if there's such a word, is downward. Farther and farther away from God and more and more into a wicked, vile, sin, curse lifestyle that ultimately becomes self-destructive. So we see when you leave worshiping God and abandon his truth and embrace depravity in the fullest sense of the term, it's going to lead to a downward spiral, which normally will be resulting in some type of immorality. And the height of depravity and immorality is lesbianism and homosexuality, too. Their immoral lifestyle is the punishment of God for their devaluing God and His standard and His truth. Likewise, also men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust one toward another. Men with men working that which was unseemly and receiving in themselves that payment for their error which was a fitting payment. We see many of the diseases of our day because of the immorality of people. And God-fearing, innocent people have been immediately affected by those lifestyles. You see, sin is no respecter of person. And the result of sin is no respecter of person. You can't just commit sin and say, well, I'm only affecting myself. That never is the case. Never. And the more ungodly the sin, the farther the fingers of effects will go on our society. And we're seeing the results of that today across the board. And it's tragic, but that's the signs of our times that we're living in. So we see point A, under two, the physical damage to the body that goes hand in hand with immorality and B, the social damage to a society that embraces this type of immorality. An example in scripture, Sodom and Gomorrah. Point F, sinners devaluing God and his righteous standard. result in their commitment to total depravity, total depravity, meaning they reach a place in their wickedness that there is no return, no hope of their ever being saved. Now, let me say something here. Inject the thought. I've said this before. I want to say it again. Only God knows where that place is. You and I cannot say somebody has crossed the line because as long as there is breath, there is hope. As far as we look at it, we would give the gospel to anyone, no matter how far we feel they've crossed the line. We would still share the gospel with them if God gave us opportunity. Because only God knows when they cross that line. But there is a line that can be crossed. We see in verse number 24. Wherefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness, the lust of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. Verse 26. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections, for even their women did change the natural use into that which was against nature. Verse 28. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not proper or fitting or shouldn't be done in front of God. Convenience. being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whispers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventor of evil things, disobedient to parents without understanding. Covenant breakers without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, who, knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same but have pleasure in doing them. Total depravity. One, God gave them up to the uncleanness or impure motives. Impure motives. Two, God gave them up to vile affections or impure actions. Three, God gave them up to a reprobate mind or impure thinking. Four, their impure motives, action and thinking resulted in the center being full of. Verse 29, a unclean actions, unclean actions. B, vile motives, and C, reprobate thinking. This is a description by God of the unsaved. And God carries this description for you and me to understand, to see how far this can lead. It will lead to total opportunity to ever be born again on this earth And once they leave this life, it will lead to total separation from God for eternity in the lake of fire. That's not a pleasant place to be. But I want to remind us that that's where every person in this room was until we came to Christ. Every one of us was where I just described. Oh, not me, preacher. Oh, yes, you. Well, I was a good person before I got. No, you weren't. The Bible says there is none good. No, not one. I don't like that. I'm sorry. That's what the Bible says. Before God saved me, I was no good, but I know it. I know I wasn't. I know I was no good. And any goodness in me now? It's not me. It's God. It's all God, not me. Now, let's go to our second passage, Ephesians 2. If we read these verses, we'll have a better comprehension of what Paul is describing because God gave us a very literal description in Romans. Ephesians 2. Again, I will change some of the wording as we go through this to help you better understand what Paul is saying. This is Ron's translation. And you who were lost and undone and spiritually dead, God gave you life. Because before He gave you life, verse 2, you walked according to the lifestyle of the ungodly world. According to the devil's power over you, that one who now works in every unsaved person. Verse 3, you lived in your past lifestyle before God saved you. Motivated by the lust of your flesh and you fulfill the desires of your flesh and of your mind and you by your behavior deserve the wrath of God. But God, who is so rich in mercy for his desire and because of his. Self-proclaimed love. He chose to love us sinners. Five, even when we were spiritually dead, as I just described in our sins, God took us from our spiritual dead condition and gave us spiritual life because of and through that which Jesus Christ has done. Oh, by the way, that's called grace. and you're saved by it. Hallelujah. Excuse me if I run up and down now. And because he has taken us from our spiritual dead condition and given us life, verse 6, he has raised us up together with others to whom he has done the same thing. And he's helping us all to sit together in heaven right with Jesus Christ so that in eternity He might display us as trophies of His exceeding, limitless grace in the kindness that He showed toward us because of and through Jesus Christ. What I'm talking about is, verse 8, you have been saved by God's grace through the faith that He gave to you. And oh, by the way, don't ever get proud about it because it wasn't anything to do with you. It was God that said, I want to do this. To you and for you as my gift, because you see. We're saved, not by our own works, so that we won't go around bragging about what good Christians we are. God took us. held down deserving sinners and lifted us out of our unsafe condition and planted us into His family by adoption. And we are God's children only because of what He has done And therefore, we need to allow ourselves to be used of God to tell all those other people that need to hear the story. So that they can join the family that we belong to conclusion, the center is a total mess because he or she has turned his or her back toward God. And thus has no hope without him. Their attitude, actions and thinking are inexcusable before God and they don't care. Yet God extends his grace to those hell bound sinners who will repent and turn to Christ. Were it not for the grace of God, the sinner would be hopelessly doomed for eternity. Were it not for the grace of God, We would not be here today. Thank God for His grace.