Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1, And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them We too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. Lord, thank you for this Word. Thank you for showing us ourselves. Thank you for holding this mirror up to us. And Lord, thank you for what you've done in us sinful wretches. Lord, we come to your word tonight to hear from you, that you would speak to our minds and our hearts. And Lord, I pray that you would transform us anew by this word. Help us to grow in the grace and knowledge of you, our God, our creator and redeemer. You know, you read these words, among them we all too formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And these words just sound like a definition of sin, don't they? They sound like sin. Chapter 2 of Ephesians. Paul shows us the past, present, and future of the people that the Father chose in Christ, spoken of in chapter 1, verses 3 through 6, before the foundation of the world. The people that Christ came to redeem through His shed blood, for whom He died to obtain forgiveness of their trespasses and sins. To obtain for them a heavenly inheritance. So who were these people? What merit was in them? Was there any merit in them? No. No, there was not. Verses 1 through 3, Paul reminds the Ephesian converts, he reminds converts today of our past spiritual condition and that of all men who come into this world. Because of Adam's sin, all come into this world spiritually dead, unable to stop sinning, unable to believe in Christ and trust in Him for forgiveness of sins, apart from a miraculous work of God. In their natural state, unregenerate state, people's wills are governed by the ways of this fallen world. And by the powerful influence of Satan. And that third prong we're going to look into tonight. The lusts of our flesh. Paul shows believers our former condition. in order to show us, beginning in verse 4, the miraculous work that the Father has done in us, in Christ, and by His Spirit. Here in verse 3, Paul defines what it is, what it means to live in the lusts of our flesh. It means to indulge the desires of the flesh and of the mind. I want this, I do it. To take whatever we want. To do whatever we want. Without any regard to God or His law. Without any regard to right and wrong. Unless they are born again, men will always choose what their fleshly nature most desires. Natural man is in bondage to these three influences that Paul speaks of here in the first three verses. And natural man will choose what his flesh desires most. Maybe competing interests, but he'll choose what his fleshly desire is. Because when the spirit is dead, meaning a man is still separated from God, the flesh will always rule in a man. And not alone. He has the help of Satan and of the ways of this world. We've looked at Isaiah 59 too. Your iniquities, sin, has made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. And we've seen no man has the ability to repair that separation from God. No man has the ability to reconcile himself to God. Only God can do this. God was in the world, in Christ, reconciling sinners to Himself. And when He does so, He does so, He reconciles sinners to Himself according to that eternal decree we read about in chapter 1. It's always entirely a work of God, a work of His grace. Not in response to anything any man does. We've looked at the first two prongs of this, and really there are three, to be dead in trespasses and sins. But we've looked at what it means to walk according to the course of this world. and to walk according to the prince of the kingdom or power of the air." Paul, remember, depicted this second evil influence, Satan, as a powerful supernatural being who rules over a host of evil spirits. He's a powerful spiritual being. Scripture says he exists. Jesus said he exists. And both say he is evil. far more evil, as we saw last week, than Nero or Hitler or anyone else. The world largely does not believe He exists. And if worldly people do believe He exists, they're not concerned about Him. We must be concerned about Him. He prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking whom He may devour. But in the world, He is often depicted as a harmless cartoon character. Jesus called Satan the ruler of this realm. But his power has been broken by Christ on the cross. And he's already been judged by Christ. And we can take great assurance in 1st John 3, 8. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. And he will always accomplish all his good pleasures. Colossians 2.15 affirms what John says. When he had disarmed the rulers and authorities, he made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through him. So Satan no longer rules in the hearts of those who have been born again. Paul wants his Ephesian readers to know this. To know and to realize the horrifying and desperate state from which they had been rescued by God. He wants us to know this. That's why we have these letters. And Satan, we saw, is the power that is now working in the sons of disobedience. He's lost his ability to deceive believers. But in the sons of disobedience, he still rules. Chapter 5, Paul writes that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience. Satan is their ruler. And these are unbelievers, and Satan is now working in them, deceiving them to lead them away from their only hope of rescue from eternal hell. Now here's the thing. Every man who has not been born again of the Spirit walks according to Satan, the father of lies, the prince of the kingdom of the air. This is all the people we know who are not born-again Christians. Now tonight, we look at this third aspect of spiritual bondage. The spiritual bondage of all who have not been made spiritually alive and joined to Christ. Chapter 2, verse 3, Paul says, Among them we too all formerly lived. We were right in that camp and lived according to those same three influences. In the lusts of our flesh, Paul says, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind. This is who we were before Christ transformed us. And we were by nature, writes Paul, children of wrath, even as the rest. There we were. And folks, helpless to do anything about it unless God works. Now the flesh, the word translated flesh here, sarx it is in Greek. It's sometimes used in the New Testament to just speak of the physical bodies of people or animals, or flesh and blood, flesh and bones. And this flesh will one day die and decay. Paul says in Galatians 2.20, the life I now live in the flesh. There he's talking about just this body. But here in verse 3, and elsewhere in Paul's writings, especially in Romans, one who lives in the flesh is one whose existence is apart from God. One who is separated from God is in the flesh. And because of that, he's opposed to God. He's opposed to God's ways. He doesn't know God. He doesn't want to know God. And the lusts of our flesh are expressed in our disobedience to God, in our disobedience and disregard for His law. So the lusts of our flesh speaks of our fallen, self-centered human nature. This is all of unregenerate humanity in its sinfulness and rebellion against God. The only exceptions are those who have been born again of the Spirit. And all persons who remain in that state are unable to please God. Why is this? Well you might want to turn to Romans 8. We're going to look at a couple verses here. Romans 8, 5, written by Paul several years before this letter. But this was a subject upon which he spoke and wrote often. Romans 8, 5. For those who are according to the flesh... Notice the same kind of words, according to the course of this world in this letter. Those who are according to the flesh, meaning unregenerate men, set their minds on things of the flesh. Now you notice we've got the flesh and the mind here in verse 3 in chapter 2 of Ephesians. And here the same thing again in Romans. So those who are according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. Verse 6, For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. Now you look back. Hold your finger there because we're going to come back there in a moment. Verse 3 again, "...among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind." The mindset on the flesh, Paul says in Romans, is hostile to God. Because it does not subject itself to the law of God. So if you are rejecting God and Christ, You're not subjecting. You know, you look at the Ten Commandments and you say, that's got nothing to do with me. But read on. We'll start with verse 7 again here in Romans 8. The mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it's not even able to do so. The mind set on the flesh cannot, has no ability to subject itself to the law of God. And then look at verse 8. You heard me say, those who are unregenerate cannot please God. Now that's not coming from me. That's coming from Paul and from the writer of Hebrews. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. The unregenerate man cannot please God. Those who are according to the flesh, all who have not been born again in the Spirit, set their minds on things of the flesh. Notice, both in Romans and here in Ephesians, Paul shows the coordinate working of the mind and the flesh. Flesh speaking for lustful, sinful desires. The mind speaking of the thinking apparatus and ultimately the will. What are the things of the flesh? Well, food, clothing, nice house, good job, good supply of money. Whatever possessions and sources of entertainment one finds appealing and as sources of pleasure. Whether sexual intimacy a person desires or the highs that people derive from sex, alcohol, drugs, gambling. Now some of these I just mentioned are merely natural human desires to satisfy basic human needs and aren't necessarily sinful. But others in this list are things that satisfy basic human needs but can become sinful desires of the flesh. And then there's a third group here that speaks of purely sinful, self-indulgent desires of the flesh. Look at the list again. Food, clothing. These are basic. Nice house, good job. But your desire for this house or that house may become sinful. Good supply of money. Certainly we want to be prudent and responsible stewards of what God has provided us. But we don't want it to become greed, which is a lust of the flesh and of the mind. The person who has been spiritually reborn This is a person who's been made alive in the Spirit, as which we're going to read next week. He also has desires for material things. People who are born again also have desires for material things. Food, clothing, housing. But he also has desires for spiritual things. And his mind is set on spiritual things. He sees all of life, the one who's been born again, in the context of spiritual realities. Not earthly realities. Not the earthly situation. The one who has been born again, his mind is set on spiritual things. And the context of what he sees in the world arises from spiritual realities. And this is why There is little hope in the culture for a meeting of minds between those who've been born again and those who have not. One is ruled by the flesh and sees all things in a material sense, in a fleshly sense. The other, he has his eyes set on Christ. To have a meeting of the minds is virtually impossible. We have two completely different ways of thinking about everything. And so, these two opposing ways of thinking stand opposed to one another. One group is ruled entirely according to the course of this world and the prince of the power of the air and the lusts of their own flesh. The other has been made spiritually alive by God and is now ruled by the Spirit of God. Yes, we fall. But there's a transformation of great magnitude that takes place when one is born again. He sees things differently. In the grave condition of the unbeliever, Paul says, he cannot please God. He cannot please God. He who is in the flesh cannot please God. Hebrews 11, 6, without faith, it is impossible to please Him. For he who comes to him must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. So this is the true condition of all men. I know he's a good guy. He's basically good. In a human sense, maybe yes. That may be true of many people. But not according to God's viewpoint. Not according to the ways of God. This is the true condition of all men apart from the regenerating work of God the Holy Spirit. And what this means is that every man who's not indwelt by the Spirit of God, who's not been born again, is under the control and the influence of other forces. Some would say, well, I have a free will. I can do what I want. Well, in a sense, the will of each man is free, but only in a sense. I mentioned Jonathan Edwards, the great 18th century American preacher, last week. And he taught correctly that the problem is not with the human will, but with fallen man's moral nature, so that he will always choose what the flesh desires most. So because all men are stained by sin, No man can escape the influence and the power of his own sin nature, which he inherited from Adam. This is the biblical doctrine of the total depravity of man. It doesn't mean no man has any good in himself, according to human reckoning. But it does mean that every aspect of his being, his mind, his heart, his flesh, his desires, has been tainted by and damaged by sin. And so while his will is in a sense free, because he doesn't know God, because he's separated from God, he doesn't go to God to determine, should I do this, should I not do this? He doesn't have the life of God in him. He's in bondage. He's in bondage to forces over which he has no control. Satan, his own lusts, and the ways of the fallen world. And apart from the quickening of our spirits and the renewing of our minds, men are unable to live in any other way but according to the course of this world. Notice the words here in verse 3. lusts, flesh, indulging, desires, nature. What do these all have in common? What do they all refer to? Any thoughts? They all refer to self-rule, to autonomy. lusts, flesh, indulging, desires, flesh, nature. These all speak of the autonomous approach to life of fallen man. This was the very thing that a couple sought in the Garden of Eden. You can be like God. This is what Adam and Eve sought in the Garden. Self-rule. And in a sense, one writer says, God said, if that's what you desire, then that is what you shall have. You and all your descendants who will not follow Me or seek after Me, you will follow your own desires, your own authority, and in so doing, you will do the will of Satan, as Adam did in the garden. And because of that, You and all your descendants will be separated from Me and will be objects of My wrath. And apart from My grace and mercy, there will be no escape." You want to reject God as your authority, you're in great danger. Because apart from His grace and mercy, you can't escape. And Paul says, and this really is why he's writing this to them, although he lays this all out under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to teach us about the truth of salvation. He says, among them, we too, we Jews, is who he's referring to there, because he first spoke to Gentiles, we too all formerly lived. Paul often gave himself as an example of this before and after picture. What a miserable wretch I was. How many times does he say it? I'll give you a couple. Before his trial, before Herod Agrippa in Caesarea, Acts 26.9, Paul spoke to them. Luke wrote it down. So then I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And this is just what I did in Jerusalem. Not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death, I cast my vote against them. This is Paul when he formerly lived in the lusts of his flesh. And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme, and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities. First Timothy 113, one of the last letters Paul wrote. And this is several years after the event recorded in Acts 26. He's writing to Timothy, a young pastor, protege of his. And he says, 1st Timothy 113, Even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor, yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. So Paul, while he speaks of how much he suffered for the name of Christ. Never forgot what a wretch he was before Christ came to him. He's saying that at one time before Christ came to us all, we all, Jews and Gentiles alike apart from Christ, lived among the sons of disobedience. Before the Holy Spirit made us alive in Christ, our flesh governed us completely. It's its nature, our flesh, to produce nothing but sinful desires. sinful appetites that demand sinful satisfaction. If you look back and think, I really wasn't that bad, your issue is not with me, it's with Paul in the Word of God. Because he says we all were. And any idea of some island of righteousness within man is here plainly refuted. I know, Paul said, there is nothing good in And there isn't, there wasn't, until Christ was in him by his Spirit. And then he became one of the greatest men of all times. These lusts of our flesh, these desires of our mind in our natural state, are the root of sin. James 1.4, each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by what? Anybody finish that sentence for me? His own lust. And then, when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. The root of sin is the lust of our flesh. And Satan, he stands behind our lusts and encourages every thought and action that is opposed to God. And the world tells us. What does the world tell us? That the fulfillment of every desire of our flesh is normal and good. We know it. It's easy to see in the world we live in today when sin is now normalized. And not just sexual sin, but lying by people who are put in positions of great responsibility to rule and to communicate to the people. The mind is also involved. It isn't just the desires. It isn't just what's in us, what we want. Because the mind, the reasonings, the reflections and conclusions that are formed by our minds These direct our will. Will is the end, because the will then chooses. Think things through, or we just respond to what we want. These direct our will and the resulting acts. Paul is connecting the will to the choices of the natural man. He's connecting them with His flesh and His mind. They're in bondage to the flesh and the mind's ways of reasoning and desiring. And the mind is also in bondage to its own lusts, to the desires of the flesh, to Satan, to the ways of the world. This must be okay. Everybody says it is. Satan says, look, God's not going to send you to hell over just this one sin. This is just the way you were born. This is the way you were born. God's love, He wouldn't send you to hell for simply being who you are. The lies that are so much a part of what Satan does, what the world does, And so when the sin is conceived in our lust, it's got all this support. All this support, both internal and external. Both in the natural realm and in the spiritual realm. We're being pushed in the way of hell, within, without, in the world, and in the spiritual realm. bondage to the flesh in the mind's way of thinking and desiring. Now, the deeds of the flesh. What are the deeds of the flesh? Remember that verse in Scripture? The deeds of the flesh are these, Galatians 5.19. I'm going to wait if you want to turn. The deeds of the flesh are evident He's not talking about just things we can do in the body. He's talking about this flesh through which these desires and lusts, this wicked nature we are born with. They're evident. They are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions. Every time we're in a dissension, it's our flesh rising up. It's not completely killed off, even in the believer. Envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. And then Paul finishes, verse 21, "...of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." This is the deeds of the flesh. If you're living by these, you will not inherit the kingdom of God. But we see here, we see sins of bodily lust here, sexual sin, gluttony. We see sins of the mind, hatred, envy, pride, and greed. All of these emerge from man's fallen state. Again, Paul warns, those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. And there's another list of these things, including some others, in 1 Corinthians chapter 6. And Paul again says, people who practice these will not inherit the kingdom of God. Why? Because they are doing and thinking the deeds of the flesh. And it's a sad thing. All men in their fallen, unregenerate state are trapped by these things. They're enslaved by these things. Because Paul tells us, and we read it in Romans chapter 3, in his fallen state, man cannot turn from his sin and seek after God. He can't stop sinning. He's chosen of his will, influenced by his flesh, Satan, and the ways of the world. He's chosen a path of self-destruction. oblivious to the danger as he rushes on toward hell. In his natural unregenerate state, he's a child of wrath. By nature, Paul says, we were all children of wrath. Genesis 126, you don't have to turn there. God created Adam in his own image, in innocence. Genesis 5.3, Adam fathered Seth in whose image and likeness? His own. His own. An image stained with sin. This sin nature is inherited from Adam. Same way color of eyes or whatever is inherited from an ancestor. So the stain of sin, therefore, defined Adam and all his descendants as children of wrath, meaning worthy to receive divine judgment. God's wrath is not the kind of anger that we might have. Somebody does something we don't like, we get mad. No, that's not what's meant by this word. It is the consistent reaction of His holiness and righteousness against everything that is sinful. The term here is orgae. This is the word that's used most often in the New Testament for wrath. It comes from a root that means to team, to swelling up, to oppose. It's rising up to, it's gradual. God's gradually building an intensifying opposition to our sin. So, what Paul is saying when he uses this term, He's saying that God's wrath is consistent, controlled, and just. God's wrath is not some uncontrolled anger or violence toward sinners. And that's what makes it so frightening. It's very controlled. It's entirely consistent. The doctrine of God's wrath, Boyce says, means that His wrath is an inevitable and growing opposition to all that is opposed to His righteousness. Remember, Jesus said to the Jewish religious leaders, you're building up for yourselves wrath. So God's a holy God. He doesn't just stand idly by as men transgress His law. We look at the world, we see the world turning from God, ignoring His law, mocking His people. He's not just standing by idly. They're storing up for themselves wrath on the day of judgment. One writer calls it the settled indignation, the attitude of God toward men who have fallen in it. and have refused His offer of salvation in Christ. So in Romans chapter 1, in that well-known passage where men reject Him and so He gives them over to their own lusts. They still reject Him. He gives them over to a homosexual life. They still reject Him. He gives them over to a depraved mind. There we see the present growing manifestation of God's wrath when He gave this nation over to idolatry, to worship that which are not gods at all. Trees. We have Earth Day. Depraved mind. Men don't know whether they're men or women anymore. This is the present growing manifestation of God's wrath. That's what we see when we see this stuff. Hebrews though, we see the future outpouring of his wrath. In chapter 10 where the writer tells us, it's a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of a living God. And there's a day of God's vengeance that's coming. People go blissfully on with their lives according to the ways of this world. Children of wrath, which we all once were, are those who are lost in sin and deserve eternal death, eternal punishment. The children of wrath are those who stand condemned before God. And Paul declares here, imagine these words, we were all by our nature children of wrath and liable to this condemnation. All men, both Jews and Gentiles, are here pronounced guilty unless and until they are redeemed and brought back by Christ. Apart from Christ, there is no righteousness, there's no redemption, there's no salvation. He is the only hope of the world. What the message is here is if one has not been made spiritually alive by God, he will ultimately choose to turn away from God and reject Him and reject His Son. Boyce says, no other view does justice to what the Bible teaches concerning the radical nature of sin and the totality of grace and salvation. It's amazing But man's nature is to completely disregard the grave nature of sin. So under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul here has set forth the human condition in this first three verses. The human condition of all who are apart from Christ. Before their conversion. Before our conversion. All who were now born again were in this same condition, walking according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, and according to the lusts of our flesh and the desires of our fallen minds. As I said earlier, the sources of these evil tendencies come from within and from without, from the world and from the spiritual realm. One writer says this, Paul's teaching suggests that the explanation for our behavior is not to be found exclusively in human nature or in terms of the world's influence. Similarly, and exclusively, demonic explanation for deviant behavior is also unduly myopic. Rather, we should explain behavior on the basis of human nature, environment, and the demonic, all three simultaneously. One part may play a leading role, but all three parts are involved. So, Paul wants us to beware as we conclude this little section. We have three enemies. The world's ways, our own flesh, and Satan. They all work together, and those who bow to them will suffer eternal destruction. The reason Paul's written these things here, I have no doubt, is because it's impossible to grasp the mercy of God if one does not see the true state of man apart from His mercy. If we don't see what our condition really was, we won't have a full appreciation of His grace. Arminian teaching erroneously says there's some good in all men. Enough good to choose to come to Christ for forgiveness apart from the work of God. You can go to almost any church in the county and they'll tell you that. Paul says there's not. Bible says otherwise. Bible says there's no good in men. That none seek God. That salvation is entirely of God's mercy and grace. And it's failure to realize the seriousness of fallen man's condition, failure to understand the depth of his depravity that leads to these kind of doctrines. So, if it must be a work of God, then what's to be done for those who choose a life enmeshed in sin, unable to escape from it and from the outpouring of God's wrath? God has ordained two ways for us to seek the salvation of the lost. One is to pray, which is why we do this every Lord's Day. Second is to share this gospel. If you will come to Christ and trust in Him as the atonement for your sins and believe in Him, you can be saved. At the same time, we know that it's a work of God. And the amazing truth, in the end, is this. If you come to Christ, if you come to God, and say, I'm a sinner, and recognize you're a sinner, and ask Him, beg Him for forgiveness, He will not refuse you. I can't explain all that. But Christ said those who come to Him, He will in no wise cast out. The ways of God are not our ways. But He is the only way of eternal life. And so, for this reason, we must share the gospel with the unbelieving. Tell them the good news, that though they are sinners, though we're all sinners, there's life in Christ. Well, let's take a few minutes, and next week we're going to pick up in verse 4. But for now, let's take a few moments and reflect on the things the Lord has said to us tonight in this passage, and then we'll close in prayer. Lord, thank you for the blessing that we can see our depravity. That we can see that we live lives not in accord with your will, your ways, and your law. Thank you for opening our eyes to our need for forgiveness. Thank you for opening our eyes to the truth that we can't do anything in ourselves to obtain that forgiveness. Thank you, Lord, for showing us your plan of salvation throughout this letter. Thank you for assuring us that Christ is right now on the throne at your right hand. Thank you for the assurance that we can live by. Thank you for giving us spiritual life that we may live with our eyes toward heaven. That we may set our eyes on things above where Christ is. That we may not be absorbed by the things of this world, but that we may see all things in the light of you and your goodness and your grace and your love. And so, Lord, we give you thanks and we honor your name. We worship you in Christ's name.