Wherein Ye Once Walked

Ephesians 2: The Chapter of Two Great Contrasts

0:02 We turn again this morning to Ephesians chapter 2, as we have resumed our verse-by-verse consideration of the mind of the Spirit of God as found in this portion of the Word written, and I intimated last Lord's Day that a proper understanding of Ephesians chapter 2 is to be had when we recognize this chapter as the chapter of the two great contrasts. Verses 1 through 10 are a contrast of what the Ephesians were before they were converted,

0:42 and what they now are as individuals standing in the grace of God. The two key phrases are, ye were dead, but, verse 4, God. Ye were, but God. And then in verses 11 through 22, we have a contrast between what the Ephesians were before their conversion, and what they now are as Spirit-quickened members of the one true church.

1:18 Verse 12, ye were, and he speaks of their alienation, but verse 13, but now ye are. And so we have these two. The two great contrasts, what men are before the coming of the grace of God as individuals, what men are before and after the grace of God in relationship to the true church. We began then a consideration of the first paragraph, the first great contrast, and we noted that verses 1 to 3 are the before, and verses 4 to 10 constitute the after.

The Necessity of Understanding Our Natural State

1:59 And here is the greatest before and after demonstration that makes all the ads of the diet concerns and any other before and after concern pale into insignificance. What are we before the grace of God comes to us in power? What are we after grace has laid hold upon us? And in these first three verses, Paul is concerned that the Ephesians will do what the prophet Isaiah commanded the people of God to do.

2:33 We read in Isaiah chapter 51 and verse 1, look unto the rock from whence ye were hewn and unto the hole of the pit from whence ye were digged. The Apostle Paul is taking the Ephesians as it were by the hand and saying, look, that's what you were when God began to deal with you, that's the pit in which you were when God laid hold of you. For it is only as we appreciate what we were by nature that we will rightly appreciate what we are by grace. To whom much is forgiven, the same loveth much.

3:15 To whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And so there is no way to bring the saints to higher pinnacles of appreciation of grace, but to take them down into lower depths of understanding. And if you will not go down with Paul, you won't go up with him. And if you are not prepared for the shocking sight of what you are by nature, you will never know the bliss and exhilaration of seeing what you are by grace.

3:47 And therefore away with all the pseudo-concern that says, well, I am just not predisposed to be preoccupied with the same and the rest. I want to be occupied with Jesus. My friend, that's a cop-out. You will not know anything of the glory of Christ in a true, vigorous, biblical sense unless you know something of the ugliness of your own heart.

4:14 And so the apostle, before he expounds on the mighty work of divine quickening, is careful to open up the horrors of man in a state of naivety. And if you don't know the glory of God, you will never know of the glory of God. And if you are not prepared to be occupied with Jesus, my friend, that's a cop-out. You will not know anything of the glory of Christ in a true, vigorous, biblical sense unless you know something of the ugliness of your own heart.

Three Divisions of Man's Condition Apart from Grace

4:28 And in these first three verses we have essentially three major divisions of thought. There is in verse 1 an assertion of the true condition of all mankind apart from the grace of God. They are in a state of spiritual death. And then in verses 2 and following we have a description of the activity of man in that condition.

4:56 We will begin to study that this morning. And then we have in the third place a pronouncement of their true position before God while they are in that condition. The last phrase of verse 3, were by nature children of wrath even as the rest. And so in this picture of the before we have an assertion of the true condition, death.

5:25 A description of the activity in that condition and thirdly a pronouncement of our position before God, children of wrath. What then is our true condition before the grace of God lays hold of us? The apostle says, and you being dead through your trespasses and sins. The true condition of mankind is one of spiritual death.

5:56 The negation of true spiritual life. And as we saw last week that involves true life, a right knowledge of God, living communion with God, delight in obedience and conformity to God. And to be spiritually dead is to be cut off totally from that world of reality. So that the mind is darkened, the affections are perverted, the will is in a state of rebellion, the heart delights not in God.

6:28 That is a state of spiritual death and Paul uses the term death to underscore the totality of our severance from true life and the finality and irreversibility of that condition. When a man dies physically there is a total separation from the world of physical reality and there is an irreversible separation. Unless there is intrusion from without. Without in a vivifying life giving power death is the end of it.

7:00 When death comes, hope comes, hope dies. So to be spiritually dead is to be totally cut off from any kind of spiritual life and it is to be hopelessly encased in that state unless God is pleased to intrude from without. So much for that basic review. We come now this morning.

The Reality of Activity in Spiritual Death

7:25 To begin a consideration of the second main division of thought in these first three verses. Namely a description of the activity of those who are spiritually dead. For the apostle Paul no sooner asserts the true condition of man as one of spiritual death caused by trespasses and sins than he launches into what is perhaps the most succinct and yet. comprehensive description of the activity of spiritually dead men to be found anywhere in the word of God.

8:05 Now does it sound strange to your ear to put these two words together? The activity of the dead? Now whenever there seems to be activity among the physically dead we get spooked and spooked real quick. That's why someone's walking through a graveyard and hears a noise or sees a movement they're filled with horror because activity amongst the physically dead is just plain spooky.

8:33 That's why the disciples were fearful when they saw form walking and thought it was a ghost, a spirit, something that came back from one dead. My friend have you ever thought of this biblical concept, the activity of the spiritually dead? And it's an evidence of our state of death that we don't feel the horror of it. For it's the very activity of the spiritually dead.

9:06 The spiritually dead that is eloquent witness of their spiritual death. The apostle is concerned that we have a proper understanding of that condition of spiritual death and therefore gives this careful description of the activity of all men and women who are in that condition. Well how should we think our way through the passage? Wherein ye once walked according to the course of this world.

9:37 According to the prince of the powers of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. Well this description of the activity of the spiritually dead must begin with some statement concerning the reality of the activity of the spiritually dead. Having underscored the reality of that activity, we will begin this morning a consideration of the nature of that activity.

10:20 Now the reality of the activity of the spiritually dead is seen by Paul's use of three words. Look at verse two. Wherein ye once walked. Verse three.

10:34 Among whom we all once lived. Further on in verse three, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind. We have two verbs in their normal appearance. We once walked, verse two.

10:53 We once lived, verse three. Later on in verse three, doing the desires. Now those three words, walked, lived, doing. These are very strong words that not only denote valid activity, but extensive activity.

11:17 Let's look at them in some detail. First of all, he underscores the reality of the activity of spiritually dead people by saying they walk. The word literally means to walk about. If you hear about a person who is gadding about here and there, someone may, if they're trying to impress you with their vocabulary, say, you know, he's quite a peripatetic.

11:40 You ever heard the term? A few of you had, a peripatetic. Well what that means is, he's a walker abouter. They just took the Greek word and they took letter for letter, English letter for Greek letter, and made up the peripatetic.

11:57 He is a walker about. Originally these were some of the philosophers who followed Aristotle all over the place. And they were spoken as the peripatetics. So it's a word that speaks of the spiritual life.

12:06 It's a word that speaks of the spiritual life. It's a word that speaks of the spiritual life. It's a word that speaks of the spiritual life. It's a word that speaks of the spiritual life.

12:08 It's an entire course of activity. Not an action here, a step here, a step there, but a whole course of life. And whenever it's used to describe ethical conduct, a way of life, it is used to describe the way of life as an entire pattern. The word used in 1 John, where it speaks of believers as those who walk in the light.

12:32 Their entire conduct has reference to the light of God's holiness. And the light of God's law. It speaks of sinners as those who walk in the darkness. That is, the entire complex of their activity is carried on in the realm of sin.

12:51 So then, this is true activity. This is constant activity. This is comprehensiveness in that activity. Now the word lived in verse 3.

13:03 It's a word which means basically to conduct oneself. Notice how Paul uses it in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 12. For our glorying is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, and here's the word, we behaved ourselves in the world. Paul says, my entire course of conduct, living in the world, living in the midst of unconverted men, whether preaching, walking, eating, smiling, just enjoying God's handiwork,

13:45 the entire complex of my experience is marked by not fleshly wisdom but the grace of God. So you see, the use of the word here underscores the concept that to once live in a given state is again descriptive of the entirety of that condition. 1 Peter 1.17.

14:07 This will be the last reference we'll look at, but it will help you to feel something of the true meaning of the word. 1 Peter 1 and verse 17. And if he call on him his father who without respect to persons judges according to each man's work, here's the verb, pass the time of your sojourning in fear. Now for a Christian, what is the passing of his time?

14:33 It's the totality of his life lived under the eye of God. With a view to standing before God. So when Paul says he once walked, he were peripatetics in a certain sphere, he's talking about valid, constant, dominant activity. When he says he once lived, he's talking about the whole complex of their lives.

14:58 And then later on in verse 3 he says doing the desires. And this is the simple word for performing, accomplishing. 1 Peter 1.17.

15:07 And again, bringing it into a present tense, he's reminding us that this was the constant, the continuous, the perpetual activity in which you were engaged. Now by the use of three words, the apostle is establishing that the spiritually dead are active, yea, they are very active, yea more, they are constantly active. Their intellect does not die when they die spiritually. Their minds do not disintegrate.

15:46 Their affections, their emotions do not die when they die spiritually. And Paul is concerned that we do not misunderstand what it means to be in a state of spiritual death. We do not turn from human beings into stocks, stones, or brute beasts. We still have a rational faculty.

16:06 We still have emotions. In that sense, we still have souls. We still have a mind. We still have the tools and the capacity to feel, to reflect.

16:14 There still is aesthetic sensitivity and appreciation. There still is a creative ability. Dead men spiritually can produce great works of art that please the eye and sound pleasant on the ear. No, a state of spiritual death does not mean that we somehow cease to be active.

16:35 No, no. There is true and valid life. There is true and valid life. There is true and valid life.

16:39 There is true and valid activity. There is true and valid activity. There is true and valid activity. There is true and valid activity.

16:43 Ye once walked. Ye once lived. Ye were performing desires. Now, in the light of that, several deductions are in order.

Deductions from the Reality of Activity in Spiritual Death

16:51 Number one, when we assert that Paul says that by nature we are spiritually dead, we must think of spiritual death as he does, rather than saying, well, men can't be spiritually dead. Look, they can be religious, and they can do good things, and they can do bad things, and they can do good things. And they can be culturally sensitive. No, no.

17:13 Those very activities, rather than negating the concept of verse one, that men are dead, are the very proof of their deadness. At least it was that way in the apostles' thinking, as we shall see. And therefore with the apostle we must learn to know no man after the flesh. We must not regard men's true condition in terms of what appears to be true.

17:40 We must not regard men's true condition in terms of what appears to be true. We must not regard men's true condition in terms of what appears to be true. We must not regard men's true condition in terms of what appears to be true. You say, I can't be spiritually dead, because I can think.

17:48 I am listening to you as you preach this morning, and I am very conscious of noble desires at times, and noble motives as I am conscious of baser desires and baser motives. My very conscience tells me when I set myself in a given course whether it is right or wrong. So there must be some spark of spiritual life. No, no my friend.

18:08 I have to have it. I don't need it. No, no, my friend. Those activities are very real activities.

18:15 You are walking. You are conducting yourself. You are doing. You are performing.

18:20 But you are conducting and doing and performing in a sphere that is totally devoid of spiritual life.

18:31 Totally devoid of any true knowledge of God, any vital communion with God, any delight in God, any reveling in His grace. You see, all of your doing and performing are but manifestations of the state of spiritual death, which is simply life without God. So then, the activity of the spiritually dead is very real. Paul underscores it for us.

The Nature of Activity in Spiritual Death: The Sphere of Trespasses and Sins

18:59 I hope I have sufficiently established it with you. Now, in the second place, what is the nature of that activity that the spiritually dead engage in? If we have seen the reality of the activity of the spiritually dead, what is the nature of it? And I confess to you, it has been no easy thing to sort out the many strands of thought in the Apostle's mind, but I think I have them sorted out sufficiently to begin to preach on them today.

19:27 The first thing he does is tells us the sphere in which this activity occurs. Where in, or in which, and that's pointing out a certain sphere, he once walked. Then he tells us the standard by which the activity is conducted according to the course of this world. Then he tells us the spiritual power by which the activity is governed according to the prince of the powers of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived.

20:05 Then he deals with the conscious motives in this activity, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And so there are these four great ingredients making up the nature of the activity of spiritually dead. The first is then the sphere in which this activity occurs, and that's all we'll have time to touch on this morning. What is the sphere?

20:33 What is the domain? What is the realm in which all of that activity is carried on? Paul says it's the realm of that which is dead. Paul says it's the realm of that which caused the death.

20:44 You being dead on account of or due to trespasses and sins in which ye once walked. And the wherein refers back to the trespasses and sins. So the cause of spiritual death becomes the very domain or sphere of existence. You children, what is the sphere of your existence?

21:10 Well, you say my home, my bedroom, the kitchen table, the backyard, my school, the school bus, the playground. That's the realm in which I live as I trace out my day from the time I awake to the time I rest my head at night. Every place I go, every place I'm busy, every place I'm active, that's the sphere, that's the realm in which my activity finds its channels. Paul is saying that all the activities described in living, carrying out the course, the course of life, doing, performing these strong words that we've studied, the only sphere in which the activity is conducted is the sphere of trespasses

21:55 and of sins. So that no matter where spiritually dead men are, no matter what they are saying, no matter what they are thinking, no matter what plans they are conceiving, no matter what enterprises they are engaged in, they are always in the sphere, the realm, the domain of sin and of trespasses. Ah! But someone with objections says, wait a minute, Pastor.

22:20 Is there no virtue? Is there no time when they step out at least for a moment and perform some little act that can be called virtuous? Is there no time when they step out of that domain and think a good thought? Well, of course, the Bible recognizes and anyone with his head screwed on half straight recognizes that the Bible recognizes that there is no virtue in the world of sin.

22:42 It recognizes that dead men spiritually do some cultural good, they do some religious good, some civil good, some social good. Jesus speaks of this in Luke 6 in verse 33. He speaks of sinners who do good to those who do good to them. But look at the text.

22:58 Paul says the realm in which we move is the realm of trespasses and of sins. Now a trespass is not a sin but it is a sin that is any deviation in the slightest from the prescribed path marked out by God for His creatures. That's a trespass, a stepping aside. Now what is the prescribed path that God has marked out for His creatures?

23:26 To love Him with the whole heart, mind, soul, and strength and my neighbor is myself. What is a sin? It is a missing of the mark. In thought, attitude, intention, motivation, in the totality of my intricate complex being as a human creature.

23:49 Any deflection, any missing of the mark. And what is that mark? God's holiness. Be ye holy for I am holy.

23:57 A life lived in absolute conformity to the character of God is revealed in the law of God with the motive being to bring glory to God. Now in that sense no man who is spiritually dead has one good deed. For you see when he does a deed that is civilly good his motive is not the glory of God. The thing that drives him is not love to God who is revealed in the face of Jesus Christ.

24:33 It is not a true knowledge of God. He may be doing that good with a pagan notion of God thinking that by so doing God will neutralize his vices because of the virtues he performs. The statement of this passage is that there is an exclusive sphere in which the totality of the activity of spiritually dead people is conducted. It is the sphere of trespasses and of sins.

No Good Deed Apart from God's Glory

25:04 So there is not one deed one thought one motive one word from a spiritually dead man or woman boy or girl that is acceptable to God. Now that is a strong statement but scripture forces it upon us. There is none that doeth good no not one. Romans 6 20 says when ye were the slaves of sin ye were free in regard of righteousness.

25:40 There was a totality of subservience to the devil. You have that strong statement that all of us are as an unclean thing and all of our righteousnesses all of our deeds that on the surface seem to conform to the law of God are as filthy polluted garments they are as menstruous cloths as a literal rendering. Discretion in the Hebrew is quick

26:25 to acknowledge that is exactly what the prophet said. Righteousness is defiled and polluted in the sight of God. Ah but someone objects now that is true of those non-religious people but I am religious I have always been religious I have honored God I was. Pastor Blaise read the respectability of the apostle Paul and

27:09 Hebrew of the Hebrews touching the standards of the law blameless but remember in Ephesians 2 Paul includes himself I remind you of his phrase verse 3 among whom we all once have an opportunity to confess our sins and we know that God is without us so that we should worship it

27:53 as a holy word then by the New I was blameless. Talk about religious zeal. He said, no one outstripped me. I outstripped all of my peers.

28:11 My friend, listen. Paul, when he got a true understanding of what he was by nature, says in the face of all that he remembered about his religious activity, I was just as the rest. I was walking in one sphere and one sphere alone. One domain and one domain alone.

28:32 One wherein I walked in the domain of trespasses and of sins. And when God showed me my heart, you know what I said about all that which I prized? My religious background, my training, my heritage, my activity, my zeal, and all of my performance?

28:55 He said it was like that which is waiting to get loaded into the manure spreader in the spring out on the farm. I counted but done. Strong language? Biblical.

29:08 A little shocking? Biblical.

29:12 I counted but done. He came to the shocking recognition that every religious person must come to that not one of my religious deeds was acceptable spiritual activity because, get it now, acceptable spiritual activity can only come from spiritually quickened people.

29:35 Not until we've been raised from the dead and given spiritual life, spiritual life, life which begins with the true knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Life which is characterized by communion with God in the context of free grace. Not earning anything by my performance, but standing under the canopy of His gracious provision, saying I'm an unworthy servant. He and He alone is worthy of praise.

30:07 Until I'm brought to that place, I'm not spiritually quickened, and all of my best religious services are a stench in the nostrils of God.

Three Reactions to the Truth of Spiritual Death

30:20 Now Paul says, as spiritually dead people, your activity was very real, but the sphere of that activity was trespasses and sins. Having expounded the phrase, now let me seek to apply it for the next few moments. Few things, few things are a more accurate index of where a man or woman really is spiritually than their reaction to such statements as I'm attempting to expound this morning.

30:59 Wherein ye once walked, the whole course of your life was in the realm of trespasses and sins. Your good things, your bad things were all bad. Now let me ask you a very pointed question this morning. What has been your reaction to this?

31:17 Have you found yourself spiritually digging in your heels and backing up and saying, what in the world is that preacher trying to ram road down my throat? You mean he's trying to tell me that there's not one thing I did and have ever done that is acceptable to God unless I've been quickened from a state of spiritual death by the grace of God? That's exactly what I've been saying because that's exactly what Paul says. Now what's been your reaction to that?

31:48 Well, basically, it's probably been one of three reactions. Maybe some modifications of the three. But I'd be willing to wager that most of you will fit into one of these three categories. First of all, it may be one of just pure shock.

32:08 You say, well, no one's ever told me that before. I've been under the impression that you've got the real bad people and then you've got the real good people and then a lot of us sort of in between. Are you shocked to be told that the spirit...

32:23 The state of all men by nature is one of spiritual death and that while in that state and condition, the only sphere in which they move is the sphere of sin and of trespasses. Nothing measures up to the standard of God. Everything is calculated to provoke the frown and the wrath and the anger of God. As Paul says later on in this very passage, we were by nature children of wrath.

32:53 Those under the... canopy of divine judgment.

32:57 My friend, if you're shocked, you're not shocked because we've overstated the case. You're shocked because for the first time you've faced the reality of what you really are by nature.

33:11 And oh, that that shock may lead you to start searching the scriptures to see if indeed this is the universal testimony of the word of God. And as you do, you know what will happen? The shock will pass and there will begin to settle in upon your mind and conscience the deep and profound conviction that the creature only told you a little measure of how bad it really was. And God will begin to show you something of the depths of the pollution of your own heart that will cause you to know if you're ever to find his favor,

33:53 help will have to come from the outside.

33:58 The second reaction may be one of... deep hostility, antipathy, rejection, any word you want to use.

34:09 As you've heard this this morning, you've been digging your heels in and saying, I'll never buy that. My friend, listen to me. You'll buy it now on the basis of the pronouncement of God's word or God will force it upon you in the day of judgment.

34:23 Because in that day, God will make evident to the entire moral universe that the only sphere in which spiritually dead people walked was the sphere, the domain of trespasses and sins. And when he says those words, depart from me, you curse, the entire moral universe will say an amen to the righteous judgment of God. And so if you've sat there this morning and said, no, it cannot be. There must be some virtue in me.

34:49 Oh, I don't claim to be one who's arrived to the pinnacle of virtue, but there's some little spark of God. No, no, my friend. Wherein ye once walked, trespasses and sins, and all of your best virtues were nothing but glorified vices because you had no idea why to God's glory you had no heart that delighted in the true and the living God as he's revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. The third reaction is the reaction of a Christian who says, Oh God, with shame I acknowledge how true are the words of the apostle.

The Christian's Shame and the Comfort of 'But God'

35:29 How true are the exhortations based upon that. As I look back in my past, I see that the only sphere in which I lived was the sphere of trespasses and of sins. And some of us can look back to those days when we thought we were quite religious.

35:50 We thought we were quite acceptable. When God pulled the mask off and showed us our hearts, what a sickening sight it was to know that there was not one day in which we brought praise to the God who made us. Not one hour in which we reveled in communion with the very God who made us for himself. Our minds were filled with all kinds of darkened thoughts about him.

36:17 As Paul says, alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them. And oh, what ignorance we had of the true and the living God. And we're ashamed of it now.

36:30 What do you think was the reaction of the Ephesians when the first Lord's Day one of the elders stood and said, We have a letter from the beloved apostle, our spiritual father. And they heard these words, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, When you were dead through trespasses and sins, wherein ye once walked. The reaction of every true believer is, oh God, tis true, tis true. That's the state in which I walked.

37:00 But I would close this morning by underscoring one little word in the text that I've not yet mentioned. And I've saved it for last because it's the best. Notice, wherein ye once walked. Thank God for that.

37:18 Wherein ye once walked at one time. And he puts it in the past and says, that was the characteristic. Everything about you, all of your doing, all of your performing, all of your walking about, all of your contact, conduct was in that realm of trespasses and sins. But it once was in that realm.

37:42 It no longer is. And as we shall see, when we come to expound the words in detail, he attributes the whole change not to anything that was in the Ephesians. There was no little spark of divinity that somehow moved toward God and God responded. The old liberals called it the spark of divinity.

38:04 The new liberalism calls it free will. You take a step to Jesus, take the first one, and he'll meet you the rest of the way. You take the first one. Paul just excludes them when he wants to do it.

38:19 Describe how the change came about. Verse 4. But God,

38:27 he once were. Oh, Paul, where are the change? He says, take your eyes off yourself and men and every other creature. Fix them upon him.

38:36 But,

38:40 that's the answer.

38:42 And you see, the heart of a true Christian, though it's pained even to reflect upon his past life, though many of you sitting here this morning have felt inward shame and would blush again as though those sins that have been confessed and repented of and been cleansed as though they were all brought before you again. You blush. And yet your heart leaps with joy when you hear the words, but God, for you know that the only one who could have ever delivered you from that sphere and that domain was the living God himself. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

A New Sphere of Walking: Good Works

39:20 And now you have a new sphere of walking. And it's interesting how Paul uses the same word in verse 10. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God aforeprepared that we should walk around in them.

39:35 You are walking around in the realm of trespasses and sins. He says now you're walking around in the realm of good works. Works that flow out of a true knowledge of God. Works that flow out of communion with God.

39:51 Works that flow out of love and gratitude to God for his free salvation. In Jesus Christ. Works that are now patterned after the law of God from a heart that loves the God who gave that law. That's what a good work is.

40:06 Flowing from a right motive. Gratitude to God. Done by a right rule. The law of God.

A Call to Self-Examination: 'Ye Once Walked' or 'Ye Are Yet Walking'?

40:14 Done in the very power and grace of God. For he worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Oh dear friend sitting here this morning could Paul say of you ye once walked or if he were standing here this morning would he say ye are yet walking. You are yet walking in the realm of trespasses and sins because you're still dead.

40:42 You've never been quickened to life. You are as it were a trussed up spiritual corpse.

40:51 Someone has put the strings on you and you've learned how to move your hands at the right time and move your mouth at the right time. And there's a little recorder that speaks the right words but there's no life.

41:05 And you can sing my Jesus I love thee but there's no heart that flows out in love to the Son of God.

41:16 Could Paul say ye were or would he have to say you are yet walking in that sphere that characterizes all the spiritually dead. Where are you boys, girls, men, women? Has God quickened you to life? Has God imparted the life that he alone can give?

41:40 Dear child of God, it's not pleasant to assess what we really were. It doesn't make your heart run out with new measures of love to God and his grace but God. Ye once were. Ye once walked.

41:57 Ye once lived in that realm.

42:01 That's no longer true. And where are you to cast all of the laurels at the feet of the God of sovereign grace? The God of grace. The God who so loved this world of rebel sinners that he sent his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not fear him.

42:26 Oh dear child of God, never shrink from looking honestly at what God says you were for it's the pathway to new appreciations of the grace that has made you what you are. Can you praise him with unfeigned praise this morning? Saying from the heart amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

42:56 And can it be that I should gain an interest in my Savior's blood? Long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound by sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray.

43:15 I woke the dungeon inflamed with light. My chains fell off. I didn't pick them off. They fell off.

43:26 My heart was free.

43:30 I rose, went forth to live as I pleased now no longer afraid of going to hell. Is that what you said?

43:36 I rose, went forth to follow thee. You see free grace always delivers a man from one captivity and brings him into another.

43:49 Breaks the captivity of the dominion of sin and brings us into the captivity of blessed bondservitude to Jesus Christ the Lord.

44:04 You when you were dead through your trespasses and sins wherein ye once walked that's the sphere. Are you in it? Or have you been delivered out of it? May God help you to answer that question with judgment day honesty.

Hope for the Spiritually Dead

44:23 And if as you answer it you must say I'm yet in that sphere. What's my hope? Oh my, friend your hope is not in you or in us but in the living God who alone can quicken the debt. Seek him for he's promised that if you call upon him while he's near if you'll seek him in a way of repentance and faith he will be found of you.

44:50 Let us pray.