Were by Nature Children of Wrath

Introduction: The Necessity of Expository Preaching and the Context of Ephesians 2

0:03 Some of you who are acquainted with the gospel records will remember that when our Lord Jesus Christ was being tempted by the devil, he answered to the first temptation with these words from the book of Deuteronomy, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Man needs bread by which to live, for he is a body, spirit, creature. But the scripture says man shall not live by bread alone, but not merely by the words in general that proceed from the mouth of God, but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God. It's because we're convinced that our Lord was speaking truth when he said that, that we're convinced that our Lord was speaking truth when he said that, that we are committed to the careful verse-by-verse, phrase-by-phrase, and at times word-by-word exposition of the scriptures, because it is thus that God has intended we should live spiritually.

1:20 And so we are presently examining the words of God as found in Ephesians chapter 2, this chapter that has two great concepts. Contrasts contained in it. Verses 1 to 10 are a section in which the Apostle Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, contrasts what the Ephesians were prior to the grace of God quickening them to life, particularly what they were as individuals. And he generalizes, indicating that their state is the state of all men by nature, and only when the God of Israel is in their state, grace of God comes is that condition changed. Verses 11 to the end of the chapter are a contrast between what they were, not so much as individuals in isolation before the grace of God, but what they were in terms of their national identity as it had reference to the visible people of God. And he says they were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, cut off from his visible people, but now by grace they are part of the one true church. For several weeks now our attention has been focused upon the first three verses of the first contrast.

Review: Humanity's Condition and Activity Before Grace (Ephesians 2:1-3a)

2:43 Verses 1 to 3 of Ephesians 2 are the before, verses 4 to 10 are the after. And we've been looking at the before, and I have suggested that there are three basic units of thought in these three verses. The first is indicated by the words in verse 1, and you did he make alive when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins. This is Paul's description of the true condition of the Ephesians prior to the grace of God. And, as we saw in the phrases that come before us in verses 2 and 3, the condition of the Ephesians was not exceptional. Their condition was simply a reflection of the condition of all men by nature. We are dead on account of our trespasses and sins, spiritually dead, cut off from living relationship to and communion with the living God. And then we have in verses 2 and everything but the last phrase of verse 3, a description of the activity of people who are spiritually dead. People who are in

3:58 that condition of the Ephesians prior to the grace of God. And, as we saw in the verses 2 and 3, the condition of spiritual deadness, what do they do? What is characteristic of them? And the Apostle gives us five things that are characteristic of them in those two verses. He tells us that there is a reality to their activity. They live, they have their conversation, or they walk, and they are doing. Verbs of action. He describes the sphere of their activity. Trespasses and sins.

4:28 the standard, the world, the spiritual power behind it, the devil. And then we concluded last week by noting the conscious motive which drives them in all that they do, fulfilling the lust or desires of the flesh and of the mind. There is no higher motive than the gratification of the passions of the flesh and the darkened reasonings of the mind. So much for the review of what we've covered.

The Third Unit of Thought: Humanity's Position Before God

5:01 Paul's statement of their condition, verse 1. Their activity in that condition, verses 2 and 3. Now the third unit of thought is found at the end of verse 3. They position before God of all who are spiritually dead and who engage in those activities.

5:21 What is their position before God? Notice the switch in the way he constructs. His thought. Having said in verse 2, Ye walked, verse 3, among whom we lived.

5:34 There the focus is upon activity. The last phrase is, and were by nature children of wrath. You see, he's moved from what we were doing to what we were. He's moving from activity to position or to nature.

5:53 This is what we did. This is what we were. And so this is not a little homiletical device. It is an honest treatment of the text to say we have introduced in this last phrase a third unit of thought, namely a description of men's position before God while they are dead in sins, while they are characterized by the activities of spiritually dead people.

The Essence of This Position: Children of Wrath

6:23 Now to think our way through this phrase, is, were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest, we shall consider first of all the essence of this position. Children of wrath. What does it mean? Secondly, the scope of this position, even as the rest.

6:44 And then thirdly, the origin of this position, by nature. And again, it is right to put the things in this order because in the original, the little phrase by nature is like a, a little parenthesis. The emphasis is upon ye were children of wrath. And the by nature is a little parenthesis.

7:05 And ye were, were children by nature of wrath. So the emphasis then is upon the essence of that position, the scope of that position, even as the rest, and then thirdly, the origin of that position. First of all then, the essence, of this position. What do these words mean, children of wrath?

7:34 Well, the little phrase, children of, is what is called by the expositors, a Hebraism. That is, it is a phrase that is what we would call like an American colloquialism. It's something that if you were the average American in the given region where that colloquialism is used, you understand perfectly well what is meant. And this is a different word from the word used earlier, sons of disobedience.

8:02 This is a word which speaks more of the concept of being begotten. And to speak of someone as a child of wrath means that he has an intimate connection with wrath. In Luke 20.36, Jesus spoke of true believers as sons of the resurrection.

8:24 That is, those who have a peculiar attachment to the resurrection of the just unto bliss and everlasting glory. We say in the hymn, take the name of Jesus with you, child of what? Sorrows and of woe. What do we say?

8:44 Christian who has an intimate connection with sorrow and of woe, take the name of Jesus with you. I think there is a biography of Augustine called Son of Tears. That is, one whose sonship was deeply connected with tears, not so much his own, but the tears of his mother Monica, who wept and travailed for his spiritual state until he was brought to the knowledge of the grace of God. Therefore, the little phrase, children of wrath, means that these Ephesians and all men by nature, while they are dead, spiritually, while they are engaged in the activities described, have an inseparable connection to and are inextricably identified with wrath. Now then, what is the meaning of the word wrath? What is that thing to which they have this deep connection, this inseparable relationship? How are we to understand the meaning of the word?

9:54 Well, as always, Scripture must be its own interpreter. Now, does this word mean in Scripture human wrath or anger? So that what the Apostle Paul is saying is that above all the other characteristics of unsaved people, unregenerate men and women, they are marked by violent outbursts of carnal anger. Is that what he is saying?

10:20 Of course not. That would not be true. Not all unregenerate men are marked by violent outbursts of uncontrolled anger. I have met some very peaceful, amicable, mild, unregenerate people.

10:34 But not only would it be contrary to fact, it would be contrary to the proper usage of the word, not only in its immediate context, but in the entirety of the word of God. There are three places, at least in the New Testament, where the word does refer to human wrath. That is, the sinful passion of anger. One of them is in this very epistle, chapter 4 and verse 31.

11:00 Let all anger and wrath be put away from you. Colossians 3.8. It speaks of anger and wrath and James 1 and verse 20.

11:12 But of the 20 times that the Apostle Paul uses this word, 13 of those instances are without question a distinct, indisputable reference to the wrath of God. Two or three more can be understood that way and there are only three of them that refer to human anger and the context makes it plain. So then, the preponderant use of the word leads us to the conclusion that it is referring not to people who have an inseparable connection with, an affinity for, an affinity for, outburst of ungoverned human passion, but it's saying that the condition of all men dead in trespasses and sins, walking in the pattern outlined is a condition of liability to, exposure to, connection with, association with the wrath and the anger of God Himself. Let me very quickly show you five references where this is the thought of the Spirit of God without question. Romans 1 and verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness

12:38 of men who hinder the truth in unrighteousness. Chapter 2 and verse 5 of Romans. But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up for thyself wrath, in the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. God's righteous judgment is parallel to the manifestation of His wrath and of His anger.

13:05 Chapter 4 and verse 15 of the book of Romans. For the law worketh wrath. Wherever the law comes it brings in its train the provocation of God's righteous indignation. Chapter 5 and verse 9 of Romans.

13:23 Much more than being justified by His blood shall we be saved from wrath through Him. And here again, though the word God is not in the original, any other meaning is ridiculous. So the occurrence of the word simply wrath or the wrath without even mentioning that it is of God, the context clearly delineates it as the wrath of the living God. Further in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 6.

13:52 Let no man deceive you with empty words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God and notice the parallel phrase upon the sons of disobedience. Here is almost a strict construction from chapter 2 and verse 2. He speaks of the sons of disobedience. Verse 3 he says, They are those whose position is one of exposure to divine wrath, the same thought is picked up again and enunciated in chapter 5, the wrath of God coming upon sons of disobedience.

Understanding the Nature of God's Wrath

14:28 Now I will not weary you with multiplying references. These suffice to show that the essence of this position, this position that Paul describes as children of wrath is that those who are dead, those who walk in the pattern described in their unregenerate state are exposed to, liable to, in close affinity with the frightening, terrible, awesome wrath of the living God. Now the problem we have when we try precisely to ascertain the meaning of the wrath of God is that as human beings wrath is never pure when we express it. Our wrath is always mingled with the flesh. That's why the scripture says the works of the flesh are manifest which are these and among them are listed anger and wrath. And we must at the outset not reason upward from what we know of wrath and project it to God.

15:39 We must reason downward from God to see wrath in its purity and then be humbled that the fact that we know nothing of pure wrath is a revelation of our sinfulness as much as the fact that we know nothing of pure love is a revelation of our sinfulness. What precisely is the wrath of God? There are two little definitions or descriptions that I've encountered in my preparation that have been so helpful to me and I pass them on trusting that they should be helpful to you. One man has said the wrath of God is the settled opposition of His holiness to all that is evil. The settled. You see it's not something that is provoked because someone stepped on his toes. Someone caught him unawares and is reacting.

16:35 No, no. It is the settled opposition of His holiness to all that is evil. Another definition. It is the antagonism of eternal holiness to the reality of sin.

16:53 It is the antagonism of eternal holiness to the reality of sin. You see holiness and righteousness in God are not passive attributes. They are active and aggressive attributes. God's love is not passive.

17:14 It goes out to bestow what love demands upon its objects. God so loved that He gave. Just as the love of God is not passive but active, so the holiness and the righteousness of God are not passive but they are active. That's why the Scripture says not only God is light.

17:43 Light may be passive. A bright object which you behold. But listen. The Scripture says our God is a consuming fire.

17:57 Consuming fire. Fire is not passive. It consumes what gets in its path. And the righteousness and the holiness of God are not passive attributes.

18:10 They are active. And not only is their activity positive in the institution of laws and precepts that are right and holy, but they are active in the violent but holy opposition of His nature to all that is a contradiction of His holiness and of His righteousness. But rather than try to grasp the concept of the wrath of God in abstraction, in formal definition, my friend, open your Bible and just begin to read it. And you see constant demonstrations of the wrath of God.

18:52 The pure and holy anger of God actively going forth in His antagonism and antipathy to sin. What is the banishment of Adam and Eve from the garden but an act of pure and holy wrath? What was the inundation of the old world with water? The drowning, the destruction of every man, woman, child, and beast and living thing except Noah and his family.

19:22 What is it but a monument of His active wrath going forth to consume rebel sinners who dare to defy His holy laws with impunity? What is the consuming of Sodom and Gomorrah but the outgoing of His wrath? What are the plagues upon Egypt but His wrath upon that wicked nation? What is the drowning of the Egyptian army but a manifestation of wrath?

19:50 What is the fire consuming Nadab and Abihu but the manifestation of wrath? The swallowing up of Dathan, Abiram, and the company a manifestation of wrath? What is the history of Israel with its bondage, its captivities, its destruction, a history of divine wrath? My friends, if you and I would bleed the Bible of its doctrine of divine wrath, we have bled the Bible of one of its major constituent elements.

20:19 You say, my God is not a God of wrath. No, He isn't. He is your idol. And idolaters will perish in the lake of fire unless they repent and believe on the true and the living God.

20:34 No, your God is not a God of wrath because He is not the God of the Bible. He is no God. He is but the projection of your own imaginations. A projection that is not intellectually forced or aesthetically dictated but a projection which is morally produced.

20:53 You want a God who is no God of anger so you can cling to your sins with a good conscience. That's why. That's why. You don't want a God who is actively opposed, who has in the words of our definition a present antagonism in His eternal holiness to all that is sin in you.

The Climactic Display of God's Wrath: Calvary

21:17 This, I submit, is the only way to understand Biblical history but of course the climactic events in history that is the most graphic display of the wrath of God is not hell. It is Calvary. What is the wrath of God? My friend, the cross of Christ is the most vivid answer to that question.

21:46 Deny this fundamental aspect of God's character and His action and the cross is at best an unsolvable enigma and at worst it is a cruel and sadistic abuse of the Son of God by His own Father. Deny that there is valid wrath in God and you turn the cross at best into a puzzling enigma, a riddle that cannot be solved or at worst you turn it into a cruel and sadistic abuse of the Son of God by His own Father. Why? Because our Lord was conscious that in facing the cross His greatest trial was not to be that which He was to bear at the hands of men but that which He was to experience at the hands of His Father. Go to the Garden of Gethsemane.

22:54 What presses Him to the ground in an agony that causes as it were death drops like drops of blood to be forced from His holy pores? My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me. Nevertheless, not My will but the will of the soldiers, the will of Pilate, the will of the Jews be done. No!

23:26 Not My will but Thine be done. My Father presented the cup, the cup full of human sin, the cup which Jesus must drain on behalf of His people. And the only way He could drain it was to bear the wrath of His Father unmixed with mercy. Behold Him upon the cross.

23:51 His disciples forsake Him and they flee. The chief priests and the apostate Jews mock Him. He saved others. Himself He cannot save.

24:02 Apart from gentle words of forgiveness. Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. Apart from pardoning words to the thief.

24:11 Today Thou shalt be with Me in paradise. Apart from the considerate words of His own earthly mother. Woman, behold Thy son. Son, behold Thy mother.

24:20 There is no complaint of His own personal physical agony. There is no complaint of the brokenness of spirit when His own disciples forsake Him. And that was real to Jesus. He felt the need of their companionship in the garden.

24:35 Could you not watch with Me one hour if He felt that need looking to the cross? How much more must He have felt it when upon the cross? Not one word of complaint. O my people, when the Father shrouded the heavens in blackness and in the mysterious interaction within the Triune Godhead, the Father who never loved His Son more than when the Son's obedience reached its apex upon the Calvary, never loved Him more in the filial relationship of Father and Son, but since His position was that of the sin-bearer, the Father, may I say it reverently, the Father's holy heart burned with righteous indignation against His Son. Not in His person, for He loved Him, but in His position, as the representative of His people. Hence the Scripture says, He spared not His own Son. It pleased the Lord to bruise Him.

25:49 I say it's sadism. It's sadism if this doctrine of the wrath of God isn't true, because it says the Father got pleasure from bruising the Son. Pleasure from bruising the Son. It pleased the Lord to bruise Him.

26:09 That's why I will not give to any man who denies the doctrine of divine wrath the name Christian. I will not call him liberal Christian. He is not Christian. He mocks my Savior.

26:23 He prostitutes the most sacred doctrine of the Word of God, the doctrine of substitution. The Son of God said, My God, my God, why hast thou what? Abandoned me. The curse of sin is death, and the essence of death is abandonment.

26:48 And why did the Father abandon the Son? Because of this antagonism of His eternal holiness to all that is sin. And Jesus was a real sin-bearer of real sin upon a real cross in real relationship to His people and to the Father. And He bruised Him.

27:09 He punished Him. He made Him a curse. That's the wrath of God, dear people. The wrath of God revealed in the most vivid display of the love of God.

27:28 To be a child of wrath then means that one has an inseparable connection with the righteous anger of God against sin and the sinner who commits it. Therefore beholding His creatures, according to verse 1, dead on account of trespasses and sins, God beholding His creatures, walking according to the course of the world, walking according to the prince of the power of the air, walking in the lust of the flesh and of the mind. How does God react to those creatures? Is He neutral now?

28:06 Does He smile with a smile of indulgence? No. He burns towards them now in pure and righteous and holy anger. John 3.36 says, He that believeth not the Son, the wrath of God, is abiding upon Him. Not it shall. It abideth here, now in this place. And unless the people who are described in verses 1 to 3 get into the description beginning with verse 4, that wrath will abide upon them forever.

The Scope of This Position: Even as the Rest

28:49 Well, having sought to give the essence of this position, expounding simply the meaning of the words, children of wrath, consider in the second place and much more quickly the scope of this position. Of whom is this true? Is this just true of harlots, murderers, drunkards, whoremongers, thieves? No, no, my friend.

29:14 Look at the text. We were children of wrath, even as the rest. Literally translated as also the rest. The meaning is obvious.

29:31 Paul says, including himself as a self-righteous, religious, morally upright Jew. Never forget it. He's including himself. He says, we who once lived as dead sinners were no worse or different from others.

29:50 No, our state is this. Even as the rest. And here again the Apostle underscores the absolute universality of sin. Whatever distinctions are apparent and they are many, the things in which we are one are far more important.

30:09 I thought of this yesterday flying home from Chattanooga. I sat on the plane and to the left of me was a man from Japan who spoke very halting English. I just yearned for the gift of tongues. Not to make me feel good and get tingles up my spine, but Pentecost tongues.

30:29 Acts 2 tongues that I could have conveyed the Gospel to him. I sat there feeling so frustrated. I thought of Ken Williams and I said, Lord, why isn't he here? And he could speak to him the Gospel.

30:38 But there was the Japanese man to the left of me. The other side of him was a young college student from Florida. Sitting in front of me was a black man from I don't know where and a black woman to the right of me and another Japanese man there. And as I sat and I thought, look at the diversity.

30:53 The man's head, he had a well-trimmed sort of mini-afro. And I just let my mind begin to wander. I thought of the different shape of the hair follicles and the rest in the straight black hair of the Japanese. The shape of the eyes.

31:07 And I thought, look at the diversity. Yet, as I began to try to regard them as God reveals them, I said, there's no difference. The differences that make men war and fight and be filled with prejudice and animosity. The differences are very, very surface.

31:24 Scratch beneath that black man's kinky afro. Scratch beneath that Japanese man's straight black hair. Reshape the eyes and the lips and what they really are in God's eyes as I tell you. Even as the rest.

31:48 And then I didn't forget to think about myself of Heinz 57 Variety sitting in the midst of that pure stuff. You see what I'm driving at? Paul says, children of wrath. And to whom does that apply?

32:09 Just some of the wicked, wicked, wicked decisions? No! Even as the rest. My friends, it's humbling but it's true.

The Origin of This Position: By Nature

32:18 That's precisely where you are and I am and everyone is. This moves us then to ask this very profound question and Paul gives a very simple but profound answer. How in the world did we get that way? How did we get that way?

32:35 If the essence of our position is liability to divine wrath, if the scope of it includes all men, even as the rest, what's the origin of this position? And he answers it in the text. In just a little aside, a little parenthesis. And we were children by nature of wrath even as the rest.

32:58 In other words, this was so ingrained in Paul's thinking because he thought biblically he doesn't even stop to prove it. He just asserts it in a little aside. And to me that's more powerful than if he gave a dissertation on it. We were children by nature of wrath even as the rest.

33:14 That's the way it reads in the original. The word by nature sometimes may be used to describe that which is habitual. We say that guy's a natural liar. What we mean is he lies so habitually it comes easy to him.

33:29 Or we talk about someone who's a, well I won't go into other illustrations. Let me show though how most of the time even when we use it, we mean that which is inborn. We say the person is a natural switch hitter. He can pick up a bat and bat lefty.

33:41 He can pick it up and bat right. We say so and so, is a natural singer. That is they needed very little formal training to know how to place a note and how to do what singers are supposed to do with notes. Tonally and volume and articulation and all the rest.

33:59 And this is its predominant use in the word of God. Galatians 2.15 Paul speaks of those who are Jews by nature. That is by birth.

34:09 He speaks in chapter 4 and verse 8 of Galatians as the Gentiles gods who are no gods by nature. There is nothing inherent in them. Romans 1.26 and 2.14 many instances and you can look them up with your own concordance where the word by nature simply means that which is inherent in our constitution and that from birth. Therefore Paul is asserting from the moment we have any being we are liable to and exposed to the wrath of God. And this comes out strongly in the form of the verb were. And we were literally translated we were continually.

34:57 From the moment we were constituted we, we were children of wrath by nature. Now this is the teaching of the Old Testament is it not? David says, Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive. The moment the sperm joined the egg that which was conceived and implanted on my mother's womb was sinner by nature.

35:30 They go astray speaking lies from the womb. Jesus said it. That's why I won't call any man a Christian who denies total depravity. He may deny it up here but I mean in reality.

35:48 Not the traditional reform definition of it. I'm talking about any man who denies the truth that by nature there is no spiritual good in him I won't call him a Christian. Because Jesus said that which is born of the flesh is what? Flesh plus something else?

36:05 What did he say? That which is born of the flesh is flesh. Nothing more. Nothing beyond that.

36:15 So how can I be a Christian and deny the words of Jesus? How can I be a Christian and deny the words of Jesus? He said in John 17 8 I have given unto them thy words and they have received them. That's the mark of a Christian.

36:30 Doesn't say they understand all of them but they received them. And any man who will face the statement of Jesus now follow closely don't go out of here ripping mad saying he said I didn't say that. What I'm saying is if you face the words of Jesus and know they're there and say I won't accept them. I won't accept them.

36:46 You have no grounds to claim you're a Christian and I will not call you a Christian any more than you ought to call me a Christian if I don't receive the words of Jesus. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. And this is why Paul was careful to use even a different word from the word he used earlier. He spoke of the sons of disobedience which speaks more of the full grown son.

37:09 But here he speaks of children of disobedience and he uses the word that comes from the verb ticto to be begotten or to be born. So he's saying ye are children from birth of wrath and that natural liability to wrath goes back as far as my being in my mother's womb. And why is that so? Because of God's sovereign pleasure to deal with the human race in terms of two great heads of the race Adam and Christ.

37:48 Romans 5 12 to 21 is the inspired exposition of this phrase. What is it children by nature of wrath? Why should children why should people be exposed to wrath long before they do conscious acts of sin? Children die.

38:09 Children are exposed to inequities and injustices and cruelty. Not the least of which is the vicious cruelty of the present abortion that slaves and slaves and human beings before they breath the first breath of air. My friends Romans 5 12 to 21 is the only answer. Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin for that all sinned.

38:40 And where did all sin? They all sinned in Adam. Say well I wasn't. No you weren't.

38:45 No neither was I. But I didn't have no neither did I. Almighty God in sovereign wisdom and might and power and for reasons that leap beyond the limitations of our mind fully to comprehend chose to deal with all of humanity in Adam. First Corinthians 15 22 as in Adam all die.

39:09 We had an organic living relationship to Adam and his first sin became the sin of the human race. Where there's no sin there's no wrath. Where there's wrath there's sin. Therefore since by nature we're children of wrath it's because by nature we're children of sin.

Application 1: Unlocking Mysteries of Suffering

39:31 Just that simple. Now having expounded the text and I trust accurately according to the whole teaching of scripture I want to conclude this morning by bringing home three very practical applications of this teaching to us. I've sought to open up the meaning of the words the essence of the position what does it mean to be children of wrath. The scope of the position even as the rest the origin by nature.

40:00 Now what's this say to us. Three very simple but oh what necessary application. The first one is this unlocks certain mysteries. The teaching of this text regarding the position of all men before God unlocks mysteries otherwise unsolvable.

40:20 When will we learn man is not innocent as man he is sinner. As a Christian you cannot help but be moved with compassion at the sight of human suffering. That's why you opened your purses and your hearts and gave so graciously several weeks ago when we took an offering for the starving people in famine stricken Africa. And that gift now is somewhere between four and five thousand dollars.

40:51 We'd be less than human we'd be less than Christians in the image of God if there was no compassion but listen to the profound question why are there famines that involve little children and babies? Why does God permit wars that crush the so called innocent that disrupt the normal faculties of minds and bodies? My friends listen you'll either have to become an atheist and curse whatever power permits it or come to the biblical doctrine that men are not innocent. They are not innocent when wars take place in cities it is not wars permitted by a sovereign God upon innocent people it is upon sinners liable to divine wrath and judgment. When famines come and earthquakes come and calamities come they do not come to innocent creatures. And I say though there are many mysteries we shall never understand for the secret things belong unto God and the amazement is not that there are some famines some earthquakes some wars you take seriously the bible doctrine of sin and you say

Application 2: Revealing the State of Your Heart

42:20 oh God how could you do anything other than bring a flood every third or fourth generation and start with another family all over again. How can God bear think of the millions in this temple under foot every law of true religion and sanctity and purity. The thing that amazes me is not that a tornado comes here and an earthquake there but that God doesn't split the nation with the continental divide and open it up wide enough and swallow it all. My friend get out of your head any notion that calamities come to innocent victims. The second thing this text will do is give you an idea of what is going on in your heart. Your attitude to this teaching reveals whether or not you have truly embraced salvation by grace alone. Because when Paul is done making this description and including himself we were by nature

43:49 just as the rest what are the next two words and after he says but God what are the words that pour out rich in mercy grace power he quickened us by grace he is saved we are his workmanship oh it's as though he almost runs out of words to say it's by grace by grace by grace and grace alone and even the faith by which we are made you see my friend this is a real revealer of the state of your heart when you have been brought existentially that is personally inward experimentally to see that the description of verses one to three is no overstatement for effect it is no enlargement for rhetorical meaning but it is a revelation of the world the world the flesh and the devil and as such we were liable to divine wrath and displeasure

45:18 from the womb oh my friend you will not find it difficult to say amazing grace and to say I once was bound I once was duped I once was dead now I live now I see blessed be God for free and sovereign grace but the text is not only one that unlocks a great mystery not only reveals the state of the heart but in it is calculated to preserve the truth of the gospel the assertion of this teaching and its presence in the hearts and minds of God's people is the only effective preservative against the inroads of rationalism humanism and man made religion now let me illustrate it in a very simple way it is a very simple way to make the

Application 3: Preserving the Truth of the Gospel

46:47 world a better place for the world to be a better place for the world to be a better place for the people to live in a place where man has no power left behind and is not able to live in a place where man is to bring him into the state of salvation.

47:40 And so the great heresy that came, Pelagianism.

47:46 You see?

47:48 Prior to that, you had the Arianism, but behind that was the Sacramentalism that took salvation out of the hands of the direct sovereign work of the Spirit and put it in the sacraments, put it in the hands of the professional manipulators. This can be demonstrated historically. The first tenet to go when you deny that this is man's condition, salvation is the direct agency of the Spirit as essential to a man's salvation. Then, when you've denied that and he can get saved by Christ helping him, more or less, then you see, why do you need a divine Savior to provide an infinitely worthy sacrifice so you have a good example who inspires you to become a Christian?

48:31 You see? Then the deity of Christ is attacked. And then it isn't long before every form of Christian ethics is undermined and, my friends, it begins with a denial of what we are because the salvation set forth in the Bible is conceived and administered precisely in terms of what man is. And the minute you begin to misrepresent what man is, you're going to alter the salvation that was ordered to fit him.

49:08 If I get a tailor-made suit, the tailor's to make a suit that fits me where I am right now. Shoulder girth, waist girth, hip girth, length of arms. If I change what's here and go this way,

49:24 then the tailor's got to change the suit to fit me where I am. If man is what we have here in a state of sin, then the salvation of verses 4 to 10, hallelujah, fits him perfectly. But God, rich in mercy, sovereign in power.

49:49 But you get man that's a little less than dead. The will is not in bondage as we saw last week. He doesn't do the things willed by the flesh and the mind. His will is somehow free to act independent of his nature.

50:03 Then what kind of salvation do you have? You have a salvation in which Jesus helps you to save yourself.

50:10 And it doesn't produce godliness because the cards are stacked against you, my friend. It takes direct divine supernatural agency to ever plant the rare fruit of the vine. It takes direct divine supernatural agency to ever plant the rare fruit of the vine. The flowers of godliness in the soil of depraved human nature.

50:25 And so you've got all your concocted theories of the deeper life and all the rest, which is an effort to somehow make the field look respectable because the plants are awful scrawny and withered. And if we're going to see full-blown plantings of grace that God may be glorified, it will grow out of a return to clear understanding in the passage we've expounded today. Oh, some may say, some may say you're a stickler for words, my friends, listen to me. If I read anything into the scripture this morning, come on now, you answer me honestly.

51:04 Your conscience is on my side, though your emotions may be against me. Your conscience is on my side that I've given you the truth of scripture.

51:15 Come on, admit it. It is. And though your emotions may be, your conscience is on my side. That's the great joy when you preach the word.

51:24 You always know God's saying amen. In the person's conscience, even though his emotions may be sticking his tongue out at you. I tell you, that's an unfair advantage, but it's wonderful.

51:36 Oh, it's blessed. And you young man, if God lays his hand upon you, never forget it. Almighty God says amen to his word. That's why you must expound the word.

51:46 Apply the word. Listen. Your conscience says amen to it. Your emotions may fight it, my dear people.

51:53 We're not being doctrinaire. We're not being sticklers. We want to be a good person. We want for our children and unborn generations the proclamation of a divine savior, of the supernatural agency of the spirit essential to regeneration.

52:12 And that's why we're determined to ground this congregation in the truth of the word of God. That's why Paul wrote to Ephesus five years after he had been there, knowing the tendency to decline, the tendency to spiritual decline, the tendency to reclension. He writes these words. What for?

52:34 To ensure the preservation of this glorious truth of salvation by grace for unborn generations.

Conclusion: From Death to Life Through Christ

52:44 Thank God in our next exposition we can turn from the before to the after.

52:50 But, God, but my friend, you'll never appreciate the after till you look honestly at the before.

52:59 What is our true condition? Dead. What is our activity? It's described.

53:05 It's not. What is our position before God? Liable to wrath? My friend, you don't need to wait for the exposition to enter into the reality of verses four to ten.

53:16 Right here in this place this morning, acknowledging that what's been preached is true. And feeling painfully the awareness of what it is to be under divine wrath. You may here and now in this place and this moment believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in this.

53:36 Cast yourself upon his mercy. Behold him as I tried to present him this morning. Crushed beneath the load of divine wrath against human sin. And know that God sets that Christ before you in all his agony and in all his glorious position at the right hand of the Father.

53:57 And says there is virtue, there is merit for the vilest of sinners. Embrace. Believe upon him. Cast yourself upon him.

54:06 Look unto me all the ends of the earth. And be you saved. May God grant that for your safety and for Christ's glory will pass out of death into life. Out of that bondage to the world, the flesh and the devil.

54:24 Out of the state of condemnation. And be able to sing in the words of Wesley, no condemnation now I dread. I am my Lord's and he is mine. Those two things are always together.

54:38 You say he's yours, the evidence will be that you're his. I am my Lord's and he is mine. Alive in him my living head. Clothed in righteousness divine, my friend.