Made Alive

Take your Bibles if you would please and turn to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 5 are where we are today, and here in a moment I'd like to give you the details of the depraved. As we start in chapter 2 there's a striking difference between the tail end of chapter 1 and then in chapter 2, but by God's grace we have made it through chapter 1. The last 24 plus sermons in chapter 1 have been most enriching to myself, hopefully to you as well. I want to say a special thank you to Elder David Parker for preaching the last two Sundays and finishing up chapter 1. He did a great job, didn't he? I was very enriched by his messages. Thank you, sir.

October 29th, 2023 is when we started Ephesians chapter 1, and that's been seven months of investing in the understanding of the context and the doctrine of soteriology and the spiritual blessings and the praises of God's glory, the Ephesian prayer from Paul, and the resurrected, ascended, and glorified Christ. Chapter 1 has been a massive amount of content and I've enjoyed the study and the preaching of it. The Ephesian letter opens with God benevolently bestowing spiritual blessings upon the Ephesian believers, and that's what we've been studying, and it ends up with His richness and the supreme power over all things. So God then delivers not only the doctrine of soteriology — what it is to be saved in chapter 1 — but now He's going to describe to the Ephesian church the doctrine of depravity, and we're going to start that today in chapter 2 verse 1.

I would say upfront that we must realize the doctrine of depravity helps us to understand the need for the doctrine of soteriology. Essentially, the depth of depravity is inseparably connected to the height of God's holiness, and so the more you understand the depth of human depravity, the more you will understand the height of God's holiness.

Let's read together in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 5 and open up this wonderful doctrine that leads to the message title today, which is "Made Alive." To be made alive you've got to understand first the bad news before you can get to the good news, and the good news is that we've been made alive in Christ. And so Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1: "And you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you walked according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all also formerly conducted ourselves 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. But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved."

Let's pray together. Father, thank You for this passage and thank You for this rich and wonderful doctrine. Help us to understand it according to how You have given it to us. It's in Christ's name that we pray, amen.

In this passage I'd like to simply outline for you the details of the depraved, and then we will make some more notes on these subjects. The details are in verse 1, in that those who have formerly been depraved were spiritually dead. In the Greek that means that the spiritual condition of those who were separated from God is that they were dead. Is that hard to believe? Hard to understand? For some reason we have in our day a hard time understanding just what dead means in regards to salvation and being unsaved. And I hope to unpack that with you today, because it really has some detrimental consequences to how we share the gospel, who are saved, who are not saved, false converts, and your comprehension of God's holiness.

But in the Greek here, dead means dead. It's very easy to understand. Not only are they dead but they have transgressed against God's law. That is a lapse in righteousness. They have committed moral sin. It's more than a false step or a blunder. It is actually breaking God's holy law and they're guilty of this. Not only are they dead in their transgressions, but they are guilty of sin. Sin means to miss the mark, or to miss God's standard of holiness. That is the fact that we have all been born into sin and violated God's holy law.

Sometimes we get caught up in degrees of sin and want to justify ourselves based upon, "Oh well, mine's not that bad." Even worse than that is for us to perhaps justify a small sin saying, "Oh well, maybe I will just gratify the flesh in just a little bit of a way so that I don't do this big sin." And a lot of times we'll justify our small sins saying, "Well, that just keeps me from doing this." That is semi-Pelagianism. It's a heresy that we'll talk more about here pretty soon and how it has totally crept in, especially into what I would say the Southern Baptist Convention, and we'll talk about that.

To be one who is walking according to this world — the Bible says in verse 2 that walking is to regulate one's own life. You are, before Christ, dead in your trespasses and sins, and you regulate your life, or you walk, or you live with evil conduct. And like I just mentioned, sometimes we justify our small sin, but the problem is we don't understand the depth of what it really is. It doesn't matter if it's this much sin or this much sin. Sin equals death, and the death sentence that comes with sin is a matter of whether or not it's a little bit of sin, a little white lie, or it's a huge, murderous lie. It makes no difference to the Lord. Sin is sin. And so we've all transgressed and we cannot justify our sin and find some type of small amount of goodness inside of us to say, "Oh well, I chose God, or I'm worthy of being saved." That is not understanding that you're dead in your transgressions and dead in your sin.

We're all guilty of these sins, and so before Christ we're walking according to the evil conduct of this world. "According" means that we are in harmony with the flesh. We are in unity with the things of this world, not the things of God. We're actually disobedient according to verse 2, and disobedient means that we are obstinate and we are in opposition to God. We're according to this world. "According" means that we are in sync, in harmony with the evil one and headed toward that direction.

Verse 2 was packed with this language of total depravity, and then in verse 3 it says that we also formerly were engaged in lusts. Lust is simply fleshly cravings of the flesh. The flesh is our sensuous nature of man. It is actually animal-like conduct, and if you were to be honest with yourselves you would look back and say, "Yeah, I have thought some of the worst thoughts." Thoughts like an animal. Where do those thoughts come from with sin? It's Satan. We are truly capable, apart from Christ, of doing the worst things imaginable, and it's because we have this sin nature. It has to be replaced. When we give way to the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, then we are being driven by the flesh.

It talks about this word "nature," and in your nature pre-Christ you have a constitution that is bent toward the evil one. This constitution, this makeup within yourself that drives you for personal living, is basically your personal power, the power for life, what you're doing. But when you're replaced with Christianity, you have Christ as the hope that is within you, and Christ will replace your motives, and that is the power that's within you. But before Christ it is the power of the evil one. It's the power of sin and destruction.

But I thank the Lord for verse 4: "But God." This conjunction here takes us from death and into life. "But God, being rich in His mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions and sins, He made us alive." And so for the depth of where we were, Christ reached down, and by the great amount of love within Himself — not because He saw that you were lovely, not because He saw that you were kind and worth saving, not that He saw anything good in you or I — it's because of His great love and His great mercy He saved you. It's by His grace He made you alive, and to be made alive is really one amazing theological concept that is now being broken loose in chapter 2.

If you look at verse 1, "you were dead in your transgressions and sins," and in verse 3 it says, "among whom we all" — now this is a little cracked-open door for which he will really explain in the latter parts of chapter 2 — "we all," Paul being a prior Jewish man saying, we Jews and then all in the mixed crowd of the Gentiles, we all have been made alive in Christ, we all were also formerly conducting ourselves in the lust of the flesh and doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind.

If you analyze Paul's life and say, well, he was just being obedient to the Torah — Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy — he was just being obedient to Yahweh, to God, doing his very best to follow the law. He was within himself good, he had good motives, he was doing good things. You may say that on the surface, but reality says from God's perspective that Judaism is an evil religion because it is anti-Christ. And so therefore Paul likens himself with all of the murderers, with all of the lusters, with all of the disobedient. He says in verse 3, "among whom we Jews all" — we all Gentiles in verse 3 — "were formerly conducting ourselves in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind."

And so he now unlocks this key theological theme in Ephesians, which not only is the mystery of soteriology — how in the world we are saved — but it is the mystery of both groups now having access to Jesus Christ. Both groups, and in chapter 2 verse 14 the Bible says, "for He Himself is our peace, who made both groups one, and broke down the dividing wall of the partition." So both groups, the Jews and the Gentiles, are able to be made alive in Christ. This is new news and they are now understanding what it is to come out of darkness and into life. It's by grace through faith plus nothing. By grace through faith plus nothing to be made alive in Christ.

And so strikingly, between chapter 1 and chapter 2 there is a subject change from the highest thoughts of the enthroned Christ to now the deepest thoughts of human depravity, spiritual death, sin, and hopelessness. The enthronement of Christ and all of the wonders that Elder David mentioned in the last two sermons of our resurrected, glorified, and ascended Christ — as high as Christ is and as lofty as those themes are and as pure as Christ is — now he flips the dial and goes to chapter 2 and dives deep into the gutters of sin and starts to describe how depraved and ugly and nasty we really are apart from Christ. And this is elementary in our understanding. We know that we do not inherently have anything holy and good inside of us, and it's only by the grace of God that we've been saved.

And so now that he is expanding upon these lowest thoughts of human depravity and spiritual death and sin and hopelessness, we're now coming to the saving knowledge of grace, and that is through faith plus nothing.

Point number one today is that you are simply unable to save yourself. Romans 3:9 says there is none righteous, no, not one. Not one person can save themselves. Romans chapter 5 verses 12 to 21 say this: that through one man sin entered the world and death through sin, so death now spread to all men. Turn if you would to Romans chapter 5 and verse 12. I'd like to show this to you so that you can see that we are simply unable to save ourselves. In Romans chapter 5 and verse 12 it says, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned." That is a complete indictment upon all of humanity, as our other wonderful elder has mentioned in times past, preaching on this text.

I think to myself, well, wait a minute. Did you grow up Catholic, or did you grow up perhaps Southern Baptist? Because this doesn't make complete sense if you perhaps grew up in some of these ways, and to a large extent both denominations here did not teach that human depravity was complete — fully dead and needing to be rescued and without the ability to save themselves. They're not just in danger of death but they are presently dead and they're presently alienated from God. Their soul is separated from a holy God. They have been born dead. Were you taught that? If you were, praise the Lord. But the majority of us have not had the doctrine of total inability or total depravity taught to us as we have grown up.

In fact, Catholic doctrine would say that people are born only half dead and so you can do something good enough to save yourself. John Calvin commentates that the priest seized every opportunity to undervalue God's grace, saying that we're only half dead. However, in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 22 it says, "In Adam all die."

Now I look back over history and I say, well, Martyn Lloyd-Jones said that the primary task of the minister is to preach the word. And Martin Luther before him said that the pulpit is the throne of the word of God. And then God said, "Preach the word" in 2 Timothy 4:2. And so now the only thing to do in relation to Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1 — and that we are dead in our transgressions and sins — is to simply say what the Bible says. Romans 3:9 says there is none righteous, no, not one. Romans 5 and following says that through one man sin entered the world and death through sin, and so death spread to all men. In 1 Corinthians 15:22, "In Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive."

And so this is a strikingly different opinion or doctrine than what I have grown up with, and perhaps you too. It's been said that the farther and higher you see God, and the lower you see humanity, the better outlook on reality that you have from the biblical worldview. But today's heresies are simply diminishing the holiness of God and raising up the deity of humanity. And so when you close the gap in that area, you're getting farther and farther away from the doctrine of the holiness of God and the doctrine of the depravity of humanity. And that is a slow and gradual diminishment.

And I must be honest with you. I wish that I would have learned this beautiful doctrine when I was 20 and not 40. I wish I would have understood it with the clarity that I have now in my mind, because to the depth of which I understand being pre-Christ, or pre-Christian, I understand that. I no longer see humanity as having something good inside that we need to help with good projects, with governmental aid. "If we could just reach them and equip the good inside of some person. If we could just encourage the elements of goodness inside of people and bring it out of them." I now see truly with absolute clarity that there is nothing good inside of lost humanity, that goodness is external, holiness is external, salvation is external, nothing is internal. We have to have a new heart. We have to have a complete change of our nature.

In Ezekiel chapter 36 verse 25 it says, "I will cleanse you from all your uncleanness." And so God cleanses. In Ezekiel chapter 36 verse 26, "Moreover I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit within you." And so this is wholly a work of God when it comes to salvation. In Ezekiel again, chapter 36 verse 27, "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes." And so when God says that He will put His Spirit within you and cause you to walk in His statutes, or walk in His word, it is very clear that this is totally a work of God. There's nothing within you that initiated this process. We're totally depraved.

So you are simply unable to save yourself — point number one.

Point number two: we all were doomed. We all were indiscriminately doomed. In chapter 2 verse 1, back in Ephesians, it says, "And you were dead in your transgressions and sins." And then in verse 3 it says we too — referring to both the Jews and the Gentiles — they're all children of wrath. So Paul is introducing the fact that both the Jews and the Gentiles, pre-Christ, were all children of wrath. Both groups. And so now they all need redemption. Remember that there's no partiality with God. In Romans chapter 2 verse 11 there's no partiality with God.

How beautiful a person is makes no nevermind. How innocent we think a person is — you say they've never even told a white lie, they've grown up innocent, never even stolen a piece of candy. "That little child of mine is so wonderful and innocent and beautiful." Well, not in the eyes of God, because we've all been born with this sin condition that is terminal and we all need Christ. If there was something good inside of us, then Christ died needlessly. He died for the whole person, not just part of the person. And so there's no partiality with God.

Here we're seeing that Gentile ignorance of God's law is no excuse for experiencing God's wrath. And that's for us today. At the end of the day, if we die in our sins, ignorance is no excuse. And at the same time, Jewish adherence to God's law will not earn an escape from God's wrath.

And so Paul is making it very clear that we all were children of wrath, Ephesians 2:3. And there's none righteous, not even one, Romans 3:10.

So not only are we simply unable to save ourselves — point number one — and not only, point number two, are we all doomed before Christ, but we see that there are no distinctions among the people. There's no distinctions between a Greek or a Jew, uncircumcised or circumcised. "There is no barbarian, Scythian, slave or freeman, but Christ is all and in all," Colossians 3:11 says. And the way that applies to us today is that there are still no distinctions among us. It doesn't matter what shade of skin color you have. It doesn't matter what religion you've come from. It doesn't matter what it is.

But I want to say to us today that we have to be careful not to take on worldly philosophies, because there are all kinds of worldly religions and philosophies out there that are trying to make distinctions and divisions among us. But there's no distinctions. I want you to plant your flag on the fact that the gospel is our distinction with Christ, and let that be the divisive point. But in all other areas, do not let the divisive religion of social justice divide you. Do not let the mind-warping 1619 Project divide us. Do not let the anti-Semitism, Black Lives Matter, gay rights, trans rights, climate rights, wildlife rights, all this other type of stuff divide us. You can speak truth to these things, but guys, lead with love and lead with mercy. There's no divisions among us in these areas. Yes, you're going to be on the biblical side of things — but do not plant your flag in areas that don't matter for eternity. Go after the gospel inside of someone's heart. Get to the heart of the problem.

If we waste our time on all of these secondary issues, we're not getting to the heart of the problem. We missed the opportunity to share the gospel. Folks need to be made alive in Christ, and we are given opportunities to talk to them about what's most important. And life is so fleeting. I'm so ashamed when I have the opportunity to share the gospel and I don't, because I'll never see that person again. It's so strange here in Central Florida. So many people — and my soul agonizes when they get away, not having been able to share the life-changing gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He will save sinners. It doesn't matter how depraved we are. Have you somehow fallen, like me, into this ideology of semi-Pelagianism — "Oh, no, they're too depraved for God to save them"? But me, I wasn't that bad. Where did that come from? And I'm just being transparent with you today. It is not from the word of God. And somehow, if I can walk away from someone who needs Christ and justify it, I don't see any type of scriptural evidence to be able to have that evil philosophy.

And yet Paul goes and he says, hey, there's no divisions here, there's no distinctions. It's either Christ or nothing. He sees the difference between it being horizontal or vertical, and so we must think vertically. We must think: in Christ or not in Christ. We're either saved or not saved. And all of these other subjects are simply, in my opinion, just a waste of time.

I like how Ray Comfort shares the gospel. He'll utilize these subjects as bait — apologetic bait to get to the gospel. Grab on, talk about climate change for like two seconds and get to the gospel. Grab on to whatever Black Lives Matter, grab on to whatever politics or the race or the football game or whatever. Pets are like a big subject, by the way. If you like to talk to people, pets are always something neutral. You can gain neutral ground and then get right to the gospel, however you can do that.

Paul here is so brilliant when he transitions from light to darkness. He gets from soteriology down to the depths of their sin, and he shows them that even himself — as one who thought that he was serving God — was evil like yourself. We all were depraved. And so it's very clear. Matthew chapter 7 verse 14 says, "The way is narrow that leads to life. There are few that find it." There are very few. There's none righteous. We're all children of wrath. There's no distinctions here. We're all depraved before Christ.

Now it's sad to see that the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God according to Romans chapter 3 and verse 2, and they did not follow through with believing in Christ. And that's why it's written that it's to the Jew first and the Greeks also, Romans 1:16. It's to the Jew first because it originally was with them. And Paul says, we both — both groups — were children of wrath.

But for both groups, the stubborn and the unrepentant, they're storing up for themselves wrath. Romans chapter 2 verses 4 to 11: "Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and the forbearance and the patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." This is where we see that God is suspending His wrath and there will be a continued delay of His punishment, a holding back, a forbearance of this until Christ comes again and until these events start to come into place.

And there is, again, I say, no distinction between the barbarian, the Scythian, the slave, the freeman, but Christ is all and in all. And if you could love the lost like Paul loved the lost, then you too will say of yourself that I am willing to do whatever it takes to reach a lost person, to get down to the depth of depravity, help them to see — you think that you are unsavable. You think, "Well, I was just as bad off as you." Paul even went to the extent to say in Romans chapter 9 and verse 3 that he wished that he could be cut off from God, cursed for the sake of his brethren, for the sake of the Jews.

And once we get a heart for the lost like that, now we're willing to shed off all restraints and now we're willing to have conversations and we're willing to go to whatever extent it takes.

I think of Israel right now and how 98% of Israel is still dead in their transgressions and sins underneath that evil religion of Judaism. And the percentage of darkness is higher in the surrounding countries around Israel. And so no wonder Psalm 122 verses 6 to 9 says, "Pray for the peace of Israel," which means not an absence of war but peace with God. The war that's going on right now is nothing compared to the wrath of God that will abide upon them for eternity. So you pray for true peace with God for those in Israel and those in Iran, those in Pakistan, those in Afghanistan. You pray for those to have peace with God.

Pray for the peace of Israel. The percentage of those who are lost in Israel is 98%, and it is way higher all around. And so I see that total depravity has to be explained so that they could see that whether you are born in a good country where laws are good and you have a good life, or you're born in a war-torn country, people are all dead in their trespasses and sins before Christ. And we must share the life-saving gospel.

To be able to do this, point number three is that disobedience characterizes the spiritually dead. And if lost people can see that their life is characterized by disobedience, then they will see that they are truly dead in their transgressions and sins. Disobedience characterizes the spiritually dead.

In Ephesians chapter 5 verses 6 and 8, you'll see that this characterization of disobedience is made very clear. Look with me if you would. Ephesians 5:6 says, "Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience." And so Paul went to a great length in chapter 2 verses 1 and following to describe the lust of the flesh, the pride of the mind, and how we all have been given to these things. And in one word, it is disobedience to God. And so the wrath of God is upon those who are characterized by disobedience.

Now, if you would bear with me just for a moment — not only does Ephesians chapter 5 verses 6 and 8 talk about how the wrath of God is upon the disobedient, and not only does John chapter 3 verse 36 define that the lost are those who are not obedient to the word of God — but I think we've missed it in Christianity, completely missed it, when we have somehow said about those who have a life that is characterized by disobedience, "He prayed a prayer and he's saved." I think we've missed it in a huge way.

And it is so unfortunate that their soul will spend eternity in hell because of that misconception of the most essential doctrine of depravity. Disobedience — if that characterizes your heart, if disobedience characterizes your thought life, if disobedience characterizes what you do in the body, you are not a child of God, you're a child of wrath. The very elementary understanding of what it is to be lost has been diminished in our easy-believism country.

Are you a Christian because you were born in America, or are you a Christian because you were born again?

You perhaps have not had the unfortunate opportunities to do so many funerals where an absolute heathen was described as a saved man. "Oh, he had a good heart. At least now he's in heaven, he's not suffering anymore."

Exodus chapter 24 and verse 7 says, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do, we will be obedient." So from the very beginning, obedience characterizes those who are in Christ, but the wrath is for those who are deceived and disobedient.

Once you realize that dead really means dead, then you really are starting to comprehend the starting point of what it is to fear God. If you truly understand that we are dead in our transgressions and dead people live disobedient lives and the wrath of God abides upon them, and you fear God's wrath, you fear eternity, it causes you to repent of your sin, to confess your sin in sorrowfulness, to repent of that, and to say, "God, please, by Your love and by Your mercy, save me." You cry out to God, and that is a reflection of what God has done in your heart.

You're dead in your transgressions and sins. Once we realize that God has handed out a death sentence from the beginning, it is so elementary in understanding. Turn with me to Genesis chapter 1. If you don't get the beginning right, then you're not going to get the ending right when it comes to the gospel. When it comes to the doctrine of depravity, it was spelled out even from the beginning. In Genesis chapter 2 and verse 17, here we have the death sentence. Sin equals death.

If you sin, it doesn't mean that you can perhaps still be alive in heaven one day. Sin equals death, a complete death. We're completely dead. In Genesis chapter 2 verse 17: "But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat from it. For in the day that you eat from it, you will surely die." Yes, that's a cautionary warning. Sin equals death, and the prescription of death from sin is why Christ had to die. If you diminish the doctrine of total depravity, then you diminish the fact that Christ had to die. Did Christ fully die on the cross for your sin? Yes. Are you fully dead? Yes.

Oh, wait a minute. Now, you know I love you guys. But let's just say I ascribe to the fact that 2% of your heart is good and 1% of your mind is good. Did Christ die, what, the 98% for you? Makes no sense. But the doctrine of total depravity makes perfect sense even from the beginning.

In Genesis chapter 3 verse 3: "But from the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God said, you shall not eat from it, and you shall not touch it, lest you die." Verse 4: "And the serpent said to the woman" — you see the diminishment. Catch this. This is important because this is what we're faced with today.

Genesis 3:4: "You surely will not die," Satan said. Oh, the diminishment of total depravity, the diminishment of the death sentence, the twisting of Scripture. So Satan attempts to disqualify the gospel by diminishing the idea of death. "You're not going to die for your sin. God wouldn't do that. He's a loving God." Is that not the false gospel that permeates today?

God handed out the death sentence from the beginning, and the death sentence is from God all the way back in Genesis chapter 2 and chapter 3. And it is satanic to diminish the death sentence. And God said, "You shall not eat from it, or you will die." And whatever God says is right. And so the consequences have not changed. Lest we truly understand this, we would be guilty of gutting the gospel.

You don't want to allow someone to think that there is something good inside of them pre-Christ, pre-conversion, pre-repentance, pre-being saved, lest you diminish the gospel. Sin equals death. All have sinned. Death spread to all men. "But while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us," Romans 5:8 says. This is the good news of the gospel. And if sin does not equal death, then Christ died needlessly. And unless you understand that your sin consequence is eternal death, and that Christ died for you, you really don't understand the gospel.

Sometimes we diminish even the trespasses. See, trespasses are the specific sins, and sin is general, back in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1. But even in our trespasses, which are listed in detail in Ephesians chapter 4 and chapter 5: the futility of the mind, the darkened understanding of our mind, the hardness of our heart, our callousness, our practicing of sensuality and impurity and greediness, our lust, our deceit, falsehoods, and giving the devil opportunity is even sin, theft as sin, unwholesome words as sin, grieving the Holy Spirit as sin, bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, malice, immorality, impurity, greed, filthiness, silly talk, coarse jesting, covetous idolatry, disobedience, being unfruitful, unwise, foolish, getting drunk, dissipation, and any activities, actions, and attitudes like these are sin.

And so if you're guilty of any of this, you're guilty of breaking the whole law. And even when it comes down to Ephesians 5:3 saying those sins that I just listed must not even be named among you, for it's improper for saints — boy, do we need a lot of God's grace, don't we? We've broken the law at every point, it feels like. If you put the law on the wall, you just shot it full of holes. You have violated God's law.

And even down to the point where Ephesians chapter 5 verse 13 says, "Do not participate in these, but instead expose them. And they are exposed by the light." We will be found out if we are not truly covered in the grace of God, living in the light. Sin rises to the surface. The truth always rises to the surface. And when you see it from a black and white standpoint, it sets you free to be able to say, "Yes, I need the grace of God." I admit, like Paul, that I used to be given to the flesh and given to lust and given to idolatry and given to breaking God's law, and all these trespasses and sins.

You will see that total depravity helps us in all areas of life. And what it means to know what total depravity is is that the heart and mind and soul — all aspects of the person, all abilities to please God — and all people are born sinners and cannot save themselves. And so all of us have been tainted by the original sin. So your mind, your heart, your soul, your body — we know the body is declining, can't wait to get the new body — but so has the mind and the heart been tainted.

And so there's nothing within us that can please God. All humans are sinners. And I would say to us, at the very elementary point of this doctrine, what part of you deserves to be saved? And what part of you can redeem you?

If you say none, then you agree totally with the doctrine of depravity, and Ephesians 2:1 is now your song. You are dead in your transgressions and sins. And so both the immaterial and the material aspects of our life have been totally depraved, and all of that will be made alive from God's riches and His love.

And so Paul's theology here of the union in Christ is intensely depicted three times in verses 5 through 6, indicated by the word "with." We are made alive with Christ. We are raised up with Christ. And we're seated with Christ. Paul uses this past tense to help us to understand that it's by grace that we're saved, through faith plus nothing. So by God's grace are we ever able to be saved. God initiates His grace, and the grace of God is a saving power applied to your life. It's God's grace that's applied to your life. And He's done this transforming work.

And now, as I start to conclude — apologetically, I would say again to you — has perhaps this heresy of Pelagianism, by this British monk born in 360 A.D., entered into our religious life and into our thoughts? Has moralism crept into your religious life? Do you think that by being a good person you perhaps have earned God's grace? Do you think that humanity has some type of goodness within themselves? That's Pelagianism. Do you think that perhaps we could just simply reach whatever good part is within a person and encourage that out? Then you might as well go and listen to Joel Osteen online, as he believes people are good. In essence, it's no different from Buddhism or Hinduism.

And so Romans 5:18 states that through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all of humanity. But Pelagianism says that is not so. And the Reformed Church corrected this false doctrine. The Reformed Church, coming through the Protestant Reformation, set the gospel right. But like all heresies, the remnants of the leftovers from this heresy still are around, and we must confront this.

And I would say to us that we must understand our complete inability so that God gets all of the glory. I would say otherwise we somehow think that part of our mind and part of our heart and part of our soul, part of our body, part of our being was not affected by the curse, which is not scriptural. And the results of Pelagianism mean that Adam's sin did not affect all of humanity and it rejects the doctrine of original sin, and that people are like Adam when they are born — basically good, not corrupted by nature — but have the capacity to sin. This also carries the idea of a sinless life. Pelagianism espouses the fact that you could achieve living sinlessly.

This heresy now has been confronted. And I think that we can now see the problem is truly sin, and how great of a problem that is, and how you are completely unable to take care of, or to pay for, or to eradicate your sin and your sin consequences and your sins plural. And we need the grace of God, and it's by grace through faith plus nothing, by grace through faith plus nothing.

If God is granting you the ability to believe this message, then He has given you that faith, and He says that in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 and 9. And if He's given you that faith today, then I pray that you would repent and believe the gospel, and believe that yes, there's nothing that I can do to save myself. I can't get on the old rugged cross and take a beating for all of my sin and pay for it. I can't muster up all the money in the world and pay for my sins. I can't eradicate the stain and the guilt in my heart and soul and make it to heaven. There's nothing that I can do. I'm totally unable. I need someone who is totally capable, and that is the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And I pray that if you've never really truly dove into this doctrine of depravity and understood just where we are in this world — we're born into sin, completely unable — that today you would look back over this and embrace it, because this is what the Bible says. Don't allow maybe your upbringing or your religious upbringing to diminish the doctrine of total depravity. And once you see it for what it truly is, then Christ is all the more higher. Christ is all the more glorious. Christ is all the more merciful and good and wonderful. And now it enriches your relationship with Jesus. It enriches your appreciation and your adoration. You sing louder. You pray longer. You love more. This is a beautiful doctrine. Don't shy away from it like so many have in the past. Total depravity is a beautiful understanding of what the Bible says we're born in. Once you understand that, then you understand the need for Christ, and that is a gateway into the gospel.

Let's pray together. Lord, I do love You and I thank You for the opening of chapter 2 here. And I pray, Father, that if there's been anyone here convicted by simple understanding of Your Scriptures, then I pray, God, that You would continue to draw them to a clearer truth. Perhaps if they're not saved, Lord, You'd save their soul and that they would respond by repentance and faith, that they would repent of their sin and confess You as Lord and Savior. Lord, I pray that You would continue to help us as a dear church to go through the book of Ephesians and to understand these wonderful truths that You have set forth. God, I'm amazed that You have given the average Christian in the town of Ephesus this above-average doctrine. If they can understand it, we can understand it. If they can believe it, we can believe it. If they can spread it, we can spread it. I pray that You would help us in all these ways. In Christ's name, amen.