We dead in sins, God rich in mercy

Turn with me please in your Bible to the book of Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2 and verse number 1. In these verses that we're about to read, we're going to learn a little bit about ourselves and we're going to learn about God. We're going to learn first of all in verse number 1, you at the quickened who were dead, dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience among whom also we all had our conversation, that is our way of life in times past and the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature the children of wrath even as others. But God who was rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ by grace ye are saved and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast.

God is rich in mercy. God has great love and God is exceedingly rich in grace. But what does that mean? What does that mean? I hope we all understand tonight that these words were written to people who had already heard the gospel.

It may describe to us the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ but these people had already heard the gospel, they had already trusted Christ, they were already saved. So the apostle Paul is writing to them to inform them different things about what they were once and what God has made them now. It really is an epistle where the doctrine teaches about the power the transforming power of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and what has been formed because of his death burial and resurrection and because of his ascension to the right hand of God.

These people were already saved. But now I'm speaking to people here tonight who've never trusted Christ. I know there are many in my audience tonight and you could stand up here and you could tell your own testimony or your story of conversion or how God saved you.

I could take you back to Prince Edward Island. Those of you who've heard me before will remember it's in that little living room in that little house in that little street in that little town in the smallest province in Canada where God saved my soul. And I love to tell it.

I love to think about it. I love to think about the truth of it. How that Christ's death makes me safe.

Eternally I stand secure because of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and how God's word makes me sure. And as a young man of 23 years old coming to know these basic truths that everyone thought I already knew, God saved my soul. Now I'm sure there are people sitting here tonight and you think you already know everything that you need to know to be saved.

But our first brother who got up reminded us he was trying to figure it out. Right? He was trying to figure out this salvation. There are many people that I have preached to in Iowa since I first came here in 2014 and they were trying to figure out salvation as if it is a puzzle that you will put together.

And there are many people still here tonight and you've been trying to figure it out for all those years. How does this possibly click for me? Right? If I put this piece here and that piece here, if I believe enough, if I cry enough, if I'm sorry enough for my sins, and if I and you're trying to put together the puzzle. But you're thinking of salvation way different than the Bible presents it.

God is not asking you to put together a puzzle. God is trying to rescue you from your sins. Because that really is the definition of being saved, isn't it? It is to be rescued.

And we've been talking about already tonight, we've heard about the real place called hell, a real judgment that is coming, death that will take you into an eternity that you can never come back from. And we think that we need to be rescued from hell. We need to be rescued from the great white throne, from the lake of fire.

We need a rescue. If you were to think of an ordinary rescue in terms of perhaps even a rescue at sea, we know that when a person is drowning, someone has to come where they are, remove them from the danger, and take them to safety. If you've heard me preach before, you've probably heard me say it.

Why? Because you need to be rescued. You need to be saved. But the rescue is not from drowning.

And can I tell you this? It may even surprise some of you to know this. The rescue is not from hell. The rescue is not necessarily from the great white throne judgment.

The rescue you need is from your sins. Because when you think of it in terms of the Bible's theology, how the Bible presents it, I know that the Lord Jesus came and he defeated death and hell. And I know that the Lord Jesus came and he bruised the head of the serpent Satan.

But the most important thing that I can tell you tonight about what Christ did at the cross is that he has satisfied God for sin. The God who was offended on account of sin, the God who must punish and judge every single sin, the God who will never overlook sin, and he will never sweep sin aside, has been completely satisfied by the death of Christ on the cross. Here's what it means to us.

Hell is real. The fire burns right now. And there are people who have sat in gospel meetings just like this, and they're there today.

But it's because of their sin. The judgment of the great white throne where every single soul who has rejected Christ will stand before him not as a savior but as a judge. And in the absolute glaring glow of bright holiness, every sin will be highlighted.

But you won't be there but only because of your sin. And the lake of fire, the lake of fire is eternal. And I would take it based on the scriptures that the lake of fire there will be people who have had the best privileges in this life to hear the gospel, who will find the deepest part of the deepest place in the lake that burns with real fire and brimstone.

But you will only be there because of your sin. And what I'm presenting to you tonight and what our brother meek and is about to present to you after I sit down is this a rescue from sin. Because if you could have your sins cleansed, there'd be no need to fear hell.

If you could have your sins removed, there would be no need to fear the judgment of the great white throne. If you could have your sins purged, if you could be released from the bondage of sin, if the separation of sin that keeps you from God right now would be removed permanently and eternally, then you could look to a future without hell, with no sin, without the judgment, no sin, without the great lake of fire. Why? No sin.

That's why we are telling you you need to be saved from your sin. And I'm not going to give you puzzle pieces to put together because that's not how the gospel works. I will tell you this.

Let's go back to my analogy about drowning in the water. Let's suppose you're in the water and you're beginning to flail and go down. You can't swim.

The waves are high. The water is cold. And you know that you can't survive.

What's going through your mind? Oh, I wish I'd learned to swim. Too late. Too late.

I wish I had a life jacket. Too late. What's going through your mind? Quick.

I need someone to rescue me. And I know that there are different ways of rescuing a drowning man, but one of them is to throw him a life ring. Yes? So that a man or woman who may be drowning in the water can grab onto a life ring and be rescued.

And what people on the ship or on the dock will often do is they will take that life ring that is attached to a rope and throw it right beside the person who is drowning. Right beside them. So that that life-saving device that will be the means of their rescue is now right there where they can grab it.

And that's what we're going to do as we present to you the gospel. God is throwing you a life ring. God is throwing you a life saver, if you will.

And it's come right to you. And you need to take it. As the gospel is preached and as the bible verses are quoted, God is throwing you life rings.

So that he says, whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life. It's another life ring that comes right to you. And you can take it.

You can grab it. You can be saved. 2 Brethren read from Romans chapter 5 and verse 6, for when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.

And it's another life ring for you to grab. Why? You need to be rescued from sin. And God is throwing you the life ring of his word.

And salvation is in Christ. Will you take it? I know the analogy falls apart because you've got to hold on to the life ring. This life ring holds on to you.

But don't spend the next 40 minutes trying to figure something out. Spend the next 40 minutes trying to accept what God says. Trying is not even the word.

Spend the next 40 minutes believing what God says. So these people who were saved and on their way to heaven, at one time were dead. Says right here on the pages of Scripture.

You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Now it would have been shocking for someone to hear this for the first time. And perhaps there's someone here tonight and this is the first time you have heard it.

You have a religious background or you have no religious background but you've never heard about this being dead. You feel that you are living and breathing and moving and enjoying your life. What the Bible is saying here is not that they were physically dead because they weren't physically dead.

I don't even think that you could say these people were morally dead or incapacitated. They had the capacity to do good things. You don't have to be a born-again believer to help your neighbor.

You don't have to be a born-again believer to do good to other people. So they weren't dead physically and they weren't even dead morally so to speak. But they were dead.

They were dead spiritually. They were dead in that they had no spiritual life. Dead.

It's often been likened to the creation. When God created the heavens and the earth and then throughout those days he itemized and he created all of the things that are in the earth and then he created man. It says that the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.

But I want you to follow me now just for a second as we go partway through that process where the Lord God forms man of the dust of the ground and we stop and watch because the Lord God formed him perfectly and for a purpose. Don't miss this. He formed him for a purpose.

He had hands. Those hands were designed to move and do things but he couldn't because he was dead. No life.

He had eyes designed to see the beauties of God's creation. Designed to allow him to move about with confidence. He had eyes but he couldn't see.

Why? He had no life. He had feet but he couldn't walk. Every single part of what God created in man was designed for a purpose but none of that purpose could be fulfilled until he had life and then God breathed life and everything made sense.

If we were standing and watching we would say now I know why he made those hands. He made them for that purpose. Now I know why he made those eyes for that purpose and those feet and everything the nose and the ears and it all comes together when there's life.

And now Paul is saying to these people before you were saved you were dead. You were created for a purpose. That purpose I would say based on the Bible is to glorify God.

To glorify God with worship. To glorify God with obedience. To glorify God with service.

The purpose that you were created for was to glorify God. But up until now you can never fulfill that purpose. Why? No life.

Dead. But it doesn't just say dead. It says dead in trespasses and in sins and it highlights for us again the problem.

The problem of trespasses and sins. Don't forget it. It's a rescue from sin.

Trespasses. The things that you have done against God. Sins.

The things that you have done that have never met God's standard of holiness and righteousness. Sins on the outside. Sin on the inside.

The things that you do which are a result of what you really are. And Paul is painting us for us a picture here. Dead in trespasses and in sins.

Time passed. He walked according to the course of this world. Begins to describe their life in a time past but then he says by nature they were the children of wrath even as others.

By nature children of wrath. Children that were constantly storing up for themselves wrath against the day. Wrath.

Looking forward to nothing but the judgment of God as sin after sin piled up on a heart that was full of its own desires going after the things that pleased itself. Now I'm speaking to some children. I understand that.

I don't preach to the walls. You've never done some of the things that some of us did before we were saved but you're dead. You have never trespassed and sinned to the extent that some of the people in Waterloo and Cedar Falls have done.

But you're dead in trespasses and sins. And if you remain in that condition you'll be lost forever. Don't miss it.

But after he paints for us the picture of a sinner with no life just going along according to the course of this world sinning and sinning and sinning and looking forward to nothing but wrath he now brings in the intervention of God when he says but God but God who is rich in mercy on account of his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins has quickened us together in Christ now the word quickened is not a word we use every day in 2023 it's just simply made alive given life even when we were dead in sins he has given us life but this life is in Christ but I want you to look at the beginning when it says but God who is rich in mercy rich in mercy I love that word mercy I love to trace it through the scriptures and my brethren and sisters here this afternoon or tonight can you not trace it through your own life mercy is more my friends than just the dictionary form that we often quote the holding back of punishment that we deserve mercy is a God with absolute understanding of everything a God in absolute holiness and righteousness a God who is light and a God who dwells in light who can look upon men women boys and girls in sin under the oppression of sin being in bondage to sin and the destruction that sin causes at a distance because of sin defiled in their sins heading to a lost eternity because of sin and God looks down and he has mercy really the idea is that he has compassion and he is a tender heart of care toward you is there anyone here today whose heart would not be touched with a God who has compassion on a with a God who has compassion on a sinner who has been ruined by sin with a God who has compassion on a sinner who has been separated because of sin and if you were to go to that parable that the Lord Jesus told of the good Samaritan and really is a good picture left half dead by the side of the road with nobody caring about them but God cares because God is rich in mercy I can't help but think about the old testament where we say that that God is sometimes hard God is not hard my brethren and sisters God is righteous because even in the old testament God showed mercy in fact the heart of God delights in mercy there are a few things there are many things I would say in the scriptures that God takes great delight in but mercy is one of them to be able to look at someone who is lost in sin and have compassion God delights when that person turns and trust Christ so he can show them mercy to see someone who is dead in sins who will simply believe God and call sin what it is and turn from it and trust Christ he delights his heart is thrilled to show you mercy because God is rich rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us this world is messed on almost every level to where we don't even know what love is love is just another way of describing a feeling love is a word to get what you want love love is a concept that the world has that is as far from the biblical narrative as possible love is self-serving in our world but the love of God is real love the love that looks upon sinners and will sacrifice for those sinners the love that is willing to give and give and give for the good of its object and God is not just saying that he has an affection for you although I do believe that God has affections God is saying he has a love for you that is a love that motivates him a love that propels him to do something about your sin situation God is rich in mercy the compassion that he shows towards sinners who will turn but he's also has great love he sacrifices to bring sinners to Christ but what about the exceeding riches of his grace we chatted about this last week Brandon and I it could very well be that what Paul is painting for us is that God's mercy is tremendous God's love is unknown in the measure but could it be that the grace of God exceeds all of the attributes of God I would not want to for one second suggest that God is unbalanced in any of his attributes but it's telling us here the exceeding riches of his grace if the mercy is the compassion that he shows upon those who are in the bondage of sin having been left half dead by the side of the road and the love is the sacrificial love that will do whatever whatever God can do to save your soul this grace is freely given this grace is simply the idea that God is waiting to shower upon you the blessings that he has for you in Christ every blessing that God has for mankind is found in Christ in the moment you trust him you will receive it all you will receive the forgiveness of sins you will receive the cleansing in the eternal life you will receive that relationship with God as your father why because of the exceeding riches of his grace remember dead in trespasses and in sins remember walking according to the course of this world and storing up wrath with nothing to look forward to but the lake of fire for all eternity but God is rich in mercy God has great love the exceeding riches of his grace