This scripture is as relevant to us today as it was two thousand years ago when Paul wrote it to the Ephesians. You see, God is still in the life changing business today. Jesus is our only hope. Without him we have no hope. It is impossible for us to please God on our own merit. We do not have what it takes to come to his throne of grace without Jesus Christ. It is not within us. And that is why God sent his son, Jesus, to pay that debt for us on the cross. Verse 1. (ASV) And you did he make alive, when ye were dead through your trepasses and sins, That is how God sees us. Before we come to the saving knowledge of his grace, we are dead to him. We have been separated, spiritually, through what Adam and Eve did in the garden in the fall of man. It severed our ties with God. The scriptures say we must be born again. Jesus gave us an account of being born again in John chapter 3. I can give the account, and most of you know the account of Nicodemus, when he came to Jesus by night. He was a ruler of the Jews. He knew the law. He knew what it took to serve God. At least he thought he did, until Jesus told him you must be born again. He said, unless you are born again you will not see the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus thought he could see the Kingdom of God because he told Jesus, no one can do these things you do, these miracles, unless God is with him. He thought he saw the kingdom of God, but Jesus told him, you must be born again to see the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus didn’t understand that at all. How can these things be? How can I be born again? What are you talking about? How can you be born again? Can I enter the womb and be born the second time? And Jesus tells him again, unless you are born of the water, and the spirit, you can not enter the kingdom of heaven. I think most people, some faiths, get this confused thinking that born of the water means you must be baptized. But the Old Testament scriptures teaches us that born of the water is being refined by the word of God. We are cleansed by God’s righteousness, by his holiness, which we find in the scriptures. It is his word that cleanses us. In John chapter 4 verses 21 through 24. This is Jesus’ account to the women at the well, the Samaritan (ASV) 21. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father. 22. Ye worship that which ye know not: we worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews. That is where Nicodemus was. He knew what he knew. He knew salvation was to come to the Jews. He knew this. He understood this, but he didn’t have it in his heart. This is what Jesus is talking about here. 23. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: Jesus is the word of God. He is the truth of God to mankind. He came here and lived a life. The scriptures also tell us Jesus came into the world not to condemn the world, but to save it. He came into this world to condemn sin so that we could have life. So the Father seeks such to worship him. For God is a spirit, and whose who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. You see, we have to be born again for, once again, it is impossible for us to do anything in our own merit. We are separated from God. God is a spirit. And if we are going to worship him we must come back to that spiritual relationship so we can worship him. It is impossible for us to please God because we are as far as the East is from the West from him until we are born again. And this is done through Christ. On here in Ephesians 2, 1. And you did he make alive, when ye were dead through your trepasses and sins, 2. wherein ye once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, of the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience; Paul gives us a pretty ‘in your face’ description of what it means to live a life without God in our life. The course of this world. What do we look as the course of this world? I used to look at the scripture, and I didn’t really understand it totally. I’ll look at what is the course of the world? What is he speaking here? We see in Genesis that the man was to be head over the woman. We see that man was condemned to work and till the ground to make his living. I used to wonder if that was what Paul was speaking of here as the course of the world. But that is not what he is talking about here at all. He is talking about the separation between man and God. Separation between the spiritual nature we are suppose to live in to please God and the worldly, sinful nature we live in now because of sin in our lives. You see, man tries to please man. Anything in this life, he tries to make himself look good. He tries to put himself up on a pedestal. He tries to live his life and please himself without God in it. That is what the course of this world is. It’s living your life without God in it. And that brings a multitude of sins. That opens the door for all kinds of immorality and pretty vial things. That moves us on to the next portion of the scriptures. There was one more thing there. The spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience. How often do you realize, if you can think back to before you were saved, we look at the spirit as living in the spirit for God. God dealing with our heart in something to do good. There were times in my life I remember what it was like to live with this spirit of disobedience. I remember when I was a teenager, when I was a young kid, simple little things we put off as nothing. I can remember a time when I was eight, nine years old, my parents left the house and I was left at home with my older brother. My sister had this little plastic push around toy. We had two of them because the first one I broke. I was so big pushing and riding on the back of it that it broke down. They got another one because she liked it so well. And my parents told me not to touch it again because I was too big. Well as soon as they left the house I would jump right back on that thing and just rip and roar through the house with it. That is disobedience. And I knew it was a disobedience. I had already done something wrong. That is what satan wants for us to do. He want us to live our life as disobedient as we can. And that is the spirit the scripture is talking about here. This is before God. This is what satan tries to attempt in our lives. This is how he destroys our lives in the worldly realm. That same time is when I started smoking. About the same time period. And I can remember I wasn’t suppose to be smoking. That was something I felt a desire to do. I knew it was wrong but I would sneak and do it. And I had an excitement, a thrill, out of doing that. And then went right down into drinking at the age of twelve. When I started drinking I knew it was wrong. You didn’t see too many people, even then, at nine years old sneaking around smoking cigarettes and at twelve years old coming home so stone drunk they couldn’t walk. Believe me, I am thankful for the grace of God in my life that my kids don’t live a life like this. I couldn’t imagine my kids doing to me what I did to my mother. I couldn’t imagine it. The scripture says, 3. Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in 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. I don’t know about you, but I still struggle even though I am born again. I know I am born again. I still struggle with this flesh today. It seems this world is so fast paced. There are so many things to draw us away from what God has intended for us to do with our lives. There is work. I am a carpenter, a self-employed contractor. There are so many things I could be doing a lot of things rather than doing the things God has called me to do. That is one excuse I have used. I just seems we get plans with friends and family. How often do we feel God wants us to go to a church service or maybe go visiting and we get wrapped up in making plans with friends or even family. It is easy to get caught up in things of this world. There are many, many things today that get us wrapped up and keeps us from doing things God wants us to do with our life. Even sharing that intimate time with our own immediate family, our children and our wife. We see that a lot today. It just seems the busier we get the more God gets pushed out of our life. He gets put on the back burner. These things shouldn’t be. If we feel like life is getting too busy and too fast paced that God gets pushed out, we should be getting on our faces and seeking God’s will for our lives. That is what we need to be doing. So yes, we all fall short. We are all guilty of following desires of our flesh instead of what God intends for us to do. 4. but God, being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5. even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace have ye been saved), It’s only because of the grace of God. There is nothing we can do. Salvation comes from Jesus Christ. Salvation is meant to bring God glory. In the salvation that each and everyone of us have, we are to bring God glory with what he has done in our lives. Yes, it was a true blessing that God gave us salvation, but it shows us his love and his kindness towards man even though we didn’t deserve it. There is nothing we can do to deserve God’s grace. Even though God looks at us as dead, he has given us life through Jesus Christ. Have you ever stopped and realized that this power God used to bring us into salvation is the very same power that enables us to live the Christian walk? The same power he uses to transforms our lives is there for us. That grace that he has given, that power, is there for us to overcome the sins of this world, the sins in our lives. It is up to us to be obedient under that grace. It is easy to say, well, I know Lord, I am covered by your grace. So therefore I know I have sinned last week but I know your grace covers me so I know I will be okay. That wasn’t what grace was intended for. Grace was intended for us to have a relationship with God. God’s grace, when he transformed our lives, he took us from where we began with him in creation, we were made in a holy nature. When God made man he said, it is holy, it is just and it is good. And he was pleased. But when we sinned we were separated from him. In salvation, Christ brings us back to that spirit realm where were we can worship him. That is where we find peace and his joy. That is where we can come and worship him. It is when we are obedient under that spiritual realm that we are put back to. Not of works, lest any man should boast. You see, without Christ bringing us back into that spiritual realm we don’t have anything. Our works are nothing. They are as filthy rags as it says in Proverbs. We don’t have a leg to stand on. But it is only because of the grace of God. It is not of our works. 10. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. This is where I am going to close. In Genesis chapter 3 verse 15, where Bob read to us this morning. It says, 15. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman. See, God, there at the fall of man, he brought curse for sin. He brought penalty for sin at this point. And we noticed man didn’t die right away. That is because he died spiritually when he was separated from God, man died spiritually. And he told satan for this he would put a conflict between him and the woman. Between his seed and her seed. And he was talking about the sinful nature sin had caused to man and the righteousness nature that we will be brought back to in the birth of Christ. And I always thought that was a good revelation of God’s grace to man and mercy was the fact that the curse, or penalty, of Eve’s action was pain in childbirth. That is the same thing he used to bring blessing to mankind at the same time. Because if it wasn’t for the birth of Christ being born as a man and overcoming sin in this world, we would have no hope. So with the curse comes blessing. And he also says, he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. See, Christ lived the life that was victorious over sin. He bruised satan’s heel. He put a stop to the sin and death. And the bruised heel of Christ was the act he did on the cross. He took on the penalty of death. He took on the sins for you and me, for each and everyone of us. For Christ is the salvation to the whole world. Amen.

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