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[0:00] All right, if you have your Bibles, then please find Ephesians and chapter number two. We just got into this chapter just a touch last Sunday. My wife just got a call from her mom, I believe, saying that her dad is on his way to the hospital back east with some pain in the chest or shoulder and arms and things, I'm not sure what.

[0:33] And so if you don't mind, his name is Carl Urie. Those of you who pray, if you don't mind praying for him today throughout the day, we'll trust the Lord to intervene and take care of him.

[0:48] Ephesians chapter two, and we'll just start at the beginning. The Bible says, and you hath he quickened. Meaning he gave life to.

[1:00] Quicken means to make alive. And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. And now we made a few comments last week just to bring to light that you were dead.

[1:16] And it says in the verse that you were dead, not physically, but you were dead in something. You were dead in trespasses and sins. And the common teaching here is, I don't know, I really don't know why it's one and not the other.

[1:31] But the common teaching is that you have a dead spirit. And many say that you were born, you were made alive. A three-part being, body, soul, and spirit. And the body obviously is alive.

[1:43] And presumably the soul is alive. And so they teach that the spirit died. They teach back in Genesis that Adam and Eve sinned. And in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.

[1:55] And after they ate it, they're still functioning as human beings. But something took place. Something died. And so they commonly teach that it's their spirit. And I don't quite believe that.

[2:05] But I can't say that I know enough Bible to declare definitively that that's not the case. But I'll show you what I think here and just run a few verses here.

[2:19] And you tell me if you find this to be so. Look back. I'll just give you a real quick look. Look at Ezekiel chapter 18. Look at Ezekiel 18. It just doesn't make sense to me, as I said last week, to have a dead spirit.

[2:38] But that's even a thing. Now, some people get, they may have a better handle on this. And they'll say, and show me where I'm wrong. And so that's where I'm okay to be wrong.

[2:50] This is just the way I understand it or perceive it from the Bible. This is not just my mind trying to come up with something. It's coming from the scripture. And, again, the Bible says that the body without the spirit is dead.

[3:05] And the spirit is what gives life to this physical body of clay. And so now that we have life in our body, well, I'll get to that in a second. Look at Ezekiel chapter 18.

[3:17] And just taking the scripture at face value here, verse 20, the Bible says, The soul that sinneth, it shall die. Now, I know it's referring to men, but it doesn't say he shall die.

[3:32] Look at the last part of verse 19. It says, he shall surely live. But when it talks about the soul, it uses the word it. The death of the soul. In sin.

[3:43] And I understand this is Old Testament theology. This is the righteousness earned by your obedience to the law. And your righteousness is your personal righteousness.

[3:54] And you can read the chapter and read the passage. The wicked can turn from his sins. And then he can be declared righteous. He won't die. He'll live. People will say, well, that means that he'll be killed by God.

[4:09] And I guess, yeah, you'll shorten your life by living in sin. But if you don't, if you repent of your sin and walk with God, does that mean you'll never die physically? Do you live eternally?

[4:21] When he says, thou shalt surely live. If it's physical life, if it's physical death, is it physical life? Is what my question is. Or it has to do with your status.

[4:32] Your Old Testament, mind you, status. Whether you are wicked in God's eyes and in sins. Matter of fact, connecting that to Ephesians. Look at, which verse do I want?

[4:49] How about verse 24? When the righteous turneth away from his righteousness and commiteth iniquity and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned.

[5:02] In his trespass, that he hath trespassed, and in his sin, that he hath sinned, in them shall he die. What did Ephesians say? You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.

[5:16] Those are the two words he uses in verse 24. He's dead, but he's a dead man walking. He's walking on this planet with the ability to turn from those sins. So that's a spiritual thing.

[5:29] It's a spiritual status of righteousness or wickedness before God in the Old Testament. Now the point I'm getting to was verse 20. The soul that sinneth, it shall die.

[5:41] So I believe it's the soul that dies before God. Come back to Genesis, and I'll show it to you here. Genesis chapter 2.

[5:51] Genesis chapter 2. Now there's a host of scripture we can run that deal with the soul or that make mention of dead.

[6:10] Just things like, once I start seeing it this way, then other scriptures seem to fit that narrative of, I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.

[6:24] Things like Christ saying, let the dead bury their dead. Just those kind of things I kind of plug into this. Anyway, Genesis chapter 2, and look at the threat here if they disobey.

[6:36] In verse 16 and 17. But the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

[6:52] Now, thou shalt surely die. And we know physically speaking, the man and the woman did not drop over dead and turn back to dust. So what died?

[7:03] The reason I teach the soul, one of the reasons, is because in this passage, the Bible gives an indication of one thing that is a living, that is alive. And it's ten verses before.

[7:14] Look at verse 7. And 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. Living soul.

[7:25] The only thing that's up to this point, as far as man goes, as far as the wording of the scripture, it says he's a living soul. It ascribes life to the soul. And then he threatens death.

[7:37] To what? To his body? No. To his spirit? I don't think so. I go with the soul. That's what I believe. That's what I teach. So anyway, when I say teach, I put the little asterisk there to say that I offer that.

[7:51] I don't know if that's entirely true. And there's definitely John chapter 3, where some people really park on to say that Christ talking about a new birth and being born again, and he says that which is flesh is flesh, that which is spirit is spirit.

[8:06] Let's just look at it. Let's look at it. It's no problem. Here's Christ teaching Nicodemus something that he doesn't understand.

[8:21] He's never heard of before. And he tells a man that he has to be born again. That his first birth is not good enough.

[8:31] That first birth is a physical birth. He calls it being born of water. That is not being baptized or sprinkled with quote-unquote holy water. That's being born of his mother's womb in verse number 4.

[8:43] He uses that very phrase. But in verse, let's see, verse 5, Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

[8:55] That which is born of the flesh is flesh. And that which is born of the spirit, capital S, spirit of God, being born of God, John chapter 1.

[9:06] That which is born of the spirit is spirit. So now they say, well, see, it's your spirit that gets born again. So it's your spirit that's dead. But he doesn't say it is the spirit of man.

[9:18] He said it is spirit. And I take that to mean it is of spiritual nature, contrasting that which is born of flesh is flesh, physical nature. But this is a spiritual birth.

[9:29] It's the soul is not physically manifest like the body is. The soul is just as spiritual in nature as the spirit itself that we would say. So that's why I go there and say that he's talking about spiritual things.

[9:43] In John chapter 3, I'm sorry, John chapter 6, verse 63, Christ says, It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. And the spirit is what gives life.

[9:55] The spirit God gives a man, he put the breath of life into that body. That's the spirit joining with that body and giving it, quickening it, giving it life. But man then became a living soul.

[10:08] The spirit quickens. I would say that the spirit that God gives a man quickens our mortal body, but it's the spirit of God that quickens our soul. And without the spirit of God in you and the spirit of Christ, as Romans says, he is none of his.

[10:25] You're just dead. You're a piece of meat walking around. Now anyway, but coming back to Ephesians, let's just move forward with this. I came across that just from studying my Bible and trying to understand what I think, how I can teach some of this.

[10:43] I've always just been taught the one way about the spirit, and then I've always just kind of even, that's what I would go with. And then I just started seeing it differently and thinking on it and studying it out.

[10:55] And I brought it before some people, some men that I looked up to and thought, these guys know Bible better than I have. And I kind of suggest, what do you think about this? And they shut it down.

[11:05] No, no, no. They didn't really give me a Bible reason why, or I didn't really get to explain and run the verses and kind of say, this is what I see here.

[11:15] What do you think? I just got shut down right away, and so I just kind of left it go. And I was almost afraid to say anything or teach that or suggest that because I didn't want to be wrong and I don't want to be the heretic, you know.

[11:28] But then it was, what was this, back in the, it was just not too, Linda, when your brother passed away or was down at the funeral, and her dad, Pastor Steve Andrus, got up and he stood there while we were having a little fellowship, little meal thing afterwards and he got up and people were just saying memories of the deceased and then he kind of gave a little gospel charge.

[11:58] And in doing that, he said, you've got a dead soul. And he said it once and I just thought, oh, I wonder if I was just a slip of the tongue, but it caught my ear. I'm like, dead soul? What? Somebody else says that?

[12:10] And then he said it three times in his little 10 minute push for the family and the friends to trust Jesus Christ. And so I thought, I'm going to talk to him about this or just see what he thinks about this.

[12:22] And when he was here, I want to say, man, I don't even know when he was here last. It couldn't have been Christmas, was it? Was that right? Maybe?

[12:34] He was here one evening and somewhere before everybody left, I said, hey, I just wanted to ask you about this. And we brought it up and we just talked five minutes at the most.

[12:45] And we both agreed, yeah, let's get together and talk it out a little bit more. But he agreed. He thought that's what it is. And I just gave a verse or a thought and he's like, yeah, that's a good point. And so we went back and forth shortly, but I felt like, hey, I finally found somebody who might believe the way I do.

[13:01] Had to come out to California to do it. So I don't know what that tells me. But I was happy just to hear that. Now, that could be good or bad.

[13:12] We want the scriptures to declare the truth and not want to be on one side or the other if it's wrong. We want to know what the word of God says. So anyway, all of that just to get back to verse one.

[13:22] And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Wherein, in time past, remember this is talking to saved believers now, that looking back into their past before they had Christ, in time past, you walked according to the course of this world.

[13:43] According to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Now, before you're saved, you don't have much hope. You don't have much going for you.

[13:54] you just, you don't even have really the ability to discern and to avoid, I should say, the course of this world.

[14:05] The spirit that's working and driving you a certain direction because you're dead in sins. You don't have the spirit of God illuminating your eyes to what the word of God says, to the truth, to the light.

[14:19] All you have is just getting sucked in. And some people say they're, you know, they're inwardly rebellious or just nonconformists and they're not going to follow the mainstream.

[14:33] They don't even realize that's just another little avenue of the prince of the power of the air of teaching them this is the different, the narrow path, the rebellious path.

[14:44] Don't follow that. They're just as lost and full of sin as all of them. That course of this world is a broad road. There's a lot of little ways to walk on that broad road.

[14:55] And when somebody feels like they're better than someone else, they're just as deceived in their mind and their heart and they're heading to hell letting the devil deceive them. Now, the course of this world, I don't want to take a lot of time here.

[15:08] Man, this book is so loaded. I look at Ephesians and almost think pound for pound, verse for verse. This thing is, it's up there with the best of them.

[15:19] Somebody might say that Revelation is the most loaded book of things, but this book has got some teaching. It's not just chapter by chapter.

[15:30] It's almost, it's more than verse by verse. It's line by line in some cases. The course of this world. We could run some thoughts on the course of this world and on philosophy and vain deceit and on science falsely so called and what this world generates and promotes to put up that's always against God, always wrong.

[15:56] And you just walked according to the course of this world. The course of this world, he shows us, is being led by the prince of the power of the air. Now, in the Bible, you've got this being identified and he's identified in many ways the devil.

[16:14] He's identified as the prince of devils. He's identified as the prince of this world in the book of John a couple different times. He's called the god of this world. He's called the wicked one.

[16:27] And he's even likened in one of the parables as fowls of the air, like the prince of the power of the air. There's something in that atmosphere and in that realm that he controls.

[16:39] and that he's very engaged in. And it's something that we really don't have a connection to that we can't touch with our hands. We're just influenced by it and don't fully realize it.

[16:52] And of course, somebody who's dead in their sins is completely oblivious to the influence of the devil. What they don't even know is look at the end of verse number two.

[17:03] It says, the spirit that now worketh, not past tense, but currently, and that's, this Bible's up to date. It's still current. The spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.

[17:17] Now, let me point out this. I taught you back in Matthew that Satan is a being that has the ability like God's spirit to manifest himself in a plurality in you, in you, in you, in multiple places.

[17:31] And I showed you that from some scripture in Mark. Here, notice this. The spirit who is the prince of the power of the air. That spirit, that's a singular spirit, is it not?

[17:42] The spirit that now worketh in the children. That's not one person. That's multiple people. How many people would that be?

[17:53] How many children are called children of disobedience that are lost without Christ in this world and he's working in them? Now, if you want to see him work in them, you could do it by just judging the word of God and knowing the truth and seeing the choices and the lifestyles they make and the tendency towards sin.

[18:16] But if you want to see it in a different way, go out in a street corner at a particular place or a particular time in the evening and dress like a Bible-believing Christian, just dress clean and upright and have a Bible and have some tracks on you or have a sign that says something about the word of God or the Lord Jesus Christ.

[18:38] Have a sign that says Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners and hold that sign up and watch how the spirit starts to work in the children of disobedience.

[18:52] I've stood on a street corner on a Friday night at a place where the kids would kind of go cruising by and you know the way it goes and some kids who are just normal teenage kids.

[19:05] They're not the wicked of the wickedest. They're not goth-ed out. They're not all face-tattooed. They're not gangbangers. They're just teenage kids that got out of the house.

[19:18] They probably are in the track team or the chess club or who knows what. But they're just your average teens cruising with their friends and when I'm standing there with that Bible or in that street sign or something, when I'm standing there, they come up to that stoplight and they sit and they're all like intimidated by this five-foot-eight guy.

[19:41] That's why. But they're all like they don't want to make eye contact. And I'm, the righteous are bold as a lion. And at the moment, the Lord, I'm just kind of, I want them to see it.

[19:52] I want them to consider it. If the opportunity was there to preach for a moment, you do that. But I've seen as more than once these kids, when that light turns green with their windows down, one thing they'll do is crank up the music as loud as they can to drown out the preaching or that they don't have to hear it and they're all laughing about it.

[20:13] Ha ha ha, look what we did. But another thing, I've seen it more than once, one of those kids in the back seat as the light turns green just turns because the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience is stirring them up to do something against the Lord Jesus Christ and against the preaching of righteousness and they turn and they throw out just a string of profanities at, not at me as a person, but at what I'm standing for.

[20:40] And that's, to me, I just, I see it go and I just, I know what it is. It's the devil, the spirit in them that's, they don't, they don't, they didn't cuss at the next light, at somebody, some bystander that's waiting to cross the street.

[20:56] They didn't curse them out, but there's something inside of them that said, when you get a chance, let one fly or show them or do something. And to me, that's what that is.

[21:08] That's the spirit of the devil in them working to keep them lost, working very hard to keep Jesus Christ hidden. I've seen it happen too many times that just normal kids, what I want to call normal kids, clean looking kids for the most part, throw out some profanities at somebody that's trying to do something for Christ.

[21:31] And I, they, what possesses them to talk like that to me when they're not going to talk like that to anybody else that whole night? They're not going to cuss at the top of their lungs. Why would they cuss at the preacher?

[21:42] Think about it. There's, there's a whole lot more we could say about this, but understand that that spirit is still alive. It's the spirit of the devil and he, he's very active in this book.

[21:57] We, he's not hidden and he's working in the children of disobedience. Now we have to move on. Verse number three, among whom, also, we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desire of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature the children of wrath even as others.

[22:20] We were by nature the children of wrath. There was, this book says there was no hope for us. We're not children of God like some people teach.

[22:31] The Bible here tells us by nature. It's natural. Your natural birth brought about something that's called the children of wrath and children of disobedience that are being led by the devil unknowingly and we know the end.

[22:46] They were by nature the children of wrath even as others. I'm going to find this. I have a note here about John 3.36. He uses that term wrath.

[22:59] Yeah, in John 3.36, Jesus, the Bible says, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him.

[23:14] So, to call him the children of wrath, that's a good take because the wrath of God is abiding on the unbeliever. He has not yet experienced the wrath of God but as he's dead in his trespasses and sins, the wrath of God, he's a children of wrath, children of disobedience.

[23:34] These are terms the Bible uses to describe the lost man and if you start putting the pile together just in this chapter and chapter 4 and 5, it's ugly.

[23:47] What the Bible calls an unsaved person and there's somebody that sometimes you look at as like, well that's my uncle or my daughter or my co-worker and they're funny and they're friendly and they're giving and they're caring and they're good people and they're not malicious and they haven't killed anybody and you can look at a personality and not see underneath the skin and not see the soul and not understand that what God says, you don't see it from a holy God's eyes and standpoint that he sent his son to rescue them.

[24:20] You don't see it like that. You see it with some emotional connection and some kind of kindred connection humanly speaking and you've got to be careful. That's why you better be in your Bible and get the word of God that teaches you they are in darkness.

[24:36] They are blinded. They are without God. They do not have the blood of Jesus Christ that is making them nigh. So they're completely separated. They might be nice but they're separated from a holy God and nice people that have sin that are separated from a holy God will suffer their vengeance and wrath of God.

[24:56] And that's what the book says. So you better believe what God said and not how you feel. Take your feelings and to hell with your feelings because that's where it's being generated from the old nature.

[25:10] Not from the spirit of God. The new man doesn't see it that way. The new man understands they need Christ and maybe they're nice how much nicer would they be with Christ?

[25:22] And what could Jesus Christ do for them? Alright, he could save their soul from hell. Alright, verse number 1, 2, and 3. Dead in trespasses and sins.

[25:33] Walking according to the course of this world. The spirit of the prince of the power of the air. That's a reference to a rule or to dominion power.

[25:46] In Romans 13 Paul says let every soul be subject to the powers that be their rulers that are ordained of God. there's something up in the heavenlies that as we've already covered a little bit of in chapter 1 won't try to bring that into it but we're being deceived and led by a greater force.

[26:08] That spirit working in the children of disobedience. one of the best things I'll get back to the text in a minute is for a Bible believing Christian is to keep his nose in the Bible and let this worldly chatter and distractions and all of its noise just pass right over you.

[26:26] because eventually if you can learn to do that you'll not only have better peace inside of you but this thing is so set up by principalities and the course of this world you know the politics and the things of not just this nation but all nations it's something bigger than red versus blue much bigger than that.

[26:51] You get that from your Bible. when you get sucked into which side is right and where I need to stand and you're going you're getting sucked into the course of this world you're getting sucked into something the prince of the power of the air that's working in the children of disobedience don't you as a Christian you know as a conservative you get frustrated with policies or with decisions and it just it could like you want to scream you want to raise up everybody to overturn and you don't realize you're not going to overturn because you're not fighting against flesh and blood you're fighting against something way bigger than that on a much bigger stage on a prophetic stage where God is allowing things to move and prepare and move a certain direction the course of this world is subject to the word of God by the way and what God laid out in the scriptures please do not act like you're going to fight against it you can't do anything against this book alright let's move back to the text I'm sorry

[27:52] I'm so distracted by those things but verse number 4 but God thank the Lord there's a good but God when you were all of these things against you but God wasn't going to let it go wasn't going to let you dive into hell with your sins being deceived but God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins verse 1 hath quickened us there's the quickening together with Christ remember everything's to do with Christ by grace ye are saved and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus there's the in Christ again that in the ages to come you might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us of course through Christ Jesus now God's not willing that any should perish so God did something and I want to point out something that's important here doctrinally speaking in verse 4 but God who his own nature he's rich in mercy as he sits on his throne he is rich in mercy and beholding the iniquity of men and the deadness of their souls and sin and the deception of the prince of the power of the air and the working that the spirit of the devil is doing in man not willing that it should go that route and he says this in verse 4 for the great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together in

[29:23] Christ why doesn't it say for the great love wherewith he loves us doesn't he love us why does it say past tense for the great love wherewith he loved us in the past it does say that in your bible right why does it say it in the past well because he's referring to something and he always says it in the past when he's referring to something I'll show you what he's referring to look at 1st John chapter 4 1st John chapter 4 and verse 19 and you see the past tense here again we love him why because he first loved us now what's that a reference to let's see it some more in the passage look at chapter 7

[30:27] I'm sorry verses 7 through 10 right here in 1st John 4 verse 7 beloved let us love one another for love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God and know with God he that loveth not know with not God for God is love now watch this verse 9 in this was manifested the love of God toward us because that God past tense sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him here in his love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins here it tells us the past tense he loved us and sent his son in verse 9 in this was manifested the love of God toward us sending his son look back at chapter 3 verse 16 hereby perceive we the love of God this is the place the time and place that we acknowledge understand or introduced to the love of

[31:34] God because he laid down his life for us this is Calvary this is the cross of Calvary where God's love was manifested look at Romans Romans chapter 5 Romans chapter 5 verse number 8 as it's describing a sinner in verse number 6 the ungodly in verse number 7 talks about somebody dying for him in verse 8 but God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners dead in trespasses and sins Christ died for us much more than being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him the love is commended or displayed put on display at Calvary and you want to see it's in the past tense because

[32:51] Calvary is in the past look at Ephesians again look at chapter 5 this isn't just two verses to make a teaching here this is all over Ephesians 5 verse 2 the Bible says and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God the cross of Calvary he loved us the apostle Paul says I'm crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me in the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the son of God who loved past tense me and what gave himself for me past tense always well that's enough of that back in Ephesians chapter 2 the love the great love wherewith he loved us then what is that talking about that's talking about Christ's sacrifice on the cross of Calvary for your sins to quicken you to put eternal life in you and John 5 24 he describes the sinner that believes on Christ as passing from death unto life and shall not come into condemnation the great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together with

[34:13] Christ by grace you're saved parenthesis as in it's well I think it's pretty self-explanatory there it's not a works set up he's going to say this again stronger in verse number 8 and 9 but it's the grace of God verse 6 then he said made us raise us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus we already saw that from chapter 1 verse 20 what what God raised up Christ and that power that he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead made him sit in that place of authority that he's doing that because we're in Christ and he what he did in Christ is inherently you you there's a better way of saying it but because you get in Christ you're just all of it's in you are in all of that you're that power that hope that calling that authority you're a joint heir with Jesus

[35:17] Christ so that's when he raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus now those heavenly places again this is the only time it's mentioned is in Ephesians a few times in this book of Ephesians saw it in chapter 1 in verse 20 there it is again in verse 6 of chapter 2 it shows up again in chapter 3 and verse 10 it's something Paul talks about up there and in this greater context of what he's given us so far in chapter 1 leading into these statements he's talking about that eternal purpose that God purposed in Christ Jesus for the body of Christ and he put us up there in Christ in heavenly places I know people think of this like well I'm going to heaven to be with God in heaven and have really no understanding of what that is and of course the real generic and elementary foolish thought of clouds and angels and harps and paintings and that just you know obviously that's nothing not even a touch of truth yet what

[36:26] Paul describes consistently is heavenly places and that Christ is in an authoritative position in these places and that we are in him and seated in those positions of authority with him and heirs with him of all things that God has created and as we said before those principalities and powers even as he mentions in verse 21 of the previous chapter all principality power might dominion every name that is named not only in this world but in that which is to come in Christ we're called for a purpose and we're going to have a place with him and rule with him and do some things I believe now verse 7 we're going to have to close here that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus I'm not sure if this is the verse but if you've ever heard a song or a statement a little kind of

[37:27] Christian cliche that we are trophies of his grace and I think it comes from this verse here I'm not positive but I think it comes from this idea that he's going to it says that he might show the exceeding riches of his grace like he's going to put us in heaven and display us as like look at that one they're a Gentile they're a sinner they were dead in sins and I did and I don't really I don't know if that's even remotely accurate to describe that and to say to use the word trophies that we are trophies but you know to each his own so be it I think that's where that comes from as far as biblically speaking if it's not from the Bible maybe it's just from some TV preacher or something who knows they don't use the Bible so we'll have to quit here in verse number 8 and 9 are very familiar and popular verses that you ought to have memorized and these are doctrinal truths revealed by the apostle Paul to the body of Christ when you read verse 8 that for by grace are ye saved through faith there's a reason that that verse is not in

[38:34] Genesis or Psalms or Habakkuk because they didn't have any understanding or any illumination to such a statement to make they didn't know this at all this wasn't for them but this is for us and this is what was revealed to the apostle Paul this dispensation as he teaches in verse 3 the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me and he's going to describe and teach the church that we're saved by grace he said it in verse 5 by grace you're saved and we'll see next week and contrast why it's not of works and what the apostle Paul says that at one time it was of works there was an element of works that a man did and we saw it even in Ezekiel in his righteousness shall he live if he does that which is lawful and right and so we'll contrast some of that next week so you get a good understanding of the Bible teaching for you today what God is requiring of you today to trust his son to exercise faith in the gospel of Jesus

[39:38]  Christ in the old days and under a different era in a different age God required them to keep the law and he required them to offer animal sacrifices to atone for to cover up the sins that they committed against him he set that up but that's been done away in Christ and so today we have the grace of God and we're saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ we'll cover some of that next week