Truth Hurts and Can Set You Free

[0:00] Good morning. Please have a seat. If you're a new, welcome. My name is BK. I have the pleasure of serving as one of the pastors here. Please take out your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 2.

[0:15] Ephesians chapter 2. As you know, we've been going through Ephesians. So we are now beginning a transition from chapter 1 to chapter 2.

[0:25] We're going to see very clearly the reason for this transition and the significance of it. So just the other day, I was spending some time on the road.

[0:35] I had to go run some errands, and the only radio station that came in was the CBC. I'm not a big CBC listener. It's kind of like too quiet, right?

[0:47] You know, that FM. Anyway. But I was doing some really interesting interviews. Some were with artists and some other people of prominence.

[0:57] It was an inventor on there. But there was one person that I found particularly interesting. And they were talking about a specific area. And the person was an expert in this area. If I wanted advice on this subject, this is the type of person I would go and talk to and ask for their opinion.

[1:15] But as I was listening to the radio, the lady wouldn't claim that it was true. She would never say what she is saying is true, even though it was based on fact and scientific research.

[1:30] She always referred to, I just feel really strongly that it's right. I feel strongly. So I just kind of picked up on this.

[1:42] And as I'm listening to the half-hour interview, it's feel, feel, feel. And it started to bug me a little bit. I get it. We live in a world where saying something is true or not true is kind of unpopular thing to do.

[1:59] In our culture today, we dislike experts because sometimes they're going to speak with authority. And authority, when it proves us wrong, we don't like that.

[2:10] We are encouraged in our culture to decide what is true for me may not be true for you. Sometimes I get this.

[2:23] You know, anybody who watches the news, there's a political opinion that's being offered. And they act like there's an effort. But, you know, how do you know a politician is lying?

[2:33] He's moving his lips, right? You know? Well, we've been dissuaded because they make these promises that say something's right. So we get a little bit cynical towards that. You know, then we have other issues that come up.

[2:51] The fact is, this is the world that we live in today. When I was in university, one of my biggest pet peeves was the whole political correct movement.

[3:01] It bothered me that you couldn't say certain words or say something was right or wrong. And I remember being in a philosophy class debating the point that some things you can say are right.

[3:13] And I remember I used this story. I said, we're all just pretend. We're all on this ship and it's sinking. And there's two life rafts. There's a yellow life raft and a blue life raft.

[3:25] And you have this one CO2 canister that can only blow up one raft. That raft will fit everybody in it. What is the right decision to make?

[3:39] It's the yellow one, right? You want to be seen, spotted by research. But they wouldn't commit to saying that was the right decision. They wouldn't even commit to saying it was a smart decision.

[3:51] Well, how dare you say that other one is wrong? But what's interesting in our community, there's actually three professions that we want truth from above all else.

[4:09] All right? First one are doctors, right? You want your doctor to be truthful with you. In fact, doctors are the only ones that can really insult you and you're not offended, right?

[4:23] So when my doctor says, BK, you need to lose 20 pounds, no one else says that to me, right? But my doctor's just a matter of fact, hey, you know, you need to lose 20 pounds. All right, let's make it 30. Right? You know?

[4:33] They can say those things. And I'm not offended. I appreciate that they're being truthful and honest with me. For you business people, it's your accountants. You want your accountant to tell you whether you're in the red or in the black.

[4:46] You want truth. You don't want them to sugarcoat it. Just tell me, am I going out of business tomorrow or do I have enough money next week to expand? And the other person, believe it or not, are car mechanics.

[4:57] We want our car mechanics to be truthful with us. It was sad that in this poll, clergy only rated around eighth. It's a sad display.

[5:11] But we all know with either doctors, accountants, or car mechanics, whatever, wrong diagnosis, false words can cause great damage.

[5:23] The fact is we need truth, even though it is unfashionable during these times. The apostles were charged by Jesus Christ to take the gospel of Jesus to the world.

[5:38] They all, except for John, died martyrs, proclaiming truth. If you read the early church fathers, many of them died.

[5:51] Many of them were ostracized to bring the truth that we now have accepted as the gospel of Jesus Christ. The apostles did not die for a lie.

[6:08] Today's passage is rich in truth. So we're going to find out in the next couple of weeks. It's also rich in grace. It's rich in mercy.

[6:19] And it's rich in love. But first of all, it is rich in truth. Sometimes we don't really appreciate something unless it's contrasted against something else.

[6:35] How many of you have been to the Grand Canyon? You don't go to the Grand Canyon to have big thoughts about yourself, right? You feel small when you go to the Grand Canyon.

[6:49] And today we're going to look at a passage that is going to teach us the reality of who we are before we met Jesus. For some of you who do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, it's going to be tough to hear.

[7:06] Because Paul is going to unwrap who we all were. So please turn with me. Read along with me our passage in Ephesians, starting in chapter 2.

[7:21] I will begin in verse 1. Paul writes, Amen.

[8:07] Amen. Amen.

[8:26] with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Verse 7, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

[8:42] For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing. It is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

[8:58] For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in him.

[9:15] Amen? When putting together this sermon, I kind of thought about putting it into three general points. One, we were pretty bad. God is pretty good.

[9:27] And now we're pretty good too. However, there is a level of depth and foundational truth to this passage I believe would be irresponsible for me to glean over some of the tough truths that Paul presents to us.

[9:48] You see, in the first Ephesians chapter 1, the first Ephesians, what I mean is chapter 1 of Ephesians, Paul is presenting salvation from God's perspective.

[10:00] What happened beforehand. We learn about God had predestined us. He had chosen us before time. Then he talks about the work of the Holy Spirit, which takes the truth of the cross and allows it to accept it and believe it.

[10:17] Chapter 2, we're looking at it from man's perspective. And it's a perspective that man often fights with.

[10:28] But it's a perspective that tells us a lot more about God than it does us. Right worship, my friends, begins with right truths about God in us.

[10:44] Right worship with God begins with right truths about God in us. So this morning, we're going to see who we were, why we were this way, and how did God regard us, and what is the purpose.

[11:02] So that we would have a greater understanding of who we are, but more importantly, the greatness of God's grace, mercy, and love towards us, which ultimately leads to a radically changed life of worship and obedience.

[11:16] Let's take a look at verse 1 again. So here Paul says, and you were dead. Boom, stop. Let me ask you a question.

[11:27] How many types of dead are there? Now, before we get into that answer, Sabian has not obviously watched The Princess Bride, but we'll get to that in a little bit.

[11:41] Yeah. But before I answer that question, let's talk a little bit about death. What type of death is Paul talking about? There's an allusion right here directly to Genesis.

[11:55] Genesis 3.3. God simply said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, Adam. Neither shall you touch it, lest you die.

[12:09] Did Adam touch the fruit? Did Adam touch the fruit? Yes, he touched the fruit, right? Did he just touch it or did he did something more with it?

[12:20] He bit in. He ate it, right? Now, we all know that Adam blame shifted towards his wife, and he blame shifted again, but he ate it.

[12:32] Did he die? He did, but he didn't die physically. The first death that he experienced was spiritual death.

[12:43] Spiritual death. Spiritual death is dead to God. That relationship that he had with God. And remember, Adam's relationship with God was the most unique relationship that man had ever had.

[12:56] It said he walked in the garden, which was a perfect garden, with a relationship with God, where he walked with God in the cool of the day.

[13:13] Adam lost a lot on that day. But that spiritual death eventually led to a physical death.

[13:24] But that relationship with Adam had now been broken. Death had entered the world, and with it, shame and a myriad of other of our problems.

[13:38] And so dead was Adam that God had to go looking for him. Think about that for a second. This is God.

[13:50] Perfect God. Perfect love. How many of you, as grandparents, when you go to visit your grandchildren, do you actually have to go looking for them? They're right at the door waiting for you, right?

[14:03] They're so excited that grandma and grandpa are coming. You'd think Adam would have that same attitude. But he knew something happened.

[14:15] Adam and Eve knew something was off. It's illustrated in the fact that they knew they were naked.

[14:26] There are essentially three views of human nature that are taught today. The first view is that we're kind of good, right?

[14:40] We know we're not perfect, but one day through science and technology, we will overcome the evils of the world. I know that kind of sounds crazy to us, but in the modern age before World War I, this was largely how the world thought.

[14:58] They were going to do without religion. We didn't need it. That we ourselves, we got to know each other better. We would be a perfect world.

[15:11] All of a sudden, World War I happened, and then World War II. That completely decimated that type of thinking. But that still exists in many parts of the world today.

[15:24] Okay. The second view is that we are not well. In fact, we may be sick, even mortally sick. And as I said, if you're a fan of the Prince's Bride, you'll know that you might be mostly dead, right?

[15:41] That through some special, you might be able to see, or you admit you're in bad shape, but you're kind of partly alive. If you're not mostly dead, you're partly alive.

[15:52] And because you're partly alive, there's still hope. There's still something you might do to get better. The third view, which we read here in the Bible, is that we are dead.

[16:09] Dead people don't respond to lights, to sounds, to noise, to voices. But we're dead as far as our relationship with God is concerned.

[16:24] Can dead people respond to God? No. They're dead. Dead people cannot move. Dead people cannot think. They cannot make the first move towards God, unless God does something to wake them from the dead.

[16:44] Dead people. Theologians have a term for this. It's called total depravity. Now, total depravity is a very misunderstood term. A lot of people think that if it's totally depraved, I can't do any good.

[16:58] That's not what the term means. It simply means, from a spiritual sense of, spiritual point of view, I cannot become alive in Christ.

[17:09] You get that? Sin. I'm sinned. Paul says, I'm dead. I can't find God on my own. God has to do something first in me.

[17:21] Some people think it means that a man can't do good. No, we can do good. We can feed the poor. We can help the helpless. People who do not know Jesus Christ are sometimes, often, very wonderful, great people.

[17:35] That's not what the term means. It just simply means that they do good things, but not enough to earn salvation. And it doesn't mean that they're so depraved that they're all evil as they could be.

[17:49] So the point is, as far as salvation is concerned, any act of righteousness that they do is tainted with sin.

[17:59] Now take a look. Let's go back to the very beginning. Adam sins. He knows something's wrong with God.

[18:09] If there was any person who had an opportunity to fix that relationship with God, it would have been him.

[18:20] But notice he didn't even want to go near God. That's what sin does. That's how great the alienation.

[18:32] How many types of death are there? There's one. There's different types of death. I remember there was a head-on collision at my camp. Two cars coming in, and we ran out. And I remember getting to the one door, and the passenger is yelling at his friend.

[18:48] And he's Rick, and this guy's leg is off. It's torn off. But he's yelling, yelling at his friend, just hoping his friend would respond.

[18:59] His friend looks normal. He ended up crushed of internal injuries, dead on the spot. The other car, the lady was decapitated.

[19:11] But the point is, no one was yelling at her to see if she was alive, right? One looked dead. There's different degrees of dead, right?

[19:21] But there's still really only one dead. And why is this? Let's go back to verse 1. In the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.

[19:38] I want you to pay attention to that term, walked. This is a term we are going to see throughout the book of Ephesians. It's a term that Paul really likes to use. And in the Jewish mindset, it simply means it's not like going for a walk through a garden or a park or a trail.

[19:56] It actually means, how do you conduct your life? So when I ask you, how is your walk? It's really about your integrity, who you are, all these aspects.

[20:07] How do you conduct your life? So whenever you see walk, that's what he's talking about. So it says that you, in the trespasses and sin in which you once walked.

[20:20] So the trespasses and sin that were a part of your life. And he uses two terms. And these terms are very interesting. First one, trespasses. We know what no trespassing signs mean, right?

[20:34] It means don't go into that property. Sometimes it's for your safety. There's grizzly bears over there. They will eat you. Sometimes it's, you might, you put it up because you have some valuables.

[20:46] You know what? People come in. You'll shoot them. But the point is, it means crossing a known boundaries, all right?

[20:56] It's a deviation from the wrong path. It is a wrong direction. It's a cognitive choice that you're making, okay?

[21:08] You know it's wrong when you do these things. Now, sin, on the other hand, is a very different definition. Essentially, at the root, it means I'm falling short of the goal.

[21:21] Or I'm missing the mark of God's standard or God's glory. What's interesting, one is positive, one is negative.

[21:34] You can sin without knowing. You know that? Because often we think we're doing good, but we're actually missing the goal that God has set out. It's his holiness, his glory. We can sin and be very well-intentioned.

[21:47] So, Paul's just simply saying here, you are dead. Why? Because you sin. And don't worry. You can't give me that excuse that you didn't know you were sinning. It's actually all-encompassing.

[21:59] Both the positive, the negative, those sins of commission, and also those sins of omission. Do you know what I mean by that? There's that sins of commission.

[22:10] You're consciously doing something. It's an act that's wrong. But a sin of omission might mean you know there's a right action to do. Perhaps there's someone by the side of the road who needs help, and you don't do anything.

[22:26] You know you're charged to love your brother as yourselves, right? That's that sin of omission. A lot of people, hey man, I didn't do that. I didn't really commit an act.

[22:37] You actually did. God's going to hold you accountable for both your sins of omission and the sins of commission. So, even in this quick one phrase, you've got no excuse.

[22:48] You're dead. You're dead, and you're rightfully dead. Isaiah 59.2 says, That's big.

[23:15] Your iniquities have made a separation, and your sin has separated you from God even hearing you.

[23:27] A man or woman does not become a liar when they tell a lie, right? They lie because they are liars. It's who we are.

[23:38] That's who we once were. Man is not just dead towards God, but he's alive towards wickedness. So, what is the result of that death?

[23:50] Take a look at verse 2. So, it says, In which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit is now at work in the sons of disobedience.

[24:06] One author simply states, Because we are dead, what is dead and walks? Zombies, right? Zombies.

[24:19] And a zombie only does what a zombie can do, right? It just walks. It doesn't recognize anything. And you guys know what zombies are, right? There's like a hundred movies out there made with zombies.

[24:32] And there's always this point in every zombie show ever made. There's a guy or a girl recognizes his wife over there. And he's thinking, you know what?

[24:42] If I go present myself in front of my zombie wife, she will recognize me and love me. And I'll have to live with her. There'll be some smell of decay, but we'll live happily ever after, right?

[24:54] And he goes over and she just eats his brain, right? Like, it's the same in every... A zombie can only do what a zombie does, right?

[25:05] And they adhere to the pattern. The fact of the matter is, there is a pattern to this world. There's political oppression. There is tyranny.

[25:17] Materialism. There is unemployment, racial discrimination, social injustice. Hunger. Poverty. We got this whole thing with the Me Too movement going on.

[25:31] I find the Me Too movement completely fascinating because it happened. It started off with the death of Hugh Hefner. Remember? Hugh Hefner, he was the founder of Playboy. He tried to make pornography and all these things.

[25:43] All horrible, heinous sins. But yet they're celebrating the guy who made it possible for the freely objectification of women for one's own sexual gratification. It's twisted.

[25:55] That's the spirit of this world we live in. Why? Because it tells us the prince and power of this heir. That is the world we live a part of.

[26:08] I know some of you here have lived in countries which have been decimated by horrible sins. racial inequity, not keeping people from jobs, but actually killing people because they are a different race.

[26:28] That is the horrible world that we live in. The world's values are accepted. And what's really tough, and you guys as parents know this, if you have an unredeemed son or daughter, you want them to accept Christian values, right?

[26:51] Hey, when you come over to my house, you're not going to swear. You're not going to talk like that. You know, there's a certain amount of rights that you have. It's your home. But the reality is they're just acting like zombies.

[27:04] They're acting in that worldly influence. They don't know any better. And for us to try to force some sort of moralistic rules on them is not actually helping the matter, right?

[27:18] And this is where we kind of drop the ball as Christians. We quit loving them. We quit loving them. And I know sometimes there's hard, hard fights in the family because some of us are rejected by our family because of our faith.

[27:38] My relationship has been estranged to my father since I was 10 years old. He took off. My mom and I became Christians. He didn't want anything to do with us. You know, in his mind, this is right.

[27:53] This is the world. They're religious crazies, right? The fact of the matter is they serve a different king. My friends, we cannot force morality on them.

[28:10] But we can love them. We can continue praying. We can continue building a relationship with them. Hoping that they will one day become alive in Christ just as we are.

[28:22] Amen? It's hard. I pray with you for those difficult family situations. So where does this world lead us?

[28:33] This world which has both satanic influence. It's this wicked world that we live in. And it produces something. Verse 3. Among whom you all.

[28:46] Notice that he uses that term. We all lived in the passions of our flesh. Carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. Notice it doesn't say you.

[29:00] It's not talking about, hey, you really bad people. Before you came to Christ. You know, you really bad drunks. You bad drug dealers.

[29:10] I never did that stuff, you bad people. You know. No. We're all condemned. We're all wicked at heart. We were dead in our trespasses. Even I, as a 10-year-old, when I heard the gospel.

[29:25] In fact, Paul includes himself so clearly. We once lived in the passions of our flesh. Both those born into Christian homes and those born in non-Christian homes.

[29:39] Now the word flesh being used here is not talking about skin. Thus a lot of people are attaching sexual sins. That's not the point that he's trying to make. The fact is we have desires of our body that are very good.

[29:54] We like to eat. We need to eat. We like to sleep. Sex in marriage is a great and wonderful thing. But when we poison it with sin.

[30:06] Eating can turn into gluttony. Love of sleep can turn into laziness. And love of sex can turn into lust. So what happens is in this system, that world system, it's corrupting even the good things.

[30:22] Do you know what I'm talking about? And this causes damage. It causes damage. So then we have these desires of the mind. And the desires of the mind are those deliberate choices where we choose to defy the will of God.

[30:38] Desires of the mind are pride, false ambition, vengeful, malicious thoughts. But more importantly, it's a rejection of known truth.

[30:52] What's interesting is a lot of people believe that a lot of the sins of the world are Satan's means. And one comment that comes up, obviously, we see this world has embraced illicit sex.

[31:10] And people will talk about, wow, look at all the work that Satan's doing. I believe I can build a pretty good argument. That's already in us. Satan doesn't even have to kick that cart to get that cart going.

[31:22] That's already alive in our flesh. Satan's role is to counterfeit truth. It's to get you to not believe in God.

[31:35] That's where he works, creating false religions. Anything to keep you from believing the truth of God's word. Paul has this great testimony in Philippians 3.

[31:50] He says, And he says, Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh.

[32:02] If anyone else thinks he has reasons for confidence in the flesh, I have more. He was circumcised on the eighth day, which to a Jew is according to the law. I did it right. I didn't wait for the ninth day.

[32:13] I didn't wait for the 28th day. I did it on the eighth day. Nah, nah. Right? Not only that, I'm of the people of Israel. What are you? I don't know. English? Wow, whatever.

[32:23] You know? He's the tribe of Benjamin. So even within Israel, God's chosen people, he's of the tribe of Benjamin.

[32:35] Whoa! That's even, that's a higher considered tribe. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews, as the law of Pharisee. That means he had zeal. And not only that, he persecuted the church, which he believed was false.

[32:47] What he's saying is, hey, I had pride in my ancestry. I had pride in my parentage. I had pride in my race. And I had pride in my religion.

[33:02] That's how corrupt I was. The fact is, we cannot blame it on things outside of us, because we willingly went along for it.

[33:13] Just as I said, many people think Satan is the cause of lust. The thing is, the power for all the lust in the world is already attached to our faith. His gig is to foment false religion, counterfeit faith, to believe lies, to believe the falsehood.

[33:31] And the greatest falsehood that exists is God is not God. And the second one is, we know better. Right? You know the God of the Old Testament?

[33:44] My God wouldn't do that. My values are greater than that God. Do you ever think about how nuts that really is? That you actually think you have the right to judge God on doing godly things.

[34:01] That's crazy. But, that's accepted in our world. Thing is, the world is so well run, not only are we beset by forces on the outside, but the inside as well.

[34:17] Which ultimately makes us responsible. In fact, we are called sons of disobedience. Another way of saying it, God's rebel subjects.

[34:29] Which means we went with the lie, both knowingly and voluntarily. What does this do for us?

[34:41] Let's take a look at the end of verse 3. And we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

[34:53] Kind. We all have a view on what that word means, wrath. Right? I once faced the wrath of my father. It was not a good day.

[35:06] We were playing baseball. My friends at the bottom of the driveway. And a friend of mine threw his bat. And it hit my dad's motorcycle. I knew there was going to be a reckoning that night.

[35:20] Right? We think wrath is bad temper. It's made out of spite or malice. Or it's some sort of unrealized animosity.

[35:32] Or revenge. We create that character. We think that God is like that. And we don't like that God. But we are horribly wrong for associating those things with God.

[35:47] God is holy. God is just. He is good. He is loving. He is perfect. God's wrath is not subject to moods.

[36:02] God's wrath is not arbitrary. God's wrath is not done on a whim. God has constant hostility towards evil.

[36:15] He hates it. There's not a day where he overlooks it. The fact is, because God is perfectly just, we deserve it.

[36:27] We deserve God's perfect wrath and perfect judgment. We are afraid of wrath. We think it conflicts with his love. However, the Bible uses over 20 different words to express God's wrath.

[36:40] And it is referenced in over 600 verses. Now what's interesting is the word that Paul uses is the word that we would use in regards to a fruit as it ripens.

[36:52] Right? I love bananas, but I hate green bananas. Right? I gotta wait till they ripen a little bit and I eat them. It's growing into something. Or I guess a banana is dying into something.

[37:04] But anyway. God's wrath is gradually building. It is gradually intensifying in his opposition to sin.

[37:17] And he does it perfectly and justly. It is constant. It is controlled. It is judicial. And when we are dead, we are objects to that wrath.

[37:42] This is God's diagnosis of man outside of Christ. This diagnosis often keeps people away from Jesus.

[38:00] And some of the people I'm talking about are the Jesus positive people, right? They love Jesus. They love his philosophy. They love his religion. They love the teachers. They love to love one another.

[38:11] But in the end, they fail to accept that this in reality is their condition before God. One author clearly states, It is a failure to recognize the gravity of the human condition.

[38:26] And why? Because it explains people's naive faith that they place so much hope in superficial remedies. If I give a little bit of money here, If I walk a few ladies across the street there, If I base it on my good works, If I can maintain a proper prayer life, That will make up for the wrath that God has said I deserve.

[38:56] There are two types of people here this morning. There are those who are under God's wrath, And there are those who are not under God's wrath.

[39:16] Those who are not under God's wrath are called children of God. We just learned that in Ephesians 1.

[39:27] That once we place our faith in Christ, We accept the fact that Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins, And we put all our faith in the work that he has done. He adopts us as sons and daughters of him.

[39:42] The fact is there is no third option. There is no middle ground. There is no I'm coming closer to Jesus.

[39:52] There is no point of neutrality for me to figure this out. The Bible is quite clear. From a human perspective, There is nothing you can do from going from a child of wrath to a child of God.

[40:10] Like Adam, who realized that he was eternally separated from God, And under his righteous judgment, Had to place his faith in God's promise. Do you know what? That's what Adam did.

[40:22] He knew he had to leave the garden, But he also knew that freedom would come through his son Jesus Christ. He didn't know his name is Jesus, But he knew that a redeemer was coming, Who would eventually die in his place, To take God's wrath instead of him.

[40:45] He had to trust God, And trust God's promise. That there would be one day, One who would come and redeem mankind.

[40:58] There was absolutely nothing Adam could do, And it's the same for us. The truth of the matter is, Even a redeemed person, A child of God, Who has experienced salvation, Can save another sinner.

[41:16] We can't do it. We want to, right? I'm sure if I told you, You had the power to save someone, You'd do it. You would love to see your father.

[41:26] I know I'd love to see my father walk, As a child of God. I've got friends I love dearly. If I could, I would.

[41:39] However, it says, The Bible tells me it's impossible for me, But it's possible for God. Last week, I spoke of the power, That is found in Jesus Christ alone.

[41:51] The same power that lifted Jesus Christ from the grave, The power that seated Jesus at the right hand of God. The power that placed Jesus far above all rule and authority.

[42:03] The power that placed Jesus above all power and dominion. The same power that placed the name of Jesus above every other name, Is the same Jesus who raises us from the dead.

[42:15] Amen? It's available. It is there for us. The same power is available to you in salvation. Jesus promises this power for free, To free us of our shame, To free us of our sin, To free us of our deadness.

[42:36] What's really interesting, He doesn't do it on a promise, Hey, I'll give it to you, If you continue to act like a really good kid. He doesn't. In fact, He says, I'm going to free you, And then I'm going to live your life, As you should before God.

[42:50] I'm going to do it for you. So you never, ever, ever have to worry about losing it, And falling under the curse of death.

[43:05] Jesus Christ promises those who believe in Him, That He will make them sons and daughters of obedience. Jesus Christ promises to save you from being a child of wrath.

[43:19] And our hope lies in believing in this. We are lost without Him. We are eternally separated from God if we do not believe Him.

[43:33] That no matter how much good we do, No matter how many good things we say, How much money we give away, How much we try to love people, It's not going to make a difference. I'm going to tell you what the greatest challenge that we face.

[43:48] Let's pretend that we're here on earth, And it's like a river, And on the other side is God. And it's a mile long, Mile wide river, right?

[43:58] I can jump pretty far. I bet you can out jump my wife. I can. Probably I can, you know. She'll give me a run at it.

[44:10] And I'm sure there's some of you younger guys Who think you can jump farther than me, And you probably will. I'll probably trip you before you get there. But anyway, The reality is, A world class jumper might show up, And he's going to clear like 26 feet.

[44:25] So you know what? Is he closer to the other end of the bank? Yeah, he is. Like 20 feet farther than me, right?

[44:36] He's still not going to make it To the other end of that bank. What happens in our thinking, We think we're closer to God Because I can jump closer.

[44:47] But the reality is, You're closer to this side of the bank Than you are to that one. Right? That person that you might think Is horribly sinful, And a total wretch And has made disaster of your life, You're still closer to him Than you are to God.

[45:05] And you have to accept that truth. And there's one way Where God will freely take you And place you On that other side of the bank.

[45:16] It's done with a bridge Called the cross, right? Jesus Christ simply says, Hey, I'm going to make the way for you Because you can't do it. And you just simply have to accept that.

[45:30] And what you have to realize is That you are a savior lost without God And you need to trust in my righteousness. Will you give me your life?

[45:43] That's all he asks. Will you give me your life? And I will save you. That's the question I have for you today.

[45:55] If you're sitting here And you're thinking or asking Or fearful, And you should be If you are indeed a child of wrath, You can go to being a child of God This very moment.

[46:10] This very moment. I ask you to pray this prayer along with me. Alright, let's close in prayer here. Have a great week.лять