WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.080 All right, we're going to read together from Ephesians chapter 2. 00:00:04.080 --> 00:00:09.640 So Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 to 7, and Allie is going to come and read for us. 00:00:09.640 --> 00:00:13.980 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course 00:00:13.980 --> 00:00:18.859 of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at 00:00:18.859 --> 00:00:24.859 work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, 00:00:24.859 --> 00:00:29.440 carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, 00:00:29.440 --> 00:00:31.600 the rest of mankind. 00:00:31.600 --> 00:00:36.200 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love which He loved us, even when we 00:00:36.200 --> 00:00:40.640 were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been 00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:46.520 saved and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ 00:00:46.520 --> 00:00:51.359 Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace 00:00:51.359 --> 00:00:55.840 in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. 00:00:55.840 --> 00:01:01.720 We are working our way through this letter to the Ephesians from the apostle Paul. 00:01:01.720 --> 00:01:07.159 And so far we've been, Paul has given us a God's eye view of everything that's going 00:01:07.159 --> 00:01:09.200 on in human history. 00:01:09.200 --> 00:01:14.200 And he's told us in chapter 1 especially about God's plan for the world. 00:01:14.200 --> 00:01:18.500 And the idea, the big idea was that God really does have a plan. 00:01:18.500 --> 00:01:23.040 And he's had this plan from eternity and it stretches all the way into the new heavens 00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:27.080 and the new earth and because there really is a plan, there really is meaning for human 00:01:27.080 --> 00:01:28.800 life. 00:01:28.800 --> 00:01:30.640 And God's plan means everything. 00:01:30.640 --> 00:01:34.880 And at the very center of God's plan, Jesus Christ is the main character. 00:01:34.880 --> 00:01:39.200 And so this is His world and He has created us to live in it. 00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:43.520 And when Jesus Christ went to the cross and He died and He came back to life from the 00:01:43.520 --> 00:01:46.800 dead, He included the church. 00:01:46.800 --> 00:01:50.520 Any follower of Jesus today, He included you in this great plan that's unfolding. 00:01:50.519 --> 00:01:55.399 A plan that's all about Jesus and all about His glory and all that God the Father is giving 00:01:55.399 --> 00:01:57.840 Him as King of the world. 00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:00.000 But in redemption, you get to be a part of that. 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:04.599 And that's the big thing we've been told so far is that there is a plan, it's a big plan, 00:02:04.599 --> 00:02:06.319 and that the church gets to be a part of it. 00:02:06.319 --> 00:02:08.960 And so Paul uses one word to describe that. 00:02:08.960 --> 00:02:10.400 He says, we're blessed. 00:02:10.400 --> 00:02:11.400 We've been redeemed. 00:02:11.400 --> 00:02:13.199 We've been forgiven. 00:02:13.199 --> 00:02:14.840 You've been included. 00:02:14.840 --> 00:02:20.920 And in chapter two now, and for chapter two and three, which we'll do from now through 00:02:20.920 --> 00:02:26.199 June, Paul then turns to talk about not the God's eye view of everything that's taking 00:02:26.199 --> 00:02:30.879 place, but now what's going on in our lives, what's going on in your life? 00:02:30.879 --> 00:02:34.920 And so if you're a Christian today, if you're a follower of Jesus, when you get to chapter 00:02:34.920 --> 00:02:40.920 two of Ephesians, Paul says, this is exactly what has happened in your life. 00:02:40.920 --> 00:02:44.759 So it's really just the meaning of salvation. 00:02:44.759 --> 00:02:47.120 Another way to say it is, are you saved? 00:02:47.120 --> 00:02:48.319 Are you a Christian? 00:02:48.319 --> 00:02:49.959 Do you have salvation? 00:02:49.959 --> 00:02:54.039 If you have salvation, then Paul in chapter two is going to say, this is what happened 00:02:54.039 --> 00:02:55.280 to you. 00:02:55.280 --> 00:02:57.399 This is what took place in your life. 00:02:57.399 --> 00:02:59.359 This is how God came in and changed you. 00:02:59.359 --> 00:03:01.759 This is exactly how it happened. 00:03:01.759 --> 00:03:09.560 Another way to say it is very important, how could a man, a man who lived 2,000 years ago, 00:03:09.560 --> 00:03:13.719 who died a criminal's death on a cross, mean anything for a person who lives in the year 00:03:13.719 --> 00:03:15.719 of our Lord 2024? 00:03:15.719 --> 00:03:19.960 How could Jesus matter for you living in 2024? 00:03:19.960 --> 00:03:22.360 And Paul says, this is why, this is how. 00:03:22.360 --> 00:03:26.079 So he gets down on our level and says, I've given you the God's eye view. 00:03:26.079 --> 00:03:30.360 Now I want to give you the point of view of salvation from where you're standing and help 00:03:30.360 --> 00:03:32.560 you understand what's going on in your life. 00:03:32.560 --> 00:03:36.639 Now, the first thing he says to us, and all we're going to look at today is this little 00:03:36.639 --> 00:03:41.439 statement in chapter two, verse one, it's very extreme. 00:03:41.439 --> 00:03:45.479 He says, you want to know what happened to you if you became a Christian? 00:03:45.479 --> 00:03:49.319 Well, he says, you were dead. 00:03:49.319 --> 00:03:51.719 It's a very extreme thing to say. 00:03:51.719 --> 00:03:54.359 It's not a popular thing to say in the modern world. 00:03:54.359 --> 00:03:56.560 You were dead in your sin. 00:03:56.560 --> 00:03:57.560 That's what he tells us. 00:03:57.560 --> 00:04:01.319 That's the beginning of understanding what has taken place in your life if you're a Christian 00:04:01.319 --> 00:04:02.319 today. 00:04:02.319 --> 00:04:07.240 And that means that there's only two conditions you can be in for the apostle Paul. 00:04:07.240 --> 00:04:13.200 You can either be that you were dead or you are dead. 00:04:13.200 --> 00:04:17.199 Everybody in the world is either dead or used to be dead. 00:04:17.199 --> 00:04:19.400 There's no other way to be than that. 00:04:19.400 --> 00:04:26.360 And it also really confronts a major myth in our modern world, a myth that is all on 00:04:26.360 --> 00:04:30.759 our city streets, a myth that is all across the royal mile right now as we sit here. 00:04:30.759 --> 00:04:37.639 And that's the myth that most people are good and only a few people are bad. 00:04:37.639 --> 00:04:42.680 It's the myth that everybody tells themselves in the contemporary world order that says, 00:04:42.680 --> 00:04:45.039 I'm a good person. 00:04:45.039 --> 00:04:46.039 And he cuts underneath that. 00:04:46.039 --> 00:04:51.399 He says, no, it's either that you were dead in sin or you are dead in sin. 00:04:51.399 --> 00:04:54.000 And that's the only two ways you can be. 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:58.199 And so I just want to, will you please ask yourself, please ask yourself a question this 00:04:58.199 --> 00:05:00.000 morning. 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:02.180 Do I really believe, do I really know today? 00:05:02.180 --> 00:05:05.759 Do I remember that I was dead? 00:05:05.759 --> 00:05:08.160 If you're a Christian today, will you ask yourself that? 00:05:08.160 --> 00:05:11.560 Do I remember that I was dead in my sin? 00:05:11.560 --> 00:05:16.079 Or is the question, am I dead right now? 00:05:16.079 --> 00:05:17.079 And so let's think about that. 00:05:17.079 --> 00:05:19.680 All we need to find out is what does it mean to be dead? 00:05:19.680 --> 00:05:21.560 What does he mean by that? 00:05:21.560 --> 00:05:25.040 And then ask the question, could it really be true? 00:05:25.040 --> 00:05:29.600 Is it really fair to say that human beings are dead? 00:05:29.600 --> 00:05:35.819 And then finally, we'll see the dangers of not realizing that and then the power when 00:05:35.819 --> 00:05:37.960 you do realize it. 00:05:37.960 --> 00:05:39.040 So let's think about that. 00:05:39.040 --> 00:05:43.680 What does it mean to say that we are, that humanity is dead, that you are dead in sin? 00:05:43.680 --> 00:05:48.360 All right, the very first thing is Paul says you are dead in sin. 00:05:48.360 --> 00:05:55.000 And there he's talking to people, the commentators say he's talking to people who are formerly 00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:58.480 pagan Gentiles in the city of Ephesus. 00:05:58.480 --> 00:06:02.519 And these pagan Gentiles were worshiping all types of gods, all types of things, and all 00:06:02.519 --> 00:06:03.519 types of ways. 00:06:03.519 --> 00:06:09.000 But then if you look at verse three, he says, but we all once lived according to this, according 00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:10.800 to the passions of our flesh. 00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:15.759 So immediately he says you Gentiles, you pagan Gentiles were dead, but then he says, 00:06:15.759 --> 00:06:17.319 but we all were. 00:06:17.319 --> 00:06:21.160 And so he's talking about himself there and saying we Jews were as well. 00:06:21.160 --> 00:06:26.800 So that means that for Paul, the amount of people that are dead are anybody who is a Gentile 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:28.520 or a Jew. 00:06:28.520 --> 00:06:33.280 And that means everybody, everybody is either a Jew or a Gentile. 00:06:33.280 --> 00:06:38.440 And that means that every single human being spiritual condition is that they're dead in 00:06:38.440 --> 00:06:41.200 sin and trespasses. 00:06:41.200 --> 00:06:45.280 There is, we've said it already, but I just want to say it again, there is no fragment, 00:06:45.280 --> 00:06:49.120 there is no fragment of society that is not dead. 00:06:49.120 --> 00:06:56.480 There is no way to be well-mannered enough, posh enough to eat properly with a knife 00:06:56.480 --> 00:06:57.480 antiforc. 00:06:57.480 --> 00:06:58.879 I'm trying to learn that. 00:06:58.879 --> 00:07:04.800 You know, there's no way, no matter how, how you present, there's no way to not be dead. 00:07:04.800 --> 00:07:07.879 Every single person, it doesn't matter how much money you have or what your ethnicity 00:07:07.879 --> 00:07:10.199 is or how you present. 00:07:10.199 --> 00:07:13.639 He says everybody is dead in their sins and trespasses. 00:07:13.639 --> 00:07:16.639 Now, in the modern world, we are people who love equality. 00:07:16.639 --> 00:07:20.599 And Paul says, I want to give, yes, I want to give you some equality. 00:07:20.599 --> 00:07:22.599 You are all equally dead. 00:07:22.599 --> 00:07:27.719 Now, but what does it mean in its depths to be dead? 00:07:27.719 --> 00:07:28.719 Let me say a few things. 00:07:28.719 --> 00:07:31.399 Let's just walk through some of the phrases he uses for this. 00:07:31.399 --> 00:07:37.360 He says first, you are dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. 00:07:37.360 --> 00:07:40.240 Now he's done something very Old Testament there. 00:07:40.240 --> 00:07:44.599 He uses something that we've borrowed in the modern, in our English-speaking world from 00:07:44.600 --> 00:07:47.480 the Old Testament that many, many nations have thought about. 00:07:47.480 --> 00:07:52.000 And that's that, the metaphor that life is a journey, life, it's cliche to say, but it's 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:54.240 exactly how the Old Testament presents it. 00:07:54.240 --> 00:07:56.520 Life is a path that you're walking down. 00:07:56.520 --> 00:07:57.840 So you can think of Psalm 1. 00:07:57.840 --> 00:08:02.520 Psalm 1 says, blessed is the one who walks not, walks not in the counsel of the wicked, 00:08:02.520 --> 00:08:04.960 but instead walks like this. 00:08:04.960 --> 00:08:07.760 Life is a journey and life is something we're walking through. 00:08:07.760 --> 00:08:10.720 That's how the Bible talks about it in that metaphor. 00:08:10.720 --> 00:08:16.240 And he says that you're dead because you walked in trespasses and sins. 00:08:16.240 --> 00:08:20.520 Now this is language that if you're a Christian today, you're very familiar with trespasses 00:08:20.520 --> 00:08:21.720 and sins. 00:08:21.720 --> 00:08:28.080 But if you look at it really closely, the word trespass is a walking noun. 00:08:28.080 --> 00:08:32.560 So to trespass something means to cross over a boundary that you weren't supposed to cross 00:08:32.560 --> 00:08:33.560 over. 00:08:33.560 --> 00:08:36.920 Now in Scotland, you can pretty much walk anywhere freely. 00:08:36.920 --> 00:08:38.480 That's unusual, I think, in the world. 00:08:38.480 --> 00:08:40.120 It's amazing. 00:08:40.120 --> 00:08:42.000 So we might not be as used to this. 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:46.560 But he's saying that a trespass is when you were meant to walk down a certain road and 00:08:46.560 --> 00:08:51.360 you go off that road, you cross that fence that you were never supposed to cross. 00:08:51.360 --> 00:08:56.919 Now another way to say it in more historical Christian terms, theological terms, is he's 00:08:56.919 --> 00:09:04.519 talking here about sins of commission, co-mission, sins that we actively choose to do. 00:09:04.519 --> 00:09:08.759 So we're walking down the road of life and we actively choose to walk off the path that 00:09:08.759 --> 00:09:10.439 God made for us. 00:09:10.439 --> 00:09:13.759 But then he says not only trespasses but also sin. 00:09:13.759 --> 00:09:15.399 And sin is not a generic term. 00:09:15.399 --> 00:09:21.399 Sin is a Greek word, hermatia, that means to miss what you're aiming for and to fail. 00:09:21.399 --> 00:09:24.759 So it's applied to shooting in archery. 00:09:24.759 --> 00:09:26.879 It's to miss a target. 00:09:26.879 --> 00:09:30.439 And in other words, it's the sins of omission. 00:09:30.439 --> 00:09:32.720 The word of sin actually means omission. 00:09:32.720 --> 00:09:35.960 It means to fail to be what you were meant to be. 00:09:35.960 --> 00:09:39.720 And so you see Paul is saying the first thing is every single person is walking down the 00:09:39.720 --> 00:09:45.600 path of life and we are actively choosing to veer off the path God made for us or we're 00:09:45.600 --> 00:09:48.800 failing to ever be the person God made us to be. 00:09:48.800 --> 00:09:49.800 And he's talking about love. 00:09:49.800 --> 00:09:53.639 We were made to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and 00:09:53.639 --> 00:09:56.440 to love your neighbor completely. 00:09:56.440 --> 00:10:01.519 And he's saying but you actively choose to walk off that path and you actively choose 00:10:01.519 --> 00:10:04.639 or you fail to never actually achieve it. 00:10:04.639 --> 00:10:09.279 That's trespass and sin and that's the life that every single human being is living. 00:10:09.279 --> 00:10:13.039 And so the second thing is, well another way to say it is every single one of us to put 00:10:13.039 --> 00:10:20.199 it very frankly, he's saying is that we are all rebels and failures and what God made 00:10:20.199 --> 00:10:22.799 us to be and who we're meant to be. 00:10:22.799 --> 00:10:30.240 And then he says the second thing, you are also, verse two, following the course of this 00:10:30.240 --> 00:10:31.799 world. 00:10:31.799 --> 00:10:38.120 And one helpful way to think about this is to think about a dead body. 00:10:38.120 --> 00:10:42.919 Not maybe not what you came for today but think for a second about a dead body. 00:10:42.919 --> 00:10:45.159 And a dead body, what's the condition of a dead body? 00:10:45.159 --> 00:10:47.919 A dead body cannot move itself. 00:10:47.919 --> 00:10:49.439 A dead body cannot walk. 00:10:49.439 --> 00:10:53.399 A dead body cannot move itself from one place to another. 00:10:53.399 --> 00:10:56.679 And so when somebody dies we have to move them. 00:10:56.679 --> 00:11:04.359 We have to use herces or ambulances or in older times carts to move dead bodies. 00:11:04.359 --> 00:11:06.120 And Paul is thinking about that. 00:11:06.120 --> 00:11:09.399 He's using this metaphor, you're dead, spiritually dead. 00:11:09.399 --> 00:11:10.639 But just think about a dead body. 00:11:10.639 --> 00:11:14.439 A dead body cannot move itself, it's being moved by another. 00:11:14.439 --> 00:11:15.439 And what does he say? 00:11:15.439 --> 00:11:18.079 You're following the course of this world. 00:11:18.079 --> 00:11:23.839 And the course, that word course in Greek is the word age or another way to translate 00:11:23.839 --> 00:11:25.679 it is culture. 00:11:25.679 --> 00:11:32.039 And so he says, you're dead because you're being driven along by the culture of the world. 00:11:32.039 --> 00:11:37.079 You're dead because you're not actively thinking you're actually just following whatever it 00:11:37.079 --> 00:11:40.439 is that the culture around you is telling you to do. 00:11:40.439 --> 00:11:44.399 He's talking about something so important, something that's so real for every single 00:11:44.399 --> 00:11:45.479 one of us. 00:11:45.479 --> 00:11:51.399 And that's that when we're born into this world it takes a breakthrough. 00:11:51.399 --> 00:11:56.679 The breakthrough that has to happen in every single life is to become in some ways a thinking 00:11:56.679 --> 00:11:57.679 person. 00:11:57.679 --> 00:11:58.679 What's a thinking person? 00:11:58.679 --> 00:11:59.919 It's not an issue of intelligence. 00:11:59.919 --> 00:12:06.959 A thinking person is when you wake up and ask, are the assumptions, presuppositions, 00:12:06.959 --> 00:12:09.919 and beliefs of my culture actually true? 00:12:09.919 --> 00:12:13.840 He says, you see, when you're dead you're being driven along by the course of the culture 00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:14.840 around you. 00:12:14.840 --> 00:12:18.679 And so when you grow up in a culture, when you grow up in a time, you grow up in a place 00:12:18.679 --> 00:12:20.879 that has a presupposition, God doesn't exist. 00:12:20.879 --> 00:12:22.279 There's nothing but matter and motion. 00:12:22.279 --> 00:12:25.039 He says, have you really thought about that? 00:12:25.039 --> 00:12:27.360 But when you're spiritually dead you haven't. 00:12:27.360 --> 00:12:30.720 You're just being driven along by the course of the culture around you. 00:12:30.720 --> 00:12:34.799 And in other words, what Paul is saying, the beginning of moving away from deadness to 00:12:34.799 --> 00:12:40.960 life is looking at our culture and examining it, the culture that you were raised in and 00:12:40.960 --> 00:12:42.360 saying, but what is true? 00:12:42.360 --> 00:12:43.879 What is real? 00:12:43.879 --> 00:12:47.200 Are the assumptions and presuppositions all around me actually the case? 00:12:47.200 --> 00:12:50.200 Do they actually describe reality? 00:12:50.200 --> 00:12:56.800 Charles Taylor is a very famous philosopher and Roman Catholic thinker in Canada. 00:12:56.800 --> 00:13:01.560 And he wrote a big, a big long book about this, a real tome, a real doorstopper about 00:13:01.560 --> 00:13:05.400 the fact that we're all being driven along by the course of our cultures. 00:13:05.400 --> 00:13:09.240 And in it he created a term that a lot of people use nowadays. 00:13:09.240 --> 00:13:15.480 He said that we're all under the weight and influence of what he calls the social imaginary. 00:13:15.480 --> 00:13:20.639 It's a fancy term, but all it means is that the social, the collective has an imagination, 00:13:20.639 --> 00:13:25.039 a way of thinking about life, a way of thinking about the world that we're all being driven 00:13:25.039 --> 00:13:27.680 along by, we're all drifting in. 00:13:27.680 --> 00:13:32.100 And Taylor calls everybody and says, look, when you become a Christian, when you really 00:13:32.100 --> 00:13:36.560 look at it, when you break through that, you're actually saying, are the things all around 00:13:36.560 --> 00:13:41.759 me that are being said actually fitting with what's true, what's reality? 00:13:41.759 --> 00:13:42.759 That's part of the breakthrough. 00:13:42.759 --> 00:13:45.720 That's part of the way to change. 00:13:45.720 --> 00:13:51.120 The third thing he tells us here about being dead is he says that we're also following 00:13:51.120 --> 00:13:57.039 the prince of this world, the prince of power, of the air, the spirit at work and the sons 00:13:57.039 --> 00:13:59.080 of disobedience. 00:13:59.080 --> 00:14:03.200 A dead person, dead people can't move themselves. 00:14:03.200 --> 00:14:05.779 Dead people have no sensation. 00:14:05.779 --> 00:14:08.039 Dead people cannot see. 00:14:08.039 --> 00:14:09.039 They can't touch. 00:14:09.039 --> 00:14:10.039 They can't taste. 00:14:10.039 --> 00:14:11.600 They can't do anything like that. 00:14:11.600 --> 00:14:18.159 And Paul says, being dead means following the prince of the power of the air. 00:14:18.159 --> 00:14:21.960 And another way to say that is that you have no sensations. 00:14:21.960 --> 00:14:27.320 In other words, dead people cannot sense the truth, the supernatural and spiritual truth 00:14:27.320 --> 00:14:29.080 of what's all around them. 00:14:29.080 --> 00:14:30.080 They're dead. 00:14:30.080 --> 00:14:35.279 They can't see that they're being driven along by the prince of the power of the air. 00:14:35.279 --> 00:14:42.240 Now that language, the prince of the power of the air, is language directly out of first 00:14:42.240 --> 00:14:45.000 century magic books. 00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:50.639 So there's a couple scholars that have done big work on the way Paul talks about Satan 00:14:50.639 --> 00:14:52.000 in the New Testament. 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:55.919 And he uses these funny phrases like the prince of the power of the air. 00:14:55.919 --> 00:14:56.919 What does that mean? 00:14:56.919 --> 00:15:03.240 Well, actually, we've realized that in Ephesus, some of the pagan gods were being referred 00:15:03.240 --> 00:15:06.320 to as the powers of the air. 00:15:06.320 --> 00:15:11.519 And so Paul is taking the language that a pagan believer, Polytheists, would use for 00:15:11.519 --> 00:15:12.720 the gods they worship. 00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:18.159 These are the powers of the air, the ones that are giving me the air or the water or whatever 00:15:18.159 --> 00:15:23.799 it may be, the ones that are grounding my material physical life. 00:15:23.799 --> 00:15:26.879 And he's saying, but there is the prince of the power of the air. 00:15:26.879 --> 00:15:32.080 So he's saying, in other words, what you all in Ephesus think are real gods, the pagan 00:15:32.080 --> 00:15:36.960 gods you worship is actually, they are real, but they're actually just the prince of the 00:15:36.960 --> 00:15:38.759 power of the air and his demons. 00:15:38.759 --> 00:15:42.000 He's taken that language and applying it to Satan. 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:46.720 And he's saying, when you're dead, when you're dead, you don't have sensation. 00:15:46.720 --> 00:15:48.280 You can't see. 00:15:48.280 --> 00:15:49.280 And what can you not see? 00:15:49.280 --> 00:15:53.680 He's saying, you can't see that the gods, the idols that we're worshiping are actually 00:15:53.680 --> 00:15:57.360 part of Satan's plan, part of the demonic. 00:15:57.360 --> 00:15:58.360 That's what he's saying. 00:15:58.360 --> 00:16:04.560 C.S. Lewis wrote a wonderful book about this, the Screwtape Letters, where Screwtape is 00:16:04.560 --> 00:16:09.560 a senior demon talking to his nephew, Wormwood, a junior demon. 00:16:09.560 --> 00:16:11.680 And he addresses this issue really specifically. 00:16:11.680 --> 00:16:19.560 He says, Screwtape says to Wormwood, our policy, my dear Wormwood, for the moment is to conceal 00:16:19.560 --> 00:16:21.720 ourselves. 00:16:21.720 --> 00:16:26.920 When they believe in us, we cannot make them materialist and skeptics. 00:16:26.919 --> 00:16:32.399 He says, our big plan right now in the modern world, Wormwood, this demon says to this 00:16:32.399 --> 00:16:35.360 demon, is to make sure that nobody believes in us. 00:16:35.360 --> 00:16:39.799 And he says, because when they don't believe in us, that means we can keep them materialists 00:16:39.799 --> 00:16:40.799 and skeptics. 00:16:40.799 --> 00:16:42.679 We can keep them atheist. 00:16:42.679 --> 00:16:48.399 But Lewis, he says in the preface of that great book, he says, there are two equal and 00:16:48.399 --> 00:16:53.319 opposite errors into which the human race can fall about Satan and the devils. 00:16:53.320 --> 00:17:00.040 He says, one is to disbelieve in their existence, the other is to believe and to feel excessive, 00:17:00.040 --> 00:17:02.160 unhealthy interest in them. 00:17:02.160 --> 00:17:07.519 They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail that they can either make 00:17:07.519 --> 00:17:11.920 a materialist or a magician out of everyone. 00:17:11.920 --> 00:17:17.320 So he's saying the plan of Satan is to make a materialist or a magician, either by not 00:17:17.320 --> 00:17:23.200 being able to see that the supernatural evil exists or by seeing it so much that you worship 00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:24.920 it and you follow it. 00:17:24.920 --> 00:17:26.960 Now think about our city. 00:17:26.960 --> 00:17:30.480 The majority of people in our city are either materialists and atheists, maybe that's you 00:17:30.480 --> 00:17:38.600 today, or spiritual, spiritual vaguely, spiritual following the spirits in some way, going to 00:17:38.600 --> 00:17:42.840 the crystal shop, past Mid-Emmettel Walk or wherever it may be. 00:17:42.840 --> 00:17:47.120 You see exactly following the Prince of the Power of the Air, either to be a materialist 00:17:47.120 --> 00:17:48.720 or to be a magician. 00:17:48.720 --> 00:17:49.720 These are the two great moves. 00:17:49.720 --> 00:17:52.799 And he says, that's what it means to be spiritually dead. 00:17:52.799 --> 00:17:57.000 That's the condition that we're all born into, Paul says. 00:17:57.000 --> 00:18:03.680 And then the last thing that he says about it is that also following in verse three, 00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:08.879 living according to the passions of our flesh and carrying out the desires of the body. 00:18:08.879 --> 00:18:10.960 Now same idea. 00:18:10.960 --> 00:18:14.079 If you're dead, you don't have sensation. 00:18:14.079 --> 00:18:16.639 If you're dead, you can't see the spiritual realm. 00:18:16.640 --> 00:18:23.640 If you're dead, you also are unaware you can't see that you're living according to the desires 00:18:23.640 --> 00:18:24.880 of the flesh, Paul puts it. 00:18:24.880 --> 00:18:32.280 Now the word flesh here does not mean the physical flesh, the material flesh, the skin, 00:18:32.280 --> 00:18:34.160 the bones that we all have. 00:18:34.160 --> 00:18:39.440 Instead, it means the disorder desires that we all experience in our lives. 00:18:39.440 --> 00:18:42.560 And so we could think about the appetites. 00:18:42.559 --> 00:18:47.200 The biologists and others will talk about the appetites, the human appetites. 00:18:47.200 --> 00:18:50.000 The human appetites are for food and drink. 00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:52.559 We get thirsty, we get hungry, we need food and drink. 00:18:52.559 --> 00:18:54.000 That's an appetite. 00:18:54.000 --> 00:19:00.839 The human appetites include sexual appetite, affection, safety, security. 00:19:00.839 --> 00:19:05.399 There's about 10 or 12 appetites that every single human experiences just by way of being 00:19:05.399 --> 00:19:06.919 human. 00:19:06.920 --> 00:19:12.720 And Paul is saying when you're dead in sin and trespass, you're being driven along by 00:19:12.720 --> 00:19:20.440 your desires for all of these appetites, unaware, unable to see that these desires often take 00:19:20.440 --> 00:19:23.480 you beyond the point of what's good. 00:19:23.480 --> 00:19:25.519 So the desires are good at their base. 00:19:25.519 --> 00:19:26.840 It's very good to long for food. 00:19:26.840 --> 00:19:27.960 But you know what happens? 00:19:27.960 --> 00:19:33.720 When you long for food too much, it can become gluttony. 00:19:33.720 --> 00:19:37.319 Sexual desire is a good thing, it's given by God, but we all know all the manner of 00:19:37.319 --> 00:19:41.160 evil that can come about from over desire. 00:19:41.160 --> 00:19:45.559 In every single appetite we experience, you know, you can long for security and safety. 00:19:45.559 --> 00:19:47.759 That's a very good desire that God's given you. 00:19:47.759 --> 00:19:52.480 But when you rest in your financial freedom, your wealth for that, you can begin to worship 00:19:52.480 --> 00:19:54.160 the God of man-men. 00:19:54.160 --> 00:19:58.200 And he's saying when you're dead in your sin and trespasses, you don't realize that you're 00:19:58.200 --> 00:20:03.240 being driven along by the desires of your heart and mind in a way, it's in a way that you're 00:20:03.240 --> 00:20:05.000 blind to. 00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:08.720 And it's what you haven't seen that actually at the center, there's selfishness there, 00:20:08.720 --> 00:20:11.680 there's chasing idolatry there. 00:20:11.680 --> 00:20:17.400 When you're dead, and we have to move on, when you're dead, it means that you can't do anything 00:20:17.400 --> 00:20:18.640 about it. 00:20:18.640 --> 00:20:19.720 You're dead. 00:20:19.720 --> 00:20:22.559 You can't make yourself alive, you can't become alive of your own accord. 00:20:22.559 --> 00:20:29.599 And so secondly, briefly, this is an extreme thing to say that every single human being 00:20:29.599 --> 00:20:32.720 in this world is either was dead or is dead. 00:20:32.720 --> 00:20:36.960 And one of the questions that might come up for us in this room, whether you're a Christian 00:20:36.960 --> 00:20:41.160 or not, maybe, could this really be true? 00:20:41.160 --> 00:20:42.799 This is an extreme thing to say. 00:20:42.799 --> 00:20:47.960 And I'm just not sure if I'm convinced that I'm a dead person or I was a dead person because 00:20:47.960 --> 00:20:50.920 I do feel like I'm a good person. 00:20:50.920 --> 00:20:52.839 I feel like I'm generally a pretty decent person. 00:20:52.839 --> 00:20:57.839 I've made mistakes in my life, but I don't know that I would say I'm dead in sin and 00:20:57.839 --> 00:20:59.559 trespass. 00:20:59.559 --> 00:21:07.720 You can be a Christian today and say, I'm a Christian, and I also think I'm a good person. 00:21:07.720 --> 00:21:12.440 And I don't really ever know that in my heart I believe that there was a point in my life 00:21:12.440 --> 00:21:13.799 where I was dead. 00:21:13.799 --> 00:21:18.319 I can't remember a day when I didn't believe in Jesus. 00:21:18.319 --> 00:21:21.359 And so I don't know that I'm willing to say that there was a point in my life where I 00:21:21.359 --> 00:21:24.079 was dead. 00:21:24.079 --> 00:21:31.759 If you say, if the foundation of your life, the heartbeat of your life is saying, you know, 00:21:31.759 --> 00:21:38.159 I believe I'm a good person, then really what's going on is that's just another way of staying 00:21:38.159 --> 00:21:40.720 in control. 00:21:40.720 --> 00:21:46.159 It's another way of masking the truth of what's going on deep down in the depths of the heart. 00:21:46.159 --> 00:21:51.240 Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who experienced, I've quoted him from here before several times, 00:21:51.240 --> 00:21:57.920 and he experienced the worst of the depths of the Russian gulag just after the First 00:21:57.920 --> 00:21:59.839 World War. 00:21:59.839 --> 00:22:05.200 And he wrote a great book about it, and he says, the line that separates good and evil 00:22:05.200 --> 00:22:08.640 passes not between states or nations. 00:22:08.640 --> 00:22:13.519 It does not pass the line, who's good, who's evil, between socioeconomic classes. 00:22:13.519 --> 00:22:16.400 It doesn't pass between political parties. 00:22:16.400 --> 00:22:19.120 It goes right through every single human heart. 00:22:19.119 --> 00:22:21.959 That's what Solzhenitsyn said. 00:22:21.959 --> 00:22:25.439 In other words, he's saying, look, if you're coming today and you're saying, I believe I'm 00:22:25.439 --> 00:22:29.839 a good person, then what you've done is you've made goodness decency. 00:22:29.839 --> 00:22:32.000 I make mistakes, but I'm decent. 00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:34.599 I make mistakes, but I'm basically moral. 00:22:34.599 --> 00:22:39.599 You've actually made that into your righteousness, into your salvation, into your standing before 00:22:39.599 --> 00:22:41.279 God and other people. 00:22:41.279 --> 00:22:47.319 And Paul's trying to come and get us to see that saying I'm a good person is an idol. 00:22:47.319 --> 00:22:48.879 It's an unwillingness to see the truth. 00:22:48.880 --> 00:22:52.080 It's an unwillingness to unmask. 00:22:52.080 --> 00:22:56.560 It's an unwillingness to see that the danger that you're actually in, the deadness that 00:22:56.560 --> 00:23:00.160 you're actually sitting in, in that moment. 00:23:00.160 --> 00:23:06.880 And let me just ask you a couple of questions that I'm asking myself today. 00:23:06.880 --> 00:23:09.880 Have you ever thought, I'm a person of principle. 00:23:09.880 --> 00:23:10.880 I'm a moral person. 00:23:10.880 --> 00:23:11.880 I'm a good person. 00:23:11.880 --> 00:23:13.120 I'm a decent person. 00:23:13.120 --> 00:23:17.440 I was raised the right way, not like the current generation. 00:23:17.440 --> 00:23:20.160 I was raised the right way. 00:23:20.160 --> 00:23:25.440 And you found yourself doing something that absolutely shocked you. 00:23:25.440 --> 00:23:28.320 You said, no, I cannot believe I just did that. 00:23:28.320 --> 00:23:31.120 I can't believe that I would become a person that would do that. 00:23:31.120 --> 00:23:33.559 You say, that's not me. 00:23:33.559 --> 00:23:36.480 Or just to bring it down a level. 00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:39.600 Have you ever, well, let me ask you like this. 00:23:39.600 --> 00:23:42.740 Can you live up to your own standards for yourself? 00:23:42.740 --> 00:23:46.960 Can you live up to your own standards that you set out for your children? 00:23:46.960 --> 00:23:50.720 Can you live up to the standards that you believe in? 00:23:50.720 --> 00:23:54.160 God's standard is do not lie. 00:23:54.160 --> 00:23:56.680 Be faithful to your one spouse. 00:23:56.680 --> 00:24:00.120 God's standard is do not desire things that are not yours. 00:24:00.120 --> 00:24:02.039 Do not covet. 00:24:02.039 --> 00:24:05.000 Do not kill even in your mind, even in your heart. 00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:06.960 Do not murder even with your soul. 00:24:06.960 --> 00:24:08.400 This is God's standard. 00:24:08.400 --> 00:24:13.680 But let me just put that aside for a second and ask, what are the standards of modern 00:24:13.680 --> 00:24:19.120 Western people in a city like Edinburgh, and can we live up to them? 00:24:19.120 --> 00:24:20.120 What are the standards? 00:24:20.120 --> 00:24:21.120 What do we love? 00:24:21.120 --> 00:24:22.640 What's the moral order of our time? 00:24:22.640 --> 00:24:26.320 And it's that we hate as modern people, elitism. 00:24:26.320 --> 00:24:27.440 We hate racism. 00:24:27.440 --> 00:24:29.120 We hate bullying. 00:24:29.120 --> 00:24:31.840 We're against favoritism, sexism. 00:24:31.840 --> 00:24:33.279 We're against envy. 00:24:33.279 --> 00:24:34.920 We like simplicity of lifestyle. 00:24:34.920 --> 00:24:39.960 We're against slander, injustices, and partiality in the workplace. 00:24:39.960 --> 00:24:43.759 We're against harshness and tolerance and judgmentalism. 00:24:43.759 --> 00:24:47.319 We can't stand bragging. 00:24:47.319 --> 00:24:52.600 Do you find yourself turning conversations back to you? 00:24:52.600 --> 00:24:54.000 Words of gossip. 00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:58.900 The modern world hates words of gossip, but yet you get on social media and you say, look, 00:24:58.900 --> 00:25:04.079 it's one thing to look at God's standard, but can you meet your own standards? 00:25:04.079 --> 00:25:06.400 Can you meet your own standards? 00:25:06.400 --> 00:25:12.800 Another way to try this is to try for one week, take one week of your life, and really 00:25:12.800 --> 00:25:22.880 focus on this experiment, and try to never brag, even in the most subtle way, try to 00:25:22.880 --> 00:25:28.280 never turn a conversation towards you in any way at all. 00:25:28.280 --> 00:25:33.840 Try to never say a single word of gossip, or a word that could even come close to it. 00:25:33.840 --> 00:25:35.640 Try not to slander anybody. 00:25:35.640 --> 00:25:42.840 In an age of equality and anti-judgmentalism, try to go one week without even thinking about 00:25:42.840 --> 00:25:49.160 another person and judging or critiquing them based on their height, weight, race, ethnicity, 00:25:49.160 --> 00:25:51.800 what they're up to, their political persuasion. 00:25:51.800 --> 00:25:56.040 Try to go one week, one week, on the modern ideals. 00:25:56.040 --> 00:25:59.600 I think what every single human being is finding, if you say, I don't know that I believe I'm 00:25:59.600 --> 00:26:04.400 dead in sin and trespasses, what you might come to find after just one week is that you 00:26:04.400 --> 00:26:06.440 can't live up to your own standards. 00:26:06.440 --> 00:26:09.800 And boy, we can't live up to the standards of the living God. 00:26:09.800 --> 00:26:10.800 You must be perfect. 00:26:10.800 --> 00:26:13.680 If your heavenly Father is perfect, we can't do it. 00:26:13.680 --> 00:26:17.800 We're dead in sin and trespasses. 00:26:17.800 --> 00:26:19.960 I need to move on, but here's one more. 00:26:19.960 --> 00:26:22.360 Here's one more diagnostic. 00:26:22.360 --> 00:26:29.560 Do you have a friend in your life, do you have a family member in your life where you think 00:26:29.559 --> 00:26:37.240 I can see so clearly the vices that are very visible and I know that everybody else around 00:26:37.240 --> 00:26:42.000 me can see the vices in that person's life and we all talk about it and we say, how can 00:26:42.000 --> 00:26:46.639 our dear friend, how can our family member not see the narcissism, the self-centeredness, 00:26:46.639 --> 00:26:49.960 the fact that they turn every conversation back to themselves and you think that and 00:26:49.960 --> 00:26:54.879 you talk about that, but oh boy, you know who that friend is? 00:26:54.879 --> 00:26:56.639 It's you, it's me, it's all of us. 00:26:56.639 --> 00:26:58.839 You see, we are that friend. 00:26:58.839 --> 00:27:03.240 That's what somebody else thinks about us and sometimes when you get into a relationship, 00:27:03.240 --> 00:27:07.919 finally that gets exposed, finally the selfishness, finally the self-centeredness, finally the 00:27:07.919 --> 00:27:13.759 inability to not turn every conversation back into something about me, that's who we are, 00:27:13.759 --> 00:27:14.759 every single one of us. 00:27:14.759 --> 00:27:19.599 We can't live up to our ideals and we can't live up to God's ideals. 00:27:19.599 --> 00:27:26.399 We're dead saying I'm a good person is a cop out and we've got to realize the self-centeredness, 00:27:26.400 --> 00:27:30.240 the depths of the deadness that's going on in our hearts. 00:27:30.240 --> 00:27:36.120 God made us to be people who love God in every way and love our neighbor in every way and 00:27:36.120 --> 00:27:39.040 we can't walk down that road. 00:27:39.040 --> 00:27:44.920 We're rebels and failures before the Lord and so the last thing, the dangers of not seeing 00:27:44.920 --> 00:27:49.160 this in our lives and the power when you do. 00:27:49.160 --> 00:27:55.040 There's real freedom here to really own this, but there's real danger in not seeing it. 00:27:55.039 --> 00:28:00.920 Paul says here, he's talking to Christians and he says you were dead. 00:28:00.920 --> 00:28:05.359 He's talking to Christians and he's saying you have a past and your past is that you 00:28:05.359 --> 00:28:11.279 were dead and sinned and trespassed as you are a rebel and a failure before the Lord. 00:28:11.279 --> 00:28:18.519 And there's a real danger here in not remembering that, not seeing it in our lives as Christians. 00:28:18.519 --> 00:28:20.319 There's many, let me just give you one. 00:28:20.319 --> 00:28:21.639 Here's one danger. 00:28:21.639 --> 00:28:24.639 This is the fastest way to become an elder brother. 00:28:24.640 --> 00:28:29.520 The fastest way to become a Pharisee is to not remember that you were dead and your trespasses 00:28:29.520 --> 00:28:31.120 and sins. 00:28:31.120 --> 00:28:32.880 Here's another way to say it. 00:28:32.880 --> 00:28:39.080 Do you look out as a Christian into our current culture in 2024 and lament the evils, lament 00:28:39.080 --> 00:28:44.759 the injustices, lament the obviousness of the sins of our culture? 00:28:44.759 --> 00:28:46.640 And that's good and right. 00:28:46.640 --> 00:28:51.640 We look out and we say our culture is so broken, our culture is so bent, our culture is so 00:28:51.640 --> 00:28:53.880 backward. 00:28:53.880 --> 00:28:57.800 But let me ask you this. 00:28:57.800 --> 00:29:03.160 Do we expect people, a society that is spiritually dead to build a culture that is spiritually 00:29:03.160 --> 00:29:05.640 alive? 00:29:05.640 --> 00:29:09.600 We look out and we lament what's going on in the evils and the illness of our culture. 00:29:09.600 --> 00:29:15.280 But what Paul is saying is do you remember that you were dead and sins and trespasses? 00:29:15.280 --> 00:29:20.160 And when you realize that, you look out and you say I can never expect someone who is 00:29:20.160 --> 00:29:25.240 spiritually dead to live as though they're spiritually alive. 00:29:25.240 --> 00:29:28.840 And what happens if you forget that is you become less and less a person of love and 00:29:28.840 --> 00:29:34.440 mercy, gospel-centered, seeing that Jesus came for me to save me, to show mercy to me 00:29:34.440 --> 00:29:39.680 when I was dead, and you can veer off into an elder brother syndrome, a person of judgmentalism, 00:29:39.680 --> 00:29:46.560 a person that only laments the culture without longing to minister to the culture. 00:29:46.559 --> 00:29:53.240 We have to remember we were, we too, I too, was spiritually dead before God made me alive. 00:29:53.240 --> 00:29:56.079 The other danger is not seeing it at all. 00:29:56.079 --> 00:30:00.799 And so maybe you come today and you're not a believer, you don't yet know what you believe 00:30:00.799 --> 00:30:06.759 about Christianity, and there's a real danger in not seeing your deadness and not knowing 00:30:06.759 --> 00:30:08.599 that you are spiritually dead. 00:30:08.599 --> 00:30:11.119 You remain dead, you remain under the judgment of God. 00:30:11.119 --> 00:30:18.119 Paul says here that every single one of us in our deadness is under God's wrath. 00:30:18.119 --> 00:30:22.919 And God's wrath here is not an emotional term. 00:30:22.919 --> 00:30:24.479 It's not rabid anger. 00:30:24.479 --> 00:30:25.479 It's nothing like that. 00:30:25.479 --> 00:30:30.959 God's wrath here is just a statement to say that we expect, we know that from love there 00:30:30.959 --> 00:30:35.479 must be just judgment, that at the center of the sight of there must be a court system 00:30:35.479 --> 00:30:37.519 that punishes injustice. 00:30:37.519 --> 00:30:41.759 And when you don't see that you're dead, that you veered off the path, that God has set 00:30:41.759 --> 00:30:45.000 out for you in love, you're under the condition of judgment. 00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:48.480 You're under the condition of wrath, and that that is justice. 00:30:48.480 --> 00:30:50.680 The God of love must be a God of justice. 00:30:50.680 --> 00:30:52.960 He must be a God of wrath. 00:30:52.960 --> 00:30:55.839 And that without seeing deadness, that's where we stay. 00:30:55.839 --> 00:30:57.079 That's where we remain. 00:30:57.079 --> 00:30:59.240 Now I'm going to close with this. 00:30:59.240 --> 00:31:07.079 Come back next week, because next week we're going to detail what it means to be made alive. 00:31:07.079 --> 00:31:08.720 But I can't stop right there. 00:31:08.720 --> 00:31:12.679 I got to say a little something about being made alive. 00:31:12.679 --> 00:31:15.960 But next week we're really going to focus on it. 00:31:15.960 --> 00:31:20.919 But Ezekiel, in the middle of the prophet Ezekiel, he looks out in this vision and he 00:31:20.919 --> 00:31:26.519 sees all these dead bones, these dried up bones, and he turns to the Lord and says, 00:31:26.519 --> 00:31:32.159 Lord, can dead people, can dry bones be made alive again? 00:31:32.159 --> 00:31:34.159 And the Lord says, absolutely. 00:31:34.159 --> 00:31:36.240 I will give life to dead people. 00:31:36.240 --> 00:31:38.680 I will give life to dead bones. 00:31:38.680 --> 00:31:41.400 And I'll do it if they cry out to me. 00:31:41.400 --> 00:31:42.680 And so let me just say this. 00:31:42.680 --> 00:31:48.640 If you're here today and you've been in the church all your life, but maybe today you 00:31:48.640 --> 00:31:51.599 realize I'm dead. 00:31:51.599 --> 00:31:52.920 I'm not alive. 00:31:52.920 --> 00:31:59.160 What God says is He will give your dry bones life again if you cry out to Him and say, 00:31:59.160 --> 00:32:02.279 I'm dead and I need life. 00:32:02.279 --> 00:32:06.440 In other words, that's a way of saying that every single one of us today, Christian or 00:32:06.440 --> 00:32:11.559 not, needs to cry out in repentance and faith once again. 00:32:11.559 --> 00:32:15.480 See, repentance and faith is not something you do once. 00:32:15.480 --> 00:32:19.319 Repentance and faith is the lifeblood of Christianity. 00:32:19.319 --> 00:32:21.759 Repentance and faith is daily. 00:32:21.759 --> 00:32:24.559 Repentance is unmasking the idol of your heart. 00:32:24.559 --> 00:32:27.799 Maybe the idol of your heart is to say, I believe I'm a good person. 00:32:27.799 --> 00:32:28.799 I'm decent. 00:32:28.799 --> 00:32:29.799 I'm moral. 00:32:29.799 --> 00:32:30.799 I'm well-mannered. 00:32:30.799 --> 00:32:36.119 But repentance is unmasking that and really owning that before the Lord and clinging to 00:32:36.119 --> 00:32:40.359 the cross and saying, no, I need, I need to be made alive. 00:32:40.359 --> 00:32:41.639 I've got dry bones. 00:32:41.639 --> 00:32:42.960 I'm dead. 00:32:42.960 --> 00:32:47.039 And Paul is saying to be made alive, that's the beginning of it. 00:32:47.039 --> 00:32:48.599 That's how God is making you alive. 00:32:48.599 --> 00:32:52.359 It's this path of repentance and faith. 00:32:52.359 --> 00:32:55.159 How can the cross of Jesus Christ matter to you in 2024? 00:32:55.159 --> 00:32:58.599 That was our opening question. 00:32:58.599 --> 00:33:02.240 It's this, that Jesus Christ died. 00:33:02.240 --> 00:33:06.480 Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ died because we're dead. 00:33:06.480 --> 00:33:09.639 Jesus Christ died so that we could be made alive. 00:33:09.639 --> 00:33:14.319 And in the power of the Holy Spirit, He can bring that power straight into your life right 00:33:14.319 --> 00:33:19.079 now in the year of our Lord, 2024. 00:33:19.079 --> 00:33:20.799 The final word is us. 00:33:20.799 --> 00:33:24.559 There's this moment in Luke chapter 7. 00:33:24.559 --> 00:33:30.960 There's a moment in Luke chapter 7 where Jesus sits down at the table, the dinner table with 00:33:30.960 --> 00:33:36.879 Simon the Pharisee, and he goes to this Pharisee's house and they're eating. 00:33:36.879 --> 00:33:42.359 And a woman comes in off the street and the text tells us that she is a sinner, a public 00:33:42.359 --> 00:33:44.759 sinner, which means that she's a prostitute. 00:33:44.759 --> 00:33:48.839 So a prostitute comes into this Pharisee's home while Jesus is eating there. 00:33:48.839 --> 00:33:55.919 And she anoints Jesus' head and she begs and pleads with him for forgiveness for her 00:33:55.919 --> 00:33:57.079 sins. 00:33:57.079 --> 00:34:02.599 And Simon the Pharisee, this is not Simon Peter, by the way, Simon the Pharisee, he judges 00:34:02.599 --> 00:34:07.379 Jesus for this and he condemns Jesus in his heart and then he even says something out 00:34:07.379 --> 00:34:12.400 loud and says, basically, I cannot believe that you would allow this to happen. 00:34:12.400 --> 00:34:18.819 A prostitute has come to the table and anointed you and you're giving her a relationship. 00:34:18.820 --> 00:34:20.600 You're showing her that you love her. 00:34:20.600 --> 00:34:25.280 In the first century, sitting down at the table with somebody was a big deal. 00:34:25.280 --> 00:34:31.840 And this Pharisee cannot believe this, that Jesus would associate with a woman like this. 00:34:31.840 --> 00:34:36.880 And Jesus turns to Simon the Pharisee and says, Simon, let me tell you a story. 00:34:36.880 --> 00:34:42.000 Now, anytime Jesus says, let me tell you a story, you know, you better say, uh-oh, I'm 00:34:42.000 --> 00:34:43.000 in trouble. 00:34:43.000 --> 00:34:45.760 He says, Simon, let me tell you a story. 00:34:45.760 --> 00:34:51.640 And he says, there were two men, one man owed a bank, a lender, a king, we'll put it in our 00:34:51.640 --> 00:34:54.000 currency, 50 pounds. 00:34:54.000 --> 00:34:57.520 And another man owed him 50,000 pounds. 00:34:57.520 --> 00:35:02.360 And the lender, the king, the bank came and said, I forgive both of you your debts. 00:35:02.360 --> 00:35:07.560 And he asked Simon the Pharisee, who do you think walked away being more thankful for 00:35:07.560 --> 00:35:09.800 the forgiveness they had received? 00:35:09.800 --> 00:35:15.680 And of course, Simon said, the man who had been forgiven 50,000 pounds, not just 50, 00:35:15.679 --> 00:35:21.039 you see, Jesus turned and said to Simon, you do not know that you were dead. 00:35:21.039 --> 00:35:23.319 You know, you think you're a good person. 00:35:23.319 --> 00:35:25.239 And so sure, you've made mistakes. 00:35:25.239 --> 00:35:27.239 You've got 50 pounds, you know, on your record. 00:35:27.239 --> 00:35:32.119 And so when the bank forgives you 50 pounds, you're like, ah, this is a good day. 00:35:32.119 --> 00:35:33.960 But he says, you see what she sees? 00:35:33.960 --> 00:35:35.119 She knows she was dead. 00:35:35.119 --> 00:35:39.119 She knows that she's been forgiven 50,000 pounds and all the more. 00:35:39.119 --> 00:35:42.159 And so she goes out of this place leaping for joy. 00:35:42.159 --> 00:35:44.399 She knows what she's been forgiven. 00:35:44.400 --> 00:35:49.680 Are you right now, are you in a season right now where you're experiencing staleness in 00:35:49.680 --> 00:35:58.119 your Christian life, where you're not experiencing the joy of the gospel in your life? 00:35:58.119 --> 00:36:03.160 Do you wake up every day and realize and say once again and teach yourself, speak to your 00:36:03.160 --> 00:36:06.119 heart and say, I was dead. 00:36:06.119 --> 00:36:11.680 I have a past, but God made me alive. 00:36:11.679 --> 00:36:16.639 And when you see that boy, you'll get up from the table and you'll leap for joy. 00:36:16.639 --> 00:36:17.639 Let's pray together. 00:36:17.639 --> 00:36:25.239 Father, we ask that you would help us all to see, to say today, I was dead. 00:36:25.239 --> 00:36:26.239 That's our prayer. 00:36:26.239 --> 00:36:31.079 So we ask for somebody here today that they would realize their deadness this morning and 00:36:31.079 --> 00:36:35.159 cry out, Lord, make my dry bones live again. 00:36:35.159 --> 00:36:39.899 And so we pray that we pray for others in the room in the midst of what may be a season 00:36:39.900 --> 00:36:45.840 of deadness spiritually as a Christian that they too would experience once again what 00:36:45.840 --> 00:36:49.480 it means to have such a large debt forgiven for them. 00:36:49.480 --> 00:36:54.760 And I pray, Lord, that for all of us we would wake up every single day in the discipline, 00:36:54.760 --> 00:37:00.720 the habit, the practice by beginning our day saying I was dead. 00:37:00.720 --> 00:37:02.280 But God's made me alive. 00:37:02.280 --> 00:37:03.280 Thank you for the gospel. 00:37:03.280 --> 00:37:05.559 Thank you for the power of the cross to make us alive. 00:37:05.559 --> 00:37:07.079 And we pray these things in Christ's name. 00:37:07.079 --> 00:37:08.079 Amen.