WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.600 Please have a seat. 00:00:02.879 --> 00:00:05.620 And open up your Bibles again to Ephesians chapter 2. 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:07.980 Ephesians chapter 2. 00:00:07.980 --> 00:00:11.419 We'll just be looking at the first three verses of this passage today. 00:00:12.800 --> 00:00:16.000 I've been watching a lot of Wimbledon tennis the past couple of weeks. 00:00:16.100 --> 00:00:17.179 I'm a big tennis fan. 00:00:17.740 --> 00:00:21.120 And what I love to check out is the shot of the day. 00:00:21.219 --> 00:00:23.420 Have you seen that on the BBC website or the app? 00:00:23.859 --> 00:00:24.640 The shot of the day. 00:00:24.719 --> 00:00:28.519 It's usually this spectacular shot that comes out of nowhere 00:00:28.519 --> 00:00:29.820 and it kind of blows your mind. 00:00:30.120 --> 00:00:34.039 So someone, let's say Alcraz, is facing this titan Djokovic. 00:00:34.320 --> 00:00:36.480 And Djokovic sends one down the line. 00:00:37.060 --> 00:00:39.880 And you think that there's no way Alcraz is going to get that. 00:00:40.579 --> 00:00:41.399 It's out. 00:00:41.640 --> 00:00:42.560 That ball is gone. 00:00:42.640 --> 00:00:43.219 It's impossible. 00:00:44.200 --> 00:00:46.179 But Alcraz does something spectacular. 00:00:46.600 --> 00:00:47.500 He dives. 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:48.960 He reaches out. 00:00:49.039 --> 00:00:50.340 Gets his racket on the ball. 00:00:50.640 --> 00:00:51.480 Smashes it. 00:00:51.820 --> 00:00:53.340 And he goes flying past Djokovic. 00:00:53.460 --> 00:00:54.000 Hits the line. 00:00:54.159 --> 00:00:55.100 He wins the point. 00:00:55.240 --> 00:00:56.219 It's the shot of the day. 00:00:56.219 --> 00:01:00.140 And what does the BBC do with that shot? 00:01:00.839 --> 00:01:02.560 They have all their cameras on it. 00:01:03.100 --> 00:01:05.280 And they slow the footage down. 00:01:06.340 --> 00:01:09.400 Play it back in slow motion from all the different angles. 00:01:09.400 --> 00:01:13.420 And you watch this incredible shot play back in slow-mo. 00:01:14.700 --> 00:01:15.320 And why? 00:01:16.440 --> 00:01:19.280 Why not just play it back normal two seconds and move on? 00:01:19.860 --> 00:01:21.120 Why slow it down? 00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:25.160 Because you need to appreciate the spectacular. 00:01:26.540 --> 00:01:31.280 It shows you all the details it takes to make the spectacular happen. 00:01:31.700 --> 00:01:34.500 To see how fierce Djokovic's first shot was. 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:36.800 How impossible it was to get to. 00:01:37.080 --> 00:01:39.860 That the muscle Alcraz needs to get to it. 00:01:39.900 --> 00:01:41.040 The sweat on his face. 00:01:41.439 --> 00:01:42.300 The skill in his racket. 00:01:42.420 --> 00:01:43.439 That the power of his swing. 00:01:43.800 --> 00:01:45.260 That the perfection of the contact. 00:01:45.260 --> 00:01:51.439 You have slow-mo to really appreciate the spectacular. 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:56.300 And that's what I want us to do with Ephesians 2, 1-10. 00:01:57.080 --> 00:02:01.080 I want to play back these ten verses in slow-mo. 00:02:01.520 --> 00:02:05.600 To really appreciate the details of something spectacular. 00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:09.819 These ten verses, they might be familiar to you. 00:02:09.819 --> 00:02:17.280 But I think that this passage, these ten verses, this passage is quite possibly the best and the clearest. 00:02:17.599 --> 00:02:20.699 And just the most powerful summary of the gospel in the Bible. 00:02:21.799 --> 00:02:26.879 We have here, in high definition, a seemingly impossible problem. 00:02:27.259 --> 00:02:28.900 A humanity going out. 00:02:29.879 --> 00:02:31.680 Surely no one can get that. 00:02:32.240 --> 00:02:37.799 But God coming down with power and grace and doing this spectacular. 00:02:37.800 --> 00:02:42.600 And so I want us, over the next few weeks, to go slow-mo. 00:02:42.700 --> 00:02:45.580 To just take a few verses each week. 00:02:46.080 --> 00:02:51.120 In order to really grasp the greatness and the grace of our God. 00:02:52.260 --> 00:02:54.280 And so, if you're not a Christian here today. 00:02:55.080 --> 00:02:57.620 I don't want you to just read these ten verses. 00:02:57.880 --> 00:02:59.920 And just to let it fly by in two seconds. 00:03:00.680 --> 00:03:05.080 No, if you want to really know what the church, what this Christianity is all about. 00:03:05.080 --> 00:03:07.520 Then we need to slow it down. 00:03:08.340 --> 00:03:13.980 Because the gospel, it's far too spectacular to just let it fly by. 00:03:14.900 --> 00:03:17.660 So I would encourage you, come back over the next few weeks. 00:03:17.920 --> 00:03:19.439 And just watch this unfold. 00:03:20.820 --> 00:03:23.920 You would have noticed, at the beginning of this passage. 00:03:24.020 --> 00:03:26.220 The first three verses we're slowing down today. 00:03:27.200 --> 00:03:30.380 This doesn't start with sunshine and rainbows, does it? 00:03:30.379 --> 00:03:36.000 These words aren't the immediate warmth of something like, the Lord is my shepherd. 00:03:37.299 --> 00:03:44.340 No, it begins with the depths and the darkness and the depravity of sin. 00:03:46.079 --> 00:03:52.819 And that is because we need to know sin if we're to truly appreciate God's grace. 00:03:52.819 --> 00:04:03.159 We only appreciate how spectacular a tennis shot is if we first see how seemingly impossible it was to get to the ball in the first place. 00:04:03.599 --> 00:04:08.699 How bad it could have been in order to then appreciate how incredible that save was. 00:04:09.979 --> 00:04:13.719 Well, if we want to appreciate the grace and glory and power of God, 00:04:13.719 --> 00:04:18.939 we need to see it against how bad things could have been. 00:04:20.439 --> 00:04:22.800 Against the dark backdrop of sin. 00:04:24.600 --> 00:04:26.540 So think of it like this another way. 00:04:26.980 --> 00:04:30.459 Think of a masterpiece Rembrandt painting. 00:04:31.420 --> 00:04:34.339 The white paints on that masterpiece, 00:04:35.019 --> 00:04:40.459 they only really pop and strike us when it's next to the black oils around it. 00:04:40.459 --> 00:04:48.379 And Ephesians shows us here that this darkness, to be a sinner, to be us, 00:04:49.759 --> 00:04:52.599 the situation, it's even worse than you think. 00:04:53.759 --> 00:04:58.959 The human condition, our problem, it is far worse than the world realises. 00:05:00.599 --> 00:05:03.179 And do you see how chapter 2 begins? 00:05:03.699 --> 00:05:05.159 And you were. 00:05:05.160 --> 00:05:11.060 This is written by the Apostle Paul to Christians to say, 00:05:11.460 --> 00:05:15.120 before your conversion, without God's grace in your life, 00:05:15.180 --> 00:05:19.100 if Christ had not saved you, this is what you were like. 00:05:20.200 --> 00:05:23.300 In fact, this is what we are all like by nature. 00:05:24.340 --> 00:05:25.960 Do you see those words in verse 3? 00:05:26.460 --> 00:05:28.860 We are by nature children of wrath. 00:05:28.860 --> 00:05:33.939 These three verses are the most piercing diagnosis 00:05:33.939 --> 00:05:37.420 of what every human being is like from the womb. 00:05:38.340 --> 00:05:41.860 What we are by nature, without God's grace in our life. 00:05:43.020 --> 00:05:44.500 And look what it begins with. 00:05:45.939 --> 00:05:51.699 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. 00:05:51.699 --> 00:05:55.779 And this is the first thing I want us to go slow motion on. 00:05:55.920 --> 00:05:57.959 Four points today, I'll try and keep it short in this heat. 00:05:58.459 --> 00:06:00.319 Four slow-mo replays on sin. 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:02.620 And the first is this, we were dead. 00:06:03.779 --> 00:06:05.159 This is the first point, we were dead. 00:06:07.139 --> 00:06:08.539 Do you remember a few months ago, 00:06:08.740 --> 00:06:11.539 a TV show came out called Adolescence? 00:06:12.120 --> 00:06:13.000 I think it was on Netflix. 00:06:13.899 --> 00:06:17.180 And it stirred up a big discussion about the human problem. 00:06:17.719 --> 00:06:21.039 The TV show, it was about a teenage boy who committed a crime. 00:06:21.699 --> 00:06:24.620 And this isn't to comment on problems amongst teenage boys, 00:06:24.860 --> 00:06:27.920 but do you remember, it sparked an interesting discussion 00:06:27.920 --> 00:06:32.099 on what the problem behind crimes like these are. 00:06:32.779 --> 00:06:35.399 And how we can stop this kind of violence. 00:06:35.899 --> 00:06:37.899 And it was interesting to see people's suggestions. 00:06:39.360 --> 00:06:42.800 There were cries of, we need more education on this. 00:06:43.500 --> 00:06:45.120 Lack of education is the problem. 00:06:45.240 --> 00:06:48.719 So get boys in seminars, and that's the solution. 00:06:48.720 --> 00:06:52.200 Or role models are the solution. 00:06:53.100 --> 00:06:55.580 Lack of good male role models is the problem. 00:06:55.700 --> 00:06:58.100 So get some good male role models out there. 00:06:59.580 --> 00:07:01.960 Now this isn't to say those solutions are bad. 00:07:02.420 --> 00:07:05.520 But do you see what people diagnose as the problem? 00:07:06.520 --> 00:07:08.360 Lack of education, lack of role models. 00:07:09.660 --> 00:07:13.580 The human heart is basically on track if we have those things. 00:07:13.579 --> 00:07:16.599 But Ephesians tells us here, 00:07:17.599 --> 00:07:21.199 the problem is far worse than the headlines think. 00:07:22.159 --> 00:07:28.680 Not just teenage boys, but we all are, by nature, do you see, dead. 00:07:30.139 --> 00:07:33.339 Not just ignorant, not just lacking, dead. 00:07:34.799 --> 00:07:35.819 And dead in what way? 00:07:36.039 --> 00:07:38.500 Dead in our trespasses and sins. 00:07:38.500 --> 00:07:39.720 Dead in our trespasses and sins. 00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:43.600 Clearly, we walk and move and breathe. 00:07:44.360 --> 00:07:46.360 In that sense, we are alive. 00:07:46.779 --> 00:07:48.139 We're not dead in our bodies. 00:07:48.300 --> 00:07:51.920 No, we are dead in our trespasses and sins. 00:07:53.399 --> 00:07:55.899 This is talking about spiritual deadness. 00:07:56.800 --> 00:08:00.240 The moral, ethical, spiritual state of our being. 00:08:00.759 --> 00:08:05.639 Our ability to know and love and seek and obey God. 00:08:05.639 --> 00:08:12.199 That aspect of us, without Christ, we are dead. 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:15.199 So think of it like this. 00:08:15.279 --> 00:08:19.180 If to know God is eternal life, that's what Jesus says. 00:08:20.199 --> 00:08:23.519 And be with God and be loved by God and love God. 00:08:23.860 --> 00:08:27.839 If that is eternal life, then this is the opposite. 00:08:27.839 --> 00:08:32.199 This death is to not know God. 00:08:33.299 --> 00:08:34.819 To be separated from him. 00:08:34.919 --> 00:08:40.839 To not have love or obedience or any interest in him or his law or his existence. 00:08:42.379 --> 00:08:48.159 So take a super-powered x-ray of a human before they experience God's grace. 00:08:49.059 --> 00:08:54.459 The body may look alive, but x-ray your spiritual self. 00:08:54.460 --> 00:08:56.080 It's dead. 00:08:57.460 --> 00:09:00.320 No pulse, no movement, no life. 00:09:02.920 --> 00:09:07.200 And so this is a damning statement of what we were before Christ saved us. 00:09:07.960 --> 00:09:10.259 We were not just lacking a role model. 00:09:10.420 --> 00:09:11.519 We were dead. 00:09:13.660 --> 00:09:16.660 And this is God's pronouncement on the human condition. 00:09:17.300 --> 00:09:19.040 On what is wrong with this world. 00:09:19.039 --> 00:09:25.120 All of this, the wars, the fighting, the lies, the fact that you have to lock your door at night. 00:09:25.419 --> 00:09:27.500 The reason your package disappears off your doorstep. 00:09:28.319 --> 00:09:30.799 The reason your colleagues can be so vicious. 00:09:31.480 --> 00:09:33.959 The reason why we are so ashamed of our past. 00:09:34.659 --> 00:09:39.079 Is because in sin, without grace, we are dead. 00:09:39.080 --> 00:09:44.580 If you do a slow-mo replay on the world right now. 00:09:45.460 --> 00:09:46.560 Every unbeliever. 00:09:47.340 --> 00:09:49.660 You will see that there's a movement. 00:09:50.980 --> 00:09:54.340 They are all moving in a certain direction. 00:09:55.120 --> 00:09:58.879 They are all moving, running away from God. 00:10:00.340 --> 00:10:01.340 Backs to him. 00:10:01.720 --> 00:10:02.420 Shut off. 00:10:02.500 --> 00:10:03.460 Not interested. 00:10:03.860 --> 00:10:04.180 Dead. 00:10:04.179 --> 00:10:04.259 Dead. 00:10:06.639 --> 00:10:09.699 You might have seen a drawing of what the gospel is like. 00:10:10.779 --> 00:10:11.839 You might know this drawing. 00:10:11.939 --> 00:10:12.839 So there's a big chasm. 00:10:13.419 --> 00:10:13.599 Right? 00:10:14.219 --> 00:10:15.759 And we're on one side. 00:10:15.899 --> 00:10:17.019 Humanity's on one side. 00:10:17.339 --> 00:10:18.500 And God is on the other. 00:10:19.459 --> 00:10:21.599 And in the picture, we're trying to get to him. 00:10:21.659 --> 00:10:21.799 Right? 00:10:21.879 --> 00:10:22.839 But there's a big chasm. 00:10:22.939 --> 00:10:23.479 We're trying to get. 00:10:23.519 --> 00:10:24.179 We want God. 00:10:24.219 --> 00:10:25.179 We can't reach him. 00:10:25.679 --> 00:10:27.259 And so the cross comes along. 00:10:27.620 --> 00:10:28.699 And it bridges the gap. 00:10:28.699 --> 00:10:30.579 And we can get to God. 00:10:30.580 --> 00:10:34.820 Now, if you've used that before, don't worry. 00:10:34.900 --> 00:10:36.680 I'm not condemning that illustration. 00:10:37.240 --> 00:10:40.040 It's helpful to show us how the cross, it gets us to God. 00:10:41.300 --> 00:10:43.700 But do you also see what's wrong with that picture? 00:10:45.320 --> 00:10:50.960 Are we, in sin, are we trying to cross the chasm and get to God? 00:10:50.960 --> 00:10:58.800 Is the picture of humanity here in Ephesians, poor humanity, earnestly trying to find God? 00:10:59.019 --> 00:11:01.700 Is there a bit of life in us trying to do that? 00:11:02.560 --> 00:11:03.080 No. 00:11:04.960 --> 00:11:07.500 If anything, we're running the other direction. 00:11:08.639 --> 00:11:10.820 We're spiritually dead in our sins. 00:11:12.600 --> 00:11:17.660 Now, this doesn't mean we are as bad as we possibly could be. 00:11:17.659 --> 00:11:24.379 You might object to all this and say, but I know lots of non-Christians who are lovely. 00:11:25.579 --> 00:11:26.439 They give to charity. 00:11:26.600 --> 00:11:27.379 They give up their time. 00:11:27.519 --> 00:11:28.759 And they help their community. 00:11:29.379 --> 00:11:36.259 Well, the way sin works is we aren't as bad as we possibly could be. 00:11:37.279 --> 00:11:41.439 So everyone is running away from God without Christ. 00:11:41.440 --> 00:11:47.820 But in God's mercy, we don't run away from God as hard as we could. 00:11:49.820 --> 00:11:52.780 And so on the outside, people without Christ, they can be lovely. 00:11:53.660 --> 00:11:58.320 I can think of my own family and friends who I love deeply who are like that. 00:11:59.920 --> 00:12:02.480 But this verse is showing us things aren't what they seem. 00:12:03.780 --> 00:12:07.340 An apple can look perfect from the outside but be rotten to the core. 00:12:07.940 --> 00:12:09.540 The world. 00:12:09.539 --> 00:12:12.519 And it's the second thing to see today. 00:12:12.599 --> 00:12:13.779 We were following the world. 00:12:15.079 --> 00:12:17.799 That this fallen world has a direction. 00:12:18.679 --> 00:12:19.819 It has a flow. 00:12:21.059 --> 00:12:25.099 So if the non-Christian, the individual non-Christian, is running away from God, 00:12:25.360 --> 00:12:27.799 then multiply that on a societal scale. 00:12:28.240 --> 00:12:30.719 Spread that across cultures across this world. 00:12:31.139 --> 00:12:32.799 Inject that to every government. 00:12:33.419 --> 00:12:34.339 And what do you have? 00:12:34.340 --> 00:12:38.840 The world has a grand movement away from God. 00:12:38.840 --> 00:12:42.980 You have the course of this world. 00:12:42.980 --> 00:12:47.440 In this culture, we might call it secularism. 00:12:48.259 --> 00:12:51.600 Or when false gods were involved, you might call it paganism. 00:12:51.960 --> 00:12:56.860 But whatever you want to call it, when we were dead in our sin, we were following this flow of the world. 00:12:56.860 --> 00:13:03.300 And if you don't think that's true of this world, if you don't think that there is a course of this world against God, 00:13:03.840 --> 00:13:05.399 you can prove it yourself, okay? 00:13:05.940 --> 00:13:09.800 So teenagers here, try standing up in your school cafeteria. 00:13:10.759 --> 00:13:12.519 Tell everyone to quiet down. 00:13:12.519 --> 00:13:17.720 And then give thanks for the food and pray to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:13:19.019 --> 00:13:20.220 How will that go down? 00:13:21.319 --> 00:13:26.240 If you don't get a hearty amen, there is a course of this world. 00:13:27.699 --> 00:13:35.179 Any laughter and awkwardness and fear that you feel, you are feeling the course of this world flowing against you. 00:13:35.179 --> 00:13:43.620 Or when your company is trying to establish its core values, and you go to the boardroom and you chip in, 00:13:43.899 --> 00:13:46.859 imagine trying to suggest the Ten Commandments. 00:13:48.219 --> 00:13:55.919 If the board members don't all say, of course, there's no other way, then that is the course of this world. 00:13:55.919 --> 00:14:06.079 The votes that come flooding in to kill children in the womb, the votes en masse to end human life on our terms, 00:14:06.979 --> 00:14:14.179 the unquestionable idea that we can sleep with whoever we want to, that is the course of this world. 00:14:15.819 --> 00:14:20.659 It is this corporate, en masse delusion and walking away from God. 00:14:20.899 --> 00:14:24.319 It's like we're just sheep following each other off a cliff. 00:14:25.919 --> 00:14:30.099 Is it any wonder Jesus sees the crowds and says they are like sheep without a shepherd? 00:14:31.719 --> 00:14:32.860 And it seems normal. 00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:34.479 It's easy to follow. 00:14:34.639 --> 00:14:37.179 It's like swimming downstream, going with the flow. 00:14:37.179 --> 00:14:39.959 But that stream heads off a cliff. 00:14:41.719 --> 00:14:48.039 And Ephesians says, you Christian, you, without God's grace, you are following that. 00:14:49.399 --> 00:14:52.399 You are going with the flow, heading off a cliff. 00:14:52.399 --> 00:14:59.179 And some of us here can look back at our lives and see just that. 00:15:01.100 --> 00:15:04.740 We may have had very messy pasts that God has saved us from. 00:15:05.899 --> 00:15:09.779 Things that we look back on and we wonder, what was I thinking? 00:15:09.779 --> 00:15:14.899 I was just going with the flow, heading off a cliff, and I didn't even know it. 00:15:16.639 --> 00:15:22.139 Or even if you haven't had a messy past, just think of all the ways our lives could have gone. 00:15:23.539 --> 00:15:28.980 I think of some of my school and uni friends who are just following this course. 00:15:28.980 --> 00:15:35.200 But in that stream, no thought to God, no thought to his law, his existence is not on their radar. 00:15:35.820 --> 00:15:38.840 And I think I so easily could be there. 00:15:39.800 --> 00:15:41.519 That is an easy life to follow. 00:15:41.639 --> 00:15:42.960 I was right there next to them. 00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:44.659 They were in my year, my friends. 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:46.399 We played on the same sport team. 00:15:46.639 --> 00:15:47.659 I could have been them. 00:15:47.659 --> 00:15:51.339 And this is the sin. 00:15:52.480 --> 00:15:54.639 The deadness God saves us from. 00:15:56.819 --> 00:15:58.600 But there's something even more unsettling. 00:15:59.439 --> 00:16:05.259 As we see that slow-mo movement away from God, we see we were following something else. 00:16:06.439 --> 00:16:07.899 We were following the devil. 00:16:08.939 --> 00:16:09.719 That's my third point. 00:16:09.779 --> 00:16:10.719 We were following the devil. 00:16:11.659 --> 00:16:12.539 Look at verse 2 again. 00:16:13.500 --> 00:16:16.919 You were dead in your sins, following the prince of the power of the air. 00:16:18.519 --> 00:16:21.299 This prince, this is the devil, Satan. 00:16:21.519 --> 00:16:28.939 This is the fallen angel who's doomed to destruction, who's currently prowling around this world trying to lure people away from Christ. 00:16:30.740 --> 00:16:33.879 And so Paul is telling us something that we may not often think about. 00:16:35.339 --> 00:16:36.919 The devil is real. 00:16:38.519 --> 00:16:41.980 And he has power in this world, a supernatural power. 00:16:42.539 --> 00:16:46.240 This is why he's called, do you see, the prince of the power of the air. 00:16:46.240 --> 00:16:51.379 So God is king overall, but Satan is like a prince in this world. 00:16:51.899 --> 00:16:54.279 With limited power, but still power. 00:16:55.879 --> 00:16:58.019 And the air means the spiritual realm. 00:16:58.460 --> 00:17:01.560 The devil is working behind the scenes of this world. 00:17:01.639 --> 00:17:07.880 He's like a puppeteer, getting people to turn their backs on God as he blinds them to the gospel. 00:17:07.880 --> 00:17:11.080 He's nurturing, do you see, sons of disobedience. 00:17:12.840 --> 00:17:16.900 And as we slow down the video of this world, we need to take this seriously. 00:17:18.220 --> 00:17:21.500 Those without Christ are following the devil. 00:17:21.500 --> 00:17:26.920 And you may think, okay, that's a step too far. 00:17:28.160 --> 00:17:30.339 Okay, maybe things aren't great beneath the surface. 00:17:30.539 --> 00:17:32.420 Yeah, maybe the human heart is pretty lifeless. 00:17:32.559 --> 00:17:34.000 But following the devil. 00:17:35.200 --> 00:17:37.779 My colleague has never even thought about the devil. 00:17:39.099 --> 00:17:44.880 Or you may be here thinking, yeah, I wouldn't call myself a Christian, but I'm definitely not a devil worshiper. 00:17:44.880 --> 00:17:48.460 But, well, let me speak to you candidly. 00:17:49.560 --> 00:17:54.020 You don't need to know you're doing it to be following the devil. 00:17:55.580 --> 00:18:00.500 You may be living a nice life, never in trouble with the law, no big scandals in your life. 00:18:00.620 --> 00:18:04.960 You do the nine to five, you have the holidays twice a year, try to live an honest life. 00:18:05.060 --> 00:18:07.140 Nothing remotely to do with Satan. 00:18:07.360 --> 00:18:08.460 And you think you're fine. 00:18:08.460 --> 00:18:12.259 But that's precisely where the devil has got you. 00:18:13.400 --> 00:18:15.319 You think you're fine. 00:18:16.759 --> 00:18:19.960 He has conned you into thinking you don't need Christ. 00:18:20.200 --> 00:18:21.279 That's his plan. 00:18:22.460 --> 00:18:23.700 That's his perfect plan. 00:18:23.840 --> 00:18:25.500 That is following the devil. 00:18:27.799 --> 00:18:31.480 But I don't want you to think that this is just the Christian pointing the finger. 00:18:32.880 --> 00:18:35.019 No, look, who's this written to? 00:18:36.240 --> 00:18:37.100 This was me. 00:18:38.779 --> 00:18:41.079 You, Christian, you were following the devil. 00:18:42.700 --> 00:18:43.920 And where was that heading? 00:18:44.160 --> 00:18:45.360 Well, where is the devil heading? 00:18:46.500 --> 00:18:48.000 In the end, he's going to hell. 00:18:49.100 --> 00:18:51.759 And he's out to drag everyone down there with him. 00:18:53.860 --> 00:18:55.500 Dead does not mean inactive. 00:18:55.640 --> 00:18:57.100 It means we were following the devil. 00:18:59.200 --> 00:19:01.460 But there is one final thing that we were following. 00:19:01.600 --> 00:19:03.100 We were following our desires. 00:19:03.700 --> 00:19:04.799 It's my fourth and final point. 00:19:04.799 --> 00:19:06.079 We were following our desires. 00:19:06.079 --> 00:19:12.240 That there's something else, not out there, but in here, in us, that we were following. 00:19:12.699 --> 00:19:13.299 Verse 3. 00:19:14.599 --> 00:19:20.460 We all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. 00:19:20.460 --> 00:19:24.240 The word flesh here, it doesn't mean skin and muscle. 00:19:24.440 --> 00:19:24.840 It's not that. 00:19:24.920 --> 00:19:27.340 It means the sinful aspect of who we are. 00:19:28.460 --> 00:19:34.920 And so the passions of the flesh, it's our sinful desires that pull us away from God and his law. 00:19:35.640 --> 00:19:37.600 The same direction as the world and the devil. 00:19:37.599 --> 00:19:41.179 We all have desires, don't we? 00:19:41.799 --> 00:19:43.519 We all want things in life. 00:19:44.679 --> 00:19:45.959 And we can long for good things. 00:19:46.079 --> 00:19:48.399 We can long to be, we have desires to be married. 00:19:49.500 --> 00:19:50.319 Desires to have children. 00:19:50.500 --> 00:19:51.299 Desires to have a job. 00:19:51.439 --> 00:19:52.819 Desires to get into that uni. 00:19:52.980 --> 00:19:54.819 We can desire good things. 00:19:55.079 --> 00:19:56.740 God made us with desires. 00:19:56.740 --> 00:19:57.740 Desires to have a job. 00:19:57.740 --> 00:19:58.740 Desires to have a job. 00:19:58.740 --> 00:20:02.720 But in the deadness of our sin, our desires have become very broken. 00:20:04.140 --> 00:20:06.620 Our desires, they're no longer trustworthy. 00:20:06.900 --> 00:20:08.599 They don't pull us toward God. 00:20:08.920 --> 00:20:10.259 They pull us away. 00:20:12.339 --> 00:20:15.279 And so mantras like, it just feels right. 00:20:16.799 --> 00:20:18.220 Follow your heart. 00:20:19.319 --> 00:20:20.740 Be true to yourself. 00:20:22.279 --> 00:20:24.380 It's so common to hear that stuff, isn't it? 00:20:24.519 --> 00:20:26.579 It's part of the course of this world. 00:20:27.120 --> 00:20:33.000 And people make huge life choices pulled by these mantras, these desires. 00:20:34.720 --> 00:20:40.319 Men leave their wives because their heart felt right. 00:20:41.980 --> 00:20:46.359 People get into spirals of debt because it felt good. 00:20:48.259 --> 00:20:53.019 Teenagers go down very dark paths because they say they're being true to themselves. 00:20:53.019 --> 00:20:57.700 Be true to yourself is a saying that leads to death. 00:20:57.819 --> 00:21:03.139 That's why Jesus comes in all his glory and says, take up your cross and deny yourself. 00:21:03.140 --> 00:21:09.700 And without the grace of God, these desires just rule us. 00:21:09.700 --> 00:21:14.779 This is what's going on with the sexual and gender identity movement right now. 00:21:16.080 --> 00:21:19.680 It's not being driven by compassion or truth or goodness. 00:21:19.880 --> 00:21:22.039 No, it's being driven by this desire. 00:21:22.039 --> 00:21:25.000 And it's so easy to do. 00:21:25.859 --> 00:21:30.159 Our hearts, they want those things, those relationships, those experiences. 00:21:30.160 --> 00:21:33.240 And we can get swept up in it. 00:21:33.880 --> 00:21:35.700 We were swept up in it. 00:21:35.700 --> 00:21:39.840 But God says, look at this slow-mo. 00:21:41.240 --> 00:21:44.299 Following your heart only leads to a cliff edge. 00:21:44.299 --> 00:21:48.899 And how does God feel about all this? 00:21:50.419 --> 00:21:52.980 How did God think of us before Christ? 00:21:53.119 --> 00:21:56.480 How does God think of the world going away from him? 00:21:57.599 --> 00:21:58.680 Well, look at the end of verse 4. 00:22:00.700 --> 00:22:05.639 We were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. 00:22:07.159 --> 00:22:08.539 Children of wrath. 00:22:10.079 --> 00:22:11.680 Objects of God's anger. 00:22:11.680 --> 00:22:21.220 You cannot be dead in your sin with your middle finger up to God and that holy God not to be angry with you. 00:22:22.500 --> 00:22:29.500 If you ignore your God and follow the world's ways instead of his ways, you must expect that righteous God to be angry. 00:22:30.700 --> 00:22:35.019 You cannot follow the enemy and expect the king just to be happy about it. 00:22:35.880 --> 00:22:40.140 You cannot love your desires more than the holy, eternal trinity 00:22:40.140 --> 00:22:43.140 and expect him not to be full of wrath. 00:22:44.140 --> 00:22:50.000 When we were dead in our sins, God saw us and he was furious. 00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.039 And this was us. 00:22:56.039 --> 00:23:02.539 We don't need to point the finger to out there and think that this is only talking about the really bad people out there. 00:23:02.819 --> 00:23:05.039 No, brothers and sisters, this was us. 00:23:07.220 --> 00:23:11.380 From the oldest to the youngest Christian in this room, that includes you children here. 00:23:11.380 --> 00:23:21.580 Even if you've always believed all your life, all of us without God's grace, by nature, if God did not save us, this would be us. 00:23:22.920 --> 00:23:25.560 This is the cliff edge we were all running towards. 00:23:25.559 --> 00:23:32.960 We can be tempted to think that if we didn't have a really messy past, we were basically all right before. 00:23:33.519 --> 00:23:35.399 I was one of the nice ones God chose. 00:23:36.579 --> 00:23:39.740 But no, this was all of us. 00:23:39.740 --> 00:23:46.720 And this, this is why the Son of God had to die for us. 00:23:48.339 --> 00:23:54.200 Why do you think the Lord Jesus had to bear the wrath of God in such a horrific death? 00:23:55.240 --> 00:23:58.779 Because we were children of that wrath. 00:23:58.779 --> 00:24:06.940 He was bearing all our running away, all those shameful desires we never want people to know about. 00:24:07.359 --> 00:24:10.720 All the ways of the world that we were happily going along with. 00:24:11.299 --> 00:24:17.619 All that allegiance to the devil, all that disobedience, all that wrath, the Lord Jesus took upon himself. 00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:25.160 So that you can be here today and read these words. 00:24:26.279 --> 00:24:27.240 You were. 00:24:28.779 --> 00:24:30.000 Not you are. 00:24:31.019 --> 00:24:31.879 You were. 00:24:34.019 --> 00:24:36.599 Christian, this is what you were. 00:24:37.740 --> 00:24:41.500 Christ has pulled you away from the cliff edge and given you life. 00:24:41.899 --> 00:24:45.700 You can read this and you can say, I was this, but not anymore. 00:24:47.639 --> 00:24:52.940 The glory of the cross can only be really seen against the backdrop of our sin. 00:24:55.399 --> 00:24:57.899 So, what should we do with this? 00:24:58.779 --> 00:25:00.559 It's not easy to read. 00:25:00.559 --> 00:25:02.039 It's not nice to hear what we were. 00:25:02.220 --> 00:25:03.440 And so, what do we need to do? 00:25:05.279 --> 00:25:08.139 We need to be really thankful to God. 00:25:08.140 --> 00:25:12.280 We were heading off a cliff. 00:25:12.280 --> 00:25:12.300 We were heading off a cliff. 00:25:13.420 --> 00:25:14.960 I was so lost. 00:25:15.100 --> 00:25:16.480 I was so dead. 00:25:16.780 --> 00:25:19.800 And so, we should be so, so thankful. 00:25:19.799 --> 00:25:25.359 It's easy to live the Christian life just thinking, yes, yes, I'm saved. 00:25:25.359 --> 00:25:29.159 And we completely forget just how bad it could have been. 00:25:29.959 --> 00:25:32.079 We forget about that cliff edge. 00:25:32.079 --> 00:25:39.960 And so, just use this time tonight to just be thankful that we are not this anymore. 00:25:39.960 --> 00:25:45.240 Never forget, Jesus didn't just save us from a few hiccups. 00:25:45.299 --> 00:25:48.559 He didn't just save us from a few mild mistakes in the past. 00:25:48.640 --> 00:25:51.620 No, the Son of God died to save us from this. 00:25:51.619 --> 00:25:58.959 And now, you can confidently and forever hear these words, you were. 00:26:01.959 --> 00:26:04.219 And so, just do one thing from this tonight, okay? 00:26:04.379 --> 00:26:07.439 Let's be really, really thankful to God. 00:26:07.440 --> 00:26:18.180 But if you're here tonight, and you can't say, I was this, then I know this isn't easy to hear. 00:26:19.100 --> 00:26:21.100 But I don't want this to be easy to hear. 00:26:22.740 --> 00:26:26.160 That means you must say, I am this. 00:26:28.120 --> 00:26:30.100 But that doesn't have to remain the case. 00:26:31.700 --> 00:26:36.200 God, in all his grace, is telling you this tonight so that you don't stay in it. 00:26:37.440 --> 00:26:39.180 Because there is a way to live. 00:26:39.299 --> 00:26:42.180 There is a way to escape the world, the flesh, and the devil. 00:26:42.320 --> 00:26:46.299 It is to stop running from God and to start following the Lord Jesus. 00:26:47.779 --> 00:26:49.320 Bring all your sin to him. 00:26:49.420 --> 00:26:50.400 Bring all that you have. 00:26:50.539 --> 00:26:53.940 Jesus wants to take it off you and to give you life. 00:26:56.440 --> 00:26:58.019 So, come and believe in him. 00:26:59.600 --> 00:27:02.980 And when you do, you will hear these wonderful words apply to you. 00:27:04.120 --> 00:27:06.900 You were, but not anymore. 00:27:07.440 --> 00:27:09.160 Let's pray. 00:27:09.160 --> 00:27:09.180 Let's pray.