Thank you everyone for your help and worship this morning and for everyone singing along, those are tremendous songs that we sing every week, such rich meaning. Good morning to everyone. Another beautiful winter morning this morning, 27 degrees, that was all right. Looks like it's going to be in the 40s all next week, so maybe we're going to make it through. 

Well this morning in our study of Ephesians, we've come to a crucial text, a wonderful text about salvation, and Paul really wants to talk about our salvation here and the grace of God, but first he kind of gives a contrast as to who we were before and how we lived in Adam. Unfortunately, we're going to spend the entirety of this message on that, so it's not quite as encouraging as what we'll look at next week, but this text is all about salvation. 

It's simple in its meaning and intent, but complex and profound in doctrine and theology, and it's going to take us at least a couple of weeks to unpack what Paul is saying here if we're going to truly understand the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith. The doctrines that Paul highlights, particularly in verses 1 to 5, are deep and weighty, and his words have given rise to some devastating misunderstandings in some circles of theology. 

The truth he's expounding is absolutely illuminating for our understanding of spiritual death, of sin, and the condition of the man in Adam, how he walks, why he lives the way he does, and what this means for his relationship to God. Paul lays out clearly the problem of man and then he gives us the grand solution, the grace and mercy of God found in the person and work of Jesus Christ, salvation by grace through faith alone in Jesus alone. 

His goal in this text is not to give a full treatment of the doctrines of sin, dividing our position before God and our condition in Adam, but rather he wants us to understand how God remedied these maladies through the salvation he provides by grace alone. So in our message today, we're going to attempt to lay a foundation for understanding sin and spiritual separation from God, what I would characterize as our position before God, as well as the condition of man because of the sin of Adam and our resulting relationship to indwelling sin, law, and physical death. 

These truths help us to understand who we were and prayerfully will give us a greater appreciation for the grace of God, the magnanimous gift of God in Jesus Christ, and the means of obtaining that grace and full salvation by faith alone in Jesus alone. So we're going to trust the Holy Spirit this morning to help us, to guide us into all truth through the word, and to make these deep and profound truths clear to us and to guard us against error and misunderstanding. 

Through the course of our study of these ten verses, we will come to more fully understand who we were in Adam, how God saved us from that wretched state, and what our new life in Christ means for today and for eternity. So these are amazing and profound truths that we find here in these wonderful words from the Apostle Paul. 

Let's look at Ephesians 2.1: "...and you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. 

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." 

I've given you five points on your outline. First, dead in sins. Second, condition versus position. Third, made alive. Fourth, saved by grace. And fifth, unto good works. Hopefully, we can make our way through the first two or three points this morning and we'll pick it up next time there. 

Well first we see in our text, dead in trespasses and sins. And you he made alive, it says, who were dead in trespasses and sin. Notice the words he made alive, if they're in your Bible, are in italics, meaning that they are not in the original language. We see in verse 5 this truth stated again, and so the translator supplied it here in the first verse. However, the literal rendering is this: "And you who were dead in trespasses and sins." 

The plural of these words is important here. He does not say we were spiritually dead because of sin, but rather that we are dead in trespasses and sins. O'Brien comments here that the plural trespasses draws attention to individual acts of sin. Paul is characterizing spiritual death. Now death indicates separation. Death indicates a lack of life, a lack of spiritual vigor or power. Here is the cause of our separation from God. 

Notice down in verse 12, Paul says this about our position before we were in Christ. Ephesians 2.12, he says that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Quite a statement, isn't it? Having no hope and without God in the world. If you were without God in this world, you would have no hope, and we see that all around us. 

Spiritual death is the state of separation from God and his life. Death itself is a separation, whether physical, the separation of the person from his body, or spiritual, the separation of the person from God and his life and power. In this entire section, Paul is speaking of salvation. In verse 1, he speaks of our position before God and Adam. We were dead in trespasses and sins. We are separated from God and his life and his salvation, his nature. You know how the Scriptures say that when we believe Jesus, when we're regenerated, we receive his nature. The divine nature is imparted to us. His life is imparted to us. His power, his spiritual vigor through the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us is imparted to us. 

In spiritual death, we are separated from that. We do not have that. We will see in verses 2 to 3 a bit of a parenthesis describing our condition in Adam and how we walked and lived and why we conducted ourselves that way. These verses describe our condition in Adam, what we inherited from him, and the resulting life we live. 

In Ephesians 2, 1 to 10, Paul has in mind the whole of salvation, a remedy to our position before God because of sins and a remedy to our condition in Adam because of sin. Salvation through faith in Jesus provides remedy to both of these conditions. As the old hymn Rock of Ages says, "Be of sin the double cure, save from wrath and make me pure." 

He's not so concerned here to extensively define these terms or draw a distinction between justification concerning our position and regeneration concerning our condition, and yet he's very careful with his terms. In verse 1, describing spiritual death, he uses the plural trespasses and sins, clearly indicating our own personal sinful acts. Spiritual separation from God, dead, without life, without spiritual strength. 

This truth is so closely related to our condition, it's difficult to separate. However, Paul does intentionally and methodically do that. In another letter he wrote, the letter to the Romans, we're familiar with that. In that great epistle, Paul really expands the gospel and explains it more fully to us. He shows us in chapter 1:18 through 3:20, the condemnation of all men, their guilt before God of all men, no one is righteous, no not one, not even you. 

In 3:21 through chapter 4, he teaches us about justification, that is, the imputation of our sins to Christ on the cross and his righteousness to us. Remember, this is positional, this is our standing before God. But beginning in chapter 5 at verse 12, Paul introduces to us the truth that through Adam's sin, death came into the world and death spread to all men, even from Adam until Moses, when there was no law to break, to transgress, still men died physically. 

In Romans 5 to 8, we also see that we inherited a condition, that is, the reality of indwelling sin, an inner power or force or principle, a law, Paul calls it, that gives us a proclivity, a tendency toward sin. And in Adam, this indwelling sin is a dominating force and our existence is one of slavery to sin, bondage to the law, and fear of death. Paul describes this vividly in Romans 7, I'd like for you to turn to Romans 7 and look at verse 21 with me. 

Romans 7:21, I find then a law, this is what he's talking about, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. Now look at verse 23, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. Back in 7:14 he said, I am a slave to sin. This describes the man in Adam and the domination of indwelling sin bringing him into captivity as a slave to sin so that he always continually manifests sin out through the members of his body. 

This is present tense in the Greek, all of these verbs meaning a continuous perpetual action. I always do the things I hate, I never ever do the things that I want to do. Because I'm captive, I'm a slave to this indwelling sin that is working in my members. This is a description of life that we see in verses 2 and 3 of our text as a result of our condition in Adam. 

If you look with me at Romans 8:1, we'll see the contrast with the man in Christ. In 8:1 he says, there's therefore now no condemnation, this speaking of positional righteousness, justification, there's no judgment, there's no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Look at verse 2, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, what? Has made me free from what? The law of sin and death. For what the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law which we see in Romans 13 is love, the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk, we do not walk according to the flesh like the people in Ephesians 2:2 and 3, right? That’s who we were. 

We do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit. It seems a straightforward contrast to me, the man in Romans 7:23 is in captivity to the law of sin, he's a slave to indwelling sin so that he never ever does the things he wants, but the man in Romans 8:2 has been made free from the law of sin and death so that now the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in him, that is he can love, the love of Christ is poured out through him. So whereas in Romans 3 and 4, Paul's talking about our position before God, our standing with him, our spiritual separation from him, and thus our need for Christ's death and our place for our sins and the imputation of his righteousness to us in justification, in Romans 5 to 8, Paul is talking about through the sin of Adam and by nature of being born in Adam, his progeny, that I am subject to physical death and I find myself in a condition of being ruled over by indwelling sin in bondage to the law and in constant fear of death. 

The cure for this condition is regeneration. It's our union with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection, the crucifixion of our old man and Adam so that the body controlled by indwelling sin might be rendered powerless. The cure for our position is justification, a legal declaration, imputation. We see that in Romans 4 so clearly. But the cure for our condition in Adam is regeneration, death, burial, and resurrection with Christ, being raised to a new life free from the controlling power of sin in us, free from the law, no longer living by the letter but by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit and freedom from bondage to fear of death for death no longer has dominion over us. 

In Paul's explanation of justification and regeneration in Romans, we see a distinction drawn between our position and our condition. This is not necessarily Paul's point in Ephesians 2, but we see this also in verses 1 to 3 of our text. Let's look again at our text in Ephesians 2 and see what applications we can make. Ephesians 2:1, "...and you were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others." 

Not very encouraging to look back at our former life, is it? But this speaks reality, doesn't it? And we see it in lost men all around us. Again, in verse one, we see our position, our relationship to God is broken by sins, and you who were dead in trespasses and sins. Now in verses two to three, we see an explanation as Paul references our condition in Adam and the resulting life we lived as slaves of sin in bondage to law and fear of death. "'In which you once walked,' he said." The word walked there means literally to move about, to conduct ourselves, it's how we lived. It was the natural course of our lives. 

And he says, "'According to the course of this world.'" This speaks of Satan's world system, which is specifically designed to work hand in hand with our inner inclination to sin, with the sin that dwells in us. You ever notice that in our world? How far can you get from the earthly, sensual, and demonic in this world? Used to be, you know, maybe you didn't go down to the lower block in Hurley, right? You could stay away from it. Now it's in your home on your phone. It's on your children's phones, all the time, accessible. 

Satan has a system designed in this world meant to play on the nature of man and the sin that dwells in him, and to lead him into temptation, ultimately perdition. The world all around us in every aspect of life is that which is earthly, sensual, and demonic. It's Satan's system. I don't know how many of you saw the commercial in the Super Bowl, which was supposed to be a representation of Christ and Christianity. It was called, or produced by a group called He Gets Us. Has anybody seen that? Some of you? It was not a good representation of Christ or Christianity, but the Babylon Bee made a parody of this commercial. 

And it shows people representing all kinds of sin and debauchery in this world, and it keeps saying, He Gets Us, He Gets Us. And at the end, it says, He Gets Us, Satan. My friend, Satan gets us. He gets man. He understands man. He knows the heart of man. He knows the nature of man. This was a powerful image, but it's true. Satan gets us, he knows us, and his ministers of unrighteousness have designed a system to prey upon the sin that dwells in us and to foster the sinful passions at work in our members. 

We walked in Adam according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. Paul includes all men, himself Jew and Gentile, as well in verse three. In a further explanation of our condition in Adam, he says, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath just as the others. 

In this verse, Paul builds upon the reasons given for our conduct in Adam in verse two. Specifically, the world around us and its forces, the demonic and satanic influence and supernatural power working on us, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. But in verse three, he adds the internal control of our spirit by indwelling sin. He says, we conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh. 

The word lust here refers to the sinful passions in us. Turn over to Romans 7:5 with me. Let's look at Paul explain that in Romans 7:5. In 7:1-4, he's talking about our death to the law. He brings conclusion to that teaching in 7:6, but he gives a contrast in 7:5, talking about when we were in Adam. He says, for when we were in the flesh, okay? That's what we're talking about in verses two and three in our text. When we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. 

This is such an accurate picture in Adam, in the flesh. The passions, the sinful passions in us were aroused by the law, working in our members to continually bear fruit to death. We see that condition of the man in Adam so clearly here, under law, sin, and death. And this is contrasted with the man in Christ in the surrounding verses. If you look at verse four, Paul says, therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, to him who was raised from the dead. 

Why? Why should we be married to Christ? In order that we should bear fruit to God. In Adam, we bear fruit to death. In Christ, we bear fruit to God. Look at 7:6. He says, but now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by. Why did we need to die to the law? Why do we need to be made free from the law? He gives us the purpose words there, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. 

So now the indwelling Holy Spirit is the power of God by which he energizes our inner man to live for him, to live in righteousness. Under grace, living by the power of the Holy Spirit through faith, our fruit is righteousness, holiness, and eternal life. Paul says, in Adam, we live by the lusts of our flesh. We see the word flesh over and over in the Scriptures we've been looking at. What does it mean, this word flesh? Well, it's the word sarx, and it literally means body, the meat and bones that hang, or the meat and flesh that hang on these bones. 

But when it is used in its negative connotation, as we see in these passages, it literally means, now I want you to write this down somewhere to pay attention, the word flesh literally means the body controlled by indwelling sin. It is this physical body controlled by indwelling sin manifest out through our members. That's what we saw in Romans 7:5 again. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. 

This is also the truth we see in Romans 6:6. Listen to this. Paul says, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. Our old man, who's the old man? It's the man in Adam, right? Who we were under law, sin, and death. The old man was crucified with Jesus. Why did we have to die? That the body of sin, that is the flesh, it's this physical body and its members controlled by indwelling sin, that the body of sin might be done away with or rendered powerless for the express purpose that we would no longer be slaves to indwelling sin. 

So that the sin that dwells in us would no longer dominate and control and manifest itself out through the members of our body. In other words, we would no longer walk according to the lusts of the flesh. Think about that in Ephesians 4:27, where Paul says, you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, and he gives a similar list that's not very pretty. And then he says, but you have not so learned Christ. 

The truth is in Jesus that you have put off the old man, you have put on the new man, and you're being renewed in knowledge. So we shouldn't walk like we did because God has dealt with the condition in Adam, he has freed us from that controlling power of indwelling sin. We no longer walk by the lusts of the flesh. In Adam, Paul says, we conducted ourselves, we walked according to the lusts of the flesh, satisfying the desires of the flesh and of the mind. This is how we walk, this is how we lived in Adam, because of indwelling sin. 

We were by nature children of wrath. This is a saying much like sons of disobedience in the previous verse, or the judgment that's spoken of in Colossians 3. Turn over to Colossians 3 with me at verse five. Colossians 3:5. Paul's talking about how we died with Christ and our life is hidden with Christ in God, that we should set our mind on things above, not on the things of the earth. 

Verse five, he says, therefore, put to death your members which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry. Now look at verse six, he says something interesting. Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. Sort of a parallel passage. 

Notice it says the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience because of their sins, how they walk, how they live. We see in verses one to three of our text, our position, spiritual death and our trespasses and sins, and our condition in Adam, a slave to indwelling sin, under the law and bondage to fear of death. The first results from the second, really. They're so closely related. We sin because we're sinners. 

Now I wanna just take a minute and divert here, take a little bit of time to make an important note. I'd ask you this question, how many of you are familiar with the doctrine of original sin? Who's heard that term, original sin? How many of you think you could explain it? Okay, good choice there. Tammy's ready, all right. 

Well, it's explained several different ways depending on your theology, and this is why I wanna expose you to some of this teaching. It's an interesting topic. It's built out of the passage in Romans five we've been touching on. It's related to our text in Ephesians two as well. The term original sin and even the concept, depending on how you define it, did not exist until the year 418. It was coined by Augustine of Hippo. 

Certainly Paul is teaching us something very important in Romans five, 12 to 21 concerning the effects of Adam's sin on the entire human race. We don't have time to go into an exposition of that text right now as much as I'd like to, but we've touched on it and concerning the condition of man and that he's subject to physical death and has the principle of sin dwelling in him and dominating him. But Augustine took this idea quite a bit further. 

I spent Friday afternoon and evening reading a 38-page document on Augustine's view on original sin because I'm a Friday night party kind of guy, right? To summarize all of that, he had two basic conclusions out of Romans five, 12 to 21. One is that all men born in Adam because of Adam's sin are born with a proclivity, what he called concupiscence. My wife told me not to use that word. Concupiscence, that's an evil desire in man. 

This idea is akin to what we just studied in Romans 7:5, what the Bible calls indwelling sin. But Augustine also concluded that all men actually sinned in Adam. It's a little strange here. He borrowed an idea from origin that all the souls of men existed in a community before indwelling human bodies. I don't know what that means. But the point is Augustine taught and believed that we actually have the guilt of Adam because we actually were in Adam and committed sin in Adam. 

The conclusion of this doctrine is that all men are born guilty and deserving of hell, condemned because of the sin they committed in Adam. The doctrine that developed out of this in the Roman Catholic Church is the sacrament of baptism. So the only cure for the stain that is the guilt of original sin is water baptism, a sacrament that removes the stain of original sin if not the inner sinful passions which persist. 

Okay, I'm just showing you how he got to this point and why there's that doctrine in the church. Without baptism, you can't enter the church. Without the church, you can't be saved in Roman Catholic doctrine. That's where that comes from. Closely related to this was John Calvin's view of original sin. He rejected the idea that we were actually in Adam and actually sinned, but preferred the idea of imputation of Adam's sin and guilt for every man. 

And so he reasoned that every man born in Adam is guilty and deserving of eternal hell and that since this guilt came by imputation, the resolution could only be by an act of the grace of God independent of the man's own will. Okay, you following me? Thus the Calvinist doctrine that, for example, elect babies go to heaven because God regenerates them by an act of sovereign grace, but non-elect babies go to hell because they're guilty of the sin of Adam by imputation. 

Let me give you a little evidence for this, an excerpt from the Reformed Study Bible. On page 1664 of the Geneva, or now called the Reformed Study Bible, it says, infants can be born again, although the faith that they exercise cannot be as visible as that of adults. R.C. Sproul gives us a comment on this. He says, when the Reformed Study Bible speaks in the notes of John 3, of infants being born again, it is speaking of the work of quickening that God does in them, which inclines their will to Him. 

Listen to what he says, in Protestantism, regeneration always precedes faith. And if God quickens them, the person will surely come. Often regeneration in our subsequent faith may not happen apparently simultaneously, but logically regeneration must precede faith. An infant's faith may not come until years after God has worked by His Holy Spirit to regenerate him or her. That's why they baptize babies in the Presbyterian Church. They become elect. They're saved already. 

This is one of the reasons that we're not Protestants, my friends. This doctrine extends to all men because Calvinism teaches today that the effects of original sin are so far-reaching, so pervasive and comprehensive, that all men born in Adam are born spiritually dead and have complete and total inability to respond in any way to anything spiritual, including the gospel. 

Now I bring all this up because Ephesians 2:1-3 is the favored proof text for this doctrine of total inability, and you will hear this on Christian radio. You will hear this from biblical teachers you listen to, from books you read, and I want you to know what you are hearing when you hear it. Let me be clear, the Bible does teach total depravity, but not the way the Calvinist defines it. 

Total depravity speaks of the condition of the man in Adam and his inability to save himself by any work or human wisdom or anything he could do. He would never find God or truth or the gospel on his own. His inclination is bent toward sin because of his condition in Adam. This is what Jesus meant when he said, no man comes to me unless the Father draws him. 

That it's the Holy Spirit that convicts men of sin and righteousness and judgment. But notice that Jesus also says, when I am raised up, I will draw all men unto myself. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. We did not go looking for Him. We did not find Him, He found us. But this does not mean that the man is so totally depraved, so infected in every fiber in his being by indwelling sin, that he no longer has a will, nor can he believe. 

The doctrine of total inability, and you hear this so often, my friends, teaches that spiritual death is co-equal with physical death. In other words, we are dead, unable to respond to any stimuli, including even the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so the grand conclusion of this doctrine of Calvinism is that regeneration must precede faith. 

I only spend this time exposing you to these doctrines because they're so pervasive in the church and are having such an effect on the mind and understanding of believers. The central problem with the doctrine of total inability is this, it's not what the Scriptures teach. And this is so clear and abundant in the Word of God. Regeneration never precedes faith in the Bible. Faith always precedes regeneration. 

Never does it say, be saved and believe. It says believe and be saved. And the Scriptures tell us again and again that it is the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation for those who believe. That faith comes by hearing a message about Jesus, that man must hear, believe, and then he is saved. It's very clear that God's method of salvation of bringing a man to faith in Jesus is through the power of the message preached. 

His power working through His gospel. So I agree, a lost man and Adam cannot please God. He cannot understand the things of God. He is totally unable to do anything to save himself, but this does not mean that he does not have a will, and it does not mean that he cannot believe Jesus when he hears the gospel preached. I know this is true because this is precisely what the New Testament teaches abundantly and consistently. 

Listen with me to the Prince of Preachers, Charles Spurgeon, as he comments on this in his sermon, The Warn of Faith. He says, I quote, if I am to preach the faith in Christ to a man who is regenerated, then the man being regenerated is saved already, and it is unnecessary and a ridiculous thing for me to preach Christ to him and bid him to believe in order to be saved when he is saved already being regenerate. 

Am I only to preach faith to those who have it? Absurd indeed. Is not this waiting till the man is cured and then bringing him the medicine? This is preaching Christ to the righteous and not to sinners. End quote. 

I think of Acts 16:31. Remember the Philippian jailer? He brought them out and he said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? So they said to him, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and all who were in his house. They preached the gospel to his whole household. Why? So that they might hear, believe, and be saved. 

What must I do? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. But how does the Calvinist answer this question? Because you see in the doctrine of total depravity defined as total inability because of the imputation of Adam's sin to every man, the man cannot believe. So what should I do to be saved? 

Now remember, based largely on our text in Ephesians 2:1-3, Reformed preachers say that those in Adam are like corpses who cannot respond to anything, cannot do anything until they are made alive. I just heard John MacArthur this week going on and on about this very thing. We are walking corpses. We are dead men. You can kick a dead man, he can't respond. You can yell at a dead man, he won't respond. You can preach the gospel to a dead man, he can't respond. 

So what does the Calvinist tell a man who wants to be saved, such as the Philippian jailer, he must do? Well here's a common response taken from a Calvinist named Shedd. He says, quote, because the sinner cannot believe, he is instructed to perform the following duties. Read and hear the divine word, give serious application of the mind to the truth, and pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit for conviction and regeneration. Did you follow that? 

You can't believe by hearing the gospel, contrary to all those New Testament scriptures, so you're supposed to read and hear the word, give serious application of the mind to the truth, pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit for conviction and regeneration, pray that God will regenerate you so that you can believe. And I have seen this firsthand in Reformed churches. Roy Aldrich's response is penetrating. He says, a doctrine of total depravity that excludes the possibility of faith must also exclude the possibilities of hearing the word, giving serious application to the divine truth, and praying for the Holy Spirit for conviction and regeneration. 

And he comments, the Calvinist deals with a rather lively spiritual corpse after all. My brothers and sisters in Christ, we cannot explain every jot and tittle of God's Word, nor can we understand fully the mind of God in His ways. The secret things belong to the Lord, and I'm good with that, but don't forget the second part of that verse in Deuteronomy 29:29 which says, but that which He has revealed to us belongs to us and our children forever. 

What has God revealed to us in His Word clearly, consistently about how a man is saved? We read Acts 16, listen to John 1:12, He came to His own, His own did not receive Him, but as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children to God, to those who believe in His name. How about John 5:24, the words of our Lord, most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in Him who sent me has everlasting life, shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death unto life. 

We could cite a hundred more. Romans 10:17, faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. Ephesians 1:13, in Him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. How does God save lost men and Adam? Through the preaching of the gospel. They hear, they believe, then they are saved. 

God could not be more clear in His Word. Please don't fall into the trap of trying to explain through man's wisdom the sovereignty of God and the will of man in salvation. Believe them both, believe them with equal faith because God's Word clearly teaches both. As to faith and regeneration, don't make logical conclusions based on faulty premises about original sin and total inability. 

Simply read and see what God says and believe Him. A man must hear the truth, he must hear a message about Jesus, the gospel, he must believe and then he is saved, not the other way around. 

In Ephesians 2:1-3, Paul is talking about our spiritual separation from God because of our trespasses and sins, and he's talking about our condition in Adam and the fruit of indwelling sin, sinful passions working in our members to bear fruit to death. And the reason he's talking about this former life that we have had in Adam, this former position that we had before God, is in order to set a great contrast with what he begins to tell us in verse 4.

Please look with me to Ephesians 2:4 as we close. But God, who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved. Those profound and amazing words, but God. We were in a hopeless condition, look at verse 12 of Ephesians 2 again, at that time you were without Christ, you were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. 

We were in a hopeless condition because of the inherited condition of Adam, subject to physical death, controlled and dominated in our spirit by indwelling sin, constantly manifesting this sin out through the members of our body, thus our sins condemning us before a holy God. This was hopelessness, nothing we could do to change ourselves or remedy our position, no matter how much good we might try to do, no matter how many religious exercises we go through, no matter how many sacraments we participate in, not only could we not do anything good, we could not please God, but we also were culpable to God's judgment for falling short of His glory in our sins. 

It's a bleak picture and a dire situation, but God. But God. Here's what Paul wants to talk about, we had to get all that other stuff out of the way. Here's what God wants to talk about, but God, who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. 

When we heard the gospel, and we believed Jesus, we were not only justified in our position before God, but we were regenerated, and He changed our condition. He made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and He'll tell us that that is through faith, down in verse 8. This is the good news, this is the love and grace and mercy of God, this is salvation. 

And this is what we'll take a deep dive into next week to finish this message, understanding the salvation of God in Christ and you He made alive. Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we're so thankful for Your grace, we're so thankful that You came and found us, that You gave all. We didn't give all for You, You gave all for us. You gave Your only Son to die in our place for our sins. Lord, to accomplish our salvation, it was finished at the cross. He was the full satisfactory payment for the sins of the world, and every man who will believe has Your righteousness imputed to him, and thus we are fit for heaven. 

And not only that, but You've also dealt with the sin that dwells in us. You've released us from bondage to the law, You've released us from fear of death, and now we can focus on Jesus, and we can focus on loving others, loving You, living for You. And by Your power in us, we can bear fruit unto righteousness for Your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.