Believers are not what they should be, but by God's grace they are what they are, and that is not what they once were. The sermon outlines the state of humanity before salvation, detailing spiritual death through sin, physical domination by the world and disobedience, moral disobedience, selfish mentality, and judicial condemnation. It then contrasts this with the state of believers, emphasizing that through God's rich mercy and great love, they have been spiritually quickened, raised up, and seated with Christ in heavenly places. This salvation, by grace through faith, is a gift from God, not of works, and its effects are permanent, offering freedom from sin's dominion and condemnation.
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I want us to think of Ephesians chapter two verses one to ten for the time that I am to speak to you. I won't read the section immediately. We shall read that ultimately. But let me introduce my remarks in this fashion. Someone said, I don't know who it was, I have an idea it was Roland Hill of England, many, many years ago, the inventor of the penny postage, a thing that we regrettably have lost, that I think of it was he who said, I am not what I should be. That by the grace of God I am what I am.
And that at least is not what I was. If it wasn't he who said it, it was somebody else. And I am... I am perfectly certain of this, that it's a thing that we can all say. We have had a great deal of very helpful, practical ministry from the three servants of God that have sought to help you. You remember that I spoke to you about my Lord and about the Christian family and about the disaster in the middle of the life.
of Josiah. And then Paul's salutary words last evening to Timothy. Our dear brother Mr. Mackay has been giving to us some exceedingly practical ministry from the upper room talk of the Lord Jesus. And our brother Mr. Deans has been focusing his attention upon that verse in the first chapter of the Book of the Acts, reminding us of our duty to bear witness. And when I have reviewed, as I have sought to do this morning in my room, the whole of that ministry, I have had to say concerning myself, I am not what I should be.
There certainly is much room for improvement. I don't know that I've got that courage to talk to the elevator man. Or to speak in the fashion in which Mr. Deans has reminded us of others. I admire those who do it. We are not all cut out in the same fashion. But I think that every one of us, without exception, would say, I'm not what I should be. There's room for improvement. But at least this. By the grace of God I am what I am. Those words, of course, have been extracted from the statement of the Apostle Paul, who, when writing to the Corinthians, said that, by the grace of God.
I am what I am. And that, in the case of all of us, is, at least, not what we were. When I said in the case of all of us, did I make a slip up then? I wondered if I am talking to somebody who is not yet a believer. And this remark that I am going to circle my statements around doesn't apply to you. If you're an unbeliever at the moment, you may, by faith in Christ where you sit, pass from death to life at this very minute. But let us assume that we're all believers.
Then we're all going to say, truly before God, I'm not what I should be. There's room for amendment. But we will add with thanksgiving, by the grace of God I am what I am. And then supplement it with this. And that at least is not what I was. For now to look at our passage, verses one to three tell us what we were. And verses four to seven. or rather eight inclusive, tell us what the grace of God has done for us. Well, with an overlap, seven to ten tell us what we should be.
Now there's a scaffolding. You preachers note that. You see, you've got a scaffolding. You can fill in all the details now. That's your main outline. I am not what I should be. Verses seven to ten, tell us what we should be. But by the grace of God I am what I am. Verses four to seven and eight inclusive tell us what we are. And that at least is not what I was. Let us look at what we were. Read verses one to three. And you have he quickened who were dead through trespasses and sins. Wherein in time past he walked according to the course of this world.
Or you could put it the time-state of this metal world. According to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience. Children has to do with birth. Sons has to do with character. Among whom also we, we Jews, all had our conversation in time past, in the lust of our flesh. fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children abroad, even as the others, the other Gentiles. Now let us sort that out.
This is what we were. And I want you to notice that we were dead spiritually. Dead through trespasses and sins. Trespasses having to do with that which is positive. Sins having to do with what is negative. Sins of omission and sins of commission. We were dead spiritually, alienated from the life of God, without hope, without God in the world. Secondly, we were dominated physically, but note the words, according to the prince of the power of the air.
I know of course in England they used to say Britain's never shall be slaves, but every one of them was a slave of sin. He that committed sin is a slave of sin. If you want to demonstrate that to an unsaved person and to prove to them that they are not a free agent, remind them of what they themselves say. I didn't mean to do it. I simply couldn't help myself. I was driven to do it. And then say, if you didn't mean to do it, why did you do it? If you couldn't help yourself, who was driving you to do it?
And if you were driven to do it, then you must have been a slave. So we were dominated physically. Not merely that. We were dead spiritually, dominated physically. But you note the end of verse two, sons of disobedience. We were disobedient morally. But I will need to take the Decalogue and to note the first commandment. Thou shalt have no other God besides me, and I know well enough that things and people have taken a place in my heart that God ought to have. And commandment one has been disobeyed. I take the last commandment, thou shalt not covet.
And I know I, in common with all others, have been guilty of disobeying that. We were disobedient morally. Again, we were selfish mentally. Look at verse three. The lusts of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. We scheme We thought out ways and means whereby we could satisfy ourselves. Number one was the center of our thinking and the very core of our desires. And we were not altruistic thinking of others, we were self-centered being selfish mentally.
And further, observed the end of the verse, whereby nature children of wrath even as others. We were condemned judicially. The wrath of God abode upon us. We were those who had merited the curse of God. Cursed is every one that continues not in all things that are written in the book of the Lord to do them. Now, my dear fellow believer, this is what we were. Look at the whole category. Dead spiritually. dominated physically, selfish mentally, condemned judicially, and we were disobedient morally.
Sin had invaded us altogether. There is an expression that is used that sometimes is apt to be misunderstood. The expression has to do with Total depravity. Now, of course, you may have a very respectable worldly person who puts us into shame in regard to their moral qualities, and it would seem altogether inappropriate from one point of view to talk of them as totally depraved. The man who is an whoremonger and a fornicator and a wife-beater, a drunkard and debauched, that man is obviously and openly totally depraved.
But sin has invaded every department of our being. We are made up of spirit, soul and body. And sin has invaded our spirit. We are dead spiritually. And sin has invaded our soul. We are selfish mentally. And sin has invaded our body. We are dominated physically. That's what we were. I don't know whether you have the expression in America that we have in England of hangovers.
Well, evidently by your smiling you know exactly what I mean. It is a carryover into the next day of the effects of the past. I wonder, my dear fellow Christian, are there any hangovers of these things with us in these days since we exercised faith in Christ? Let us check them out. Are we dead spiritually? No, certainly not. There's no hangover of that. We have everlasting life. which is the same term as eternal life. And eternal life is not mere continuity of life. It is a new divine nature, a new quality of life.
We are alive in Christ. There's no hangover of the first item. Is that any hangover of the second? We are dominated physically. And does a believer say, well, I'm sorry, but I couldn't help doing it. Is there any hangover of this that we are serving sin? How shall we that have died for sin any longer live therein? Why the Lord Jesus bore our sins that we should be separated from sins and live unto God? And yet sometimes you find a believer will plead this, that he or she did it because they couldn't help it.
failing to lay hold upon the promise, sin shall not have dominion over you. There may be a hangover with our second item. What about the third one, disobedient morally? Had our brother Deans read on in the first epistle of Peter chapter two, he would have come across an expression as obedient to children. And at a conference like this, while we don't want to whip one another, that would be a totally wrong thing to do. Yet we don't want merely to tickle the fancy. We want to seek to get to the conscience. I wonder if any one of us believers is wittingly disobedient to anything that God requires of us.
Is there a hangover of this disobedient morally? Take the next. Are we selfish mentally? That is, are we thinking of ways and means whereby to satisfy self? Or are we doing what I suggested the other day we should do, live no longer to ourselves but to him who died for us and rose again? Are we looking now to come to the passage that our dear brother Mr. McKay referred us to in Philippians Are we looking every man on his own things or are we thinking of the interest, the welfare and the good being of others?
Is there a hangover of selfish mentally? There can't be any hangover of condemned judicially. Thank God there's no condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus. Romans chapter eight tells us that there is no judge on the bench to condemn us. There is no plaintiff in the court to charge us. There's no prosecuting counsel to drive the charge. There are no warders to separate us and to consign us to prison and judgment. No, there's no judgment. There's no hangover of the last item." Now I must dismiss that because I'm keeping my eye on the clock. I certainly don't want to leave Blue Ridge and lose my reputation.
I am not what I should be, but by the grace of God I am what I am, and that at least is not what I was. We have seen what we were. Five items. Sin has invaded our entire being, spirit, soul and body, and we've sought to inquire whether there are anything over us. Now then, let us take the second item. By the grace of God I am what I am. Let us read verse four onward. But God who is rich in mercy on account of his great love wherewith he loved us. Even when we were dead in sins quickened us together with Christ by grace you are saved.
And has 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 through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God. Perhaps before I become more orderly in this section I had better dispose of the phrase in brackets in verse five, repeated in verse eight. By grace you have been saved. It's what is called the perfect tense. It took place in the past.
Its effect is permanent and unalterable. By grace you, those to whom I am speaking, who have exercised a living faith in a living Savior, you have been permanently, lastingly, unalterably saved through faith. Salvation in the New Testament is viewed from three points of view. In Romans chapter five it says we shall be saved. In first the Corinthians one correctly translated it is we are being saved. Here in Ephesians two we have been saved.
Out of sea there's a wreck. The ship is burning. You happen to know the number of the crew and the number of the passengers. Out goes the light boat over one wave and down into the trough and over the crest of another until it reaches the derelict ship. And looking through your glasses, you say, one, two, three. That's good. They're all saved. Everyone taken off from the burning wreck and safely transported into the light boat. They have been saved. but it's a very stormy siege and you're watching again through your glasses and the lifeboat is coming over one crest of the wave down into the trot over another and so on and you say that's good they're being saved and presently they reach the shore and there's a hooray they're all saved now my dear friend Ephesians two is we're in the lifeboat we've been taken out of our derelict position we have been saved And first the Corinthians one is we are going through the stormy sea of life and we are being saved.
And Romans five which speaks of the awful days of judgment that has to come upon this poor godless world that assures us that before it comes we shall be saved. And thus consolation is completed. Says verse eight, by grace that is on the part of God. Have you been saved through faith? That is the connecting link. And that's what? It can't be God's grace because that's a feminine word. And faith is a feminine word. And this pronoun that is neuter. It means that salvation by God's grace through your faith is not of yourselves.
You didn't do it. It was the free gift of God. Faith isn't a gift. Salvation is the gift, if for no other reason than what follows, it's not of works. Now, having got that passage out of the way, not that it was a nuisance, but I wanted just to remove it so that we can become more systematic in our dealing with the middle sections. I want to just remind you that so far as I know, And younger ones here can put me right if my matters of fact are wrong, but don't put me right now. That'll interrupt my turn.
The sixth warning that I should be privileged to speak to you briefly. I'm going to use the same text. And I think it's a very interesting