All of us also lived among them at one time, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh and indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath.We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.among whom we also all once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest:—
14 sermons cite this verse
… the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, Satan, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath, just as others. But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love wherewith he loved us, even while we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. And so friends, listen. I'm going to ask you, no, I'm going to, what am I going to do? I'm going to ask you to remain seated. I'm going to ask you to prepare your heart. I'm going to ask you to not move, not to disrupt. In Matthew chapter 10, verse 32, Jesus said, Therefore, whoever confesses me before men, people, him, her, I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven. My goodness, talk about the value of decision. Verse 32 is going to happen someday regarding you, regarding me. …
… when. Those without Christ are under his, that's the prince of the power of the air, his influence. Look at Ephesians 2.3. We're told here, you he made alive. That's us, believers, who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of this world. You know, you were born with a certain software, let's say, and it was SIN 1.0. And as you grew, you migrated from 1.0 to 1.9 to 2.0 to 10.0. You know, you would get upgrades as you became more fluent in your sinning. But the moment that you became born again, God overwrote that software by the Holy Spirit. And now, you start out as a brand new believer, look at it like heaven 1.0. And the more time you spend with Jesus, you get software updates regularly. Isn't that awesome? Every day that you spend with God in his word, through his word and by the Holy Spirit, you constantly are getting upgrades. Now you can downgrade sometimes. …
… The spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath just as the others. Listen, we were all in the same genre, the same course until God interrupted us and got a hold of us. And God is saying to us today, I want you to press on to the finish line to the church in the 21st century this year. Press on to the finish line. Don't give up. Don't quit. But listen, obey me because I love you. Obey me because I'm going to lead you in the right direction. Disobedience is painful. The Bible tells us he who is often rebuked will harden his heart and will be taken away, that without remedy. That is the person that you constantly have got to say, don't do that, don't do that, don't do that, until this is what happens, folks. When a person's heart's not changing and you keep telling them, don't do that, don't do that. Do you know what happens? They can't even hear you anymore. …
… in the sons of disobedience among whom also we also once conducted ourselves we used to in the lust of flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and we were by nature children of wrath just like everybody else. Oh, I love verse four, but God. Hold on, I got to get my preacher out right there. But God. Let me do it one more time. Is that all right? It's just so fun to say, but God. But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us. Come on, clap right there if you believe that. Come on, I was dead. I was dead in my sins. I was a son of disobedience. I couldn't help but fulfill the lust of the flesh. I was in the air of the way, living in the spirit of this world. But God, who is rich in mercy, sent his one and only son to die for the sins of the world. So I went from death to life in the power of Jesus. …
… Can we say that? All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. So this is where we get this idea of depravity and wrath. We all were in sin. We all were dead. We all walk that way. This is what scripture teaches us. Isaiah 53, 6, we all like sheep have gone astray. Now, if there's anybody in this gathering who's never gone astray, praise God for you. You are running contradictory to the word of God, but it's a great testimony you got going right now. Each of us has turned to his own way. See, this is the heart of depravity. It's not that you killed your neighbor. It's not that you embezzled a bunch of money from your company. It's that you turned your own way. You were created by God for God, but at some point you went, I'm not going your way. …
… You were also dead in your trespasses and sin. Verse 3 says, You lived in the lust of the flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, which speaks of the coming destruction." All four elements of the darkness are indicated right there in that verse. You were that. In chapter 4 and verse 17, you walked in futility of mind. Verse 18, you were darkened in your understanding. You were excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in all unbelievers. You were marked by hardness of heart, verse 19, callous, given over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. You were. But please notice, it doesn't say you were formerly in darkness. It says you were formerly darkness. The darkness is the composite accumulation of all the dark people. It's not that you're in the darkness as a victim. You're in the darkness as a contributor. You are the darkness. …
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved, and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in 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 a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." Ten verses that describe the dramatic, permanent, eternal, comprehensive transformation that salvation makes in a person's life. Over in the fifth chapter, we have another section that looks at this transformation. Chapter 5, verse 5, For this you know with certainty that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. …
… power of Satan who works not only over them but in them as sons of disobedience. And then in verse 3 he says, we too all formerly lived in that same condition in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest. So there you have that very detailed description of every human being who is unconverted. And then you have the salvation note in verse 4, but God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. This is the transformation of salvation. As a result of it, go down to verse 10, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. …
… You are essentially, according to verse 3, living in the lusts of the flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and are by nature children of wrath, even as the rest." You're like everybody. Everybody's like that. But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. Now, this is the monergistic work of God, right? He just took the dead people and made them alive. By grace we were saved, and not only did He make us alive, but He raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. In other words, we are elevated to the very throne of heaven with Christ, so that in the ages to come we might show the surpassing riches of His grace and His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works so that you may boast, but look at verse 10. …
… been seeing. So if you don't mind, I'm going to do a little bit of that as well as push forward our progress a bit. Ephesians 2, verses 1 through 10, is a before and after picture of a Christian. Ephesians 2, 1 to 10, is trying to show us the momentous change that Jesus makes when you have an encounter with him as a living person. I'm glad how many people are surprised and stunned and changed and helped by looking at this passage. Many of you see Christianity as being a kind of round of duties or a process, and you don't realize, until you look at this, that Paul expects that meeting Christ makes this momentous change, a watershed, a continental divide. Becoming a Christian, meeting Christ is sort of like Pike's Peak, because one inch to the west of Pike's Peak, little raindrop goes all the way to the Pacific Ocean. That's what they tell me when I go there. And one inch on the other side, that little drop of water goes all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. …
… as well. You've got before pictures and you've got after pictures. Being a Christian is a monumental change. What you have here in Ephesians 2 verses 1 to 5 is you've got a BC and an AD. You've got a before and an after picture. We've been looking at the before and starting last week and continuing this week, we're looking at the after picture. As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air and the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of the great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions. …
… the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. but because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace that you have been saved. Now, we've been looking for a couple weeks at the first part of this passage, which is verses 1, 2, and 3. You were dead in transgressions and sins. Verse 3 last week, all of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful flesh and following its desires and thoughts. And we've been looking at this. There's no reason to try to continue on that. Last week, we talked about the word flesh. What does the word sinful flesh mean? And we learned in the Bible, a very important thing. In fact, at least I want to repeat this from last week because it's so absolutely critical. Whenever the Bible says the flesh wars against the Spirit, do not do the works of the flesh, but do the works of the Spirit. The works of the flesh are gossip and malice and violence and sexual licentiousness, but the works of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, meekness, gentleness, self-control. …
… the spirit who is now at work and those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath, but because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace that you have been saved. Now we're looking at a classic text on sin, classic. I'm not going to be able to spend as many weeks on it as I like because I'm getting bored with spending so much time on the same verses all the time, and I hope I want to be tedious to you. But I want you to know that these first three verses has got almost everything you need to know about the biblical doctrine of sin. It's all in there. We won't even get into it, but in here you learn about the nature of God's wrath. You learn about original sin, which we will mention tonight. You learn about the nature of sin. You learn about total depravity, which is a theological term for the results of sin, which is spiritual death. …
… And what I'm going to do tonight is look at verses 1, 2, and 3, because that talks about sin. Whatever became of sin, it's alive and living in Ephesians 2, verses 1 to 3. But I'm going to read to you all the way down to verse 10 to give you an understanding of this first passage that we're going to be looking at for the next few weeks, in which Paul tells us something about what it means to be a Christian from the inside, a participant's eye view of salvation. Chapter 2. As for you, Paul says, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. …