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Skip Heitzig: Now, as we begin looking at the verses in chapter 2, let me, you don't have to turn there, but let me really begin in Genesis chapter 1, verse 1, to compare the physical creation of the world with the spiritual creation of you and I found in Ephesians 2. In Genesis 1, it begins, as you know, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the spirit of God hovered over the waters. And God said, let there be light, and there was light, and God saw the light, that it was good.

So the creation of the world is from darkness to light. The spiritual creation, the born-again experience, is where we go from spiritual darkness to spiritual light. The spirit of God hovering over our lives, speaking, let there be life, and there was life. Now, in the second chapter, as we noted last week, Paul leaves the heights and goes down to the depths. He leaves the heights of chapter 1 in the heavenlies, or don't worry, he'll be right back there again. But that's where he begins in chapter 1, in Christ Jesus in the heavenlies.

And then he goes down in chapter 2 to the grave, saying that we were dead when we came into this world. You and I, that's how we began life, dead. We were the walking dead, alienated and separated from God. Chapter 2 begins there. Chapter 1, the heights, chapter 2 begins in the depths and goes back to the heights. Think of it this way, chapter 2 begins in Death Valley and ends up in Graceland at the end of the chapter. And I don't mean Elvis's Graceland, but God's Graceland.

In chapter 2, verses 1 through 3, it's what we were saved from. That's chapter 2, verses 1 through 3, what we're saved from. Chapter 2, verses 4 through 10, what we're saved for. And then verse 11 through the rest of the chapter, what we're saved by. So he begins low and ends high. And you, verse 1, 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.

Of course, what made the difference is God. God spoke life to us. And what Paul will paint a beautiful picture of is the love of God. We sang about the love of God tonight. I was noticing some of the language we were using in our songs to speak about God's love for us. One of the great hymns of the past is a hymn by F. E. Lehman, Friedrich Lehman, called The Love of God. Some of you may know it. The love of God, he writes, is greater far than ink or pen can ever tell. It stretches to the farthest star, it reaches to the lowest hell.

Could we with ink the oceans fill and were the skies of parchment made, were every stalk on earth a quill and every man a scribe by trade, to write the love of God would drain the ocean dry. Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. Paul is going to be speaking about in chapter 3 about the love of God that is incomprehensible. And I say chapter 3, don't worry, I don't have any illusions that I would ever get there tonight, although I'm prepared to. But he writes of that incomprehensible love of God, that we might know the love of God which passes knowledge.

He begins in verse 1 with our condition when we were born. We were born dead. We weren't just missing a little part of our life, it's not like we were just sick, we were completely cut off, incapable of reaching God. You remember, I always like to quote this, but you remember that movie The Princess Bride when Fezzik and Inigo Montoya brought Westley to Miracle Max and they said, you got to do something, he's dead. And Miracle Max says, oh look who knows so much, well I'll have you know he's only mostly dead. And everybody knows there's a difference between mostly dead and all dead.

Paul says you were all dead. All y'all were completely dead, separated from God the moment you and I came into the world, dead in trespasses and sins. And we discussed that and what the difference was last week. We also walked, meandered as we saw, kicked around according to the course, weather vane, of this world. Whichever way the wind blew, whichever way the current trends and fads were, there we found ourselves. And it was according to the prince of the power of the air. Satan was pulling the strings, making sure that you were enamored with this trend and that fad.

The spirit that 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 the children of wrath just as the others. He's describing our sin nature and our sin nature was on a trajectory moving in the direction of the wrath of God. That's our natural state. We by our sin nature are moving in the direction toward the wrath of God. We've told you before that the wrath of God in the Bible is not an impulsive anger, it's a stored-up, patient wrath. We were by nature the children of wrath even as others.

What Paul is describing here and what he describes in so many other places, I'm thinking of the book of Romans in particular, is what theologians call the depravity of man. You've heard that term, the depravity of man. What that means is not that, because it sounds like a very nasty word, depravity. It doesn't mean that you are as bad as you can possibly be. It means that no matter how good you think you are, you are as bad off as you can possibly be. That's depravity. Your assessment of yourself, humanity's assessment of itself, is very different from God's assessment of us.

God's assessment of us is found in Romans chapter 3. There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who understands. They have all turned aside, they have all gone out of the way. There is none good, no, not one. That's God's assessment. That's pretty dead. That's all dead. That's depravity. That's God's estimation of you and I. You may not feel that way about yourself, you might think, oh everybody means well and they think they're good. Okay, but God's assessment of you is you're hurting for certain. You need help, you need his help.

So after painting a dark picture, after speaking of depravity, the best part where we ended last week, but God. Two awesome words, a phrase found 45 times in the Bible. It speaks of the great intervening hand of God. You were doing this, you were going that way, you thought that, but God. This was happening, but God. Two awesome words. James Montgomery Boice, who wrote several commentaries, said these two words, "but God," can save your soul. In Romans it tells us, "Scarcely for a righteous man would one die, yet perhaps for a good man one might die. But God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us."

Joseph used this term speaking of his own life when his brothers were worried about their future when they discovered this was Joseph, our brother, whom we trafficked into Egypt. Now he's the Prime Minister and they're shaking, their knees are shaking together like the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz. And he sets them at ease when he says, "As for you, you meant this for evil, but God meant it for good to save many people alive as it is this day." So it's that beautiful turn of phrase, "but God." And that's all, all of us have a testimony like this. Like the hymn, going back to another hymn, "I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see." You all have a "but God" moment in your life. That's your testimony. You were doing this, but God. You can fill in the blank, you can tell your story, and it's a powerful story, your testimony. Watch this, "but God who is rich in mercy." That's a good thing, that he's rich in mercy, because you and I are poor in sin. We're rich in sin, we have a lot of it, but when it comes to standing before God, we are poverty-stricken. But though we might be poor, he's rich in mercy.

Guest (Female): You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Every day the generosity of friends like you helps make clear, verse-by-verse Bible teaching available to people searching for truth, purpose, and hope. And this month, we want to thank you with a pair of powerful resources to help you understand your identity in Christ and God's design for your life and relationships.

When you give, you'll receive the Expound Ephesians 9 CD series with digital download, along with Pastor Skip's book, Beyond the Summer of Love. Together, these resources explore the richness of the gospel, reveal your place in God's family, and show how biblical truth brings strength, restoration, and lasting hope to your relationships.

We'll send both resources as our thanks when you give $50 or more to support Connect with Skip Heitzig. Call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com/offer. Now, let's return to today's teaching.

Skip Heitzig: I love reading about the mercy of God, but I've discovered not everybody loves the mercy of God. You remember the story of Jonah, whom God called to go from Joppa and preach to Nineveh and he ran the other direction. And he was fast asleep in the ship running away from God. The storm hit, the sailors didn't know what to do, they woke Jonah up. They were praying to their god, Jonah was sleeping. Jonah when he wakes up says, you know it's my fault, just throw me overboard. So they threw him overboard. And you know all that he went through until finally he said uncle and God sent him to Nineveh.

Why would Jonah run from God and let himself be killed in the ocean? It's because he hated the mercy of God. God was sending him to the Ninevites and the message he was to proclaim, you might think he would like the message because he hated the Ninevites. The message was pretty straightforward: forty days and Nineveh will be destroyed. That's a message of judgment. Jonah hated the Ninevites because he knew of the Assyrian captivity, he saw the brutality of the Assyrians, he wanted them all nuked. And so you would think, okay forty days, make that proclamation, Nineveh's going to be nuked.

He didn't want to go because he had a hunch that they might repent. And if they repented, he just knew that God would be merciful enough to forgive those creeps. So he didn't go. When he finally went and he proclaimed the message of judgment and indeed they did repent and God didn't judge them, he pouted. And he said, I knew it! This is why I didn't want to go because I knew you're kind and loving and forgiving and merciful. You betcha man, he's rich in mercy. What does Lamentations 3 tell us? "Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed." Thank God that he's rich in mercy.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us. I just got to tell you, when I first went through this book and I kept reading how much God loves us and the incomprehensible love of God as I mentioned in chapter 3, it was foreign to me. Because you see, though I grew up in a religious home, I was a pretty naughty kid. And Gina would be able to tell you, as I said, I wasn't even sure that God liked me, let alone loved me. I just couldn't get my head around the fact that God's love was unconditional and based on his mercy and it was incomprehensible and always available. It just didn't register.

His great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. That's regeneration, that's a moment of salvation. By grace you have been saved. Now here's a question, when did God love you? Did God love you when you decided to come to church? Did God love you when you decided, okay, I'm going to straighten out my life? Did God love you when he saw that you started reading your Bible faithfully every day? Or I'm going to go to church twice a week? No, God loved you, like Paul said in Romans, when we were still sinners.

So his love doesn't originate because of you, but in spite of you. It's based on his nature, not your nature. That's good news, this is all gospel stuff, man, this is just all the good stuff of the gospel, the everlasting love of God. By grace you have been saved. Verse 6, and raised us up together and made us sit together, there he is, back in the heavenlies again like chapter 1. Raised us up together and made us sit together, and again, the word "places" is not found in the original, it's just it's in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.

He raised us up together, made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Now let me unravel a couple of things in these two verses, verse 6 and 7. He raised us up together, made us sit in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. That's a positional statement, not a literal statement. You're not physically seated in heavenly places, because I'm seeing you right now, seated at 4001 Osuna Road in an air-conditioned place. That's where you're seated.

But positionally, you are seated with Christ. You know what I'm talking about, there's an identification that happens when you give your life to Christ so that when Jesus died you died, when he rose you rose, when he ascended you ascended, when he sits at the right hand of the Father in heavenly places you sit at the right hand with the Father in heavenly places. You are there positionally. Now, you will be there eventually literally. Until then you are there positionally. And Paul is so sure that you're going to be there eventually literally that in verse 6 he writes about you being in heavenly places in the past tense. That's how sure he is.

He raised, past tense, us up together and made, past tense, us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Now look at verse 7, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. What is true, verse 6, of you positionally will one day be true of you literally, verse 7, ages to come. He goes from a past positional experience to a future literal experience. He's so sure that it's going to happen that he writes about it in the past tense, but still points you forward. Because the Bible always does this. Always, no matter what you're going through or have been through as a believer, the Bible always points you forward and tells you to watch and wait and eagerly anticipate the coming of the Lord. Titus chapter 2, looking for the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, the blessed hope, Jesus Christ.

So positional and one day eventual and literal. But I love this part in verse 7, in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. What that means is it's going to take God all of eternity to demonstrate to you how much he loves you. Heaven is going to be the constant and ever-going and never-ending unfolding revelation of how much God loves you. What a thought! What a thought! And here I was back whenever thinking God didn't even like me, let alone loved me. This is how much he loves me. He's going to be proving and showing and revealing his love throughout eternity.

That in the ages to come he might show or demonstrate or reveal the exceeding riches of his grace, again, there it is, in Christ Jesus, a phrase that Paul uses 85 times. He wants you to know you're in him, you're positionally united with Christ. For by grace you have been saved through faith. Now we're right at the very heart of the gospel. It's by grace, G-R-A-C-E, unmerited favor, undeserved favor, also an acronym: God's Riches At Christ's Expense, grace. For by grace you are saved through faith. Your faith got you in touch, your belief got you in touch with the grace of God.

For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. It's the gift of God. Not of works, lest anyone should boast. I can't wait till I get to heaven because in heaven there won't be any bragging. Nobody will be on Instagram talking about who they were hobnobbing with today and look at me here. It's just going to be all glory to God. It'll be a testimony. No bragging, no boasting. Let him that boast or glory, the Bible says, let him glory in the Lord.

Sometimes I hear testimonies and as I listen to them they sound more like braggimonies than testimonies. They kind of want you to know and they kind of really like telling you how gnarly and bad and horrible they were, and they spend an inordinate amount of time building up their sin life, and then there's like a P.S., oh yes and then God saved me, the end. No, the testimony is what he has done since then. Yeah, we know you're a sinner, we get that. But how did he change you and what changes have happened since then?

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. Now notice there's two parts to all this. The first part is what God has done for you. The second part is what God wants to do through you. What God has done for you is he saved you. He was merciful to you. He snatched you out of darkness, brought you into light. That's what he's done for you.

But then notice what he wants to do through you. You, it says in verse 10, are his workmanship. Some of you know already this Greek word is poiema. Workmanship, poiema. Poiema is the Greek word from which we get our word poem. We are God's poem. Or let me re-translate, we're God's work of art. We're God's masterpiece, created, it says, in Christ Jesus for good works.

Guest (Female): Thanks for joining us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we go, remember, your generosity helps share God's word with people around the world, offering truth, hope, and encouragement where it's needed most. And this month, we'd love to thank you for your gift of $50 or more by sending you the Expound Ephesians 9 CD series with digital download, along with Pastor Skip's book, Beyond the Summer of Love. These resources will help you understand your identity in Christ and see how God's design brings strength and restoration to your relationships. Give today at connectwithskip.com/offer or call 800-922-1888. See you next time on Connect with Skip Heitzig.