I'd like to ask you to open up your Bibles to the book of Ephesians, Paul's letter to the Ephesians. And please look at chapter 2. I want to read the opening 10 verses of chapter 2. So, people of God, let's pay careful heed, attention to God's Word. were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind, But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses, 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 coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. It is not of your own doing. 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 that we should walk in them. Let's pray. Oh, our Father in heaven, we are humbled and we are amazed at this passage that I've just read to your people. And Lord, we would ask that your Holy Spirit would take this inadequate vessel to communicate your truth and that we as your people would take it to heart Be encouraged by your truth, your love and mercy for us and motivated to live lives for your glory, the extension of your kingdom and the welfare of your church and the world in general. We ask this in the name of your son, our savior and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Please do take your seats. looking this morning at a text which indeed is profound and hopefully one we're well aware of and one we'll become better acquainted with in our brief time this morning. Now you've noticed in your bulletin that everything is changed except for the hymns. Our guest visitor is not feeling well this morning. We do pray for her our brother Lou, but I thank the Lord for the opportunity he's given to me to minister his word this morning in your presence. Now, I picked out a title for this morning's message, and I would simply call it From Death to Life. From Death to Life. Or we could look at it, we could say, From Useless Existence to godly service. And that's what we'll see as we look at our passage this morning. So if you want three points, I'll give you three points. In the first three verses we see the condition of men. It's a universal condition. The condition of humanity. The second point focuses and I would say that from verse 4, certainly through, well, even verse 8 and 9, but clearly through verse 7, we see that Paul speaks to us about the gracious character of the true and living God. And then when we look at the last few verses, 8, 9, and especially 10, we see the conduct of those who are in Christ. Those who have been saved by grace will evidence a particular lifestyle. And so you'd also look at the third point and say, well, you know, if we're truly in Christ, we're commissioned to godly living. But that's where we want to begin here this morning as we work through our message. Perhaps I should point out that this letter to the Ephesians, you can find out something of the historical background of it, where that church got planted by going back to the book of Acts of the Apostles. Really, the whole 19th chapter of Acts of the Apostles speaks about the Apostle Paul's entrance into this pagan city that was known for its One of the wonders of the world at that time, the temple to the goddess Diana, as the King James would render the name of that goddess, or Artemis. One comes from the Latin, the other one comes from the Greek. Same goddess, but Artemis. This magnificent temple was built there, and pilgrims would come from the known world of those days to Ephesus to offer up their worship to this pagan goddess. So Paul enters into that situation with the gospel of Jesus Christ. He preached the word of God. He tells us in Acts chapter 20 that he had ministered there. Acts 20-31, as he speaks there to the Ephesian elders, he ministered to this congregation for a space of some three years. So Paul preached the gospel, planted a church, established elders and it was a pretty mighty church at one point when we get to the book of Revelation we read about the seven churches in Asia Minor and Ephesus was one of those and it said there that they lost their first love which should be a warning to all of us that we need to keep our eyes firmly fixed on the author and finisher of our Lord Jesus Christ and today if we were to go over to the country of Turkey and we went to Ephesus, we'd see nothing but ruins there. So we need to be focused on the Lord and pursuing the Lord. And I believe if we understand this letter to the Ephesians and we keep the truth firmly in our minds, we will be a people zealous for good works during our brief pilgrimage in this world. So we look in chapter two, And the Apostle Paul is reminding this group of believers who were largely Gentile pagans, some Jews would be a part of that congregation, but largely it's a bunch of people who were just involved in the ways of the world, had no knowledge of the true and living God, no knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures like the Jewish people of that time. Paul reminds them, he says, and you were, notice the past tense, you were before I came and ministered the gospel to you, before God quickened you by his mercy and grace and love, you were dead in your trespasses and sins. And then Paul goes on in the next couple of verses to elaborate on what that condition looked like. He said, you were walking according to the course of this present evil age. You were like everybody else in this world, misguided, misdirected. Before God, you were spiritually dead. You followed the course of this age. You were the living dead. You were walking, you were breathing, you were acting. but to the true and living God you were spiritually dead. You followed the course of this age, this world, you followed the prince of the power of the air, certainly a reference to Lucifer or the devil or Satan as we might call him, who is the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. What's that mean, the sons of disobedience? Those who hear the gospel and disavow it. They hear the gospel and it's just a strange sound and they reject that message. They're disobedient to the law of God. They're anarchists. They're living in opposition to the true and living God. The people of the world are shaking their fist at God Almighty and they're saying, we don't want your Son, Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ, to reign over us We're happy to continue as our own masters, the masters of our own destiny. That's the sons of disobedience. And Paul reminds the Ephesian believers, you were like that. You were among them as well. We lived according to the passions of our flesh. We carried out the desires of our body and the mind. And we were, just like the rest of the world, the children of wrath. Interesting expression, children of wrath. That speaks about our own attitude toward God. We hated him. But it also speaks about God's attitude toward fallen human beings and their sinful rebellion. They're objects of his wrath. Why is this? How do we account for that? Well, when we go back to the book of Genesis, we see in the first two chapters the story of creation. God makes this beautiful, pristine world, and we see that God provides Adam with everything he needs. The Lord recognizes that Adam has a loneliness in his heart. He makes a suitable helper for him in the person of his wife Eve. Then things change, don't they, when we get to Genesis chapter 3. We see that everything is turned on its head as the serpent comes to the woman and tempts her. She takes the fruit of the tree, the forbidden fruit. She bites it. She gives it to her husband. He bites it. What happens? Man's relationship with his Creator changed. And we speak theologically about original sin. Adam and Eve fall in the Garden of Eden. That's so significant. It's so significant and important for us to recognize that God is the creator. He created everything ex nihilo, out of nothing, the eternal God, the uncreated creator, the uncaused cause, spoke the world into being, makes man in his image and in his likeness. And then we get to chapter 3, we see rebellion in the heart of Adam and Eve, and they fall. And death comes into the world. And sin comes into the world. And now we have these fallen creatures. Original sin is the imputation of the consequences of Adam's sin upon all of his progeny. That includes us. It includes our parents. It includes our children and our children's children. And the Apostle Paul understands Genesis 3. He's simply taking that truth, that reality, and placing it for us here in the book of Ephesians. He not only makes this kind of statement in these opening three verses of chapter 2, But if you look down to chapter 4 in Ephesians, Paul again reminds these believers, these once pagan idol worshippers who are now alive in Christ, in union with Christ, he reminds them again of their previous estate. If you look at Ephesians 4.17, Paul says, Now this I say in the Lord, that you must no longer walk or conduct yourself as the nations do, or the pagans do, or the Gentiles do, what are they like, Paul? Well, they're futile in their minds. They're vain in their thinking. They're darkened in their understanding. That's verse 18 of chapter 4. They're alienated or separated from what? The life of God. Because of the ignorance that is in them, which is due to the callousness or the hardness of their hearts. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But then Paul adds in verse 20, but that is not the way you learned Christ. This is what we call the depravity of man. This is what we might call biblical anthropology. God is telling us why we are the way we are. We're sinners by nature and we become sinners by choice. We are naturally speaking, from the time of our conception on, we are dead in our trespasses and sins. We stand guilty before God. It's so important for us to understand that because if we don't have a proper understanding of biblical anthropology, if you don't understand the problem, you're going to be looking for a solution to the problem, which is obvious to all of us. Something's gone wrong in this world. You're going to be looking for the wrong answer. So we really need to understand what the Bible says about us. It tells us how we got to be as we are, why the world is in the condition it's in, why mankind is in the condition it's in, why we are in the condition we're in. And God not only presents the problem to us in stark and vivid terms, but we see that he also provides the solution for us. The answer to man's depravity is never going to be found in some system of religion, some system of morality or good deeds. The answer to our problem of spiritual death before God can only be remedied by God himself. And so we look in the Word of God and we see this dark, dim picture painted of humanity But rather than simply leave us in our sins, God has provided a remedy. God has provided a solution for us. And the solution is such a unique solution. And it's in the person and in the work of His Son, Jesus Christ. So to look at this, remember now, when we look at Paul's letter to the Ephesians, we see that the first three chapters are Indicative. You understand what that means? In the first three chapters of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul is telling the people of God, the Ephesians, the original recipients, but us as well, who have heard the Gospel and believed it, he's telling them Gospel facts. He's giving them truths. This is what God has done for you, people of God. That's the indicative. Then when we get to the last three chapters, what do we find? The Apostle Paul gives us the imperative. Now that you are in union with Christ, now that you have been raised spiritually to God, raised up and made to sit together in the heavenly places, this then, my brothers and sisters, is how you should live. That's the imperative. That's the last three chapters of the book. But we really need to camp out in the first three chapters in order for us to be truly motivated to live the way God calls us as his people to live. We have to understand our new identity. This whole thing of identity. Such a big deal today, isn't it? Well, I don't feel I'm this, or I don't feel I'm that, so I want to change my identity. Everybody's trying to find out who they are. but they're looking in the wrong places. I have to look into the word of God. I need to hear the truth. I can't play duck, duck, goose any longer. I have to start to deal with reality as it is. And so God tells us what we are by nature, what we become by choice, that we are now the objects of his wrath. You have to deal with that and justly so, I break God's law in my thoughts, in my speech, in my actions continuously. You know, I thought about this. Everybody who goes to hell deserves to be in hell. Every person who's in hell deserves to be there. They're lawbreakers. They're violators of God's standards. They're spiritual anarchists. You know, there's only one person in heaven who deserves to be there. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we move into our second point, we see that we who are the recipients of God's mercy and God's great love and God's grace, all of those words tell us that we don't deserve to be in heaven. And I think once we begin to understand these words, God's grace, God's mercy. It melts our heart and it makes us want to do what our loving Heavenly Father would have us to do. So again, those opening three verses paint a realistic, but certainly a gloomy picture of the human race fallen in Adam. We need to see that. We need to understand that. This is what you were outside of Christ. But when you get to verse 4, notice that contrast word, but. This is what you were before God's divine intervention. But God. Now the Apostle Paul speaks to us about the character of God. Now we're getting some good biblical theology. We got that biblical anthropology. Now we're getting some real insight into the character of God. We know God exists. How? According to the scriptures, right? The heavens declare His glory, Psalm 19. The heavens declare the glory of God. Romans chapter one, everybody knows instinctively that there is a God. But we, because of our fallenness, we want to suppress the truth of God in unrighteousness. We keep pushing down the truth that is so readily obvious to all human beings. We make excuses. We're like Adam and Eve in the garden. After they sinned, they knew they were naked. They hid from God. They grabbed fig leaves. That's the way we act. But God intervened. Even in Genesis chapter 3, Adam and Eve didn't say, hey, you know, we screwed up. We better go and confess our sins to the Lord God. They ran and hid. They tried to cover up the reality of their nakedness before God. But God came to them in the garden. God's the God of the initiative, the biblical God. He came and he promised them Messiah. Right? Genesis 3.15. He said the seed of the woman would come and crush the head of the serpent and his seed. That's the first promise of Messiah. But God who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, He made us alive. By grace we have been saved. Notice it's all about God. This is what God has done for you who couldn't do anything for yourself regarding your relationship with Him. God's merciful. But God's not simply merciful, says Paul. God's rich in mercy. God's loving, but Paul says He's not just loving, He's great in His love. And He saves us by His grace. You ever stop to think about the difference between the words mercy and grace? Are they simply synonyms? They are, in a sense, synonyms, but there's a distinction between the two words. What's mercy mean? Mercy means you don't get what you deserve. Grace means you get what you don't deserve. You understand that? It's like two sides of a coin. mercy should be understood in the sense of a courtroom situation. You have to start out understanding something about the word justice. What does justice mean? Justice means you get what you deserve. What do I deserve? Well, if I've broken the laws of the just judge, well, I deserve justice. What's justice in this case? The wages of sin. What is it? What do you earn, deserve, merit because of your sin? The failing to keep God's law. The violating of God's law. What do you deserve? Scripture says you deserve death. Physical death. It's a curse. And the second death in the lake of fire. eternal separation from the mercy and the grace of Almighty God. That's the only thing anyone on this earth, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, deserves. You get that? You understand that? When we try to do evangelism, we need to try to make this as clear as possible. God is a lawgiver. He's given holy laws. God is a just judge. You've broken those laws. You deserve the consequences of your violation. Now we're back in verses 1, 2, and 3. We're the objects of God's holy righteous wrath. But how then is God just to his own character and able to justify the ungodly. Well, that's what the gospel is about, isn't it? Back to the person and work of Jesus Christ. The Father has a plan from all eternity. That plan involves taking sinful, fallen offspring of Adam and providing them with a ransom. providing them with an atonement, providing them with redemption. I want you to see something. Look in Ephesians chapter 1 and Paul says in verse 3 that we who are in Christ, in union with Jesus Christ, we've been blessed with what? In Christ, every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. And then Paul goes on to begin to enumerate some of these blessings that are ours because of our union. with the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 7. In Him, in the Lord Jesus Christ, what do we have? We have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Redemption. You look at verse 7, you say, hey, you know what? That's a sacrificial language. Redemption through His blood. forgiveness of sins. Look in chapter 2. Look in chapter 2. The Apostle Paul from verse 11 on down into chapter 3 talks about this new relationship that believing Jews and believing Gentiles have because of their union in Christ. Notice verse 3. 13 of chapter 2. But now, there you have another but, but now, in Christ Jesus, because of your union with Him, you who were once far off, you Gentiles, you're brought near by what? Blood of Christ. Sacrificial language, you see that? Look down to verse 16 of chapter 2. And that He, the Lord Jesus, might reconcile us, Jews and Gentiles, both to God in one body through what? See it? And verse 16, through the cross. The cross of Jesus Christ. Sacrificial language. Look at chapter 5. Look in the opening verses there, 1 and 2. Paul is telling us as believers, you ought to be imitators of God as His beloved children. And verse 2, you're to walk in love even as Christ loved us. And how did He demonstrate that love? How did He demonstrate that love? He gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. Apart from the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no reconciliation with the Holy God. You understand this? This is the heart of the Gospel. We're sinners by nature, we're sinners by choice, we deserve the consequences of our sin. Justice says, you go to hell. You go into the lake of fire eternally. That's what you've merited. But the father says, I'm sending my son into the world as a propitiation. He's going to live his perfect life. He's going to do always those things that please me. He's going to keep my law in every way. Not deviate it. Deviate from it one iota. Well, if Jesus never sinned, what did He deserve? He merited eternal life, didn't He? By His obedience. He earned righteousness. He didn't deserve to die. But He died. We just looked at a few passages right here in this letter of the Apostle Paul. He's telling us we're redeemed by the blood of Christ. were reconciled to God through the blood of Christ. He gave himself as a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God on our behalf. So, notice now, we have this act of obedience in keeping the law of God, which we break constantly. And then, he goes to the cross to die in the stead or in the place of the likes of us. And what happens? Yes, we seize the object of the wrath of men. That's how we fallen creatures react to truth, often very violently as they did to the Word of God incarnate. But it was a wrath of God. My God, my God, says Jesus from the cross. Why have you forsaken me? Because Jesus, though I love you from eternity, as a sin bearer, I must pour my wrath down upon you to satisfy my justice. And you'll make atonement. You'll be the propitiation for sinners, those whom I chosen in you before the foundation of the world. That's Ephesians 1.4. And the Lord Jesus bears the sin of His people in His body on that tree. The justice of God is satisfied in God's judgment upon His innocent, perfect, holy Son. And then what? Father raised Him from the dead. After he showed himself alive for a period of 40 days, what? Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father to be crowned King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He's the only hope. That's what the Gospel is about. Paul went to the Ephesians and he said, listen people, you're wholly given to idols, just like the Athenians and so many others in this world. But here's the good news. This is what you were and this is what God has done for you. We see that again here as we're in chapter 2, verse 4. But God who is rich in mercy, no one richer, you deserve hell. That's all you've merited. But God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us. If you're one of God's elect, you should go back and look at Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse 3. These are the kind of passages that encourage my heart. Because when I look back at Jeremiah 31 3, you know what God says about his people? He says, I have loved you with an everlasting love. That's profound. You might go through this world and you get kicked around by everybody. You might think, I don't have a friend on earth. Well, if you're in union with Jesus Christ, guess what? You have a friend in heaven. You have a friend who sticks closer than a brother in the Lord Jesus Christ. But God, who is rich in mercy, where with the great love that He loved us, Even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, what did He do? The old King James says He quickened us. He took us spiritual zombies and He made us alive together with His Son Jesus Christ. And then He reiterates this statement, or He will reiterate it in verse 8. By grace you have been saved. Look at those words. Mercy. rich mercy, love, great love, grace. This is where we need to meditate. I know what I am, and I know what I deserve, Lord, but I thank you for your divine intervention in my life. You took me when I was dead in trespasses and sins and made me alive. You know, our brother Tim, read our Old Testament reading, and he read out of Ezekiel 36. And you know, the order, if I was to outline Ezekiel 36 from verse 22 on down, it's basically saying the same thing that Paul is saying in Ephesians 2, 1-10. Ezekiel says to the Jews, And he's in a Babylonian exile here. And they are there because of their rebellion against God. The Jews, God's chosen people, people of Israel, are in rebellion against God because of their idol-worshipping ways. They end up in Babylon for 70 years. He's not just talking about Israel there. But he talks about the nations as well. The whole world exists in the hands of the evil one. The whole world are idol worshippers. When you look in Ezekiel 36, I'm looking there right now, and as I read through here, took note of the words, I will. They're repeated over and over again. An example, verse 24 of Ezekiel 36. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness and from all your idols. I will cleanse you and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh. and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit in you and cause you to walk in My statutes and be careful to obey My rules." The God of the initiative. These people have wandered away from God, but God intervenes and says, this is what I will do because you're incompetent and unable to do it for yourself. I require this of you, but your hearts are stubborn. There is stone. So I'll remove that heart of stone and I'll replace it with a heart that's tender for me. When you get to the next chapter, Ezekiel 37, what's that about? The valley of dry bones. Saw a man, can these bones live? Oh Lord, you know. Speak to the bones. Prophesy to the bones. And God will make them come alive. That's what we're talking about when we talk about regeneration. God must impart new life to a spiritually dead soul, and once God does that, you know what happens? When that person hears the gospel, they go, wow. I think I've heard this stuff before, but it never rang true like it does now. Our job is to prophesy to the bones. Preach to the bones. Tell these bones you must believe on the Son of God, Jesus Christ. We give the outward call and we pray, O Holy Spirit, you've got to give the inward, efficacious call because these bones are only going to remain dry bones until the Holy Spirit quickens them. That's what we see in Ephesians chapter 2. God takes the initiative. Notice in verse 6, God raised us up with Christ and He seated us with His Son, Jesus Christ, in the heavenly realms. If you have believed the Gospel, if you're resting your soul in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone, you have a place in heaven. God leaves you down here on the earth as His ambassador. so that you can go to the peoples around you and tell them, I got some bad news for you. You're dead in your trespasses and sins, and you're an object of God's wrath, and you're heading for the lake of fire. That's the bad news, but hey, there's good news. Jesus Christ is a friend of sinners. You need to repent. You need to believe on him. That's our job. That's why God leaves us here. I have a position in heaven. But I'm here on the earth as God's ambassador to go to others. God raised us up with Christ. He seated us with Christ in the heavenly realms. Why? So that in the coming ages He might present us as trophies of His grace, trophies of His mercy. so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. The Apostle Paul is speaking about the future glory for us as the people of God. And he can't even find the superlatives to express how wonderful and how great our future is. You're going through life, struggling through life. You need to remember. God has a glorious future planned for you. And you need to camp out in this truth. Notice in verse 8 and 9, right? So we talked about the condition of men, our own condition at one time. We've spoken some on the character of God. And again, let me say, we know God exists by looking around us. But it's not until we get in the Word of God that we begin to learn things about God that we could never know. just by looking at the sun and the moon and the stars and the clouds. We need to be in the Word of God. Your mind has to be renewed. You have to be in the Word of God. You need to know these indicatives. This is what God has done for you, fellow believer. Because only once we understand that are we going to have the motivation to get out and live for the Lord's glory. Notice verse 8 and 9. You have been saved through faith, not of your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of work so that no one may boast. Look at all the religions of the world. Everyone. Think of one. Think of many. Aren't they all basically the same thing? Here's God. Here you are. Try to do good things. follow our religious practices, stop doing this, start doing that, and maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, you'll be able to get up to God. Isn't it? They're all works-righteousness religions. The Bible is antithetical to that. The Bible tells us, yes, here is God, here you are, but this is what God has done for fallen men. He sent His Son down from glory to become perfect man. His humanity started in the woman of the Virgin Mary. God condescends to man in Holy Scripture. Why? So that He can bring man and give him a position in the heavenly places in Christ. Do you understand that? The Bible is so unique. The Gospel is nothing like the Gospel. Nothing makes more sense than the Gospel. I've learned that. At this time, 50 years ago, You know what I was? I was a wandering hippie in the Middle East. I was in the desert of Jordan by myself. Many people had spoken the gospel to me. I was 24 years old. This is my jubilee year. I'm 50 years in Christ at the end of this month. My life's never been the same from the time I encountered the Lord Jesus in the desert of Jordan. What a joy. For by grace you have been saved through faith. It's not of your own doing. It's of God's doing. It's a gift. Salvation is a gift purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ through His active and passive obedience. It's not a result of your works. If it was, you could boast. You say, well, I'm doing a lot better than that guy. And she's not doing too good. But hey, look at me. Ain't I something? God takes away all of our boasting. Understand mercy. Understand grace. Understand God's condescending love to sinners. As you meditate on that, your boast will always and only be in the true and living God, in the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Whenever I quote Ephesians 2.8 and 9 to people, I've purposed in my mind and heart that I would always quote verse 10. What's verse 10 say? We are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for what purpose? Good works. I'm not saved by good works. God saves me by His grace and mercy so that I might do good works. That's how I glorify God. That's how I show my appreciation for what God's done for me, what God's doing for me. I want you to notice here, and we'll end soon, but I want you to notice in verse 8 that Paul is telling the recipients here, for by grace you have been saved. Past tense. When we look in the Bible, we see that the word saved is used in different ways. Right? I am saved. I am saved from the penalty of sin. That's once and for all. That equates to the word justification. We're justified by faith in Christ once and for all time. It's not an ongoing process. Right? So I'm saved from the penalty of sin. Justified. The gavel in heaven goes down. God says, not guilty. The righteousness of my son is imputed to you because he bore your sin on the cross. That's what Paul's talking about here. For by grace you have been saved. But then there's another sense as we read our New Testament when we use the word salvation. I'm being saved. I'm being saved from the power of sin. That's ongoing. You know what that equates to? The word we call sanctification. Justified once and for all, being sanctified, lifelong process, and then I will be fully saved at death or when the Lord Jesus returns. I mean ultimately the redemption of the body is like the total end of the process here. But we are saved from the penalty of sin, justification once and for all time. We're being saved from the power of sin. That's an ongoing process called sanctification. And then we'll be fully saved from the presence of sin. And that's what we call glorification. So keep that in mind here. But what is the purpose? Why does God save a people? so that we might be a people zealous for good works. My good works don't add to my justification. My good works are a response to the grace and mercy that God has shown me in His Son, Jesus Christ. When I understand who He is, what He's done for me, and my heart melts, I say, I want to show my love and thanks and appreciation by living a life that's pleasing and honoring to you. Paul explains what these good works are when you get to the rest of the epistle. Remember the imperative. Chapter 4, 5, and 6. Read it through. Spend time reading through the book of Ephesians. Pray on it. Think on it. Meditate on it. Understand who you are. Who you are if you are indeed believing the gospel that God has done for you. And then you see that that makes us eager and willing to do what God would have us to do. Let's pray. Oh Father in heaven, we have the Word of God. What a precious gift. And I know, Father, there are many that profess to be believers, but they don't seem to have any real interest to sit down and read your Word, to think on your Word, to ponder your truth, to ponder these realities that we've been speaking about here this morning. Father, we're so blessed. As Paul said in chapter 1, verse 3, we've been blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. You chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. You predestined us for adoption as Your sons through Jesus Christ. You redeemed us through the precious blood of Your Son, Jesus Christ. You've not only given us Your Holy Spirit to live within us, but He sealed us until the day of redemption. We are heading for a glorious future because of Your Son and our union with Him. We have a glorious inheritance. Oh Father, how I pray that we would spend time in the Word today on this Lord's Day. throughout this week, and Father, I pray that we are a people who not just simply hear the word, but are doers of the word. I pray, Father, that we are people who have feet put to our faith, and that we are eager and zealous to live lives in accordance with Holy Scripture, and that you will take our faltering lips and our stuttering tongues and use them to communicate your gospel to the peoples around us. Bless us, Lord, for your glory. We pray this all in the name of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Amen.