I should like to call your attention this morning to the words of the apostle Paul in the epistle to the Ephesians, in the second chapter and the first verse. St. Paul's epistle to the Ephesians, the second chapter reading the first verse, and you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. In other words, we are resuming this morning our studies in this great and mighty epistle of the apostle Paul to the church at Ephesus, and probably to certain other churches also in the same locality. We've already been dealing with the first chapter, and now we begin to study the second chapter. But obviously, if we are to do so in an intelligent and therefore in a profitable manner, there are certain things of which we should remind ourselves. For instance, there arises at once the question of the relationship of this chapter to the previous chapter. Originally, when this letter was written, it wasn't divided into chapters, but for the convenience of christian people and to enable them to understand its message more clearly, these chapter divisions were introduced and have been adopted, and are undoubtedly of very great value. And there is no doubt that here the division was made at the right point. We come, as it were, to the end of a statement in the last verse of the first chapter. And here the apostle quite clearly is taking up a different aspect of the question. But clearly there is a connection between the two, because we start off with the word and. And you hath he quickened. Clearly the apostle is referring back to something that he has already said he is going to continue. In other words, if we are to understand this great chapter again correctly, we must remind ourselves of its setting and of its background. These epistles always have an argument in them, and especially the first half, roughly, of every epistle is generally an argument. You can divide all your epistles, more or less in that way. The first part is doctrinal, and then the second part is more practical. Now, in the doctrinal section, there is always an argument which is worked out. It's sometimes a sustained argument, so that as we come to study the scripture, it is very important that we should do two things. One, that we should have a general grasp of the argument, and having got that, we can proceed to the particulars. Now, both those things are important, and these are the pitfalls that always confront any expositor or any expounder of the scripture. There are those who forget the generalities altogether and are concerned only with the particular, and therefore tend to get lost. And there are those who are simply concerned with the general and never really come down to the particular there are people who think that you can deal with the epistle to the Ephesians in one lecture or one address. Clearly they have no interest in the details, and there are others who might do it in six or seven or something like that. Well, now, these two things I say are of great importance. We must have a firm grasp in our minds of the general argument, but we must also follow the apostle as he works it out in all its details. Well, now, clearly here I say we are driven to a reminder of what he has been telling us in the first chapter. We cannot possibly understand the argument of this second chapter if we are not clear about the argument of the first chapter. Very well, let me remind you of it very hurriedly. The great point which the apostle makes in this epistle, its central theme, in a sense, is the theme that the apostle announces in the 10th verse of the first chapter, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him. Now, that is beyond any question the theme of the epistle. That is the ultimate matter which the apostle was anxious to make clear to these Ephesians and others. But of course, he doesn't stop at merely stating that. He now goes on to show us how God is doing that. And therefore, let me remind you hurriedly of the great principles which we've already been discovering together. The first thing that he keeps on reminding us of is that it is God's plan and that it is God's activity. He starts, you see, by saying, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us, etc. That's the starting point. Therefore, we are concerned about something that God has done. We are not interested here in human activity. We are looking at something that the Lord God Almighty has brought to pass. This is his plan to bring and to reunite, to head up again once more in Christ all things. Now you remember that we saw that, that at once throws us back to the doctrine of the fall. Where has the division come in? Why have things gone wrong? Well, there it is. Now, God's plan and purpose is to bring them all together again in Christ. It's his plan, and it is God who is active in this. It is something that God is bringing to pass. Now, I do not pause at each point to stop to emphasize the extreme relevance of all this to our present position, not only as christians, but citizens in this world. The tragic thing that is being forgotten by the vast majority of people is that the rarely important thing in the world this morning is God's activity, what God is doing, not what men are doing. Of course men are doing things and it's right that they should do them. I'm not trying to detract from the importance of statesmanship and all these things. But according to the apostle, the thing to understand above everything else is as to what God is doing. There is this unseen history which is at the back of the visible history and is much more important. There is this spiritual history which, as it were, underlies all your secular history, and in the light of which secular history becomes comparatively unimportant. Well, now, this is all a part of God's plan and it is the result of his activity. The apostle reminds us that it is something that God has planned before the foundation of the world. You see, here we have our very fundamentals of our faith. There's nothing contingent about this. What God is doing is not dependent upon men, not even dependent upon the response of men. It's all planned out by God. If God's plan were dependent upon us and our response, well, then I would be without any hope whatsoever. You've better read the history of the church to see that the christian church would not have lasted a century probably. But these things do not depend upon men. They depend upon God himself. He has planned it all before the foundation of the world, and therefore it is absolutely certain. The next thing he reminds us of is that it is entirely due to God's grace and love and mercy and compassion. Entirely of grace. I remind you of these things again because as we come to work through this second chapter, we'll find that the apostle goes on repeating it. We've seen it already in the reading this morning. Everything is to the praise of the glory of his grace. He's told us that in verse six. He's told us that in verse seven that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. And at verse 14 he said it, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchase, possession unto the praise of his glory. It is all, I say, the result of the grace of God. That we are meeting in a christian church this morning, that we are going to commemorate the death of Christ, that we are going to consider this great salvation. It's all the result of God's exceeding abundant grace, the riches of his grace. We must hold on to these themes and keep them in our minds. And then that leads us to the next, which I've just mentioned, that it is all in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no such thing as a salvation without Christ at the center. We mustn't listen to people who tell us about how God is blessing them unless Jesus Christ is central. They may think their prayers are being answered, that they're being guided and various other things. But God, according to this argument, does not deal with us at all except in Jesus Christ. All blessings come in him, through him, from him, by him. I reminded you that the apostle in the first 14 verses refers to the Lord Jesus Christ 15 times. He knows how ready we are to forget him and how ready we are to think that we can have some direct dealings with God. It's the tragedy, I say, of mankind, that though God has placarded the cross before us, we seem to turn our backs upon it and to think that God can bless us without it, but he cannot in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. His purpose is that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, and it all must center upon him. And if he isn't absolutely central to us, we have no right whatsoever to the name Christian. How vital it is that we should be clear about these things. And then, of course, the apostle has told us in a memorable phrase what it is that God has done for us and offers to us in our lord and savior. Here it is. Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Let us remind ourselves of these things this morning. We are here to thank God and to praise God. Well, the apostles told us something about it. We've got pardon, the forgiveness of sins. That's the first thing we all need. Without that, we are hopeless. But we've received it. Pardon and forgiveness. Not only that. Adoption, sonship, heirship, a wonderful inheritance, joint heirs with Christ. Yes, and God has sealed all this to us by giving us the Holy Spirit. He wants us to be sure of all this, and he wants us to be certain of it. And he wants us to know that we are in union with Christ, that he's made us one with Christ. We are in Christ. Such are the blessings who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We are here on earth. We are sitting in Westminster Chapel. Yes, but we are in the heavenly places also, as we shall see him working out in this second chapter. But all the blessings that we are enjoying are spiritual blessings. The lot of the Christian in this world is sometimes the difficult one and a hard one, he's surrounded by problems and trials and tribulations. Yes, but he's blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places. And if he but realizes that and dwells there and sets his affection on things above, not on things on the earth, he will rejoice with a giant, speakable and full of glory. Well, now there is this great statement of the apostle in the first ten verses of that first chapter, but then you remember that towards the end of the chapter he moves on to something else. And this is what brings us to this second chapter. He emphasizes the importance of our understanding these things and of our being clear about them. He says to these Ephesians, wherefore, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love to all the saints, he's heard all that about them and he rejoices in it. He ceases not to give thanks for them, but he doesn't stop at thanking God for them. He makes mention of them in their prayers. And this is what he prays for them, that they may have the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him. He prays that the eyes of their understanding may be enlightened, that they may come to know certain things. Now all that has been done for them, they've been brought into this realm, he tells them. Yes, but if they're really to enjoy the christian life, if they're to live it fully, if they really are to function as God's people here upon earth, they must have this spiritual understanding of certain things. Well, what are they? Well, you remember there were these the greatness of this salvation and the glory of it, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling. But then he goes on to say that he wants them to know also the certainty of it, the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. You see, the apostle isn't merely writing a theological treatise. His aim all along is very practical. It's very pastoral. He wants to help these people. He wants them to rejoice in all this. Very well, he says, that's the way to do it. Don't start by looking at yourself, but look away at these great, glorious things, the hope of his calling, the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and then this other thing, the exceeding greatness of his power toward usward that believe. We are conscious of feebleness, we are conscious of difficulties. We see the opposition against us, the world organized in sin, the malignity of men, the devil, hell, everything that's set against us. I know, says Paul, therefore the one thing you must know is this, the exceeding greatness of his power toward usward that believe, if only they knew that, they must have their eyes, understand the eyes of their understanding, enlightened to do that. So he prays that this may happen to them. And of course, he not only prays for that, but he partly answers his own prayer at once by giving them a certain amount of instruction concerning it. And you remember how we consider together Paul's illustration of this power. It is the same power that raised the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead and set him in the heavenly places at the right hand of God, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. That's the power that is working in us. We wouldn't be believers were it not for it. What is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe according. We believe according to the working of his mighty power in virtue of, as the result of the working of his mighty power. And then you remember, we saw how we worked it out in terms of the church, how we are members of the body of Christ. The power of the head spreads through the whole body. We are not isolated individuals loosely attached to a church vaguely related to. No, no. We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. It's an organic unity. So the power of Christ is in us and we belong to him. We are in him and he is in us. Now the Apostle is anxious that they may know that nothing, therefore, can frustrate this purpose of God. Nothing can withstand him. These things are absolutes and they are certain. And the thing that you and I have to realize is that it is that very power that is working in us and that if we are christians at all this morning, it is because that power has already worked in us. Now then, says Paul, he's already reminded these Ephesians that this has happened to them. You see, he's working two themes together at the same time. This great idea of everything being reunited in Christ and the power of God, which brings that to pass. He's got the two themes and he works them out together. You see, he did it in the first chapter. In this way, he says, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance. Then in verse 13, in whom also ye trusted, you've also got an inheritance. He's already stated his theme there. This great purpose of God is already being put into action. There was nothing that ever surprised this man so much as the fact that he, of all men should be the apostle to the Gentiles. Here he is writing an epistle to Ephesians, who were Gentiles, he who was a Hebrew, of the Hebrews of the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee trained at the feet of Gamaliel, one of the most intense nationalists that the world has ever known. Here he is, this intensive jew, actually writing to some pagan people and addressing them as equals, rejoicing with them that they're sharing the same thing. And he says, how has this come to pass? There's only one answer. It is the power of God. Now then, he's already stated his theme there in that way in verses eleven to 14 in that first chapter. But now you see in chapter two, he comes to work all this out in detail. The purpose of chapter one was to make a grand general statement of it all. But he never stops at that. He now says, let's go on and see in actual practice what in reality God has done. You have become fellow heirs in whom he also trusted after he heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and you have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, our inheritance altogether until the redemption of the purchase, possession. Yes, but I say this is so staggering that we must realize how it's come to pass. Now then, says the apostle, let us look together at it so that in this second chapter he tells us in detail how the Jews and the Gentiles have been made. One, how God has succeeded in reuniting in Christ these disparate and utterly opposed elements. And his way of doing it is, to put it like this, what were the obstacles to this union in Christ? What were the things that separated the Jews and Gentiles? What was the task, if I may so phrase it, that God was confronted with in his desire to bring together again? Well, the apostle tells us that there were two main difficulties. The first was the state and the condition of these people by nature. That is what the apostle deals with in verses one to ten in this second chapter. The condition, the state of these Ephesians before their conversion in sin and before they could be made fellow heirs with the Jews in the kingdom, with the christian Jews in the kingdom. This condition and state of sin has to be dealt with. Ye quickened, who were dead in trespasses and in sins. And he elaborates it. That's got to be dealt with. But there was another matter also, and it was a very serious obstacle, and that was the relationship of the Gentiles to the law to the law of God. The law of God had only been given to the Jews. It was never given to the Gentiles. It was something that God gave to his own people and to nobody else. And of course it raised up a great middle wall of partition at once. Here were the Jews under the law, there were the Gentiles, the dogs, outside the law, strangers to the commonwealth of Israel, without hope, without God in the world. Yes, and outside the law in that sense. Now this was a tremendous problem. So that in the second half of the chapter, from verse eleven to the end of the chapter, the apostle proceeds to show us how God has dealt with that second difficulty of overcoming this obstacle of the law, which was there, as it were, prohibiting the Gentile. But God says, paul has done this, he has overcome both these obstacles. He has made of twain one new men. He has overcome every difficulty, all has been dealt with. But you notice that at once he reminds us how it has been done. And here you see he goes back again to his great themes and his great principles. In the first chapter you notice he starts by saying, and you hath he quickened God? It's God you see all the time from beginning to end. It is God who has overcome the obstacles, it is God who has brought us together. And again he reminds us at once, he doesn't delay for a second that it is in Christ that God has done it. Yes, and by the blood of his cross it all comes back again. How these apostles repeat themselves and go on saying the same thing. Why? Well, because it's salvation and there's no salvation without it. And we are, as I say, so constantly prone to forget it. We will bring in our own righteousness and our own desserts. And we keep on asking, well, is there nothing for me to do? We are so anxious to do something and to justify. No, no, says Paul, it is all in Christ and all by the blood of his cross. It necessitated that nothing else could do it. He would never have come on earth, he would never have died if there were another way. It is all in Christ. And again you will find that he keeps on emphasizing that it is all of grace. You notice he even puts it in brackets. Even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ, in brackets, by grace ye are saved. You shan't get away from this, says Paul. I will not allow you to get away. You with your constant assertion of yourself and your merit and your powers, get rid of it all. You'll never glory in this until you see that it's all of grace. By grace you are saved. And he goes on elaborating it and repeating it. But of course, the thing that he wants to emphasize above everything in the immediate context is this, that nothing less than the mighty power of God could have done it. See, that's where he links up immediately with the end of the previous chapter, where he has been telling us about this great power of God manifested in Christ in raising him from the dead and putting him there at his own right hand in that place of supreme exaltation. It's that and you hath he quickened. He's done it to you in Christ because you belong to him. You are in him, you're members of his body. Nothing but the power of God could have done it. So as it were, as I understand him here, the apostle seems to ask a question. Are we clear about this? Are we quite happy about this? We've spent a long time in working through that first chapter. Yes, but are the big principles clear? Have we got them established in our minds? Are we clear to summarize it about this, that nothing but this almighty power of God that was manifested in the resurrection and exaltation of our Lord, nothing but that, nothing less than that, could make us christian? Do we understand these matters to this extent? That we see not only that God has done something, but that God have to, that our condition was such that nothing less than this could suffice for us? Very well. The apostle seems to be asking those questions. Do we know this? Do we realize this? Or if you like it, put in another form, we can put it like this. Do we realize what our salvation means if we don't, says the apostle. Consider these things first. Consider what we were before God began to act in us. Consider the condition of men before God visits him graciously in salvation. Now, if we are not clear about that, we'll never realize why the power of God was essential. And ultimately, there is no question about this. The real trouble with people who are in difficulty about salvation is that they've never understood the biblical doctrine of sin. The greatest trouble always is an inadequate conception of sin. People who say that if you only pull yourself together, if you only live a good life and so on, that you'll satisfy God and he'll be well pleased. The real trouble with those people is that they don't understand the meaning of the word sin. You see, they think they can do it. They've never seen the necessity of this almighty power of God. That's entirely due to the fact that they've never seen themselves as they really are. Well, the apostle starts with that. That's the theme of verses one to three of this second chapter. You athe quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past he walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all in our conversation in time past, in the lusts of our flesh and of the mind, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and whereby nature the children of wrath even as others. That's men in sin. That's what we all are. If God left us to ourselves, that's how all are. We're not Christian this morning. And the apostle's argument, you see, is this. If you want to know the greatness of God's power, you've got to realize the depth of sin. You've got to realize the problem which confronted God. You've got to realize the problem that confronts you, that is men in sin. Very well, says Paul, I want to show you this power. Go down first. You can only realize how high you've been brought up if you realize the depths to which you'd sunk. That's one. The second, of course, follows. The second thing is that he goes on to show us what God has done for us. That's the theme of verses four to seven. But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins. We were down in the depths of that grave as Christ was down in the grave. God, even when we were there, because of his rich mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And it's only as we understand and realize something about that, that we shall realize the greatness of God's power. You see, we tend to think of salvation, don't we? And of Christianity in terms of a little bit of morality and decency. What an insult to the Christian, as if the Christian were just a good and a nice and a harmless individual. Not at all. He's a man who's undergone this tremendous change. There has been this dynamic. He's been raised, resurrected. He's in the heavenly places. That's the power of God. And if you think of your Christianity in those terms, you'll see that nothing but the power of God could do that. Therefore the apostle puts it before us in detail, and we've got to consider it. And then you see, he comes to the third thing, which he can never leave out. You say to yourself at this point, is all this true? Was I really like that? Dead in trespasses and sins, walking according to the course of this world, dominated by the prince of the power of the air, living to the lusts of the flesh and of the mind, a child of wrath and disobedient was I that. Is it true that I'm now this in Christ in the heavenly places? Is it true that God has done all this and has translated me from that to this? Why has he done it? And there's only one answer, according to the riches of his grace, that in the ages to come ye might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Jesus Christ. For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship. Now you see the apostles argument. You see how this chapter follows on from chapter number one. Now let me put certain points, therefore, before we go any further. Isn't it quite clear that it is only as we realize these things that we shall praise God as we ought? We were considering together last Sunday morning the 103rd psalm. Bless the Lord, o my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. That's the norm for the Christian. Every Christian should be like that and should be doing that. Why aren't we doing that? My dear friends, there's only one answer to the question. It's because we don't realize what God has done for us. It's because we don't know what sin is, what sin is in us, because we don't realize what we were and what God has done for us and how he's done it and why he's done it. If you realize these things, you couldn't help praising God. It's because we don't realize these things that there's such a little sense of wonder in our christian life. There is to me nothing more appalling than the glibness about with which these things are spoken about and the way we take them for granted. My friends, there is nothing so lacking in christian life today as a sense of wonder. You read this men's epistles. Read the epistles of the others, and as they begin to talk about this great salvation, they stop and they begin to sing. They are filled with wonder. They're amazed. They're astounded. Are you surprised at yourself? Are you amazed at yourself? Is it to you an astounding thing that you're in this chapel at this moment listening to this kind of thing? That you are interested in these things? Does it amaze you if you realize the truth? It would have to. It's failure to realize these truths that accounts for our loss and our lack of wonder and of worship. Yes, it's this that accounts for our lack of love to God. Are you worried about the coldness of your heart? I'm sure you are. We all ought to be. That we can come and eat the bread and the wine and come to this table and be so unmoved as we do so that our hearts are not overflowing with love to God. Why aren't they overflowing with love? I'll tell you. It's because we don't realize the greatness of his love. If you want to love God, don't try and work up something inside yourself. Realize his love. Pray that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened. That you may realize the pit out of which you've been hauled up. The depth to which you'd sunk your terrible, precarious, perilous position and what God has done for you of his grace in Christ. That's the way to realize it. And you love him? We love him because he first loved us, says John. It's the same argument. Very well, then. The understanding of these things is essential to a sense of wonder, love and praise. But come to something still more practical. Do you know, it's because we don't realize these things as we ought that we don't feel the burden of the souls of others as we ought. Christian people are but a handful in the world today. The masses are outside Christ, outside the church, in godlessness and irreligion and in a terrible state of sin. Are we concerned about them? Does their condition burden us? Have we a missionary sense with regard to our fellow citizens in this country? Does the condition of the benighted masses in other lands weigh upon us at all? Are we concerned about the missionary enterprise? Do we think about these things? Do they burden us? Do we pray to God about them? Are we asking, what can I do? How can I help? What contribution can I make? Are we? If we're not, there's only one explanation. We've never realized the truth about those people in a state of sin. We are just irritated by them. These people that play polo on Sunday and others. We are just annoyed. That's not enough. We must be concerned about souls. We must be concerned about sin. We must see them as they are, the children of wrath, hellbound in this degradation, in this pollution that the apostle here describes. If we only saw it, our hearts would go out to them. We'd see them as our lord saw them, and he had a great heart of compassion for them. The failure in our missionary and evangelistic zeal is entirely due to this. We haven't seen it as it is what they are, what they might be, and what Christ has done for them. And the third thing that it brings us to see is this. If we only saw these things truly, you know, it would even control our evangelism. The trouble with all false Evangelism that it doesn't is that it doesn't start with doctrine. It doesn't start by realizing men's condition. All fleshy, carnal, manmade evangelism is the result of inadequate understanding of what the apostle teaches us in the first ten verses of this second chapter of the epistle to the Ephesians. If you and I but realize that every man who is yet a sinner is absolutely dominated by the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, if we only knew that he is really a child of wrath and dead in trespasses and sins, we would realize that only one power can deal with such an individual, and that is the power of God, the power of the Holy Ghost. And so we would put our confidence not in man made organizations, but in the power of God, in the prayer that holds on to God and asks for revival and a descent of the spirit. We'd realize that nothing else can do it. We can change men. We can win men to our side and to our party. We can do many things, but we can never raise the dead spiritually. God alone can do it so that it would absolutely determine and control all our evangelism. Very well, then, my friends, you see why it is that the apostle Paul is so concerned about these things, why he prays for these Ephesians, that the eyes of their understanding may be enlightened. You see, it's affecting the whole of our christian life. It affects me individually in my prayer life, my praise, my worship, my love, my relationship to him, my relationship to other people, my activities as a Christian. It's all controlled by this. The apostle has stated it all in principle. Yes, but he says, you mustn't only see it in principle. You must understand and grasp it in detail. So I'm going to take you to the details, he says, and he starts off upon it in this second chapter. And you and I, my friends, must do the same. We must contemplate men in sin until we are horrified, until we are alarmed, until we are desperate about them, until we are praying for them, and until, having seen that we've been brought out of it, we are ourselves lost in a sense of wonder, love and praise. Very well. That is the introduction to the second chapter of Paul's epistle to the Ephesians. That is the essential proligomenon, if you like it in other language. It's no use rushing at these details without that background. That's why we must do it. Not simply that we may work through verses here and enjoy as we enjoy ourselves as we do so. No, our whole christian life is involved here, and we must understand these things. So let us commit ourselves to God and pray that we may have the eyes of our understandings enlightened, that we may see and know these things, that we may see God's great plan and purpose being worked out, that he alone can do it, but that he does it in Christ, and nothing less than that could do it. Let us therefore dedicate ourselves to a new consideration of these things, that we may truly be to the praise of the glory of his grace and be of immediate, practical help to our fellow men and women, the children of wrath, lost and doomed and condemned in sin. Amen.