We are the vilest, sinful, godless, ungrateful, unworthy, unholy, destitute, degraded, depraved humans walking around, engulfed in sins and trespasses, and we are targets for God's wrath, and it is to us that He comes and pours out His love. That's God. Welcome to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Imagine your shock and your immense gratitude if you learned you had a sizable inheritance coming, one that would forever end yours and your family's financial worries.
Well, even if you suddenly received such wealth, it couldn't compare to all of the amazing spiritual resources that are yours if you're a Christian. Those riches include amazing eternal rewards in heaven, to be sure, but they also include immense spiritual treasure this side of heaven. John MacArthur shows you that treasure and how to use it today on Grace to You, the title of his current study, Richer Than You Think. And now with the lesson, here's John. And you who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which in time past you 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 sons of disobedience.
What is the spirit of the age? You can see it around you. Three things would classify it to me. Three things characterize our age: humanism, materialism, and sex. Humanism?
Let's do your own thing, do it your way, you're the boss, you're the king, you're the ruler. And then there's materialism, and materialism says. You gotta have it. You gotta have it. More money, more goodies.
More things. And we're all so victimized we can't even help ourselves in that area. And then it's sex. Everything from advertising to zoos and everything in between is promoted by sex. You almost have to drive with your eyes closed.
Everywhere, billboard, signboard, everywhere. It's all over the place. We're drowning in a sea of it. And humanism, materialism, and sex is the zeitgeist. It's the spirit of the age.
It's the stuff the system's selling. And the death walker doesn't have any place else to go, so he buys whatever it's selling, so he does whatever the society does, and it just perpetuates the society like a snowball. You say, who's behind it all, verse 2? According to the prince of the power of the air, that's who's behind it. Satan's behind it.
The prince of the power of the air. The prince, the Archos. We have the Kephale, the head Christ. They have the Archos. They have their leader, Satan, who's the leader of the demons, who foments the system, who breeds the influence.
It doesn't mean that everybody is literally indwelt by Satan like Judas was, but it means Satan is behind the influences. He is behind the trends. He and his demons carry out the objectives, whether they are secular or religious. He's up to his neck in religion as well. And notice the little phrase, the prince of the power of the air.
What is this error?
Well, some people see it as the atmosphere, the first heaven around the earth, the atmosphere. The second heaven is the stellar heavens. The third heaven is God's domain. And some people say, well, it means that Satan is around the earth. He's in that atmosphere.
But there's more than that. And he may be floating around there, and he may be clear up to the stars also, and he may be up in the third heaven, too, once in a while when he goes before the throne of God, as in Job. And he's floating around in the atmosphere for sure and fighting the the holy angels and flying around doing his thing with his demons, but there's more to it than that. The prince of the power of the air, I believe, involves also the realm of ideas. We say there was an air of something or other in the room.
There was an air, and we mean more than atmosphere. We're talking about an attitude. We're talking about concepts. We talk about the world of music, the world of sports, the world of politics. We talk about all of these things, the world of religion.
Well, the world here doesn't just mean the globe. Walking according to the course of this world means according to an ideology, according to a system of ideas. And the air is the same thing. Satan is not only functioning in the atmosphere physically, he is functioning in terms of a manifest ideology. He is promoting concepts.
He is breeding ideas. He is behind the whole system. It is right from hell. The world of death walkers has an atmosphere generated by the arcos of that atmosphere, none other than Satan. And the result is he is the spirit that works in the sons of what?
Disobedience. He draws them into active disobedience to God. It is in opposition to God. And so it's the realm of sinful thought, the air. It's the world of ideas, sinful ideas.
And man is disobedient. to God. Because he's a death walker locked into a sphere where he can't respond obediently. Paul continues his description in verse 3 very quickly. among whom also we all had our manner of life in time past, we are all like this.
We all operated on the lusts of our flesh. The Death Walker. The death walker who is meandering like a zombie through the System influenced, spawned, controlled by Satan, issuing in disobedience, functions in response only to his flesh. The lusts of his flesh, that's epithelia, and it means strong evil passions here. And to the desires of the flesh.
That's the lema. That means drives, where you have a passion that turns to a drive. He is driven to fulfill the desires of the flesh and the mind. And by the way, the flesh refers to his fallen nature, his humanness, his alienated soul without God. Physically in the flesh, mentally in the mind, he is drawn, he is driven into the functioning.
of sin and trespass. And the end of it all is that he is a child of wrath, says verse 3, like everybody else. He's a child of wrath. In other words, he's a bullseye for God's guns of judgment. He's a sitting duck.
He's a clay pigeon. He is the target. He is the goal. of judgment.
Now that's a bad situation, wouldn't you say?
Now that's a great description of total depravity. That's man. What are the first two words of verse 4? What are they? But God.
Great words, huh? The first two words of verse one. And you. The first two words of verse four. But God.
Salvation is first from sin, secondly by love. By love. Look at verse 4, but God. Oh, I love that. But God, and here comes the power.
Are you ready? Here comes the power that's going to raise us out of this death. Turning the zombie into a new creation full of life. Eternal life, but God who is rich in mercy, plusias, overabounding, loaded with mercy. Mercy for the sinner.
Boy, if we got what we deserve, we'd be in trouble, wouldn't we?
So he gives us mercy, which is holding back what we deserve. And why? For his great love with which he loved us. You see, salvation is based on love. God doesn't look down and say, oh, there's a good one.
I think I'll pick him. Oh, there's another good one. Boy, he's a terrific person. Has nothing to do with us, it's his love. Salvation is by love.
God is love. And God's intrinsic, essential attribute of love manifests itself to us in grace and mercy. Love is his motive. He's rich in love.
So he's rich in grace, so he's rich in mercy. And he reaches out to love those of us. Who are dead in sin. We are the vilest, sinful, godless, ungrateful, unworthy, unholy, destitute, degraded, depraved humans walking around, engulfed in sins and trespasses, serving the prince of the power of a system of ideology that drowns us. And we are targets for God's wrath, and it is to us that He comes and pours out His love.
That's God. That's God. And it's amazing, you know, when we have sinned because we've even sinned against His love. He's loved us all along. Man doesn't just break his laws.
He sins against his love. Imagine if I were driving and The neighborhood where I live, and a little child was in the street, and I was driving too fast or something and foolishly killed that little child.
Well, first of all, I would be charged with A crime. And I would be tried and perhaps found guilty, and then I would either pay a fine or be imprisoned for a period of time. On manslaughter or something? And after I had paid my fine or filled out my term in prison, I, as far as the law was concerned, would be. Close case.
Nothing else matters. The law is satisfied. It has no more interest in me. It has absolutely no more concern. It's over.
But That's a sin against the law. What about the little boy's mother? That's another story, isn't it? Could I ever make up to her for the loss of that little life by paying a fine? Serving a sentence?
No. You see, there's only one way I could ever have a relationship with her. I've sinned against her love, not against the law. There's only one way I could ever have a relationship with her, and that would be if she offered me unconditional and free what? Forgiveness.
Forgiveness. That's the only way. That is precisely what God has done. We have not only sinned against his law, we have killed his son. We have killed his son and continue to do so in rejection and open defiance and not believing in him.
And yet God reaches out and says, I know you did that, but I offer you unconditional and complete forgiveness. And so it is that God in His great love not only sees His law satisfied, but He sees His love satisfied. Salvation is from sin by love. Thirdly, Salvation is from sin by love into life. into life.
What's the one thing a dead man needs most? Not a coffin. Even more than that. Life. Life.
And you see, this is what Paul's trying to say here. He's going to make you alive. And he says it in verse 5: Even when we were dead in sins, he hath made us alive together with Christ by grace. Ye are saved.
Now, here's his whole point here. His point is: if you're doubting the power of God in your life, it is the power that raised Christ, it is the power that raised you. See that? And he's saying, look, if you're worried about whether God can get you off this globe and onto that pearly city, whether he can get you out of here and into there, whether he can handle you going in the grave and coming out again at the resurrection, remember, he already raised you once spiritually. The physical part is easier.
You see, he's trying to show you that you can have confidence in God's power. Man, Christian, get a grip on who you are and what you've got and what God's already done in your life. Salvation is into life. He made us alive. When you became a Christian, you were no longer alienated from the life of God.
You came alive. You all of a sudden were sensitive to God. You opened the Bible and it said, oh yeah, that's what it says. The Spirit of God was in your life, and things made sense, and you saw the meaning of history, and you had a real reason to live, and you felt God at work, and you knew Christ, and there was an immediate brotherhood with other Christians. You became the possessor of the common eternal life.
That's living. That's living. And he did it. When He made Christ alive, He made us alive together with Him. We were there when He rose from the dead, we were there when He came out of the grave, we were raised with Him, and God's power has already been displayed in our behalf.
So, salvation is from sin by love into life forth. Salvation is from sin by love into life. With a purpose.
So what's the purpose? What's his purpose? Verse six. and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in The heavenlies in Christ Jesus.
Now, this is so good. When God raised you from the dead, He didn't leave you in the cemetery. You know, when Lazarus came out of the grave, I thought of an analogy just now. When Lazarus came out of the grave, He was alive, and then what did Jesus say? Lose him and what?
Let him go. The guy can't live the rest of his life in those graveclothes. And when Jesus raised you from the dead, it wasn't just to let you roam around the cemetery in the grave clothes. He picked you out of the grave, a miracle of resurrection, and then he did a second miracle of ascension and exaltation. Verse 6 says, He raised you up and gave you a seat in heavenly places.
Look, illustration number one of God's power: he raised Jesus and exalted him to the right hand. Illustration number two: he raised you and exalted you to the right hand of God. You're already seated in the heavenlies. Is that super? Past tense.
It's already done. If you're a Christian. You are already seated in the heavenly. Your citizenship is in heaven, Philippians 3:20. You're no longer of this world, you've been transformed out of this world.
You have eternal life, and you just happen to be walking in this dead world. The very opposite of being dead. In this world, you're alive. And your life is in in heaven, hid with Christ in God. He didn't just raise us and leave us in the graveyard, he exalted us.
He took us up. into the heavenlies, and we're blessed with all spiritual blessing.
Now, what do you mean by being in the heavenlies? You say, Do you mean you're in heaven? No, I'm not here, but I'll tell you, my mind exists in God's domain, doesn't yours? That's what it means. All my blessings are there.
I talk to the Lord there. I talk to the Father there. I talk to the Holy Spirit there. I think about the Apostle Paul who's there, all the people who've gone to be with him. That's my home.
That's my dominion. All my commands come down from there. All my services go up to there. All my sacrifices are offered to there. See, that's my world.
And so he not only raised me from the dead, but he raised me to his hand, his right hand. You say, well, why did he do all this? Why would God want to make a bunch of cruddy sinners come alive and bring him up to be with him? Why? Verse 7.
Here's the purpose. In order that in the ages to come, and you know when the ages to come begin? Immediately after you're saved. The moment you're saved, the ages to come begin. And in the ages to come, he wants to show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Do you know why God saved you? In order that he could be kind to you forever. Isn't that amazing? They say, why does God want to be kind to me? I don't deserve it.
Yes, you're right. Neither do I. But God. is what? Love.
And Paul says love is Kai. God is love. And love wants to be kind. And gracious. This is the purpose, beloved.
You were saved. Not primarily to keep you out of hell. You were saved primarily so that God could just shower His grace and shower His blessing and shower His riches on you. From the moment you are saved, from the rest of the ages throughout eternity, He is unloading on you the riches of His grace. It's all yours.
He doesn't withhold anything. Anything at all. He gives you everything. Through Jesus Christ. Oh, what a wonderful thing, people.
You don't miss anything. It's all yours in Christ. All yours. And then you know what he does? When he gets all done pouring out all his grace on you, he just holds you up.
Ephesians 3:10 says, and shows you off to the angels and says to the angels, Now do you see? What a wonderful Gracious God, I am, and all the angels sing the hallelujah chorus, and in the end, he gets what? The glory. That's the purpose.
So don't ever think you don't have any resources. God. Saved you for the very purpose of unloading on you every rich, kind, gracious thing conceivable to the mind of God, so that you might be so filled with His riches and filled with His kindness and filled with His grace that you can be held up to the angels and that they can praise Him for being such a loving, gracious, kind, and wise God.
So, his own glory is at stake, and he will never diminish his own glory. Therefore, if he gets glory by pouring out grace on you, he'll do it. That's what he says. Salvation is from sin by love into life with purpose, fifth, through faith. It is through faith.
Verse 8. For by grace Are ye saved? Through faith. Faith is simply believing. Simply believing.
It's not that complicated. It's a gift of God, not of yourselves. And it's not of works. Because if it was, we would all do what? We'd boast and then who'd get the glory?
We would. God wants the glory. It's not of works. The work is done. It's all finished.
T Telestai on the cross, it's finished. Jesus did it. It's not of works, lest any man should boast. It's of faith. Faith is simply believing.
And we're all creatures of faith. You live by faith every day of your life. Every time you pop a lid off of Coca-Cola and drink it, it's an act of faith. You don't have any idea what's in there. You go into a restaurant and you eat what they give you.
You don't know what's really going on behind the golden arches. I'll never forget reading about a city that converted from a storage water tank system to a pipe system. And they drained the old water system and they found at the bottom of this tank that people have been drinking out of for 45 years: dead dogs, dead rats, animals, dirt, silt, and they all got retroactive dysentery. I mean, you turn on your faucet, you don't know what's playing in your pipes, you just drink the water. You live by faith every day of your life, and it's that ability to live by faith that's basic to human nature, and it's that God uses to draw you to Himself.
And if you can trust the people that make hamburgers and Cokes and bridges and take care of your water, you ought to be able to trust the God of the universe. And that's the essence of faith. Believing. Just believe him. Just accepting, taking the gift.
And when you take the gift, you come alive in that instant. And that's a great miracle, people. And God has already released his power if you're a Christian in your life to do that in the past. You don't ever need to question God's power, you've seen it. Do you realize how dead you were in verses 1 to 3?
And now, all of a sudden, for by grace, you're saved through faith. It isn't of you at all, it's a gift of God. There's no works involved in it, because if there was, you would boast, and God wants to boast. Not you. If you breathe spiritually, It's because God slapped you on the back.
If you can hear the hearing of faith, it's because God unstopped your ears. No self-congratulations, no religion of human achievement. It's all of God. None of us. Salvation didn't come to you by your confirmation.
By your baptism, your church attendance, your church membership. Didn't come to you by giving money. It doesn't come to you by communion, keeping the Ten Commandments, living by the Sermon on the Mount, giving to charity, believing in God, being a good neighbor, living a respectable life. None of those things. In fact, hell will be loaded with people who did all of those.
Salvation is through faith. From sin by love into life with purpose through faith and last. Salvation is unto good works. The result is good works. Why?
Because John 15, 8 says, Herein is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit. When God saves you, He wants to see in your life good works, because that manifests His power. He had the power to save you, and the manifestation of that power in your good works is to His glory.
Now the Bible talks a lot about works. There are the works of the law which can't save in Galatians 2 and 3. There are the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:19 to 21. There are the works of darkness in Romans 13 and Ephesians 5. There are the dead works of Hebrews chapter 6.
These are not the kind of works we're talking about. We're not talking about works that save because none do. We're talking about the works that are the result of salvation. What happens afterwards? Look at verse 10.
For we are his workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus, watch this, unto good works. Which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Listen, if God before ordained that you should walk in good works, believe me, He also gave you the power to do that. When you were saved.
That's Paul's point. You don't need somebody to prove to you the power of God, the exceeding greatness of his power toward us. All you have to do is look at your own resurrection, your own exaltation, and your own power to do those things which are good works in the eyes of God. You ought to be filled with good works, Paul said. The word workmanship is a Greek word, and the word really came to mean a masterpiece.
We are God's masterpiece, and He has designed from before eternity to conform us to Christ, to mold us unto good works. And He does it. His power. Listen, God's power is at work in your life, shaping you, molding you into the image of Jesus Christ. That power, you saw it when you were saved, and you see it every day as you live under His pressure to conform to Christ.
You're his masterpiece. Listen. Who is the true Christian? the one who does the good works. You can have all kinds of people claim to be saved and claim to be born again and claim to be Christians, and you can look, and do you see in their life good works being produced by the power of God?
See? to the glory of God. Because salvation is unto good works. I hope you know more than just religion. I hope you really know this salvation.
Always think about the drawing room function I read about years ago. Famous actor was there, and everybody was asking him to recite famous pieces, and he had an unlimited repertoire, and he kept doing it. There was an old preacher there. I don't know how he got to the party, but He was an old preacher and So he yelled out to the actor and he says, why don't you do the 23rd Psalm? And the actor knew it and he said.
Well, that won't be good for this occasion. He said, I want you to do the 23rd Psalm. And he said, All right, I'll do it if you'll do it. And the old man thinking, that's even better, that's twice. Said, I'll do it.
The actor began, and his intonation was flawless, and his diction was masterful, and he handled the 23rd Psalm with dignity, and grace, and beauty from beginning to end. And when he was finished, there was applause. And then the old preacher got up in this gravel voice, after years of shouting and preaching, and not too good addiction and not such hot intonation. He went through the 23rd Psalm, and when he was finished, there wasn't any applause, but there wasn't a dry eye in the room. Tears came down the cheeks of the people, and the actor turned to him and said, Sir, I see the difference.
I know the psalm, but you know the shepherd. And that's the difference. A lot of people who know the extremities and the externals. But knowing the Christ of God means to be alive, and that's the message Paul wants to give. And if you've been made alive in Jesus Christ, you don't ever need to question the power of God available in your life right now.
You're listening to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. John's current study is titled Richer Than You Think.
Now, friend, to cap this study off, I want to consider what a believer can do, whether a brand new Christian or a seasoned saint. To more fully enjoy blessings he or she has in Christ. Specifically, what practical steps can you take to tap into those riches? Here's how John answered that. The best way to answer that question is to take a person to the truth of Scripture.
You cannot enjoy your blessings until you understand them. I think Christians live in fear and doubt and anxiety, and they live in the shallows, and they live in a kind of meager way, spiritually speaking, simply because. They don't know what is theirs in Christ. You know, once in a while you hear somebody say, Ah, you know, this is not the day for long expositions of Scripture. The the people aren't going to sit and listen to you unfold the details of the scripture.
That's not the popular way to preach. It may not be the popular way to preach, but let me tell you something. True believers. find their greatest joy in the deep and rich understanding of what God has provided for them that love Him. Nothing is more thrilling, more exhilarating, more encouraging.
Nothing is a greater blessing than a pure and true understanding of our riches in Christ. Once you understand them, Then you enjoy them. You bask in them. You live in the reality of them both now and in the future. That's right, friend.
God doesn't promise you financial blessings, but He does guarantee you spiritual wealth that's far better than money, far beyond what you can gain on your own. To see exactly what those riches are, get in touch today and download John's series called Richer Than You Think. All eight sermons are available free of charge from our website, gty.org. And keep in mind, this series comes from the book of Ephesians, and you'll find many other resources that will help you dive deeper into that amazing book at our website, including John's Commentary on Ephesians. It's part of the 33-volume MacArthur New Testament commentary series.
To order the Ephesians commentary or the entire commentary set at a significant per-volume discount. Go to gty.org and remember at the website gty.org. You can also tap into a wide range of free Bible study tools including daily devotionals, over 3,600 sermon MP3s and transcripts, streaming video of Grace2U television, and the Grace2U blog. At the blog, I'd encourage you to look for the series of articles called The Believer's Inheritance. It's a great supplement to John's current radio study.
And all of those resources and more are available free of charge at our website, gty.org.
Now for the entire Grace TU staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Watch Grace to U television this Sunday on DirecTV Channel 378 and then be back next week as John MacArthur begins a study called Enjoying God. It's another half hour of Unleashing God's Truth, one verse at a time, on Monday's Grace to You.
