Mm-hmm. In the complexities of life and the search for meaning, it can be easy to overlook the beautiful simplicity of salvation. Today, on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah considers Ephesians chapter 2. where the salvation message is made crystal clear and uncomplicated.
If you're looking for spiritual clarity, you're in the right place. As David introduces today's message, Salvation Pure and Simple. And we thank you for joining us today as we look into salvation. You say, isn't that pretty basic? Yeah, it's basic and often misunderstood.
A lot of people think they're going to heaven that are not going to heaven because they don't understand the message of salvation. We're going to talk about it today and again on Monday, and try to sort out some of the issues involved in this cardinal truth of the Christian faith. We are finishing up a month that began with the study of the book of Jonah, and I just want to remind you that the Jonah resources are still available from davidjeremiah.org, and that is a study guide plus a C D package with all of the teaching on the book. I say this because this is a great study for small groups. And I like to promote small groups because I think the future of the solidity of the church is in small groups.
I don't think the church will ever be just small groups. But I do believe that in the days ahead, as things become more difficult for Christians in this culture, small groups will be the answer. And I promote them decisively at Shadow Mountain and on the air. Get this material and use it. Use it to teach.
The Book of Jonah. And don't forget. Turning Point has a magazine that you can get to. It's a wonderful little publication that comes out every month, beautifully designed in four-color, beautifully presented with devotional material for every day of the week, Monday through Friday, and one for each of the weekends. And we'll send it to you if you ask us for it.
Just say, please send me the magazine, and it will be on its way. Right now here is Part 1 of Salvation, Pure and Simple. On May 26th, 2013, 4:30 p.m. A massive ocean swell slammed into the Jaiscan Four. A tugboat towing a oil tanker off the coast of Nigeria.
The waves sprayed sheets of water across the deck cracking a piece of the hull and flipping the vessel over on its side. At the time, Harrison O'Kean, the tugboat's 29-year-old cook. was in the bathroom getting ready for the day. As the boat began to sink, He forced open the bathroom's metal door and was swept into a narrow passageway. When the boat finally landed upside down at the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, Harrison waded through the rising ice-cold water.
into a small cabin with a four-foot air pocket. There, he found two mattresses, made a makeshift platform to keep his head above water.
now settled hopelessly at the bottom of the ocean. All he could do was pray. All around was just black, he said. I was crying and calling on Jesus to rescue me. I was so hungry and thirsty and cold.
And I was just trying to see some kind of light. Sixty hours later. seemingly beyond help. O'Kean's prayers were answered when he spotted a light. Then he heard the sound of rescuers and started banging on the steel walls of his cabin with a hammer.
The Dutch divers who found him couldn't believe their eyes. As they reached out for the hand of a man they assumed was dead, the hand grabbed theirs. the only one of twelve on board to survive. O'Cain has never forgotten that day. the day he was miraculously saved from certain death.
He says, the rest of my life, is not enough to thank God for this wonder, it is incredible. The utter helplessness and hopelessness that Harrison felt. Is an excellent picture of our desperate condition apart from Jesus Christ. As lost sinners alienated from God, we are helpless and hopeless, and there's nothing we can do. on our own to fix our situation.
If you're going to be rescued, it will be the result of God's efforts, not our own. What we're about to study in the book of Ephesians. What we're about to explore together. may be the best explanation of this truth in all of the Bible. and the most concise presentation of the gospel.
in all of God's word. In these verses Paul explains to us the plain salvation message. It's plain and simple. If you want to know what it means to become a Christian, If you want to know what it means to experience the blessing of salvation, these verses. are the place to look.
You can go to a lot of churches, you might not ever find out what it means to be a Christian. We talk a lot about being a Christian. A lot of people don't know what it is, and I want to tell you: this is not from me, this is from the scripture, this is the word of God. If you listen carefully today, you cannot possibly leave here and not know what it means to be a Christian. And if you're Christians, You need to look back over your shoulder and remember what God has done for you.
Remember what he saved you out of. Think about where you might be today if it were not for Christ. The passage in Ephesians chapter 2 begins with the reason we need to be saved, the reason for salvation. Why is it that we must be rescued by someone other than ourselves? I mean, why can't we as Christians be like other religions where we try to do our best and We hope that we're going to make it and maybe we're better than others.
We try to climb up on our good works and ultimately earn God's favor. All of the other religions are like that. All of the religions of the world are an attempt to reach up to God. And Christianity is the truth that God has reached down to us. Paul answers these questions in verses 1 through 3.
He's very blunt. He's very focused. Here's what he says. And you he made alive, Who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world. according to the Prince of the Power of the Air.
The Spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh. Fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath. Just as others. Paul said, look back over your shoulder. This is where we were.
This is what it's like. before you become a Christian. As I mentioned, these verses are blunt. and they're powerful. Paul takes us through five human conditions that are true of us before we become Christians.
First of all, the Bible says we're dead. We aren't able to save ourselves because we are spiritually dead without Christ. And you he made alive, said Paul. Who were dead in trespasses and sins. According to God's word, every human being who does not have a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ is dead spiritually.
You may be the most alive physical person you know. But without Jesus Christ, you are spiritually dead. dead toward God. dead toward the things of God. deaf to his voice, The Bible is foolishness to you.
You are not spiritually alive. Paul said, We were dead in trespasses and sins. There's a connection between those concepts. Sin and death are partners. Romans 6, 23 says, For the wages of sin is death.
Apart from Christ, we are dead in our sins, and that condition begins when we're born. I know it's hard to believe that these beautiful, special loving little babies are born with a sin nature. But if you're honest about it, you won't have any trouble coming up with illustrations pretty much along the way. In the long history of the human race, there have been three basic views of human nature. Kent Hughes says those three natures are man as well.
Man is sick. Our man is dead. Uh if the first one is right The proponents of that view say, you're all right. Just Get on a diet. Do a little exercise, take some vitamins, you'll be fine.
The proponents of the second view agree that man is sick, maybe even mortally sick, but his situation is certainly not hopeless. But the biblical view is that man is dead. In his trespasses and sins, and all his self-help will avail nothing for him. You can go to the Arlington Cemetery and play revelli from morning till night, and I promise you, nobody's coming out of the grave. And the same thing is true for those of us who may not know Christ.
We might be good people. I'm not saying that we're not. But as far as God is concerned, that part of your life is dead. It's not active, it has no possibility. You understand.
What other people are talking about when they talk about their faith in Christ, but if you don't have faith in Christ, you don't have the frequency. That you need to be on to talk with Almighty God in heaven and have a relationship with Him. Paul's first blunt statement is: if you don't know Jesus Christ, you're dead spiritually. And then he says, We are deceived if we don't know Christ. Not only are we spiritually dead before we encounter Christ, but we are deceived.
We're living out a lie. Having already mentioned our trespasses and sins, Paul added, In which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air. Because we were dead in our trespasses and sins, according to Paul, we walk according to the course of this world. That means we walk within the guidelines and boundaries of the system that operates our world today. We're like zombies, dead men and women, walking around, living our lives according to whoever the ruler of the world is.
And whatever it is they want us to do. And that brings up an interesting question: who is the ruler of this world? Oh, you say, Pastor, everybody knows that. God is. And in a technical sense, that's the truth.
But God is sovereign over the entire universe. He's the creator and sustainer of all things, which means he does have control over all things. On the ultimate level, he is in charge of our world. But on a practical level, as you know, Satan is in control. The demons are at his command, and he is the prince of the power of the air.
Satan has a whole system of evil at work in the world today. In fact, When you read the book of Daniel, you get the impression that there are demons assigned to specific nations and regions all over the world.
So the system and the mechanations of our world are currently ruled by evil forces, and we were a willing participant in that system before we became saved. Most of us didn't realize what was going on. We thought we were just living our lives, trying to do our best. But we were participating in a Satan-led rebellion against God. We were deceived.
And then Paul says, not only were we deceived, we were actively disobedient to God. At the end of verse 2, he mentions, the Spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. Before we encountered Christ, we actively and willingly rejected. Often what we knew was right. Before salvation, we wanted to have it our own way.
do everything the way we wanted to do it. Including our eternal destiny. And that's why you still have people walking around today saying, I deserve to go to heaven. Because I'm a good person. I'm a good husband.
I'm a good father. I give money to charity. Those who are outside of God's plan are desperate to create their own rules, and so they come up with their own plan of salvation. Unfortunately, it's not Real. It's not true.
When Paul talks about the sons of disobedience, he wasn't referring to our disobedience against God. He was referring to our failure to meet even our own standards. See, the problem is you can say, Well, I don't need God to go to heaven. I can go to heaven on my own. I'll just be good.
Well, how good do you need to be? You need to be perfectly good. I like to tell people as often as I can: God does not grade on the curve. You have to be perfect. You have to be holy as He is.
None of us can achieve that. You know, somebody says, Well, I'm a good person. I remember a guy who used to come here once in a while and preach, and he would take people through this little. Quiz, have you ever lied? Yeah.
Well, that means you're a liar. Have you ever had an impure thought? Yes, well that means you're an adulterer. Have you ever taken something that wasn't yours? That means you're a thief.
And he goes through that. And by the time you get done, you're kind of laying on the ground thinking: man, I'm a terrible person. All he's trying to do is help us understand that even if we try to live up to our own standards, we cannot do it. We don't have what it takes to do it, not even for one day. The Bible says the heart is sinful above all things.
Who can know it? And so, if we don't have help from outside, we're like that guy laying in the bottom of that boat at the bottom of the ocean. Help ourselves. We're lost. We need something from the outside to enter into our lives.
And we know that that something is a someone who is Jesus Christ, who reaches down to bring us up out of the misery of our sin. We're dead, deceived, disobedient, and the Bible even goes further and says we're defiled. among whom we also once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.
Now he's talking here not just about sexuality. Oftentimes, that's what we think lust is just sexuality, but it's not that at all. It's throwing ourselves into doing whatever we want in any number of circumstances. How many people today do you see living for themselves and caring only for their own selfish needs? That's the way we were until God got a hold of us.
We didn't see life outside of ourselves, we saw only ourselves. But the worst part of this list that Paul makes in the first three verses of this second chapter is: we're doomed.
Now, at this point in the message, I can imagine you might be feeling discouraged, maybe even upset. Maybe you're thinking, I didn't come to church to have you tell me I'm dead, deceived, disobedient, defiled. And doomed. I understand that. And the very good news is that you and I Are none of those things if we're Christians, not any longer.
Remember, Paul was describing what the Ephesians and by extension what we were before we experienced the blessing of salvation. Why is he doing that? He wants people to understand why it is they need to be saved. My father was a pastor, and he used to tell me all the time: David, the hardest thing about preaching is getting people lost first so you can get them saved.
So many people come to church and they think they're okay. You know? We used to ask this question when we would talk to people about their faith. If you were to stand before God today and He would say to you, Why should I let you into my heaven? What would you say?
And I've asked that question. probably thousands of times. And the answers are almost inevitably the same. A long list of everything we think we have done that gets us into heaven, which might be good if you could get to heaven by doing good works, but you can't. And even if you're the best of good workers, you can never be perfect.
And the Bible says if you break the law in one place, you've broken the whole law. The law is like a chain. Pick one link out of it and it all falls apart. What Paul has to help us understand, what we all need to understand, if you're here today and you don't know Jesus Christ. You say, well, I'm in a program.
Well, good luck with that. The program won't get you anywhere. You need a personal Savior who can come and live within your heart and lift you up above all of that. Because the Bible says that without Jesus Christ, this is who we are. We're dead.
We're lost. We're without hope. Whenever you feel tempted to take pride in the fact that you're a Christian. Remember where you came from. Look over your shoulder and look at what you once were, and thank God.
for what he's done for you.
Some of us may have grown up in Good families, Christian homes, and we became Christian. Thank God for what you've been saved from. That's the reason we need to be saved. There used to be a song that said I reached up to heaven. and then couldn't quite reach the goal.
But then one day God reached down to me. and brought me up. from where I was.
So That's why you need to be saved. That's the reason for salvation. But now it's a good news. The good news always comes after you understand why you need the good news. Ephesians 2:4, but God who is rich in mercy because of his great love, has loved us.
In your Bible, if you mark your Bible, circle the words but God. I love the way Paul starts this section of his letter. In verses 1 through 3, he's described all the reasons why we have no hope apart from Christ. We were afloat on an ocean of our own sin with no way to get ourselves back to the shore. We were done.
But God In many ways, these are the two greatest words in the scripture. You could say these two words summarize the entire theme and message of God's word. Adam and Eve were lost forever because of their sin, but God Noah deserved to be drowned along with the rest of the world. But God. Jonah did nothing to deserve a second chance.
But God Humanity deserved complete and total wrath after crucifying the Savior of the world. But God. You see, take any situation you want, as bad as it is, insert God in the middle of it, and everything changes. But God. James Montgomery Boyce said, If you understand those two words, They will save your soul.
If you recall them daily and live by them, they will transform your life. God is the difference maker. The situation we're in apart from God, there's only one answer. You need God. You need Jesus Christ.
It says in verses 4 through 9, but God, who was rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. Raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, not of works. lest any man should boast.
Now I'm going to give you a quick little tutorial on what it takes to be a Christian. That's what Paul does next. He uses Phrases that we know but he puts them in the right progression. Here's the first one. Rich.
Mercy. Say that with me. Rich mercy. But God, who is rich in mercy, The first ingredient in God's recipe for salvation is mercy. Paul reminded his readers that God is rich in mercy.
He's got enough mercy for everybody. Here's the wonderful psalm. That speaks of that. Psalm 103 verses 8 through 12, the Lord is merciful and gracious. He's slow to anger and abounding in mercy.
He will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear him. As far as the East is from the West, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. What is mercy?
Here it is. Mercy is God withholding from us. what we really deserve. I hear people all the time say, Well, I just want justice. I don't want justice, I need mercy.
If we got justice, we would get just what we deserve. But God is rich in mercy. I like what Pastor Dane Ortland says about this. The Bible says that God is not tight-fisted with mercy. He's open-handed, not frugal, but lavish.
Not poor, but rich. That God is rich in mercy means that your regions of deepest shame and regret are not hotels through which mercy passes, but homes in which mercy abides. It means the things about you that make you cringe the most. Make him hug the hardest. It means His mercy is not calculating and cautious like ours.
It is unrestrained, floodlike, sweeping, magnanimous. It means our haunting shame is not a problem for him, but the very thing he loves most to work with. Means our sins do not cause his love to take a hit. Our sins cause his love to surge forward all the more. Almighty God is rich in mercy.
I want to tell you that today. Whoever you may be, whatever you think is beyond the pale of God's ability to touch you, here's what the Bible says: God has got so much mercy. Nothing you could ever do. would keep you from that supply. God has mercy.
He keeps from us what we deserve. And then the Bible says he has great love. But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love, Why has God given us His mercy? Because He loves us. Why does He love us?
Because God is loved, not because we've done anything to make Him love us. Remember, it's not because of what you do, it's because of what He's done. You and I don't deserve to be loved, not by God. But he loves us anyway. Scripture makes that clear.
The world's most famous Bible verse, everybody pretty much knows, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And Romans 5, 8 says, but God demonstrates His love toward us, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And 1 John says, In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God sent His only begotten Son into this world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we love God, but that God loved us and sent His Son to be the satisfaction for our sins. Do you see the reason why we aren't stuck in our death and disobedience and defilement?
No, we aren't stuck because God's got a lot of mercy and God's got a lot of love. Amen. And he gets the sun stuck, doesn't he? That's good news. Say, friends, it's Friday, and I always like to take a moment and encourage you to get to church this weekend because, you see, the church is God's purpose and his plan for these days.
And I have been very reticent over the years to say: if you live in the San Diego area and you don't have a church that you go to, you should come and visit us. Many people are surprised to know that Turning Point originates at the Shadow Mountain Church in El Cajon, California. I'm there almost every Sunday, except when I'm vacation, and we have a wonderful time together. My privilege is to invite you. If you've never been here to see us, come and see us.
If you're looking for a church, we're here to help you. And you'll find a lot of wonderful things at the Shadow Mountain Community Church. In the meantime, have a great, wonderful weekend. And we'll look forward to seeing you back here on Monday for the next edition of Turning Point. Today's message came to you from Shadow Mountain Community Church and Dr.
David Jeremiah, the senior pastor. Turning Point is also on radio and TV this weekend. To learn where you can find it, visit our website davidjeremiah.org slash radio. That's davidjeremiah.org slash radio or call 800-947-1993. Ask for your copy of our 14-month 2027 calendar, The Light of the World.
It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the English standard New International and New King James Versions, available in several attractive and resilient cover options. It's such a blessing when we hear from you.
So please write us at Turning Point, P.O. Box3838, San Diego, California, 92163. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us Monday for more of our special message from Dr. David Jeremiah here on Turning Point.
