Said, Amen and amen. You guys can have a seat here today.
Well, listen, it is so good to see you. And I'm so glad that you are here today. And I appreciate your presence. You could have been in a lot of different places today, and here you are. And we just want to say thank you for doing that.
If we have not met before, my name is Josh, and I'm the pastor here. And I get that privilege and honor just to welcome you once again. Let me encourage you, as Pastor David said earlier, that if you have that new here card, make sure you turn that in so that we can connect with you and get a free gift in your hands, just as our way of saying thank you for being a part of our service here today. And just a couple of things that I wanted to mention today: next Sunday is a good day for a couple of different reasons. First of all, in Sunday morning, we will be starting a new series.
We're concluding our series, Centers Like Us today. And next week, we will be starting a brand new series entitled Not About Me, Not About Me. And I know that encourages all of you to come. You're like, that's exactly what I want to hear on a Sunday morning. Is that it is not all about us.
But sometimes we need that reminder, don't we?
Sometimes when we look at life, when we look at our wants and desires and different things, we can sometimes think, man, life is about us. And what we learn through scripture is that life is much more about him and much more about the gospel and much more about the glory of God. And so we're going to dissect 1 Corinthians 8 through 10 in this series, just a brief three-week series, and that'll start next week. And then also, I wanted to invite you all to come back next Sunday, next Sunday evening at 6 p.m., we will be having a special. Ordination service for Barry Lemon.
And we are looking forward to that. Barry has been a part of our church for a brief time. And so some of you longtime or old timers will know him from years ago. And he's always been in ministry through the worship ministry. In fact, you've seen that even here today as he was able to lead and help us.
And we're grateful for that. But next week, we will be ordaining him for gospel ministry. And he believes God is leading him. He's still kind of figuring out where that next step is. But we will be ordaining him at the 6 p.m.
service next Sunday night. And all of you are invited to be a part of that. We have Dr. Jonathan Lyons who will be speaking. He's the president of Baptist Missions to Forgotten Peoples, the mission board.
And so we're excited about that. And so that's next Sunday evening at 6 p.m.
So make sure that you are here if you are able.
Well, if you have your Bible, I want to encourage you to join me in Ephesians chapter number two. We are. Concluding this series, Sinners. Like us. I hope that you've enjoyed the series, and I'm looking forward to kind of wrapping this up.
This was just a summer teaching series, and honestly, we could have been in this series a lot longer because every character in scripture that is mentioned from cover to cover, other than Jesus, obviously, is a sinner. And so we could have dissected every single one of their stories, but we kind of just chose some of the highlights and worked through these here together.
So, in this series, just give you a little bit of recap. We started this series at the beginning of the summer with Abraham. And if you remember that, Abraham, he lied. He had doubts about God. And so he struggled just like you and just like me.
Then we looked at Moses. Moses kind of lost his cool on a couple of different occasions. And do you remember when he lost his cool, he smote the rock and God told him to speak directly to it, but he didn't. Did so out of anger. His anger got the best of him, and he had every reason to be justified in his anger, but still, the way he responded was not honoring and glorifying or obedient to God.
Then we looked at David. Who was an adulterer and a murderer? We looked at Samson, who was a womanizer and also full of pride. We looked at Jonah. If you remember that, when God told him to go to Nineveh, he fled.
He ran away from the voice of God and from the will of God. We looked at his life. Then we moved into the New Testament. We looked at the woman at the well from John chapter number four. And she was been married several times, and the guy she was living with wasn't even her husband.
We looked at the adulterous woman who was caught in the very act of adultery. And then we looked at Peter, who denied even knowing Jesus and having a relationship with him. And then we looked at the Apostle Paul and how he really arrested and tried and murdered Christians. And so I hope that you understand: listen, as we look at these, every single one of them are sinners. They all struggled in different ways.
And they all had their own struggles. And by the way, Pastor David reminded us of this today. We all in here struggle. And I hope that this series has revealed some things in your heart that you struggle, and we struggle. We all struggle.
Every character in scripture struggled, and that none of us are worthy of the grace that has been bestowed upon the cross for you and for me. None of us are. We are all just a bunch of sinners. And so I hope that you've seen that. And as we kind of conclude this thing today, the final sinner that we are going to look at, and I didn't want to tell you this ahead of time because none of you would want it to come, but the final sinner we are going to look at is us.
Can we all say that together? Us. You look to your neighbor and say, that's you, okay? Look to your spouse and say, he really, really means you.
Okay? And I thought it would be fitting as we've been looking at all these Bible characters, and I don't know, maybe they're in heaven looking down and saying, Man, why do they keep talking so negatively about us?
Well, we're going to talk bad about ourselves a little bit here from Ephesians chapter number two today. I do want to say, you probably received one of these today, and hopefully, you did on your way in. Our greeters have been so good to just kind of get those out. You can hang on to those. We'll come to those towards the end.
So, I know when I'm handed something and as I walk into a service, I'm thinking the whole time, like, when am I using this? When am I using this? And I don't listen to anything that's said.
So, we are coming back to this. You'll get this a little bit later, and we will talk about that to conclude this service. But today, we get to talk about us. And, you know, if you've been around church for any length of time, Ephesians chapter number two is a very familiar passage of scripture. It's going to be something that you're going to understand.
It's going to be something you're familiar with. You probably already know where I'm going with this here today. But if you're newer to church, and don't feel bad, that's a good thing. You know, I'm excited that you're here. And so don't feel like, man, I don't know where we're going.
I don't know what Ephesians chapter 2 is. That's okay. You will by the end of this. But here's what I want you to understand. Ephesians chapter 2, by many scholars and many theologians, when they study God's word, most commentators would literally argue, and don't hear me correctly, okay?
The scripture is all equally important, but many would say Ephesians chapter 2 is quite possibly the most important chapter in all of scripture. Many people would say that this chapter, because it affects every single one of us and it matters to every single one of you, that this chapter is the most important chapter in all of Scripture. This chapter, chapter number two, serves as what I would call the litmus test for how well you really understand the gospel. For how well you really understand the gospel. If you want to kind of, you know, test yourself a little bit, how well do I understand what Christ has done for me in the gospel?
Ephesians chapter number two will be the revealing litmus test of that. And here's why: because chapter number two. is all about your story.
So about your story. You say, wait, I'm not in scripture.
Well, your name might not be written in scripture, but let me tell you this: Ephesians chapter 2 has your story. And if you're in here today and it's not, it can be your story before you leave here. And that's what I want you to understand.
So, as we conclude this idea of sinners like us, we're not going to dissect somebody in scripture that lived their life and look at their problems, whether it be anger or their temper or whether it be, you know, their pride or their doubt in God or their misplaced trust in other things and their own abilities and women and sex and relationships and all the different things. We've looked at everybody else in Scripture. Today, we're going to really look at your life. And we're going to look at your story and where do you fit with this idea of sinners like us? When we talk about how we're all sinners and the grace has come down to each one of us, where do we fit in this?
And here in this text, the Apostle Paul is writing to the church.
So he's writing to Christians. He's writing to a real church, the church at Ephesus that existed there in the first century. And he's writing directly to Christians. And he begins to tell them. About their story.
about your story, about his story. And as he's writing this, he mentions really this moment of what Christ does in us. But he starts off in Ephesians chapter number two with really talking about. How we were born into this world. How we were born into this world.
And how many of you have a birthday in here? Raise your hand, okay? And so that's everybody. A few of you didn't raise your hand, which I have serious questions, okay? But in a lot of ways, as your pastor, it makes sense now.
And so I'm just kind of, I've always wondered where you've been from. And so that's kind of a corny dad joke. I get it, okay? But we all have a birthday, you all have a beginning. You all have a day that you were born into this world.
And Paul starts out this story of your life and my life with this in mind. The first thing that we will see is found in verses 1 through 3 of Ephesians chapter 2. And here's what he reminds us of: is that we were born into this world alienated from God. We were born into this world alienated from God. Look at what he says in Ephesians 2, verses 1 through 3.
He says, And you, everybody say the word you, you, hath he quickened who were dead. And trespasses. And sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince. Of the power of the air, that's the enemy, the devil, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Verse 3.
Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, and the lust of our flesh. fulfilling the desires of the flesh. and of the mind, and were by nature The children of wrath. Even as others. And so, what Paul is starting, and he's talking to the church.
So, this is for you, and this is for me, and he's talking about our story. And he says that we were alienated from God. When you were born into this world, you were alienated from God. In other words, you were distant. From him.
You were far off from God. And the question that we have to ask is this: because what he talks about in these three verses kind of answers this question. Why? Why? Like think about it.
Why? If you're new to church or possibly you're skeptical about some of these things we've talked about, you got to ask this question: why? Why in the world? I mean, were we alienated from God? Why were we born into this?
We didn't sin in the garden.
So, why in the world do we have to live and start our life as being alienated from God?
Well, the Apostle Paul really answers this question here, and he mentions a few things. The first thing is this: his first reasoning for the question, why, is this. We were alienated from God because we were dead. In our sin. And that's what he's talking about in verse number one.
When when he says, and you, the church, Hath he quickened? The word quickened, if you look it up in the Greek, here's what it literally means: it means that we have been made alive. And in other words, like if you've been made alive, you had to at one time be, what he says here, dead. Dead. And I know what you're thinking.
If you're newer, you're kind of thinking, okay, where are you going with this? Because you're talking about how we were born into this world, but now you're saying we were born. Dead, and that's exactly right. Because for you to understand the gospel and what Jesus has done for sinners like you, you must understand that there is physical death. Right?
That many of you, a loved one, have passed away. There is physical death that people experience, but there is also spiritual death. Death. There's also spiritual death, which is what the Apostle Paul is talking about here. And before we know Christ, he's saying that we are spiritually dead.
There's no spiritual bone in your body. You say, What in the world? Like, when I'm born, I'm dead. Yes, and here's why. You know, many people they die of sickness or disease.
In your spiritual life, when you're born into this world, the disease that you have died from is sin. It's sin. Because we have been born into this world in sin, and because of our sin, that's the sickness, that's the disease that we can't fix in ourselves, we find ourselves being spiritually dead. And he uses two words here about our sin. The first word at the end of verse one is the word trespasses.
Or you could say the word transgressions. And so he uses trespasses and sins to say that's how we were dead when we were born into this world. And so I want to kind of differentiate between the two because a lot of times we look at these words and we think they're the same thing. When you trespass. It's the idea of willingly going against the standard that has been set before you.
Right. You ever come up to a no trespassing sign? Right? And you decide. I'm gonna go anyway.
Okay, then what that means is you saw a standard. And you decided I'm going to go against the standard in front of me, right? That's what he's talking about with this idea of trespasses. Or for some of you, because you're kind of judging people that do that, right? Because you would never stoop that low.
Let's go here. How about when you come up to a parking space? And it is reserved for something else, or someone else, or maybe a guest in our parking lot. I don't know, okay? And you're not one of those things, but you say, I'm going to park here anyway, right?
Or perhaps the parking space has yellow over it, meaning you can't park in that space. And it is identified, it is marked, it is a standard in front of you, and you choose, hey, I'm going to park there anyway. I don't care what anybody else says. You have trespassed. That is a trespass, and that's what he's talking about.
You see, the point is, when he says that we are dead in our trespasses, what he means is this: that God, and the scripture is the standard, God has given us a standard. You say, What does that mean? You should not lie. You should not steal. You should not commit adultery.
You should not covet. Obey your parents. Right. Okay, so he has a standard that is set in front of us. And what he's saying is: the reason you are dead, the reason you are alienated from God is because you were born into this world.
And what you did was you broke his standard. You saw his standard, you knew his standard, and you decided, I'm going to do my own thing, I'm going to go my own way, and I'm going to break the standard that is there. You willfully disobeyed his standard, okay? And that's what it means to trespass.
So he says, We're dead in our trespasses, and we are dead in also our sins. And so, you have to ask, aren't they the same thing?
Well, fundamentally, yes, but here's what this is talking about: this is talking about our sin nature.
So, in other words, you trespassed, you broke God's standard, but you also were born with a sin nature. You were born with a sin nature that you could not fix. In other words, when you were born, you were in this family of sinners. That's your name. That was your identity.
That was something you were born with. Listen, you are not a sinner because you sin. You sin because you are a sinner. Let me say that again. You don't sin, or better yet, you are not a sinner.
Because you sin You sin because you're a sinner. Because every single one of us, we were born with this sin nature, and therefore that's why we sin. That's why your kids, when you bring them home from the hospital and they learn things like no, or they learn things like, you know, like disobeying or lying and stuff. It's not because you taught them to do that. No, it's because they were born into this world as sinners.
And what sinners do is sinners. Sin, right? And before we just kind of judge all the kids in the room, let's just be honest. Adults are just really big sinners. They're just taller sinners, right?
And some are wider sinners, right? And you know what I'm saying? Like, they're just bigger sinners, is all that they are. And so let's not hate on the kids and all their sin. Let's just be real.
We all sin. And what Paul is saying is this: that we're alienated with God. In other words, we're far from God. You've been distant from God. Why?
Because of your sin. Because you're dead. Because you're dead in your trespasses, you're dead in your sins, and what you have to understand is he is holy, he is righteous, he is just, and because of his holiness, he cannot accept your sin. Everybody understand that he cannot accept your sin. And so, therefore, because of your sin, we are distant.
From him. But number two, we were alienated from God not only because we were dead, but because of our sinful behavior. That's what he's talking about in verse two when he says this: wherein, in time past, ye 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, what he's saying here when he uses the word walk, he's talking about live.
He's talking about your behavior. He's talking about your actions. And so, what he says is: ye walk. That's past tense, and I'll get to that here in a moment. But you walked.
When you were born into this world, you lived your life. According to the course of this world, you lived your life according to the prince of the power of the air. That's the enemy. You lived your life. In De So Obedience.
And that's what he's talking about.
So we're alienated from God. Because of our sinful behavior. Because of the things that you have done, because you have walked after the pattern of the world, because you have been influenced by the world, and therefore, because of the world's influence in your life, you became disobedient to God. Listen, I want you to understand, without getting too deep into this or whatever, is that. The evil one, the enemy that's referenced here, is working overtime to try to get people into their world.
And there is a spiritual realm that we don't talk about a whole lot because if you're like me, it's kind of scary, it's kind of eerie, and we're not really sure how it all works. And so we kind of in the church avoid it. But what I want you to understand is that there is a spiritual realm out there. There's a good spiritual realm, and that's God's angels and different things, you know. But there's a bad spiritual realm, and what that looks like is that is the enemy, Satan.
With his fallen angels, and their main job is to do what the Apostle Paul references here in verse number two: they want to influence. People to walk according to the power of the air, according to these things referenced here. And they're working overtime, by the way. They want to influence you. The world wants to squeeze you.
into their philosophy. They're mold. Their indoctrination. And what they're trying to do is, they're trying to do anything and everything possible to try to help you. And here's why: because the enemy and fallen angels, they already know where their eternal fate will be.
They already know where they are going to live forever, and the scripture talks about that: that one day the enemy will be judged forever and forever thrown into the lake of fire. They already know that. And so, what they're trying to do, the enemy and the fallen angels, they know their eternal fate.
So, what they're trying to do is get as many people to go with them as possible. That's why your young children that haven't accepted Christ as Savior, that's why there's so much being thrown at them because they're trying to influence them according to this verse. And what Paul is saying is this: that the reason why we were alienated, the reason why we were distant from God, is because of not only you were dead in your sin, but now you also have sinful behavior. You've been influenced by. The enemy, which leaves us to the result of what our sinful behavior and being dead in our sin has done, is this.
Our sin has made us the object, at the end of verse 3, the object of God's wrath. He says this in verse number 3: Among whom also we all had our conversation. In times past, in the lust of our flesh. That's our previous life before Christ. We all lived according to the flesh.
That's every single one of us, okay? You all were there, okay?
Some of you might be there today, and you can leave here changed today, but you might be there right now fulfilling the desires of the flesh. And of the mind, and were by nature, listen to this, the children of wrath, even as others. In other words, here's what he's trying to say. And I know sometimes the Apostle Paul has some. A lot of big words that he uses.
And in fact, if you sometimes struggle to understand the Apostle Paul, that's okay because Peter in 2 Peter, I believe, he even says sometimes what Paul's writings can be hard to understand.
So I get it. And so, but here's what he's trying to say: is that you were alienated from God because of your sinful behavior and because you were dead in your sin. And here's where being dead in your sin eternally ends. You are objects of God's wrath. And that's not a good thing, right?
You are objects of God's wrath. In other words, sin must be punished. Your sin must be punished. Every one of your sins must be punished. I mean, like, we all crave justice, right?
But sometimes when it comes to our own life, we don't want justice. But for God to stay holy and for God to be righteous and for God to be just, your sin has to be punished. And my sin has to be punished because it wouldn't be a just thing for a holy, righteous God to allow our sin to go unpunished. Punished. And so it's important that we understand that our punishment made us the object of God's wrath.
God's judgment. He should come down on you and me because of our sinful behavior and because we've allowed the world to influence us.
Now, let me tell you this: this would be a terrible story if our life and our story ended right there after verse number three. It would be an awful story. It'd be a story that none of us would ever want to tell. It would be a story none of us would ever want to study. It'd be a story that none of us would ever.
But I'll tell you this: our story doesn't end there. There's much more to the story here. And here's what I want you to understand before we move to point number two: until you understand the problem. Which is your sin nature? which is your sinful behavior.
You will never cherish the grace that is mentioned in verse number four and on, and the gospel the way that God intends for you to. You have to understand what we are saved from before you can understand what we are saved to. And that's why you got to understand, you're a sinner just like every single one of us, which brings us to point number two. What he says is we were alienated from God in verses one through three. That's all of us when we were born in this world, but now we have been made alive through.
Through Christ. We've been made alive through Christ. Then everything changes here in verse number four. Look at what he says here. Verse number four: But God.
Everybody say those two words with me. But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us, made us alive, us together with Christ by grace. Here, say, verse 6, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places. In Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
So think about this. God, because of his sin and because of our sin and because of his holiness. He has to punish your sin. He has to. And the way that he's going to go about it is in verses 4 and on, and these two words, but.
God is so important. It's the greatest conjunction ever. Uttered. John Stott would call it this in his commentary. He would say that these are the greatest two syllables ever written or ever uttered.
It's the most important thing for you because if your story ended with you being the object of God's wrath, it would be terrible. But God. But God. And in the midst of your sin, in the midst of you not being able to make yourself alive and get out of your sin nature, but God. And that changes everything about your story and it changes everything about your life.
So if you're in here and you're kind of newer to this, you're like, what did God do? He loved us. God loved us. And what's amazing in Romans chapter 5 talks about this, verse number 8. But God commendeth.
That means He demonstrated His love for you, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. In other words, what that means is this: you didn't have to clean up your life for him to love you. He loved you just as you are, a filthy, rotten sinner that is walking according to the prince of the power of the air, that is being influenced by the enemy, that is following after all these disobedient behaviors of God, the one that is breaking God's standard that he put in front of you. And in the midst of your sin, God Loved. Us.
You see, what you have to understand about the gospel is this, is that God would have. Really, he'd have had the authority? To stop at verse 3 if he wanted to. What you have to understand about the gospel is that God would still be holy, He would still be righteous. And he would have all authority to stop after verse number three if he wanted to.
But he didn't. His plan of redemption was to sacrifice his one and only son to satisfy his wrath. Forever. And listen, on the cross. Jesus Died.
And the wrath of God. Met the love of God. And in that one divine moment. His wrath And is love They matched. And in that moment on the cross, when Jesus died for you and for all of your sin and for every wrong thing you've ever done and for your life, when Jesus died for you.
In that moment, the wrath of God was completely satisfied. The judgment of God was completely satisfied. Your sin debt has been paid in full by the precious blood of Jesus. See, you got to understand something. I grew up, and here's all I would think about: Jesus died for me.
And yes, that's true, but he didn't just die for us, he died instead of us. You see, that should have been you on the cross. That should have been me experiencing the judgment of God. But what Jesus coming to this earth for you and for me, he came so that you could have life. And so that you could be made alive, and so that you, a dirty, rotten, evil, bad sinner.
Could experience life through him, and your whole position in verse number six completely changed. And now, because of what Jesus did on the cross, he hath now raised you up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. What that means is that your position before God has changed.
So, when you were born into this world, my position with God was guilty. My position was God was guilty and distant and alienated. But when I trusted in Jesus Christ, for me, that was when I was a kid, five years old. I caught out. I didn't know a whole lot of things.
I couldn't have passed the doctrines class, and I didn't know a whole thing, a lot about the Bible. But here's what I knew: I'm a sinner. And he's a savior, and he sent his only begotten son to die for me so that I could have life because there was no life in my breath and no life in me at all. And that's what Jesus has done, which leads us to verse number 8 through 10. We now can be aligned with him.
We now can be aligned with Yeah. We can be aligned with him. And so, what that means is found in verse number eight when he says, For by grace are ye saved through faith. Very famous verse that every one of us would know, through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
Then he goes on, he says, We, the church, these are the same sinners that he was talking about in verse number one through three. For now we, the church, are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. And here's what he says: is this that we could do nothing for God before Christ, but now, when you trust in Christ, we now are his workmanship. We've been saved to good works. We've been saved by the blood of Jesus to now live for Him.
Now, don't miss this. You're not saved. By your works. But a saved person will work. You don't work to get saved, you work because you're saved.
In other words, the reason why we want to live for Jesus, the reason why we want to go to church, the reason why we want to lift our voices, the reason why we want to praise Jesus, the reason why we want to pray, the reason why we want to be a good neighbor. It's not so that we can gain acceptance by God. No, you could never do that on your own anyway, so there's not enough good works for you to do that on. The only reason you can be accepted by God is trusting in the blood of Jesus that he shed for you. And when you do, now because of what he's done inside of you, it leads you to want to live your life for him.
And one thing I love about this is verse number nine. It's kind of tucked away here. Not Of good works. Lest any man should Should boast. You know, as we kind of conclude this series.
That's a good verse to kind of end on. That nobody no man can boast. Let me tell you this. We talked about heaven a little bit. We sang about it, and I'm longing for it, and I look forward to it.
Let me tell you this, there's no boasters in heaven. Like when you die And you show up in heaven. You're not going to run up to Jesus and say, hey, Jesus, I know you've been waiting on me. Like, I know you saw everything I did down there. I'm sure you saw all the things I did for the church, and you saw all the things that I did for ladies that couldn't do it themselves, widows, and different things.
And those things are good, and you should be doing those things.
So don't get me wrong, but let me tell you this: when you get to heaven, you're not going to show up and just say, look at me, look at all I've done and what I have accomplished. And these kind of things. Listen, heaven is not filled with boasters. Heaven isn't filled with any boasters. Heaven is filled with a bunch of sinners like us.
Who have been saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and Jesus alone. And what I want you to understand is that when we get to heaven. Every person we've looked at up to this point in this series, they're going to be there with you. And what that's going to look like is so different. It's like there's going to be people that were, you know, legalistic, and there's going to be people that were prideful, and there's going to be adulterers, and there's going to be liars, and there's going to be whoremongers, and there's going to be blasphemers, and there's going to be all these terrible, terrible, rotten sinners.
And let me tell you this: there's not going to be different statuses with us in heaven. Nobody's going to run around and say, wow, I was not near as bad as that guy. I was not near as awful as that person. I didn't do near as bad. Wow, I saw them in the community, and my mansion will never be by theirs.
Because I am way better than them. Listen, the scripture teaches there's no boasters in heaven. And when we get to heaven and we're all there with all these terrible, rotten people, we're all going to be there for only one reason. Because we've been saved by grace alone. in Jesus alone and through faith alone.
There's no boasters. In in heaven. I love that song wonderful. grace of Jesus greater than all my sin. How shall my tongue describe it?
Where shall its praise begin? Taking away my burden. Setting my spirit free. Oh, the wonderful grace of Jesus. Reaches.
Even me. Listen, I don't know what your story is in this place. I don't know what you've come in here. Maybe you've come in here today. Last week, we had a young man walk into our service.
And he walked in, and he did not know Jesus as Savior when he walked in. But let me tell you this: this week, we were able to lead that young man to the Lord. Amen. And listen, that young man, I don't know what his story is, it doesn't matter. A lot of us think like God is only going to save us if our story is not really, really bad.
Well, we've just come through the entire scripture. There's a lot of dysfunctional people that God saved in the midst of it. It has nothing to do with your sin. His grace is always greater than your sin. And sinners, we're all just a bunch of sinners saved by grace.
I want you for just a moment to grab this card that you were given on the way in. If you didn't get one, you can just have an imaginary moment here. Maybe pull out your phone, whatever will help you stay engaged. But This card, it's really our graphic, you can see here. And when we started this series over the summer, It's a placeholder there with names, right?
It can be, it's like you see the plate there, and it's right there: sinners like us. And what I want you to understand: the beauty of the gospel for me is this: I'm a sinner, you're a sinner. And what's amazing is that once we trust in the precious blood of Jesus, Us who were alienated from God, we now get a seat at the table with God. We now get a seat at his table. Undeserving Unworthy.
But yet, the king of kings and the lord of lords, because of his grace, And because of his love and because of his mercy that was demonstrated for us, we now can forever sit and have fellowship. with a perfect righteous holy. God. Right now, what I would love for you to do is to take. I dropped my card, guys.
I gotta walk down here. I want you to take this card. And I want you, there should be a pin somewhere around you, or a pin in your purse, whatever. And what I want you to do is I want you to write your name there.
So for me, I would write Josh. And then underneath that. What I want you to write, I know there's not a whole lot of space, but I want you to write your name there. And underneath that, I want you to write: a sinner saved by grace. Because listen, Josh, I'm just a sinner saved by grace.
And you, whatever your name is, you are just a sinner saved by grace. There's no boasting. In heaven, and there shouldn't be any boasting here in this church. There should be no boasting here on this side of eternity because when we see people, we're just all a bunch of filthy, rotten sinners that were once alienated from God, distant from Him, and could do nothing to gain a relationship with a holy, righteous God. And yet, but God changed everything for you and for me, and those two words: but God, who is rich in mercy, wherewith He loved you.
He sent his only begotten Son to die for you, so that trusting in Jesus as your Savior, You now can have a seat at the table. Would you bow your heads with me? Mm-hmm.
