The Believers past Position in Adam
Ephesians 2:1-3 · Bob Eckel · Mar 25, 2018
Ephesians (2018-19), No. 11
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926199176680

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Ephesians 2, 1-3. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working on the sons of disobedience. Among them, we too, all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, and even that is the least of it.

All right, great. Let's delve into this incredibly important and relevant scripture. And you he made alive who are dead in trespasses and sins. Now, what do you make of this incredibly interesting and important transition from Ephesians chapter 1? Let's maybe go back to that. First of all, before we do that, who is you? Who is Paul addressing here? Right, let's look back at 19 through 23. Randy, you're hot, but why don't you read those last five verses in Ephesians 1. And the answer is Christ in us, the believers, you know, globally the believers. Go ahead.

And what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe? These are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might, which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church. which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. What glory is in Ephesians 1? All spiritual blessings in heavenly places.

I'm just wondering, what translation do you have? I actually have noticed that there's a fair amount of variance between... Well, we're going to get there, Roger. You don't have the handout. Most people who don't have the handout are looking ahead here.

So basically, it's Christ in us, the believer. What do you make of this transition? And now it says, and you who were dead in trespasses and sins. It's kind of like white and black, isn't it? I mean, there's no gray zone here. I mean, what was Paul thinking? What was the Spirit leading him to do?

I mean, you know, it's kind of like I got good news and bad news, and here's the good news and here's the bad news. But then as we will see, the bad news transitions back to good news again. Anyway, any thoughts about this? I think the only way we can understand the depth of grace is if we see what we've been given and we contrast that to who we were before Christ.

And this is really black and white, isn't it? Alright, and he made alive is not in the original text. Okay, so that's what Roger's pointing to. It appears to be borrowed from verse 5. So if you look down at verse 5, it talks about us being made alive. and that's not in verse 2. So Rogers called us on this and he's very astute here this morning. And this phrase takes away I think from the imperative truth of who we were. Don't you think verse 1 is pretty solidly ingrained in who we were without telling us that we were made alive?

No. And you were dead in trespasses and sins. Period. Oh, not me. I think I'm doing pretty good things here. You're a good person. Well, thank you, honey. You weren't saying that on the way down this morning. I was driving too fast down the hill. I was hearing about that. Hey, Tom, we have your Bible up here. Great. I had my thoughts about that, but I didn't waste too much time. Dead in trespasses and sins.

Dead spiritually, right? There's two ways to die, spiritually and physically. And the same nephros or whatever the term is, is used for both. It's kind of like spirit used for many spirits. So what's it mean to be spiritually dead? I looked up a series of definitions, but let's see if you agree with this. Destitute of a life that recognizes and is devoted to God. Inactive as respects to doing right. related to trespasses and sins. There's the definition of being dead spiritually.

Do you like any of these? No. Roger, what's your definition of being dead? Spiritually dead. You're disconnected. Well, that's kind of number one, isn't it? Destitute of a life that recognizes and is devoted to God. That sounds like a fleshly kind of thing, right? I mean, it doesn't sound like a spirit-led life. Other thoughts? What's it to be dead? Separated. Totally separated. Not a believer. That's unsanctified, what? I would say not a believer. Not a believer, okay. Most of the world is dead, spiritually. Alright, let's not dwell on that too long.

Is there really a difference between trespasses and sins? What's the thought here? I would almost begin to say that trespasses is something you don't notice right away, but then, oops, I goofed. And then sins, well you knew from the beginning, you decided to do it anyway. And did you know you were doing it? Uh, yeah. Okay.

But isn't, wouldn't it be that anyone who's not, anyone who's separated from God is a sinner. Totally a sinner. That's all, that's the only system they can operate in. You've read verse 1. We're dead in trespasses and sins. That's the only system they know is sin. But the world system doesn't think this, do they? No, they think they're fine.

It's really true. I think it's valuable to consider Romans in the structure of Romans. We're going to get there. Yeah, I promise. Okay, good. So trespasses is kind of colloquially described as fall beside or apart, a lapse or deviation from truth and unrighteousness.

I guess you could say that that may be unapparent. It might be apparent. And then the idea of sins is missing the mark, the so-called literal translation of that. And those things which are done wrong, an offense, a violation of the divine law in thought or an act, it's a little bit more definitive, isn't it? I think, who is it that was commenting on this? I think Tom, the more intented knowing, you think that... Eyes wide open, yeah. So, is this important to distinguish these two things? Scripture does.

So think about a trespass. What would be a trespass in your own space? Keep in mind that we are positioned in heavily places where we are saved. The old nature still can trespass. What would be an example of a trespass? and 60 miles an hour is off. Except you know that. Well that's true. You know that. It is possible to not know. I actually got a speeding ticket in California. I thought I was going the speed limit and the officer was like, you know. No, but if you're going 80 in a 60, you know. Except it's my old baby. That's his name. So there's a woman suggested posting. That's not a program. He's pretty good at it. Whatever. Let me remind the class we're dead in both.

Romans 5.12, Randy, therefore this is the one man through one man sin unto the world and death through sin and this death spread to all men because all sinned. Okay, those are sins. That's the sin nature that gives rise to sin and by the way trespass too. I mean, that's the old nature.

Romans 3.24, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. and the unbeliever is not sick, he's dead. He does not need resuscitation, he needs resurrection. Freudian slip. Let's not bring Freud into this.

I think what's interesting, and you can kind of see it here, Paul's reasoning through why we're sinners in Romans covers our condition, our inheritance, genetically where we came from, and it covers our works. By the time you get to chapter 4, you have only faith as an option. Right, and we're going to return to Romans as we go forward today too, because we're going to bring it up again.

But I think, keep in mind, when somebody comes to the Lord and they're a new believer, Sending them to John's all fine and good. John's really, you know, a gospel account that really kind of gives the story of Christ. But Christ, you know, is dealing with us as believers. It's really mentioned quite a bit in John. But Romans is a good place to start, right? Because it's really the foundation of our faith and understanding from start to finish. So, okay, good.

And then the second point, Macaulay here, no matter how you cut it, whether spiritual or physical, what Macaulay says is death requires a solution that only God can give. Okay? We're talking about spiritual death now, right? Physical death is the same for all men. Except Elijah and Enoch, right? Those guys got out of it. But the rest of us will not. Unless, as Burns says, one of his rewards is praying for the rapture every day. Yay! Alright.

Romans 3.20, Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall be no flesh justified in his sight, for the law is the knowledge of sin. Important to remember, in Galatians Paul said the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, right? So the legal system is making us aware of that nature we've been born unto. Like it or not, everybody, boy in the world, is disgusted with this view, aren't they?

You know, the neat thing, my late father-in-law, Sharon's dad, he was a Kierkegaardian guy for a long time, came to his salvation when he was dying of cancer. He said one thing that was really profound and I'll never forget it. When you have a conversation with somebody about the nature of man, meaning men, women, the human race, ask them one simple question. Do you believe that man is basically good or basically bad? Even though he came from a Kierkegaardian background, the latter was the right answer. But that's so true. If you would have a conversation with an unsaved person today, Most people will say man is basically good, that there are some things that happen in the wrong direction, but nevertheless, absolutely incorrect, right?

And why are we dead in trespasses and sins? Because the Lord went to the cross. Well, yes, that's true. But why are we dead in Trespasser's sentence? Why doesn't the law save us? We're born from Adam. All right, that's true. But doesn't it relate to God's righteousness and holiness where we all fall short? There's a contrast. And no matter how good you are, no matter how many right things, and Paul, you know, established that quite well as we will get further into Ephesians. I mean, God is perfectly holy and righteous, omnipotent, omnipresent, everything else.

We can't compare to God and so we're dead as humans and trespassers. It doesn't seem fair, does it? But the gift of free life is just a gift. It's simple to respond to. There's no requirement on our part to believe him. So, okay. Alright, let's go on.

And this spiritual death has ultimate consequences, doesn't it? Look at Revelation 21.8. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone. Which is the second death. Death. We're dead in trespasses and sins. Look at the consequences for the unbeliever.

It's funny, last night I was watching SportsCenter after everybody went home and these guys were commenting on March Madness and Barclay is part of this and he's a riot, Charles Barclay. Anyway, so they were talking about going to heaven. Did you see this? I forget who the four guys are. Somebody said, they were talking about, I hope I get to heaven, that kind of thing.

In terms of living up to her standards, because she's a wonderful woman of God, which she may well be. All that aside, one guy said, Charles, it's a simple ticket, all you have to do is I think he punched the ticket that's as simple as meaning get saved by grace and faith. And Barclay said, you know, I'm not sure I want to go there. He says, all my friends won't be there. They're going to be burning down there in eternal flame. Anyway, all right, let's turn to 2 now.

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. Wow. And that we once walk. Notice that's historic. Alright. In which you once walk is aorist active indicative. What's the tense mean? Happens in the past. It's a former condition. And who did the walking? We did. And is this just kind of maybe one of these partial rumors here? It's factual. In the course of this world, and what's the world? What's cosmos? The world system. We're all part of it. Day in and day out.

And how did we walk then? And don't we still, that's the question of the class, don't we still at times walk in darkness? Well, that's why we're studying Ephesians. And we'll leave it at that. Why are we studying Ephesians, Roger? To know Christ. Well, and that's true of all the classes, right? All the classes at Holly Hills now are about our position. And remember Ephesians 1 established that once and for all for us. Thoughts? Alright.

And what's the course of this world? The lake of fire. That wasn't what I was thinking of. What is the course of this world? What's the world system we live in? Just describe it. Worthy of judgment by God. Alright, that's true spiritually. What's the world system in terms of the world system? Do what's good for man. Alright, self-serving. What else? Peace on earth kind of stuff? Self-righteousness? It's man's solutions to man's problems, ignoring God.

Very good. I like that reading. That's good. Other thoughts? World system? Pride. Pride? Okay, yeah. I was going to say, what are the three great sins that John describes? Lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, right? Isn't that the world system? What are the metrics of the world system in terms of how we perform here? Well, well, good, good, good looks. What else? ability like sports ability. Athletic ability, musical ability, sorry Randy but you got it for sure. Praise the Lord. So basically all that. Intelligence, wealth, good looks, all the above. According to the prince of the power of the air, do we have to bring this guy into this? Satan has granted power over the world system but no longer us. Now what do you think about in terms of the way God sees Satan today? What's God's view of Satan? And what's the verse that you turn to for that? It's a verse we all need to...

Hebrews 2.14.

Let's turn to Hebrews 2.14. Now keep in mind the Lord's giving Satan plenty of room, but positionally he's been done away with.

We don't experience that here now, but scripturally, whoever gets Hebrews 2.14, please read it.

For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that hath the power of death, that is, the devil. Better translation, rendered. It's the same word in Romans, rendered and operative. And I love that one, how he used to teach that. Rendered and operative. That's before God, he's rendered and operative.

That's true for us, even though we don't... Because we're in Christ. So, positionally Satan's been done away with, but operationally still, just like the old man. We need to render ourselves indeed to be dead and to sin. We are dead and trespasses to sin. We need to render ourselves dead and to sin, alive and to Christ. So that's the same kind of thing that God has said in Hebrews about Satan. Positionally taken care of, but operationally still about his business.

1 John 5.19, we know that we are of God and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. So Satan is still getting his message out there. And how does Satan get his job done? Is this through devils or how does he do this? Roger, you're shaking your head. How does he do it?

It tells you right there, the whole world lies in his power. It's outside of Christ, under his power. He appeals to the old man. And the old man is the world system in which we live in. By the way, the flesh is very capable of responding to that, isn't it? Any other thoughts about him? Let's continue. Look at us now.

1 Corinthians 2.12. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

I just thought, I'm sorry this is your last point. If you look at the events of the fall, it's significant because the events of the fall we find that man fell and became spiritually dead. But man prior to the fall had dominion and Satan took dominion after man fell. So that the prince of the power of the error and Satan's dominion came. as a consequence of that fall. They came coupled together. But to the cosmos, to the world system, that seems so unfair, doesn't it? That in fact we're born and conceived in sin. We're going to use that verse coming up here. Alright.

The spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. So, what spirit is this? Well, the spirit here in the Greek is genitive. and relates to the spirit of the age. Genitive means not, you know, it's really not masculine or feminine, just kind of a genitive. It's a broad... possessive. Yeah, okay, good.

And it's the spirit of the age of the world system. And this is, you know, the same spirit, the Greek term is used for the Holy Spirit within us. It's used for the spirit of life that we all have. And this same term is used of the spirit of the world system. So it's the same Greek word but applied differently and here's where the important interpretation is in context of what we're looking at. This is the spirit of the world system.

And is there any other choice for these signs of disobedience? Not really. And can we equate disobedience to unbelief? David says yes. Any further discussion about that? They're disobedient because they don't believe basically. I think it goes hand in hand.

What's the metric of disobedience or the metric of obedience? What's our obedience to as believers? To the faith. Very important. Not the laws, not the legal systems in any way. Our obedience is to the faith. What's faith? Believing what God has revealed, right?

We can turn to Hebrews 11.1 if we want, but I like believing what God has revealed. Okay, good.

Notice, Satan's influence both in the air, which is atmospheric, it relates to everything that we think of in terms of the global experience that we have day in and day out, and in the suns, meaning people. So Satan is omnipresent in a way that should not be impacting our faith in terms of who we are in Christ.

Job 1.7, And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. He hadn't changed his task. He's got the same agenda that he's had from way back when. And Job, I think, is one of the earlier books in the Old Testament. Of course, in the garden, as Randy said, he showed up there too.

A warfare to follow at the end of the chapter, at the end of the book, in terms of chapter Ephesians 6. And I just pulled the first verse out of this warfare that we're in. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, we do that to some extent too, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, all world system stuff, against spiritual host of wickedness in the heavenly places, Satan's in heavenly places, that's where he operates. So at the end of Ephesians we're going to look at this warfare more carefully in terms of how we put on the armor of God to deal with this day in and day out. And then, among whom we also once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. We all have the same roots.

Jew and Gentile, I think it's talking about both here. Remember, this is the new church. Yes? Well, Bob, you know, something I picked up from Macaulay, the you back up in one kind of refers to Gentiles, but then Paul's inclusive comes down to three, and he says we. So if you look carefully, I did not notice that. Yeah, I noticed that, and I didn't make any point of that in Ephesians 1, but here clearly. So he's including himself here, whereas It looks like in one he's talking about you and you know what some have said that speaking of Gentiles. Inclusive of both Jew and Gentile is the same problem. And of course the church is one right?

So I'm quoting here Romans 2.14, When the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are law unto themselves.

I mean this kind of idea that we were talking about Tom and Tim last night a little bit in terms of the three C's that bring people to the Lord. What are the three C's? Consciousness, creation, the Romans 1 stuff, creation, conscience, which is this, and then Christ. You're not saved by creation or conscience, you're saved by Christ.

But nevertheless, I think this kind of relates to the fact that Jews had the legal system, which was there to convict them of sin, and we make laws unto ourselves. It doesn't require us to really respond or be guided by the Israelic law. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Boy, that stuff, same roots, true for all of us. Boy, mom conceived me of sin, I don't know.

Romans 5.12, Therefore, just as though one man sinned under the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all have sinned, we looked at that before, and for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So again, the roots for all of us are identical here.

Lust. What are lusts? Lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh. John mentions it twice in The Price of Life. A passionate longing, a craving, good or bad, by the way, this could be used in kind of an affirmative sense, depending upon the context in which it's used. In context here, nothing good for sure. Lust of the flesh.

Fulfilling the desires in flesh and of the mind. What do you think of I mean, we can, I think, identify pretty clearly with the desires of the flesh. What about the mind? What does the mind feed itself on when you're born in sin and remain as unbelievers in sin? The same kind of things we mentioned with the world system, things that bring glory to self, all the metrics that we mentioned. Any other thoughts there?

I don't think it's my bracket. Your bracket was destroyed long ago. Is that a spiritual comment? This is Sunday School, not March Madness. There's a pool in Seattle that we participate in. We've got some friends there. There's 272 people in it. You're 234 or something. She won last year. She was fifth. Well, if you can win, but 5 out of 300 or whatever it was. Let's get back to Sunday school here.

We can discuss this a little bit. These lusts of the flesh. Do you agree that the basis of this desire is our emotions? What about emotions for the believer? We still all have them. Are emotions always bad? No. Think of an example of a good emotion. Well, Christ did that. He wept. He showed emotion here on earth. Take that as an example. Earlier on in April, the fact that Christ weeping was an emotion, right? Which was not anything that wasn't perfectly holy. Randy, you're pondering. I'm thinking about all of what that did to me. I don't have any thoughts, I'm thinking. Empathizing with people. He also showed happiness. He had all those emotions. Emotions don't necessarily have to be negative, right? But to a large extent, I think, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind really is an emotional connection that is often not and usually not favorable.

All right, and we're by nature children of wrath, just as the others. Children, interesting, technon or techna in the Greek, which is small, just born ones. Children of wrath. So again, back to the roots. The roots are related to being born and conceived in sin. And this earthly position of unbelief beg God's disfavor and wrath to follow.

And we could look at that entire section of Romans 1.18 to 2.19. I think Randy was alluding to this before. But I'll just start that passage off.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Isn't that the world system we live in? The last part always really gets to suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. so much more in our day and age we can fact check so many things we see how man does that inherently in so many different areas just suppresses what's the truth well it's what what can the truth do for me or what can false truth do for me well but the thing is is the world you know exemplifies this and suppressing the truth and unrighteousness does he or she have any idea that that's what they're doing I found it to be interesting because there are some people who are belligerent or willful about that in the case where if I talk about, for example, cosmology, that the universe started through evolution and they leap to that because it means that if that's how we got here, then they don't have to deal with sin because If they say we have sin and God created the world, they know there's a righteous standard. They don't want it. They have intentions that I must find another system. Being a Capricorn is important, right? Now Margaret, remember in New Zealand, what did they say? We're looking up at the south sky, right? Yeah. And remember what they said about the The chronology of that is misplaced by like a month and a half or something.

Everything that's in cosmetology based on the stars is wrong. In terms of the position of the stars when it was developed, right? That was astrology, not cosmetology. Astrology, correct. It could be called that too. A big cover up, yeah. Okay, so just look at the opposition. We got the world. We've got Satan, and we've got the flesh. So who do we blame if we fall short of the glory of God? Adam. Claim Adam. So that's flesh. Yeah, but if Adam hadn't fallen, all of that wouldn't even relate to us. Well, let's see where that takes us.

You know, in fact, I would suggest to you most of the church, meaning global church of the Lord Jesus Christ is a one natures, right? I mean, even though the scripture talks about us as being new creations in Christ Jesus, so what do the One Natures call these things that we fall into that you've called Adam?

Bad habits. What else? Residual marketing, carry over and so on. I think I've mentioned this before, think about being in the emergency room for whatever reason and a psychiatrist comes down to see you and you say, gee ma'am or sir, do you have two natures? Let's get one of these anti-psychiatric kind of medications here to try to deal with this situation.

The devil made me do it, is that our mindset here? The class is silent here. I think we're influenced by all three of these. I would say they compound. After thinking about your statement earlier about emotions are kind of the seed of the desire, what's amazing is that when you look at different world systems or religious systems like Buddhism, they say, ah, if you want to get rid of all desire, you need to just focus on the sound of one hand clapping or whatever there's in... I'm dancing in the spirit.

Yeah. And so we're going to just solve this by you focusing on the hypothetical. Or you look at what the world, you know, what you see on the news. We're going to, I mean, the news fundamentally today is we're going to tell you what to fear. This is what you need to be afraid of. And if you focus on that, then you'll be able to control all the factors and everything will be OK. And if you look at the the commercials in between the news, that it's the flesh, it's the stuff that you need to do.

And they ignore Satan. The evil is always something else. It's never Satan. So his deception is that he hides himself, he masks himself. It's a sad state. And then we go, I believe in Satan, I'm not believing. Jesus Christ, and I believe in God. And the woman's like, oh, you're crazy. But astrology is OK. Astrology, right? Not cosmetology. Cosmetology is OK, too. My teenage daughters think so. There's a reason that came up.

I won't share that with you. But it's a thing where we're so distracted that we forget Colossians 3, even as believers, that we should be setting our minds Well that's where we're going to go here right now. What keeps us from being responsive to all these kind of adverse conditions or thoughts or deeds that relate to who we were in Adam? What keeps us from going there? Tom?

Remember that ditty I sang? Can you sing it again for us please? When the road is rough and steep fix your eyes upon Jesus He alone has power to keep. Fix your eyes upon Him. He is such a faithful friend. One on whom you can depend. He is faithful to the end. Fix your eyes upon Him. Looking up at Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Remember what book we're in and for what reasons. We're all exposed to these things day in and day out.

It's not that we don't study Ephesians 2 and the first part of Ephesians 2 for good reasons because it's a sound doctrine. Remember Ephesians 1 preceded this. All of these are still operational. But we are a separated and positioned people with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Let's read the text here. Let's read Ephesians 1-3. This reminds us of what Paul preceded Ephesians 2 by. Anybody? Ephesians 1-3.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Alright, you just read three, but that's good. I mean, but there was an introduction to that. So, what does that mean to us in terms of our day-to-day walk? We need to focus on who we are. Okay, and how does that happen? By being in the Word, fellowship. Okay.

Or what's the vehicle to get to the truth of Ephesians 1 before we remind ourselves from whence we've come? Do we believe God for what he revealed? He's given us all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, so are we looking up to God to beg his help during our trials and tribulations?

Absolutely not. We need to keep looking down. Looking unto Jesus, yeah, it implies looking up, but if our position's above, we need to look down. And I've shared this before, it really helps ugly circumstances here often, thinking that our citizenship is in heaven, not here. And it's not an intellectual kind of thing. Gee, I'm going to intellectually say that's what it says in Ephesians 1, 3. There's no victory there. It's a response by faith. We all fall short of that all the time. But nevertheless, that's what we're called to do.

So 2 Corinthians 1, 12, I think, deals with this kind of in a soft and gentle way. For our boasting is this. the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves, meaning once lived, in the world. Ephesians 2, 1-3. In simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but the grace of God and more abundantly towards you. So, not with fleshly wisdom, but God's grace opens this door wide open for us to partake of the spiritual blessings which are in heavenly places. Remember, Trials and tribulations should be expected. And what's the will of God for each of our lives? The will of God for the believer.

What is that? To be conformed to the image of the Son. And also to be transformed. So to be conformed and transformed, that's the power of the Spirit and dependent on our faith. We do have a role here. We're not robots. God's not zapping us with his truth. We learn of him through the word and by faith, that's our role, we have to respond by faith to have these things put behind us, the things of Ephesians 2, 1-3. So, we've gone a little bit early. People want to reflect on this passage a little bit more?

Who's teaching next week? I'm sure it is. I'm trying to get through the day. Okay, so I won't be with you next two weeks because I'll be making hospital rounds in the morning. So I'll miss that part. Other thoughts about today's lesson? I think the word dead is useful and instructive here because if he had said you were bad and now you're good, the readers would have said hey this is something I can change by my actions and behavior. But to be dead you cannot have life and spring from deadness. So it's a very instructive term. It's a good perspective, right? Be dead spiritually.

It makes me think of my academic role a little bit. One thing I'm kind of involved with, not as a participant locally here, but more on the steering committees and advisory boards of clinical trials that relate to treatment of people at risk for cardiovascular disease, and a three-point mace, which is major atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease events to follow. So in other words, Randy, you're in the group against placebo. And David, you're in the group that gets the drug. Okay, we're going to study you for five years, high-risk people to see who dies and who doesn't.

By the way, heart attack, stroke, or death from cardiovascular disease. And death is a really hard endpoint. So that's physical death. Everybody likes death as the way to measure something in terms of its effectiveness to prevent, right? So here we're talking about that same death spiritually that the whole world walks in.

Any other parting thoughts or words? All right, let's close in prayer. Roger, please. We thank you, Father. Thank you for the blessings we have in our Savior, Lord. Help us to keep our focus on you. We thank you for our time this day. In Christ's name, amen. Amen. Thank you.