So, if you look with me, I paragraph four, and your Bible is turned to Ephesians two. Okay? Let's look at paragraph four. I'm going to look at Ephesians two. Kind of a continuation here in summary of this whole idea of that federal headship and the significance of that federal headship. What happens as a result of it? Paragraph four. From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed all actual transgressions. I would argue, again, I said when we started, you know, this is the bad news chapter in the confession. Right? I mean, this is, it really is the bad news chapter. And I would say, this is the bad news paragraph in the bad news chapter. It's really short, right? It's the shortest of the paragraphs, but there's like more bad news piled into this short paragraph. Look at it again. From this original corruption, that's bad news, right? That's reminding us of the bad news that came before, which is there is original corruption. From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, we are utterly indisposed to all good. We're disabled as regards all good, and we are made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil. And by the way, that's just the explanation of this original corruption. From this original corruption, do proceed all actual transgressions. So the sins that we commit, proceed from the sin nature that we inherit, the sins that we commit, proceed from the sin nature that we inherit. So it's bad enough that we inherit this sin nature. It's bad enough that we inherit this guilt. And that's enough to condemn us to help. Amen? Just that in and of itself, that all by itself, just being born in that condition and with that predisposition is enough. But then we add insult to injury in that as guilty individuals, we then act upon that nature that causes us to be guilty, and we compound our guilt. And that's just bad news. That's bad news upon bad news. So now let's look at Ephesians chapter two, Ephesians chapter two, and we'll get a picture of this. Start there in verse number one, and you were dead and the trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked. Stop. You were dead and the trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked. This picture of a dead man walking is important, but note the play on words, because dead men don't walk, right? You were dead and the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. So this, this, this deadness here is a special kind of deadness. We are dead in terms of righteousness. We are dead in terms of righteousness. Listen to the corruption, to the confession again, from this original corruption whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled and made opposite to all good and wholly inclined to all evil. That's the deadness that's being referred to here. We are dead to all righteousness. We are incapable of any righteousness. We don't want righteousness. We don't desire righteousness, and we can't be righteous. In order for something to be righteous, it has to be the right thing done the right way for the right reason. If any one of those three is not present, it's not a righteous act. Obviously, if you don't do the right thing, and by the way, this is in relation to the law of God, right? So, obviously, if you don't do the right thing, that's sin. This would be yes. This would be right. If God says, you know, don't steal and you steal, then you haven't done the right thing. That's sin. We get that. But you have to do the right thing the right way. You have to do the right thing the right way, which is the way that God prescribes. You have to do the right thing the right way. And you have to do the right thing the right way for the right reason, and the only right reason is the glory of God. So, if it's not the right thing, sin. If it's the right thing, but it's not done the right way, sin. If it's the right thing done the right way for the wrong reason, sin. You have to meet all three of those criteria for it to be a righteous act. And you are never going to do that under Adam's federal headship. We had some Latin phrases last night. Let me give you some more Latin phrases today. Now, Adam was born, posted an unprocarring, possible not to sit. Amen? It was possible for Adam not to sit. He was born upright and perfect, posted an unprocarring. He did have that choice. He did have that freedom. And he did have that possibility inherent in his nature, posted an unprocarring. Now, after the fall, we are non-post-aid non-procarring. Not possible not to sit. We can't not sit. Not cannot. We can't not sit. It is not possible for us under Adam's federal headship not to sit. Now, again, let's be careful with this, because we see things all the time. We say things all the time. We'll say things like, well, there are non-Christians out there who are more righteous than some of them know. There is no righteous non-Christian. In order for something to be righteous, it has to be the right thing done the right way for the right reason. So if you're a random pagan, and you do something that is outwardly a right thing, I mean, good on you. Amen? But if it wasn't done the right way, and it wasn't done for the right reason, and the only right reason is the glory of God, and if you're a random pagan, you don't do anything for the glory of God, then it wasn't a righteous act. Ranked pagan or pursuer of another religion. So you're doing it to police another God. Well, that in and of itself is sinful, okay? So the idea here is not that men never do things that are outwardly and or apparently good. It is that men are incapable of doing things that are actually righteous. That's the deadness. And it's not kind of dead, it's not almost dead. It's not mostly dead for you, Princess Brad fans. It's dead dead. And so, you know, we have these pictures and these illustrations that we use, and you know, it's just, it's just though you're out there, you know, you're sinking, and you know, you're about to go down for the third and final time, and God throws you the life preserver, and you just have to reach out and grab it. Nope, nope, not a doctor, and I don't play one on TV, but I do know this, dead men don't grab things. Amen? Dead has relates to righteousness. Hence, you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. So there is a spiritual death here, which is why you're walking in trespasses and sins. You're dead to righteousness. That's the death. You're dead to righteousness. And the sinister thing about this is that we're not aware of it.
I'll never forget the first time I heard the gospel. I, again, and I've told many of you this story before, but the gentleman who came to share the gospel with me, first time I heard the gospel was my first year in college, didn't grow up in the church, didn't grow up around Christians, didn't grow up around Christianity. My mother was a practicing Buddhist and a single teenage mother. So the first time I heard the gospel, I'm away at university, 18 years old, and a guy comes and he's sharing the gospel with me, and he asked me a question. He asked me if I believed that I would go to heaven when I died, and my answer was, yeah, I believe I'm gonna have one of that, right? Like, how sure are you? And I said something like 90, 95%, right? And I said 90, 95% because I believe that, again, comparing myself to other people was a good guy. That's also sinister about this. That's also sinister about being dead men walking. We're under Adam's federal headship, and we're walking in sinfulness, but because we're dead spiritually to righteousness, we have no idea the chasm between us and God. We believe we can get there from here. We believe we can drive from Lusaka to Houston. You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. Why? Well, because of the world, the flesh and the devil, that's why following the course of this world, there's one, the world. Following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh. There's the third one, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. And we're by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. That's who we are under Adam's federal headship.
The news is far worse than we think. Again, cause up to this point, we've just been talking about technical stuff, right? Positional stuff, technically and positionally, we're over here, and technically and positionally, we want to be over here and all this, but now the rubber meets the road, and it's like, hey, I'm glad that you understand that technically you're under Adam's federal headship. I'm glad that you get that, but let me explain to you what that actually means in real life. And what that means in real life is you're a dead man walking, you're dead and you don't even know it. You're spiritually dead. You're not under Adam's federal headship and trying to escape it. You're not under Adam's federal headship and feeling uncomfortable with it. You're not under Adam's federal headship and trying to figure out how to transfer from Adam's federal headship to Christ's federal headship. You are under Adam's federal headship and it's all you know and it's all you love and it's all you want and if anybody points it out, you'll fight them to stay there and swear that it's the right place to be. That's the problem. Him being on every side. Look at it again. Dead and the church doesn't have sins in which you once walked. Why were you walking in that? Why were you? Why were you a dead man walking? Number one, following the course of this world. Now here's what you need to understand. That Adam's fall didn't just affect his posterity. Adam's fall affected the entire world. Adam's fall affected all of creation. Look back with me if you will in Genesis chapter three
and look beginning at verse 16. To the woman, he said, I will surely multiply your pain in child bearing and pain you shall bring forth children. You ladies who have gone through childbirth, right? Every time you read that text or hear that text, right, thank you so much Eve. We just, but notice that this sin doesn't just alienate her from God, us from God,
but there are also consequences beyond the spiritual into the physical. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband but he shall rule over you. Now there's the emotional. There's the physical and there's the emotional. Now let's get to verse 17. To Adam he said, because you've listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree which I commanded you you shall not eat of it, curse is the ground because of you. Cursed is the ground because of you. In other words, curse is the world because of you and pain you shall eat of it all days of your life. Forns and dissels, it shall bring forth for you. So thorns and dissels, that's cause of Adam's sin. You should eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread till you return to the ground. For out of the ground you were taken for your dust and to the dust you were returned. There's physical death, but notice before the physical death, there is by the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread. You're going to have to work hard. It's going to be arduous. Now here's what's interesting. A lot of people mistakenly think that work in and of itself is the consequence of the fall. But that's not the case. Go back to chapter two. Go back to chapter two and look at verse one. God doesn't say because you send him on an introduced work. Chapter two verse one, lust the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them. And on the seventh day, God finished his work that he had done. And he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. Three times in chapter two, before the fall, we see God is the first worker. We worked because God worked. We're made in the image of God, by the way. Look at chapter two and verse 15. Then the Lord got to the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. Work is not a byproduct of the fall. In fact, we're gonna work in the New Heaven New Earth. Amen, somebody. But the whole idea of the ground actually being in opposition to you in your work, it's almost as though the earth is now at war with Adam. You're gonna get thorns and dissels and you're gonna get weeds and you're gonna have droughts and you're gonna have, you're going to have to work and fight tooth and nail for everything that you grow out of this ground in order to feed yourself. That's how significant and comprehensive the fall is. Now look at Romans, Romans chapter eight and look at verse 18. For I consider that the suffering of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us, for the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God, for the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together and the pains of childbirth until now and not only the creation, but we ourselves, we have the first roots of the spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly the adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. So the entire creation has been corrupted. But this word here in which you once walked following the course of this world is not just the creation itself, but this world system if you will. So again, remember when we look back at Eve, it's physical in terms of childbirth, it's emotional in terms of antagonism in the merit or relationship, and then it's natural in terms of nature itself, everything is turned on its head. And that's where we live. As as C.S. Lewis would say, sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, we live in this world that is cursed because of sin and that is antagonistic to God. We live in a midst of a world system where because of the noetic effect of sin, every aspect of who we are is affected and infected by this sin. This world tells us when to think and why to think and how to think and what to think about. That's what this world does to us. It's broken, it's corrupt, and it too is antagonistic to our God. And it's all we know, it's all we know. It's interesting, you know, when I was a boy I was fascinated with gangsters. I just was, probably because I grew up in South Central Los Angeles surrounded by gangsters. But I was fascinated with the old gangsters, right, with the guys who, you know, wore double breasted pinstriped suits and fedoras and machine guns. I just, the combination of those things, you know, the wing tips, the whole deal, you know. I was just fascinated. And the interesting thing about that to me was that even in this world, right, we think of the world of gangsters and mobsters as this anything goes kind of world. But it's really not. There's rules. And in many ways they're more serious about the rules than people who live outside of their world. But there's an entire world that they live in with rules that just make sense to them. And in that world there's certain things that you do. And that means I've got to kill you. And it just makes sense. And if you're outside of that world looking into that world, you go, that's crazy. Not if you're in it. If you're in it, it's completely logical. And here's a newsflash. That's us. That's all of us under the federal headship of Adam. Because here's the great irony. When you come away from the federal headship of Adam, and when you come into the federal headship of Christ, it's amazing because you look back and you actually see the world for the first time. It's like the Matrix, right? You look back and you see the world for the first time. And at times it's a hard thing to do. It's a hard thing to actually wrap your head around the fact that you used to think that was okay. You used to reason that way. And it made sense to you. That's the impact of the world. Again, when we think about sin, often, this is the way we often think about it. We'll say, yes, there's original sin because of Adam. And then we go, yes, you know, we sin, but we skip some steps because we say because of the devil. And everything is because of the devil. And so here I am. I'm going along. And every once in a while, the devil will just put something in my way or hell. It's the devil, right? It's the devil. It's the devil. Yes. But yes and. Here's a newsflash. When you look at the world and the flesh and the devil, I'm going to argue that devil himself, his minor player, because number one, we're not that important and he's busy. And number two, the world's got us so wrapped up that that kind of direct influence is not all that necessary. But there is real evil and a real evil one. That's the second part in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit, that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. There's two mistakes that we make when it comes to Satan. One is underestimating. And the other is overestimating. Satan is real. Amen? He's real. He's the prince of the power of the air. And he's the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. And so we're compounding this now. We have the world, this broken world, and this broken system, and it's all we know, and it's all we have, and it's all we love. Again, teaches us how to think, what to think, what to value, what not to value. And then we have the prince of the power of the air, this spirit that is at work in the sons of disobedience in the midst of, this broken world that we inhabit. It's got us hemmed in. And that's only two-thirds of this deadly triad, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and we're by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. There's the last one. It's the flesh. And this is the area and aspect of our sinfulness to which we pay the least attention. I would say Satan is number one, right? I mean, we all, I mean, it's the devil. The devil is busy, the devil is active, the devil did this, the devil did that. Satan is number one. If you're a little more sophisticated than you understand that there's also this fallen world, right? But very few of us pay much attention to the fact that our greatest adversary is our flesh, among whom we all once lived. Number one, in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and of the mind. Turn with me to James. James chapter one. And let's flesh this out. Slow hanging fruit people. Just, you know, James chapter one. Beginning at verse 12, Blessed is the man who remained steadfast under trial. For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Now, verse 13 is pertinent to our discussion. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin and sin when it is fully grown, brings death. Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires by your flesh, by the things that you want, by the things that you yearn for. And this is most potent, again, Satan is deceptive and brilliant. Don't miss that part. This is most sinister and most potent when those passions and desires that we have are almost right. For example, God gives us food. Amen, hallelujah, praise the Lord. And we need it and it is good and enjoyable, but the world of flesh in the devil can even take that and turn it into an occasion for sin. God gives us sexual desires. And that is good, amen? It is necessary for the propagation of the grace, right? It plays a very important role in the relationship between husbands and wives. And again, it is good and the world and the flesh and the devil comes along and takes this God-given passion and desire and tweaks it just a little bit. Eternal living. That is how we were designed. God is the first worker. He puts Adam in the garden to work. We were created to work. Work is good. Work is right. Work is honorable. Work is holy. And yet the world, the flesh and the devil can take that good thing and tweak it just a little bit. And now you can become a greedy, materialistic, workaholic who destroys your life. Right? Again, I could go on, but you get the point. And this is what makes it so deceptive. Notice on the first hand, what did we say? We said that here we are, we're dead men walking and we're deceived and we think we're okay because we do have standards. And all of us are trying to live in accordance with those standards and we look around at other people and we watch the news and we see people who are not living according to those standards when he say, I am good in the world and this is us of that. And the prince of the power of the air nudges us in that direction and then to cap it all off our flesh. And it's desire. Because see, here's another desire. And this is perhaps the most potent of them all and the most dangerous of them all. We desire righteousness. We were created to desire righteousness. But we desire righteousness in and of ourselves. We desire justification. But we desire justification by works. So that we can boast. And the world and the flesh and the devil conspire to make all men religious, to make all men moralists, to make all men legalists so that even when we hear the gospel we think that we have escaped. But the world and the flesh and the devil even conspire at that point to say, oh, okay, that's great. You like that? You like that? We can give you some of that. In fact, we can give you plenty of that. Go to church. It's fine. We don't mind you going to church. Pursue righteousness. It's fine. We don't mind you pursuing righteousness. They're right way. This is long as you're not doing it for the right reason. Because then you're still with us. But it's even better. Because you're with us. You used to be with us and not even know that there was an us. Now you know that there's an us and you're with us. But you think that you're no longer with us. Because you're pursuing legalism and moralism in the name of Christ. And you never transferred federal hatred. And in fact, you become an evangelist for us. Because now in your legalistic self-righteousness, you look down your nose at other people and you call them to join you in ticking off boxes and declaring themselves righteous because they do these things and they don't do those things and remain under the federal headship of Adam. Completely oblivious, completely incapable of all good. Completely averse to all righteousness and yet holding yourselves up as paragons of righteousness. Because the world of flesh and the devil will take that good thing and tweak it ever so slightly. There's only one real answer. You were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the Prince of the Power of the Year, the Spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, caring up the desires of the body and of the mind and we're born nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind, but God. Being rich and mercy because of the great love with which he loved us. Even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him and the heaven and the places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus for by grace you have been saved. Through faith. And that is not your own doing. It is the gift of God not as a result of works so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand and we should walk in them. The only way of escape is repentance and faith. The only way of escape is fleeing from the federal headship of Adam and fleeing to the federal headship of the Lord Jesus Christ and how pretel does this happen through the supernatural, regenerating work of the Spirit of God and only through the supernatural, regenerating work of the Spirit of God. That's it. That's it. The good news is, for those of us who are here, God has brought you to a place where you've heard this, you're hearing this and not without reason. There are some perhaps who have come still under the federal headship of Adam and yet by God's grace you came here and you came now so that by God's grace somebody could show you and tell you that you're a dead man walking. Amen? So that by God's grace you might flee from the judgment to come. So that by God's grace your eyes might be opened. That by God's grace your hardened heart could be transformed from a heart of stone to our flesh so that by God's grace you recognize the futility of self-justification so that by God's grace you recognize that you can't get there from here and that by God's grace you cry out to Him in repentance and faith acknowledging and turning away from your sin fleeing from the federal headship of Adam and pleading for God to mercifully unite you to Christ reckoning your sin to Him imputing your sinfulness to Him and imputing His righteousness to you so that you indeed might be justified and reconciled and redeemed and all those beautiful things that we've heard and my prayer is that if that's you that that's precisely what happens that God would be so kind as to rescue you from your sin at a conference about the worst news that you'll ever hear in your life may it be so. Let's pray.