And this is Leslie Curran saying hello and welcome in the Saviour's name to our Gospel broadcast. I'm glad you're joining us today and here to let the Bible speak is the Reverend John Greer. I want to bring your attention today to Ephesians chapter 2 and the verses 1 to 3. Those verses read as follows.

And you hath he quickened who were dead in 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, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. John Newton, the 18th century English minister and author of many great hymns, including Amazing Grace, had pinned on the wall above his desk a text from Deuteronomy 16 verse 12, which reads, and thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt. Now, as is obvious, the purpose of these words was to have Israel, to whom they were first written, keep in mind what they had been prior to their redemption from Egypt, a nation of slaves to Pharaoh and his taskmasters.

How ironic Deuteronomy 16 verse 12 was as far as John Newton was concerned. He had been a slave trader in his own converted days, dealing in the bodies of helpless victims from the coasts of Africa. Yet at the same time, he was a slave himself, a slave to sin, living a life of terrible wickedness, before that Amazing Grace of which he wrote reached him.

Afterwards, as a minister of the gospel, he never wanted to forget what he had been. Therefore, the text was above his desk, thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt. Now, what Newton did in his way is what the Holy Spirit does through the apostle Paul in the text now before us.

He reminds the Lord's people of what they once were, of the condition that they had been in. It should be noticed that what Paul says here is for both Jew and Gentile. The U of verse 1 refers to the Gentile, the we of verse 3 includes the Jew.

Therefore, Paul is reiterating what is found in Romans 3.23, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Therefore, all believers are to remember what their condition once was. They are to remember the rock from which they were hewn, that there might be a Jew humility regarding their own standing in God's sight.

However, while the thrust of these verses is to remind believers of their former condition prior to conversion, yet the same verses are a stark revelation of why sinners need to be saved. Here are verses which in the plainest possible fashion depict the desperate and the urgent need that unconverted souls have of the saving grace of God. With reference again to John Newton, church history shows that the record of his remarkable conversion and subsequent life of godliness has been a constant testimony to others of their own need of salvation.

And the same is true of the divine record of the conversion of these Gentiles at Ephesus. What the Lord did for them is a most striking reminder of why sinners need to be saved. It could not be emphasized sufficiently that your need to be saved is just as desperate as was the need of the pagans of Ephesus.

May the Lord show you the extent and the reality of that need as we look here at these verses, Ephesians 1 to 3, at the subject of why men need to be saved. There are some reasons why sinners need to be saved. First of all, there is the sinner's deadness.

In verse 1 it says, you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Notice with me this deadness in which the sinner is found. It is of course a spiritual deadness that's in view and the cause of this deadness is clearly portrayed.

Notice the words dead in trespasses and sins. Now in the original language there is no separate word for in. Rather the words trespasses and sins are in a particular form which denotes the idea of instrumentality.

And therefore the verse is saying that a sinner is spiritually dead because of his trespasses and sins or on account of his trespasses and sins. It is those trespasses and those sins that have caused his deadness. Sin therefore may be looked on as a robber of life.

It is a thief because it cuts men off from God, the source of all spiritual life. The Lord alone of course is the giver of life. In John 10 verse 10 Christ says, I have come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.

So the Lord says that he came that men might have life. He is the author of all life. Life can only be produced in three ways, remember, either by creation or

“The message from Ephesians 2:1–3 explains that every person, whether Jew or Gentile, is naturally spiritually dead because of sin and therefore desperately needs God's saving grace. Using the example of John Newton, the former slave trader who never forgot his life before Christ, the sermon reminds believers to remember what they were before salvation with humility and gratitude. Sin separates people from God, the source of spiritual life, leaving them without a true relationship with Him, no desire for His Word, and no appetite for spiritual things, while remaining fully alive to the pleasures of the world and the flesh. Just as a physical corpse has no feeling, sight, or strength, the unconverted sinner is spiritually lifeless until God, through His life-giving power, "quickens" or makes them alive in Christ. The sermon concludes by urging all who are still spiritually dead to come to Christ, who alone can give eternal life and restore them to God.”

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by birth or by resurrection.

And the Lord alone can exercise these three great means of producing life and only the Lord can produce any form of life and every form of life. Now the vital point is that in the spiritual realm the Lord produces spiritual life by these same three means. So when he created man at the very beginning he gave him life.

In Genesis 2 verse 7 it says that Adam was made and then God breathed into him and he became a living soul. The word there for life in that verse is plural so that means that man was given all forms of life including spiritual life. So unfallen man had the Holy Spirit in him but with the fall he lost the spirit and became spiritually dead.

And there is much evidence in scripture to show that men do not have the spirit of God therefore they are dead. They are spiritually dead and they're spiritually dead because of sin. When Adam chose to disobey God he chose sin and in doing so he chose the robber of life.

And therefore since we all are descended from Adam we have done the very same thing both in Adam and for ourselves in our own lives. We have chosen sin and we have chosen that which is the robber of life and therefore we have brought ourselves into a state of deadness. So the cause of this deadness is our own sin.

Then there is the character of this deadness. It is of course spiritual deadness as we have noticed and just exactly what is spiritual deadness? Well it means that there is no vital relationship with God. The sinner is lifeless toward God though at the same time there is an active principle of sin in that soul that is dead toward God.

Now what a paradox the sinner is. He's dead toward God but he's very much alive toward all that is not of God. How can we depict this deadness toward God? Well we can do so by drawing parallels between the physically and the spiritually dead.

You see a corpse for example has no feeling and that is obvious to any of us but the sinner in a sense has no feeling in that he has no feeling for God or toward God. He has no relationship with God and therefore there is no desire after the Lord. There's no interest in the things of God.

There is no purpose of soul to see God's name glorified and his cause advanced. There is no concern when his name is blasphemed. There is no indignation when his law is broken.

Instead the spiritually dead live only for themselves and for their own comforts. They have absolutely no interest in those things that pertain to life and godliness. They have no feeling concerning those things whatsoever.

A corpse also has no sight. There may be light all around the corpse but the lifeless eye cannot receive it and so it is with the sinner. There is no light and no sight in the sense that there is no understanding of the truth yet there's an understanding on the other hand of the ways of sin and the world and there's an avid pursuit of those things.

So while the sinner is dead spiritually and has no relationship with God at the same time he is very very much in act of rebellion against the Lord and he has no feeling for God. He has no understanding of the things of the Lord. He has no interest in them and then of course a corpse if we take this analogy one more step a corpse has no ability to taste and therefore since sinners are dead and their sins have no relationship with God they have no appetite for the things of God.

There's no appetite for the Bible or for prayer or for fellowship with other believers but what an appetite there is for things that are sensual and things that are carnal. Oh there's a much of an appetite for those things. There's a constant longing and craving for them and desire after them.

The list is manifold therefore we use this analogy of the corpse being a representation of the man who's dead in his sins. We could go on and say there's no hearing, there's no movement, there's no strength all with regard to spiritual things but what an exercising there is of every carnal ability in the realm of the flesh and the unregenerate state. So the man, the sinner without God is dead because of his sin and that deadness is a spiritual deadness where he has no relationship with the Lord but thank God there is the conquest of this deadness.

You hath he quickened and those words that word quicken means to give life so the spiritual deadness of the sinner is conquered by the quickening power of God. The power that is able to bring about the new birth and give to the sinner a love for the Lord and a desire for spiritual things. May you today seek after Christ.

You need to be saved. You're spiritually dead. Go to Christ and he will give you life and life more abundant.