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 together with Christ.” No missing Paul’s ability to weave in, in two verses, verses 2 and 3; his ability to tell you from verse 1, “This your condition, now let me tell you your condition. Your condition is verses 2 and 3: the world, the flesh and the devil.” “I’m not that bad.”
Man, I could tell you I rationalized. When I met Dr. Scott and before I met Dr. Scott, “Those people are bad. I’m not bad. I’m basically a good person.” That’s what we do. We rationalize our behavior. And I’ve been highly criticized for this, “Must you abase yourself? Yes, because I want Him to elevate me. This is the problem that happens with; I hate to say it; it’s the problem with almost every single religious leader. Except for Dr. Scott, I have yet to hear a person on the platform of any pulpit say as the speaker, “I’m a sinner, being saved by grace.” I’ve yet to hear somebody step forward and say, “Hey, I’m just like you. The only difference is I’m standing up here having to do this work that God charged me to do. But I’m just like you. I’ve got blood in my veins and I can fall just as hard as you.”
Pastor Melissa Scott tells us that he’s pretty clever. You read and you can circle these words. They will stand out when you circle them. Circle in verse 2 “the world,” circle “the prince of the power of the air,” that’s the devil and verse 3 circle “the flesh.” Oh he’ll go on to elaborate it in verse 6, in chapter 6 rather. He’ll go on to elaborate about “the world, the flesh and the devil.” It says you first, you walked in times past you walked, you lived, you were in, you were a possession of the world.
