Ephesians 2 v 1 thru 3

Transcript

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There are few passages in scripture that describe the natural condition of mankind more plainly, more clearly, more thoroughly, in a more sobering way than Ephesians 2 verses 1 through 3. And if we are to understand the greatness of God's grace, first we have to understand the depth of our own ruin. And if we were to ignore that, then we fail to understand the greatness of God's grace. First, we have to understand how what our condition is without Christ. And before Paul tells us what God has done for us in Christ, he tells us what we were apart from Christ. And what we find is not a flattering picture. God didn't save us because we were just such wonderful people. He saved us in spite of ourselves. And so what we find here is not a wounded humanity. It's not people who are down in a pit of despair or just misguided. But what we find is a description of dead people, spiritually dead. And scripture and a solid understanding of scripture has for a long, long time emphasized that a right knowledge of sin is essential for us to have a right knowledge of salvation. That for us to truly understand what we have been saved from, we need to understand just how vile sin is to us and how damaging it is to us. John Calvin wrote that man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first looked upon God's face and then descends from contemplating him to scrutinize himself. So we stop thinking about who God is and what God has done, and we understand who we are. We begin to look at ourselves in the mirror. I've said before, you know, it troubles me when I hear people, you know, they're going through troubles and trials and struggles and whatever it is, and they say, Boy, the devil's really been after me this week. No, you want to see your worst enemy? Go look in the mirror. Your own flesh, my own flesh. That's the worst enemy we have. And so, yes, we have an enemy who absolutely is the enemy of our souls. But the reality is he doesn't need to be after us. We'll fall into enough sin of our own because we fight flesh that is tainted and stained with sin. And we will until the moment we are in the presence of God out of this world, because sin will be there, temptation will be there. And so it's important that we understand that. And when we come to that understanding, when we scrutinize ourselves, as Calvin said, then Ephesians 2, verses 1 through 3 really becomes for us a mirror of a soul that is apart from the grace of God. And so let's walk through this text, keeping in mind three headings here: that we are dead in sin, that we are enslaved to evil powers, and that we are children of wrath. Let's begin. We're just going to look at verses 1 through 3 this morning of Ephesians 2. It says, And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 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, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. Let's pray. Father, thank you again for your word. Lord, I pray that as we study it together this morning, that your Spirit would speak to us through your word, that we might know you more, that we might understand ourselves even more, and that it might cause us to grow, as your word tells us, into the fullness of the stature of Christ. Lord, may your word be exalted, may you be exalted, and may it all be done for your glory in Christ's name. Amen. So Paul begins this chapter with those words, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. He begins with a shocking statement. That's a nice sentiment, but it's not the true story. We weren't sick in sin, we were dead in sin. There's a tradition that says that, you know, when we come to faith in Christ, see, we're down in this pit and we're all alone, and through the cross, God made a ladder that he puts down in the pit, and we have to climb out of the pit to get to God. Can I tell you, dead people don't climb ladders? Okay, we talked about this morning in Sunday school, and we're those of you who aren't coming, I encourage you to come. We're studying a book by John MacArthur. It's called Hard to Believe, and it talks about the biblical gospel and what the biblical gospel is. And it talks about doctrines like God's sovereignty, and it talks about doctrines like election and things that people struggle with because they don't know what those things mean. They think they know what they mean, or they've been told a caricature of what those things mean, but that's not really what they mean. Paul says that you were dead. He doesn't say you were sick, he doesn't say you were weak, he doesn't say that you're spiritually struggling. He says, apart from Christ, you were dead in sin. Spiritually dead. The meaning of that, it's not a physical death, but it's a spiritual death. It means that we are separated from the life of God. And it's not that we come to saving faith in Christ and now poof, all of a sudden we're just like Jesus. Those of you who were here remember a number of years ago, I had Jerry come stand over here, and I had Roger come stand over here. And I it was an illustration I saw R. C. Sproul do one time where you know we're gonna we're gonna say that we called it, said we said Jerry was the devil and that Roger was Jesus. And the problem is that we tend to think when we come to saving faith, we go from here all the way over to here. I'm just like Jesus. Positionally, yes. Positionally, yes. Why? Because at the very moment someone puts their faith and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, they are clothed in his righteousness. It's that time of the service. This is almost a weekly thing, on our behalf. God made him who knew no sin to be sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5, 21. The reality is this that, yes, positionally, we are moved from there to there, from death to life, from darkness to light. Paul in Colossians says that you were transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light in God's beloved Son. Those are positional things, but they're not practical. What I mean is it's not the way we live. We don't now live just like Jesus and never sin again. Why? Because we live in a body of flesh that is stained with sin, and we are tempted, and we are tried, and we struggle, and we fall, but we get back up. And the grace of God brushes us off. And, you know, like you would your kid. Gives us a little pat on the bottom, like, okay, keep moving. It's not that we go from being as evil as we could be, that's that's that's not what scripture says. I don't believe any of us is as evil as we could be before Christ, to being perfect. But what it says is you were dead, now you're alive. I know we haven't got to those verses yet. We'll get there next week. Okay, starting at verse 4. But this condition that we are in, apart from Christ, of spiritual death is confirmed in Scripture. Right, starts right in the very beginning. In Genesis chapter 2, verse 17, God gave some instructions earlier than that, in chapter 2. He's giving instructions to Adam and to Eve, and he says, You can eat of any tree you want. Except for that one. Don't eat of that tree. And in verse 17, he says, Because in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. Now, you want to see grace? When they did eat of it, they didn't die physically that day. They died spiritually that day. Because sin entered in. Now there was death, right? Because right after that it says that God killed an animal and took the skins and made clothes for them because now they had the knowledge of good and evil and they understood that they were naked and they needed to cover themselves because they were ashamed. So death happened then. Romans 5.12, sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin. Colossians 2.13, you who were dead in your trespasses, God made alive. So to be spiritually dead means that we have no ability to seek God. I know we hear people say all the time, oh, you just don't understand. I know so-and-so, and he or she, boy, they were really seeking after God, and then they got saved. This may upset your theological apple cart, but uh no, they weren't. They were seeking the benefits of Christ because they'd seen in the lives of believers around them peace, just a sense of calm. When the world was falling apart. Had a great conversation with Amos Wednesday night. Amos in the same boat I am. Amos's job is going away. What's he gonna do? He said, I don't know. I'm trying to make up my mind. I've had about 10 job offers already. He knows God's gonna take care of it. I know God's gonna take care of mine. And so the picture is that we see those, we see believers who go through sometimes horrendous things, and they go through it with absolute peace, and the grace of God poured out on them, and lost people go. Man, I want that. So they're looking for the benefits that God provides. They're not looking at God. How do I know that? Well, because Romans 3.11 says, there's no one who does good, there's no one who seeks after God. Left of our own, left to our own devices, we would never ever seek God. Why? Because we're dead in our sin. Because we are at enmity, that means warring with God. Because, as John 3.18 says, 3.18, 19, 20 talks about those who walk in darkness, they they like it because their deeds are evil and they don't want it brought into the light. And so we we have this problem that being spiritually dead means we don't seek after God. And then we have no desire for God. Romans 8, 7, and 8 tells us that. We have no capacity to please God. Hebrews 11. The great faith chapter. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. And then there's this thing that's called total depravity. It's not that we I hinted at this earlier, it's not that we are as evil as we could be, but that sin has corrupted every part of our being until and unless we come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. Even our walking is ironic. And you were dead in the trespasses and the sins in which you once walked. That means how we live our lives on a day-to-day basis. We get over to the middle of this book in chapter four, and Paul says, so therefore, walk worthy of the manner to which you were called. That means carry yourself that way in your daily life. Our walking in verse 1 is ironic because we are active, we're physically active, but we're spiritually dead. And we are moving, but we're lifeless toward God. We live, we breathe, we think, we choose, but always within the realm of sin. Then we are enslaved to evil powers, verse 2, in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air. Paul now expands on what that death looks like in a practical sense. It's not passive, it is enslaved. We're following the world. We follow the course of this world. 1 John 2, verses 15 and 16 tells us do not love the world. Mentions things like the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life. See, the devil's really only got three tools. He just packages them different every now and then. The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life. Nothing new under the sun. Just wrapped up different. And so we are, as believers in Christ, we understand Paul wrote again to the church in Rome, he said, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds. The world here is not speaking of creation, the earth itself, but it's speaking of the system that is in rebellion against God. That we follow the course of this world. We once lived in step with cultural rebellion. I remember as a kid, little kid back in the 70s, especially growing up in the Bay Area of California at that time, literally drove across a bridge and I was in San Francisco. To me, that was a whole different world. I remember I was probably eight years old. And my oldest brother was ten years older than me. I think he was going to pick up his paycheck. He worked for a company that their office was in San Francisco. And so we drove over there, and I remember the first time I ever saw two guys walking down a sidewalk holding hands. And I was like, that's weird. It's kind of strange. I mean, I'd seen my parents hold hands. I'd seen my oldest sister and her husband hold hands. I'd never seen two guys hold hands before. That was weird. They were following the course of this world. They were in that cultural rebellion. I mean, I remember reading about, I was born in the 60s, late 60s, but I remember reading about and hearing about the sexual revolution of the 60s and free love and all of that nonsense. Following cultural rebellion. Why? Because unless and until we come to faith in Christ, we are absolutely in rebellion against God. We are warring against Him. We also lived in step with moral relativism. Well, as long as it works out for me. Whatever's good for me, I don't see anything wrong with it. Because at that point in life, we think we're sitting on the throne of our own lives. We think we're God. I'm in charge. And also the problem we have is self-centered ambition. Those are those people we experience and encounter in life that they don't care whose head they have to step on to climb the ladder to get to whatever they're trying to get to. We thought we were free, but in reality, we were just conforming. We were conforming to our nature, to our condition of being dead in sin. And then Paul intensifies the language. He says, following the prince of the power of the air. That's a description of Satan. John 8, 44, you are of your father, the devil. That's Jesus talking to the religious leaders. 2 Corinthians 4 4, the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers. Those are all references to Satan. See, unbelievers are not neutral, they are under the influence of a spiritual leader. And that spiritual leader is Satan. That's when we are enslaved to sin. Then he says, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. This is it's important to note that this is in the present tense. He doesn't say he was at work in the sons of disobedience, but he is at work. Apart from Christ, this is still true. Satan is still at work in a person who does not know Christ as Lord and Savior. And there are spiritual forces that are actively shaping their thoughts, their desires, their choices. And it's why moral reform alone cannot save. The problem is not just our behavior. The problem is that we are in bondage to sin through slavery to Satan. It's the very picture, again, I mentioned this in Sunday school that we can teach people to follow rules, and they will be a rule follower who still goes to hell. Because keeping rules saves no one. And that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works. Except for the finished work of Christ on the cross. Not of works, so that we have nothing to boast about. Paul even says, if I boast, let me boast in the cross of Christ. We have this problem that everyone is involved in. This. How do we know? Well, Paul removes any sense of moral superiority on the part of anyone because he says, Among whom we all once lived. He writes to the church in Corinth and he gives this whole list of sexual deviants. People who are immoral. And he says, And such were some of you. The reality is, he says here that we all once lived that way. So he's talking about Jews and Gentiles. He's talking about religious people and irreligious people. He's talking about moral and immoral people. Why? Because Romans 3.23 says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Nothing within ourselves is anything to boast about. You know, today the world would tell us, oh, look inwardly. You want to find light and hope and peace. Look inside yourself. No, look outside yourself, because inside yourself you're going to find a heart that is deceitfully wicked above everything else. Until and unless Christ removes that heart of stone and gives you a heart of flesh. So he says that no one can escape this diagnosis either, because it's the flesh within. We're carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. Sin is not just external, it is internal. Jeremiah 17, 9 says, the heart is deceitful above all things. It will lead us astray. Just follow your heart. No, please don't. Please don't. Mark 7, 21 through 23 tells us that essentially evil comes from within. We don't have to go look for it. Even our minds are corrupted because we sin because we want to sin. It is our nature to sin. And the great theologian Jonathan Edwards said that the will is as the greatest apparent good is. The will is as the greatest apparent good is. In other words, we always choose what we desire most. And apart from grace, that desire is always corrupted, apart from God's grace. And then he says we are by nature children of wrath. I think this is probably the most sobering part of this whole passage. By nature, not just by action, but our nature. See, what that tells us is that people aren't sinners because they sin. They sin because of their condition of being sinners. I said a week or two ago, it boggles my mind when I hear professing believers in Christ saying, I can't believe so-and-so did that. That is so vile. Yeah. That's their nature. I'm not excusing it away, but what I'm saying is that's the behavior we should expect from lost people. And we shouldn't be surprised. Instead, we should be there saying, see, that was me too. But God sent his son. We don't jump on our soapbox and become, you know, the church lady and I'm holier than thou. We stand there understanding, I've got nothing to give you except the gospel, because apart from it, I'm just like you. Without the grace of God, there am I. So, Psalm 51, verse 5, Paul's great Psalm of Repentance. He says, In sin did my mother conceive me. He's not talking about his parents not being married when he was conceived. He's saying, I was born a sinner, just like you. John 3.36, whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. God's wrath is not arbitrary, it is just.

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R.

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C. Sprole wrote, God's wrath is not a capricious explosion of temper, but his settled righteous opposition to sin. His settled righteous opposition to sin. We are not merely in danger of wrath, we are under God's wrath until we come to saving faith in Christ, and that wrath is transferred to Christ on the cross. The great exchange. He takes our wrath and sin and gives us his righteousness. So this passage leaves us with kind of a devastating picture that we're dead in sin, that we're enslaved to the world, the flesh, the devil, we're under the righteous wrath of God. But this is not the end of the story. Because verse four begins with my two favorite words in all of Scripture. This is who you were. But God. So this humbles us. It tells us there's no room for pride. I have nothing in myself to boast about. Because our salvation is entirely of grace. It clarifies our evangelistic efforts. When we share the gospel with people, they don't need us to give them advice. They need resurrection power. They need to be brought from death to life. And the only way that happens is that we declare to them the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then it magnifies grace because when we see how lost we were, we marvel at how God completely saves. Every time I look in the mirror, I can't help but think, me? You chose and saved me. I don't get it. But I'm sure glad I got it. I don't understand it, but I'm glad he saved me. Charles Spurgeon said that no man can know his need of a savior until he knows his danger of damnation. If you're in Christ, remember what you were and be thankful that you're not that anymore. If you're not in Christ, this is your condition today. You are dead in the trespasses and sins that you are walking in. But the same God who raises the dead is the one who calls you to faith in his son through the gospel. So turn to Christ. Trust in him. The God who judges sin is also the God who saves sinners. That's the good news. And next time we'll see but God being rich in mercy. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word again today. Lord, I praise you for your grace.