Alienation - Corruptness Series

21 States of Man without God

(First in series)

In today’s message we are going to start a series on the state or conditions of man without God. In this series we will cover 21 states each of us may have been in or are currently in right now. And in looking at these conditions that we find ourselves in we will need to reflect very carefully upon what it is that we desire most in our lives: to live temporally in this world, which means we are spending more time working on the worldly things and little to no time on the spiritual things. Those spiritual things include reading the Bible, spending time in prayer with God, finding time to worship God, and spending time in service to God through a church and fellowship with other Christian believers. In so doing, we are led to understand and accept the gift of salvation through Christ Jesus, living an eternal life in heaven. While being worldly leads us away from God to live a life of eternity in the lake of fire. And in so looking at our condition we should realize that we do need to turn to the One True and Living God to save us from ourselves.

1. Alienation

a. This is the state of being withdrawn or isolated from the God that loves you, by way of our indifference or disaffection.

b. It is a willful act on our part to purposefully turn away from God. Because God has never pushed us away, but we decide to walk away.

c. This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. ~Ephesians 4:17-19

d. In this passage the apostle Paul is speaking to the church in Ephesus, asking them to stop being as others are, walking in ways that seem right to themselves, but in fact are contrary to God. That by their very acts are trying to hide from the true knowledge of God and using the sins of the world as a cloak for their decision to turn away from God’s love.

e. Although this passage was written some 2000 years ago, it still speaks of our condition today. We too try to hide from God by rationalizing our sinful actions into something that seems right for us and using sinful society as the reinforcement for what we do in our walk from God.

f. Don’t be fooled when society tells you that God doesn’t exist, or if He exists, He is not concerned with you. Turn back to the Lord and receive the everlasting life He wants for you.

g. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ~Romans 5:8

h. So, let us turn from the state of alienation and turn to the state of grace. God so loved us that He gave His only Son for our sins. Don’t alienate yourself from the God of love.

2. Blindness

a. This is the state of willfully ignoring the truth of the Word of God, a state by which we cover our physical and spiritual eyes with the things of the world. And the Bible speaks of this blindness and tells us that Satan, through our willing participation causes us to not see the salvation that Jesus came to give us.

b. But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him, that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: “Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again: “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, Lest they should see with their eyes, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.” These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him. ~John 12:37-41

c. And again in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 we read:

i. But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

d. We see here that Jesus stands ready to heal us of our sinful nature, but we refuse by turning away from the light and stare into darkness. The light is indeed bright, but it is necessary for us to see, to see the sinful state that we are in.