Eph.2:1-14 Our Past, Present, And Future

EPH.2:1-14 OUR PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE 9-3-11

1And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Paul here points out man's condition outside of Christ-- the unsaved person is the same as a corpse, a walking dead man, --Jesus told Nicodemos in

John 3:17-18 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

2Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, (the unsaved person is controlled by the attractions of the world) according to the prince (ruler) of the power of the air, (Satan) the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: (the sin nature) 3Among whom (lost sinners) also we all (Jews as well) had our conversation (passed behavior, how we once lived)-- 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.

By nature means, the natural unsaved person, one not yet born again supernaturally.

1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

let me tell you about a man where I worked back in 83, when our 16 year old youngest son along with two other young boys were killed in a car wreck, I of coarse stayed out of work for a few days, the 1st Sunday after the funeral when I woke up I told my wife that I believe I'll go to church, she didn't say a word, she got up and we both got ready, I was 40 years old and couldn't have told you what book John 3:16 was in, and let me say that when we went to bed that Saturday night it never crossed my mind to go to church in the morning, as I look back on it I realize that God was in it all the way, I remember the Preacher was Brother Burl Hendrix but I couldn't tell you what he preached, but I can tell you that know how the drawing power of the Holy Ghost feels, so I made things right with God that morning and it so happened that' that night they were having a baptismal service, so I was Baptist that same night with 4 or 5 others, I'll have to say that I had no idea about what it meant, but I wanted to do what was right, and I knew it was the right thing to do.

I was saved at an earlier time when I was about 8 years old but never had any one to take me under their wing and take me to church and so when I was old enough to get out into the sinful things of the world I did, but any way, this man at work didn't know that while I was out those few days that I turned my life over to Jesus so he came out to the department that I worked in and proceeded to tell me a dirty joke like he had before all this happened, I knew that he didn't know about me going to church and asking God to forgive me and help me to do right so I was not at all offended by what he said, so I listened to his joke and then I ask him to go to church with me this coming Sunday, and to my surprise he said, "I go to church, I teach Sunday school" ---he was a member of a Baptist Church--

I said to him did he know that he was a hypocrite, he turned red in the face and said yes, and from then on he was a different person when I talked with him, we were friends so it didn't make him mad when I said that, I haven't seen him in many years, and as for as I'm concerned we're still friends.

I've said all that to say that the ways of the world are still all around us even after we're saved, in fact even more so, the devil will send things our way that before we never thought very much about, he knows he can't damn our soul once we're saved but he will never leave us alone, he wants to ruin our testimony, but I'm so glad that we read in

1 John 1:7 -10 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.