Evangelist Herman E. Wesley III
God’s Bail-Out Of Man’s Sinful Condition
Ephesians 2:1-7 (New International Version)
PRELIMINARIES
INTRODUCTION
The subject assigned to me for today’s presentation is:
GOD’S BAILOUT OF MAN’S SINFUL CONDITION, and the text assigned comes from Ephesians 2:1-7. I’m reading from the New International Version:
READ TEXT
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
Now before I begin, I think I’d better define our primary term.
BAIL-OUT.
Wikipedia defines bail-out as an act of giving capital to a company in danger of failing, in an attempt to save it from bankruptcy, insolvency, or total liquidation and ruin; or to allow a failing company to fail gracefully without spreading contagion, or disease.
BAIL-OUT became a popular word in our modern vernacular during the last few months of the presidency of George W. Bush, and continued in practice under President Barack Obama. However, long before we knew what the word meant, the process of the Bail-Out had been in practice since the beginning of time. From the very moment God created man, God has been involved in Spiritual or Divine Bail-Outs! He bailed out Adam when He saw that it wasn’t good for Adam to mate with goats, donkeys, chimpanzees! God Bailed him out by creating woman! That’s a Divine Bail-Out! It was a Bail-Out when God didn’t kill Adam and Eve right there in the Garden of Eden when they disobeyed, but drove them out and forced Adam to work the soil...that was a Divine Bail-Out! It was a Bail-Out when God destroyed the whole world with water, but saved Noah and his household because Noah found grace and favor in the eyes of the Lord...that was a Divine Bail-Out! And brother’s and sister’s, God has been in the Bail-Out business ever since!
Now since we have a limited time frame to work with, I want to share three things with you that I see in this very information packed text:
THE NEED FOR THE BAIL-OUT.
THE PROCESS OF THE BAIL-OUT.
THE RESULT OF THE BAIL-OUT.
THE NEED FOR THE BAIL-OUT.
According to our text, there was a definite need for man to be Bailed Out! Now, remember, the definition we are working with says that a Bail-Out is an act of giving capital to a company in danger of failing, and without a doubt, man was in a failing condition, and we needed to be saved from ourselves. Verse 1 says:
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.
Mankind is lost without Jesus. Without Jesus, we are without hope. Without Jesus we are in the caldron of our own transgressions and sins. Do I need to list them? Alcoholism, adultery, fornication, lying, stealing, murder, drunkenness, debauchery of all kinds, homosexuality, hateful, prideful, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Without Christ we are like a ship without a sail, drifting aimlessly on the ocean of life, susceptible to the stormy gales of destruction and damnation. Read the newspaper, or turn on the news....destruction abounds everywhere. Kidnappings, murder, terrorism...people have no boundaries when they are without Christ, and will do any and everything their heart desires. This is a sad existence when it is an existence without Christ. Paul intimates in Romans 6:19 that when we are in the flesh we yield our members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity. We were numbered among the living dead:
Getting up in the morning...but dead.
Making breakfast in the kitchen...but dead.
Putting our keys in the ignition and traveling off to work...but dead.
We looked alive, smelled alive, behaved like we were alive, but without Christ we were dead!
Dead to salvation!
Dead to reconciliation!
Dead to redemption!
DEAD, DEAD, DEAD!
All of our activities, all of our movement, all of our wretchedness, even when we fooled ourselves into thinking it was righteousness, were never counted towards our goodness, because we were dead! We needed a Savior! We needed a Deliverer! We needed a Bail-Out!
We needed to find purpose in our life. Are we here just to enjoy ourselves, going to and fro existing, but with no real purpose; or were we created for something far greater than fancy cars, fat bank accounts, exalted titles and McMansions? I believe we were created for more than that, and thank God, He did, too! In the midst of our depravity...in the midst of our shortcomings...in the midst of our sin, God created a process...
THE PROCESS OF THE BAIL-OUT.
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions
Because God loved us. The text says “because of His GREAT LOVE for us...” I can’t rush through this. You see, sometimes it’s hard to love folk when they don’t do right. Sometimes, for those of us who are still growing, it’s rather difficult to imagine doing something good for someone who doesn't deserve it....But that’s the kind of God we serve! Aren’t you glad He doesn’t give us what we deserve? Murderers deserve to die! Thieves deserve to die! People who abuse others deserve to die! Let me come a little closer to your neighborhood...can ya’ll take this? Fornicators deserve to die, adulterers deserve to die! Liars and gossipers deserve to die! Now, I’m not talking about the electric chair or lethal injection, but the result of mankind’s sin is eternal separation from God...
I Corinthians 6:9 (NIV):
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
That’s our Bail-Out! Even though we WERE DEAD, through Christ, we were MADE ALIVE! God gave us His Son as a Sacrifice! Christ humbled himself and took on all of our shame and all of our sin to save our sorry souls! He raised us from the dead, by allowing His own son to pay the penalty for our sins! Christ was made sin FOR us!
Someone may ask, “How does God resurrect the dead?” Well, if your name is Lazarus, and if you lived and died in Bethany, He makes you alive by standing in a graveyard and shouting your name! But if your name is Murry, or Roberts, or Elkins or Wesley, the process He employs is your Hearing the Gospel...Luke 11:28; your Belief in Christ as the Son of God; Mark 16:15,16; Your sincere and heartfelt repentance, Acts 17:30; Your grand and noble confession that Jesus is the Christ, Romans 10:10, and your baptism for the remission of sins, to gift you with His Holy Spirit, to add you to His Church, Acts 2:38 and Acts 2:42!
THE RESULT OF THE BAIL-OUT.
And now, you are in Christ. That’s the result of the Bail-Out! In Christ! In His Church! In His Care! In His Hands! Look at the text again...
God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him!
Sin took us down, but God raised us up!
We were lost, but now we’re found!
We were useless, but now we’re useful!
We were strangers, but now we’re family!
Sin took us down, but God raised us up!
Up for a new walk! Up for a new talk! Up for a new way of living, and giving, and sharing and witnessing!
Up for a testimony that God CAN!
God CAN add value to a life that was worthless!
God CAN bring light out of darkness!
God CAN pick you up out of the miry clay!
God CAN set your feet upon a rock!
God CAN straighten out crooked paths!
God CAN level every mountain!
God CAN heal the sin-sick soul!
and When you understand how low he had to reach to pull you up!
When you understand how far away from him you were when he sought you and bought you with His redeeming blood!
When you understand that you are no longer under the influence of the Prince of the Power of the air, and that sin is no longer a master, but a choice...you’re gonna be more mindful of who you are and who you represent, and you’re gonna know where to stand and where to sit...
CONCLUSION
The text says that “we’ve been seated with Him!” That God, who raised us up, has also “seated us with HIM!”
I just imagine that if I were a Yankee fan, it would be good to be seated with George Steinbrenner.
If I were a investment broker it would be good to be seated with Warren Buffett.
If I were a politician, with a lean towards the Democratic Party, it would be good to be seated with Nancy Pelosi.
If I were crazy enough to be a Republican, it might be...I said it might be...a good thing to be seated with Sarah Palin!
If, as an ordinary American, I got a chance to be seated with President Barack Obama, that would be a good thing. But if I never get to sit among the political elite and the financially astute...as long as I know I’m sitting with Jesus, I’ll be just fine...because I hear the Word of God speak to me in Psalm 1:1-3 (KJV)...
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
I know where to walk! I know where to stand! I know where to sit! I’M WALKING WITH GOD! I’M STANDING ON HIS WORD! I’M SEATED WITH CHRIST! I’M SO GLAD I’VE BEEN BAILED-OUT...
BECAUSE OF JESUS, I’VE BEEN GIVEN CAPITAL. WORKING CAPITAL! HE TOOK ALL OF MY TOXIC ASSETS AND LIABILITIES, AND HE HAS MADE ME WHOLE! HE HAS MADE ME SOLVENT! HE HAS PULLED ME OUT OF THE RED, AND PUT ME BACK IN THE BLACK! HOW MANY OF YA’LL ARE GLAD TO BE IN THE BLACK!
NO LONGER BANKRUPT! NO LONGER INSOLVENT! NO LONGER TOXIC! NO LONGER SPIRITUALLY INSTABLE AND UNSTABLE! THE FDIC STEPPED IN!
F-INALLY
D-ELIVERED
I-N
C-HRIST!!!
[And NOW, MY] delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth I meditate day and night. And, BECAUSE OF THAT, I AM like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; BECAUSE OF HIS LOVE AND HIS WORD AND MY OBEDIENCE TO IT, BECAUSE HE BAILED ME OUT, I AM ASSURED THAT MY LEAF SHALL NOT WITHER, AND WHATSOEVER I DO SHALL PROSPER!
THANK GOD FOR THE BAIL-OUT FOR MAN’S SPIRITUAL CONDITION!
