Dakota Community Church
January 16, 2011
Awake for the First Time
Ephesians 2:1-10
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 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. 3 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. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 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. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Chapter two begins with a reminder of the gospel and as is so often the case Paul does not reveal the good news until he has made clear the bad news.
In order that they might be awakened Paul shakes them by expounding on the horrible condition of man unless Christ intervenes. This is a pattern we see repeated in Paul’s writing.
Romans 3:10-18
“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away; they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. 13 “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
PRECEEDS:
Romans 3:21-22
21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
We have come to believe a horrible lie in this generation.
We believe that men are inherently good.
We believe that our hearts are mostly well intended and that with a little education and hard work we can become the cure that ails humanity.
I often hear Gandhi quoted in Christian pulpits: “You must be the change you want to see in the world.” - As though this were possible.
We can save ourselves, we can fix the problem; after all we are in the “Imago Dei” aren’t we?
The truth is we were created in the image of God but that is not the current state of humanity.
The fact is scripture reveals a very different story:
We are:
1. Dead in transgression and sin
Ephesians 2:1, 5
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins…
…made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions…
Paul is saying here that we are not just in a little bit of trouble because of the bad things we have done.
We did not “slip up” just a tad. We didn’t have a little accident and now we need some relief from the guilt and some teaching about how to avoid this in the future WE WERE DEAD in sin.
Not only that but verse 3 says we sin “by nature”; this isn’t just an unfortunate occasional embarrassing mishap – this comes from the very core of who we are.
We bring the wrath of God upon ourselves by our very nature.
Verse 2 ends with the phrase “sons or children of disobedience” in the ESV, ASV, and the KJV which indicates that this is a family trait.
Rebellion against God is a family condition, it is in our DNA.
So how does all of this align with death?
It seems like we are very much alive – sinning, rebelling, being disobedient.
Being alive to rebellion; means being dead to submission.
Being alive to disobedience; means being dead to obedience.
Being alive to sin; means being dead to righteousness.
Being alive to unbelief; means being dead to faith.
Being alive to conformity; means being dead to holiness.
Being alive to selfishness; means being dead to the Glory of God.
Make no mistake about it - this whole thing is about the Glory of God
You make think you are pretty special, you make think you are smart or pretty or talented; you may think that entitles you to something. You may believe that you have rights and that God better not disappoint you; but I am here to tell you this morning that you did not do anything for any of that. You have no rights, no talents, no gifts, no beauty – NOTHING that did not come from Him and that does not belong to Him.
You were created BY HIM and FOR HIS GLORY alone and on top of that any of those things that you think you bring to the table can be taken from you at any time He chooses – HE IS GOD, and you aren’t.
Buffalo Bills wide receiver Steve Johnson dropped an easy, game-winning touchdown pass against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. (Nov. 28, 2010)
After the game, Johnson placed the blame for the flub not on himself nor the pass nor the lights nor the defender nor the pressure of the situation. Nope; he blamed it on the big guy upstairs:
“I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS??? HOW???!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!! THX THO...”
Where is the honor that God is due?
What theology have we embraced that would allow this?
Man centred – moral driven – legalistic blasphemy that leads people to believe that God can be put in our debt, in this case by “24/7” praise.
What does it really mean to be dead in trespasses and sin?
It means that without Christ we are spiritually dead and incapable of doing any God glorifying righteous act.
All we do outside of our savior is sin.
To sin is to miss the mark, to fall short of the glory of God; before Jesus came and woke us for the first time, before He brought us to life in the new birth, before he quickened our mortal bodies… all we did, everything we did was sin because we were dead to righteousness.
You will say, “Wait a minute I did good things before I was a Christian.” Or “I know good people who do good deeds who are not believers.”
That is a human judgment from a human point of view.
God alone is Holy and able to decide what is righteous and good.
1 Corinthians 10:31
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
Romans 3:22-27
This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded.
Romans 14:23
But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.
Presuming to do good to men without pointing them to God is sin.
All that any of us can do without a Savior is sin.
For by nature we are spiritually dead.
Until we are awakened by Jesus, nothing we do is spiritual, everything comes from the flesh.
Without a Savior all our so-called good deeds are filthy rags.
Romans 8:6-9
The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.
A few more passages to drive this point home:
1 Corinthians 2:14
The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Romans 6:17-18
But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
Ephesians 4:17-19
So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.
Finally a word from Jesus on the reality of the condition of unregenerate man:
Matthew 8:20-22
Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
20 Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
21 Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
22 But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
How are the sleeping then awoken?
How does one spiritually dead come to life?
Romans 10:16-17
But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
If there is a spark of life drawing you to Christ it has come from Him and you must respond to it, you must allow the Holy Spirit to fan it into flame.
If there is nothing there then listen again to the good news:
John 5:24-25
“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. 25 I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.
Hear and live!
Not only are we dead in trespasses and sins, we are also:
2. Conformed to the pattern of this world
Ephesians 2:2
…2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world…
PowerPoint available (Free of charge) on request dcormie@mts.net
