There were two brothers, well known around town for their crooked business dealings and underworld connections. They were a mean and cold-blooded as you could imagine. One day one of the brothers died, and the surviving brother wanted to give his dead brother a funeral fit for a king. He called the funeral home and made all the arrangements, then he called the town’s minister and made him an offer, as they say, he couldn’t refuse. He said, "I’ll give you $10,000 to put that new roof on the church if, in eulogizing my brother, you call him a saint."
The minister agreed. The whole town turned out for the funeral, and the minister began: "The man you see in the coffin was a vile and debauched individual. He was a liar, a thief, a deceiver, a manipulator, a reprobate, and a hedonist. He destroyed the fortunes, careers, and lives of countless people in this city, some of whom are here today. This man did every dirty, rotten thing you can think of. But compared to his brother, he was a saint" (Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations & Quotes, 759).
In Ephesians 2:1-3 Paul is writing to the saints in Ephesus reminding them of their condition before they trusted in Jesus Christ. He gives them and us THREE SOBERING FACTS CONCERNING EVERY PERSON WITHOUT CHRIST.
I. HE IS DEAD (v. 1).
"And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins."
Lehman Strauss writes, "The clearer the picture of our destitute condition before we were saved, the greater is our appreciation of what God has undertaken to do for us" (Galatians and Ephesians, 136).
A. The person without Christ is alive physically but dead spiritually.
There are three kinds of death:
1. PHYSICAL, the separation of the spirit from the body;
2. SPIRITUAL, the separation of the spirit from God;
3. ETERNAL, the everlasting banishment from the presence of God in hell.
Spiritual death is the past condition of believers and the present condition for everyone else.
When Paul counseled Timothy about widows in the church, he said of those who were ungodly, "She that liveth in pleasure is DEAD WHILE SHE LIVETH" (1 Timothy 5:6). Dead while they live is the sad state of every unsaved person.
In His high priestly prayer, Jesus said, "THIS IS LIFE ETERNAL, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3). Life is to know God. What is death? The opposite of that.
Paul describes the Ephesian believers as being "WITHOUT GOD" before they were saved (Ephesians 2:12).
The verse says that the unsaved are dead "in TRESPASSES and SINS."
To TRESPASS means to GO IN THE WRONG DIRECTION.
Illustration: "No Trespassing" sign
To SIN means to MISS THE MARK or to FALL SHORT.
"ALL HAVE SINNED, AND COME SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD" (Romans 3:23).
Illustration: Jumping over the Miramichi River. All would come short.
You cannot understand the doctrine of salvation unless you understand the doctrine of sin.
You cannot understand the doctrine of the incarnation unless you understand the doctrine of sin.
You cannot understand the death of our Lord unless you understand the doctrine of sin.
You cannot understand life as it is in this world unless you understand the doctrine of sin.
B. The person without Christ is spiritually dead, not because he sins, but because he is a sinner.
"THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH" (Romans 6:23).
God warned Adam, "In the day that thou eatest thereof THOU SHALT SURELY DIE" (Genesis 2:17).
". . . by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin; and SO DEATH PASSED UPON ALL MEN, FOR THAT ALL HAVE SINNED" (Romans 5:12).
David declared, "Behold, I WAS SHAPEN IN INIQUITY; and IN SIN DID MY MOTHER CONCEIVE ME" (Psalm 51:5). In other words, "I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me" (NIV).
We are not born neutral with the possibility of going either this way or that way. We are born sinners.
A person does not become a liar when he tells a lie; he tells a lie because he already is a liar. He does not become a thief when he steals; he steals because he already is a thief. And so with every other sin. Committing sinful acts does not make a person a sinner; we commit sinful acts because he IS a sinner.
Jesus confirmed this when He said, "Those things which proceed out of the mouth COME FORTH FROM THE HEART; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, and blasphemies" (Matthew 15:18-19).
Verse 2 describes the unsaved as "THE CHILDREN OF DISOBEDIENCE."
God said, "The imagination of man’s heart is evil FROM HIS YOUTH [childhood]" (Genesis 8:21).
"EVEN FROM BIRTH the wicked go astray; FROM THE WOMB they are wayward and speak lies" (Psalm 58:3).
C. Every person without Christ is not equally sinful, but they are all equally dead.
H. A. Ironside gives us a good explanation of this point:
We would not for a moment say everybody is just as corrupt, just as vile, just as wicked, just as despicable, as everybody else. That would not be true; and yet if people are dead, they are dead. The beautiful little maid, the daughter of Jairus, had been dead only a few minutes when the blessed Lord reached her father’s house, but she was dead, she was lifeless. Fair to look upon, lovely and sweet, no doubt, in the eyes of her beloved parents, like a beautiful marble statue, but although there was not the corruption that there might have been, she was dead nevertheless. Turn over to Luke’s Gospel and you will find that as the blessed Lord came to the village of Nain they were carrying a young man out to bury him. He was dead. Dead perhaps a day or two. . . . So this young man was dead longer than the little maid, but life was just as truly extinct in her case as in his. Then you have the blessed Lord at the grave of Lazarus. The sisters told Him not to roll the stone away, for their brother had been dead four days and would already be offensive. Corruption had set in, but the Lord Jesus brought new life to that man. In every instance it took exactly the same mighty, quickening power to restore the dead. Only the Son of God could speak life to the daughter of Jairus, to the young man of Nain, and to Lazarus. So we were dead, every one of us, we who are now saved. Some were deeply corrupted because of sin, others perhaps did not know so much of its vileness and corruption, BUT ALL ALIKE WERE DEAD BEFORE GOD AND NEEDED NEW AND DIVINE LIFE (In the Heavenlies, 100-101, emphasis mine).
"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3).
Someone has said, "You cannot live a life for God until you receive life from God."
II. HE IS DOMINATED (vv. 2-3a).
"Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the mind. . . ."
MAN IS DOMINATED BY THREE EVIL FORCES. The first two are outward forces and the third is an inward force.
A. By the World
"Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world. . . ."
Paul is not talking about the PHYSICAL WORLD. He is not talking about the RACIAL WORLD. The world here refers to THE MENTALITY OF LIFE APART FROM GOD.
The Bible presents the world as being the enemy of God and the Christian:
• The Bible commands, "DO NOT LOVE THE WORLD." "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15).
• The Bible commands, "DO NOT CONFORM TO THE WORLD." "Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. . . ." (Romans 12:2).
• The Bible commands, "DO NOT BEFRIEND THE WORLD." "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God" (James 4:4).
B. By the Devil
". . . according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience."
This world is evil because Satan is the force behind it.
The Bible describes Satan as . . .
• "THE GOD OF THIS WORLD" (2 Corinthians 4:4);
• "THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD" (John 12:31).
"We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Ephesians 6:12).
Knowingly or unknowingly people are subject to Satan’s influence.
C. By the Flesh
"Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the mind. . . ."
The trespasses and sins are the results of the lust of the flesh.
The word "FLESH" in the phrase "the lusts of the flesh" refers to our SINFUL NATURE.
Galatians 5:17 tells us that "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would."
1. "The desires of the flesh [body]"
There’s a slogan that says, "If it feels good, do it."
2. "The desires of the mind"
Desires of the mind include jealousy, envy, pride, hatred, and bitterness.
If we are not controlled by the Spirit, the desires of the flesh and the mind will control us.
III. HE IS UNDER THE WRATH OF GOD (v. 3b).
". . . and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others."
It is easy for people to accept that God is a God of love, but it is extremely difficult for many to accept that He is also a God of wrath.
If God’s love is rejected there remains nothing but the wrath of God.
The wrath of God is seen over and over again in the Scriptures:
• We see the wrath of God in the story of the flood, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, and in the various punishments of the children of Israel.
• "MY WRATH SHALL WAX HOT" (Exodus 22:24). In other words, "My wrath shall burn" (Amp).
• "THE WRATH OF THE LORD WAS KINDLED" (Numbers 11:33).
• King Josiah said, "GREAT IS THE WRATH OF THE LORD THAT IS KINDLED AGAINST US, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of his book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us" (1 Kings 22:13).
• "THE FIERCENESS OF HIS GREAT WRATH" (2 Kings 23:26).
• John the Baptist proclaimed, "FLEE FROM THE WRATH TO COME" (Matthew 3:7; Luke 3:7).
• We see the wrath of God in the Bible’s most famous verse: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him SHOULD NOT PERISH, but have everlasting life." The alternative to everlasting life is perishing. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; BUT THE WRATH OF GOD ABIDETH ON HIM" (John 3:16, 36).
• "THE WRATH OF THE LORD IS REVEALED FROM HEAVEN AGAINST ALL UNGODLINESS AND UNRIGHTEOUSNESS OF MEN" (Romans 1:18).
• "But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving thanks. But this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: FOR BECAUSE OF THESE THINGS COMETH THE WRATH OF GOD UPON THE CHILDREN OF DISOBEDIENCE" (Ephesians 5:6). The person who says that God’s wrath is not upon sinners is speaking "vain [empty] words."
• Jesus "DELIVERED US FROM THE WRATH TO COME" (1 Thessalonians 1:10).
We can never understand the love of God until we understand the wrath of God.
CONCLUSION
One of the greatest words in the Bible is "but." After dealing with the terrible condition of man in sin, Paul writes, "BUT. . . . [Read verses 4-9].
The height of sin is not to feel any need for the grace of God.
