Our Past, Present, and Future (Part 1)
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And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
I’m using an outline from one of my favorite preachers. He’s long gone. With the Lord now. His name is Adrian Rogers.
I’m going to be using his outline to guide us through Ephesians 2:1-10.
Our Past...
What We Were
What We Were
Without Christ...
1. We Were Dead
1. We Were Dead
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
On your sheet, please underline “you were dead”
The Bible teaches us that something very terrible happened at the beginning of our history. It’s something our ancestors did.
Genesis 3.
God: don’t eat - when you do, you will die.
We ate. We died spiritually.
We generally think of death in the physical/material sense.
When your heart stops beating, your lungs stop breathing, and your brain stops working we say that’s when we are dead.
When the soul leaves the body.
But,
Adrian Rogers Sermon Archive A. We Were Dead
death is not the separation of your soul from your body; death is the separation of the soul from God.
We were born dead. Spiritually.
Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
When people think of how Jesus gives eternal life, like in John 3:16, they tend to think this just means they will be immortal.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
There is a difference between Eternal Life and Eternal Existence.
Adrian Rogers Sermon Archive A. We Were Dead
Eternal life is not living forever. Some people would like to have eternal life. Friend, may I tell you that the people in hell live forever. That’s not eternal life; that is eternal existence.
We need, and should want, something more than an “eternal existence”.
And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Without Christ...
2. We Were Devilish
2. We Were Devilish
in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
On your sheet, please underline “following the prince of the power of the air”
We were devilish because we were literally slaves and followers of the devil.
All people, without Christ, are slaves to the Devil, even if they don’t think they are.
They say “no I’m not””, “I’m free to do as I please!”
The Bible calls satan the tempter. Because he know, because of our fallen nature, how to keep us enslaved to do what he wants us to do. He not only tempts people, but he also seeks to keep them from knowing Christ.
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Not only does he blind eyes to Christ, but he uses blind people to keep everyone else blind.
It’s important for us to know and understand that there is, currently, a great rebellion taking place. It started back in Genesis 3. And it has a leader.
Satan is literally leading a cosmic insurrection. And humanity, without Christ’s intervention, are following Satan. Making us all cosmic rebels guilty of the highest form of cosmic treason.
Without Christ...
3. We Were Depraved
3. We Were Depraved
among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
On your sheet, please underline “passions”, “desires” , and “by nature”.
We just talked about our cosmic treason. Treason deserves the wrath of the State.
This text says, we were naturally deserving of God’s wrath. Because of our pursuit of our evil passions and desires
We desired what displeased God.
This text says we “lived in the passions of our flesh” and we “carried out the desires of the body and mind”.
Here’s an important distinction between then and now. Then, we were not aware that these desires were evil. Now we do.
We no longer “live in” them. And we now have the ability to fight “carrying them out”…
But when we were dead, slaves of the devil, we didn’t know we were dead, that the devil was baiting us, or that our deathly desires were bad.
We might have been slaves of the devil but the devil doesn’t make us do evil.
We didn’t need him to twist our arms to sin. He just had to put something in front of us to tempt us.
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
It was absolutely normal for us. Because we were depraved.
Adrian Rogers Sermon Archive C. We Were Depraved
The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart.
Even when we were without Christ...
4. We Were Loved
4. We Were Loved
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
On your sheet, please underline “but God”, “great love”, and “loved us”.
I’m mentioning this now because it is so imperative that we realize that God loved us even when we were the most unlovable creatures in existence.
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Have you ever heard of the word scandal?
scandal
■ noun an action or event regarded as morally or legally wrong and causing general public outrage.
Some people have called the gospel scandalous. Because it can be regarded as wrong or causing general public outrage.
They don’t like many things about it.
Holiness of God
God becoming a man
God punishing sin
Jesus taking punishment for sin
But, in reality…
God’s love for undeserving sinners is what makes the gospel scandalous.
Why?
Because, we are so undeserving!
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Applications
These truths should change your perspective about life
Don’t believe that being healthy or living a long and successful life is important.
Don’t believe that the pleasure of this world are going to satisfy your soul.
Do you know why video games, books, and movies keep coming out?
Because we are constantly craving more more and more.
These hungers point to your soul’s hunger
Don’t look down on people who are still dead, devilish, and depraved.
Have compassion on people who are not Christians.
Learn to love people like God loves them.