Children of Wrath

Good morning, welcome to New Horizon. Please open your Bibles to Ephesians 2.

Thank you for giving us the week off last week.

Read Ephesians 2:1-3- “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.”

Pray.

How do you hear a passage like this? What does it make you think of mankind?

Ephesians 2 speaks of the way that man is and how he lives as a result, and the way that God is and what He does as a result.

Man described as dead, needy, everything we do taking us further into our death.

God described as good, the remedy, and everything He does gives life where once was death.

Ian Hamilton- “The Bible’s anthropology is dark and solemn, but realistic.”

What does the Bible say of mankind?

Genesis 1:26-27- “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

Two things to note- God created us. God created us in His image.

Man is created by God in God’s image.

Here is the value that is given to man- created as the image of God with the purpose of imaging God.

This value is easily observable when we consider the difference between mankind and the rest of creation.

Value doesn’t come from our productivity, or our usefulness, but instead it is given because of how God created us.

Yet, man sinned and fell from his original innocence and goodness, and we find it impossible to live up to that life we read about in Genesis 1-2.

So we find in any man or woman or child an interesting puzzle.

Francis Schaeffer in Escape from Reason speaking of mankind- “Why is he so wonderful and so flawed? Who is man? Who am I? Why can man do these things that make man so unique, and yet why is man so horrible? Why is it?”

Isn’t this the reality with any newborn baby?

This is the question I hope we can begin to answer this morning. We need to know man as he truly is.

We come to Scripture like it is an x-ray machine.

The Bible gives us the truth of who we are.

We will note two statements describing man before moving to the good news of the gospel.

1. Man lives in the passions of his flesh.

Ephesians 2:3- “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.”

Paul here describes how man has decided to live because of his spiritual death.

Passions- lusts, desires, longings.

We live how we want to live.

Turn our attention to a very small word that makes a massive difference.

What does it mean to live IN such passions?

en- in, by, with

In- surrounded by our own passions, desires of body and mind.

Might consider our passions to be our home, that which is most near and dear to us.

We live in them, and so everything that we do is shaped around our desires.

By- lived according to our own passions, desires of the body and mind.

Our desires motivate all of what we do and who we are.

It means that everything we do is shaped by our desires.

Why do we walk according to the ways of the world? Because it is what we want to do. It is the way of life that seems best.

We review our x-rays and we find that, apart from Christ, we do what we want.

2. Man is by nature a child of wrath.

Ephesians 2:3- “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.”

Nature- The order of things- the reality of who and what we are at our core.

If we live according to the passions of our flesh, then that is our nature, that’s who we are on a foundational level.

Consider the author, Paul.

Acts 9- On his way to Damascus to persecute Christians.

Nothing within himself that was seeking salvation in Jesus Christ.

Philippians 3- Everything that, Paul had to show for himself, his religious accolades, mean nothing because of his sinful nature.

Only thing that matters to Paul is his knowing Jesus Christ, the true source of spiritual life and righteousness.

We are reminded that religious works mean absolutely nothing while still living within a sinful nature.

Everything that looks godly to others is still performed with selfish ambition.

This world, our desires for this life, these are what we find as the foundation of our motivations for everything that we do.

And we find it impossible to change. We look as far inward as possible and find our nature to be self-driven, sinful, with no inclination for honoring God.

Ian Hamilton- “These desires have one purpose: self-gratification. They are desires that cannot see beyond the horizon of this world.”

If this is our reality, then our nature leads to us being deserving of God’s wrath.

Because we are, at our core, sinful and selfish by nature, we find that we are just as worthy of God’s wrath and anger as Adam was in the garden.

We find that the same punishment given to Adam, spiritual death, is our very same punishment.

And if we are spiritually dead, then we have no access to God’s saving grace, or His mercy, but instead we are on the receiving end of His judgement, His holiness, His righteousness.

Taken quite literally, we are children of wrath.

Our inheritance, owed to us because of who we are by nature, is God’s wrath.

The x-ray is complete- we have been shown what is beneath the surface, how it causes us to live, and what will be its end result.

Truly, all seems hopeless, but I’m not planning to leave it that way!

3. Some really great news.

Something must be done.

We see the problem- we naturally do what seems best to us.

And, further, we recognize that we can do nothing about it because our nature continues in our own sinful desires.

To make matters worse, we know where all this leads- we are deserving of God’s wrath because we do not live the way He has designed us TO live.

Two weeks ago- we are dead and need resurrection- God gives life.

This morning, our sinful nature keeps us living in sin.

God takes our nature and changes it entirely.

2 Corinthians 5:17- “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

What we used to be is no longer who we are. We are made new, a new creation entirely. Life given where previously there was only death.

1 Peter 2:24- “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”

The good news here is that Jesus died in order that God could give us new life. Jesus suffered the consequences of our sin in order that we would no longer have to ourselves.

This is eternal life. God saw us in our sinful nature, unable to be righteous, unable to gain back the innocence of Adam, and He provided a way for our natures to be changed, or renewed, or resurrected.

Kevin DeYoung- We are not called to make decisions, but disciples. This is not a small thing. This is a life change. We repent of the way we have been, we turn away from it, we place faith in Jesus as far better, and we follow Him. That’s what it means to be a disciple, after all.

C.S. Lewis- The Great Divorce- “Nothing, not even the best and noblest, can go on as it now is. Nothing, not even what is lowest and most bestial, will not be raised again if it submits to death. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. Flesh and blood cannot come to the Mountains. Not because they are too rank, but because they are too weak. What is a lizard compared with a stallion? Lust is a poor, weak, whimpering, whispering thing compared with that richness and energy of desire which will arise when lust has been killed.”

Here is the beauty, and the good news of the gospel.

God takes what we are: fallen, weak, lifeless, dead, following our own sinful desires and the ways of the world around us, and sets us free to re-create us into what we are meant to be.

That nature which has been dead falls away and God creates new life within us.

All of those aspects of who we are that always pursued our own desires, our intellect, our lusts, our passions, our talents, turn from lizards into stallions, seeking to serve God, live for God, and bring glory to God.

This is the very best news that I can give you.

You have seen the x-ray of yourself in God’s Word, and yet you know the cure is possible.

In fact, it’s beyond possible. God will not fail in His resurrection. He won’t try, only to find Himself lacking the strength.

Some time for silent prayer to end the sermon.

Take a few moments in silence to pray about what you find in your x-ray. Look beneath the surface. What gives you life, what gives you strength? What motivates each and every decision that you make? And what is the inheritance that you will receive because of the life that you life?

Take time to thank God for His Word. Repent over your sin.