God's View Of The Human Race (Eph [2]1-7)
God’s View Of The Human Race
Text: Ephesians 2:1-7
Place Preached - (Mississauga International Baptist Church)
Date Preached - (07/08/01)
Introduction:
Remember that when God looks at our life, God looks on the heart.
A man's heart is so deceitful that a man on his own cannot even know his own heart (Jer. 17:9). So if you want to know how God sees things, you are going to have to come to God's Word.
One day, we will all stand before God and give answer for our life. God will judge us according to truth. The Bible is that truth. Therefore we are looking at our lives in light of the Word of God.
There are 613 laws in the Old Testament, but the whole law is summed up in the Ten commandments.
1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5. Honor thy father and thy mother.
6. Thou shalt not kill.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Thou shalt not lie.
10. Thou shalt not covet.
As we look at the law of God we must say that we are guilty, condemned before God. Some people pride themselves in doing the best they can and hoping God will overlook the rest.
James 2: 10 tells us that if a man offends in one point of the law, he is guilty of all.
NO RELATIONSHIP OR RELATED
When God looks at the world, He sees two different groups of people.
Some who belong to God, and some who do not belong to God. The Bible uses many different terms to talk about these two groups of people. We are going to look at a few of those terms.
I. LOST OR SAVED
Luke 19:10 "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."
That term “LOST” is a rather interesting term. There are very few connotations in which you can use the word lost in a good sense. If a man loses his health or his wealth it is not a good thing. If a man loses his family or parents lose a child it is not good.
The Bible says the way God looks at people who have no relationship to Him, is that they are lost.
ILLUS: It is the picture of a child going out into the woods, forgetting to mark his trail, and getting lost. He doesn't know where he is and he doesn't know how to get out. He is in the middle of a large, vast forest, thousands of acres with no hope of finding his way out on his own.
If you are lost, you can't get out of where you are. If you are lost, you can't find your way out. If you are lost, you need someone on the outside to come and give you the assistance you need to get out of the condition you are in. Lost.
SAVED
In Romans 10:13, the Bible says, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
Most of the world thinks something like this. "Saved. What do you mean, saved? I don't need to be saved." Not until they see themselves as God sees them and realize that indeed they are lost.
If a child was lost in the woods and someone came along to rescue them, that child isn't going to be particular about what they look like. The child will just be glad to be rescued.
Suppose you go out in an ocean liner and fall overboard in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and the ocean liner keeps right on sailing. Now you are out there, bobbing in the water, good shark bait.
Finally a rescue craft appears and is ready to throw a lifering to you. Would you say, "Excuse me, but I don't like white life preservers. I want a red one please." No, you are going to be willing to grab hold of anything that will rescue you. Why? Because you can't save yourself. You need someone to rescue you.
That is exactly what saved means. It means to be rescued. For a person to be rescued, there had to be a place and a time when they were lost.
You are born lost, in the trash heap, apart from God, in need of being rescued. A rescued person is someone who had been in danger, but was pulled from danger.
II. UNRIGHTEOUS OR RIGHTEOUS
I Corinthians 6:9-10 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall nor inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God."
Who are the unrighteous? They are people who are not right in God's eyes. The term unrighteous means not right, not having the quality of rightness in your life.
Psalm 58:3 "The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies."
The Bible says we are not right before God. The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. Let's take those verses apart (I Cor. 6:9-10) and see what God is talking about.
“Be not deceived.” But that is where people are in our world today. They think because they go to church and are religious, or because they are a good person that God will make an exception for them. But God says, Be not deceived. Don't tell yourself a lie.
“Neither fornicators:” Fornication involves all sexual sin; the sin of the mind, sexual lust, thinking wrong thoughts.
“Nor idolaters”, Did you ever make a god to your own image, a god which you thought this is how God ought to be like, instead of letting God be God?
“Nor adulterers”: Did you ever commit adultery? Since you have been married, have you ever been sexually active with someone besides your spouse? Have you ever even had a wrong lustful thought about someone of the opposite sex.
“Nor effeminate”: There is a tough one in our generation. We talk about Sodom and Gomorrah of the Bible days, but today Homosexuality is everywhere you turn.
“Nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God.”
These people whom God has listed for us here in these two verses are not going to make it to heaven because they are not right with God. We are all in trouble.
Romans 3:10 says, "There is none righteous; no, not one."
One day you and I are going to stand there before God who says, "You are not right before me." I think we better get concerned.
RIGHTEOUS
1 Corinthians 6:11 "And such were some of you; but ye are washed"
There are some people who were unrighteous, but now they are right with God. Something has changed them. Somehow God cleansed them.
Romans 5:19 says, "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous."
They don’t make themselves righteous. That is not what that verse says. Notice the words again. It says they were made righteous.
There are some that are lost. But somehow God is able to rescue them, to save them. There are those who are not right before God. but they are picked up out of the column of not right before God and are put over on the side of being right with God. It is not anything they do on their own.
III. UNFORGIVEN OR FORGIVEN
Romans 4:6-7 "Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered."
The word imputeth means "to put on the account." It is a bookkeeping term, and is used when something is charged to a person's account.
Notice that the righteousness He is speaking of is imputed to them. Notice then in verse 7 He describes these same people as having their iniquities forgiven.
Obviously, for God to say He has forgiven their iniquities there had to be a time in their life when their iniquities were unforgiven.
Forgiveness is not something you get on your own. It must come from the other person.
Suppose I went down into the congregation and slapped someone on the face very hard just because I felt like it. Then I declared myself forgiven and walked away. Would that be forgiveness? Can I give myself forgiveness when I have wronged someone else?
Yet that is how most people on earth live their lives, isn't it? They walk around declaring that they are OK, yet they have never been forgiven by God.
FORGIVEN
Ephesians 1:7 “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace."
It is possible to have forgiveness in Christ.
Forgiveness comes from God. It is God who has to forgive you because He is the one you have wronged.
When you stand before God, you are going to be standing there in one group or the other: unforgiven or forgiven.
God promises to forgive, but He only promises to forgive if we come on His terms. God knows what is in our heart.
IV. ENEMIES OF GOD OR RECONCILED
Romans 5:10 "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life."
The God of the Bible says you are His enemy. You are fighting against Him.
Notice that God says we are enemies against Him, not the other way around. You are God's enemy.
Suppose my family and I were going to stay at your house for a week. But before we get there I started telling others what I really thought about you. I told them you were a low down rat, lower than a flea's belly, a lying, cheating scum, etc. When word gets back to you about what I have said, are you going to open your door wide and say, "Come on in, pastor. We just love to have you here with us. Everything we have is yours. Just help yourself."
RECONCILED TO GOD
Notice the other term that God uses twice in Romans 5:10 - the term reconciled.
Colossians 1:21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
The word reconciled means "to bring two parties back together who have been at odds with each other.
God never wronged us; Therefore God doesn't have to change. God is not the one that needs to be reconciled. Reconciliation has to happen on our side. We have to be brought back to God.
Reconciliation is not something that we can cause to happen. Suppose I broke your window, but then I come and say I'm sorry and want to be reconciled to you, but I can't afford to pay for the window. You have to be willing to say, "All right, I'll bear the cost of your wrong in order to have a right relationship with you.
But our sin against God is far greater than just breaking a window. Our sin debt is so great it is a cost you and I can never pay on our own. It is a cost that only God could pay and He did that in the death of Jesus Christ. That is how we are reconciled with God.
V. CONDEMNED OR JUSTIFIED
John 3:18 says, "He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God"
It is as if we have already been to a court of law, we have already sat through the proceedings, all the testimony has been heard, and the judged has banged the gavel on the table to pronounce us condemned and under the sentence of death.
Many people think that when they get to heaven, they will have an argument with God and work things out.
You will stand before a holy God who knows everything about your life, every sin you have ever committed, and every vile thought you ever had. God knows everything about you, and He has already declared in the Bible that you are condemned.
Suppose you had been tried and had been found guilty of murder. The judge has pronounced the sentence as hanging. Then on the way out of the courtroom, somehow you escape. You are under the condemnation of the law. For the rest of your days you are running for your life, trying to stay alive, knowing one day you are going to get caught and then it is all over with. You are finished because the sentence has already been pronounced.
If you have no relationship with God, that is how you are right now, in this life. You live under the condemnation of your sin.
JUSTIFIED
Romans 5:1 "Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
That word justified means to be declared just. It is a legal term.
Notice that it doesn't mean you have never sinned, but it means you have been declared just. The payment has been made; your account is settled.
VI. UNDER WRATH OR ACCEPTED
Romans 5:9 "Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him"
Romans 1:18 says, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness."
"Holding the truth" in unrighteousness. That phrase means holding down the truth, choking it out; to hold down the truth, to keep it from having full effect in your life.
Truth isn't just meant for us to hear about. Truth is meant for us to obey.
When you have no relationship with God, you are under the wrath of God. Yet many in our world that are in that very condition walk around like everything is just fine between them and God.
ACCEPTED
Ephesians 1:6 “To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved."
What does it mean to be accepted? It means to be welcomed, to be wanted.
That is what God offers. How do you get accepted? Is it dependent upon something you do? No. Acceptance is something the other person has to offer to you. Acceptance is what God offers to you, through Jesus Christ.
VII. ETERNITY IN HELL OR ETERNITY IN HEAVEN
The last term that God uses to describe those who have no relationship with Him is that they will spend eternity in Hell separated from God.
Revelation 21:8 has been called the phone book of Hell, because it lists the people who will be there. "But the fearful and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death"
ETERNITY IN HEAVEN
I Thessalonians 4:16-17 says, "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord."
You don't get into Heaven by doing it yourself. You will never build a jet big enough. You will never live a life good enough for you to get to Heaven on your own.
CONCLUSION
The Bible tells us, "There is none righteous; no, not one." Every person who is born into this world starts out on the wrong side. We are born in sin and have no relationship with God. We are lost, unrighteous, unforgiven, enemies of God, condemned, under the wrath of God, and will spend eternity in hell.
But God says it is possible for that to be changed and a person somehow to be moved into a right relationship with God. God calls those people saved, righteous, forgiven, reconciled, justified, accepted, and gives them a home in heaven.
Through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, He is able to move some people from no relationship to a relationship with God.
MAN'S ATTEMPTS
Is it possible for a person to change themselves into a relationship with God? There are certainly a lot of people who try.
Proverbs 16:25, "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death"
Surely if we do the best we can then God will overlook all the bad. That is the lie that Satan has placed in every person's heart. If you don't believe that, just ask ten people walking down the street how they think a person gets to heaven.
People try many different things. Some try good deeds.
There are people I know who have tried things like getting baptized or reading their Bible. Some give their money to the church to buy their way to heaven. These people think, "Surely if I do all these things, God will overlook some of these things I've done wrong."
No judge in his right mind is going to let you off just because you have reformed your ways. You still have to pay the penalty for committing murder. Etc..
That doesn't work with God either. God is a God of justice. He is not just a God of mercy; He is also a God of justice.
GOD SAYS:
Romans 3:20 'Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin".
We try to impress God with all the good things that we do. But doing good things was never meant to make up for sin. Keeping the law or doing right does not save a man. The law can’t save you. The law was given to condemn you. There is no hope in the law for you and me.
Isaiah 64:6 "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away."
Let me explain that filthy rag briefly to help you understand what God is describing. The filthy rag was the community wiping rag of all the lepers.
God says your good deeds, all the good things you have done, your church membership, your attendance, your giving money, being a preacher or Sunday school teacher, is like a filthy rag in His eyes.
Titus 3:5 "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost."
Ephesians 2:8-9 "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast."
If those good deeds could make you right with God, you would strut through Heaven boasting of your goodness and patting yourself on the back.
CONCLUSION
But I don't want to leave you without hope. God has a way to get you and to get me into a right relationship with Him. That way is through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't deceive yourself into thinking you can stay in your unrighteous, ungodly, sinful condition, and God will let you into Heaven.