Ephesians 2:1-10
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Incredible testimonies of salvation.
https://answersingenesis.org/gospel/testimonies/great-salvation-testimonies/
Every believer’s testimony is Ephesians 2.
We are picking up in the middle of this letter, right after Paul’s introduction.
In that introduction, Paul has introduced himself, He has given his blessing of grace and peace to the church of Ephesus.
He has explained the blessing of God to the church of Ephesus and really, by extension, to every believer.
Really, he outlines the doctrine of salvation, and God’s sovereign grace in salvation.
He has told us of God’s eternal predetermined plan and purpose to save His people From all eternity past.
He has spoke of the Holy Spirit and Him being the seal of every believer.
Lastly, in the introduction, he emphasizes the fullness of Christ’s deity.
Now in chapter 2, he moves from the theological underpinning of salvation and really the reason why anyone can be saved To what actually happens in salvation.
The first 10 verses of this chapter outline pretty easily.
What were we? (Verses 1-3)
What happened to us? (Verses 4-5)
What are we now? (Verses 6-10) Next week
So the first question we will answer this morning is: What were we?
What were we?
What were we?
You and I have all seen before and after pictures, right?
Lauren used to watch House Fixer Upper all the time and her favorite part in that show, is when at the end, they show the before and after picture.
I know that's her favorite part, because she always calls me in there to see it. “Look Look Look at how bad this house looked. Now look at it.”
We all love to before and after pictures.
Well If you are a believer this morning, you should consider verses 1-3 a before picture of what you were before salvation.
If you are an unbeliever, this is not what you were. This is what you currently are outside of Christ.
So just to be clear, he is writing this letter to believers, people who have already been united to Christ in faith.
He isn’t writing this letter to unbelievers.
He tells us this in verse 1
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus:
He speaking about current believers. Listen to what he says.
Beginning in chapter 2 verse 1:
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
So again, he is speaking to believers at Ephesus about their previous spiritual condition. By extension, he is speaking about our previous spiritual condition.
He says, “And you were.”
Meaning this was something that characterized your past. Not your present, nor your future.
Your past.
And what does he say?
And you were DEAD.
Now of course he means a spiritual condition of death here.
You were spiritually dead. The language here he uses is super clear.
Must of us, if we have lived long know what death looks like when someone physically dies.
There is no response. Their capacity to understand, respond, control, or do anything for that matter is gone. They don’t have appetite for food. They don’t feel pain. they don’t walk, run, laugh, cry, show emotion, hear, or see. Those are all things associated with life and living. Physical death is all encompassing. Its total.
There’s a few things you can be partial on but death isn’t one of them.
So when he says, “you were dead” here, we should understand what he is saying.
He is saying that spiritually, you were:
Lifeless, your capacity to understand to spiritual things, respond spiritual things, control spiritual outcomes, or spiritually do anything for that matter is just not there. You don’t hear, see, or do anything spiritually as a dead man.
Spiritually dead means you have no appetite nor the ability to discern the spiritual things.
But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
If there is no spiritual life, there is no spiritual understanding, no spiritual discernment, and certainly no spiritual desire for the things of God.
In that state, the unbeliever is not sick. He’s not drowning. He’s not dying.
He’s dead. He’s drowned. And he is drowned and dead in trespasses and sins.
Wickedness characterizes the life of the unbeliever.
As such, he lives out of his spiritual deadness, by being spiritually disobedient.
In verses 2-3, we find three spheres of influence on the spiritually dead person.
There are two outward forces and 1 inward.
I want you to see this. Look at verse 2.
in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
The World
The World
Spiritually dead people walk according to the course of the world.
And there is a division here that is implied in this text.
And the division is between the way of the world vs the way of Christ.
What do I mean by that?
Christ declared himself to be other worldly.
Speaking to a group of Jews who were against him, he said this.
And He was saying to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.
Jesus prays for believers in John 17. Listen to what he says.
“I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Paul tells us not to be conformed to this world.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
We live within a fallen world because of sin. There is an outside pressure on both unbelievers and believers to conform to it.
The difference is, as believers, we fight against worldly desires.
But as unbelievers, we gave in to those desires. Unbelievers are controlled by the attitude and values of a sinful world.
Paul says this is something that they walk in.
We often may wonder why some who claim the name of Christ are so worldly. In those cases, the most obvious answer is that they are of the world and not of Christ.
Now certainly, there are times when genuine believers act worldly, but believers don’t walk continuously in that. The spirit of God directs us away from the world and to the things of Christ.
But there is another outward sphere of influence that holds sway over the unbeliever’s life.
Look in verse 2 again.
in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
The Devil- Satan Himself
The Devil- Satan Himself
The other outward influence over the unbeliever’s life is the devil.
Now Satan is limited in his ability to be in more than one place at a time, but he holds sway through demonic influences, false religion, false teaching even within the church at times, and in other ways.
He works to continuously thwart and distort truth.
He provides countless lies to grab ahold of in this world.
He holds power over kings and rulers and worldly systems.
And unbelievers walking according to it. They give in to him, and they consciously or unconsciously give their allegiance, not to God but to Satan. Which means one doesn’t necessarily have to be a member of a satanic church or an occult, to be playing on the same team.
Unbeliever have an outside force
This is why believers are urged by Paul in Ephesians to put on the armor of God.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Unbelievers, are not promised the armor of God.
They walk according to the prince of the power of the air.
Believers walk against him.
But lest we think that every influence was outside of us, lets look at verse 3.
It will tell us the other influencer in the unbeliever’s life.
Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
Do you see the other influence there?
The Flesh
The Flesh
We all formerly lived in the lusts of the flesh.
But what are the lusts of the flesh.
Well, Paul gives us a list in Galatians 5. Look what he says.
Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Those are the deeds and the lusts of the flesh.
Back to Ephesians 2- Paul says we all lived those things out before Christ.
Those were our desires. Our flesh wanted it. It lusts for impurity. Its lusts for immorality. etc.
This is why the world and the devil are so effective and dangerous. They give us what we truly want.
Here is where we must be clear. Its not as if the devil and the world would just leave us alone that would be okay. We are by nature sinners. We gladly partner with the devil and the world to do what we want.
We are born into the world this way.
We come into the world AS BABIES kicking and screaming, wanting our own way, writhing in anger every time we get a little hungry, a little wet, a little dirty.
If you want to understand the doctrine of original sin and depravity, just have children.
You’ll see it.
I have two little girls who are big inners. I see it in them. They’ve got the worst part of us.
They are sinners just like their Daddy and the Mommy.
Which tells us that the problem is not just outside of us. Its inside of us as well.
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.
Before Christ, our flesh and the lusts of the flesh are just as much a part of our problem as Satan and the World is.
David recognized sin was his fault in Psalm 51.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me.
Before Christ, we were dead.
We were walking according to three spheres influence, The World, The Flesh, and The Devil.
He ends this section by saying that BY OUR NATURE, we were children of wrath. Just like the rest.
It was our nature before Christ to be a child of wrath, even as the rest.
Meaning very simply this: Before Christ, we are enemies of God. We were doomed in our sin. The wrath of God is pointed at us because of our own flesh and our association with the World and the Devil.
Now thats what we were according to Paul. Thats the before picture for believers.
Thats the bad news for unbelievers. And this is the passage that God used to show me at 18 years of age, that I wasn’t good enough on my own and I was utterly hopeless apart from a work of God in my life.
Thats the answer to the first question: What were we before Christ?
But there’s a second question:
Because, by God’s grace, those things are no longer true of believers. Those things characterized our lives previously.
The second question we have to ask is this:
What happened to us?
What happened to us?
Look in verse 4-5
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
The first two words are so essential in this verse and to understanding this passage.
He says, But God.
This is super important, because he is switching gears completely.
He has spent the first 3 verses talk about the mess we have gotten ourselves in.
Verses 1-3 is our own fault.
But the attention switches to what God has done for us.
And the good news is this: None of the spheres above (the world, the flesh, or the devil) are a match for the God of all if he in his grace seeks to over come it.
And when it says, but God, we know that he has chosen to do something for us.
And verse 4 tells us the reason.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
So why does God do something for us.
Quite frankly, because he loves us. And as we have already made clear, its not because we are lovABLE. its not because something about us was any better than someone else.
No.
In fact, his love is extended to us in mercy. And mercy by its definition means he has withheld from us what we truly do deserve.
We deserve his wrath, as children of wrath. Verse 3 tells us that.
But because he has loved us, he has extended mercy.
And he extends mercy, again not because we have done anything to deserve it.
Look at verse 5.
even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
Even when we were dead in our transgressions. We were helpless, hopeless, rightly condemned. This is something I fear many in church today do not understand.
We think we are somehow owed God’s grace and mercy.
But dear friend, mercy and grace by their definition is not something that is owed to us.
We are not entitled to one thing on the basis of our righteousness. We come to the party with no money, no gift to offer, nothing to our name.
This is why salvation is such and amazing story. It is not the success story on the part of man, it is a success story on the part of God. God does this work of salvation. Not us.
even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
God in his rich mercy and grace, because he has chosen to love us, he makes us alive in Christ.
I don’t make myself spiritually alive, anymore than a physical corpse can raise itself to physical life.
But God did. God did.
Before and After pictures of people losing weight.
The question always comes up- What did you do?
The person will then tell what they did to lose all the weight.
In salvation, it is not proper to ask that question at all.
The before picture is a dead man. The after picture then is completely God’s Work.
This is what happens to us.
God transforms. He raises dead people to life.
Now we live as people who are not as peace with those three spheres any longer.
We still struggle with all of that, but we struggle not as citizens of that kingdom, but as soldiers in the army of the Lord who now through God the Spirit, take up the Sword of the Spirit and go to work to defeat it in our lives.
We face the world the devil and the flesh head on, with the goal of living in the victory that Christ has given us over it.
salvation is amazing
When God saves us, when he raises us to life, now its not that we don’t struggle with sin any more. But now, as believers indwelled by the spirit of God seek to kill it.
We find His word to be more than just a book of stories. It now becomes life to us.
We find worship to be more than just what we do on Sunday, but it becomes an inseparable part of our daily lives.