What It Means To Be Lost

Introduction

Sometimes we read about or see on television where a mine has caved in and people are trapped. We feel the despair of the families. “They are Lost! LOST!” “But,” Someone might say, “they are not lost. We know exactly where they are in the tunnel.” “Yet.” The reply comes back , they are as lost as if they were a hundred miles underground. We cannot reach them. We know where they are, but they are lost.

On Wednesday, July 24, 2002, nine Pennsylvania miners were trapped 240 feet underground in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. For three days Americans followed the rescue efforts on CNN hoping and praying for a miracle.

Blaine Mayhugh, one of the nine, recalls his feelings when 50 million gallons of water flooded the mine shaft in which they were working. "We tried to outrun it, but it was too fast. I thought, This is it."

Within 24 hours of the disaster, the rescuers successfully lowered an air pipe to where they believed the miners were. The miners signaled they were still alive by banging on the pipe. Filled with hope, the rescuers decided to drill a shaft to reach the men. They waited 24 hours for the heavy-duty drill to be transported from West Virginia.

But hope waned when further signals from the trapped miners stopped. Then an unexpected obstacle stymied the rescuers on Friday: only a third of the way into the solid granite, a 1,500-pound drill bit broke. For 18 hours the drillers worked to fish out the broken pieces of the drill in order to pick up where they left off. The delay was a setback, but the rescuers continued to work non-stop, hoping there was sufficient oxygen for the miners to breathe.

Mayhugh admitted he and his co-workers fought despair when the encouraging sound of drilling ceased a few hours after it began. At that time, he asked for a pen to write a final word to his family on a scrap of cardboard. "Tell them I loved them," the strapping miner said, fighting back tears as he recalled his fear that the rescuers had given up.

But the rescuer workers had not given up. Precious lives were in jeopardy. Eventually they reached the trapped miners. As the miners were transported to ground level in a makeshift capsule, each of the nine heard the thundering applause of colleagues, reporters, and bystanders cheering their rescue.

Like these trapped miners, many people depend on our persistence

Within this story there is an expression of the condition of those that are spiritually lost, without Christ and without salvation. We know where they are all right. But they are still lost with Christ.

I want us to look at Ephesians 2:1-3 and look at the consider the question, “What does it mean to be lost?”

To Be Lost is to be Spiritually Dead.

Ephesians 2:1 NKJV

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,

As we look at this opening scripture there is something we need to see. It tells us, that before we were saved, we were dead in our trespasses and sins.

This explains our condition before salvation and it also explains the condition of other people that do not know Christ as their Lord and Savior.

Without Christ a person is spiritually lost and spiritually dead.

There was a pastor by the name of R.G. Lee, he told a story of man that kept calling him all the time. Sometimes during the day and sometimes during the early evening and sometimes late in the night. The man identified himself as “the chief of the kangaroo court.” He told the pastor that all that stuff that he was preaching was nonsense, that God did not exist, and that what he described as sin was just good living. Each one of these calls taunted the pastor and ridiculed him and his ideas of sin and judgment and God’s accounting in Life.

One day Lee recieved a call from the local hospital. He was a told that a man that was hospitalized was about to die. They told Lee that the guy was out of his mind and raving, but he had asked for Dr. Lee. He said something about being the chief of the kangaroo court. Dr. Lee rushed to the hospital and was led to the man with whom he had talked several times. The man was the very picture of one in whom sin had evidently taken its toll.

After He was introduced to Dr. Lee, he said, “The devil pays off all right, but he pays in counterfeit money....he pays in counterfeit money.” And with those words the man was gone to meet God.

This man lived long enough to give credit to what Scripture plainly teaches: “The wages of Sin is death.”

Romans 6:23 NKJV

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

He came to that understanding or the knowledge that his life was enslaved by sin.

To Be lost is to Be helplessly Enslaved.

What is it that people that are lost enslaved by?

Enslaved By the ways of the world

Ephesians 2:1–2 NKJV

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,

Think about the things that characterize the ways of the world.

greed

lust

pride

selfishness

unrestrained and undisciplined action

2. Enslaved by the power of Satan.

Ephesians 2:2 NKJV

in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,

You followed…the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who now works in those who are disobedient. (Eph 2:2 NIV).

In Paul’s day people believed that the air was filled with evil spirits. These spirits ruled by the prince and power of the air, the devil himself.

In our day we have relegated the devil to cartoons, memes, costumes, caricatures, and so on..... But if we look closely around us we can still the devil at work around us. We can see the power of evil is still loose.

Satan is directing the ways of the world.

3. Enslaved by a Spirit of Rebellion.

By, “those who are disobedient.”(Eph. 2:2 NIV).

Paul is referring to those whose lives are characterized by disobedience, the very essence of sin. From the time Adam of Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden until now, Disobedience has been at the heart of sin.

Disobedience has always been at the heart of sin.

4. Enslaved by our own desires.

The desires of the flesh and of the mind control the life.

Galatians 5:19–21 NKJV

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

In Galatians 5:19-21 Paul gives us a list:

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Our flesh is a place that is easily attacked.

To Be Lost is to be an object of Wrath

Ephesians 2:3 NKJV

among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

“We were by nature deserving of wrath” (Eph. 2:3 NIV)

This tells us in a very vivid way that expresses the fact that those who are lost without Christ await the wrath of God.

This wrath is not something that should be thought of as a whimsical thing. This is God’s settled opposition to sin.

Part of God’s wrath can be seen in the life of a lost person. Look around at those that we know who have lived a life filled with sin. They have become callous, hardened, and insensitive. God’s wrath as a natural result of their sin has caused them to lose much of that which is the best in life.

God’s wrath also has a future aspect. The Apostle Paul warned us:

Romans 2:5 NKJV

But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,

The Bible gives us confirmation that one day their will be a judgment on our sin.

Conclusion

This morning we have seen what it means to be lost, and thank God no one has to remain lost. Everyone can be saved. Ephesians 2:1-3 describes the condition of the lost. Verses 4-5 however says,

Ephesians 2:4–5 NKJV

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

Charles Spurgeon never tired of telling he story of how he was saved. He had been trying to save himself by his own works. Then one rainy Sunday morninghe wandered into the chapel and sat down with a few other worshipers who were there. That morning the minister preached on the text, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” (Isaiah 45:22) At the close of his sermon, he pointed his long, bony finger at Spurgeon and said, “Look, look unto him, young man! Look unto Jesus, and you will be saved.” That morning Spurgeon looked unto Jesus and was Saved.