The Best "Before and After" Story Ever!

THE BEST "BEFORE AND AFTER" STORY EVER! Spring Valley Mennonite; January 10, 2021; Ephesians 2:1-7 Something that I enjoy doing is refinishing furniture. It is gratifying to see the beautiful wood grain come to light after the old finish is removed. Of all the projects I have done over the years none comes close to the reward I received from what I call the "John Deere furniture." Alice and I were at an auction looking for a chest of drawers for one of our children's rooms. There were several available, but we were outbid quickly. Then the auctioneer moved to a group of furniture that had been painted "John Deere" green. There was a chest of drawers, a desk, a table and maybe another piece we can't recall. The bidding began on the table, and everyone just stared at their feet-who wants furniture painted that color? After no bids, the auctioneer said, "Who will give me $10 for all of these pieces?" And one man reluctantly raised his hand in a $10 bid. I quickly said, "I'll give $15":, and the auctioneer quickly said "Sold!" We loaded all the furniture in a borrowed pickup and deposited them in the garage. Upon examination, the drop leaf table was fine mahogany, and the chest was solid maple! They both finished out beautifully, a great example of "Before and After." I think we all love good "before and after" stories; they give us hope that things can get better. To tap into this feeling, the cable networks are full of programs that take broken down cars or rusted out tools or antiques and restore them to like new conditions. Another of my favorite things to do is to fix things that are broken; in my workshop I have a large tub full of electrical wire of various types that I have salvaged from appliances that have worn out over the past 40 years or so. One thing I have found to be especially useful are power cords, for I have found that often the problem of something electrical which has stopped working is that the cord needs replacing. I find it very gratifying to see it broken before and working after. I am so glad that God doesn't discard sin damaged people! The "Big Story" of mankind centers around God's plan to fix and restore mankind who have been broken and ruined by sin. All believers are incredible examples of "Before and After" stories. Today we are resuming our study in the Book of Ephesians and find ourselves at the beginning of chapter 2. Follow along as I read the Biblical account of the all-time, best before and after story ever, beginning in Ephesians 2:1. (Read through verse 7) I. THE "BEFORE" STORY (VV. 1-3) The Holy Spirit begins with the "before" story of mankind. Man without God is a mess, and we usually make a mess of things. In verse 2 we find the phrase "the course of this world." Individuals love to think that they are independent thinkers and make decisions on their own. The truth is that all people without God are imprisoned in a common worldview. This pervasive false belief system claims that man is basically good. "While people make occasional mistakes, and there are a few truly bad people around, man is basically good. He just needs to follow this instinctive goodness and society and culture will continually improve. Those who do bad things just don't know any better and they need to be educated or perhaps their background of poverty has deprived them of what they need to be better. If we can just get people or nations who are fighting to sit down and talk, they can find solutions." The truth of the Bible tells us a different story. God has spoken clearly that left to himself, without God's intervention, men will continue to live in conflict. Our problem of getting along with others is only one symptom of a much deeper problem. God tells us that our problem is that we are dead in our trespasses and sins. Dead! Not just misguided or culturally programmed, but dead! A dead body cannot sit up or walk around or communicate or look at you-it has absolutely no power to do anything. And every person born since Adam and Eve fall into the category of being born spiritually dead. The Bible unequivocally states that Mankind is fatally flawed. We are dead on arrival! It is vital that we understand that we don't "become dead"; we are not dead in sin because we sin, but we sin because that is our nature. In one sense man's status before God as a sinner has nothing to do with his behavior, but his nature. It is vital for us to understand this principle of death, even though, as believers in Jesus Christ we now have been made alive. And this is the main point of these verses, that the dead have been made alive. This theme begins in verse 1, then skips to the middle of verse 5: we were dead in sin, but God made us alive together with Christ. That is the essence of God's message of good news. But just as we cannot appreciate warmth without contrasting it with cold, or light with considering darkness, or a full stomach with out hunger we cannot appreciate God's gift of salvation unless we understand how totally hopeless and dead we were. We were not just a little bad, or slightly affected by sin, but even the best of us were dead-rotting and decaying in our sin. Our former condition is described in several ways, the first characteristic being that we walked or lived "according to the course of this world." What does that mean? The word used for world is "cosmos" which has been defined as "human society, a system warped by sin, tormented by beliefs and desires and emotions that surge blindly and uncontrollably." The sense of the Greek is that of the unsaved being encapsuled or imprisoned in a sphere of evil trespasses and sins which controls all thoughts, words, and deeds. Not one of their acts ever escapes this circle of sin. This is what is meant by "Total Depravity." Before being made alive broken people operate in a broken system operating on corrupted and false data. Need some examples? How about these lies that rule our culture: "Might makes right." "Wealth will make you happy." "Happiness is the highest value for man." "If it feels good, do it." "Look out first of all for yourself." "If everybody does it, that makes it right." "There is no single god; there are many different pathways to god". "There are no absolutes in life." "It doesn't matter what you believe as long as you are sincere". We could go on, but you get the picture. This is the kind of corrupted false data with which humanity makes decisions. Further in Ephesians 4 we read about those without Christ living in the "futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them..." There is a power behind this world system; this power is the author of sin, the father of falsehood and lies-the title used in verse 2 is "the prince of the power of the air." The "air" is the invisible spiritual kingdom over which Satan rules, an unseen spiritual world. This is also the abode of the unseen demonic spiritual forces. God has allowed Satan to have authority over a kingdom of darkness. Satan's domain is invisible to the physical senses, but discernible to our spiritual senses. Before God made us alive, we were slaves in this evil system and servants of Satan who blinded our minds. He continually works in the sons of disobedience, either directly or through the dark system of the cosmos. If you think about it, this explains the conflict, disorder, and misery we see around us. This description of the sinful world system and its citizens is admittedly very dark. Man is seen as slaves and servants of an evil kingdom with no light and no hope. As if that picture isn't bleak enough, Paul goes on in verse 3 to describe our former behavior as the slaves of sin: we lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging all the desires of the flesh and mind. The idea comes across that we were willing participants in sin. Again, we sin because we are sinners. In fact, most caught in the world evil system are not even aware that they are part of it. The know nothing else. They think that is just the way it is. Finally, we were "By Nature" objects of God's wrath toward sin. This wrath of God is seen in daily life as the consequences of sin, and ultimately in eternal condemnation. Understand that the wrath of God toward sin is not incompatible with His love. God hates sin because it is the opposite of all He is. He hates it also because of what it does to the ones He loves. It is like a parent who is fiercely protective of their child and hates anything which could hurt them. Parental protective love is a faint echo of the love God has for us, and His wrath toward sin. It is crucial to understand that this sinful and fallen condition is our basic human nature, inherited from Adam. We call it the sin nature. We are sinners by nature; we are sinners by practice, and there is absolutely nothing we can do to change who we are. As the leopard cannot change its spots, or the zebra its stripes, we cannot change our basic nature. And while some men are more evil than others, all have sinned and are alienated from God. Why spend so much time describing our former life? Frankly, its depressing! I do so because only as we understand how bad off we were can we appreciate the love and grace of God. We must fully realize we do or could do nothing to merit God's love and mercy. To the hopeless and helpless sinner, verse 4 sounds the sweetest note in existence: II. BUT GOD... Two little words-but through them, God speaks volumes to us. We were dead, trapped, slaves, without hope: But God! Here is the answer to the question people ask, "Why doesn't God do something about the evil in the world? Why are there pandemics, and why is there terrorism, and why do bad things happen to good people?" Such things are only symptoms of the main disease. God didn't just alleviate symptoms of sin; He gave us the cure! My friends, God DID DO SOMETHING ABOUT EVIL: He reached down into this vile, sin-enslaved darkened world and while we were yet sinners, made it possible for us to be made alive in Christ! God the Son became a man so He could be the required perfect sacrifice. He paid the awful penalty of death as He died on the cross of Calvary. Jesus gave us the solution for our root problem of sin. Jesus is the only way, the only truth, and the only life. Verse 4 is one of the most encouraging verses in the Bible! What a contrast to the darkness of verses 1-3! Whereas the world is sadly lacking in love and mercy, God is infinitely wealthy in both areas. God saw our slavery to sin; He saw our weakness and failure and total inability to change. Yet because of His great mercy and love, instead of leaving us to what we deserved, He touches the dead and makes them alive in Christ. Instead of giving us justice and what we deserve-death and eternal separation from Himself, in mercy He gave us what we did not deserve-forgiveness and eternal life. In the last few verses of chapter 1, we have a prayer:The prayer expresses the longing that the eyes of our hearts would be opened up to see the great power of God which was demonstrated in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Verses 5 and 6 help us realize how that power affects us. We are saved through our identification with Jesus Christ and what He did for us-we are born of the Spirit as we believe. In Christ, our sins were nailed to the cross. In Christ we were buried with Him. And in Christ we are risen with Him to new life. We are made alive from the dead, just as Jesus rose from the dead, for as verse 5 states, He "made us alive together with Christ." In Christ we were raised, and as Christ was elevated in authority over every authority and power and dominion, we too are seated with Christ in the heavenly places. In Christ we have been made spiritually alive, raised up out of death, leaving the old dead body of our sin behind, and seated with Christ. We now are clothed with the righteousness of Jesus. Understand that only righteous and holy persons can abide in heaven, and if we are seated with Christ there-as this verse clearly states-it means in Christ we are new beings, our sins washed away, and we have been declared righteous. Again, the glorious truth of Justification. With Christ we have been given authority over the forces of evil in the sense that we no longer must obey them. We never again need to fear Satan and his demonic hoards, for through Christ we have been given sure victory, although we are daily still engaged in spiritual warfare. But now in Christ, we now fight from a position of great superior strength. God is telling us what has happened to us. Our part is to accept it as God's free gift. Verse 7 states God's purpose in His work of salvation: it is to demonstrate to all who would look throughout eternity the riches of His grace. Angels are one category of those who continually view this expression of God's love, mercy, and grace, but we who have been redeemed are those who will appreciate it the most. The gift of grace will not be fully appreciated until we get to heaven. We are God's trophy of grace, displayed throughout eternity! I will end with: III. SOME APPLICATIONS THAT COME TO MIND First: We should not ever be surprised by the depth of sin, conflict, or the depravity of a society apart from God. Sadly, this is unfolding before our eyes right now. These verses explain why people cannot get along, why marriages fail, why there is physical and mental abuse, why there are wars and conflicts: it is because mankind is enslaved to sin and Satan. Second: Although we have been rescued from this sinful system, we still live within it. Jesus prayed for us in this regard, as recorded in John 17:14-16: "I have given then Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." There should be an observable difference in our lives from those without Christ. Ephesians 4:17: "This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind..." We are not to be conformed or squeezed into the mold of the world. Third: Although these verses paint a grim picture of the non-believing world, realize that God's common grace mediates this evil. Every man is not as sinful as he could be, although that does not prove that he is not alienated from God. Your neighbor may be a "good person" and we should rejoice in that-better to have a good neighbor than a bad one! But he still needs Christ. God expresses His goodness to all; He causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. There is beauty and benevolence shown in all cultures and societies. Understand that one way that God mediates evil in society is through the presence and influence of believers. It has been demonstrated throughout history that Christian people living and sharing the Christian message can bring changes in society. It takes courage to move against the mainstream of culture and society-against the Cosmos, the world system, but that is our command from God. We are to do good. And lastly, the most important implication of these verses is that the only solution to sin is the blood of Jesus Christ. This passage clearly presents a before and after picture: before salvation, we were hopelessly lost in sin, dwelling in darkness and despair. But afterwards, we walk in the light, born anew, raised to new life and declared righteous and seated with Jesus in a holy heaven. Because of Christ we now have the power and ability to live increasingly Christlike lives. We have been given the responsibility to bring this good news to the world. Praise God for the wonderful gift of grace! Praise God that we are not what we once were, and that we are dearly beloved children of God! 2