Dead or Alive

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Confession

Prayer of Confession

Almighty God, before you all hearts are open, all desires are known, and from you no sins are hid; cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love You, and magnify your Holy Name, we have strayed from your ways like lost sheep, we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts, we have offended against your Holy laws, we have left undone those things which we should have done, and we have done those things which we should not have done. Lord, have mercy upon us, spare us who confess our faults, restore us who repent, according to your promises made to us in Christ Jesus our Lord; and grant, for His sake, that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of your Holy name. Amen.

Assurance of Faith

May the almighty and merciful Lord grant unto you pardon and remission of all your sins, true repentance, admendment of life, and the grace and comfort of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Catechism

Q. 4. What is God?

A. God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being,

wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

Q. 5. Are there more Gods than one?

A. There is but one only, the living and true God.

Q. 6. How many persons are there in the Godhead?

A. There are three persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and

the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in

substance, equal in power and glory.

Worship

What a Friend We have in Jesus pg 403

Just as I am pg 370

Hear the Good News of Salvation pg 355

Prayers of the People

Prayer Request

Sermon Intro

Please Join me in the Eph 2:1-8

Ephesians 2:1–8 ESV

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. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

We finished Chapter 1 last week, over 8 weeks we looked at

The triune nature of God revealed in how he has worked salvation among mankind, The Father in choosing and adopting, The son in redeeming and uniting all things in Him, and the Spirit in sealing and preserving us to our inheritance.

We also saw Pauls prayer that we see in our hearts the great work God has done in preparing for His people an inheritance, by placing Christ upon the throne to rule until all enemies are beneath His feet.

And we learned that Jesus as the head of the church is working in this world in a very real way to save not only individuals but to save the world.

This week as we come to Pauls words we see what seems to be a bit of a shift as Paul goes from talking about God’s people in a collective sense, to bringing into focus the work of salvation in individuals. In this section of Scripture what we see is Paul revealing to us just how miraculous is the salvation of each individual person. Paul lays out for us the nature (or state of being of man), the nature of God in relation to man, and just how God reconciles that relationship.

The Nature of Man

Presenting the gospel to anyone is fruitless, unless at some point we show them the actual nature of their own soul. How can we tell someone they need a savior if they do not know why it is that they need a savior.

From the moment of the fruit in the garden of Eden, mankind has been cursed, by their very nature as children of Adam they are sinful. No person has ever needed someone to teach them to be sinful. We are well adept at being greedy and selfish.

This is what Paul lays out for us in the first 3 verses of chapter 2: Eph 2:1-3

Ephesians 2:1–3 ESV

Remember at this point in the letter Paul has just completed this beautiful prayer asking God to enlighten the eyes of our hearts so that we might see the miraculous work He has done in raising Christ from the dead. He begins the next sentence with And you; you were dead in your trespasses and sins. I almost seems as if He is setting up a compare and contrast with what has just come before and will come after this. Comparing our pitiful state as fallen creatures with the majesty of the work of God.

Dead in Sin

Paul tells us that we are dead in our sin. This is the state of mankind without God. God told Adam and Eve in the garden, the day you eat of the fruit you will surely die. As we know the story, they did not die physically at that moment, but we can surmise that a spiritual death came upon them instantly, they became enemies of God, ones that submitted to their own desires above God’s law, which at that time was quite simple. And in a very real way, physical death came upon them at that moment as well. Because had they followed God’s law, they would have recieved the fruit of the tree of life and recieved eternal life. So by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, disobeying God, they brought real physical death upon themselves and their offspring, and though they would not experience that death for hundreds of years to come, it was an inevitable outcome.

The same is true of us today. Though we walk the earth today, eating, breathing, and thinking, our physical death is inevitable, due to the remaining curse upon this creation, brought on by sin.

So Paul was reminding us and the church of Ephesus, that without God’s salvific work that He had just highlighted only a few sentences earlier, we were hopeless, we were dead in our sins. Think of the metaphor of physical death. Once you enter that state you cannot overcome it by any power of your own. This is the picture Paul is painting of the soul that does not have Christ. Paul uses this idea again in his letter to the Colossians saying you who were dead in your trespasses, in Romans he reminds us that the wages of sin are death.

This state of being of dead in our sins not only foretells the eternal future of the unsaved, but it also expresses our nature in relation to God in this life and how we are oriented towards God and His goodness. Rom 3:10-18

Romans 3:10–18 ESV

as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

We are dead in our sin, we are dead towards God. For this reason Jesus tells us “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” We are in need of a change of our very nature.

Living in Lust

Paul reminds us of how we live when we are dead. When we are dead to God, when we are as Romans says “None seek after God” then we are in a life as Paul says: Eph 2:2-3

Ephesians 2:2–3 ESV

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.

Paul says we walk in our sins and trespasses. Obviously this is counter to the command to walk in the way of Christ. Jesus said that He who sins is a slave to sin, and throughout scripture we are called to be slaves to righteousness, slaves of God, slaves of Christ. We will walk according to whoever is our master. According to Paul here, if we are dead in our sins, then we walk according to that sin. It sets our path. We cannot fool ourselves into thinking that I am living my life the way I want to live it. You are either living it according to God’s will, or you are living your life in slavery to sin.

In fact Paul goes on to say that the one in sin’s course is determined by the world, even by Satan as he is called the prince of the power of the air, he is the one working in the sons of disobedience. Those who are disobedient, those who are in unbelief, which is the root of disobedience, they live as the world has them live. They might feign independence and autonomy, saying that they are the masters of their own destiny, but this is nothing more than hubris born of their willful disobedience to God. They are not living according to their own plan.

Paul is clear to the reader. We have all been in that state. At one time we were all living according to the passions of the flesh, the desires of the body and mind. Paul tells us Rom 8:5-8

Romans 8:5–8 ESV

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Children of Wrath

Therefore Paul tells us that those who are dead in their sin are children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Before one comes to a saving knowledge of Christ. Before one trusts in Him as their Savior, they are a child of wrath. We do not like to see God in that light. As a God of wrath, but we must understand that while we are in Sin that is the very essence of the relationship between us and Him.

But catch what He says here in context, He is speaking to believers, and He says to them that we all were once among those who were children of wrath, “like the rest of mankind.” The rest of mankind, those who do not know Christ are in this category, they know God only as wrathful, as someone they hate, but to those who are in Christ, those who Paul calls Saints, they know God in a whole different light.

The Nature of God

Up to this point Paul has painted quite a bleak picture as to the state of mankind. He has shown us the hopelessness of ourselves in our own nature. What our state is when we see ourselves a the masters of our own destiny, trusting in ourselves rather than our Creator. Then Paul says some of my favorite words in Scripture: “But God.” There truly is no sweeter words. When we look into our selves. When we examine the depths of our own depravity. When we place our hope of success in this life on our own shoulders, It is empty, It is hopeless, “But God” Eph 2:4-7

Ephesians 2:4–7 ESV

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

OPur own nature is one of Sin, but the nature of God as laid out in this passage by Paul is Mercy, Love and Grace

Rich in Mercy

Another word for rich in this case can be abounding or abundantly supplied. So God is abounding in this mercy.

As we look at any aspect of God’s nature, we say we are looking at the attributes of God. For whatever God has, He is. He does not possess anything that is outside of His very nature. So when we look at man’s nature, absent God, we see sin. When we look at God’s nature we see so very much. The first attribute highlighted here by Paul is God’s mercy.

But why mercy, mercy implies that there is punishment due, and the one with the right to punish is foregoing that punishment. When Paul says that we are children of wrath, we have to ask, who’s wrath. The answer is God’s. God’s anger towards sin, and ultimately to all those who remain in their sin will be exhibited in punishment.

“But God” He is rich in mercy. In as much as He is wrathful, He shows mercy. We all deserve the eternal punishment for our heinous sin against the eternal God. However, he has determined that He will display His mercy.

Great in Love

And Paul notes that God displays His mercy, “because of His great love.” We come to another attribute of God. God is love. As with any attribute, God does not possess love outside of His own nature, but love actually exist because He exists. His loved is displayed in some cases over and above His wrath. We must however, be careful though not to over or under exaggerate God’s love. If we do we run the risk of making Him out to be a different God than what he has revealed Himself to be.

We can over exaggerate God’s love to a point that we come to the conclusion that it is the predominate attribute of God, and it overshadows all other attributes. This will lead some to believe that God will not exercise His wrath on any. That all will be forgiven in equal measure. But Scripture is clear that there is a very real place called Hell and that it is prepared for Satan and all those who live in their sin. God displays the fullness of His nature through all of his attributes, and as hard as it may be for us to understand, Scripture is very clear that not all will be saved.

However, we can become far to focused on His wrath as well and under exaggerate the depth of God’s love. Though the Bible is clear that God will display His wrath against those who reject Him, I think it also highlights that the number who receive mercy will far outweigh those who do not. In describing to Abraham the number of His offspring, God told him they will be as the stars fo the sky, or number as the sands of the sea. That is a lot. In John’s vision of heaven in the book of Revelation, he said he saw a crowd before the throne that could not be counted. We must be careful to not limit God’s timeline. If we look at the short existence of man to this point, it might be safe to say that the number of unbelieving far outweigh the number of believing. But if we take God at His word that he will be faithful to the generations of believers to 1,000 generations, we will find there is a lot of history left to be lived.

Jesus said that God so loved the world “the cosmos” that He gave His only Son, so that all the believing might have eternal life. Then He said that the Son had not come to condemn the world but to save it. In the last chapter we spoke of Jesus uniting all things, creating for us and inheritance, all while sitting upon His throne putting all enemies beneath His feet. Christ is saving the world through the spread of the Gospel, and according to how I understand this put throughout Scripture he will do so until all the nations are brought into submission to Him. There is an abounding number of God’s people left to be saved because of His love for His creation.

Unsurpassed in Grace

Each of these people is saved out of their sin, Paul says that His mercy and love were displayed to us while we were still dead in our trespasses. And it was done by Him making us alive together with Christ. This is the reversal of the curse of death put upon Adam and His offspring.

Last week I spoke of Adam as the first Adam, and of Christ as the second Adam (or more correctly it should be the last Adam). This is a reference directly to 1 Cor 15, which I will not go all the way through right now, but it is important to understand in the context of this passage today. Paul tells us we are made alive in Christ. In order to understand that we must understand what I said earlier about the nature of man, that we are dead in our sin before we are born again.

God made the world to work in such a way that we function under what is called headship, sometimes you will hear it as federal headship. It means simply this, we as creatures are represented by the one who is appointed as our head. In the case of all of mankind, our first head was Adam. That is why Scripture can say that we all sinned in Adam.

But God, in His grace gave us Christ, who Scripture says is the last Adam, The Son on earth as fully man represented us before God once again. He was perfect, following God’s law without fail. And in doing so He is given as the head over all who believe in Him. That is why we are said to be “made alive with Christ.”

And because He is our head we are raised up with Him and seated in the heavenly places. We are given along with our federal head Jesus Christ, a place of honor. Paul inserts in the middle of this sentence an emphasis, “by grace you have been saved.” All so that in the coming ages as Paul says, God might show the surpassing riches of His grace.

Grace Alone, Faith Alone

It is by God’s grace, His good-will alone, that we are saved. Look again at Eph 2:8

Ephesians 2:8 ESV

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

Saved by Grace

God does not save us because it is fair, or because we are owed salvation in anyway, He does not save us because we do good things in the community, or in the church, or because we are nice at work. He saves us because He wants to display His grace. I have pointed out before, that the word grace is actually defined by how it is used in Scripture, rather than its definition informing the passage, it is the other way. Simply put, grace is a word that is used to express the work of God in salvation. And the beauty of that fact is that we can see that all of salvation is the work of God Himself. It in no way depends upon me.

Conclusion

We all need salvation. We along with our representative Adam have all failed, alone we have done nothing good. All of our works without Christ are sinful. Now that might upset some, as we often think that even before coming to a saving knowledge of Christ, we did some good things. But Scripture reveals that even the good we try to do outside of Christ is worthless, because we do not do it for right motives. The nature of mankind without Christ is a pitiful state. And in order to truly show people, believer and unbeliever alike, just how grand is God’s mercy, love, and grace really is, we must first reveal to them just how far removed they really are from God’s holy standard of righteousness.

“But God,” We cannot leave people hopeless though, we have to explain to them the great provision God has made for them to come to Him. Because we couldn’t do it ourselves, man “Adam” could not righteously come before God on His own accord. So God send us His Son, incarnate as man to do the work Himself. To live the perfect righteous life, and then sacrifice Himself to pay for the punishment that is due for the sins we commit.

So today, if you know yourself to be among those who believe you can count on the promise of eternal life given to us in Scripture. If you are not sure, or you know that you have not come to that point of faith in Christ as Savior, then come and speak to me after the service, during the week, or whenever. Let me tell you further how it is that we can some to Cross for forgiveness.

Doxology

Closing Prayer

If anyone has any questions or concerns feel free to catch me afterwards. And a quick reminder we do have plates in the back for anyone who desires to worship through giving today. The plate to the right is general giving, and the one to the left is specific for our missions giving.

Join us as we sing the doxology:

Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise Him all creatures here below, Praise Him above ye Heavenly Host, Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Commisioning

Numbers 6:24–26 ESV

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

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