Ephesians
1:15-23; 2:1-5
Page
3
Chapter
2 begins by saying "And
you." (It was great stuff until now.) "hath he quickened" is in italics, if you
read it in the king James, which means that it's added by
the translators to help us to understand what it's saying.
But it has there "hath quickened",
the phrase there, down in verse 5.
So it isn't anything that isn't included in God's
Word as part of the idea here. He begins in Chapter 2 by saying "And you hath he quickened.or made alive.who were dead in trespasses and sins." Now it's going to describe our state before
we came to Christ. If
you're here this evening [or whenever, online] and you don't
know Jesus personally, it may be a little hard for you to
take, but this is your present condition. "And
you hath he made alive
who were dead in trespasses and sins."
Now the idea is, this
is spiritual death. Obviously you're sitting here tonight, you're
not physically dead. There's
only two people ever that have been born spiritually alive,
that was Adam and Jesus Christ [I beg to differ, I don't
believe Adam was born with the indwelling Holy Spirit in
him--he hadn't partaken of the Tree of Life yet, and never
did as long as he lived.
I say John the Baptist and Jesus Christ were born
with the Holy Spirit already indwelling within them.
Remember how Elizabeth (John's mother, Mary's cousin)
said how her baby leaped within her when Mary (pregnant
with Jesus) approached her?
A secondary issue-but I do beg to differ,
editor.] Everybody
else who has been born physically is spiritually dead. Your children, as cute as they are when you
see them, they're born spiritually dead.
You, if you don't know Jesus Christ, are alive physically,
but dead spiritually. That's
why Jesus said "to enter the kingdom you have to be born
again" (cf. John 3:3-8), you're born of water, but you also
have to be born of the Spirit. This whole idea, again, you don't know Christ,
you hear people talking about being born again, that's the
idea. You're physically alive right now, you have
a soul, you're conscious, you make decisions, you know what's
going on, you have an awareness [which the animals just
don't have (read 1 Corinthians 2:11)].
But you're dead spiritually. And that is because you are out of fellowship
with God. So it says
here "you who were dead in trespasses", and
that's the way we were, dead people don't hear, they don't
complain about the food.
They don't see the movie, this, the screens, you
know. We were dead
in trespasses and sins.
Now you can see how much we have participated or
contributed to our salvation--we were dead in trespasses
and sins [and also dead to any kind of spiritual understanding,
real understanding of God's Word].
Verses 2-3, "Wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh
in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all
had our conversation [Greek: "conduct", king James way of
saying "conduct", "lifestyle" ] in times past in the lusts
of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of
the mind [the biggest sex organ in a human is the mind]:
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others."
Now this is what it tells you about the existence
that we had before we came to Christ and for those today
who don't know him. It
says that 'they walk,' now it's the Greek word that
means "to meander" or "wander", means "to walk without destination"-"to
wander, meander." That we were meandering according
to the course of this world.
Now, interesting words. Greek "incord echata" [not sure of spelling],
that means "down", we were held down, that we were meandering,
and it was under the suppression of this world's
system. We really
didn't have choices. In
my generation we grew our hair long, wore bell-bottoms. I mean, late sixties, we thought we were "free",
we thought we were making our own decisions, we were meandering,
being fed on a menu by the prince of the power of the air,
what we should look like, ideas of rebellion, you know,
drop-out, freak-out, LSD, marijuana, blow your mind, flip-out,
drop-out, whatever. It
says, when we were in the world, we were meandering according
to this world--and again, it uses "the course of
this world" is where we get the root word "weathervane".
It means to be blown without direction, according
to the course of whatever the world was blowing our
way. "And
according to the prince of the power of the air", Satan,
and his influence, as he decides on styles, as he brings
hems up this year, bellies out, more skin, less cloth.
"According to the prince of the power of the air, who now worketh"--energizo, energizes--"the children of disobedience."
Now this is incredible.
I want you to think about it, because you know, in
Ezekiel 28 it tells us there that Lucifer, Satan, in his
pristine state, before he was fallen, 'Thou Son of the Morning,
Lucifer, was the head cherub.
He's evidently of the order of the cherubim's.
It seems that there are seraphim [Hebrew: burner
(could it be like they're a spirit version of a rocket-powered
angel-with after-burner's?--makes you wonder.)], there are
angels that are different. Michael is "the", definite article, archangel,
there's only one of what he is.
Gabriel seems to be in charge of earth announcements,
he's got some special work to do.
But there's another strain of heavenly creature called
cherubim, and it tells us in Ezekiel 28 that Satan was the
head cherub, he was in charge of worship. [There may only be three cherubim, Lucifer (now
Satan), Michael (who took Lucifer's archangel position when
Lucifer fell), and Gabriel.] And that the timbrel and the
pipe were founded in him (Lucifer) the day that he was created.
Now it's interesting when they do a survey nation-wide
among youth and they ask them "What is the first thing you
turn to when you have problems?" And across the board they say "Music". Drugs, alcohol where like 3rd, 4th
and 5th, parents were in the 20s, rabbi's
and pastor's were in the 40s.
Music, what a powerful, powerful force. [The power of music is in the musical notes
which are like the carrier waves in radio.
The musical notes convey with power the lyrics--right
straight into the brain, almost on a subconscious level.]
And I don't think there's anything wrong with music
in and of itself. Nothing
is evil in and of itself.
But what a powerful medium.
You know, it's interesting, if you let your kids
listen to worldly music--besides smacking yourself and pulling
your beard like Nehemiah--you should check out the lyrics,
listen to what they have to say, listen to the message that's
being conveyed. And
look, we can't be a bunch of old fogies.
I mean if our kids come to us and say, "Oh, the kids
are saying this." Let's
get it, let's sit down together.
Let's read through the album cover, let's look at
the lyrics. Let's talk about it. Let's see what they have to say. You don't just say "No, take the album out and
burn it, there's a demon in every album."
No, we don't want to be in that
camp, you know. I
mean--but it is incredible, incredible things they can do
on an instrument. Satan energizes the children of disobedience.
It's incredible, whether you're playing music, sometimes
you're playing sports, there's a thing called "the zone"
that you get in. I
remember as a musician, and I'm a musician at heart, there
were just certain nights, we'd be playing, and everything would click. I
mean, the band would sound like a locomotive, it was better
than drugs, it was better than sex, I mean it was a high
for me that was better than anything in the world--everything
just went, you know, it was amazing. And you never figured out what made it happen,
or how. Athletes
talk about that, being in the game, and all of a sudden
"getting in the zone", and
every single thing clicks and goes perfectly right. And it's interesting because it says Satan "energizes
the children of disobedience."
[He is called the
prince of the power of the air.
Before radio and TV we couldn't really have a concept
of what that meant, but Satan has the power and uses his
power to charge the very air with his bad attitudes much
like the air on earth is filled with radio-waves from radio
transmission towers, as the late Mr. Herbert Armstrong once
commented.] He knows how to "anoint" as it were, for his
purposes. Someone
gave me an album of one of my favorite bands before I was
a believer. And we were on the way to school with the kids
and I put it in and played it for them.
They listened to it one time and have been singing
those songs ever since.
I wish I could get them to learn Christian songs
like that. That was
the end of it. That's
all they wanted to hear after that.Amazing, it says, "While
we were unbelievers, being suppressed by the course of this
world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
who energizes the children of disobedience", and he says,
"among whom also we all had our conduct or our manner of
living (king James uses conversation) in times past, and it was
in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires or the
will of the flesh and of the mind, and were"--notice this--"by
nature children of wrath even as others."
By nature. One of the reasons a dog acts like a dog is
a dog's nature. It's
not a mystery. When you get a puppy I don't know what you think
it's going to be when it grows up, but it always grows up
to be a dog, and you're kind of surprised.
[laughter] And it says
human beings without Christ are by nature 'children of wrath'
[by nature like the spiritual father of this evil world,
Satan, who is full of wrath, and broadcasts that attitude
worldwide.] And we
were like that. And
it says 'we lived in the will and the desires and the lusts
of our flesh and of our mind' because again, man created
as a [combination of] body and spirit, on a plane [way]
above the animal's existence.
[cf. 1 Corinthians 2:11.
There is a spirit in
man that gives man an intellect and mental faculties, a
mental output far superior to the animals.
Maybe we've been able to teach a monkey or ape basic
American Sign Language (very, very basic), but that same
monkey or ape cannot comprehend literature, mathematics,
physics, chemistry, write music, symphonies, create and
build cities, cars, trains, computers, aircraft.
The output of the basic human brain is so far above
the smartest of the animals brains
of equivalent size and quality that they differ exponentially. A famous brain scientist, Dr. Kuhn, said there
must be a non-physical component to the human brain that
grants this awesome power of human intellect and intelligence
beyond that of the animals.
This "human" spirit is called in the Bible the "spirit
of man" in three or four different places (cf. 1 Corinthians
2:11;Romans 8:16 Ecclesiastes 3:21).] Again, man is created in Genesis as spirit,
soul and body on a plane above the animal system. God three times in that first chapter uses the
word "bara" that means in Hebrew "made something from nothing",
once when he created the heavens and the earth.
And then
it tells us that "he formed", not created,
the plants, so forth, out of that. But then it tells us that when he created the
animals, the fish, the whales, that he created, "bara",
something from nothing again, and he created them "a living
soul". He formed
their bodies from the dust of the ground, but then it was
time, because it wasn't just a plan anymore, to give it
a higher realm of existence, and God created consciousness,
life, and placed it in. [Solomon in Ecclesiastes says there's a spirit
in both man and animals, but the difference is in what happens
when each dies, the spirit in the animals goes downward
and the spirit in man (with no distinction between good
and evil) goes upward to God. The difference between animal brain output and
the output of man's brain is what is so amazing. The spirit in man, of man, gives the human brain
an intellect, understanding and output exponentially greater
than even the smartest animal brain.
There are no Newton's, Einstein's or
Stephen Hawking's of the animal kingdom.]
Then it says, when he created man, again it uses
"bara" for the third time, created "something from nothing"
["bara" can mean "something from nothing", but also has
been used to mean created in the sense of refashioning,
reforming as well]. He
created man a living spirit.
So the plants and the terra firma, the earth are
made out of the elements that God put in the ground [so
are we, we just have this "spirit of man" in our brains,
giving us human mind power, human intellect].
When he made the animals he had to make, body from
the earth, consciousness, a creation, a soul, a consciousness.
When he made man, he made man--body from the earth,
soul, consciousness--and then one step higher--spirit in
fellowship with the living God, God conscious, God-centered.
[What he is saying is that the "spirit in man", the
human spirit, was made to be able to unite, form a union,
with the Holy Spirit of God, cf. Romans 8:16; 1 Corinthians
2:11-16.] When man,
he died spiritually [I contend Adam and Eve were never "alive"
spiritually for they hadn't yet partaken of the "Tree of
Life", which was a manifestation of God's Holy Spirit.]
And the dominating force then was the flesh [under
Satan's influence, for who was there in the Garden
of Eden with them besides God?--the serpent, Satan disguised
as a serpent]. [Adam
and Eve never had a spiritual union with God by receiving
the Holy Spirit, they never partook
of the Tree of Life. They
partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil before
they could chose a Holy Spirit
led life.] And human beings that do not know Christ, not
born-again, live according to the desires of the flesh and
the mind [under Satan's powerful influence broadcast into
the air] until they're born-again.this is what he says,
"And you, who were dead in trespasses and sins hath God
quickened (made alive), but in times past, he said, you
were meandering, without purpose in life, without direction. There was no purpose to your life, your own
self-grandiose ideas, dreamed up purposes for your life,
you had no real purpose for life.
And he says 'It was according to the course, the
wind, of this world, and according to the prince of the
power of the air, who now energizes the children of disobedience
[and has been doing so since the time of Adam and Eve],
among whom also we all had our lifestyle in times past,
in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind, and we were by nature children of
wrath, even as others.'
Verses 4-6, "But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by
grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and
made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." "But God." You see, that's the whole point of these first
three chapters--"But God"--we were going to hell--we were
by nature children of wrath.
We were dead in trespasses and sins--we had no way
to awake ourselves from being in trespasses and sins--we
had no way to save ourselves--we had no way to escape our
situation--but God. The A.C.L.U. looks like they're taking things
by the handle now, running things, they're shutting the
Scripture out of school, they're saying no more prayer--but God. The nations of the world are dreaming of N.A.F.T.A.
and free trade associations, one world order, we're going
to organize everything, and tyranny's going to come, the
anti-christ is going to come on the scene, millions [the
Bible shows billions] of people are going to die--but God.
You know, here we are, we're his children, in this
world that's about to blow apart with tremendous suffering,
and we have no way to escape this planet--but God. I like this phrase,
it fits everything I think, 'but God' means forget about
everything we've said so far because God is on the scene.
He just arrived, and we're not by nature damned anymore,
we're not going to hell anymore, we're not meandering anymore,
we're not living without purpose anymore.
All of those things are cancelled because of God.
That's where he's got us in these first three chapters.
"But God,
who is rich in mercy." Now
it's kind of a parenthesis. If you look down in verse 5, see where it says
"hath quickened us
together with Christ"?
Let me read it to you. "But
God, who is rich in mercy.hath quickened us together with
Christ (by grace ye are saved)."
But he puts this interesting parenthesis in.
"But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great
love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins,." If you're here
tonight, and you're a Christian, and you're [feeling] condemned,
would you please read that to yourself.
Do you understand what I'm trying to say to you?
"But God,
who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved
us, even when
you were dead in trespasses and sins."
His love was extended to you before you knew him. He loved you even when you were his enemy. "For God so loved the world that he gave
his only Son." He
loved the world ".that whoever believed in Him would have
eternal life and not perish." Why should he not love you now that you're his
son or his daughter? Aren't
we ridiculous sometimes?
And again, I'm convinced it's because we have no
barometer to measure God's love, there's no barometer BIG ENOUGH,
there's no scale to measure it on,
there isn't anything that we can compare it with.
You either have to receive it and believe it, or
forget about it. Because again, if God is who he says he is,
God is Holy. That
makes him different from everything.
Again, there's the Creator and the creation, that's
all that exists, in time and space and every dimension,
those are the only two things that are [and even "time and
space" are a part of the physical creation--Newton, Einstein
and Hawking], the creator and the creation.
You're part of the creation.
God's not part of it.
There's the creator and there's creation, that's
what makes him Holy, he's separate. There is God and that which is not God, those
two things. Well
what that means, is God's love is also different from all
love in the creation plane we understand.
And when we hear that he loves us without any conditions,
we immediately put that--'well does he love me more than
my mother does? Does
he love me more than my father loves me?'--we immediately
try to put that on barometers and scales.
You do not have the barometer to measure the love
of God on. The only
barometer we have to measure it on is a cross [cf. John
3:16], with his Son nailed to it.
There will never be a greater demonstration or example
of his love towards you, and you have to receive his love
today "by faith", because you can't measure it or figure
it out, or deserve it, because it's holy, it's from another
realm, it comes without any earthly conditions that people
have. Even with family members that you're going to
love, they're going to love you much better when you show
love toward them. They love you much better when you let them
come over to your built-in pool.
You know, isn't it amazing how many friends you get
when you buy a pick-up truck?
I mean, in this world, love is measured in incredible
ways, and yet here is a love that comes to us not because
we are lovable. And
every love that you understand is elicited by something.
You loved your wife when you got engaged to her,
when you dated her, there was "something" in her that drew love from you--which
meant that there was something in her that would also benefit
you. There was a relationship there. You love your kids because they are you're kids,
they elicit your love, they draw your love, there's something
in them that takes it and deserves it.
There was nothing in us that elicited God's love.
He gave it because of who he is and how his love
is. It is given unconditionally. Look what it says here. "God,
who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, hath he quickened--made
alive--together with Christ (by grace ye are saved)."
Now that's the secret, grace.
What is it? You know, it's different from mercy. Again, imagine your serial-killers that we hear
about in the media, being sentenced to prison and receiving
the death penalty. And
if the governor of the state changes that and gives that
prisoner life instead of death, that's mercy, because he's
not getting what he deserves.
But grace is when the governor drives down to the
prison with adoption papers in his hand, terminates the
death sentence, takes that serial-killer out of prison,
changes his last name, writes him into his will, gives him
a car and even a new set of clothes and a 3 million dollar
a year job, takes him home, opens the refrigerator and says,
"Help yourself", takes him up to the closet and says, "Here's
your new clothes"--you know, grace is getting what you don't
deserve. Mercy is
not getting what you do deserve.
Grace is getting what you don't deserve.
So you're saved by grace, so get over it.
Again, people say "I'm not worthy, I don't deserve
it"-Right, that's
grace-you finally got it!
You got something you didn't deserve! That's grace,
that's how we're saved! We're saved by getting what we don't deserve.
You got it? We're saved by getting what we're not worthy
of. That's Good News,
"gospel" in king James language, that's the "But God". We were hopeless, we were lost--but God. Now you think "But God" is something you say
to him. When you're
forgiven, you're washed, you're cleansed, and you're saying
"But God, I don't feel worthy, I thought a dirty thought, I wanted to punch my boss,
I must not be saved, I need to go forward to another altar
call [or for some, "get re-baptized"]."
And then the Scripture says, "No, you're justified,
you're sanctified, you're glorified," you read it, and the
Holy Spirit tries to tell it to you--and you say "But God."
"But God" is what happened, it's not something you
say. We're saved
by grace, we're saved by getting what we don't deserve. It's not just mercy, yeah it's mercy, we don't get smoked tonight.
But grace is getting what we don't deserve, and that's
what happened in all of our lives.
That's what he's establishing in these early chapters,
we were meandering, wandering according to the course of
this world, without hope in the world, the Bible says, dead
in trespasses and sins, nothing in us drawn to God. It says "no man seeks God.",
"we've all gone astray."
You hear people say "Well I was seeking God." [and
some were, but that's really the Holy Spirit drawing you
toward God--it wasn't you.] You weren't doing nothing. I'll tell you what you were doing, you were following the lust of your heart, your flesh
and your mind, that's what you were doing.
And your heart is desperately wicked, you're incurable
[cf. Jeremiah 17:9]. I
know exactly the condition you were in because you're made
of the same stuff I'm made of. "But God." When people say "Tell me your
testimony." You
should say "But God." I
was drafted, I didn't enlist.
He came and scooped me up. It's kind of like 'Candid Camera', when you
least expect it, you're elected, it's your lucky day. It was on his end the work was accomplished
and wrought out 'before the worlds were formed.' Next week we'll pick up there, 'saved by grace,
through faith, and that's [the faith] not of yourselves,
lest any man should boast.'
You know, God knows that even if the faith--"Oh I
got saved by believing." Well we knew you'd find something to brag about.
So God says, "No, you're saved by grace, through
faith and that's not of yourself either." Let's cut it off right there "lest any man should
boast." He knows
exactly how we are. Great
place to stop, great place to pick up.
END
