Reading Sermon by Rev. Martin VanderWal
Sermon Theme: THE BELIEVER’S NATURAL DEATH
Text: Ephesians 2:1-3
Introduction
Beloved congregation of our
Lord Jesus Christ, I do not know if you are aware of it or not, but there is a
certain methodology that the translators of the King James Version used in
their work to bring forth the Holy Scriptures from their Hebrew and the Greek
origins into the English language. I
call your attention to that fact because it has to do with the way we view this
evening’s text. Translators of the King
James, when they determined that they could make their English translation
smoother or easier for the reader to understand, they inserted certain
words. In order to distinguish those
inserted words from what belonged to
the original text of the Holy Scripture, they indicated those insertions by
means of italics.
Thus we have rendered in our
text in the first verse. Introduced
into the naturally flowing order are the words, “hath he quickened.” Now, that is accurate. It was accurate for them to insert those
words in the text, mainly because they follow through and are a reflection of
the truth that we have in verse 5, “even when we were dead in sins;” there it
is in the original – “hath quickened us together with Christ.” The translators determined these important
words were too far along to find that main verb, that main action of God in the
text, so they determined that they would also put it at the very beginning of
the passage. Thus we have it in our
translation “and you hath he quickened.”
That is accurate.
But it is my conviction that
in a sermon on this text we ought not rush ahead to that fact. Far better, I believe it is for us to look
at the first verse as it is written in the original this way. Quite simply, “and you.. And you were dead
in trespasses and sins.” You. Before that quickening, you were dead in
trespasses and sins. It is easy for us
to gloss over that truth. It is easy
for us to rush quickly to the fact, even the historical fact of our
regeneration, our quickening. And thus
we might easily forget what we were before that regeneration, and what we are
by nature. It is easy for us to forget
that unpleasant truth concerning ourselves.
It is easy for us to ascribe that death in trespasses and sins to the
world, and never to us, not in any sense.
It is easy for us to skip over the end of that death in trespasses and
sins, namely the wrath of God. And
that, too, is identified in our text – that we were the children of wrath even
as others. It is too easy for us to go
quickly to the fact of our regeneration, to the fact of our election, that
distinction made by God in eternity, and to pass too quickly over our death and
the wrath of God that was upon us on account of our death.
We need to understand that
because only in that way can we truly value, can we truly appreciate the grace
of God to quicken us. Just as we saw
last week in the beginning of last Sunday evening’s sermon, to understand the
power that God wrought in Christ to raise Him up in the heavenlies to his own
right hand above principalities and powers, we needed to see first how low He
was. We had to see the death and the
burial of Christ, that God raised Him from the dead by that power. In order for us to see the magnificent grace
of that power to work that same way in us too, we need to consider and we need
to know how deeply we had fallen into that death. Not merely the death of the grave, but the death of trespasses
and sins. Therefore it is worthy of
hearing an entire sermon devoted to this fact of our death in trespasses and
sins.
So we consider this text
under the theme:
THE BELIEVER’S NATURAL
DEATH
I. The Spiritual
Corruption
II. The Deep Bondage
III. The Heavy Wrath
I. THE
SPIRITUAL CORRUPTION
We can draw a certain
parallel from the death of our Lord Jesus Christ to our death in trespasses and
sins. Certainly there is a very clear
difference. We have to operate within a
very distinct limitation. We must say
of our Lord Jesus Christ that never at any time was He dead in trespasses and
sins. We must always say that He was
always fully alive as perfectly righteous, as perfectly sinless in and of
Himself. Yet we look at a particular
feature of His death, the very same feature that we looked at last week – His place,
out of which He was risen by the power of God, His death. That death was signified by His burial in
the grave, a place beneath, below, a place apart from the sphere of life and
light. And in that grave, He was
dead. And there His body was laid as
weak and helpless, having no power at all.
We must carry over that fact,
that significance of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, into the truth that is
taught in our text this evening. We
must move from the death of Christ
mentioned in Ephesians 1:20, to the death mentioned in chapter 2:1. “You were dead in trespasses and sins.” Now we must move into a completely different
realm there than the grave. Oh, we must
say that the similarities are there between Christ’s being buried in that grave
and our death in those trespasses and sins.
First death speaks of a realm first of all. For Christ that realm was the dead, a place. The same thing is true with respect to us by
nature. Where were we? In a certain place, in a certain realm or
sphere; and that realm or sphere defined by the two words mentioned by the
apostle, “trespasses and sins.”
These trespasses and sins
were the ground upon which you walked, the air that you breathed, the ocean in
which you did swim. And now in that
realm you were bound. In that realm you were held. You were without power, without any strength, weak unto any
good. Who is it that can under their
own power rise out of the grave, rise out of that realm of death into
life? None. So it is true with this realm in which we once were. Without power, without strength to deliver
ourselves.
Now you must understand how
fully and how completely that weakness operates. It is not the case that in midst of that death of trespasses and
sins, that you and I looked at ourselves and understood our state to be
miserable, wretched. It was not our
death that, knowing that wretchedness, that misery, somehow we might have cried
out for deliverance, but yet be unable, too weak, to accomplish it. That death extended even to our hearts, to
our wills. That death meant not only
could we NOT deliver ourselves out of that sphere, out of that realm, but we
neither wanted to be delivered out of that sphere, out of that realm,
trespasses and sins.
But at a certain point, the
parallelism ends. We cannot say – would
that we could, I suppose – would that we could say it ended there, would that
we might say, “My death in trespasses in sins is only a stillness or a
resting.” Would that we might be
actually and really according to that death, lying in the grave, not lifting a
finger, not moving at all, not speaking a word, not having our hearts beat
once, because the death in trespasses in sins is far worse.
You see, that one so dead
still has within him a certain force or power of physical life. Though dead, in trespasses and sins, he
stills lives, he still moves, his heart still beats, he still speaks. So that death in trespasses and sins means
this: he is active in that realm. As he
walks upon the ground, as his eyes look over the creation, this world, as he
conducts himself in his business, he is dead in trespasses and sins. His death is a living, active death! Operating out of that principle of earthly
life, all he does, ever, is commit trespass.
All he does, ever, is sin against God.
Not inactive, but very active.
That is our death by nature.
That has its implications, you
know. It has its implications for the
doctrine of the well-meant offer of the gospel, that salvation is offered to
all men head for head, as a possibility obtained by the death of Christ. And the idea is that God offers a gift,
life, to everyone. But He requires
something of them before they might receive that gift of life. He calls them to believe. And representing God, the minister preaches
the gospel as an free offer to be accepted or rejected by all men. They need to do something. And it is not enough that they should sit in
their chair. They must do
something. They must come to the
front. They must sign a decision card. And when they do that, they receive the gift
of life.
That is utterly contrary to
the death expressed in our text. A dead
man cannot decide to believe the gospel.
A dead man cannot choose Jesus Christ.
A dead man cannot believe. He
must live before he can do one thing.
He must live before he can see, let alone enter, the kingdom of
God. Now understand that not only in
terms of inability. It is not for us
only to say that man is somehow unable to come forward, unable to believe by
himself. In fact, such is his death in
trespasses and sins, remember, that he is active in it. Where God says, “Believe,” as the commandment
of the gospel, the natural man will not believe. He cannot believe. In
fact he hardens himself in his unbelief, because by nature he is not merely
dead, but disobedient in his death. His
death is an active principle by which He resists at every turn all of God’s
commandments. Man in his natural state
is committed to his sin against God.
The second point of
application. It is a burden for me to
address the antithesis as it touches our daily lives in the midst of this
world. And I say that in particular to
the young people, but I’m sure it holds true of all of us. You young people look at the world. You see so much life there. They live.
They move. They speak. They
breathe. They talk. And they seem in certain ways to be more
alive than you and I. They have the
parties. They have the fun. They can do whatever they want. And you look at them in their activity, and
you look at our text, “you are dead in trespasses and sins” and you think, “how
can that text be true? I look around me
and I see them as living. Perhaps I see
the good that they do. The world can’t
be all that bad.” And so it is very
easy for us to justify a walk with that world, to have the children of this
world as our companions, as our friends, to develop deep relationships with
them, perhaps even to marry them, or at the least to date them. The truth of the matter is, they are dead in
trespasses and sins. To run with the
world is insane. What would you say of
a man who took his shovel, went to the graveyard, dug up a grave, found a dead
man lying in his casket, climbed into the casket and pulled the dirt back over
him. What would say of that man? Is he not insane? When you run with the world, when you traffic in this death, is
it not exactly the same thing?
Dead in trespasses and sins.
We have to work even further
to uncover this death in all of its horror.
There is one thing, another strong point of temptation for us to live
with the world in the midst of it’s death, and that is the certain freedom that
they boast of. Do you hear it? We draw the comparison. These boast of their freedom. They can do all the things that they want to
do. They can do all the things that
they want to do. They know what the
scripture says. They know the law of
God. They know it. And they understand that law of God to set a
very tight and narrow way, the way of righteousness. They know that. They, in
their trespasses and sins, range freely over the course of sin, from one sin to
another sin. And they look at the
church walking in this narrow way, and they say to us, “Why must you be so
strict? Why must you be so
uncompromising with the world? How
awful you must have it. You’re bound up
so tight, how can you even move at all?
How can live? How can you
breathe? Look at us! We have the freedom. We have the excitement. We can do whatever we please.” They look on us as dead, so narrow, so tight
are we.
That is a powerful
temptation. You and I look at that
freedom. You see them enjoying the ways
of their sin. It appeals to us. Are they not free? At least, are they not more free than what we are? Can they not do whatever they please? Not at all.
The first question that you
must ask of this world, dead in it’s trespasses and sins, is not, “Do you have
the freedom to do this?” Or, “do you have the freedom to do that?” That is not freedom according to
Scripture. According to Holy Scripture
there is one sort of freedom. And that
is the freedom of righteousness, the freedom of holiness, the freedom of the
love of God, the freedom of doing good.
You ask of that world, “Can you do the good? Can you love God? Can you
serve Him? Can you praise Him?” Not at all.
Not one bit. Who is free? They cannot do any good. What bitter bondage.
II. THE
DEEP BONDAGE
I want you to see how that
bondage is identified very clearly in our text. On two different levels does this bondage consist. First, the world. And we according to nature are bound in that way. This is identified in verse 2 this way,
“Wherein in time past ye walked..” A
walk, a mode of behavior in which people live and move. Not just doing certain things, but a
walk. Verse 3, “Among whom also we all
had our conversation.” Along that walk,
turning about here and there, carrying on certain business, carrying on certain
trade with the world, in the midst of this world, speaking with others, doing
things with others, a certain turning here, turning there, wherever we
pleased. A walk and turning comprising
the whole course of one’s life. Where
is that course? It is all together
bound to something. That course is
identified by the phrase “according to” in verse 2. “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this
world.” A certain pattern, a certain
mold, a certain way of this world. And
according to that certain definite way, ye walked. According to this certain definite way, we all had our
conversation in times past.
We have to go deeper than
that. What is the source of this
course? We find it in verse 3. “Among whom also we all had our conversation
in times past in the lusts of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind.” Lusts, heated desires and
passions, uncontrollable, all coming out of the flesh, the depraved nature of
man. That nature is pictured here as
being on fire, being filled with a passion and a zeal, a fervency after the
evil in order to do it and it alone, trespasses and sins.
You do not see that. The
world does not see it. But understand
how it operates as identified in our text.
“Fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.” You see, the hidden zeal, the hidden fire of
the flesh is deeper than the mind, the mind through which the thoughts run, the
mind in which careful deliberation takes place, one’s consciousness. But what drives that mind, even though it
may calmly deliberate certain circumstances, even though it may make very
careful deliberations, it is always under the government of the heated lusts of
the flesh. The mind carries out those
desires into the actions, fulfilling, doing the desires of the flesh and of the
mind.
No freedom at all. Deep bondage.
That is only part of the
bondage. To be sure, that is bad. To have a mind fevered in its rebellion
against God, out of that rebellion to think, and then to speak, and then to
do. But there is another government at
work as well. Under another being,
terribly evil. Again you must see
beyond what the world calls freedom.
You must even see beyond the world itself, the children of the world
themselves, but you must also see that world under the dominion, under the
power of Satan. See the truth of the
second verse. “Wherein in time past ye
walked according to [the idea of rule] the course of this world, [and then
another rule] according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that
now worketh in the children of disobedience.”
You see that course of the world – enveloping everything about that
world, against God, dead in trespasses sins – that course of the world is under
the complete control, under the authority of another being, the prince of the
power of the air.
See those words, words that
we considered in Ephesians 1:21. There
you find that same word, “power.” In
verse 21, “principalities.” Here is one
of those, no longer heavenly now, but earthly, cast out of his former estate on
account of his disobedience. He has no
place in heaven, but now instead he is in the air. Words are used to describe
his authority. There, “of the air,”
(not of heaven) he is the prince. There
he exercises, there he possesses a certain authority. He rules. He has
dominion. And that dominion is the
whole human race by nature.
Freedom? Does the world ever do as it pleases? Does the world ever do only according to
what it wishes, even as dead in trespasses and sins? Such is this slavery that it is bondage even to the devil
himself. Not free, but bound, in a very
low, low way. As Christ is far above
all principality and power and dominion and might and every name that is named
– so far as Christ is above that, so far below is the unregenerate world under
Satan. Such is the world’s death, such
is its humility. He determines the
course of unregenerate mankind. He
determines the trends. He determines
the fashions. He determines what its
inhabitants will do. And he directs
that world all in one way – against God.
Using the world, as an instrument in his hand, he seeks to overthrow the
works of God. He ever seeks to destroy
the cause of God in this world. Satan
is at work.
This rule and working of
Satan is cloaked. It is not apparent to
men. It is not understood by the
children of men. We have that
identified in this way, “Wherein in time past ye 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.”
The spirit, this personal being, having a mind and a will, plotting and
planning, called Satan, also acts as a spiritual being, not seen. His influence, as he influences, is not
readily discovered. He works as a
spirit, blowing like the wind. You see
its effects. It has a definite effect,
but he himself is not seen. Yet,
presently working is he in these children of disobedience. Not seen, but he is active. And part of his activity is even the denial
of his own existence. He understands
that it is to his benefit that these men, women, and children, bound in the
most wretched and miserable way, nevertheless think themselves to be free. It is to his advantage.
So much is his rage against
God, that he works in this way, worse than any human dictator ever to appear
among the children of men to rush them to their destruction. This one has been at work. All the talents, all the abilities, all the
wisdom with which he was created, he now uses in the service of rebellion
against the God who made him. And in
his rebellion he uses and abuses the children of the world. They are merely pawns, yes, rational, moral,
and therefore responsible. Nevertheless
he uses them as pawns in his warfare against God and against Christ. That is the world. That is also you and I by nature.
We must not allow that to
pass. We must understand that is
exactly the point. All the things that
I have said, you must be able to say (all of that), not about the world out there. But you must say that of yourselves. Application to the redeemed, renewed church
is the very point of this text, beginning with the very distinct words, “and
you.” You were dead in
trespasses and sins. “Wherein in time
past ye walked.” Then he joins
himself, along with the Jewish believers, to them. Verse 3, “Among whom we also all had our conversation.” Then at the end of verse 3, “and were by
nature the children of wrath, even as others.”
That world out there – they are the children of wrath, they are the
children of disobedience. Now they are
dead in trespasses and sins. Now they
walk according to the prince of the power of the air. Now the spirit of disobedience works in them. But aforetime, before, so were you. In times past, so did you. Do not minimize that. Do not pass over that fact so easily.
It is easy for us to do
that. We look at our election, elect in
Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world. It is true. On account of
that election, the grace of God upon us, His grace of election in
eternity. True. But, by nature as the children of
disobedience, we are also children of wrath.
Children of wrath.
III. THE
HEAVY WRATH
It is important that we
remember that awful word, “wrath.” We
cannot deny it. We must know what that
means. Children of disobedience,
children of wrath. The one follows upon
the other. Should you fail to heed the
warning that I have given about running with the world, should you join the
children of disobedience, you must never say, “That’s quite all right. I believe myself to be regenerate. I’m elect.
So if I run with the world, I still have God’s favor, I still have God’s
grace. I’m chosen.” You can never say
that. Children of disobedience,
children of wrath: We need to understand the weight of that.
It does not merely speak of
what we deserve from a legal standpoint.
It is not merely for us to say, “Well since we are sinners, since we
know ourselves to be sinners, we know that rightly as we might otherwise deserve
we ought to have God’s wrath upon us, we ought to be these children of
wrath. But God is gracious. He has forgiven us through Jesus
Christ. No more wrath, no
condemnation.” We must see this from a
very real standpoint. As the text puts
it, “We were by nature children of wrath,” not in the legal realm, but by
nature children of wrath. This is the
way in which you and I were born into the world, with a nature that was dead,
dead in trespasses and sins. It is put
so well by the form for baptism. The
first point of holy baptism is that we and our children are conceived and born
in sin, and are therefore the children of wrath, and therefore we must be born
again. Really children of wrath. The natural consequence of such disobedience
in our nature even, is wrath, the heavy weight of God’s anger against sin and
the sinner, that one who is disobedient.
Have you still doubt about
that, the real character and nature of God’s wrath against His people by
nature? Look at the cross. See the Son of God hanging upon the cross.
Understand what He bore there, the heavy weight of God’s wrath as anger, as a
destructive force, causing the Son to know and experience Himself as forsaken
of God, suffering so greatly the heavy weight of that wrath crushing Him,
requiring divine strength to sustain Him under that very real power. And exactly that was the wrath under which
we were by nature. We were the children
of wrath. Not merely those others,
those disobedient ones, but we were the children of that wrath. What a difference has been wrought! How glorious is the grace of God!
Yes, there is a distinction,
a distinction not by nature, a distinction which we could not nor would not
make, a distinction that God made. How
glorious to read of that distinction in our text. “You were that in times past.”
You have to go back. Only when
you go back can you see that depravity.
Only when you go back can you see that death. But now, in the present, it works in those children of
disobedience, but no longer in us. The
difference, how glorious to read according to these words: “You hath he quickened who were dead
in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked.” Verse 3, “Among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past.” Distinguished from those others!
Whenever you are tempted to
walk with the world you must remind yourself of that. “I was once like that world.
Their death was once mine. But
I’m alive. I’ve been raised up out of
that death. Why? Why would I want to go back to that
death? I was that, but not any longer.”
Only by the grace of God. That made the difference. We had no power to make ourselves
different. We were dead in trespasses
and sins, but when we were dead God did quicken us, taking us out of that awful
bondage, out of that miserable death.
And He brought us into the freedom, into the life of His service. By that deliverance He brought us into His
glorious kingdom, raising us from the dead into the life of Jesus Christ. Yes, we were dead. But grace has quickened us.
Rejoice in that grace! Give glory,
give thanksgiving to God alone for it!
Amen!