And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins,And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;And you did he make alive, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins,
19 sermons cite this verse
… Though we were dead through Christ, we are now alive. Ephesians 2.1 Though we were filthy through Christ, we are now clean. Spotless. And that's all. But we could keep going on this, right? That though we were, now we are. We were all blind. We are all a bunch of formerly blind people. Who have been healed. Who have been enlightened. but you know i guess i'm making a general statement and i shouldn't do that because maybe tonight there are some in here who are still blind because you haven't come to christ what are you waiting for there was surely a lot that this man did not know no theological training of any sort no experience to fall back upon prior to his healing but one thing he knew jesus made him see but of course that's not enough for the pharisees they don't give up at that they continue to ask him about how jesus healed him And at this point, the man is like, what are you doing? …
… right when you wake up first thing in the morning. In Romans 6.14, it says, sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace. In Ephesians 2.1, it says, you, he made alive, notice, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world. That's how I used to live. I don't live that way anymore. I used to plan to sin on the weekend. So I'd call my friends. Hey, what are we doing this weekend? We're going to go sin. We didn't use the word sin, but it's like, we're going to go sin. All right, how much sin are we going to sin? Oh, we're going to sin a lot of sin. I want to have a lot of fun sinning. You get my point? But that was the old man. Then I come to Christ, and I didn't immediately have new friends. I still had my same friends. And so they'd be like, all right, let's go sin. And I was like, I don't want to. And they're like, what's the matter with you? I'm like, I don't know. …
… been more bent on doing your own thing, and God calls that disobedience. Look at Ephesians chapter two. Are you guys still surviving here right now? Ephesians chapter two, verse one says, and you he made alive. Wow. Who were dead in trespasses and sins. That's me. That's many of us. in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air. That's a term for Satan. The spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath just as the others. Listen, we were all in the same genre, the same course until God interrupted us and got a hold of us. And God is saying to us today, I want you to press on to the finish line to the church in the 21st century this year. Press on to the finish line. Don't give up. Don't quit. But listen, obey me because I love you. Obey me because I'm going to lead you in the right direction. Disobedience is painful. The Bible tells us he who is often rebuked will harden his heart and will be taken away, that without remedy. …
It is a drowning in our own mess. Ephesians 2 verse 1 says this, As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, but because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ. Listen, we're not people who needed slight improvement, slight alterations. We're people who needed resurrection. We're needed people who needed to go from death to life. We're needed people who needed someone to lift them up out of the water so that we could breathe again. True friends, we don't climb our way to God. We don't swim our way to God. God had to come down. He had to come down. John 3, 13 tells us, No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven, the Son of Man. and friends this is where the Scarlet Fred gets interested this is where the Scarlet Fred becomes more than just a sign because just as that Scarlet Fred hung from Rahab's window as a visible sign for her rescue in Joshua chapter 6 Christ came down from heaven as the visible and final sign of God's rescue for you and I and all of humanity listen let's read Matthew 27 verse 27 29 grab this said the governor's soldiers took Jesus into Praetoria and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put on a scarlet robe. Could have been any color, but it was a scarlet robe on him. And then twisted together a …
… is this first one. So let me take you to the book of Ephesians, where he really spells this one out. Okay, Ephesians 2 verse 1, Paul says, you were dead in the trespasses and sins, not sick or weak or confused, you were dead. Watch this. According to which we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and we were by nature, that is deep in our heart of hearts, we were by nature the real us. In our core, we were children of wrath, just like the rest of mankind. By nature, in the core of who we are, the unfiltered us, we are children of wrath. That means by nature, we turn away from God instead of turning toward him. Instead of trusting God, we doubt him. Instead of depending on God, by nature, we want to be independent from him. instead of prioritizing him, we by nature elevate idols in his place. Now that manifests in different ways for different ones of us. …
… Ephesians tells us, let's read it in Ephesians. It says this, Ephesians chapter two, verse one. As for you, it's you and me, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and the rule of the kingdom and the air and the spirit who is now at work and those who are disobedient. All of us, no exceptions, all of us also lived among them once at a time, We weren't just lost, friends. We were dead. And dead people can't find their way home. And so what did God do? God did not send a map or instructions. God came in person, the person of Jesus, who became the way by laying down his life and being the way maker. There is no other way apart from Jesus. Jesus is the way. And so when we want clarity, Jesus offers companionship. When we want certainty, Jesus offers himself. And so friends, the way forward is not something for you to figure out. …
And I want to break that down a little bit today, particularly in Ephesians 2, verse 1. But we're going to see all these ideas today. And I know you're going to get fired up about seeing where we're going today, but we're talking about depravity today. Can you say that with me? Depravity. What does that mean? And so this is where you might want to take a quick snapshot. It just simply means all are sinners. It means more than that. There's deeper underpinnings than that. But it means that left to ourselves, it is impossible for us to do anything but fall short of the glory of God. We're going to talk about wrath today. Wrath is the judgment of a holy God against all sin. we're going to talk about love today because God is God of love amen and God has mercy on his people we're going to talk about atonement it's not a word you use every day but atonement is just simply the idea that Jesus dies as a payment for all sin we're going to talk about forgiveness amen because we all need that what is forgiveness It's that moment when our debt is canceled by the sacrifice of Jesus. …
… You were. If you go back to chapter 2 of Ephesians in verse 1, you were dead in your trespasses and sins. I said the darkness speaks of depravity, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the Spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. You not only were depraved and dead, but you were deceived by the prince of the power of the air, the Spirit now working in the sons of disobedience. You were also dead in your trespasses and sin. Verse 3 says, You lived in the lust of the flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, which speaks of the coming destruction." All four elements of the darkness are indicated right there in that verse. You were that. In chapter 4 and verse 17, you walked in futility of mind. Verse 18, you were darkened in your understanding. …
… They're under His power. Back in chapter 2, you remember the first few verses, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins. This is all unbelievers. In which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the the prince of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the sons of disobedience. There is a spirit working in the sons of disobedience, and it's Satan and his demonic forces connecting with the fallen nature of unregenerate people. And the combination of the wicked heart, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and pride of life, and the agency of Satan makes these kinds of people behave in the way that verse 31 describes them. The price for that kind of behavior is very high, by the way, extremely high. If you want to be a bitter person, an angry person, a hostile person, a person seeking revenge, you're imprisoning yourself in the chains of your own making. You are keeping the pain alive so that you're compounding your suffering, and the more you rehearse it to yourself, the more you compound it, and the more unhappy you become. …
… It takes us back to Ephesians 2. You were dead in trespasses and sins, but God has, together with Christ, made you alive. You have been given life. Romans 6.13 describes Christians as those who have been made alive. You were dead in your trespasses and sins. Colossians 2, dead in your transgressions, dead because you were literally born dead. Only the Lord could give you life. How did it happen? By hearing the voice of the Son of God. Christ is the only one who can speak life into the dead. He is the one who regenerates. He is the one who gives spiritual life. This is an amazing expression of spiritual power. He takes the spiritually dead and regenerates them. It's the new birth. It's regeneration. It's new life. It's new creation. And by the way, He is given the title Son of God in this particular ministry of giving life because only God can give life. Only God is the source of life. And those who hear the voice of the Son of God as He speaks will live because He has the same power, verse 26, to give life that the Father has as well. …
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, 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 ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." Ten verses that describe the dramatic, permanent, eternal, comprehensive transformation that salvation makes in a person's life. Over in the fifth chapter, we have another section that looks at this transformation. Chapter 5, verse 5, For this you know with certainty that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. …
… Well, let's look at chapter 2. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience. You were in serious condition. You were dead. That's as low as you can go. There's nothing below dead. So the metaphor to describe your condition is the lowest possible concept. You're dead in your trespasses and sins. You're walking, your conduct is according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, Satan, the spirit working, the sons of disobedience. You are essentially, according to verse 3, living in the lusts of the flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and are by nature children of wrath, even as the rest." You're like everybody. Everybody's like that. But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. …
… itself is not saying sing praises to satan. Number one command of the satanic bible, do what you want. That's why in Ephesians 2, he says you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked. So you were dead in your trespasses, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air. What were you doing when you were doing you? He goes, you were following the pattern of the world. Everyone in the world is going to tell you, you just do you. You just do what's inside of you. He goes, don't you understand you're following yourself, but you're not just following yourself, you're following the course of this world and you're 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. …
… been seeing. So if you don't mind, I'm going to do a little bit of that as well as push forward our progress a bit. Ephesians 2, verses 1 through 10, is a before and after picture of a Christian. Ephesians 2, 1 to 10, is trying to show us the momentous change that Jesus makes when you have an encounter with him as a living person. I'm glad how many people are surprised and stunned and changed and helped by looking at this passage. Many of you see Christianity as being a kind of round of duties or a process, and you don't realize, until you look at this, that Paul expects that meeting Christ makes this momentous change, a watershed, a continental divide. Becoming a Christian, meeting Christ is sort of like Pike's Peak, because one inch to the west of Pike's Peak, little raindrop goes all the way to the Pacific Ocean. That's what they tell me when I go there. And one inch on the other side, that little drop of water goes all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. …
… as well. You've got before pictures and you've got after pictures. Being a Christian is a monumental change. What you have here in Ephesians 2 verses 1 to 5 is you've got a BC and an AD. You've got a before and an after picture. We've been looking at the before and starting last week and continuing this week, we're looking at the after picture. As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air and the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of the great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions. …
… If you go, for example, look, if you go to, there's an interesting parallel passage where Paul writes to his friend Titus, and he says something that's so clearly the same as Ephesians 2.1, you realize this must be the same guy. When he gets to chapter 3, now listen carefully. I'll just read it. You don't have to turn to it if you've got Bibles. It says, he says to Titus, At one time, we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. See? Just like Ephesians 2. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, who he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so having been justified by grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. …
… As for you, kind of an ominous start, isn't it? As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of the world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work and those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath, but because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace that you have been saved. Now we're looking at a classic text on sin, classic. I'm not going to be able to spend as many weeks on it as I like because I'm getting bored with spending so much time on the same verses all the time, and I hope I want to be tedious to you. But I want you to know that these first three verses has got almost everything you need to know about the biblical doctrine of sin. It's all in there. We won't even get into it, but in here you learn about the nature of God's wrath. You learn about original sin, which we will mention tonight. You learn about the nature of sin. You learn about total depravity, which is a theological term for the results of sin, which is spiritual death. …
… And what I'm going to do tonight is look at verses 1, 2, and 3, because that talks about sin. Whatever became of sin, it's alive and living in Ephesians 2, verses 1 to 3. But I'm going to read to you all the way down to verse 10 to give you an understanding of this first passage that we're going to be looking at for the next few weeks, in which Paul tells us something about what it means to be a Christian from the inside, a participant's eye view of salvation. Chapter 2. As for you, Paul says, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. …
… He says, for example, in this second chapter, he says, you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that's now working in the sons of disobedience. How can a dead person who's dead to spiritual things have any desire for spiritual things? You cannot apart from the Holy Spirit. Because you see, when a person says, I'm going to get saved when I get ready, yes, you get saved when you get ready to answer the call of the Holy Spirit in your life, then you'll be saved. Jesus said, you know what? no one can unless the Father draws them, unless He draws them. That is the work of the Spirit. For example, not only does He say we're dead in trespasses and sins, but in Romans chapter 3, He describes God's view of a person who's lost. And I won't read it all except to look, if you will, in the 10th verse. …