We who are saved are really different than the unsaved. We are very different. In fact, we are those who truly live.

The World is Dead, But Christ's Body is Alive

Ephesians 2:1-5

Pastor Kerry Kinchen, Bridgeway Bible Church

Please turn to Ephesians 2:1-5 this morning. Ephesians 2:1-5. People who are not saved, complain about how bad things are. They complain about crime. They complain about all the things like murders, rapes, abductions, break-ins, and vandalism--they are horrible irritations, (at least to the people who are not doing them). We saved people don't like these things either. But, I'm talking about the unsaved right now, and so people who are not saved, complain about how bad things are. They complain about wars. They complain about oppression, corrupt authorities, greediness, gossip. They even complain about whatever standard of immorality that they just happen to think is right when it comes to sexual things. It usually has to do with their own personal philosophical standards of morality being transgressed by someone else who has a different standard of sexual morality. The standard changes from one person to another, and from one society to another, because there is no one unchangeable godly standard in the minds of the unsaved of this world. So, the world complains. The world speaks of wrong, and it speaks of right, but the world can not explain why anything is wrong or right in the first place. Sometimes people in the world try to get clever, and so they say stupid things, like there is no such thing as right and wrong. If you ask them if they think that statement they made is right; or is wrong; they will typically fumble around in their foolishness, but this is the problem with the whole world. The world is fumbling around in foolishness. Foolishness, in this sin saturated world, is like a family trait that everyone shares. Why is that? Have you ever wondered why all of humanity without Christ shares so many common characteristics of foolishness--the same futile goals; the same similar sinful desires, the same godless ambitions? On the other hand, it is strongly evident that Christians share similar desires; like the overarching, driving desire to not have sinful goals, and not have godless ambitions. We have a desire to follow Christ. We Christians are not perfect in all our thoughts and actions, but we Christians share similar desires to be perfect in respect to God's standard as revealed in His word. But, what is really amazing is that we were once there in the world. We were all thinking, living, and acting in the same way as the rest of the world. We were dead, living in the lusts of our flesh, which is the state of the world. In this state we were children of wrath. But, God made us alive together with Christ, in Christ, and for Christ, according to His great love and grace. This is our topic this morning that God wants us to recognize in a deep way. Please read Ephesians 2:1-5 with me at this time;

"And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 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. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)" Ephesians 2:1-5

Please prepare your minds this morning for the sacred preaching of God's word, as we continue with our verse to verse study through Ephesians, in this sermon titled,

"The World is Dead; but Christ's Body is Alive"
[prayer]

There are all kinds of testimonies of salvation. You've got your story. I've got my story. A missionary friend I worked with once, told me of traveling through a town in northern India some years ago. He was in a region where there were less than a dozen Christians among millions of people. He was in an area where the people are known to be violently hostile toward Christianity. I've been in such areas. It is a lonely, dark, faith testing feeling to be where you are not wanted; to be enveloped by millions upon millions of people who are immersed in pagan idolatry, and you, as the Christian, are considered to be the enemy. I am familiar with the area that he was in, though I have never been there myself. As the missionary was walking along, an Indian man ran up to him, and in a lively manner, and an expression of joy, he asked the missionary if he was a Christian. The man apparently recognized something different about my missionary friend. My friend was surprised, and rightly so, my friend was cautious, but he answered yes, he was a Christian. The local man was enthusiastic as he shared with the missionary that earlier that morning he had discovered a recording lying in the road. Immediately, he took it home and listened to it. To the man's surprise, the recording was of an American preacher, preaching a sermon. The Indian man had never heard of the preacher before. In fact, he had never heard a preacher, nor had he ever heard a sermon before in his life. The man told the missionary the name of the preacher on the recording. The preacher was a famous teacher back here in the United States; actually, here in Texas. The missionary had heard of the preacher, and so he explained that he knew who the person in the recording was. The Indian man proceeded to tell the missionary that he used to be a Hindu, but on that very same day, while listening to the recording he had found, he was convicted of his sin and lostness, and had believed in Christ Jesus as his Lord and Savior. He was clearly exuberant about it. He was animated with that joy that so many of us remember having when we initially got saved. It is the same joy that we are familiar with when we see someone catapulted out of the domain of darkness, and into the kingdom of God's beloved Son. The man stood there in overwhelming joy, and his words flowed like a fountain. He couldn't quit talking about the miracle of being saved. Immediately, after receiving Christ that day, the man went out and began telling his family, friends, and neighbors about what he had done; about Christ, and about the way of salvation. While he was doing so, he providentially saw the missionary walking along this busy street through this bustling town in the far reaches of Northern India. They both rejoiced in what had happened. They rejoiced in the miracle of God, and they rejoiced in their providential meeting. After conversing about Christianity for a great length of time, the man left my friend in tears and excitement at being saved. Every christian has their story of salvation. You do, and I do. But, we also have a story of our moment to moment existence that has occurred before salvation, and after our salvation. Sometimes, it seems, the details could fill a library of books. Sometimes the details can be stated in a quick statement, such is the case of the rest of the story of the Indian man who met Christ that day, and then later met the missionary as he was passing through town. You see, a few hours later, the missionary, who was still in the town, heard a ruckus. He noticed a motorcycle pulling something down the road. The motorcycle sped down the road with people standing around staring at it. It was one of the most shockingly numbing sights my friend had ever witnessed in his life. The motorcycle was dragging a dead body through the street. The dead man was the man who had received Christ earlier that day. According to my friend, the man had been brutally killed for becoming a Christian.

Now listen to me very carefully, I share these events with you, because I want us to contemplate something concerning the Indian man's story of salvation. Considering that the man was truly spiritually saved, (and we have no reason to believe that he was not), a question we need to ask ourselves is; was his state of existence that morning prior to coming across that recording, a better existence than after he had found it, listened to it, and gave his life to Christ? This leads us to ask another question. Was the man's state of existence for a few hours of one day, where he was rejoicing in his salvation, and witnessing the miracle of Christ to those around him, a better state of existence, than the point after he was mercilessly, and horrifyingly martyred for his conversion, and his dead body dragged through the street, where he gave his life for Christ? Your answers to these questions, people, will reveal volumes about what you believe about your own story of salvation. Paul the apostle, moved by God's Spirit, starts answering the question for all of us with the stark facts, by beginning with the fundamental truth of everyone's story,

"And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,"

We need to understand that opening words of this chapter lay out one of the most eye opening evaluations of the natural human condition to be found anywhere in scripture.

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This is the first thing we need to understand this morning,

"And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,"

We who are saved, each have unique stories of our salvation, but this right here is the beginning of everyone's story when they are born into this world. This is the great "Once upon a time" of all Christians;

"And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,"

God says that you were born dead. It is the desperate condition where everyone who is not saved, is a creature that can somewhat accurately be called, the living dead. What I mean is that everyone is conceived and born into physical life, but everyone is also conceived and born in spiritual death. So, when we expound on this sobering truth, it is easier for us to understand it this way,

"And you were [spiritually] dead in your trespasses and sins,"

Later in this same letter, Paul explains plainly what it means to be spiritually dead. He says that all lost humanity of all the nations of the world

"... walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart;" Ephesians 4:17-18

There are many important statements in this passage. Lost humanity walks, but, as the living dead, they walk in the fading, empty, futile ambitions and desires of temporary fleshly existence. Lost humanity understands a lot of things. In fact, there are lost people who are geniuses, and when it comes to logical reasoning among many different categories, they demonstrate unusual brilliance. There are lost people who are mathematics machines. There are lost people who are encyclopedias of knowledge. There are lost people who are scientists, politicians, doctors, authors, and philosophers, but, even though this is the case, there is a thick smog clouding their reasoning processes; they are darkened in their understanding of everything. They do not understand, memorize, reason, invent, and calculate in recognition of the One true God, and His Son Christ Jesus. In fact, because of this ignorance, (which comes from a hard heart), they are excluded from the life of God. They are dead in their trespasses and sins and they operate from an unregenerate mind. All through Ephesians, Paul speaks of the mystery of the gospel. The mystery is the body of Christ, where we are spiritually saved in the body of Christ. In this state, Paul says that God is at work in us who are truly saved, to will and to work for His own good pleasure. God's Holy Spirit is in us, giving us life, and working in us. We saved people, have a flesh nature, but someday, we will put this corrupt body behind and be changed into a new resurrected glorified state forever. But the gospel, as the mystery revealed, remains a mystery to the living dead, until it is supernaturally revealed to them by a miracle action of God. In fact, the living dead exist in a strange parallel to us who are the living alive in Christ.

/2/
This leads to the second thing we need to consider this morning, and that is that the course that the living dead are walking is according to an inherited nature that is explained in another mystery. The mystery I am talking about is a dark mystery. It is not the shining mystery of the body of Christ, with His indwelling Holy Spirit, and the guarantee of a resurrected body. It is not the blessing of being the fullness of His body according to 1:23. It is the mystery of the body of fallen Adam, and the evil spirit that works in all of lost humanity. Looking at our text, at verse 2, we notice that Paul says,

"2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world [age], according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience." Ephesians 2:2

We were all dead, and we all walked there in our deadness. This is the color of the pit when it comes to the course of this world. Futility of mind, darkened understanding, exclusion from the life of God because of inherent ignorance, and a hardened heart. It is the nature of the sons of disobedience, who have the prince of the power of the air-spirit working in them. This is the mystery of the body of fallen Adam, and to understand the revelation of it, we must understand that Adam was the initial head of all of humanity. He was the first man, and he was the representative of all who would come later in respect to whether he obeyed God or was disobedient. Adam was disobedient, and sinned against God. Consequently, all of Adam's descendants inherited Adam's sin and death. All people reproduced after Adam are spiritually dead. We read in Romans 5,

"... through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned-- 14 ... death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. 15 ... by the transgression of the one the many died, ... 16 The gift [of salvation] is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, ... 17 ... by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, ... 18 So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, ... 19 ... through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, ..." Romans 5:13-19

Folks, this is the legacy that grandpa Adam left to all of the generations that he fathered through Eve, thousands upon thousands of years ago. When people are conceived, they are conceived in Adam who had sinned against God in disobedience. It is also called being in the flesh. It is also called being according to the natural man. Through Adam's disobedience, everyone, and anyone, who is made, and has been made, is made a sinner. This whole interconnected sphere can be likened to a universal body of Adam, where Adam, in a sense, is in lost humanity, and lost humanity is both genetically (as a reproduced family trait), and spiritually, in Adam, with his curse of sin, and death reigning in their mortal bodies. We find the body of Adam of the world described well in the book of Acts, where Paul is preaching in Athens. Paul was brought to the Areopagus; there he spoke to the Epicurean and stoic philosophers. As Paul starts out preaching, he explains the origin of all men through Adam. He says,

"26 and He [Jehovah] made from one blood every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth," Acts 17:26

Paul's point is that there is one creator, and there is one man that everyone is made from, which Paul refers to as "one blood" in the Greek. This is a declaration of the interconnectedness of all people in respect to the one blood, as in the one body of Adam. In respect to being from him, all humanity is in him as pertaining to inheriting his sin nature. As a consequence, Paul refers to all people everywhere as being "in Adam." In fact Paul says in 1 Corinthians,

"... in Adam all die ..." 1 Corinthians 15:22

Now this is the legacy, and curse, that everyone gets in the flesh. The curse is to be born in spiritual death, to die physically, where everyone "in Adam" is conceived and born a son of disobedience. Now along with being in the body, so to speak, or the "one blood," of being in fallen Adam as the natural state of the sons of disobedience, everyone in this state is absent of spiritual life, and absent of God working in them by His Holy Spirit. Instead, the lost world has a bizarre attribute that drives the dark futility of their minds. It is one of the strange parallels to us who are the living-alive in Christ, who have the Spirit of God directly working in us. What I mean is that those born from the body of Adam, who remain in the sphere of lost Adam, in their own lostness, have the prince of the power of the air spirit working in them. Paul says that lost people walk,

"according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience."

When Ananias and Saphira lied to the Holy Spirit, Peter asked the question concerning the work of the prince of the power of the air. The prince of the power of the air is Satan, also known as the Devil. Peter asked Ananias,

"Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit ...?" Acts 5:3

The Holy Spirit did not fill Ananias' heart to lie. Satan, as the prince of the power of the air, was the spirit that was working in Ananias as a son of disobedience. A similar kind of revelation can be seen in what Christ says to the corrupt, lost, Messiah rejecting Jews. Jesus calls them sons of disobedience. In fact, Jesus says to them,

"44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies." John 8:44

Deception, error, and falsehood, are all the attributes of the various father figures of the lost dying world, whether father Adam, father disobedience, or the father Devil. It is part of lostness, where there is no way that we can separate ourselves from it. In fact, the complete and utter inability of anyone to master perfection against the sin nature by following a set of rules flawlessly, merely demonstrates that there is no way for us to sever ourselves, by our own ability, from the sad state of the body of Adam.

We may be good at a lot of things--in fact experts. People train to be experts. They study the subject they are interested in, and they read everything they can get their hands on to master the subject. They will observe, study, and then apply the principles. They will practice, and practice, and critique, and then practice again, to perfect their techniques, because they want to be flawless. They want to be experts. There are amazing examples of this in the arena of martial arts, or in fields of athletics. Experts in speaking a particular language, can be seen who perfect the language in apparent flawlesslesness. I am talking about the fruits of discipline where people, by their own volitional natures, can accomplish things in perfection, like for example diet. There are people who determine to be strict vegetarians, and so they put their minds to it, and they will never eat meat again. There are people who decide not to smoke tobacco, or drink alcoholic beverages, and so they discipline themselves, and they flawlessly avoid tobacco, drugs, and alcohol. There are people through sheer will power, who are addicted to such things as nicotine; they smoke on a daily basis, but they will, in pure discipline, quit smoking in one day, and they will never return to the habit again. But, when it comes to sin, there has never been a mere mortal who can master it. Rather, sin is the master of mere mortals according to Romans 7-8. Sin is part of lostness, where there is no way that we can separate ourselves from it. So, as a sharp reminder that cuts through philosophy, the complete and utter inability of anyone to master perfection against the sin nature by following a set of rules flawlessly in sever bodily discipline, merely demonstrates that there is no way for us to sever ourselves, by our own ability, from the sad state of the body of Adam,

/3/
which leads us to the next point, this morning, where Paul says in the following sentence,

"3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest."

Paul, who was a Pharisee of Pharisees, according to his own testimony, and who was blameless in respect to the Law of God, says, "we too all", which includes himself.

"We too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh ..."

When Paul speaks of the flesh in his epistles, he is speaking of that aspect of us that is representative of the Adamic nature. When Paul says this, and reminisces about the sad state of all of us before salvation, his reference to being by nature children of wrath, even as the rest, means that sin is such a part of our humanity, in Adam, that as our nature, it permeates our flesh and our minds. Completely in the flesh is what we were, (void of the Holy Spirit) and so the point is that you can not be, by nature, something, and then through discipline and self effort make yourself into something else outside of your nature. You can not be a human, and then make yourself into a dog, or a fish, or a planet, or a tree or something like that. You can not be in the flesh; in the body of Adam, and through discipline make yourself stop sinning. Sin literally means to miss in Hebrew, and it literally means to miss the mark in Greek. So, the horrible truth for everyone who is seeking to discipline themselves into sinless perfection is that sin is in their members, which means that everyone, without Christ, is the embodiment of sin, which means that everyone is someone who is missing the mark of God's standard of righteousness, as themselves, being sin. To be in the body of Adam is to be sin. Yes, the unsaved of this world not only sin as a matter of their inherited nature, but the unsaved of this world, are in fact, sin. This is the hopeless state of the living dead, who exist apart from Christ,

/4/
which leads us to the fourth point we need to consider this morning. It is the most wonderful news that has ever been announced in the history of humanity, and we are privileged to be a part of it. Our brother who died a martyr's death is privileged to be part of it. Basically, in the world, we are dead, but in Christ's body, we are alive, as we read in Paul's next words,

"4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)." Ephesians 2:4

To get a fuller picture of this, it is helpful to read the parallel passage out of the parallel letter of Colossians,

"13 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions," Colossians 2:13

What this is, is a declaration of God's sovereign work in you while you were the living dead, as living sin. While we were in such a helpless state, God expressed great love upon His elect. The love is so great, that all who are saved were made alive when we were walking sin as the living dead. The amazing thing is that we were made alive by God's sovereign hand, which is sinless, when we were dead in our transgressions. It is very difficult for us to appreciate this if we think that we simply responded to God out of our own self generated choices while dead in our transgressions in the body of Adam, when we heard the gospel. On the other hand, we can actually appreciate what Paul is saying here when we recognize that truly rich mercy from God, and great love from God, and true meaningful grace from God, is to take that which is disgusting and reprehensible and completely repulsed by God, and according to God's own good pleasure, save it, by making it alive together with Christ apart from anything that it has done or can do. Paul says that

"a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised." 1 Corinthians 2:14

The problem is that the natural body of Adam, is the realm of all men, and there, all people are natural men. The only supernatural men are men who are miraculously made that way in Christ. The point is that God must do a supernatural work in the walking dead to enable them beyond the futility of their natural minds to receive Him and the grace of the gospel in faith. This is called the miracle of the effectual call. It is what happened to Lydia, the seller of purple that we read about in Acts 16. The scriptures proclaim that

"The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul." Acts 16:14

Lydia, a natural sin filled member of the living dead, did not open her own heart to heed those things of which can only be spiritually discerned. It is what is meant in Acts 18 concerning,

"those who had believed through grace," Acts 18:27

They did not believe through their own self efforts through human grace. They believed through the grace of God, who supernaturally enabled them to do so in that very same grace work. It is the supernatural action of God that we read of in Philippians, where we read of the saved Philippians,

"29 For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, ... to believe in Him," Philippians 1:29

The Philippians did not grant God their belief. God granted to those unregenerated sinful minded Philippians to believe in Christ. Further, in God's love, he did not grant to the Philippians to believe in Christ for the sake of the Philippians. God granted to the Philippians he is writing to, to believe in Christ, for Christ's own sake. It is the supernatural action of receiving, where Peter speaks of

"... to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:" 2 Peter 1:1

The faith is not a natural work of humans, whereas God receives their faith, but rather it is a supernatural gift that is received from God, which is actually the same gift of faith that the apostle's received. It is the supernatural work of God in accordance with the same kind of miracle action of the great allotment spoken of in Romans, where we read, that

"God has allotted to each a measure of faith." Romans 12:3

People do not generate out of their sinful state of being in the body of Adam, any kind of measure of faith, and then allot that measure back to God. Rather, God, as Jesus, authors, as in creates our faith, and perfects it in the great miracle of the effectual call, where we read in Hebrews of,

"Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith," Hebrews 12:2

Finally, we recognize, as is stated so well in John 6, that belief is not our work that we work, but it is God's work that He works through us,

"29 Jesus answered and said to them, 'This is the work of God, that you believe in Him ...'" John 6:29

Men are justified (righteousified) by faith apart from works according to Romans 4:4-6, but in the miracle of God, the work of God, is that we believe in Christ. Now here is what we need to recognize in Paul's declaration of God's sovereign work, and that is,

"5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, [God] made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)."

Notice that everything comes back to Christ in respect to the body of Christ. In the miracle action of our salvation you are not only made alive by Christ, but you are made alive with Christ. You see, just as you were in the body of the first Adam--made dead in the first Adam, Christ came as the last Adam, and to be made alive with Him, is to be made alive in Him as the last Adam, as we read in 1 Corinthians,

"So also it is written, 'The first man, Adam, became a living soul,' the last Adam became a life-giving spirit." 1 Corinthians 15:45

This is the great exchange, where we are crucified with Christ, and given His life by His Spirit, according to 2 Corinthians 3:6. This is the new you in salvation. Though the world is dead, Christ's body is alive. God made you alive with Christ, and now you are in the body of Christ, which is the church, which is the fullness of Him forever and ever.

I urge you to be daily thinking of who you are in Christ, by constantly thinking of where you are, which is in the unique and special place of the body of Christ. Be remembering that you were once in a desperate state of the living dead, just as the Indian man was, in the story I shared, in the years, hours, minutes, and moments before he listened to that recording, and received Christ as His Lord and Savior. He was once in the body of Adam. You were once in the body of Adam. Now he is saved. Now you are saved. Be understanding that the short life that the man had while in the body was a glorious life in the Lord. In one day, he praised and worshipped God in Christ. He witnessed his testimony, and the gospel, to the lost. He fellowshipped with the saints by fellowshipping with my missionary friend. He died a physical death in one of the most honored and God glorifying ways to put off the body in this world, which is through the high calling of martyrdom for Christ. Now, He is in the next stages of super-glorification with His Lord forever and ever as a brother who is part of the body of Christ. Folks, you are the body of Christ. You are the fullness of Him who fills all in all. I urge you to reverently realize what you are, and do not take it for granted. The world is dead, but Christ's body is alive. So, glorify the Lord with your life in the body. Praise and worship God in Christ with your life in the body. Witness your testimony, and the gospel to the lost body of Adam all around you from your life in the body. Fellowship with the saints, who are your fellow members of the body that God has providentially put you with. Practice this fellowship as much as you can in this short period of time we have on this planet. Share your life in the body with one another, meeting each other's needs, forgiving one another, and intentionally caring for one another as life of the living-alive in the body. And, finally be thinking about the great reality check for making the most of your time on this earth while in the body. What I am talking about is your soon coming day of death, where you will be with the Lord in everlasting life in glory. This is is what it means for the world to be dead, but Christ's body is alive.