Transcript
Good evening, everyone. It’s time to begin service, and I am glad you are joining us. I send you all my greetings, with special regards to the saints in South Africa and in the Philippines. I appreciate the ones who have reached out over the past week, and, of course, I always send my greetings to all our friends here around Jeffersonville. It’s always good to hear from you all, and we are keeping you all in our prayers.
In some ways, we are going through dark days. I know that for those who are still trapped inside the cult, some of the abuses and things that are going on have been really hateful and harmful. But be encouraged and know that God has His hand of protection on you.
There is peace in the arms of Jesus, and you can rest in His bosom and depend on Him. He is a friend like no other, and He promised to never leave or forsake you.
We are continuing our series in the book of Ephesians, and this is our sixth message since we started. This will be our first message from chapter 2. I invite you to open your Bibles and turn to chapter 2 with me. I will read the first ten verses of the chapter.
Ephesians 2 English Standard Version
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 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. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2 English Standard Version
Let us pray.
Lord God, we thank you for the Bible. We thank you for the Holy Spirit who is our teacher. Bless our study together and grant us understanding. Help us to know you through the scripture. We ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Introduction
Well, brothers and sisters, we have another wonderful passage of scripture here to look at in this lesson. If you recall, chapter 1 ended with the apostle Paul explaining the great power of God working in and through Jesus Christ—a power that is at work to subdue all things, a power that is at work to redeem all things.
The last chapter had several themes, and the theme of chapter 1 ended with the total certainty that God would finish the job of redemption. Paul wanted his readers to have total and absolute confidence that God was going to fully redeem all those who had come to faith in Christ as Savior. Paul spoke about it in terms that his readers could look at as being as good as done. Even though redemption is not done yet, it is a total certainty that will be completed, and you and I, as people who have come to faith in Christ as our Savior, will still be standing when that day comes—fully redeemed. That is how chapter 1 ended.
As we arrive here in chapter two, we notice the very first word is AND—A-N-D, AND. What we read here in chapter 2 is in furtherance of Paul’s thought from chapter 1. God is working His great power through Jesus Christ to bring about His plan of redemption.
Redemption is where you take something that is broken down or worn out and fix it up, make it like new again—redeem it. In this life, you can buy something that has been refurbished, like a refurbished cell phone or a refurbished electronic device. Someone traded in something old, took it, and fixed it up, restoring it back to its original condition, fixing the cracks. Instead of throwing it away, it was fixed up like new, finding a new life and new purpose—it was redeemed.
That is an earthly process of redemption, where something is saved from being thrown out and restored back to an original state. However, God is working a heavenly plan of redemption, and God is not redeeming cell phones or old computers—God is redeeming His creation.
The Nature of Mankind’s Fall
God made a perfect creation. In the beginning, after He made everything, God looked at it and said, “It is good.” And that is how creation started; it was good. There was no evil, no wickedness, no pain, sorrow, or suffering. There was no hate, no jealousy, and no pride. It was perfect and good.
But we know that Satan, who is the devil, rebellion grew in his heart. God had created him as a perfect angel, but Lucifer grew prideful in his heart. He wanted to be greater than God, and he rebelled against God, introducing sin into the world. The very first sin was the sin of pride and rebellion committed by Lucifer.
And then that poison of sin spread. In the story of Adam and Eve, the devil tempted Eve in the same way he had fallen himself. He told Eve that if she would just partake of this fruit, she would be like God. That appealed to Eve, and, like the devil before her, she fell into the same sin as Lucifer. She wanted to be as God and gave the fruit to Adam, who also ate.
Mankind, in the person of Adam and Eve, joined Satan in his rebellion against God. At the root of the matter was this sinful desire to put themselves in the place of God. It was an attempt to become like God in a way they were never intended to be.
The angels of heaven and mankind are created in the image of God, but there is an aspect in which mankind and the angels are not like God. As mankind joined the devil’s rebellion against God, at the root of it was a desire to put themselves in God’s place—to think they knew better than God and, in a sense, to think they didn’t even need God because they would be as gods themselves.
This desire underlies the fall of Lucifer and the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. It is what most people and most of the great teachers of the church call the sin of pride—the sin of thinking we are greater than we really are. This perfectly described the falls of Lucifer and mankind in the garden of Eden.
In this lesson, we won’t delve into this at length, but it’s essential to note that what caused the fall of mankind and the introduction of sin is often explained differently. If you come from a similar background as I do, what we were taught may be considered shallow and ignore the deeper root of the issue.
Jesus explained that it is not what goes into a man that defiles him but what comes out of him. Adam and Eve were not defiled by what went into them in the sense of partaking of a forbidden fruit; they were defiled because of what was in their hearts that led them to perform that act of rebellion. What defiled them came from within, said Jesus Christ.
As best I can tell, what I am explaining here is the fairly standard explanation of the fall of mankind for most of church history. I am not telling you something new; I am telling you something very, very old.
As Adam and Eve joined Satan’s rebellion against God to put themselves in the place of God, all of creation became corrupted, and communion with God was severed. In the absence of God, evil spread throughout the world, a product of minds that did not believe they needed God and minds that had put themselves, on some level, in the place of God.
The pride in their hearts produced all manner of evil—selfishness, jealousy, greed, hate, and lust. These true sins, which are the true things that defile men and women, began to turn into actions. Cain’s jealousy and hatred turned into murder, lust turned into polygamy, and the desire for power turned into wars and more murders. Evil of every sort ran rampant throughout the world and continues to this day.
Everything bad in this world is caused by sin. The little children crying because mommy and daddy got a divorce cry because someone sinned. The cities burning in Ukraine were caused by sin. The people in Israel crying over their dead loved ones were caused by sin. All the turmoil and burdens of this world have sin as their root cause.
There is nothing bad that has ever happened that does not have sin as its root cause, and it might not even be our own sin. Those poor hostages in Israel are not hostages because of their sin but because of the sin of others.
That is the thing about sin—it rarely just hurts ourselves because when people become totally given over to sin, there is no care or concern for others in it, and other people always get hurt. That is the very nature of sin—it is destructive.
Sin has poisoned the world, and sin dooms mankind to suffering and death.
Living for the Passions of the Flesh
Let me read chapter 2 again.
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 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.
Ephesians 2 ESV
This is what Paul is addressing in these first three verses. Sin has overtaken the world—the prince of the power of the air, Satan, is the mastermind of it all. He was the first to rebel against God and was at work in the Garden of Eden, tempting mankind to join him and be like God, taking for themselves the prerogatives that were rightfully God’s.
To live in the passions of our flesh, as mentioned in verse 3, is to be completely given over to serving our own natural desires. It’s a state where the most important thing is to please oneself—doing what makes us feel good, what pleases us, and what we want. When in this frame of mind, we can elevate our desires above everything else, which is the opposite of love, consideration for others, and honoring what God wants.
Living in the passions of the flesh means putting our own appetites and desires above all else. It involves not caring about stepping on others or hurting them. Pride, jealousy, hate, greed, and lust become the order of the day. At some level, when these things define our lives, we don’t care about harming others to satisfy ourselves—that is living in the passions of the flesh.
However, I want to clarify that having dreams, desires, and passions is not a sin in itself. There is nothing wrong with having hopes and dreams for good things. But when we prioritize the pursuit of these things over loving and respecting God and our neighbors, then it becomes sin. This is precisely what Lucifer did and what Adam and Eve did in the garden—they prioritized the pursuit of their own desires and passions over love and respect for God.
This pursuit of self-desires and passions, ahead of love and respect for God, is the root of all the evil in the world. It is the root of pain, suffering, and all that is wrong in the world—an absence of the true love of God guiding our actions and hearts, replaced by a prideful pursuit to satisfy the passions of the flesh.
Sons of Disobedience and Children of Wrath
There are two phrases in these verses I want to draw your attention to: “children of wrath” and “sons of disobedience.” Let me read it again:
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 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.
Ephesians 2 ESV
Paul refers to those living lives governed by the passions of the flesh as “children of wrath” in verse 3 and “sons of disobedience” in verse 2. Those who live a life defined and ruled by the pursuit of their own passions have a spiritual father, and that spiritual father is the devil—the prince of the power of the air. The devil is the father of a lifestyle focused on satisfying selfish passions and desires, an unrestrained drive to satisfy himself, his ego, his lust for power, and his jealousies.
The devil, being the prince of the power of the air, is not constrained by love in any way. When we truly have the love of God in our hearts, it constrains us, guiding the way we treat others. However, living purely to satisfy the passions of our flesh and minds means we don’t genuinely care about how we treat those around us. We are willing to stomp on others if they get between us and what we want. This is where sin starts to hurt people, producing suffering, pain, and loss.
Some people may dislike using the word “sin” because it has been misused. However, Paul provides a clear explanation at the start of chapter 2—sin comes from our hearts, from an unrestrained drive to satisfy our own selfish fleshly passions, leading to pain, suffering, and sorrow in this world.
It’s crucial to understand that wearing a wedding ring or going on vacations is not a sin in itself. As long as these actions are not driven by pride, lust, hate, envy, or greed, they are not sins. However, if one becomes obsessed with things like a wedding ring or other personal preferences, losing sight of what true sin really is, it becomes a problem.
Paul emphasizes that sin comes from a life governed and ruled by the pursuit of our own passions and desires. This is how we all are before coming to saving faith in Christ, before becoming aware of our need for God. Until that awareness dawns, we are dead in our sins, as stated in verse 1:
Ephesians 2:1 (ESV)
- And you were dead in the trespasses and sins.
These sins, committed as children of disobedience, rebelling against God like the prince of the power of the air, have made us children of wrath—destined to face the wrath to come when God judges this world and mankind. A death sentence hangs over us.
Somewhere in our lives, no matter who we are, we have made the world a worse place. At some point, we gave in to our selfishness, lust, or pride, and somewhere we were defiled. If we examine ourselves with an honest heart, we won’t have to look very hard to find instances where, in our lust, pride, greed, or jealousy, we harmed someone, introducing suffering, pain, and loss.
Every person who has the opportunity to grow up and live a life in this world has, at some point, done something like that. There is none righteous, no, not one. If someone claims they haven’t given in to those things, the apostle John tells us they are a liar. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Paul makes the same point in verse 2, stating that the Ephesians, like all people, once walked in a way where they put their own selfish passions as their first priority.
Once Walked (Past Tense)
So far, we’ve delved into the bad news—sin is rampant, corrupting the world, leading to suffering. However, there is good news, a gospel message of redemption through Jesus Christ, as concluded in chapter 1.
Now, Paul begins chapter 2 with a stark description of fallen mankind:
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 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.
Ephesians 2 ESV
The first three verses present the bad news. However, verse 4 introduces the good news:
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2 ESV
Amen. These verses convey the wonderful message of salvation and redemption through Jesus Christ. It’s not a work we must perform but a work Christ accomplished on the cross 2000 years ago—through His death, burial, and resurrection.
Today’s focus has been on the bad news, but before closing, let’s emphasize the good news. In the next lesson, we’ll delve deeper into the positive aspects.
For those who see themselves in the description of the fallen state, dominated by selfish pursuits, causing harm to others, or stuck in legalistic systems, there’s an invitation to repent. Jesus died for all those sins—jealousy, selfishness, lust, hate, and pride.
If you look in the mirror and don’t like what you see, come to Jesus. There’s forgiveness for real sins. Jesus wants to change your heart, replacing pride with love. Let’s pray:
Prayer
Lord God, thank you for your mercy. When we were dead in our trespasses and sins, you loved us and died for us. Forgive us when we fall short. Open our eyes to your saving grace, and may we walk in it and love it. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.