Let's begin this morning by turning
to Ephesians chapter two, please. Ephesians chapter two, verse
one. The title of my study this morning
is in the way of a question. Do we really know what it means
to be dead? Do we really understand what
it is to be spiritually dead? The Bible very clearly and plainly
declares that all men and women are spiritually dead, born spiritually
dead. Here in Ephesians 2, verse one,
speaking to believers, Paul writes, and you, you who were dead in
trespasses and sins. Those words there, had he quickened,
as you notice are italicized, They were added to the King James
Version Translation. I'm not sure about other versions.
They're not in the original text. So this really reads, and you
who were dead in trespasses and sin. We also see that the child
of God is no longer dead. This is writing to believers.
Paul said, you were dead, not dead any longer. God has quickened
you. God has made you alive. You were
once dead because of trespasses and sin. Your iniquities have
separated between you and your God and your sins have hid His
face from you that He will not hear you." Isaiah 59. Look down at verse 3 here in
Ephesians 2. among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature,
naturally speaking, the children of wrath, even as others." All
of us in the same boat, not a difference between any of us in that respect,
but God, but God. who is rich in mercy for his
great love wherewith he loved us even when we were, what? Dead. Dead in sins. Hath quickened us, made us alive
together with Christ and by grace are you saved. Dead in sin. Do we really know what that is?
Spiritually dead in trespasses and sin. Dead. Dead means to
be no longer alive. Dead is to lack emotion. To be dead is to lack sympathy.
To be dead is to lack sensitivity. To be dead is to be devoid of
life. It's to have no life within. It's to be without life. That's
what it is to be dead. We don't have as much a problem
with understanding someone being physically dead. We see it with
our eyes, but to be spiritually dead, I wonder if we really know
what it is. Synonyms for the word dead are
deceased, expired, departed, gone, no more, passed on, perished,
likeless, bare, empty, barren. How about this one? Out of order.
Well, I thought that one applies to me pretty well. Out of order,
commissioned inoperative, inactive, ineffective. When it comes to
the things of eternal life, when it comes to the things of the
Spirit of God, natural men and women receive them not. The natural
men receive not the things of the Spirit of God. They're spiritually
discerned. Why don't men and women receive
the things of the Spirit of God? Because they're dead. They're
lifeless, they're bare, they're barren, they're out of order.
When something's out of order, that means it doesn't work. That's
what it means to be dead. We're out of order in every possible
way. Do you know why we were born
spiritually dead? Do you know why we are, as the
scriptures say, born condemned? Man wasn't born in fellowship
with God, he was born condemned, born out of fellowship with God,
born alienated from God, born condemned. Do you know why we're
condemned already? He tells us right there in John
3, because you have not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God. Now, let's go a step further.
Why haven't we believed in and on Jesus Christ? Because we're
dead. Dead in our sin. One who is dead
cannot believe. One who is dead is separated
from God. One who is dead is separated
from what? Dead. Do we know what it means? How did we die? Well, we died
in a representative. We died in our federal head,
that being Adam. Death came by sin, not only Adam's,
but ours too. As a matter of fact, in Romans
chapter five, verse 12, Paul tells us why we died. He said,
wherefore is by one man, that being Adam, sin entered into
the world and death by sin. Now listen, and so death passed
upon all men for that all have sinned. We can't blame it all
on Adam. We've sinned too. And we're dead
because of it. God said, don't. Man said, I
will. God said, if you do, you'll die.
And man did it anyway. And that man lived physically
and naturally for 930 years. I thought he was supposed to
die. He did. He died spiritually and he died immediately. What
kind of death was it? It was a spiritual death. Not
a physical death. You see, God is a spirit and
because of our sin, all men and women died to God. That's what
it is to be alienated from God. That's what it is to be out of
fellowship with God. It's to be dead to Him and Him
to be dead to us. That's what it means to be dead. To be dead is to be without God
and without Christ and without hope in this natural physical
world. Without Christ, there is no hope
in this world. Hope in this natural physical world, you're without
it when you're dead, and you without hope in the spiritual
eternal world to come. Without God, without Christ,
without hope. The equation is always the same.
Sin and death go hand in hand. You ever noticed that in the
scriptures? The wages of sin is death. the soul that sins,
it shall die. God will by no means clear the
guilty. God will not by any means spare
one who is in sin. But preacher, the Bible says,
if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ,
and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved. Thank God, he says that. Yet
the problem remains, a dead man and a dead woman cannot confess. And they cannot speak. And that's what it is to be spiritually
dead. Can one who is dead speak with
their mouth? Can one dead believe in their
heart? No, they're dead and they can't
do anything. They can do nothing. That's what
the Lord Jesus said, without me, you can do nothing. I'm the
vine, you're the branches. If the branches be separated
from the vine, what are they? They're dead. And during the
ice storm, we don't have many trees, but a lot of our neighbors
do and a lot of branches down on the ground. course, it's the
wintertime, so they're bare anyway, but you have a branch fall from
a tree in the spring or after things have buttered or in the
summer, they'll fall. Those leaves on that tree are
still just as green, but after a day or so, man, they turn brown.
Why? Because those branches are dead.
They're separated from the vine. from the life-giving vine of
the tree. That's what men are, born condemned
because we're separated from Christ, the vine. And without
Him, we can do nothing. It doesn't say you can do some
things or that you might be able to do this or you might be able
to do that with a little thought and a little prayer and a little
effort, you can do something. That's not what it says. Without
me, without Christ, you can do nothing. I looked that word up,
you know what it means? Nothing. For with the heart man
believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is
made unto salvation. Thank God for that. But a dead
man has no living heart to believe. And a dead man has no life so
that he might cry out. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. But how then shall they call
on him in whom they've not believed? How could one who is dead call
out or believe? How can they believe in Him of
whom they've not heard? Can a dead man hear anything?
One dead does not have ears to hear. The Lord has to give them
life before they can hear, before they can see, before they can
speak or believe. Lazarus, come forth. The scripture
says he that was dead came forth. Now did Lazarus hear Christ while
he was dead? No, a dead man can't hear. Christ
gave him life and then he heard his command to come forth. That's
the way it works. It doesn't work the opposite
way. You don't get life by coming forth at his command. No, life
comes first. And then hearing and believing
and seeing and all those things. It's not hard, but I'm convinced
that men and women do not understand what it really means to be dead,
spiritually dead. I know this much. A dead sinner
cannot hear without a preacher. That's what Paul said. And the
preacher is nothing or no one. He's in the same boat. Ain't
nothing special about him. That's what Paul said. Who's
Paul? Who's a Paulist? Just ministers. Sin of God to
preach the truth to you. Just voices crying in the wilderness.
Nothing special about them. Oh my, it's by the means of preaching
that God is pleased to save them that believe. It's a faithful
saying. It's worthy of all acceptation,
but they have to be given ears to hear. They've got to be given
eyes to see. They've got to be given hearts
that can believe. They have to be given a voice
to speak and to cry or to confess. Hearts to believe, they have
to be given. They've got to be given life first and foremost
before these other things can be added. And the reason is because
they are dead, dead in their trespasses and they're dead in
their sin. One who doesn't think that they're
dead in trespasses and sin really haven't seen the truth concerning
their trespasses and sin. If God ever shows you what you
are, sin's not just what you do, but what you are, you'll
die and you'll want life, you'll cry out for it. For the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. Why is it
foolishness to them? Because they're dead. But unto
us, which are saved, given life, it's the power of God. Now this
spiritual life can only be given in and by and through the power
of God Almighty. Everything is foolish to a dead
man. Seems that way anyway. He doesn't
respond. Can any preacher preach unless
they'd be sent? That was another one of the questions
Paul asked there. Unless God give them the message,
not a message, but unless God give them the message, how can
any preach? They can't not truly preach.
They may even get up and say a few words and get emotional
and tell folks what they ought to do and what they shouldn't
do. But if they don't preach Christ, who is the message, the
one who did for the sinner what they could not do, the one who
kept perfectly God's law and satisfied God's justice in the
room instead of one who cannot do the first thing to save themselves,
they don't have a message and they're not a preacher. Not a
preacher of God, they're not. Paul said, woe unto me if I preach
not the gospel. Not woe unto me if I don't preach.
It's God who raises up preachers and causes them to bring glad
tidings of good things, Romans chapter 10. Let me ask you another
question. Does a dead man or woman have
a will or can they make a plan? Well, when you think about being
dead, it's a ridiculous question, isn't it? If they're dead, they
don't have a will or a plan, much less a free will and a plan
of salvation. God must give a dead sinner life.
God must send a dead sinner glad tidings of good things. And he
does it through a preacher. Don't get your eyes on the preacher.
He's just a man. He trusts in God the same way
you are, or he'll perish. Can one dead make a decision? Can one dead give his heart to
God? Can one dead trust in Christ? Can one dead come to God? Can one who's dead take that
first step? Does one dead have a plan? I
was going through some things in storage recently, and I found
my mom's sister's Bible, my aunt, been dead for many, many years.
I don't know how, I guess my mama got it, and then I got it
when my mom died. But in the back of that old Bible,
in her handwriting, she'd written out at the top, the plan of salvation,
the plan of salvation. I don't even like the terminology.
The word plan means a strategy, means an intention. We plan to
do this, or we plan to do that. Well, we're planning on going
on vacation such and such a day. We're planning on having a Bible
conference on such and such a day. That word plan means an objective. It means to organize. It means
to arrange. It means to work out. It means
to develop. It means to set up. It means
to line up. It means to hatch, brew, envision,
to intend to do. People plan on doing things. They intend to do it. And maybe
it'll work out and maybe it won't. A lot of times it doesn't. Our
plans don't always work out. But God doesn't plan to do anything. God purposes. Did you know that
the word plan's not even found in the Bible? Not in the King
James Version anyway. Not even found. So is salvation
a plan? Well, if it is, it's not in the
Bible. Is salvation a plan that God hopes will work out? Well,
that even sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? Salvation is on purpose. Did God save sinners on purpose?
You better believe he did. The word purpose, it's found
in the Bible. Several times. And we know that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are called be called according to what? His purpose. Romans 8, 28. For the children,
speaking of Jacob and Esau, being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to
election, might stand not of works, but of him that call.
in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will." It's not a plan, it's the purpose
of God. It's according to the will of
God. It's what we just read. He works
all things after the counsel of his own will and it's by his
purpose. God does all things according
to the eternal purpose, which He purposed in Christ Jesus,
our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by
the faith of Him. My confidence this morning is
not in a plan that may work out and may not. My confidence this
morning is in the purpose of God Almighty, whose purpose is
always fulfilled, always carried out. God who saved us and called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. Now, I'd like to know how those
who believe in free will justify that. God does all things according
to His will and purpose. God doesn't plan. Whatever the
Lord pleased, that did He. End of discussion. Whatever the
Lord pleased, that did He, whether in heaven or in earth or in the
seas or in all deep places. And that word, purpose, is defined
as the reason for which something is done. Done. It's the reason for which something
is created, or it's the reason for which something exists. Purpose. Is salvation by man's plan? or
salvation according to God's purpose? How do you answer that
question? Salvation's of the Lord. We just
read, and you had he quickened. You, the sinner, has God, the
holy God, quickened, made alive. Salvation is God's purpose, not
man's plan. Salvation's not something you
decide. It's God's decision and it's God prerogative to say.
And that's why Jesus Christ came into the world. Christ Jesus
came into the world to what? Save sinners. To save sinners. God's sovereign will and purpose
cannot be altered. It cannot be changed. None can
stay God's hand. That's what that means. None
can question what God does. Surely as God thinks, it comes
to pass. Surely as he purposed, so shall
it stand. Isaiah 14, 24. This is God's
word. This ain't just some little things
that I came up with. God's purpose is the grounds,
it's the cause, it's the reason, it's the basis, it's the justification
of sinners being saved. It's the only way sinners can
be saved. God didn't make salvation possible. That's just not so. He did not
make salvation possible. God made salvation certain. Certain because he did it on
purpose. It wasn't a plan that could be
altered or changed. Would you have any comfort or
confidence or assurance if salvation was a plan that could be altered
or changed? No. Dear believer, God purposed
to save you. God deliberately, intentionally,
purposely, willfully, premeditatedly. Boy, that's a big word. Predetermined,
consciously purposed to save you. When it comes to God saving sinners,
there's basically two views on how it's accomplished. And one
way involves man and the other way involves God. These two views,
these two opinions are drastically and diametrically opposed to
one another. And they can't both be right,
just can't. So for a few minutes, I wanna
ask you five questions, and I want to do the best I can to distinguish
the difference in these five different views, five different
opinions, which cannot all be right. And our view, I hope that
our view is according to God's view. One view here is according
to God, the other is according to man. One view is the teaching
of scripture, the other is the doctrine of man. First question.
Did the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, did they die in
the garden of Eden? Did they spiritually die in the
garden of Eden when they disobeyed God? Or did they just get injured? Did they just get hurt a little? Did man die as God said he would? Isn't that what God said? In
the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die. Did man
die as God said he would or did man pick himself up by the bootstraps? Did man by his own free will
have the freedom to choose God over evil and overcome his sin
and cooperate with a thrice holy God in order to be regenerated?
It's one of the two. Or did Adam die as God said he
would? Do we dare say that God is a
liar? Can God lie and still be God?
Yes, Adam lived 300, or excuse me, 930 years, but he died spiritually
immediately. God said in the day, in the second,
the minute, the hour, the day that you eat, you shall surely
die. Adam ate and Adam died. Did God
mean what he said? This book says he does. Everything
that he thinks and purposes, that's what he does. He always
means what he says. Man died. Man offended God. Man
was separated from his maker. Man was alienated from his master. Man died. That's what it means
to be dead. Is man able in and of himself
to believe the gospel, trust in Christ when his heart is,
as Jeremiah said, deceitful above all things and desperately wicked? That sounds like his heart's
dead. Is man's will free or is in bondage
to the sin that resides in his nature within? I think the Bible's
clear. Man cannot, man will not. Man is not able, man is not willing
to choose good over evil. He's just not. It takes God given
life to bring a sinner to Christ. The Spirit of God must give a
man life and a new nature. The Lord Jesus told Nicodemus,
marvel not that I said unto you that you must be born again. You've got to be made a new creature,
no other way. Either man died or man didn't.
Either man recovered by his own doing or man died. Either man is able and willing
to contribute to cooperate and to assist God in his own salvation,
or he's dead in trespasses and sin and must be given life. That's one or the other. Which
do you think it is? It sure ain't both. Second question. Did God choose sinners before
the foundation of the world because He looked ahead in time and saw
who would believe? I've been told that many times.
Did God choose sinners on the basis of what the sinner would
in time do? If He did, Tom, salvation is
a man, not of God. Or did God's choice of certain
men and women before time ever was rests solely on God's sovereign
purpose of grace toward those that He saves? God's choosing
is either based upon the will, the help, the choice, or the
cooperation of man, or it's God alone who gives life, grace,
faith, and repentance to those that He's pleased to save. It
can't be both. Either the sinner chose Christ,
meaning that the sinner is alive, made alive, or God chose the
sinner, meaning the sinner is dead. But since the sinner had
no life or no ability to choose, it had to be that God chose the
sinner. See, that's the problem, I think. We don't know what it
really is to be dead, dead in trespasses and sin. Our Lord
said, you haven't chosen me, but I've chosen you. I'm so glad,
because I was dead. I couldn't choose nothing. I
couldn't choose nobody. Do you believe the message that
gives God all the glory, or do you believe the message that
gives all the glory to man? Is salvation of man or of God?
Did God elect sinners on the basis of their merit, or did
God elect sinners according to his own will and purpose? Well,
let me give you a hint from Romans chapter nine. For he said to
Moses, God said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have
mercy. And I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. So then, let me sum it all up
for you, Paul said. It's not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Don't argue with God. Go ahead. You'll lose. Third question. Did Christ's redeeming work make
it possible for all to be saved? If he did and all are not saved,
now stay with me, then the death of Christ did not actually secure
salvation for anyone. Did you hear that? If Christ's
righteous work of redemption is only effectual if men and
women choose to accept it, then salvation is of man and not of
the Lord. Or was God's righteousness and
finished work intended to save only those whom God purposed
to save? Only those who Christ, before
the foundation of the world, set his affection upon and gave
to the Lord Jesus. If God loved everyone without
exception, if Christ died for everyone without exception, then
won't everyone be saved? That's the most reasonable thing
to presume, isn't it? Since a sovereign God cannot
fail, His purpose cannot be altered, changed, or thwarted, He who
spoke the universe into existence, which is Word, is very capable
of imposing His will upon His creatures. He has the right It's
lawful for God to do what he will with his own. Hath not the
potter power over the clay of the same lump to bake one vessel
unto honor and another unto dishonor? And the vessel that he, the potter,
made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter. So he made
again another vessel as seen good to the potter. God said,
can I not do with you as the potter has done with the clay?
Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in
my hand, God says. Jeremiah 18. Read that chapter
sometime. If Christ died for all and all
men are not saved, then God is a liar and Christ is a failure.
But that can't be so, for Christ is God and God cannot fail. But
if Christ died for some, those that he died for will be saved
to the uttermost, made a vessel of honor in the potter's hands. And in the end, that sinner will
be conformed to the perfect likeness of Christ's image. It's certain. Not just possible, but certain.
Fourth question. Can a fallen man or woman who
is dead in sin, can that dead sinner successfully resist the
Spirit's call? Well, it's easy to answer if
we know what it is to be dead. Can one who is dead successfully
resist the Spirit's call? Can the Spirit of God draw only
those who allow Him to? That's what I'm trying to say.
Or is the Holy Spirit of God in no way limited in any way
by man's will, work, or way? We've talked about it a lot lately,
divine intervention, God budding in. Thank God He did. I'm so
thankful God budded in, God intervened divinely. God divinely revealed
the truth to me and showed me that I was dead in trespasses
and sin. And He gave me life in order
to show me that. Goes without saying that the
Holy Spirit of God is in no wise dependent upon man's cooperation
in anything. Shall the thing formed, saying
to him that formed it, why have you made me that? Why'd you make
me this way? We don't have the right to ask
God that. Why did you make me like this?
Don't I have a say in the matter? Don't I have some input to give?
Don't I have something to contribute? No. Sorry, you don't have a reason
to question God as to why. If a man can resist the Spirit
of God, if man can resist God's will, God's purpose, then that
man is more powerful than God. Now, am I wrong on this? If I am, somebody show me that
I am and show me from the scriptures. Do we not yet know who God is? Do we not yet know what we are?
Do we not yet know what to be dead is? Do we not yet see who
it is that gives life? All the inhabitants of the earth,
that's you and me. What about us? We're reputed
as nothing. And He, God Almighty, doeth according
to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. And none, nobody, no man, no woman, nobody can
stay His hand or saying to Him, what are you doing, God? God
doesn't answer to anybody. Then the fifth and the last question,
can those who believe, those who are truly saved, can they
lose their salvation? Or is a true believer one saved
always saved? Can one whom Christ has died
for, can one for whom Christ has shed his blood, can such
a one fall from grace? Can such a one lose their salvation? It sounds even wrong to ask because
of who God is and what God is able to do. Or does God preserve
and keep the chosen sinner by his power forever? We are kept
by the power of God. Is it possible for any who are
chosen of God, is it possible that any who are redeemed by
Christ, is it possible that any one given faith by the Spirit
of God can be lost when it's God who keeps and preserves us? I wrote an article in the bulletin
about once saved, always saved. I like it said this way better.
Always saved, once saved. If God saves me, I'm saved forever.
Is mankind dead and trespasses in sin? Did man die in the fall
or did he just injure himself? Did man pick himself up by the
bootstraps or did God reach his hand down into the deep marred
clay and raise a sinner up unto life? Can't be both. Does man
cooperate with God in his redemption or does God choose who will be
saved? Does God have mercy on whom he
will? Does God have compassion on whom
he will? Does God harden whom he will?
The Bible says he does. Did Christ die for everyone in
the world? Has God made salvation possible
for the whole world? Or has God made salvation certain
for some? I mean, to be repetitive. Donna,
I want you to think about this thing. It wouldn't be right to
force grace upon someone. No, I don't suppose it would,
but it would be grace to do so. That's surely what God did to
me. Grace is God giving me what I
don't deserve. And mercy is God not giving me
what I do deserve. And God doesn't force grace on
us against our will. He simply makes us willing by
His power to bow. By His grace, He simply changes
our will to His will. You know what our problem is?
We don't know what it means to be dead. You can't be half alive. You're either alive or you're
not, and you can't be half dead. You're either dead or alive,
but you can't be born. The Bible says that by nature,
I am dead. I'm condemned. I was born condemned.
This was my condemnation. I love darkness rather than light. So did you. Well, I've been saved
pretty much all my life. Well, that's a little too long.
Born condemned. I love darkness rather than light.
Why? Because my deeds are evil, and my deeds are evil because
I'm evil. Sin's not only what I do, it's what I am. Well, it
sounds to me, preacher, like you're excusing your sin. No. It's my sin that I grieve
the most. It's my sin that I hate. Like
Job, the true child of God, has been made to cry, I hate myself. I abhor myself. Is God's grace
irresistible? It was to me. He made me to want
His grace. He made me to need His grace.
He made me to cry out for His grace. Can one who is saved be
lost? Well, it all depends, as Brother
Mahan said years ago, on who saved you. Did you save yourself? Then yes, you can be lost. Or
did God save you? If God saved you, then no. The
God who saved you is able to keep you, and you can't be lost. Now, do we just live like hell
knowing that? No, sir. No, sirree. No, we don't
want to bring any reproach or dishonor to our God. Sadly, we
still do. Sadly, we're in these bodies
of death that don't know how to do anything but sin. But thank
God that Christ put away all our sin, past, present, and future.
And when God looks on this wretch, the wretch that he is, God sees
his beloved son. And that's the only hope I have.
That's the only hope you have, Linda, you, Lou. By God's grace,
I've learned what it is to be dead. And by God's grace, I'm
learning what to have life is. I am, I'm learning. I'm growing
in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord. I'm learning to
rest because the work is finished. I didn't finish it. Christ finished
it for me. The work is accomplished. The
work is accepted. A sinner can only rest while
they're alive. You know a dead man or woman's
not resting. You know, when we bury someone,
folks say things like, say that we're laying them to rest. That's
not so. If God finds them in Christ,
then they're now resting in the arms of the Lord Jesus, and they're
face-to-face with Him, their dear Savior. But if they weren't
in Christ when they died, they're not resting. They're forever
suffering the wrath and the judgment of God. When men and women die
physically, and I know folks mean well, and they die naturally
in this world, men say things like, well, they're better off
now. Maybe they are, maybe they're
not. Were they trusting and leaning on the Lord Jesus to put their
sins away? Then yes. But if they turn their
back on the only one who could save them, then they're not. Men and women don't know what
it means to be dead in sin. Do you? May God be pleased to
make it so. You know, we learn to rest and
we must learn to rest, I should say. And we can only rest in
the one who loved us and gave himself for us. That's the only
place there is to rest. May God make it so for his glory
and our good and for Christ's sake, amen.