Open your Bibles with me, if
you will, to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2, read
the first 13 verses. And you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sin, wherein time passed you walked
according to the course of this world. according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, 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 the children
of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love were with he loved us, even when we were
dead in sin, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
ye are saved, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages
to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through
faith, And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained,
that we should walk in them. remember that ye being in time
past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by
that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hand, that
at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise,
hope, and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus,
ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of
Christ." With me again over here in Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2. I want to use this first verse
as my subject this morning. This first verse, Ephesians 2.
And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sin. Quickened from death, ye were
dead in trespasses and sin. And it says here, you were quickened.
The word quickened means life, life from the dead, life from
the dead. And there's no intermediate state
between the living and the dead. No intermediate state. A man's
alive or he's dead. There's no middle ground. There's
no middle ground. A man is either quickened by
God and given life from the dead or else he's still dead in his
trespasses and sin. No middle ground. No middle state. And you know they're talking
about awakened sinners, that God needs to go and awaken a
sinner. Sinners can't be awakened, they got to be given life. You
wake somebody that's asleep, but when somebody's dead, you
can't wake them up. When somebody's dead, you don't
go and shake them and say, get up, get up, get up. Don't work
that way. And I want to say just a few
things about this being dead. When you say, he that were quickened,
who were dead in trespasses and sin, this is the past condition. of those that God has quickened.
You were dead. Only those who are alive from
the dead realize that they were dead. We didn't know. There was
a time we didn't know we were dead in trespasses and sins.
We didn't know it. Dead man's not conscious of that. He's not
conscious of it. And it says in trespasses and
sins. Now, all the trespasses that
we make against God, you know, everybody knows what a trespass
is. A lot of folks got no trespassing signs on their property. They
have no trespassing sign. And if you go ahead and go past
that no trespassing sign, well, then you've broken the law. You
have broken what they set up to be as the bounds of their
own property. Well, God set up boundaries for
men. He set up boundaries for men,
and He set up These boundaries is, you know, don't lie, don't
steal, don't covet, don't make no graven images, and the boundary
is that you love God and love your neighbor as yourself, and
don't bear false witness. He set up these boundaries. And
every time you went past those boundaries, it was a trespass.
Now how many trespasses you reckon a man has made in his lifetime?
How many that God set these boundaries, and how many boundaries, how
many times have we trespassed, went past those boundaries that
God set up for us? And then sins, sins. Joe McSherry
said the other day, we was riding around doing some things, and
he says, I'm a sinner from the sole of my foot to the top of
my head. Thank God for the grace of God.
And the only person who knows that is people who were dead
and they become alive. Dead men are not conscious of
what goes on in their lives. And I tell you what, and here
you know, in any state, not only is it a, you were dead, those
who are alive now only realize that when they become alive,
they realize they were dead. We've passed from death unto
life, is what John said. We've passed from death unto
life. Why do we know that? Because we love the brethren.
There was not a time we didn't love nobody but ourselves. And
not only that, but it's a state of separation. Every dead man
has been cut off, cut off from the cause of life and the power
of life. Now, he's not morally dead. Man's
not morally dead. He's not morally dead. He can
have morals. And that's what most people's
problem is, is they're too moral. They're too good. They're too
good of a man or a woman, and so they don't understand the
state of the separation. They're not mentally dead. They
can think. They can reason. They have the
powers and ability to reason things out. But he's dead in
trespasses and sins, and that separation, every dead one's
been cut off from the cause of life and the power of life. You
know, when a man's dead, and we're talking, you know, and
spiritually dead, you can compare it to a person who is physically
dead. Death separates a man from bread, death separates a man
from air, all the things that are necessary for living. Spiritual
death, what it means, it means severed from the sustaining presence
of God. That's what happened in the Garden
of Eden when Adam sinned against God. He immediately was cut off
from the cause of life and the power of life, and everything
that was necessary for him to live after that was gone as far
as his relationship with God was. And I tell you this, I know
that God is the only one who can give life, and when Adam
sinned, he was cut off from the one who gives life. God said
I told you when you eat that that in dying you would die,
you would die and you and from then on every man born into this
world is born spiritually dead, spiritually dead, and when a
man's dead he has no fitness, he cannot enjoy heavenly things,
he cannot enjoy the bible, he cannot enjoy the scriptures,
he cannot enjoy heavenly things, he can't do it, he can't do it.
Now tell you another thing about this our past conditions, you
were dead, you were dead, in a state of insensibility. I mean, you know a man don't
have no, do you know the dead? I thought of this this morning.
All of us have been places where people that we loved very much
has passed from this life into death. And we've got on their
bodies and wept on their bodies. We've kissed them. Our tears
has fell on their bodies as we stood over them, but they had
absolutely no effect on them. No effect on them. That's the
way a man is. when he's spiritually dead. That's
the condition we were in. They're not charmed by the gospel. They're not charmed by Christ. They're not charmed by the grace
of God. They're not charmed by faith. They're not charmed of their
need of Christ. They're not alarmed by anything.
Nothing alarms them. You can say or do anything in
their presence and it doesn't affect them. It doesn't affect
them. I mean, you know, I've spent years and years and years
preaching the gospel, and there's people that I've preached to
for all these years, they're neither moved, they're not alarmed,
they're not scared, they're not stirred up, they're not afraid
of God, they're not afraid of going into eternity, they're
not afraid of their sins, they're not afraid of nothing. You know
why they're not afraid of nothing? Because they're dead in their
sins. And you know the only person, that's why we keep telling you,
the only person that can give you life is Christ, is God. You hath he quickened, God has
to do the quickening. God has to give the life. I don't
want people to stay in that condition. They don't have tears when you
preach to them. They don't have fears when you
preach to them. They don't have any fears about
their sins. They don't have any fears about
their future state. You can preach the gospel over
and over and over and over and over and don't move them. You
can preach the terrors of the law, God's law to them, and curse
it as everyone that continueth not in all things in the book
of the law to do them. You can preach that curse cursed,
cursed, cursed, cursed. And he that believeth not on
the Son of God, it says, the wrath, the wrath of God abides
on them. Nothing moves them. Nothing moves
them. They don't have, they're insensible
to these. Oh, it's a sad state. It's a
sad state to be in. You were dead. You were dead.
Stayed and separated. Separated. Separated from God. Separated from life. Separated
from righteousness. Insensible. You can't, you're
not charmed, you're not alarmed, you don't, tears don't, you know.
How many tears have we shed over people that we love? How many
tears? Especially, especially when they're
suffering. Especially when you understand
the condition that they're in. Does tears change their life? Does talking to them change their
life and the situation they're in? No. Well, who can do it? You have, he could, he has to
do, he has to. And not only is this the past,
but it's a state of helplessness, a state of helplessness. You
know, you don't expect the dead person to do anything. You don't
expect anything at all from them. You don't expect them to speak.
You don't expect them to hear you. You don't expect them to
feel you. You don't expect them to be moved by what you say or
do. And it tells us down here in verse 11 and 12. Look what
it says down here in verse 11 and 12. Wherefore remember, remember. And I tell you what, you can't
remember something that you never had happen to you. And that's
why Paul says, wherefore you remember, he's talking to people
like us, Gentiles, that you being in time past, Gentiles in the
flesh, without God, without Christ, who are called the uncircumcision,
you're filthy in the flesh. That's what that means. But that
which is called the circumcision, the Jews, sign of the covenant
in the flesh made by hands. Now listen to it. Remember this,
that that's what you were. And remember this, that at that
time you were without Christ, without Christ. being aliens. Everybody knows what an alien
is. We hear every day on the news, illegal aliens, aliens,
aliens, people here, that's not here right. An alien is someone
who comes into a country that's not his own country. God has
a country, God has a people. And I tell you what, everybody
that's outside the kingdom of God, everybody that don't have
the life of Christ in them, it says they're aliens. Aliens from
who? From the commonwealth of Israel.
And strangers from the covenants of promise. Having no hope oh
my no hope and this is this is the kicker right here and without
God in the world Anybody won't stay like that. That's why Paul
says remember. That's what you were you were
dead remember remember And I tell you what, you never expect anything
from the dead. And those who are in their sins
and those who are without Christ, they can't do nothing. We talk
about man's inability. I know this, I know this, that
no man can give himself life. We couldn't give ourselves life
when we first come into this world. We had nothing to do with
the natural life that you and I got. Nothing to do with it.
Our mothers and fathers, they got together and they had a child.
I didn't choose to be born. I didn't choose my parents. I
didn't choose anything about the way that I am right now.
Did not make any choice about it. And that's the way it is
in the spiritual life. Just as you have no ability to
give yourself life in your mother's womb, you have no ability to
give yourself life in the spiritual things of God. You have no ability
to do that. You can't, you can't give, you
know, our Lord Jesus told Nicodemus, this is what people don't understand.
Nicodemus was a master of Israel, a master of Israel. He was a
teacher. He called him a master. It's
like these masters of divinity and all those doctors of divinity.
They're all supposed to know so much. Well, this is what this
man, he was called a master of Israel. And our Lord says this,
he said, you must, Nicodemus said to him, we know that thou
art a man sent from God because you can't do these miracles except
God be with thee. And our Lord just never said
a word about, oh, he's flattering him so much, and he said, you
must be born again. You must be born again. You must
be born by water and the Spirit, the Word of God and the Spirit
of God. And you know what the first thing Nicodemus said, now
here's the master of Israel, you know the first thing he said?
How can a man be born again? Has he got to get in his mother's
womb and come out the second time? That's the first thing
he thought of. He had no ability to understand
anything that Christ said, and he was a master of Israel. He
knew the Old Testament front and back, and he says, How can
a man be born when he's old? How can a man be born when he's
old? Enter into his mother's womb?
And our Lord says, oh listen, that's all, that's all can come
from your mother's womb is flesh. And our Lord says, you must be
born again. And you know how he says your
man's born again? By the water and the spirit,
and he said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness.
This is the gospel right here. John 3, 16's not the gospel.
It's the results of the gospel. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth on him, should have everlasting life.
When that serpent was lifted up, people were cursed, that
they were dying. They had no ability to give themselves
life and save themselves from the bite of the serpent. The
only way they could be saved is look to that serpent. And
the only way in the world a man can be saved is look into Christ.
Get life from the dead, look into Christ. And it says, you
know the scripture says, while we were yet without strength.
It didn't say when we had little strength, or we thought we had
some strength. When we were yet without strength,
Christ died. For who? The ungodly. And here's
another thing about you were dead. incapacitate. The dead
have nothing in common with the living. They have nothing in
common with the living. Men and women that's dead in
their trespasses and sins, they have no, nothing in common with
those who are living in Christ. They don't. They don't. They're
unfit for fellowship with the Lord's people. And when we were
in our sins, we were out of communion with God, we were out of communion
with the Lord's people, we had no fellowship. What fellowship
hath light with darkness? What communion hath Christ with
the Belial? And I'll tell you something,
sin always, always has a killing effect. The only places where
you find wages paid in the scriptures There's only one place where
they paid wages. And you know what they were? Man wants to
be paid for what he's done. You know, he thinks God owes
him something for what he's done, what he's accomplished, how good
he is in his merit, this, that, and the other. The wages of sin,
that's the only place God pays a man. The wages of sin is death. Death. But now wait a minute,
I'm not going to leave you like that. Oh, look what it says. You hath he quickened. You were
dead. Bless his holy name. He didn't
leave us like that. You hath he quickened. You know
the only remedy for death is life. A man may come with all
of his forms, may come with his robes, may come with his rituals,
may come with his garnishings. He may come with his crosses
on his lapel, and he's clergy on his bumper sticker, and he
may come with fish on this and fish on that, and he may come
all garnished up with a Bible and all garnished up, you know,
with his profession and all garnished up, you know, with his time on
an altar and his time of being saved by somebody, somebody talked
him into something. May come with all of them, but
they're worse than useless. God's method of saving sinners
has given them life. I'm going to say something about
that. A man can't believe until he's
given life. A man can't repent until he's
given life. He cannot act any way toward God until God quickly
gives him life. And let me ask you this, if God
has given you life, you know right now, you know right now
that it's God that gave you that life. If you believe right now,
it's because God gave you life. If you're looking to Christ right
now, it's because God gave you life. If your heart ever moves
toward God, ever moves towards Christ, it's God that causes
that. It's God that causes that. And
I tell you what, it's like a infant. And the gift of God is eternal
life. He says, look there in verse 8 and 9. For by grace are
you saved. You're saved through faith. salvation
is not of yourself, grace is not of yourself, faith is not
of yourselves. It says it's the gift of God.
It's not of works, because if it was, a man would brag and
boast of it. It's like that infant cast out
in the field in Ezekiel 16. The Lord passed by, and there's
that infant out there laying, a baby. Just a baby, a little
infant. It was cast out from its mother's
womb. Its navel was still connected
and it was covered up in blood and all the things that an infant
is when it comes from the mother's womb. He was cast out. Go walk
this baby. And our Lord said he passed by
and beheld it polluted in its blood. And he said, I say unto
thee, I said, I say unto thee, live. Oh, live! Son of man, can these
dead bones live? Oh Lord, thou knowest. Thou knowest,
thou knowest. Oh my, so I tell you what this
is, is that what this, you know, you hath he quickened, it's imparting
a new life, a new life that never existed before. And it's imparted
by the Spirit of God. He says, you, you, you, hath
he quickened, he did this. Born from above, that's what
he's talking about, being born by supernatural act of God. You
know, A lot of folks they're really interested in miracles
and and healings and those kind of things. But I'll tell you
the greatest miracle that ever happens to a human being on this
earth is God to give him life from the dead. God give him life
from the dead whether he's 10 years old, 20 years old, 30 years
old, 40 years old, 50, 60, 70, 80. It makes no difference. They all got to have the same
thing from God. And he said, it's a new life.
It's a life. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. And that means that God then
puts in you, in a man, when he gives him, quickens him from
the dead, he puts a life in a man, a spiritual person in a man that
never existed before. And whoever gives you that life
gives you the bread and everything necessary to sustain that life.
Now, in this natural life, look at all the things that it takes
to sustain us in this natural life. We eat bread, we drink
water, we drink milk. We eat food. We have sunshine. We have rain. We have, we wash
this body. We do all kinds of things to
live. We have homes to live in. We
have, we have all that. We have sight to see. We have
ears to hear. We have feet to move, hands to
do things with. We have all this thing in the
natural life. Well, God gives us all this new
life and he gives us everything that's necessary for this new
life. That life that never existed
in you before. He's the bread, He's the water,
He's the life, He's the sun, He's the shelter in time of a
storm, He's the comforter, He's the life-giver. In fact, the
scripture says, When Christ, who is our life, It's Christ
in you that's the hope of glory. It's not church membership. It's
not being faithful to come into service. It's Christ in you,
God giving you a life. And I know there are several
men, I know several men I could tell you right now who do not
believe that a believer has two natures, don't have two natures.
Now I tell you what, if you only have one nature, what kind of
nature is it according to the scripture? It's a sinful nature.
It can't have no other nature than that. So when God quickens
you and gives you life from the dead, and gives you life from
the dead, what kind of life is it that's given to you? You know
when you were dead, you wasn't seeking God. When you were dead,
you wasn't shedding your tears over your sin. When you were
dead, you weren't conscious of God, Christ, repentance, faith,
or nothing. So when God gives you life, that
means from then on you start calling on God, you start looking
to Christ, and Christ becomes everything to you. And all the
life that Christ gives you, it's a life eyes of faith, ears, spiritual
ears to hear. And like I told Ruby the other
day, I said, Ruby, she's laying there. She can't get up. And
I said, Ruby, I said, a man can go to Christ wherever he's at. He can see Christ if He's blind.
He can hear Christ if He's deaf. He can come to Christ if He ain't
got no legs. This coming to Christ is a spiritual
thing. And you can't come to Christ
until Christ gives you life. And He puts a new man in you,
a new soul in you, a new person in you. And that new person in
you, that spiritual person in you, that spiritual life has
to have Christ. Cannot do without Him. Is that not right? And I tell
you, it talks about creation. It talks about creation. You
who were dead in trespasses and sins. Look over here. Look over
here in Ephesians 5, 24 with me for just a minute. It's a
creation. It's a creation. And that's what
he says there in verse 10. Created in Christ Jesus. Created. It's a creation. And who's the
only person who can create life? Look what he says. And that you
put on the new man, which after God is created. that new man's
created. It's not the old man reformed,
it's not the old man dressed up, it's not the old man with
putting on new clothes, no, that you put on the new man which
after God is created. God was, He created us in, in
righteousness and true holiness, not something we're going to
have, it's something He created in us right now. right now. So
it's a new life given to you. And I'll tell you something else
about when this life's given to us. It's a separation too.
When our Lord walked up to that tomb of Lazarus, and everybody
knows the story, Mary and Martha sent to the Lord Jesus Christ
and said, He whom thou lovest. God loves His people. Said, He's
sick. And our Lord stayed there for
four more days and said, We're fixing to go up to Bethany. Why
are you going up there for? Said, Them Jews want to hurt
you up there. He says, Lazarus sleepeth. He said, oh, Thomas
said, if he's sleeping, that's wonderful. Why do you want to
go up there and wake him up? He said, he's dead. He said,
why did this happen? But Christ walked up to that
tomb and said, Lazarus, come forth. And the minute Christ
said that, he was separated from that queen. And he that was dead
came forth. That's what we're talking about.
The minute Christ gives you life, God quickens you and gives you
life, immediately you're separated from the dead and you're made
new. Is that not right? Oh, it's like that Gadarene maniac.
Nobody could do nothing with him. He lived over in the graveyard. That's where dead folks are.
They're in the grave. They're in the graveyard. They're
in dead. And that Gadarean maniac, they'd
try to chain him and everything. He was wild. People couldn't
go out to visit their family's grave, or their husband's grave,
or their wife's grave, or their son's grave because of that maniac
out there. Well, our Lord went through that
graveyard one day. He put his hand on that Gadarean
maniac, and the next thing says this, that he was sitting at
the feet of Christ, closed, he's right, Oh, my. When Christ touches a
man, he's coming out of the tombs. When the light of life dawns
on the dead, they come out from among them. Death separates from
God. Life separates from the things
of death. Christ separates us from the
things. Oh, bless his name. Clothed in his right mind. We're
clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Barnard used to say,
a man who don't know Christ is out of his mind. He's out of
his mind. And God's got to put him in his right mind. God put
him in his right mind. All right, let me tell you this.
He's not only restored, a quickened, a person who is quickened by
God, he's not only have life given to him, but when that life
gives to him, he enters into the joys and the blessings and
the presence and the enjoyment of Christ, his word, his gospel,
If we enter back in, we wasn't in fellowship with Christ, aliens
from the commonwealth of Christ, but now we're in Christ Jesus.
We were far off, now we're made nigh by the blood of Christ.
We've been restored to fellowship with God, restored to the fellowship
of Christ, restored to the communion of the Holy Spirit of God. God
quickens us and He gives us life. Now we have fellowship with God.
We have fellowship with Christ. We understand His Word. What
mind is it that understands the Word of God? The natural man
receiveth not the thanks of the Spirit. And here's something
else, and then I'll be done. You know, when a man gives, Christ
has given him life, this new life finds all it needs and all
it wants in the Lord Jesus Christ. Finds everything they want and
need. And you know, look what it says back up here. You know,
it says there in verse two, we were by nature the children of
wrath even as others, walked in the lust of our flesh, back
here in Ephesians. But look what it says in verse
four and five. But God, that's the way we were,
children of wrath, desire and fulfilling desires of flesh and
the mind. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love, we're with you, love. Even when we were
dead in sin, God, who is rich in His mercy, this love wherewith
He loved us, and this is why He did it, hath quickened us
together with Him, saved you, huh? You know, your old life
was dead, alienated from the life of God. Now, Christ in you. Christ is our life. Where Christ
gives life, it'll be obvious to you. May not be obvious to
everybody else for a while, but it'll be obvious to you. Where
He gives life, it's obvious. Lazarus was raised from the dead,
come out of the tomb. The widow's son was in his casket.
got up out of the casket. Jeriash's daughter was laying
dead. Christ wretched and got her and
says, get up, get up. 12, probably 20, 21, 22, 23,
and an old man. They all had one thing in common,
Christ gave them