Ephesians 2. Now I'm going to entitle this message,
Dead in Sin, What Does It Mean? Dead in Sin, What Does It Mean? And I've got an outline dealing
with five words that I found in these first six verses. The first word is in verse 1,
dead. The second word is found in verse
1, you. The third word is found in verse
4, God. The fourth word is found in verse
5, quickened. And the fifth word is used two
or three times in these verses, together. Even when we were dead
in sin hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace you are
saved, raised us up together, made us sit together in the heavenly
places. Somebody said one time, A good
start is half the race. Well, in matters with which we're
dealing tonight, a good start is all the race. Because you either have light
or you don't. And if you have light, you understand. You either have Christ or you
don't. And if you have Christ, you have
everything. You need to understand what it means to be dead, what
it means to be quickened, what it means to be together with
Christ, what it means to know God. You see, when the Lord God
quickens a person by his word and gives them an understanding
of the gospel, a love for Christ, they live. They can die right
then and go straight to glory. And if they live 50 years, they
won't have any more inheritance than they have if they died right
then. There won't be any more in Christ, any more saved, any
more justified if you live 75 years in the faith than the thief
on the cross who died six hours after God saved him. So the rite
starts. I learned the gospel in 1950,
and I'm preaching the same message I preached today, today that
I preached 51 years ago. I've learned more about the gospel,
I've learned more about myself, I've learned more about Christ,
I've learned more about his word, but I knew him then. That's right,
isn't that right? So it's the whole race. So if
you don't get right here, what we're dealing with this evening,
you're not even in the race. So let's look at verse 1 now,
and you hath be quickened who were dead. Now dead is a strong
word, and to most folks it's offensive. When you talk about
the sinner, the person who does not believe in Christ being dead,
it offends a lot of people. But you see, we didn't coin that
word. We didn't invent that word, we didn't even choose that word.
Almighty God gave that word to the Apostle Paul. The Spirit
of God said, you write, and you hath be quickened who were dead,
dead in trespasses and sins. The Lord himself gave us that
word. And he uses it frequently. Look
over in verse 5 of the same chapter. Even when we were dead in sins,
he hath quickened us together with Christ. That's twice in
five verses, he said we were dead. We were dead. Colossians 2, chapter 2, verse
13. He says in Colossians 2, verse
13, and you being dead in your sins, And the uncircumcision
of your flesh hath he quickened together with Christ, having
forgiven you of all your trespasses. But you were dead. I was dead. I was in the church. I was in
the pulpit, unfortunately. I was in a preacher's school,
dead. Romans 5, don't turn to it, I'll
quote this for you, you're familiar with it. Wherefore, as by one
man, sin entered this world, and death by sin. So death, spiritual death passed
upon all men. Now spiritual death is an extreme
and terrible condition. It means to be, what you just
read, without Christ. If you're without Christ, you're
without life, because he's the giver of life. It means to be
without the Holy Spirit. If you're without the Holy Spirit,
you're without life, because he's the Spirit of life. And
if you're without God in this world, you're without life, because
he's the Father of life. So when we say that sinners are
dead, even though it's offensive, and it is offensive, People don't
mind you saying that they're sinners. They don't even mind
you saying that they're thoughtless or careless or ignorant. But
don't tell me I'm dead to God and trespasses and sins. We have a lot of words by which
we describe unbelievers. We have a lot of words. They're
misdirected. That's what I read recently. They're deceived. They're busy,
and they just don't take the time to inquire. They're young and inexperienced. They're sincere, but they're
ignorant of the truth. Well, they have bad health, and
they're just not paying attention. They're poor. They came up mistreated
and abused. We have all these words to describe
them, and God uses one. They're dead. They're dead. But you know, think of it now.
I thought about this today. When a person's heart is cold
and stony, he's dead. When a person's mind doesn't
think, he's brain dead. That's what they say down at
the hospital. When a person can't see, can't hear, can't speak,
can't walk, whose voice is never lifted in prayer or praise or
spiritual words, he has ever evidence that one thing's missing.
Life. He's dead. The Word is dead. You have to
be quickened who were dead. Doesn't matter what age. Doesn't matter what age. When
our Lord was here on the earth, He raised three people from the
dead. I want you to turn to the book
of Matthew, chapter 11, just a moment. Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11, verse 2. It says in Matthew 11, verse
2, now, when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ,
John the Baptist, he sent two of his disciples and said unto
Jesus Christ, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for
another? And Jesus, our Lord, answered. Now listen, this is
so important. Our Lord answered and said unto
these two disciples, You go show John again those things which
you do hear and see." The blind received their sight. Now, you
know all of our Lord's miracles have a spiritual application.
He gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, a voice to the dumb,
the power to walk to the lame, and He raised the dead. He didn't
just do those things to show he can heal. He did those things
to show that this is a spiritual redemption. That's right. You
see what he's saying? He said, you go show John the
blind see. The blind what? Spiritually blind
see. The lame walk. The lepers. Lepers are diseased people. They're cleansed. The deaf hear. The dead are raised up. And the
poor have the gospel preached to them. Every one of those adjectives
described you and me when we were without Christ. We were
blind. We were lame. We were walking, running around,
but we weren't walking with God. We weren't walking even in the
direction God's going. We were lepers, unclean. We were deaf. People preached,
but we didn't hear it. We were dead. And we were poor. And he came
to preach the gospel of the poor, to give sight to the blind, hearing
to the deaf, and life to the dead. And he illustrated it when he
raised three people from the dead. was a 12-year-old girl. Geras, the Roman centurion or
the centurion, whoever he was, he had a little girl, 12 years
old, at home. He didn't know she was dead.
He told the master she's at the point of death. She was already
dead. He wanted the master to come,
and the master came to the house, and he said to the people there,
he said, damsel is not dead, she sleeps."
And they laughed him to scorn. They knew she was dead. He went
in there where she was lying on the bed. She just died just
shortly. She didn't look dead. Looked like she was asleep. Lying
there on the bed, 12 years old. Bloom still in her cheeks, you
know, just closed her eyes in death. But she was dead. And
our children, They're so charming and they
don't look dead, do they? Six, seven, eight years old,
nine years old, they don't look dead to me. But they are. They're dead and trespassed in
sin, just like that girl. And our Lord spoke to her. And
she arose. He said, give her some meat,
Peter. He gave her life. Well, then
on another occasion over in Luke 7, Our Lord was walking into
a city and a funeral procession met him. And this was a young man, the
only son, the only support of a widowed mother. And the mother
was distraught. Her son was dead, but they knew
he was dead. They'd given up all hope. They
put him in a coffin and were taking him out to bury him. He
was quite dead, obviously. probably 24, 25 years old. That's pretty obvious today,
isn't it? Pretty obvious. Already in the
coffin, already in the ways of the world, the habits of the
world, the things of the world, encaged and enslaved and in bondage
to everything. And our Lord walked up and touched
the coffin, and he sat up. He took him by the hand and returned
him to his mother. Well, that's what he did for
me when I was 24 years old. Same age as that boy. But I was
dead in trespasses and sin. He touched me. I live, some of
you. But there was another one. He
was an older man, his name was Lazarus, and he'd been dead so
long he stunk. That's right. He'd been dead
so long and in the ground. In the ground. And when the Lord
wanted the stone moved, his sister objected very strongly to it.
Please, Lord, don't move the stone. Let's don't look at him
like he really is. But our Lord Jesus Christ stood,
and with a loud voice, He said, Lazarus, come forth! And he came forth, but he was
all wrapped up in a lot of things he needed to get rid of. All
that linen stuff was wrapped around, but he came walking out
of that place, like you did one day, came walking out. An old
dead sinner, been dead a long time, been a rebel, No good. But my Lord, it's no more difficult
for him. It takes the same power, the
same word, the same spirit to give life to a 12-year-old or
a 24-year-old or a 50-year-old rotten sinner. It stinks. But that's what he does. You,
you, and you! That's my next word. But you
had the quickened who were, just don't lose sight of this fact,
you were dead. You didn't help God do it. You
didn't choose for God to do it. You didn't even ask Him to do
it. You didn't know He was going to do it. But He gave you life. By Himself, of Himself, the cause
found in Himself, and the praise and glory to Himself. That's
the way God saves sinners now. And I don't know a place around
here you can hear that, but you can hear it here, because it's
so. It's so, they're dead. All right, let's look at the
word you. And you, we're talking about you now. Don't get personal
pressure, that's the way gospel is, it's personal. You. The Apostle
Paul paints a dark picture of you and me in our sinful state,
but no darker than should be painted. You see, the Bible describes
my Lord as altogether lovely. Psalm, Psalm of Solomon. Altogether
lovely. And it describes us as altogether
vanity. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. Scripture says in Isaiah 64,
we are all as an unclean thing. That's harsh, isn't it? We are
all as an unclean thing. We all do fade as a leaf. Even our good deeds and righteousnesses
are filthy rags in God's sight. Our iniquities, like the wind,
have taken us away, like the chaff before the wind. And your
iniquities, he said, have separated you and your God. Your sins have hid his face from
you, and he will not hear you. Now that's it. And this is what
he says about us here. Now look at verse 2. Verse 1 says you're dead in trespasses
and sin. Preacher, what's a trespass? You hunters know what it is.
You got your shotgun over your shoulder and all your shells,
and you're getting ready to go hunt. You walk up on a sign that
says, no trespassing. And you turn and walk away, because
that's forbidden territory. Well, that's what we are. We're
trespassers. God has forbidden territory. Thou shalt not, thou
shalt not, thou shalt not. But we don't pay attention to
those signs. We go right on. We're trespassers. That's what
that means. You're trespassing on holy land. God says, stay out. We go in
anyway. And then in verse 2, it says,
in times past, you walked according to the course of this world.
Not God's way. Your ways are not my ways, He
said. Your ways are the ways of the world. According to the
custom of the world. manners of the world, according
to the ways of the world. That's the way we walked. In
fact, he says, according to the devil. In times past, we walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the devil that now worketh in the
children of disobedience. That was our way. That's the
way we walked. That was our course. That was
our steps. And verse 3, among whom also
we had, we all of us now, not some of us, all of us had our
conversation, what's that word right above there? Behavior.
Behavior. Your conversation is your behavior. And we had our behavior governed,
governed and controlled by the lust of our flesh. We did what
our flesh wants to do. That's what we did. Our conversation
in times past was according to the lust of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of our sensual nature, obeying the impulses of our evil
minds. Doesn't that describe us? Go
back over your past life before you met the Lord. Our behavior governed by the
lust of the flesh, the desires of our sinful, sensual nature,
obeying the impulses of an evil mind, and watch this now, and
we're by nature children of wrath. Does that mean God's wrath was
upon us? Well, that's the second part.
But it means our wrath was against Him. We were wrathful children. The natural mind is enmity against
God. We liked everything but God.
We liked everything in this world but the right way, the truthful
way, the Christ way. We hated God. And this says,
look at this last three words, even as others. Now this is where
we all have trouble right here, even as others. That old Pharisee
came into the temple and he said, Lord, I thank you I'm not as
other men are. I'm not as others. I'm not as
others. But we were. He is too, but he
doesn't know it. We're even as others. Just pick
out, pick out anything or anybody or anything that's going on.
And you and I are capable, were at that time, I don't believe
now, I believe the Lord put a hedge about us. I believe the Lord
put a new nature in us. I believe the Lord gave us new
direction. But we were capable of, you name
it. I like what old Richard Baxter
said when he saw the drunk lying in the gutter. He said, there
but by the grace of God lies Richard Baxter. And you can point
to anybody in this world and say the same thing. There but
for the grace of God am I. That's the only thing that keeps
us out of the hog pen is the grace of God. Because we're hogs
by nature. That's right. But we're made
sheep now. And he hedges us about. Well, here's my third word. Dead,
you were, verse 4, but God. That makes all the difference
in the world. But God. What a contrast. We were dead,
but God lives. We were poor, but God is rich. We were rebels, but God is rich
in mercy. We were lost, but God loved us. But God. Paul said in Romans
5, but God commended his love toward us in that while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us. You know, I don't despair
of any person because of who they are, or what they've done,
or what they're doing. If God sets his affection and
love upon a person, he's a Savior. That's right. He's a Savior.
Tells us what we were here. But God, that makes all the difference.
But God, who's rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith
he loved us, even when we were dead in sin, quickened us together
with Christ. Almighty God demonstrated the
power of His love when He called a Jewish Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus. I don't suppose there was a man
in Jerusalem that hated Jesus Christ like Saul of Tarsus. You've
got to hate somebody when you kill their family to do away
with the name. He did everything he could against
the name of Jesus Christ. What did he say? anything against
that name. And Almighty God arrested him,
called him, saved him, and made the most humble picture out of
him that ever lived. He said, who's weak? He said,
I'm not weak. I'm the chief of sinners. Almighty God called a Roman Catholic
monk by the name of Martin Luther, born almost 600 years ago. That's been 600, 700 years ago. This man was trained in idolatry. He was schooled in superstition
and false teaching. Steeped in it. Imprisoned in
it. And Almighty God saved him and
made him the reformer of the world. That man has had more
influence in the area of justification by faith than any other preacher.
That's exactly right. Translated the Bible from Hebrew
and Greek into German in eight months time. God made him a literal
captain and chief and champion of justification by faith, the
very opposite of what he was. The very opposite of what he
believed. Justification by works, not by faith. It was a poor English tinker. You know what a tinker is? A tinker is a mender of pots
and pans. That's what a tinker is. A mender of pots and pans. A
man with no learning, no money, no influence, noted for his profanity. Saved him and used him. to write the greatest religious
classic, loved by more people than any other single book. John
Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress. Put him in jail 12 years while
he wrote it. They imprisoned him for his gospel
and put him in jail 12 years and God kept him there until
he wrote that book. God called an English sailor. A slave trader. The African-American
people today talk about their relatives that were captured
in Africa, put in chains, and brought to other countries. John
Newton did that. That was his job. That was his
work. Slave trader. Drenched in blasphemy,
whiskey, worldliness. and made him one of the world's
most gifted, greatest hymn writers and preachers that this world's
ever heard. Out of the depths, isn't that
this book? Out of the depths. Have you read Mark 16, verse
9-11? It'd do us good to go read it
again. It'd do us good. My Lord is able to save to the
guttermost, to the uttermost, those that come to God by him.
Listen to this. Mark 16, verse 9. Mark 16, verse 9. Now when Jesus
was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first
to Mary Magdalene. That's the first one he appeared
to. Our Lord came out of the tomb and appeared first to Mary
Magdalene. Out of whom he cast seven devils. Where he found that girl. But
that was the one. Isn't that grace? You talk about
grace. Next time you get that idea in
your head, who am I? Read that scripture there. Who
is she? one of the Lord's chosen. And
she went and told them that had been with him, the disciples,
as they mourned and wept. And they, when they heard he
was alive, and she had seen him, they didn't believe it. You can
pick somebody better than that to appear to. Somebody better
than that to send the message. No, that's the best one. That's
the best one. The best one to hear preach the
truth is one who's been there. The best one to hear brag on
Christ is the one who's been there. I'd rather hear a sinner
saved by grace preached than an angel any day. What's an angel
know about a sinner saved by grace? The fourth word, quickened. Let's read it. Verse 1, you hath
he quickened. Verse 5, even when we were dead
in sins hath quickened us together. I keep telling you what an interesting
thing it is to look up these words in the Hebrew and Greek
concordance. The word quicken, quickened,
and quickeneth. David uses it 14 times in the
book of Psalms. Quicken, quickeneth, or quicken. And it means, in the Hebrew,
it means to give life. That's what it means. Quicken
is to give life. Every time David used it, it
meant the same thing, to restore to life. The word quicken, quickeneth
and quicken is used 12 times in the New Testament, in the
Greek translation. And each time it means to make
alive, to give life. You have been made alive. You
were dead. If we're not dead in sins, God
doesn't have to quicken us. Quicken doesn't mean to make
life, to make alive, to give life, to restore to life if we're
not dead. You see, it's how you start. To give life, you've got
to start with a carcass. To restore to life, you've got
to find somebody that's dead. So my gospel means nothing to
anybody who's not dead. That's how serious this is. If
a man's not a sinner, not dead in sin, I don't have a blooming
thing to say to him. Not a thing. Won't mean anything
to him. And that's the word quicken.
It's used 14 times in the book of Psalms, 12 times in the New
Testament. Every single time it's to restore
to life. to make alive, to give life. And this quickening, where we're
concerned, has to be considered in three ways now. Has to be considered. We were
made alive spiritually, way back there. We were given life, way
back there. Now let me show you a scripture
in Romans Chapter 4, so you understand where I'm coming from here. In
Romans chapter 4, Romans chapter 4, it says in
verse 17, as it's written, I have made thee a father of many nations,
before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the
dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
I wasn't alive, I wasn't born. But yet in Christ, I was quickened. Chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world. God declares things that are
not as though they are. And if God declares them, they
are, whether they are now or not. It's like all things are
put under our Lord Jesus Christ, but Scripture says we see not
now all things unbeing. The devil and all his cohorts
and all raised a good bit of sand, aren't they? A good bit
of dust. But they're under his control. They're under his feet. God said so. And we were chosen
in Christ? Let me read you that now in Ephesians
chapter 2. Verse 5. Even when we were dead
in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. When did Christ
When did you pray thanking Him for His righteousness and His
blood? That was 2,000 years ago. Well, I was with Him then. I
was in Him together. We were quickened together with
Christ. Verse 6, when was Christ raised
from the dead? 2,000 years ago. And we were
raised up together. When was Christ seated at the
right hand of God? A long time ago. And we were
seated together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. So really, if you want to consider
justification, you've got to consider it fourfold. When God gave me to Christ and
gave you to Christ before the foundation of the world, Christ
was the Lamb slain and we were justified. When Christ came down
and died on that cross, For our sins in his body on the tree,
he was made sin for us and we were right then made the righteousness
of God in him. When he called me by his gospel
in 1950, I was quickened. You who were dead, happy quickened,
you see. Justified. But you know something? I've still got to go through
an experience called death. And one day, He's going to raise
my vile body and make it like His. Let me show you that. Turn
to Romans. Romans chapter 8, verse 11. Romans chapter 8, verse 11. Listen
to this. Romans 8, verse 11. But if the
spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in
you, when did he dwell in you? When he quickens you. When he
quickens you. Any man that has not the spirit
of Christ is none of his. That's when he quickens you.
He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your
mortal bodies. That's not done yet, but it will
be, because God declares things that are not yet done as though
they were. That's right. So that's the quickening. You
who were dead, back yonder before the world began, gave you to
Christ, your name in the book of life, in the covenant of grace.
Christ stood as your surety. When Adam fell, darkness and
sin and death came on the whole human race. We were in Christ. He stood as our righteousness
then. And then when He came to this
earth, died on that cross, justified in Him. Then one day, He sent
the gospel our way, like He did Saul of Tarsus, like He did John
Bunyan, like He did John Newton, all these others whom God has
saved. And you heard it, and you said, boy, that's nice, that's
the gospel. And you thought then you weren't
like other men, but now you know you're the chief of sinners.
What happened? Back then you thought the way
to heaven was by your works, and now you know it's not. It's
by Christ. What happened, you quickened? Back then you saw
no beauty in Christ. Now he's the fast of ten thousand.
What happened, quickened? Back then you had no pleasure
in the things of grace. Prayer was a chore. The Bible
was a tiresome book. Worship was a duty. Sermons put
you to sleep. Now those things are food for
your soul. What happened? You've been quickened. Back then our world was the world. All we cared about was the world.
And now, you know what we think about this world? It's a dry,
dusty wasteland. that we'll be glad when we leave. What happens? John said, we perish
from death and the life, and we know it because we love the
brethren. And someday, this is going to
happen. 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians
15, verse 51. You talk about quickening. He's going to quicken these mortal
bodies. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 51. Behold, I'll show you a mystery. We're not all going to die, because
Christ may come, but we're all going to be changed. That mortal
body is going to be quickened in a moment, and a twinkling
of an eye at the last trump, the trumpet will sound, and the
dead in Christ, the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and
we'll be changed. For this corruptible must put
on incorruption this mortal must put on immortality. So when this
corruptible shall I put on incorruption, this mortal shall I put on immortality,
then, then shall be brought to pass the saying that's written,
death is swallowed up in victory. You hath equipped them who are
dead, dead by nature, dead by experience, dead with an old
body and now death is swallowed up in victory in Christ Jesus.
All right, may God bless the word to our prophet to his glory.