Calvary Road Baptist Church
“DEAD”
Ephesians 2.1
The title of this sermon is “Dead.” The text of this sermon is Ephesians 2.1. Please locate that verse and stand for the reading of God’s Word:
“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.”
Some might notice that I am in the habit of delivering sermons to use a proposition sentence. The proposition is the thrust of my entire sermon. It is the sermon in a sentence. Almost every week, I indicate in my sermon’s proposition what the target truth of the message is intended to be. Today’s message is from a verse in which the Apostle Paul reminded the Christians in Ephesus of how things used to be before they trusted Christ.
If you are trusting the Jesus of the Bible, then you used to be spiritually dead. If you have not trusted the Jesus of the Bible, you are still spiritually dead. People whose life comes to an end without trusting Jesus go first to Hell and then to the lake of fire. Hell and then the Lake of Fire are the places reserved for people in the afterlife who are spiritually dead. But people who trust Jesus go to heaven. Heaven is the place in the afterlife God has created for spiritually alive people.
In this message, I will discuss four important considerations related to spiritual death. One observation I have frequently made since I became a Christian a half-century ago is that truly saved people are willing to discuss such subjects as spiritual death. People who are not genuine Christians generally do not want to discuss such subjects.
The application I will conclude with is intended to be food for thought. Though the Bible is 2000 years old, it is as current as tomorrow’s newspaper or the online equivalent of newspapers for those of you who are young. Finally, I hope and fervently pray that you will react to this message from God’s Word with an appropriate life response. I suggest that people make a life-changing decision after considering what the Bible declares to be true.
Some who think they are Christians are not, really, but have only deceived themselves. Others in the auditorium are fully aware that you are alienated from God and need to be saved. I pray that each of you will respond to the truth of today’s message in a way that pleases God.
In your King James Bible, you will notice that the phrase “hath he quickened” is written in italics. Whenever you see italics in the King James Bible, you are informed by the translators that there are no Greek words from which the English words in italics are being translated. This refreshingly honest habit of theirs lets us know when they translated and when they did some interpreting for us. In this case, since Paul would leave it to the reader of his Greek letter to pick up on a word or phrase that he would only imply, the King James translators, realizing that such nuances do not always translate well, supplied for us what Paul only inferred in his original letter.
If you carefully study the context in which Ephesians 2.1 is set, it is quite obvious that the King James translators correctly understood what Paul was seeking to communicate. He was writing to Church members who had been saved out of Gentile paganism and had been given new life in Christ. And how do we know this? We know this because the book of Acts records the Apostle Paul’s activities in Ephesus when he first went there to preach the Gospel. And it was obvious that the Ephesians had been pagans because of their idolatrous religious practices.
They flagrantly violated the second of the Ten Commandments, given to Moses on Mount Sinai, by producing and bowing down to statues and religious figurines.[1] Not that the Ten Commandments were given to or for Gentiles, Romans 3.19, but certainly reflecting God’s attitude regarding idolatry. No one who violates the second of the Ten Commandments given by Moses should be considered a Christian. But those members of the Ephesian Church, who had been God-hating idolaters, were gloriously saved by the power of God when they trusted Jesus to save them. Those who are so saved, who are so made alive, are described by Paul as quickened.
Notice also that what these Ephesians were before they were quickened, what they were before they were converted, was dead. Not physically dead, mind you. They were spiritually dead. And this concept of being spiritually dead is sometimes difficult for people to grasp. You see, death in the Bible never refers to the end of existence. Instead, death always has to do with being separated from that which gives life. So, physical death is the result of the separation of the soul from the physical body. But the soul continues to exist.
Spiritual death is the separation of the soul from God, with the soul continuing to exist separated from God. This is because the human soul, once created by God, is eternal. Existence, for your immortal soul, never ends. So, the Ephesians the Apostle Paul wrote to were people who had been quickened by God. But they had previously been spiritually dead, dead in trespasses and sins, Paul reminded them. What are trespasses and sins?
Trespasses involve departing from the path. We usually think of trespassing as the unauthorized crossing of a boundary line. Sins, however, include failing to measure up and coming up short.
In the Bible, these two ideas overlap so much that the two terms are frequently used interchangeably. In fact, trespasses and sins can refer either to things you do that are wrong or right things that you do not do but should have done. James 4.17 declares,
“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”
Not that any Christian ever reaches in this lifetime a state of sinless perfection, but the characteristic of someone who is spiritually dead is the fact that sins and trespasses against his fellow man and God are his way of life. And they do not have to be socially unacceptable sins to be wrong in the sight of God. Simply being one who does not worship the Lord thy God will all thy heart and soul and mind, or to have no fear of God before his eyes, Romans 3.18, is indictment enough.
So, as evidenced by the fact that they had once been in trespasses and sins, Paul wrote this letter to the congregation in Ephesus comprised of those formerly dead but presently alive. Therefore, my sermon is entitled “Dead.”
That is the state you were in before your conversion, Christian. Dead. That is the spiritual state of every man, woman, boy, and girl who does not know Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior. Dead. That is what people are who shy away from, gloss over, make light of, and treat as inconsequential, spiritual things.
There are four essential considerations related to spiritual death that we who are spiritually alive must constantly keep before us. And why constantly? Because death is a subject that is too important to ignore. We are Christians, after all. And we deal with reality. Amen?
First, WE MUST CONSTANTLY CONSIDER THE CAUSE OF DEATH
The cause of death is not as understood as most imagine. This is because not everyone has experienced death as a result of the same causes.
The original cause of death was sins. Let me refresh your memory. Genesis chapters 1 and 2 record God’s creation of the universe in six days by the power of His spoken Word. The last thing God did on the 6th day before He rested on the 7th day was to create both Adam and Eve, the first man and the first woman. Both Adam and Eve were created sinlessly perfect, with only a single restriction in their lives. But as a result of their Satanic temptation by the serpent, they each sinned against God and became sinners. Note that both Adam and Eve, according to Genesis chapter 3, became sinners due to a sinful act. They rebelled against an explicit command of God. That command, you might remember, included a warning. God told Adam that violation of His prohibition against eating the forbidden fruit would result in death. Genesis 2.17 records God’s warning:
“For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
So, although Adam and Eve continued to live out their physical lives for many more years after those individual acts of sinful rebellion, they were separated from the Presence of God by being ejected from the Garden of Eden for their sins, and being separated from God, the Source of spiritual life, the warning came true. On that day, they both died ... spiritually.
That said, the present cause of spiritual death is not the same as it was for Adam and Eve. The present cause of spiritual death is sin. Notice, I said sin and not sins. Created perfect and without the defilement and contamination of sin, Adam and Eve became sinners by each committing a single act of sin. But you and I, each person born of a human father and mother since Adam and Eve, have not become a sinner. You and I, and every other human being except for the virgin-born Son of God, were born sinners. Think about it. Was not Cain, Adam and Eve’s first-born child, the first murderer? So, long before there was poverty, social injustice, and societal ills that currently plague mankind, there was a murderer, a sinner, a doer of sins. And he did not become a sinner by committing acts of sin. He committed acts of sin because he was naturally a sinful human being. The acts and deeds of every human who has ever lived have revealed the truth. Only the spiritually blind and the naive fail to recognize the inherent sinfulness of every human being. Even the ancients recognized there was something wrong with the nature of humanity. What is wrong with the nature of the human race? Sin, as nature. Not acts of wrongdoing, which we certainly do, but a nature of wrongness, spiritual defilement, and rebellion toward people and God. And who can deny it? Who must teach a child to lie? Who must teach a child to steal? Who must teach a child rebellion and selfishness? Is not the task of parents the effort to minimize this behavior through the use of training and chastisement? Of course, it is. Where does our sin come from that results in our sins? Where did nature come from those results in our innate capacity for wrongdoing? Romans 5.12 tells us:
“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”
Your sin and mine have been inherited from Adam. And this sin has resulted in spiritual death for all who are born of human father and mother. Adam and Eve died spiritually as a result of a sin done. But Adam’s sinfulness was passed on to those descended from him down to us. We are, therefore, sinful by inheritance. As a result, we do not become sinful by what we do. What we do, commit sins, is the direct result of already being sinful. Both sin and sins, both a sinful nature and sinful deeds, produces spiritual death, separation from God. Romans 6.23 shows that sin causes spiritual death:
“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Isaiah 59.2 shows that sins also cause spiritual death:
“But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.”
Second, WE MUST CONSTANTLY CONSIDER THE CATASTROPHE OF DEATH
Some people make light of sin and make light of death. They joke about it, relish it, and delight in it. In Romans 1.32, Paul wrote about those “Who, knowing the judgment of God,” nevertheless, “not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” We, however, who are saved through faith in Christ, must keep in mind the catastrophe that has been brought upon humanity because of spiritual death.
First, there is the catastrophe of alienation from other people. Sinful people, who are unsaved, who are dead, are cut off from God. And the first thing we observed happening when a sinner was cut off from God was a terrible act of sin committed against another person. Consider Eve. From Genesis chapter 3, we see that the very first thing she did when she was separated from communion with God because of her sin was to tempt her husband to do the same thing she had done. The first wife was also the first not to want the best for her husband. And this should not be seen as peculiar to Eve. Every sinner does this with fellow human beings. But for being spiritually dead, would men commit adultery against their wives? Would women commit adultery against their husbands? Would young adults violate each other by committing fornication without being married? How about pregnant mothers murdering their unborn children? Is abortion an act of life or an act of death? And how about rape and incest and robbery and drive-by shootings? How about mail fraud and drunkenness and pornography and sodomy and lesbianism and stealing and lying? Mass starvation is not caused by overpopulation. That has never been the real reason for such tragedies. Whether in Ukraine before World War 2, or China, or Ethiopia, or Somalia, such horrors have been caused by men in power choosing for political reasons to murder, by the hundreds of thousands and by the millions, their fellow man. It can be drunkenness. It can be adultery. It can be fornication. It can be genocide. It can be lying. But whether it’s behavior that we think of as big sins or little sins, it’s the behavior of people who are spiritually dead.
Then, there’s the even greater catastrophe of alienation from God. Of course, alienation from God and others in the human race is connected. It’s part and parcel of the same problem: spiritual death. Notice how alienation from God affects the way people behave toward each other:
First Corinthians 6.9-10:
9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
Galatians 5.19-21:
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Why does alienation from God so disrupt people’s relationships with each other? Because each of us was created by God to depend upon God! So, when, because of sin and death, people are cut off from God, and do not depend upon God, they cannot do anything right. Their grasp of reality is distorted. This is why we must remind ourselves again and again, lest we forget, that spiritual death produces catastrophic results in people’s lives. But this is not the worst of it.
Third, WE MUST CONSTANTLY CONSIDER THE CONSEQUENCES OF DEATH
We live in a day and in a society in which there seem to be few immediate consequences. You can do almost anything, and the consequences, if there are any, are laughable. Job number one for parents is to train their children about the reality of consequences. Many people are fooled into thinking that there are no consequences with God. But not so. Death is one consequence of unforgiven sin. But notice what the consequences of death are. I mention two:
First, the temporary consequence of death is Hell. Some people laugh and joke and make light of Hell. It seems that those who are most obviously going to Hell frequently use the term. But there will come a time when they regret that, I’m sorry to say. Others pretend that Hell doesn’t exist. They must think that horrible realities go away if you choose to deny their existence. But that’s not real life. The Lord Jesus Christ gave us a glimpse into the horror of Hell in Luke 16.22-24:
22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
There’s more, but this brief passage serves my purpose to point out that Hell is a real place of conscious and constant torment. Hell, however, is not the worst of it for the person who passes on spiritually dead.
The second is the terminal consequence of death, the lake of fire. Again, Hell is not the worst of it for the unsaved person. Anyone who goes through life separated from God by sin, spiritually dead, will go into eternity separated from God. And although that is initially Hell, it is eventually the lake of fire. Revelation 20.14-15 shows the fate of those who will be forever damned because they died without trusting Jesus as their Savior:
14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Finally, WE MUST CONSTANTLY CONSIDER THE CONQUEST OF DEATH
Being able to face the cause of spiritual death and dealing with the catastrophe and the consequences of spiritual death does not result in a life that is either weird or morbid. For the saved man or woman, living a life of responsibility and realism is vital. So, how can the Christian face the subject of spiritual death without feeling hopeless and morose? Without any trouble at all, if you also consider the conquest of death. Perhaps it would be more correct to say that we should consider the Conqueror of death, the Lord Jesus Christ.
If sins, wrong deeds, and sin, a wrong nature, separates between a person and God, the Lord Jesus Christ, by what He did when He shed His blood on Calvary’s cross and rose from the dead on the third day, brought together man and God and made them one.
Two things about the saving work of Jesus Christ:
First, His saving work was vicarious. God is holy, and our sinfulness is an offense to Him. Moreover, God is righteous, and our sins have wronged Him. So, someone must deal with our spiritual contamination and the wrongs we have done toward God so that reconciliation is the result. Justice demands that punishment be meted out. So, Jesus died on the cross, the Just for the unjust that He might bring us to God, First Peter 3.18 declares. And when the sinner trusts Jesus to save Him, First John 1.7 and 9 proclaims that our sin is cleansed by Christ’s blood and our sins are forgiven. How can this be? It can be because when Jesus suffered, bled, and died, He did all that was necessary to satisfy the righteous demands of God, that sin and sin be punished. He did for us what we could not and would not do for ourselves, and He neither needed nor wanted our help. That is what is meant by vicarious. The Just, Jesus, for the unjust, sinner, that He might bring us to God.
Second, the work of Jesus was victorious. I’m not going to go through a great many passages that conclusively show that Jesus successfully dealt with both sins and sin, that He remedied the problem that caused spiritual death when He shed His precious blood and rose from the dead. But I am going to show you one passage that shows our relationship to death now that Jesus has done His saving work. First Corinthians 15.54-57:
54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Spiritual death causes physical death. But for the Christian who is no longer spiritually dead, physical death is an enemy no longer to be feared. Because we will no longer die? No. Because though we will die, like Jesus died, we will, like Him, rise again.
Death is a fact of life. That everyone experiences physical death is proof positive that everyone is a sinner from birth. And nothing will undo the damage caused by that sinfulness but the blood of Jesus Christ. But the blood of Jesus Christ does no one any good unless and until he comes to Christ by faith, believing and trusting Him to wash away his sin and to forgive his sins.
Have you trusted Jesus? Fine. Be reminded. That’s what Paul did for the Ephesians. He reminded them. But what about you? You are not saved. You cannot remember a time when you trusted Jesus to save you. That means you are spiritually dead, with all the catastrophes and the consequences awaiting you.
Recognize, my friend, that you will not conquer the sin that produces spiritual death yourself. Only Jesus is both qualified and capable to do that for you. So, if you are dead in trespasses and sins, and if you want to be saved, I invite you to consider the claims of Jesus Christ and flee to Him for salvation full and free.
If you have questions, allow me to show you more fully the Gospel message found in God’s Word, how to trust Jesus to save you. Christian? If being reminded of the cause of death, the catastrophe of death, and the consequences of death has made you better appreciate the Savior’s conquest of death. If you need to take steps of Christian obedience, I urge you to respond in obedience.
What should you do now? I suggest you do that now.
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[1] Exodus 20.4
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