Welcome to Truth for Life Weekend where today Alistair Begg begins a series in the book of Ephesians, chapter 2, where the Apostle Paul reminded his readers what they were like before they became followers of Jesus. As we listen, we'll find out why it's essential to reflect back on our lives before we can truly move forward in faith. The verses to which I should like to draw your attention are verses 1, 2, and 3 of Ephesians 2. Paul is reminding the Ephesians of the way in which they used to walk.
It was true of them if they'd come from a Gentile background or if they had come from a Jewish background. All of us, you will notice in verse 3, all of us once lived in this way. This is true of the totality of mankind. I say to you again, this is an uncomfortable section, because it provides us with a grave, comprehensive, divine diagnosis of the way we were.
If you are in Christ. If you are not in Christ, then it provides you with a diagnosis of the way you are, which will be even more uncomfortable to think about. Two observations, I think, are important. Incidentally, if you want a headache for a study, let's just call it the way we were.
Two observations, I think, are important. Number one, you will not acknowledge this divine diagnosis unless God opens your eyes to see the truth of it. The only way you understand this diagnosis and bow before it is on account of the fact that you have been rescued by Christ, that you have been brought to an awareness of your need of Jesus, that you have understood something of what it means when Paul says in Romans chapter 5 that we have sinned in Adam, in and with him, and that as a result we are both guilty and we are dead. Now, just think about that statement for a moment. You go back into the workday place and say, What is the true condition of man? Why is man the way he is? Why is our world the way it is? Why if we just take our morning newspaper and lay it out after all of this time?
What's the problem with this? Well, the human condition is such that it cannot be fixed by legislation. It cannot be fixed by education. It cannot be fixed by indoctrination. The only way it is fixed is by resurrection, that God in his grace raises us up from the deadness of our lives. And that is what Paul is reminding these Ephesian believers that God has done—religious Jews, some of them, pagan Gentiles, many of them—but both in need of the same remedy. And the divine diagnosis, let's notice again and clearly, covers all of humanity. There are no exceptions, no exemptions, no excuses, and no escape—save the escape that is provided in Jesus.
One out of one dies. In the day that you shall eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, ye shall surely die. Every physical death is tied directly to sin, and ultimately, if we die physically remaining spiritually dead, we will die eternally.
An eternal death will be separation from God, which the Bible, of course, calls hell. That's observation number one. Observation number two is this, that this diagnosis here in the first three verses is true for the person who has been brought up in a Christian home and has professed faith even at an early age. In other words, here's the person who hasn't been a hell's angel, who didn't go totally nuts, who hasn't been a junkie, didn't live in a van down by the river, hasn't gone through all of those things.
That person is tempted to say, you know, somehow or another, my salvation is inferior. I mean, you got really saved, junkie man, but I was kind of saved anyway to start with. No, you were not.
No, I was not. There are no degrees of dead. You don't say, well, how dead is he?
How dead is she? No, dead is dead. So he's saying, outside of Christ, you're dead men walking. Whether the extent of depravity has laid hold on your life and taken you through all kinds of hell, or whether you have not gone through all of that, it doesn't alter the fact that the diagnosis here in the first three verses is true of all humanity. So for those of you who are tempted to say, well, you know, I don't have a proper testimony.
Let me tell you, you have a wonderful testimony. Because when you read verses 1–3, you realize that your condition was far worse than you ever cared to admit, and that your salvation is far greater than you could ever imagine. And that study says, the biblical doctrine of total depravity means neither that all humans are equally depraved—equally dead, but not equally depraved—nor that nobody is capable of any good, but rather that no part of any human person—mind, emotion, conscience, and will—has remained untainted by the fall. In other words, the dust of death has settled on every part of our humanity.
It affects everything. So our world today bears testimony to it, although it will not accept it. Outside of Christ, Paul says, we are all dead men, dead women walking. Well, the verses are fairly tightly packed. Let's just give you five words that begin with the letter D. The first one is obvious.
We've already mentioned it. Dead. And you were—past tense—dead. If this does not describe you, I say to you again, just so we understand one another, if there is no past tense, if it is present tense, then you're logical enough to recognize that the Bible diagnosis says you're a dead man. You're a dead woman. You're either were or you are.
You're either dead or you're alive. So in other words, unless a man or a woman comes to believe in Jesus, accepts all that God has done in Jesus, then they remain in the condition in which they are created—namely, dead men walking. Oh, of course, we were at the same time physically alive. But the Bible says that as we went through all of that, we did so as dead men. We were blind to the beauty of Jesus.
People would talk about what a wonderful Savior Jesus is. We said, I don't get that at all. We had no ability to please him. We weren't even interested in pleasing him. Somebody said, well, do you please God?
We said, no, I don't think so. That's the way we were. Attendance at church was at best a kind of religious ceremony. Get it over as fast as you can.
Hopefully, it won't take too long. That's the way we were. Come on now, Alistair, you're going to go to Sunday school. I don't want to go to Sunday school. And you've got the Bible class. I'm not going to the Bible class.
But you love the Bible class. No, I don't. I hate it. Don't say that.
Okay, I won't, but I do. What's up with the kid? He's dead. She's dead. She's unresponsive. She doesn't hear God. And you can't make her. And neither can I. Only God can. Only God raises the dead.
You see, that's our evangelism. It's impossible. You see, the diagnosis of humanity is either that we're sick and we just really need a doctor, or that we're well and we just need a few more vitamins. We can fix this. We can work it out. And then you say to yourself, I can work it out.
Why can't you work it out? Dead. Secondly, drifting. Drifting. We walked on a path that was the course of this world. Verse two. You once walked down this path. Remember, the Bible says that there is a broad road that leads to destruction and there is a narrow way that leads to life. And what Paul is saying here is before we come to trust in Christ, we just go down the same path as everybody else. We convince ourselves that there's safety in numbers.
That's before we came to Christ. Any dead fish can go with the current of the river. It takes a live fish to swim against the current. And before I was made alive, I inevitably went with the current.
I'm not being as ostensibly bad, as engaged as everybody else. But the condition of my life before God, my soul before God, was that the deadness of my life meant that I was a drifter. That's what the Bible says. We were swimming with the stream that was secular. What is described here is it's society organized without reference towards God.
Society organized without reference towards God. Doing its best. Trying its hardest.
Turning over new leafs. Hoping to fix itself. Easing its disappointments. Licking its wounds. And so on. And yet, in our heart of hearts, we say to ourselves, I don't know if I'm going to be able to make this.
I don't seem to be able to affect anything at all. Why? The Bible tells us here that we were following the prince of the power of the air, the devil. You ever read Screwtape letters?
I commend it to you, C.S. Lewis. Screwtape and his nephew Wormwood. By the time Paul is closing out the letter in chapter six, which we'll get to in about 2021, he's telling the believers that we're not wrestling against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places. What's he talking about? He's talking about the activity of evil in our world. That there is a spiritual world that we cannot see, that is representative of all kinds of manifestations of darkness and of death and deadness.
Think about so many of the contemporary movies, the preoccupation with darkness and with death and with devils and chaos. Why is this? And why does nobody really care? Well, because he's the prince of the power of the air. He's in charge of this stuff under God, but nevertheless. Thirdly, disobedient. Disobedient.
Following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Why do I do what I do? Why do I go where I go? Why am I in a position?
Why was I that way? Well, because I was part of a band, a bad band. I mean a group, a band. I was listening to a thing from the BBC yesterday on ska music. I think it's called ska, and it was pretty good. But they had bands from Japan and bands from Australia, bands from everywhere.
It lasted about an hour. And I thought, you know, everybody's in a band one way or another. And by nature, I'm in a bad band.
The band is called the Sons of Disobedience. Disobedient. Fourthly, debased. This gets more uncomfortable by the D, doesn't it?
You're like, could you encourage us just a little more before we finish? You're saying to yourself in the back of your mind, well, at least it's sunny outside. No, I get that. I get it entirely. I've been living under the burden of this for the last two weeks.
This is either true or this is the biggest load of rubbish you ever came across in your entire life. And if it's true, then it affects everything, not least of all our evangelism. We're not going to people to say, would you like to meet Jesus? He'll add to the sum of your total happiness. It doesn't really matter to us if you do or you don't. You know, that's not what we're doing. We're going to people and saying, you know what?
We've got good news for you. The voice of Jesus will call you out of your deadness. You say, well, I'm not dead. Well, first he'll have to show you that you are.
And then he'll call you. Debased is an accurate description of, we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of our body and our mind. Just, that's the way it is. Now, flesh—what does that word flesh mean? Well, let's think of it in terms of the human condition weakened and distorted by sin. The human condition weakened and distorted by sin. And notice that it is both physical and it is intellectual, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.
You remember in Screwtape that he's encouraging Wormwood to encourage the enemies, that is the servants of God, to take the good things that God has given either at the wrong time, in the wrong place, or in the wrong quantities. And our internal mechanism is drawn to that. That's why you have to argue for heterosexual monogamy in a world that is so messed up sexually. That is why you have to argue to convince a young person that the only safe and enjoyable place for sex is within marriage, and that outside of marriage it is fearful, it is destructive. You have to argue for that. You don't have to argue for the rest.
Why? Because by nature we all once lived in the passions of the flesh, carrying out the desires of our bodies instinctually, both in terms of physicality and intellectually. So somebody says, Well, you know, I'm not an immoral person.
Okay, well, we can have that conversation. But maybe you're an arrogant person. Maybe you're an arrogant unbeliever. Maybe you say to yourself when you get in the car, I never descend to that kind of level of thinking, and accept that strange concoction of biblical or anti-biblical or unbiblical wisdom.
Why is that? Because of the diagnosis. You're only doing what comes naturally, both mind and body, manifesting itself in outrageous acts, manifesting itself in respectable forms.
You see, because it is only the grace of God that comes and speaks to somebody who says, You know, actually, I'm buying this diagnosis. I am a horrible, dead mess. And I am so horrible, so dead, so messed up, that there's no way I'm getting fixed. And the gospel says, Oh, yes, there is. Let me tell you about Jesus.
The other person says, I'm actually not really quite messy at all. I'm a very fine fellow, and I really don't see any need whatsoever. And the gospel comes and says, You're a dead man, sir. In fact, the very reaction of your mind is indicative of it. Debased. Dead.
Drifting. Disobedient. Debased. And finally, destined. Destined for what? Destined to experience the wrath of God. We were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
What does that mean? Well, what he's saying is that we are both enslaved, and we are at the same time condemned. Condemned to suffer the just judgment of God upon sin. You see, the wrath of God is the reaction of God to evil.
It is the reaction of absolute holiness to that which is opposed to holiness. The wrath of God is not arbitrary. It's not like a fiery outburst of some old grandpa who lost his temper when he was driving in Solon, or whatever it is. No, the wrath of God isn't arbitrary. It is predictable. The wrath of God is not an impersonal force.
It is distinctly personal. It is the wrath of God. It is his settled reaction to evil in the world.
Now, don't stumble over this. Don't go down the road that says, Well, actually, I believe in the love of God, but I don't believe in the wrath of God. Think about it. His love is the occasion of his wrath. It is because he loves that he is opposed to all that is evil, in the same way that your cancer doctor loves you and is so opposed to the tumor that is in you that he will do everything in his capacity to remove it for your well-being. The worst thing he could do was say, Who cares?
A tumor here, a tumor there. Indifference? An expression of love? Indifference on the part of God to our evil?
Who would believe in a God that was indifferent? It is his very justice that is the indication of the extent of his love. You know this. When you see injustice, you just go, Hey, injustice, big deal.
It's a big world. I hope you don't. I hope you react in anger. That shouldn't happen like that. That shouldn't happen to that lady. That should not have taken place in that way. We understand that. I say to you again, in light of that, can you really believe in and trust a God who is indifferent to our sin?
Who doesn't care enough about us to be angry about our rebellion? I couldn't. I couldn't.
It doesn't work. There is no explanation for the cross of Jesus Christ apart from the wrath of God. Why a cross? Well, because God loved.
Yeah, but you still haven't explained why a cross. As I've said to you many times before, I mean, if I tell my wife, it's Sue, I'm going to throw myself in Lake Erie because I love you so much. She'd say, You lost your mind. But if she fell out of a boat and I went in after her in order to save her, there would be some significance in that. The love of God is expressed in the wrath of God. And the wonder of the gospel is this, that he has brought forward into time the punishment that we deserve and placed it on his son in order that we might then enjoy the benefits that accrue to us. My one defense, my righteousness, we sang it this morning, Lord, I need you.
I always need you. Every hour I need you, because my standing before you is not on the basis of how well I'm doing or how I've patched things up, but I am dependent entirely upon the fact that bearing shame and scoffing rude in my place condemned he stood and sealed my pardon with his blood, bearing wrath. The difficulty that many of us will face with this is because we have such a superficial view of what has happened to us when we came to trust in Christ.
Until we get some kind of modicum of an understanding of the fact that the way we were was dead, drifting, disobedient, debased, and destined for the wrath of God—until that begins to dawn upon our hearts—then we will neither praise him as we should, nor will we explain to our friends and neighbors why it is so important for them to know the love of God in Jesus. Because in the back of our minds, we'll be saying of them what we're tempted to say about ourselves. Well, you know what? I'm not a bad guy after all. My boss is not such a bad guy either. He's a nice guy. He's very good with his wife. I see him with his children.
He goes on vacation. All of that is true. But the divine diagnosis is your boss is a dead man walking. And the only way to do evangelism ultimately is to do it under the shadow of the wrath of God, thereby reminding us of the wonder of the love of God. You are listening to Truth for Life Weekend. That is Alistair Begg with the message he's titled, The Way We Were. This month at Truth for Life, we're reflecting on 30 years of Bible teaching. It's a significant milestone, and we're looking back full of awe and wonder at what God has accomplished through this ministry. We've shared some highlights along the way, including the very first message broadcast on Truth for Life on our website at truthforlife.org slash 30 years.
Alistair's first message was, Who Takes First Place? It marked the beginning of our daily program on February 27th, 1995. On our website, you can also hear greetings from some ministry friends, including names you might recognize, like this person. Hi, I'm Tim Challies, and I just wanted to pass along a brief word of gratitude and congratulations to Alistair and the whole team there at Truth for Life.
Thank you for 30 years of exemplary, faithful service. Well, if you'd like to leave a message for Alistair and the Truth for Life team, there's a special section where you can do that online at truthforlife.org slash 30 years. Thanks for studying the Bible with us. The divine diagnosis we learned about today can leave us feeling bleak. Next weekend, we'll discover the difference that two little words can make, but God. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.
