Ephesians 2:1-3

Ephesians 2:1-3 and the Bad News Before the Gospel

And we want to say good afternoon. As we come together again, this time we're in the book of Ephesians and chapter two is going to be probably several lessons. It starts out with the reality that prior to coming to Christ we are dead in our trespasses and sins.

In fact, Ephesians two, one to three is gonna talk about that. Let's open in prayer. Lord God, we come to you acknowledging our weakness, our sin, we come to you understanding that what we need is forgiveness and resolution for our sin and that comes through the grace and the love of Jesus.

But today, Lord, we need to understand the depths of our sin so that we can understand the real depths of your love and forgiveness for us. We pray, Father, that you would speak to us, convict us that the reality of who we are prior to salvation is in dire need of you.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

Surely everybody's heard the parable of the storm and you guys know there's a hurricane going on in Florida right now so we gotta pray for those. I got my family there and others here have family. But you've heard the parable of the storm and the person who is a very devout Christian who's praying and seeking God to deliver him from the storm.

Well, the storm waters begin to rise and people come and try to take him away but he says, I'm waiting on God, right? And then you hear about the next level where a boat comes because now the waters are rising and no, I'm okay, I'm gonna wait on God to rescue you.

And then finally, he's up on his roof and a helicopter comes with a rope waiting on God and so finally, he drowns and the question is, God, why didn't you rescue me?

Well, what did God do?

I sent this, this, that, and the other. Very often when people think about the human predicament, it's pictured like a storm or maybe even being lost at sea and I've used this analogy many times so John probably knows where I'm going already.

And what's told is, okay, you are helpless. You are lost at sea, you're adrift, hanging on to driftwood so far out to the ocean that there's no way you can save yourself but God has sent a helicopter with a rope dangling and all you have to do is take hold of the rope and you will be saved.

Well, it's in some sense a good analogy because by take hold, they mean have faith but here is a more accurate description of the human predicament. Not only lost at sea but having taken in water in the lung to the point where you drown and die and your body sinks hundreds, thousands of feet under the water, you are laying dead on the ocean floor and you've been dead since the time you were conceived.

You are not only helpless as in you can't swim to the shore, you are completely unable to do anything. You are dead, dead at the bottom of the sea and so when someone comes to saving faith, it is a miracle.

It's not just a fortunate event, it is a resurrection of a spiritually dead man.

Unto eternal life.

The bad news is the subject today. I am going to give you the worst possible news. Sounds like fun, right?

No.

But the point of giving such horrible news is because the blackness of death, the blackness of this horrible news is what enables us to see how bright the good news of salvation in Christ really is.

As we go into chapter two of Ephesians,.

John, would you read the first three verses? We're gonna stay put here and we need to spend time on the worst possible news because it's what brings out the brightness of salvation. The brightness of day is made all the brighter by the contrast with the night.

Amen.

So let's read it.

And you were dead, I'm just gonna stop right there. Emphasis. You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived.

In the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

So in this passage, these three verses, we're going to see a number of bad pieces of news. The first one is that we're dead. And the question then is, well, when did we die? And the answer will be that we were conceived dead in sin, physically bodily alive, but spiritually dead, separated from God, alienated from God because of Adam's sin that we inherit.

The next question we'll answer then hopefully by grace is would that then imply that every baby who dies prior to birth, whether by abortion or miscarriage is going to hell because they have not called upon the name of God's one and only son?

What about children who die? And then there's questions about what about those who never hear or the incorrigible whose mental faculties couldn't understand the truth claims of the gospel? Those questions are important.

We'll get into that a little bit today.

That'll be fun.

That'll be fun.

And then number three, we're gonna talk about the enemies.

The world, the flesh, the devil.

Those are our big enemies. But what we're being taught is that the person who is dead in sin is controlled by these, owned by them like a slave to a master. And then lastly, the most devastating news is not just about us per se, but about God and his wrath towards the rebel sinner.

And that's the scariest part of all. To be told that you're a sinner who's gonna die is one thing. To be told that you're under the wrath of God Almighty, a terrifying thing it is to fall into the hands.

Of an angry God, a wrathful God.

And if we stopped right there, this would be the most depressing Bible study ever, right?

You wouldn't have much of a congregation.

No, we wouldn't have a gospel.

This is the bad news that sets up John. He'll preach it next week. Let's go there first, though,.

Just so that we don't miss it.

Two great words, but God.

I knew you'd say it. Oh boy, yes.

That's where the but God takes over and the good news of the gospel breaks in.

And even it will break in today because as much as I need to stress the darkness of this black night, the worst news ever, there's still a past tense in these three verses, which indicates that Paul is writing to the believer who's been delivered from sin.

So there's already a hint of it.

Conceived Dead in Sin and the Meaning of Imputation

Let's begin. So number one, all people are conceived dead in sin. That takes it nine months prior to being born dead in sin. And it doesn't just refer to children or adults like us. All people are conceived dead in sin.

And here's what it says. Chapter two, verse one. And you, you child, you adult, and even you in the womb were, there's our past tense because he's writing as John stressed so well in the early verses, to believers.

So this is recalling what we've been delivered from. You were, here's our word, dead.

Not sick.

It doesn't say sick. It doesn't say broken. There are analogies to brokenness and being sin sick, but here the apostle is making a stronger point. He is making the point that like Lazarus was dead and buried for four days.

He was dead dead. Princess Bride, anybody a fan?

No.

The main character was mostly dead.

That don't happen to your friends, only mostly dead.

Yeah.

In that case, he was only mostly dead. No, the point here is dead dead, right? And that is the statement. In the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. To be dead is to be dead in trespasses and sins.

Dead in sin. Every person who is conceived is born of Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were our, well Adam was our federal head. The federal headship of Adam means that his, as our representative, his sin is imputed to us.

It's inherited. So what is the first story in the Bible after Adam and Eve in the garden? What is Genesis four? After Genesis three, what is Genesis four?

Of Cain and Abel.

Cain and Abel.

That the sin of Genesis four was inherited from the fall. Had Adam and Eve not fallen and no one had fallen, there would be no murder. There would be no sin in the world. But it was inherited and passed down.

And what we're being told here is that every person has inherited sin. So Carol, would you mind reading a verse?

Sure.

If you could find Psalm 51 .5. It's also in your notes. I'm just gonna call on verses in the notes as well.

You just want me to read off here?

Yeah, it's fine.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Now, does that mean that David's mom had an adulterous relationship, and he is a bastard child, an illegitimate child? It does not mean that.

It's just sin with a capital S, right?

Yeah, he's conceived in sin. Meaning that the sin nature that is part of him came from the very point of conception. David was not born illegitimately. That's not the case at all. Remember his brothers and his mother and father?

We know the story of David. He was not conceived in immorality, but sin was a part of what he inherited by conception. Romans chapter five, verse 12. On the notes, Barbara, would you mind reading it for us?

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

Ah, so there is an inherited aspect of sin. As sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, so death spread to all men. This is an inherited, but then you get to the rest of the phrase, and we're gonna move on from this point of inherited sin to the practice of sin, because it goes on to say because all sinned.

Is it possible that a baby born today, 10 years from now, would have not sinned?

There was one.

Yes. What was different about him?

He didn't have an earthly father.

He did not have inherited sin.

Right.

And that is the Christ.

Yeah. Okay.

I knew that would bring a question.

This is probably something. Like you said, do the parents are, you get saved in that sin that you're dead in, that you were dead in, that you are now alive in, that is transposed to your children if they're born in sin.

Yeah.

If both parents are saved, do they still carry that reproductive sin with them?

Ooh.

We're born in sin, but the parents are deemed sinless.

It's in their genes. So there are three imputations in the Bible. Imputed means accrediting to an account. So if I impute sin, I credit sin to another. In Adam, his sin is imputed to all of his offspring.

On the cross, the sin of those who would believe in him was imputed to Christ. And so he was treated as sin on the cross. And in faith, this is how faith connects the believer, the righteousness of Christ is imputed to the believer.

So it is a legal transaction. This is the answer, Bob. That legal transaction of imputation of righteousness is different than inherited sin. I'm a believer and my wife is a believer. And yet, both Abby and Timmy were born with a sin nature.

And they need to be reborn by the blood of the Lamb. And I think they have, and they've been baptized.

But that had to happen in their life as individuals because sin is passed on not through the imputation of, like imputation of righteousness does not take away the sin nature, which is why I'm still struggling with my flesh.

I don't know about you guys,.

But we still struggle with the flesh. So there's a difference between the crediting. This is the Protestant discovery of Martin Luther, that salvation, justification, being declared righteous is a legal imputation accrediting to your account of Christ's righteousness.

It's not an infusion of righteousness where you physically become righteous. That's the process of sanctification. And that ultimately happens at glorification, right? See the difference? Okay, so here we are that, yeah.

Well, the important thing I think to answer the question is that salvation changes our identity. We become citizens, we become children of God. But as Paul describes, it's in Romans six or seven, that the things that I know I shouldn't do, that's what I do.

And the things that I should do, those I can't do, as Jeff said, salvation does not erase the flesh. It just changes our identity and our accounting as saved. So for the father who has a son or a daughter, the sin is passed on from the father to the next child because the flesh is still there.

Excellent.

Okay, quickly, and then we need to get to the big question.

Is there a biblical concept in the idea that the sin nature does not take effect until we reach the age of accountability?

That's the next question. All right, so here it is. So does the sin nature not take effect or be damnable until the actual commission of sin? I would say no, that's not the case. Sin is, it brings death.

That's the point of Romans 5 .12. As sin came into the world through one man, death and death through sin. Do babies in the womb die? Yeah, sure. Why would they die if there was no sin?

Do they go to hell if they die?

That's the question. Okay, let's read some scripture. Romans 1 .18. Sandy, if you would read this.

It's on the sheet if you don't wanna do a sword fight.

Yeah, I'm just gonna go through the I do know how to look at the rest of the Bible. Romans 1 .18.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

Okay, the wrath of God is demonstrated because men suppress truth. That's the basis of the condemnation. Interesting, okay.

But men are babies.

Well, we're getting there.

Mark 10 .16. Let's just read the scriptures first and then I'll try to add commentary and do some systematic theology bringing all these ideas together. Okay, Mark 10 .16, Rich.

Mark 10 .16?

Yes.

I'm sorry, I'm gonna change it.

No, you're good. Or if you have notes, it's just on the page. You forgot to grab the notes.

Yeah, I'm sorry about that.

No, it's okay.

Mark 10 .16. Oh, Mark 10 .17. One verse over, Mark 10 .16. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter. And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.

Okay, that was 10 .15 and 10 .16.

That's fine.

I'll just make a quick note here.

He blessed them. That action happens nowhere else but upon believers. He blessed them or upon the regenerate. He will not bless what God has cursed. Interesting. Just a small point and we'll get to it.

Jeremiah 19 .4 for someone who's got it in their notes.

They have filled this place with the blood of innocence.

Jeremiah 19 .4 refers to the offering of babies to Moloch, the false god. And what they would do is they would actually cause these babies to pass through the fire. And God, of course, finds that reprehensible and he's judging that.

But here's the language he uses. They have filled this place with the blood of?

Innocence. Innocence.

That's an important word, isn't it? Innocence, interesting. The implication, at least for those particular babies, is that God regards them as not going to hell, not judged, but innocent. Now we're gonna get to why this could be.

We see it again in 2 Samuel 12 .23. John, could you read this?

But now he is dead. Why should I fast? He there is his son. Now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.

David is saying that his dead son can't come back. He's not gonna be resurrected. But David knows, and remember, David is a prophet who's speaking here prophetically. In other words, we can trust what he's saying.

It's not wrong theology in David's thinking. He's saying, he won't come back to me. But David knows that this baby who died is in heaven. That's a very interesting point.

Very interesting.

And then we have in Luke 1 .41. You wanna, or somebody with notes. John, why don't you read it?

Okay.

Yeah, Luke 1 .41.

And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leapt in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

John the Baptist was not yet intellectually capable of faith because faith is propositional. It's trusting God at his word. And yet, grace was so applied to John the Baptist in the womb that he's leaping for joy in the womb in the presence of Jesus.

Somehow responsive to the Lord of glory in that physical location. Very interesting. Now, here is the trouble that we run into. And here is the task of the systematic theologian. It's to take the various data points of scripture, every one of which we must hold to be true.

And systematizing means to put them together in a way that they fit. You're not contradicting anything by your conclusions.

Here's our problem.

The Bible clearly teaches that we are born and even conceived in sin. And the soul that sins, or even has sin, must die. That's why babies die, even in the womb. That's a problem. And yet, we have redemption applied to babies.

David's son. Those who were sacrificed even to a false god, Moloch, were called innocent. We have these examples. How do we account for salvation in the womb?

Maybe God saw their future and that child born to David,.

Growing up under David, would have accepted God.

That's the answer of Molinism, which is built on counterfactuals. That God can have counterfactual knowledge.

Of what would happen.

What is the false?

It's from Molina, who's a Catholic Roman theologian answering the Reformation. I would say no. It's an idea, but I don't think it holds up.

The problem with that is if God knows that if that child had lived, he would have. Well, no, God knows that he didn't live. So that's the problem with that theology. God knows the reality, not the what if.

Yeah, and theologically, the problem is that he couldn't know the what if. It's a really deep conversation. And James White does a number of debates with Molinists on these issues. Here's the answer. Let's go there.

God is free in the application of grace. Grace is God's undeserved merit and favor applied to whomever he wills. Salvation is a free gift. Salvation is a free gift. Now, faith in that, understand, this is the Reformation doctrine of sola gratia, that God is free.

His grace to apply salvation is based on his choice, even in the womb. One, Jacob, I loved, Esau, I hated. And he knew who Esau was, but he made that choice irregardless of what they would go on to do, right?

Without reference to what they would become. It is a free, free gift. Grace is free. And I would say that that Reformation understanding does not mean that the child was innocent, but rather that he was declared innocent.

God is free to save babies in the womb. He is free to apply the redemption that Christ earned on the cross to a baby in the womb. It's not the merit of the baby, it's the merit of Christ freely given to John the Baptist as early as the womb, or to David's son.

Now, this raises some questions.

Save all babies, or we don't know which ones he saved?

Okay, so John MacArthur takes that final leap and says he saves all babies. But he does it based on the only evidence we have in the text, which is that there's never a case of condemnation for any but those who have walked in the flesh.

And this is where he's getting it, so let's see it in the text. Chapter two, verse one says that you were dead, but it goes on in verse two to say, in which you once, here's our word, walked. Romans 18 says the condemnation of those who are under the wrath of God, who are going to hell, unless they repent and believe the good news, is on account of them suppressing the truth.

Every description of a person going to hell involves this walking. Now, there is a sense in which an argument is from silence here. Just because we know that the Melechian babies were declared innocent, right?

The ones that were offered to Molech, even they were innocent. We know that they were saved based on that. David's son, based on his prophetic statement. Just because we know this of certain ones, you can't take the leap and say, I know for sure that all babies go to heaven.

MacArthur does take that leap, James White does not. Some theologians do. This is the theolog, this is the systematizing of different various data points. But what we can say is that we have no examples of babies in the womb going to hell.

None.

We have no examples of little children who are too young to understand going to hell. Or of incorrigibles, right? Those who could never understand. We conversely have the basis of condemnation when it's given, is that there was walking in sin.

So the idea that sin spread to all men, because all sinned, it goes on to sin, right? Suppressing the truth. Walking in that sin. So here's what we know. There will be nobody saved who has suppressed truth.

Because Romans 10 says,.

How can they call on the one they have not heard?

So there's a difference here then between the baby who's never walked in sin, and the person on the island who's never heard the gospel. Why? Because general revelation is enough to condemn, but not to save.

Romans 1, 20 and 21. His eternal power, his divine nature is clearly seen in the things that are made. So every person with a sin nature, who then goes on to walk in sin, and commit sexual immorality, and all various forms of sin, are guilty because they're suppressing truth of general revelation.

And therefore they need the preacher. They need someone to come preaching.

How can they call upon the one they have not heard?

So MacArthur would make a strong statement there and say, therefore all babies are saved, who die. Every baby who dies is saved. Others would be a little more careful and say,.

We just can't know. But the good news is,.

It sure looks like everyone we have recorded in the Bible is going to heaven. Either way, it's a lot more comforting. Than to think that, we lost two babies in miscarriage. To think that their sin nature that they inherited from us, has sent them to hell.

I don't believe that for a second. And then back to John.

What about the children under the altar?

Under the altar.

Maybe I've read that somewhere else.

Well in Revelation, there's the saints who died, the tribulation saints are under the altar. And their prayers are like, vindicate us. Yeah, but they were saved by faith.

What you said is so important because, this is not sentimentality. We're gonna say all babies go to heaven. All dogs go to heaven. So many people believe.

Yeah.

That's just a proving point that.

Yeah.

There's nothing in scripture that says that they've gone to hell.

Correct.

Yep, and there's plenty of evidence that the ones that we have recorded for us, even babies sacrificed to Molech. Which to me is a picture of abortion, right? They use chemicals to incinerate babies in the womb.

In the same way, babies are passed through the fire. So even a wicked woman with a wicked doctor,.

Quote unquote. Doctor,.

Who's really just a murderer, right?

Which doctor?

These are called innocent. It's an imputed innocence from the blood of Christ. Not something that they earned by their nature. Because they, had they lived and gone on, they would have sinned as wickedly as I have.

Yeah.

But sin nature, that we inherited from Adam and Eve. Yeah, yeah. Had the ability to reject the Lord. So that's where the sin, the young child has, the role of God. That's where the innocence is.

Well, you gotta be careful. That would be called Pelagianism. So Pelagius argued with Augustine about this question. And Augustine was saying, actually sin is inherited from Adam. And so he would go to Psalm 51 at that particular point and say, I was conceived in sin.

Not meaning that my mother was immoral when she conceived me, when I was conceived. But rather that the sin nature of Adam is inherited. Which is why babies die in the womb.

There's death in the womb.

So the Pelagian view was condemned as heretical. It's not that there's innocence until an act of disobedience. Picture it this way. If the devil himself had a baby, the nature of that baby would be wicked, right?

But would God be just in sending the descendants of Satan, were that possible, to hell? No, he would be very just. He would not be unjust. Because that's the nature of the offspring of Satan. The nature is of the devil, right?

And that's how we're being described. So in other words, it's a big deal to have a sin nature.

Right?

That's who you are.

That's your name. That's the very definition of what you're like. That's enough to condemn, is the point. So it's not just the fact that he hasn't gotten old enough to do what his nature will make him do.

The fact that his nature will make him do that is a problem. Make sense? So you wanna reject Pelagianism in favor of the Augustinian view that God is saving babies by grace, just like we're saved. And he's freely applying that, the merits of Christ, to the baby.

Does that help?

Yeah, but I can carry this right into the kingdom of trees.

Okay.

The trees don't have the soul that we have.

Right.

But they do have the ability to hear the word of God. In the beginning, when God gave the speech to go be truthful and multiply, if you go back to the trees heard the same speech.

Yeah.

Now, later on, when Jesus walked, one day he came up to the thick tree, and he noticed this tree should be very strict.

Yeah.

The will of God for that tree was, you don't have a choice. You're here to bear fruit.

Yeah.

And he saw that face. He cursed the tree, ran over the spot, and it withered within. The tree is not allowed to decide. The tree, the will of God was spoken to that tree to be fruitful and multiply.

Yeah.

So when we talk about the anger of Christ, and judgment like that, we're given the opportunity to receive or reject the will of God. But the rest of the living things were just plain.

Right?

They had to walk by the will of God.

Period. Okay.

Yeah, I think there's something to what you're saying. You gotta be careful with the analogies of scripture. You wanna make sure you retain the teaching that we are made in the image of God. And part of what that means is that we're rational, sentient beings.

And that's distinct from trees,.

Which don't hear,.

They hear metaphorically, but not with a rational, conscious mind like we do.

Well, I think I can just say this, and then we'll say the word. The Amazon, they're called the lungs of the tree.

Yeah.

A very special way, they breathe in carbon dioxide and still oxygen.

Yeah.

And that balances out the laws of nature, which God created.

Yep, yep.

Now, if these trees who are not allowed, or cannot go against the will of God, it's the will of God for trees to breathe in carbon and exhale oxygen. If they all decided, well, we had enough. And then all of a sudden, there's no oxygen.

And that's a direct violation.

No, you're right. I mean, the will of God, the Thelema, as it's described, the Greek word for it, refers to, can refer to his secret will,.