Were Dead in Sin
Minister: |
Rev. Ronald Van Overloop |
Date: |
5/1/2016 PM
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Text:
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Ephesians 2:1-3
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Psalters: |
374, 21, 146, 308 |
- The condition.
- “Dead” is spiritual death, not physical and is the wages earned by sin – original and actual (Rom. 6:23).
- Man’s condition is to be “according to the course of this world” (2).
- The controlling principle of this present evil world is “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit….”
- The “spirit” is the evil principle which is a working energy or force in this world, which principle is governed by the devil.
- The devil and his host deceive by saying that life is to do our own will and that service of God is slavery and bondage.
- Spiritual death is practiced, for we “walked,” “fulfilling” our own desires.
- First, man’s life is one of “trespasses and sins.”
- By birth we commit sins and trespasses because we are governed by “the lusts of our flesh.”
- The strong, urgent cravings for the satisfaction of my flesh manifest themselves in the “desires of the flesh.”
- The lusts of the flesh also show themselves in the “desires of the mind.”
- The explanation for our spiritual deadness is that it is the result of original sin.
- We are “children of disobedience,” i.e., fathered by the disobedience of Adam.
- And we are “children of wrath” – it is not too strong to say that natural man is fathered by divine wrath.
- The result for every human is that they have a “nature” (3b), something by birth.
- This is true not only of “ye” but of “we all.”
- This truth must be and is our humble confession.
- We are to remember (not immediately forget) our natural relationship to Adam and what is our only right.
- “But God” (4a) and He alone made the difference!