Join Dr. John Kyle as he takes us on an inspirational journey through the profound teachings of Ephesians. Explore how the Apostle Paul laid a doctrinal foundation for the early believers, enabling them to live out their faith for the glory of God. Discover the stark truths of our pre-Christian condition and how through God’s grace, we are transformed into new beings in Christ.
00:00:07 Introduction and Purpose of Expository Truths
Welcome to Expository Truths, where we exalt Christ by bringing clarity of truth through the scriptures with Dr. John Kyle, pastor of Faith Community Church in Vacaville. As Christians, we’re called to know the truth and be able to proclaim it. We can know truth when we know the Word of God, which is precise, without error, powerful and effective for both salvation and spiritual growth. Enjoy digging deeply with Dr. Kyle as he takes us verse by verse through the powerful book of Ephesians, giving us a marvelous summary of the good news of Christ and its implications for our daily lives.
SPEAKER 02 :
Please bring your Bibles to Ephesians 2, verses 1-3. Ephesians 2, 1-3. The letter of Ephesians was written by the Apostle Paul to the faithful saints living in the city of Ephesus. Paul wrote this while he was under house arrest in Rome in about AD 62. And he wrote it to lay a proper doctrinal foundation for these believers so that they could then live out those doctrines for the glory of God. We’re now in the doctrinal section of this book that’s found in chapters 1 through 3. And it’s very interesting. Because this doctrinal section begins with two very long sentences. One that’s 12 verses long that’s filled with praise to our amazing God. And the other is a prayer that’s 9 verses long. And that’s chapter 1. What a chapter it was. Chapter 1. Chapter 2 begins by telling us what we once were before we came to Christ. Let’s look. Verse 1. Now, we’re going to stop here, and as we look at this passage… Paul gets specific here and he shows us five ways that the Ephesians once walked before they were made alive. Five ways that we all lived before we were saved. First, the unsaved live according to the course of this world. And that’s how the Ephesians and us once walked before Christ saved us. What’s the course of this world? The Greek word for world, cosmos, occurs 185 times in the New Testament, and it originally meant order. The word may refer to the physical world, to the people of the world collectively, or else to the evil organized system under Satan, which operates through unbelieving people who are enemies of God. And that last one is clearly what Paul is talking about here. Talking about the world system, the world that’s in rebellion against God, the world that’s in opposition against God, the system that involves the world’s values, pleasures, pastimes, and sinful, self-centered aspirations. John says that the world lies under the grip of the evil one, that it rejected Jesus when He came, that it doesn’t know Him, that it hates Him and His followers, and that this world is marked by Satan, sin, and direct opposition to the Lord. And this is how the Ephesians conducted their lives before they were awakened by God and were saved. See, it was godless. It was away from God. It was futile and empty. It was meaningless. It was the opposite of a God-pleasing life. See, before their new birth, they walked the wrong path of conduct. And their day-to-day life was determined by the spirit and practice of this evil age. Many non-Christians don’t understand this, but this is their reality nonetheless. They may think they’re good. They may think they’re doing good. They may think they aren’t as bad as the Bible says they are, but they are wrong according to the Word of God. And Satan has done his job well of blinding them to the truth of their true condition. They are dead, and they cannot truly please God. They are pawns of the God, little g, of this wicked world that opposes God, big G. They’re on the wrong team, see, even while many of them think that they’re on the right team. That’s you if you’re not a Christian. That’s you. See, if you’re not a Christian, you’re on Satan’s team. That’s strong language, but it’s true. If you aren’t a Christian, you’re part of the world that stands in hatred and opposition to God and saying otherwise doesn’t change the reality. But good news, God is good at giving life to dead sinners. Anybody? Right? Good news. And if you’re not a Christian, I believe that God has you here today for a reason. He wants your soul for Himself. So here’s the good news. Jesus, God the Son, left glory and he came here. And he took on human flesh. He lived a perfect life. He died on the cross. And three days later, he rose up from the dead. Why? To save helpless, hopeless, dead, lost sinners like us. The wages of sin see his death, which ends us in hell forever. And so Jesus died so that all who believe could live and be saved and be forgiven and go to heaven instead of hell. Look, the believer’s punishment for sin that condemned them to hell was put onto Jesus. And Jesus was punished so that all who believe could be forgiven. Our sin was on him and his perfect righteousness was on us. He became the believer’s substitute and paid our wages so that we could be forgiven and go to heaven forever. See, every sin must be punished in full by holy God. And so Jesus came and paid up the full wages of every true believer’s sin in his own body on the cross. And now, for all who believe, life, life, eternal life. So, won’t you surrender to Christ and be saved today? Won’t you believe, truly repent and believe in Christ’s person and in his work and turn to him as Lord and Savior and be saved from the wrath to come? He makes us alive, yes. Our call is to repent and believe, which is the proof of the life that he’s given to us. So what about it? What about you? The end result of walking according to the course of this world is misery. And in the end, eternity without God in hell. That’s what we once were, and that’s where we were all heading before Christ rescued us. So again, show some compassion, because we were once them, dead, lost, groping, pawns of Satan, in rebellion against our Creator, who’s the source of all that is good, hopeless, never truly satisfied, since all true satisfaction comes from God alone. Yeah, we were once there. Second, we once walked and lived according to the prince of the power of the air. Who’s that? Satan, the devil. Who’s Satan? The Bible defines Satan as an angelic being who fell from his position in heaven due to sin, and he is now completely opposed to God, doing everything in his power to thwart God’s purposes. See, Satan was created as a holy angel. It seems that Isaiah 14, 12 gives Satan’s pre-fall name as Lucifer. Ezekiel 28, 12-14 describes Satan as having been created as apparently the highest created angel. Well, he became arrogant in his beauty and in his status, and so he decided that he wanted to sit on a throne above God. That is not wise. Satan’s pride led to his fall. God then permanently removed Satan from his exalted position and role, and Satan then became the ruler of this world and the prince of the power of the air. Satan’s the accuser, a tempter, and a deceiver. His name means adversary or as one who opposes who? God and the people of God. Another title for Satan is the devil which means slanderer. As one said even though he was cast out of heaven he still seeks to elevate his throne above God. He counterfeits all that God does hoping to gain the worship of the world and encourage opposition to God’s kingdom. Satan is the ultimate source behind every false cult and world religion. Satan will do anything and everything in his power to oppose God and those who follow God. That’s right. But even so, we know this, right? Satan’s destiny is sealed and his doom is sure, an eternity in the lake of fire. But look, we once followed after him, as does everyone who isn’t a Christian. Look, he’s the prince of the power of the air. Prince refers to first in rank or power. So the word conveys the idea of being a ruler, a chief, or a prince. Here the word refers to Satan as the first one in power and authority in this kingdom. How he’s the chief fallen angel who rules over a vast multitude of other fallen angels who oppose God and the people of God. That tells us that all unbelievers are ruled by their father, the devil, the chief ruler of all the evil spirits whose realm is this world. The heir refers to the world in which we live. Now, of course, we know this, right? God is over him, right? God is over him, but Satan is allowed for a time to rule down here on a leash. within God’s sovereignty, but rule nonetheless. So we find that during this present age, Satan and his demon hosts dominate, pressure, and control every person who is unsaved. See, the devil dominates and energizes the spiritually dead, whether they realize that or not. And this was your reality before you were saved, whether you realized it or not. Satan was your ruler. You belonged to him. He ruled you. That’s a scary thought, isn’t it? Right? But it’s true. Third, before we were saved, we walked in disobedience. Verse 2. We walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, according to the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. That spirit is Satan. And look, his goal is this. Look at what he and his demons are continually working for. Disobedience. Talking about people who are characterized by disobedience rather than loving obedience. People who oppose God and who not only don’t believe Him but are an act of rebellion to Him. They’re obstinate towards Him. They stand in hostile opposition to the will and the government of God. Is this not the world today? Is this not what marks the world today? They not only refuse to believe, but that unbelief manifests itself in a refusal to comply within the demands of the God who created them, disobedience. In Ephesians 5, 6, Paul tells the believers to let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of… disobedience that’s not only a warning but it’s a command to continually guard against the fallen world’s subtle deceptive rationalization for justifying their flagrant rebellion against holy god this world see is corrupted and we in christ need to take heed because if we don’t take heed then we too will be corrupted by the world and become like them Sons of disobedience more and more. May I just say, this very thing is happening today. And sadly, many who call themselves Christians are diverting away from the only true authority, the Word of God. And they are then rationalizing sin and worldliness even as they use some very religious language. Which then leads to them disobeying God in their lives and in their actions while still claiming to be lovers of Christ. Satan’s behind all that. See, Christians not only believe in God and in what he says in his word, but that true belief leads to loving obedience. Right? So what does it then say when we don’t really believe in what God’s word tells us? When we twist it and warp it and change it. What does it say when we twist that word to make the world like us just a little bit better? And then, what does it say when we claim to be Christians but don’t really obey him from the heart? These are very serious times, and listening to the world isn’t the answer. And looking like the world isn’t the answer either, as were some of you. But guess what? Not anymore. No, because we are alive to God. We love Him. We love His Word, even when we don’t always like it. Anybody? We gladly obey Him, not perfectly, but lovingly more and more because He’s worthy, and He’s all that matters anyhow, right? Glorifying and pleasing Him. Those who are dead and belong to Satan disbelieve and disobey because those who are saved obey him from the heart and for his glory. Is that true of you? That’s our aim. That’s our goal. That’s our direction. Him, love for him, not disobedience. Loving obedience to him. Fourth, before you were saved, we walked in the lust of the flesh and the mind. Verse three, among whom also we once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. What is this flesh that Paul is talking about? The flesh refers to human nature as conditioned by the fall. In Romans 6, Paul calls the flesh the old man or the old self. And it refers to the same thing, not to our physical flesh and blood and bones, but rather the flesh is referring to the depraved nature inherited from Adam, to the sinful nature that opposes that which is godly and spiritual. If the Spirit is light, then the flesh would be characterized by darkness. So in that sense, all non-Christians are in the flesh. The Spirit of God is not dwelling in them, and therefore their nature is fleshly, sinful, unredeemed, old, dark, and fallen. That once described us, but… We once lived in that sphere as well, but not anymore. No, for we in Christ have been given new life. We have God the Spirit living inside of us. And we are now in Christ, right? And no longer in the flesh. The old is gone. The new has come. And our fallen sinful nature has now been replaced with a new spiritual nature. With new hearts that have been washed clean. That is us now in Christ. That said… Please note that while we as Christians are no longer in the flesh, we still have to battle against the flesh. Anybody know that? Every day? John MacArthur says that we battle because while we have a new nature and a new heart, it’s incarcerated in our unredeemed human flesh. So he says that’s why we have a spiritual battle, because the new man in us is battling our old flesh. Don’t we know it? Don’t we know it? Every day we feel that. Martin Lloyd-Jones likens it to Lazarus when he had been raised up from the dead. Lazarus was dead for four days, right? Four days. Jesus came and he gave life to him. But when he came out of that tomb, he still had his old grave clothes on him. And Lloyd-Jones says that… We too have been given new life in Christ, but we still have our old grave clothes on us that we have to continually be shedding. And the battle with our old unredeemed flesh is like us shedding those grave clothes. And so even as Christians who have been saved and justified and cleansed and been given a new nature with God living inside of us, guess what? We still have to battle against the flesh. The inside is filled with the Spirit of God and isn’t full of fleshly sin anymore. It’s been made new, praise Him. But the flesh is still the housing until we are taken home to glory and so we battle. John Piper says it like this. The decisive battle has been fought and won by the Spirit. The Spirit has captured the capital and broken the back of the resistance movement. The flesh is as good as dead. Its doom is sure. But there are outlying pockets of resistance. The gorillas of the flesh will not lay down their arms and must be fought back daily. And that’s right. So while the victory is sure, we still must battle until that time comes. So that’s why we struggle the way we do, because again, even though the old self has been crucified with Christ and we have a new nature, it’s still housed in unredeemed flesh, in the old, with the grave clothes still hanging off of us. But the key is that we in Christ battle, right? We battle, we contend. We’re going in the right direction. Our aim is clear, Christ. Something which non-Christians don’t do and can’t do. And as we saw last week, our victory is sure and we have God’s power in us so that we can continue to take spiritual ground for the glory of God by walking in the Spirit. And so we battle and we take ground while the non-Christian is controlled and dominated by the sinful flesh, by the desires of the flesh. We in Christ can overcome more and more and more. even though there’s still a battle. In Romans 8, 6 through 8, Paul states, for the mindset on the flesh is death, but the mindset on the spirit is life and peace. Why? Because the mindset on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it’s not even able to do so. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. That shows us that unbelievers who haven’t been made alive by God and who don’t have the indwelling spirit of God in them, they only have one option. to live and gratify the flesh. That includes sensual desires and living according to what feels good at the moment, but it also includes what Paul calls here the desires of the mind. That includes such sins as pride and selfish ambition, things that mark the world without Christ, things that once marked the Ephesians and us, but again, we battle these things and we can overcome these things more and more and more. Not perfectly, but we can and we should and we must. Take for example, The little girl who was disciplined by her mother for kicking her brother in the shins and then pulling his hair. Sally said her mother, why did you let the devil make you kick your little brother and pull his hair? She responded, the devil made me kick him, but pulling his hair was my idea. See, people sin under the devil’s influence, oh yes, but they also sin on their own very well. And so we see that the dead, those without Christ, they’re dominated by the world, the devil, and the flesh. While we in Christ, Christians, we battle the world, the devil, and the flesh. Major difference. And again, we have power to overcome because God’s good spirit lives in us. Again, major difference. Fifth. Before we were saved and made alive, we were by nature children of wrath just like the others, verse 3. Two things jump out at us here. First, we’re all under the wrath of God. Second, we’re all under the wrath of God by nature. So first, we’re all under the wrath of God. Not a pleasant topic, but true and one that needs to be… Disgust and one that needs to be understood. The whole human race is wretchedly sinful and guilty before holy God. And therefore, God is justified to inflict His wrath on the sinful human race. Now, when we talk about God’s wrath, we’re not talking about someone who has a bad temper, who flies off the handle over the slightest irritation. No. Instead, God’s wrath, orge in the Greek, is part of God’s holy nature. Orge is God’s settled, determined, active opposition to all sin. If God loves righteousness and he does, he also must hate evil, which he does. See, if God were all love and no wrath, then he wouldn’t be God because he would be unrighteous. I mean, if a judge was all love and hugs toward cold-blooded murderers, then he wouldn’t be a righteous judge. And in like manner, God wouldn’t be holy or good if he didn’t react to evil with wrath and righteous judgment. So again, God’s wrath is His holy hatred of all that’s unholy. It’s His righteous indignation at everything that is unrighteous, and it’s very real. One says that God’s wrath signifies the strongest kind of anger, that which reaches fever pitch when God’s mercy and grace are fully exhausted. It’ll mark the end of God’s patience and tolerance with unregenerate, unrepentant mankind and the swelling of His final, furious anger, which He will vent on those whose works evidence their persistent and unswerving rebellion against Him. That’s right. And it’s a very real thing. And it’s a very true thing. Look, the revelation of God’s wrath began in the Garden of Eden when He passed the sentence of death upon Adam and Eve as well as on… All of us. The wrath of God was later revealed in a worldwide flood that drowned all mankind except for eight souls. It was also revealed in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and also the drowning of Pharaoh’s army. But then, the greatest revelation of God’s wrath was when it was poured out in full force on the sinless Son of God, Jesus Christ, on the cross, so it wouldn’t have to be poured out onto us who believe. And then look, at the end of this present age, all who have rejected Christ as Lord and Savior… will face the wrath of God against sin by being eternally punished for that sin. He must do this as a holy and just God, and here’s the verdict. Either God’s wrath against your sin was poured out onto Christ because you’ve surrendered to Him in repentant faith, or else it will soon be poured out onto you for all eternity. It’s one or the other, and it’s real, and it can’t be ignored. Second, we’re all under the wrath of God by nature. Again, we all sinned in and with Adam and therefore we’re all guilty and we’re objects of God’s settled wrath against sin. By nature refers to that which is innate and implanted within us. It refers to our natural condition as to how we are born children of wrath or dead. As were the others. So again, this is describing every single person. So here’s the verdict. Everyone without Christ is dead, and their lives reveal that reality. And then look, after they live out their physical life, Wrath. Not fun to talk about, but necessary. And this truth makes the good news all that much better. As one said, I believe that Paul wants us to gather around the edge of the cesspool of what we once were so that we don’t forget it. He wants us to remember our former condition so that we will appreciate what he goes on to proclaim in the next verse, which we’re not getting to today. But, we just have to read, right? Look, but God, come on, how good is that? But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in transgressions, he made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved. Come on, how good is that? Right, how good is that? But God, see, he can do it. Right? He can give us life. He can take us out of the death valley of the soul and take us up to the heights of heaven forever. He can do it. And guess what? He’s very good at it. Don’t we know it? He’s good at it. And we in Christ know this reality. And if you don’t, hey, I believe God has you here for a reason today. And look. For all who cry out to him in true repentant faith, life, life, eternal life. So look at what we once were, dead, belonging to Satan, opposed to God, children of wrath. And then look what God has done and at what God is still doing for us even now. And then look at what we have waiting. What’s that? Glory, heaven forever. Him forever. Come on. May this reality flood us with thankfulness for his abundant mercy and grace.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thanks for joining us for today’s exposition from the book of Ephesians on expository truths with Dr. John Kyle. Continue on with us next week at this same time and to find this sermon in its entirety as well as other sermons, visit vacavillefaith.org. Faith Community Church seeks to exalt Christ by bringing clarity of truth through the scriptures with a commitment to glorifying God through the pure, deep, and reaching message of the gospel through faithful exposition. Pastor John is the preaching pastor at Faith Community Church of Vacaville, a seminary professor and a trainer of preaching pastors overseas. Join Faith Community Church for worship Sundays at 9 and 1045 a.m., located at 192 Bella Vista Road, Suite A in Vacaville. To learn more, visit vacavillefaith.org or call 707-451-2026. That’s vacavillefaith.org.
