What Does it Mean to Be Dead in Sin?

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, an Oklahoma rancher and farmer. Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for over 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, good to have everybody in, and as we always like to announce to our television audience, we let these people come in for a whole afternoon. We produce four half-hour programs, and if they wouldn't do this, I just don't think I could get a program out. So we always like to first and foremost appreciate our local people for coming in and being a part, although we do have some visitors from even New Mexico today. And we always like to let our television people know if you're ever coming through Tulsa, and you want to be part of this production afternoon, you call us and we'll give you the details on how to find us. Okay now we're just an informal Bible study for those of you who may not have listened to us all often, and we have no one underwriting us. So I'm being pressured to make it known a little more clearly, that if folks don't contribute to our ministry, why we just simply have to drop TV stations. And we've had to do that with a couple, and my goodness the phone rings off the wall, and when we explain the situation, they say, you're out there and the Lord leads you to help us financially, this is what we have to have in order to pay for TV time. Okay we're going to pick right up where we left off after our last program, where we finished Ephesians chapter 1, and we're now ready to start chapter 2. Now personally I look at Ephesians chapter 2 as to the Book of Ephesians, what chapter 8 is to the Book of Romans, and most people know what I'm talking about. Romans chapter 8 is just the highlight of almost all the Scripture, but especially of the Book of Romans. But so also chapter 2 is just sort of the highlight of this short little letter to the Ephesians. Tremendous chapter, and if we get past the first 3-4 verses today I'll be surprised, because there is just so much in here that we can't gloss over, and we're going to take our time with it. Again I guess it's the response from our television audience that continues to lead me and instruct me, and they keep telling me, don't go any faster, if anything go a little slower, because I'm having a hard time keeping up. Keep repeating, repeat and repeat, and I was getting ready for this, and I was looking at chapter 2 even this morning, and here again in just a few verses, the Holy Spirit repeats things 2-3 times. Well if the Holy Spirit, the Author of the Book, uses repetition, then who am I to say I can't repeat something. So we're going to start writing verse 1. Ephesians 2.2-3 Now what have I always emphasized with regard to Paul's writing? To whom does he write? The believer. He's not writing to the lost world out there, he is writing to you and us as believers, because you see the whole concept is that if we know what we believe, we can share it with those who are lost. And that's the whole idea. God doesn't expect the Church to save the lost, God expects the individual believer to do that, and then bring them into the fellowship of the Church, that's fine. But I'm afraid too many of our preachers have got the idea that they're there to win sinners, and sinners probably aren't in their congregation anyway, so they're just sort of wasting their breath as it was. But we've got to teach the believer of where we are positionally, where we are, and why we're there, so that we can be free to share it with those who are still out in darkness. So the you here is referring to believers, and you He has quickened. Now that's just a King James word for made alive, and so you He has made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sin. Now I guess number one, I always like to define words so that anybody can understand. What really is death? Well all we normally think of is when something dies, and it's dead. Well what happens when something dies? Well let's look at the human race so we keep it in perspective. What happens when a person dies? Well their soul, the invisible part of them, is separated from the physical. That's all death is. Now that's probably oversimplifying, but death is simply the separation of the invisible part of us. Now for believers it's soul and spirit, for the unbeliever it's only the soul. His spirit hasn't become an entity, and so it's a separation from the soul, and the spirit, and the body. That's physical death. Spiritual death is also a separation, but it's a separation from God. And so the person who is spiritually dead, has been separated from the Creator God. And Paul says, this is where we were, and he says, you were dead. You were separated from God. Now we're going to go all the way back to Genesis, and I'm always stressing Paul's Epistles as really the basis for most of what we believe, but that doesn't mean we don't use the rest of the Scriptures. We use it all. All Scripture is inspired of God, and is profitable. So now in order to pick up when Paul says that you were dead in trespasses and sins, what was he talking about? Well let's go back to Genesis, even though these are verses that most of us know, yet I'm sure that we have a lot of folks listening to us out there on television that probably haven't got the foggiest notion of what this is all about. Well spiritual death, or this separation from God, was an event. It wasn't a process, it was an event. Back to Genesis, chapter 2. At the dawn of the human experience, and God has created Adam, he's still alone. Eve is still in him, she hasn't been brought out to be his help mate, but Adam is alone on the scene, and now you pick it up in chapter 2, verse 15. So the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely be separated from me. There will come a gulf between us, that�s what�s going to happen to Adam if you eat of that one tree. Now let�s go over and see what happened in chapter 3. Well let�s just jump in at verse 2. The woman said to the serpent, which back in verse 1 was called the most subtle of all the creatures that God had created. I always kind of encourage my listeners to use the dictionary once in a while, and look up the word subtle. You know what you�ll find usually is a list of about that long that defines being subtle. It�s sly, it�s cunning, it�s deceitful, and so all these things were wrapped up in this creature that Satan of course is embodying. Now you want to remember, Eve wasn�t with Adam yet when Adam was given the instructions back in chapter 2. So where did she find out what God had said? Well from Adam, and the reason I�m bringing this out is that again points up Adam�s headship. God didn�t come down and tell Eve, separately thou shalt not eat of the tree. God told Adam, and that�s where He left it, and it was Adam�s responsibility then to instruct Eve, and he had. So now then she�s got the right answer, and she says we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said it. How did she know what God said? Adam told her. So God hath said, you shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. Now I know people have asked me, did they have a concept of death? Well it�s kind of hard to say yes or no, but I believe they did, otherwise God would�ve just been speaking empty words. They understood what He was talking about, and they knew that if they disobeyed Him, they�d be separated from Him. Now verse 4. Here comes the very first lie in Scripture, and Satan is the father of it, so naturally he follows, and so he said to the woman, You shall not surely die. Now verse 5. God doth know, but it�s just as much the power of Satan as this was, and so Satan can glibly say, God knows that in the day you eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and you shall as God�s knowing good and evil. Now remember, come back to chapter 2, and we�ve got to compare Scripture with Scripture. Now verse 17. See that�s exactly what God called that tree. Now back to chapter 2, and we�re back to verse 17. But God says of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat. You see how meticulous Satan can be when he gets ready to deceive somebody? Oh he didn�t goof it up, he said it just exactly the way God says it. Now back to chapter 3, and he says, God knows that in the day that you can eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as God�s knowing good and evil. And that was the whole purpose, and this is why God had told him not to eat of it. Now let�s quickly move on to verse 6. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise. Remember what the word was? You�ll have the knowledge, and knowledge leads to wisdom. And so here it all comes together, and it was a tree to be desired to make one wise. So she took of the fruit, did eat, gave also unto her husband, and he did eat. Now the moment Adam ate, what happened? He died. Oh not physically, but how? Spiritually. And he was separated from God. He could no longer expect Him to come and walk with him, and that had been totally destroyed because of sin. Now remember sin in its simplest definition is disobeying the revealed Word of God. That�s what sin is, and they disobeyed the will of God by eating. Now if you�ll just stop at the end of verse 6, and he did eat, immediately what happens in verse 7? Well the results of their sin, and they were both eyes opened. See that? Exactly what Satan said would happen. You can have your eyes opened, but oh not to have a greater appreciation of your Creator, but for what purpose? To know good and evil. And it�s exactly what happened. And so immediately the moment Adam sunk his teeth into that fruit, their spiritual eyes were opened to know good and evil, and their relationship with God was broken. So spiritually they died. Now physically of course, Adam lived 939 years, but when did the seeds of death begin? The moment he took part of that fruit. Now you see all that? Now I had Mark, he�s an artist, and I figured he could draw circles better than I can, so I took advantage of him and had him do it before we started the program, thank goodness. Otherwise you�d have egg shaped circles instead of round ones. But anyway I�m going to go back like we did in Genesis several years ago, and I use these circles to just simply indicate the three parts of man. The outer shell of course, the tent in which we live, is what we call the body, and that�s simply the exercise of the five senses. Then within the tabernacle which we call the body, or this dwelling place, we have when Adam was created, his soul. Now you remember when we were studying back in Genesis, I defined the soul as the mind, and the emotion, all of which are invisible, but they make up the personality, and it is this area that we were made in the likeness and the image of God, and so that was the soul. But now I�m going to have you turn real quickly all the way up to the New Testament to Thessalonians, and then we�ll come back to Genesis. I think it�s interesting to note, and if you�re reminded of it once in a while, you�ll be more aware of how much in Scripture is tied to that number three, beginning with God Himself, a Trinity. Now in Thessalonians, I have to look a second whether it�s first or second, I think it�s second. No, it�s first. Thessalonians 5 where Paul is signing off his letter, and he says, And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, or completely, and I pray God that your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless. So what are we? We are a three part being. Now I guess the theologians would call it a trichotomy, but that�s too big a word for me. We�re a three part being. We are body, soul, and spirit, and that�s the way Adam was created. He was created with that perfect body that could have lived forever. He was created with a personality patterned after the very personality of the three persons of the Trinity, a mind, a will, and a set of emotions. But he also had the third part, which is what we call the spirit. Now normally I like to put it this way. The spirit is the area where Adam had fellowship with his Creator God. Now the spirit was also intrinsically united with the soul, and we still look at it that way. So that Adam in his purity, in his original state, through his spirit fellowship with his Creator, and through that fellowship with his Creator it had an effect upon his very personality, his mind, his will, and his emotions, and that in turn exercised the body. So we don�t know how long Adam and Eve were in the Garden before they fell, but however long it was, it was perfect. It was a glorious experience, and they could look forward to their Creator coming down maybe once or twice a day, walk with Him, and commune with Him. Now of course I�ve still got a lot of questions. Where did they sleep at night? Where did they really experience their days of habitation? Did the Lord also have a beautiful home for them? I don�t know, but I�m sure they didn�t wander around in the Garden 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But you know I�ve always told people the Bible tells us everything we need to know, but it doesn�t tell us everything we�d like to know. I�d like to know, how did they operate? What did they do for six days of the week so that they could rest on the seventh? Where did they sleep at night? What did they do to occupy their time? Well the Bible doesn�t tell us, but we do know that they lived in perfect communion and fellowship with their Creator. Sin hadn�t even showed its ugly head, and so He was a fully created personality and a being operating in the flesh just exactly like our body. He had to eat, drink, sleep, and so forth, but He was in total fellowship with God. Now the next thing is, He sinned, He ate, and for that I want to use the second circle. So we�re going to again put up the body, He�s still living just like He did back here. He is still a soul, He still has that personality of mind, will, and emotion, that hasn�t changed, but the moment this Adam ate of the fruit, He lost that third part, the spirit, and He becomes now nothing but a body and a soul, and the spirit is dead. Now from Adam and Eve on then, every person in infancy that comes into the human experience is born only with body and soul, and the spirit over here died. It�s dead, has no fellowship with God, has no communion with God, and the soul immediately when Adam sinned became a sin nature. And so I guess I can just take the word soul off, and now Adam and Eve have become sin natured preachers. It�s the best way I can explain it. They are now operating under a sin nature, and this sin nature is separated from God, and it�s going to influence the physical body, not for good, but for evil. That�s the whole concept of the spiritually dead individual. Now this is exactly what Paul talks about when he says that you were dead in trespasses and sin. We didn�t get there by what we did, we started there at birth. Every infant that�s born is born in sin, dead in trespasses. Now as I was thinking on this the last few days, I had to check my concordance to make sure I was right. Do you realize that all the way from Genesis chapter 3 all the way up until Romans chapter 5, not a word of Scripture deals with Adam, except in one or two places as a name in a genealogy. Not one word of Adam being the cause of sin and death, not one word of how he at one time was a spiritual being in fellowship, not a word, until we get to Paul. Now in Paul�s writings to Romans chapter 5, here it comes. Now when you think about these things, it�s amazing that Jesus in His 3 years of earthly ministry never revealed this. Do you ever think of that? Why didn�t Jesus take the time with the 12 or with those Israelites and said, �Now look folks, the crux of your problem was Adam, and it was with Adam that sin came and death came.� But He didn�t. Now I know the closest you can come in the Old Testament is either Jeremiah or Ezekiel, but the verse says, I think it�s Jeremiah, �the heart is deceitful, and desperately wicked.� But that�s as close as you can get, and you can�t build doctrine on that specifically, but oh look what we got in Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5, and here it comes. Romans chapter 5, verse 12. Romans 5. Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death entered by sin, so the two are almost synonymous. If you didn�t have sin, you didn�t have death, and so death and sin become almost partners. So sin by death, or death by sin, and so death, separation from God now, passed upon all men. Every person that�s ever been born has the stigma of spiritual death, because that spirit part of them is dead, it�s gone. As Adam enjoyed it, because when he sinned that spirit died, his soul became a sin natured thing that could think nothing but evil and contrary to the will of God, because the spirit is dead. And this is where the human race is then when Paul says, you were dead in trespasses and sin. Even good people are walking around spiritually dead. They have no connection with God whatsoever. They can�t have, because they are spiritually dead. Now let�s read on. So death passed upon all men, for all have sinned. And then you come on down to verse 14, and nevertheless death reigned from Adam. See how Paul puts the finger on it? Death didn�t come in some place along the line, no it came in when Adam ate of that forbidden tree. And so from Adam to Moses, even for them that had sinned after the likeness or the similitude of Adam�s transgression. Now let�s turn over quickly to I Corinthians 15, where again Paul brings out something that nothing else in Scripture does. None of the prophets, David doesn�t, even Job I notice makes reference to Adam, but only that as Adam sinned, he did. But there is no real doctrine from Job that you can put all this together, but oh Paul does it. He lays it right out that here is the crux of our problem, and how we can overcome it one day. So let�s go down to I Corinthians 15, and let�s see. I Corinthians 15, and let�s see, we go down to verse 45. I Corinthians 15, and so it is written, The first man Adam was made, or created, a living soul. The last Adam, speaking of Christ, was a life-giving spirit. Now then, verse 47. The first man was earthy, the second man was the Lord. Now then, verse 48. The first man was earthy, the second man was the Lord.