Ephesians, Death is Separation Part 2
Ephesians · Bob Eckel · Nov 8, 2009
Ephesians (2009), No. 45
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492614656142

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So you know, the principle of death for the unbeliever is really extremely well outlined in Ephesians 2. I think Brad dealt with that last week. We're going to cover that just briefly this morning before we kind of move into the aspects of death and the life of the believer. So if we look at Ephesians 2, and you can open it if you want, sequentially, before we were saved, we were dead in trespasses and sins, right? And we walked according to the course of this world. And that was according to the prince of the power of the air.

So this is kind of a combination of who we are in Adam and also a Satan-empowered existence in our lives that relates to the way we walk. And ultimately that really is the empowerment of the spirit that works in the sons of disobedience. So the sons of disobedience simply describes the nature that we've inherited in the first Adam. And this relates to our walk in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of both the flesh and the mind. And by nature then, we're children of wrath.

Boy, those are really, really strong terms, aren't they? I mean, that really sounds pretty overwhelming. And here's the question for the class here, but what about nice people who do nice things? Does this really describe them? We all know nice people, don't we? Who are not saved.

In fact, sometimes I think it's... Don't take this personally, but sometimes, you know, you have ultimately better friendships. I'm not talking about more spiritual friendships, but, you know, more desire to be with some people who are of the world, who are kind of nice people, who do nice things, and sometimes some believers. I mean, remember, we don't have to like everybody. We just have to love. But we're not the judge of nice, and good, and flawless. There's only one of those. And that's the one who really knows. True. And everyone falls short. That's why we need our Savior.

Alright, so we have that view, but what about the view of the world? I mean, particularly those who are very critical of the Christian faith, right? I mean, they're critical of the fact they feel they see people who claim the Lord Jesus Christ who fall short. And we're going to deal with that today. Death is separation for us, too, but in a different kind of way. And that really is the theme. But I thought we'd set the stage first. So how do we deal with that?

Nice people do nice things in the world, they're unsaved, and many of them show no interest. They have a feeling that they're okay. And by the way, a very basic question is, is man basically good or bad? I mean, our view is very clear, isn't it? Look at Ephesians 2.

That's what we've been saved out of. We've been saved out of being dead in trespasses and sin. We've been saved according to our walk in the course of this world. We've been saved from the power of the prince of the air. We've been saved from the lust of our flesh, have we? I mean, we're going to return to whether this is positional and or conditional truth. But positionally, there's nobody in this room that doubts this, is there? In terms of us being saved from who we were in the first nature, the old man and Adam.

But so how do we deal with an unsaved world who oftentimes perform quote-unquote in terms of worldly standards better than we do? I mean, Roger, let's say somebody comes to you and says, you know, I know you're a man of faith and, you know, I ran into a Christian who lives next door who really, you know, lost their patience and became angry and swore. And this person has shared the gospel with me many times. What about that? I mean, how do we deal with that?

Well, I think you start with that we all have a fallen nature. Every person shows up in this world with a fallen nature from Adam. And even believers still have that fallen nature. So from that, we're on the level playing ground from that perspective with the world. We all have a nature from Adam, which falls short of the glory of God. But the believer's position has changed.

I mean, you can go down that whole path. discussion. And often that type of conversation gives you an opportunity to share the Lord Jesus Christ with an unsafe person in a reality testing manner. You know, when we walk cocky and confident in the power of the flesh to live the Christian life, ultimately we're put in a position of embarrassment and dismay. If you're looking to say, well, I'm going to perform better than my neighbor, you don't want to go that direction because you may not. You may not do that. That's not the approach. The approach is that we're all guilty before God. We're all right.

And remember Paul himself said, I'm greatest among all sinners, right? And Paul is certainly someone we look at a little differently, don't we, in terms of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ working through his life to make a man change in terms of a new way of living. So what's the source of this unbeliever's life that we've had described here in Ephesians 2? Well, it's that natural or old man who's been separated from God.

Why? Simple Christian principles 101. You know, that's really a common issue, isn't it, among unbelievers. Wherefore, as by one man sin under the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned. So that's physical death, but it's also spiritual death.

So this nice person who's an unbeliever who's doing nice things for the world around him or her, isn't this a question that often comes up? Why do I have to be declared separate from God just by physical birth? He claims he's a nice person. He says, I do good things. What's wrong with that? And he doesn't need anything. Exactly. My brother is very much like that.

He's now dead and I presume not with the Lord, although the person doing the service reminded me, I didn't know for sure. I didn't for sure, but presumed. Nice person, felt like he was doing as much as he could for all his kids that he was an administrator and educator over for 30 plus years. And anyways, it was a tough sell on the gospel with him for sure.

But anyway, doesn't seem fair, does it, to an unbelieving world that ultimately they inherit the sin nature and they're separated by God, from God. Is that fair? Romans, Romans 1, it tells them that without excuse, that every man knows. God didn't leave them adrift. He put a knowledge of God in their hearts and they noticed God. Right, Roger. So important, the three C's, right? God has declared himself under all men for all time through his creation.

First C. Second, consciousness. Problem with consciousness bringing men to Christ is ultimately we can have consciousness influenced by our environment, right? So consciousness doesn't win, but it's a second opportunity as described in Romans 2, that we all have a consciousness of what's right and wrong. Again, that can be modified by the environment in which we live. of the cultures that ultimately are part of our day-to-day domain, but ultimately consciousness. So creation and consciousness lead us to Christ, and that third C is of course the only C by which we're saved.

So that's not the topic here today. The topic is death. But yes, And we don't really see what goes on in that person's mind. And I really think that there's a defiancy. I don't want to believe in God. And I use that as an excuse. at least responding to that, sometime that might be part of it too.

Only the Holy Spirit knows that. But that's truly Adam nature stuff, isn't it? There's nothing about the old man that seeks God. And what's the major principle that separates man from God from that perspective? Think of 1 John 3, even since you're the believer that God hates.

Lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the third, pride of life. And you know, we intrinsically are proud people. And boy, if that's not the power of the flesh, isn't it? The pride we all have about who we are, what we do, what we've accomplished. The song I did it my way. My way. Good conversation. Let's continue here.

1 Corinthians 2.14 builds on the theme, but the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.

So this is this death walk, if you will. Spiritually dead. And it's an impossibility for that dead man to ultimately understand or apply spiritual things. Death is truly separation from God for the unbeliever. Now, the rest of the lesson today is on the believer, you and I. The death principle still plays out, but it plays out certainly in a very different way. What we're going to do is kind of drill down on what death means for the believer. It's good news and bad news. It's mostly good news. Let's see if we can unravel this concept. How does the death principle apply to us?

I'm glad you don't have your hand out, so you'd be answering my questions. In fact, from now on I'm going to withhold my hand out until you've had the lesson. Nobody's laughing but Roger. Everybody looks pretty stone-faced out there. So just to re-associate a little bit, how does the death principle play out in a believer? Physical death. Okay, good. Doug, you're off to a good start. Physical. Is there any difference in physical death from the believer and the unbeliever?

I'm gonna qualify and say perhaps. And here's the scripture for that. If the Lord Jesus Christ comes today and raptures us all, physical death is something we will not experience, correct? So to qualify it, unless the rapture would occur, for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord." So there's the qualification. Death may be different for us and may not apply. Enoch, Elijah, and us, the church, right? But other than the rapture, Physical death, Doug, no difference, right? Between the believer and the unbeliever.

Roger, did you have a thought? Well, we're going to continue. Yes, Wayne? Well, we're going to deal with physical death, okay? It's certainly the same for all of us, right? I'm experiencing that mentally this morning actually. No, you're right, Doug. But the death of the rapture is a one-time deal. But that's not a death, is it? People keep dying every day. Well, that's true. Our bodies do tend to go downhill over time. All the time. I was out shooting basketball yesterday. I was reminded of that physically.

Rapture is a one-time deal. Okay, good. All right, what about eternal? issues related to death. A difference for the believer and unbeliever? Absolutely. Goodness gracious. Again, Christianity 101. John 3.36, so the answer here is unequivocally yes. He that believes on the Son hath an everlasting life, and he that believes not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. So there's the death principle played out in the life of the unbeliever versus the believer.

1 Corinthians 15, 54, and 5, you know this well. So when this corruptible shall have you put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victor? Very different, isn't it, for the believer and the unbeliever in terms of eternity. Wow. Boy, we rest on that.

You know, the concept, I've said this before in this class and other epistles that we've taught, but, you know, the three aspects of Christianity and the three verb tenses, I was saved, I'm being saved, and I will be saved. So I think the first and the third are pretty easy, and by faith, through God's grace, we can respond and incorporate that. It's that second one.

So I was saved. We all can identify a time in our life, and if you don't have a date, you don't have to have a date, but you can clearly historically remember when you in fact understood what your salvation meant to you, and you were saved at that point in time. I will be saved.

We all trust that this principle of eternity and everlasting life is one that the scripture really cements repeatedly throughout. But now this concept of I'm being saved, this ongoing working out of the power of the Spirit in our life is the principle now we're going to focus in on.

Any questions at all about A and C? We're saved and we'll be saved. And the second death does not apply. We could turn to Revelation 20, 12 through 15 and look at the second death, which is for the unbelieving who present themselves before God in terms of the second death.

Now, what about our lives down here? This being saved, this day-to-day, hour-to-hour, minute-to-minute concept of having the life of the Lord Jesus Christ manifested in each and every one of us. And we're going to come back to this whole issue. We still have an old nature. and that old nature is still very capable of death-related activities, right? So let's look at this.

Second Corinthians 5.17 says, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation, a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. Positional and or conditional truth. That's a question to the class. Is there anyone here that doubts that that's a positional truth? No one, okay? What about conditional? Notice I said positional and or conditional. Is it only positional?

I hope not. I mean, it says here that positionally before God were new creations or new creatures. And old things are passed away but behold, all things become new. Are they just new in terms of our relationship to God? We think differently and we presumably live differently. Now this isn't a list of how am I doing on this element and that element. It's a life, isn't it?

And if our condition has been impacted zero by our position, you need to question your position. So this death principle really can continue to live out in the believer, and I would suggest, in some people we know, and I'm not being a judge here, but if you just reflect on their conversations, their lives in general, that fruit of the Spirit just is minimal. I mean, again, we're not the judge, but you just see a life that's totally conformed to the ways of the world. And really, there's no joy, there's no uplifting, there's no real evangelistic articulation of the truth of the Word of God. But that's not our job to judge. But sure, it's our job to discern.

So this issue of being new creations or new creatures of Christ Jesus is both positional and conditional, unequivocally positional. But a life that's in the power of the Spirit, lived by the new man, is also a conditional application of the position of truth. Romans 6, 3-5. I love this. This is one of my favorite sections of Scripture.

Know you not that so many of us were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death? Don't you know that? Therefore we're buried with him by baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we've been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection." Boy, how's that? There's the conditional truth, isn't it? I mean, positionally accepted by his being co-baptized, co-resurrected, now that, you know, this life that we live is in the likeness of that resurrection. So how are you doing here? Nobody wants to volunteer. And maybe a more relevant question is what's keeping us from that totally victorious life? Well, remember the lesson today is death is separation, right?

It's sin. I thought sin was dealt with. Well, so where does this sin come from? I thought we were crucified with Christ, buried and resurrected in Him, and since we're dealt with eternally. Is that statement untrue? No, that statement's true. I've just read it in Romans 6, 3-5. We could find other places to really document that. So it comes from that first Adam, or that old man, or the sin nature, or the flesh. So that has not been changed.

You've heard the story and I'm sure some of you can share this better than I can, but the story of this person traversing on a ship from the United Kingdom to the United States and ultimately there was sufficient evidence that the captain of the vessel ultimately was found to be guilty of a multiplicity of offenses on board. He was declared to be guilty by whatever process was used on the ship and placed behind bars on the ship. So his conviction had been completed, his sins were revealed and ultimately found to be valid. And he was taken out of his role and placed behind bars with no power left on the ship. But to execute him was not ultimately going to occur until he reached the other shore.

So this captain is Adam, the old man who's now been placed, you know, in ultimate eternal death. but yet still can yell out orders from behind bars to try to influence the crew to respond to his orders. That's a reasonable analogy of what this old man's all about. Adam's been crucified before God, dead and buried, but God has not removed the old nature from us. Which captain are we going to listen to?

It's kind of silly, but it's somewhat of an applied analogy to what the source and ultimate power of the sin nature is in our life. Before God, no power. God doesn't see our sin at all anymore. We're bothered by it. We confess it. We're sometimes dragged down by it. But God doesn't see that anymore. He sees us entirely in Christ, doesn't He? It's not like Christ is going to get on the cross again to die for that sin that continues to be manifested in our life on a day-to-day basis. That's been dealt with. But the power of sin is still remaining. because we in fact give it options in our life on a day-to-day basis.

Positional or conditional and or conditional truth. The sin is sourced from the first Adam and ultimately gives rise to death-related activities. Positional truth? Positionally are we an Adam? No. Conditionally. We're not an atom. Conditionally? Well, much of the time. Probably too much of the time. So what are the results of this source of power in our life? And it's death. So why do we think that it's death? Well, we can kind of go to a couple of different verses, and I've just picked a couple here. 1 Corinthians 3 deals with that, if you will, that church, that impotent church, if you will, in terms of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ in the body.

Now, if any man built upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work will be made manifest. For the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." So there's evidence of this death principle played out. Wood, hay, and stubble, and fire doesn't do very well, does it? Whereas gold, silver, and precious stones tends to withstand the temperature that's put under these circumstances.

So there's a result of the power of the sin nature that relates to works and or lack thereof that are dealt with eternally. So back to Ephesians. We're going to turn now to Ephesians 4, 17 through 24. Let's go there. I'm really kind of amazed at what must be happening back here. We have Quartz laptop computer, we've got Margaret, and we've got everybody helping out just to get your document printed. Anyway, forgive me. All right, let's take a look at this together. Ephesians 4, 17 through 24. Remember the first three chapters in Ephesians are sound doctrine, okay? and the second three chapters earlier, the applied doctrine. So what's this Christ's life look like? So let's look at 4.17-24.

This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that's in them, because of the blindness of their heart. who being past failing have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not to learn Christ. If so, be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that ye put off concerning the former manner of life, the old man, which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

What, in these eight verses or nine verses, what is the basis of the former manner of life being manifested or not being abandoned in the life of a believer? Well, that's true, but if we could pick one verse here that explains the continued manifestation of the deeds of the old man, the life of the believer, what would it be? Well, yes, but there's an explanation and buried in this section of scripture. your life in Christ.

In the Sunday School, taught by a man who's now with the Lord, a very fine man really, a good friend and a friend of my late wife's and our family for a long time. He was teaching this section and ultimately was basically getting us to focus in on the death of these verses that relates to our behavior.

And when I raised my hand, because I was just starting to get into the identification truths at that point in terms of the fact that we don't have a work to do, we have a belief to do, and that belief is in the risen son and who we are in Christ. I said, but Ralph, I said, Ralph, the truth of this section of scripture is verse 20, because we haven't learned Christ. That's the truth of why these deeds and thoughts and manifestations of the old man continue to prevail. It's the absence of a knowledge of who we are in Christ and that faith walk that ultimately as we learn him and learn of him more, ultimately our lives become transformed into his image by faith, by the way. This is not just a passive let go, let God kind of situation. We have to learn Christ actively by the power of faith in our life.

And I really think that the old man will prevail. unless we learn who we are positionally, that the power of the spirit in our lives makes our condition more consistent with our position. Thoughts, everyone here. Are we to focus on these deeds of the old man to try to work on those?

Absolutely not. I mean, working on the old, I don't know about you, do you ever purpose yourself, I'm not going to do that anymore? I'm not going to lose my patience anymore. That word's not going to slip out of my mouth or that lustful thought is not going to happen anymore.

When you covet to do that, boy, there's failure just waiting for it for you to happen, right? The power of the flesh is just infinite. It makes you concentrate on the end instead of what you should be concentrating on. But isn't that a beautiful hidden truth in these verses? People focus in on the old man here as to what we're not doing. and how we're failing our walk in the body. But yet, it's because we haven't learned Christ.

Death comes from its source, and that's Adam. And to illustrate what you did with the ship's captain, if the crew's down there listening to him, yelling behind the bar, that's where they're going to be. They need to be up there learning who the new captain is. That's right. And this isn't a head knowledge, by the way. I mean, we can study the Lord Jesus Christ all we want.

Margaret and I just had the privilege of returning from Israel. And as you know, we've been there once before. Last time we went to Jerusalem. This time we did the Golan Heights area. So we're up in Galilee, basically, and we were staying on the edge of the Sea of Galilee. and we visited a lot of places, but one that really moved me, kind of uplifted me, was where we found ourselves on the hillside where the Sermon on the Mount was presumably given. And of course they made it a bit touristic, not terribly, but a little bit. But anyway, we looked down on the Sea of Galilee, and think of him with the crowds on the hillside, it was kind of uplifting and moving.

You see the Sea of Galilee, thinking Christ himself walked across that water, and I don't know, warm fuzzies a little bit. But my studying Christ and all the walk of the Lord Jesus Christ on the earth and where he was and what he did is just intellectual stuff, right? We can reflect on the purpose of those events spiritually, but it's not intellectual that lives the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's knowing him. And knowing him is from the Word, from the power of the Spirit, and by faith, believing what God has revealed about who we are in him. And that's why the church was being ultimately influenced so importantly by the old man and these deeds of death of the old man.

Ephesians 4.20 was the answer to the question we just dealt with that, but ye have not so learned Christ is the explanation for this behavior.

Why does God allow the sin nature to continue to exist in the believer? Why didn't he just tromped that baby out. I was saved, will be saved. What's this being saved stuff all about? So we learn to depend on Him. Well, but God's all powerful. Why didn't He just take that old man out of here? Well, you're right. I don't doubt what you said. I think we always learn more in the valley than we do up in the mountains. Ooh, the principle of death gives rise to life, right? I mean, the mustard seed, and I mean, there's so many examples scripturally that life comes out of death.

How about Romans 6, 3 through 5 that I just read? Buried with him, with baptism unto death. Risen with him in newness of life. Remember, the sin nature was judged, but not eradicated. Let's look at Romans 6, 6, which is the next verse as to what I read a little bit earlier for you. So in 6, remember, we've been planted together in the likeness of his death, we'll be risen in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

Is the old man destroyed? It's the body of sin that's been destroyed. So before God, this old man still exists, but he's behind bars. He's not been eradicated, his power has simply been eliminated, and the impact he has on our lives has no impact before God. Remember, that believer who's fallen away, whose deeds and thoughts and life really reflects the unbeliever. ultimately is still saved, but by fire.

Mike Doyle said this many times, I love it, but he says, you know, when we get before the Lord Jesus Christ, our lives here will be reflected upon in great detail, but we will all be content with the rewards we receive. Now his thoughts are this, and I kind of like this, but there's no scripture basis, those who in fact have lived the life manifested by the Lord Jesus Christ, their position perhaps in heaven will be closer, but remember, everyone will be satisfied.

I mean, that's his thoughts. Again, I'm not going to give you scripture for that, but these rewards presumably in some way reflect on how the Spirit enabled the life to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. That's, again, an interpretation in terms of what our eternal position is going to be. I think Hal very much agreed with that, Lindy. Our rewards here aren't red ribbons, blue ribbons, and white ribbons that we put up on the wall someplace and boast about.

These rewards are consistent with the principles of the Lord Jesus Christ and what he has accomplished in our life by our faith. So anyway, so the sin nature is not gone. It's just been crucified. And that's really very, very important because if the sin nature is gone, what's this behavior we're all about here?

Right? Bad habits. Yeah. Well, you know, Margaret raises a good point. You know, there are people who are one natures. In fact, I would suggest there's a lot of Christians who are one natures. And boy, that's dangerous because one nature, these are just what we're calling sin bad habits. that we kind of bring with us after they're safe? Or they're demons. You put it on Satan and you say, Satan's caused me to do that. The devil made me do it. The devil made me do it. Can I blame the devil, honey? Sure, go ahead. Are you going to buy that? I'm guilty either way before her, right? It's good that these positional truths are there, isn't it? You said lame, so the devil made me do it.

So I think importantly, God uses his old man not being eradicated to conform us to the image of his son. So Romans 6, 17 through 19, but God be thanked that you were the servants of sin. but you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered unto you, being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness.

And I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh." By the way, infirmity scripturally can mean either, it means the inability to perform and can be applied both to the body and to the soul or the spirit. So infirmity, you know, if you look at Paul's infirmities, praying three times and being removed, that's a physical thing. But infirmities are also of the spirit, and I can show multiple places in scripture where infirmities deal with the spiritual ineptness that we all have. So I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh, this could be physical or spiritual, I think it's spiritual here.

For ye, as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. Okay, so there's the death principle played out here and the life principle using the position of truth ultimately and the power of the old man or life to conform us to the image of the sun. So what I'm going to do now is take a moment and I'm going to read something from the Hungry Heart series. And this is the November 16th Daily Devotional.

It's called Our Weakness, His Strength. Early in our Christian life, the general conception is that God is a wonderful helper. Later, as we experience failure, we come to know full well that if anything is going to be accomplished in and through us, he must do it all. Everything you need in the Christian life, no matter what it may be, comes from the Father alone. You will see more and more the utter futility of trying to make yourself a keen Christian. that your best efforts are as futile as your worst failures, that your Christian life is to be a continual miracle that the Father must work every minute, that the only thing you have to do is to depend utterly and altogether and all the time on Him. You will see that what you need is not more effort or determination, but more of the Father, a deeper, more continual trust and dependence upon Him. For the discovery of our sinful condition and getting deliverance from the reign of sin, there is an experiential process in us. The doctrine is that we died death unto sin with Christ.

That's Romans 6. But the resting on the truth found there as a doctrine is connected with the experience found in Romans 7 and the result being culminated in Romans 8. Now this experience is the painful learning We have no strength to make good what we would and what is right. There is a point in the experience which often helped but is not deliverance. That is hating the evil which yet works in me, but after this I find what I hate too strong for me and I am brought to the consciousness of my being without strength, the point to which the Father was leading me to all along.

So this death principle that comes from the source of the first atom, or the sinful nature, is the process of confirmation of each and every one of us into his image. And here again, the principle of life comes out of death. So as God allows us to live in a trance, and that can be trance mentally and or physically, his strength is made perfect in our weakness. What are the consequences of this death that continues to stem from the sin nature?

Well, there are three consequences that I've identified here. The fellowship, or lack thereof, is a consequence of our old man's activity in our life. But then the good news is 1 John 1.6. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.

And you know what builds on that. Ultimately, we confess our sins. Ultimately, he's quick to forgive our sins. By the way, they're already forgiven. This is just the restoration of fellowship. with the Lord Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father that we lost out on when we were in fact choosing to sin or having the sin nature prevailing in our life. The second is feeling guilty, the legal principle.

Margaret's favorite verse, Galatians 2.21, I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ died in vain.

Remember, Galatians 2.20 is something we always focus on. You know, I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. But the next verse, if we in fact apply legal principles to our life, then we've actually made his death empty, or insufficient, or incapable of accomplishing anything before God.

So, the first thing is losing fellowship, and that can be rapidly restored by the power of the Spirit of God. The second is this feeling guilty stuff. I think the Spirit will enable us to see our sin, but if we start putting that sin under the legal principle, then we're trying to improve the old man, to take care of the consequences, not the source.

And that was done in Romans 6. Buried with him with baptism into death, risen with him in the innocence of life. And the third, and really probably the one of the most subtle, but yet really substantial consequences of the atom nature in our life is ultimately being very much conformed to and love of the ways of the world. Boy, this is subtle at times too and can kind of grow subconsciously in our lives.

Remember in 1 John, love not the world. By the way, that love is not Eros or some other warm and fuzzy love. This is in fact agape. So we always think of agape love as God's love for us and our love for the brethren in the power of the spirit, but this is love agape, not the world. So we can develop the same kind of relationship with the world system as we have with the Lord. It seems unbelievable, but in fact, it's stated by Don. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, loves that the Father is not in him. Now, I love football, but it's not agape.

I mean, the point is that we can like some things of the world that we can enjoy and things, but we're talking about a heart and soul that is committed to the ways of the world. And we all have our security blankets, don't we? In terms of the things of the world. We have our homes and our food and our family and our insurance policies and all the things that relate. But is that a love of the world? I don't think so. It's existing in a world system in a way that we have some security for ourselves and our families. God would, I think, condone that. This is not something that would be condemned. But love of the world is a whole different ballgame. Where the ways of the world, in terms of material things, in terms of reputation, in terms of pleasures, are all out of a different character. And that's death. That character is not of the Lord.

How do we put this death walk behind us? Well, by faith. The question I have for you and for myself is, do we believe what God has revealed about us? I mean, we're positionally in Him and conditionally our lives in a position to leave death at the cross where it was crucified.

And ultimately, there are three principles. Rest. There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. All of us, no condemnation. So are we resting in that truth? No condemnation, no thought, no deed that we would do would ultimately condemn us eternally before the Heavenly Father. The second principle is trust.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, But you've received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we're the children of God.

We need to trust that to be true. We're trusting the principle of the spirit led life ultimately to separate us from this death walk that's part of the old man. And finally, dependency. Wherefore, beloved, as we've always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it's God which works in you both to do and will of his own good pleasure." So the dependency on the Lord to ultimately, through the power of the Spirit and the trust principle, in those who are at rest, live the life and extend it out through us each and every day.

So my last thought is by Lewis Ferry Chaffer in the book on Grace the Glorious Theme, when God is molding the desires of the heart there is liberty and when he is empowering the life there is victory. Neat little phrase to think about death and where we put it scripturally. Let's close in prayer. Roger, would you close us please? We thank you, Father. We thank you for our time this day, Lord. We thank you for your marvelous word and for your Son who provided for our salvation. We ask in his name. Amen. Amen.