September 17 2025

Wednesday September 17

Depraved and Doomed

Ephesians 2:1-3

1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

Today we're looking at Ephesians 1:1-3. When I read these verses, one of the things that comes to my mind is a series of messages that Dr. Ron Hawkins from Liberty University preached for us years ago on Sunday nights at Rainbow Forest Baptist Church. We had asked him if he would preach through the book of Ecclesiastes. Every evening he made this statement: " We are profoundly fallen creatures who live in a profoundly fallen world."  My friend, this still no doubt is still the current condition of the world today.

People wonder why all the violence, why all the discord, why all the division? Why all the hatred? My friend, it's because they don't have Jesus Christ in their hearts and lives. Everyone by birth is born with a fallen nature, and as we pointed out yesterday, are controlled by the flesh, the world system, and the devil and his forces. And the answer to these issues is not getting a better education or to quit listening to the public and social media and all those things. That might help a little, but the real answer is getting a new heart and a new mind by coming alive in Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

Paul begins Ephesians 1 with this truth: “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins”. God has made us alive through the blood and power and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And then Paul goes on to describe the condition of the sinner: “In which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience.” This is the way the Ephesians live. This is the way we lived as sinners before salvation. Verse 3 continues: “Among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as others.” 

As we read these verses, we have found that the sinner is dead. He's dead in his trespasses and sin. He is by nature disobedient to God and His Word. He is “a son of disobedience”. Now we find he's also depraved. And what we mean by depraved is that he's living to please the desires of the flesh and the wishes of the mind. His actions are sinful because his appetites are sinful. When you apply the word depraved to the unsaved person, you're not saying that he only does evil or that he is incapable of doing good. You're simply saying he's incapable of doing anything to merit salvation or meet the high standards of God's holiness. Jesus said that sinners, lost sinners, can be good to each other (Luke 6:33). They can be good to their children (Luke 11:13). But they cannot do anything good to spiritually please God. My friend, that's the problem.

Before salvation we are living according to the desires of the flesh. Romans chapter 1 goes through the steps of this depraved heart and mind and what it leads to. In Romans 8:5-8, Paul describes it this way: “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

You can't say it any more plainly than that. But the sinner is not only depraved, the lost sinner is doomed. In verse 3c, Paul adds: “And were by nature children of wrath, just as the others”. Children of disobedience, children of wrath. We're condemned already. We read this in John 3:16-21: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.  He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."  

These are powerful verses to think about. This is what is happening in America today. They are haters of the light. Not so much haters of people as much as they are haters of God. Haters of the light only because they have never come to the light through Jesus Christ. And this is all because, “they have not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God”. 

Let's pray for the God of mercy to open their hearts to this great truth! Man cannot save himself, but God in His grace steps in to make salvation possible. Verse 4 begins with “But God!” —what a difference those two words make!

God bless!