Get Out of the Graveyard

We read the word of God from Ephesians chapter 2. I'm going to read verses 1 through 10. And you hath he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which in times past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all had our manner of life in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in sins, hath made us alive together with Christ by grace ye are saved, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. And may someone who hears this word be delivered from the graveyard to sit on the throne.

When you were in school, I'm sure you had to read and perhaps memorize one of the greatest poems in the English language—Gray's Elegy, written in a country churchyard. The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, and all that beauty, all that wealth, e'er gave, awaits alike the inevitable hour. The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

I visited that graveyard where Thomas Gray wrote that poem. It's a beautiful little place called Stoke Poges over in England. But the interesting thing is, we had just come from Windsor Castle.

Can you imagine going from a throne room to a graveyard? When I did that, I thought of Ephesians chapter 2, which is just the opposite. In Ephesians 2, you go from the graveyard to the throne room, and that's the way it ought to be. In Ephesians 2, Paul takes us from the graveyard to the throne room.

He gives us the spiritual history of every Christian. If you are a born-again believer and you've experienced life in Christ, this is your history. He tells us the believer's past in verses 1, 2, and 3, and over those verses you can write the word the grave.

He tells us the believer's present in verses 4, 5, and 6. And you can write the words the grace of God. And you can write the word the glory of God over verse 7, because there you have the believer's future. The whole history is here—the past, the present, and the future.

The graveyard, the grace of God, and the glory of God. Let's take these three chapters in our history and see what God would say to us. Chapter 1, past, the grave, verses 1, 2, and 3. Here he describes what you and I were like before we met the Lord.

Some folks don't like this picture. There are those who tell us that this is overdrawn, it's overexposed, it's a little bit exaggerated. But Paul is telling the truth, and every honest man and woman has to admit that Paul is telling the truth.

What are the characteristics of the person who is not saved? There are three of them. He's dead, he's disobedient, and he's doomed. It's not a very pretty picture.

He's dead. You have he made alive who were dead through trespasses and sins. Man is not handicapped, he's dead.

The unsaved man is not sick, he's dead. He is spiritually dead, which simply means he is not alive to spiritual things. If this were a funeral service and a body were lying here at the front, that body would be physically dead.

When you are physically dead, you don't respond to physical things. The senses are dead. The corpse does not hear, he does not see, he does not taste or feel or smell.

This is true spiritually of the unsaved person. If I speak to someone just now who has never been born again, you may be religious, you may be moral, you may be an upstanding citizen, but if you've never been born again, God's word says you're dead. That means your spiritual senses are dead.

You hear the word of God, but it doesn't say much to you. You've never tasted to see that the Lord is good. You can't see spiritual things except a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

You can't feel out for the things that belong to the Lord. I'm saying to you that the unsaved person is dead, not handicapped, not sick, not weak, dead. He's dead through sin, and you hath he made alive who were dead through trespasses and sins.

Sin kills. God said in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die. Satan came along and said you shall not surely die, but they did.

They died physically, they died spiritually, and unless a person is made alive in Jesus Christ, he is dead eternally. The lake of fire is called the second death. If you're born once, you die twice.

If you're born twice, you can only die once. The unsaved person is dead. Secondly, the unsaved person is disobedient.

The spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Why is it unsaved people don't obey God? I would remind you today that if you have resisted the Lord Jesus Christ, you are a rebel. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and he has commanded men, not suggested, not even invited, commanded men everywhere to repent.

And this means if you say I refuse to repent, I refuse to bow down to Jesus Christ, then my friend, you're a rebel. Why are you disobedient? Why is it so much easier for people to do that which is wrong than that which is right? He tells us here that the unsaved person is disobedient because he's a slave. He lives in the graveyard.

Paul says this entire world is a graveyard, a graveyard of sin. And there are three terrible taskmasters who are enslaving unsaved people. He lists them here, the world, the flesh, and the devil.

He says, "...in which in times past ye walked according to the course of this world." That means the influence of the period of time in which you're living. This world exerts an influence upon people, and the unsaved man just goes along with the world. Whatever songs the world is singing, that's what he sings.

He has no heavenly song. Whatever sins the world is committing, that's what he commits. Whatever standards the world is upholding, that's what he upholds.

He just drifts along with the world. My Bible tells me the world is passing away, and the lusts thereof. But he that does the will of God abides forever.

Paul says the fashion of this world is perishing. And there are some of you listening to me just now whose only interest is in this world. There was a family reunion, and they were discussing a certain member of the family who was not present.

Grandma was sitting in the rocking chair next to the window, rocking and thinking. And as the family was discussing the member who was not present, who had become quite successful, someone said, "...he is really up in the world." And quietly Grandma said, "...which world?" And she was right. Are you enslaved to this world? I know people who are going broke, going bankrupt, just to keep up with the world.

Slave number two, the devil, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, the prince of the power of the air. We have the idea that when the devil works in somebody's life, he makes him a maniac. There's some kind of a possession that puts him in a Hollywood movie to be exorcised.

I do not jest about the devil, and I would not jest about exorcism. But you know, Satan is very wise and very subtle. You know how Satan controls the lives of people through pride? Oh, you shall not surely die.

For the Lord knows that the day you eat thereof, you shall be as gods. That's the lie. He comes along and says, don't worship and serve the Creator.

Worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator. And some of you right now are living on the devil's philosophy. He's controlling you through what you think.

God says, "...the soul that sinneth it shall die." Satan says, "...you shall not surely die." Jesus said, "...except a man be born again, he cannot get into the kingdom of heaven." Satan says, "...but you are good enough." And you're controlled by Satan. The course of this world, the power of the devil. There's a third person, a third force, trying to control your life.

That's verse 3, the flesh. You see, you're living in the graveyard. Back before you were saved, before I was saved, we lived in the grave.

The world was a graveyard, and there were slave masters there, and the world controlled us, and the devil controlled us, and the flesh controlled us. You know what the flesh is, that nature down inside that says, do bad, do bad, satisfy me, satisfy my appetites. Most of the people in the city of Chicago are living to satisfy the appetites of the flesh, among whom also we all, Jews and Gentiles alike, had our manner of life passed in the lusts of our flesh.

That means the appetites there. Now, God has put some good appetites in our bodies. Nothing wrong with eating, nothing wrong with sex, nothing wrong with satisfaction in life, nothing wrong with protection, nothing wrong with security.

But when the flesh moves in, it turns eating into gluttony and sex into lust and security into a big ego trip where I have to become somebody very important. Now, you know what I'm talking about. The unsaved person is dead, and he's disobedient.

He's disobedient because he is enslaved by the world and the flesh and the devil. That is our past. Now, my friend, before we move into our present, let me ask you the simple question, what, then, does man need if man is spiritually dead, if he is spiritually disobedient, and he is spiritually doomed? Children of wrath.

By nature, children of wrath. By choice, children of disobedience. We're dead through trespasses.

That means we've crossed over the line. And sins, that means we've missed the mark. God draws a line and says, don't do that.

And we say, oh, who are you? And we cross over the line, and it kills us. God says, here is my standard. Now reach for it.

And we can't reach it. So positively and negatively, doomed. By nature, born children of wrath.

By choice, children of disobedience. Doomed. Now, what does man need? Well, somebody comes along and says man just needs legislation.

If we just had better laws, men would be better. How do you legislate to control the world, the flesh, and the devil? Somebody else says, well, man needs reformation. Just needs a reform.

What are you going to reform? You can't change the old nature. You can reform from now until the Lord comes back. It won't change that old nature.

Somebody else says, well, man just needs education. Granted, more people could be less ignorant, but my Bible tells me it's kind of hard to educate a corpse. The things that really count, the values of life, the real meaning of life, you can't convey this to a dead person.

Somebody says, well, he needs religion. You can dress the corpse up, it'll still be dead. Paul says, you know what men need? Resurrection.

They're dead, and they need to be raised from the dead. And so we gleefully, joyfully, with great satisfaction, turn the page of the history book. Chapter 1 said the past, the grave, dead, disobedient, doomed.

Thank God we can turn the page to chapter 2, which says the present, the grace of God. Those two little words, but God. You see, man cannot save himself, and man cannot change himself, and man cannot legislate himself, and man cannot reform himself, and man cannot do anything to lift himself out of this grave.

The only answer to the cemetery is but God. Now, some folks don't like this. They like us to preach a gospel of good works.

They say, oh, if you try hard you can get out of that grave. If you get ahold of the tombstone, pull real hard. Paul says, I'm sorry, you can't do it.

But God. Now, he tells us that God raised us from the dead. He tells us who did it, God.

He tells us what he did. He tells us how he did it, and he tells us why he did it. First of all, he tells us who did it.

Who raised us? God. But God. He tells us what he did.

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in sin, made us alive, quickened us. Quickened. That's a good old English word.

Quicksilver. Silver that's alive. It runs all over the place.

To quicken means to give life to something. So the first thing our Lord did for us was he made us alive. Secondly, he raised us up.

He not only made us alive and left us in the grave. Oh, no. He made us alive and raised us up, not just out of the grave, but out of the graveyard.

The believer is no longer living in the graveyard. He made us alive. He raised us up out of the grave and kept raising us until he got us to the heavenlies.

And then the third thing he did was he enthroned us. He seated us up in the heavenlies with the Lord Jesus. Look at verse 6. And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

In other words, the day you gave your heart to Jesus Christ, a miracle took place. A resurrection took place. Our Lord talked about this.

John chapter 5 verse 24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life. That's resurrection.

That's what Paul's talking about. Our present is such a marvelous thing. Almighty God intervened, interrupted, interfered with our lives.

Here we were enslaved by the world, enslaved by the flesh, enslaved by the devil. We were in the chain gang, in the grave, in the graveyard. And along came God.

And God said, I'm going to interrupt this. I'm going to break into this, but God. Now, what did he do? When you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior, you're resurrected.

He makes you alive. You're raised. You're enthroned.

I stand today in the pulpit of the Moody Church physically, but I am seated today in the heavenlies in Jesus Christ. Who did it? God. What did he do? Quickened us, raised us, seated us in heaven.

How did he do it? Through Jesus Christ. You see, this little word together, raised us together with Christ, seated us together with Christ. When you read it in the original language Paul used, there's a little prefix on these verbs.

S-U-N. It means together with. Raised together with Christ, seated together with Christ.

You know what that means? That means that when Jesus died, I died. When he was buried, I was buried. When he arose, I arose.

When he was ascended to heaven, I ascended. When he was enthroned in the heavenlies, I was enthroned. Wherever he is spiritually, I am.

That's the miracle of salvation. You dear unsaved people, lying in the grave, wrapped in the grave clothes of sin, under the whiplash of the three greatest enemies you ever could face—the world, the flesh, and the devil—I feel sorry for you. Don't any of you unsaved people ever look at those of us who are Christians and say, Oh, we feel so sorry.

You can't go here. We don't want to. Where do you want to take us to? We're in heaven.

To whom do you want to introduce us? We know Jesus Christ. What experience do you want us to have? We've been resurrected. Don't come and feel sorry for us.

We feel sorry for you. How did he do it? He did it through Christ. Why did he do it? Well, he tells us why he did it.

Verse four, he's rich in mercy, he's great in love, and verse seven, he's rich in grace. Isn't that marvelous? Why did God save you? Because you're such a fine fellow. Oh, who told you that? Why did God say he needed you? Does he really? Why did God save you? For any good that we have done? No.

For any good in ourselves? No. And can it be that I should gain an interest in my Savior's blood? Who am I that he should save me? I'll tell you why he saves us. Because he's great in love.

For God so loved the world. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends, he lay down his life for his enemies. God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

He did not wait for us to get better, to improve, to reform. He looked down in the grave and he saw how rotten we were, and in his love he said, I will raise him. God's love expresses itself in mercy and grace.

God in his mercy does not give me what I do deserve, and God in his grace gives me what I don't deserve. And so God's love reaches out in mercy, mercy pities me, grace pardons me. God's love reaches down into the grave and raises us from the dead.

The past, the grave. My friend, if you've never trusted Christ, that's where you are. I care not about the outward appearance.

God looks at the heart and he sees that you are dead and disobedient and doomed. But God, the present, you can trust him and you can be born again and you can be raised from the dead, raised up to the heavenlies, seated on the throne because God is great in love and rich in mercy and rich in grace. Where does all this go? Where does it lead? My past, the grave.

My present, the grace of God. My future, verse 7, the glory of God. That in the ages to come, he, God, might show, that word show means display, put on display, exhibit.

That in the ages to come, God might through the church exhibit to the whole universe for all eternity the riches of his grace. We have people who come to Moody Church who deliberately don't want to get involved in anything. They sit in some quiet little place and they don't want to be bothered.

But you know, one of these days when God gathers his church together, we're all going to be on display. If Jesus Christ comes today and calls his church home, he'll take us to glory. And in the ages to come, age upon age, throughout all eternity, world without end, we're going to be on display.

And the angels are going to say, here is a demonstration of God's grace. He used to be a drunk in the gutter down on West Madison Street in Chicago, but look what God did for him. The angels will say, we know about God's wisdom and power because we saw him make the universe.

Here it is. But oh, we've been watching the church and we're learning about his grace. And my friend, for the ages to come, God's going to demonstrate, put on public display, exhibit his people as exhibit A to show his grace.

Do you know what that means? That means that throughout all eternity, you and I are going to have a ministry to magnify the grace of God. It also means you can't be lost. If God has already said that those he's raised from the dead, spiritually, are throughout all the ages to come going to demonstrate his grace, he can't afford to lose one of his exhibits.

You can't see God out in eternity apologizing, saying, I'm awful sorry he's not here. He lost his salvation. Don't you kid yourself.

If throughout all the ages to come, God is going to use us to exhibit his grace, then we can't be lost. If I was not saved by my good works, I can't be lost by any bad works. If I was saved by grace, I'll be kept by grace.

If I'm going to display his grace, I'm going to experience his grace. It means eternal security starting right now. Now, you're writing a book.

You open up the book of life that you're writing. Here's your name, page one, chapter one, The Grave. Why don't you write in chapter two today, The Grace of God? You say, I don't want to write chapter two.

Well, then I'll write it for you if you won't. I'll have to tell you what it is—the judgment of God. If throughout all eternity when God's people are in heaven displaying his glory, you'll be in a place that the Bible calls hell, outer darkness.

Jesus called it that, not some angry theologian. Jesus called it that, where there will be no glory, and there'll be no grace, and there'll be no love, and there'll be no mercy. You have to decide which chapter you're going to write.

Some of you here today say, I'm in the grave. I'll confess it. I'm a lost sinner.

What can I do? Put your faith in Jesus Christ, and he'll raise you out of the grave. Somebody else says, Pastor, I've been raised out of the grave, but I'm still living in the graveyard. I'm still living in the graveyard.

I know I'm saved, but I'm still under bondage to the flesh and the world and the devil. You don't have to be. Recognize the fact that when he raised you, he lifted you and put you in the heavenlies, and you're seated with Christ.

You have no right to be under bondage to anything when you are reigning with Jesus Christ. Just claim your power, my brother. Just assert your spiritual authority, my sister, and get out of the graveyard and start living in the heavenlies.

The paths of glory lead but to the grave, said the poet. But if he'd read Ephesians 2, he'd have to reverse that. For us Christians, the grave just leads to glory.

Oh, what a marvelous thing it is to be saved, to have eternal life, I wonder if there aren't some of you here this morning who don't want to get out of the graveyard, get into the grace of God, and share in the glory of God by trusting Christ as your Savior. We're going to give you that opportunity, but now we're going to pray for you. Gracious Father in heaven, we give thanks that we don't have to be dead through trespasses and sins.

We can be alive through faith in Christ. Oh, thank you for chapter 2. Thank you for the expectation of chapter 3, a chapter that shall never end. Oh, how marvelous it is that we should share in the grace and the glory of God.

Now, Father, I pray for those in bondage today, doomed and dead, that they might come and trust the Savior. Lord, they want to do it some other way, but there is no other way. I pray that they might be willing to put aside pride and pretense and come your way, the only way, the way of the cross.

I pray in Jesus' name, amen.