Man's past is characterized by being dead in trespasses and sins, separated from God and influenced by the world and Satan. It illustrates this state using the examples of Jairus' daughter, the widow's son, and Lazarus, each representing different degrees of spiritual death. However, the sermon emphasizes that through God's rich mercy, love, and grace, individuals can be 'quickened' or made alive in Christ, transforming their present and securing a glorious future. The core lesson is that true life and salvation come not from human effort or religious ritual, but from receiving God's life through faith in Jesus Christ, leading to an eternal future with Him.
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Many years ago, Mr. Ironside, known to quite a few, of course he's with the Lord now, but he was traveling on a train in California and a lady sat down beside him, she was a palm reader, and she said, I'll cross, if you cross my hand with a silver quarter, or to bear it be a silver dollar, She says, I'll tell you your past, present, and future. And she says, I never miss. Well, Dr. Ryan's side looks at her. He says, Lady, I want to tell you my past, present, and future.
And it'll be your past, present, and future. And he says, I've got a little book in my pocket, and it's incredible. So he says, I want to tell you your past, present, and future, and it won't cost you a dime. Well, of course, she was trying to find her startle and take her back on that remark. And so he took the Bible out, and he read the verses that I have read here about our past, our present, and our future. And I mentioned the seven things about our past, and it's a black bleak past. And so he began speaking to this lady about the past of our lives, dead in trespasses and in sin.
Now if you trespass it means you're breaking a law, a rule. You see a sign, no trespassing and he violated it. Well, you're breaking that law. Sins have to do with our nature. what we are born in sin. And so you have man, and he's born in sin, and he's a transgressor of the law. There you have man's nature and man's practice. And so he drank on that a little while about man being dead in trespasses and in sins.
The word dead is in the scripture, you have to be quickened to where, Dad, he's referring to man's separation from God. Man is separated from God. You remember the story of the prodigal? The father said, this, my son, was dead. He's alive again. Well, he wasn't dead. He wasn't a corpse in the far country. He was among the hogs, very much alive. But he was separated from his father. So the Father says he was dead. He was separated from me, but now he's alive, he's at home, and we're happy. So when the Bible speaks of you being dead in sins, it means you're separated from God.
Now you can hear, you can talk, and you can walk, physically, and you can work. But if you're not a born-again Christian, you cannot talk, nor walk, nor hear, nor work for God spiritually. You're just dead in just matters and in your sins. By man sin entered into the world. And death by sin so death has passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Few years ago, there was a tent put in this town, and some men went on the TV, and they had a phone.
You were supposed to write in and ask your question. One was, are babies born sinners? And the man who answered this was supposed to be a lawyer, and he says, no, babies are not born sinners. I thought, well, he doesn't know what the Bible says. The Bible says, Behold, we were born in sin and shaken in iniquity. That's in Psalm fifty-one. God says they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. And as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death has passed upon all men, but all have sinned.
The only way a child or baby could be born sinless today is to have sinless parents. And that's not the case. Sinful parents only produce sinful children, born in sin and shaped them in an exile. And you mothers know only too well that that child not very... old, doesn't get to be very many months old before you notice something in that child in the way of rebellion. Something inside that child that resents some things you do. And that child wants something unless you know it wants something. Yes, every child is born with a sinful nature.
It's passed from generation to generation from parent to child from parent to child. That's what the Bible says. And so man is born a sinner. You have three cases of death in your Bible. They're not all the same after their condition and what they could do, but they were all dead. The little girl of twelve, Jairus' daughter, she had just died. And the Lord went right in. Evidently, her flesh was still warm. And you can hardly believe she was dead. She looked so much alive, but she was dead.
You know, there are a lot of people today, and you can hardly believe they're sinners. Their life is so good. They're so clean. They're so kind. But they don't have life. They don't have Christ. They're dead. They're dead. Now we've got some very good spiritual or religious. I'm not going to say spiritual. Religious embalmers in the world today, they stand behind the pulpit. Yes, religious embalmers, and they can make a sinner look pretty good. You'd even think they're a real Christian. They can so make them turn over a new leaf and do right things and good things, but they're dead. They may look as though they've got life like that little there.
but they're dead. And then you have the young man, the son of the widow of Maine. And here he's on the way to the cemetery. He's been there in a few hours. He's out in the open. Not like the little girl in the house, only a few knew she was dead. And you may pass current as a Christian by the majority, but there are a few in the house knows you're dead, you're a sinner. Ask those who live with you. Outsiders may think you're a Christian, but those in the home know a few things. But, of course, a young man, he's out in the open.
Oh, he's not so bad. Well, he's not so good. Well, there are people like that that say, well, I'm not a bad sinner. I wouldn't say I'm a good sinner. That's almost a paradox, isn't it? But to say, I'm not too bad, but I'm not too good. Well, I'm in the middle of it, but you're a corpse. Just like that young man. Then you come to Lazarus, been dead four days. Man, he stinks. Four days, he's lost. Stalled, so you're dead. But their condition is different. The little girl just died. She's looked so natural. The young man has been dead a few days.
Lazarus, four days. We were all born into the world sinners, just like the little girl. Fair, looking, full of physical energy and light. And so many times we degenerate into the state of the young man, or then eventually end up like Lazarus. What? Now, these three individuals, there's quite a difference if you start to consider them. Christ deals differently with each one. When he came to the side of the little girl, he says, Dan, that's the light that she might rise.
And she rose up, she opened her eyes, hardly had been dead, only a little while. How gently the Lord deals with some people, just like a breeze passing through an open window, fanning the sick patient. Some people pass from death unto life, children. They see their sinners, they know it. And they accept Christ with their simple faith. And they are saved, they are light. Others are like the young man. The Lord spoke louder to the young man. Young man, I say unto the arise. And God speaks a little louder to some adults.
They know more. They're more responsible. The way he comes to Lazarus, he speaks with a loud voice. Lazarus, I say unto the arise, he'd been dead for a day. The voice of Christ raised each woman. Their conditions were different. Friend, you may be an out and out ungodly sinner this morning. I don't care what depths you've sunk in sin. Christ can save you and give you life. He may have to speak with a loud voice. That loud voice may be a death in the family. That loud voice may be failing health. That loud voice may be some tragedy in your home.
He speaks with a loud voice. When you fail to hear them in youth, when you fail to hear them in midlife, later on, He may speak loud to reach you in old age. C.H. Spurgeon one time in his congregation of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, he had five thousand people in his audience. He asked how many were saved under twenty, and about three thousand five hundred some put up the hand, and he went down the line. And when he got to those over seventy, Only five put up the hand.
The older you get, the harder it is to get saved. The harder your heart becomes, he may have to speak with a loud voice. There are three different obstacles out into these three. The little girl, they mocked, she's not there. When he said she's not dead, she's asleep, but Christ said that. She's not dead. She's sleeping with him. He was just sleeping because she was sleeping because he was going to raise her from the dead. There were those who mocked. Yes, sometimes mockery is the barrier that keeps some people from getting saved, or I'm afraid people will mock me, laugh at me, make fun of me.
The young man, it was the passing show, the procession that were on the way to the cemetery. That's what's keeping some of you from Christ is the passing show. things that are going on all around you. The excitement, the entertainment. You don't want to get saved yet. On connection with Lazarus, it was the stone. Throwing away the stone, that's an obstacle. The stone of unbelief. And that may be your trouble. Your lack of faith in accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. Yes, you have, are being dead in trespasses and in sin.
Dr. Gable, who was head of a college up in Long Island, New York, he had a young secretary. I'd never lose a religious young man, and so he was given out cards, and he showed one to Dr. Gable, and this is what was on the card. He said, I promise faithfully, henceforth, to lead a religious and Christian life, another place for you to sign your name. And here he was handing these out. Dr. Gagelin looked at it, and he said, how on earth can a dead man live any kind of life? Why, he said, what's the use of putting a card like that in the hand of a dead sinner?
and ask him to sign it. Then the point is, you cannot live a life for God until you receive a life from God. That's the whole point. I know a lot of people today, they can put their name down on some kind of a card like that. I make a promise to live a Christian life. Well, you can live a Christian life until you get Christ. You can join the church and get baptized. You can engage in church activity, but that's not going to take you to heaven. You've got to be born again. And so that's the first thing.
Man is dead in trespasses and in sin. But then he's directed by the course of this world, is not the second thing. Directed according to the course of this world. In other words, it means you went along. with the crowd. And that's what you're doing. You're going along with the rest of them. You can mix in with any conversation. Yes, you're not going along with that little crowd. Go to save and go into heaven. You choose to go along with the world. Now, the world may be the criminal world.
The course of this criminal world, and that's bad. Getting worse every day. I don't think I put you among the criminal world. And also there is the covetous world. Now, you may be in that tribe. There's the wicked and godly world. Maybe you wouldn't want to classify yourself in that tribe. But there's the moral world. And there's the religious world. You say, well, I think I fit in there. I have a standard of morality. And I would look upon myself as religious. Now, a young man looking for a wife, he wouldn't go down to the dens of iniquity and the caverns of vice in a big city looking for a wife.
If he does, and he gets one, he deserves what he got. I think a young man would like to get a young lady who has a standard of morals and at least some interest in religion. She may have some interest in religion. She may have high standards of morals and not be a born-again Christian. Not know what it is to have Christ as of life. This is the strange thing. I noticed this this past week and I just wrote it out yesterday.
We know about Jane Russell, the great movie of many, after many years ago, worldwide fame. And this is what she said. She was interviewed by a newspaper correspondent. The sad, tormented life of Jane Russell at the age of fifty-eight. She lives a lonely life, has a bloated figure, and drowns her sorrow in drink. She's been married three times, disappointed in her three children, plenty of money, but no happiness. Yet, he says, Jane is a very religious woman, who is.
They all would bring in a little bit of religion. Just a little. And that's the trouble with a lot of folks today. They've got a little bit of religion, a little bit of ritual. That's it. But they don't have Christ. They don't want this to be really born again. Here you have man dead in sin, directed by the world, and also you have man. He is directed also or degraded by the devil. This world is a sad place to live in.
Its course is not upward and Godward. Its course is downward. I was struck the other day in listening through a tape of a preacher and this one I rode over the radio and he was speaking about the coming of Christ. And a lady called up and said, You're just one of those Doomsday preachers. He says, Ladies, I'm anything but that. He said, If you want Doomsday preaching, listen to the news media. You don't get any good news on it. He says, The newsmen are taking care of the Doomsday aspect.
He says, I am preaching on the coming of Christ. Can you think of anything more glorious? That's it. Friend, we've got the answer to this poor world, and its course is downward, directed by the course of this world and dominated by the power of Satan. If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost in whom the God of this age Satan have blinded the mind of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them, and they should be saved. Dominated by Satan.
That's why a lot of people are not saved today. Dominated by the prince and power of the air. And his spirit. operating in the children of disobedience. You don't know how powerful, how strong the devil is. But I can give you a good illustration of it. At the end of this meeting you're going to have an opportunity to accept Christ and what will pull you up out of your seat to take you back out that door. Your intelligence tells you you should be saved. Why don't you get saved? The substance goes contrary to your intelligence, the power It says, go home, settle it some other time.
That's the power of the prince and power of the air. Devil, yet dominated by the prince and power of the air. Sin, he wants you in his, for that's where he's going. Then you had degraded by the lust of the flesh, that's the fourth thing. And of the mind, now the lust of the flesh doesn't mean degrading sin always. very vile affections of body and soul. But there are some things that can be lustful, such as vanity, pride, self-will, covetousness, independence of God.
This is a form of lust. You lust after these things. And then of the mind, God looks upon these things as degrading. You have, in other words, the will, the power to make your choice. And you can carry out the lusts of the flesh, the body and soul, and those things that affect the mind, the lusts of the mind. And there may be things that are more respectable. But God is not included. God is not involved. And for this reason, according to Romans one, God gave them up.
He gave them up. He gave them up. Lust in the flesh and lust of the mind. Is that true of you this morning? These are the things that are influencing you. The course of the world and the power of Satan and the lust of your own heart and mind. Well, by this time, Dr. Ironside After going over some of these things, of course, he didn't say all I said this morning, but he did refer to those verses about how a man is dead in trespass and in sin, dominated by Satan, degraded, and she got up and broke.
He told the hell no longer, he said, hey, lady, I just told you the past. Now I want to tell you the present. I want to tell you my present. And so he went on in verse four, and you'll know what that says. But God, Isn't that nice? But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love or worth, he loved us even when we were dead in sin, thus tricking us together with Christ by grace you are saved. And have raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ. That's my present. Isn't that a wonderful place to be? But God, here is God coming into the picture to take care of that awful past.
And if you're not a Christian, you're in those first four verses. That's where you are. But God wants to take care of your past. He wants to put you into the present. I wonder if you're prepared to let him put you into the present. But God, how wonderful that is. Cricken, made alive, born again. You have a new life. eternal life, the life of God, and it's instantaneous. It's not something that's a process, it's not something you work out, you don't go to classes and study this thing and gradually get involved into being a Christian the moment you accept Christ, you will save that very minute.
You're born again, to as many as received him, to them gave he the power. to become the children of God. Very fairly I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that send me past that very moon. Everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but is past. From death unto life. Not is passing, but is past. It's just like a door between two rooms. Not a long tunnel. Just a door. One step takes you from one to the other. and that's God's salvation. Out of that awful position in verses four, one to four, into that next place, cricket, into new life in Christ Jesus and seated at the right hand of God in your substitute and Savior.
Isn't that a wonderful thing? Cricket. You know there are a number of verses with that were quickened. You find one over, not only with this one, and we have in verse five, but you have it also elsewhere. Verse one and verse five were quickened, and in Colossians three, thirteen, and you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath be quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses. John five twenty-one, as the Father raises up the dead and tricked him there, then, Even so he quickeneth whom he will." And then in verse sixty-three of chapter six, the Spirit, the quickeneth it, the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing.
Romans four, seventeen, it is God that quickeneth the dead. Romans eight eleven. But if the Spirit of him that raises up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also trick in your mortal bodies by a spirit that dwelleth in you. Isn't that amazing? The power of God that raised Jesus Christ from the dead. And the power of God that's going to raise the bodies of all the redeemed on that resurrection morning, that same mighty power. God operates in saving a lost sinner. God will trick in you. into new light in Christ Jesus.
He's got to do it. You can no more save your soul than you could call a new planet into existence. God who broke the silence of eternity and called all these seals into being and keeps them whirling in their various courses, the same mighty power the power of God has got to operate in saving your soul. He can do it. He quickens you. And that's what he wants to do this morning. If you let him, he'll do it. So we're quickened. How wonderful. We're five, even when we were dead in sin, have quickened us together with Christ.
By great he are saved. If you think of anything more lovely than that saved, you are saved. Not your glory be or your hard being. You are right this minute. That's what he says. No longer in the place of death. You're in the place of life. You're in Christ. God sees you in Christ. At God's right hand, He sees you in His Son. Can you tell me anything higher than that? There's nothing higher than being a Christian. You are in Christ Jesus. Not in Adam.
Not in your sins. You're in Christ. Now, that's what the Bible says. What puts us there is mercy, love, and grace in verses four and five. You read those three wonderful words. Mercy, love, and grace. God's mercy, love, and grace has put in me into new life in Christ. He's taken me out of that awful dungeon of sin, and He's placed me on that mighty pinnacle of the temple of in the person of His Son, so nice, so that in light of God knew I could not be for in the person of His Son, I am as near as He.
What a place. What a position. By this time, the old palm reader was really ready to go. Dr. Isaac, hold on, ladies. I've got one more point I want to tell you my future. Verse seven. that in the ages to come he might sow the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us with Christ Jesus. That's my future. Can you tell me a future more glorious than that? What a future in the ages to come. Ages. Ages upon ages upon ages upon ages.
Why a monster? The ages to come. The past That's sad. The present, I have life. I'm glad. The future, it's right. That's wrong. Jesus is coming. That's wonderful. God has made known to every Christian his past, his present, and his future. He's made known in his Bible the past, the present, and the future of the universe. He's made known the past, present, and future of the Jewish nation. He's made known the past, present, future of the nations of the earth.
He's gathered them together into the Middle East. He's got a future for this world. He tells us the past and the present and the future of the church. He tells us the past, the present, and the future of us as individuals. I know what my past was. Don't ask me to tell you about it. Ask me my present. I'll talk an hour on that one. My present, I'm in Christ. I'm seated, accepted, in the beloved. God looks upon his son and he sees me. That's wonderful.
That's a good place to be. A new position. What about my future? Oh, that's wonderful. I'm waiting for the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a wonderful, wonderful future that is. I wonder if you can say that's your future this morning. Wouldn't you like a better future? Would you like to stay like you are for all eternity? I would not. You would take a look in the mirror. Would you like to stay that way for all eternity? I hope there's going to be some difference. There will be a big difference. Because the Bible says, Beloved, now are we the sons of God and doth not appear what we shall be.
But we know when he shall appear, we shall be like him. For we shall see him as is. We'll do it looking at them, will we? Yes, that's our future. I wonder if you're interested in this. By this time, Your fortune, Pella, she couldn't take any more, and she pulled away, and she hurried down the hour murmuring, I got the wrong man, I got the wrong man. She sure did. And yet she didn't. If she had been wise, she would have said, I found the right man who had the right message. People that don't want to be taken up with the mysterious, the unknown, they're not satisfied with what God has revealed.
friend this morning. If you came to the Albany Gospel Chapel to get patted on the back or to be told you were so wonderful, and God will be complimented if you only accept His Son. And if you came here to hear me tell you all about your goodness and say nothing about your badness, you came to the wrong man. I'm not going to tell you that. I'm going to tell you you're a sinner. law and you need to be saved. You need Christ. There's a mad doctor by the name of Dodson. Remarkable. And this doctor out in California was speaking to seven hundred ministers.
And her subject was social pressure in editing the gospel. Now what does that mean? Social pressure. Thinking of what others may say. Our lady ridicule. Editing the gospel. picking and choosing. I'm going to just preach what I think the audience wants to hear. If I don't, then I'll be in hot water. Oh yes, I'll preach the love of God and I'll preach man's goodness and I'll be well accepted. Social pressure, picking and choosing. But God, the Lord Jesus spoke of the love of God, the grace of God, the kindness of God, But he told the other side, death, hell, judgment, the lake of fire.
And he didn't care what people said either. He was under no social pressure. I'm afraid any preacher who gets up and preaches love, love, love, love, love, and doesn't we preach judgment, judgment, judgment in the lake of fire, he's out of bounds. And it's social pressure that's keeping us from doing it. People don't like good news, bad news. Oh, they like good news, they don't like bad news. I read this in the paper about this captain of a commercial airline. And he said over the intercom, and I'm going to read it again right.
He says, I am pressed to inform you that for the past three hours, We have been traveling entirely without the assistance of the navigational aid. The radio is on the blink. The compass is spinning in circles. And I have no contact with any station. He says, I will assure you, in the broad sense of the word, we are lost. But he adds this. He said, on the brighter side, we are making good progress. making excellent progress. Well, that doesn't fit in. If they're lost, they go the way they're going.
They'll make good progress. Then you're making good progress, too. On the wrong road, you're lost. And at the end is the lake of fire. And you're making good progress. Sixty seconds every minute. Sixty minutes every hour. And you're slowing up. nature's reflexes are not the same and you're going fast and you're going to a lost eternity you don't like that do you it's the truth finally that commander of that airplane told him the truth but he kind of softened it up at the end but it was a deceitful thing I wonder then this morning if you're ready to come to terms.
People don't like sin. This same doctor said that he had a Bible class for two years. Now, he got a guilty conscience. That's why he preached to these seven hundred preachers. He said, I had a Bible class for two years. We took up all kinds of things about counseling, children, parents, and home life of death. And he said, I hadn't preached sin. And he said, no, not sin. Why, the Bible doesn't mean a thing. Why do you want remedies if there's no sickness? And the Bible's been given us because of sin. The Bible's the answer to us. That's the only remedy. The Bible. Tell the Bible there is no sin.
You don't need it. But because there's sin, we need the Bible. And he said a young man pulled him aside. It's the first time he came to his Bible class. He says, you know, For this preacher, for the first time in two years, he preached on the subject of sin and the grave of sin. This young fellow said, you know, Dr. Dobson, I just told my dad last night that I'm not going to church anymore. He said, I've been going, and he said, I'm a sinner, and I know it. And I haven't had any preacher with the courage to tell me I'm a sinner. And he says, Yet I knew I'm a sinner and I want to be saved.
And he happened to go that morning to Dr. Dodson, Bible class. Dr. Dodson had the joy of pointing him to Christ. He admitted his failure as a preacher to preach the truth. This lady here, what she should have done, he turned to Dr. Ironside and said, Mr. Ironside, I wouldn't take anything for this acquaintance. I was a palm reader, taken up to the mystical, on my way to hell when I came in here. You showed me my past, but now I have Christ.
I know my presence. I have Christ, and I know my future. I'm going to be with the Lord forever and forever. If you didn't do that, the palm reader's mistake, I'm afraid some of you are going to make the same mistake. Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, commend for thy presence, be asked thy blessing, on thy word. How we thank thee for those present who have been saved from their awful past.
They know Christ in their presence. They know they're safe in Christ, hidden with Christ in the very presence of God. And our future of grace is glorious. We pray now for those who are not in this good position, that in their sins, their loss, they're going to hell. They need a save. We thank you for their presence. We trust that thy word has reached their hearts and their intelligence. May we make a decision for Christ and make it this morning. Heaven will sing with joy and gladness over another sinner repentance.
We do ask this in our Savior's precious name. Amen. Shall we sing in closing? Jesus, I come. Out of my bondage, sorrow and night, Jesus, I come. Jesus, I come. Into thy freedom, gladness, and light, Jesus, I come to thee. Out of my sickness, into thy health, out of my want, and you want, Mary, into thy wealth, out of my sin, and into thyself. What a change. Jesus, I come to thee. If you've made that decision and want to make it, will you come as we stand and sing this verse with him?