Without Christ, Strength, Hope

I want to read with you in Ephesians chapter 2, we're going to read one verse. Ephesians chapter 2 and we'll read verse 12. That at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, and having no hope, and without God in the world.

Now one more verse over in the epistle to the Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5 and we're going to read the 6th verse of the chapter. But when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. That's all we're going to read.

We know that God will add his blessing to the reading of his word. I'm going to take four expressions of two words from what I have read. The first expression is without Christ.

The second expression is without hope. The third is without strength. And the final two words are Christ died.

Without Christ, without hope, without strength, Christ died. I want you to think for a moment of this little expression without Christ. In this little epistle to the Ephesians, and in the early chapters of this little epistle, Paul is taking the Ephesians back to a moment before they were saved, before they heard the gospel, when they were without Christ.

He's reminding them of the solemnity of that moment. To discover that they were without Christ. But in the second chapter of the Ephesian epistle in verse 1, Paul is going to remind them that something remarkable happened in their life.

They heard the gospel. They were convicted of their sin. They realized their need.

And then that first verse of chapter 2, Paul says, You hath he quickened. That is, there was a moment when they were quickened. That word simply means that those who were without Christ were made to live.

They realized in that moment of time that they were in their sins and they needed a Savior. And they were made to live. They were quickened.

I want you to understand tonight that we are born without Christ. That's how we commence the journey of life. There is no one who was always saved.

There must be a moment in life when we receive, when we accept Christ. In this epistle, in the second chapter, the first three verses, Paul has a description of those who are without Christ. And so he says, first of all, in verse 1, that they are dead.

That's the present condition of those who are without Christ. They are dead. We have said sometimes in a children's gathering, have you ever seen a dead person walk? There are dead people all over the city of La Crosse tonight, walking up and down the streets.

But before God, they are dead. They are dead in trespasses and sins. They have no spiritual life.

They are not quickened. They are still traveling to eternity in the same condition in which they were born on the broad road without Christ. When you come to the second chapter of this epistle, he describes those who are without Christ as children of disobedience.

He's taking us back again, way back to the Garden of Eden, and to the moment when Adam disobeyed God. And from that moment on, every person born into the world has been born a child of disobedience. And so tonight, without Christ, a child of disobedience, that's the present condition that you are before God without Christ.

But when you come to the third verse of this epistle, chapter 2, Paul has another expression. Those who are without Christ are the children of wrath. That's the ultimate end of those who go out into eternity without Christ to experience the awful wrath of God.

We want to emphasize tonight that the wrath of God is barely real. And without Christ, and to enter God's eternity without Christ, you'll experience the wrath of God. When you come to the expression without Christ, born without Christ, but it is a difficult thing to live in this world without Christ.

I have dealt with teenagers for a good number of years of my life, and I have seen individuals in all kinds of difficulty trying to grope their way through life, and they have not Christ. They have not the One that the believer can say, I have found a friend. The Lord Jesus said to those who trust Him, to those who have Christ, that they are His friends.

I saw a little boy one day in the schoolyard behind a group of trees when a number of other children were out in the schoolyard, and I knew that someone was behind those group of trees at the end of the yard. And I made my way around so I could see who was there. You don't like strangers in a schoolyard.

And I saw a little boy, probably in grade 2 or 3, and he's standing there facing the tree, and he's picking little pieces of bark off the tree. And with all of those children in that schoolyard, there was a little boy who had no friends. That's kind of like a person trying to get through life without Christ.

They have not this friend who sticketh closer than a brother. They are stranger to the grace of God without Christ. But to enter eternity without Christ, that thief on the cross, he suffered the awful death of crucifixion.

But that man, he looked at the Lord Jesus and used that terrible word, if thou be the Son of God. And in that case, a word of solemn doubt, the man entered God's eternity without Christ. And for hundreds of years now, he has been spending time in the place called hell without Christ.

And the torments of hell, as the rich man said, I am tormented in this flame. That torment was so, so tremendously much greater than he ever experienced on that cross, suffering that death of crucifixion without Christ. To face eternity without Christ.

And life is very, very short. And it is very, very uncertain. Even for those who are younger.

There are three names that often come to me when I stand to preach the gospel. Harvey, Tom, Julie Walensky, and Jackie Carson. And you'll never meet them.

They have some things in common. They were all teenagers. I was their teacher.

They all died. Julie Walensky, a very pretty girl, met a very brutal death. And the perpetrator of Julie's death has never been apprehended.

And that was nearly 40 years ago. Harvey, Tom, was a little Jewish boy, much overweight. My first or second year of teaching, the other children made fun of Harvey.

I didn't realize that until it was too late. Until Harvey had had just about all he could take, and Harvey took his own life. Jackie Carson.

I got a phone call one morning, early, as I was preparing to leave for school, and I was asked to get to school very early that morning. I left very early because Jackie Carson died. She had been riding a horse.

The horse threw her. She hit her head on a rock and instantly, in eternity. I helped the caretaker remove Jackie's desk from the classroom, went to the office, and I got a brown paper bag.

I went to Jackie's desk, and I took all of her possessions that were in that desk and put them in a brown paper bag. I went back to the office, and I waited because I knew what was going to happen. The door at the end of the long hallway opened, and a man and a woman came into the school, walked very slowly down the hallway.

Their eyes were red. They had been weeping. They came into the office, and I stood facing Jackie's parents.

I had a good conversation with Jackie. Jackie was a person you could speak to. I thought very much of that student.

Now I'm standing in front of Mom and Dad. Jackie's gone. And all I had to give them was a brown paper bag.

I can't even remember what was said for those few moments that we stood facing each other. They turned around, and they walked out of that building. I don't know about Jackie.

I don't know about Julie Wolanski. I don't know about Harvey Taub. But I know this, that life is very short, even for younger people who are in this meeting just at this present moment.

You're facing eternity. Life is so uncertain. Neither one of those, except perhaps for Harvey, the other two never realized that life was going to end.

Life ends, young or old. And to enter God's eternity without Christ is a solemn moment, a solemn event in your little life's history, to enter that eternity without hope. There are those who sit in a Gospel meeting.

They come to a meeting sometimes. And they think that all is well for eternity. They think that they're going to make it to heaven at the end of the journey.

And then they discover that they were born in sin and shape and in iniquity. They were born without Christ. They begin to realize that their life's works and their little efforts and their hopes and all that they have been basing eternity on, that that melts away in a Gospel meeting.

And they realize, they discover, that they are without hope. No hope of ever being in heaven. In their sins.

No Christ. No real moment in life when they have accepted Christ as Savior. And it suddenly dawns upon them, I have no hope that you come to that place in your life.

A young girl attending tent meetings way up in the northern part of Ontario came to the meeting a number of times. That girl, 14 years old, wanted to be saved. One night after the tent meeting, she left the tent, went way off, and hid herself under a group of trees out of sight.

But her eyes were fastened on the entrance to the tent. And she waited until everybody was out of the tent and we had gone around and were doing up the sides of the tent. And it was kind of an empty feeling for the preacher.

Had to have everybody leave and no one indicating that they got saved. Until we saw her coming back. She had a pile of Kleenex in her hand.

She wanted to be saved. I hope there's someone here tonight and you want to be saved. At the present moment, you have no hope.

And you realize that you are without strength. That there's nothing you can do. That you're hopeless as you wander on to eternity.

And deep in your soul, there is that longing to be saved. That girl came back into the tent that night. And the other man who was with me, we put three chairs in a little circle up in the front of the tent.

I can see the scene now. I've never seen this happen before. The other man was an older man than I was and he said he'd never seen it happen either.

We tried to read a few verses to that girl. But all she wanted was, I want to be saved. And it seems that the more that was said or read to her, the greater the hopelessness in her soul became.

So she got up. That tent was pitched on gravel. She got down on her knees.

And she put her hands on the chair in front of her. And the chair was shaking with her hands. And I will never forget what I heard.

I heard a young 14-year-old girl without Christ, without hope, without strength, totally lost in the darkness of her sin. The words of the poet are true. Wandering on in the darkness, it had settled upon her soul.

Not a hope that she would be in heaven. Not a ray of light that donned her soul. Hopeless.

Knowing that two men would not be able to save her. Nothing we could say. Any verse of Scripture that we read.

It all seemed to get darker and darker and darker. Until on her knees, with her hands on that chair in front of her, I heard her cry, Oh God, save me! And she got up. And she walked out of the tent.

And left the two of us sitting there wondering. Sometimes you know even Gospel preachers can be pretty slow. My Bible says, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

I would be confident tonight after watching that girl, that anyone who is in agony about their soul, anyone who is genuinely convinced and convicted about eternity, and really troubled about their sin, and crying to God out of the depths of despair and hopelessness, and urgently crying to God to be saved. I don't know whether she got saved on her knees in that tent, or in Grandfather's car going home from the media, or in her bedroom that night. But you should have seen her the next night.

A radiant smile. At some time during that interval, God heard her cry. He saw the desperation in the heart of a convicted sinner who wanted to be saved.

God delivered her. And she has lived to prove the reality of God's salvation. Born without Christ.

Traveling on to eternity with no hope. Without strength, no ability, no power to deliver yourself. Let me take you just for a moment as we close to those tremendous words.

And I'm certain that in this gathering tonight, someone would tell me that they were reading Romans 5 and verse 6 the moment that they were saved. Notice again what the verse says. For when we were yet without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.

The death of Christ is all that is needed for an ungodly sinner to be delivered from their sins. Those words that we have just been singing, the battle fought, the victory won. The Savior suffered upon a cross.

God has only one way to deal with sin. And that one way is suffering. Either the sinner will accept the Savior who suffered for them, or the sinner will suffer for their sins.

Suffering is the only way that God has to deal with sin. If I was to turn to 1 Peter 3, and I think verse 18, Peter says, For Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. Any soul that is going to heaven has a moment in their life concerned about their sin, troubled about their soul's eternal destiny, realizing that life is short, that eternity is never ending.

And that if they die in their sins, they will suffer for their sins. But there is a moment when they realize that there was a man outside the walls of Jerusalem who suffered, who took their place. There is a moment in their life when they realize that that man died for them.

Precious moment. All that I have for eternity is that moment when I discover Christ died for me, suffered for my sins, paid the penalty of my sins at the place called Calvary. You have that moment tonight.

Any soul going to heaven will be able to tell about that precious moment. Remember on a cold January afternoon when I realized that I was ungodly. And through the precious words of John 5 and 24, verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word and believeth Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life.

Dead in sins, trusting Christ as Savior, imparted with everlasting life. Eternal life. No longer dead.

No longer without Christ. No longer without hope. Trusting a Savior who suffered and whose precious blood was shed at Calvary.

I'm going to close this meeting just now. But I'm going to ask you just as we close the meeting, just to turn carefully, very carefully, over the pages of your life. Go back to the chapters and the events of life just very carefully for a moment.

Has there been a moment when you realized that you were in your sins? That you needed to be saved? You were troubled. You were concerned about that. And a moment when the death of the Lord Jesus Christ became precious to you.

A moment when you realized that that death was for you. That the Savior took your place. That He suffered the wrath of God.

That He bore the judgment of God for you. Now you can say, payment my God will not twice demand. First at my bleeding surety's hand, and then again at mine.

The account is settled. I'm certain tonight. I'm persuaded tonight that I will never stand before God to answer for my sin.

Because the Savior has taken my place and has bore the judgment of God for my sin. I'm going to quote the verse again. For when we were yet without strength, in due time, drink in the words, Christ died for the ungodly.

He died for sinners. He took the sinners place. There must be a moment when you accept Christ as your Savior bearing the judgment and the penalty of your sins.

We're going to pray.