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Colin Smith: An open door is no different from a closed door to a person who is dead. Makes no difference. So grace is more than God making your salvation possible. Grace is God saving you.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. Today, we're looking at that grace of God where he is saving us. We're looking at what happens to a person when they become a Christian and how they happen to come to faith.

Colin Smith: From our side, we may say, "I believed in the Lord Jesus Christ." But behind that, the Bible gives us marvelous language like this: that we were dead in trespasses and sins and God made us alive in Jesus Christ. Behind my faith, there's a miracle of God at work.

Guest (Male): So it sounds like we're completely passive in this, nothing for us to do.

Colin Smith: No, we're not passive because God says, "Repent," and God says, "Believe." And yet, in what way am I able to do that? When Jesus says to the man with a shriveled hand, "Stretch out your hand," he's being called to do something. But how is he going to do it? That's the question.

The answer is: the God who commands him to do it is going to give him the power to do it. God calls us to faith. How am I going to have faith? God is able to give what he commands.

Guest (Male): That is what we're going to be looking at on today's program. I hope you'll join us in Ephesians 2 as we continue the message, "Dead Men Walking." Here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Death is the end of all hope for us, but not for God. The Father raises the dead, and the Son of God, who has life in himself, is able to give this life to whom he is pleased to give it.

That raises the following question: how then does Christ give this life? The answer is that Jesus gives this life, this new life, by speaking. Notice that clearly in verse 25. "A time is coming," Jesus says, "and has now come." This is something that now already is happening with the coming of Jesus and since his coming.

"A time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live." That should immediately make you think, what's the first thing that we learn about God in the Bible right at the beginning in the creation story?

When he speaks, things that did not exist come into being. It's wonderful. God says, "Let there be light," and there is light. Now here's the Son of God and he speaks, and when he speaks, he says, "Let there be life." When the Son of God says, "Let there be life," life comes where there was only death previously. People who were dead hear his voice and, hearing his voice, live. This is a miracle of grace.

You were dead in transgressions and sins. God made you alive in Jesus Christ. That's what he's talking about right here. Christ comes to people who are dead in their sins. He says, "Let there be life," and the dead hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear live. You have this illustrated in the physical realm by our Lord Jesus Christ in the gospels.

Do you remember that little girl, Jairus' daughter, 12 years old? She is dead, and there she is in the bedroom. Jesus goes in with the father and the mother, and he says, "Talitha koum! Talitha koum!" which means, "Little girl, I say to you, get up." When Jesus speaks, life comes into her and she gets up. Jesus says to her parents, "Now you better go and give her something to eat."

Do you remember, perhaps even more dramatically, the tomb of Lazarus? He's been in there for four days, so that Mary says it's going to really smell in there now if they open the stone. Jesus says, "Lazarus, come forth!" John records how Lazarus comes forth, still bound with linen strips and with a cloth around his face.

The Son of God speaks, and physical life is imparted in these resurrections from the dead. It is precisely in that way that we are being told that the Son of God speaks into spiritual death, into our own inability and unresponsiveness towards God, and brings a new heart, a new mind, and a new spirit. The Bible calls this the new birth, being born from above. It's glorious. The dead hear his voice and live.

Matthew Henry says it is by the voice of the Son of God that souls are raised to spiritual life, and that power is communicated by his word. Earlier this year, I got to know a new member of our congregation, Keith Devalasco. As we were talking, he told me about his father, Joe, who was a Christian artist. Joe Devalasco, who is now with the Lord, lived for many years in Park Ridge. His work has been widely appreciated, and one of his paintings is displayed in the Billy Graham Center in Wheaton.

Keith gave me a print of one of his father's paintings, which is now hanging in my office. It is not the most beautiful painting I have ever seen, but it's in my office because it gets to the heart of what I believe. The picture is called "O Wretched Man." In this picture, this man is dead and he is looking at himself.

If you can read the inscription on the top, it has the words, "O wretched man that I am." He's asking that question from Romans 7, "Who's going to deliver me from this body of death?" You see the force of the painting: as long as this man is looking at himself, he's only looking at death and there is no hope for him there.

But look at where there is hope in the picture. The man's hand is resting on the Bible, the Word of God. Do you see the color there, that life is coming into him? It's coming into him from the Word of Christ. The Son of God is bringing life into the place where there was death by the entrance of his word.

This man is consumed with himself and he's saying, "O wretched man that I am! Who is going to deliver me from this body of death?" But there is an answer to that question: thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! As long as you're looking at yourself and as long as you're preoccupied with yourself, there is absolutely no hope that you are ever going to find there.

Lay hold of the promises of the Son of God. Lay hold of the word of life. Lay hold of the Lord Jesus Christ and his promises, and life will come into you. Life comes. I need this myself. That is why I have it in my office. As often as I end up getting preoccupied with myself—what have I done with my life, what have I accomplished, how have I progressed—I go down and down.

I have to lay hold of the promises of God. My life is hidden with Christ in God. That's where my life is. I say to you, those who are drawn to Christ even now: look to Jesus Christ right now. Put your trust in him, put your faith in him, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ask him to do for you what you cannot do for yourself. Look to him to be for you what you cannot be for yourself. Do you lack love for God? Come to the Lord Jesus Christ and ask of him what you do not have. Do you feel that seeking to be a Christian today is beyond what you could do? Look to Jesus Christ to give you what you do not have.

Don't sit looking at yourself. There is no hope there. There's a great old hymn, "Jesus, the Name High Over All," that speaks of the very power that is in Jesus Christ, even in his name. It says, "Jesus the prisoner's fetters breaks and bruises Satan's head. Power into strengthless souls he speaks and life into the dead." That's where there's hope.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called "Dead Men Walking." We'll continue this message in just a moment, so stay with us. All month here at Open the Bible, we've been talking about Lincoln's Daily Devotional as a special thank-you gift for your financial support of the ministry this month.

Today is the final day to give a gift of any amount and receive as our thank-you your copy of Lincoln's Daily Devotional. You can find out more at our website, openthebible.org, or you can call and give over the phone at 1-877-OPEN-365. That's 1-877-673-6365. Again, our website is openthebible.org. Back to the message. Here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Now, two conclusions and then we're through. First, it is always worth sharing the gospel. I have to tell you that the truth we've been looking at today is the single most motivating truth with regards to sharing the gospel that I know. It encourages me, it drives me, and it sustains me in the work of evangelism.

Here's why. Some of you will remember the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37. God takes Ezekiel in a vision to see this vast valley full of dry bones. Nothing is living there. God says to Ezekiel, "Son of man, can these bones live?" Ezekiel says, "O sovereign Lord, only you know that."

Then the Lord says, "Prophesy to these bones." In other words, speak the Word of God to these bones and say to them, "Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord and live." You can imagine Ezekiel thinking, "I am to speak to dry bones?" I expect he'd spoken to a few pretty unresponsive congregations, but a valley of dry bones?

What possible purpose can there be in speaking the Word of God into a situation of death? Maybe you are thinking about someone who is spiritually dead and you say, "What's the point in even trying? What's the point in even saying something about Christ to them?" But Ezekiel was obedient to the Lord.

He spoke the word of the Lord. As he spoke the word of the Lord into this situation of absolute death, the Spirit of God began to move. God said to the bones, "I will make breath enter you and you will come to life." You remember how those bones got connected to each other, and eventually there are living people.

That story in the Old Testament is telling us precisely what we're learning today: that God brings new life into places of death by his Spirit and he does it through the word of Christ that we are privileged to share with others. I know that new life does not come every time we share the Word of God. It's like the living seed; some falls on stony ground.

But some falls on ground in which God is wonderfully at work, and up springs a harvest 30, 60, and 100-fold. When you understand this, you will be greatly encouraged. What's motivating in evangelism is not to look at the particular situation of the person—then you'll just say they're so far away there can't be any hope.

Motivation from evangelism doesn't come in terms of saying, "How good is my presentation of the gospel?" because then you'll only despair of your own inadequate presentation. Motivation from evangelism comes in this way: that you know and are convinced of the biblical truth that Christ imparts spiritual life through his word.

Therefore, you go onto the college campus and you share it with other students, or you share it with neighbors or a colleague at work. Who knows what God will do by his Spirit through the imparting of his word? That's how spiritual life comes.

Here's the second application: there is therefore hope in Christ for the worst of sinners. There is hope in Jesus Christ for the person in church who is farthest from God of all of us today. There really is hope for you in Jesus Christ today.

When I was studying theology in London, I remember learning about a thing called the Engel scale. The idea behind it was that some people seem to be very far away from God, and others seem to be relatively near to some kind of personal faith. The Engel scale was developed to attempt to chart a person's spiritual position.

If you were really antagonistic towards Christianity, you might be a minus 10. If you seemed fairly softened, you might be a minus 2 or a minus 1. Conversion came at point 0. If you were a very young and immature Christian, you were plus 1. If you were really flying in spiritual maturity, you were plus 10.

The idea was that this could be used to help missionaries and churches focus on the people who were most likely to be responsive. Surely it would be a wise thing to place our effort where we were likely to get the greatest response. Folks, that was 30 years ago, and I still remember thinking that makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.

If it is true that we are all spiritually dead until Jesus Christ breathes life into us, what is the difference between a minus 1 and a minus 10? If minus 1 is dead, then presumably minus 5 is very dead, and minus 10 is extremely dead. The rich young ruler wanted to know about eternal life. I'd make him a minus 1, wouldn't you?

He comes to Jesus all moral and interested, he speaks to Jesus himself, and he goes away hopelessly lost because he's spiritually dead. Here's another man, Saul of Tarsus. Where would you put him? Minus 10 on the Engel scale, I think. Absolute hatred for the church of Jesus Christ and everything that the name of Christ represents.

He was stone dead towards the things of Christ, but he hears the voice of the Son of God on the road to Damascus, and he is gloriously converted. If you are a Christian today, the miracle that has happened in your life is every bit as great as what happened to Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus.

If you don't see that, it's probably because you don't believe that you were spiritually dead. Maybe you were like me, brought up in a Christian home, and maybe like me you did come to Jesus in a very simple way early in life and had not committed any gross sins. It was no harder for God to save Saul of Tarsus than it was for him to save you.

The miracle was exactly the same. It was a resurrection from the dead. Your salvation was no less a miracle, no less an intervention from God than what happened on the road to Damascus to the Saul of Tarsus. You were dead and you were brought to life. There are no degrees in it.

It may be that you have come here today and you are very far from God. You came into this service antagonistic towards God. You really don't know why you came here or why you're here now. I want to say to you: you do not need to take a long journey to come to Jesus Christ.

He's able to make you a new man or a new woman today. The resurrection of Jesus Christ happened in a moment. Up from the grave he arose! That could happen to you today spiritually. God is able to do that for you today as you have heard the word of Jesus Christ.

He's able to give you a new mind, a new heart, new desires, new affections, new power, new direction, and a new spirit. He's able to make you a new creation. He's able to do it right now. That's what conversion is. We were all at one time dead in transgressions and sins. But, says Paul, God has made us alive in Jesus Christ.

My prayer is that that life will come through the word into your soul today if it has not come already. Maybe you've been in church for the last 30 years and you're just like the rich young ruler—very religious, but the life of Jesus is not in you. You need that miracle of grace every bit as much as the person who's the furthest from God.

Look to Christ. Tell him that you've seen your own need in a whole new light. As you hear his word, believe in the Father and in the Son. He says, "Whoever hears my word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned because he, she has crossed over from death to life." Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and a message entitled "Dead Men Walking." What a powerful reminder that our salvation is a total work of God's grace. If you've been encouraged by today's message and would like to share it with someone else, you can find it online at openthebible.org.

As we mentioned earlier, we're currently offering Lincoln's Daily Devotional as our thank-you gift for your financial support of Open the Bible. Today is the final day of this special offer. Your gifts help us continue to share the Word of God through this program and online resources. To give, visit openthebible.org or call us at 1-877-OPEN-365.

Thank you for your support and for listening. Join us again next time. For Pastor Colin and all of us here at Open the Bible, I'm wishing you a wonderful day in the Lord.