WEBVTT

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Do you ever just stop and think

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about what we do?

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A bunch of people come together

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on the Lord's Day,

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and they all gather inside this place,

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and they sing together.

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I mean, you get words up here,

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and we all try to vocalize

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the words that we see

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and we all try to do it in harmony

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simultaneously.

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We proclaim.

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We sing and we proclaim.

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We teach.

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We proclaim truth.

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We talk to each other.

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Do you ever think about

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what happens in these songs?

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I know years ago,

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we thought about all the different ways

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that sometimes in the song,

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we actually are talking to God.

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Sometimes in the song,

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God is talking to us.

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Sometimes in the song,

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we are talking to each other.

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Do you ever notice that?

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Can anybody think of a song that we sing

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where God is talking to us?

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(from the room)

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I will strengthen you, help you,

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and cause you to stand.

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I was thinking of the same song.

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Anybody think of one where we

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talk to each other?

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(unintelligible)

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The classic.

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How about where we're 
speaking to the Lord?

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(unintelligible)

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It's endless.

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That fly...

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(Incomplete thought)

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Someone just recently was telling me

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that Conrad Murrell had a fly

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flying around his head

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when he was preaching one time,

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and he really believed it was demonic too.

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I think I've mentioned that before.

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Beelzebub is lord of the flies.

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And he commanded that fly

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in the name of Christ,

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and it immediately went up to the ceiling.

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True story.

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But think of the other thing that we do

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when we gather together.

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You actually sit there

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and you listen to a man who comes up front

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and he talks to you.

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If you really think about what we do

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and what is it all meant to do?

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It's all meant to strengthen our faith.

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It's all meant to portray God.

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It's a way in which we refresh

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and we remind ourselves

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about who God is

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and what God requires.

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It's a way that we see God afresh.

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We see His glories.

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We see His truth.

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It's a way that the Word of God

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is brought again and again and again

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to the people of God

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so that we might be built up.

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So that we might continue in the race.

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We put our eyes back upon the Lord Jesus.

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It's a time when we use

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our spiritual gifts

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to help one another.

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We gather together to stir up one another

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to love and good works.

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Brethren, we find ourselves

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in the epistle written by the Apostle Paul

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to the Ephesians.

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You can turn in your Bibles there.

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We'll read the passage this morning

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and then we'll go to the Lord in prayer.

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Ephesians 2, and I'm going to read to you

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the first 7 verses.

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"And you were dead in the trespasses

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and sins in which you once walked,

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following the course of this world,

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following the prince of 
the power of the air,

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the spirit that is now at work

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in the sons of disobedience,

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among whom we all once lived,

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in the passions of our flesh,

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carrying out the desires of the body

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and the mind and were by nature

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children of wrath,

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like the rest of mankind.

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But God, being rich in mercy,

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because of the great love

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with which He loved us,

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even when we were dead

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in our trespasses,

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made us alive together with Christ.

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By grace you have been saved,

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and raised us up with Him

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and seated us with Him

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in the heavenly places,

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in Christ Jesus,

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so that in the coming ages..."

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When the Christian is discouraged

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and wants to throw in the towel,

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God sends verses like this at us:

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"So that in the coming ages,

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He might show the immeasurable

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(or the exceeding)

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riches of His grace in kindness."

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The coming ages...

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Think about an age.

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We think of the Bronze Age.

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Ages are segments of time

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that we break up and we divide

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by certain realities;

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certain characteristics or attributes

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that can be ascribed to that age.

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Ages.

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The coming ages.

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There's no end to that.

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Just imagine,

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Christian, this is what you have

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to look forward to.

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Age after age after age...

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of a God Who does not lack for power

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or for wisdom.

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Who is going to be intent

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on showing you the unlimited,

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boundless,

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immeasurable,

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exceeding riches of His grace

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in kindness

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toward us.

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All this grace is directional.

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It's coming at you.

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Let's pray.

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Father, this is Your Word.

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This has been divinely breathed.

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This is a message

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from outside this world.

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This is not simply

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the intellect of a man at work.

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This is an alien message -

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foreign, outside.

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These are words that are sent

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from glory, from Heaven.

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Divinely breathed.

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Thy Word is truth.

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Lord, confront us with 
the truth of Your Word.

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There is so much here.

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Help us just to fathom

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something of the depths of these things.

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Father, please help us today.

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I pray in Christ's name,

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Amen.

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So, in the next several weeks,

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I want to deal with v. 4-7.

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Many of you know, you remember,

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I hope you do if you were here,

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first three verses.

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I did five messages specifically

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on, "How Dead is Dead?

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the Five-Fold Fallenness of Man."

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Now, I want to contrast that,

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because there's a "but" here.

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The "but" is a "but" of contrast.

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So, what I want to do now

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is start another sermon series

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dealing with these four verses.

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And I've called it,

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"How Alive is Alive?

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The Four-fold Risenness

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of the Christian."

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God helping us, today is part 1.

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So you see,

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verse 4,

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transition.

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We've come to the transition point.

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Before this,

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in this chapter - before this,

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nothing but gloom and despair

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and hopelessness and wrath.

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You were, Christian. You were that.

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But, with v. 4, we find out

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what happens when God goes to work.

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Notice.

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I want you to notice a word here.

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Go to v. 5.

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And look at the word "made."

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Now the subject that you attach

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to that verb is God 
from the previous verse.

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But, God made us alive.

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I know the old King James says quickened.

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That's the archaic word for making alive.

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Quickened.

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Don't you like that?

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Quick.

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Quickened.

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God makes something happen.

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God makes us into something.

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Just grasp that.

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That's what we're dealing with here.

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When we come to these verses,

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this is about what God has done.

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That's what we have in these verses:

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The making of a Christian.

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And we want to notice this.

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Why?

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Because, brethren, you tell me

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what is more important 
than being a Christian?

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Tell me.

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Because there's nothing you 
can put in its place.

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There's nothing that rivals this.

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There is nothing above this.

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There is nothing beyond this.

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Why? Brethren, because there's nothing

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beyond verse 7.

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And you don't get to verse 7,

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unless 4, 5, and 6 are a reality

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in your life.

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Four, five, and six are past tense.

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If you're a Christian,

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they've already happened to you.

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This is God making the Christian.

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The only thing future

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in these four verses is v. 7.

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There's nothing beyond that.

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There is nothing.

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Look, what can be beyond

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a God of all power and all wisdom

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saying, you know what?

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I am going to, from 
the depths of My power,

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the depths of My wisdom,

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the depths of My grace,

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the riches of My mercy,

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I am going to reach in;

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I'm going to reach in

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to the depths of My being;

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the depths of My innovation,

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and I am going to create ways

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through all these coming ages,

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to show My kindness.

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And make no mistake about it,

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God means to put Himself on display

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in the so doing of this.

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To be an object.

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To be a vessel of mercy.

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You understand, God's mercies

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are not just like bestowed one time

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and then that's it.

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To be a vessel of mercy means

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God is going to seek to fill you

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to overflowing with His mercy,

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again and again and again

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and again and again

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through all of the coming ages.

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There's nothing beyond that.

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There's nothing higher than this.

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This is what we're dealing with.

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And we're dealing with what God does

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to make a person who actually

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becomes one who is going to

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enjoy all of this.

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This is God making some people

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into something that they were not before.

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That's what we have.

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That's what's before us.

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This is the making of a Christian.

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Do you recognize that?

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To make alive is to make a Christian.

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What we have before us

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is God's Christianity.

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And I want to emphasize that

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because there's a lot

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that purports to be Christianity.

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A lot of name only out here.

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But what we have here is the real deal.

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This is what you've got to have

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if you're going to be a Christian.

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There's a lot of decisional stuff.

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I just had somebody ask me,

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"what do you think of altar calls?"

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There's lots of people

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making lots of decisions.

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Listen, there is a place for that.

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People decide for Christ,

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but people decide all sorts of things.

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People decide I'm going to go to church.

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People decide to not do this

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and to do another thing.

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You know probably, most of you,

00:14:57.032 --> 00:15:06.826
"decisional regeneration."

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We're not talking about something

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that men start.

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Listen, no one goes down this process;

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nobody goes through this process -

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I shouldn't say "down" 
through this process.

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I mean "down" in the way you read the text

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but it's actually up.

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There's a being raised up.

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This is an upward movement here.

00:15:30.254 --> 00:15:31.791
Maybe down in the page,

00:15:31.791 --> 00:15:35.268
but up in the spiritual reality.

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And it doesn't happen unless

00:15:37.004 --> 00:15:40.846
it happens this way.

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This is so important.

00:15:44.618 --> 00:15:48.102
This is so essential.

00:15:48.102 --> 00:15:49.847
This is it.

00:15:49.847 --> 00:15:51.148
Some of you know,

00:15:51.148 --> 00:15:54.306
we recently had a man,

00:15:54.306 --> 00:15:56.165
like right over here,

00:15:56.165 --> 00:15:57.059
you may remember,

00:15:57.059 --> 00:15:58.247
he was here on a Sunday.

00:15:58.247 --> 00:15:59.545
He stood up afterwards

00:15:59.545 --> 00:16:03.226
and he just wept and he wept and he wept.

00:16:03.226 --> 00:16:07.495
And he showed up at our conference.

00:16:07.495 --> 00:16:11.128
Man who is right now

00:16:11.128 --> 00:16:14.478
striving, seeking to pastor a church

00:16:14.478 --> 00:16:16.909
out there in West Texas.

00:16:16.909 --> 00:16:20.094
And he's striving to lay foundations.

00:16:20.094 --> 00:16:23.388
And I talked to him on 
the phone this week.

00:16:23.388 --> 00:16:25.380
Brethren, wherever you are,

00:16:25.380 --> 00:16:27.402
whether you're out in Valentine, TX

00:16:27.402 --> 00:16:29.101
or you're here in San Antonio, TX.

00:16:29.101 --> 00:16:30.315
Whether you live today

00:16:30.315 --> 00:16:32.249
or whether you lived 2,000 years ago

00:16:32.249 --> 00:16:36.381
like these Ephesians...

00:16:36.381 --> 00:16:38.995
There is no more important 
question than this:

00:16:38.995 --> 00:16:42.836
What is true Christianity?

00:16:42.836 --> 00:16:45.606
What is it?

00:16:45.606 --> 00:16:48.090
Because I'll tell you this:

00:16:48.090 --> 00:16:55.461
Satan means to deceive this race.

00:16:55.461 --> 00:17:02.317
Most men at least have some concept

00:17:02.317 --> 00:17:04.662
that we need to do something

00:17:04.662 --> 00:17:07.786
about our sin.

00:17:07.786 --> 00:17:10.008
And one of the most prevalent lies

00:17:10.008 --> 00:17:14.645
that Satan loves to 
blanket this world with,

00:17:14.645 --> 00:17:18.103
is that there is a way other than this

00:17:18.103 --> 00:17:20.136
to, in the end,

00:17:20.136 --> 00:17:25.074
miss punishment for our sin.

00:17:25.074 --> 00:17:28.576
Listen.

00:17:28.576 --> 00:17:33.120
Christianity is the only 
hope this world has.

00:17:33.120 --> 00:17:36.037
There is no other.

00:17:36.037 --> 00:17:38.972
Being a Christian is the only hope

00:17:38.972 --> 00:17:42.789
in this world.

00:17:42.789 --> 00:17:45.696
You know, I know we know that truth,

00:17:45.696 --> 00:17:47.543
but sometimes we just need to really

00:17:47.543 --> 00:17:48.969
be gripped with it.

00:17:48.969 --> 00:17:51.051
Unless the people up and 
down our streets,

00:17:51.051 --> 00:17:52.888
unless our children,
unless our family,

00:17:52.888 --> 00:17:54.362
unless this happens to them,

00:17:54.362 --> 00:17:55.907
there is no other hope.

00:17:55.907 --> 00:17:56.829
This is the hope.

00:17:56.829 --> 00:17:58.189
There is none other.

00:17:58.189 --> 00:18:00.201
There is nothing else.

00:18:00.201 --> 00:18:01.897
We theoretically know this.

00:18:01.897 --> 00:18:03.451
Brethren, we need to just stop

00:18:03.451 --> 00:18:04.350
for a moment

00:18:04.350 --> 00:18:06.630
and really let it sink in.

00:18:06.630 --> 00:18:10.410
There is absolutely no other hope but one.

00:18:10.410 --> 00:18:11.680
There are not five hopes.

00:18:11.680 --> 00:18:12.669
There are not three.

00:18:12.669 --> 00:18:13.566
There are not two.

00:18:13.566 --> 00:18:15.497
This is it.

00:18:15.497 --> 00:18:19.415
Period.

00:18:19.415 --> 00:18:21.427
Or we might put the question this way:

00:18:21.427 --> 00:18:27.815
Why am I a Christian?

00:18:27.815 --> 00:18:32.059
Why is anybody if they are one?

00:18:32.059 --> 00:18:33.068
Why?

00:18:33.068 --> 00:18:33.993
What has happened?

00:18:33.993 --> 00:18:36.172
And there's only one 
answer to that question.

00:18:36.172 --> 00:18:38.463
That man, that woman, or that child

00:18:38.463 --> 00:18:40.073
is a Christian

00:18:40.073 --> 00:18:44.069
solely based on this one fact:

00:18:44.069 --> 00:18:46.960
God made them one.

00:18:46.960 --> 00:18:49.595
God makes.

00:18:49.595 --> 00:18:54.081
God makes.

00:18:54.081 --> 00:18:58.979
This goes way beyond decisions.

00:18:58.979 --> 00:19:01.071
People make decisions.

00:19:01.071 --> 00:19:04.670
People make the right decision

00:19:04.670 --> 00:19:08.480
only as a consequence of God

00:19:08.480 --> 00:19:11.778
making something happen.

00:19:11.778 --> 00:19:16.362
God makes.

00:19:16.362 --> 00:19:18.847
Look at the text.

00:19:18.847 --> 00:19:23.609
Brethren, you know, I'm looking at this

00:19:23.609 --> 00:19:24.950
as I'm studying,

00:19:24.950 --> 00:19:27.787
and there's a lot going on here.

00:19:27.787 --> 00:19:30.746
There's a lot of places we could focus.

00:19:30.746 --> 00:19:36.088
But, what I want to do today

00:19:36.088 --> 00:19:39.205
right now at this moment,

00:19:39.205 --> 00:19:42.504
I want us to try to peel -

00:19:42.504 --> 00:19:47.855
not unimportant aspects of these verses,

00:19:47.855 --> 00:19:53.617
but I want to peel back the adornments.

00:19:53.617 --> 00:19:56.580
Paul loves to decorate his sentences.

00:19:56.580 --> 00:19:57.945
You ever recognize that?

00:19:57.945 --> 00:20:01.699
Oh, he loves all these expressions.

00:20:01.699 --> 00:20:03.898
He loves all sorts of modifiers

00:20:03.898 --> 00:20:06.091
and adjectives and qualifiers

00:20:06.091 --> 00:20:08.548
and explanatory phrases.

00:20:08.548 --> 00:20:10.424
But I want us to look past them.

00:20:10.424 --> 00:20:14.319
I want us to peel them away for a second.

00:20:14.319 --> 00:20:16.454
To where we have this:

00:20:16.454 --> 00:20:18.900
the main subject

00:20:18.900 --> 00:20:21.015
and the main verb.

00:20:21.015 --> 00:20:23.121
Now actually, in this sentence

00:20:23.121 --> 00:20:28.070
there are three main verbs

00:20:28.070 --> 00:20:29.907
or predicates.

00:20:29.907 --> 00:20:35.118
There's one subject, three verbs.

00:20:35.118 --> 00:20:38.950
Look here.

00:20:38.950 --> 00:20:42.091
Verse 4

00:20:42.091 --> 00:20:46.095
"But God..."

00:20:46.095 --> 00:20:51.476
OK, there is our subject.

00:20:51.476 --> 00:20:59.731
What is the main subject of a sentence?

00:20:59.731 --> 00:21:06.973
It is the "who" or the "what"

00:21:06.973 --> 00:21:11.909
that is doing the action of the verb.

00:21:11.909 --> 00:21:13.124
That's the idea.

00:21:13.124 --> 00:21:14.989
The main subject is the one word

00:21:14.989 --> 00:21:16.447
that tells us who or what

00:21:16.447 --> 00:21:18.179
the sentence is all about.

00:21:18.179 --> 00:21:20.894
And that's God.

00:21:20.894 --> 00:21:24.249
But now, brethren, what's next?

00:21:24.249 --> 00:21:26.648
Being rich in mercy.

00:21:26.648 --> 00:21:30.257
Well, that's an adornment here.

00:21:30.257 --> 00:21:34.102
Paul wants us to know

00:21:34.102 --> 00:21:36.534
where this comes from -

00:21:36.534 --> 00:21:39.619
the action that God is going to do.

00:21:39.619 --> 00:21:42.029
It comes from God's mercy.

00:21:42.029 --> 00:21:43.206
And he goes on to say,

00:21:43.206 --> 00:21:44.489
"because of the great love

00:21:44.489 --> 00:21:45.869
with which He loved us."

00:21:45.869 --> 00:21:48.107
Where does the mercy come from?

00:21:48.107 --> 00:21:49.612
You see, what he's doing is

00:21:49.612 --> 00:21:51.592
he's wanting to look at here,

00:21:51.592 --> 00:21:54.969
momentarily, at the very character of God,

00:21:54.969 --> 00:21:57.016
at the attributes of God

00:21:57.016 --> 00:22:01.554
that cause God to do what He does.

00:22:01.554 --> 00:22:03.191
It's not what He does,

00:22:03.191 --> 00:22:04.810
but it's the cause of why He does

00:22:04.810 --> 00:22:07.096
what He does.

00:22:07.096 --> 00:22:10.756
Now, look at v. 5.

00:22:10.756 --> 00:22:12.606
Let's peel this away.

00:22:12.606 --> 00:22:19.347
This has to do with when this takes place.

00:22:19.347 --> 00:22:21.509
This is important to Paul.

00:22:21.509 --> 00:22:23.190
Because again, it communicates much

00:22:23.190 --> 00:22:26.160
about God's mercy and love.

00:22:26.160 --> 00:22:28.721
It happened when we 
were dead in trespasses.

00:22:28.721 --> 00:22:32.878
Not when we did good things.

00:22:32.878 --> 00:22:36.981
OK, now here we are.

00:22:36.981 --> 00:22:41.306
"...made us alive together with Christ."

00:22:41.306 --> 00:22:42.953
Now you have a parenthesis.

00:22:42.953 --> 00:22:44.946
"By grace you have been saved."

00:22:44.946 --> 00:22:48.387
Let's peel that off for a second.

00:22:48.387 --> 00:22:49.692
Now, here we are back to

00:22:49.692 --> 00:22:52.926
the second main verb.

00:22:52.926 --> 00:22:57.227
"...and raised us up."

00:22:57.227 --> 00:23:03.013
KJV and the New KJV say "together."

00:23:03.013 --> 00:23:06.171
It's implied - together with Christ.

00:23:06.171 --> 00:23:09.725
The ESV puts "with Him" in there.

00:23:09.725 --> 00:23:12.271
It's implied from v. 5.

00:23:12.271 --> 00:23:15.782
He made us alive together with Christ.

00:23:15.782 --> 00:23:17.935
Raised us up together,

00:23:17.935 --> 00:23:22.465
and seated us together

00:23:22.465 --> 00:23:24.167
with Christ is implied,

00:23:24.167 --> 00:23:28.882
in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

00:23:28.882 --> 00:23:30.945
Just stop right there.

00:23:30.945 --> 00:23:35.181
Here's what we're left with.

00:23:35.181 --> 00:23:39.117
But God made us alive together with Christ

00:23:39.117 --> 00:23:40.883
and raised us up with Him

00:23:40.883 --> 00:23:41.933
and seated us with Him

00:23:41.933 --> 00:23:43.384
in the heavenly places

00:23:43.384 --> 00:23:47.785
in Christ Jesus.

00:23:47.785 --> 00:23:48.888
You see that?

00:23:48.888 --> 00:23:49.835
He did it.

00:23:49.835 --> 00:23:52.730
He made alive.

00:23:52.730 --> 00:23:55.951
The making alive is where we were -

00:23:55.951 --> 00:23:57.734
we were dead - He made us alive.

00:23:57.734 --> 00:23:59.081
And then there's movement.

00:23:59.081 --> 00:24:01.234
He raised us up.

00:24:01.234 --> 00:24:05.500
And then there's where He takes us to.

00:24:05.500 --> 00:24:07.517
He seated us with Christ

00:24:07.517 --> 00:24:09.330
in the heavenly places.

00:24:09.330 --> 00:24:11.544
This is the action

00:24:11.544 --> 00:24:13.862
that God performs.

00:24:13.862 --> 00:24:15.737
Let it sink in.

00:24:15.737 --> 00:24:17.040
You cannot be a Christian

00:24:17.040 --> 00:24:18.909
apart from the truth that's contained

00:24:18.909 --> 00:24:20.043
in these verses.

00:24:20.043 --> 00:24:22.441
V. 7 is the only thing that's future

00:24:22.441 --> 00:24:24.022
for the Christian.

00:24:24.022 --> 00:24:25.306
Now get this,

00:24:25.306 --> 00:24:26.971
let this sink in.

00:24:26.971 --> 00:24:32.858
Christian, you are alive.

00:24:32.858 --> 00:24:34.638
That's not something future.

00:24:34.638 --> 00:24:36.408
That's not something that happens

00:24:36.408 --> 00:24:37.527
when you die,

00:24:37.527 --> 00:24:39.676
and then you go off into eternity

00:24:39.676 --> 00:24:41.309
and God makes you alive.

00:24:41.309 --> 00:24:44.282
You are alive now.

00:24:44.282 --> 00:24:47.379
You are raised up now.

00:24:47.379 --> 00:24:49.539
How high are you raised up?

00:24:49.539 --> 00:24:52.954
You are raised up so that you are seated

00:24:52.954 --> 00:24:55.267
with Christ in the heavenly places.

00:24:55.267 --> 00:25:02.111
Every one of these verbs -

00:25:02.111 --> 00:25:06.029
indicative aorist.

00:25:06.029 --> 00:25:08.141
What is that?

00:25:08.141 --> 00:25:10.816
Past tense.

00:25:10.816 --> 00:25:12.698
Simply put.

00:25:12.698 --> 00:25:15.780
You convey that over into the English,

00:25:15.780 --> 00:25:18.858
it's a simple past tense verb.

00:25:18.858 --> 00:25:22.567
These things have already happened to you.

00:25:22.567 --> 00:25:26.711
Now, you need to recognize that.

00:25:26.711 --> 00:25:30.868
You are alive.

00:25:30.868 --> 00:25:32.972
You are raised up.

00:25:32.972 --> 00:25:36.792
And you are raised up so high

00:25:36.792 --> 00:25:39.759
that you are seated with Christ

00:25:39.759 --> 00:25:43.295
in the heavenly places.

00:25:43.295 --> 00:25:45.518
Only v. 7 is future.

00:25:45.518 --> 00:25:50.370
And look, I'm sure those Ephesians

00:25:50.370 --> 00:25:52.393
sitting there 2,000 years ago

00:25:52.393 --> 00:25:56.262
when they first heard this read -

00:25:56.262 --> 00:25:59.689
the actual handwritten - maybe by his hand

00:25:59.689 --> 00:26:04.654
or by his secretary.

00:26:04.654 --> 00:26:06.601
You know it was actually read

00:26:06.601 --> 00:26:09.171
for the first time publicly in the church

00:26:09.171 --> 00:26:10.871
at Ephesus.

00:26:10.871 --> 00:26:12.383
Or if it was a circular letter,

00:26:12.383 --> 00:26:17.296
whatever churches it was showing up in.

00:26:17.296 --> 00:26:20.158
I can guarantee you this.

00:26:20.158 --> 00:26:21.979
They didn't all hear,

00:26:21.979 --> 00:26:24.995
you have already past tense

00:26:24.995 --> 00:26:27.008
been seated with Christ

00:26:27.008 --> 00:26:29.713
in the heavenly places,

00:26:29.713 --> 00:26:31.471
and they didn't just think,

00:26:31.471 --> 00:26:34.123
oh yeah, that's totally plain to us.

00:26:34.123 --> 00:26:35.805
We have all of that figured out.

00:26:35.805 --> 00:26:38.337
We see exactly how that is.

00:26:38.337 --> 00:26:42.532
The same way that you say

00:26:42.532 --> 00:26:46.169
what?

00:26:46.169 --> 00:26:48.426
No, no, no... No, Paul.

00:26:48.426 --> 00:26:51.975
That's future.

00:26:51.975 --> 00:26:53.339
And he says no,

00:26:53.339 --> 00:26:57.253
I'm under the inspiration of God here.

00:26:57.253 --> 00:26:58.543
I know what I'm saying.

00:26:58.543 --> 00:27:00.390
Or maybe Paul could even say,

00:27:00.390 --> 00:27:02.236
I don't know what I'm saying.

00:27:02.236 --> 00:27:05.361
But this is what the 
Spirit is leading me to say.

00:27:05.361 --> 00:27:10.414
However, this is what God says.

00:27:10.414 --> 00:27:15.101
This is what God has already done.

00:27:15.101 --> 00:27:17.833
God seated us -

00:27:17.833 --> 00:27:20.295
seated - the verb here

00:27:20.295 --> 00:27:26.259
is caused us to sit down together.

00:27:26.259 --> 00:27:28.167
Already.

00:27:28.167 --> 00:27:29.913
Here's the thing.

00:27:29.913 --> 00:27:33.134
As Christians, don't doubt it.

00:27:33.134 --> 00:27:38.133
Let's all together just 
seek to comprehend it,

00:27:38.133 --> 00:27:39.403
in the weeks ahead.

00:27:39.403 --> 00:27:44.283
I'm not going to deal with 
that so much today.

00:27:44.283 --> 00:27:46.177
Let's seek to comprehend these things.

00:27:46.177 --> 00:27:48.778
Let's seek to comprehend 
what's being said here.

00:27:48.778 --> 00:27:51.881
It's obvious that Paul is concerned

00:27:51.881 --> 00:27:54.104
that we be very clear in our thinking

00:27:54.104 --> 00:27:56.769
as to the great thing that 
God has done for us.

00:27:56.769 --> 00:27:59.665
This is tremendous, folks.

00:27:59.665 --> 00:28:01.252
This is tremendous.

00:28:01.252 --> 00:28:03.089
And what we need to do -

00:28:03.089 --> 00:28:04.473
here's what I want us to do.

00:28:04.473 --> 00:28:06.381
Here's what I really feel constrained,

00:28:06.381 --> 00:28:09.778
in these four messages to try to get at,

00:28:09.778 --> 00:28:14.337
is brethren, this is not simply

00:28:14.337 --> 00:28:19.773
some theoretical or 
hypothetical thought here.

00:28:19.773 --> 00:28:21.793
There's reality to this.

00:28:21.793 --> 00:28:24.508
These texts mean something.

00:28:24.508 --> 00:28:26.807
They are experiential.

00:28:26.807 --> 00:28:30.686
This has to do with our lives.

00:28:30.686 --> 00:28:32.819
You don't go from dead to living

00:28:32.819 --> 00:28:37.142
and have this just be some theory.

00:28:37.142 --> 00:28:39.594
This is experience.

00:28:39.594 --> 00:28:40.806
This is real.

00:28:40.806 --> 00:28:42.433
This is transforming.

00:28:42.433 --> 00:28:43.745
This has to do with things

00:28:43.745 --> 00:28:47.036
that are observable in our lives.

00:28:47.036 --> 00:28:48.566
And what I want us to try to do

00:28:48.566 --> 00:28:54.020
is get our hands around this

00:28:54.020 --> 00:28:57.679
in these weeks ahead.

00:28:57.679 --> 00:28:59.066
So, let's dive in.

00:28:59.066 --> 00:29:01.712
At least make some effort to explore

00:29:01.712 --> 00:29:04.850
some of the riches here.

00:29:04.850 --> 00:29:07.912
Let me just say this or ask this:

00:29:07.912 --> 00:29:10.795
You want to know another name

00:29:10.795 --> 00:29:14.040
for what God's doing here?

00:29:14.040 --> 00:29:16.314
OK, one of those things we peeled off,

00:29:16.314 --> 00:29:19.600
let's bring it back in.

00:29:19.600 --> 00:29:21.560
Let's just read this.

00:29:21.560 --> 00:29:22.477
V. 4

00:29:22.477 --> 00:29:24.903
"God being rich in mercy

00:29:24.903 --> 00:29:26.246
because of the great love

00:29:26.246 --> 00:29:27.679
with which He loved us

00:29:27.679 --> 00:29:30.868
even when we were dead in our trespasses,

00:29:30.868 --> 00:29:35.090
made us alive together with Christ."

00:29:35.090 --> 00:29:38.413
What's another name for all that?

00:29:38.413 --> 00:29:39.959
Adoption would be one.

00:29:39.959 --> 00:29:41.191
You go back to chapter 1,

00:29:41.191 --> 00:29:42.651
you definitely see it there.

00:29:42.651 --> 00:29:47.669
But immediately in Paul's mind,

00:29:47.669 --> 00:29:51.444
notice what he says in 
the parenthesis here.

00:29:51.444 --> 00:29:56.759
"By grace you have been saved."

00:29:56.759 --> 00:30:00.174
I like that.

00:30:00.174 --> 00:30:03.929
You know what he's saying here?

00:30:03.929 --> 00:30:08.018
Brethren, let's grasp this.

00:30:08.018 --> 00:30:10.050
What he's saying here

00:30:10.050 --> 00:30:13.058
is that to be made alive

00:30:13.058 --> 00:30:16.305
together with Christ

00:30:16.305 --> 00:30:19.768
is to be saved.

00:30:19.768 --> 00:30:24.247
You say, well, of course.

00:30:24.247 --> 00:30:27.649
But let's think.

00:30:27.649 --> 00:30:29.096
You know what I find?

00:30:29.096 --> 00:30:32.465
Very often, being saved

00:30:32.465 --> 00:30:35.913
is connected with being forgiven.

00:30:35.913 --> 00:30:37.803
Now that's true.

00:30:37.803 --> 00:30:40.989
Or being saved is being connected

00:30:40.989 --> 00:30:43.593
with justification,

00:30:43.593 --> 00:30:45.811
which goes right along 
with being forgiven.

00:30:45.811 --> 00:30:48.162
It's being declared righteous.

00:30:48.162 --> 00:30:50.317
No longer are your sins

00:30:50.317 --> 00:30:52.060
imputed to you.

00:30:52.060 --> 00:30:53.402
They're imputed to Christ,

00:30:53.402 --> 00:30:56.874
and paid for in His Person.

00:30:56.874 --> 00:30:58.889
But here's what I find interesting,

00:30:58.889 --> 00:31:01.421
and I want to emphasize this.

00:31:01.421 --> 00:31:02.755
Because what I found

00:31:02.755 --> 00:31:05.015
when Brother Charles 
came out with his book,

00:31:05.015 --> 00:31:07.718
"Justification and Regeneration,"

00:31:07.718 --> 00:31:12.018
is I have found that in 
the reformed movement,

00:31:12.018 --> 00:31:14.168
there is a great love and appreciation

00:31:14.168 --> 00:31:16.161
for the doctrine of justification,

00:31:16.161 --> 00:31:17.798
but I want you to see right here,

00:31:17.798 --> 00:31:21.537
Paul bypasses forgiveness 
and justification -

00:31:21.537 --> 00:31:23.269
now he doesn't always do that,

00:31:23.269 --> 00:31:24.821
I'm well aware of that.

00:31:24.821 --> 00:31:26.481
And in other places in this letter

00:31:26.481 --> 00:31:30.011
he definitely deals with those things.

00:31:30.011 --> 00:31:31.862
But right here,

00:31:31.862 --> 00:31:33.937
when he wants to size up

00:31:33.937 --> 00:31:37.206
what it means to be saved,

00:31:37.206 --> 00:31:42.212
he's not so interested 
in the legal aspects

00:31:42.212 --> 00:31:47.190
as much as he is in the experiential

00:31:47.190 --> 00:31:50.216
transformation that takes place

00:31:50.216 --> 00:31:52.871
by way of regeneration,

00:31:52.871 --> 00:31:54.441
being made a new creation,

00:31:54.441 --> 00:31:56.532
that's what it is to be born again,

00:31:56.532 --> 00:31:59.041
to be made alive.

00:31:59.041 --> 00:32:00.199
Whereas you were dead,

00:32:00.199 --> 00:32:01.901
you are alive.

00:32:01.901 --> 00:32:04.036
This is what it is to be saved.

00:32:04.036 --> 00:32:05.128
Why emphasize that?

00:32:05.128 --> 00:32:07.005
Because, look, to be saved

00:32:07.005 --> 00:32:08.630
isn't merely walking through life

00:32:08.630 --> 00:32:10.466
with this mental notion

00:32:10.466 --> 00:32:13.422
that oh, my sins are forgiven.

00:32:13.422 --> 00:32:15.831
Listen, time and again

00:32:15.831 --> 00:32:20.675
in Scripture, the authors 
come back to this:

00:32:20.675 --> 00:32:23.544
that there's no legal reality unless

00:32:23.544 --> 00:32:26.536
there is this kind of transformation

00:32:26.536 --> 00:32:29.886
in your life.

00:32:29.886 --> 00:32:33.561
You must be alive.

00:32:33.561 --> 00:32:35.957
There must be life

00:32:35.957 --> 00:32:39.926
pulsing through you.

00:32:39.926 --> 00:32:42.142
This is Christianity.

00:32:42.142 --> 00:32:45.296
Christians are not just people

00:32:45.296 --> 00:32:50.784
who say, oh, wretched man that I am,

00:32:50.784 --> 00:32:53.881
but my sins are forgiven.

00:32:53.881 --> 00:32:58.620
Yeah, I know there's nothing good in me,

00:32:58.620 --> 00:33:04.725
but I'm forgiven.

00:33:04.725 --> 00:33:07.898
I believe.

00:33:07.898 --> 00:33:13.474
Listen, there better be 
something good in you.

00:33:13.474 --> 00:33:18.312
There better be the seeds of life in you,

00:33:18.312 --> 00:33:21.752
or you're not saved.

00:33:21.752 --> 00:33:27.861
There better be the fruit of life.

00:33:27.861 --> 00:33:32.641
That's salvation here in this verse.

00:33:32.641 --> 00:33:36.292
Here's something else.

00:33:36.292 --> 00:33:42.976
Don't miss Christ in these verses.

00:33:42.976 --> 00:33:48.176
It's together - notice that reality.

00:33:48.176 --> 00:33:52.057
Our being made alive,

00:33:52.057 --> 00:33:54.777
it's not separate from Christ.

00:33:54.777 --> 00:33:57.681
It's integrally tied with Him.

00:33:57.681 --> 00:33:59.207
Being joined with Him.

00:33:59.207 --> 00:34:01.710
Being in union with Him.

00:34:01.710 --> 00:34:04.938
Being together - together.

00:34:04.938 --> 00:34:09.275
We are made alive together.

00:34:09.275 --> 00:34:10.837
Not separate.

00:34:10.837 --> 00:34:12.550
Together.

00:34:12.550 --> 00:34:14.918
This is essential.

00:34:14.918 --> 00:34:17.320
This is unique.

00:34:17.320 --> 00:34:19.623
No other religion has this.

00:34:19.623 --> 00:34:21.672
No other religion has this essential

00:34:21.672 --> 00:34:25.553
togetherness with Christ.

00:34:25.553 --> 00:34:26.688
Nothing else.

00:34:26.688 --> 00:34:31.133
Christianity is solely 
unique at this point.

00:34:31.133 --> 00:34:33.022
Together.

00:34:33.022 --> 00:34:34.519
This is what makes Christianity

00:34:34.519 --> 00:34:37.115
and God's salvation entirely different

00:34:37.115 --> 00:34:39.644
and apart from everything else.

00:34:39.644 --> 00:34:42.495
Look, this is not man's effort

00:34:42.495 --> 00:34:44.782
to rise up to God

00:34:44.782 --> 00:34:46.373
and to get to God

00:34:46.373 --> 00:34:48.205
and to seek God.

00:34:48.205 --> 00:34:51.047
This is God making people

00:34:51.047 --> 00:34:55.242
what He makes them: Christians.

00:34:55.242 --> 00:34:59.424
In union, connected with Christ.

00:34:59.424 --> 00:35:01.574
Never apart from Christ.

00:35:01.574 --> 00:35:05.332
If God saves, if God makes alive,

00:35:05.332 --> 00:35:08.713
it is always in this fashion.

00:35:08.713 --> 00:35:10.879
Biblical salvation is all about

00:35:10.879 --> 00:35:13.027
what God has done

00:35:13.027 --> 00:35:15.164
through His only begotten Son.

00:35:15.164 --> 00:35:18.972
Just think

00:35:18.972 --> 00:35:20.563
about what Paul is saying here.

00:35:20.563 --> 00:35:21.938
Again, I'm not asking you

00:35:21.938 --> 00:35:23.998
to comprehend all this.

00:35:23.998 --> 00:35:25.516
I hope in the weeks ahead,

00:35:25.516 --> 00:35:27.159
we're going to reach down

00:35:27.159 --> 00:35:30.193
deeper and deeper and deeper.

00:35:30.193 --> 00:35:34.106
I'm not asking for 
full comprehension here.

00:35:34.106 --> 00:35:36.693
But just try to absorb this truth

00:35:36.693 --> 00:35:40.256
into your brains to some degree.

00:35:40.256 --> 00:35:45.175
The Christian is together

00:35:45.175 --> 00:35:52.706
with Christ.

00:35:52.706 --> 00:35:54.764
Connected.

00:35:54.764 --> 00:35:57.582
Even tighter than this.

00:35:57.582 --> 00:36:01.360
Like the branch and the vine.

00:36:01.360 --> 00:36:07.210
There's an organic union.

00:36:07.210 --> 00:36:09.587
Integrally one with Him.

00:36:09.587 --> 00:36:13.800
The thing is, it's everywhere assumed,

00:36:13.800 --> 00:36:15.663
that in this connection,

00:36:15.663 --> 00:36:17.501
that what's true of Christ

00:36:17.501 --> 00:36:20.608
is likewise true of the Christian.

00:36:20.608 --> 00:36:22.816
Now, we thought about that when we were

00:36:22.816 --> 00:36:26.632
just a few moments ago baptizing.

00:36:26.632 --> 00:36:29.785
Think of these truths.

00:36:29.785 --> 00:36:31.941
Not asking you to fully comprehend them,

00:36:31.941 --> 00:36:35.020
but think about them.

00:36:35.020 --> 00:36:37.043
The Apostle Paul, his language,

00:36:37.043 --> 00:36:39.255
especially in these four letters:

00:36:39.255 --> 00:36:44.573
Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians.

00:36:44.573 --> 00:36:49.026
He loves to use this language.

00:36:49.026 --> 00:36:51.094
Galatians 2:20

00:36:51.094 --> 00:36:52.728
You don't have to turn there.

00:36:52.728 --> 00:36:54.258
Stay here in Ephesians.

00:36:54.258 --> 00:36:55.634
But listen to this:

00:36:55.634 --> 00:37:07.472
"I have been crucified with Christ."

00:37:07.472 --> 00:37:08.997
Do we think like that?

00:37:08.997 --> 00:37:10.792
Do we know that reality?

00:37:10.792 --> 00:37:12.499
See, brethren, the thing is,

00:37:12.499 --> 00:37:13.692
what Paul is doing here,

00:37:13.692 --> 00:37:15.438
I'm made alive together with Christ;

00:37:15.438 --> 00:37:17.433
I've been raised up together with Christ;

00:37:17.433 --> 00:37:19.321
I'm seated together with Christ.

00:37:19.321 --> 00:37:21.444
He talked this way.

00:37:21.444 --> 00:37:29.017
I am crucified with Christ.

00:37:29.017 --> 00:37:32.586
Or this, Romans 6:8 says,

00:37:32.586 --> 00:37:38.210
"We have died with Christ."

00:37:38.210 --> 00:37:41.410
So I'm crucified with Christ.

00:37:41.410 --> 00:37:44.734
I have died with Christ.

00:37:44.734 --> 00:37:47.204
Colossians 2:12 and Romans 6

00:37:47.204 --> 00:37:53.189
say that we are buried with Christ

00:37:53.189 --> 00:37:59.339
in baptism.

00:37:59.339 --> 00:38:01.119
Colossians 3:3

00:38:01.119 --> 00:38:03.409
"For you have died,

00:38:03.409 --> 00:38:06.401
and your life is hidden..."

00:38:06.401 --> 00:38:08.559
Listen, your life -

00:38:08.559 --> 00:38:11.159
all that you areas a Christian,

00:38:11.159 --> 00:38:21.407
is hidden with Christ in God.

00:38:21.407 --> 00:38:22.593
Just take this in.

00:38:22.593 --> 00:38:24.747
There's a mystery here.

00:38:24.747 --> 00:38:27.298
I know it.

00:38:27.298 --> 00:38:28.877
But what ought to be clear

00:38:28.877 --> 00:38:31.547
is that Paul is teaching us

00:38:31.547 --> 00:38:35.946
that what God does to us

00:38:35.946 --> 00:38:39.075
spiritually,

00:38:39.075 --> 00:38:45.382
has a parallel in Christ physically.

00:38:45.382 --> 00:38:46.941
Because think with me here.

00:38:46.941 --> 00:38:49.114
Think.

00:38:49.114 --> 00:38:50.634
It's not a direct parallel.

00:38:50.634 --> 00:38:53.993
It's not a one for one physical reality

00:38:53.993 --> 00:38:58.594
where there's a parallel 
physical reality in us.

00:38:58.594 --> 00:39:01.281
It's not a spiritual reality in Christ

00:39:01.281 --> 00:39:03.958
that has a spiritual reality in us.

00:39:03.958 --> 00:39:06.638
It's a physical reality in Christ...

00:39:06.638 --> 00:39:11.212
(Incomplete thought)

00:39:11.212 --> 00:39:15.652
It's amazing how God has designed

00:39:15.652 --> 00:39:18.598
all that Christ would do

00:39:18.598 --> 00:39:20.714
so that there are these

00:39:20.714 --> 00:39:24.172
spiritual parallels in now what He does

00:39:24.172 --> 00:39:25.666
in the life of a Christian.

00:39:25.666 --> 00:39:27.000
Think with me.

00:39:27.000 --> 00:39:34.708
Paul says I have been 
crucified with Christ.

00:39:34.708 --> 00:39:38.132
Christ was physically crucified.

00:39:38.132 --> 00:39:39.765
When Paul wrote that,

00:39:39.765 --> 00:39:43.675
he had not been physically crucified.

00:39:43.675 --> 00:39:51.196
But he had been spiritually crucified.

00:39:51.196 --> 00:39:53.938
Or think with me here:

00:39:53.938 --> 00:39:56.524
We are seated together with Christ

00:39:56.524 --> 00:39:59.199
in the heavenly places.

00:39:59.199 --> 00:40:04.622
Now Christ is physically there.

00:40:04.622 --> 00:40:06.708
You and I are not physically there.

00:40:06.708 --> 00:40:10.182
We are physically here.

00:40:10.182 --> 00:40:14.140
But, that doesn't take away the reality

00:40:14.140 --> 00:40:16.676
that there is a spiritual crucifixion,

00:40:16.676 --> 00:40:19.046
there is a spiritual death,

00:40:19.046 --> 00:40:22.772
there is a spiritual being made alive,

00:40:22.772 --> 00:40:24.162
a spiritual rising up,

00:40:24.162 --> 00:40:28.482
a spiritually being seated with Christ

00:40:28.482 --> 00:40:30.602
in the heavenly places.

00:40:30.602 --> 00:40:32.398
And these are the realities

00:40:32.398 --> 00:40:35.967
that I want us to try to draw on

00:40:35.967 --> 00:40:38.403
and try to get to the root of

00:40:38.403 --> 00:40:41.971
and try to pull some of the reality.

00:40:41.971 --> 00:40:46.664
Brethren, what does it mean?

00:40:46.664 --> 00:40:49.353
Look, Paul's not mincing words here.

00:40:49.353 --> 00:40:53.628
He's not wasting these people's time.

00:40:53.628 --> 00:40:56.351
He recognized the people 
he was talking to,

00:40:56.351 --> 00:40:59.057
struggling with the same kind of trials

00:40:59.057 --> 00:41:01.213
our brother Mark is.

00:41:01.213 --> 00:41:03.275
Being put in the fire.

00:41:03.275 --> 00:41:05.868
Facing persecution.

00:41:05.868 --> 00:41:10.188
Oftentimes ready to throw in the towel.

00:41:10.188 --> 00:41:12.866
What do you say to 1st century Christians

00:41:12.866 --> 00:41:17.475
who are facing a Greek-Roman society

00:41:17.475 --> 00:41:19.213
that hates Christianity,

00:41:19.213 --> 00:41:20.977
feeds them to the lions,

00:41:20.977 --> 00:41:22.447
have their own set of gods,

00:41:22.447 --> 00:41:24.650
calls the Christians atheists,

00:41:24.650 --> 00:41:26.462
persecutes them,

00:41:26.462 --> 00:41:28.751
in certain seasons murders

00:41:28.751 --> 00:41:30.077
multitudes of them.

00:41:30.077 --> 00:41:33.420
What do you say?

00:41:33.420 --> 00:41:36.072
He says to these people,

00:41:36.072 --> 00:41:38.880
you are already seated 
together with Christ

00:41:38.880 --> 00:41:40.296
in the heavenly places.

00:41:40.296 --> 00:41:41.837
Now look, if that doesn't have

00:41:41.837 --> 00:41:44.932
some kind of real bearing 
on the life of people,

00:41:44.932 --> 00:41:47.441
what good is it?

00:41:47.441 --> 00:41:49.206
What good is it?

00:41:49.206 --> 00:41:50.236
You know what?

00:41:50.236 --> 00:41:51.448
If it means nothing,

00:41:51.448 --> 00:41:53.689
it's like telling somebody that has cancer

00:41:53.689 --> 00:41:55.177
and they're dying,

00:41:55.177 --> 00:41:59.472
Oh, but you know,

00:41:59.472 --> 00:42:04.017
you have the remedy within you.

00:42:04.017 --> 00:42:05.420
It's like telling somebody,

00:42:05.420 --> 00:42:08.427
Oh, it will all work out OK.

00:42:08.427 --> 00:42:13.463
When the truth is it's not working out OK.

00:42:13.463 --> 00:42:14.774
But if you tell somebody,

00:42:14.774 --> 00:42:17.148
oh no, the remedy is at work inside you

00:42:17.148 --> 00:42:19.518
and you're going to feel 
pretty rotten at first,

00:42:19.518 --> 00:42:22.963
but shortly to follow,

00:42:22.963 --> 00:42:25.439
the healing will start.

00:42:25.439 --> 00:42:27.299
Paul's telling these people something

00:42:27.299 --> 00:42:29.977
to get them through,

00:42:29.977 --> 00:42:34.493
your husband leaving you 
for another woman,

00:42:34.493 --> 00:42:39.510
your wife leaving you,

00:42:39.510 --> 00:42:44.865
your child not being converted,

00:42:44.865 --> 00:42:47.724
death close to you,

00:42:47.724 --> 00:42:51.689
persecution,

00:42:51.689 --> 00:42:54.617
when God's providences don't seem

00:42:54.617 --> 00:42:57.582
to smile on you,

00:42:57.582 --> 00:43:02.271
when it's hard.

00:43:02.271 --> 00:43:03.755
If you haven't experienced

00:43:03.755 --> 00:43:05.055
what Mark has experienced,

00:43:05.055 --> 00:43:10.861
you haven't lived the 
Christian life very long.

00:43:10.861 --> 00:43:13.250
I've had those seasons too.

00:43:13.250 --> 00:43:14.999
And you know the seasons are not

00:43:14.999 --> 00:43:20.461
where I wanted to go back to my old life.

00:43:20.461 --> 00:43:22.882
For me, the throwing in the towel

00:43:22.882 --> 00:43:24.078
was not that.

00:43:24.078 --> 00:43:26.722
It's not like, oh, I'm just going to

00:43:26.722 --> 00:43:27.858
go back to the old way.

00:43:27.858 --> 00:43:28.742
I don't want that.

00:43:28.742 --> 00:43:33.296
I don't desire that.

00:43:33.296 --> 00:43:36.133
The throwing in the towel

00:43:36.133 --> 00:43:40.327
is just pack the car

00:43:40.327 --> 00:43:42.951
and let's go to Frisco, Colorado

00:43:42.951 --> 00:43:44.846
for good.

00:43:44.846 --> 00:43:46.655
And I'm going to hide away in a cabin

00:43:46.655 --> 00:43:50.523
and don't anybody come looking for me.

00:43:50.523 --> 00:43:52.497
That, for me, is throwing in the towel.

00:43:52.497 --> 00:43:54.919
But that's not what God's called us to.

00:43:54.919 --> 00:43:56.857
And you can imagine that these people

00:43:56.857 --> 00:43:58.758
in Ephesus 2,000 years ago,

00:43:58.758 --> 00:44:01.431
many of them - they wish they had wings,

00:44:01.431 --> 00:44:02.697
just like David wished,

00:44:02.697 --> 00:44:04.570
that they could fly away

00:44:04.570 --> 00:44:07.943
and be at peace.

00:44:07.943 --> 00:44:10.195
But we've not been promised peace,

00:44:10.195 --> 00:44:14.695
not even in the confines 
of our own family.

00:44:14.695 --> 00:44:15.936
No promise of peace.

00:44:15.936 --> 00:44:20.352
In fact a promise of a sword.

00:44:20.352 --> 00:44:23.216
So, somebody has a sword

00:44:23.216 --> 00:44:26.700
piercing their own heart in their family.

00:44:26.700 --> 00:44:28.482
And seriously, Paul, you're going to

00:44:28.482 --> 00:44:29.788
come along and tell me,

00:44:29.788 --> 00:44:35.129
I'm seated with Christ in 
the heavenly places?

00:44:35.129 --> 00:44:37.448
Try again.

00:44:37.448 --> 00:44:40.594
Get me something better than that.

00:44:40.594 --> 00:44:42.486
And Paul would say,

00:44:42.486 --> 00:44:45.247
Oh no, my friend,

00:44:45.247 --> 00:44:47.421
there is nothing better than that.

00:44:47.421 --> 00:44:49.773
You just need to grasp

00:44:49.773 --> 00:44:52.964
something of the reality of it.

00:44:52.964 --> 00:44:56.037
Because if you do,

00:44:56.037 --> 00:44:58.504
you will have foretastes of glory.

00:44:58.504 --> 00:45:00.144
It will change your whole mindset.

00:45:00.144 --> 00:45:04.471
It will change your thinking.

00:45:04.471 --> 00:45:08.152
Brethren, think with me here.

00:45:08.152 --> 00:45:10.084
We're not dealing with being seated.

00:45:10.084 --> 00:45:12.834
We're dealing with being 
made alive in Christ.

00:45:12.834 --> 00:45:14.175
Let's try to reach down

00:45:14.175 --> 00:45:16.576
into some of the realities.

00:45:16.576 --> 00:45:18.168
Look.

00:45:18.168 --> 00:45:22.378
Here's some of the reality,

00:45:22.378 --> 00:45:24.639
"but" at the beginning of v. 4,

00:45:24.639 --> 00:45:26.499
that's the contrast.

00:45:26.499 --> 00:45:27.680
But - what?

00:45:27.680 --> 00:45:28.885
You're alive.

00:45:28.885 --> 00:45:30.335
And you were dead.

00:45:30.335 --> 00:45:31.648
You're no longer dead.

00:45:31.648 --> 00:45:32.900
Now you're alive.

00:45:32.900 --> 00:45:34.248
That's the contrast.

00:45:34.248 --> 00:45:36.324
You are no longer what you use to be.

00:45:36.324 --> 00:45:38.250
You've put off the old man

00:45:38.250 --> 00:45:43.016
who belongs to your former manner of life.

00:45:43.016 --> 00:45:44.083
Right? Former.

00:45:44.083 --> 00:45:45.472
You were formerly something.

00:45:45.472 --> 00:45:47.235
You're not that anymore.

00:45:47.235 --> 00:45:49.466
That is the opposite.

00:45:49.466 --> 00:45:51.065
That's the contrast.

00:45:51.065 --> 00:45:54.430
Brethren, we've got to let that grip us.

00:45:54.430 --> 00:45:58.881
The truth is our life in Christ

00:45:58.881 --> 00:46:01.807
puts an end to our death.

00:46:01.807 --> 00:46:03.381
You're not dead any longer.

00:46:03.381 --> 00:46:04.527
The Christian has come

00:46:04.527 --> 00:46:09.439
to the end of the days as a dead man.

00:46:09.439 --> 00:46:10.444
The word "but."

00:46:10.444 --> 00:46:12.379
That's that stark contrast.

00:46:12.379 --> 00:46:17.801
We are truly alive together with Christ.

00:46:17.801 --> 00:46:19.432
Don't you see what this is saying?

00:46:19.432 --> 00:46:20.816
Look at the contrast.

00:46:20.816 --> 00:46:22.296
Brethren, you are alive.

00:46:22.296 --> 00:46:23.546
You are not like you were.

00:46:23.546 --> 00:46:25.752
You are no longer dead in sin.

00:46:25.752 --> 00:46:28.130
That's no longer true.

00:46:28.130 --> 00:46:30.457
You no longer follow 
the course of this world.

00:46:30.457 --> 00:46:32.165
Listen! Listen, Christian!

00:46:32.165 --> 00:46:36.947
You no longer follow the 
course of the world.

00:46:36.947 --> 00:46:39.030
You are alive!

00:46:39.030 --> 00:46:40.887
Put off the rags of death.

00:46:40.887 --> 00:46:42.649
Put off the grave clothes.

00:46:42.649 --> 00:46:44.855
Put them off!

00:46:44.855 --> 00:46:46.566
Enough!

00:46:46.566 --> 00:46:48.404
You're not of the world.

00:46:48.404 --> 00:46:49.748
You're no longer following

00:46:49.748 --> 00:46:51.675
the prince of the power of the world.

00:46:51.675 --> 00:46:52.968
You're no longer among

00:46:52.968 --> 00:46:54.669
the sons of disobedience.

00:46:54.669 --> 00:46:56.824
You're no longer lusting

00:46:56.824 --> 00:46:59.117
after all the things in the body,

00:46:59.117 --> 00:47:00.334
in the mind.

00:47:00.334 --> 00:47:01.998
You're no longer children of wrath.

00:47:01.998 --> 00:47:04.248
You're no longer under 
the displeasure of God.

00:47:04.248 --> 00:47:05.723
You live in His smile.

00:47:05.723 --> 00:47:06.882
Be done with that.

00:47:06.882 --> 00:47:08.392
It's no longer.

00:47:08.392 --> 00:47:11.559
You're alive.

00:47:11.559 --> 00:47:19.022
Brethren, alive together with Christ.

00:47:19.022 --> 00:47:21.026
I'm amazed.

00:47:21.026 --> 00:47:23.977
I'll be real direct.

00:47:23.977 --> 00:47:26.698
My children showed me a thread -

00:47:26.698 --> 00:47:28.400
something we just dealt with

00:47:28.400 --> 00:47:29.781
in our elder's meeting -

00:47:29.781 --> 00:47:32.004
my children showed me a thread

00:47:32.004 --> 00:47:33.328
off of Facebook,

00:47:33.328 --> 00:47:37.229
where Christians, some in this place,

00:47:37.229 --> 00:47:40.584
are arguing for why it is appropriate

00:47:40.584 --> 00:47:42.669
for a Christian to be entertained

00:47:42.669 --> 00:47:49.585
by movies with filthy, foul language.

00:47:49.585 --> 00:47:53.129
What in the world are you thinking?

00:47:53.129 --> 00:47:56.620
Are you alive together with Christ?

00:47:56.620 --> 00:47:59.718
Or are you following the 
course of this world?

00:47:59.718 --> 00:48:01.733
There is a contrast here.

00:48:01.733 --> 00:48:03.486
And if you can find no contrast

00:48:03.486 --> 00:48:05.623
between your life and the world?

00:48:05.623 --> 00:48:10.106
Fill in the blank.

00:48:10.106 --> 00:48:12.629
Amen?

00:48:12.629 --> 00:48:15.612
We're alive!

00:48:15.612 --> 00:48:17.652
You know what?

00:48:17.652 --> 00:48:20.217
I'm not in the course of the world,

00:48:20.217 --> 00:48:22.156
because my desires are changed.

00:48:22.156 --> 00:48:23.972
I love new things.

00:48:23.972 --> 00:48:25.735
I've been made alive to God.

00:48:25.735 --> 00:48:26.733
I desire God.

00:48:26.733 --> 00:48:28.173
I desire to please God.

00:48:28.173 --> 00:48:30.074
I desire to have the things in my life

00:48:30.074 --> 00:48:32.456
that He loves, not the 
things that He hates.

00:48:32.456 --> 00:48:34.074
Not the things that He forbids.

00:48:34.074 --> 00:48:35.984
Not the things that I find in Scripture

00:48:35.984 --> 00:48:37.053
that He despises.

00:48:37.053 --> 00:48:39.025
Why in the world would you fill your life

00:48:39.025 --> 00:48:40.914
with movies full of garbage?

00:48:40.914 --> 00:48:43.885
Worldly garbage.

00:48:43.885 --> 00:48:46.508
Unless that's what you love.

00:48:46.508 --> 00:48:49.127
Unless that's what you pant after.

00:48:49.127 --> 00:48:54.754
Brethren, we're the living ones.

00:48:54.754 --> 00:48:57.135
There is an end to our death.

00:48:57.135 --> 00:48:59.371
We no longer live like the dead.

00:48:59.371 --> 00:49:00.593
We are the living ones.

00:49:00.593 --> 00:49:03.301
We're alive.

00:49:03.301 --> 00:49:05.393
This is not theoretical.

00:49:05.393 --> 00:49:07.471
This is what God-wrought Christianity is,

00:49:07.471 --> 00:49:09.603
and we need to be gripped by the contrast.

00:49:09.603 --> 00:49:14.155
That the Christian is a total contrast

00:49:14.155 --> 00:49:15.461
to what he once was.

00:49:15.461 --> 00:49:17.635
Brethren, you get to the 
end of this letter -

00:49:17.635 --> 00:49:20.285
we no longer follow the course of the 
prince of the power of the air.

00:49:20.285 --> 00:49:21.442
You know what we do now?

00:49:21.442 --> 00:49:23.413
We wrestle not against flesh and blood,

00:49:23.413 --> 00:49:24.859
but who do we wrestle against?

00:49:24.859 --> 00:49:25.745
We wrestle.

00:49:25.745 --> 00:49:26.471
Why?

00:49:26.471 --> 00:49:27.919
That's what living people do.

00:49:27.919 --> 00:49:29.485
They wrestle.

00:49:29.485 --> 00:49:31.484
They put off the former manner of life

00:49:31.484 --> 00:49:32.937
or they put off the old man

00:49:32.937 --> 00:49:35.035
which belongs to the former manner of life

00:49:35.035 --> 00:49:36.098
and guess what?

00:49:36.098 --> 00:49:38.246
Deceitful desires.

00:49:38.246 --> 00:49:39.673
That's a deceitful desire

00:49:39.673 --> 00:49:41.235
to want to go desire movies

00:49:41.235 --> 00:49:43.236
that are full of filth.

00:49:43.236 --> 00:49:45.008
Filthy, foul language.

00:49:45.008 --> 00:49:45.871
What is that?

00:49:45.871 --> 00:49:46.888
That's worldly.

00:49:46.888 --> 00:49:49.444
That's ungodly.

00:49:49.444 --> 00:49:51.938
That's filling your life 
full of companionships

00:49:51.938 --> 00:49:54.236
that corrupt good manners.

00:49:54.236 --> 00:49:56.539
Why in the world?

00:49:56.539 --> 00:49:57.281
Look.

00:49:57.281 --> 00:49:58.553
Walk worthy of the calling

00:49:58.553 --> 00:49:59.967
to which you've been called.

00:49:59.967 --> 00:50:01.407
What have you been called to?

00:50:01.407 --> 00:50:02.721
You've been called to life

00:50:02.721 --> 00:50:04.065
together with Christ.

00:50:04.065 --> 00:50:10.920
Your life is hidden with Christ in God.

00:50:10.920 --> 00:50:14.414
That speaks of children of light.

00:50:14.414 --> 00:50:15.605
Not children of wrath.

00:50:15.605 --> 00:50:16.824
Not sons of disobedience.

00:50:16.824 --> 00:50:18.230
Children of light.

00:50:18.230 --> 00:50:20.958
So let all that is true of light

00:50:20.958 --> 00:50:24.170
burst forth from your life.

00:50:24.170 --> 00:50:26.839
Put all filthy communication away.

00:50:26.839 --> 00:50:29.665
Not only out of your mouth,

00:50:29.665 --> 00:50:30.972
put it away.

00:50:30.972 --> 00:50:32.335
It shouldn't even be named.

00:50:32.335 --> 00:50:34.714
That's in this letter.

00:50:34.714 --> 00:50:39.945
That's what living people do.

00:50:39.945 --> 00:50:40.768
Look.

00:50:40.768 --> 00:50:43.904
Don't let worldly professing Christians

00:50:43.904 --> 00:50:47.373
be surprised when they wake up in hell.

00:50:47.373 --> 00:50:48.414
Why?

00:50:48.414 --> 00:50:52.306
Because this is true Christianity.

00:50:52.306 --> 00:50:56.884
Being made alive together with Christ.

00:50:56.884 --> 00:50:59.344
It's not theory.

00:50:59.344 --> 00:51:02.633
You see, our whole position as Christians

00:51:02.633 --> 00:51:05.528
has changed.

00:51:05.528 --> 00:51:07.077
Position.

00:51:07.077 --> 00:51:09.721
That's the where we are.

00:51:09.721 --> 00:51:10.990
Where are we?

00:51:10.990 --> 00:51:14.255
Well, we used to be dead in...

00:51:14.255 --> 00:51:17.638
you notice the prepositions 
of Scripture sometimes.

00:51:17.638 --> 00:51:19.214
Where were we?

00:51:19.214 --> 00:51:22.891
Dead in... there's your preposition.

00:51:22.891 --> 00:51:26.245
In trespasses and sins.

00:51:26.245 --> 00:51:27.659
That's where we were.

00:51:27.659 --> 00:51:29.081
Where are we now?

00:51:29.081 --> 00:51:33.022
In Christ.

00:51:33.022 --> 00:51:34.843
Where were we before?

00:51:34.843 --> 00:51:38.870
In the place where we followed the world.

00:51:38.870 --> 00:51:42.936
In the place where we followed the devil.

00:51:42.936 --> 00:51:44.750
Where are we now?

00:51:44.750 --> 00:51:47.970
Raised up!

00:51:47.970 --> 00:51:50.036
Up!

00:51:50.036 --> 00:51:52.026
There's position there.

00:51:52.026 --> 00:51:55.179
We're not down there.

00:51:55.179 --> 00:51:57.314
We're not in the darkness.

00:51:57.314 --> 00:52:01.268
We've been raised up.

00:52:01.268 --> 00:52:05.235
We used to be among

00:52:05.235 --> 00:52:07.539
the sons of disobedience.

00:52:07.539 --> 00:52:08.779
Among.

00:52:08.779 --> 00:52:13.155
That's where we were.

00:52:13.155 --> 00:52:15.925
Lust.

00:52:15.925 --> 00:52:19.188
The lusts of the mind.

00:52:19.188 --> 00:52:22.779
Wanting what's foul.

00:52:22.779 --> 00:52:25.244
But that's not where we are anymore.

00:52:25.244 --> 00:52:27.009
Where are we now?

00:52:27.009 --> 00:52:31.993
You know how far up we are?

00:52:31.993 --> 00:52:35.252
We're up there where He's seated.

00:52:35.252 --> 00:52:37.397
That's where we are now.

00:52:37.397 --> 00:52:40.086
There's a change of position here.

00:52:40.086 --> 00:52:43.096
And there's a change of state.

00:52:43.096 --> 00:52:44.508
I mean, that is the greatest

00:52:44.508 --> 00:52:45.773
and most obvious reality

00:52:45.773 --> 00:52:48.694
Paul's bringing out in v. 5.

00:52:48.694 --> 00:52:53.085
This transition from death to life.

00:52:53.085 --> 00:52:54.247
It's done.

00:52:54.247 --> 00:52:56.694
For Christians, it all lies in the past.

00:52:56.694 --> 00:52:58.419
The Christian above all other things

00:52:58.419 --> 00:52:59.604
can shout it out:

00:52:59.604 --> 00:53:03.993
"I am no longer dead!"

00:53:03.993 --> 00:53:05.411
"I am alive!"

00:53:05.411 --> 00:53:09.650
The days of my death are past.

00:53:09.650 --> 00:53:10.645
They're gone.

00:53:10.645 --> 00:53:12.800
There's absolutely nothing,

00:53:12.800 --> 00:53:16.724
brethren, but life before us.

00:53:16.724 --> 00:53:18.532
Physically.

00:53:18.532 --> 00:53:20.678
What is that?

00:53:20.678 --> 00:53:22.303
Death is so harmless now

00:53:22.303 --> 00:53:25.734
that Scripture calls it sleep.

00:53:25.734 --> 00:53:28.851
Rest.

00:53:28.851 --> 00:53:31.683
To be absent with the body...

00:53:31.683 --> 00:53:34.681
Christ said to that -

00:53:34.681 --> 00:53:39.748
he wasn't a doomed criminal.

00:53:39.748 --> 00:53:41.992
It's not doom to say,

00:53:41.992 --> 00:53:47.490
"This day you will be 
with Me in Paradise."

00:53:47.490 --> 00:53:49.394
What do I have to look forward to?

00:53:49.394 --> 00:53:51.366
Christ never forsaking me.

00:53:51.366 --> 00:53:53.340
Never leaving me.

00:53:53.340 --> 00:53:56.656
Putting me in trials, yes.

00:53:56.656 --> 00:54:01.708
But there aren't only trials here.

00:54:01.708 --> 00:54:04.461
My son just got saved.

00:54:04.461 --> 00:54:07.091
There's not only trials here.

00:54:07.091 --> 00:54:09.366
And He promises that His grace

00:54:09.366 --> 00:54:12.559
will be sufficient.

00:54:12.559 --> 00:54:17.263
And He brings seasons of great joy here.

00:54:17.263 --> 00:54:20.496
The suffering is but for a moment.

00:54:20.496 --> 00:54:22.885
The sun will break forth

00:54:22.885 --> 00:54:24.280
even in our darkened seasons.

00:54:24.280 --> 00:54:26.402
There is a light at the end of the tunnel,

00:54:26.402 --> 00:54:31.780
even when we can't see it.

00:54:31.780 --> 00:54:34.331
This fullness of day.

00:54:34.331 --> 00:54:37.195
Greater likeness of Christ.

00:54:37.195 --> 00:54:41.269
Purifying, being made more and more

00:54:41.269 --> 00:54:43.460
and more sinless.

00:54:43.460 --> 00:54:46.555
More and more and more like Christ.

00:54:46.555 --> 00:54:47.890
And then bang!

00:54:47.890 --> 00:54:49.729
It's just going to grab us.

00:54:49.729 --> 00:54:53.127
We are going to be 
hauled off into eternity

00:54:53.127 --> 00:54:55.932
and gaze on His face

00:54:55.932 --> 00:54:58.911
and be made like Him.

00:54:58.911 --> 00:55:02.239
There's no more death.

00:55:02.239 --> 00:55:06.207
You don't get eternal life when you die.

00:55:06.207 --> 00:55:09.783
You don't get it at the day of judgment.

00:55:09.783 --> 00:55:10.912
You have it.

00:55:10.912 --> 00:55:12.814
It's past tense.

00:55:12.814 --> 00:55:15.965
You've been made alive.

00:55:15.965 --> 00:55:19.139
The Christian is done with death.

00:55:19.139 --> 00:55:22.006
We are done with dying.

00:55:22.006 --> 00:55:23.409
Don't you get it?

00:55:23.409 --> 00:55:26.500
We are together with Christ.

00:55:26.500 --> 00:55:27.893
You go to Scripture

00:55:27.893 --> 00:55:29.312
and it says,

00:55:29.312 --> 00:55:34.065
"In Him was life."

00:55:34.065 --> 00:55:35.833
That's Who we're together with.

00:55:35.833 --> 00:55:39.224
The Father has granted the Son

00:55:39.224 --> 00:55:41.590
to have life in Himself.

00:55:41.590 --> 00:55:45.674
We are together with Him Who is life;

00:55:45.674 --> 00:55:47.870
Who has been granted to have life

00:55:47.870 --> 00:55:49.915
within Him.

00:55:49.915 --> 00:55:53.025
The last Adam is what?

00:55:53.025 --> 00:55:59.679
He has become a life-giving spirit.

00:55:59.679 --> 00:56:02.499
When Christ, Who is your life...

00:56:02.499 --> 00:56:03.933
That's how Scripture speaks.

00:56:03.933 --> 00:56:08.446
Christ. You're together with life.

00:56:08.446 --> 00:56:10.465
Listen, Christ has come,

00:56:10.465 --> 00:56:12.271
and He's put His arms around us

00:56:12.271 --> 00:56:13.435
and embraced us.

00:56:13.435 --> 00:56:16.081
But see, it's closer, it's 
more organic than that.

00:56:16.081 --> 00:56:18.033
There's actually a connection now.

00:56:18.033 --> 00:56:20.309
We have become one with Him.

00:56:20.309 --> 00:56:22.760
We're one with life.

00:56:22.760 --> 00:56:24.778
There's no more death.

00:56:24.778 --> 00:56:26.753
You're one with He Who is life.

00:56:26.753 --> 00:56:28.473
You're one with the One Who is

00:56:28.473 --> 00:56:29.562
the last Adam,

00:56:29.562 --> 00:56:31.284
who is a life-giving spirit.

00:56:31.284 --> 00:56:37.546
He breathes nothing but life into you.

00:56:37.546 --> 00:56:38.894
And we can suffer

00:56:38.894 --> 00:56:40.624
and we can be in dark seasons,

00:56:40.624 --> 00:56:43.133
but that life is very real.

00:56:43.133 --> 00:56:46.039
Because even in the darkness,

00:56:46.039 --> 00:56:49.040
even in that darkness,

00:56:49.040 --> 00:56:52.405
our faith in Christ presses us through.

00:56:52.405 --> 00:56:55.248
Even in that darkness,

00:56:55.248 --> 00:56:57.229
that faith is upheld

00:56:57.229 --> 00:56:59.725
by the mighty hand of God.

00:56:59.725 --> 00:57:02.666
Even when we waver and we teeter all over,

00:57:02.666 --> 00:57:04.316
when we feel like we're going to

00:57:04.316 --> 00:57:05.411
throw in the towel,

00:57:05.411 --> 00:57:08.169
and we're going to fail...

00:57:08.169 --> 00:57:10.909
there is an unmovable hand

00:57:10.909 --> 00:57:12.535
beneath us

00:57:12.535 --> 00:57:14.952
that carries us through.

00:57:14.952 --> 00:57:17.654
Some through the water, brethren.

00:57:17.654 --> 00:57:22.652
Some through the flood.

00:57:22.652 --> 00:57:23.928
It's true.

00:57:23.928 --> 00:57:29.881
There's floods and there's fires.

00:57:29.881 --> 00:57:31.577
But He is going to finish that work

00:57:31.577 --> 00:57:32.590
which He started.

00:57:32.590 --> 00:57:35.988
Have you ever heard Paul exclaim,

00:57:35.988 --> 00:57:39.995
it is no longer I who live,

00:57:39.995 --> 00:57:42.896
but Christ Who lives in me.

00:57:42.896 --> 00:57:44.113
Do you know this?

00:57:44.113 --> 00:57:47.283
He Who is life lives in me.

00:57:47.283 --> 00:57:48.620
I cannot die.

00:57:48.620 --> 00:57:50.093
Because Christ cannot die.

00:57:50.093 --> 00:57:51.745
Because Christ is one with me.

00:57:51.745 --> 00:57:53.856
And because in that union,

00:57:53.856 --> 00:57:56.037
His life is my life.

00:57:56.037 --> 00:57:59.582
My life is bound to His life.

00:57:59.582 --> 00:58:00.990
And He can't die.

00:58:00.990 --> 00:58:02.149
I can't die.

00:58:02.149 --> 00:58:04.590
I'm one. I'm bound with Him.

00:58:04.590 --> 00:58:06.301
Have you experienced this?

00:58:06.301 --> 00:58:09.531
This is what it is to be a Christian.

00:58:09.531 --> 00:58:11.196
This isn't what it is simply

00:58:11.196 --> 00:58:13.153
to be a great apostle like Paul.

00:58:13.153 --> 00:58:15.963
This is what it is to 
be the least Christian.

00:58:15.963 --> 00:58:20.281
You have been made alive,

00:58:20.281 --> 00:58:22.720
because God has made you alive

00:58:22.720 --> 00:58:24.472
if you are a Christian.

00:58:24.472 --> 00:58:26.072
This is a reality.

00:58:26.072 --> 00:58:27.270
What does it mean?

00:58:27.270 --> 00:58:28.011
We're alive.

00:58:28.011 --> 00:58:29.929
We're no longer alienanted from God.

00:58:29.929 --> 00:58:31.566
Have you ever read in Scripture,

00:58:31.566 --> 00:58:32.844
alive to God -

00:58:32.844 --> 00:58:34.025
no longer alienated.

00:58:34.025 --> 00:58:35.967
What does it mean to be alive to God?

00:58:35.967 --> 00:58:37.989
Suddenly, we recognize Him.

00:58:37.989 --> 00:58:39.517
We see Him! We feel Him!

00:58:39.517 --> 00:58:41.029
We experience Him!

00:58:41.029 --> 00:58:43.597
There's reality to the living God.

00:58:43.597 --> 00:58:45.269
We hunger for Him.

00:58:45.269 --> 00:58:47.933
We hear His voice in His Word.

00:58:47.933 --> 00:58:50.568
We long after, we desire after...

00:58:50.568 --> 00:58:52.549
Desiring God.

00:58:52.549 --> 00:58:54.183
Hungering for Christ.

00:58:54.183 --> 00:58:56.976
Feasting on His blood.

00:58:56.976 --> 00:59:00.209
Brethren, this is the reality.

00:59:00.209 --> 00:59:02.011
This is life.

00:59:02.011 --> 00:59:04.404
Life. Life.

00:59:04.404 --> 00:59:07.517
Why would God do this?

00:59:07.517 --> 00:59:09.492
Well, you see it there.

00:59:09.492 --> 00:59:13.053
You see it there at the beginning of v. 4.

00:59:13.053 --> 00:59:14.349
If we would find an answer,

00:59:14.349 --> 00:59:18.423
it's in the character of God Himself.

00:59:18.423 --> 00:59:20.603
Just think.

00:59:20.603 --> 00:59:22.043
Paul's amazed by this.

00:59:22.043 --> 00:59:25.817
Even when we were dead

00:59:25.817 --> 00:59:27.306
in our trespasses...

00:59:27.306 --> 00:59:30.220
that's the thing that just blows him away.

00:59:30.220 --> 00:59:35.837
God did this when I was the way I was?

00:59:35.837 --> 00:59:39.034
Even then? Even then?

00:59:39.034 --> 00:59:41.188
Such riches of mercy.

00:59:41.188 --> 00:59:43.956
Brethren, you look at the way

00:59:43.956 --> 00:59:50.735
that this word has been translated.

00:59:50.735 --> 00:59:56.925
Sometimes, it's tender mercies

00:59:56.925 --> 01:00:00.685
or tender compassion

01:00:00.685 --> 01:00:03.568
or lovingkindness.

01:00:03.568 --> 01:00:07.658
Think about those words.

01:00:07.658 --> 01:00:11.475
Those are like words...

01:00:11.475 --> 01:00:15.425
tender compassion.

01:00:15.425 --> 01:00:16.879
They're the kind of words

01:00:16.879 --> 01:00:18.711
that humanly speaking we would expect,

01:00:18.711 --> 01:00:23.268
like a wife to feel towards her husband

01:00:23.268 --> 01:00:25.830
or a husband towards his wife.

01:00:25.830 --> 01:00:28.682
Two people who love each other.

01:00:28.682 --> 01:00:30.757
Attracted to each other.

01:00:30.757 --> 01:00:32.217
Find much in the other

01:00:32.217 --> 01:00:35.337
that is very desirable.

01:00:35.337 --> 01:00:38.306
God comes along and finds us

01:00:38.306 --> 01:00:43.273
absolutely an abhorrence.

01:00:43.273 --> 01:00:45.106
This is what rocks Paul

01:00:45.106 --> 01:00:46.945
to the core of his being.

01:00:46.945 --> 01:00:49.681
Even when I was a blasphemer,

01:00:49.681 --> 01:00:52.651
and even when I was an insolent opponent,

01:00:52.651 --> 01:00:57.953
even then - even after 
the things that I've done,

01:00:57.953 --> 01:01:02.164
rich, rich mercy

01:01:02.164 --> 01:01:04.127
extended towards me.

01:01:04.127 --> 01:01:15.995
Brethren, I fear that man seems to

01:01:15.995 --> 01:01:20.791
find it almost impossible to harmonize

01:01:20.791 --> 01:01:24.516
the God Who is sovereign;

01:01:24.516 --> 01:01:27.319
the God Who makes alive

01:01:27.319 --> 01:01:31.284
and chooses which ones to make alive

01:01:31.284 --> 01:01:34.773
and which ones not to make alive;

01:01:34.773 --> 01:01:37.116
the God of election,

01:01:37.116 --> 01:01:41.817
the God of predestination.

01:01:41.817 --> 01:01:45.396
Many find it very difficult to harmonize

01:01:45.396 --> 01:01:51.651
rich mercies.

01:01:51.651 --> 01:01:53.467
There is this idea that

01:01:53.467 --> 01:01:57.917
the "God of Calvinism" -

01:01:57.917 --> 01:02:03.150
He's cruel. He's distant.

01:02:03.150 --> 01:02:04.814
He's out there.

01:02:04.814 --> 01:02:07.301
He's cold. He's stoic.

01:02:07.301 --> 01:02:08.436
He's unfeeling.

01:02:08.436 --> 01:02:12.329
He's harsh.

01:02:12.329 --> 01:02:19.314
Brethren, that's Allah.

01:02:19.314 --> 01:02:24.416
That's not the God and Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ.

01:02:24.416 --> 01:02:28.671
His mercies are tender.

01:02:28.671 --> 01:02:31.265
Tender.

01:02:31.265 --> 01:02:33.960
Riches of mercy.

01:02:33.960 --> 01:02:44.260
And they flow out of a great love.

01:02:44.260 --> 01:02:45.688
I hope you can see it.

01:02:45.688 --> 01:02:48.437
Look, should we fear such a God?

01:02:48.437 --> 01:02:49.392
Yes.

01:02:49.392 --> 01:02:51.358
Oh yeah.

01:02:51.358 --> 01:02:56.267
He is kind. He is full of tender mercies.

01:02:56.267 --> 01:02:58.182
Brethren, we don't want to misread

01:02:58.182 --> 01:03:00.180
those mercies.

01:03:00.180 --> 01:03:04.458
If you go on rejecting His Son,

01:03:04.458 --> 01:03:06.865
Oh, He is greatly to be feared.

01:03:06.865 --> 01:03:08.705
Be sure of that.

01:03:08.705 --> 01:03:10.281
These mercies don't mean that

01:03:10.281 --> 01:03:16.224
this God is a pushover.

01:03:16.224 --> 01:03:19.596
Listen.

01:03:19.596 --> 01:03:23.738
What God presents Himself as in Scripture,

01:03:23.738 --> 01:03:26.288
He's holding out His arm.

01:03:26.288 --> 01:03:29.800
All day long even.

01:03:29.800 --> 01:03:31.490
What's there?

01:03:31.490 --> 01:03:34.843
He's offering these mercies.

01:03:34.843 --> 01:03:36.963
Come take them.

01:03:36.963 --> 01:03:39.656
Come take them.

01:03:39.656 --> 01:03:42.168
This is how He portrays Himself.

01:03:42.168 --> 01:03:46.322
Come take them.

01:03:46.322 --> 01:03:47.928
Jesus can look to His Father

01:03:47.928 --> 01:03:49.606
and say, "Father, I thank You that

01:03:49.606 --> 01:03:51.550
You have not revealed these to the wise

01:03:51.550 --> 01:03:54.240
and the prudent,

01:03:54.240 --> 01:03:56.755
but to babes."

01:03:56.755 --> 01:03:59.084
What's God's answer

01:03:59.084 --> 01:04:00.565
to the fact that nobody comes

01:04:00.565 --> 01:04:04.489
and takes these mercies from His hand?

01:04:04.489 --> 01:04:08.048
Election.

01:04:08.048 --> 01:04:12.066
Be made alive.

01:04:12.066 --> 01:04:13.114
No man can come to Me

01:04:13.114 --> 01:04:16.159
unless My Father Who sent Me draws him.

01:04:16.159 --> 01:04:17.403
See, be made alive.

01:04:17.403 --> 01:04:19.462
And suddenly, we look at those mercies

01:04:19.462 --> 01:04:22.761
in His hands,

01:04:22.761 --> 01:04:25.248
I want those.

01:04:25.248 --> 01:04:29.766
I'm a sinner. I need those.

01:04:29.766 --> 01:04:33.658
The Spirit convicts us of sin.

01:04:33.658 --> 01:04:38.135
And there's the remedy.

01:04:38.135 --> 01:04:42.243
Be made alive.

01:04:42.243 --> 01:04:44.322
That's God's work.

01:04:44.322 --> 01:04:48.198
God makes Christians.

01:04:48.198 --> 01:04:50.082
That's the reality.

01:04:50.082 --> 01:04:53.446
Have you tasted God's rich mercies?

01:04:53.446 --> 01:04:54.815
Are you alive?

01:04:54.815 --> 01:04:56.333
Do you have life?

01:04:56.333 --> 01:04:58.581
Are you aware of such a reality

01:04:58.581 --> 01:05:00.026
that has grabbed you?

01:05:00.026 --> 01:05:01.297
Has embraced you?

01:05:01.297 --> 01:05:02.661
Has changed you?

01:05:02.661 --> 01:05:04.691
Has made you something you weren't before?

01:05:04.691 --> 01:05:05.796
Do you see it?

01:05:05.796 --> 01:05:07.969
I desire what I didn't desire before.

01:05:07.969 --> 01:05:12.547
I don't desire what I did desire before.

01:05:12.547 --> 01:05:14.841
That group of friends...

01:05:14.841 --> 01:05:17.118
I can't fit with them anymore.

01:05:17.118 --> 01:05:17.962
Why?

01:05:17.962 --> 01:05:19.637
Because I'm alive and they're dead.

01:05:19.637 --> 01:05:20.652
When I was dead,

01:05:20.652 --> 01:05:21.913
well that was comfortable.

01:05:21.913 --> 01:05:22.989
But I'm not dead.

01:05:22.989 --> 01:05:24.418
Something has changed.

01:05:24.418 --> 01:05:25.597
Do you know this?

01:05:25.597 --> 01:05:27.042
A power in your life,

01:05:27.042 --> 01:05:28.711
influencing you?

01:05:28.711 --> 01:05:29.894
Moving you?

01:05:29.894 --> 01:05:30.723
Directing you?

01:05:30.723 --> 01:05:32.135
I'm talking about something

01:05:32.135 --> 01:05:33.356
outside of yourself.

01:05:33.356 --> 01:05:35.140
Not some ingenuity with yourself.

01:05:35.140 --> 01:05:36.693
Not some decision you made.

01:05:36.693 --> 01:05:37.663
Do you feel this?

01:05:37.663 --> 01:05:38.865
Do you know this reality

01:05:38.865 --> 01:05:41.451
of God Who is working on you

01:05:41.451 --> 01:05:43.151
from outside?

01:05:43.151 --> 01:05:44.640
Are you aware of this reality

01:05:44.640 --> 01:05:45.980
like the songwriter was?

01:05:45.980 --> 01:05:49.237
I was blind, but now I see!

01:05:49.237 --> 01:05:50.150
I see!

01:05:50.150 --> 01:05:52.115
Why? God has made me alive.

01:05:52.115 --> 01:05:54.248
My eyes are open.

01:05:54.248 --> 01:05:57.569
Sin: I'm no longer impotent.

01:05:57.569 --> 01:06:00.111
I'm no longer in it as a slave

01:06:00.111 --> 01:06:01.647
and dead.

01:06:01.647 --> 01:06:04.342
And now, it no longer 
has dominion over me.

01:06:04.342 --> 01:06:05.111
I may fall,

01:06:05.111 --> 01:06:06.297
but I'll tell you this,

01:06:06.297 --> 01:06:07.644
it doesn't have dominion.

01:06:07.644 --> 01:06:09.589
Because it's not like I just jump up

01:06:09.589 --> 01:06:11.237
and run back after it again.

01:06:11.237 --> 01:06:12.517
I confess those sins.

01:06:12.517 --> 01:06:15.164
He is faithful and just 
to forgive those sins.

01:06:15.164 --> 01:06:16.173
There is a fight.

01:06:16.173 --> 01:06:17.919
I don't follow the devil anymore.

01:06:17.919 --> 01:06:19.359
I wrestle with him.

01:06:19.359 --> 01:06:21.172
Oh, there's battles.

01:06:21.172 --> 01:06:22.515
Yes, there's battles.

01:06:22.515 --> 01:06:24.444
But see, there was no battle before,

01:06:24.444 --> 01:06:25.793
because I was dead in sin.

01:06:25.793 --> 01:06:27.924
I followed the flow.

01:06:27.924 --> 01:06:29.909
Now, I'm seeking to move against it.

01:06:29.909 --> 01:06:31.353
I'm walking the other way.

01:06:31.353 --> 01:06:32.394
And I feel it.

01:06:32.394 --> 01:06:33.880
And there's a power within me

01:06:33.880 --> 01:06:36.068
that keeps my legs moving.

01:06:36.068 --> 01:06:37.572
Step after step,

01:06:37.572 --> 01:06:39.606
even though the flow is strong

01:06:39.606 --> 01:06:40.806
to go back the other way.

01:06:40.806 --> 01:06:42.518
I keep going in that direction.

01:06:42.518 --> 01:06:45.354
Why? There's a power at work within me

01:06:45.354 --> 01:06:47.245
that is not of this world.

01:06:47.245 --> 01:06:48.599
It's supernatural.

01:06:48.599 --> 01:06:49.469
It's divine.

01:06:49.469 --> 01:06:51.358
Are you aware of this?

01:06:51.358 --> 01:06:53.509
Brethren, are you aware 
of being made alive

01:06:53.509 --> 01:06:54.910
together with Christ?

01:06:54.910 --> 01:06:57.811
What a tremendous thing, is it not!

01:06:57.811 --> 01:07:01.456
Brethren, to God... God makes Christians.

01:07:01.456 --> 01:07:03.393
it's to God be the glory.

01:07:03.393 --> 01:07:04.754
To God be the praise

01:07:04.754 --> 01:07:06.583
as we heard it in the first hour.

01:07:06.583 --> 01:07:14.589
Salvation belongs to the Lord.

01:07:14.589 --> 01:07:18.077
Father,

01:07:18.077 --> 01:07:21.090
We just bow our heads before You.

01:07:21.090 --> 01:07:23.184
You are God and we are not,

01:07:23.184 --> 01:07:26.641
and You are full of 
the most tender mercies

01:07:26.641 --> 01:07:30.720
towards those who deserve 
them not in the least.

01:07:30.720 --> 01:07:32.013
And we thank You.

01:07:32.013 --> 01:07:34.183
Thank You. Thank You that Your love

01:07:34.183 --> 01:07:39.736
was so great, so deep,

01:07:39.736 --> 01:07:46.822
that You even offered up Your own Son.

01:07:46.822 --> 01:07:51.461
He became sin.

01:07:51.461 --> 01:07:58.296
All that punishment came upon His head.

01:07:58.296 --> 01:08:01.381
That we might be made alive.

01:08:01.381 --> 01:08:02.852
And that we might experience

01:08:02.852 --> 01:08:05.061
the exceeding, the immeasurable riches

01:08:05.061 --> 01:08:06.613
of your grace in kindness

01:08:06.613 --> 01:08:08.263
through all these coming ages.

01:08:08.263 --> 01:08:10.487
Lord, what have You done for sinners.

01:08:10.487 --> 01:08:13.845
What an amazing thing this is.

01:08:13.845 --> 01:08:14.752
We thank You,

01:08:14.752 --> 01:08:16.652
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

01:08:16.652 --> 01:08:17.884
Amen.