0:00:00.781,0:00:06.139
Ephesians 1:1,

0:00:06.139,0:00:17.699
Paul addresses the church at Ephesus with these words:

0:00:17.699,0:00:22.320
"Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.

0:00:22.320,0:00:24.229
To the saints who are in Ephesus,

0:00:24.229,0:00:27.209
and are faithful in Christ Jesus,

0:00:27.209,0:00:29.355
grace to you and peace from God our Father

0:00:29.355,0:00:33.318
and the Lord Jesus Christ."

0:00:33.318,0:00:41.195
Now, I've heard preachers say...

0:00:41.195,0:00:45.130
and I'm sure this is very common for anybody

0:00:45.130,0:00:51.138
who preaches through an entire book of the Bible.

0:00:51.138,0:00:53.456
I remember hearing John Piper say it,

0:00:53.456,0:00:56.252
that when he got to the end of preaching through a book,

0:00:56.257,0:00:59.408
he began to recognize more fully

0:00:59.408,0:01:00.885
what was being talked about

0:01:00.885,0:01:03.795
at the beginning of the book.

0:01:03.795,0:01:06.495
And that's true.

0:01:06.495,0:01:09.877
I've found the same thing.

0:01:09.877,0:01:12.288
I remember preaching through Romans.

0:01:12.288,0:01:14.995
I get to the end of Romans and I recognize realities

0:01:14.995,0:01:17.864
at the beginning of Romans that I didn't really grasp,

0:01:17.864,0:01:20.205
because I didn't really have a good feel

0:01:20.205,0:01:22.650
for the whole book of Romans.

0:01:22.650,0:01:26.497
And so, what I've sought to do in preaching through whole books,

0:01:26.497,0:01:29.637
is read the entire book through

0:01:29.637,0:01:33.559
over and over and over... again.

0:01:33.559,0:01:35.626
When I would preach through Hebrews,

0:01:35.626,0:01:37.910
I got it down to where I could read the book through

0:01:37.910,0:01:41.627
in 35 minutes, and I tried every week

0:01:41.627,0:01:43.902
to be going through the book beginning to end,

0:01:43.902,0:01:45.755
because I wanted the whole book fresh.

0:01:45.755,0:01:47.620
I wanted a feel for the whole thing.

0:01:47.620,0:01:49.583
Not only am I seeking to read Ephesians

0:01:49.583,0:01:51.536
through from end to end,

0:01:51.536,0:01:55.475
I've worked on memorizing it in the past,

0:01:55.475,0:01:57.885
and I'm trying to memorize the whole thing again.

0:01:57.885,0:02:02.100
I've got the first three chapters down.

0:02:02.100,0:02:05.964
I'll be working on chapters 4, 5, and 6 in the days ahead.

0:02:05.964,0:02:08.575
But what's happening is this:

0:02:08.575,0:02:10.673
something is becoming clear,

0:02:10.673,0:02:12.541
that even here in the beginning,

0:02:12.541,0:02:15.343
in this introduction, when Paul says,

0:02:15.343,0:02:17.911
"to the saints who are in Ephesus,

0:02:17.911,0:02:19.958
and are faithful in Christ Jesus."

0:02:19.958,0:02:23.887
He brings forth three realities.

0:02:23.887,0:02:30.960
Saints, faithful, in Christ Jesus.

0:02:30.960,0:02:32.259
And it's interesting to me,

0:02:32.259,0:02:38.437
especially in just thinking through the first chapter as a whole,

0:02:38.437,0:02:43.684
that these are three very prominent realities

0:02:43.684,0:02:47.340
that come out in this first chapter.

0:02:47.340,0:02:49.164
And what I'm recognizing here is

0:02:49.164,0:02:52.741
these three realities about the Christian

0:02:52.741,0:02:57.696
are very much, in concise form,

0:02:57.696,0:03:00.468
that which he is going to go on and deal with

0:03:00.468,0:03:06.423
in much more detail in these verses ahead.

0:03:06.423,0:03:09.143
These are three realities that we don't want to pass over.

0:03:09.143,0:03:13.312
Because they're not just realities about the Christian life

0:03:13.312,0:03:16.587
that Paul randomly pulled out of the air.

0:03:16.587,0:03:19.945
What he's doing here is he's setting the direction,

0:03:19.945,0:03:24.210
he's setting the course for where he wants to take us.

0:03:24.210,0:03:26.873
When Paul when to write, he didn't just start writing

0:03:26.873,0:03:28.384
not knowing where he wanted to go.

0:03:28.384,0:03:30.528
He knew the things that he wanted to say.

0:03:30.528,0:03:33.183
And even in the introduction here,

0:03:33.183,0:03:35.627
he's drawing out realities that pertain to

0:03:35.627,0:03:39.669
the very things that he wants to deal with.

0:03:39.669,0:03:42.201
And we looked last week at this reality,

0:03:42.201,0:03:46.141
"To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus."

0:03:46.141,0:03:49.087
We looked at "saints." We really focused in on that.

0:03:49.087,0:03:50.944
Saints. What's the idea?

0:03:50.944,0:03:56.818
Just very quickly, in review.

0:03:56.818,0:03:58.909
Where does saint come from?

0:03:58.909,0:04:01.212
Well, as we looked at, the term is actually

0:04:01.212,0:04:05.470
very closely related to "holy" and to "sanctified."

0:04:05.470,0:04:07.084
Do you know where it comes from?

0:04:07.084,0:04:15.675
Saint comes from the idea of sanctified.

0:04:15.675,0:04:19.923
In fact, William Tyndale,

0:04:19.923,0:04:24.340
he translated his translation about 500 years ago.

0:04:24.340,0:04:36.637
Here's the William Tyndale translation:

0:04:36.637,0:04:43.899
"Paul, an apostle of Jesu Christ,

0:04:43.899,0:04:47.752
by the will of God, to the saynctes."

0:04:47.752,0:04:52.169
Now I'm not exactly sure how he would have said that,

0:04:52.169,0:04:57.792
but it's s-a-y-n-c-t-e-s.

0:04:57.792,0:05:00.361
Saynctes.

0:05:00.361,0:05:03.033
It comes from the word sanctification,

0:05:03.033,0:05:05.001
you see the obvious connection there.

0:05:05.001,0:05:09.028
But 500 years ago, they didn't call each other "saints."

0:05:09.028,0:05:11.836
In fact, I looked up a page of the William Tyndale,

0:05:11.836,0:05:18.081
and the first page of the Gospel of John,

0:05:18.081,0:05:23.193
and it says "the Gospel of Sayncte John."

0:05:23.193,0:05:24.642
And it's got a "c" in there.

0:05:24.642,0:05:26.884
Well, at some point they dropped the "c" out.

0:05:26.884,0:05:29.358
But that's the idea.

0:05:29.358,0:05:30.936
That's where "saint" comes from.

0:05:30.936,0:05:32.871
What does that mean?

0:05:32.871,0:05:39.263
That means not first and foremost a holy people

0:05:39.263,0:05:41.257
in the sense of morally pure.

0:05:41.257,0:05:44.514
In the first sense it means a people set apart

0:05:44.514,0:05:47.001
and reserved for God.

0:05:47.001,0:05:51.141
And listen, one of the things we want to recognize

0:05:51.141,0:05:52.853
is we're not talking about any kind of special

0:05:52.853,0:05:55.350
higher order of Christians who tower

0:05:55.350,0:05:57.256
above all the normal Christians.

0:05:57.256,0:06:00.602
We're talking about anybody who is a Christian,

0:06:00.602,0:06:05.116
is a saint. They're a sayncte.

0:06:05.116,0:06:07.873
But I want you to know something,

0:06:07.873,0:06:11.396
back 2000 years ago,

0:06:11.396,0:06:15.402
typically when Paul went into pagan cities,

0:06:15.402,0:06:16.956
you know what he would find?

0:06:16.956,0:06:19.253
He would find a population of Jews.

0:06:19.253,0:06:21.205
You've got pagans over here - the gentiles,

0:06:21.205,0:06:22.773
and you've got the Jews.[br]

0:06:22.773,0:06:25.102
Typically, he'd go to the Jews first

0:06:25.102,0:06:28.579
and he'd go into those synagogues.

0:06:28.579,0:06:30.379
But I can tell you this,

0:06:30.379,0:06:33.727
the very idea to those of a Jewish upbringing,

0:06:33.727,0:06:37.498
that that term "saint" would be applied

0:06:37.498,0:06:40.287
to a pagan gentile,

0:06:40.287,0:06:44.159
they considered it a rape

0:06:44.159,0:06:46.445
of the sanctified language of Scripture.

0:06:46.445,0:06:47.882
Because you know what?

0:06:47.882,0:06:50.998
The Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament,

0:06:50.998,0:06:54.532
they knew that term "saint" was applied

0:06:54.532,0:06:58.117
to Old Testament Israel.

0:06:58.117,0:07:00.992
It was applied to God's people of the

0:07:00.992,0:07:04.009
Jewish lineage in the Old Testament.

0:07:04.009,0:07:07.350
And they considered that a rape of sacred language,

0:07:07.350,0:07:10.987
that such terminology would be ripped out

0:07:10.987,0:07:14.509
and applied to these pagan gentiles.

0:07:14.509,0:07:16.372
They hated it!

0:07:16.372,0:07:18.322
And yet that is the term that God

0:07:18.322,0:07:20.691
has chosen to give to us.

0:07:20.691,0:07:23.567
Saint.

0:07:23.567,0:07:26.364
But, there's something else here.

0:07:26.364,0:07:31.437
Christians are in the second place: faithful.

0:07:31.437,0:07:36.207
Many of you remember, maybe four or five months ago

0:07:36.207,0:07:39.271
I preached from that very word on

0:07:39.271,0:07:42.698
the faithfulness of Christians.

0:07:42.698,0:07:45.190
And you know what? That whole message stands.

0:07:45.190,0:07:47.088
Don't believe that anything I say today

0:07:47.088,0:07:49.357
undoes that message.

0:07:49.357,0:07:52.215
Because obviously, there is a faithfulness

0:07:52.215,0:07:54.166
about Christians and it can be proved

0:07:54.166,0:07:56.721
from many different texts.

0:07:56.721,0:07:59.204
I'm just not so convinced anymore that this is the text

0:07:59.204,0:08:02.217
that I would have wanted to prove it from.

0:08:02.217,0:08:04.585
And I'll show you in a second what I mean.

0:08:04.585,0:08:09.484
The term faithful in the original is the term "pistos."

0:08:09.484,0:08:12.572
P-i-s-t-o-s.

0:08:12.572,0:08:18.007
And it carries two very distinct meanings. Two.

0:08:18.007,0:08:21.469
The first meaning is, here we are in Ephesians,

0:08:21.469,0:08:23.914
go over to chapter 6, I'll show it to you.

0:08:23.914,0:08:32.429
Chapter 6:21, Paul says,

0:08:32.429,0:08:35.216
"So that you may know how I am and what I am doing,

0:08:35.216,0:08:40.506
Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister."

0:08:40.506,0:08:44.819
See, there's the exact same word: faithful minister.

0:08:44.819,0:08:46.425
Basically, what does it mean?

0:08:46.425,0:08:49.159
You know, you talk about a faithful dog.

0:08:49.159,0:08:51.958
What are you talking about?

0:08:51.958,0:08:53.646
What do you mean?

0:08:53.646,0:08:59.789
Loyal. Yes. Trustworthy. Reliable.

0:08:59.789,0:09:08.514
Loyalty. That is one definite meaning to the word "faithful."

0:09:08.514,0:09:11.458
But there is a second meaning.

0:09:11.458,0:09:16.861
And it comes from really the old meaning of faithful.

0:09:16.861,0:09:21.394
Faith-full, or full of faith.

0:09:21.394,0:09:25.190
Let me show it to you used this other way.

0:09:25.190,0:09:30.117
Look over at John 20 with me.

0:09:30.117,0:09:34.732
Basically, it refers in the second usage

0:09:34.732,0:09:38.326
to someone who is a believer.

0:09:38.326,0:09:42.148
Someone who exercises faith, or is full of faith,

0:09:42.148,0:09:44.517
faithful in that way.

0:09:44.517,0:09:48.997
Faith-full. And you see it.

0:09:48.997,0:09:52.141
Paul uses it both ways.

0:09:52.141,0:09:54.372
And the only way you can really tell how

0:09:54.372,0:09:58.280
he is using it is by the context.

0:09:58.280,0:09:59.972
But, I'll show it to you here.

0:09:59.972,0:10:03.802
This isn't Paul's usage of it, it's our Lord's usage of it.

0:10:03.802,0:10:08.449
John 20:26

0:10:08.449,0:10:15.273
"Eight days later, His disciples were inside again."

0:10:15.273,0:10:19.061
You remember, He showed up.

0:10:19.061,0:10:21.146
He appeared to His disicples the day that He

0:10:21.146,0:10:24.408
had arose from the dead.

0:10:24.408,0:10:26.235
Thomas wasn't there.

0:10:26.235,0:10:27.815
Thomas said that he wasn't going to believe

0:10:27.815,0:10:30.631
unless he was able to actually see the Lord himself

0:10:30.631,0:10:33.272
and put his fingers in the wounds.

0:10:33.272,0:10:35.899
"Eight days later, His disciples were inside again.

0:10:35.899,0:10:38.374
And Thomas was with them.

0:10:38.374,0:10:40.087
Although the doors were locked, Jesus came

0:10:40.087,0:10:41.666
and stood among them, and said,

0:10:41.666,0:10:45.845
'Peace be with you,' and then He said to Thomas,

0:10:45.845,0:10:49.672
'put your fingers here and see My hands,

0:10:49.672,0:10:54.977
put out your hand, place it in My side.'"

0:10:54.977,0:10:56.313
Now notice this:

0:10:56.313,0:11:02.099
Do not apistos (the "a" negates)

0:11:02.099,0:11:05.678
Don't disbelieve, but believe.

0:11:05.678,0:11:07.446
See here's our term again.

0:11:07.446,0:11:10.257
This is the same term that is translated "faithful"

0:11:10.257,0:11:12.217
in Ephesians 1:1.

0:11:12.217,0:11:15.061
Believe.

0:11:15.061,0:11:17.093
Be a believer.

0:11:17.093,0:11:20.220
Jesus isn't telling Thomas to be reliable

0:11:20.220,0:11:23.053
and trustworthy and loyal.

0:11:23.053,0:11:28.363
He's telling him, you need to believe, Thomas.

0:11:28.363,0:11:31.301
Exercise faith. Quit with the unbelief.

0:11:31.301,0:11:35.565
Look, there's not the slightest debate among scholars

0:11:35.565,0:11:38.393
that there's two entirely separate meanings

0:11:38.393,0:11:41.525
to this word. Everybody agrees.

0:11:41.525,0:11:44.122
It's very plain. It's very obvious in Scripture,

0:11:44.122,0:11:47.188
that it's got two meanings.

0:11:47.188,0:11:51.325
Faithful as in reliable, loyal, trustworthy,

0:11:51.325,0:11:55.094
and it also means a believer.

0:11:55.094,0:11:58.178
It means somebody who has faith,

0:11:58.178,0:12:00.899
they're full of faith, they exercise faith.

0:12:00.899,0:12:04.079
I tell you that because if we're going to

0:12:04.079,0:12:07.604
properly interpret Scripture, we need to understand this.

0:12:07.604,0:12:09.704
And then when we look at Ephesians 1:1,

0:12:09.704,0:12:10.905
and we're looking at,

0:12:10.905,0:12:14.403
here's Paul and he's addressing these Christians,

0:12:14.403,0:12:16.597
and this is God-inspired language.

0:12:16.597,0:12:18.304
What's he saying about them?

0:12:18.304,0:12:22.004
What is it that we ought to see is real of Christians?

0:12:22.004,0:12:23.077
We looked at it before.

0:12:23.077,0:12:24.464
Christians are saints.

0:12:24.464,0:12:26.300
But Christians are also faithful.

0:12:26.300,0:12:27.618
Does that mean loyal?

0:12:27.618,0:12:30.917
Yes, it does, and we could definitely prove that.

0:12:30.917,0:12:34.986
And we could look at that reality in various places.

0:12:34.986,0:12:39.500
But listen, again, I want to quote Tyndale.

0:12:39.500,0:12:43.767
Listen to how Tyndale translates this.

0:12:43.767,0:12:46.737
I like to look at Tyndale often,

0:12:46.737,0:12:50.343
because all of our English translations

0:12:50.343,0:12:55.088
owe so much to his work.

0:12:55.088,0:12:57.601
And because he was the first one who

0:12:57.601,0:13:04.073
translated the Scriptures from the Greek into the English.

0:13:04.073,0:13:07.598
Now they'd been translated from the Latin into the English.

0:13:07.598,0:13:10.561
Anybody know who did that?

0:13:10.561,0:13:12.611
Wycliffe, yes.

0:13:12.611,0:13:16.307
But Tyndale did it from the Greek into the English.

0:13:16.307,0:13:18.694
Now listen to how he translated,

0:13:18.694,0:13:22.494
"Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God,

0:13:22.494,0:13:25.678
to the saynctes which are at Ephesus

0:13:25.678,0:13:29.856
and to them which believe on Jesus Christ."

0:13:29.856,0:13:33.639
See, he took that term to mean "believer,"

0:13:33.639,0:13:37.044
not "loyal."

0:13:37.044,0:13:44.076
I looked at seventeen commentaries.

0:13:44.076,0:13:48.646
Sixteen of the seventeen commentators

0:13:48.646,0:13:53.608
were quite convinced this should be translated

0:13:53.608,0:13:57.390
"believer." That it means "believer."

0:13:57.390,0:13:59.515
Listen to Alexander McLaren,

0:13:59.515,0:14:01.552
my wife just discovered this guy.

0:14:01.552,0:14:04.218
Scottish Baptist, actually a contemporary

0:14:04.218,0:14:07.620
of Charles Spurgeon.

0:14:07.620,0:14:09.741
Listen to how he says it,

0:14:09.741,0:14:13.479
"Faithful here, of course, does not mean,

0:14:13.479,0:14:15.392
as it usually does in our ordinary language

0:14:15.392,0:14:18.721
true, trusty, reliable, keeping our word,

0:14:18.721,0:14:21.797
but it means simply believing, having faith."

0:14:21.797,0:14:24.886
Lloyd-Jones says, "faithful is a somewhat

0:14:24.886,0:14:27.464
unfortunate translation because we tend to give

0:14:27.464,0:14:30.623
not a primary meaning to this term,

0:14:30.623,0:14:32.703
but once more a secondary meaning."

0:14:32.703,0:14:34.582
And he means we tend to give it the meaning

0:14:34.582,0:14:36.411
of reliable and trustworthy.

0:14:36.411,0:14:38.038
He says essentially this word "faithful"

0:14:38.038,0:14:40.535
means exercising faith.

0:14:40.535,0:14:44.133
Now you see, McLaren says of course it means that!

0:14:44.133,0:14:49.454
And so many of the commentators said it like that,

0:14:49.454,0:14:51.314
well, of course, it's clear.

0:14:51.314,0:14:53.163
And I'm looking, but they never say

0:14:53.163,0:14:57.476
why it's so clear.

0:14:57.476,0:15:01.079
And, brethren, I'll tell you - you know what I think

0:15:01.079,0:15:04.605
actually makes it kind of clear?

0:15:04.605,0:15:11.432
Is the first chapter of Ephesians itself.

0:15:11.432,0:15:13.373
You say, how so?

0:15:13.373,0:15:18.545
Just notice. Look with me at Ephesians 1.

0:15:18.545,0:15:25.588
First, when we're told about all the spiritual blessings

0:15:25.588,0:15:31.796
that are ours, notice the first one that's gone to:

0:15:31.796,0:15:37.070
Saints. Notice it in verse 4.

0:15:37.070,0:15:39.234
You say the word saint's not there.

0:15:39.234,0:15:43.346
No, but listen, if we remember what "saint" is,

0:15:43.346,0:15:47.103
it's a people set apart as holy to God, notice this:

0:15:47.103,0:15:52.828
"God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world,

0:15:52.828,0:15:55.947
that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love."

0:15:55.947,0:15:57.595
You know what's very interesting?

0:15:57.595,0:15:59.258
He doesn't run right to faith,

0:15:59.258,0:16:01.297
he doesn't run right to believing.

0:16:01.297,0:16:04.931
He runs first to the fact that God chose us to be saints.

0:16:04.931,0:16:07.503
God chose us to be holy.

0:16:07.503,0:16:10.047
Does he get to talking about faith? Yes.

0:16:10.047,0:16:13.837
And when he does, it's not reliability.

0:16:13.837,0:16:15.632
It's us believing.

0:16:15.632,0:16:17.853
You say, where's that happen?

0:16:17.853,0:16:22.368
Well, go to verse 12.

0:16:22.368,0:16:26.616
"We who were the first to hope in Christ,

0:16:26.616,0:16:29.332
might be to the praise of His glory."

0:16:29.332,0:16:32.148
And then in verse 13, "in Him you also,

0:16:32.148,0:16:35.704
when you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation,

0:16:35.704,0:16:39.341
and believed in Him,

0:16:39.341,0:16:41.664
were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit

0:16:41.664,0:16:43.434
Who is the guarantee of our inheritance.

0:16:43.434,0:16:46.149
Notice 15, "for this reason, because I have heard

0:16:46.149,0:16:49.172
of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ."

0:16:49.172,0:16:53.621
What's very interesting is this:

0:16:53.621,0:16:56.873
the idea of being chosen by God to be a saint,

0:16:56.873,0:17:01.424
or to be holy unto God, the idea of us believing,

0:17:01.424,0:17:05.948
and all the time just swimming in the language

0:17:05.948,0:17:10.773
of being in Christ, in Him, in the Beloved.

0:17:10.773,0:17:15.304
That permeates this first chapter.

0:17:15.304,0:17:21.650
Nothing is said about reliability when it comes to "faithful."

0:17:21.650,0:17:23.968
Not reliability, not trustworthy.

0:17:23.968,0:17:27.419
It's the fact that we as Christians are believers.

0:17:27.419,0:17:30.877
Now look, I'm belaboring this for a reason.

0:17:30.877,0:17:32.444
Because as I said last week,

0:17:32.444,0:17:34.534
if there's anything that's important in our day,

0:17:34.534,0:17:38.441
it is that we understand who Christians are.

0:17:38.441,0:17:42.633
We live in a country where our president says

0:17:42.633,0:17:45.410
he's a Christian.

0:17:45.410,0:17:49.469
He brags on Allah and the Koran

0:17:49.469,0:17:52.370
and yet he's a Christian.

0:17:52.370,0:17:55.714
We live in a country where multitudes

0:17:55.714,0:17:57.754
profess to be Christians,

0:17:57.754,0:17:59.017
and you know what?

0:17:59.017,0:18:00.329
Those of us that go door to door,

0:18:00.329,0:18:01.649
you know what we are finding out?

0:18:01.649,0:18:05.450
We are finding out that people do not know the Gospel.

0:18:05.450,0:18:08.483
Just recently, Glenn, Krystal and I,

0:18:08.483,0:18:10.325
we were in somebody's apartment,

0:18:10.325,0:18:13.133
and I asked, after we told them the Gospel,

0:18:13.133,0:18:17.724
have you ever heard anything like this before?

0:18:17.724,0:18:19.962
And one of them shook their head.

0:18:19.962,0:18:21.512
No, never heard anything like this.

0:18:21.512,0:18:24.954
I was downtown with Kevin Williams,

0:18:24.954,0:18:26.355
and I remember we talked to somebody

0:18:26.355,0:18:28.333
down there by the Alamo, and the same thing,

0:18:28.333,0:18:30.408
after we got done with the Gospel,

0:18:30.408,0:18:33.067
I asked them have you ever heard anything like this before?

0:18:33.067,0:18:35.087
Nope, never heard anything like this before.

0:18:35.087,0:18:37.114
We've got people running around all over the place

0:18:37.114,0:18:39.615
claiming to be Christians, and yet it is amazing,

0:18:39.615,0:18:41.103
there is an ignorance.

0:18:41.103,0:18:43.929
We heard in the first hour about the former ignorance?

0:18:43.929,0:18:45.777
Brethren, sometimes we have this idea

0:18:45.777,0:18:47.689
because we were formerly ignorant,

0:18:47.689,0:18:49.185
we've come into the truth,

0:18:49.185,0:18:51.611
we've got this idea that people should know.

0:18:51.611,0:18:53.272
But you know what? We're hearing about -

0:18:53.272,0:18:55.980
John Sytsma can come back from Nepal

0:18:55.980,0:18:58.150
and say that he's hearing about whole villages

0:18:58.150,0:19:00.349
where they don't know the name of Christ,

0:19:00.349,0:19:01.598
but I'll tell you this, we live in a day

0:19:01.598,0:19:03.439
when people do not know the Gospel,

0:19:03.439,0:19:06.471
and they do not know what true Christianity looks like.

0:19:06.471,0:19:07.770
We've got people deceived.

0:19:07.770,0:19:10.301
And it's not just their former ignorance,

0:19:10.301,0:19:11.883
it's their present ignorance.

0:19:11.883,0:19:13.606
And we need to blow that away.

0:19:13.606,0:19:15.500
What is true Christianity?

0:19:15.500,0:19:18.312
Well, on the first place, on the first footing,

0:19:18.312,0:19:21.768
on the first foundation, Christians are saints.

0:19:21.768,0:19:24.198
They are a people set aside by God.

0:19:24.198,0:19:26.965
And in the second place, they are believers.

0:19:26.965,0:19:29.197
They believe something...

0:19:29.197,0:19:30.996
different from what the rest of the world believes.

0:19:30.996,0:19:34.076
Listen, the whole world believes something.

0:19:34.076,0:19:37.049
But what Scripture talks about is the former ignorance.

0:19:37.049,0:19:39.551
In other words, what we formerly believed

0:19:39.551,0:19:41.155
isn't what we believe now.

0:19:41.155,0:19:43.737
Formerly, we did believe a whole bunch of things,

0:19:43.737,0:19:47.102
but it's called deception, and it's called ignorance.

0:19:47.102,0:19:49.293
Why? Because what we believed was a lie.

0:19:49.293,0:19:52.212
And there was a whole lot that we didn't believe,

0:19:52.212,0:19:55.321
that we needed to believe, that we were ignorant of.

0:19:55.321,0:19:58.028
Brethren, this is where our evangelism comes in,

0:19:58.028,0:20:01.425
just as well as our own self-examination.

0:20:01.425,0:20:02.855
Are we the real deal?

0:20:02.855,0:20:04.507
Are we saying the real thing?

0:20:04.507,0:20:07.649
Are we proclaiming what true Christianity is to the world?

0:20:07.649,0:20:10.752
We need to blow the ignorance away.

0:20:10.752,0:20:12.548
Why? Because ignorance kills.

0:20:12.548,0:20:14.291
You know what? Ignorance is not harmless.

0:20:14.291,0:20:15.831
Ignorance is not bliss.

0:20:15.831,0:20:18.820
Ignorance is deadly. Ignorance takes people to hell.

0:20:18.820,0:20:21.383
The former ignorance we heard about from Peter

0:20:21.383,0:20:22.922
in the first hour,

0:20:22.922,0:20:24.088
is an ignorance you die in.

0:20:24.088,0:20:27.088
You will die in your sins.

0:20:27.088,0:20:29.119
True Christians are saints.

0:20:29.119,0:20:32.259
And if there is Christianity, and it's all over the place,

0:20:32.259,0:20:34.740
that's being proclaimed that is not holy,

0:20:34.740,0:20:37.842
there is a form of godliness but it denies the power.

0:20:37.842,0:20:42.311
Brethren, it is a deadly religion.

0:20:42.311,0:20:45.366
All that says it's Christianity is not Christianity.

0:20:45.366,0:20:47.075
And you know what you would have found

0:20:47.075,0:20:50.324
if you would have viewed these saints

0:20:50.324,0:20:51.953
who are at Ephesus?

0:20:51.953,0:20:54.403
You would have found they believed things that

0:20:54.403,0:20:56.893
they didn't believe formerly.

0:20:56.893,0:20:58.839
Oh, you've got people running all around Ephesus,

0:20:58.839,0:20:59.964
and what did they believe?

0:20:59.964,0:21:03.167
They believed in Artemis, Diana.

0:21:03.167,0:21:05.483
The temple was there.

0:21:05.483,0:21:08.180
They believed in the stone, the sacred stone,

0:21:08.180,0:21:11.978
that was thrown down from heaven by Jupiter.

0:21:11.978,0:21:14.323
They believed in those things.

0:21:14.323,0:21:16.504
But I'll tell you what, Christians believe something

0:21:16.504,0:21:18.244
the rest of the world doesn't believe.

0:21:18.244,0:21:21.043
And if you would have asked these Christians,

0:21:21.043,0:21:24.997
they were a group of people and they believed something.

0:21:24.997,0:21:26.704
What did they believe?

0:21:26.704,0:21:28.403
They didn't believe it was a sacred stone

0:21:28.403,0:21:29.692
that got thrown down from heaven,

0:21:29.692,0:21:32.602
they believed that the Son of God came down from heaven.

0:21:32.602,0:21:35.015
And not from Jupiter, but God Almighty,

0:21:35.015,0:21:37.975
the living God sent His Son into this world.

0:21:37.975,0:21:39.384
Brethren, I'll tell you this,

0:21:39.384,0:21:43.226
they believed in the Incarnation.

0:21:43.226,0:21:46.589
They believed that God came from the halls of heaven,

0:21:46.589,0:21:47.771
and He came here.

0:21:47.771,0:21:48.961
They believed that.

0:21:48.961,0:21:50.927
They believed that Jesus of Nazareth

0:21:50.927,0:21:52.650
was not just like you and me.

0:21:52.650,0:21:54.659
He was not just like every other human being

0:21:54.659,0:21:55.880
on the face of this earth.

0:21:55.880,0:21:57.688
They believed that was Immanuel.

0:21:57.688,0:21:59.260
That was God with us.

0:21:59.260,0:22:01.299
This was the Son of God, the Word of God.

0:22:01.299,0:22:03.655
And He's come down.

0:22:03.655,0:22:05.894
And as I heard Piper say last night,

0:22:05.894,0:22:08.577
I'm drifting off to sleep, my wife had a message on,

0:22:08.577,0:22:11.044
He took upon Himself humanity.

0:22:11.044,0:22:13.070
He took upon Himself a body.

0:22:13.070,0:22:14.992
He had to have a forehead, why?

0:22:14.992,0:22:17.541
To have something for the thorns to pierce.

0:22:17.541,0:22:19.574
And He had to have a broad back, why?

0:22:19.574,0:22:21.426
For the sake of the scourge.

0:22:21.426,0:22:23.880
And He had to have a brain and a spinal cord

0:22:23.880,0:22:25.496
with all the nerves, why?

0:22:25.496,0:22:28.223
So that He could feel the fullness of the pain

0:22:28.223,0:22:31.891
with no vinegar, with no sour wine, with no gall.

0:22:31.891,0:22:33.094
He endured it.

0:22:33.094,0:22:35.335
He felt it.

0:22:35.335,0:22:37.491
He would not numb Himself.

0:22:37.491,0:22:39.783
He went to that cross, and He was determined

0:22:39.783,0:22:43.379
to bear our punishment and bear our guilt,

0:22:43.379,0:22:45.543
and He took it there in a body.

0:22:45.543,0:22:47.555
He became like us, so that He could become

0:22:47.555,0:22:50.295
a mediator between God and man.

0:22:50.295,0:22:53.689
Somebody who could satisfy God as a man,

0:22:53.689,0:22:56.261
being righteous as a man,

0:22:56.261,0:22:59.261
dying the death of a man in our place.

0:22:59.261,0:23:02.042
See, they believed that. They believed that.

0:23:02.042,0:23:03.811
The rest of them, they didn't believe it.

0:23:03.811,0:23:06.372
They believed Artemis, and you know, god of fertility,

0:23:06.372,0:23:08.060
and we've got to appease and placate.

0:23:08.060,0:23:10.844
And these people recognized, no, none of that!

0:23:10.844,0:23:13.194
We cannot placate with our offerings,

0:23:13.194,0:23:15.114
and with our produce,

0:23:15.114,0:23:17.514
and with anything that we do in our lives.

0:23:17.514,0:23:20.658
They recognized, One came into this world

0:23:20.658,0:23:22.793
to save sinners, and it's not Artemis,

0:23:22.793,0:23:24.290
and it's not Jupiter.

0:23:24.290,0:23:26.101
It is the Son of God Himself.

0:23:26.101,0:23:28.754
Rejected by those pagans, rejected by the Jews

0:23:28.754,0:23:30.254
that were there. They believed that.

0:23:30.254,0:23:31.788
And I'll tell you what else they believed:

0:23:31.788,0:23:34.371
They believed that He died, but He didn't stay dead.

0:23:34.371,0:23:37.140
He came out of the grave. They believed that.

0:23:37.140,0:23:40.433
The resurrection? Yeah, you better believe, they believed that.

0:23:40.433,0:23:44.001
After many infallible proofs, 40 days, [br]

0:23:44.001,0:23:46.853
He showed Himself to above 500 people.

0:23:46.853,0:23:49.444
They knew it. Those Christians knew it!

0:23:49.444,0:23:51.575
The testimony went all over through the churches.

0:23:51.575,0:23:54.715
In this day, probably some of those people were still alive.

0:23:54.715,0:23:56.589
Maybe some of them had even migrated

0:23:56.589,0:23:57.707
over to Ephesus.

0:23:57.707,0:23:59.618
People who had seen Him resurrected.

0:23:59.618,0:24:02.000
Can you imagine seeing somebody

0:24:02.000,0:24:04.606
who saw Christ resurrected?

0:24:04.606,0:24:07.134
I mean, I don't know what you would do,

0:24:07.134,0:24:09.267
but I would swarm the guy!

0:24:09.267,0:24:10.960
I would grab him and pull him aside,

0:24:10.960,0:24:14.002
"you tell me everything!"

0:24:14.002,0:24:17.161
Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!

0:24:17.161,0:24:18.707
Why? Don't you want to know more?

0:24:18.707,0:24:20.081
Don't you always want to know more?

0:24:20.081,0:24:21.888
More than even what the Bible tells you?

0:24:21.888,0:24:23.475
Isn't that the longing of your heart?

0:24:23.475,0:24:25.308
That's not a bad desire.

0:24:25.308,0:24:29.436
Here are these people, and you know they stood out.

0:24:29.436,0:24:30.847
Why? Because they had holy lives

0:24:30.847,0:24:31.893
and because they believed something like

0:24:31.893,0:24:33.647
the rest of the people did not believe.

0:24:33.647,0:24:37.037
And they were telling the people what they believed.

0:24:37.037,0:24:39.018
Paul says when he went to Ephesus,

0:24:39.018,0:24:40.700
he fought with beasts at Ephesus.

0:24:40.700,0:24:42.187
There were people there.

0:24:42.187,0:24:46.969
That's the same place where Demetrius the coppersmith was at.

0:24:46.969,0:24:48.824
They were taking their trade away.

0:24:48.824,0:24:52.378
These people are saying that these gods

0:24:52.378,0:24:54.220
that we're making with our hands,

0:24:54.220,0:24:55.787
they're all a deception.

0:24:55.787,0:24:58.876
This is having an impact on my ability

0:24:58.876,0:25:01.373
to put bread on the supper table for my family.

0:25:01.373,0:25:03.864
So, you better believe they recognized it.

0:25:03.864,0:25:04.961
You better believe they knew it.

0:25:04.961,0:25:08.017
Paul, he was over there at that hall of Tyrannus

0:25:08.017,0:25:10.269
for what? a number of years,

0:25:10.269,0:25:15.324
preaching and teaching, and the Word was going everywhere.

0:25:15.324,0:25:18.335
They believed.

0:25:18.335,0:25:21.319
They were believers.

0:25:21.319,0:25:23.418
But that's not all.

0:25:23.418,0:25:26.243
Saints believe certain things.

0:25:26.243,0:25:29.909
But brethren, I want you to notice this:

0:25:29.909,0:25:33.321
notice the order of these terms.

0:25:33.321,0:25:35.629
And again, I don't think this is random.

0:25:35.629,0:25:40.365
Because it's not random in the first chapter of Ephesians.

0:25:40.365,0:25:44.490
Nor is it random in other places in our Bibles.

0:25:44.490,0:25:48.987
Saints, first.

0:25:48.987,0:25:53.237
Believers, second.

0:25:53.237,0:25:55.641
And I think we need to look at this,

0:25:55.641,0:25:58.051
because I think most of us have this idea

0:25:58.051,0:25:59.168
about Christianity:

0:25:59.168,0:26:04.681
justification and then sanctification.

0:26:04.681,0:26:06.700
We're justified by faith,

0:26:06.700,0:26:10.964
so we would have the idea of believing and being justified;

0:26:10.964,0:26:14.448
and then sanctification, and that's the idea of

0:26:14.448,0:26:17.393
progressively becoming more and more holy

0:26:17.393,0:26:20.331
and more and more Christlike.

0:26:20.331,0:26:22.738
And yet isn't it interesting, saint is first,

0:26:22.738,0:26:24.274
believer second?

0:26:24.274,0:26:25.531
And you say well, maybe that's random,

0:26:25.531,0:26:27.826
or maybe just standard protocol demands,

0:26:27.826,0:26:29.953
if you're going to address somebody,

0:26:29.953,0:26:34.377
maybe it just came off the tongue easier to say saint first.

0:26:34.377,0:26:35.928
I don't believe that.

0:26:35.928,0:26:38.699
I believe there is doctrinal significance to the order here,

0:26:38.699,0:26:41.620
and I'll show you why.

0:26:41.620,0:26:50.155
Turn over to 2 Thessalonians 2:13.

0:26:50.155,0:26:52.690
This is not a random reality,

0:26:52.690,0:26:55.301
when we begin to study very closely.

0:26:55.301,0:26:59.207
We will see that the idea of sanctification

0:26:59.207,0:27:05.666
is more than once, often, put before

0:27:05.666,0:27:10.839
our faith and obedience to Christ.

0:27:10.839,0:27:15.289
2 Thessalonians 2:13, "We ought always to give thanks

0:27:15.289,0:27:19.478
to God for you, brothers, beloved by the Lord."

0:27:19.478,0:27:21.214
Now notice this:

0:27:21.214,0:27:28.219
"Because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved."

0:27:28.219,0:27:29.643
Now this is very interesting because this

0:27:29.643,0:27:33.411
is similar language to Ephesians 1:3-4

0:27:33.411,0:27:35.166
where you've got this idea

0:27:35.166,0:27:43.422
that God chose them to be holy and blameless.

0:27:43.422,0:27:49.867
They were chosen in Christ.

0:27:49.867,0:27:53.888
And notice this, "God chose you as the firstfruits

0:27:53.888,0:27:59.622
to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit

0:27:59.622,0:28:02.398
and belief in the truth."

0:28:02.398,0:28:06.257
But again, it's interesting that sanctification

0:28:06.257,0:28:11.661
is first, faith; belief is second.

0:28:11.661,0:28:15.063
Ok, go back to Ephesians again.

0:28:15.063,0:28:25.009
I want to draw this reality again out of Ephesians 1 for you.

0:28:25.009,0:28:28.356
In Ephesians 1, notice verse 4,

0:28:28.356,0:28:35.958
"He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world

0:28:35.958,0:28:40.219
that we should be holy and blameless before Him."

0:28:40.219,0:28:42.420
Again, you get that idea,

0:28:42.420,0:28:44.420
and then faith, like I showed you before,

0:28:44.420,0:28:49.397
the hope in Christ is found in verse 12.

0:28:49.397,0:28:55.770
The believing in Christ is found in 13.

0:28:55.770,0:29:00.222
Our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is found in 15.

0:29:00.222,0:29:05.357
And so it's interesting that in his initial salutation,

0:29:05.357,0:29:13.969
saint first, believer second. Full of faith. Faith-full. Second.

0:29:13.969,0:29:17.417
That's what we find in 2 Thessalonians.

0:29:17.417,0:29:21.144
That's what we find as he opens up these realities

0:29:21.144,0:29:22.984
in Ephesians 1.

0:29:22.984,0:29:26.188
Listen, what you have to recognize is this:

0:29:26.188,0:29:28.960
What he is going to begin talking to us about

0:29:28.960,0:29:33.934
is all the spiritual blessings that have been heaped upon us

0:29:33.934,0:29:36.501
being in Christ, and as he goes through

0:29:36.501,0:29:39.469
and he begins to elaborate on what those blessings are,

0:29:39.469,0:29:41.992
the very first thing that he goes to is the fact

0:29:41.992,0:29:43.278
that God chose you.

0:29:43.278,0:29:46.767
And He didn't choose you just to be saved,

0:29:46.767,0:29:49.309
He chose you to be holy.

0:29:49.309,0:29:51.870
He chose you to be a people for Himself.

0:29:51.870,0:29:54.871
He didn't just choose you to miss out on hell.

0:29:54.871,0:30:00.551
He chose you to be holy and blameless before Him.

0:30:00.551,0:30:05.650
And then it's verses later before you get to the fact that

0:30:05.650,0:30:09.638
there's faith involved in this.

0:30:09.638,0:30:12.589
You get to chapter 2 before you find out

0:30:12.589,0:30:19.554
that we're saved by grace through faith.

0:30:19.554,0:30:21.602
It's a gift of God.

0:30:21.602,0:30:24.283
But he starts on the note of sanctification,

0:30:24.283,0:30:26.465
if you don't see it, that's what the idea of holy,

0:30:26.465,0:30:28.419
being chosen to holiness,

0:30:28.419,0:30:31.972
being chosen to sanctity, to sanctification,

0:30:31.972,0:30:34.569
being chosen as sanctified ones,

0:30:34.569,0:30:36.409
being chosen as saints.

0:30:36.409,0:30:37.593
That's the idea.

0:30:37.593,0:30:38.864
It's the same thing, even though you

0:30:38.864,0:30:40.735
don't see the word saint there.

0:30:40.735,0:30:42.472
It's the same idea.

0:30:42.472,0:30:43.844
There's a sequence.

0:30:43.844,0:30:47.597
Now why do I emphasize this?

0:30:47.597,0:30:52.272
I emphasize this for this fact.

0:30:52.272,0:31:00.649
That you cannot be a believer unless you're a saint.

0:31:00.649,0:31:02.360
And that's critical.

0:31:02.360,0:31:05.556
That's critical to what Christians are.

0:31:05.556,0:31:10.019
Are you a person who's been set aside for God?

0:31:10.019,0:31:14.207
Holy, blameless? Is that the reality about your life?

0:31:14.207,0:31:16.565
Is there obvious evidence?

0:31:16.565,0:31:18.798
Listen, we need to recognize,

0:31:18.798,0:31:21.750
we become new creations in Christ Jesus,

0:31:21.750,0:31:24.091
old things pass away, all things become new.

0:31:24.091,0:31:25.957
There is such a thing as being born again.

0:31:25.957,0:31:28.399
True Christianity is supernatural.

0:31:28.399,0:31:32.756
There is a non-supernatural form of Christianity

0:31:32.756,0:31:35.078
that's pumped in this world.

0:31:35.078,0:31:37.902
"Oh, I believe. I believe in God."

0:31:37.902,0:31:41.116
"I believe this."

0:31:41.116,0:31:45.669
Craig's been helping James out with some of the emails,

0:31:45.669,0:31:46.919
and Criag's been telling me about,

0:31:46.919,0:31:48.809
and I come across this too,

0:31:48.809,0:31:54.406
it's amazing how often we see emails

0:31:54.406,0:31:58.398
where people start the email, "Oh, I know I'm saved..."

0:31:58.398,0:32:02.000
"Oh, I know I'm born again..."

0:32:02.000,0:32:05.021
"but, I live in sin, I'm a slave to sin,

0:32:05.021,0:32:08.735
would you please explain to me how this can be?"

0:32:08.735,0:32:15.318
That doesn't require a long answer.

0:32:15.318,0:32:17.110
It can't be.

0:32:17.110,0:32:18.961
I mean, you're basically describing something

0:32:18.961,0:32:22.593
that the Bible says does not exist.

0:32:22.593,0:32:25.768
Unholy believers.

0:32:25.768,0:32:28.595
And what Scripture is saying is

0:32:28.595,0:32:31.612
listen, this is supernatural.

0:32:31.612,0:32:35.062
God chooses. God is active.

0:32:35.062,0:32:38.249
God sets people aside.

0:32:38.249,0:32:41.625
And that's first, before we even look at being a believer.

0:32:41.625,0:32:43.342
Yes, believers believe.

0:32:43.342,0:32:46.342
Believers believe what Christians believe.

0:32:46.342,0:32:48.763
They believe the Scriptures; they believe the Gospel.

0:32:48.763,0:32:51.365
They believe the realities about Jesus Christ.

0:32:51.365,0:32:53.931
But first and foremost, they are people set aside.

0:32:53.931,0:32:55.497
And I would just say this,

0:32:55.497,0:32:57.902
has that happened to you?

0:32:57.902,0:32:59.533
I mean, is there evidence in your life

0:32:59.533,0:33:02.448
that you are a holy vessel put aside by God?

0:33:02.448,0:33:04.468
Has something like that really happened in your life?

0:33:04.468,0:33:06.792
I don't mean, did you just decide one day?

0:33:06.792,0:33:08.673
Oh, I think I'm going to become a believer,

0:33:08.673,0:33:10.305
and I think I'm going to do this,

0:33:10.305,0:33:12.887
and I'm going to start going to church,

0:33:12.887,0:33:15.454
and I'm going to try to get my life right.

0:33:15.454,0:33:18.838
You see, that's not the picture that we get in Scripture.

0:33:18.838,0:33:21.336
What we get in Scripture is the picture that God

0:33:21.336,0:33:28.617
chooses to set a people aside, and that's first.

0:33:28.617,0:33:33.096
And then, believer.

0:33:33.096,0:33:36.768
He's not talking about then how reliable we become.

0:33:36.768,0:33:40.097
He's not saying, saint, then you become reliable, though that's true.

0:33:40.097,0:33:44.633
The idea is you're a saint first, and then you're a believer.

0:33:44.633,0:33:49.242
And that's the direction he goes in in this first chapter.

0:33:49.242,0:33:54.044
Brethren, here's the question.

0:33:54.044,0:33:56.714
Why is it that we so often think of believing first,

0:33:56.714,0:33:59.352
and then we go through a process of sanctification.

0:33:59.352,0:34:01.234
Well, I know why that is.

0:34:01.234,0:34:03.389
Because most of the time when we think about

0:34:03.389,0:34:06.468
sanctification, we're thinking about the progressive reality.

0:34:06.468,0:34:09.378
Moving to more and more Christlikeness.

0:34:09.378,0:34:12.448
But the truth is the idea of being a saint,

0:34:12.448,0:34:15.905
and the idea of sanctification and the idea of holiness

0:34:15.905,0:34:21.067
is very often in Scripture set forth as a positional reality,

0:34:21.067,0:34:24.093
not a progressive reality.

0:34:24.093,0:34:27.836
It's God placing us aside for Himself.

0:34:27.836,0:34:30.182
And it's real.

0:34:30.182,0:34:33.801
This isn't artificial, this really happens.

0:34:33.801,0:34:37.346
It's not make believe.

0:34:37.346,0:34:40.375
Do you know something about that in your life?

0:34:40.375,0:34:45.216
Where God has set you aside?

0:34:45.216,0:34:46.633
How does it happen?

0:34:46.633,0:34:57.735
Well, it happens in the mind; it happens in what you believe;

0:34:57.735,0:35:01.569
it happens in the desires that you have;

0:35:01.569,0:35:05.027
it happens in the love that you have;

0:35:05.027,0:35:06.529
it happens there, brethren.

0:35:06.529,0:35:09.336
We heard in the first hour about these passions

0:35:09.336,0:35:11.000
of our former ignorance.

0:35:11.000,0:35:12.806
That's where it happens.

0:35:12.806,0:35:14.423
We have new desires.

0:35:14.423,0:35:16.849
We hunger and thirst for righteousness.

0:35:16.849,0:35:18.932
The old is passed away - in what sense?

0:35:18.932,0:35:21.216
That we see things, we recognize things,

0:35:21.216,0:35:22.549
we believe things.

0:35:22.549,0:35:24.639
It's like the light's been turned on.

0:35:24.639,0:35:26.262
We see the glory of Christ.

0:35:26.262,0:35:28.901
We have a love for Him, and we see Him in ways

0:35:28.901,0:35:30.481
we did not see before.

0:35:30.481,0:35:33.179
And we want to live our life for Him now.

0:35:33.179,0:35:36.091
That is the indication of being set aside.

0:35:36.091,0:35:39.225
We recognize, we're not like the world anymore.

0:35:39.225,0:35:40.598
This isn't, oh, I'm like the world,

0:35:40.598,0:35:43.058
but I just plaster religion on it.

0:35:43.058,0:35:47.568
Something happens - it happens different with different people.

0:35:47.568,0:35:50.349
For some people, it is dramatic,

0:35:50.349,0:35:55.911
the moment, the day can be identifed.

0:35:55.911,0:35:57.543
With other people, it's more gradual.

0:35:57.543,0:35:59.878
But whichever way it happens, the truth is

0:35:59.878,0:36:01.712
you are a new creation in Christ.

0:36:01.712,0:36:03.595
You are one of these people who has been

0:36:03.595,0:36:05.942
put aside by God.

0:36:05.942,0:36:08.739
And then, the faith follows that.

0:36:08.739,0:36:12.920
No man is a believer who is not first a saint.

0:36:12.920,0:36:15.351
One of these people that clearly have been

0:36:15.351,0:36:17.074
set aside for God.

0:36:17.074,0:36:21.416
Clearly have been chosen by Him.

0:36:21.416,0:36:24.617
A people chosen to be holy unto Himself.

0:36:24.617,0:36:31.399
And then according to the gift of God, we believe.

0:36:31.399,0:36:35.428
We become believers.

0:36:35.428,0:36:38.830
And then there's a third reality here.

0:36:38.830,0:36:43.093
And it's "in Christ Jesus."

0:36:43.093,0:36:48.004
Now, I don't look at this like necessarily

0:36:48.004,0:36:54.427
three different separate identifications or

0:36:54.427,0:36:56.987
characteristics of the Christian.

0:36:56.987,0:37:00.425
Although I want to look at them that way.

0:37:00.425,0:37:07.207
But it's more like you have two qualities that

0:37:07.207,0:37:10.380
are being modified by the third.

0:37:10.380,0:37:13.588
In other words, when Paul addresses these people,

0:37:13.588,0:37:17.502
he's not saying that their faith is in Jesus Christ.

0:37:17.502,0:37:20.881
He is saying they are in Jesus Christ.

0:37:20.881,0:37:28.108
He is saying that as saints, they are saints in Christ.

0:37:28.108,0:37:34.791
As believers, they are believers in Christ.

0:37:34.791,0:37:38.119
I'm not even sure as a young believer,

0:37:38.119,0:37:40.537
as I started reading Scripture

0:37:40.537,0:37:42.811
that I probably didn't even recognize...

0:37:42.811,0:37:45.322
When you are a young Christian,

0:37:45.322,0:37:47.219
you are looking for the bigger thoughts

0:37:47.219,0:37:49.019
and the bigger ideas.

0:37:49.019,0:37:53.430
And there's a lot of language in Scripture

0:37:53.430,0:37:57.291
that you can pass over when you're a young believer.

0:37:57.291,0:37:59.875
It's just, there's words there, but you're not really...

0:37:59.875,0:38:03.100
"In Christ, in Christ," you know, ok, whatever,

0:38:03.100,0:38:07.060
you read past those because they're everywhere.

0:38:07.060,0:38:08.989
It's almost like religious langauge,

0:38:08.989,0:38:14.989
it kind of gets plugged in there.

0:38:14.989,0:38:27.060
I want you to get a feel for how prominent this idea

0:38:27.060,0:38:30.790
of being in Christ actually is.

0:38:30.790,0:38:35.609
Look with me at chapter 1, verse 3,

0:38:35.609,0:38:38.319
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

0:38:38.319,0:38:41.520
Who has blessed us..." notice this:

0:38:41.520,0:38:43.620
"In Christ." I'm sure as a young believer,

0:38:43.620,0:38:47.526
I would have read right over that.

0:38:47.526,0:38:51.844
In Christ.

0:38:51.844,0:39:01.133
Notice, verse 4, "even as He chose us in Him."

0:39:01.133,0:39:04.498
Notice verse 5, "He predestinated us for adoption

0:39:04.498,0:39:10.963
as sons through Jesus Christ."

0:39:10.963,0:39:18.811
Notice 6, "He has blessed us in the Beloved."

0:39:18.811,0:39:25.793
7, "in Him, we have redemption through His blood."

0:39:25.793,0:39:32.951
I don't know that this "in Christ" terminology

0:39:32.951,0:39:37.668
is found anywhere else in the Bible

0:39:37.668,0:39:48.220
in such repetition as it is found here

0:39:48.220,0:39:50.578
in this first chapter of Ephesians.

0:39:50.578,0:39:53.955
We keep reading...

0:39:53.955,0:40:00.680
9, "according to His purpose which He set forth in Christ."

0:40:00.680,0:40:03.111
Notice 10, "as a plan for the fullness of time

0:40:03.111,0:40:06.634
to unite all things in Him."

0:40:06.634,0:40:14.088
11, "in Him, we have obtained an inheritance."

0:40:14.088,0:40:18.655
12, "first to hope in Christ."

0:40:18.655,0:40:23.716
13, "in Him, you also when you heard the word of truth

0:40:23.716,0:40:27.046
the gospel of your salvation and believed in Him."

0:40:27.046,0:40:31.514
You see, the idea here is, we see that

0:40:31.514,0:40:37.603
us being chosen as a people holy and us having faith,

0:40:37.603,0:40:40.873
being believers, we see that there's kind of an order

0:40:40.873,0:40:44.423
in Scripture where us being sanctified, being saints,

0:40:44.423,0:40:48.048
is set forth before being a believer.

0:40:48.048,0:40:51.945
And yet both of them are swimming in the reality

0:40:51.945,0:40:55.644
of being in Christ.

0:40:55.644,0:41:00.451
That is the chief characteristic.

0:41:00.451,0:41:03.408
It's kind of like the holiness of God

0:41:03.408,0:41:07.496
when you go to describing God's attributes.

0:41:07.496,0:41:13.305
Holiness cannot be separated from any of God's attributes.

0:41:13.305,0:41:17.950
If He's merciful, it is a holy mercifulness.

0:41:17.950,0:41:21.742
If God is angry, it is a holy anger.

0:41:21.742,0:41:24.266
You see, it describes everything about God.

0:41:24.266,0:41:29.244
And that is what we find with this characteristic.

0:41:29.244,0:41:34.446
To be in Christ covers everything.

0:41:34.446,0:41:37.521
If we're adopted, it's in Christ. If we're chosen to holiness,

0:41:37.521,0:41:39.858
it's in Christ. If we're believers, it's in Christ.

0:41:39.858,0:41:41.522
If there's a plan, it's in Christ.

0:41:41.522,0:41:45.071
If there's any good for us, it's all in Christ.

0:41:45.071,0:41:48.618
We could keep going on here, but here's what I want us to do:

0:41:48.618,0:41:54.443
I want us to think about what this means.

0:41:54.443,0:41:58.371
Because you can hear the terminology.

0:41:58.371,0:42:01.631
See, if I talked about being in a sleeping bag,

0:42:01.631,0:42:04.456
or in this room,

0:42:04.456,0:42:07.820
or in this pulpit,

0:42:07.820,0:42:15.635
you have a very physical, positional idea.

0:42:15.635,0:42:18.910
You form a picture in your mind.

0:42:18.910,0:42:21.895
We're talking about a spiritual reality here.

0:42:21.895,0:42:26.709
What does it mean to be in Christ Jesus.

0:42:26.709,0:42:31.482
Because this is life and death.

0:42:31.482,0:42:35.056
In Christ Jesus.

0:42:35.056,0:42:37.339
To the saints who are in Ephesus

0:42:37.339,0:42:45.770
and are faithful in Christ Jesus.

0:42:45.770,0:42:49.613
Here's the first thing I want you to feel about this.

0:42:49.613,0:42:52.707
It is a positional reality.

0:42:52.707,0:42:55.722
"In" is a preposition.

0:42:55.722,0:42:58.260
And in the Greek, that's basically what you have.

0:42:58.260,0:43:01.822
You have the word "in."

0:43:01.822,0:43:06.514
More akin to "en," but it's a preposition.

0:43:06.514,0:43:11.076
And what do prepositions do?

0:43:11.076,0:43:13.759
Can anybody shoot off some of the prepositions?

0:43:13.759,0:43:16.922
In, out, above, on, etc.

0:43:16.922,0:43:22.654
What do prepositions do?

0:43:22.654,0:43:27.010
They basically identify the relationship of

0:43:27.010,0:43:29.800
one person or object to another.

0:43:29.800,0:43:32.785
That's basically what they do.

0:43:32.785,0:43:36.080
If I am in Christ, what that is doing is

0:43:36.080,0:43:40.602
describing my relationship to Him.

0:43:40.602,0:43:43.674
Physically, where are these people?

0:43:43.674,0:43:48.714
To the saints who are in Ephesus.

0:43:48.714,0:43:51.604
Physically, they're in Ephesus.

0:43:51.604,0:43:55.330
Spiritually, they're in Christ.

0:43:55.330,0:43:56.870
One thing we have to recognize about

0:43:56.870,0:44:00.509
physical realities, is in many ways,

0:44:00.509,0:44:02.527
I'm in a lot of different places.

0:44:02.527,0:44:04.290
I'm in this shirt, I'm in this pulpit,

0:44:04.290,0:44:09.829
I'm in this room, I'm in this city.

0:44:09.829,0:44:11.967
I'm in this state.

0:44:11.967,0:44:15.987
And I could be in many different cities.

0:44:15.987,0:44:22.257
But you know spiritually, there's only two cities.

0:44:22.257,0:44:24.829
And you're in one or the other.

0:44:24.829,0:44:30.319
There's the city of destruction or there's the city of God.

0:44:30.319,0:44:33.714
You're in Christ or you're in Adam.

0:44:33.714,0:44:39.248
Lots of choices in the physical realm of where we are.

0:44:39.248,0:44:41.178
But there's only one of two places,

0:44:41.178,0:44:42.902
and that's true of everybody here.

0:44:42.902,0:44:45.379
You're either in Christ or you're out of Christ.

0:44:45.379,0:44:47.113
I'm not saying whether you're religious,

0:44:47.113,0:44:48.383
or whether you're at church today,

0:44:48.383,0:44:50.902
or whether you hold a Bible in your hand.

0:44:50.902,0:44:52.281
I'm not talking about whether you grew up

0:44:52.281,0:44:55.263
in a Christian family.

0:44:55.263,0:44:57.561
I'm not talking about whether other people called you

0:44:57.561,0:45:00.165
Christians or called you brother and sister.

0:45:00.165,0:45:01.792
I'm talking this is a reality here.

0:45:01.792,0:45:03.714
You are in Christ or you are out of Christ.

0:45:03.714,0:45:06.747
And though we may not recognize the reality of it,

0:45:06.747,0:45:09.227
though we may not be able to see it with our physical eyes,

0:45:09.227,0:45:13.285
it's true, and it's just as true as the fact that we're in this room.

0:45:13.285,0:45:15.452
And it is a greater reality,

0:45:15.452,0:45:19.466
because it has to do with your everlasting state.

0:45:19.466,0:45:23.702
It is a positional reality.

0:45:23.702,0:45:25.424
That's the first thing.

0:45:25.424,0:45:31.385
The second thing is that the idea of being in something,

0:45:31.385,0:45:34.941
think about this, we talked about baptism yesterday.

0:45:34.941,0:45:39.272
And the fact that Biblical baptism is by immersion,

0:45:39.272,0:45:42.458
not sprinkling.

0:45:42.458,0:45:46.503
If I'm immersed, I'm in the water.

0:45:46.503,0:45:51.562
You see to be inside something means it surrounds me.

0:45:51.562,0:45:54.601
Oh, this is a sweet picture.

0:45:54.601,0:45:59.732
If I'm in Christ, I'm surrounded by Christ.

0:45:59.732,0:46:01.672
If I'm in water, I'm surrounded by that water.

0:46:01.672,0:46:03.964
If I'm in a sleeping bag, I'm surrounded by that sleeping bag.

0:46:03.964,0:46:05.950
If I'm in this pulpit, I'm surrounded by this.

0:46:05.950,0:46:10.161
If a child is in it's father's arms, it means

0:46:10.161,0:46:12.897
they are surrounded by those arms.

0:46:12.897,0:46:19.379
To be in Christ means I'm surrounded by Christ.

0:46:19.379,0:46:22.109
That's a good thought.

0:46:22.109,0:46:27.471
He embraces the believer, in His own life,

0:46:27.471,0:46:30.314
in the embrace of His everlasting arms.

0:46:30.314,0:46:33.795
The saint - that's who we find are in Christ.

0:46:33.795,0:46:35.946
Saints.

0:46:35.946,0:46:37.906
Believers.

0:46:37.906,0:46:41.987
In Christ.

0:46:41.987,0:46:43.383
They all go together.

0:46:43.383,0:46:46.109
It's not possible that one of these characteristics fits you

0:46:46.109,0:46:50.853
and the others don't. They all go together. All or none.

0:46:50.853,0:46:53.616
How about a third?

0:46:53.616,0:46:56.187
This is a spiritual union.

0:46:56.187,0:46:59.267
Now I know I said it before, but I want you to see this

0:46:59.267,0:47:00.827
in greater reality.

0:47:00.827,0:47:06.013
Turn to 1 Corinthians 6.

0:47:06.013,0:47:11.739
This is a truth you don't want to forget.

0:47:11.739,0:47:13.452
If this truth has never grabbed you before,

0:47:13.452,0:47:16.637
I hope it might grab you right now.

0:47:16.637,0:47:24.236
1 Corinthians 6:15

0:47:24.236,0:47:28.707
Paul is seeking to use argumentation

0:47:28.707,0:47:33.165
meant to convince these Corinthians

0:47:33.165,0:47:37.558
that having sex with prostitutes is not a good thing.

0:47:37.558,0:47:42.787
You might think, wow, that's amazing

0:47:42.787,0:47:44.369
that he would even have to try to convince

0:47:44.369,0:47:49.065
Christians that that's not a good thing.

0:47:49.065,0:47:50.807
But let's be glad that he did have to,

0:47:50.807,0:47:53.268
because in doing so he shares with us

0:47:53.268,0:47:58.419
some precious truths about what it means to be in Christ.

0:47:58.419,0:48:02.605
"Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?"

0:48:02.605,0:48:06.204
Your bodies are members of Christ.

0:48:06.204,0:48:08.793
That's one thing.

0:48:08.793,0:48:12.842
To be in Christ means you're in His body.

0:48:12.842,0:48:16.334
You're part of the body. You're connected to Him.

0:48:16.334,0:48:19.036
He is the head. You are the body.

0:48:19.036,0:48:23.607
You're a member of His. You are part of His body.

0:48:23.607,0:48:26.014
"Shall I then take the members of Christ

0:48:26.014,0:48:31.351
and make them members of a prostitute?"

0:48:31.351,0:48:37.146
You see there is a real-ness, a true-ness,

0:48:37.146,0:48:43.542
about the fact that a Christian is a member of Christ.

0:48:43.542,0:48:49.135
It's so real it ought to impact what we do with ourselves.

0:48:49.135,0:48:52.879
Because we are holy vessels.

0:48:52.879,0:48:54.892
You didn't just go and use holy vessels

0:48:54.892,0:48:57.483
in the Old Testament for any use.

0:48:57.483,0:48:59.241
God would kill you.

0:48:59.241,0:49:02.383
You would be cut off from your people.

0:49:02.383,0:49:05.530
We are holy vessels.

0:49:05.530,0:49:08.377
There are certain things that are appropriate to do with a holy vessel

0:49:08.377,0:49:11.488
and certain things that are not appropriate.

0:49:11.488,0:49:15.922
But notice, "do you not know that he who is joined

0:49:15.922,0:49:18.005
to a prosititute becomes one body with her?

0:49:18.005,0:49:20.937
For as it is written, 'the two will become one flesh.'"

0:49:20.937,0:49:25.644
And notice this, "but he who is joined to the Lord,

0:49:25.644,0:49:29.423
becomes one spirit with Him."

0:49:29.423,0:49:34.381
If you are a Christian, if you are in Christ,

0:49:34.381,0:49:37.463
if you're joined to the Lord,

0:49:37.463,0:49:43.211
you are one spirit with Him.

0:49:43.211,0:49:45.827
Just think here.

0:49:45.827,0:49:47.560
Let's think of a man and a woman,

0:49:47.560,0:49:51.075
because marriage is a picture of the union

0:49:51.075,0:49:53.281
that we have with Christ.

0:49:53.281,0:49:55.727
But just think, imagine with me,

0:49:55.727,0:50:01.167
imagine a man and a woman who are married.

0:50:01.167,0:50:04.496
That achieve the highest degree,

0:50:04.496,0:50:10.364
they experience the greatest extents,

0:50:10.364,0:50:14.513
the farthest reaches of the Biblical ideal

0:50:14.513,0:50:17.413
of the married life.

0:50:17.413,0:50:20.159
The two become one.

0:50:20.159,0:50:21.821
Their love for one another,

0:50:21.821,0:50:24.821
their esteem for one another,

0:50:24.821,0:50:27.010
their intimacy with one another,

0:50:27.010,0:50:29.420
their communication with one another,

0:50:29.420,0:50:32.983
reach the highest of the Biblical ideal

0:50:32.983,0:50:36.118
of what marriage should look like.

0:50:36.118,0:50:40.830
Their wishes, their desires, blend together.

0:50:40.830,0:50:44.791
Their lives blend together.

0:50:44.791,0:50:50.078
What affects each of them affects the other.

0:50:50.078,0:50:55.682
Their lives are swallowed up in one another.

0:50:55.682,0:50:58.598
You see, as you begin to think about that,

0:50:58.598,0:50:59.758
where your thoughts become -

0:50:59.758,0:51:02.182
you almost know what the other person is thinking,

0:51:02.182,0:51:03.906
you know them so well.

0:51:03.906,0:51:08.750
Think about the highest reaches...

0:51:08.750,0:51:13.558
intimacy gets deeper and deeper and deeper.

0:51:13.558,0:51:16.180
The intimate association - what does it do?

0:51:16.180,0:51:19.503
It tends to create conformity.

0:51:19.503,0:51:21.375
You actually become like one another

0:51:21.375,0:51:25.618
the more you get close to the other.

0:51:25.618,0:51:29.692
So the true Christian in their conformity to Christ,

0:51:29.692,0:51:32.450
in their unity to Christ, in their intimacy with Christ,

0:51:32.450,0:51:36.411
in their association with Christ, in their purposes,

0:51:36.411,0:51:38.050
in their desires, in their thinking.

0:51:38.050,0:51:39.356
Have you ever read in Scripture,

0:51:39.356,0:51:41.138
we have the mind of Christ?

0:51:41.138,0:51:42.685
Do you ever just stand back and say

0:51:42.685,0:51:45.126
that's not just because we have Scripture.

0:51:45.126,0:51:48.682
It's because what is in Scripture, that Christ has given to us,

0:51:48.682,0:51:50.984
our minds have been opened to it.

0:51:50.984,0:51:53.985
And we grasp it, and we have a heart like His.

0:51:53.985,0:51:56.233
And our desires are made like His.

0:51:56.233,0:51:58.192
And our loves are made like His.

0:51:58.192,0:51:59.933
And our passions are like His.

0:51:59.933,0:52:02.072
Our conformity from one degree of glory

0:52:02.072,0:52:04.002
to another - we become like Him.

0:52:04.002,0:52:05.918
Which means what we are, who we are,

0:52:05.918,0:52:09.297
how we think - the mind, what goes on in our minds.

0:52:09.297,0:52:11.834
It's becoming more and more like Him.

0:52:11.834,0:52:16.061
There's a spiritual in-ness.

0:52:16.061,0:52:20.354
Listen, J.C. Philpot, one of these old -

0:52:20.354,0:52:22.229
some of you have probably not heard of him,

0:52:22.229,0:52:24.308
but an old strict Baptist or Particular Baptist.

0:52:24.308,0:52:25.621
Listen to what he says,

0:52:25.621,0:52:32.903
"the Spirit of Christ in Christ's glorious Person,

0:52:32.903,0:52:37.354
and the Spirit of Christ in a believing heart,

0:52:37.354,0:52:38.560
meet together."

0:52:38.560,0:52:41.647
This is what it is to be in Christ.

0:52:41.647,0:52:43.766
And he says, "meeting together..."

0:52:43.766,0:52:45.254
And you know what he pictures?

0:52:45.254,0:52:48.431
And we've all seen this.

0:52:48.431,0:52:52.941
He's imagining rain that falls on a window.

0:52:52.941,0:52:55.513
And you've been there, in a car, or looking out a window.

0:52:55.513,0:52:57.387
And the rain is coming.

0:52:57.387,0:53:01.091
And you're seeing the drops as they start dripping down the window.

0:53:01.091,0:53:02.996
And have you ever seen two drops

0:53:02.996,0:53:08.509
and they're coming down, and they come together.

0:53:08.509,0:53:11.321
Or you see one coming down, and there's another drop

0:53:11.321,0:53:12.938
on the window that's not moving,

0:53:12.938,0:53:14.490
and you watch it, and you know when it hits it,

0:53:14.490,0:53:17.541
it's just going to take off.

0:53:17.541,0:53:23.558
Philpot sees us being in Christ like those "two drops

0:53:23.558,0:53:26.707
of rain running down a pane of glass,

0:53:26.707,0:53:33.269
kiss into each other, and are no longer two, but one.

0:53:33.269,0:53:37.352
Now if you've been ever blessed with a manifestation of Christ,

0:53:37.352,0:53:40.932
your spirit has melted into His.

0:53:40.932,0:53:43.711
And you have felt the sweet union and communion

0:53:43.711,0:53:47.409
with Him that you saw as with His eyes,

0:53:47.409,0:53:49.623
heard as with His ears, felt as with His heart,

0:53:49.623,0:53:53.969
and spoke as with His tongue."

0:53:53.969,0:53:56.849
We're one spirit with Him.

0:53:56.849,0:54:02.923
And again, this is not imaginary. This is real.

0:54:02.923,0:54:05.451
You see, sometimes we get so taken up with this

0:54:05.451,0:54:09.551
wretched man syndrome, that we forget,

0:54:09.551,0:54:10.932
we do have the mind of Christ,

0:54:10.932,0:54:14.249
which means, we really do love the same things,

0:54:14.249,0:54:15.658
and we desire the same things,

0:54:15.658,0:54:18.230
and we really are becoming like Him.

0:54:18.260,0:54:21.512
And we're melding together with Him,

0:54:21.512,0:54:23.156
and Who He is.

0:54:23.156,0:54:25.587
In Christ.

0:54:25.587,0:54:29.397
Here's a fourth reality.

0:54:29.397,0:54:34.948
It is a union like that which the Father has with the Son

0:54:34.948,0:54:37.687
and the Son has with the Father.

0:54:37.687,0:54:42.374
John 17:21, listen to this, you don't have to turn there.

0:54:42.374,0:54:45.036
Listen to these words:

0:54:45.036,0:54:49.343
"Just as..." this is our Lord speaking.

0:54:49.343,0:54:51.502
Intercessory prayer in John 17.

0:54:51.502,0:54:57.526
"Just as..." Lock onto those two words.[br]

0:54:57.526,0:55:05.824
"Just as You Father are in Me," just like that.

0:55:05.824,0:55:11.256
"and I in You." Just as Father, You are in Me, the Son,

0:55:11.256,0:55:13.422
and I am in You, the Father...

0:55:13.422,0:55:18.144
"that they" - that's us, Christians, the saints, believers,

0:55:18.144,0:55:22.731
"also may be in us."

0:55:22.731,0:55:28.558
Just as You are in Me and I am in You,

0:55:28.558,0:55:32.740
may they be in us.

0:55:32.740,0:55:38.799
Just... a lot of people start imagining,

0:55:38.799,0:55:43.084
the Father is God, and the Son is God,

0:55:43.084,0:55:45.031
and it just becomes incomprehensible.

0:55:45.031,0:55:47.965
I don't think that's where you want to go.

0:55:47.965,0:55:50.230
I think what you want to picture

0:55:50.230,0:55:54.523
is the Father's relationship to the Son,

0:55:54.523,0:55:59.854
as the Mediator, as our representative, as our Head.

0:55:59.854,0:56:03.362
And we are in His body.

0:56:03.362,0:56:07.449
And being in His body, brethren, you know what Scripture says?

0:56:07.449,0:56:12.059
In Christ, you are seated in the heavely places.

0:56:12.059,0:56:20.135
In Christ, we are part and parcel with Christ.

0:56:20.135,0:56:24.235
In Christ. There becomes realities that are true

0:56:24.235,0:56:27.083
between the Father and the Son

0:56:27.083,0:56:29.945
that you and I have full access to.

0:56:29.945,0:56:32.775
The same things.

0:56:32.775,0:56:35.295
Brethren, the thing is to be in Christ -

0:56:35.295,0:56:37.097
we don't think about this enough,

0:56:37.097,0:56:39.338
we don't go here enough.

0:56:39.338,0:56:46.015
Brethren I'll just tell you, repeatedly studying the Scriptures,

0:56:46.015,0:56:51.738
you get blown away to recognize, to be a Christian,

0:56:51.738,0:56:56.033
brethren, what it is to be a Christian is so

0:56:56.033,0:56:59.197
out-of-this-world, it is so phenomenal,

0:56:59.197,0:57:03.667
it is so much a privilege, it is such a treasure,

0:57:03.667,0:57:07.229
it is so valuable.

0:57:07.229,0:57:11.057
Brethren, if we could just grasp it.

0:57:11.057,0:57:14.186
If you were to find out as a Christian,

0:57:14.186,0:57:17.481
oh, there's no hell, but there's annihilation,

0:57:17.481,0:57:20.254
or there's no hell, but you don't get what's promised in Scripture,

0:57:20.254,0:57:22.180
you get what the Jehovah's Witnesses promise,

0:57:22.180,0:57:26.087
and you can have this world for the rest of your life

0:57:26.087,0:57:28.190
and just stay here and basically live like this.

0:57:28.190,0:57:29.746
Or you can be like the Mormons where you can

0:57:29.746,0:57:31.105
get your own planet somewhere.

0:57:31.105,0:57:35.802
Brethren, if you know what true Christianity is,

0:57:35.802,0:57:38.198
and any of those things, you ended up finding out

0:57:38.198,0:57:40.398
were reality, there would be reasons to just weep

0:57:40.398,0:57:43.355
buckets of tears even if you were going to escape hell.

0:57:43.355,0:57:47.060
Because this thing is so great...

0:57:47.060,0:57:52.282
Paul could just say eternal weight of glory.

0:57:52.282,0:57:59.730
Because these things surpass words.

0:57:59.730,0:58:04.089
Just as...

0:58:04.089,0:58:06.258
Something about the same essential nature

0:58:06.258,0:58:08.815
of the relationship Father has with Son,

0:58:08.815,0:58:11.639
that's true of us being in Christ.

0:58:11.639,0:58:18.357
Another thing: this in Christ, it's a union of life.

0:58:18.357,0:58:19.636
Just listen to these:

0:58:19.636,0:58:24.267
"in Him was life."

0:58:24.267,0:58:26.632
You see, you're either in Him or you're out of Him.

0:58:26.632,0:58:28.873
And to be in Him - remember what He said about,

0:58:28.873,0:58:33.338
He is the vine, we are the branches.

0:58:33.338,0:58:37.463
You've got to be connected to Him if you would have life.

0:58:37.463,0:58:42.344
"Abide in Me and I in you."

0:58:42.344,0:58:46.263
He says, "I am the vine, you are the branches."

0:58:46.263,0:58:50.946
We're told this: "in Christ shall all be made alive."

0:58:50.946,0:58:53.175
We're told this: "I've been crucified with Christ,

0:58:53.175,0:58:56.938
it is no longer I who live, but Christ Who lives in me."

0:58:56.938,0:58:59.082
Our life is tied up in Him.

0:58:59.082,0:59:00.461
Our life is His.

0:59:00.461,0:59:02.167
His life is ours.

0:59:02.167,0:59:04.684
Here in Ephesians 2:4-5,

0:59:04.684,0:59:07.462
we recognize that we are raised together with Him,

0:59:07.462,0:59:10.789
we are raised to life with Christ, in Christ,

0:59:10.789,0:59:13.027
we are raised together.

0:59:13.027,0:59:15.246
Or you have this in Colossians,

0:59:15.246,0:59:17.091
what a truth!

0:59:17.091,0:59:18.333
We find this in 1 John,

0:59:18.333,0:59:22.428
whoever has the Son has life.

0:59:22.428,0:59:24.835
But in Colossians, what a glorious statement

0:59:24.835,0:59:29.886
Chapter 3:4, "when Christ Who is your life appears..."

0:59:29.886,0:59:34.030
to be in Christ is to be connected with life.

0:59:34.030,0:59:39.169
Or this: it's a union of representation.

0:59:39.169,0:59:43.614
"As in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive."

0:59:43.614,0:59:45.522
We know this. This is the great truth that is taught

0:59:45.522,0:59:47.485
in Romans 5.

0:59:47.485,0:59:51.793
To be in Christ means Christ is my federal head.

0:59:51.793,0:59:53.086
He's my representative.

0:59:53.086,0:59:55.040
To be in Him means that all that happens to Him,

0:59:55.040,0:59:58.130
happens to me. All that is His is mine.

0:59:58.130,0:59:59.637
Did He come and earn a righteousness?

0:59:59.637,1:00:01.203
That righteousness is mine.

1:00:01.203,1:00:03.234
I'm made the righteousness of God, remember?

1:00:03.234,1:00:05.664
Remember those two little words that are attached

1:00:05.664,1:00:08.848
there in the last verse of 2 Cor 5,

1:00:08.848,1:00:10.949
what is it? In Him.

1:00:10.949,1:00:13.324
In Him I become the righteousness of God.

1:00:13.324,1:00:15.536
He Who knew no sin, became sin.

1:00:15.536,1:00:18.267
But it's in Him. Not outside of Him.

1:00:18.267,1:00:21.737
It's in Him. In. Him.

1:00:21.737,1:00:23.153
And in Him I'm represented.

1:00:23.153,1:00:25.723
Notice what Scripture says,

1:00:25.723,1:00:28.471
if I'm in Him, did He die? Yes, I died.

1:00:28.471,1:00:31.105
Was He buried? Yes. Then I'm buried.

1:00:31.105,1:00:35.275
Was He crucified? Then I'm crucified with Christ.

1:00:35.275,1:00:37.612
Did He rise from the dead? Then I rose from the dead.

1:00:37.612,1:00:38.826
Does He have a righteousness?

1:00:38.826,1:00:41.188
Then that righteousness is mine.

1:00:41.188,1:00:44.083
Brethren, is He seated at the right hand of the Father?

1:00:44.083,1:00:46.677
Yes. Then so am I.

1:00:46.677,1:00:50.129
Brethren, He's got His eye on you.

1:00:50.129,1:00:51.923
You are betrothed to Him.

1:00:51.923,1:00:53.563
He knows who His own are.

1:00:53.563,1:00:54.731
And He's watching them.

1:00:54.731,1:00:57.831
And He is jealously protective.

1:00:57.831,1:00:59.333
And He means to bring you there,

1:00:59.333,1:01:01.794
holy and blameless before Him.

1:01:01.794,1:01:03.997
He means to gather you.

1:01:03.997,1:01:05.359
You are in Him. You are His.

1:01:05.359,1:01:07.187
You are connected to Him.

1:01:07.187,1:01:08.683
Your life is in Him.

1:01:08.683,1:01:11.568
There is a union of representation.

1:01:11.568,1:01:13.239
As a head to the rest of the body,

1:01:13.239,1:01:14.319
that shows up here,

1:01:14.319,1:01:16.282
speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up

1:01:16.282,1:01:20.095
in every way into Him Who is the Head, into Christ.

1:01:20.095,1:01:23.641
What this tells me is it's a dynamic union.

1:01:23.641,1:01:27.055
In other words, I'm growing into Him more and more.

1:01:27.055,1:01:30.774
This is speaking the truth in love,

1:01:30.774,1:01:32.500
we are to grow up in every way.

1:01:32.500,1:01:38.863
We are to grow out of self, into Him, into love.

1:01:38.863,1:01:43.510
Out of self-indulgence and self-exaltation

1:01:43.510,1:01:46.483
and self - growing into that which is only

1:01:46.483,1:01:47.813
to be found in Him.

1:01:47.813,1:01:49.602
It's like that fertile soil;

1:01:49.602,1:01:51.124
I'm thinking of places in my own lawn

1:01:51.124,1:01:53.161
where I dumped really rich soil,

1:01:53.161,1:01:56.855
and you know the smart plants send roots over there.

1:01:56.855,1:02:00.373
That's what we're doing, we're sending roots deeper,

1:02:00.373,1:02:03.221
and deeper and deeper into Christ,

1:02:03.221,1:02:05.735
drawing the nutrients up out of Him.

1:02:05.735,1:02:12.516
Brethren, this union. I can't see it.

1:02:12.516,1:02:14.789
But, oh, you can sense it.

1:02:14.789,1:02:17.108
I can't see it, but I'll tell you this:

1:02:17.108,1:02:22.114
God makes it happen, God knows it happened,

1:02:22.114,1:02:25.103
God keeps it permanently from ever coming apart.

1:02:25.103,1:02:26.692
One of the things we find in Scripture,

1:02:26.692,1:02:28.809
these people that believe you can lose your salvation

1:02:28.809,1:02:31.343
don't understand what it means to be in Christ.

1:02:31.343,1:02:33.868
Because Scripture says that if you're in Christ

1:02:33.868,1:02:37.684
it is in indissoluble union.

1:02:37.684,1:02:40.984
Paul says this, "I'm sure that neither death nor life,

1:02:40.984,1:02:42.767
nor angels nor rulers, nor things present

1:02:42.767,1:02:44.988
nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth,

1:02:44.988,1:02:47.330
nor anything else in all creation will be able to

1:02:47.330,1:02:53.941
separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

1:02:53.941,1:02:57.095
I'm going to wrap up by saying this:

1:02:57.095,1:03:04.112
One of the reasons that we have pity parties,

1:03:04.112,1:03:06.496
one of the reasons that we fall into the depression that we do,

1:03:06.496,1:03:08.068
or the despair that we do,

1:03:08.068,1:03:12.473
when you start really grasping truths like this,

1:03:12.473,1:03:16.297
what it should tell us is we need to repent of our complaining,

1:03:16.297,1:03:20.191
our lethargy, our depression, our lack of joy,

1:03:20.191,1:03:22.476
our envying what the world has out there.

1:03:22.476,1:03:25.418
They don't have anything on us.

1:03:25.418,1:03:29.799
We're in Christ. In Christ.

1:03:29.799,1:03:33.276
These folks, they were saints, they were full of faith,

1:03:33.276,1:03:35.148
they were in Christ, and all the while

1:03:35.148,1:03:37.518
they lived in Ephesus.

1:03:37.518,1:03:39.600
The pagans knew these folks were there.

1:03:39.600,1:03:41.415
I'll tell you when this characterizes your life

1:03:41.415,1:03:44.313
and you live in the reality of these truths,

1:03:44.313,1:03:46.049
the world out there recognizes,

1:03:46.049,1:03:49.276
there's something different about these people.

1:03:49.276,1:03:51.176
Brethren, we're saints of God.

1:03:51.176,1:03:55.885
We believe that Jesus Christ shed His blood for us.

1:03:55.885,1:03:58.925
We believe, brethren. We're in Christ.

1:03:58.925,1:04:01.010
God has put us in a position where

1:04:01.010,1:04:03.698
we are so intimately connected with Christ,

1:04:03.698,1:04:04.903
and it's never going to go away.

1:04:04.903,1:04:07.579
God is never going to let us out.

1:04:07.579,1:04:09.804
You're connected to Christ. He never lets you go.

1:04:09.804,1:04:11.919
He takes care of you. He protects you.

1:04:11.919,1:04:15.469
He surrounds you. Surrounded by Christ.

1:04:15.469,1:04:18.290
Brethren, if these things are true of us,

1:04:18.290,1:04:21.545
the world's going to sit up and take notice.

1:04:21.545,1:04:24.463
They may be like the beasts at Ephesus,

1:04:24.463,1:04:25.628
they may persecute us,

1:04:25.628,1:04:27.793
they may stone us, they may seek to kill us,

1:04:27.793,1:04:30.035
they may hate it, they may want to stay

1:04:30.035,1:04:31.938
as far away from here as possible,

1:04:31.938,1:04:34.417
but they will sit up and take notice.

1:04:34.417,1:04:37.476
But brethren, I wanted to focus on these things

1:04:37.476,1:04:38.623
just as we get going.

1:04:38.623,1:04:40.787
I know this is only introductory,

1:04:40.787,1:04:42.169
but this is key.

1:04:42.169,1:04:43.708
Paul doesn't randomly use these.

1:04:43.708,1:04:46.218
Paul is going to develop these three concepts

1:04:46.218,1:04:48.385
throughout chapter 1:

1:04:48.385,1:04:54.209
saints, believers, in Christ.

1:04:54.209,1:04:56.888
We're going to see this a lot.

1:04:56.888,1:05:04.600
But oh, what truths come out of this first chapter.

1:05:04.600,1:05:09.827
It's going to be exciting.

1:05:09.827,1:05:17.739
Father, we marvel at the realities

1:05:17.739,1:05:21.949
of what's true, what's really true,

1:05:21.949,1:05:25.043
about those who are Your people.

1:05:25.043,1:05:29.029
I marvel.

1:05:29.029,1:05:30.710
Lord, help us to see, help us to know,

1:05:30.710,1:05:31.946
help us to remember.

1:05:31.946,1:05:34.786
Bring us in remembrance of all these things.

1:05:34.786,1:05:37.045
In the midst of this crooked and perverse generation.

1:05:37.045,1:05:39.038
In the midst of which You've put us.

1:05:39.038,1:05:40.859
Just like Ephesus of old.

1:05:40.859,1:05:42.989
Those people were able to be saints

1:05:42.989,1:05:45.781
and believers and in Christ in Ephesus.

1:05:45.781,1:05:48.827
In the very capital of the Artemis worship

1:05:48.827,1:05:51.807
and the temple and the sacred stone that came down

1:05:51.807,1:05:53.257
from the sky.

1:05:53.257,1:05:55.034
And Lord, in the midst of all the magic books

1:05:55.034,1:05:56.713
and the demonic and the darkness

1:05:56.713,1:05:59.595
and the enemies of the cross,

1:05:59.595,1:06:02.079
and they were able to be saints,

1:06:02.079,1:06:05.953
believers, in Christ, and so should we

1:06:05.953,1:06:07.088
by the grace of God,

1:06:07.088,1:06:09.372
and I pray that it would be said of these,

1:06:09.372,1:06:14.349
Lord, that we may have the same testimony,

1:06:14.349,1:06:15.342
as true believers,

1:06:15.342,1:06:17.118
I ask in Christ's name, Amen.