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