How Alive is Alive? The Four-Fold Risenness of the Christian (Part 1) - Tim Conway

Do you ever just stop and think

about what we do?

A bunch of people come together

on the Lord's Day,

and they all gather inside this place,

and they sing together.

I mean, you get words up here,

and we all try to vocalize

the words that we see

and we all try to do it in harmony

simultaneously.

We proclaim.

We sing and we proclaim.

We teach.

We proclaim truth.

We talk to each other.

Do you ever think about

what happens in these songs?

I know years ago,

we thought about all the different ways

that sometimes in the song,

we actually are talking to God.

Sometimes in the song,

God is talking to us.

Sometimes in the song,

we are talking to each other.

Do you ever notice that?

Can anybody think of a song that we sing

where God is talking to us?

(from the room)

I will strengthen you, help you,

and cause you to stand.

I was thinking of the same song.

Anybody think of one where we

talk to each other?

(unintelligible)

The classic.

How about where we're
speaking to the Lord?

(unintelligible)

It's endless.

That fly...

(Incomplete thought)

Someone just recently was telling me

that Conrad Murrell had a fly

flying around his head

when he was preaching one time,

and he really believed it was demonic too.

I think I've mentioned that before.

Beelzebub is lord of the flies.

And he commanded that fly

in the name of Christ,

and it immediately went up to the ceiling.

True story.

But think of the other thing that we do

when we gather together.

You actually sit there

and you listen to a man who comes up front

and he talks to you.

If you really think about what we do

and what is it all meant to do?

It's all meant to strengthen our faith.

It's all meant to portray God.

It's a way in which we refresh

and we remind ourselves

about who God is

and what God requires.

It's a way that we see God afresh.

We see His glories.

We see His truth.

It's a way that the Word of God

is brought again and again and again

to the people of God

so that we might be built up.

So that we might continue in the race.

We put our eyes back upon the Lord Jesus.

It's a time when we use

our spiritual gifts

to help one another.

We gather together to stir up one another

to love and good works.

Brethren, we find ourselves

in the epistle written by the Apostle Paul

to the Ephesians.

You can turn in your Bibles there.

We'll read the passage this morning

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

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

the first 7 verses.

"And you were dead in the trespasses

and sins in which you once walked,

following the course of this world,

following the prince of
the power of the air,

the spirit that is now at work

in the sons of disobedience,

among whom we all once lived,

in the passions of our flesh,

carrying out the desires of the body

and the mind and were by nature

children of wrath,

like the rest of mankind.

But God, being rich in mercy,

because of the great love

with which He loved us,

even when we were dead

in our trespasses,

made us alive together with Christ.

By grace you have been saved,

and raised us up with Him

and seated us with Him

in the heavenly places,

in Christ Jesus,

so that in the coming ages..."

When the Christian is discouraged

and wants to throw in the towel,

God sends verses like this at us:

"So that in the coming ages,

He might show the immeasurable

(or the exceeding)

riches of His grace in kindness."

The coming ages...

Think about an age.

We think of the Bronze Age.

Ages are segments of time

that we break up and we divide

by certain realities;

certain characteristics or attributes

that can be ascribed to that age.

Ages.

The coming ages.

There's no end to that.

Just imagine,

Christian, this is what you have

to look forward to.

Age after age after age...

of a God Who does not lack for power

or for wisdom.

Who is going to be intent

on showing you the unlimited,

boundless,

immeasurable,

exceeding riches of His grace

in kindness

toward us.

All this grace is directional.

It's coming at you.

Let's pray.

Father, this is Your Word.

This has been divinely breathed.

This is a message

from outside this world.

This is not simply

the intellect of a man at work.

This is an alien message -

foreign, outside.

These are words that are sent

from glory, from Heaven.

Divinely breathed.

Thy Word is truth.

Lord, confront us with
the truth of Your Word.

There is so much here.

Help us just to fathom

something of the depths of these things.

Father, please help us today.

I pray in Christ's name,

Amen.

So, in the next several weeks,

I want to deal with v. 4-7.

Many of you know, you remember,

I hope you do if you were here,

first three verses.

I did five messages specifically

on, "How Dead is Dead?

the Five-Fold Fallenness of Man."

Now, I want to contrast that,

because there's a "but" here.

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

So, what I want to do now

is start another sermon series

dealing with these four verses.

And I've called it,

"How Alive is Alive?

The Four-fold Risenness

of the Christian."

God helping us, today is part 1.

So you see,

verse 4,

transition.

We've come to the transition point.

Before this,

in this chapter - before this,

nothing but gloom and despair

and hopelessness and wrath.

You were, Christian. You were that.

But, with v. 4, we find out

what happens when God goes to work.

Notice.

I want you to notice a word here.

Go to v. 5.

And look at the word "made."

Now the subject that you attach

to that verb is God
from the previous verse.

But, God made us alive.

I know the old King James says quickened.

That's the archaic word for making alive.

Quickened.

Don't you like that?

Quick.

Quickened.

God makes something happen.

God makes us into something.

Just grasp that.

That's what we're dealing with here.

When we come to these verses,

this is about what God has done.

That's what we have in these verses:

The making of a Christian.

And we want to notice this.

Why?

Because, brethren, you tell me

what is more important
than being a Christian?

Tell me.

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

There's nothing that rivals this.

There is nothing above this.

There is nothing beyond this.

Why? Brethren, because there's nothing

beyond verse 7.

And you don't get to verse 7,

unless 4, 5, and 6 are a reality

in your life.

Four, five, and six are past tense.

If you're a Christian,

they've already happened to you.

This is God making the Christian.

The only thing future

in these four verses is v. 7.

There's nothing beyond that.

There is nothing.

Look, what can be beyond

a God of all power and all wisdom

saying, you know what?

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

the depths of My wisdom,

the depths of My grace,

the riches of My mercy,

I am going to reach in;

I'm going to reach in

to the depths of My being;

the depths of My innovation,

and I am going to create ways

through all these coming ages,

to show My kindness.

And make no mistake about it,

God means to put Himself on display

in the so doing of this.

To be an object.

To be a vessel of mercy.

You understand, God's mercies

are not just like bestowed one time

and then that's it.

To be a vessel of mercy means

God is going to seek to fill you

to overflowing with His mercy,

again and again and again

and again and again

through all of the coming ages.

There's nothing beyond that.

There's nothing higher than this.

This is what we're dealing with.

And we're dealing with what God does

to make a person who actually

becomes one who is going to

enjoy all of this.

This is God making some people

into something that they were not before.

That's what we have.

That's what's before us.

This is the making of a Christian.

Do you recognize that?

To make alive is to make a Christian.

What we have before us

is God's Christianity.

And I want to emphasize that

because there's a lot

that purports to be Christianity.

A lot of name only out here.

But what we have here is the real deal.

This is what you've got to have

if you're going to be a Christian.

There's a lot of decisional stuff.

I just had somebody ask me,

"what do you think of altar calls?"

There's lots of people

making lots of decisions.

Listen, there is a place for that.

People decide for Christ,

but people decide all sorts of things.

People decide I'm going to go to church.

People decide to not do this

and to do another thing.

You know probably, most of you,

"decisional regeneration."

We're not talking about something

that men start.

Listen, no one goes down this process;

nobody goes through this process -

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

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

but it's actually up.

There's a being raised up.

This is an upward movement here.

Maybe down in the page,

but up in the spiritual reality.

And it doesn't happen unless

it happens this way.

This is so important.

This is so essential.

This is it.

Some of you know,

we recently had a man,

like right over here,

you may remember,

he was here on a Sunday.

He stood up afterwards

and he just wept and he wept and he wept.

And he showed up at our conference.

Man who is right now

striving, seeking to pastor a church

out there in West Texas.

And he's striving to lay foundations.

And I talked to him on
the phone this week.

Brethren, wherever you are,

whether you're out in Valentine, TX

or you're here in San Antonio, TX.

Whether you live today

or whether you lived 2,000 years ago

like these Ephesians...

There is no more important
question than this:

What is true Christianity?

What is it?

Because I'll tell you this:

Satan means to deceive this race.

Most men at least have some concept

that we need to do something

about our sin.

And one of the most prevalent lies

that Satan loves to
blanket this world with,

is that there is a way other than this

to, in the end,

miss punishment for our sin.

Listen.

Christianity is the only
hope this world has.

There is no other.

Being a Christian is the only hope

in this world.

You know, I know we know that truth,

but sometimes we just need to really

be gripped with it.

Unless the people up and
down our streets,

unless our children,
unless our family,

unless this happens to them,

there is no other hope.

This is the hope.

There is none other.

There is nothing else.

We theoretically know this.

Brethren, we need to just stop

for a moment

and really let it sink in.

There is absolutely no other hope but one.

There are not five hopes.

There are not three.

There are not two.

This is it.

Period.

Or we might put the question this way:

Why am I a Christian?

Why is anybody if they are one?

Why?

What has happened?

And there's only one
answer to that question.

That man, that woman, or that child

is a Christian

solely based on this one fact:

God made them one.

God makes.

God makes.

This goes way beyond decisions.

People make decisions.

People make the right decision

only as a consequence of God

making something happen.

God makes.

Look at the text.

Brethren, you know, I'm looking at this

as I'm studying,

and there's a lot going on here.

There's a lot of places we could focus.

But, what I want to do today

right now at this moment,

I want us to try to peel -

not unimportant aspects of these verses,

but I want to peel back the adornments.

Paul loves to decorate his sentences.

You ever recognize that?

Oh, he loves all these expressions.

He loves all sorts of modifiers

and adjectives and qualifiers

and explanatory phrases.

But I want us to look past them.

I want us to peel them away for a second.

To where we have this:

the main subject

and the main verb.

Now actually, in this sentence

there are three main verbs

or predicates.

There's one subject, three verbs.

Look here.

Verse 4

"But God..."

OK, there is our subject.

What is the main subject of a sentence?

It is the "who" or the "what"

that is doing the action of the verb.

That's the idea.

The main subject is the one word

that tells us who or what

the sentence is all about.

And that's God.

But now, brethren, what's next?

Being rich in mercy.

Well, that's an adornment here.

Paul wants us to know

where this comes from -

the action that God is going to do.

It comes from God's mercy.

And he goes on to say,

"because of the great love

with which He loved us."

Where does the mercy come from?

You see, what he's doing is

he's wanting to look at here,

momentarily, at the very character of God,

at the attributes of God

that cause God to do what He does.

It's not what He does,

but it's the cause of why He does

what He does.

Now, look at v. 5.

Let's peel this away.

This has to do with when this takes place.

This is important to Paul.

Because again, it communicates much

about God's mercy and love.

It happened when we
were dead in trespasses.

Not when we did good things.

OK, now here we are.

"...made us alive together with Christ."

Now you have a parenthesis.

"By grace you have been saved."

Let's peel that off for a second.

Now, here we are back to

the second main verb.

"...and raised us up."

KJV and the New KJV say "together."

It's implied - together with Christ.

The ESV puts "with Him" in there.

It's implied from v. 5.

He made us alive together with Christ.

Raised us up together,

and seated us together

with Christ is implied,

in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Just stop right there.

Here's what we're left with.

But God made us alive together with Christ

and raised us up with Him

and seated us with Him

in the heavenly places

in Christ Jesus.

You see that?

He did it.

He made alive.

The making alive is where we were -

we were dead - He made us alive.

And then there's movement.

He raised us up.

And then there's where He takes us to.

He seated us with Christ

in the heavenly places.

This is the action

that God performs.

Let it sink in.

You cannot be a Christian

apart from the truth that's contained

in these verses.

V. 7 is the only thing that's future

for the Christian.

Now get this,

let this sink in.

Christian, you are alive.

That's not something future.

That's not something that happens

when you die,

and then you go off into eternity

and God makes you alive.

You are alive now.

You are raised up now.

How high are you raised up?

You are raised up so that you are seated

with Christ in the heavenly places.

Every one of these verbs -

indicative aorist.

What is that?

Past tense.

Simply put.

You convey that over into the English,

it's a simple past tense verb.

These things have already happened to you.

Now, you need to recognize that.

You are alive.

You are raised up.

And you are raised up so high

that you are seated with Christ

in the heavenly places.

Only v. 7 is future.

And look, I'm sure those Ephesians

sitting there 2,000 years ago

when they first heard this read -

the actual handwritten - maybe by his hand

or by his secretary.

You know it was actually read

for the first time publicly in the church

at Ephesus.

Or if it was a circular letter,

whatever churches it was showing up in.

I can guarantee you this.

They didn't all hear,

you have already past tense

been seated with Christ

in the heavenly places,

and they didn't just think,

oh yeah, that's totally plain to us.

We have all of that figured out.

We see exactly how that is.

The same way that you say

what?

No, no, no... No, Paul.

That's future.

And he says no,

I'm under the inspiration of God here.

I know what I'm saying.

Or maybe Paul could even say,

I don't know what I'm saying.

But this is what the
Spirit is leading me to say.

However, this is what God says.

This is what God has already done.

God seated us -

seated - the verb here

is caused us to sit down together.

Already.

Here's the thing.

As Christians, don't doubt it.

Let's all together just
seek to comprehend it,

in the weeks ahead.

I'm not going to deal with
that so much today.

Let's seek to comprehend these things.

Let's seek to comprehend
what's being said here.

It's obvious that Paul is concerned

that we be very clear in our thinking

as to the great thing that
God has done for us.

This is tremendous, folks.

This is tremendous.

And what we need to do -

here's what I want us to do.

Here's what I really feel constrained,

in these four messages to try to get at,

is brethren, this is not simply

some theoretical or
hypothetical thought here.

There's reality to this.

These texts mean something.

They are experiential.

This has to do with our lives.

You don't go from dead to living

and have this just be some theory.

This is experience.

This is real.

This is transforming.

This has to do with things

that are observable in our lives.

And what I want us to try to do

is get our hands around this

in these weeks ahead.

So, let's dive in.

At least make some effort to explore

some of the riches here.

Let me just say this or ask this:

You want to know another name

for what God's doing here?

OK, one of those things we peeled off,

let's bring it back in.

Let's just read this.

V. 4

"God being rich in mercy

because of the great love

with which He loved us

even when we were dead in our trespasses,

made us alive together with Christ."

What's another name for all that?

Adoption would be one.

You go back to chapter 1,

you definitely see it there.

But immediately in Paul's mind,

notice what he says in
the parenthesis here.

"By grace you have been saved."

I like that.

You know what he's saying here?

Brethren, let's grasp this.

What he's saying here

is that to be made alive

together with Christ

is to be saved.

You say, well, of course.

But let's think.

You know what I find?

Very often, being saved

is connected with being forgiven.

Now that's true.

Or being saved is being connected

with justification,

which goes right along
with being forgiven.

It's being declared righteous.

No longer are your sins

imputed to you.

They're imputed to Christ,

and paid for in His Person.

But here's what I find interesting,

and I want to emphasize this.

Because what I found

when Brother Charles
came out with his book,

"Justification and Regeneration,"

is I have found that in
the reformed movement,

there is a great love and appreciation

for the doctrine of justification,

but I want you to see right here,

Paul bypasses forgiveness
and justification -

now he doesn't always do that,

I'm well aware of that.

And in other places in this letter

he definitely deals with those things.

But right here,

when he wants to size up

what it means to be saved,

he's not so interested
in the legal aspects

as much as he is in the experiential

transformation that takes place

by way of regeneration,

being made a new creation,

that's what it is to be born again,

to be made alive.

Whereas you were dead,

you are alive.

This is what it is to be saved.

Why emphasize that?

Because, look, to be saved

isn't merely walking through life

with this mental notion

that oh, my sins are forgiven.

Listen, time and again

in Scripture, the authors
come back to this:

that there's no legal reality unless

there is this kind of transformation

in your life.

You must be alive.

There must be life

pulsing through you.

This is Christianity.

Christians are not just people

who say, oh, wretched man that I am,

but my sins are forgiven.

Yeah, I know there's nothing good in me,

but I'm forgiven.

I believe.

Listen, there better be
something good in you.

There better be the seeds of life in you,

or you're not saved.

There better be the fruit of life.

That's salvation here in this verse.

Here's something else.

Don't miss Christ in these verses.

It's together - notice that reality.

Our being made alive,

it's not separate from Christ.

It's integrally tied with Him.

Being joined with Him.

Being in union with Him.

Being together - together.

We are made alive together.

Not separate.

Together.

This is essential.

This is unique.

No other religion has this.

No other religion has this essential

togetherness with Christ.

Nothing else.

Christianity is solely
unique at this point.

Together.

This is what makes Christianity

and God's salvation entirely different

and apart from everything else.

Look, this is not man's effort

to rise up to God

and to get to God

and to seek God.

This is God making people

what He makes them: Christians.

In union, connected with Christ.

Never apart from Christ.

If God saves, if God makes alive,

it is always in this fashion.

Biblical salvation is all about

what God has done

through His only begotten Son.

Just think

about what Paul is saying here.

Again, I'm not asking you

to comprehend all this.

I hope in the weeks ahead,

we're going to reach down

deeper and deeper and deeper.

I'm not asking for
full comprehension here.

But just try to absorb this truth

into your brains to some degree.

The Christian is together

with Christ.

Connected.

Even tighter than this.

Like the branch and the vine.

There's an organic union.

Integrally one with Him.

The thing is, it's everywhere assumed,

that in this connection,

that what's true of Christ

is likewise true of the Christian.

Now, we thought about that when we were

just a few moments ago baptizing.

Think of these truths.

Not asking you to fully comprehend them,

but think about them.

The Apostle Paul, his language,

especially in these four letters:

Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians.

He loves to use this language.

Galatians 2:20

You don't have to turn there.

Stay here in Ephesians.

But listen to this:

"I have been crucified with Christ."

Do we think like that?

Do we know that reality?

See, brethren, the thing is,

what Paul is doing here,

I'm made alive together with Christ;

I've been raised up together with Christ;

I'm seated together with Christ.

He talked this way.

I am crucified with Christ.

Or this, Romans 6:8 says,

"We have died with Christ."

So I'm crucified with Christ.

I have died with Christ.

Colossians 2:12 and Romans 6

say that we are buried with Christ

in baptism.

Colossians 3:3

"For you have died,

and your life is hidden..."

Listen, your life -

all that you areas a Christian,

is hidden with Christ in God.

Just take this in.

There's a mystery here.

I know it.

But what ought to be clear

is that Paul is teaching us

that what God does to us

spiritually,

has a parallel in Christ physically.

Because think with me here.

Think.

It's not a direct parallel.

It's not a one for one physical reality

where there's a parallel
physical reality in us.

It's not a spiritual reality in Christ

that has a spiritual reality in us.

It's a physical reality in Christ...

(Incomplete thought)

It's amazing how God has designed

all that Christ would do

so that there are these

spiritual parallels in now what He does

in the life of a Christian.

Think with me.

Paul says I have been
crucified with Christ.

Christ was physically crucified.

When Paul wrote that,

he had not been physically crucified.

But he had been spiritually crucified.

Or think with me here:

We are seated together with Christ

in the heavenly places.

Now Christ is physically there.

You and I are not physically there.

We are physically here.

But, that doesn't take away the reality

that there is a spiritual crucifixion,

there is a spiritual death,

there is a spiritual being made alive,

a spiritual rising up,

a spiritually being seated with Christ

in the heavenly places.

And these are the realities

that I want us to try to draw on

and try to get to the root of

and try to pull some of the reality.

Brethren, what does it mean?

Look, Paul's not mincing words here.

He's not wasting these people's time.

He recognized the people
he was talking to,

struggling with the same kind of trials

our brother Mark is.

Being put in the fire.

Facing persecution.

Oftentimes ready to throw in the towel.

What do you say to 1st century Christians

who are facing a Greek-Roman society

that hates Christianity,

feeds them to the lions,

have their own set of gods,

calls the Christians atheists,

persecutes them,

in certain seasons murders

multitudes of them.

What do you say?

He says to these people,

you are already seated
together with Christ

in the heavenly places.

Now look, if that doesn't have

some kind of real bearing
on the life of people,

what good is it?

What good is it?

You know what?

If it means nothing,

it's like telling somebody that has cancer

and they're dying,

Oh, but you know,

you have the remedy within you.

It's like telling somebody,

Oh, it will all work out OK.

When the truth is it's not working out OK.

But if you tell somebody,

oh no, the remedy is at work inside you

and you're going to feel
pretty rotten at first,

but shortly to follow,

the healing will start.

Paul's telling these people something

to get them through,

your husband leaving you
for another woman,

your wife leaving you,

your child not being converted,

death close to you,

persecution,

when God's providences don't seem

to smile on you,

when it's hard.

If you haven't experienced

what Mark has experienced,

you haven't lived the
Christian life very long.

I've had those seasons too.

And you know the seasons are not

where I wanted to go back to my old life.

For me, the throwing in the towel

was not that.

It's not like, oh, I'm just going to

go back to the old way.

I don't want that.

I don't desire that.

The throwing in the towel

is just pack the car

and let's go to Frisco, Colorado

for good.

And I'm going to hide away in a cabin

and don't anybody come looking for me.

That, for me, is throwing in the towel.

But that's not what God's called us to.

And you can imagine that these people

in Ephesus 2,000 years ago,

many of them - they wish they had wings,

just like David wished,

that they could fly away

and be at peace.

But we've not been promised peace,

not even in the confines
of our own family.

No promise of peace.

In fact a promise of a sword.

So, somebody has a sword

piercing their own heart in their family.

And seriously, Paul, you're going to

come along and tell me,

I'm seated with Christ in
the heavenly places?

Try again.

Get me something better than that.

And Paul would say,

Oh no, my friend,

there is nothing better than that.

You just need to grasp

something of the reality of it.

Because if you do,

you will have foretastes of glory.

It will change your whole mindset.

It will change your thinking.

Brethren, think with me here.

We're not dealing with being seated.

We're dealing with being
made alive in Christ.

Let's try to reach down

into some of the realities.

Look.

Here's some of the reality,

"but" at the beginning of v. 4,

that's the contrast.

But - what?

You're alive.

And you were dead.

You're no longer dead.

Now you're alive.

That's the contrast.

You are no longer what you use to be.

You've put off the old man

who belongs to your former manner of life.

Right? Former.

You were formerly something.

You're not that anymore.

That is the opposite.

That's the contrast.

Brethren, we've got to let that grip us.

The truth is our life in Christ

puts an end to our death.

You're not dead any longer.

The Christian has come

to the end of the days as a dead man.

The word "but."

That's that stark contrast.

We are truly alive together with Christ.

Don't you see what this is saying?

Look at the contrast.

Brethren, you are alive.

You are not like you were.

You are no longer dead in sin.

That's no longer true.

You no longer follow
the course of this world.

Listen! Listen, Christian!

You no longer follow the
course of the world.

You are alive!

Put off the rags of death.

Put off the grave clothes.

Put them off!

Enough!

You're not of the world.

You're no longer following

the prince of the power of the world.

You're no longer among

the sons of disobedience.

You're no longer lusting

after all the things in the body,

in the mind.

You're no longer children of wrath.

You're no longer under
the displeasure of God.

You live in His smile.

Be done with that.

It's no longer.

You're alive.

Brethren, alive together with Christ.

I'm amazed.

I'll be real direct.

My children showed me a thread -

something we just dealt with

in our elder's meeting -

my children showed me a thread

off of Facebook,

where Christians, some in this place,

are arguing for why it is appropriate

for a Christian to be entertained

by movies with filthy, foul language.

What in the world are you thinking?

Are you alive together with Christ?

Or are you following the
course of this world?

There is a contrast here.

And if you can find no contrast

between your life and the world?

Fill in the blank.

Amen?

We're alive!

You know what?

I'm not in the course of the world,

because my desires are changed.

I love new things.

I've been made alive to God.

I desire God.

I desire to please God.

I desire to have the things in my life

that He loves, not the
things that He hates.

Not the things that He forbids.

Not the things that I find in Scripture

that He despises.

Why in the world would you fill your life

with movies full of garbage?

Worldly garbage.

Unless that's what you love.

Unless that's what you pant after.

Brethren, we're the living ones.

There is an end to our death.

We no longer live like the dead.

We are the living ones.

We're alive.

This is not theoretical.

This is what God-wrought Christianity is,

and we need to be gripped by the contrast.

That the Christian is a total contrast

to what he once was.

Brethren, you get to the
end of this letter -

we no longer follow the course of the
prince of the power of the air.

You know what we do now?

We wrestle not against flesh and blood,

but who do we wrestle against?

We wrestle.

Why?

That's what living people do.

They wrestle.

They put off the former manner of life

or they put off the old man

which belongs to the former manner of life

and guess what?

Deceitful desires.

That's a deceitful desire

to want to go desire movies

that are full of filth.

Filthy, foul language.

What is that?

That's worldly.

That's ungodly.

That's filling your life
full of companionships

that corrupt good manners.

Why in the world?

Look.

Walk worthy of the calling

to which you've been called.

What have you been called to?

You've been called to life

together with Christ.

Your life is hidden with Christ in God.

That speaks of children of light.

Not children of wrath.

Not sons of disobedience.

Children of light.

So let all that is true of light

burst forth from your life.

Put all filthy communication away.

Not only out of your mouth,

put it away.

It shouldn't even be named.

That's in this letter.

That's what living people do.

Look.

Don't let worldly professing Christians

be surprised when they wake up in hell.

Why?

Because this is true Christianity.

Being made alive together with Christ.

It's not theory.

You see, our whole position as Christians

has changed.

Position.

That's the where we are.

Where are we?

Well, we used to be dead in...

you notice the prepositions
of Scripture sometimes.

Where were we?

Dead in... there's your preposition.

In trespasses and sins.

That's where we were.

Where are we now?

In Christ.

Where were we before?

In the place where we followed the world.

In the place where we followed the devil.

Where are we now?

Raised up!

Up!

There's position there.

We're not down there.

We're not in the darkness.

We've been raised up.

We used to be among

the sons of disobedience.

Among.

That's where we were.

Lust.

The lusts of the mind.

Wanting what's foul.

But that's not where we are anymore.

Where are we now?

You know how far up we are?

We're up there where He's seated.

That's where we are now.

There's a change of position here.

And there's a change of state.

I mean, that is the greatest

and most obvious reality

Paul's bringing out in v. 5.

This transition from death to life.

It's done.

For Christians, it all lies in the past.

The Christian above all other things

can shout it out:

"I am no longer dead!"

"I am alive!"

The days of my death are past.

They're gone.

There's absolutely nothing,

brethren, but life before us.

Physically.

What is that?

Death is so harmless now

that Scripture calls it sleep.

Rest.

To be absent with the body...

Christ said to that -

he wasn't a doomed criminal.

It's not doom to say,

"This day you will be
with Me in Paradise."

What do I have to look forward to?

Christ never forsaking me.

Never leaving me.

Putting me in trials, yes.

But there aren't only trials here.

My son just got saved.

There's not only trials here.

And He promises that His grace

will be sufficient.

And He brings seasons of great joy here.

The suffering is but for a moment.

The sun will break forth

even in our darkened seasons.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel,

even when we can't see it.

This fullness of day.

Greater likeness of Christ.

Purifying, being made more and more

and more sinless.

More and more and more like Christ.

And then bang!

It's just going to grab us.

We are going to be
hauled off into eternity

and gaze on His face

and be made like Him.

There's no more death.

You don't get eternal life when you die.

You don't get it at the day of judgment.

You have it.

It's past tense.

You've been made alive.

The Christian is done with death.

We are done with dying.

Don't you get it?

We are together with Christ.

You go to Scripture

and it says,

"In Him was life."

That's Who we're together with.

The Father has granted the Son

to have life in Himself.

We are together with Him Who is life;

Who has been granted to have life

within Him.

The last Adam is what?

He has become a life-giving spirit.

When Christ, Who is your life...

That's how Scripture speaks.

Christ. You're together with life.

Listen, Christ has come,

and He's put His arms around us

and embraced us.

But see, it's closer, it's
more organic than that.

There's actually a connection now.

We have become one with Him.

We're one with life.

There's no more death.

You're one with He Who is life.

You're one with the One Who is

the last Adam,

who is a life-giving spirit.

He breathes nothing but life into you.

And we can suffer

and we can be in dark seasons,

but that life is very real.

Because even in the darkness,

even in that darkness,

our faith in Christ presses us through.

Even in that darkness,

that faith is upheld

by the mighty hand of God.

Even when we waver and we teeter all over,

when we feel like we're going to

throw in the towel,

and we're going to fail...

there is an unmovable hand

beneath us

that carries us through.

Some through the water, brethren.

Some through the flood.

It's true.

There's floods and there's fires.

But He is going to finish that work

which He started.

Have you ever heard Paul exclaim,

it is no longer I who live,

but Christ Who lives in me.

Do you know this?

He Who is life lives in me.

I cannot die.

Because Christ cannot die.

Because Christ is one with me.

And because in that union,

His life is my life.

My life is bound to His life.

And He can't die.

I can't die.

I'm one. I'm bound with Him.

Have you experienced this?

This is what it is to be a Christian.

This isn't what it is simply

to be a great apostle like Paul.

This is what it is to
be the least Christian.

You have been made alive,

because God has made you alive

if you are a Christian.

This is a reality.

What does it mean?

We're alive.

We're no longer alienanted from God.

Have you ever read in Scripture,

alive to God -

no longer alienated.

What does it mean to be alive to God?

Suddenly, we recognize Him.

We see Him! We feel Him!

We experience Him!

There's reality to the living God.

We hunger for Him.

We hear His voice in His Word.

We long after, we desire after...

Desiring God.

Hungering for Christ.

Feasting on His blood.

Brethren, this is the reality.

This is life.

Life. Life.

Why would God do this?

Well, you see it there.

You see it there at the beginning of v. 4.

If we would find an answer,

it's in the character of God Himself.

Just think.

Paul's amazed by this.

Even when we were dead

in our trespasses...

that's the thing that just blows him away.

God did this when I was the way I was?

Even then? Even then?

Such riches of mercy.

Brethren, you look at the way

that this word has been translated.

Sometimes, it's tender mercies

or tender compassion

or lovingkindness.

Think about those words.

Those are like words...

tender compassion.

They're the kind of words

that humanly speaking we would expect,

like a wife to feel towards her husband

or a husband towards his wife.

Two people who love each other.

Attracted to each other.

Find much in the other

that is very desirable.

God comes along and finds us

absolutely an abhorrence.

This is what rocks Paul

to the core of his being.

Even when I was a blasphemer,

and even when I was an insolent opponent,

even then - even after
the things that I've done,

rich, rich mercy

extended towards me.

Brethren, I fear that man seems to

find it almost impossible to harmonize

the God Who is sovereign;

the God Who makes alive

and chooses which ones to make alive

and which ones not to make alive;

the God of election,

the God of predestination.

Many find it very difficult to harmonize

rich mercies.

There is this idea that

the "God of Calvinism" -

He's cruel. He's distant.

He's out there.

He's cold. He's stoic.

He's unfeeling.

He's harsh.

Brethren, that's Allah.

That's not the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ.

His mercies are tender.

Tender.

Riches of mercy.

And they flow out of a great love.

I hope you can see it.

Look, should we fear such a God?

Yes.

Oh yeah.

He is kind. He is full of tender mercies.

Brethren, we don't want to misread

those mercies.

If you go on rejecting His Son,

Oh, He is greatly to be feared.

Be sure of that.

These mercies don't mean that

this God is a pushover.

Listen.

What God presents Himself as in Scripture,

He's holding out His arm.

All day long even.

What's there?

He's offering these mercies.

Come take them.

Come take them.

This is how He portrays Himself.

Come take them.

Jesus can look to His Father

and say, "Father, I thank You that

You have not revealed these to the wise

and the prudent,

but to babes."

What's God's answer

to the fact that nobody comes

and takes these mercies from His hand?

Election.

Be made alive.

No man can come to Me

unless My Father Who sent Me draws him.

See, be made alive.

And suddenly, we look at those mercies

in His hands,

I want those.

I'm a sinner. I need those.

The Spirit convicts us of sin.

And there's the remedy.

Be made alive.

That's God's work.

God makes Christians.

That's the reality.

Have you tasted God's rich mercies?

Are you alive?

Do you have life?

Are you aware of such a reality

that has grabbed you?

Has embraced you?

Has changed you?

Has made you something you weren't before?

Do you see it?

I desire what I didn't desire before.

I don't desire what I did desire before.

That group of friends...

I can't fit with them anymore.

Why?

Because I'm alive and they're dead.

When I was dead,

well that was comfortable.

But I'm not dead.

Something has changed.

Do you know this?

A power in your life,

influencing you?

Moving you?

Directing you?

I'm talking about something

outside of yourself.

Not some ingenuity with yourself.

Not some decision you made.

Do you feel this?

Do you know this reality

of God Who is working on you

from outside?

Are you aware of this reality

like the songwriter was?

I was blind, but now I see!

I see!

Why? God has made me alive.

My eyes are open.

Sin: I'm no longer impotent.

I'm no longer in it as a slave

and dead.

And now, it no longer
has dominion over me.

I may fall,

but I'll tell you this,

it doesn't have dominion.

Because it's not like I just jump up

and run back after it again.

I confess those sins.

He is faithful and just
to forgive those sins.

There is a fight.

I don't follow the devil anymore.

I wrestle with him.

Oh, there's battles.

Yes, there's battles.

But see, there was no battle before,

because I was dead in sin.

I followed the flow.

Now, I'm seeking to move against it.

I'm walking the other way.

And I feel it.

And there's a power within me

that keeps my legs moving.

Step after step,

even though the flow is strong

to go back the other way.

I keep going in that direction.

Why? There's a power at work within me

that is not of this world.

It's supernatural.

It's divine.

Are you aware of this?

Brethren, are you aware
of being made alive

together with Christ?

What a tremendous thing, is it not!

Brethren, to God... God makes Christians.

it's to God be the glory.

To God be the praise

as we heard it in the first hour.

Salvation belongs to the Lord.

Father,

We just bow our heads before You.

You are God and we are not,

and You are full of
the most tender mercies

towards those who deserve
them not in the least.

And we thank You.

Thank You. Thank You that Your love

was so great, so deep,

that You even offered up Your own Son.

He became sin.

All that punishment came upon His head.

That we might be made alive.

And that we might experience

the exceeding, the immeasurable riches

of your grace in kindness

through all these coming ages.

Lord, what have You done for sinners.

What an amazing thing this is.

We thank You,

in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Amen.