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It's a whole. It covers the whole Bible.
First of 13th 15, verse 45.
The first the first plan Adam was made of living soul.
The last item was made a quickening spirit.
Go down to verse 47. Read that verse 2.
The first man is of the earth, earthy. The 2nd man is the Lord from heaven. I've been told years ago this book is the story of two men. There they are. That's what the whole whole Bible is about.
Maybe we could cover the whole Bible. Let's try. I'm going to sit down.
Mercy.
Ephesians chapter 2.
And you and be quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins, where in time past he walked according to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past. And the loss of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.
And we're by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace you are saved, and has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly pleas in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come you might show the exceeding riches of his grave.
And as kindness poured us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them.
Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh, made by hands, that that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.
But now in Christ he's got you sometimes were far off.
Are made nigh by the blood of Christ, for He is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us.
Having a violation in his flesh, the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, or who may get himself obtained. 1 Newman.
Solemn peace, and they might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross.
Having slain the enmity thereby, and came and created peace to you which were afar off, and to them there were nigh. For through Him we both have access by 1 Spirit under the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the Saints and of the household of God.
00:05:13
And our bills upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the buildings Bentley framed together, grow us under unholy temple in the Lord, in whom He also are building together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit.
I am reminded.
When we read this chapter of the stories that the Lord told when he was here of a Good Samaritan but we all know so well.
That man that went from Jerusalem down to Jericho.
And as bad as he was, left high dead.
I heard a man talk about this recently and he said mercy is compassion in action.
To mercy, His compassion and action.
Verizon America went to where he was to meet that band was out there. But the picture that we have here and the picture we have there is, uh, uh, it doesn't really describe well enough the picture that you and I were in, doesn't it?
New York Hound Dead, brethren, we were dead.
1:30 And you have the victims who were dead in trespasses and in and you and I need a man who doesn't know Christ and Savior.
There's no life in here, there's no response government and unless there is a work of God in the soul, he'll never be saved. And you can't convince anybody to be saved and neither can I.
But it says God who is rich in mercy. Well, I think it is good for us to do. Remember to tell us it's in the chapter and the burden of heaven. Remember where you were. You were in past nine Gentiles.
And to remember where we are now. Beautiful chapters.
You have both mercy and grace in this chapter, and mercy is grace in connection with our states, as what we are in dead trespasses graces great in connection with God's thoughts towards us, and it's nice to notice. I'd like to read the last two verses of the first chapter to see, uh, the purpose here of quickening.
Uh, dead people describe the purpose to have uh people for himself and in verse 22 of chapter one it says Speaking of Christ and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness or completeness of him that fill up All in all.
The church is that which completes the plan of God and having a people in relationship with him in love and.
And to get that, he chooses these dead souls, these dead in trespasses and sins. That's the greatness of the mercy and the greatness of the grace according to God's heart to to do that.
00:10:01
Death in Scripture denotes the separation of two things, and so it tells us in the Old Testament your iniquities have separated between you and your God. In this epistle we have man brought into the closest.
As a result of the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus at Calvary and those we're going to find later on in the chapter who were afar off or made nigh by the blood of Christ, and so on. But it was important that He reminds them, as has already been said, of what they once were. They were dead. Sin separated. As soon as sin entered the Garden of Eden through man's disobedience, there was an immediate separation.
And Adam having received a conscience, he and Eve, they hid themselves, they were no longer comfortable in the presence of God. And a distance came in a distance that was never really bridged in the Old Testament completely until the work of of the Lord Jesus. There was a bridge to a degree so that man could come in a, in a certain, a certain distance and in a certain way with the Tabernacle in the wilderness, with the temple in the land of Israel, in in Jerusalem, and so on.
God made provision for his people, but the bridge was really never the gap was really never bridged until the work of the Lord Jesus, and now God can impart divine life.
That's why when we give the gospel, we always want to aim at the conscience. There's no other material to work with yet. Man doesn't have life, and we don't know when that life is imparted. It's a sovereign work of God in his own time and way. But we do have something to work with, with our children before they're saved. There's something to work with. They have a conscience. And so we bring the Word of God to bear on the conscience and pray that the Spirit will take that word and use it to impart divine light, whether it's to our children or whatever.
Whoever it is in the gospel, so it tells us in Peter, we're born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the word of God that liveth and abideth forever, but necessary, brethren, for us to be reminded that we were dead in trespasses and sin, separated from God, unable to take any step forward. No response. Just like from a dead corpse, there's no response. But there's been a sovereign work of God in our souls.
We know the Lord Jesus is our Savior, and the reason we responded to His mercy and His grace is because of that sovereign work. And He's going to take that up. It's not really in the first verse. You have to be quickened. You get that later on in the chapter, but in this first verse, it's simply the statement and the truth of what we were by nature as fallen creatures of Adam's race. And now in this chapter, he's gonna go on to bring in that which mercy and grace has brought in as a sovereign work of the Spirit of God.
So you have those two men that were referred to in First Corinthians 15 verse 3 verses describe the state of that man also versus 11 and 12. It's interesting after the first three verses, there's a but and after those two verses, 11 and 12, there's another but it's God intervening into the.
Seeming impossibility of there being any hope at all, you say, Jim, No hope for a dead man. You can get intelligent doctors working on people while they're still alive, and they'll do everything they possibly can to maintain that life. As soon as they're dead, that's it. Sorry. Take them to the morgue. That's it. There's no more hope. And that's the way it is with us. But that's where God comes in, isn't it?
It's wonderful, but it's not only that we are dead, but we are under the power of the friend, of the power of the air, the spirit that works now, and the children of disobedience.
Satan is working to control those who.
Who in verse 3?
Are controlled by the lust of the flesh.
00:15:01
The desires of the flesh and of the mind. Sometimes used in illustration with.
Rather than South America of a horse, when you're gonna ride a horse, you put a bridle in its mouth and you get on the saddle. And that horse may think he's going where he wants to go, but you have something inside that horse's mouth that allows you to guide him where you want him to go. So the unsaved person that thinks sees the master of his own destiny is badly mistaken.
Through the lust of the flesh and the desires of the flesh of the mind, Satan uses to control that person to where he wants to take him. But a hopeless situation. Not only is there deadness to life towards God, but there's a being controlled by an enemy that only seeks for your own destruction. People talk about free will.
This is not being free.
To Will where you wanna go. You're not master of your own destiny if you're in Adam alone. No, you are under the control of somebody else. And he's using those desires, those fleshly luck that are in all our hearts naturally, to take you where he wants you to go. What a terrible black picture we have in the 1St 3 verses of this chapter.
I'd like to refer to a verse in John's Gospel, chapter 4.
Uh, chapter 5. I'm sorry, John's Gospel, chapter 5.
And verses 24 and five Verily, verily, I stand to you. He that heareth My word, and believeth on him that sent Me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life, or from judgment unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is when the dead.
Shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.
It's a wonderful thing is given in this verse connected with our chapter that while man cannot communicate to a dead man, here we see the picture of man morally dead toward God. But God is not limited and it's a wonderful thing that God speaks to the dead and as it says in these verses.
Umm, he that hears, well, how could a dead man ever hear? And yet the 25th verse says, the hour is coming, and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that here shall live. So faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, and God is presently speaking to the dead.
And those who hear with the ear of faith given of God, believe and receive life.
And participate in all the blessings that God has purposed.
Is that why the last item was made? A quickening spirit?
The first Adam received his life from God, but he didn't have life in himself apart from God.
But the last atom has life in himself and has the capacity to impart that life to others. And so the Lord Jesus, when he was here on earth, he had life in himself.
A man couldn't even take it from him when he was on the cross and it was necessary to do the work of redemption. He had to die. But in literally man did not have the power, even by what he did to him, to take his life.
He was truly a quickening spirit and had the power of life in his own being. And so it says, he dismissed his spirit to fulfill the work of redemption and to die for us. He did, but it was his own.
Act in obedience to the necessity of redemption that He does so, but we even as God's creatures, even as children of God.
00:20:02
Will forever and for eternity be creatures of which God sustains us in that eternal life. It's the life of Christ that we have. But Christ, the quickening Spirit is the one that can impart that life to the soul and does by the by the medium of the by the work of the Spirit of God.
So in Adam, because of sin, Adam dies and there's no blessing.
In atom, but in Christ all shall be made alive.
The hour is coming in now when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and the fear shall live. And so I ended in with the first, started with a new chapter.
Yes, he was really looking forward to the day when the Word would go forth after the death and his death and resurrection, and the Spirit of God would be sent down to take that word and apply it to the conscience and heart of the hearer and use it to impart divine life. But it's been the mighty way in which God has always worked because He could say, and now is.
The Lord Jesus was here in this world, He was speaking the truth, He was speaking the very words that His Father gave him to speak, and the Spirit of God was working. It's unique to this dispensation that the Spirit of God has been sent down to work in the way that we've been Speaking of. But the Word was going forth in the days of the Lord Jesus, and there were those that we know received the Word, and there were those that did have life. The Lord speaks of more abundant life, and that's what you and I have, because now there's the full capacity.
To enjoy that life. But God has been imparting life from the very beginning by His Spirit. And so He speaks of it in this way. And I want to just go back to that just for a moment and put it in perspective perhaps. So we just understand what we're Speaking of when we speak about death and being dead in trespasses and sins. And I've often said this, but something that was helpful to me in getting a hold of and understanding the concept of death in the Word of God.
Is that first of all, as we said, it always denotes the separation of two things. And death is referred to in three different ways in Scripture. When Adam sinned, it says death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. And we know that physical death came in as a result of Adam's sin. And we don't have to drive very far to see a graveyard or a Mortuary.
The reminder that all have sinned and that as a result physical death has come in and physical death is the separation of the Bo, the spirit of the body, and the spirit. The body without the spirit is dead.
It tells us in the book of James that's what constitutes physical death. Just to go over to another, uh, thought of death before we come back to what we're Speaking of, we find in Revelation there is something that is referred to as the second death. And it's referred to, I believe, as the second death because it will be the eternal separation of a person from God in the bottomless pit in the lake of fire.
In hell, and so awful will it be to be separated eternally from God with no spark of love or divinity or the presence of God, that it is referred to as the second death, eternal separation of a person from God. But in the sense that we've been Speaking of it, as we said, it's spiritual death, and your iniquities have separated between you and your God. And in the verse that Dawn read to us in John's Gospel.
That's what we have the dead as Dawn says that here. The voice of the Son of God now.
Are the dead entres, passes and sins? So we speak the gospel, we bring the word to bear on the conscience as we were saying, so that the Spirit of God can take that word and impart divine life to the dead, not the physical dead, but the spiritual dead. But just notice in that 5th of John something else, that he takes up a verse or two later just to make the difference here.
00:25:22
Verse 28 Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming. This is something that's future in which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice. Now those are the physical dead that he's talking about there. Those are those who have died and been buried in the grave. And what about them? Well, it says they shall come forth, they that have done good under the resurrection of life.
And they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. So everyone that has died from Adam down is going to be raised. Not at the same time, and it's not our thought to get into that aspect of things, but they're going to be raised.
There are going to be those who are raised at the rapture, at the coming of the Lord Jesus under the resurrection of life. They're going to be caught up together with us to meet the Lord in the air and will be ever with the Lord. And then there is the resurrection of damnation. Those who have physically died aren't going to get off, so to speak. No, they are going to be raised. Their dust is going to be brought back together and they are going to be raised to stand before the Lord Jesus.
And to be judged for their in their sins and what a solemn thing is going to be. So I just say that because I think it's helpful when we talk about death to keep it in its proper perspective. Always denotes the separation of two things. And spiritual death is to be separated from God with no ability to respond apart from a work outside ourselves.
And said several times in the.
What Brother Clem wrought before us, there's the Word of God, is the story of two men and consequently of two families. The families that have come from those two men, one is Adam and the other is Christ. And as Bob mentioned a little while ago in the 1St 3 verses, we have the 1St man family. That's why it says in verse 2 The spirit that now worketh in the children or the sons of disobedience.
That's the family of Adam. They're the children of disobedience. And just a little comment here and what we're gonna read and have in this book when they when Paul is a Jew by birth and he is writing to Gentiles in Ephesus. And so sometimes he's saying you, he's referring to them as Gentiles. And when he says we, he's including himself with them.
As Jew and Gentile and being brought into the the family of God. But in this second chapter or second verse, he says the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience. Well, how is Adam's race controlled? As Bob has already really said, it's Satan is behind the world. He controls the course of things in this world today and throughout this world and we're here on a Saturday morning, but throughout this world at this time.
Satan is the God of it and he is controlling it by the lusts that have been mentioned and those that belong to or not belong to him really, but those that he wants is his own. They're called children of disobedience, and that was what we were. We were children of disobedience, children in rebellion against God, and we're the cat. We're the ones that God has in love according to his counsel that.
I'm going to do something with them. I'm going to take them out of that dead condition in which they are, and I'm going to associate them with the last atom, and I am going to make them part of my family. And so as we don't have developed here, but in John's epistle, we learned that we are now not the children of disobedience, but we sit in this room before God as the children of God.
Children of God, that's Christ, the result of his work and Christ all shall be made alive and by his quickening spirit we have been brought into God's family and have the life of Christ. And where thou the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Incredible blessing for a creature.
00:30:13
The other thing that's connected with the children of disobedience is at the end of verse three, children of wrath, and in that, like you mentioned on Fall includes himself as a Jew, we among whom also we all had our conversation.
And we're by nature the children of Wrath, even as others. That's all that a person.
Of Adam's race has any hope of looking forward to wrath.
We're in a time past the walk, according to the court, in this world and then.
Referring to the block, it really what someone had said before that it referred to our whole lifestyle, uh, the entire way we present ourselves and we're, uh, we uh, just move as we go along in this world. From the time that we get up in the morning till the time that we go to bed at night time, there's, there's a walk.
It is characterized by each of us.
So here it is referring to the vision to our Christians, and it's referring to it in the past tense.
And it's saying we're in a fine task. He walked according to the force of this world.
So Paul is writing, which is. Would you say that?
Umm, there was a way that you were affected. Before you were a Christian before you belong to the Lord, but now you are saved.
And it has made a difference in your life.
And so it should, for each of us.
And, uh, what is behind the walk of this world we've had that brought out before us, but the, uh, uh, the course of this world, the, the Princeton power of the air, so.
The whole system of a world that you and I live in is designed by the God and Prince of this world who is seeking to attract the minds of, of, uh, the world, to carry it on to judgment and to affect the lives of those of us that are believers.
We can be effective as well by the course of this world and the apostle Paul, he seemed to have noticed that there was a difference in these believers.
That they did walk that way before, but now they, uh.
In coming to place.
They were. It had an outward effect as they walked through this world.
So in verse 3, just a footnote to what they've just said in verse 3.
It says con. We had our conversation. It's the same thought as the lock in verse two. It was our manner of life. It was the whole tenor and character of our lives. It isn't just the words we speak when we use the word conversation. Quite often we're just talking about talking to each other, but in that second verse and elsewhere, frequently in the word where it says conversation.
It's talking about, it's explaining to us the whole manner of our lives, the whole way in which they're characterized. What our interests are, what we, our activities are, what our motives are, are all looked at by God is characterized by what we call here our conversation. And so the previous conversation or manner of life of children, of disobedience.
Was as already said, they were children of wrath. That was the very nature umm.
00:35:03
A dog has a certain nature.
The cow has a certain nature and it's going to have its conversation according to the nature that it has. And so man's nature and fallen in Adam and verse three is a nature which is characterized by the desire to fulfill the lust of its flesh. That's its character. Man spends his life seeking to fulfill.
Those lusts that are in his flesh and in his mind, and Satan controls it, and man is no match for Satan, and so he keeps his goods in peace until God steps in. And God, of course, is greater than Satan and is able to break that power and to bring life to that soul and deliver them from that.
Condition in which they were and one of the wonderful things that God has done to change our conversation is He's changed our nature.
Here's the nature of man and Adam, but the nature of man in Christ is a nature that loves to please God, has no desire to do anything according to the lust of its flesh, and so it delights as the Lord Jesus, the perfect man said of his life. His conversation was characterized by I delight to do thy will, Oh my God. And we don't have it in the verse, but in contrast that's what we are now.
Uh, children of God, we are those who have a different conversation that flows from a different nature and a different object and a different source of that we wish to please.
Well, we come to this wonderful **** don't we? And so God brings in something, and it's striking that there are three things that God brings in here in connection with our condition. One is mercy, the other is love. And then in verse five, you have grace. And it's interesting that those three things are listed in those three ways because I might have mercy on something or someone.
But I may not have a particular love or affection to do anymore for it than deliver it from its present situation. You might see a dog who's sick and you might take it to the vet, or you might help it out in some way. You have mercy on the on the beast, on the animal, but you may not have any particular love for that animal.
If I can put it another way, you might have a an animal that is sick and it might be mercy to shoot that animal and put it out of its mercy, out of its misery. That was mercy.
But the animal's gone, and perhaps you feel bad because the animal's gone, but no particular love for that creature. You put it out of its misery and had mercy on it. And God in His mercy has delivered us from hell and from our condition, naturally speaking. But there was a great motive involved, wasn't there? There was a great motive, and that motive was that great love. Brother Dave mentioned the Samaritan who went to that man.
And I believe it was really more than just having mercy on that man. To have mercy on that man would have gone and maybe thrown a blanket over him and given him a little something to eat and drink and made it given him some momentary, momentary easement in his present condition and gone on down the road. That would have been mercy. But that man had compassion on him. There was a deeper motive than just mercy.
A motive that caused him to not only meet him in the ditch, but to pull him out of that ditch, to put him on his own beast, to provide for him, bring him to the end, to provide for his future needs with the money that he took out. To tell him that he was going to come again and check on him and see how he was doing and provide for him until that time and so on. That was a far greater Mer, uh, motive than mercy.
And so mercy's wonderful brethren, but if that was all we had, uh, we couldn't revel in the things that we've reveled in this morning. And so God is rich in mercy, that's true. But the motive behind it is his great love. And then by grace are you saved. And as has often been, Simply put, mercy saves us from hell. But grace has provided for us a wonderful eternity and a wonderful blessing now, and an enjoyment of that blessing.
00:40:12
Again, you might go down to a poor area of the city and you might have mercy on souls and help them in their present condition, give them a little money or food. But grace would bring that. Bring a person right up to your house and make them your your son or perhaps even your heir. You adopt that person that you found down in the inner city and you provide everything that's for them and secure their future. That's not just having mercy. That's great. Well, these are little pictures of what God has done for us.
Beautiful expression. Rich.
In Mercy.
Our God is rich in mercy.
How often when we show mercy like you're mentioning, Jim, we're limited.
But God is not limited.
He is rich in mercy. No case. Too awful. Too bad for our God. Wonderful to think about it. Rich and mercy.
Hope I'm not going to confuse by the next remarks, but I think it's important.
In connection with verse 5, to distinguish something that so far in our reading this morning, we've somewhat used interchangeably.
And verse five it says.
And has, uh, you who are dead in trespassing and sin has quickened us together with Christ. There is a distinction in scripture between quickening and new birth and we've been talking about dead people and so on.
I'd like to make the distinction because it's important for the Lord's sake that we do here in this verse. It's talking about us being quickened with Christ.
But Christ, who was quickened, never needed to be born again like we do.
Quickening is a work of raising someone who is dead back to a state of life. The Lord Jesus physically died and he was quickened. He was raised from the dead and that was quickening. New birth as we need it, not the Lord Jesus, but we as we need it in John chapter 3 if we were to go back there, which I think we're all familiar with and don't need to.
But when Nicodemus went to the Lord Jesus, and the Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus, you must be born again, he was not referring to raising Nicodemus from the dead. He was referring to the fact that Nicodemus had a life that was dead God word, and Nicodemus could have no fellowship in relationship with God on the grounds of what he was.
That which was born of the flesh was flesh.
And Nicodemus was, as a man of Adam's race, was born of the flesh, but that's all it was, flesh. And there was nothing in flesh that God could have pleasure in after sin came in. And so as a consequence, he said, you need a new birth, you need a new life from a new source. And the thought of being born again is the reception of a new life from a new source. And so then the Lord says to Nicodemus that which is born of the Spirit.
Is Spirit, so our natural lives in Adam we received as a consequence of the conception that took place in the womb of our mother and a given of God by God's power. It happens, but the life that we have in Christ.
Wasn't to return to our mother's womb and be born again, but it was a life that's given by the Spirit.
And so we are born again. But here in verse five, in light of that, it's important to also see that God looks at us in connection with the Lord Jesus coming to be made like unto us, to take his place among us and apart, but in the likeness of sinful flesh. And so man knew him when he was here on earth as a man after the flesh.
00:45:06
As you might say, a man that was identified with Adam's race.
Even though he was different and unique and perfect and holy, but as identified with Adam's rice, he goes to the cross, he's placed on it, and there he dies. And if we could use this expression judicially, that's the end of Adam's race before God. That's the end of all that God has to do with man.
In Adam, as far as his working, Christ dies to it.
And he enters the physical state of death.
But when he is raised from the dead, he is raised as the beginning of that which is the race that comes from himself, from Christ. So in Christ, I mean, so in Adam all die, but in Christ all shall be made alive. So in Romans just refer to a few places where this truth is brought out in Romans it tells us in chapter 6.
You've died with Christ.
In Romans we're looked at as responsible people before God. We're not looked at as here in Ephesians, as dead and trespasses and sins. And Romans were looked at as as responsible creatures before God. But there was nothing in us. We, we all had sinned and come short of what God expected. And so the Lord Jesus comes into those circumstances for us and.
He dies, but if we put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, God says, I look at you as dying with him.
And when he comes out of death, then we learn from not Romans really, but from Colossians and Ephesians here that we are quickened with him before God and we are part positionally of a new race. And that's more the truth of what's presented here in this fifth verse. It's.
It's not so much the eye, it isn't really the idea of how we get saved or being born again in the sense of John 3, but it is our place with Christ.
In that being quickened and being brought into that new position before God. And so we are, and it's in that new position that we were raised up together with Christ to be in heavenly places. That expression in First Corinthians that the last Adam was made of quickening spirit and not referred to the Lord when he was born of the Virgin Mary. It refers to him on resurrection day.
When he, uh, was a, a new creation out of death and resurrection. And that's the life and relationship that we have with him when we, uh, are born again and are quickened. And it's so it's so good to see that because.
I like, I think of it as like the example of when you like you after he had died and they had buried him and they later on, another man was being buried in the, in, uh, enemy came in and they had to quickly dispose of the body. And so they quickly cast them into the grave of Elijah. And as soon as he touched the bones of Elijah, he came alive. That's a picture of the quickening spirit.
Uh.
That results with, in faith in the Lord Jesus and uh, the new life that we have in that way is that connected with the Lord Jesus as risen from the dead and in that life that we can enjoy with him in heaven because it's heavenly. And, uh, that's the relationship the church has with the Lord Jesus as a heavenly people and Satan is looked at as the Prince of the power of the air.
That that's to stop us from enjoying the heavenly relationship that we have with the Lord Jesus.
To the life we have is a life that is beyond death, isn't it? When he rose from the dead, he had a life that cannot die any longer.
Absolutely beyond the power of death. And now that's the life that you and I possess. Death may touch our bodies because our bodies are still part of the first creation.
00:50:09
But they can't. Death can no way touch the light we possess in Christ.
That's just that's why it says asleep in Jesus, because God never looks at one of his own, as even in the state of physical death is dead. They're asleep as to their body, not as to their soul, but as to the body. It's asleep. But even that body is to be raised and reunited to the spirit in that new life.
It's interesting here in these verses 5:00 and 6:00 I've been talking about.
Have quickened us together with Christ then it's.
Uh, not left there nearly, but in verse six it says and has raised us up together.
And made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ. Quickening is one thing, but being raised up is also something that is wonderful. We are completely brought out of that position of death.
And use the illustration of Lazarus like it's been mentioned. The dead heard the voice of the Son of God and lived. The Lord stood outside the grave of Lazarus and said Lazarus come forth. You're not going to stood out there and shouted all day long.
Didn't never come out. Why? Because it was the voice of the Son of God that the dead can hear. And the dead did hear. And he came to life, came out of that tomb, rapped in those great clothes. But he didn't stay there, no.
Lazarus didn't live in the cemetery after he was raised from the dead. That's the place of the dead. He was completely taken out of that position of death altogether.
And so, brethren, we have been lifted out of that position. Our position is different. Young people, you're not the same as the world around us. Yes, we occupy the same world. We're passing through it. But you and I, as believers in the Lord Jesus, have been not only quickened, but raised up together with Christ and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ.
See, I thought we were sitting in Allendale.
But as to our position, it's so real, brother, that God sees us.
As now, right now.
Sitting in those heavenly places in Christ Jesus, there is the Lord Jesus in the glory, and we are there seated with him in that glory. Wonderful, precious truth. This is not just fantasy, this is reality. And it's important for us to let these truths sink into our soul, to enjoy them. This is the way.
God looks at you in need right now.
I'd like to ask a question.
Put the two together, which I enjoy, verse five. And when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us together with Christ.
And have raised us up together. The question is, can a quickened soul be lost?
Can you be lost together with Christ? I don't think so. I mean, I know. So neither can they die anymore.
And then in Ephesians chapter one and verse 4, there's that beautiful verse without blame before him and love. It just seems that the 2GO together and they can't be separated. But I, I put the question out there because I think it gets raised sometime in this confusion in that maybe, uh.
If he's flipping 1-6 would be a a a verse that would answer that. Uh uh.
Philippians chapter one, verse six, being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun the good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
When God begins the work of quick by quickening, He never leaves it unfinished.
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It's nice to notice in verse five and six there's two togethers.
Of our chapter 25 quickened us together and then verse six, well actually there's three raise this up together and made us sit together.
And it going back to chapter one, these thoughts, the thoughts in these verses are connected with chapter one and verse 19. What is the exceeding greatness of his power to us were to believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ.
When he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.
And a place of power and glory, far above all Principality and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but it also in that which is to come. And have put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him that felleth All in all.
Looking at Christ first we see him that.
And then quickened, and then raised, and then seated. And he is raised by the power of God, and seated in a place of honor and glory over all things.
And.
It's that place to which we are brought.
In other words, brethren, our blessing goes far beyond being quickened from the dead. It goes far beyond simply being raised. It takes us to the place of sitting.
With him and that's why the church is not formed until Pentecost.
It's not formed while the Lord Jesus is on earth. It's not formed when He is quickened and raised from the dead. It's formed when he's seated in the heavenly places, because that is His place of glory and honor. And when He is there, then the church is formed so that she will be an association with Him in his place of honor.
And glory. And so we say the church is formed with a glorified Christ and we are identified with him. And that's what's being brought out to us in verse six, that we may sit together in heavenly places in Christ. It's an incredible, it's a it's our blessing. It's an incredible place that no other creature on earth or in heaven, even angels don't share.
In this blessing, but it's all associated with Christ died for us, that man that came among the children of the first Adam. And then we die with Him, Then we are quickened with Him, then we are raised with Him, and it takes us all the way to the place where it can say we're seated with Him and the fullness of His present glory.
So in Colossians chapter 3 and verse one it says Christ who is our life and our life is hid with Christ and God. And so the life that we now have is his life and it is identified and in fact it's sources with a man in the glory. And so it says I guess I'll have to look at it to get the exact expression and Colossians 3.
Verse four. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear.
We shall also appear with Him in glory because that's where our life is. That's where our conversation is, That's where our position is. It's hid right now with Christ and glory. But when He appears in His glory, we have to appear with Him because, well, I can't be any other way because that's our life and that's our place and that's our conversation. Our conversation now is from heaven, as we have in 2nd Corinthians 5.
And so we can have an enjoyment of heaven before we get there.
As a result of this wonderful work and the position and blessing we've been brought into is illustrated perhaps with the children of Israel. It's true that the night they ate the Passover lamb, they were redeemed and it met the claims of God and the first born was spared and so on. But with God going to be satisfied to leave them on the Egypt Bank of the Red Sea? No, they were still in a land where the authority of Pharaoh.
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Was owned a Pharaoh, being a picture of Satan, the God and Prince of this world. No God was going to do something else. He was going to deliver them through the Red Sea. And so they were, but without enough to satisfy the heart of God just to bring them through the Red Sea, and there they sang as the redeemed and delivered people. No, in time he brought them through the Jordan. He brought them into that which pictures the vast panorama of heavenly blessings and position that we have here in Ephesians.
And that we've been Speaking of in this reading this morning. God wasn't satisfied until he brought his people into that position. And God's desire for us was not only to save us from hell, to not only save us from this world that was under judgment, not only to bring an end to the first man. Because in the Red Sea I see the end of my sins, but in the Jordan, I see the end of myself. And I'm brought up on resurrection ground. And it's the position in type of being raised and quickened with Christ and raised and seated and so on so that there can be an enjoyment.
Of those heavenly blessings and our heavenly portion. Now, Canaan is not a picture of something that we have to wait to enjoy in a future day. Canaan is a picture of something that God desires for us to enjoy. It's ours now. And His desire is that we would walk in the good and blessing of it and enjoy it. And so, brethren, what a position. We're forgiven sinners, that's true. But we're far, far more than forgiven sinners.
We're the recipients of mercy, that's true. But we're far, far more.
Then the recipients of mercy by his love and grace and that sovereign work, we are quickened together with Christ. We're we're raised together. We're seated together. Now the question is, are we really walking?
As a heavenly people in the enjoyment of that which we are going to enjoy unhinderedly in a future day.
That's why it's so important to let these things sink into our souls and enjoy them, brother, because it's what you enjoy that will have power in your walk down here, not just merely the understanding of the enjoyment of it. Is this real? Are you talking about something real, Jim, or is this just the doctrine? It's real. They our time is up and we have a beautiful picture of this. And David choosing Mephibosheth to sit at table with him.
And then you think about that illustration, it wasn't just a desire to bless you, it's just their souls. Household. David had a desire to have him at table and enjoy the fellowship there.