From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: of Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians. 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 hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

We come back again to this mighty statement, one of the grandest and the most exalted which is to be found anywhere in the whole range of scripture. It's the statement of what God has done to us in the helplessness and the hopelessness in which we were and which is described in the first three verses of this important chapter.

I say again that surely there is nothing which is more wonderful. There is no more striking statement of the truth concerning the Christian than that which is to be found in these verses. Indeed, must we not all admit as we read the first seven verses of this chapter, that our troubles undoubtedly are due to the fact that we are guilty of a double failure. We fail on the one hand to realize the depth of sin.

We saw that in studying the first three verses. We may admit that we are not perfect. We may say that we occasionally do things that we shouldn't do, and we think that that is sin and that that is a consciousness of sin. But when we read these first three verses, we really are given to see what sin is and how deeply involved in sin we all are and how fallen our nature is as the result of the original transgression of Adam.

We don't realize, I say, the depth of sin. But on the other hand, do we not all fail to realize the greatness and the height and the glory of our salvation? Oftentimes, we are content to think of Christian salvation merely in terms of forgiveness of sins, not that one wants to depreciate that. There is nothing more wonderful and more glorious.

My point is that to stop at that is surely tragic. And I verily believe that the whole condition and state of the church today is largely due to the fact that we fail at both points. It is because we never realize the depth of the pit out of which we've been brought up by the grace of God that we don't thank God as we ought and then there is this failure to realize the great heights to which he has raised us.

Well, now, that's what the Apostle is dealing with here. He's now showing us the deliverance, the salvation. Here, of course, the Apostle is concerned not so much with the way in which we are saved. He's not interested at this point in evangelism. That's something that's already gone. He's writing to people who are already Christians and he wants them to realize and to understand what is really true of them as Christian people.

He wants them to know the exceeding greatness of God's power to usward that believe and so he expounds it. Now, we have already seen that what makes us Christians is our union with Christ. You've noticed that he goes on repeating it together. It is with Christ. We have been quickened together with him, even when we were dead in sins. He has raised us together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

This doctrine of our union with Christ is absolutely vital. The federal union, as Christ is our representative, the vital, organic, living union, which brings us the true life of Christ himself. Well, now, we've dealt with that and have gone on to consider this first statement, what God did to us when we were there dead in trespasses and sins. The first thing he did was to quicken us.

He puts a new principle of life in us, whereas we were lifeless, there is now life, regeneration. We considered that last Sunday morning, but now we must go on to the second step. Because he tells us that not only have we been quickened together with Christ, but also hath raised us up together. Here is the second thing.

Now, we must bear in mind constantly, as we are dealing with this teaching, that the Apostle here is working out a comparison. His case is that what is true of us spiritually is like what happened to our Lord physically when he was raised from the dead. He bore our sins in his own body on the tree. He died. His lifeless body was taken down. It was buried in a grave. The stone was rolled over the grave.

There is no question. That's fact. He was dead. He literally died for our sins. But the morning of the third day, he arose. He was raised from the dead and the Apostle works all this out in terms of us. So, let us bear in mind what happened to our Lord. There he was for that period dead and in the grave, in the realm of the dead. But he came out of that. The grave clothes were still left in the grave, but he wasn't there.

You remember how graphically the evangelists described that to us and the surprise of the women and others who went to the grave. They went to see the body in the grave, but there was nobody, only the grave clothes. He had arisen. He had been taken out. He was no longer dead. He was no longer in the grave. He was now in another realm. He was alive from the dead and he appeared, you remember, to chosen people for 40 days at various times and in various ways.

He manifested himself unto these chosen witnesses and then he ascended into heaven. Now, that's the thing that we must bear in mind. Our salvation, according to the Apostle here, is comparable to that. Nothing less than that. There was this complete change in the realm in which our Lord was existing, dead in the grave, alive, manifesting himself and in a new way.

Now, then, that is the truth, says the Apostle, about all who are truly Christian. Nothing less than that. This is the whole of his doctrine. We have been raised together with Christ. Because of our union with him, what happened to him, happened to us. Not, as he points out here, in the physical sense, but in the spiritual. It will happen in the physical sense also, that is to come.

But what he wants them to understand now is that spiritually this selfsame power, as he has argued at the end of the first chapter, which did all that to the Lord Jesus Christ is working to usward that believe and is doing all this for us. Very well, then, what does this tell us about the Christian? What does this tell us as truth about ourselves?

Well, we can divide it up in the way that I've divided up the statement about our Lord himself. You can look at all this raising up together first of all in a negative manner. As I've been saying, once our Lord was raised from the dead, there were certain things that were no longer true of him and the same thing exactly can be said about the Christian. There are certain negatives which are of tremendous importance and perhaps the best way for us to work all this out is to work it out in terms of that sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, which we read together just now.

Because there you really have an extended commentary on this phrase which we are looking at together this morning. That, of course, is something which would always interest us and fill us with a sense of wonder. In all these epistles, you really have the same essential doctrine. Some of them work out one point in great detail. Others work out another point in great detail, but the essential doctrine is the same in every one of them.

And that is why the best commentary always on any one epistle of the Apostle Paul is to read all the various other epistles by the Apostle Paul. And if you don't do that, you'll sooner or later go astray. And another point which we make is this. If you really study any one of these epistles carefully, exhaustively, and take time to do so, you will have covered the entire range of Christian doctrine. Whereas if you skim lightly over the surface of all of them, you still won't have any conception of the Apostle's teaching.

Very well, then, let's see how he works all this out in the sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. What can be said about the Christian clearly, therefore, is this. The Christian, by definition, is no longer dead spiritually. He is no longer in a spiritual grave. He was. We were all dead in trespasses and sins. That's it. We were dead. We were in a grave, in a spiritual grave.

But as Christians, we've come out of that. As Christ came out of the grave, we are out of the grave. We've left behind the grave clothes. There's nothing else left. We are out. We are no longer in that realm. We no longer belong to that sphere. Our condition is an entirely new one. Now, that's just another way of saying that this whole matter of regeneration and salvation is the profoundest change in the world. And to become a Christian is, as I say, the most profound experience, the most profound fact in the whole universe.

It's nothing less than the difference between death and life. A grave and walking at freedom and at liberty in the world. Well, now then, but what does this mean in actual practice? Well, there are certain things, says the Apostle, which we as Christians must never fail to hold on to. Here are some of the negatives. The fact that we are no longer dead and no longer in the grave is proof positive that we are no longer under the wrath of God and we are no longer under condemnation.

Now, the Apostle puts this in a very interesting form in this epistle to the Romans. The last verse in the fourth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans is this. He, referring to our Lord, he says, "Who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification." What does he mean? He means this. Our Lord's death was on account of our offenses. He died because he bore our offenses. He bore our sins and our transgressions and the punishment was death so he died.

Yes, but how do we know that God was satisfied with that offering? How may we know for certain that the almighty, holy, righteous God really has felt that sin has been dealt with there? The answer is the resurrection. Delivered for our offenses, raised again for our justification. The emergence of Christ from the realm of death and the grave. His appearing again is an absolute proof that God is satisfied. Sin has been punished.

Very well, this obviously, therefore, applies with equal force to us. And the Apostle goes on to make the point at once in the next verse, the first verse of the fifth chapter. Therefore, you see the logic, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, we are raised from the dead with him and therefore, we are justified and therefore, we are no longer under the wrath of God.

He puts it still more strongly. You remember in the first verse of the eighth chapter. There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation. Condemnation leads to death, but we are no longer dead. We have risen. Therefore, there is no condemnation. You remember the contrast. What were we? Well, we were not only dead in trespasses and sins, but we were also by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

All of us born into this world are born under the wrath of God, under condemnation. Oh, yes, but we are no longer there. We have risen from the dead. We've come out of the grave. We've finished with it. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Now, my friends, every Christian should know that and every Christian should enjoy that assurance. It's because you're in Christ, not because of anything in you. It's because of your union with him. It's because you've been raised together with him.

And that is the first basis of assurance that we believe this. We accept this by faith. We say this is true. I have been put into Christ. I've been joined to Christ and therefore, as he rose and left that realm, I've left it. Delivered for our offenses, raised again for our justification. Do you realize that you're no longer under the wrath of God? Do you realize that there is no longer any condemnation for you?

Do you realize that the punishment has been borne and that you no longer need fear the punishment which is to come? That's his first deduction. But then he's got another one. He says that because we are no longer dead, but alive, that we are also dead to the law. We are not under law, but we are under grace, he says. And in the seventh chapter of that epistle to the Romans, you remember he works it out with a comparison.

He says that a woman, as long as her husband is alive, is bound by that husband and to that husband and she cannot marry again. But when the husband dies, she is free and is able to marry again. She's no longer bound to that husband and by that husband. He says it's exactly like that with the law. Now, we all of us are born under the law. There is the law of God facing us, challenging us and condemning us because of our failure and God deals with us by law.

But if we are in Christ, we are no longer under law. We are under grace. That doesn't mean, of course, that we no longer have to keep the moral law, but it does mean this, that our relationship to God is no longer a legal, law relationship. It is a personal relationship, the relationship of father and child. Of course, the father, if he's a good father, will see to it that the child is disciplined and that he has to obey certain laws, but it's the relationship that's changed.

Man in sin is an alien from God and God deals with him in a purely legal manner, but now no longer. Those of us who are in Christ have been brought right out of that realm. The law exacted its full punishment in full measure upon the Lord Jesus Christ and if we are in him, the law has no further demands upon me in that sense. I am no longer under law. I am under grace. That's his second deduction and what a tremendous thing that is for us to realize that we are in an entirely new relationship to God and that will work out as we shall see later in certain practical respects.

But come, there's a still more striking statement. The Apostle says that because we have risen with Christ, we are now dead to sin. Did you notice that? In the second verse of that sixth chapter of Romans, he asks the question, you remember, in the first verse, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" And he answers by saying, "God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?"

Because we are risen with Christ, we are dead to sin. He says it again in verse six, "Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin." And again, he says it in the seventh verse, "For he that is dead is freed from sin." Now, this is obviously a very important and a very vital statement. What does it mean?

Well, it clearly doesn't mean that we are all perfect and that we are without sin and that we never sin again. We know that that is not true and if we say that we are without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us as the Apostle John says in his first epistle. Well, what does it mean then? In what sense is it true to say of a Christian that he is dead to sin? Well, it's in this sense. Before we become Christians, we are dead in trespasses and sins. But as Christians, that is no longer true of us.

Before we belong to the realm of sin, to the dominion of sin, to the whole territory of sin and we were under the power of sin. You remember how Paul has worked it out in detail. We were controlled by the lusts of the flesh, showing themselves as desires of the flesh and of the mind. Our our life was a sinful life. We were controlled by sin, dominated by sin, governed in various ways by these lusts and passions, mind and body. But that's no longer true of us.

We are dead to that realm of sin. We are no longer there. We have been taken out of that. Sin shall not have dominion over you, he says. We no longer walk in trespasses and sins. That's what we used to do. We were dead in trespasses and sins and he goes on to say in which we walked even as others. We all had our conversation in time past in that way, but that's not true of the Christian. He doesn't spend his time there. He doesn't walk there. He doesn't exist there. He doesn't belong to that realm any longer.

He's been taken right out of the realm. I say again, it doesn't mean he's perfect, but he's not in that realm. It's like a man moving from one country to another. It's like a man taking out naturalization papers. There is a complete change in his status, in his relationship to the state. And that is the thing that is true of the Christian. He no longer serves sin or to use the Apostle's illustration again, he is no longer the servant of sin.

He was a complete slave before and I trust I needn't re-emphasize this. We spent Sunday mornings in doing it in considering the first three verses. Whether we like it or not, the fact is about every unregenerate person that he is the slave of sin. He is governed by an evil principle. Now, then, that's no longer the case. We are no longer the slaves of sin. We have been taken right out of that.

Of course, we may still in our folly listen to the devil. We may still yield to temptation. We may still respond to a sinful impulse, but that doesn't mean that we are slaves to sin. We no longer are controlled. That's the principle and it is in that sense that we are dead to sin. He that is dead is freed from sin. Well, very well. We have died with Christ. We've risen with him. We no longer belong to that particular realm.

And I think if you examine your experiences, you will find that this is true and it's a very remarkable and a very wonderful thing. There are many of God's people who don't realize this because they cannot draw the distinction between a temptation and a sin. Because there are evil thoughts insinuated into their minds, they think they're still in the realm of sin. They're not. They come from without at this point. Of course, there are still things left in the body and yet one realizes that one's whole attitude is absolutely different.

May I put it like this in an illustration. Do you remember the conquest of Canada in 1759? Do you remember the famous Battle of Quebec? General Wolfe against the French General Montcalm. There was one battle and one great victory, the Battle of Quebec. And as the result of that one battle, Canada became a British possession. But I think if you go on reading the history, you will find that the English, the British, had to continue fighting in Canada for a long number of years. There were pockets of resistance left. Yes, but Canada was no longer French. It was British.

But the fact that it had ceased to be French and had become British didn't mean that there was no longer any struggle or fight. There was, but the one decisive battle changed the whole dominion and the right of possession. Now, the Christian is something like that. He is no longer under sin. He is dead to sin in the matter of possession and dominion and control. He's been brought out. He's in this new life with his Lord and Savior.

Oh, perhaps we can put this still better by putting it under the next heading in this way. The Apostle says in the sixth verse of this sixth chapter of Romans, "Knowing this that our old man is crucified with Christ." And a better translation is this, "Knowing that our old man has been crucified with Christ." We know that, says Paul. As Christians, that is true of us. What does it mean? What's the old man?

Well, the answer to that, of course, is found in the previous chapter, the fifth chapter. The old man is the Adamic man, is the man who was in Adam. You remember the comparison, don't you? We were all in Adam. We are the lineal descendants from Adam and we were all in him. He was again our federal head and representative, but not only that. We are bound to him by ties of flesh and of blood and of descent. There is the same double union, federal and vital, all in Adam.

And every one of us born into this world is born a child of Adam. We have an Adamic nature. Our standing before God is that of Adam. Adam fell, we all fell with him. We are under the wrath of God. We are subject to lusts and the control and the dominion of sin and Satan, exactly as Adam was. That's the old man, the Adamic man. But we have died with Christ. And when we died with Christ, the old man, the Adamic nature died also.

And as a Christian, I am no longer in Adam. I am in Christ. I am a member of a new humanity. Christ is the firstborn amongst many brethren and I follow. I am in him. I am no longer in Adam. I am in Christ. What does this mean? Well, it means this and it's such a glorious truth that God no longer looks at me as one who is in Adam. He looks at me as one who is in Christ. I'm a new man.

Of course, I'm the same personality and yet I know that I am a new, I am a different man. My whole position, my whole status and standing is absolutely different. I don't belong to that old humanity any longer. I am still in the flesh, but I am a member of a new humanity. That is what he means by saying that we know that our old man has been crucified with Christ. As I've said, I am no longer under the wrath of God. I am no longer under the law of God. I am no longer under the dominion of sin. I am no longer under the dominion of Satan. That's because I'm no longer an Adamic man.

That old man that I once was has gone and gone forever. Now, the Christian must not be content with saying anything less than that. That is the simple primary truth about the Christian. Because he's in Christ, he is in Christ and not in Adam. The old man has gone. Now, you notice that I'm saying the old man. I am not saying that the sin that is in the body and in the flesh has gone. I am simply saying that as the entity that was in Adam, I am no longer there. I am an entity in Christ now.

Well, very well. There's the negative side, but let me come to the positive. We have been raised together with Christ. All that's no longer true. Well, what is true? Well, now then, let's look at the positive. This is the most amazing thing of all. And what a contrast this is. We are sharing the life of Christ. We therefore become like Christ and as Christians, we are absolutely different from what we were before. I use my terms advisedly. We are absolutely and essentially different. In what respects?

Well, listen to how Paul puts it. "Likewise, reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ." Here's the positive aspect. Having risen with Christ, I am now alive unto God. Before I wasn't. Before I was dead in trespasses and sin. And you remember we saw that the definition of that term dead was this, that I was dead to God. And you see that is the terrible tragedy about every natural man who has not become a Christian, that he's dead to God.

He he's living a life as if there wasn't a God. He's not conscious of God. He has no relationship to God. He lives in this world as if there isn't a God. He doesn't believe there is a God and he goes on living accordingly. He's absolutely dead to God, but being risen with Christ, we are alive unto God. And, my dear friends, that's the biggest thing you'll ever know about yourself is that you are alive unto God. You're in tune with the eternal. You've been awakened to something infinite and absolute.

Have you seen the flower? There it is at night. It's closed and shut. The sun comes out and suddenly it begins to open and is taking in its life from that glorious sun. That's what happens to the Christian. He's alive unto God. What does it mean? Well, it means that we've got an entirely new attitude towards God. We are no longer at enmity with God. The Apostle goes on in the eighth chapter of this epistle to the Romans to say that the natural mind, the natural man is enmity against God.

Indeed, in this very epistle to the Ephesians which we are studying, we shall see that later Paul says that we were aliens and enemies in our minds through wicked works. And how true it is, but it's no longer true of the Christian. The Christian is no longer at enmity with God. He desires God. He no longer has the feeling that God is some terrible monster set against us waiting to crush us and to damn us and to destroy us.

No, no. He's come to know God and to know that God is love and that God is mercy and kindness and compassion. He no longer like Adam after he'd sinned runs away from God and tries to hide behind the trees, avoiding God at all costs. That's what the natural man still does, isn't it? The natural man does everything he can to avoid God. That's why he hates the thought of death. Death is to him the most terrible enemy. Why? Well, it means that he's got to stand before God. He doesn't always put it in words, but he's got it in his bones. He knows it's true and he hates death therefore.

It means standing before God and he wants to avoid that. He gets away from God. That's why he doesn't attend a place of worship. That's why he doesn't read the Bible. That's why he doesn't like funerals. God. It brings him near to him and he hates it. He's terrified and he avoids God. But not so the Christian. As the heart panteth after the water brooks, so my soul cryeth out for thee. My soul longeth and thirsteth for the living God. What a change. It is a change from death to life, isn't it?

It's an absolute change as I said. It's an essential change. Is there a bigger change than this? That one now desires the being that one feared with a craven and a trembling fear. God becomes our Father. And the greatest desire of the true Christian is to draw nearer unto God. Can you say that honestly this morning that the greatest thing you desire at this moment is to know God better and to realize his presence? If you can, you're a Christian. If you can't, you'd better examine the foundations again.

Because when a man is in Christ, he's got this new nature and this new nature cries out for God. Our Lord used to rise up long before the dawning of the day to pray to his Father. He'd stay up all night. His Father. He wanted him. He enjoyed the communion and that's the characteristic of the Christian. He's alive unto God. Oh, think of the obvious illustrations. It's like one of these instruments. It isn't switched on. It's dead. But switch on and it becomes alive.

This thing is receiving my voice. Why? It's alive to me. But if you switch it off, it's dead. And that's how man was. He wasn't alive to God, but he's now alive to God, sensitive to God, desiring God, loving God, seeking God. Oh, that I knew where I might find him is his cry. He cannot find God sufficiently. He doesn't know him well enough. He's alive unto God. But not only is he alive unto God, he's walking in newness of life. What a wonderful phrase. It's the complete contrast, you see, to death.

The Apostle puts it again in the fourth chapter of Ephesians in this way. He talks about the new man, which after Christ, is created in righteousness and true holiness. Well, then, what is the truth about the Christian? Well, it's this. He's no longer walking in trespasses and sins. He's living this entirely new life, no longer governed by the flesh and its desires, but governed by this new outlook. How does it show itself? Let me summarize it for you. It shows itself in his mind. It shows itself in his heart. It shows itself in his will.

Just listen to these lists. This is the way to tell whether you're a Christian or not. The Christian is one who because he is risen with Christ is walking in newness of life. And a man lives with his mind, his heart and his will. The Christian has got a new mind. What is it? Well, says Paul again in the 12th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind."

And the Christian has got a new mind and it shows itself in these ways. He looks at everything in a different manner. He no longer thinks only in terms of time. He begins now to think in terms of eternity. The life of the man who is not a Christian is entirely bound by time. He never goes beyond it. He doesn't want to. He's afraid of that. Thoughts of the unknown bourne from which no traveler returns. That's what makes cowards of us all. Now, he doesn't he's not interested in eternity, but the Christian is.

The Christian sees that this is a temporary life. It's only time. Eternity. His mind begins to play upon that. Not only that. He now not only thinks in terms of the body and of the rational soul, he also begins to think in terms of the spirit. You see, the man who's not a Christian, what how does he think? How does he live? Well, this is his thought world, isn't it? The world and its knowledge and its culture and its art and its business and its pleasures and all those things. And so on.

Put anything you like into it. I don't want to keep anything out. Put everything you've got into it. I say it's a life and an outlook that are bounded entirely by the body and by the rational soul and nothing beyond. But the Christian doesn't stop at that. He realizes that within him there is that which is called spirit. There is that which makes him conscious of the fact that he belongs to another realm and to another sphere. And he begins to live more and more in that and less and less in this other. It isn't only time. It isn't only the material. It's eternity. It's the spiritual. It's the everlasting. He's lifted up into an entirely new thought realm.

And he judges everything now in the light of this. He's got a new standard of values. He assesses things in an entirely different way. What he wants to know about anything now is this. There's not what sort of a kick will I get out of it? Not sort of what pleasure will I get out of it? He says, "What's the value of this to my soul? How's this affect my relationship to eternity? How does this impinge upon my relationship to God and to Jesus Christ?" You see, he looks at everything in a new way. He's got an entirely new standard of values because he's got this renewed mind in Christ.

He's walking in newness of life. Well, then, another thing that's obvious is this. He's interested in the Bible in a way in which he wasn't before. He put every other book before the Bible then. He puts the Bible before every other book now. He realizes that this is the only book that brings him to God and to a participation increasingly in the life of God. His mind begins to play upon this and it speaks to him and it revels in it and he glories in it. He's moved by it. It's obvious. And he begins to find that he increasingly spends time in meditation.

Oh, what a lost art meditation has become, but the Christian meditates. He meditates. He stops to think. He puts down his newspapers. He switches off his wireless and his television and he isn't rushing out to a cinema or a theater constantly. He sits down and he thinks with himself about himself and God and the glory of eternity. He's got a new mind. You see how what a complete opposite it is to the natural man.

The one thing the natural man never does is to meditate. He does everything he can to avoid it. And the world caters for him. It knows his need and it helps him to run away from himself and all these wonderful things. New mind. But listen to the new heart. This man has got entirely new desires. This is what our Lord says about him. "Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled." His greatest desire now is not for mere pleasure and satisfaction for the moment.

It is for righteousness, for true holiness. He says with David, "Create within me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me." That's his greatest desire. Now, I repeat that. The greatest desire of the true Christian is to be clean within, to be pure, to be holy, to be righteous, to have a heart that is free from sin. And he's grieved on account of sin. He doesn't regard sin as just an annoyance and a nuisance now. He doesn't regard it as just that inevitable concomitant of pleasure and that which is illicit.

No, no. He realizes now that sin is not an offense against the law. It's an offense against the love of God who so loved him as to send his only begotten son to die for him. How do you regard your sins and your failures? What's the first thing that comes into your mind when you sin? Is it fear of punishment? If it is, you're still under the law in your thinking. If it's rather a feeling that you've grieved the one who loves you, well, then it's Christian thinking. The desires are absolutely new.

They're no longer the desires of the flesh and of that sinful mind. They're desires, the desires of Christ himself to be well pleasing in his Father's sight. He also has a desire for prayer. I don't want to depress anybody, but if you've got new life in you, you'll want to pray in a way you never did before. You'll long to be a great prayer. You'll long to be so intimate with God that you'll sooner spend time speaking to God than anything else. Do you know the very beginnings of that? It's essentially true of the Christian. Prayer.

And fellowship with the saints. We know that we have passed from death to life, says John, "Because we love the brethren. The brethren, the children of Christ, the family of God." These people who are interested in these things, they are the people we love and long for. And the other thing, of course, is a concern about the souls of those who are outside and know nothing about these things. You can't be a Christian without having that concern. They are dead in trespasses and sins.

They are creatures of lust. They don't know it, but we do know it. And there they are under the wrath of God. Well, a man's a Christian who's got a new nature. He has a desire for their salvation. He's concerned about them. He's burdened about them. Our Lord felt a great compassion for the people. He saw them as as sheep without a shepherd and the Christian of necessity must know something of that feeling. There's there's the changed heart. And then a word about the will. Isn't it obvious that he now exercises his will in a different direction and to please Christ and to please God?

That's his question now, not what do I like? What do I want? But what is becoming in one who belongs to him? What is no longer a contradiction? These are the things he now desires. The will negatively and positively is entirely renewed. Well, there you are. We have been raised together with him. And because we have, we are different in mind. We are different in heart. We are different in will. May I leave with you a simple question as I close. Have you been raised? Have you been raised together with Christ? Are you alive to God? Have you an awareness of God? Do you know God? Do you desire him? These are the vital questions.

Reckon yourselves, therefore, to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ. And if you are, this is the Apostle's exhortation, "Yield yourselves, therefore, unto God, as those that are alive from the dead and your members, your faculties as instruments of righteousness unto God." Before, we used our faculties. We placed them at the disposal of these vile forces. Now, then, says Paul, as one who is alive from the dead, "Walk in newness of life and give and dedicate all you've got and your every faculty to the glory of God." The Christian is one who is risen with Christ from the realm of sin, from the realm of death. Amen.