From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: I should like to call your attention this morning to the first verse in the first chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians. The Epistle to the Ephesians, the first chapter, and the first verse: "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus."

Now, here the Apostle begins his letter, and at once he does something that is so characteristic of him and, indeed, which is characteristic of all the writers of these New Testament Epistles. And that is that at once, as it were, they plunge right into the midst of great and profound truth.

I suppose we all, up to a point, must plead guilty to the tendency to regard these introductions of these New Testament Epistles as being more or less formal. We all have a tendency to believe always that all introductions are more or less unnecessary, something that we can skip over in order that we may hurry on to the great message. That kind of childish attitude tends to persist with us throughout life. We always want to get at the heart of a story and we're impatient with all the preliminaries and the introductions. We want the excitement.

And that habit, I say, tends to persist so that when we come even to a New Testament Epistle, we feel that preliminary words of salutation, while they're very nice of course and polite and the thing to do, that somehow or other they have nothing to do with truth and doctrine. And therefore, it will matter very little if we just look over them very lightly and rush on to what we regard as the essential teaching. But that is a very profound error. I would argue that it's always untrue and that if ever you're reading anything that is worth reading, it's worth our while to pay attention to what the author or the writer deemed to be necessary or important, otherwise he would never have introduced it. He must have had some object in mind or he wouldn't have said it at all.

But if that is true in general, it is of course particularly true with regard to these New Testament doctrines, these New Testament Epistles. Because invariably in these, you will find even in these preliminary salutations truth which is vital and absolutely essential. Now, here in this first verse of this great Epistle, we have a very great and glorious example of that very thing. It is, of course, the preliminary salutation. And yet you notice that the Apostle can't even address these people at all without at the same time presenting us with a very extraordinary description and definition of what it means to be a Christian.

Now, that point I could perhaps put in another way by putting it like this: that so often people misinterpret the teaching of the New Testament scriptures because they will forget the people to whom the messages were addressed. Now, that's of course particularly true with regard to the Epistles. The teaching of the New Testament Epistles is directed only and solely to Christians, to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is utterly wrong, it is heretical, to take any New Testament Epistle teaching and apply it to the world in general and the world at large. The teaching is addressed to particular people. And every time the writers of the Epistles make that, I say, perfectly plain and clear to us.

And here the Apostle leaves us in no doubt at all as to the people to whom he's writing. He addresses them immediately and he describes them as he does so. And what can be more important than for us to realize exactly what he says at this point? Now, let's be clear about another thing. The Apostle here was writing what you may describe, if you like, as a general letter. You notice that in the Revised Version it doesn't say "to the saints which are at Ephesus." That part is left out. The "at Ephesus" part is left out. Which reminds us at once that in the ancient manuscripts, there are some in which the words "at Ephesus" are not included. Actually, it is the fact that the very oldest manuscripts of all don't contain the words "at Ephesus." Other ancient manuscripts do have the words "at Ephesus."

But the authorities are agreed in saying what must be perfectly plain and obvious: that what really happened was this, that the Apostle wrote a kind of circular letter to a number of churches. That he probably left a gap in which the name of the particular church to which a copy was sent could be inserted. So that it's a letter to the church at Ephesus, perhaps to the church at Colossae as well and at other churches in that particular area. And I take it that the tradition of describing this as particularly the letter to the Ephesians arose from the fact that the original copy, the original copy written by the Apostle himself or his amanuensis, probably did go to the church at Ephesus itself.

But now, that is in a sense a quite immaterial point. The point I'm establishing is that this is a kind of general circular letter to members of churches. Or let me put it negatively. This is not a letter that was written to apostles only. It isn't a letter addressed to some unusual and exceptional Christian people. It isn't a letter addressed to some great scholars or theologians. It isn't a letter addressed to preachers and pastors. It isn't a letter addressed to people who, as the world puts it, have nothing else to do but to study the scriptures and to study religion and these things.

It's not a letter to specialists at all. It is a letter to ordinary church members, to the most ordinary conceivable church member. Now, that is, I think, from every standpoint a most important statement. It's important for this reason: that everything the Apostle here says about Christians and about members of churches are therefore equally to be true of us.

Not only that. All this high doctrine which we have in this Epistle, and to which we referred in passing in a general review last Sunday, is something that you and I are meant to receive. The Epistle to the Ephesians, perhaps the crowning achievement of the Apostle's life and all his writings, is an Epistle that is addressed to people like ourselves. And ordinary members of the church, of all churches, are meant to take hold of these doctrines and to understand them and to rejoice in them. They are not some abstruse study for certain special people. They are meant, I say, for us, each and every one.

Now then, I'm concerned this morning in particular, I say, with the description here given of the Christian. And I say it's a description not of some exceptional Christian, but of any Christian, of every Christian. In other words, we have here what we may well call the irreducible minimum of what constitutes a Christian.

Now, in the body of this letter, the Apostle of course is anxious that these people should learn more and learn deeper truths and higher truths. That's why he will go on to pray that the eyes of their understanding may be enlightened, that they may know other things, and that they may with all saints begin to apprehend what is the height and depth and length and breadth and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. He's out for all that.

But before he starts with all that, he reminds them of what they are already, of what they know already, of what they have up to date. So that this description of the Christian in this very first verse is a description of what those people at Ephesus already were. They would never have been members of the church at all, they would never have been the recipients of this letter, unless these things were true of them. And so, I say again, we find ourselves confronted here by what the New Testament teaches is the basic irreducible minimum of what constitutes a Christian.

Now, my friends, I'm calling attention to all this because, as I'm never tired of saying and of repeating, it seems to me that this is the primary need of the Christian church at the present hour: to realize exactly what it means to be a Christian. You see, the early Christians, though they were but a handful of people, had that profound impact and influence upon that pagan world in which they found themselves. Why? Well, because they were what they were. It wasn't their organization; it was their quality of life. It was the power they possessed. It was because they were truly Christian.

That is how Christianity conquered the ancient world. And I am more and more convinced it is the only way in which Christianity can have such an influence in the modern world. The lack of influence of the Christian church upon the world at large today is, in my opinion, due to one thing only. And that is that all of us, God forgive us, are so unlike the description that we find in the New Testament of the Christian.

And if, therefore, we are concerned about the state of the church, if we have a burden for the souls of men and women who are outside the church and in their misery and wretchedness hurtling themselves to destruction, the first thing we have to do is to examine ourselves and to discover how closely we conform to this pattern and picture, and what we must do about ourselves if we find ourselves lacking. Very well, then, let us look at this description this morning. The Apostle describes the Christian, you notice, in three main terms. The first is "saints." "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints." The saints at Ephesus, the saints at Laodicea, the saints in every other little church, however small, however large, the saints.

The first thing to say about a Christian is that he's a saint. Doesn't that come rather strangely to us? Haven't we been rather going astray in our doctrine? Aren't we all rather prone to say, "Well, well, I am a Christian, far from being a saint, you know"? We are so afraid of making such a claim. We disavow this particular designation, afraid to say so. And yet we are addressed as saints.

But what's he mean by calling them saints? What is a saint in this New Testament sense? Well, the first thing it always means is that we are people who are set apart. That's the meaning of the word that the Apostle uses here, as he uses it and other biblical writers use it. It means primarily separated, set apart, called out. Now, we have a perfect example of that very thing in that reading in the 19th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles which we read together at the beginning. How the Apostle, when certain difficulties and opposition and so on arose, he separated the disciples, we are told, and then began to meet with them in the school of that man Tyrannus daily. And there he taught them and built them up and established them in the faith. He separated them, he took them apart.

Now, that is the essential meaning of this word saint. And a church, if you like, is a collection, a gathering of saints. The church isn't an institution; she is primarily a gathering, a meeting of saints. The perfect illustration, of course, is to say that the church now is similar to what the children of Israel were under the Old Testament dispensation. They were people who were set apart by God. They were taken out of the world, as it were. They were given a certain uniqueness by God. They were God's own people.

You remember the words used: "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, a people for God's peculiar possession and interest." Now, that is the definition of the children of Israel in the Old Testament. They were a nation, in a sense, amongst many other nations, and yet they were very different. They had certain laws which other nations didn't have. They had a certain word of God to them, a revelation that God had given to them, as Paul reminds the Romans in his Epistle. They had the gift of the oracles of God, that unique gift. In other words, they were a separated people, set apart on their own. In the world and yet not of the world, standing out, set apart there for God and by God.

Now, that's the meaning of this word saint. So, the Christian is a man who primarily is separated from the world. The Apostle's constantly saying this. You remember how he says exactly the same thing at the beginning of his letter to the Galatians. He says, "Grace to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father." That's it. Deliver us out of the world, separate us from the world.

So that the Christian today, like the children of Israel of old, while he's in the world, is not of the world. He's a man like other men, and yet he's very different. He has certain laws which other nations didn't have. He has a certain word of God to him, a revelation that God had given to him. Now, this is primary. This is basic. The Christian is not like anybody else. He's separated, he's apart, he's unique, he stands out. He's been called out by God. He's been separated from the world, separated to God.

We can never emphasize that too frequently. Is this obvious about Christians today? The separation doesn't just consist in the fact that we go to a place of worship on Sunday morning, whereas most people don't. That's a part of it, and a very important part of it, but it isn't the vital part of it. Because, you see, that may be a mere matter of custom and of habit, or of part of the social round. The question is, are we truly separated as persons? Are we essentially different?

Now then, let me put that by putting to you the second meaning of the word saints. It not only means that we are set apart in an outward sense. It means that we are set apart because we are cleansed inwardly. And that is the meaning of the word saint, of course, with which we are most familiar and to which we generally confine it. Instinctively, we think of a saint as some holy person, and we're right. But the first meaning must be put first, but there is this second meaning.

A saint is someone who has been cleansed. And he's been cleansed in many ways. He's been cleansed from the guilt of his sin. He's been cleansed from that obvious evidence of sin, from that thing that excludes him from the presence of God. If I say to be a saint means that you're taken out of the world and that you're put into the presence of God and into the realm of God, well, isn't it clear that something must have happened which should have rendered us fit to come into the presence of God? And the thing that separates men from God is sin. So that before anybody can be separated unto God, he or she must be cleansed from the guilt of sin.

And that is the first truth about the Christian. He has been cleansed, as the Apostle reminds us here in this very introduction, by the blood of Christ. "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." It's a vital, basic part of our whole position as Christians. But it doesn't stop at that. The saint is one who has been cleansed also from the pollution of sin. It isn't a mere outward cleansing; it's an inward cleansing also. Because sin is something that affects the whole being, as we shall see later on in our study of this great Epistle. But it does have this polluting effect.

And the saint is one who has been cleansed from this pollution, the thing that pollutes his mind and his heart and therefore all his actions and everything else. This cleansing process has taken place. He's cleansed outwardly, he's cleansed inwardly. He has become what the Bible calls a holy person. You remember the mountain on which God gave the law to Moses? It's called the holy mount, separated for that. The instruments in the temple, the vessels and so on, were called the holy vessels. They'd been cleansed and they were set apart and they were used for nothing else. They were holy unto the Lord.

And that is what is meant by a saint. A saint is someone who has been cleansed and set apart and is holy unto the Lord. Well, there it is again in that word that the Apostle Peter applies to the Christian, which was originally given to the children of Israel: "ye are a holy nation, a peculiar people." That's it. A royal priesthood, etc. A people for God's peculiar possession.

Well, I haven't time to stay with these definitions for any length of time this morning. I'm much more concerned to make these two practical comments. The first is, my friends, that these remarks apply to every Christian. "To the saints which are at Ephesus." Not simply to some of you, but to all of you, all the saints. To all the saints and all the faithful everywhere.

Oh, I say we must learn to shed once and for all that false dichotomy which Roman Catholicism and its thinking and its teaching have introduced at this point. They canonize certain people, as they say, and call them saints. It's utterly unscriptural. It's all right if you like to pay tribute to a man who's outstanding, but that isn't what they do. They call these people saints only and nobody else is a saint apparently. But that's thoroughly wrong. Every Christian is a saint. You can't be a Christian without being a saint.

You can't be a saint, I say, and a Christian without being separated in some radical sense from the world. You don't belong to it any longer. You're in it, but you're not of it. There's a separation which has taken place in your mind, in your outlook, in your heart, in your conversation, in your behavior. You are essentially a different person. The Christian is not a worldly person. He isn't governed by the world and its mind and its outlook. He's a saint. And it should be true of every single one of us.

Oh, I cannot but repeat again my question. Isn't this the cause of the trouble, my friends? That the masses of men and women living round and about us, many of them unhappy and desperate about themselves and their lives, they don't come to speak to us, they don't come to ask us questions, they don't fly to us in their trouble. Why? Well, because they don't feel that we're any different from them. There is not that about us which suggests that we are essentially different and that therefore they can come to us and bring their burdens to us. We've got this false idea that only certain Christians are saints and we haven't realized that every Christian is meant to be like this.

My other comment is this: "the saints which are at Ephesus." Or at Laodicea or wherever else you like. Isn't this the point at which we see the whole marvel and the miracle of the Christian faith and Christian redemption? Do you remember the sort of city Ephesus was? Go back and read the entire 19th chapter of the book of Acts of the Apostles and you'll get a very distinct impression of the city. It was a great city and a prosperous city, yes, but a thoroughly pagan city. They worshipped a goddess called Diana, and they cried saying, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians." They were proud of themselves, proud of their goddess. They felt that she'd blessed them and had made them what she was. They had this great civic pride, a proud, boastful city.

But thoroughly pagan. Not only that, there was great practice of sorcery and magic and things of that kind. Now, I'm emphasizing all this for our encouragement in this way: just conceive what happened when this Apostle Paul visits the city. And all he found there was just twelve people, twelve men who were disciples of John the Baptist, who were very uncertain and unclear in their minds as to the truth. In fact, they didn't really understand it in a Christian sense at all. Can you imagine anything more hopeless? This little man walks into that great city and there it is, everything against him: pagan, well-organized, arrogant and proud of its paganism, and full of all these cults and mystic religions and everything that is opposed to God.

You might ask the question, "What hope does he stand? What can ever happen in such a place?" But it's there this thing did happen. He preached, he was used of the Spirit, and the church was established. These saints came into being. And it became the seat of the labors of the great and mighty Apostle John later on in that first century. We need to remind ourselves of this also. The Gospel isn't a human teaching. It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. And when it enters a city, as it did in the person of the Apostle Paul filled with the Holy Spirit, there is nothing impossible to it. There is no one beyond redemption. These very words at the beginning tell us that. You can't imagine a more hopeless place, more hopeless people, but when the Gospel with this power comes in, these men are subdued and are converted.

Am I speaking, I wonder, to some Christian person who's beginning to feel rather hopeless about some loved one, a husband or a wife or a child or some dear relative? Do you feel that because of their intellectualism or because of their training or because of their surroundings or because of anything, that the task is rather hopeless and that it can't be done? Remember, I say, the saints at Ephesus. Yes, at Corinth, Galatia, anywhere. It's the power of God. It did it then, it's still doing it, it can still do it. It can take the most hopeless individual and turn him into a saint. That is its primary function. That is the thing for which God hath sent it forth.

But let me hurry to the second term, which is the term "faithful." The Christian is a saint; he is also someone who is faithful. Now, what's the meaning of this term "faithful"? In a sense, it's rather an unfortunate translation because we tend to give not the primary meaning again to this term, but once more the secondary meaning. Essentially, this word "faithful" means exercising faith.

Now, let me give you a perfect analogy. Do you remember how Thomas the Apostle refused to believe the testimony of his fellow disciples when he came back to them after an absence and they told him that the Lord had appeared amongst them? Thomas said he wouldn't believe it until he saw the very mark of the nails and could put his finger into the wounds and into the imprints of the nails. And then you remember the Lord suddenly appeared and showed himself to Thomas and said, "Come, Thomas, put your finger there." And then Thomas fell at his feet and said, "My Lord and my God." And you remember how our Lord gently rebuked him and said something like this to him: "Blessed, thou hast believed because thou hast seen. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed." And then he adds this, and he said, "Be not faithless, but believing."

Now, the word translated there in John 20:27 as "believing" is the very same word that is translated here as "faithful." "Be not faithless." What then? "Be faithful." Don't be empty of faith; be filled with faith. Be full of faith, exercise faith, be a believer. Now then, the Apostle addresses these Christians at Ephesus as those who are believers. They exercise faith. They are Christians because they are believers.

Now then, here again is something that is absolutely fundamental and primary and vital. You can't be a Christian unless you believe something. The thing that makes us Christian is that we believe certain things. Go back again to that 19th chapter of Acts, you see, and there it is. These people met together and probably they regarded themselves as Christians. They we are told that Paul found certain disciples. But the Apostle evidently was not happy about them, so he put his famous question to them: "Did you receive the Holy Ghost when you believed?" And they said, "We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost." And then Paul said unto them, "Unto what then were ye baptized?" And they said, "Unto the baptism of John." Then said Paul, "John verily baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus." When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Now, it's so plain and yet how often is it forgotten and indeed even denied. What's a Christian? Well, a Christian is a nice man, a good man, a man who likes to be a member of a church. He's a man who's vaguely interested in moral uplift and in idealism. Oh yes, certain men described as great and outstanding Christians at the present moment really believe in what they call reverence for life. But my dear friends, that isn't a Christian according to these definitions. A Christian is one who believes certain specific things. And the essence of his belief, of course, is in the person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

You are faithful, you're full of faith. Faith in whom? Faith in what? Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Full of faith which believes that Jesus of Nazareth was the only begotten Son of God. Faith in the incarnation, believing that the eternal substance was made flesh and dwelt amongst us. That the eternal Son took unto him human nature. Belief in the virgin birth. Belief in the fact that he manifested that he was the Son of God by his miracles. They believe that. Paul was even enabled to work special miracles in Ephesus as a proof of this. They believed these things. They didn't hold them lightly. They were life to them, they were everything to them. And they knew what they believed.

But above all, belief in the fact that he came into this world to taste death for every man. Belief in the fact that it is by his blood that he saves us. That it is by his shed blood, where he bore the punishment of our sins and died our death, that we are reconciled to God, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. They believe that. They were full of faith in these things. Belief in the fact that he's risen again from the dead. Not doubtful or uncertain about that. Not some vague belief that Jesus still persists, but that in the body he rose out of the grave and manifested himself and last of all to this man Paul on the road to Damascus. They were full of faith in that. And belief in the person of the Holy Spirit. And that the Holy Spirit had been sent on the Day of Pentecost as the promise of the Father had come, and that he could be received thus and that men knew when they had received him. They were full of faith in this.

Are we faithful? You see, the vital question is not "Are we members of churches?" but "Are we full of faith in these things?" Do we know in whom we have believed? Do we know our own doctrine? Do we understand the way of salvation as it is expounded in the scriptures? We should be ready at all times to give a reason for the hope that is in us, as Peter, confirming Paul, says.

But there's a second meaning to "faithful" and it's this: the one we generally give to it. It means that we keep the faith. That we hold to the faith. That we are consistent in the faith and loyal to the faith, and ready with Paul and the Philippians to defend the faith and to contend earnestly for the faith and to stand for the defense of the faith. We can be relied upon. Faithful. Yes, dependable and reliable because we know the faith and because we believe it and because we trust to it.

But let us then remember this secondary meaning. We must be such people that we can be relied upon and depended upon. We must not be people who are carried about by every wind of doctrine, whose faith can be shaken because we may wake up tomorrow morning and read an article in a newspaper or a report of something that's been said by some great dignitary denying the miraculous and the virgin birth and things like that. No, no. We must be faithful, dependable, reliable. We know what we believe. We can contend for it. We can stand with the Apostle as a solid rank and defend it against all adversaries. Yes, and if persecution should come, we shan't flinch. These early Christians were told, "Look here, if you persist in saying that Jesus is Lord and if you refuse to say that Caesar is Lord, you shall be put to death." They still said Jesus is Lord.

And you and I are tried and tempted, not perhaps in that open way. There are Christians in other parts of the world today who have to face even that. They have to face the possibility of losing their work or employment or their professional interest. They may have to face being separated from their families, cast into prison, spat upon. Yes, perhaps even shot or mutilated in some more terrible way simply because of their loyalty to this. But they stand, they're faithful, they know the truth, they're full of faith, and they can be depended upon and relied upon to stand to the last moment and never waver or vary and gladly lay down their lives for it. Faithful.

But you and I, I say, at the present at any rate don't have to face that. But we do have to face the raised eyebrows when we enter into certain companies and societies, or the snigger or the jeer as the Christian enters. The one who's had this religious complex or who's gone soft suddenly. Oh, the subtle, cruel persecution of the spirit. My friends, you and I are to be faithful whatever happens, however much the laughter and the mockery and the jeering. It doesn't matter at all. Whatever it may mean even financially in a profession or in a business, what's it matter? Faithful, reliable, dependable. Standing on it, standing for it at all costs, come what may. That's the Christian. He knows whom he has believed, and rather than deny him, he would sooner die.

And lastly, this great phrase "in Christ Jesus." Most important again that we should understand this and what it means. He isn't simply saying here that they're saints and those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. He means that, but this means much more than that. The term "in Christ Jesus" is connected with "saints" quite as much as "faithful." They are saints in Christ Jesus. They are faithful in Christ Jesus.

What's it mean? Well, I can only touch on it. God willing, we shall come back to this great phrase at some other time as we go through the Epistle, because it's one of the great characteristic statements and phrases of the New Testament. What's it mean? It means this: the Christian is one who not only believes in Christ. He is, in a real sense, in Christ. I mean by that that he belongs to him, that he's united to him, that he's joined to him in this way. Take the New Testament illustrations. The illustration is the body. "Ye are the body of Christ," says Paul to the Corinthians, "and members in particular." In the fourth chapter of this very Epistle, he has the same analogy. He says that the church, the Christians, are all those who are built up like a body. He says, "But speaking the truth in love, that ye may grow up into him in all things, which is the head even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love." Now, that's the picture.

To be a Christian means not merely that you are a believer in Christ but outside him. No, no. You're a believer because you're joined to him, you're in him. Or let me put it in perhaps the clearest way of all, as we find it in the fifth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. There, you remember, Paul works out that great analogy and contrast. He says that all of us were originally in Adam. Adam was not only Adam he was, in and of himself, the representative of the entire human race. Everybody who's ever been born into this world was in Adam. Part of Adam, joined to Adam, so that Adam's action has had its consequences upon all.

But you remember he argues like this: that as we were all in Adam, so we are now as Christians all in Christ. As in Adam, so in Christ. So the Christian is one who is in Christ. You see, it means this: that all that the Lord Jesus Christ has done becomes true of us. Again in the sixth of Romans, Paul works it out. When Christ, he says, was crucified, we were crucified with him. When he died, we died with him. When he was buried, we were buried with him. When he rose again, we rose with him. He is seated at the heavenly—in the heavenly places, and Paul says in the second chapter of this Ephesians Epistle these words: "And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ." We are seated in the heavenly places with Christ at this moment. Why? Well, because we are in Christ.

What a tremendous thing this is. It's staggering, it's overwhelming. I am a part of Christ, I belong to him, I am a member of the body of Christ. I'm not my own, I've been bought, I've been purchased, and there I am. I am in Christ. He is the head, I'm one of the members, and there is this vital, organic, mystical union between us. All blessings that we ever enjoy as Christians come to us because we are in Christ. Of his fullness have we all received and grace upon grace. "I am the true vine," says the Lord himself, "and ye are the branches." My friend, that's true of you if you're a Christian. Don't talk to me about your weakness, about your helplessness. There's the life and you're joined to the life, you're a part of the life, you're a branch in the vine. In Christ.

Oh, we'll come back to this. But let's take hold of it in principle this morning and let's meditate upon it. Let me help you to do so by ending with two brief comments. Why do you think it is the Apostle in describing the Christian here put these three things in the order in which he put them: saints, faithful, in Christ? Why do you think he chose that order? I think the answer's very simple. The first and the most obvious thing about the Christian always ought to be the fact that he is a saint. You see, the Apostle was looking in his mind's eye at the city of Ephesus. And there he saw something like this: he saw a kind of oasis in a desert. A desert of paganism, sorcery, lawlessness, and all the rest of it. But standing in the midst of the desert, a green oasis. It stood out. What's this? The church, the saints.

It's the first impression you get. Something different. That's a very good way of looking at the Christian. The moment anybody looks at the world, he should at once be impressed by this fact: that there are certain people in it who stand out and are quite different because they're saints. It's the first impression. Everybody should know that we're Christians. All our neighbors, all our friends, all our colleagues, fellow workers. It should be obvious, it should be evident, it should stand out like that because we are what we are, because of these things that are true of us.

I say it is the greatest thing of all, and it should be the thing that should impress all. Something about us. We read of our blessed Lord that he could not be hid. You and I should be like that. It should be impossible for us to conceal the fact. It doesn't mean that I stand and proclaim and vaunt my Christianity and am an angel or awkward person. No, no. It's a quality of saintliness, something full of grace and of charm, something like the Lord himself. It should stand out. Saints first of all. Separate people, different people, because we're holy people.

And then the last comment is this: the vital importance of keeping this relationship ever, the relationship between being a saint and being faithful. The relationship between being holy and being a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. These things should never be separated. However much we may delude ourselves, there is no such thing as a theoretical Christian. There is no such thing as an academic Christian. Oh yes, it's possible to hold the doctrines of the faith intellectually. You can give an intellectual assent to all these things, but that does not make us Christians. And that's why Paul puts saints before faithful. Let me read to you some words once uttered by John Calvin to emphasize this point. He said, "No one is a believer who is not holy, and no one is holy who is not a believer."

That's it. No one is a believer who is not holy, and no one is holy who is not a believer. These two things must never be separated, I say. You must never put a gulf between justification and sanctification. If you're a Christian, you're in Christ, and in Christ what happens? It's this: he's made unto you wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. You cannot, you must not divide Christ. It's a pernicious doctrine which says that you can be justified alone without being sanctified. You can't. You're a saint before you're faithful. You've been separated, that's why you believe. These things are indissolubly linked. And God forbid that we should ever separate them or divide them. Holiness is something that is true of every Christian. And I say again in these words: if we're not holy, there is no point in what belief we claim to have. You cannot be a believer without being holy, and you cannot be holy in this New Testament sense without being a believer. What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder. Amen.