Ephesians chapter 1. Paul was praying that their eyes
would be enlightened by the Spirit of God, by the Spirit of Revelation,
that they might know, verse 19, what is the exceeding greatness
of His power to us who believe. according to the working of His
mighty power which He brought in Christ when He raised Him
from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly
places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion,
and every name that is named, not only in this world but also
in that which is to come. 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 of him that filleth
all in all." Today our subject is his power to quicken and convert. His power to quicken and convert. The Apostle Paul didn't want
for them just to know the exceeding greatness of God's power. He
wanted for them to know the exceeding greatness of God's power to usward
who believe. To usward who believe. The exceeding
greatness of God's power that God worked mightily, effectually
to quicken and convert a sinner to faith in Christ is the same
mighty power that God worked when He raised Christ from the
dead and gave Him all this glory. Have you ever thought about that?
That's true now. That's an amazing thing. The
same power that it took to raise Christ from the dead and give
Him this glory is the power it takes to quicken, to regenerate
a dead sinner and convert him to faith in Christ. Nothing less
than the power of God. So to see that, we're going to
compare what was done to Christ and what's done to us. And we're
going to compare it, first of all, by our deaths. And secondly,
by our obstacles. And then thirdly, by the means
used. And then fourthly, the effects
produced. Now let's begin here by looking,
first of all, comparing our deaths. Turn with me to John 19. John
19. When the Lord Jesus lay in the
tomb, there was absolutely no life in His body at all. The work of God, of declaring
God just and the justifier of His people on the cross was the
most important event that has ever taken place in the history
of this world. The most important event. Now
there have been some enormously important events take place in
history. But what took place on Calvary's cross is by far
more important than anything that ever took place in history.
Christ had to bear the sins of his people in his own body on
the tree in order for God to be just, in order for God to
justify his people, in order that the righteousness of God
might be manifest. For God to be just in pouring
out divine judgment upon His Son in the place of His people,
Christ had to have all the sins of all His people laid upon Him. And the Lord indeed laid upon
Him the iniquity of us all. Christ had all the sins and all
the trespasses of His elect people put upon Him. Now, if the fit
man who led the scapegoat, that fit man that led the scapegoat
into the wilderness, if before he could come back into the camp,
he had to be washed, because in type and in picture, he was
ceremonially unclean by his contact with the scapegoat. Because the
scapegoat in picture and type had the sins of his people laid
on him. He had to be washed before he could come back into the camp.
If that was so, and that was a picture and a type, then we
know that this one, Christ Jesus, who is the express image of those
things that were shown in type and shadow, we know that he had
the sins of his people laid upon him because he's the one who
foreshadowed, who was what the scapegoat foreshadowed. And his
bearing of the sin of his people in his body was as real as the
punishment he bore in his body. Just as real as he bore punishment,
he bore the sin of his people in his body. And therefore, Christ
Jesus, the Son of God, really did give up the ghost and die. He really did. The wages of sin
is death. He really did answer to divine
justice. And he really did die. It was
real. No man took his life. He laid
it down of himself. But his death was real. It was
real. He bore our sin. That was a reality. He was punished for our sin.
That was a reality. He declared God just. That was
a reality. He justified all his people from
our sins. That's a reality. And he did
it. because He died. He really died. Let me show you
the reality of what took place on the cross. Look at John 19,
verse 30. When Jesus, therefore, had received
the vinegar, He said, It is finished. And He bowed His head and gave
up the ghost. The Jews, therefore, because
it was the preparation that the body should not remain upon the
cross on the Sabbath day, for that Sabbath day was a high day,
They besought Pilate that their legs might be broken and that
they might be taken away. They wanted to break the legs
of the Sabbath so that they didn't break a Sabbath day. That's what
they were doing. Because they didn't know Christ
was the Sabbath. They didn't know He was the rest
pictured in the Sabbath day. Then came the soldiers and break
the legs of the first and of the other which was crucified
with Him. broke the legs of those two on each side. But when they
came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already, they broke
not his legs. But one of the soldiers with
a spear pierced his side, and forth came thereout blood and
water. It went up into his heart, and
there came out blood and water. You see, he's dead. He's showing
he's dead. And he that saw it bare record,
and his record is true, and he knoweth that he sayeth true,
that you might believe. He said, truly this was the Son
of God. For these things were done that
the Scripture should be fulfilled. The Scripture that said a bone
of him shall not be broken. And again, another Scripture
said they shall look on him whom they pierce. And after this,
Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear
of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body
of Jesus. The body of Jesus. And Pilate
gave him leave. He came, therefore, and took
the body of Jesus. His body. And there came also
Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought
a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pound weight.
Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes
with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury." They
prepared his body for burial. Now, in the place where he was
crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulcher
wherein was never a man yet laid. There was a grave there. There
laid they Jesus. You see here we've got him already
being dead, we've got his body prepared for burial, we've got
him laid in a tomb, in a sepulcher, in a grave. Therefore, because
of the Jews' preparation day, for the sepulcher was nigh at
hand." So we see he was absolutely dead. There was no life in him
whatsoever. No life whatsoever. Well, likewise,
brethren, go back now to our text, Ephesians. There was absolutely
no spiritual life in us before God regenerated us. Look at Ephesians
2.1, "...and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
in sin." We had none of the spiritual senses that make up spiritual
life, absolutely none of them, that we now have by His grace,
you who believe. We had none when we were dead
in our sins. We didn't have eyes to see Christ.
We didn't have ears to hear His voice. We didn't have hands to
lay hold of the skirt of His garment. We didn't have feet
to be led of the Spirit of God. We didn't have a nose to smell
the sweet savor of His sacrifice. We didn't have a heart to beat
after Christ. We didn't have a tongue to confess
our sins and beg mercy and confess He's the Lord of glory as He
said He is. We didn't have any hunger within
to hunger and thirst after Christ our righteousness. We were dead.
We were all together dead. Totally, thoroughly, completely
dead in sin. Now, you imagine a preacher at
a funeral. And there he's got a body laid
in a casket right there in front of everybody. And that preacher
stands up and he starts saying to that dead body, if you will
just let God, He'll save you. If you'll just take the first
step, God will do the rest. You say that's absurd. And it
is no less absurd for a preacher to stand up and preach to living
men and women who are dead spiritually and say the same things to them.
It's no less absurd. The new birth is a creation. It's a creation. And it's all
the work of God alone. Every bit of it. No man's ever
created anything. We like to think we have. We've
put together some things that have already been created, but
we've never created anything. Only God has the power to create. Only God has the power to create
life within a dead sinner. And He doesn't use anything that's
a part of us already. He uses nothing that was already
there, nothing that was already in us whatsoever when He does
this work. He creates something which before
was not there. Regeneration is a new creation. Look at Ephesians 2 and verse
10. We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus. Do you see that?
Created in Christ Jesus. Look at Ephesians 4, 24. Put on the new man which after
God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Listen to
Colossians 3, 10. You put on the new man which
is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created
him. And then Corinthians 5.17 says,
If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are
passed away. Behold, all things are become
new and all things are of God. who hath reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation.
The exceeding greatness of the power of God that he mightily
worked effectually in his people. This mighty work is irresistible. It's effectual. All the time,
every time, none can stop him from doing this work. Whenever
Christ told Nicodemus, he said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God. that you cannot, except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And he said,
just like the wind blows where it will, you can't see it, you
can hear it, you can see the effects of it, you can't stop
it, you can't do anything to hinder it, so is this new birth. The Spirit goes where it will
and creates life where it will. And there is no way to resist
it. No way. And this shall happen
to every one of those for whom Christ redeemed. Every one of
them shall be quickened. Every one of them shall be converted
to faith in Christ. He said, all that the Father
giveth to me shall come to me. And he that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. So first of all we see here that
our death, being like Christ's death, we were dead. God receives
the glory for regenerating him and for regenerating us, for
giving us life. You hath he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sin. And John said, and you believe
Because you were born not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Alright, secondly,
let's compare our obstacles. Go to Matthew 27. Matthew 27.
Guarding Christ's tomb, was a stone that had been sealed
in place. And also there were armed guards
to make sure that Christ's body would never leave that tomb.
Look at Matthew 27, verse 62. Now the next day, that followed the day of the
preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto
Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while
he was yet alive, after three days I will rise again. Command, therefore, that the
sepulcher be made sure until the third day. lest his disciples
come by night and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is
risen from the dead. So the last error shall be worse
than the first. Pilate said unto them, You have
a watch. Go your way. Make it as sure
as you can. So they went, and they made the
sepulchre sure, sealing the stone. It wasn't just a stone on his
grave. They sealed it. They sealed it. And they set a watch. They set
armed guards, keepers, around his grave to watch. Well, believer,
a stone was sealed keeping us in our grave. It was our own
stony hearts. Our own stony hearts. And while
in that state, If the Word of God came to us, we did just like
those of old did. In Zechariah 7.11 it says, They
refused to hearken, they pulled away the shoulder and stopped
their ears that they should not hear. Yea, they made their hearts
as an adamant stone. lest they should hear the law
and the words which the Lord the host had sent in his spirit
by the former prophets. And therefore came a great wrath
from the Lord of hosts upon them." Just like what Brother Robert
just read, they hardened their hearts. We had a stone. Our hard
hearts had no understanding when we had no desire to have an understanding. The Scripture says, The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they
are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned. But we not only didn't have any
spiritual discernment, we actively pursued things that were entirely
against God and against all godliness. Look at Ephesians 2 verse 2.
In time past, you walked according to the course of the world. Our
affections were totally set on things of this earth. And then
look at verse 3. Among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind. You know what the
desires of our mind were? Don't you always hear people
on TV when they get some great award or they win some big contest
and they say, I just want to say to people out there, never
give up on your dreams. Chase your dreams. Never stop
chasing your dreams. Those were the desires of our
mind. We thought that this world actually
could give us a living, valuable thing. And we went after it.
We sought it with all our heart. And we were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. We were full of enmity against
God, full of pride, full of unbelief and self-righteousness, with
the wrath of God abiding on us. That's what we were. But that
wasn't all. In addition to the stone, we
had some armed guards keeping watch over us too, to prevent
us from being raised. They did everything they could
to make it as sure as possible that we would not be raised,
just like they did to Christ. The devil himself, was one of
those guards. Verse 2, Ephesians 2, 2. We walked
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Do you see that?
The spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
The spirit of the prince of the power of the air, of the devil. Every unregenerate man, every
unbeliever, disobedient child of Adam is under the power of
Satan. That's what he is. We were entirely
the dupes of Satan. We had entirely been deceived
by the strong man. That spirit that works in the
children of disobedience right now was the spirit working in
us. Whenever the Lord called Paul and He said, I've made you
a minister. He said, I've made it for this
purpose. To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to
light and from the power of Satan unto God. That they may receive
forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified
by faith that is in men. So we were under the power of
Satan. Not only that, we were guarded by all our worldly friends
and all our worldly family. How many times did you have somebody,
you know, when you first began to have an interest and you didn't
know what was going on, you just knew you had an interest in the
gospel. How many times did you have folks tell you? Friends,
loved ones, family members tell you, don't get involved in that.
Don't, don't, now it's okay to read your Bible at home and it's
okay to go wash in the water, but don't, don't get carried
away in that. Don't take that too far. They
were guarding us. They were protecting us from
being raised from the dead. That's what they were doing.
And some of us were just the opposite. We had good old false
preachers and a host of religious men and women keeping guard over
us, making sure that we weren't raised from the dead and converted
to Christ. Oh, a false profession in religion
is a deadly thing. The Lord said this. In Matthew
23, 15, he said, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye accomplish sea and land
to make one proselyte, and when he's made, you make him twofold
more the child of hell than yourselves. Why is he more a child of hell
after they've converted him? Because most preachers are like
sculptors. That's what they are. A preacher
will take a center and he'll chisel a little bit here. And
he'll sand down this spot over here a little bit. He'll cut
away over on this part right here. And he'll work and work
and mold and mold and craft and craft. And when he's got through
with all his hammering and his sawing and his sculpting, And
if you want to read about it, you can read about it in Isaiah
41, in verses 6 and 7. Everybody joins together in doing
this work. And when they've got him where
they want him, he looks like a godly man. But what he is,
is a statue. He's a statue. Paul described
it this way. Having a form of godliness, but
denying the power from such turn away. He's just an empty, lifeless
form. Just like a statue. Just like
a statue. Over in Knoxville, Tennessee,
the Tennessee River runs south near Knoxville. But if you keep
going on I-40, keep going west, when you get over to around Jackson,
Tennessee, you're going to cross the Tennessee River again. And
when you cross over there, it's running north there. But it's
the same old muddy water. Even though it's turned directions,
and going a different direction, it's the same muddy water. And
a man will, when a sinner turns himself around, and he gets baptized,
and he joins a church, and he starts doing good works, and
he cuts his hair, and he shaves his sideburns, and he throws
away all his record collection, and he just reads religious books
and such, starts listening to religious music, and he's going
about doing all this frenzy of church activities. Though everybody's
looking at him and the preacher's saying, oh, that's a work of
grace. And even though he's sincere and all he's doing is still the
same old muddy water, he's just running in a different direction.
That's all it is. A false profession of faith is
deadly because outward reformation is not regeneration. A new lifestyle
is not a new nature. It takes God, it takes the power
of God, the sanctification of the Spirit to create within a
new man. The single greatest problem,
the single greatest problem religious men and women have in our day
is this right here. The Lord Jesus said it, you do
not know the scriptures nor the power of God. A man can't talk
about the power of God if he's never experienced the power of
God. All he can do is deny the power of God. And that's what
they do in their preaching, in their works, in every aspect
of their lives. They deny the power of God. Christ is that power. And he's
that wisdom of God. We saw it this morning. When
he cast devils out of that certain man on the Sabbath day, the Pharisees,
religious men, stood around and said, he's doing it by Satan
himself. He's doing it by the devil himself.
And Christ said to him, if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God,
he said, then the Kingdom of God is coming to you. If I'm
doing this by the Spirit of God, I am who I say I am. The King
of the Kingdom. Or else, how can one enter into
a strongman's house and spoil his goods, except he first bind
the strongman, and then he'll spoil his house. It took nothing
less than God Himself coming in the likeness of our flesh
and going to the cross and magnifying and honoring His own law and
laying down His own life and with His own blood redeeming
us from His own law to make us just and right and accepted of
God. It took nothing less than God
Himself doing that. For as much sin as the children
of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same,
that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is the devil, and deliver them, who through fear of death
were all our lifetime subject to bondage. And it takes no less
than the power of God to come to us and do this work within
our hearts and make us a new creature. This has to be his
work. If it's not his work, he don't
get all the glory. And he's going to get all the glory. So he has
to come to it. This is the power of God that
those with a form of godliness deny. This is it. This is the
power they deny. When a man starts preaching free
will, this message right here, what Paul is declaring here,
it is the death blow to all free will doctrines. All their doctrines. It's the death blow to it. God
does this. They shall be made willing in the day of His power. You're saying a man doesn't come
willingly? Oh yes, he comes willingly. Because God makes us willing
in the day of His power. His power. He quickens us. He converts us. His power makes
us willing. Alright? That's the second thing.
Now thirdly, let's compare the means that God used. Look at
Matthew 28. Matthew 28. Are you still there? The means that God used to raise
Christ from the dead was He sent an angel with a message to the
tomb of our Savior. Matthew 28.1, In the end of the
Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week,
came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher. And
behold, there was a great earthquake. Now here's why. For the angel
of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the
stone from the door and sat upon it. He wasn't going back. He sat on it. His countenance
was like lightning and his raiment white as snow. And for fear of
him, the keepers, all those armed guards, did shake and became
as dead men. And the angel answered and said
unto the woman, unto the women he spoke and he said fear not
ye for I know that you seek Jesus which was crucified he is not
here for he's risen as he said come see the place where the
Lord lay and go quickly and tell his disciples that he's risen
from the dead and behold he goeth before you into Galilee there
shall you see him lo I have told you well likewise At the set
time, in the exceeding greatness of His mighty power, Christ sends
His messenger. He sends a preacher to His lost
child. You know what? You think of the
obstacles. Just think of the obstacles that
He overcomes to do that. To send a preacher to His people.
It's a long, winding road that spans over 14 years. From South
Arkansas to Central New Jersey. There's a bunch of obstacles
in the way. A whole bunch of obstacles in the way. But none
of them hindered him from doing what he ordained from before
the foundation of the world. None of them. Christ first fills
his preachers. And he fills them with the treasure
of his gospel riches. And this gospel is the power
of God unto salvation. That first word there in our
text that says power, the exceeding greatness of His power, is the
same word that is when He says the gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. It's the dunamis. It's the dynamite.
That next word power, that mighty power that He worked effectually,
that word's a different word. It means dominion. It means His
sovereignty. His sovereign ability. His sovereign
right. The first word means his ability.
The second word means his prerogative. His right to dominate those who
he's chose before the foundation of the world. But he fills his
preachers with this gospel. But the preacher doesn't have
any power to work the work. The preacher has no... He can't
work this work effectively in the hearts of the people. He's
just sent to declare him who does. Because the preacher is
no match for a stony heart. He's no match for all these guards
that keep the lost sinner guarded. But in God's wisdom, there's
a reason. Look at 2 Corinthians 4, 7. In God's wisdom, there's
a reason why He uses a preacher. Because the preacher doesn't
have any power in himself. And there's a reason for that.
2 Corinthians 4 and verse 7. This is why He uses the foolishness
of preaching. And why the preacher can't do
anything. Verse 7. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels. that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. Now we're talking about this
excellent power, the excellent greatness of this power that
works this work. Now that's why he's going to
use a preacher. The exceeding great effectual
power is of God, it's of Christ our King, it's of the Holy Spirit.
And as His gospel goes forward, the Holy Spirit creates a great
earthquake. Just like He did with our Savior,
He creates a great earthquake and starts turning everything
upside down. Actually, He's turning everything right side up, because
we had it all upside down. He rolls away our stony heart
and He sits on it. That old fleshly man, that old
nature that wants to rear up and say no, He subdues him. He just holds him down, pins
him down. And He overcomes all those who
guarded us and makes them to become as dead men. Just like
He did at the tomb of our Savior. And then God works mightily,
effectually, in exceeding greatness of His power to create a new
heart. Ephesians 2 verse 4 says, But
God, who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved
us. See that great love? It's going
along with that great power, that exceeding greatness of His
power. This great love, wherewith He loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, had quickened us together with Christ, by grace
you're saved. He said He would do it. He said,
I'll give them one heart, I'll put a new spirit within you,
I'll take the stony heart out of their flesh and give them
a heart of flesh. So he has to do this work first.
He pins our old man, pins all the guards that keeps us from
him, and he gives us life within. When that happened in our Savior's
tomb, nobody knew it had happened. Nobody knew that there was a
secret work. Nobody knew about it. And this
he does in the hearts of his people. But He keeps on doing
something. He's not through yet. And in
that new heart that He's made for the first time, He convinces
us of sin. Of sin. Because we believe not
on the Lord Jesus Christ. He makes us to see we sinned
in Adam. He makes us to see we were conceived in sin. He makes
us to see everything we've ever done is sin. He makes us to see
our righteousness and our very best deeds are sin. And He makes
us to see the chief sin of all. is that we have not cast our
care upon Christ Jesus and believed upon Him. We're calling God a
liar. That's what our chief sin is.
And He convinces us of that. And then He convinces us of righteousness. We heard that the same good news
they heard at Christ's tomb. He convinces us, fear not, Christ
Jesus is risen. He's risen. He's at the right
hand of the Father. And the fact that He's at the
right hand of the Father means the Father accepted His sacrifice.
By His blood, He has purged the sin of His people. He's put away
our sin forever and accomplished eternal redemption. And He makes
us, He convinces us in that new heart, Christ is all our righteousness. And He convinces us of judgment.
Of judgment. Because the Prince of this world
is cast out. He makes us to see that when
He went to that cross, then, right then, as Christ said it
was, was the Prince of that world cast out. How come? Because Because
through his death, he put away our sin. And he conquered death
for his people. And that was the power of death
that the devil had. Our sin was the power he had
to show it to you, make you feel guilty about your sin, and then
urge you to start doing something to fix it. And he just kept you
in bondage and kept you chained all your days. But he's cast
out now. Because our sin is purged and
death is conquered. That death can be stinging around,
flying around like a little bee all it wants to. But it can't
hurt you because He took the stinger out of it. There's no
stinging death anymore. And it won't hurt us. This is
what He teaches us right here. By the exceeding greatness of
His power, We've been saved. We've been saved. And He gives
us faith to believe it. Look down at Ephesians 2, verse
8. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of
works, lest any man should boast, for with his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus. And He makes us to believe. And
so having cast all our care upon Christ, God gives His verdict
in our conscience. You've been made the righteousness
of God. You are accepted in the Beloved.
And when He writes that in your conscience, and purges that conscience
from dead works, and makes you to see that's the case, brethren,
now in Christ Jesus, ye who were sometimes far off are made nigh
by the blood of Christ. You can draw near to Him now.
I was thinking about that today. I was thinking, you know, we
know God. We know Him. That's what He's
done all this for, that you might know Him. And we know Him. I
was thinking about that. I know Him. I actually know the
Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know Him nearly as I
want to know Him, and not nearly as I will know Him. But I know
Him. I know Him. He's made me to know Him. Now,
Paul knew this power. He knew it because he'd been
quickened and called by it too. Look at Ephesians 3 verse 7.
This is how he describes the way he was quickened and converted.
The same way you were, believer. He says in verse 7, Whereof I
was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God
given unto me by the effectual working of His power. That's
what Christ said when he put him in the dirt on the road to
Damascus. He said, stand up, stand on your feet, I have come
to make you a minister of the gospel. And Paul said he did
that by the effectual working of his power. He told Timothy,
he counted me faithful, he charged me faithful, and he put me in
the ministry, I that was before a persecutor and a blasphemer,
and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ was exceeding abundant. That's the same power it took
to quicken and convert Paul and to raise Christ from the dead
as the power it took to quicken and convert you and me. Alright,
now lastly, let's compare a few fruits of this power. A few fruits
of this power. I want to have you turn there.
Turn to Romans 6. Here's the first fruit of this
power. Whenever Christ was raised from
the dead and exalted to the right hand of the Father, you know
what the first thing He did was? He sat down. Because all His
work was finished. He sat down. You know what the
first thing is that the believer does when he's worked this exceeding
great power in us? We rest in Him. We cease from
all our vain works of the law trying to earn acceptance with
God. We rest in Him. Robert read it.
He said, he that is entered into His rest, he that's entered into
Christ's rest has ceased from his own works as God did from
His. Alright, here's the next thing.
When Christ was raised, He was raised to die no more. Look at Romans 6, verse 9. Christ
being raised from the dead, dieth no more. Death hath no more dominion
over Him. Verse 10. For in that He died,
He died unto sin once, but in that He liveth, He liveth unto
God. And likewise, each of us born
of this exceeding greatness of power, die no more. The Lord said to Martha, He said,
I am the resurrection and I am the life. He that believeth in
me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever
liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Do you believe this? That's what He said to her. Death
doesn't have dominion over us anymore, brethren, because of
what Christ accomplished. And like as Christ now lives
unto God, so do we live unto Him. Look at Romans 6 verse 4.
Like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of
the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Look
at verse 11. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Do you see that? Brethren, Try
to get this. This is the main thing Paul was
wanting them to enter into right here. If all of this exceeding
great power was worked by God to raise Christ from the dead,
so that He died no more, so that He now has newness of life, this
same power has been worked in you who now believe. He's raised
us to die no more. We have newness of life. That
means, brethren, It's so entirely different from
what we had before. We're not in the flesh, we're
in the Spirit. We cannot die. We cannot sin. We cannot ever do anything to
fall from this place God has put us in His Son at His right
hand. It cannot be done. All we do
is sin in us, but in Him. And by what He's done, we'll
never sin, we'll never die. This is how God sees it, and
how God sees it is how it is. This is how it is. And if we
see this, the more we see this, the more we're going to walk
in newness of life, not looking to our flesh in any regard whatsoever. Not letting the fact that we
sin bring us into that dejected place of depression and bondage
again, nor letting the fact that if we do anything that is good,
never letting ourselves get too puffed up to think that by that
we have acceptance with God. We don't look at the deeds of
our flesh anymore in any regard. We look at Christ and we know
we're accepted. This will make a man It'll keep
him right where he needs to be. It'll keep him right where he
needs to be, serving God. Alright? One more thing. Christ,
it says there in our text, is head over his body. It's the
fullness of Him and He's filling all in all. And He does so partly
by sending forth His people to be witnesses to declare Christ
and to declare His finished work. He makes us His witnesses. So
our great work... Now listen carefully. Our great
work... What am I to do, preacher? You
do just what you've been doing. He said if you were a firefighter
when you got called, don't change occupations. Keep on being a
firefighter. But now, our great work in this
earth is to bear witness of Christ. That's our work in this earth.
As he's revealed in the scriptures. That's our great work. So whatever
we're doing, if say tomorrow I get up, I gotta go to work
in the morning and work all day. I don't feel like I'm serving
God doing that. But remember this, what's the
end for which you're doing it? The believer's end for which
he's working, his regular job every day is, so I can support
the gospel. So the gospel can go forth. And
that gives him more delight in what he's doing now. Because
he's doing it as unto the Lord. This is the great end. Well,
I've got to mow my yard this week. That don't seem like I'm
serving the Lord doing that. The secret, Brother Henry used
to say, the secret to being a faithful preacher is keep your grass cut.
Why? Because then folks won't drive
by and blaspheme me and blaspheme God because you're too lazy to
cut your grass. So you go out there and you cut
it so you bear witness of Him. Why is it that I try to dress
respectable when I come to the house of God and not dress like
a hoochie mama? It's because I'm serving God.
This is a wedding and it's a funeral. We're celebrating our wedding
to Christ and we're celebrating the death of our old man. That's
why I want to show forth the glory of God in everything I
do. Because my end purpose is I'm waiting for God to open up
that door and somebody asks me, what's your hope? You seem to
be so content. You seem to be so happy all the
time. You seem to be walking in such an honorable and respectful
way. What gives you this hope to do this? There he is. There's
the one. I've been doing everything for
this one right here. And now I have the opportunity
to tell him. And you tell him. This is our great work, Brethren.
This is our great work. Whatever we're doing, we're doing.
The ultimate end should be to promote His gospel for His glory
and His people's good. Because, verse 10 says, we're
His workmanship created in Christ Jesus on two good works which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in. Look at Ephesians
4.1 and I'll just read a few scriptures and we'll end with
this. Ephesians 4.1. Paul says, I therefore, the prisoner
of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation
wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with
longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Look at
verse 29. Verse 29. Let no corrupt communication
proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use
of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve
not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of
redemption. We were sealed before with that stony heart. We've
been sealed now, too, by the Holy Spirit. Let all bitterness
and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away
from you with all malice. Oh, I want that. I feel like 99% of the time when
I'm trying to teach my children something, by the way that I'm
doing it, I'm teaching them just the opposite of what I want to
be teaching them. And be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's
sake, hath forgiven you. Be ye therefore followers of
God as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also hath
loved us and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice
to God for our sweet-smelling Saviour. Amen.