In Ephesians 2, the first verse,
our Lord says, and you hath He, or Paul says, and you hath He
quickened, speaking of our Lord, who were dead in trespasses and
sin. As all men are, we came into
this world dead spiritually. When Adam sinned against God,
all mankind was thrust in to spiritual death. Yeah, we can
say we breathe, and we can say we can see, and all this and
all that. But we saw nothing according to the truths of spiritual
things. We couldn't see Christ, who He
is. God Almighty is the creator of
all things. sovereign ruler of everything. We couldn't see that. It was
blinded. We were blinded by our own nature. Dead in trespasses
and sin. That's what the word says. It
says, and you hath he quickened. Made alive. That's what that
word means. Made to live. We who once walked as the world
walks, in darkness to spiritual truth, to the spiritual truths
of God, have been given life. And only one gives life. And life spiritually can only
be found in that very one who gives that life, and that is
Jesus Christ our Lord. He gives life through the preaching
of His truths. He does not give life through
lies. Think about this for a moment,
because I know those who think that, well, there's a little
bit of truth in this. And I'm going to use my wife
as an example of this. There's a little bit of truth
in everything. If you listen to a comedian,
in my opinion, Most of what makes it so funny is they use a little
bit of truth and then exploit something else. Bill Cosby was
very good at that. He was very good at using the
truths of parenthood to make people laugh about the funny
things. He would say things like, you're not a real parent until
you've had two children. And then he'd turn to me and
say, if you've got one child who's sitting in the back going,
don't touch me, then you've got something wrong with that child.
if there's only one back there. That's the kind of thing that
I'm talking about. There's a little bit of truth in everything. And
that's the same thing with religion. There's a little bit of truth
in everything. There's some truth in what Jehovah's Witnesses say,
but they deny other truths. Our Lord, through the preaching
of His truths, saves His people. He brings you out of the lies,
He brings you out of the darkness of your desires, the darkness
of what our nature is. Remember, we're dead in sin,
trespasses in sin. And He gives life. This is why
Lazarus is a perfect example and why God used Lazarus for
that very thing. to show that it wasn't Lazarus'
will that saved him or that gave life, it was Jesus Christ Almighty
who stood and said, come forth. And that's exactly what He's
done to each and every one of us. I don't know about you folks,
but I can look back and remember. I remember what it was I was
thinking when I came to this building the first time and heard
the Gospel preached. I was thinking all about John.
I was thinking all about the troubles that John was going
through. And how I needed to hear from my brother, my big
brother Lee. I needed somebody to talk to
because Johnny was lonely. He was having problems. It was
all about me and my little world. And through the preaching of
his gospel, a man stood before me that very day. and said, Christ is our Creator. And as our Creator, He left His
glory and He came to this world, born of flesh, so that He could walk perfectly
and fulfill all those things that God tells mankind to do,
but can't do. And He, Jesus Christ, fulfilled
them perfectly for Him, for His people, for His chosen, for His
elect. Why? Because He's loved them
from eternity past, and He will love them till eternity, forever
in the future. That's good news. That's great
news for one who's been shown the worm As Samuel said, his
dad taught him, the worms that we are before a thrice holy God. When you come to know what your
true nature is, dead and trespasses and sin, what great news it is
to hear of a Savior. His name is Jesus,
and He shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people. Through the preaching of His
truths, He, our Lord and Savior, by the Spirit, cuts away that
old stony heart. That rock-hard heart that said,
I am walked according to the course of this world, according
to the prince and the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience. He comes in and he cuts that
heart out and puts in a heart that is willing. He makes us
willing in the day of His power. It's not your free will, it's
not your exercise of decision, it is His will. It is not of
Him that willeth, nor of Him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy. We would not come to the life
giving light, for darkness was our master at one time. Yet there
was a day that heaven came down and glory filled our soul. A day when we heard the gospel
preached for the first time. I've heard one witness to me,
how they came to this church one time, And they ran right
back to their home, and they said, you've got to come hear
what's being preached down there, because it's a whole lot different
than what we're listening to over here. What we hear over
here is about how men have to do this, and men have to do that. What I'm hearing over here is
Christ is all. Salvation is of the Lord from
the beginning to the end, and everything in between. There was a day when heaven came
down and glory filled our soul. We sing that He touched me. He touched me and He made me
whole. That's what quickening is. That's what quickening is, is
when God, the Son, comes to His people through the Spirit, through
the preaching of His Word, and He touches your soul. Gives you
ears to hear with the soul. Not these ones here. I mean,
you hear it through these, but it has to be heard through the
heart. Through His Word, this book written
of men, yes, but inspired by the Spirit of God to pen, this
book of inherent Word of God, we are brought from death to
life. Spiritually quickened. Are you
with me in the Psalms? Psalms 119, look at verse 49,
please. Remember the Word unto thy servant. upon which thou hast caused me
to hope." This is the same thing that we
see written here, but yet this is the Word of God. That's where
our hope is. It's in Him. Remember the Word
unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.
This is my comfort in my affliction, for thy Word hath quickened me. Your word has quickened my soul. It made me alive, alive to the
truths of your word. It brought me out of the lies
that were all around me. And though I wasn't considered
to be a religious man at that time, I had been raised in religion. My real father, my stepfather,
O.C. Harris, I don't remember anything
that those men had preached, except for my stepfather. I did
listen to a sermon of his after he had died. We found something
on a cassette tape, and now we've lost it again. But oh, I know
Calvin Samuel Ellis preached the true and sovereign gospel
of Jesus Christ. I heard it from his own mouth.
I understand that O.C. Harris also preached the truth.
So I was raised in religion. Yet our Lord didn't move on me
until I heard the truth of His gospel preached from this pulpit
in the day of His power. Not in the day of John's power,
not in the day of John's will, but in the day of His power.
He made me willing. He quickened me. He made me alive. We who were once dead in trespasses
and sins and were by nature children of wrath, even as others, as
it says in Ephesians, God in His great mercy and love quickened
us together with His Son, Christ the Lord. In love, predestinating
us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according
to His good pleasure, not according to our works, I guarantee if it had something
to do with me, I'd be boasting about it pretty quick. You don't believe that? Come
out and play golf with me one time. That one shot that I hit
down the fairway, woo! Look what I just did. Come on, you guys know you do
the same thing. Maybe not with golf, but there's things in your
life that you do the same thing with. Look what I just did. Oh, it's so easy to fall into
that trap of boasting in ourselves. Yet our Lord doesn't leave us
to that, does he? Sometimes he lets us step in
a hole. We're not falling into a deep
pit like we used to be in, but we can stumble. We can step into
a valley to learn the hard way that he rules all things. Including that perfect shot down
the middle. Including whatever it is you
may think you did well. Now if you would turn over Philippians
chapter 1 please. In love, predestinating us under
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to
his good pleasure. He brings us to a point where
we live no longer in the world. Yeah, I know, we're still walking
around in it, we're still doing the things we have to do to survive,
eating, drinking water, working. But we no longer live for the
world. We begin slowly at first, but
eventually the Lord brings us along, and more and more as we
go along, we learn to live for Him, and through Him, and because
of Him. As I mentioned a moment ago,
we had the honor of attending the funeral services held for
our dear brother Lemuel Estolos. And at that service, Jessica
Stan gave a wonderful message on this verse in Philippians.
Are you with me? Look at verse 21. For to me, to live is Christ,
and to die is gain. Now, I'm not going to be able
to Wow, Jesse just preached one
great message. I can't even come close to what
he preached, but I do want to look at this just a little bit
because it goes so much with that quickened, giving life. Those who are dead in trespasses
and sin. Now we live for Christ. For to
me to live is Christ. Everything about what we do now,
we say, glory be to God, don't we? I know of one who, off working
by himself, and he didn't even know you were
there. And all of a sudden you hear
him, thank you Lord for not letting me hit my thumb on that nail. He says it out loud, but do we
not say the same thing in our heart a lot? Do we not say, thank
you Lord for bringing me here today safely? The other day I'm
driving along and I'm hitting every red light. It's not the
first time I drive trucks. I do that all the time. But I'm
thinking to myself, Lord, thank you. I'm not saying it out loud
like that person did, but that's okay. I'm still saying it in
my heart. Thank you Lord for getting me through. I know that
you're probably saving me from something up there that could
be worse. You see, that's what living for
Christ is all about. We recognize that everything
about us, the air that we breathe, The rain that we're getting right
now to keep everything green. You know, I was mowing the lawn
out here the other day, and I'm thinking to myself, am I so glad
it's not all dusty and stuff because I'm having enough problems
with my allergies right now. The grass is green because my
Lord is raining upon the grass. That glorifies our Savior. I was talking with Bill about something
and he mentioned you know we and I'm not trying to be political
here so don't look at it that way but he mentioned that you
know God has placed this man that we have as a president right
now who seems to have seems to have the interests of America
first but yet this other man that we
had just before him was completely different Praise be to God for
both of them. They were both there exactly
because God wanted them to be there. Giving our Lord praise
and just the thought that He is in control of everything.
That's living for Christ. And the only reason we do that
is because God gave us life to live for Him. I never gave God any credit for
anything before that, unless I was in trouble. If I was in trouble, that'd be
different. Lord, get me through this, please. And then afterwards,
whew, and then I'd go right back to doing the same stupid stuff
I did before. You ask my mom, she'll tell you that. She's my
witness. Living for Christ Jesus, my Lord. as Jesse so wonderfully brought
out. If I can only just bring it out
a little bit, folks, for you. It's not what you're doing for
him. It's what he's doing for us. In everything. Even the trials. Paul says, I glory in my infirmities. Why? I don't know. Maybe the Lord is teaching me
for this reason or teaching me for that reason, but it's the
Lord. Did the Jews go down into Egypt
by accident? Do you recall what our Lord said
about that? God said, I brought famine on
the land. You see what I mean? That brings glory to our God,
even if it doesn't bring comfort to you and I. Jesse expounded from Scripture
what Paul was saying, to live is Christ. Look at chapter 2
of this very same book. Lim's highlighted verse in his
personal Bible. The one that Samuel so wonderfully,
so wonderfully... Am I reading the right ones here? You know, I think I'm reading
the wrong one. Bill, do you remember where that
was? No. Okay. Well, in that case, then turn
over to Colossians chapter 2. And while you're turning over
there, let me read what I had written down here, and let's
see if it fits together with what I'm talking about. But made himself,
who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery, speaking
of our Lord Jesus Christ, to be equal with God. That's not it. OK. Colossians chapter 2, and we'll
close with this. After expressing his great concern
and care for the church at Colossae, Paul begins to warn them of false
teachers and their errors. In Colossians 2, chapter 2, verse
8, It says, Beware lest any man
spoil you through vain philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition
of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. When our Lord comes to His people
and shines His light in them, gives them life, they turn away
from the darkness of the world, the rudiments of the world, the
philosophies of men, the vain deceit, the traditions of men,
For those things are not after Christ. For Christ in Him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead. Verse 9. In verse 8 we read the
error of false religion and it is dealt with under three heads.
First off, philosophy. There is nothing wrong with true
philosophy, but the Word of God is never to be subjected to men's
reason or human philosophy, for it is never to be introduced
into worship service for the worship service of God. Let God
be true, and every man a liar is what we read in Romans 3,
4. Also in verse 8, we read the
tradition of men. These are practices and rites
in the church without the authority of the written Word. Catholics
are very good about walking around with the incense thinking that
that does something for you. The so-called Jehovah Witnesses,
don't you dare smoke. Don't you dare eat the wrong
foods, Mike. We were talking about that in the break room. I'm agreeable with him. It doesn't
matter what I eat now. I'm already too far past that
point. We want to teach our young ones to eat right. The tradition of men, these are
practices and rites in the church without the authority of the
written word, having no warrant but custom and human traditions. For instance, or mass, or purgatory, or prayers
for the dead, the celebration of religious holidays such as
Christmas, Easter, and so forth. I don't have a problem with you
going to celebrate Christmas and give gifts to your family,
but that's not all about Christ. In fact, Christmas really doesn't
have a whole lot to do with any of Christ in the world today. And Easter has nothing to do
with it as far as I'm concerned. Or what about the rudiments of
the world? These are the mosaical rites and ceremonies. Circumcision,
abstaining from certain meats. I've had a loved one just recently
say that they're going to start going to church on Saturday so
that they can fulfill that law, observe the Sabbath day. Oh,
I wanted to yell out so loud, Christ Jesus is our Sabbath. You want to observe something?
Observe our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, our Sabbath. He
declares Himself to be the Sabbath, doesn't He? Since Christ is fulfilled of
all those things, the practice of them is sinful. Because all
of a sudden you think you're fulfilling it when our Lord and
Savior fulfilled it for us. The way of Christ will not mix
with man's philosophy, or his traditions, or his legal obedience. Verse 9, for in him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. There is nothing that
will make a believer look to Christ alone, cling to and rest
in Christ alone, more than to realize that everything God is,
that God requires, and that the sinner needs, is in Christ Jesus
our Lord. Now this is the third time that
Paul has told the Colossians that all the fullness is in Christ
Jesus. You can look at that in chapter
1 verse 19, also in chapter 2 verse 3. All the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. That means you can't add anything
to Him. He's complete in Himself. In verse 10, we are perfected in Him. For
He is perfect, and our being in Him makes us perfect. This
is not speaking of what we shall be, but what we are right now
in Christ. We are right now made to sit
in heavenly places in our Savior. Our names have been written in
that book of life, the very one who gives life. Not in ourselves, but in Him,
in Him alone. He is the head and the principality
and power. Not only in the church, but angels,
kings, rulers, religious heads, etc. In Him there is no charge,
obligation, duty or service that can be demanded of us for redemption. And not by anyone. In verse 11,
circumcision was instituted by God back in Genesis 17. It was
a token of the covenant, the promise of God's blessings. It
was a sign by which Israel was distinguished from other nations. Just as they were set aside,
distinguished, put apart from the world, we are too now. But
our circumcision is a circumcision of the heart, which our Lord
has done. We seek Christ in everything
that we do. We live for Christ. We give Him
the glory for everything and that's what makes us different
from the world. That's the cutting away of the heart that I talked
about earlier. Removing that old stony heart
and putting in a new heart for a new man. It was a picture of spiritual
regeneration, circumcision of the heart, which is putting off
the body and the power of sin. Circumcision was necessary to
eating of the Passover. You couldn't do it if you weren't
circumcised. We can't eat of our Lord Jesus
Christ if He has not removed that old stony heart. That's giving life. That's quickening
His people. Circumcision of the heart brings
us to the table of the Lord and it gives us a new name, gives
us the name sons of God. All this, life itself, spiritual
life, is in our Savior Jesus Christ the Lord and only in Him. In verse 12, we are not only
circumcised in Christ in spiritual sense, having a token and an
evidence of the power of the covenant of grace, but all our
sins are buried with Christ. Of which our baptism in water
is a representation of. No one is ever saved by climbing
into this tub and getting wet. It's a representation of what
our Lord has done for us, as all things are. When He arose,
all of our sins were left behind. When He died, all of our sins
were buried. When He arose, all of our sins were left behind.
It is through faith that we see ourselves crucified, buried,
and risen with Christ. It is not just any faith, but
that which of God's operation. I live for Christ. I am given life by Him. I am quickened by Him. I am baptized
by Him. I am circumcised by Him. In verse 13, God raised Christ
from the dead and God must raise us from the dead. We are dead
in trespasses and sin. Forgiveness of sin is not done
in piecemeal, but it is done at once and it includes all our
sins. All our sins. past, present,
and future. When we savingly believe in Christ,
we are at that very moment united to Him. All that Christ did, all that
He suffered or procured as our head, whether in His life, death,
burial, resurrection, or exaltation is imputed to us by God the Father,
even to the right to all these benefits given to us as if we
had been personally presented with Him at those times and had
been done them all ourselves. In Christ we are complete. In Christ, we have the seal of
the covenant upon our hearts, in verse 11. In Christ, we are
risen from the dead, in verse 12. In Christ, we are forgiven
of all sins, in verse 13. And in verse 14, when we think
of handwriting, we think of the handwriting on
the wall against Belshazzar. It says in scripture, thou are
weighted in the balance and found wanting. This handwriting against
us is the whole ceremonial law of Moses with its ordinances
and its commandments and its laws, plus even the moral law. We are weighed and found wanting. No, we cannot fulfill those things,
but our Lord has fulfilled them for us. None but Christ could put away
this handwriting because none but Christ was able to satisfy
the requirements. It took his perfect life, his
sacrificial death to do this, nailing our sins to his cross. Nailing our sins to his cross. Made alive, quickened. brought to an understanding that
once I was dead, once I was blind, once I couldn't hear, once I had no desire for any
of that. Now I am quickened in my Savior because He who knew no sin was
made sin for me, that I would be made righteous in Him. Amen?