Welcome to Reign of Grace. This program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And now for today's program. Welcome to our program today. I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along in your Bibles, I'm going to preach from Ephesians chapter two, beginning at verse one and down through this chapter a little bit.

And the title of the message is Quickened Together with Christ. quickened together with Christ. Now I'm gonna back up two verses into chapter one because I preached from chapter one last week and I didn't get these two verses, but it's talking about salvation is by God's grace and goodness and mighty power, the power of God. You know, the scripture says that God is all powerful and his power to save is absolute and he saves all whom he intends to save in Christ. And we see that in the work of Christ. where Christ said it's finished, he gave up the ghost, and he went into the grave, he arose the third day, and he later on ascended unto the Father, where he now ever lives to make intercession for his people, bringing them, each individually, into a state of quickening. which means spiritual life through the new birth. But there's some things that you need to understand before then. It says in verse 22 of chapter one, that God has put all things under Christ's feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church.

That's who Christ died for. If you want to know who he died for, he died for his church. And the word church means called out. called out of the world, and how are they called? By the preaching of the gospel in the power of the Spirit, who gives them new birth from above.

And it says in verse 23, the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth a hole in all. His body. Christ is the head, his church is the body. And when we say church now, understand what we're talking about. We're not talking about just all these buildings that call themselves churches.

We're talking about that place where the gospel is preached, but this is talking about the true universal church made up of God's chosen people, the elect, who have been redeemed from their sins by the blood of Christ and who in time are called out of the world in false religion and evil by the power of the Spirit through the preaching of the gospel. And they are kept unto glory.

And that's what he talked about the redemption of the purchased possession over in Ephesians one and verse 14. So now we go into chapter two. And of course, you know, the Bible was not written in chapters and verses, but I'm glad we have it that way so we can find these things quickly. But here's what he says now. Now this is the purpose of God, to save his people from their sins, people of his choice, before the world began, whose names were written in the Lamb's book of life.

And so he goes over into verse one of chapter eight, he says, and you have he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. Now, what he's describing here in the first three verses is the natural state of all men and women without exception. Due to our fall in Adam, we fell in Adam, ruined by the fall. We fell into a state of spiritual death and depravity, ignorance, unbelief. That's how we're born. That's why we must be saved by God's grace, cannot be saved by our works. That's why we must be born again. Our first birth is in sin. Born in sin, born in trespass.

And that's what he says, and you hath he quickened who were dead. spiritually dead. Now that's what he's talking about. He's not talking about physical death here, even though the process of physical death begins at birth. We're all going to die physically. That's a consequence of sin. But the biggest problem we have with death is our spiritual death. And the only way we can be made spiritually alive is by the power of God through Christ, the resurrected Christ, who sends the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to give us new birth.

Quicken us, now that's what quicken means. It means to be made alive. Now if you look, if you've got a King James Version, you might see there in the first verse, and you, hath he quicken is in italics. Now what that means is it wasn't in the original manuscript of the New Testament in this place, but it was supplied by the translators. But it's not an untruth because God's children, God's elect, Christ's sheep, lost sheep to start with, born into this world spiritually dead, at some point in time, as appointed by God, are going to be quickened. They're going to be born again. That's what that means. They're going to be made alive spiritually. And there's another quickening that I wanna talk to you about in this message.

Let's go on, but let's just look at how it describes the natural man. Now remember, I quote this verse all the time on this program. First Corinthians chapter two and verse 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them, for they're spiritually discerned, understood. And in these first three verses, we have a description of the natural man. And before I read these verses, I want you to understand that this not only refers to the immoral segment of society, this refers also to the religious segment who are trying to keep the law of society. And I'll show you what I mean. Look at verse one again.

And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Now he's talking to believers there because they are the ones who have been quickened. All right? If you're not a believer in the true Christ of this book, in the true gospel by the Holy Spirit, you haven't been quickened.

You haven't been born again. And I would say, seek the new birth. Lord, please, save me. Just like that old publican I mentioned last week. Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner. But in you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin. Look at verse two now.

Wherein in time past, before you were quickened, before you were born again, you walked according to the course of this world. Now, when you look at the world, the cosmos, you're looking at a fallen world. This world is a fallen world. And in this world you have immoral people, openly irreligious, open criminals, openly perverted, but in this world you also have Pharisees and Sadducees, religious people, self-righteous, proud, who believe in a false gospel and a false Christ. That's what Paul himself was before he was quickened, before he was born again. He was a Pharisee, trying to keep the law, trying to work his way to heaven.

Listen, if you believe that salvation is conditioned on you, and you're trying to meet those conditions, whatever they are, according to whatever denomination you've bought into, Well, let me tell you something. You're walking according to the course of the world. God's people, when they are quickened by the Spirit, born again by the Spirit, they live, they walk, they are motivated by salvation, by grace. All conditioned on Christ, who fulfilled those conditions and secured their salvation unto final glory.

They know that they have no righteousness before God except Christ himself in his work as our surety, substitute, and redeemer. His righteousness, the merits of his obedience unto death on the cross, imputed, charged, accounted to us. I have no righteousness to plead before God that I can say I did it, I accomplished it, Lord reward me. I stand before God washed in the blood of Christ, that's His death, His suffering under death, and clothed in His righteousness. That's the result.

And it's noted and assured by the fact that He was raised from the dead and He ascended under the Father and is there now ever living to make intercession for me. And I can say, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ that died.

Yea, rather He's risen again and seated at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession for us. So until I see Christ and believe in Him, even though God chose me before the world began, even though I still fell in Adam into sin and death and born in sin, born spiritually dead, and even though Christ has died for me on the cross and raised again for my salvation, for my righteousness, even though all that's true, until I'm born again, I'm actually walking in a state of sin according to the course of this world. And he goes on in verse two, now look at this, according to the prince of the power of the air.

That's Satan. Satan wants people, listen, if you wanna know, don't go to Hollywood to figure out who Satan is and what he's like. You know, you see these movies like The Exorcist. And there are demons and there are demon possessions and all of that. I know that.

But Satan's main goal is to have people sitting in a false church with a false profession and a false assurance. Because that's where he's got you more than anything else. If you claim to be saved, but your salvation is not according to the terms of this book, God's book, God's gospel, God's grace in Christ, Satan is just as happy as he can be to have you sitting there under that deception. You remember in the book of John, I believe it's chapter eight, I may be wrong on that, but you can look it up.

Christ speaking to the Pharisees, the religious majority. And he told them, he says, you're of your father, the devil and his works you do. He was a liar from the beginning. False preachers standing behind pulpits, lying to people, lying to themselves. Now they're deceived too about how God saves sinners. Oh, he died for you and now the rest is up to you. My friend, that is not biblical. Won't you accept Jesus as your personal savior? All of that.

See, it's not gospel oriented, but he says you're walking according to the Prince of the power of the air. And he says in verse two, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. That's disobedience to God. A child of disobedience is an unbeliever. I mentioned it last week in John chapter one, those who won't receive him and those who will. Those who won't, that's just natural man. Those who will receive him, it's by the power of God born from above.

And look at verse three of Ephesians two. Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh. That's how we all are by nature. And if it's different now, if we've been quickened, it's by the power of God. Fulfilling the desires of the flesh, that's sin, and of the mind, that is what we thought, not God's mind. You see, that's why when we're born again, we have the mind of Christ. We have his word and his spirit.

And we're by nature, as we were naturally born, the children of wrath, even as others. Now, I know people don't like to hear this, but in the Bible, there are two classes of people. There are children of wrath, marked out for wrath, God's judgment. And then there are children of mercy, vessels of mercy. But here's what he's saying. By nature, those children of mercy are no different than the children of wrath.

And so if we're changed, it's by God. And this is what he says here in verse four, but God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us. Now, again, he's talking to those who have been quickened now. I can't tell you, you know, somebody said, well, can't, can't you say that God loves everybody? Well, God doesn't say that in his book. But I do know this, if God loves any of us, it's not because of anything in us or anything we do or anything we decide. God loves his people and he saves them. But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, those who have been quickened.

Verse five, now look at this. Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace you're saved. Now that quickening together with Christ is different from that quickening that is mentioned here by the translators in verse one. In verse one, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespass, that's the new birth. That's what takes place in time in every child of God's life, every one of God's elect's life, when it pleases God and he brings them under the gospel truth and by the power of the spirit. Now it's not the gospel that quickens them, it's the spirit who quickens them, but he uses the gospel because when he gives them eyes to see, that's what they see.

All right? So here, even when we were dead in sins, that's our natural state, he quickened us together with Christ. Well, when did he quicken us together with Christ? See, all of God's children are not born again at the same time. But there's a way in which we were quickened together, and that's legally. in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.

And you see, when we are baptized, water baptism, the ordinance, you know, believers in the New Testament are commanded by Christ to be baptized, to confess salvation by His grace. were testifying that when Christ died, He died for me. I died with Him, literally, legally, forensically.

I wasn't there personally, but I was there in him because my name was written in the Lamb's book of life. My name was written on his shoulder. Remember the high priest had the amulet on his shoulder and had the 12 tribes of Israel on each one? And the amulet on his breastplate, or the names in the stones on his breastplate, 12 tribes of Israel. That means when Christ died, he didn't die for himself. He didn't die to redeem himself, he died for his sheep. The good shepherd laid his life down for the sheep. So that when he died, they died. When he was buried, they were buried. And when he was resurrected from the grave, quickened, they were resurrected, legally, legally.

Paul deals with that in Romans chapter six, when he talks about in Christ we are dead. That means that Christ took our condemnation. He was damned and died the death that I, the condemnation and death that I deserved. So that the sin that was imputed to him, he was made sin. It became His, it was His sin debt because He legally and willingly took it upon Himself. But it was not sin of His own doing. We did it, His people did it. He died for sinners. And the righteousness that I have before Holy God is His doing, not mine.

It's imputed, charged to me. For God made him sin, Christ who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, 2 Corinthians 5 21. And so it goes on, look here. It says, verse five, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace you're saved. You see, if I wasn't there and Christ was there alone, and represent me. It has to be by grace because I didn't contribute to it. You don't contribute to it.

And verse six says, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Now that quickening there, is the quickening that we experience legally, forensically, as we are represented by Christ, who died, was buried, raised again, and ascended to the Father in heaven for His people. He's my representative, He's my surety, He's my substitute, He's my redeemer, He's my preserver, keeper, and He will be my glorifier. When He comes again, He'll take His people up in heavenly places. And He says in verse seven, now listen to this, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus.

This is the show that when it comes to attaining or maintaining salvation, We who are saved by grace have nothing to do with it. It's all of God. Salvations of the Lord. It's all of Christ. It's all of his power, his goodness, his grace, his mercy, his unconditional love. This idea that God is trying to save everybody if you let him, or those who perish in hell, or those whom he failed to save, that's a false idea. That's not the God of this book who is all powerful and all salvation of him.

And this is where he comes into this, you might say doxology. Look at verse eight. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, even the faith, that connects a sinner spiritually in his mind and heart to Christ is not of him. It doesn't come from your, quote, free will, unquote choice. It's the gift of God. It's not of yourself. It's the gift of God.

Not of works, lest any man should boast. You take 10 people listening to the gospel message. Five of them walk away believing. Five of them walk away in unbelief. Do those five who walk away believing, do they have a right to boast of their faith? We believed and those guys over there didn't know. The only reason that these five walked away believing is because of God's will, power, goodness, grace, mercy, and love. God chose them. God didn't choose these. You say, well, that's unfair.

Well, you take that up with God. And I'm gonna tell you before you start, you're not gonna get anywhere. You need to read the Bible. That's what it is. So look at verse 10. this caps it all for we are his workmanship if you're a sinner saved by grace if you're one who's washed in the blood of christ from all your sins and clothed in his righteousness imputed for your complete justification If you have spiritual life from the dead, faith to believe, repentance from dead works and idolatry, if you persevere in the faith, continue unto the end, you are not a self-made person. Men did not make you. Preachers did not make you. You are God's workmanship.

And it says you're created in Christ Jesus. It's because of Christ. Salvation is by God's grace through Jesus Christ. And you're created in Christ Jesus, look at it in verse 10, unto good works, not because of good works. Good works is part of salvation, but not in order to attain it or maintain it, not to earn anything from God. It's the result. It's what God hath before ordained, prepared that you should walk in them. A sinner saved by grace is the good work of God.

It's by his power. his love and goodness through the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he makes that, he settles that issue. That this is, this quickening together with Christ proves that, and that happened before you were born, before I was born. And look at all the Old Testament saints that were quickened by the new birth and entered glory, their spirits entered glory before Christ. It's all of grace based upon Him, quickened together with Christ. And that proves that salvation is by grace, not by work. Conditioned on Christ who fulfilled those conditions, not conditioned on you or me. Thank God we believe that.

I hope you will join us next week for another message from God's word. We are glad you could join us for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening today and may the Lord be with you.