One of the very first things
you'll hear if you take any kind of course on public speaking
is that the most important thing to be said is the first thing
you say and the last thing you say. So while you're turning
to Ephesians Chapter 2, I want you to listen very carefully
to this very, very important statement. Any sinner who believes on the
Lord Jesus Christ is taken into everlasting union with the triune
God. Any sinner, that includes you
and me, any sinner who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ is taken
into everlasting union with the triune God. Believe on the Son
of God now and go home in union with God. If that doesn't get
your attention, I can't imagine what might. Let's read Ephesians
chapter 2 beginning at verse 1. And you hath he quickened. who were dead in trespasses and
sins, wherein in time past you walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,
among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in
the lust of our flesh, Fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind and whereby nature children of wrath even as others
but God Who is rich in mercy? For his great love wherewith
he loved us even when we were dead in sins Hath quickened us
together with Christ by grace You're saved and that raised
us up together and may they sit together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding
riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 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 we are his workmanship. Created
in Christ Jesus unto good works Which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them wherefore remember Remember remember that
ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh Who were called
uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in
the flesh made by hands that at that time ye were without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers
from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God
in the world. And then we come to our text.
But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are
made nigh by the blood of Christ. My subject ought to be of great
interest to every person here and precious to every child of
God. It speaks of the wondrous condescending
mercy, love and grace of our great God. I want to talk to
you about nearness to God. Reconciliation to God being made
nigh brought near to God By the precious blood of his dear son
our Savior the Lord Jesus But now in Christ Jesus Ye who sometimes
were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ If you can
remember these three words, you'll remember the title of my message
and my outline ruin reconciliation restoration ruin reconciliation
restoration God of glory who was justly offended by our sins
and our rebellion against him takes chosen centers every believing
center into a union with himself that is everlasting union through
the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord Our text is a gate of pearl
leading to the excellent glory and everlasting grace of God.
Happy is that man. Happy is that woman who has entered
into this blessed union through this gate. It turns on two diamond
hinges in Christ Jesus and by the blood of Christ, the wonderful
privilege that our text speaks of is that we are made nigh. What can be further apart than
God and man? But in Christ, through his blood,
we are made nigh unto God, near to God, nearer than we have ever
imagined. Here is a sea of love a ocean
of boundless. Peace a rich fountain of grace
May god the holy ghost open to us the words of our text and
speak to our hearts first ephesians 2 13 speaks of our ruin the ruin
of the human race by the sin and fall of our father adam ye
who sometimes were far off You who are without Christ are far
off from God. So far off that there is no possibility
of you ever being made near to God but in Jesus Christ and by
the blood of Christ. Plunged in a gulf of dark despair,
we helpless sinners lay, Without one cheerful beam of hope, our
spark of glimmering day. How sad our state by nature is. Our sin, how deep it stains. And Satan binds our captive minds
fast in his slavish chains. We were ruined by a fall. But
God did not originally create man in a sinful condition. When Adam was created and placed
in the garden, he had a blessed nearness to God. The theologians
like to discuss what exactly was Adam's relationship with
God. The fact is we don't know, we're not told, except to give
some hints. Adam was created in the very
image of God. Created in the likeness of the
triune Jehovah. He is the only being in creation,
the only creature of God made in the likeness of God. Now,
that means at least this much. He was given intellect, emotion
and will like God. He had a body like that which
God ordained and prepared for his son when he would come into
this world as our Redeemer. So he was made in the physical
likeness of that one who would come into the world, Christ our
Savior, the God-man. And like Christ, he was made
a representative man so that Adam represented all the human
race as a representative of the race, everything Adam was and
everything Adam did and everything Adam became. We were and we did
in our father Adam. Adam walked with God and conversed
with God in the garden. Oh, what that must have been.
We had no record of how long Adam was in the garden in innocence.
But all the time before he fell, he walked with God in sweet communion
relentlessly. Wouldn't that be wonderful? I
was telling Shelby today, I've been reading a biography of John
Newton. One section was about William
Cowper, who wrote many of our favorite hymns, God Moves a Mysterious
Way, O 4000 Tongue, many of our favorite hymns. Cowper Spent
most of his life suffering from severe depression Even after
he was converted by God's grace. He struggled with it severely
and Just before he entered into his last 30 year long state of
darkness 30 years 30 years in darkness when he said I He could
not pray. Newton wrote to him on one occasion
after he'd left Oney and said, pray for me, my brother. And
Cowper replied, when I can pray for myself, I will surely pray
for you. For 30 years, he was in that state. Just as he was
entering into that long state of darkness, he wrote the hymn,
Oh, for a closer walk with God. And then he had just slight times
when the Lord seemed to speak to him. He was convinced he must
be of all men, reprobate and cast off from God. When Newton
got word of his death, he wrote these words, sometimes God puts
his children to bed in darkness. But Adam walked with God. I could envy him. No interruption. No break. Sweet communion all
the time. Adam enjoyed all the provision
of God's hand. He didn't take anything for granted.
He didn't presume upon anything. He just enjoyed the provision
of God's hand. He enjoyed dominion over all
God's creatures. And then Adam sinned. He sinned against God, plunging
himself and all his race into a state of separation and alienation
from God. He was our representative before
God, as I stated, so that we acted in him and we were charged
with his deeds. We were made sinners by the disobedience
of one man at him. We were judged guilty and condemned
because of one man's sin, Adam's, because we sinned in Adam. Wherefore, as by one man, sin
entered into the world and death by sin. And so death has passed
upon all men for that all have sinned. And when Adam sinned
and we sinned in him, Adam died and we died. Not physically. but spiritually. What does that
spiritual death involve? We lost God's image in great
measure. Still intellect, emotion, and
will, but depraved, corrupt, and vile. Still living in a body
like the very body of the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, but
now a mortal dying frame, a disease, a disease-ridden existence. When we sinned in Adam, the human
race lost all righteousness. Whatever righteousness we had
by original creation is gone. We lost moral freedom. So that
now man's nature being bound by his, or man's will being bound
by his nature is constantly compelled to ungodliness. Man by nature
cannot do good and will not do good. His will is bound by what
he is. We died spiritually. Man was
made body, soul and spirit. When we sinned in Adam, The spirit
in man died, and man has been dead ever since. Now we're body
and soul, body and soul, until God comes in grace. In the new
birth, we receive the spirit of life and are made whole again,
body, soul, and spirit. And before I finish tonight,
I'll say more about that, and I'm sure it'll be helpful to
you. Not only were we ruined by the fall of our father Adam,
we were ruined by our birth so that every child of Adam comes
forth from his mother's womb speaking lies. In sin did my
mother conceive me, David said. I was brought forth in iniquity
so that it is the most natural thing on the earth for a baby
as soon as it begins to act volitionally, to begin to act in rebellion
and sin. Most natural thing on the earth
for any child of Adam is every form of corruption and evil.
We talk about things that men do. What men do doesn't begin
yet to display the corruption of the heart with which we're
born. By birth, fallen man is far off from God. We were without
Christ. And to be without Christ is to
be without life, without righteousness, without pardon, without peace.
There's no peace to the wicked. Without light, men live continually
in darkness. Without understanding, that's
what it is to be without Christ. We were aliens from the Commonwealth
of Israel. We didn't have any place with
God's people. We had no fellowship with the
saints of light. None at all. Nothing more uncomfortable. Nothing more uncomfortable than
to be in the midst of men and women who believe God and speak
about the things of God. Oh, how difficult it is for an
unbeliever to sit in the room with men and women talking about
the things of God. We didn't share the blessings
of God's people. We were strangers to the covenants
of promise and without hope. Without hope, men built a refuge
of lies by which they tried to convince themselves they have
hope. And you who are yet without Christ try to convince yourself
that you have hope, but there's no hope outside Christ Jesus
the Lord. We were all by nature godless,
ruined in this world. Now, there are many who oppose
the doctrine of original sin. Because they don't like being
charged with Adam's transgression. But we've sinned enough on our
own, for we're all ruined by choice as well. All of us sinned
just like all other men. All of us sinned as children,
all the days of our youth, drinking iniquity like water. All of us
sin as adults, choosing evil rather than good with every choice
we made. We even sin relentlessly after
having experienced God's grace. Sin is our name. Sin is our game. Sin is what we are. Second, the
apostle shows us the way of reconciliation. He tells us how it is that God,
of whom Rex just read a little bit ago, is a just God and a
savior. How God, in his infinite holiness,
justice and truth, can reconcile man to himself and bring sinners
into union with himself. We are now reconciled to God
in Christ Jesus. Only in Christ. through Christ
the mediator in the person of his dear son, who is God and
man in one glorious person and will reconcile to God by his
blood. With pitying eyes, the prince
of grace beheld our grief. He saw and oh, amazing grace,
he ran to our relief. Down from the shining seats above
with joyful haste, he fled. entered the grave in mortal flesh,
and dwelt among the dead. He spoiled the power of darkness
thus, and broke our iron chains. Jesus has freed our captive souls
from everlasting pains. Oh, for this love, let rocks
and hills, their lasting silence break, and all harmonious human
tongues, the Savior's praises speak. Children of God, You and
I are made near unto God because we're in Jesus Christ, his son. We have a covenant union with
Christ. But let me talk about this union
a little bit. I know I'm in waters way over
my head. I can't begin to explain what
I don't understand, but I can declare to you what I know is
revealed in this book. This covenant union we have with
Christ, it's compared to a covenant union, but it is infinitely more
than any covenant union that's made on this earth. We are in
our Savior's heart from eternity. There never was a time when we
were not in his heart, in the heart of the Lord Jesus. He cherished
thoughts of love for his people. before the world began. Back
in Proverbs 8, he speaks of himself and says his delights were with
the sons of men. Before ever God made the world,
his delights were with us. He said, I've loved thee with
an everlasting love. He says, as the father hath loved
me, even so have I loved you. We were all chosen at one time
in Christ. Our names were written in the
book of life beneath the name of Christ, our great head before
the world was made in the lambs or the book of life of the lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. David said this in
thy book, all my members were written, which in continuance
were fashioned when as yet there were none of them. I don't have any idea what that
means. I don't have any idea what that means. In thy book,
my God, all my members, all the members of Christ's body, yes.
All the members of our bodies, yes. Everything having to do
with our time existence in this world, yes. Everything having
to do with the circumstances of our life throughout this pilgrimage.
Yes, in thy book all my members were written which in continuance
were fashioned when as yet there were none of them. The same register,
that same book of life that records Christ's eternal sonship records
our sonship. Destroy his sonship and yours
must perish. But as long as he stands as the
Son of God, so all his members stand as the sons of God. The name of Jesus Christ is the
list of the Book of Life. And until the pen of hell can
run through that name, it can't run through yours. The Book of
Life contains a list of all who shall inherit the Celestial City.
We're in that book. sealed with seven seals of perfection,
completion, that book which none but the lion of the tribe of
Judah has prevailed to open. We are in his heart and in his
hands, in his hands, trusted to his hands, trusted to his
hands. An honorable man is bound by
such trust. If I'm an honorable man and you
trust me with the richest treasure you have, I am honor bound to
do everything I can to protect the treasure and never to abuse
it and to use it only as you have specified that it be used. So we were in the hand of our
mighty Redeemer. More than that, we were in his
loins. When I was just a baby, when
I was just a baby, When I first came into this world, while I
was still in my mother's womb, there was in me, in me, another
human being. She wasn't born for many, many
years, but she was in me. That's the child God gave us
after we were married, our darling daughter. But she was in me,
in my loins. She came from me, the seed of
life for that child was in me. In that sense, spiritually, we
were in Christ Jesus. This is what David says in Psalm
22 concerning our Lord Jesus. A seed shall serve him. That seed is called Abraham's
seed. That seed speaks of us as the
children of God. That seed is the generation of
God's people. But I've got to go a step further.
Our text speaks of a real, vital, present living union. All who
are in Christ in the eternal, everlasting covenant of grace
in due time by the power and grace of God shall be brought
in union with him of life, a living, vital union. We are in his very
person, in his very person. We are wedded to him. Now, this
mystical, mysterious union is real and true. Christ and I are
one. Christ You my sister Christ and
you my brother are one really and truly one as really one as
God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost are one as
Really one as this man standing in front of you made up of all
the parts of this body and being is one man We are one in Christ
Jesus to which Jesus and the chosen race subsist a bond of
sovereign grace that hell with its infernal train shall ne'er
dissolve nor end in vain. Hail sacred union, firm and strong,
how great the grace, how sweet the song that worms of earth
should ever be, one with incarnate deity. This union with Christ has got to be one of the most
delightful and most incomprehensible. One of the most delightful and
yet one of those things that's hardly, hardly understandable
by mortal flesh. One of the most delightful things
revealed in this book. As soon as a sinner is born again,
As soon as a sinner is given life from God, before he knows
it, but as soon as the sinner is born again, he is in union
with Christ, a living union. Without it, all that I've said
thus far is just speculative theory to you. I ask, do you
know anything about this union? We are in Christ. like the vine
is in the branches and draws all life and nourishment from
him. We are in Christ like the baby
is in its mother's womb. We are in Christ like the brain
is in the head, like the heart is in the body. Are you in Christ? Do you live in him? Is Christ
your dependence? Do you believe on the son of
God? Do you love him? If any man loved not the Lord
Jesus Christ, let him be damned, the scripture says. Do you bear
fruit from him? Love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith, temperance. Is his presence
heaven to your soul and his absence hell? Are you wedded to him? Wedded to him by faith? Wedded
to him by love? Do you feed upon the Lord Jesus
Christ? Happy is that soul who can say
by faith. Blessed be God, I am one with
Christ. Oh, blessed be God, I am one
with Christ. I was in his heart, in his book,
in his hands, in his loins from eternity. I know that I was because
I'm in him now by this living union of faith. I know that I'm
in him because he's in me. I know that I'm in him because
I trust him. Such a soul is happy, satisfied,
and secure. I want you, who are gods, to
have the absolute confident assurance of this fact. You are one with
Christ and your soul shall never perish. That assurance is not
to be found in something you do or something you feel. It is not to be found in your
sense of nearness to God, but in the reality of your nearness
to God. It is not to be found in your
seeing the smile of His face, but in the fact of the smile
of His face. That assurance is not to be had
by your works, be they good or bad. That assurance is not to
be had by something you do or something you experience. That
assurance is the assurance of faith alone. So that we believe
Him. We believe Him. We're made near
to God through the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ. That's the
token, the symbol of the covenant. The blood of Christ is the symbol
of divine vengeance. The blood of Christ is the satisfaction
of God's holy law. The blood of Christ is the putting
away of sin. By the blood of His cross, the
Lord Jesus made peace for us and reconciled us to God. Now,
we receive that peace by faith. We receive that reconciliation
by faith. Our faith doesn't make reconciliation. You can't make reconciliation
with God. God reconciled us to Himself. And by faith in Christ, we receive
that which God has done in His Son. The reconciliation was made
by Jesus Christ the Lord. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
5, this very, very familiar text of scripture. Read it with me
again. Verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. Old things have passed away.
Behold, all things have become new. And all things are of God. This whole work of the new creation,
this whole work of salvation is of God, who hath reconciled
us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry
of reconciliation. And this is it, to wit that God
was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them, and hath committed to us The word
of reconciliation. God was in Christ. And by the
obedience and death of his son, he reconciled his elect through
all the world unto himself. And he sent me to preach repentance,
to preach this work of reconciliation. Repentance is turning to God. But it is more our being turned
to God that we may turn to him. than it is our turning to God.
Turn me and I shall be turned. Turn me and I shall be turned.
If God doesn't turn you, if God hasn't turned you by the sacrifice
of his son to himself, brought you into reconciliation to himself,
you will never turn to him. We now have this word of reconciliation. So that we as ambassadors for
Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, We pray you in Christ's
name. I beg of you in the name of Jesus
Christ as God's ambassador, lay down your arms and quit fighting
God. Be reconciled to God for he hath
made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him. Our text tells us that
we are nigh to God now. We stand before God in heaven
at the last day, perfect. But we stand before God now,
perfect. We are as near to God now as
we shall be in resurrection glory when all things are made new.
A mind of perfect peace with God Oh, what a word is this? A sinner reconciled through blood,
this indeed is peace. By nature and by practice far,
how very far from God. Yet now by grace brought nigh
to him through faith in Jesus' blood. So nigh, so very nigh
to God that nearer I cannot be. For in the person of his son,
I am as near as he. So dear, so very dear to God,
more dear I cannot be. The love wherewith he loves his
son, such is his love for me. Why should I ever anxious be
since such a God is mine? He watches over me night and
day and tells me mine is thine. One with Christ now. Our text
speaks thirdly of our restoration. But now in Christ Jesus, ye who
sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. In Christ, believing on him through
faith in his blood, we are now restored to God's
image perfectly. We're near to God and restored
to God's favor fully. We are made righteous, sanctified
and holy. We're near to God. That means we have Christ. We're
members of God's kingdom, partakers of God's covenant promise. We
have a sure hope. We have God himself. Mine is thine, God says. Christ is in us, and we're in
Christ. Ye are complete in him, the apostle
says. We've been made whole again by
the grace of God. Now turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter
5. Let me show you how complete
this restoration is. This whole restoration of grace. Here in 1 Thessalonians chapter
5 and verse 23, we have the only place in the Word of God where
the words spirit, soul, and body are used together. It's describing
the believer being made whole in Christ. Let's begin at verse
16. Rejoice evermore. Pray without
ceasing. I could preach a while on that. That's not talking about spending
so many hours every day in prayer. That's commendable. I'm not belittling
that at all. Pray without ceasing. I said to my son-in-law the other
day, we were chatting a little bit, I don't think There is an hour
when I am awake that I don't consciously pray for you. Pray without ceasing, live continually
before God by faith, seeking God's mercy and grace, seeking
God's will and his glory. Pray without ceasing in everything. Whatever your present circumstances
are in everything, give thanks. For this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the spirit. Despise
not prophesying. Prove all things, that is, prove
everything you hear. Hold fast to that which is good.
Abstain from every appearance, from all appearance of evil.
Anything that sounds like works, free will, idolatry, abstain
from that. And the very God of peace, now
listen to this prayer. The very God of peace sanctify
you wholly. And I pray God, your whole spirit
and soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, that's a mighty big prayer.
Yeah, but it doesn't depend on you. Faithful is he that calleth
you. who also will do it. You remember I told you in the
beginning of the message when Adam sinned, we died spiritually. Man created body, soul, and spirit,
lives in this world body and soul. Paul here tells us that
the nature of the believer is a compound being so that he is
spirit, soul, and body. The spirit is that immortal part
of our being, which by our fall in Adam by nature is dead and
trespasses and in sins. But by God, the Holy Spirit,
every child of God is quickened to a new spiritual life and being
part of Christ. Those quickened of God made spirit
again can never die. Can't die because it's holy without
blame in Christ forever. The soul is that thinking part
of our faculty, which man has in common with the brute beast.
Shelby and I every year have a battle. She has a battle. Keeping
birds from building nests on the lights on the back porch.
Keeping birds out of the porthole over the front door. And it's
a constant battle. And she said, as she was tearing
one of the nests down, that she hates to have all the mess around
there before they got any eggs in the nest. She said, isn't
it amazing? That bird is born knowing how
to make that nest that you have to push down to get it to fall.
Isn't it amazing? God's creatures have a mind. And they think in a sense. They have some sense of mental
things. And that speaks of the soul of
man, the faculty by which we think. When the scriptures speak
of man dying like a beast going to the grave, this is what it's
talking about. The psalmist in Psalm 146 tells us that the soul,
when the breath of man leaves him, returns to the earth, his
thoughts perish. And the body, of course, is talking
about this mass of flesh and bones. The spirit before the
new birth, like all the mass of Adam's race, is dead in trespasses
and in sins. When a sinner is born again by
the power and grace of God Almighty, When we're made partakers of
the divine nature by that sovereign act of God's omnipotent mercy,
He gives His elect all things that pertain to life and godliness,
and we're made partakers of the divine nature. That doesn't mean
that man suddenly becomes God. It does mean that Christ moves
in. And God creates His elect. God creates His redeemed. God creates His people. Every
sinner believing on Christ has been created by God. A new man
created in righteousness and true holiness. A man that cannot
sin. A man that cannot die. A man
in union with God. Life in union with God. That new man Is Christ in you
the hope of glory? Yes, the believer grows in grace
as a newborn child grows in nature. But like that child in nature.
The newborn soul will never have another nature. It is the same
forever in which it was born in the beginning. We're born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible. by the
Word of God, which lives and abides forever. The thinking
faculty, the soul, and the body, which is nothing but flesh and
bones, are not renewed in the resurrection, therefore, are
not to be renewed until the resurrection, and therefore we groan. Oh, wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? We give thanks to God. And I
pray like Paul did for you and for myself, that your whole being,
your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless under
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I make that prayer with this
assurance. Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it. I hadn't been converted long
and I was going through what I thought was a heavy, heavy
trial. I don't even remember what trial was. I just thought
it was just, just life shattering, whatever it was. And I, heard
Satan's whispers and his accusations. And I thought, sure, my professed
faith in Christ was just a mockery of God. And I couldn't possibly
go on pretending to be one of God's children. And I was trying
to pray and searching the scriptures. And as happens sometimes, I was
just like that, looking for something to read. And my Bible fell open
at 1 Thessalonians 5, and my eyes fell on verse 24. And heaven opened and flooded
my soul with this word of assurance. This preserving of your whole
spirit, soul, and body, blameless under the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ. is God's work. God's work. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. Amen.