The concept of being "quickened" by God, which signifies receiving new spiritual life. Drawing from Ezekiel's vision of dry bones, Examples illustrate how God breathes life into the spiritually dead. This quickening is presented as a distinct, yet related, aspect of salvation, where believers are made alive together with Christ through the power of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The message emphasizes that this new life is a gift of God's grace, enabling believers to live a life separate from the world and in union with Christ, with eternal implications for God's glory.
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Now I want to read a few scattered scriptures tonight. First of all, in Ezekiel chapter thirty-seven. Ezekiel chapter thirty-seven. Verse one. The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of a valley which was full of bones, and caused me to pass by them round about. And behold, there were very many in the open valley, and lo, they were very dry.
And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. Again, he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God, unto these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live. And ye shall know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied, as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.
When I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them above, and there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind. Prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, our bones are dried, and our hope is lost, and we are cut off for our parts.
Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, O my people, I will open your graves and cause you to come out of your graves and bring you into the land of Israel. I understand probably the correct version here is, and bring you back home. Bring you back home into the land of Israel. Now we see this happening today. We live in the favorite generation when this prophecy, which was made nearly six hundred years before Christ, this prophecy is being fulfilled before our eyes. The children of Israel are going back home.
We're seeing it. How wonderfully true the Scripture is. I'll bring you back home into the land of Israel, and he shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my spirit in you, and he shall live, and I shall place you in your own land, then shall he know that I the Lord have spoken it and performed it, thus said the Lord. Now over to the New Testament. Let's read first of all in John's Gospel. Chapter five. John's Gospel Chapter five.
verse twenty. John five, verse twenty. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth. And he will show him greater works than these that he may marvel. For as the Father raises up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the son, that all men should honor the son even as they honor the father. He that honoreth not the son, honoreth not the father which has sent him. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believe it on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life.
And now read in the sixth chapter. A verse we read this morning, one verse, verse sixty-three. The sixth chapter, John, we read it this morning. It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. First Corinthians fifteen. We'll piece all these together in a few minutes, I hope. First Corinthians fifteen. I only want to read one verse there, verse forty-five.
And so it is written, the first Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam a quickening spirit. Now Ephesians two. Ephesians two, verse one. Ephesians two verse one. Let's leave out the words in italics. I can assure you they're not in the Greek Testament. The words in italics. But the sense comes further down. And you who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, or this age, 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...
manner of life, our way of living, in times past, in the lust or desires of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God. Underline it, put a square all around it, if you like. I've got mine all a square right around it. But God. 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. You see, that hath he quickened in the first verse. He's not there in the original, but it's here in this verse. Even when we were dead in sins, hath he quickened us together with Christ, by grace are he saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Colossians chapter two. Verse thirteen. And you, being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you, all trespasses. May God bless the reading of this word. Shall we pray? Blessed God, our Father, we thank you for this wonderful, wonderful book. We thank the Lord for the wonderful accuracy of the very words of Scripture, how they fit together. how they blend together, Old Testament with New Testament and New Testament with Old Testament.
We thank thee for this. We pray that the Holy Spirit might take these words we have read tonight and apply them to our hearts and give us a better meaning, a better understanding of one of the wonders of thy precious word. We seek thy blessing in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now, over a period of months, I don't know how many, it must be over a year, I suppose. When I have been speaking here on Sunday nights, I've been talking on some of the great things that happened to me and to you that moment that God saved us.
You know, it's a great help speaking if you've got your subject given to you. One of the hardest that my experience is, and I've heard other preachers say the same, The trouble is not the preaching, the trouble is to get the subject. If you've got the subject, then you can go, but it's to get that subject. And sometimes, you know, it's ten minutes before the meeting before you get that subject. You worry about it for a week, two, three weeks, but it hadn't come so easy as that. That's why I like to have a series. If you've got a series, then all the day long and all the week long, and as the months go by, you're living in it all the time and thinking about it and reading it day by day and living in the subject. And we have been speaking therefore on a series, a series of the wonderful things that happened to me when God saved me.
I have thought about this for, I don't know how many years, maybe twenty years I've been thinking about this. I thought, well, God saved me. I remember the night so well. But as the years go by, I found out tremendous things happened at that moment when God saved me. I didn't know anything about them. And when I was up in Birmingham, as I told you, with our beloved Dr. Alden Gennett last week and I was in his house. I told him about this series of talks we were giving here. And I said, I don't know how many things happened when I was saved. And I suppose we'd go through all eternity still learning, but I said, so far I've spoken nine times about nine different subjects, nine things that happened to me.
And Mrs. Gennett said, well, Dr. Lewis Schaefer in his systematic theology, wrote down how many things happened. Thirty-one things happened when we were saved. Well, I said, I've got Dr. Louis Schaefer's systematic theology, and I've actually used it in connection with some of these subjects, but I didn't know that. And Dr. Gannett went out to his bookshelf, and he brought in and opened the book, and there were thirty-one things enumerated that happened when God saved me. So we were a long way to go. We're on our tenth meeting tonight. We talked about nine different things that happened when God saved me. He forgave me. He justified me. He adopted me into His family.
He reconciled me. And He set me apart for Himself. And I was born again. That's another thing to Him. And so on. We won't go over them. But tonight I want to talk about this Strange little word, not a little word, a long one here in Ephesians two. And we look at verse five, but God, Ephesians two, verse five, even when we were dead in sins, hath he quickened. I want to talk about the word quickened. What does that mean? Quickened. Now in the Greek, there are three words compounded into one long word.
I don't know whether I can say it. It's sin zoe piercen. Now zoe is life. And piercen means I made. And sin means together. So together he's made life. Now what it really means is this. We are quickened together with Christ. He's given us life together with Christ. That's what God has done. He's given us life together with Christ. And this is one of the wonderful things that happened when I was saved. I would look upon this as somewhat separate from new birth.
The last time I was speaking in this series, we spoke about the new birth. But I would look upon this as something somewhat different to the new birth. At the new birth, I was born again. Wonderful. And came into God's family. I was born into his family by the new birth. John three, he must be born again. But here's something else. This is how I got the life of Christ. And it deals with the risen life of Christ. You see, the Lord Jesus has been raised in wonderful mighty power. The greatest power that God ever exhibited was in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, not in the creation of the universe. It took more power to raise Christ from the dead than to create a universe.
Because don't forget, death is an awful enemy. And death is an enemy that's got its clutches upon us. And the Lord Jesus went down into death, and Satan had us there in death. And God raised his son from the dead. Tremendous power. And so when Paul mentions it in the first chapter here, he says, that you might know, verse nineteen, that you might know... the exceeding greatness of his power to us, for to believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought 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 has put all things under his feet.
The mighty power of God when he raised him and set him in his own right hand. Now when he opens up the first chapter, he tells us, now just what happened to Christ happened to you when you accepted Christ. He raised his son from the dead, and he's raised us from the dead with him. Now let's try and go into the details of it a little bit. We must learn that naturally we're dead. We're dead. We might join a church young in life, but we're dead in sin. We might do lots of good things, but the Bible says we're dead.
We're dead. That's why I read that wonderful story back there in Ezekiel. You see, I read the thirty-sixth chapter of Ezekiel in connection with New Birth, if you remember. Because in the thirty-six chapter, it says, I will cleanse them. That's what the new birth, we are washed. It says the water of the word, you know, is used. And the washing of the water, the word, and the new birth, you must be born again by the water. And the Spirit. And that's why I read. I'll give you a new heart. Verse twenty-six of the thirty-six chapter. And a new spirit. And put my spirit within you.
But in the thirty-seventh chapter it's new life. And that's what I'm talking about tonight. New life, the life of Christ. And the Old Testament, I was saying this I think last week somewhere where I was speaking. When I was a boy they used to tell me that a parable, a parable is an earthly story. with a heavenly meaning. That's pretty good. An earthly story with a heavenly meaning. The prodigal son, all the parables, an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. And I say this, the Old Testament is an earthly story. It's got a heavenly meaning. And the heavenly meaning is in the New Testament. The New Testament explains the Old Testament.
We read all the story of Abram and all the story of Israel, but it's only a type and a picture. of what's in the New Testament. So in this thirty-seventh chapter he takes the prophet out, the Lord took him out to this great valley of dead bones. And he said, Now prophesy. He said, Can these bones live? Can these bones live? And he answered, Oh Lord God, thou knowest. Now he said, You prophesy upon it. And the bones came together, and the sinners came together, and the skin came together, but no life. and then the Spirit of God breathed, the wind grew upon them, and life came.
That's Israel. For two thousand five hundred years and more, Israel has been without a king. Israel has been without a land. They sinned against God, and they were taken away captive. True, they came back, but they never came back to have a kingdom. No Solomon ever reigned. They were just under servility and under other powers. They were under the A Roman Empire when the Lord Jesus came here, and they had no kingdom of their own, and they will never have another king until the Lord Jesus himself reigns. I love that. And when he comes back, they're going to look at his hands and they'll say, What are those wounds in thy hands?
Israel, you talk to a Jew today. He's blind as he can be. You talk about Jesus Christ and he has spit. He hates the very name. And yet in that day they look upon his hands and they say, What are those wounds in my hands? And he'll say, Those are the wounds which I received in the house of my friend. And suddenly the veil will be taken from their eyes. And their eyes will be open. And they'll look upon him whom they pierced. And they'll fall in repentance at his feet. And God's going to give them a new heart. And take away that old heart. and all the idolatry and the sinfulness and he's going to reign and rule over them.
This is about to take place. We're living at that point in history when these things are about to take place. The Lord Jesus is coming back for a long time. I've had the idea the Lord would come back in the year of nineteen seventy two. It's beginning to run out, you know. We get back to the change of the clocks and get back to normal time and give up daylight saving a week ago, a week tomorrow. Today, I mean, and the year is running out. I don't know. But I do know this. Seven years after the Lord comes to receive his church, to be with himself, the Lord's coming back in glory. He's coming back to reign. And at that time, The veil will fall from the eyes of Israel.
They're back in the land, and we have been privileged to live in this wonderful age when Israel has gone back. And these things that we read about have been fulfilled before our eyes. And we know the Bible is true. And we know we're at the end of this present dispensation. And we know the coming of the Lord is near. But Israel's gone back in blindness. They can't see. They don't understand. They don't believe in the Messiah. You can't go out there and preach the gospel freely in Israel today. They don't have it. They do not believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God and their Messiah. They think he was false, and they think they did right when they crucified him. But when he comes back, suddenly their eyes will be opened.
And he's going to give them a new life, a new life. That's the background. That's the Old Testament... pictures for this New Testament teaching. Quickening. Ephesians two, you were dead in trespasses and sins. Just as those bones were just dead bones. There was no life in it. No stirring, no movement. They couldn't do anything towards coming towards God at all because they were dead, dry bones. And that's what you and I were like before God saved us. The most religious people in the world, they'd be insulted if they knew I was saying this about them tonight, but they were just like this.
Dead. Dead in trespasses and sin. When God looks down from heaven upon the human race outside of Christ, He sees them dead. They have no heavenly life in them. They have no life of God in them. They're strangers to God. Dead in trespasses and sins. And this is what people don't like. This insults them, this upsets them. They think it's wrong and wrong to tell them they're dead. That's just what the Bible says. Dead in trespasses and sins. I'll read those four verses again. Wherein in times past he walked according to the course of this world.
That's where the people who were unsaved worked it walked the dead. according to the course of this world. Whatever this world does, they do it. You know, the greatest example of this today is our teenagers. Do you know that? And the marvel to me is that most of our, many of our Christian teenagers who've been baptized and are sitting at the Lord's table and they're at college and high school, many of them do this. They walk according to the course of this age. Whatever the other kids do, they do. They don't stand out separate. There are some wonderful cases, thank God, for those who stand out for God.
But this is what they do. It says in Romans chapter verse two, they not conform to this world. They not conform to this world. That's to say, don't do what the world does. They different. Stand out. Have the courage to stand up. Be a square. That's what it means. That's what they call you. If you don't do what they do, you're a square. Well, all right, be a square and be proud of it. Because we're separated and we're different. And before we were saved, we walked according to the course of this world. Now, they don't know the people of this world don't know.
But behind the scenes is a sinister influence the devil himself. Satan himself is behind up there the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now work it. He's up there. And with all his agents and his fallen angels, he's working in the world today. And he's the one that's directing things. Wherein in times past he walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, The Spirit that now worketh in children of disobedience. What a definition of the world in which we live. Children of disobedience. I don't think there's ever been an age in the whole histories of mankind when disobedience was so pronounced as it is today.
Discipline is gone. I don't care whether it's in the church or whether it's in the school. or even in the army, discipline is gone today. We live in the age of disobedience. Why? Because Satan's time is short. He knows that the end of things are coming very near and Satan's busy. And don't forget, he's going to be busier because he's going to be thrown out of heaven and he's coming down onto this world after the church is gone. And then he'll do his work pretty well. Children of disobedience. This is why we have the marching. This is why we have the strikes.
This is why we have the rebellions. This is why we have, I believe too, why we have all the long hair and nonsense. It's a sign of, I will not conform. That's what it means. I'll do what I like. And I'm not going to be subject to any power or anybody else going to tell me what I'm going to do. I do myself. I'll please myself. I live in a free land. Children of disobedience. And he says that we used to be this way. Now, God saved me when I was only ten. It's hard for me to look back and say these things. I was saved when I was ten and brought up in a Christian home and loved the Word of God even before God saved me.
But I had a heart like this. Children of disobedience. You watch a baby. I often watch babies, you know. You want to tell, if I want to explain, if I want a definite, what's I say, a sample, a sample to prove that man is a fallen creature, I watch a baby. A baby wants his own way. And you'll yell and squall and screech until he gets his own way. And the mother says, no, but still that. And you watch the little children growing up three, four years of age, and go in the stores and hear them with their parents. What they want, they're going to have. That's that self-will, it's there from babyhood, it's there. And the Bible says we're children of disobedience.
The spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all add our, this word conversation is our manner of living in times past, according to the desires of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, or by nature the children of wrath, even as others. This is a very solemn statement, the children of wrath. You see, the wrath of God is going to come upon this world because of these very things. I'll read you some verses. Turn over to the fifth chapter of Ephesians. And it says in the fifth chapter and verse two, walk in love as Christ also has loved us.
and has given himself for us an offering of a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. But, now look at these words, and I hate to read them, but they're there. Fornication, uncleanness, covetousness, let it not be once named among you as become as saints. Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, Stolen verses. I often look at it and wonder what it means. This you know, that no whoremonger nor unclean person nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
Let no man deceive you with vain words, because, vain words, for, because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of God. of disobedience. The moment the church is taken out of this world, the great day of tribulation starts. And the wrath of God is going to be poured down upon this world, upon children of disobedience. We're living in the age of disobedience. And the wrath of God is coming down because of this disobedience. Because of these sins, fornication, uncleanness, covetousness, filthiness, and all this, the wrath of God is going to fall.
Let's speak to one scripture. Look at Colossians chapter three a moment. Colossians chapter three. Verse five. Colossians three verse five. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth. Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil. Long word concupiscence means evil desires, evil lust, and covetousness which is idolatry, for which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience. Now go back to our chapter Ephesians two, and we'll read it again.
Ephesians two. among whom verse three we all had our manner of living in times past in the lust of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath the wrath of God is going to be revealed against from heaven against all this ungodliness children of wrath that's where we were beloved whether we like it or no that's where we were and if there's anyone here tonight out of Christ that's where you are children of God, dead in trespasses and sins. Let's look a moment to Romans chapter three. Romans chapter three.
Verse ten. As it is written, Romans three, verse ten, as it is written, there is none that understand it. There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are all together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. What hope of these people that think they're going to get to heaven by doing good deeds? What hope of they? They've no hope at all. God says there's none that doeth good. No, not one. None that doeth good.
And then God goes into details. He says their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they've used deceit. The poison of ashes is under their lips. whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. And the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what things whoever the law saith, it says to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight.
For by the law is the knowledge of sin. Paul is proving in the Roman Epistle that the heathen Gentile and the religious Jew are equally dead in sin. That's what he's telling you. Whether they have the law or they haven't got the law, they are dead. Their throat, their eyes, their mouth, their feet, their ways, everything. It's against God. They are children of disobedience. And Paul says to the Ephesians, Now that's just where you were. That's just where you were until that great moment came when God saved us. And beloved, that's where you and I were. Some of us who have been brought up in Christian homes may not have developed so far in these ways, but it was in here just the same.
The seed of murder is in our hearts just like it is in everybody else's. Because we're dead. And we're children of Adam. And children of wrath. And then we get that wonderful word which I told you to put a frame around. But God. How wonderful. But God. How did God act? Well, he looked upon this dead human race and he gave the human race life. It says, God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love were with he loved us. even when we were dead in sins has quickened us.
That's given us life. We've quickened us. Now the Son of God says in John five, and we read it, John five he says in verse twenty-one, As the Father raises up the dead and quickened them, even so the Son quickenedeth Whom he will. Now he is the Father and the Son in this great work of quickening. As the Father raises up the dead and quickens, we're dead in trespasses and sins, and he raises us up. As the Father raises up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.
But in chapter six that we read this morning and verse sixty-three it says, It is the Spirit that quickeneth. What a wonderful thing. Here's the whole triune Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all at work together to do one thing, to quicken us, to get us out of this dead, unsaved awful state we were in, and give us new life in Christ Jesus. What a wonderful thing. It's wrapped up in this little word, quickened, quickened together. That's what God did for us, you know. When God saved us, he quickened us. He gave us new life. This is not exactly new birth, as I was saying this morning.
By the new birth I was brought into the family of God. But this is that new resurrection life of Christ. He's giving us. And he gives us this new life. And this life is in his son. We were in such a dire state. There was absolutely no hope. In the second chapter of Ephesians he says we were without God and without hope. In the world. And there he uses the term but God again. Who's rich in mercy? God steps in. Our only hope was in God. Oh, how I wish we could turn men to God. You talk to men about this and their minds are blinded.
Without understanding, it says in that Roman epistle, they were without understanding. They couldn't understand the things of God. And that's true of every man born of Adam. He cannot understand the things of God, spiritual things are spiritually discerned, and the entrance of God's Word giveth light. And there's no other way for it. The entrance of God's Word giveth light. It's only by the Word of God, applied by the Spirit of God to the heart of man that we can have life. And that's exactly what happened. when God saved us. Thank God for that moment. I'll thank God as long as I live, you know. I go back sometimes to the city of Bristol, England, and I go down the old street.
The brethren there, there were problems and so on, and a few of them got together. When I was born, I was born in a meeting where they were very close sort of thing, you know. And there was one very much respected brother one Sunday morning, he broke bread. with some brethren that didn't see eye to eye like these brethren did. And somebody happened to be nearby and witnessed and found out and went back and reported, brother, so-and-so broke bread with those people. And they sent a message out throughout the whole world. Every assembly connected with that little group must judge. Was this man right or wrong?
I was a boy of seven, but I remember it so well. Oh, I remember the trials and the troubles of those days. And I was a boy not yet saved. And my father was one of those that said he was right. And so my father was put out of fellowship and many others. And this party was split throughout the whole world. And what they did was this. They had no money or children. and there was one they found an empty house it had been a what in this country you call a cavern in england they call it a bar where they used to sell liquor you know and over there they have the liquor the tavern place divided up into the bar the general bar and then there's what they call the bottle and jug department you know where they come along with the bottles of the jug and fill them up and take it away that's How do you put it in this career?
Ready to go, I think you call it in this country. To go, you know? Bottle and jug, to go. See. And when you went in, and now many hundreds of times I've been in, the little passageway, and there was a window that slid up, and it threw that. That was to go, the bottle and jug, where they could come and take a jug and fill it up with beer and take it home. And this place had closed down, and the brethren, my father and a few more, found this place, decided to rent it. And they knocked down a wall. When I was a kid, I remember making the kind of a dado. I made a, I love drawing. And I made a stencil so that when they all painted it, they could stencil a pattern all around the wall.
And I did a very simple Greek key pattern that I could cut out where you'd be. And it was there all the years I was there. And it was there one Sunday night. Praise God. One Sunday night, God saved me in that little place. And when I go there sometimes, I go down there and I look at that face and I say, thank God, inside that wall, one Sunday night in the year, nineteen hundred and ten, God saved me. Praise God. I didn't know what was happening, but all these wonderful things we've been talking about, this is our tenth talk on the wonderful things that God did that night when God saved me. Let me ask you, friend, is there some spot in all this great big world?
Were you accepted Christ as Savior? In some little meeting, in some tent mission, on a ship at sea, up in the air, in an aeroplane, riding in a car, lying in your bed? Where was it? Some spot where you yielded yourself to the Lord Jesus and the light came in. And God, by the Holy Spirit, took the word of God and applied it and breathed into our nostrils the breath of life. And we became a living soul. That's what happened. We became a living soul. He quickened us and took us out of this filthy scene, this wicked sin, sinful world in which we live, governed and ruled by the prince of the power of the air and made us members of his family and put his life in us.
And now everything is different. If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. So God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit were all at work giving us this new life. What the Bible calls quickening us. Now I said that that was a long Greek word but it starts with the prefix sin. S-Y-N. S-Y-N in Greek means with or together with, together with.
So this sin means together with Christ. How wonderful. You see, we never could have been quickened. We never could have been saved. Except it had been in Christ. And the Ephesian Epistle and the Colossian Epistle is characterized by these two words in Christ and with Christ. All the way through in Christ. Every blessing we'll ever get, we get in Christ. Every blessing we ever get, we get with Christ. And when, as I said, the last time I was speaking, Paul looked upon that cross and he saw the Lord Jesus dying there. He said, the Son of God who gave himself for me. But one day when he was looking at that cross, he suddenly saw something else.
He saw Saul of Tossus hanging on that cross, and he says, I am dead with Christ, with Christ, with Christ. That's what baptism means, that I died with Christ. When Christ died, I died with Him. And that old life of mine ended there in God's reckoning. And then I am alive just as we come up out of the waters of baptism. And the Lord Jesus came up out of the grave in the fullness of a new life. So I am raised together with Him. And so it says this Greek word which means with, made alive with Him. That's what it means. But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, were with he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ.
I've got to square all that too. With Christ. With Christ. Every blessing we ever get is in Christ. His quicken us together with Christ. Beloved, let's think of this. That moment God saved us. He put us into Christ. And Christ came into us. And Christ and us. We are one for all eternity. Everything we do and say and everything we have and will be, should be and will be with Christ. How can we dabble with the things of this world anymore? We're separated. We belong to heaven. No wonder he says, if he then be risen with Christ, if he then be risen with Christ, Colossians three verse one, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.
Set not your affection on things on the earth, but on things in the heavens, and when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall he also appear with him. How that ties in with what we're coming to hear. He says, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace are ye saved. How could Paul help putting that little bit there in parenthesis, eh? By grace are ye saved. We didn't do it at all. By grace are ye saved. Paul couldn't help save. By grace are ye saved. God's infinite, wonderful grace. God saved us. And it says, Go on to verse six. And has raised us up together.
This is with Christ, my dear. Christ was raised from the dead. We read that 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 dominion and might, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come and put all things under his feet. And then he says, he's quickened us together with Christ and us raised us. up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Do you know that when God saved me, He put me up there with the Lord in heavenly places? I don't feel like that sometimes when I'm walking around this earth. And some days we get very, very tired.
You know, in the order we get, we get more and more tired. It don't feel like it, but this is what's happening. He raised us up and in God's reckoning, in God's eternal counsel, so sure that we will be there in all eternity, so sure it is God, that even now he reckons us, as if we are with Christ. He's raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Why a wonderful thing happened. Why a wonderful thing happened when God saved me. How but he doesn't stop there. Wait for the next verse. Verse seven. Look at it. That in the ages to come, look at it, that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Through the eternal age, in some way I cannot understand now, but in some wonderful way God is going to manifest his kindness toward us in the ages to come. It says in Romans eight that the whole creation waited and groaned it and groaned it and waited. What for? For the manifestation of the Son of God. In the coming day, God is going to display to our wandering universe what he's done for men and women that trusted his Son. In the ages to come, he's going to display to all the universe the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
What a wonderful thing awaits us. Then of it, I tell you we made no mistake that moment we accepted Christ. Never mind the world and all the world can give. It isn't worth anything. We have eternal riches. We have joys and blessings and glories in Christ. They should go on for all eternity just because one night, in our time, in our history, one night we accepted Christ as our Savior. Have you done that? I take it every one here tonight and save. Maybe there's one I don't know. But all these blessings are for you if you only just say yes to the Son of God and receive him. No wonder Paul says one more verse, By grace are ye saved through faith.
He couldn't help putting that word grace. Because it's all of grace. We didn't do a thing. We didn't merit it. We had no love towards the Lord. We were dead, dried bones. Can these bones live? No, sir. We couldn't have lived. We were out of Christ. We struggled and tried and did our best. Many of you joined the church. Many of you did all you could to get to heaven, but you wouldn't have got there that way. Couldn't be done. Dead, dry bones. And then the Spirit of God breathed upon us. And he gave life. And that life is in his Son. And with him. We get all these wonderful blessings. May God bless these few kind of rambling remarks tonight.
And let's realize that's one more thing that happened when I accepted Christ. I was quickened together with him. Shall we pray? Blessed God our Father, we thank you for the wonder of thy word. Lord, we rejoice in it. Our hearts overflow in praise to thee for all that thou hast done for us. We cannot find the words to describe adequately. what we'd love to say about thyself and thy Son and the glorious things thou hast done for us. But we thank thee, Lord, by simple faith, by grace we are saved through faith, by simple faith. We accepted Christ as our Savior, and thou hast done all the rest for us. We thank thee, and we'll go on to praise thee, Lord, for all eternity. Now, Lord, as we separate, make these things very serious in our hearts.
May we realize that there's come a great change in our lives for some of us many years ago, but thou hast taken us out of darkness and brought us into thy marvelous light. And thy Son, Lord, we are linked with him forever. Help us to walk as men and women separated. Help us to walk in love. As Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, we pray thee. And help us, Lord, that we might love one another and dis... display to the world in Keystone Heights that we are with Christ and in Christ, may we be like Christ and manifest his glories. We ask it in his own precious and worthy name.