Risen in Christ

0:00And kept a false epistle to the Ephesians. 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 ye are saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. We come back again to this mighty statement, one of the grandest and the most exalted, which is to be found anywhere in the whole range of Scripture. It's the statement of what God has done to us in the helplessness and the hopelessness in which we were and which is described in the first three verses of this important chapter.

1:07I say again that surely there is nothing which is more wonderful. There is no more striking statement of the truth concerning the Christian than that which is to be found in these verses. Indeed must we not all admit as we read the first seven verses of this chapter that our troubles undoubtedly are due to the fact that we are guilty of a double failure. We fail and the one hadn't to realize the depth of sin. We saw that in studying the first three verses. We may admit that we are not perfect. We may say that we occasionally do things that we shouldn't do and we think that that is sin and that that is the consciousness of sin. But when we read these first three verses, we rarely are given to see what sin is and how deeply involved in sin we all are and how form our nature is as the result of the original

2:13transgression of Adam. We don't realize I say the depth of sin but on the other hand do we not all fail to realize the greatness and the height and the glory of our selfish. Often times we are content to think of Christian selfish and merely in terms of forgiveness of sins. Not that one wants to depreciate that there is nothing more wonderful and more glorious. My point is that a starter that is surely tragic and I veryly believe that the whole condition and state of the church today is largely due to the fact that we fail at both points. It is because we never realize the depth of the pit out of which we've been brought up by the grace of God that we don't think God as we ought and then there is this failure to realize the great heights to which he has raised us. Well now that's what the apostle is dealing with here.

3:14He's now showing us the deliverance, the salvation. Yeah, of course the apostle is concerned not so much with the way in which we are saved. He's not interested at this point in evangelism. That's something that's already gone. He's writing to people who are already Christians and he wants them to realize and to understand what is really true of them. As Christian people, he wants them to know the exceeding greatness of God's power to us word that believe and so he expands it. Now we have already seen that what makes us Christians is our union with Christ. You've noticed that he goes on repeating it together. It is with Christ. He has been quickened together with him even when we were dead in sins. He has raised us together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

4:19This doctrine of our union with Christ is absolutely vital. The federal union as Christ is our representative, the vital organic living union which brings us the true life of Christ himself. Well now we've dealt with that and have gone on to consider this first statement. What God did to us when we were there dead in Christ's sins and sins, the first thing he did was to have quickness. He puts a new principle of life in us whereas we were lifeless, there is now life regeneration. We consider that last Sunday mobile. But now we must go on to the second step. Because he tells us that not only have we been quickened together with Christ but also have raised us up together. Here is the second thing. Now we must bear in mind constantly as we are dealing with this teaching that the Apostle

5:22here is working out a comparison. His case is that what is true of us spiritually is like what happened to our Lord physically when he was raised from the dead. He bore us in his own body on the tree. He died. His lifeless body was taken down. It was buried in a grave. The stone was rolled over the grave. There is no question that's fact. He was dead. He literally died for us in but. Good morning of the third day. He arose. He was raised from the dead and the Apostle works all this out in terms of us. So let us bear in mind what happened to our Lord. There he was for that period dead and in the grave in the realm of the dead. But he came out of this. The grave clothes were still left in the grave but he wasn't there.

6:23You remember how graphically the evangelists described that to us and the surprise of the women and others who went to the grave. They went to see the body in the grave but there was no body only the grave clothes. He had a risen. He had been taken out. He was no longer dead. He was no longer in the grave. He was now in another realm. He was alive from the dead. And he appeared. You remember to children people for forty days at various times and in various ways he manifested himself unto these children witnesses and then he ascended into heaven. Now that's the thing that we must bear in mind. Our salvation according to the Apostle here is comparable to that. Nothing less than that. There was this complete change in the realm in which our Lord was existing. Death in the grave alive manifesting himself and in a new way.

7:26Now then that is the truth as the Apostle about all who are truly Christian. Nothing less than that. This is the whole of his doctrine. We have been raised together with Christ because of our union with him. What happened to him happened to us not as he points out here in the physical sense but in the spiritual. It will happen in the physical sense also. That is to come. But what he wants them to understand now is that spiritual. This self-same power as he's argued at the end of the first chapter which did all that to the Lord Jesus Christ is working to us for the believe and is doing all this for us. Very well then. What does this tell us about the Christian? What is this tell us as truth about ourselves? Well, we can divide it up in the way that I've divided up the statement about our Lord

8:29himself. You can look at all this raising up together first of all in a negative manner. As I've been saying once our Lord was raised from the dead there were certain things that were no longer true of him. And the same thing exactly can be said about the Christian. There are certain negatives which are of tremendous importance and perhaps the best way for us to work all this out. Just to work it out in terms of that sixth chapter of the epistle to the Romans which we read together just now. Because there you rarely have an extended commentary on this phrase which we are looking at together this morning. That of course is something which you always interest us and chill us with a sense of wonder. In all these epistles you rarely have the same essential doctrine. Some of them work out one point in great detail, others work out another point in great

9:30detail. But the essential doctrine is the same in every one of them. And that is why the best commentary always on any one epistle of the epistle of Paul is to read all the various other epistles by the epistle of Paul. And if you don't do that you'll soon or later go astray. And another point which we make is this. If you rarely study any one of these epistles carefully, exhaustively and take time to do so. You will have covered the entire range of Christian doctrine whereas if you skin lightly over the surface of all of them you still won't have any conception of the Apostles teaching. Very well then let's see how he works all this out in the sixth chapter of the epistle to the Romans. What you can be said about the Christian clearly therefore is this. The Christian by definition is no longer dead spiritually. He is no longer in a spiritual grave.

10:30He was. We were all dead in trespasses and sins. That's it. We were dead. We were in a grave in a spiritual grave. But as Christians we've come out of that. As Christ came out of the grave we are out of the grave. We've left behind the grave clothes. There's nothing else left. We are out. We are no longer in that realm. We no longer belong to that sphere. Our condition is an entirely new one. Now that's just another way of saying that this whole matter of regeneration and salvation is the profoundest change in the world. And to become a Christian is, as I say, the most profound experience, the most profound fact in the whole universe. It's nothing less than the difference between death and life, a grave and walking at freedom and at liberty in the world.

11:31Well now then but what does this mean in actual practice? Well there are certain things as the Apostle which we as Christians must never fail to hold on to. Here are some of the negatives. The fact that we are no longer dead and no longer in the grave is proof positive that we are no longer under the wrath of God and we are no longer under condemnation. Now the Apostle puts this in a very interesting form in this epistle to the Romans. The last verse in the first chapter of the epistle to the Romans is this. He referring to our Lord, he says, who was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our justification. What's he mean? He means this. Our Lord's death was on account of our offences. He died because he bore our offences, he bore our sins and our translations and the punishment

12:31was death so he died. Yes but how do we know that God was satisfied with that offering? How may we know for certain that the Almighty, Holy Raijas God, rarely has felt that sin has been dealt with there. The answer is the resurrection. Delivered for our offences, raised again for our justification. The emergence of Christ from the realm of death and the grave, he's appearing again, he's an absolute proof that God is satisfied, sin has been punished. Very well this obviously therefore applies with equal force to us and the Apostle goes on to make the point at once in the next verse, the first verse of the fifth chapter. Therefore you see the logic, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God

13:32through our Lord Jesus Christ. You see we are raised from the dead with Him and therefore we are justified and therefore we are no longer under the wrath of God. He puts it still more strongly. You remember in the first verse of the eighth chapter there is therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation. The condemnation leads to death but we are no longer dead, we have risen. Therefore there is no condemnation. You remember the contrast? What were we? Well we were not only dead in trespasses and sins but we were also by nature the children of wrath, even as others. All of us born into this world are born under the wrath of God, under condemnation. Oh yes but we are no longer there, we are risen from the dead, we have come out of the

14:34grave, we have finished with it, there is therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Now my friends every Christian should know that and every Christian should enjoy that assurance. It's because you are in Christ not because of anything in you, it's because of your union with him, it's because you've been raised together with him. And that is the first basis of assurance that we believe this, we accept this by faith, we say this is true. I have been put into Christ, I've been joined to Christ and therefore as he rose and left that well I've left it delivered for our offenses raised again for our justification. Do you realize that you are no longer under the wrath of God? Do you realize that there is no longer any condemnation for you? Do you realize that the punishment has been born and that you no longer need fear the

15:37punishment which is to come? That's his first deduction. But then he's got another one, he says that because we are no longer dead but alive, that we are also dead to the law. We are not under law but we are under grace he says. And in the seventh chapter of that epistle to the Romans, you remember he works it out with a comparison. He says that a woman as long as her husband is alive is bound by that husband and to that husband and she cannot marry again but when the husband dies she is free and is able to marry again. She's no longer bound to that husband and by that husband. He says it's exactly like that with the law. Now we all of us are born under the law. There is the law of God facing us, challenging us and condemning us because of our failure and God deals with us by law. But if we are in Christ we are no longer under law, we are under grace.

16:43That doesn't mean of course that we no longer have to keep the moral law but it does mean this that our relationship to God is no longer a legal law relationship. It is a personal relationship, the relationship of father and child. Of course that the father, if he's a good father, will see to it that the child is disciplined and that he has to obey certain laws but it's the relationship that's changed. Men in sin is an alien from God and God deals with him in a purely legal manner but now no longer. Those of us who are in Christ have been brought right out of that realm, the law exacted its full punishment in full measure upon the Lord Jesus Christ and if we are in Him the law has no further demands upon me in that sense. I am no longer under law, I am under grace.

17:43That's your second deduction and what a tremendous thing that is for us to realise that we are in entirely new relationship to God and that we'll work out as we shall see later in certain practical respects that come there's a still most striking statement. The Apostle says that because we have risen with Christ we are now dead to sin. Did you notice that? In the second verse of that sixth chapter of Romans he asks the question you remember in the first verse what shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound and he answers by saying God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? As we have risen with Christ we are dead to sin. He says it again in verse 6. Knowing this that our old men is crucified with Him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin.

18:44And again he says it in the seventh verse for he that is dead is freed from sin. Well this is obviously a very important and a very vital statement. What does it mean? Well it clearly doesn't mean that we are all perfect and that we are without sin that we never sin again. We know that that is not true. And if we say that we are without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us as the Apostle John says in his first epistle. Well what does it mean then? In what sense is it true to say of a Christian that he is dead to sin? Well it's in this sense. The four we become Christians we are dead in trespasses and sins. That is Christians that is no longer true of us. Before we belong to the realm of sin, to the dominion of sin, to the whole territory

19:45of sin and we were under the power of sin. You remember our Paul is working out in detail. We were controlled by the lusts of the flesh. Knowing themselves as desires of the flesh and of the mind, our life was a sinful life. We were controlled by sin, dominated by sin, governed in various ways by these lusts and passions, mind and body. But that is no longer true of us. We are dead to that realm of sin. We are no longer there. We have been taken out of that. The sins shall not have dominion over you, he says. We no longer walk in trespasses and sins. That is what we used to do. We were dead in trespasses and sins. And he goes on to say in which we walked even as others, we all had our conversation in time passed in that way, but that is not true of the Christian.

20:46He doesn't spend his time there. He doesn't walk there, he doesn't exist there. He doesn't belong to that realm any longer. He's been taken right out of the realm. I say again, it doesn't mean he's perfect, but he's not in that realm. It's like a man moving from one country to another. It's like a man taking out naturalization papers. There is a complete change in his status, in his relationship to the state. And that is the thing that is true of the Christian. He no longer serves him. Or to use the apostles' illustration again, he is no longer the servant of sin. He was a complete slave before. And I trust I needn't re-emphasize this. We spent Sunday mornings in doing it, in considering the first three verses. So we like it or not. The fact is about every unregenerate person that he is the slave of sin.

21:50He is governed by an evil principle. Now then, that's no longer the case. We are no longer the slaves of sin. We have been taken right out of that. Of course we may still in our folly listen to the devil. We may still yield to temptation. We may still respond to a sinful impulse. But that doesn't mean that we are slaves to sin. We no longer are controlled. That's the principle. And it is in that sense that we are dead to sin. He that is dead is freed from sin. Well, very well. We have died with Christ. We have risen with him. We no longer belong to that particular realm. But I think if you examine your experiences, you will find that this is true. And it's a very remarkable and a very wonderful thing. There are many of God's people who don't realise this because they cannot draw the distinction between a temptation and the sin. Because their are evil thoughts insinuated into their minds, they think they're still

22:53in the realm of sin. They're not. They come from without at this point. Of course there are still things left in the body. And yet one realises that one's whole attitude is absolutely different. May I put it like this in an illustration? Do you remember the conquest of Canada in 1759? Do you remember the famous battle of Quebec, General Wolf against the French General Monkard? There was one battle and one great victory, the battle of Quebec. And as the result of that one battle, Canada became a British possession. But I think if you go on reading the history, you will find that the English, the British had to continue fighting in Canada for a long number of years. There were pockets of resistance left. Yes, but Canada was no longer French. It was British. But the fact that it had ceased to be French and it had become British didn't mean that there was no longer any struggle or fight.

23:55There was. But the one decisive battle changed the whole dominion and the right of possession. Now the Christian is something like that. He is no longer under sin. He is dead to sin in the matter of possession and dominion and control. He has been brought out. He's in this new life with his Lord and Savior. Or perhaps we can put this still better by putting it under the next heading in this way. The Apostle says in the sixth verse of this sixth chapter of Romans, knowing this that our old man is crucified with Christ. And the better translation is this. Knowing that our old man has been crucified with Christ, we know that, as Christians, that is true of us. What's it mean? What's the old man?

24:55Well, the answer to that, of course, is found in the previous chapter, the fifth chapter. The old man is the Adamic man. Is the man who was in Adam? You remember the comparison, don't you? We were all in Adam. We are the lineage descendants from Adam and we were all in him. He was again our federal head and representative, but not only that. We are bound to him by ties of flesh and blood and of descent. There is the same double union, federal and vital, all in Adam. And every one of us born into this world is born a child of Adam. We have an Adamic nature. Our standing before God is that of Adam. Adam fell. We all fell with him. We are under the wrath of God. We are subject to lusts and the control and the dominion of sin and Satan. The exacty as Adam was, that's the old man, the Adamic man.

25:56But we have died with Christ. And when we died with Christ, the old man, the Adamic nature, died also. And as a Christian, I am no longer in Adam. I am in Christ. I am a member of a new humanity. Christ is the first born amongst many brethren and I follow. I am in him. I am no longer in Adam. I am in Christ. What is this mean? Well, it means this and it's such a glorious truth. That God no longer looks at me as one who is in Adam. He looks at me as one who is in Christ. I am a new man. Of course, I am the same personality. And yet I know that I am a new, I am a different man. My whole position, my whole status and standing is absolutely different. I don't belong to that old humanity any longer.

26:58I am still in the flesh, but I am a member of a new humanity. That is what he means by saying that we know that our old men has been crucified with Christ. As I have said, I am no longer under the wrath of God. I am no longer under the law of God. I am no longer under the dominion of sin. I am no longer under the dominion of Satan. That's because I am no longer an Adamic man. That old man that I once was has gone and gone forever. Now the Christian must not be content with saying anything less than that. That is the simple primary truth about the Christian because he is in Christ. He is in Christ and not in Adam. The old man has gone. Now you notice that I am saying the old man.

27:59I am not saying that the sin that is in the body and in the flesh has gone. I am simply saying that as the entity that was in Adam, I am no longer there. I am an entity in Christ. Very well, there is the negative side, but let me come to the positive. We have been raised together with Christ. All that is no longer true. Well what is true? Well now then let's look at the positive. This is the most amazing thing of all. And what a contrast this is. We are sharing the life of Christ. We therefore become like Christ. And as Christians we are absolutely different from what we wear before. I use my terms of vizedly. We are absolutely and essentially different. In what respects? Well listen to how Paul puts it. Likewise, reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed and to sin but alive and to God through

29:03Jesus Christ. Here is the positive aspect. Having risen with Christ I am now alive and to God before I wasn't. Before I was dead in trespasses and sins. And you remember we saw that the definition of that term dead was this, that I was dead to God. And you see that is the terrible tragedy about every natural man who has not become a Christian, that he is dead to God. He is living a life as if there wasn't a God. He's not conscious of God. He has no relationship to God. He lives in this world as if there isn't a God. He doesn't believe there is a God and he goes on living accordingly. He's absolutely dead to God. But being risen with Christ we are alive and to God. And my dear friends that's the biggest thing you'll ever know about yourself is that you're alive and to God. You're in tune with the eternal. You've been awakened to something infinite and absolute.

30:05Have you seen the flower? There it is at night, it's closed and shut. The sun comes out and suddenly it begins to open and it's taking in its life from that glorious sun. That's what happens to the Christian. He's alive and to God. What's it mean? Well it means that we've got an entirely new attitude towards God. We are no longer at enmity with God. The apostle goes on in the eighth chapter of this epistle to the Romans to say that the natural mind, the natural man is enmity against God. Indeed in this very epistle to the Ephesians which we are studying we shall see that later Paul says that we were aliens and enemies in our minds through wicked works. And how true it is. But it's no longer true of the Christian. The Christian is no longer at enmity against God. He desires God.

31:07He no longer is the feeling that God is some terrible monster set against us waiting to crush us and to damn us and to destroy us. No, no. He's come to know God and to know that God is love and that God is mercy and kindness and compassion. He no longer like Adam after it sinned, runs away from God and Christ the hide in behind the trees, avoiding God at all costs. That's what the natural man still does, isn't it? The natural man does everything he can to avoid God. That's why he hates the thought of death. Death is the him the most terrible enemy. Why? Well it means that he's got a stand before God. He doesn't always put it in words, but he's got it in his bones. He knows it's true. And he hates death therefore. It means standing before God and he wants to avoid that he gets away from God. That's why he doesn't attend the place of worship. That's why he doesn't read the Bible. That's why he doesn't like funerals. God, it brings him near to him and he hates it.

32:10He's terrified and he avoids God. But not so the Christian as the heart can't death after the water Brooks. So my soul cryeth out to the e-my soul longeth and thirsteth for the living God. Water change, it is a change from death to life, isn't it? It's an absolute change as I said. It's an essential change. Is there a bigger change than this? That one now desires the being that one feared with a craving and a trembling fear. God becomes our father. And the greatest desire of the true Christian is to draw nearer and to God. Can you say that honestly this morning that the greatest thing you desire at this moment is to know God better?

33:12And to realize His presence if you can, you're a Christian, if you can't, you'd better examine the foundations again. Because when a man is in Christ he's got this new nature and this new nature cries out for God. Our Lord used to rise up long before the dawning of the day to pray to His Father, He'd stay up all night. His Father, He wanted Him, He enjoyed the communion and that's the characteristic of the Christian. He's alive. Unto God. Oh, think of the obvious illustrations. It's like one of these instruments. It isn't switched on, it's dead. But switch on and it becomes alive. This thing is receiving my voice. Why it's alive to me? But if you switch it off, it's dead. And that's how men was. He wasn't alive to God. But He's now alive to God. Sensitive to God. Desiring God. Loving God. Seeking God. Oh, that I knew where I might find Him is His cry. He cannot find God sufficiently. He doesn't know Him well enough.

34:13He's alive. Unto God. But not only is He alive unto God, He's walking in newness of life. What a wonderful phrase. It's the complete contrast, you see. To death, the Apostle puts it again in the first chapter of Ephesians in this way. He talks about the new men which after Christ is created in righteousness and through holiness. Well then, what is the truth about the Christian? Well, it's this. He's no longer walking in trespassies and sins. He's living this entirely new life, no longer governed by the flesh and its desires, but governed by this new outlook. How does it show itself? Let me summarize it for you. It shows itself in His mind. It shows itself in His heart. It shows itself in His will. Just listen to these lists. This is the way to tell with the other Christian honor.

35:15The Christian is one who, because He has risen with Christ, is walking in newness of life. And the man lives with his mind, his heart and his will. The Christian has got a new mind. What is it? Well, says Paul again in the 12th chapter of the Apostle to the Romans, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And the Christian has got a new mind. And it shows itself in these ways. He looks at everything in a different manner. He no longer thinks under in terms of time. He begins now to think in terms of eternity. The life of the man who's not a Christian is entirely bound by time. He never goes beyond it. He doesn't want to. He's afraid of that. Thoughts of the unknown born from which no travel or returns. That's what makes cowards of us all.

36:17Now he doesn't, he's not interested in eternity, but the Christian is. The Christianity is that this is a temporary life. It's only time eternity. His mind begins to play upon that, not only that. He now not only thinks in terms of the body and of the rational soul. He also begins to think in terms of the spirit. You see the man who's not a Christian. What do you think? How does he live? Well, this is his thought world, isn't it? The world and its knowledge and its culture and its art and its business and its pleasures and all those things. And so on, put everything you like into it. I don't want to keep anything out. Put everything you've got into it, I say. It's a life and an outlook that are bounded entirely by the body and by the rational soul and nothing beyond. But the Christian doesn't stop at that.

37:20He realises that within him there is that which is called spirit. There is that which makes him conscious of the fact that he belongs to another realm and to another sphere. And he begins to live more and more in that and less and less in this other. It isn't only time, it isn't only the material, its eternity, its the spiritual, its the everlasting. He's lifted up into an entire new thought realm. And he judges everything now in the light of this. He's got a new standard of values. He assesses things in an entirely different way. What he wants to know about anything now is this not what sort of a kick will I get out of it, not sort of what pleasure will I get out of it. He says, what's the value of this to my soul? How's this affect my relationship to eternity? How does this impinge upon my relationship to God and to Jesus Christ? You see, he looks at everything in a new way. He's got an entirely new standard of values because he's got this renewed mind in Christ.

38:26He's working in newness of life. Well, then another thing that's obvious is this. He's interested in the Bible in a way in which he wasn't before. He put every other book before the Bible, then he puts the Bible before every other book now. He realises that this is the only book that brings him to God and to a participation increasingly in the life of God. His mind begins to play upon this and it speaks to him and he revels in it and he grieves in it. He's moved by it. It's obvious. And he begins to find that he increasingly spends time in meditation. Oh, what a lost art. Meditations become. But the Christian meditates. He meditates. He stops the thing. He puts down his newspapers. He switches off his wireless and his television and he isn't rushing out to a cinema or a theatre constantly. He sits down and he thinks with himself about himself and God and the glory of eternity

39:28he's got a new mind. You see how what a complete opposite it is to the natural men? The one thing the natural men never does is to meditate. He does everything he can to avoid it and the world caters for him. It knows his need and it helps him to run away from himself and all these wonderful things new mind. But listen to the new heart. This man has got entirely new desires. This is what our Lord says about him blessed are they the two hunger and thirst after righteousness. So they shall be filled. His greatest desire now is not for mere pleasure and satisfaction for the moment. It is for righteousness for true holiness. He says with David create within me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. That's his greatest desire.

40:28Now I repeat that the greatest desire of the true Christian is to be clean within, to be pure, to be holy, to be righteous, to have a heart that is free from sin. And he is grieved on account of sin. He doesn't regard sin as just an annoyance and an nuisance now. He doesn't regard it as just that inevitable, comcomitant of pleasure and that which is illicit. Now no, he realizes now that sin is not an offense against a law. It's an offense against the love of God who so loved him as the sin is only be gotten sun to die for him. How do you regard your sins and your failures? What's the first thing that comes into your mind when you sin? Is it fear of punishment? If it is you're still under the law and you're thinking. If it's rather a feeling that you've grieved the one who loves you.

41:30Well then it's Christian thinking. The desires are absolutely new. They're no longer the desires of the flesh and of that sinful mind. They are desires, the desires of Christ himself to be well pleasing in his father's sight. He also has a desire for prayer. I don't want to depress anybody but if you've got new life in you, you'll want to pray in a way you never did before. You'll long to be a great prayer. You'll long to be so intimate with God that you'll soon have spent time speaking to God than anything else. Do you know the very beginnings of that? It's essentially true of the Christian prayer and fellowship with the saints. We know that we have passed from death to life as John because we love the brethren, the brethren, the children of Christ, the family of God. If people are interested in these things, they are the people we love and long for.

42:35And the other thing of course is concern about the souls of those who are outside and do know nothing about these things. You can't be a Christian without having that concern. They're dead in trespassies and sins. They're creatures of lust. They don't know it but we do know it. And there they are under the wrath of God. The people of Man is a Christian who's got a new nature. He has a desire for their salvation. He's concerned about them. He's burdened about them. Our Lord felt a great compassion for the people. He saw them as sheep without a shepherd. And the Christian of necessity must know something of that feeling. There's the change of heart. And then a word about the will. Isn't it obvious that he now exercises his will in a different direction and to please Christ and to please God? That's his question now, not what do I like, what do I want, but what is becoming in

43:40one who belongs to him? What is no longer a contradiction? Those are the things he now desires. The will negatively and positively is entirely renewed. Well there you are. We have been raised together with him. And because we have, we are different in mind. We are different in heart. We are different in will. May I leave with you a simple question as I close. Have you been raised? Have you been raised together with Christ? Are you alive to God? Have you an awareness of God? Do you know God? Do you desire Him? These are the vital questions. Recon yourself's therefore to be dead indeed unto sin. But alive unto God.

44:43Through Jesus Christ and if you are, this is the Apostle of Exortation. You will be ourselves therefore unto God as those that are alive from the dead. And you are members, your faculties as instruments of righteousness unto God. Before we used our faculties, we placed them at the disposal of these vital fossils. Now then since Paul is one who is alive from the dead, walking newness of life and give and dedicate all you have gotten your every faculty to the glory of God. The Christian is one with risen will Christ from the realm of sin, from the realm of death.