we're turning over in our Bibles to the New Testament, the book of Ephesians, and we're going to be reading today from the second chapter, Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 10. Ephesians chapter 2, beginning the first verse, and let us hear the Word of God. And you, he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. but God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved, and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the 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 in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. And raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. What a striking contrast we see here between what we once were in Adam and what God has now made us to be, believer in Christ. It's the difference of night and day. Back in Ephesians 1, Paul wrote of the exceeding greatness of God's power toward us who believe. And here in this chapter, Ephesians chapter two, we're told precisely what it is that the Lord has done with that exceedingly great power to help us, and how by means of that power he has changed us. When we couldn't do anything to help ourselves, God intervened and did more for us than we could ever begin to ask or even imagine. And today I want us to look at three of these things, three very particular things that the Lord our God has done for us. What are they? Three things. First, verse five, he made us alive. That's what we're told here, he made us alive. We're looking at the exceeding greatness of God's power toward us who believe this is the first thing we find. He made us alive. He didn't merely restore us to health as if our health had been failing somehow. He didn't revive us as if we were about to breathe our last. But oh look, he got to us just in time. No, it's nothing like that. We were dead, remember, spiritually dead. Dead in sin we were. Now what has the Lord done? We read that he made us alive. Had we been given everything but this, all the gifts of God would have been completely wasted upon us. Of what value are any gifts to dead people? They're of no value. But God made us alive. This is the thing you see. This is what we're looking at here. The Lord our God himself made us alive, even when we were dead in sin. So as he awakened us, to such gifts, as well as to their proper use and unsurpassing enjoyment. We speak of this as regeneration. This is the theological term for what we're talking about here. It's called regeneration, or the new birth. I tell you the truth, said Jesus, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. In the Old Testament, Circumcision was the outward symbol of this regeneration. Circumcision was the outward symbol of our being circumcised in heart. Under the old covenant, that's what regeneration was generally called, being circumcised in heart. Now, circumcision didn't actually produce this regeneration or this new birth. It was simply a symbol of that. but it was a very important symbol, and it spoke of how much we need to be regenerated, how much we need to be made a new creation. In the New Testament, Colossians chapter two, the covenant sign has changed to baptism, and it's there, Colossians two, called the circumcision of Christ. Very significant thing in itself. If the sign is changed, no longer circumcision, but now baptism, it's appropriate that here in Colossians chapter two, we should be told that baptism is the circumcision of Christ. Baptism is now the outward symbol, you see, of this regeneration. Baptism is the outward symbol of this new birth, this very special and wonderful work of the Holy Spirit on someone's heart and in his life, changing him, changing him completely from the inside out. Again, baptism, that is the sprinkling of water, doesn't produce this regeneration or new life, but it's a symbol of it, symbol of cleansing, symbol of how a change needs to come about in the person from the inside out, and how one dare not die without it. Now, this regeneration is not the same as conversion. There is a little difference here. But this new birth are being made spiritually alive and responsive to the calling of God is a prior work of the Holy Spirit. This is something that comes first, you see. This regeneration must come first. And it's what makes our conversion, our turning from sin to Christ, both possible and inevitable. You can tell someone apart from regeneration that he needs to seek refuge in Christ. and he doesn't care to hear anything of what you're talking about. He certainly doesn't want to do it. He doesn't want to commit his life to Christ. But you talk to someone who's regenerated, someone who's been made willing on a day of God's power, and you try to stop him. Christ is the very one he wants. And he comes to realize that he loves the Lord Jesus more than life itself. That's the thing, you see, he's made us alive. That's what we read here. Secondly, verse six, he raised us up. Again, if we're looking at the exceeding greatness of God's power toward us who believe, this is the second thing we're told in this passage, that he raised us up. God made us alive, dear Christian, but he has also raised us up. Now this is talking about our resurrection. Specifically, it's talking about our bodily resurrection. that resurrection of the body at the end of the world when Christ Jesus comes again. The day that Adam sinned, yes, he died spiritually. And several years later, he also died physically. And that's going to happen to us as well. However, when God rescues his people, he doesn't give us a partial salvation. No, he gives us a full and complete salvation. So then we are born again in time. Our spirits will go immediately to be with the Lord when we die. That's the first part of our resurrection. And more than that, our bodies, too, will be raised up at the end of the world. That's the other part of our resurrection. In heaven, beloved, our spirits and bodies will be gloriously reunited. They'll be brought together again. And so shall we be and forever live with the Lord. This is our hope. What a glorious, magnificent hope it is that God has been pleased to give us in Christ. This is our hope that serves as an anchor of the soul. This is our hope that God has been pleased to give us as we continue our journey through this valley of the shadow of death. And this hope is so beautifully expressed. We find it in different places throughout the Scriptures, Old and New Testament alike, but one of the places is way back in the Old Testament. It's expressed by Job. We find this in Job 19. Job chapter 19, Job said, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he shall stand at last on the earth, and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh, the body brought together again, I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. Oh, how my heart yearns within me. Oh beloved, this is the glorious hope of the people of God in every generation to the end of the world. And thirdly, also verse six, if you're still looking at verse six, he has made us sit in the heavenly places. We read of the exceeding greatness of God's power toward us who believe, and this is the third thing that we're told, the fact that he has made us sit in the heavenly places. And this finally is our exultation to glory. Not only are we resurrected, therefore, as I say, bodily resurrected, so that our spirits and bodies may be reunited, brought together again at the end of the world, but God has also exalted us, exalted us to a position of honor, and what an honor it is, what a blessing it is, what a position of unspeakable joy it is. We're given to sit in the heavenly places, to share in the eternal pleasures at God's right hand, where Christ himself is, to be like Christ at last, and to be with him, to be with him forever, and there's no better place we can possibly be. Adam died spiritually, as I say. He later died also physically, and without a mediator, If a mediator could not be found, he would have been condemned for all eternity. Ah, but a mediator has been found. God intervened for his people, for so many of Adam's fallen race. God was pleased to intervene when no other mediator could be found. God provided his own mediator. He provided his own dear son. The only mediator between God and men And this is the message of our text. When we were doomed for hell, without hope apart from God's redeeming love, the Lord intervened in our behalf, beloved. And by the finished work of Christ, he gave us a place, he gave us a home and inheritance in the sacred presence of the majesty on high. Now these are the three things that God has done for his people. that we're told about very specifically here in this passage. This is what he did for us when we were, as I say, dead in sin, when we were governed by the world, when we were under the spell of Satan and unable to do any of this for ourselves. He made us alive. He raised us up. And he seated us in the heavenly places. Now someone may say, Well, I understand what you mean that God has made us alive. Yes, he has regenerated us, his people. He's made us willing in a day of his power. He's made us to be a new creation in Christ Jesus, whereby we come running to him. But what do you mean that he has raised us up? That he has raised us physically, that he's raised our bodies? What do you mean that he's made us sit with him in the heavenly places? Don't you mean to say that he will do these things? Not that he has, but that he will. Groveling here in the dust below and afflicted in so many ways, we haven't yet experienced that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, that our present suffering is working for us. In other words, we know something of the sufferings of this present time all right, some people certainly more than others, but we've all tasted to some degree some measure of the suffering of this world that Paul writes about in Romans 8 verse 18. But we don't know, we haven't experienced that incomparable glory which is yet to be revealed in us and revealed to us. So what are you talking about? And what exactly is Paul referring to here in verse six where he speaks of God having raised us up, of his having made us sit with him in the heavenly places? Well, fair enough. There is a practical sense in which our bodily resurrection and exaltation to glory are yet future. That's very true. And yet the apostle, you notice, puts all three of these in the past. He puts all three in the past, doesn't he? He treats them all as completed action. And what's more, he deliberately treats them all as completed action. And frankly, there's no other way of translating what we find here. There's no other way. Just as God has made us alive, so also he has raised us up, believer, and he has seated us in glory. The question is, why does Paul treat these actions as if they were all past events? Well, I'll tell you why. There's a difference between what we see in practice and what we have in law. What we have in law, that is our legal standing, and it's our legal standing before God that is being addressed here. To answer this important question, Why does Paul treat these actions as if they were all past events? We have to observe something that we're told in this passage. It's just a little thing, but we need to note it very carefully. It's the kind of thing we could very easily and quickly pass over, but we need to be careful that we don't do that. We need to look at it. It's just a phrase, but it's the most significant phrase that we find here. What is it? God has not only made us alive, you'll notice, but he has made us alive together with Christ. Did you see that? Did you notice that as we were reading it? The Lord our God has made us alive together with Christ. This is the phrase, we find it here in verse five, together with Christ, which unlocks the whole passage. If we look at it carefully, and it brings it all to view. The point is not that God brought his Christ back to life, that he resurrected him, as it were, and so gave us now the possibility of finding our life in his life. No, it's something more than that. It's something much more than that, and much better than that. God has made us alive, we're told, together with Christ. That is, on the third day, when Jesus moved in the tomb, we moved with him. We moved with him. In other words, our life and breath and heartbeat was, legally speaking, from that very hour in that very place. Do you see what I'm saying? This is legal language, if you like. That's what we have, what God has declared in our being justified by faith and as lawfully ours as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Similarly, you'll notice God has raised us up. Again, how has he raised us up? Together with Christ. It's together with Christ, the same thing. As he made us alive with him, our spiritual life, beloved, is in Christ, so God has resurrected our bodies with him as well. And even more, he has also exalted us with him. Everything we have, you'll notice, everything we've been given, including the resurrection of our bodies from the grave and our exaltation to glory, to live and reign with Christ forever, it places us together with Christ himself. And it's ours, all ours, because of him. It doesn't matter that our physical resurrection and exaltation are yet future events. We don't know the day and the hour. The point is that we have these blessings, we can be sure of them. Why? Because God the Father placed us right there with his own dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ, when he secured these blessings for us. Being in Christ, moreover, there's no way that we can ever be deprived of them. There is a legal sense in which all this happened, and that's what we need to see here. That's what our attention is being drawn to as we look at this passage. On the third day when God raised Jesus, having loosed the pains of death, we're told, because it was not possible that he should be held down by it, God raised us with him. He is our substitute. He is the one who has taken our place. He is the one who has been offered up in our stead. But the legal language with that declares that we were with him. Now, congregation, right today, and this is true for believers everywhere, death can no more hold us down than it could hold Jesus himself down, and it's for that very reason. Beloved of the Lord, I want you to think about this. I want you to weigh it in your mind. I want you to consider it very carefully. Just as you and I were with Adam when he disobeyed God, when he ate the forbidden fruit and got us into trouble, and we were with Adam, the Bible says we were in the loins of Adam, So you and I were with Jesus too, the last Adam as he's called, when he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. We were there when God raised him from the dead. We were there when he ascended on high. You can say then, believer, you can say as no unbeliever could ever say, at least he could never say it as long as he's an unbeliever, I am crucified with Christ. I am crucified with Christ. God made me alive with Christ. He raised me up and seated me in glory with Christ. Everything he did for the Lord Jesus, he did also for me. And I have these benefits because he put me right there with him. Oh believer, doesn't it thrill your heart to think of it? Doesn't it flood your soul with peace and joy and believing just to know that it's true? You and I were dead in sin. We were dead because of sin. Going nowhere but sinking ever deeper into the mire for our aggravated offenses. But God, that's what our text says. And how beautifully it says it. Because it's our attention that needs to be drawn to this. But God, he's the one who makes all the difference. He's the one who initiated this. He's the one who performed it. He's the one who completes it. But God reached down to where we were. God reached to us in our helplessness and hopelessness, and He gave us life, an eternal life, a life filled with all the infinite riches of God's grace and glory. And, oh, to be with Him for all eternity. There is here a very practical consideration, something that touches us right where we are and how we live. As I say, we're looking at the legal side of things in all of this. But even here in the legal side of things, there is a practical side as well. It touches on this. Because God has joined us to Christ and made us to be with him, we're no longer citizens of this world. But beloved of the Lord, we are now and forever citizens of heaven. That's a present reality, a very practical kind of thing that changes our life in all kinds of ways. And the more we think about it, the more we realize just how true that is. We're no longer citizens of the world, but we're citizens of heaven. That's what Paul is gonna talk about in the second half of this chapter, Ephesians 2, starting verse 19. But notice it comes out of what he's talking about right here, right here. We have been raised and exalted with Christ that makes us citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Does it thrill your heart to think about it? Does it cause you to rejoice? To think of those privileges, what honors have been bestowed upon you? The riches of God's grace and glory given to you. We haven't seen heaven yet. We know that we haven't seen heaven yet, really know enough about it. But we've already been rescued from the dominion of darkness. And we've been brought as citizens no less, as actual citizens into the eternal kingdom of God's dear son. Consider what Paul tells us in Philippians chapter three. Philippians 3, verses 20 and 21. Our citizenship is in heaven. That's what he writes. Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to his glorious body, according to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. There it is, our citizenship is in heaven. That's what we're told. Not will be, notice, but is, present tense, right now. This is what we have. Believer, it doesn't matter, therefore, whatever happens to you in this foreign land. And right at the present time, believer, no matter where you live upon the face of the earth, it is a foreign land, it's foreign to you. You have rights in your homeland, you see. You have rights, legal rights in heaven itself. And you are thus under the sovereign protection of its government. The world may tell you what to do. How often the world loves, delights in telling Christians what to do. The world may even try to force you, if it can, to do what it demands. But you have no ultimate responsibility to the world. Now let's be careful here. I'm not saying that you may behave in an irresponsible manner, but what I am saying, rather, is that your responsibility, beloved, your responsibility as a citizen of the kingdom of heaven is to your own king, the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever responsibility you have to give unto Caesar, the things that are Caesar's, therefore, is derived from your responsibility to serve Christ himself, who is the only king and head of the church. Now, what is it that our Lord has commanded us in his word? We're to obey these temporal authorities, aren't we? These heads of government and so on that have been placed over us. Yes, we are to obey them. But we're not to obey them as if that's somehow an end in itself. We're to obey them, rather, as a means of our serving Christ, as a means of obeying Christ, as a means of doing what is right and good and pleasing to Him, we're to obey them. And if the earthly authority should issue a command that is contrary to the word of God, then scripture is also very clear that we are to obey God rather than men. Isn't it wonderful, beloved, to be a citizen of the kingdom of heaven? Once you were dead in sin, believer, but now you're dead to sin, dead to the world and its ways. The Bible says that your life as a Christian is hid with Christ in God. And I tell you, there's nothing that can affect your whole life and manner of living more than that. Of course, there are responsibilities and expectations that go along with that, that go along with that new citizenship that we now have. And the Bible is also very clear about this. We read, for instance, turning over to Ephesians chapter 5, Ephesians 5, we're told, for you were once darkness, but now are you light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth, proving what is acceptable to the Lord. And reading on in that same chapter, Ephesians 5, we see, see then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. But it's not simply that the Lord has instructed us to live such a life. The point is that he has given us the grace. He's given us the power. He's given us the will. He's given us the desire to live such a life. He's empowered us. He's not simply called us, but also equipped us. By the grace of God, we might live such a life. Oh, but you're an unbeliever, perhaps. I'd like to close this afternoon by speaking very directly to any unbelievers who may be in our midst, sitting among us today. Unbeliever, you don't know the Lord, and you don't know his Christ whom he has sent, and if that's the case, if you're an unbeliever, it is indeed the case, you are still, even now, dead in trespasses and sin. You're still a citizen of this world and in bondage to its ways. You're still an object of God's wrath, his fierce wrath, as we all once were. You may think, unbeliever, because of the terrible plight of your soul, that you may as well just curse God and die. Remember, that's what Job's wife counseled her husband to do. Curse God and die, she said. Don't you do it, unbeliever, don't you do it. God who has raised others to life and some more vile and wretched than you is able to breathe new life into your soul as well. You say that your sin is very great. Well, you're right. You're absolutely right. Your sin is very great. Let's face it. Let's be honest about it. Your sin is far greater than you've ever really considered or could imagine it to be. But here's the thing, God's grace is even greater. And unbeliever, that's what you need to know. That's what the scriptures teach. As great as your sin may be, whatever it is you have done, whatever it is you have failed to do, God's grace can conquer that. God's grace can cancel that. God's grace can make a new person out of you. Wake up, O sleeper, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. The same God who calls you to wake up and come to Christ is able to give you the grace to do precisely that. And I'll tell you this, unbeliever, if a time should come when you do flee to Christ, you turn from your sin, you flee to Christ for refuge, it will be because God has made you alive. It'll be because he has regenerated you, given you a new life, a new will, a new desire, a new outlook, a new longing. and a desire for Christ. Won't you humble yourself then? Won't you turn from those wicked ways and live? Come to Christ, unbeliever. Commit all that you are and have to him who promises to all who do come to him that he will not cast anyone away. Come to the Saviour, make no delay. Hear in His word, He's shown us the way. Here in our midst, He's standing today, tenderly saying, come. Amen.