And since this is not an expositional sermon, I'm going to be going a lot of different places in scripture. Some places I'll ask you to turn with me, but some I'm going to go rather quickly through. So see if you want to turn there and keep up, you can try. So this is about Christ in you. I'm just going to begin a couple verses before, kind of in the middle of verse 25, when Paul says, I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God. Even the mystery which hath been hid from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. So we are often reminded in Sermons, I think, much more preached, and you hear brought up a lot more, is how we are in Christ. We talk about adoption, for example. We are adopted into his kingdom. We are adopted into his family. And that's one of the tenets of Reformed faith, is the idea of being adopted. But we are in Christ, even in Colossians 2, verse 10. It says, we are complete in him. So there's that idea of we are in Christ, we are complete in him. But my focus this morning is the various passages that talk about Christ is in us. And what does that mean? There's two parts to that I want to cover. And this is only partial because it's so vast. But I want to talk, what does it mean as far as the state of our soul? And then on the practical side, how should that affect us? How should that affect our actions? Just quickly though, this verse in 26 might be a little confusing. I wanted to just clarify that a little bit. The word mystery is actually used twice, 26 and 27. It doesn't mean the mystery of something incomprehensible, as we use the term today. It's talking about something that's unknowable outside of God revealing something to make it understood. So the Jews understood the gospel, but only partially. And the Gentiles really didn't know it at all. So the meaning is the mystery is the full revealing of the gospel. So Christ has come, the gospel is now revealed as the plan of redemption is revealed through Jesus Christ. So the mystery is that Christ has come to be our savior and he lives in both Jew and Gentile alike and he is our hope of glory. And we'll talk about the hope of glory just very briefly. 95% of this is about Christ in us. But what does it mean when Christ is not in us? And I think Chris mentioned the one word, which was, I think, what was the word you used? Start with an A, because I'm gonna be doing alliteration on the word A, and almost everything you do just to limit the scope of this. And you used the word of what it meant when we were outside, but I don't remember which word it was now. But in verse 12, In Colossians 121, just look a little bit back, it says, and you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. So without Christ in us, our state is we are alienated. There's my first A word as we go through this. So outside, we start outside our Christ, we are alienated. But there's also another word. Alienated means isolated. estranged from somebody. Our affections are not toward God. Our affections are toward something other than God. And not only our affections on things on earth, but it says here we're also enemies. And that brings up to another A word, and that's adversary. So in each of these sections, as I go through these A, I'm just going to pick out two or three verses to illustrate the different words I'm going to bring out, and it's certainly not exhaustive. So as an adversary, it means we're an opponent in a conflict or a dispute. We're an opponent in our natural, sensible state. Well, let me turn this on. In our natural sinful state, we are opposed to the things of God. It says in James 4, ye are adulterers and adulteresses. Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is an enemy of God. So there we have our adversarial in a summary. So just that was brief on what it means and what our natural state is. So I really want to focus on what's our state when Christ lives in us and how do we, a few things I just want to bring out there. My first A word is accord. When Christ is in us, we are no longer alienated. We have a new state. And that new state is the opposite of alienated, which I'm gonna use the word accord. It's translated reconciled, as we read at the end of Colossians 121. So when we are accord with something, accord with God, we have a harmonious relationship. And what do you think of as a harmonious relationship? I think of one that is loving and peaceful. And 2 Corinthians 13 kind of brings that together in verse 11. Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind. Live in peace, and the God of love and peace shall be with you. So that's our accord with Christ. We live at peace with God as opposed to being an enemy. But we are also accepted, that's our second word. We are accepted, Ephesians 1. I'm going to read verses 3 through 6. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him, so here's our in him part, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ himself according to his good pleasure of his will. So there you see us in Christ. But verse 6, to the praise, this is the purpose, to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. And the verb here, made us accepted, is only found in one other place in the New Testament, and that's Luke 1.28. And it's translated there, highly favored. So you can see that we are no longer alienated. We are, when Christ is in us, we are accepted. We are highly favored among the men of the earth. And we can never be accepted by God on our own accord. Apart from Christ, we cannot be accepted. We become accepted by Him when we rid ourselves of self-righteousness and self-centeredness and realize that our works will always fail, they'll always fall short. We need a Savior if our works, we don't need a Savior if our works somehow get us into heaven, but we know we can't. We are accepted when we repent of our self-centered thinking and put our faith in Jesus Christ. At that moment, We are accepted, and we are justified in the eyes of God. We are also accepted into the family of the beloved. And that kind of relates to the next A phrase, and that's we're approved of men. And Romans 14, if you turn there quickly, verses 17 and 18, really has both terms, both accepted and approved. The kingdom of God is not meat or drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serve Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men. Well, approved of men, he means those that are godly and righteous judgment. Obviously, those outside Christ are not going to approve of us in the way that the Word is talking about here. Those who are followers of Christ, those who have Christ in them will esteem others who also have Christ in them. We know that. There's a verse that says, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman, and I'm going to get to that workman part in a bit, that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. We're here commanded to diligently seek to present ourselves as approved to God. So whatever others may judge us in our service to the Lord, we are to be workmen that don't need to be ashamed. Ashamed by what we believe, by what sometimes we're unfaithful or doubting. We don't need to be ashamed. We're under no condemnation of the world. We don't need to be ashamed of our carelessness, our lukewarmness, our laziness, our discontentment, so many other ways. We should be repentant of those things, yes. But ashamed is almost like a condemnation and like we're in utter ruin. So there's a balance there. We know that we are approved of God and we have to remember that in our faith. There's one person you see this phrase used in Romans 16.10, it says, salute a palace approved in Christ. That's the only time he's mentioned. We don't know anything about him. But we can suppose by inference that he is, here's an example of one approved in Christ. He must have given many proofs of this through his sincerity and his zeal. Otherwise Paul wouldn't recommend that he be warmly greeted and welcomed. So that's all we know about him, but his name is worthy of being in God's word because he was approved in Christ. And then 1 Corinthians 11, 18. When you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you, and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. So you can see that when Christ is in us, we are his, and it will become evident to those around us that Christ is in us. It will become manifest to the brethren and to those that don't have Christ in them. And obviously those who don't will not approve of us and what we believe. And the next A word I want to cover quickly is acquired. And there's two parts to acquired. The first is we are acquired by Christ. In Acts 20, 28 it says, take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers. Now this is talking about the overseers, but it says to feed the church of God which he hath purchased. And that's our word acquired, same meaning. He has purchased the church with his own blood. Ephesians 1, 13 and 14, start in the middle of 13, you're sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest. Okay, that's a payment. That's what earnest means here. He is our earnest for our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory. Here's the purchased possession here is God's people. That's what he's referring to, possession. We are acquired by God to be his peculiar people. But we also have acquired righteousness. Certainly not because of our own merits, but only because Christ is in us. This is what we term imputed righteousness. In Romans 3, verse 20, it said, therefore by the deeds of the law, there shall be no flesh be justified in new sight, for the law is the knowledge of sin. But now, the righteousness of God without the law is manifested. What is that? It says that in a second. Being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ. So the righteousness of God without the law is Jesus Christ. Unto, or into, all that is. and upon all that believe. So we have acquired righteousness, not by anything, good deed or action on our part, except that God purchased us to be his possession, and we have faith in his son. We have acquired righteousness only because of the free gift of Christ's righteousness when Christ is in us. Now turn to Romans 8. I'm gonna spend a little bit here. I'm going to begin in Romans 8, verse 9. Verse 9, ye are not of the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God, now this is the Greek word theou, or theos. So it's talking about the Spirit of God, not the Spirit of Christ. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, now the Greek word there is Christos. So two different, we're talking Spirit of God and Spirit of Christ. The Holy Spirit versus the Spirit of Christ. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ or the Spirit of Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. So the spirit is life because of righteousness. Whose? Whose righteousness? Is it ours? Well, if you'll notice, the word spirit in verse 10 is capitalized. And that's because it's not our own spirits that give us spiritual life. This must be coming from the spirit of Christ. I believe that verse 10, when it says the spirit, I believe it's referring to the spirit of Christ. and his righteousness. So it says the body is dead because of sin. Yes, the body is appointed to die even though we have Christ in us and we are in Christ. That doesn't exempt us from the sentence of death passed on all of mankind because of sin. Certainly death entered into the world because of sin, but the Spirit breathed into us, and He breathed into us life. We read in one of our, or sang in one of our hymns about that, breathing into us, the Holy Spirit breathing into us. We are quickened, and we are made alive to God. After death of the body, we continue living, but we're now in glory because of His righteousness, and our righteousness only attained because of Christ's righteousness in us. John 16 says this and helps clarify this to some degree. How be it when he, the spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth. Now this is the Holy Spirit we're talking about. The Spirit's going to guide us into all truth. He shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak. And he shall show you things to come. He, meaning the Holy Spirit, will glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you. So the Holy Spirit enters us to testify of Christ, and the Holy Spirit is in us. But Christ enters into us as well. So that we may have life and union with him. And we'll talk about more on this union in a bit, but I want to continue on this idea of the spirit of life. So that's another word, alive. We encounter life, alive. Now I want to compare something here. Let's turn to Ezekiel chapter 37. I turned right to it. I did that. Here in Ezekiel 37, Ezekiel prophesied about a time when the spirit of the Lord would be placed within the people and they would become alive after being dead spiritually. We are seeing the vision of the valley of dry bones. It's a picture of the nation of Israel as it says in verse 11. And the nation is pictured as dead and dry with no hope of life. No hope coming from themselves because of their sins. They're cut off, they're alienated from God. But God put a spirit in them and they became alive. The spirit of life here is a picture of our life when Christ is in us. So I'm gonna read not every verse but skip a few here. 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 the 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. Now speaking of our life outside Christ, it's dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. And again he said unto me, prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. I'm going to jump down to verse 10. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet. and 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. We are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, thus saith the Lord God, behold, all my people, I will open your graves and cause you to come out of your graves and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves O my people, and brought you out of your graves, and shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land. Then shall ye know that I am the Lord, and have spoken it and perform it, saith the Lord. So God would raise his nation back to life, even though it was dead because of sins. And in the same sense, God brings us back to life, being dead in our sins. And this life comes from Christ who is in us. And John 14 says this, starting in verse 18. I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more. But ye see me, because I live, ye shall live also. And that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. So Paul here is speaking positionally, meaning the state of our soul, but he's also speaking relationally with this. We are joined with Christ. We have a relationship with him. And in that relationship, we become alive spiritually. If we're not ruled by Christ and joined to him, then we do not belong to him. It said that in an earlier verse we saw in Romans 8. We do not have a relationship with Christ if we are not dead to ourselves and ruled by the law of Christ. As it says, if any man have not the Spirit, he is none of his. And this word have, if anyone have not the Spirit, it's more than just a quick connection. It's a continuing verb. It's a continuous connection to Christ. And without this continuing connection, we don't belong to Christ. The next word I want to bring out is, the next A word is allied. And allied is another word for union or unity. And we alluded to that in another song we sang this morning. But let's turn to Romans 6. In verse 3. It says, have ye not that so many of us were baptized into Jesus Christ and were baptized unto his death? Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life. There is that life in us. And verse five is going to key off here. For if we have been planted together, and there's the unity, there's my unity, we're planted together, in the likeness of his death, If we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. So planted together, how many classical music fans are there here? Most people, I would say most people raise their hands. That word planted together means conjoined or united. Working together. Together to serve a purpose together. The word is symphatoi. Where we get the word symphony. And that makes sense when you think of that. So that's what planted together in that context means. There's another word that I want to bring up. There's more than one, but one in particular is called metachoi. That means sharing, or being partners, partners with somebody, or allies. And in Hebrews 3.14, it says, we are made partakers of Christ. And that word there is medichoi, we are partners. I think there's several verses in the New Testament talking about partakers. And generally that means we're companions, we're partners. We are made allies of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. My next A word is advantage. Christ in me gives me an advantage and victory over the devil. We see that in 1 John 4, in verse 3. Every spirit that confesseth not that Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now is already in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. So you see here we have an advantage over that spirit of Antichrist and those who don't have Christ in them. We have the advantage of having the truth. We saw that in a previous verse we covered. We have the advantage of having our souls in God's hands. We have the advantage of having God lead us. We have the advantage, as spoken here, that greater is he that is in us and greater and more powerful than the devil, which is what is referred to as he that is in the world. Another A word is assurance. Assure means persuaded, fully confident. Hebrews 11 verse 1 is very familiar. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. The word substance is hupostatis, and I'm not the best at Greek words, but it means a solid foundation. a firm confidence, an inner certainty, thus assurance. Faith is the assurance or inner certainty of things hoped for. And the word hope, as we know in the New Testament, doesn't mean wishful thinking. Hoping or the word hope means a certain expectation. That's really what today's world we think of hope and all we think of is wishful, something we wish for. That's not really what the meaning is when we generally read that word in the New Testament. And we just read in Hebrews 3.14 how we are made partakers of Christ. If we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end, that steadfast confidence. If we are true believers, we will have steadfast confidence. That's promised to us, and it's a gift to us that we can have that confident assurance. In 1 John 3, Verse 23, this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he has commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in us. That's the abiding, which I'll get to in a minute. He that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him and he in him, Christ in us. And hereby we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given us. There is the free gift of the spirit. And that then leads to my last A word, talking about our state, and that is the word abide. So that's what Chad had brought out, that I was gonna be talking about abiding. And what does that really mean? Well, the word abiding, of course, is another word for dwell that we read a couple times here in 1 John that I just read, but also in that Romans 8 passage. But I want to turn to John 15, if you would, with me. Verse 3, John 15. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine and ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered. And men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. Now there's various forms of the Greek word meno here. It's translated abide. It also in some places means remain, or continuing, enduring, or stay with. Like I'll say to Gary, where are you staying when you go to Boston? Where are you residing? There's a sense of permanence to some degree. Paul uses that same verb, that same word, When he talks about in 1st Romans 7, 17, he says, so now it is no longer I who do this, but sin that dwells in me. Wow, sin does dwell in us. Well, how can we have sin dwell in us and Christ dwell in us? Isn't that a conflict? How can that be? Well, certainly it does. Sin dwells in us, but when Christ is in us, we will not be brought unto the power of any of those sins or passions that also dwell in us that are contrary to Christ. We read that in 1 Corinthians 6.12 when it talks about, I don't have the passage, but all things are All things are acceptable, but not all things edify, and I will not be brought under the power of any." He's talking about that inner sin that dwells in us. We won't be brought under the power of those sins, we'll be brought under the power of Christ. And we see here in John 15, his words abide us. You see that in verse 7, if my words abide in you. And you see his love abides in us in verse 9 and 10. And as we have already read in lots of passages, his spirit abides in us. It means we have a life. We are alive. We have a higher purpose to pursue. And we will bear fruit for the Lord, as it says here in verse 5 of John 15. But abiding also means we have a connection, an affiliation. There's another word. We have an affiliation, a connection. It means we have a life-giving connection We use this often to talk about how the branch is connected to the vine and the vine to the branch. And theologians talk about this often as our union with Christ. And this union is mutual, you see. We abide in him and he abides in us. If there's no connection, there's no life and no good fruit will come from us. So we see it's also a continuing connection. And as I said earlier, the word abide means to remain or stay or continue. So abiding is this continuous relationship with Christ. So that then is just a brief summary survey, if you will, using a number of A words, to see what our state of our soul is when we're in Christ. But then I want to talk about what's our response? What are we to do? How does this guide us? How does this direct us? So this is the practical application part of it. My first word I want to bring out is the word acknowledgment. Webster's defined this in his 1828 dictionary to own, to avow, to admit to be true, to assent to, to recognize, to perceive, to discern. So we have two ways, two major ways that we can apply acknowledgment in an application of Christ in us. One is we are to acknowledge our sin. And we, in Jeremiah 3, we see an invitation to Israel to acknowledge their sin. Jeremiah 3, the second half of verse 12, return thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you, for I am merciful, saith the Lord. I will not keep anger forever, only, so unless, Do this, acknowledge thine iniquity that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God. So there is an invitation, an invitation to Israel to acknowledge their iniquity as we ought to when Christ is in us. Later on in Jeremiah, chapter 14, they do that. Israel has a prayer, they pray for mercy. They say, we acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against thee. So we are also to acknowledge or assent to, is how I'd like to think of it, we assent to God and the truth, his truth. We see that in Proverbs 3.6, in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy path. Assent to him, which means we assent to his truth. He is true. In Matthew 10, verse 32, whosoever therefore shall confess me. Now the word confess is translated acknowledgement in a couple places in the New Testament. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before man, him, I will confess also before my father which is in heaven. So confess has that idea, the meaning of acknowledgment. And in 1 John 2, there's one of the places he translates, well, the King James translates it, acknowledgment. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. But he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. So that's the same Greek word as confess here. The next word for our practical application is attentiveness. I'm going to spend a little time on this because I thought it just kind of gripped me here. I want to see a negative example of inattentiveness. So turn to Isaiah 30. Now I think everybody's well aware that Isaiah was dealing with an inattentive people here. In Isaiah 30, verse 8, it says, Isaiah's given this commandment. Now go, write it before them in a table. So there's a written warning. Go write this in a table and note it in a book that it may be for the time to come forever and ever. And here's the purpose. Here's what the warning is. That this is a rebellious people. Lying children. Children that will not hear the law of the Lord. And this is the warning. This is the warning about being inattentive. This rebellious people is given a warning as we can see. Then in a few verses down, if you go to 13, we see what the consequences of being inattentive are. Think of a breach as a dam. A breach, a dam ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking come as suddenly as an instant. Think of a dam that has just been breached, collapsed. He shall break it as the breaking of the potter's vessel that is broken in pieces. He shall not spare, so that there shall not be found in the bursting of, assured to take fire from the hearth, or to take water without out of the pit. It's utterly ruined. There's the consequences. The judgment is passed upon the nation of Israel because they were inattentive to what God was trying to teach them. And the judgment that was complete ruin and very sudden, and that's a strong warning to us today, that we must be attentive to what God teaches us. And part of that attentiveness is when we are chastised. We're chastised through sometimes elders, sometimes it's our spouse, maybe a friend, even our children sometimes can be a chastisement to us. Even enemies, we see sometimes in scripture that enemies are used for our chastisement. It may just be the consequences God puts us under. However it comes, whatever form it comes in, we must let us be ready to accept his chastisement, let us be attentive. Now in a positive note of attentiveness is the book of Proverbs. That's full of this and I'm just going to bring one verse or one section in Proverbs 1 since you can find it many places on how we should be attentive. Sorry, Proverbs 1.5, a wise man will hear and will increase learning and a man in understanding shall attain unto wise counsels. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. We know in the New Testament, Christ is, he said, Christ is the wisdom and the power of God. There's the wisdom. We need to be, we need, as Mark 4, 23 says, a very familiar verse, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. So there's our command to be attentive. Now I want to show a positive example of attentiveness. Turn to 1 Samuel 3. I'm not going to read the whole passage here, obviously. In verse 1, it says, the child, verse 1 of 1 Samuel 3. The child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli, and the word of the Lord was precious in those days. There was no open vision. What does that mean? Well, this is a time when God was silent, no to be silent, to the public leaders of that time. He wasn't open to the open public leaders. That's what it means, no open vision. And this silence was a result of the corruption from the priests. They had fallen. And through their evil example, a large part of the nation was fallen as well. But you see here Samuel consistently ministering to the Lord, as it says, despite the low spiritual state of the nation. So then the Lord calls Samuel twice, and he goes to Eli. And I want to pick up in verse 7. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord. And I understand this to mean he didn't recognize the Lord's voice. He knew of the truth of the Lord, but he didn't recognize him in that manner. So he did not yet know the Lord, understand his voice. Neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed to him. Well, we knew he had the word of the Lord, so I believe this means it wasn't revealed to him in that manner that the Lord was speaking. So he didn't see that this is Lord talking. There are other possibilities that some commentators, but that's the one I think makes the most sense. in light of another verse we'll come to. And the Lord called Samuel again a third time. And he rose and went to Eli and said, Here am I, for thou didst call me. And Eli perceived. So here now Eli sees. And that's why I think it's talking about he didn't recognize his voice. So Eli recognized it and said to Samuel, he said, therefore Eli said unto Samuel, go, lie down, and it shall be, if he shall call thee, that thou shalt say, speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place. And the Lord came, verse 10, the Lord came and stood and called us other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, speak, for thy servant heareth. So there's a positive example of somebody who's attentive. And this ties very well to what I said in Mark 4.23, if a man have ears to hear, let him hear. In Deuteronomy 12.28, observe and hear these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee and with thy children after thee forever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord God. So let us be attentive to what God has to teach us. Next is when Christ is in us, we are to be active, we are to act, we are to be animated. Three different, three words, or A words. For this I'm gonna just go to James 2 verse 21. Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seeing thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect. This word rot means to cooperate together, to work together. See how faith works together with works? They go together. And by works was faith made perfect. You see, active, we need to be active. And that word rot there, that I said means cooperate, is the word synergie, which is synergy. That's when we get the word synergy. So you can see, faith has to work. There are works that go with faith. They have to go together. As 2 Corinthians 6, 1, we then as workers together with him beseech you also that you receive not the grace of God in vain. So Paul's talking to the Corinthians. We are workers together. Now as we saw this warning about being inattentive to God and a negative example, we also have warnings against being inactive. And warnings about not doing those things that would be pleasing to God. And as we saw consequences about being inactive or inattentive, we also have a verse that tells us the consequences of being inactive. And where do I get this? The word I'm interested in is first found in 1 Timothy 5, 6. She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth. And this is intended as a warning to us. That phrase, liveth in pleasure, is one Greek word. And it means living in self-indulgence, self-focus, self, self, self. We find that word, living in pleasure, in only one other place in the New Testament. That's in James 5, verse 5. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth. There's our word, living in pleasure. You have lived in pleasure, self-focused, self-indulgent, and been wanton. So there's a result. You live in self-pleasure, but you're still wanton. You're not satisfied. You're never satisfied. You always want more and more. If you read the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, one of his conjectures, I'll say, is he says one of the main reasons that they fell is because of that reason. They were constantly setting the bar higher and higher for their entertainment to the point where we had the Coliseum. They just couldn't get enough. They were never satisfied. That is a picture of living in pleasure on the earth. But it goes on. He said, you have nourished your hearts. So you're self-focused. You're not looking at the hearts of others. You're not outward. As in the day of slaughter, there's the consequences again. A day of slaughter. Do we not believe there are consequences if we're not active or attentive? God makes it clear that there are the consequences. Now, in the positive, Philippians 2. Verse 13, for it is God which worketh in you. Turn to this verse, Philippians 2.13. It's an interesting verse. I'd like you to take a look at this. Philippians 2.13, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do his good pleasure. What's interesting is it's the same Greek word here for worketh and to do. In that Greek word, worketh is energon, which means energize. And to do is energein, energize, where we get energon, energy. It is God which energizes in you both to will and to energize you to do his good pleasure. Same Greek root, where we get energy from. Galatians 5, 6. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love. There's our same Greek word. Next A word, I'm going a little long here, but articulate. We need to speak of him. If Christ is in us and our words abide in us, we'll have something to talk about to others. Example, this is Peter and John before the council in Acts 4. Now, Lord, behold their threatenings. This is a prayer. This is what they're praying for. Lord, behold their threatenings. Grant unto thy servants that with boldness they may speak thy word. By stretching forth thy hand to heal, that signs and wonders may be done in the name of the Holy Child Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. And in Colossians 4, Paul gives his instructions to his masters. Continue in prayer. More prayer for this. Continue in prayer. Watch in the same with thanksgiving. With all praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I also am in bonds, that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak. So we are called to be articulate, to speak. And then affection, another A. That's applied in two ways. We must have affection vertically in our hearts toward Christ and the things above. And we have to have it horizontally with affection toward the brethren and those outside Christ. So we have to have that affection, brotherly kindness and charity we read about. Then we must also be alert. And alert is the same word as watch. You'll see there's lots of verses we're told to watch. But it's very similar to attentive, right? It sounds the same. Well, attentiveness was towards God. And I think alert is more broad, where alertness brings other broader focus points. I'm just going to read one verse, Ephesians 6.18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching, there's the word, watching, alert thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for the saints. I'm not going to go into all these passages to support this, but I'm going to list some of the things, not all, some of the things we are told to be alert to. We are to be alert to the works of the flesh and the desires of the flesh. Alert to those in need around us. Alert to dangers that would be contrary to Christ in us. Alert to what comes in and what goes out, our tongue. alert to where we can apply our spiritual gifts, alert for God's direction in our lives, alert to our sin, alert to God's chastisement, alert to opportunities to pray, to serve, and alert to doctrinal error. And there are certainly others. And then we are to abstain from evil. And there's two verses that have this word abstain translated. 1 Thessalonians 5.22, abstain from all appearances of evil. And then 1 Peter 2.11, dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. And I really like what Matthew Henry says about this, this idea of abstaining. He says, during the bitter cold winter we tighten the doors, we put sandbags on the windows, we draw curtains and arrange screens and yet we still are made to feel that we live in a cold northern climate. In the same way we must be diligent to shut out sin, we must find abundant need to guard every point. For after we have done that, after we've done everything we can, is still, in one way or another, we're still made to feel that we live in a sinful world. Well, what must we do? We must follow the measures which this earthly example teaches us. We must drive out the cold by keeping in a good fire within. The presence of the Lord in our soul, in us, can so warm the heart that worldliness and sin will be expelled, and we shall be both holy and happy. So in a summary of all this, how should this affect us? Well, we need to remind ourselves that God is in us and acknowledge our sin, be awakened and attentive, be alert to dangers and all the other things we saw there, be active, be articulate in spreading the gospel to others, abstain from evil by guarding our thoughts and actions and directing our thoughts and actions. So in short, it should regulate us. Now, just a side note, you've seen this WWJD, what would Jesus do? Well, think about, what would Jesus do if? There's a second part there that they don't bring up. What would Jesus do if he was here? If he was alive? What do you mean? What would Jesus do if he were in your place? I think a better way to ask is, what should I do since Christ is in me? And I think that's the spirit of it, but I think it's what we need to do. We need to think Christ is in me. What should I do in this situation? What do we do when I'm in the car? in our homes, in our work, when we're out anywhere, when we're alone, when we're with our families, when we're in church, when Christ is in us, what am I to do? How should I behave? How should I think? I talked about the hope of glory. That's all about Christ in us. Briefly, the hope of glory means brightness, splendor, magnificence, honor. And this is going to be imparted to us when we are taken to heaven on the throne of God and Christ says, this is one of mine. This is one of my sheep. as his justified Christ is in us and our hope of glory is that we will be freed from the consequences of sin and we'll see our eyes, we'll see the full glory of God in heaven and we all have an earnest desire and a confident expectation of obtaining that glory. The hope is not in of ourselves but in Christ. In ourselves and our own strength, we will continue to fall short of God's glory. But depending on him, because he dwells in us, we can now break free from the condemnation and bondage of sin. Jesus summarizes all of this in verse, in John 17. I in them and thou in me, that, so here's the purpose. I am in them, they are in me, that they may be perfect in one, that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. So as Solomon says, this is the conclusion of the matter. Christ in us will be a testimony to the world. We will be made perfect in the end. We'll be glorified and we'll share in his glory. And we'll behold the fullness of his glory. And that is the hope of glory when Christ is in us. So for those who are in Christ and have Christ in you, my final words come from Ephesians 3, verse 14. I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he should grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, And ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, what's the depth, the length, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. And ye shall be filled with all the fullness of God. And for those who don't have Christ in you, my final words are an invitation to you to recognize these truths and ask God to bring you into Him. And then you too can say, Christ in you, He is my hope of glory. Revelation 3.20 says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and sup with him and he with me. Let Christ be in you. He will dine with you. He'll be intimate with you. He will commune you with you. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a lively hope, a living hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the end. Amen.