And you hath he quickened (Quality: very good)

[0:00] In dependence upon the Lord, let us turn to Paul's epistle to the Ephesians, chapter 2 and verse 1. Paul's epistle to the Ephesians, second chapter, first verse.

[0:17] And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.

[0:32] And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. Now, young people especially might be interested to know that the original manuscripts of Holy Scripture were without chapters and verses and even punctuation.

[1:12] So that it must have been very difficult to refer to any particular Scripture, any particular theme of Scripture.

[1:26] If I remember correctly, it was in the year 1250 that the Scriptures were divided into chapters. And that, let us notice, by a Roman Catholic cardinal by the name of Hugo.

[1:46] He did it with a view to preparing a concordance in Latin. About 300 years afterwards, we get verses and I suppose punctuation.

[2:02] And since 1250, the matter of chapter arrangements has never altered right until the present day.

[2:17] Some feel that the division into chapters was not quite as it should have been. That is, some chapters should have gone a bit further, depending on the theme treated of in a particular chapter.

[2:36] And I name this because it has a relation with what we have read out to you. And I see in this some encouragement.

[2:48] And I would again advise all of us to remember that point about the division of chapters. There's nothing of divine inspiration in that.

[3:01] Nothing at all. Divine inspiration has only to do with the Scriptures as originally indicted by the Holy Spirit and recorded by holy men of God.

[3:16] So that no Scripture, therefore, is of any private interpretation. This is why sometimes when reading the Word of God, I forget that there are chapters.

[3:31] And read as though a Gospel, an Epistle, or a Prophecy was one. Now let me show you the relevance of what I have said with this text this morning.

[3:47] Look with me, if you will, at the last verse or two of chapter one. Bearing in mind, too, that three words in verse one of chapter two are in italics.

[4:02] And I think we all know what that indicates. Now if there were no chapters, we would read like this. That God hath put all things under his feet, and given him, that is, his dear son, gave him to be the head over all things to the church, and you who were dead in trespasses and sins.

[4:32] Omitting for the time being the three words, hath he quickened. And again, the last verse in chapter one. The church which is his body, the fullness of him, that filleth all in all, and you.

[4:52] And you as well. He fills you. You who were dead in trespasses and sins. And it seems that the godly translators of their much-loved and revered authorized version, had to include these three words, hath he quickened, because of the prior division into chapters.

[5:21] Without that chapter one ending there, it seems the words, hath he quickened, would not really be necessary. On the other hand, see what we'd be missing if they were not there.

[5:38] So here is something, a kind of hint, for us to follow in our reading of the word of God. But, when all is said and done, how we need the Holy Spirit, who first breathed the word of God, or breathed life into the word of God, to breathe that life into you and into me, so that we shall not read the word of God in vain.

[6:13] Nor be, I trust, like those who are ever learning, ever reading the word of God, ever consulting godly authors, ever in prayer and scripture reading and so on, and yet never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

[6:39] What truth? All truth. And this truth, you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.

[6:52] The Apostle Paul is writing to the church at Ephesus, which was a church that consisted of Gentile converts or believers.

[7:05] And in this epistle, he reminds them of what they once were. They were Gentiles. As distinct from the Jews concerning whom Christ, when speaking to the woman of Samaria, said that salvation was of the Jews.

[7:26] But he never said that salvation was exclusively for the Jews. What a mercy for you and me that is. We are Gentiles.

[7:37] And for a long, long while, the Gentiles were outside the pale of the church of God.

[7:48] There was nothing in a visible manner which indicated to anyone that the Gentiles were to be blessed with salvation. But that came in the process of time.

[8:02] and as the Lord saw fit to extend first the ministry of his apostles and then the establishment here and there of the New Testament churches, many of which comprised of Jew and Gentile believers or church members.

[8:26] And the Apostle Paul, divinely inspired, in chapter 2 particularly, reminds these believers of what they once were.

[8:40] They were dead. Spiritually dead. Dead in trespasses and sins. And he goes on to remind them how that they walked after that manner.

[8:58] They walked according to the course of this world, which was natural for them to do. Why do thousands of people go to these dreadful boot sales on the Lord's Day?

[9:18] For that matter, any day, but especially on the Lord's Day, they are following the course of this world. They're after again an advantage. They're after a bargain.

[9:30] They're after profits and money. Surely they are blinded by the God of this world, in whom this spirit of disobedience works.

[9:45] And it worked, says Paul, in you once, and in all of us, by nature. He goes on to remind them that, like himself, like everyone, that they were by nature the children of wrath, wrath's offspring, wrath's sons and wrath's daughters, the children of wrath.

[10:17] wrath's and that because of their apostasy from Christ, their disobedience originally in Eden, and their subsequent sins, their actual transgressions.

[10:38] Friends, original sin is more than enough to condemn us to all eternity. But think of the added actual transgressions of which we're also guilty.

[10:52] Children of wrath, even as others, even as everyone. He goes on to say that they were without Christ, and later on without God, and also without hope.

[11:11] what could be more hopeless than to be without hope? And to be without hope is to be without God.

[11:23] In short, to be in an unquickened condition. What a solemn thing for sinners to be dead in trespasses and in sins.

[11:39] But put this thing to them, and they will say, oh no, I'm not dead, I'm very much alive. I have wonderful prospects ahead of me.

[11:52] I have skills that I want to utilize, energies I want to expend, knowledge I want to make use of, and my prospects are very bright and rosy.

[12:05] I'm not dead, says the dead one. But the living one, strange as it may appear, says, I fear I am dead.

[12:18] The dead say, I'm alive, and the living say, I'm dead, I'm dead. Was it Tip Taft?

[12:30] I can't remember whether it was William Tip Taft, who was, of course, as you know, an Anglican minister in the establishment. But, though a preacher, he was dead in trespasses and sins, like others have been.

[12:49] Scott was. Others, many have been preachers, so-called preachers of the word, but they have been dead in trespasses and sins.

[13:00] If my memory serves me correctly, when God quickened, Tip Taft into life, he had to quit the Anglican communion, and on the point of doing so, he said this, we be all dead men.

[13:16] That's a quotation from the scriptures, as you know, we be all dead men. Why didn't he talk like that before? Because he was dead in trespasses and sins.

[13:30] But when he has a life, he says, we be all dead men. This seems very strange, doesn't it? But it's very, very true.

[13:43] By nature, we are all dead in trespasses and in sins. Death is their environment, the atmosphere we breathe.

[13:58] There's no going beyond it or no extrication from it until it pleases God to quicken those who are dead in trespasses and in sins.

[14:15] In the part of John 4, which we read just now, we read Christ raising one up from the point of death. Not death, but the point of death.

[14:29] That's not quickening. That's reviving. That's resuscitation. That's not resurrection. Resurrection has to do with the dead, not the nearly dead.

[14:50] But, later on, in chapter 5 of John, we read this, that the Savior said the hour is come, and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.

[15:08] are you quickened by his spirit? Am I? You, young friends, cannot but have discerned from the general tenor of the ministry of the gospel that you are so accustomed to, and which I trust we all highly value, and for which sake we love, dear pastor.

[15:36] but you cannot but have observed that there is such a thing as a sinner being dead, and a sinner being made alive.

[15:48] You cannot but have discerned that old things, in the instance of some of your acquaintances here, old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.

[16:02] That's quickening. That's what happens when God deals with a sinner dead in trespasses and in sins. There's a new creation, a new creature.

[16:17] Are you a new creature in Christ? Do you congratulate yourself? I wonder in that you are a highly respected citizen and Christian, and that if anyone should dare to question your profession, your standing, you would be perhaps very much offended.

[16:46] But a child of God wouldn't be offended. The child of God says and prays like this, as the psalmist did, search me, O God, and know my heart.

[16:59] Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.

[17:10] So praise one whom God has quickened and who is therefore no longer dead in trespasses and in sins.

[17:21] But as we read just now, is passed from death unto life. You young friends, we were talking to you a few moments ago, you may see your need of being quickened.

[17:42] You may, for all I know, be praying that you might be made a quickened, a living soul. That the shades of death may recede, that heavenly light might dawn upon your soul.

[18:01] Let me, for your encouragement and instruction, just take a look at the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 51. There may be something for you young concerned, troubled friends, there may be something for you possibly here.

[18:23] Now look at chapter 51, at least the first eight verses, verses 1 to 8. You'll see these eight verses are divided into three sections.

[18:36] In each of these three sections, God is addressing his own dear people, not those who are dead in trespasses and sins, but his own dear people, Israel.

[18:49] Look at the first section, verses 1 to 3. Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord.

[19:05] Hearken to me, he says, you seekers, you who are troubled about your sins, you who are burdened by your sin, and long to know the Saviour who pardons and cleanses, you long to know the friend of sinners, dear?

[19:23] Well, here's your description. God is speaking to you, but, as yet, you are only following after righteousness, you have to attain to it.

[19:38] You are but seeking the Lord, you haven't yet found him. Now, listen to what God is telling you, and me, look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.

[20:00] God is saying this, look behind you. There's a certain quarry, and some have spoken about the quarry of nature out of which God's people are digged.

[20:16] So God says, look back, there's a hole there, once you were there, in that hole. Now, the hole itself loudly proclaims to you that there's a change, to say the least.

[20:38] There's a translation from one place to another, from one state and condition to another. You're no longer there. You're here. Where?

[20:51] Seeking God, following after Christ, panting after eternal life. A great change has come over you, a change which no one else and nothing else could possibly affect or produce, but which is wholly and solely the work of God himself.

[21:16] So you who are seeking after God, feeling after the friend of sinners, the hole is behind you. I'm going to say this, moreover, the fact that you long and pray to be quickened is positive proof that you are.

[21:37] beyond any question of doubt whatever, no one in a state of death in trespasses and sins is capable of the least spiritual wish or desire.

[21:54] That's an absolute impossibility. Search your heart, dear friends, young and old. Have you got spiritual breathings after Christ?

[22:05] Is there a spiritual movement within your soul after God and heaven and glory? And is the same exercise accompanied with this exercise an abhorrence of evil, a hatred of self and of sin in the world?

[22:25] Then be sure of this. You have he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.

[22:37] But seeing we have briefly turned to Isaiah 51, just notice the second section and the third. Verses 4 to 6 inclusive.

[22:49] Now God speaks to those whom he addresses as my people and my nation. This seems to be a word for those who are more advanced and of a greater spiritual stature than the former.

[23:11] You're my people. You're my people. You don't get that in the first section. You don't get it. There must be a reason for that.

[23:22] Here God addresses expressing his people, his nation. The third section, verse 7, hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness.

[23:38] They have attained unto righteousness, which those in section 1 are but seeking after, following after, longing for. Notice this, only in section 3, which we may take as those who have come to a full stature in Christ, only there does the Lord speak of reproach, which means persecution.

[24:08] And in fact, the last word in verse 7, revilings. Such words are absent from those addressed in section 2 and in section 1 especially.

[24:20] But, these are the people of God. These are God's quickened children. Who are you and I amongst them?

[24:31] Are you taking it for granted that you are? Don't take anything of a spiritual nature, friends, for granted. Pray for proofs, evidences.

[24:44] Pray like the psalmist did, show me a token for good. Can you live your spiritual life without tokens?

[24:55] Without further blessings? Without a word from God for your needy soul? Without a word aptly or fitly spoken in your various needs and trials?

[25:08] Can you? It is to be seriously questioned as to whether you are quickened. If you are dead in trespasses and sins, well, you can have a good deal of religious show going along with that.

[25:27] You certainly can. Now I want to try to discover with God's help what is the moving, the fundamental cause of any dead sinner, being quickened into life.

[25:47] What is the fundamental, the root cause of it? The moving cause? It is because the Lord loves you, poor sinner, and loves you with a love past description, a love that is without beginning and without ending, a love that will never, never diminish, or become lukewarm.

[26:21] Lukewarmness is something so sadly that applies to you and me, and it's a wonder of wonders that God has spewed us out of his mouth.

[26:34] You know what I have in mind concerning one of the seven letters to the churches in Asia? Because they were neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm, in between, indifferent, I will spew thee out of my mouth.

[26:51] Even Jesus said there to that particular church, I would that they were either hot or cold. But because they were neither, they were out, says he in effect, an abomination unto me.

[27:07] You see the all importance of being in earnest, of being in earnest as to our soul's welfare, our soul's salvation.

[27:22] The underlying cause, there's only one, is this, love, love, love divine, all loves excelling.

[27:35] A love that takes everything into account, a love that covers the multitude of sins.

[27:48] It's love. And the love of God is such that it cannot be contained. We read that the heaven of heavens cannot contain air God.

[28:02] The same applies to his love. The love of God must overflow. It has overflow.

[28:14] It still overflows. Reaching to whom? Angels? No. neither unfallen angels or fallen ones.

[28:26] Reaching to whom? Those who think themselves very good, well now if not quite perfect, above reproach, with a good life behind them to commend them to God's favour?

[28:44] No. the Lord says of such, I never knew you. I never knew you. Many are going to hear that one day.

[28:58] Or they think they are fine Christians have done quite well, if not exceedingly well. They're going to hear that awful voice of condemnation one day, I never knew you.

[29:10] I never knew you. I never knew you to have the least desire for the new birth or any interest in regeneration.

[29:23] I never knew you as a humble, broken-hearted sinner at my footstool. Now if you have been brought there, the footstool of mercy, guilty, weak, helpless, wretched, sinful worm, then my friends, the Lord knows you.

[29:48] And you have the work of his spirit in your soul. And you are one of these quickened ones without any doubt whatever. Listen to heaven's own testimony concerning an arch persecutor of Christ and his church.

[30:09] Here's God's own testimony. behold, he prayeth. That was Saul of Tarsus, as you all know. Behold, he prayeth.

[30:23] Which really amounts the same as this. Behold, I have quickened Saul of Tarsus by my spirit. He's no longer dead in trespasses and in sins.

[30:34] He's my much-loved, eternally loved son. son. Now, knowing that, Ananias willingly goes to Saul of Tarsus.

[30:49] Goes to him most willingly. He was reluctant before. Before what? Before he heard the voice of Christ saying, behold, he prayeth. only quickened souls can pray.

[31:04] Only quickened souls wish to pray and love to pray. Only quickened souls mourn over their prayerlessness. On the other hand, and see so much sin and defilement in their petitions, you have he quickened.

[31:26] you has he resurrected from the depths, the depths of death itself, spiritual death.

[31:38] Or apart from this, sinners will certainly enter upon a lost eternity and find themselves in that awful place where the fire is never quenched, where the conscience, the guilty conscience, is never eased, where hope can never come.

[32:01] Are you a quickened sinner? This is a most important theme. It really is. This isn't some option that we might take up or not.

[32:15] It's a vital issue. May it be so in our understanding of it. You, you have be quickened.

[32:28] As we draw to a conclusion, we ought perhaps to name a few, just briefly, a few essential features that attach to this matter of being quickened.

[32:43] quickened. If you are quickened, you will have what you've not had before. And what I will term in my own way, you will have a God awareness.

[32:59] You'll be aware of God. That's a certain proof of being quickened. And such an awareness of God that you will tremble at times.

[33:13] you'll have an awareness or a consciousness of the holiness of God, the almightiness of God, the eternity of God.

[33:30] Quickened sinners also have what I will again term in my own way a self awareness as to what you are, condition you are in.

[33:46] You will have an awareness of your need of Christ and his whole finished work for you personally and individually.

[33:57] you will have an awareness that the hole is behind you. If something has transpired in your hitherto dead soul, you'll have an awareness of life and movements and desire.

[34:19] you will want God to grant you spiritual enlargements. You'll pray as Jabez did, enlarge my coast, keep me from sin, from evil, that it may not grieve me.

[34:38] You will have an awareness moreover of not time only, but eternity. eternity. You young friends wonder what is meant by eternity, I expect.

[34:55] Let me draw in your imagination, if I can, a very simple illustration of what eternity is.

[35:08] Imagine a circle or ring. you can't see where it's joined up. There's no sign of any join.

[35:22] It's one whole thing. There's no break, no sign of any fusion anywhere. But look closer, you'll see a tiny little loop.

[35:35] Without breaking the circle, a tiny loop. What is that? Time. time, pulled down just a tiny way. Time, which is a part of eternity.

[35:49] Now, when time ceases, God will let go that little loop, and it will spring back and disappear. Now, that's a very simple kind of illustration.

[36:04] I hope I say this reverently. But there it is. that circle is eternity. The tiny pull or loop, almost indiscernible, so tiny, that's life, time, from the beginning of the creation to the winding up of all things by our creator.

[36:28] When time is finished, that loop will have disappeared, eternity once more. So, time is a solemn thing, a small thing, yet so important.

[36:42] And only in time does God quicken sinners who were dead in trespasses and sins.

[36:54] Finally, the word itself, the word itself as we have it here, you, you have he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.

[37:08] Amen. Amen. cottage Honestly we have had seen in ago