2/21/21 - The Great Salvation / QUICKENING

In 472, once we stood in condemnation. Once we stood in condemnation, waiting for the Santa's doom. Christ in death hath wrought salvation. God has raised them from the tomb. Quickened, raised him, Satan, we are full deliverance. No, every fall has been defeated. Every above. Now we drinking sweet communion, some rich foretaste of his love. Amen. Good morning and God bless you. Shall we look to the Lord our God now?

Father, once again it is our privilege to come to the living word of God. We pray that by your spirit you might edify our souls as you put before our hearts the blessed Lord Jesus and all he did for us, the cross of Calvary. In his name, amen.

So we're continuing on our study of the great salvation and the different aspects of that salvation. It's so incredible to think of it and even to review it now that we were guilty and God forgave us. We were condemned, God justified us through Christ. We were slaves of sin, God redeemed us through Christ. We were enemies of God, alienated to him, and God reconciled us through Christ. We were in danger of being lost and perishing, and God saved us through Christ. We had a corrupt, vile nature, and God gave us new birth through Christ. And today we're going to see that because we're dead in trespasses and sins, God is quickening us through Christ or making us alive in Christ.

This word quickening is the King James word, and it simply is made up of two words: to make alive, to make alive. So this is what God is doing and has done through Christ. He is bringing resurrected life, resurrection life, to those of us that were spiritually dead, dead in trespasses and sins.

The Nature of Spiritual Death

In Genesis chapter 2 and verse 15 through 17, God had given Adam the responsibility to care for the garden, and he told him this. He said he could eat of every tree of the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And God said this in verse 17, "Thou shalt not eat of it, for the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." Now Adam ate the fruit, and in that moment he began to die physical death. He was 130 years old to Seth. He lived another 800 years, so he didn't die immediately, but physical death now was on the horizon because the Bible says in Romans 6:23, "The wages of sin is death."

But something else took place, another death. You see, death first off is separation. That's what it means. It's not an end of itself, it's a separation. It's a separation of the body from the soul and spirit. We have that in James chapter 2 and verse 26, "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead." So it's living works that show faith is alive. Well, what shows the body that it's alive? The body without the spirit is dead. So it's the spirit within the body that gives life, and when the spirit leaves, we don't say the spirit is dead because we continue to live, but the body's dead. Death refers to the body.

So that when Adam sinned, he was separated from God in that very moment. He didn't die physically yet. That was later when his soul and spirit would be separated from his body. But in that moment, he died spiritually. When he sinned, he was separated from his relationship with God. And we see that with the cherubim of glory, that glorious angel with the flaming sword that was placed outside the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve were forced to leave. God drove them out and would not allow them to come back because they had been separated from him because of their sin. They had died spiritually.

We have in John chapter 1 and verse 4, it says, "In him, in Christ, the word, in him was life, and the life was the light of men." But listen to this, verse 5, "The light shined in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not." So here are men that are separated from God. They cannot even comprehend and understand God who is light. "He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not." That's verse 10. So men are so separated from God, so dead to him, that he exists as it were in another world. They're alive, we are alive, I should say, to this world, this world of sin. So here is God comes into his own creation, but because man is separated from God, he is spiritually dead as it were. He doesn't even recognize God. God is as it were, you know, if you're if you were ever in a mortuary and you went up to a corpse and you, you know, tried to wake he or she up, they're not going to wake up because they're dead. And so that's the way mankind is toward God. God comes to mankind, there's no response because we're dead as far as God is concerned.

In Romans chapter 3, and it says in verse 11, "There's none that understandeth and none that seeketh after God." Why? Why is there no one that understands God? Why is there no one that seeks after him? Because we're dead in trespasses and sins. We're that corpse laying there, and though God would come and and and and come to us as they did in the person of the Lord Jesus, still there's no response. We're like in Mark chapter 5, that demoniac, and it says this in verse 3, "His dwelling was among the tombs." I mean, after all, if you're separated from God, spiritually dead, dead in trespasses and sins, what characterizes the world in which we live? It's characterized by death. It's a place of tombs. And that poor man, day and night, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying, cutting himself with stones, separated from God. A man that was made to be in relationship with God is separated from God, and he cries out in his aloneness. Well, that was my life without Christ, crying out to my aloneness, living in a destructive lifestyle like this man cutting himself with stones. Oh, thank God that there's one that brings life and liberty to those that are in bondage to sin and separated from God, dead and trespasses and sins.

Made Alive in Christ (Ephesians 2)

Ephesians chapter 2, one of the preeminent scriptures that deals with this subject. In chapter 2 and verse 1, "And you hath he quickened or made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins." Who does that refer to? He's talking to the Ephesian church. Every one of those believers was once dead in trespasses and sin, spiritually separated from God. Do you know that? Do you know that about yourself, that you're spiritually dead? You're separated from God. Your sins have separated you from him. You have no life. The life of God is not in you until you come to Christ. And so here it says, "until you're quickened, made alive by him." So we're dead in trespasses and sins, dead to God.

But listen to this, verse 2, Ephesians 2, verse 2, "Wherein in time past ye walked." I think there's a program on TV, "Dead Walking," "Walking Dead," I'm not sure what it is, but that's the that's the that's a definition of this world, the walking dead. "Wherein in time past she walked according to the course of this world," which is the course of this world? It's downward and away from God. "According to the prince of the power of the air," that's the devil, "the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience." So there's no reason if you're dead and trespasses and sins, you're not obedient to God. You're disobedient. If you're without Christ, don't deceive yourself and then thinking that you're obedient to God. You're disobedient. And you're what it says here, "walking according to the course of this world," spiritually dead. So alive to sin, dead to God. Alive to sin, dead to God.

Verse 3, "Among also whom also we had our conversation," talking about believers. Every believer has this testimony, "In times past we lived in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the flesh, the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we're by nature children of wrath, even as others." But God, hallelujah, but God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, listen to this, "He's quickened us together with Christ. He's made us alive together with Christ. By grace you are saved." And he, listen to this, "And he's raised us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." God has given us out of this condition of death. He's brought life into our very beings, spiritual life, reconnection with God.

Now remember when we talked about being born again, it was a new nature, very closely related to this thought of quickening. Quickening emphasizes the life that we've received, and new birth emphasizes the nature of God, the divine nature that we have received. So we have now received resurrection life. It's the life that we have with Christ who died, who rose again, and in newness of life we can walk with him and live with him. And it says here that we are even now, we have this royalty, this royal life that he's given us. This resurrected life is royal alive, and we're seated as it were in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah. And then in the ages to come, "He might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." Isn't that true? The exceeding riches of God's grace. Hallelujah. The fact that you and I will be in heaven, made alive who are once dead and trespasses and sins, made alive through Christ. It will be a testimony forever to the grace of God. Praise his name.

Forgiveness and the Danger of Unbelief

Colossians 1 and verse 13, "And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened, made alive, quickened together with him, with Christ." We've been made alive with Christ. This again, resurrection life. It's a quickening. It's God giving us life through Christ. And it says, "Having forgiven us all our trespasses." Well, the old life is gone. The sins and the trespasses and that condition of death is gone, and gone with it is all our guilt and all of our sins. Praise the Lord.

In Romans 8, I'm sorry, in John chapter 8, the Lord said to the Lord Jesus said to the Pharisees, "I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins. Whither I go, ye cannot come." And he said unto them, "Ye are from beneath; I am from above. Ye are of this world; I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins, if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins." All he is asking for men to do is to believe that he is the Son of God, and without faith in him, death, spiritual separation from God, continues. We must believe in him as the Son of God, or we will die in our sins. There's only two ways to die. You either die in faith, as Hebrews 11 talks about, you die believing in God, you've lived your life for him, and in death you're absent from the body, present with the Lord. But you died in faith. The other way of dying is dying disconnected from God and not having been quickened with that, infused with that resurrection life, and you die in your sins, separated from him for this in this life and separated from him for all eternity. Who can imagine, who can fathom what that would mean? If you're not saved, turn to Christ.

So quickening is for the believer because those that die in their sins stand before God at the great white throne judgment. The dead stand before God. You can read that in Revelation chapter 20 at the great white throne. Yes, they're dead, separated from him. We're going to talk about it just a moment in John 5.

Hearing the Voice of the Son of God (John 5)

John 5, look what it says, verse 21, "As the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, so resurrection and new life, quickening, go together because it's life out of death, life out of death." Hallelujah. That he has quickened us out of that, that life of of of sin, a life of despair, that life of the walking dead, so to speak. "As the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will." See, this is divine persons that are involved in bringing us out of that condition of death, bringing us into life, that resurrected life that's in Christ.

Now we're going to see how it happens. You know, we just saw that the Pharisees that they needed to believe that he was the Son of God. Now notice what happens in relation to that faith. Verse 22, "For as the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." Very important principle. Jesus Christ is the judge and will be in the future. Verse 23, "That all men might honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father who sent him." Now listen, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment or condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." He that heareth my word and believes on him that sent me and believes that I am the Son of God, then you are quickened, you are made alive. You are then brought out of that condition of death, and listen what it says, "You pass from death unto life."

Verse 25, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live." Hallelujah. I heard that voice in 1978, around October of 1978. I heard the voice of the Son of God through the word of God. I acknowledged that he was the Son of God. I received Christ as my Lord and Savior. He gave me in that moment resurrection life. Hallelujah. Look what it says, "He the the hour is coming, now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live." Have you heard his voice? Have you heard the voice of the Son of God? You could hear it right now through his word. Are you bowing to the truth that you're dead in trespasses and sins? Are you bowing to the truth that he died and took your place in order that he might bring you out of that condition, that he might take away all your guilt and all your sins, that he might give you new birth, a new nature, and a new life? He might quicken you. Have you have you heard that message? Because you've heard the voice of the Son of God. If you have, what a wonderful voice.

You remember in in John 11 when the Lord was at the tomb of his friend Lazarus. He had told Mary in verse 25, "I am the resurrection and the life." I'm the resurrection and the life. Life out of death and life itself, resurrection life. "He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." Hallelujah. And that he stood before the tomb of Lazarus who'd been dead four days, and he said, "Lazarus, come forth." Hallelujah. And there Lazarus came forth out of death, out of death. He was quickened and brought back to the picture. He was brought to life, in other words. That's what God is doing for us. We're dead, dead in trespasses and sins, no relationship with God, no thought about God. And the voice of the Son of God calls you by name and says, "Come forth." Hallelujah. And he brings you into a new life and brings you into a relationship with himself. Praise his name. How beautiful. Lazarus, come forth.

Now we're going to go on in John chapter 5 and verse 26. "For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man." Now listen, verse 28. We just saw in verse 24, 25, the Lord Jesus said, "The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God." That is spiritual quickening. That's for the soul. It has happened ever since he said it. He said, "The hour is coming and now is." It continues this hour now. Hallelujah.

But now listen to this verse, verse 28, "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice." All that are in the graves. So this is physical death now. In those that have died, there are those that have died in faith, believers. Those that have died in their sins now. So he's going to talk about two resurrections in verse 29. The first resurrection is the resurrection of those that died in faith. It's a thousand years after the resurrection of those that have died in faith that those that have died in their sins are resurrected. Now listen, verse 29, "For they shall come forth, and they shall come forth, all they're in the grave shall hear his voice." Imagine this, the commanding voice of the Son of God speaking to those in the grave, speaking to the dead. Now remember their spirits and souls are alive, but now they're reunited with their new bodies and they're standing before him. The the rapture of the church first. "And they shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life," that's those who have died in faith, "and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation or judgment." In other words, they have refused God's message through Christ and have died in their sins. Oh, how sad. There's the resurrection of life and the resurrection of judgment. That second judgment, the Bible tells us in Revelation 20, is referred to as the second death. You see, the first death is physical death. The second death is spiritual death. And if you continue in that spiritual death, then there is the second death, which is eternal separation from God. You're separated from him now, dead in trespasses and sins without Christ. If you die in that condition, you will exist, not live, you don't live in hell, you exist in hell. It's called the second death. God is offering you new life through Christ. Hear his voice, the voice of the Son of God. Hallelujah. What a savior is the Lord Jesus.

The Spirit and the Last Adam

It's the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit that are involved in making us alive. We saw that already in John chapter 5. In John 6:63, it says, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." That's so when the Lord Jesus, when he speaks and and he says when you hear, "The hour's coming, now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God," it's the Spirit of God that makes alive his words, brings it to your soul, and with that word, life comes, resurrection life, quickening life. Hallelujah.

In that first Corinthians 15:45, "As it is written, The first Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit," a life-giving spirit. The first Adam, Adam brought death into the world in judgment. Christ comes and through his death he brings quickening, he brings new life. Hallelujah. He is the last Adam. He's the head of a new generation of men. Praise the Lord.

Our Life Hid with Christ (Colossians 3)

Colossians 3 and verse 3, it says, "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." You see, the point is here is that Christ is our life. We have been quickened. We have a new life, resurrected life. We've been quickened with him. He is our life. And one day very soon, Romans 8 talks about the quickening of our body. The body is going to be brought out of this condition of death. In other words, there's no more decay that's going to happen to the body. It's no longer going to be a tool through which we live out a life of sin, but it's going to be quickened, made alive in a new body like unto his body of glory. Praise the Lord.

The Valley of Dry Bones (Ezekiel 36-37)

And then we have something that's quite incredible in the book of Ezekiel. We we see these things told out in a picture. And in Ezekiel 36, verse 24, first thing we have, just as we mentioned this difference between new birth, being born again and having a new nature, a divine nature, partakers of the divine nature, and the next chapter in Ezekiel will talk about quickening. Now, in verse chapter 36, verse 24, and he's talking about this is in connection with Israel when God is going to restore the nation Israel, still going to happen. Hallelujah. In the future, "For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you." So that's what we saw in a new nature. It's the washing away of the old nature.

Verse 26, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh." So here is new birth. It's a new heart, a new nature. This is so this is so wonderful. We saw this and that new nature shows itself in verse 27, "I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them." What an evidence that you have a new nature, that new nature obeys God. Praise the Lord.

Now we go on to chapter 37, and now we get to quickening, resurrection, and quickening, new life. Ezekiel 37, "The hand of the Lord was upon me," Ezekiel says, "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." It's a graveyard. This is this world. It's a graveyard. "And caused me to pass by them roundabout: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. And he again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord." Now this is a picture of what the Lord Jesus does when he stands in this world and and speaks to the dead and they that hear his voice live. "The hour is coming, now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live." That's what we have in this scene here in this valley of dry bones. "And he said unto them, 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." Life out of death. That's quickening, making them alive. "And ye shall live; and I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord." So here is a resurrection life to be lived, not according to the old man and the the ways of the world, not according to the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, but to be lived for the glory of God. As Paul said, "For me to live is Christ." That's that quickening life. That's that resurrection life.

Verse seven, "So I prophesied," Ezekiel says, "as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered upon them above: but there was no breath in them. And he said unto me, Prophesy unto the wind." This is like Adam laying there lifeless. He said, "Prophesy unto the wind." The wind pictures the Spirit of God. "Say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." "So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army." "And he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dry, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel." Hallelujah. That's a picture. It's showing Israel as as a picture of us being dead in our trespasses and sins, lost without God and without Christ, without hope in this world. And then his voice speaks, and the Holy Spirit takes the very word of the Lord Jesus, the very word of the Son of God, and he makes it alive to us. He brings us out of that condition of death, no longer in sin, no longer in trespasses, no longer dead to God and alive to this world, but now alive to God and dead to this world around us. Hallelujah. This is quickening life.

Personal Testimony and Call to Salvation

You know, I remember when I was saved in 1978, just a few years ago now. I was working bailing hay at that time, and I was out one night bailing hay. I had just gotten saved a few days earlier, and I turned the lights out on the tractor. It was dark, and yet there was a little moonlight. So I turned the lights out, and all of a sudden I stopped the tractor and looked up because I'd never seen the heavens and the stars of heaven in the way that I saw them at that moment. And that moment I saw the glory of God in those heavens. I'd never seen it before because I had been in a condition of death. I was I was dead to all that God was and all that he was doing and all that he had made. And Christ, the blessed Son of God, came to me and he and he spoke to me and he spoke life to me, quickening life. And the dead heard the voice of the Son of God, and he gave me life. I praise him for that. I'm sure if you are saved, you praise him for that as well. And if you're not saved, God wants to bring you out of that condition of death. He wants to give you new nature, that you should be born again, and he wants to give you life out of death, a resurrection life, the very life of Christ to be in you. But you must repent of your sins, and you must listen and hear the voice of the Son of God calling you to come to him, that you if you will confess him as the very Son of God, God himself who came from the heights of glory to the depths of the cross to save you, if you'll trust him now, hear his voice. He's calling to you. He loves you. Receive Christ in this moment. Receive Christ for his name's sake.

Closing Prayer

Our God now, Father, we thank thee and praise thee that you have called us out of this darkness, out of this sin and despair, out of a life without God, distant from thee, so far that we we never even thought of thee except in some religious way. And the very Son of God came and spoke life, and we heard his voice. How wonderful, oh God, to hear the voice of the Son of God and to think that forever and ever we shall hear his voice there in the glory. What a blessing, what a privilege. How we thank and praise thee in his worthy name. Amen. Amen.