Raised Him from the Dead

Review: The Burden of Paul's Prayer and the Three Principles of Truth

0:02 We'll continue our studies this morning in this profound prayer of the Apostle Paul found in Ephesians 1, verses 15 through to the end of the chapter.

0:18 Just briefly, by way of review, I would remind you that the main burden of his prayer, he very clearly tells us in verse 17, that the God of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, might give unto the Ephesian Christians a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of himself. He is pleading that an increased measure of the Spirit's gifts and graces as the spirit of illumination would be granted to the Ephesian Christians. That being the burden of his prayer, the secondary focus is that the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, might give unto the Ephesian Christians a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of himself.

0:59 The spirit thus given would grant them this deeper, more articulate, more perceptive, experiential knowledge of three great principles of truth. The first is the hope that derives from their calling, that confident expectation of the promised blessings of a completed salvation. He wants them to know what that hope is, the grounds of that hope, the certainty of that hope. And then that which...

1:29 flows out of the hope, he wants them to know, with greater spiritual sensitivity and intellectual clarity, the riches of the glory of the inheritance in the saints. That's the thing upon which the hope focuses, the inheritance prepared for the people of God. He wants them to know what it is, the certainty as well as the nature of that provision. And then in the third place, and this is the present focus of our study, he wants them to know...

1:59 By the Spirit's illumination, the exceeding greatness of the power of God towards them. For it's only the power of God which will secure the realization of the inheritance in fulfillment of the hope. And so these three things form, as it were, a three-fold cord that cannot be broken. As we've begun our study of verses 19 to the end of the chapter, we have underscored in the first place the subject of this knowledge, it is the power of God that he wants them to know.

2:34 As they've beheld the magnitude of grace in verses 3 through 14, he now desires that they behold the magnitude of power by which the designs of grace will be accomplished. Then he told us something about the characteristics of this power in verse 19. It is a power characterized in itself, by exceeding greatness, surpassing greatness. And then it is a power characterized in its working as that which works by the strength of might.

3:14 And he accumulates, brings together these very graphic and expressive words to underscore both the certainty and the scope of this power. Then he says who the recipients of this power are. It is the power of God characterized as exceedingly great and in its working as that which works by the strength of might, but it is a power exclusively terminating upon those who believe. It is the power of God to usward, the believing ones.

The Measure of God's Power: Wrought in Christ's Resurrection

3:50 It's not a power operative to all who've made a decision, all who've made a profession, all who assume the name of Christ, all who assume the external power, all who assume the full form of Christianity. It is a power operative upon, but exclusively upon the believing ones. And now we have begun a study of what we are calling the measure of this power. It is the measure, he says, according to the working of the strength of his might, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, set him in his own right hand, put all things beneath his feet, and gave him to behead, to the church.

4:32 This is the measure of that power which is to usward who believe. Power that is effectually operative to bring us to the inheritance. And I suggested last week as we approach these, I don't know what adjective to use, these verses, verses 20 to the end of the chapter, that Paul, first of all, brings our focus or brings to focus in our eyes and minds, the person in whom the power is effected and operate, operative and manifested. It is the strength of his might which he wrought in the Christ.

5:14 And that's as far as we got last week. We considered the one in whom the power is exerted and through whom it is manifested. His title is here in the text, the Christ, the anointed one. Therefore, whenever the power is exerted, the scripture speaks of humiliation and exaltation of the second person of the Godhead.

5:37 It is speaking of him in his official office and function as Messiah. In the inherent dignity of his divine essence, there can be no humbling and no exalting. He is one with the Father. But in his official role as Messiah, there is humbling, there is exalting.

5:58 We must ever keep that distinction. Before us, and then, and this is the last factor of our review, from that point on, he then focuses upon not the person in whom the power was manifested, but the specific factors, acts, deeds, redemptive events in which the power was effected and manifested. And I've suggested to you that those events are broken down into two groups of two. And this comes out very vividly in the original.

6:30 You have two parties, which he wrought in Christ, having raised him, having set him, would be a more accurate translation. And then you have two verbs that in English terms we would say are past tense verbs. And he put all things beneath his feet and he gave him to behead. And so today we begin with the first of these four clustered in two groups of two.

6:58 The power of God to believers as exerted by the power of God as exerted and manifested in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. What is the measure of the power to us who believe? The measure, Paul says, is according to the strength of his might which he wrought in Christ, having raised him from the dead. That phrase is the focus of our study.

The Resurrection Assumed and Asserted as Fact: A Precise Definition

7:25 The power of God to believers as exerted and manifested in the resurrection, in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now how shall we approach the subject? I have two headings this morning. The first is, in the text, the resurrection is assumed and asserted as fact.

7:45 And then secondly, the resurrection understood as an exertion of divine power. First of all then, the resurrection of Christ assumed and asserted as fact. Paul states it in very simple, unadorned language, having raised him from the dead. Now what is the precise meaning of those words?

8:10 There are many within the visible church who claim to believe that Jesus rose from the dead. But they say that in terms of their own understanding of those words or the meaning which they have attached to the words. Some mean when they say, oh yes, I believe Christ rose from the dead, what they mean is that in the mind, and in the affections of the apostles, Jesus Christ lived on the symbol of all that was good and wonderful and beautiful. And in that sense, death did not hold him.

8:43 He lives on in their minds and memories. Is that what Paul meant, having raised him from the dead? I think not. Others, they say that the spirit of Jesus lived on in his followers.

8:58 And therefore, Christ rose. There is a sense in which because his spirit lives on, in his followers, there is a resurrection. But there are others who say he was raised in the story of redemption, but not in the facts of human history. There is something that happens above human history, where Jesus dies and is buried in his rays, but there wasn't a slab of stone in a tomb in Jerusalem that actually felt the weight of his body and then one morning felt that weight gone.

9:30 No, no. Some kind of super history. And because we have all this confusion, it is essential for us to ask the question, when Paul assumes and asserts the fact of the resurrection of Christ being a manifestation of the power of God to believers, what did he mean? And I will attempt to answer that briefly.

9:54 The gospel record states that on a certain day in Palestine, outside the city wall of Jerusalem, Jesus appeared, Jesus of Nazareth cried out with these words, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Luke, the gospel writer, says in the verse immediately following, Luke 23, 43, his spirit went into the presence of God, or the previous verse, I'm sorry, Jesus said to the thief, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. So when Jesus said, into thy hands I commend my spirit, his spirit went into the presence of the living God.

10:40 It went to paradise. He bowed his head, the scripture says, and he gave up the ghost. The same Bible says that his lifeless form was taken down from the cross and placed in a tomb, the legal title to which was in the safe of Joseph of Arimathea. Now this was a true and abominable, bona fide experience of death.

11:07 The body and the spirit were separated.

11:11 Every vital sign of life in that body ceased. Could we have gone to the cross and placed upon our Lord's temple electrodes and tried to find any brain waves, there would have been not a quiver upon the graph.

11:30 Had there been another electrode to record the heartbeat, there would be no blips and ups and downs, that ominous even line and that haunting buzz with no blips when life is gone.

11:46 The gospel record teaches that this was a valid bona fide death. And then, as though that witness is not enough, the scripture tells us that for the part of three days he lay, that body lay, in a tomb, lifeless. Unlike some of the so-called resurrections, or resuscitations, where a man's vital signs have ceased for a moment or two, or a matter of minutes, and they'd come back to life. Not so in the case of our Lord.

12:19 Now against that background, the Bible says, he was raised from the dead. Now what does that mean? Well, it means simply this. That at a certain point in time, the spirit of Jesus left paradise.

12:35 It was joined to the body in Joseph's tomb, and that body was raised up from the dead, body had all of its vital signs return, and the same Jesus that went into that tomb as a lifeless body came out, a living man. If the slab of stone could speak, we would have come to it on that ominous Friday and said to it, Mr. Slab of Stone, who's on you? And he'd say, I can feel someone, but I have no eyes, I cannot see, you tell me who's on me. And we'd say, Mr. Slab of Stone, you have upon you right now the lifeless form

13:20 of Jesus of Nazareth, and if the stone could speak, it would respond and say, you mean the same Jesus of Nazareth, whose name has been upon the lips of all of the people in Palestine for these past several years, the same Jesus who healed the sick and raised the dead. He'd say, I can feel someone, but I have no eyes, I cannot see, you tell me who's on me. dead and we would say mr stone you're absolutely right you are now bearing upon yourself the lifeless form of jesus of nazareth and if we had come back that easter morning when the stone was rolled away and if the stone could talk when we come to the door the stone would speak and say

13:59 sir sir do i hear the footsteps of someone coming into my presence and we say yes the stone would say are you the man who talked to me three days ago and told me that lying upon me was jesus of nazareth and say yes i'm the same man the stone would say tell me tell me i cannot see but i know that no lifeless form is now resting upon me where has he gone who took him away we would be able to say no one took him away he came out in the power of an endless life he was raised from the dead that's what the the the

14:37 means when it says having raised him from the dead but he came out and followed closely with a true body that could eat a body he said touch me feel me a spirit hath not flesh and bones as i have but there was an entirely new quality of life in that resurrected body the body that went into the tomb was a body made in the likeness of sinful flesh romans 8 3 your yet are gardens subject to weakness there is a freaking way read rescuant level insight on

15:17 巿 okay robert equations ogue is a body they can pastoral girl jesus himself appeared in the midst of the doors b shut. A body that can be transported immediately out of their presence. Luke 24, they're sitting at meat and suddenly he is gone. And the Bible says, having raised him from the dead, it means precisely this. And that tombstone was rolled away, or the stone was rolled away

16:01 from the door of the tomb, not to let Jesus out. He'd already been out. It was to let the others in to see what had happened. Passed through the granite or whatever form of stone was there. And that body has become the pattern of our own resurrection bodies. Philippians

16:21 3.21, God shall fashion the body of our humiliation like unto his own glorious body. Now when you read in the Bible, God raised him from the dead, that's what the Bible means by that language. And anything less than that.

The Centrality of the Resurrection to Christian Faith and Proclamation

16:38 That biblical definition is a prostitution of the biblical terminology, the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now follow me closely. You say, oh, so what? That's something for...

16:52 Listen to me, Fred. Upon this fact understood this way rests the whole validity of the Christian faith. Upon this fact understood this way rests the whole validity of the Christian faith. Hence the apostles make the resurrection a central pivot in their proclamation of the gospel starting on the day of Pentecost when Peter says in Acts chapter 2, verses 23 and 24, listen to his words, Him being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God,

17:34 ye by the hand of lawless men did crucify and slay whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs of death. What did he mean God raised him up? That spirit joined that body. The vital signs returned and he came out of the tomb a living man.

17:59 Then in verse 32 of the same chapter, this Jesus did God raise up. Whereof we are all witnesses, chapter 4, verse 10, be it known unto you and all the people of Israel that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even in him doth this man stand before you whole. Verse 33, And with great power gave the apostles their witness of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. Paul preaching in Acts, 17, Peter preaching in Acts 10, the resurrection was an integral part

18:43 of the apostolic pronouncement of the gospel. And then when the same apostles begin to write letters to the churches, Paul goes too far as to say, if Christ be not risen, ye are yet in your sins, your faith is vain. We have no hope whatsoever. Peter says we're begotten again to a living hope by the resurrection.

19:07 So you see, my dear Christian friends, to be fastidious about what we mean about the resurrection is not to be fastidious about nothing, it's to be fastidious about the salvation of my soul.

19:28 Upon this fact, understood this way, rests the whole Christian faith. I say then to the unsaved amongst us this morning, Almighty God calls upon you to bow to the facts of the resurrection. To humble your proud mind and say, how can it be that a dead man shall live? How can it be?

19:51 How can it be? God says you're to be humbled. You're to bow to the fact that he who died rose and in his risen living presence is salvation in his risen living person. And if in the pride of your heart you refuse to embrace the overtures of mercy that come in the name and for the sake of God, you're to bow to the fact that he who died on the throne of a living Christ, then that same living Christ in resurrection power will summon you to judgment and humble you with an eternal humbling as he consigns you to the pit of everlasting burnings and says, depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire.

20:33 And I say to you as my fellow Christians, we're called upon to understand, to embrace, to propagate, to defend the facts of the Christian faith, to let go of the facts, the facts of the Christian faith is to let go of reality. Now listen closely. It's dim views of biblical doctrine which lead to indistinct proclamation of biblical doctrine. And indistinct proclamation then leads to softened affirmation which then leads to silence, which then leads to doubt, which then leads to denial.

21:14 And as you trace the history of heresy inundating whole movements and churches and denominations, this is when it begins. When people sitting in the pew are content to just know the Bible says Jesus was raised from the dead. And when asked, what do you mean by that? He's raised.

21:37 They cannot say the spirit that went to paradise was joined to the body that went in the tomb. Body and spirit joined together and he came forth with a quality, a qualitatively different life in which he lives forever. Listen again. Listen again, Christian.

21:54 Dim views lead to indistinct proclamation, then to softened affirmation, then to silence, then to doubt, then to denial, and then to hell.

22:12 I say to all of you young men aspiring to the work of the ministry, this is why no preacher can be a true preacher if he's not a true preacher. If he's not a true preacher, if he's not a true preacher, if he's not a true theologian, there's a bunch of indistinct notions about God and Christ and the Bible and sin floating around in suspension in his noggin. And he dips in with the ladle of homiletical artistry and spools out a little bit and sprinkles the people with it. God have mercy on such a prostitution of the ministry.

22:48 The man who stands behind the sacred desk must have increasingly sharpened his teeth and articulate understanding of the pivotal doctrines of the faith so that with clarity of thought there may be distinctness of proclamation. And then in the hearts of the people there will be ringing intelligent affirmation which will then lead to proclamation on their part and then to settle faith. That's what Paul means in Ephesians 4. That there should be no more children tossed to the ground.

23:24 To and fro, but rooted and grounded. That's it.

23:31 Say, aren't you getting a little bit too excited about... No, no, dear friends.

23:34 I'd like to stop right here and just take the rest of the time and preach on this principle. But that's not the purpose of our study this morning. But you can't understand the text unless it be against that backdrop. What's the power of God to us when we believe?

The Resurrection as an Exertion of Divine Power: Breaking Death's Grip

23:48 It's the power wrought when God raised him from the dead. The resurrection assumed and asserted as fact. Now in the second place, the resurrection understood as an exercise of divine power. In what sense was the exceeding greatness of the power of God exerted in raising Christ from the dead?

24:14 And I want to trace out three lines of thought with you this morning. And oh, I trust the Spirit of God will pull back the veil and give us new sights of the glory of our God. First of all, behold the mighty power exerted in the resurrection. in the resurrection.

24:28 in the resurrection. in the resurrection. in the resurrection. in the resurrection.

24:28 In negating and breaking the grip of death upon our Lord. You see, there is a foreboding finality about death's intrusion into the life of a man.

24:42 When death reaches out its hand and lays hold of a man, death's grip is a death grip.

24:54 When the heart stops, the vital signs are gone. You no longer call for the physician. You no longer call for the rescue squad. You pull up the sheet and you call the unarmed.

25:04 You call for the great undertaker. Death has come. The foreboding finality. Look at it in John 11 in your mind's eye.

25:13 Long as vital signs were present, there was the fretfulness, the concern, oh, that Jesus might come.

25:21 But when the sheet was pulled up and death had settled in for several days, all they could say is, oh, Lord, if only you had been here. The foreboding finality.

25:35 Death is that great, common denominator of all humanity it's appointed unto men once to die of the billions who've lived only two have bypassed death in that radical severance of soul and body, Enoch and Elijah, all the others from infants born the moment after their birth to old Methuselah 969 years of age they die and you will die now once in a while there have been some who've escaped its iron grasp once they were in it death had its fingers pried open for a time Lazarus is one of them

26:18 but you see it was only a matter of time and death's fingers wrapped around him again the widow's son in the Old Testament the saints that came out of the tombs after the resurrection of our Lord recorded in chapter 24 of Luke, there are some you see who went into the icy grip of death, who were healed it up for a time only to have death come back and claim it's prey again but now look at the Lord Jesus look at the Lord Jesus look at the Lord Jesus having been raised he was raised with a power that put him outside of the reach

27:01 of death's icy grip and that for eternity you see when the physician is used to heal we admire his skill and his wisdom when a mother nurses a feverish child back to life with sleepless nights we admire her love and her patience when an individual fights against death against all odds we admire his will to live and his determination but listen, when someone who has been dead lives we don't admire love for as warm as the heat of intense love may be it never melts the iron bars of death death is impervious

27:44 to the most intense heat of the most fervent life death doesn't yield to the wisdom of the physician all his wisdom can't pick the lock of those iron gates and if you see the gate thrown open and the bars broken you say here's been a manifestation of power something bigger than death has come and broken its grip and whenever there was a resurrection recorded in the scriptures the people were amazed at the power of God exerted in that mighty work so then Paul prays oh my father give the saints at Ephesus

28:27 a greater measure of the spirit of wisdom and revelation that they may know the exceeding greatness of power which is operative in them to bring them safely to their inheritance Lord even the power that you wrought having raised your son from the dead mighty power raw, unleashed exceeding great power exerted to break the grip of death and forever to bring our Lord from out of its reach and beloved that's the power which is to us who are joined to Jesus Christ in a living relationship of trust, love and obedience

The Resurrection as an Exertion of Divine Power: Imparting Endless Life

29:11 but then in the second place behold the mighty power exerted in imparting a unique quality of life to the body of our Lord it was not only power manifestly in breaking the grip of death but power manifested and exerted in the impartation of a unique quality of life to the body of our Lord all other resurrections as I mentioned earlier were but a temporal measure death opened its vice grip for a time only to close again so the cycle of Lazarus was an interesting one joy at his birth grief at his death joy at his birth grief at his death joy at his birth grief at his death joy at his birth

29:56 being raised by our Lord grief at his second death and so it was with Dorcas those hands that administered to the saints of God were no longer active as they were folded in death but once again those nimble fingers became vehicles of expressing love to Christ and his people only to be still again and folded in death but not of our Lord look at the text in Romans 6 in verse 9 look at the text in Romans 6 look what it says concerning the power exerted in his resurrection and the kind of life imparted knowing that Christ Romans 6, 9

30:39 being raised from the dead dieth no more death no more hath dominion over him Hebrews 2, 14 he partook of flesh and blood that he might destroy him that by the power of death and deliver him from death and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage and then you have a graphic description of this in Revelation 1, 18 John is in the spirit on the Lord's day he's being caught up to be given visions of things to come and he turns to see the voice that spoke with him and in the midst of these seven golden lampstands he has a vision

31:24 of the glorified Christ eyes as a flame of fire feet like unto burnished brass and at the sight of the glory of Christ he doesn't snuggle up he doesn't pick up his pen and write a little gospel ditty about I'm in love with the lover of my soul he says I fell at his feet as a dead man then Jesus put forth his right hand and said fear not behold I am he that was dead and I'm alive and I'm alive forevermore and then these words he pulled out a key chain a key ring and he dangled it in front of John's face and he shook it and he said and I have the keys of hell

32:07 and of death I've wrenched the keys from the hands of the destroyer of men's souls there's a sense in which my father put the keys in his hand even for my death but in my resurrection as I pass from the tomb I wrenched them from his hands and they're mine I have the keys of hell and of death hence the scripture says he ever living to make intercession priest after the order of Melchizedek that is with the power of an endless life oh what power was exerted

32:49 not only to negate death's grip but to impart a quality of life that had all that was necessary to bear him to eternity in his mighty work on behalf of his people and the Christian listen, listen that's the power which is to us the measure of the power to us is to be found in that which was wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead that power will take us whose bodies are constantly wracked with the reminders of their earthiness and sinfulness a body that Paul calls

The Resurrection as an Exertion of Divine Power: Conveying Life to All the Elect

33:34 one of humiliation a mortal body and what will that power do? 1 Corinthians 15, 22 and following our bodies will be sown in dishonor but raised in honor sown in mortality raised in immortality that's part of our inheritance a body like unto his own what assurance do we have that that power will be operative in us? well it's the power that was operative in him and it is to us hence our confidence but now we come to what is the pinnacle point of our salvation we study this morning and oh that God by the Spirit would pull back the veil I've just felt I couldn't hold the concept as I've been meditating upon it

34:19 listen, listen the resurrection asserted and assumed as fact which is a manifestation of power is not only a manifestation of power in breaking the grip of death in imparting an endless life but follow closely behold the mighty power exerted in conveying life to all the elect in the resurrection of Christ remember this was the resurrection of the Christ he is not acting as a private person all that he does he does as the covenant head of his people from his baptism onward when he officially identifies himself with his own in that sinner's ordinance

35:02 he is found in his capacity and activity as the representative of his people then when he hangs upon that cross in the words of Paul he was being made sin for us the mountain of the iniquity of all the people of God in all ages was as it were lifted up from earth held above the head of Christ and then dropped upon him in the Father's righteous dealings until crushed beneath the weight of that he cries out my God, my God why hast thou forsaken me and why hast thou forsaken me and he feels as it were that burden crushing him

35:45 down and down and down until he fain would die beneath the weight of it and then suddenly he feels it lifted the Father's wrath is satisfied he lifts up his head and says it is finished Father the smile has come back my God but Father into thy hands I commend my spirit but now listen how do we know that the payment was truly accepted by the Father how do we know that the Lord Jesus was not somehow just deluded

36:30 with some of the fantasies and some of the weird mental processes that happens to people in the point of death when he said it is finished how do we know that it's true can you picture what it must have been like in the invisible world of spirit reality when the Lord Jesus in his lifeless form was taken down from the cross and placed in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea and those spiritual beings that dwell in the heavenlies Paul says we wrestle not against flesh and blood but principality's powers they beheld the spirit of the Lord Jesus whether it was carried by other spirit beings we do not know but assuming for the sake of illustration

37:15 and graphic depiction it was they beheld with horror and with fear and with fear and with fear and with fear and with fear as the spirit of the Lord Jesus carried by the angels into paradise passed through the realms of principalities and powers and might and dominion and went into his presence the other imps of hell beheld as that lifeless body was taken and laid in Joseph's tomb and I can conceive in my mind's eye that there was an emergency meeting called by the highest echelons of the forces of hell Satan himself at the head and presiding and he was and there is this subtle and this this determined activity that they shall keep

37:59 that spirit from rejoining that body in life so that his lifeless form shall be held in the power of death and all the imps of hell will make the claim the wages of sin is death he lies beneath its power sin is not atoned for sin is not paid for can you imagine what would have happened if that day at that point in time when the father said the spirit shall return to that body how half of all the host of hell flanked with their faces heavenward would resist with all their might and power the return of that spirit and how the other half of the host of hell would surround that garden tomb and yea

38:43 within the very walls of that tomb would seek to keep that lifeless form upon that slab of stone that the mighty power of God brought the spirit of Jesus through the host of hell the mighty power of God imparted life to that body and raised it from the stone slab the fiends and imps of hell shrieked with horror when that body and spirit joined goes forth from the tomb you say pastor isn't that a little bit of an imaginative fancy no no listen my bible says he was a man he was delivered up for our offenses

39:26 he was raised for our justification now listen closely listen closely in a real sense the garden tomb of Joseph of Arimathea was the womb in which all the elect of God would either be stillborn and never see the light of day or be born again or out of which they would come in the person of their living head to form the new humanity beloved that I feel

40:09 this mortal frame can't hold but I believe it's what's here in the text that God in this can be kept within it Paul says if we be not raised we are yet in and the wages of sin is death but when he came forth as the Christ he did not come forth as a private person he came out with all the elect in his loins and in time he gives birth to them one by one

40:53 by the power of the spirit and he says the life I give is the life with which I came out of the tomb eternal life for soul and for body and if you think that's imaginative fancy just read chapter 2 he quickened us together with him raised us tossed up those words of their reality it is true that we are quickened because of him but that isn't what the text says it says we are quickened with him so my salvation in time do you know what it is?

41:39 it's just a delayed manifestation of what happened Easter morning I came out of that tomb in the person of my living head I was in his loins and then in time he gave birth to me in the power of that life oh beloved can you think what this must have meant to the imps of hell to know that the Lord Jesus was there on behalf of his people if we can keep him there beneath the mountain of their sins we shall frustrate every purpose of the almighty

42:21 the Lord Jesus came forth with that innumerable multitude of every kindred tribe and tongue and nation it is life and in his person what power what power and that's the power it is operative now do you see why Paul says Lord give him the spirit to understand that now do you see why he says Lord give him the spirit to understand that human rational faculties either write that all off as a lot of gibberish or they come up to it and just feel hopelessly confused but the humblest saint who says oh God

43:05 spiritual things are known by the illumination of the spirit teach me he can enter the veil with Paul until he's lost in wonder love and praise the exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe which he wrought in Christ having raised him from the dead and it's that power that opened our eyes broke the bondage of sin humbled us to the foot of the cross and to the crown of Christ it is that power which is keeping us preserving us from falling enabling us to persevere and thank God it's the confidence of that power

Concluding Entreaty: The Power of God Unto Salvation or Damnation

43:49 that we can look at ourselves in the mirror and say one day when that face is being eaten by the worms Jesus Christ will come and that power will reconstitute that body a body capable of eternal dwelling in perfect light a body capable of unwearying untiring service of my God in the new heavens and in the new earth that's why Paul wants them to know the exceeding greatness of his power but I must close with a note of entreaty to the unconverted amongst us listen this morning every one of us shall either know the power of God unto salvation

44:34 through the gospel or the power of God unto damnation through the law and there's no third alternative every one of us will either know this power operative in us through the gospel or will know the same power operative in us through the law unto our damnation but to be an object of the raw unleashed power of God is not your option every one of us will be either unto grace and glory or unto damnation and the horrors of eternal darkness

45:18 for it's that same resurrected power of God who will take his place as the judge of the world and summon you into his presence and though my heart is filled with the wonder and the glory of the power of God to us who believe it trembles at the thought of the power of God towards you that remain in your sins oh repent and flee to Christ ere that power crushes you with an everlasting crushing