All Sermons

Made Alive With Christ By Merv Topp

17/11/1996 Smithfield Baptist Church
Eph 2

I'd like to give ourselves some consideration as we move on to the next little segment really
of, we've been looking at new birth and a number of things and then faith and repentance
or repentance and faith and repentance, probably repentance comes first and then faith, but
faith and repentance have got us here tonight and to remind us how God has worked.
Christ's creation marks the moment and the means of our coming in union with Christ.
Instantaneous change from spiritual death, spiritual life and to me it is always one
of those exciting mysteries when God at his mercy brings a person, man or a woman or boy
or girl to himself.
I suppose we've been involved in many lives now in the course of our ministry over the
18 years, but it seems as though that it happens at times when, even after all that experience
when you're sort of least expected, you were working with someone and all of a sudden,
I see, I see.
It's a bit like the blind man that once was blind but now I see, as it were in the mercy
and the grace of God, the scales roll back all for a person's eyes and then there's
just something so dynamic in the eyes of that person when they come to faith in Christ.
Yet it seems like when it happens, we're never quite prepared, prepared for it to happen.
But I believe that we should be looking for God's great grace and mercy because God has
issued the gospel invitation for eternity.
The offer of the gospel is ringing out and should be ringing out and we should be expecting
God and His great mercy to be moving in the power of the Spirit of God, bringing new life
from the dead.
And Ephesians says, and you He made alive, alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,
and you He made alive, be a child of God.
And Jesus was here, the excitement of what it is to be alive.
I don't know, a friend of mine used to take great fancy in telling me about the,
I read the death columns in the newspapers and he'd read them every morning to see
whether his name was there, you know, sort of a conical sort of a thing.
But here we are in the flesh, made alive by the Spirit of God, to come to terms with that.
Once we're dead in sins and trespasses, lost to Christ's eternity, through the great
grace of God and the mercy of God, the power of God, He makes us alive.
And I think I'll be the rest of my life trying to come to terms, understanding this
great movement of the Spirit of God.
Let's not kid ourselves.
Can you tell me how it happens?
The Bible tells us in John 3, the wind blows wet will.
There is a mystique between the throne room of God, as it were, of God's sovereignty
and mercy and his operations.
When he sets his life up for somebody, he draws him to himself, makes him alive.
There's a man when you were in Melbourne, he was here, dedicated drug user.
It all fell aside and was all gone when he was made alive in Christ.
I didn't have to go through any social program.
One of the great things that happened today is a drug rehabilitation program.
I tell you the best rehabilitation program is when God makes a man or a woman alive.
He lifts him from the gutter and makes him a child of his and brings him into the kingdom
of God.
And verse 5 of Ephesians 2, even when you were dead in trespasses, made us alive together
with Christ.
This is a great operation and the work of Christ.
I want to ask you tonight, have you been made alive?
Is that birth that we've been talking about for so much now, that spark of life, that
regeneration, has that taken place in your life?
Together with Christ, by grace, you have been saved.
I have a dear friend of mine in Scotland.
He came to our little church that was in the western suburbs and there was an ordinary
car garage lined up with that old Kainite stuff, that thick rotten paper and it was
lined up.
We used to use that, that was called our church, it was just a garage lined up.
We used it and I was many blessed in that little place.
I'll never forget when he first came and he was telling me about his decision and how
he...
I said, who decided?
Who decided?
You know, I said, I've been to the mortuary.
I said, I've seen dead bodies.
I said, you can't get them to do anything really.
Anyway, I gave him that little booklet that's in banner, the invitation system.
Ooh, he went away and we went back to this passage.
Even when you were dead in trespasses, in trespasses, he made us alive with Christ.
You see, we've got to come back to every time, the key issue of how we are made alive,
how that union takes place.
It's by God's grace and mercy.
By grace, you have been saved.
By grace, the great work has taken place.
Once, this is a once for all event at the beginning of the Christian life.
I want to take a little time for sort of talking about this because you see, we've been so
used to hearing testimonies.
I get so tired.
I get so weary.
I remember being in a youth camp, a youth camp and somebody made so-called this commitment
and the following Sunday had the guy up giving me his testimony.
That's the last thing I'd do.
We'd want to see some growth and some fruitfulness.
In the practical sense, brought up in a Christian home, very often there is no dramatic change
of events.
Very often the gospel has been heard and God in his goodness and mercy has given a Christian
home and a Christian family and very often a person that's brought up in that environment,
as it were, is gently drawn with the cords of love.
Very often it's never real.
We look for an event at a time when God draws in gentle love his children to himself.
There's no drugs, no drama, no what I'd call outward organised sin in their lives,
the fact that they're born in sin and shape and in iniquity, that is the issue, you know.
But it's still God's great grace and mercy, his drawing of the cords of love.
And we need to marvel at that.
And boys and girls, you have the privilege of mum and dad loving the Lord Jesus Christ.
Like Timothy, you've learnt the gospel from mum and maybe grandma.
That's a privilege.
God's mercy gives.
But you still need to come to realisation that without God's grace, without God's mercy,
we're dead in sins and trespasses.
And that transaction needs to take place in our lives.
And then on the other hand, there are those that have come stripping, kicking and screaming,
as it were.
Pulled from hell into heaven by God's great mercy and as come.
Perhaps in a dramatic conversion.
You read C.S. Lewis's conversion, Surprised by Joy.
And you read the conversion of perhaps of others and it's different.
But it still matters less the fact is that we're all sinners and need to be saved.
We're all dead in sins and need to be made alive.
We need to know that our sin separates us from God.
We need to know the corruption of the human nature.
The heart is deceitful above all things, desperately liquid.
Who can know it?
Spurgeon speaks of this.
He made a remark about man's ignorance as to the precise time of his birth.
Now the precise timing of his birth was not necessarily evident that he'd been made alive.
And we know and give grand testimonies and sometimes those testimonies are helped along
the considerable bit too, by the way.
But the issue is here.
No matter whether you've come one way or the other, the story's still the same.
You're dead in sins and trespasses.
Sitting by God's grace and mercy, even when you're dead in trespasses, made us alive.
Together with Christ.
But by grace you've been saved.
That's the issue.
Proof of regeneration by the Spirit is the believing and owning the outward persuasion
of Christ indeed as Lord and Saviour.
And the evidence of that is the Spirit's life in and through us.
The Spirit's life in and through us.
The issue is not nothing else.
Rebirth is the activity of God touching our lives, changing them.
It's also inseparable from what follows, the faith that accompanies grace and repentance.
By grace you're saved through faith and this not of yourself.
It's the gift of God.
See this great process of coming to faith.
It's God's gift.
God's gift all the way.
And in that process there must come a time where we repent and turn from our sins.
And therefore repentance must take place.
Has that ever taken place in your life?
This is not being sorry about misdeeds.
This is acknowledging we're a sinner but we can't save ourselves.
And asking the Lord Jesus Christ, asking God for his mercy to save us.
Power and repentance.
Casting ourselves on the mercy of God.
See Hebrews 6 tells us that without faith it is impossible to please him.
Please God.
Anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
The invitation earnestly seeking him is issued out.
He tells us for by grace that you've been saved through faith.
It's not in our own doing.
It's the gift of God.
And that gift, once it's been given to us, is to be exercised.
It's not by works, not by labour around my hands, not by human effort.
See even in that great verse in John 3.16, the verbal use of the form here, the word faith is to believe.
Faith in, trust, is all pulled together.
And the work of Christ, nothing else.
You see faith is very often a misapplied word.
The only way to look at faith is to look at a bit of the negatives to start with.
Negative side.
We speak of doing something to somebody in good faith.
By accepting anything of importance we do not accept the mere word of an individual.
Today is once you could do something on a handshake and say, well young, trust that fellow to stick to his word.
Required deeds, but now it requires contracts, a written guarantee.
It's not this negative side of faith.
It's not faith in some nebulous thing.
Hmm?
It's a not hearsay faith, a so-so faith, you know, it's not something that is cast in negative ways.
See in money matters, you've got to have a contract.
You never see a motor car yard salesman accept that if I was in the world we're going to by faith pay it now, they want a contract.
It's fair enough each side wants to believe that they have good faith in each other,
but we also know that people can't be trusted.
We must be bound by some fundamental agreement.
This sort of faith here that I'm talking about falls in the areas of wishful thinking.
And this faith that we're talking about here is not wishful thinking.
See it rests in the throne room of God, not in areas of some sort of nebulous thing.
Also, it's not faith in some religious feeling.
This is as large today around us, we've got to have some sort of feeling.
Huh? Feelings.
You know, this is faith not separated from objective truth in God's revelation.
So we don't have this negative side of faith.
The faith that we're talking about here is in our objective truth, how God has revealed himself in his word.
And it stands.
The other thing that's floating around today, and it's in our churches in a large sense of the way,
and you understand what I mean, there's another sort of optimistic faith.
That coming to the church through Norman Vincent Peale, you know, he's, I'll get on a bit what he used to say,
get up in the morning and say, I believe, I believe.
Huh? That's nonsense.
That's sort of an optimism.
And we have a lot of that around.
Starting with a positive mental attitude.
Positive mental attitude will never bring you into the kingdom of God.
It's no foundation.
Sort of believing that things will happen.
Huh?
See, this was Peale's idea of part of his worry-making fundamentals, you know, in his book.
As I said, he'd get up in the morning and say, say to himself out aloud, three times, I believe.
That's a form of nonsensical optimism.
And that's not the sort of faith we're talking about.
As I already said, we're talking about a faith that is based in the sure revelation of God's word.
That's not the faith in the Bible sense of the word.
And this kind of stuff has been propagated.
Possibility thinking is a kind of optimistic stuff
that's been propagated through a large portion of the church.
Huh?
What faith is, faith is the fundamental to all genuine Christian experience.
Without faith, it's impossible to please God.
Look at this, for he who comes to God must believe that he is.
And so man is also, the gospel is issued from God's side, but also man is held accountable
and responsible to that gospel.
He's held responsible.
For he who comes to God must believe that he is, that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
That's man's responsibility.
Without this impossibility, it's impossible to please God.
And the way it can be defined, as far as I can see, is best defined as a trust in the truth of Jesus Christ crucified and risen again.
We have a gospel.
We have one who has risen from the dead and broken the bounds of death,
the tongue of sin and all its ugliness and corruptness.
So when we come to Christ, we have one who's risen at the right hand of the majesty and a prince and a savior.
Faith is trust involves an act of personal commitment to God in Christ.
You see, we go on in this chapter, we'll see as we see the life of Abraham.
Abraham was called to God, but he moved out of trusting God.
He didn't know where he was going to finish up.
And God blessed him with his promises.
And God's promises were sure.
And so it is for you and for me, his promises are sure.
It's not some vague awareness, but the reality, God is God and God is on the throne
and God in his mercy has offered the free off of the gospel to those that sit in darkness.
And like Lydia, he opens their eyes, the scales fall away,
a joy of what it is to be in union with Christ, a new creature.
In one sense, the devil and his demons also believe, we're told in James 2 and 19,
the devil's not an atheist, nor is he an agnostic.
But he is arrogantly aware of the reality of God and the redemption that is issued in Christ.
But in no sense has he committed to God, nor does he have faith in the sense we're talking about here.
Faith is the trust in truth, to rest in an objective reality.
And we're talking about a risen Saviour.
You see, this is the excitement of the early chest.
He's risen, he's not here, he's risen from the dead.
We have tonight a man, the right hand of the majesty on high,
a man in the glory, a prince and a Saviour, who's able to save.
If faith or faithness is provided, it undergirds all that takes place.
Faith then is the foundation of the Christian life.
And it's the means by which unseen things are tested.
We rest in His unchanging grace, rely upon His grace.
So ultimately the faith in the Bible that we're talking about here is
means that a confidence in what God has promised.
You see, that's what Abraham did.
He had a confidence that God promised, in the promises of God,
rests, resulting in a life of faithfulness and perseverance.
That's the hope we have as a child of God.
That's the invitation that's issued.
Faith, as the title is, when God calls us to believe in Christ,
He calls us to do the most sensible thing we can do.
He calls us.
He is also asking you and me to believe the word
and the only being in the universe
of whom we can trust everything reliably.
That's contrary to the faith hand taker, the other hand taker.
If he was right, this is God's revealed word.
You see, it's that offer that's been issued
when God commands faith and salvation of ourselves
and must express itself in the response to that offer.
We have a responsibility and respect.
God has offered us that message, that invitation.
Faith is trust in the truth of Jesus Christ crucified and risen.
Objective truth.
And this objective content in which the response is into Christ is the Gospel.
And that's issued, come unto me all you that are weary and heavy laden.
I'll give you rest.
The issue had come.
This Gospel is about the one who was delivered over to death for our sins
and was raised again for our justification
so that in the finished work of Christ, we stand.
There's no other place to stand, set right with God.
He's cleared us in the courts of heaven
of all the ugliness that rose up against us,
all the depravity and corruption of sinfulness
when God's Son came and died upon Calvary's cross.
Romans 4.25 says this,
who was delivered up because of our fences
and was raised because of our justification.
We stand in Christ complete.
The work that has saved us has done.
That faith in Christ means a commitment to Him
because we're in union with Him.
We're in a living relationship now
with one that has lived with us from the deadness of sin
and of the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of your own dear Son
from corruption to new life.
It means a commitment to Him.
The one who died and rose for us personally,
it means being united to Christ.
This is what it means to come to Christ,
flee to Him, return to Him.
So great is this message.
And what happens when this takes place?
There must be within this fleeing to Him
inescapable repentance
which means a change of mind, a turning from sin.
We have a gospel today that has no repentance in it.
More like a social gospel or psychological gospel,
minus repentance.
Why repentance, my friend?
You're a sinner. You're dead in sins.
These trespasses are a fence.
It costs the death of Christ upon Galbraith's cross
to make us sin a whole.
We turn in repentance acknowledging,
refers to a changing of mind,
consider concerning sin and evil.
It's seen as the Bible as the elements of human response
and God has commonly linked us to faith
and that response is repentance.
He's not coming down the front of here.
He's not putting your hand up
and not coming up here and giving the congregation
a flowery testimony of how he used to be wicked and bad
and block the money off how to use milk bottles
and probably don't use them.
But you know what I mean?
We turn from sin.
It's acknowledging that we're sinners
who've grieved and broken the heart of God
and returned from sin to Christ.
The time has fulfilled.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent and believe the gospel
and the gospel is the good news.
The king was coming in mass gospel
and he is bringing in the kingdom with power,
a spiritual kingdom,
and he's calling us out of the kingdom of darkness
into his kingdom.
That meant a transaction.
That meant a change.
Acts 2, 28 says Peter stand up and says,
Repent and let every one of you be baptised
in the name of Jesus Christ for remission of sins.
That's death.
They're recognising death through the old way of life.
We've died.
Baptism is our death warrant to the old way of life.
And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Change.
Repentance.
There's no back door into the kingdom of God.
You can sit and sing all the fancy warbly tunes
who you like with no repentance.
You're still hellbound.
If you have never repented of your sins,
you're still hellbound.
You never turned from your wicked ways.
If you've never agreed with God in relation
to lost condition.
Repentance means repentance toward God
and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the gospel.
This is the gospel.
This is the gospel.
This is the gospel.
This is the gospel.
This is the gospel.
This is the gospel.
There's no other way that leads home.
This is the gospel that calls us
into repentance and faith.
Or faith and, repentance and faith
is probably the best way around.
I've probably organised a message
the wrong way around tonight I suppose.
Repentance, the brokenheartedness.
Conversion then literally is
a change of direction.
And repentance is the element
and repentance is the element
in all genuine response
to that gospel.
1 John 3 and 9.
A little verse tucked away in the back here.
Whoever is born of God
does not sin
for his seed remains in him.
He cannot sin
because he has been born of God.
When we're born of God
this brings forth
a genuine repentance.
We're agreeing with God
in relation to our corrupt estate.
And I want to say this
that the absence of a changed attitude
the absence of a changed attitude
and the absence of a changed life
means that we may have never come to faith.
We've never had the same attitude
in relation to sin.
It may also mean that we
have never truly
repented of sin.
You see, there are always
you see, there are always
responsibility here.
The work that saves is done
and men and women
are called into repentance
and faith toward God.
At that point then
our eyes are lifted up
and turned heavenward
and towards home.
And so we have again
faith is a substance
of things hoped for.
What a wonderful statement.
The things that are hoped for
have set out
previous chapter, Doyles in Hebrews
says they're just living by faith
and now those things were hoped for
and the things not seen
you see, it's that anchor
that's lifted up
into the throne room of God.
It's the invitation
that calls a man toward a woman
by God's grace and God's mercy
that makes his steps
towards heaven
and towards home.
Oh, that our hearts are encouraged
as we look at the great offer of the Gospel
the issue that's issued out
from the throne room of God
that we might flee
from the wrath to come
the urgency.
Indeed, if we understand
the urgency is
that you're either in the kingdom of God
or the wrath of God remains
on you, let us close
by looking at another passage
of Scripture.
And it's found in this great passage
that we've been looking at a little bit
and I always marvel
at the closing verse of John 3.36
He who believes the Son
in the Son
has everlasting life.
He who does not believe the Son
shall not see life
but the wrath of God
abides on him.
It continues
I want to say tonight, friends,
outside of the grace and the mercy of God
under the Gospel
you remain
under the wrath of God
and there comes a day
when the gabber will fall
and you'll be separated
from the great offer of the Gospel
for all eternity
and the issue
ceases to go away.
The issue
ceases to go out
to flee.
Now is the day of grace
now is except the time
now is the time to flee
in faith and repentance
toward God.