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January 31, 2022 3:00 am
As Christians our lifestyle one straightforward truth.
We belong to Jesus, the apostle Paul calls this lifestyle are walk with Christ and he not only tells us how to walk. He also tells us why were to walk that way. Here's Alistair Begg with part one of a message titled, filled with the spirit, I invite you to turn with me to Colossians chapter 3 and we're going to read the first 16 or 17 versus of Colossians 3, which provides us at least in part, something of a parallel passage to our verses today in Ephesians 5 so Colossians 3 in verse one if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on air for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory to death therefore what is earthly in you sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness which is idolatry on account of these the wrath of God is coming in these YouTube once walked when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene. Talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and of put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator here that is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian city and slave free, but Christ is all and in all put on then, is God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another and that one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive, and above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the father through him.
Amen. Lord, this is the great longing of our hearts as we turn to the Bible in our lives individually and collectively, may be the very place where you come to live by the Holy Spirit.
So help us as we look to the Bible. Now, in Jesus name, amen. While I encourage you to turn to Ephesians enter chapter 5 as we pick up our studies. There perhaps be helpful for us just to read from verse 15 through 221 Paul writes look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is and do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the spirit addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ while here we are in chapter 5 and moving on towards the end of the book. All of our studies of have flowed from essentially the beginning of chapter 4.
Most recently, where Paul has urged those who are in Christ, to make sure that they are walking or conducting their lives in a manner that is worthy of the fact that they belong to Jesus. He is writing to those who are in Christ to have Herod the word of the gospel who have believed who have been sealed with the Holy Spirit and now he says to them.
I want you to make sure that your life and your lifestyle bears testimony to this truth, and we tried to say very carefully and consistently all the way through these the second half of his letter that the imperatives all the calls to action to do or to cease from doing are grounded in the indicative's.
In other words, in the things that are true of the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's not issuing a kind of ethical treatise urging people to try and fix themselves to try and become something they are not. Rather, as we tried to say consistently.
He wants them to become what they are and classically ask if you turn back a page and cartoon your Bible. This comes across as strikingly in the fourth verse of chapter 2 where having outlined the state of humanity outside of Christ. He then says. However, although you were once like this but now God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us. He says even though we were dead men and women by his grace we been saved and triumphantly there in verse six, and he's raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, not so that we would just be living in some rarefied and obscure atmosphere, but saw that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ, he is a wonderful terrific picture. And when we study that some months ago now I remember I quoted to you from an old musical by Jimmy and Carol Owens that was around is certainly in the early 70s in the United Kingdom and these words, you are the children of the kingdom of God hears our identity in Christ. You are the children of the kingdom of God are the chosen ones for whom the Savior came your his noble new creation by the spirit on the blood you're the church that he has built bear his name and then keep looking down were seated in the heavenly's God's mighty power has raised as overall keep looking down above all principalities, for we have died and risen with the Lord. So it is by virtue of our union with Christ our identity in Christ and some of you this morning hitting me using this phraseology may find yourself there scratching your head and say, I'm not sure I understand exactly what you mean well the rest of the congregation would not be happy if I go all the way back to chapter 1 and start again. But I do want to tell you that if you have questions along these lines will want to give you a Bible to take. We want to offer the chance to pray with you or talk with you so that the message might come across very clearly Jesus Christ is great and Jesus Christ is the one who gives us a new heart and makes as new people and we we would we would love the opportunity to talk, not through with you know it is to such individuals that Paul is writing an adverse 15 here of chapter 5. He has given them. This expectation steady as you go, we might paraphrase it. Look carefully then how you walk is this is he's been emphasizing this again and again the walking of the Christian at Petit Potala is an expression is a method for our way of life, so you should walk in a way that is worthy of your calling comes back to it on various occasions and now again careful in the way you walk in any then he gives us these three contracts do not be foolish, but instead be wise, don't waste your time, but instead make good use of your time and now in verse 18 and don't get drunk but be filled with the spirit, incidentally, and a blessing for those of us who are tempted to keep telling people you know that the Christian life is not about dues and don'ts to be very very careful about what what were saying. When we say that it is the Christian life has a tremendous amount about dues and don'ts is not of the dues and the Don's are upfront in order that we might find ourselves accepted with God on the strength of that but that once we are in Christ in order for us to manifest the change that is ours in Christ. It has to do with making sure that we do what we're supposed to do and it will refrain from doing what we tempted to do tempted to be foolish instead of wise tender just a waste our time for the Christian employer and employee doesn't lay don't waste their time. They realize that time is a gift it on trivialize the passage of time they seize it and in the same way as we consider now in this matter of the influence on our lives whether it is a little phrase there that I want to pause on because I didn't when we looked at verse 16. But I want just for a moment to recognize what Paul is saying there when he says the days are evil. The days are evil is quite striking statement. I think you would agree and what Paul is not saying is that these are peculiarly evil days in Ephesus and they may well have been. But it is a comment on the fact that the world in which we live is a world in which evil is present that the world in which we live is a fallen world and the reason I want to pause owners because I've noted in perhaps you would have identified this to that the word evil or the notion of evil is seldom a part of people's vocabulary. In our day.
I think we could see. Certainly in Western culture.
At this point in history indefinitely.
Here in America. I almost affixed desire to make sure that we move ourselves away from any notion of evil or badness or wrongness. A tall are you can test this out by just thinking and by considering the literature and the statements that are made in the media. I wonder if you agree with me that moral categories moral categories right wrong categories have been replaced largely in our culture with psychological categories saw that the problem with the child in kindergarten or the student in the halls of the University will not then be determined in relationship to right and wrong as much as it will be determined in relationship to, for example, where they somehow or another misguided where the unfortunate where the victimized worthy all these different things which they may well of me as if somehow another. These symptoms are actually the issue but if you think about our culture as it endeavors to address these things all symptomatically without any awareness of the underlying condition that is virtually programmed for futility. Of example you go to the average parent-teacher conference and the teacher. Is he sleeping do about your children and I see she seems to be a little bit this way in a little bit that way and little rambunctious and this and that the names that you just cut through music, yes I understand she's bad all nose as a teacher.
She's not bad no no no she's not bad. Although she's worse than bad. She's evil all know you can say evil. You have been removed. We can have this in the school there any conversation like this at all know, but that's what the Bible actually says you see note to say what is a dreadful thing for the Bible to say no for follow with me. Follow with me receipt unless there is a proper diagnosis then there is no possibility of so symptomatically we are trying to deal with the fact that everything is messed up know what the Bible says is that we live in a fallen world, so that the days are evil all the days are evil not be one evil in the garden before Adam's sin.
There was perfection there was no contradistinction to God there at all. Perfection world we know it today is not the world as God made it but is the world is manned by sin has spoiled and as a result of that since the fall men and women by nature define God's authority disobey God's law reject God's word and refuse God's son, you sensible people think about was there when I will obey the law of God and what it has to say about marriage, for example, I don't have to submit to that kind of authority I'm on my own authority and what you talk about about the Bible of yours are many possible ways to think about God and his revelation so knife I reject the notion of an authoritative insufficient word of God and I am the same time I'm prepared to give some credence to Jesus of Nazareth, but I refuse to accept him as a Savior and the Lord and as a king man. Consequently is hard-pressed to explain why we are as we are man clay man recognizes that our world is dark it is broken and it is full of hatreds into all of the brightness and gladness and joyfulness of it all the achievements and the advancements in the programs and the progress the fact of the matter is that in the heart of man is a deep deep shadow. There is a deep darkness that shines into our early overshadows even our greatest achievement, and man has great devil in trying to make sense of water in our world is simply the expression of the water in our hearts we have the capacity to be jealous of one another to be spiteful to be hateful. No one ever taught. Is this.
We never went to a course I'm sure you know when to a course on how to be an absolute best bet. Chapter 1 being a complete loyal nuisance in your family know you're a natural at it.
And if you're not my wife says I am. It is just there. It is endemic in and so when nations go to war, nations of the collective expression of individuals. So why would you be surprised that nations fight nations since husbands fight wife's since parents fight children since employers fight employees since the brokenness is there. I came across an interesting quote as I was thinking along these lines this week by the fellow who was the founder of twitter F. Williams because one of the things about social media in the last quarter-century or so has been with the expansiveness of it all, a kind of optimism that this is probably going to really fix a lot of things for us there.
The fight and we can all communicate like this we can all be in touch with one another and there is tremendous joy and that doesn't mean who would ever thought that you could face time across the world with your friends and your loved ones fantastic, but this is F. Williams quotes I thought once everybody could speak freely and exchange information and ideas. The world is automatically going to be a better place. I was wrong about that.
I was wrong about because what we know. We know that all of the benefits that are represented in this are counterbalanced by all of the other stuff which is dark and undermining and broken and hateful and evil is the only way that we will ever get to this is from our Bibles. And that's why when we've gone through Ephesians and we've had to wrestle with these statements by Paul. You were dad, you were sinful. You were accountable, and so on. It comes across with just resting chilling engagement doesn't and we go back to Paul as he writes his great treatise in in Romans chapter 1, and how he explains there and we've said it again and again that the fight that although God has made himself known in this world that man. Men and women of chosen to disregard that they knew God and honor him as God did, and give thanks to end it became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Darkened and claiming to be really wise, they became fools, and the implications of it.
He says since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. How did that work out they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, mortar, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent party, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to their parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them by the give approval to those who practice them. A devastating critique of life without God is the sword possible hope is well God speaks through the prophet Jeremiah and says the heart is deceitful above all things and through the prophet Ezekiel, and he says and I will give you a new heart, I will give you a new heart. You see, here's here's what's needed isn't a nitwit. Here we are at the center of heart surgery in the entire United States.
Tomorrow is every day there will be those who are the beneficiaries of the transforming power of heart surgery. They will go in breathless and impoverished and in the goodness of God. They will come out breathing and enriched the not enough to give them a little cream enough to give them a little too need a new heart and that's what the Bible says so you see the bad news is more than impacted by the good news first, I need to recognize with a predicament as I live in an evil world why because I myself am evil, even on my best days as who I what possibility is there for me. I've tried this I tried that and I try to fix a number of things in my life, but are really taking one step forward and two steps back. Did you say that he will give you a new heart, you get a heart transplant gets that's the gospel is widened. Nicodemus was stunned by it. When Jesus said to them, you know, I want to tell you Nicodemus.
Unless you are born again, you will never see her enter the kingdom of heaven the world as users from regeneration in order that you might be reborn. That's what it takes and only in the gospel is provided listening to Alistair Begg reminds us that only the gospel can provide us with the answer we need for the predicament we face in life. That's the message that fuels our mission here at Truth for Life we heard today that every one of us needs a new heart and although we might try were never able to fix our own hearts. We need Jesus meant why we teach the Bible every day. The Truth for Life in a way that is clear and relevant when the Scriptures taught God works through his word to change our hearts and our thinking so that following Jesus comes before everything else in our lives.
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If you'd rather mail your donation along with your request for the book, spiritual disciplines for the Christian life. Write to us at Truth for Life PO Box 39, 8000, Cleveland, OH 44139 and Bob Lapine were surrounded by things that can easily become a temptation. How do we avoid the pitfalls tomorrow. Find out how the spirit of God enables us to walk in a way that keeps us on the straight and narrow Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Learning is for Living