Episode Transcript
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Let's turn our attention to Ephesians for
and we will finish this chapter tonight,
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e Fusians for a twenty five through
thirty two. If you like grammar,
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you may know the difference between an
indicative and an imperative right. indicatives tell
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you something about something, imperatives tell
you to do something, and the first
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part of Ephesians in many ways,
was an indicative to us, telling us
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about what God has done for us. And now we are in, broadly
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speaking, and imperative section. But
these things have a lot of overlap,
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as you'll see. Ephesians for twenty
five through thirty two. Therefore, having
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put away falsehood, let each one
of you speak the truth with his neighbor,
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for we are members of one another, or for we are members one
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of another. Be Angry and do
not sin. Do not let the sun
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go down on your anger and give
no opportunity to the devil. Let the
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thief no longer steal, but rather
let him labor doing honest work with his
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own hands, so that he may
have something to share with anyone in need.
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Let no corrupting talk come out of
your mouths, but only such is
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as good for building up as fits
the occasion that it may give grace to
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those who hear and do not grieve
the Holy Spirit of God, by whom
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you were sealed for the day of
redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and
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anger and clamor and slamder be put
away from you, along with all malice.
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Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in
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Christ forgave you. On them you
may be seated. So this morning we
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considered the appropriate behavior, character motivations
of a ruling elder, of one of
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the those men that are called to
serve in Christ's Church, for Christ's Church,
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as an officer, as an overseer, as a leader, and we
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saw that the we saw, we
considered those instructions as they were given from
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Paul to the Ephesian elders, when
he called them to himself and he said
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this is how you ought to serve, this is the way in which you
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ought to walk. Well, now
we consider those very same things, behavior,
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character motivations. I'm not of ruling
elders in part articular, but of
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all Christians in general. And again, interestingly, from or as Paul speaks
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to the Ephesians, we read of
our character, our conduct our motivations,
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rules of Christian living, you might
say, the way we ought to conduct
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ourselves. These things include speaking the
truth, controlling our anger, working instead
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of stealing, being kind and and
forgiving good rules. If you might think
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to yourself, if I were a
if I could choose a church, if
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I could choose a kind of way
of life, wouldn't it be nice to
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find something that looks like this,
something that was characterized by these things?
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So I've titled the Sermon Rules for
Christians or rules for Christian living, because
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this is how Paul speaks to us
right he addresses us as Christians. Throughout
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the letter to the Ephesians, he's
been talking to them about the things that
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God has done for them, things
that have been planned by his love before
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the world even began, things that
they would enter into by way of the
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Cross, by way of the ascended
Lord. I'm pouring out his gifts on
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the church, not only officers but, as we know from the hospitals and
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from this letter as well, the
very spirit of God. These are people
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who have been made new. We've
considered how they have been made into a
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Holy Temple. We've considered how they
are those who have been redeemed, bought
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out of a bad situation, rescued
even from sin and death, and brought
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into the newness of life. We've
considered how we, as Christians, are
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those who are putting off our old
self, verse twenty two, which belongs
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to our former manner of life,
corrupt, deceitful desires that are now being
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renewed in the spirit of our minds. We are to put on the new
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self, created after the likeness of
God, in True Righteousness and holiness,
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and it's in that spirit, in
this new way of life, that he
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is now describing some very specific things. We're called in scripture to discern the
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will of God. How ought I
to live, and God gives us directions
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on how we ought to speak,
how we ought to act and treat one
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another. These are rules for Christians
or a Christian way of living. So
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what makes these rules particularly Christian,
you might ask. Well, not to
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totally undermine what I've said thus far, but to make them in a way
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they aren't particularly Christian. Let me
explain what I mean, though. They
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do tell us about proper behavior in
life in Christ's kingdom, and they anticipate
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our life and is glorified kingdom.
These rules are often and easily acknowledged apart
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from scripture. Your unbelieving neighbors,
at least hopefully, will tell the truth,
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won't steal from you, will work
hard and these kinds of things.
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Even if they've never read the Bible, they have an understanding that this is
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the requirement, these are good things
to do. God has made known his
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commands concerning truth, telling, kindness
and working hard to all men in all
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places and at all times. These
rules, these commands are, as the
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theologians have put it, part of
God's moral law, accessible and noble by
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all, even apart from the saving
revelation of Jesus. I want to read
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to you a little bit from our
confession of faith tonight. In Chapter Sixteen,
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section seven, we read this.
It's the sex of the chapter is
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called on good works. Chapter Sixteen, section seven says works done by unregenerate
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men, although, for the matter
of them, they may be things which
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God commands and of good use both
to themselves and others. Yet because they
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proceed not from a heart purified by
faith, nor are done in a right
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manner according to the word of God, nor to a right end. The
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glory of God they are therefore sinful
and cannot please God or make a man
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meet to receive grace from God.
And yet their neglect of them is more
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sinful and displeasing unto God. So
a few things to note from this section.
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On the one hand, it's saying
that unregenerate people, people who aren't
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Christians, know these things and and
and and they ought to do them,
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and there is even some good,
a measure of good, in them.
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But yet at the same time there's
no ultimate good in them. Why?
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Because they proceed from the wrong place, the confession says. They proceed not
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from a heart purified by faith.
They are not done in a manner according
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to the word, they are not
done for the glory of God. And
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yet even still this doesn't excuse the
unrungenerate person from saying, well, guess
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I don't have to bother then.
In fact, it says their neglect of
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them is more sinful and pleasing to
God, displeasing to God. So while
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we may grant that they are noble
and oblige both Christians and Non Christians,
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we see that Christian obedience is very
different. That's what our confession says anyway,
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but it's not just our confession,
it's the scripture itself, which is
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why we confess it right. It's
the scripture itself that tells us this.
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Now, that obedience may not always
be visibly different, and perhaps it won't
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be at all in some cases.
And, as you know, there are
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in fact hypocrites who are very good
at playing the part of the Christian.
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They have learned how to look in
many ways identical to Christians. They've learned
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how to cover up their outside or
their insides by making the outside or outward
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actions the same. But what we
learn from the confession and what we learned
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from scripture, what Paul teaches us
very clearly, is that though we are
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called to these certain actions, actions
which we are all obliged to in some
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way, at least for the most
part, here, there is a difference
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on the inside, something about our
hearts that makes Christian odity obedience very different.
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What is the difference? What's the
difference between somebody playing a Christian and
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somebody who actually is a Christian,
or somebody who doesn't even buy their playing
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the Christian and yet acts in a
generally moral way, and a Christian who
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really is a Christian and maybe struggles
a lot to act in a moral way.
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What makes obedience, true, obedience, Really Christian? Well, the
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difference has to do with how we
respond to objective realities, or, to
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put it a little more simply,
has to do with faith. It has
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to do with responding and receiving to
the things that God has done on our
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behalf. Let me explain a little
further. We know that our faith,
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our obedience, involves our emotions,
but we also know that it's not just
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feeling things more deeply. Another words, Christian obedience isn't just being more sensitive
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to the law. It's not just
having a more sensitive conscience. In fact,
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I've met, and perhaps you've met, many unbelievers with very sensitive consciences,
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even more sensitive perhaps than some believers
that you know now. A mature
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Christian will have a sensitive conscience,
will be tender to the things of God.
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They'll be like a windsock, right
moved immediately wherever the wind moves them,
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as the power of God and his
words speaks. A tender heart is
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sensitive to those things. But an
unbeliever might still be sensitive to the law
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at times without really being moved by
the Gospel. So we know we have
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to real is that the root of
Christian obedience lies deeper than just feeling or
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just sensitivity to the law. Christian
feeling is not just feelings. Feeling things
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more deeply, feeling the law more
deeply, it's acting on faith that certain
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things are true, whether we feel
like it or not. Take Another Angle,
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Christian obedience also involves our minds.
But what makes it truly Christian is
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not simply knowing things more deeply.
There are philosophers and sages who have explored
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the moral order of the world,
this moral order that God has made,
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and have made very keen observations,
even perhaps while foolishly denying the God who
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has given them the very moral order
they study. Nevertheless, the thing that
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they study is true, for God
has spoken it and in studying it they
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learn good and right things. And
so you may find unbelievers who have penetrating
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insight into human nature, into relationships, into justice and into the power of
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truth, into kindness and many other
things. But again, excelling in knowledge
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of the Law Does Not Constitute Christian
obedience. A mature Christian, of course,
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will exel and knowledge and wisdom and
application of the law, but it's
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not really the distinguishing characteristic. It's
not the thing that distinguishes and qualifies as
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obedience as truly Christian, as are
with our emotions. Christian obedience is not
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just feeling things more deeply or knowing
things more deeply. Christian obedience is acting
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on faith in the things that have
been revealed, clear things, obvious things
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like the resurrection of the dead,
like Jesus Christ building his church. This
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is important to say because many people
go wrong on these points. They think
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that if they look and act like
a Christian, that that's good enough,
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if they pursue the laws zealously far
enough in either wisdom or feeling or action,
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to that God will be pleased with
them. But it's not the case,
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because we see even unregenerate people pursuing
these things and these ways and yet
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still coming up short. It's not
enough. True Obedience, we see from
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Ephesians here, stems from a heart
that is relying on God, that is
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relying on the things that he has
done, not just his character, not
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just his strength, but on the
objective things that he has done in our
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world. Take a look at the
passage with me. It begins in Verse
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Twenty Five. Therefore, having put
therefore, having put away falsehood, let
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each of you speak truth with his
neighbor, and so we have this command
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about using our tongues for truth speaking. I'm not lying put away falsehood,
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but notice the reason that is given, the particularly Christian reason for we are
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members one of another. This reason
is not just something pious to potwer brother,
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pious sounding to motivate religious people.
It corresponds to an actual reality Paul
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has been talking about. The reality
is that we are members one of another
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right the sphere. It has been
given to us so that we would be
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spiritually united together into one body.
You could use other metaphors that are used
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in scripture, metaphors that speak of
a true reality. We are a brothers
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and sisters of one family. Because
of this, we have to work together.
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Think about your body. Occasional as
Lee, this happens in our bodies.
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The information does not get communicated correctly
right. Imagine somebody WHO's how to
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bad accident and their spine is broken
in some way, their nervous system isn't
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functioning right and they tell their foot
to move and it doesn't move, or
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they feel something that's not really there, or you know, there are these
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miscommunications that happen, or we might
put it even in this way to help
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us understand the analogy lies in a
way in which the body does not say
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something that's true it it gets miscommunicated. And what happens? It's bad news,
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generally. Right we we go to
physical therapy, we have a various
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help and therapists who work with us
so that the information can get correct.
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Well, what happens in the body
of Christ when we don't speak truthfully?
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What happens when there's at best miscommunication
and it wors slander and gossip and lies
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and false doctrine? The body doesn't
work very well. There's something, in
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other words, that God has done
we are relying on and as a result
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of that, we tell the truth. We work hard to tell the truth,
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we put away falsehood. Let's continue. Next, he speaks of anger.
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Be Angry and do not sin.
Do not let the sun go down
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on your anger. Here Paul recognizes
as an obvious truth. Anger is not
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always sinful. Sometimes it's required,
but it's not something that's supposed to sink
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its roots down into our hearts and
grab a hold of them. Revenge,
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envy, murderous intention these are the
things that happen when we don't give our
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anger over to God, who is
our king, who is both just and
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the justifier of men, who promises
to have judgment and vengeance on the wicked
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in the evil, who promises to
take care of all things and to make
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all things right. When we take
into our own hands and we reject the
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resurrection of the dead, when we
reject the coming judgment of God and we
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say I need to be God,
I need to control everything, well,
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anger often takes hold. Notice the
particular reason he gives, though we could
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add others, as I've just done, but he gives this reason. Let
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the devil not have an opportunity right, let him not get a foothold in
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our lives. Again. This helps
us to see that our obedience is not
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just doing these things following a set
of rules. We are engaged in a
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battle, a cosmic one, a
spiritual one that has scatological overtones. The
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battle we face is, Paul will
say, is not against flesh and blood,
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but against spiritual forces. Our obedience
has a cosmic, spiritual dimension to
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it. This is what we receive
by faith and this is what we rely
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on when we think about Jesus Christ
on the cross, who has overcome the
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evil one. He is our enemy. We are no longer children of Wrath.
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We belong to the heavenly father now, we have been adopted into his
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family. For that reason, why
in the world would we let the devil
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get a foothold in our lives?
No, we don't let the sun go
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down on our anger. We battle
here and now, every thought, and
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we're not independent of what is going
on in this world, but because of
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it, because we are a part
of a great Holy War, and Jesus
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Christ is our victor. We are
rooting out and cutting down the enemy in
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our lives. We are seeing to
it that we stay far away from him
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and that he gains no victory over
us. That's why we don't let the
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sun go down on our anger.
Christian obedience more. Take first thirty one,
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just continuing the which it continues the
theme of anger. Let all bitterness
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and wrath and anger and clamor and
slander be put away from you, along
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with all malice. Instead, a
verse thirty two. Be kind to one
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another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. You just even in hearing, though
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I don't know if this this happens
to you for me, when I read
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the words of verse Thirty One,
I can feel my body getting ten's wrath,
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anger, clander, malice or wrath, angered clamor slander along with all
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malice, and I feel my body
relaxing when I read verse thirty two.
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Be Kind to one another. You
just hear that words and your heart softens,
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tenderhearted forgiving one another. One is
a opposed to the work of the
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Lord and the other belongs to him. One is situated in a place of
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rest and comfort and peace that our
Lord has earned us, the other is
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against it. Our relationships with each
other are characterized by the love with which
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we have been loved. It's not
just the love that is better, though
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it is. Our reason, our
motivation goes deeper. We love not just
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because love is better, but because
we have been loved, because we have
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been called the beloved even when we
were unlovable. So because of that,
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how can we hold a grudge against
a brother or sister when we've all been
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adopted from a sinful family into the
family of God? Now that back to
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verse Twenty Eight. As we continue
through this passage, here, Paul reminds
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us of the change that happens in
our lives. When we become the Christians,
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let no corrupting talk come out of
your mouths, but only such as
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good is building up, as fits
the occasion, as it may, give
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grace to those who hear. In
a world where we rebel against God and
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think of ourselves as kings and Queens, we we talk a lot about our
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right to this and that, we
deserve this or that thing. We excuse
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our sin, though we know it
is sin. We develop ways and things,
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ways of thinking and acting that are
against the laws and rules that we
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know. But when we are Christ's
creatures, when we are being made,
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created after the likeness of God and
into his image, something changes. We
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begin to bend our wills to him. We are made new creatures, and
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so, instead of corrupting talk and
these kinds of things, we'd say things
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that build up that we might give
grace to those who hear. Why?
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Because we are now creatures of grace, creatures of him. Of the same
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goes a to I guess I missed
my order a little bit, but well,
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the same goes here at a verse. Now a twenty eight. Let
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the thief no longer steal, but
lad it. Rather, let him labor,
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doing honest work with our own hands, so that he may have something
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to share with everyone in need.
You are no longer children of the flesh.
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You are no longer bound to the
way of the gentiles, as he
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recently said. You belong to a
new way, a new path. You've
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been given a spirit, even the
very spirit of God. If you were
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a thief, put away, you're
stealing and work with your hands. You
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see how we bend our wills to
the will of God. But it's more,
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let me add just it's a little
bit different, though. Then simply
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no longer stealing, but now working. This addition is important. He says
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that we may have something to share
with anyone in need. Here, I
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think you see that operating and distinctive
principle of generosity and of grace. That
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happens. It's not just that we're
not supposed to steal anymore, but now
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we're to work and earn our bread, but we do it in order to
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share with others, in order to
share with those who are in need.
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Theft is not the operating principle of
the church, nor is it even every
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man for himself. What's the operating
principle of the Church of the Christian it's
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every man for his brother, every
man, every woman for her sister.
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We can work so that we provide
for ourselves, yes, but we also
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work so that we can provide for
others. May it be true that there
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is never a soul in need here
in our church was we can consider all
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of these things. We now come
to verse thirty, in many ways the
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sum of all of this, and
if you could memorize one verse, this
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would be a good one to choose. But all that, you choose as
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your needs dictate. But verse thirty
says, and do not grieve the Holy
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Spirit of God by whom you were
sealed for the day of redemption. Its
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versus so important and because it has
so much contained in it about how we
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need to be thinking about our lives
as Christians. What do we mean?
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Well, for one, we rest
in the fact that God's righteousness is imputed
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to us, that we have been
sealed and assigned to glory, to redemption
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of our souls and our bodies by
the very spirit of God who is applying
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the work of Christ. That's our
starting point. We rest in God's work
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and it's because of that relationship that
we mourn our sins. The word grieve
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here is a personal term. Maybe
even surprises you how personal it is.
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Do Not Grieve the Holy Spirit of
God when you sinned? Do you think
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about it in those terms, that
I have grieved the Holy Spirit of God,
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by whom I have been sealed for
the day of redemption? If you
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don't, you should, and you
should have specially think about it when you're
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feeling tempted. Shall I grieve the
Holy Spirit of God, by whom I
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have been sealed for the day of
redemption? When we think about our obedience
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in our real and that we must
think about it in this very personal way,
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because it is very personal. You
See, Christian obedience, Paul is
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telling us, is not following a
mere moral order, like opening up a
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math textbook and simply figuring out the
order of operations that you need to execute
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in your lives. Christian obedience is
about following a mighty moral orderer. It's
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there's a relationship involved. We submit
ourselves not just to the thing that he
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has made or the order and the
morality is revealed to us, but we
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are submitting ourselves to him. That's
why our obedience is so often characterized in
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scripture as love. That is what
it means to obey, it is to
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love, and it's not merely following
a mighty moral orderer, a mighty king
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who has established these rules. But
this particular king, and I speak here
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of Christ, who has come as
our Messiah and who rules and reigns over
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the church, is a king who
has loved us, who has saved us,
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who has redeemed US and who has
sent his spirit to prepare us for
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the glories to come. Our relationship
is not just to a law giver,
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but to one who has redeemed us
out of the curse of the law so
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that we can live lives of obedience
to him. So what is Christian obedience
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then? I hope you are seeing
the Christian obedience is much more than following
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rules. It's following him who has
saved us by His grace. It's in
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our weakness, in our struggles against
the flesh and the temptations that we feel,
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in our ignorance of God's law,
in our coldness of our hearts,
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to turn to the spirit of God
at every turn and, instead of grieving
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him, putting our faith in him, asking him to reveal to us what
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is right to preserve us in the
moment of every temptation, to encourage us
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in our weakness, to give us
the very life of Christ that we might
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be strengthened in him, and to
preserve us to the very end. We
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are not to grieve the spirit of
God, but to put our faith in
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him, to worship him, to
love him, to obey him, because
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from him we receive all the blessings
of our redemption that have been purchased for
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us by Christ's own blood. That's
what Christian obedience is, and when we
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obey with faith in that for the
glory of God and in obedience to his
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commands, God is pleased, because
it is God who is at work,
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doing his work in you. Let's
pray
