Episode Transcript
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Well, if you're able to remain
standing, please do and turn your attention
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to Ephesians five. Otherwise, I
feel free to be seated. We're going
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to be reading from Paul's letter.
I'm here continuing our reading and preaching through
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Ephesians. Paul began this letter by
explaining of various things that which God has
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done and is he often does in
his letter. He then turns to some
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particular exhortations, very practical things,
about what it is God expects of us.
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How are we to live? What, what duties does he require of
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us? And we read some of
those tonight, and as we do so
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we will lord willing thinking think of
them and hear of them a very Christian
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way. So effusions five, of
verses fifteen through seventeen. Look carefully then,
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how you walk, not as unwise
but as wise making the best use
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of time, because the days are
evil. Therefore, do not be foolish,
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but understand what the will of the
Lord is. You may be seated.
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Well, last I don't even know
now, maybe six months or so,
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we've been talking a lot about wisdom, and for good cause. We
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come to this theme again tonight as
we are work our way through effusions and
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I hope you're beginning to see that
this theme, the prevalence of this theme,
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is not some kind of pastor imposed
emphasis, but does come to us
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from God's word. It's a prominent
theme in scripture itself and it's something we
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ought to pay attention to. This
theme of Wisdom. In a lot of
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ways it's kind of like love.
I think it's a command to be wise
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is like the command to love,
and that it sort of encompasses everything.
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Every aspect can be tied back to
this in such a central and direct way,
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because to be wise directly affects how
we think, how we know things.
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To be wise affects how we talk, how we carry ourselves, how
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we live with other people, how
we serve God. And so, as
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we think about Paul's instructions here and
how we walk, not as unwise but
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as wise, and then again the
command to not be foolish but understand what
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the will of the Lord is,
I want to draw your attention to three
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things that we find here tonight on
the first is that the way in which
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we walk isn't an accidental way.
We typically don't Stum bull into wisdom,
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and the second is that we see
how wisdom relates to time and our use
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of time and the kind of world
in which we live. And then,
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thirdly, understanding how wisdom is related
directly to the will of God. I'm
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so first, carefulness, just to
remind you what Paul says, look carefully.
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Then how you walk, notice wise, not as unwise, but as
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wise I'm walking. In the scriptures
and I think in English generally even still
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refers to a kind of pattern of
life, a way of living. I'm
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so when Paul says be careful how
you walk, he's not just saying,
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you know, watch the sidewalk and
look both ways before you cross the street.
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They'll certainly there is a lot of
wisdom even there. Right. The
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sixth commandment, preserving your own life
and the life of others, does in
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fact, I guess, have to
do even with your walking literally, but
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of course it applies figuratively as well, and the ways in which we carry
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ourselves and the because it has to
do with where we go, how we
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make decisions, the ways in which
we move. This is a very common
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metaphor and in our language and and
of course in the imagery of scripture.
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So then getting to the way in
which we are to walk. What does
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Paul say? He says look carefully
to the way in which you walk.
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Have you ever met someone who is
very careful about something? Perhaps you've hired
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someone who's very careful about something.
I've had various repair repairs made to my
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cello and when that happens I want
somebody who's going to be very, very
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careful, very very particular about the
way they handle that. You can think
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of all kinds of examples where there
are careful people, and it ways in
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which you yourself exhibit care and certain
things. They might be small things,
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like the way you like the backsplash
clean just so, or maybe it's the
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way you organize your sock drawer,
or maybe it's more important things on the
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way you attend to a particular relationship
with someone, thinking over every decision,
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working through everything you say. It's
a lot of things we can be full
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of care about. Of course,
you probably have met people who are careless
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about things, people who you wouldn't
trust your you know, I don't know
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what the idiot would be, but
that you would view would be. Are
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Very cautious about giving anything to them. That is important and a value,
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because you know there. They don't
care. They don't care at least as
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much as you do, and they
and something bad may happen. Well,
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my guess is you've probably been both
of these things in one situation or another.
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Careful in some things, careless and
others. We don't have to be
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careful in all things in the sense
of overthinking everything and worrying about everything.
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That's not what the scriptures are saying. There are ways in which we often
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care about the wrong things right.
Are Very careful about things that we shouldn't
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care at all about and then careless
about the things that matter the most.
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Silly example, I remember one time
getting in a really big argument way with
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my mom. Big argument, hours
and hours of yelling and screaming and pounding
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things and tears and on and on
and on. It was a whole day
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wasted. Why? Well, my
mom wanted me to clean my room and
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I felt that in order for that
to happen I needed a certain kind of
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box, and that's all there was
to it. If I didn't have that
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box will, then I couldn't clean
my room. I was very careful and
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very fixed on this one thing and
this one way, and my relationship with
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my mother getting the room clean.
Nothing mattered except getting that box, and
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we still talked about this in my
family. There are ways in which we
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can be very focused on things,
sometimes very careful, to the neglect of
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much, much, much more important
things. There's the classic example of Martha
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and Mary. Right, Martha,
dutiful, careful in attending to various hospitality
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tasks, tasks which aren't bad and
on themselves, and yet not waiting properly
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the fact that the her lord and
Savior was right there. I think about
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Jesus parables, of people working hard, so hard to fill up store houses
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of materials and resources. I'm thinking
carefully, keeping good ledgers, doing all
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the things right you want to do, and yet neglecting their very own souls.
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We could go on and on and
on. Carefully, then, does
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it mean blanket carefulness? Certainly doesn't
mean carefulness to the wrong things. Careful
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to how you walk, careful.
And then that is attached, as we
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will see, to the will of
God. We were to be careful in
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the way we walk, by caring
about the things he cares about, by
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caring about the things that are in
important, important. The other thing I
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want to mention before we move on
about careful. I think this is understood,
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but just to be very explicit and
clear, careful means diligent attention to
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details. Sometimes we satisfy ourselves too
quickly with a kind of general understanding of
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things, sort of quick overview.
Sometimes that's appropriate, that's all you need,
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but that's not the word that's used
here. He doesn't say look in
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a sort of general way as to
how you walk and it'll sort of sort
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itself out. What he says is
attend carefully to the this the word has
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to do with this diligent attention to
details. The word is used in one
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place where there is a preacher who
is teaching well and doing doing good for
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the kingdom and yet was missing very
important things, and then a priscilla and
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Niquila come alongside of him and teach
him a more careful understanding, a more
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accurate, a more detailed understanding of
the things of God. And so all
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of this teaches us that we are
to actively seek to learn the will of
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Christ right. So if you are
not actively seeking on paying attention to the
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way in which you walk, then
you are not obeying God. Just to
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be very simple and clear, because
that's how the scriptures put it, and
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this is what we are told.
Look carefully, then, to how you
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walk, not as unwise but as
wise. It's the unwise person who doesn't
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look where he's going. I've caught
myself in bad situations, occasionally trying to
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walk and read at the same time, and I'm there use. I remember
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in our old neighborhood there was a
branch that hung out over the sidewalk and
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sometimes whack right and you're sort of
look around one if any of the neighbors
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are watching. It's embarrassing. Right. I was foolish. I wasn't paying
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attention. This is the kind of
situation we can get ourselves into end much,
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much worse if we are not careful, attentive, not just even in
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a general way, but to the
details. And as we think about that,
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they are all kinds of implications that
I hope you will apply to yourselves
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and think through. I'm just one
examples. And the fact that there should
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be growth here. A wise person
is someone who is continually growing in their
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ability to understand and discern things.
If you find that you're constantly making the
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same mistakes over and over and over
again, if you find that you're not
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learning anything if you find that I'm
really foolish when it comes to walking.
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There might be various reasons for that, but perhaps one of them is you're
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not paying attention, you're not listening, you're not looking carefully. This is
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what the scriptures call us to do, to pay attention, diligent attention,
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to the way we walk, and
this is characterized days being wise. It's
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being wise. The second thing,
second thing I want to mention is or
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or point out to you, is
what we have in the next verse for
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Sixteen. This careful walking and or
looking carefully to how we walk is related
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to our time and in terms of
the time we have and being good stewards
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make the best use of time,
but it also refers to time in the
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sense of the age in which we
live. We are to be good stewards
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of our resources, just as we
are with our money and our possessions or
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relationships, are physical strength, these
kinds of things, but we are also
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to think of our time, not
just in terms of it as a resource,
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but we are also to be aware
of the age in which we live.
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He says they make the best use
of time because the days are evil.
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Other words, there are dangers.
There are low hanging branches hanging over
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the sidewalk, there are cars that
are going down the street. There are
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very real dangers that we have to
be aware of and and and present to
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attentive to. Paul will, in
chapter six, talk about the armor of
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God, putting on the armor of
God, because we need to be able
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to stand against the schemes of the
devil. There is one who wants to
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harm you, one who wants to
attack you. There aren't just passive dangers
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around. There are people, spiritual
powers rather than perhaps you, and people
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in accord with those spiritual powers that
want to hurt you and your faith.
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There is evil in the world.
You can't be blind to that, you
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can't be unaware of that. You
must be attentive to it, because when
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you're not, you've fallen into traps, you hit things, you stumble,
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you fall. Sometimes it's minor,
sometimes it's not, and all of us
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can point to things in our lives
where we've fallen and fallen hard. We
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regret not paying careful attention to our
own hearts, to the things around us,
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to the schemes of the devil.
The thing that the counsel that we
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are being given here, the commands
that we are being given here are the
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very will of God. Later will
think about that. What is the will
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of God? Well, this is
one of them. This is one of
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the things of God's will, and
that is to pay attention because there are
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very real dangers around us. I
would like to read to you from Paul's
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letter to the Galatians, a glacians, chapter one versus three and three through
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five, and I'll use this as
our benediction as we close, so you'll
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hear it again. But listen to
how Paul begins glacians. He says grace
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to you and peace from God,
our father and the Lord, Jesus Christ,
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who gave himself for our sins to
deliver us from the present evil age,
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according to the will of our God
and father, to whom be the
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glory forever and ever. Amen.
So what is Paul saying here? Are
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He's saying that he is conducting his
mission according to Jesus, the grace and
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peace of Jesus Christ and God,
the father and of Jesus, who gave
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himself up for a reason, because
he was very much aware of these present
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days. They are evil, and
he died to deliver you up from them,
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and Jesus, of course, did
in fact accomplish that and has inaugurated
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your salvation, which he will bring
one day to a completion, where you
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will banish all evil, all wickedness, all injustice and everything that is hated
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by him and separate US completely from
it. But until that time, we
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walk as those who live by this
heavenly light, who belong to a heavenly
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city. And yet our inner world
that is a present evil age, days
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that are evil. That requires wisdom
to know how to navigate that, to
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live as a sojourner, as an
exile, as a pilgrim. How do
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you how do you navigate a situation
where you don't really belong, where you
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don't fit in, it's not quite
right, it's never comfortable and they're always
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pressures. Well, there's a lot
of answers. So that a lot of
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good answers, but one of them
is open up your eyes, pay attention,
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be careful, don't be a fool. It's also a reminder to us
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that we walk according to the wisdom
and the will of God, that when
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we walk according to faith and because
of what Christ has done, we are
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walking in his strength. We can
find our wisdom in him. So,
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going back to Ephesians, then Efhesians
chapter five. Look carefully then, how
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you walk, not as unwise but
as wise, making the best use of
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time, because of the days are
evil. I'm finally, we have this
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verse for Seventeen. Therefore, do
not be foolish, but understand what the
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will of the Lord is. Now. What Paul is saying here, then,
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is is if we are to walk
in the right way, it asked
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to be always connected to the to
the path that God has set, to
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the his will. In other words, you can't create your own reality and
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then try to walk according to that. If I take a map of mordor
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and I try to get my way
home tonight, it's just not going to
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work. I can be as attentive
to it as I want to, charting
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all the caverns and tunnels and forests
and mountains and that all the rest,
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pay attention to the people's and the
boundaries, and dutifully pour over my map,
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and yet I will never make it
to where I'm supposed to be.
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It's the same way with the will
of God. You can create your own
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reality, your own way, or
you your own sort of imagine how things
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ought to be according to your will, but you never going to make it
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home. You're going to fond,
constantly fall into traps, fall into the
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temptations and stairs of the devil.
You need the real map, and the
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map is the will of God,
who created the world and all the things
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in the world and has sent his
son into the world to rescue us out
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of the world. He's got the
map. He it's his will, it's
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his way, and so we have
to be attentive to that. We have
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two care deeply about that. That's
why we read so much scripture and pray
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so much scripture and sing so much
scripture in our services and in our life
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as a church. That's why we
constantly try to know it better and better,
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push ourselves more and more to understand
it more and more deeply, because
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looking carefully to how we walk is
directly tied to what God says in his
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word. We need to learn to
discern the will of the Lord. That's
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what wisdom is, understanding what the
will of the Lord is. And this,
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of course, is is not a
surface level thing. Notice what Paul
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says in Ephesians. So this is
just the next chapter a chapter six,
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he's speaking to slaves in particular,
talking to them about how they are to
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walk wisely or pay careful attention to
their walk. He also to dresses,
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wives and husband's children and parents.
But here in chapter six, verse five,
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he says, slaves, obey your
earthly masters with fear and trembling,
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with a sincere heart, as you
would Christ. That's how we serve the
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Lord, with a sincere heart,
not by way of I service as people
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pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the
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heart, rendering service with a good
will as to the Lord and not to
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man. You see what he's saying. He's sang to these slaves, even
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in this difficult perhaps relationship that you
have with your master, as you will
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obey your master, do give that
obedience ultimately to the Lord. Walk according
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to Your the master, of Master's
way, his desires, his plans,
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and you will be doing well.
Well, if that can apply to slaves,
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certainly that can apply to all of
us, and Paul does apply similar
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things to to other relationships and other
situations we find ourselves in. Our obedience
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is ultimately not just to the people
around us or societal norms. Are Things
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that we might want today, but
it's to the Lord in all things.
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It's his will that we must discern. It's his will that we must obey
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from the heart. Now, this
is very different, I might say,
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from the way that we used to
walk. You remember what Paul said.
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I we're skipping around a lot in
effusions, but you remember what Paul said
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back in Ephesians chapter two. He
says about walking Ephesians to verse one,
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he says, and you were dead
in the trespasses and sins in which you
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once walked. And you were dead
in the trespasses and sins in which you
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once walked, following the course of
this world, following the Prince of the
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power of the air, the spirit
that is now at work in the sons
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of disobedience. We used to follow
a different map, a different master,
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walk in a different way. But
as Christians who have been brought into the
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light, who have been made children
of the heavenly father, who have been
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given the an inheritance in heaven,
a body to belong to, we walk
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in a different way, not according
to our death and our sinfulness, but
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according to his life and his righteousness. And this last thing I said takes
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us to our third and final point
about the will of God. To discern
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the will of God certainly means knowing
his law, the things that we are
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commanded to do and not do.
If you don't know what God would have
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you do and not you do,
then you don't know the will of God.
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God has given us many commands,
instructions on how we ought to live
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our lives, and we've read some
of them here tonight. But to know
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the will of the God, to
know the will of God as his children,
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requires knowing more than the law.
It also requires knowing the Gospel.
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Why? Because it is the will
of God. Let me remind you what
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I read earlier and what I will
read yet again back in Galatians. Grace
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and peace to you from God,
Our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ,
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who gave himself for our sins to
deliver us from the present evil age.
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According to the will of God,
of our God and father, the will
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of God was to deliver Jesus Christ
over to suffering on the cross so that
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we might be delivered out of this
present evil age. That's part of the
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will of God. If you go
also to John, John, Chapter six,
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John Six, verse Thirty Five.
Here we have Jesus's words after feeding
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the five thousand. He says to
the crowds, I am the bread of
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life. Whoever comes to me shall
not hunger, and whoever believes in me
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shall never thirst. But I said
to you, or but I said to
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you, that you have seen me
and yet do not believe. All that
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the father gives me will come to
me, and whoever comes to me I
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will never cast out, for I
have come down from heaven not to do
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my own will, but the will
of him who sent me, and this
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is the will of him who sent
me, that I should lose nothing of
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all that he has given me,
but raise it up on the last day,
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for this is the will of my
father, that everyone who looks on
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the sun and believes in him should
have eternal life, and I will raise
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him up on the last day.
This is the will of God. Right,
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Jesus says it very explicitly, and
Jesus refers to different things regarding God's
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will. First, he refers to
his own mission, a mission which doesn't
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belong to any one of us,
a will, a mission that was given
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only to the son as our designated
mediator. None of US came down from
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heaven as the Eternal Son of God
to obey the father's will in this way.
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But Jesus did. And what was
that will? That I should lose
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nothing of all that he has given
me but raise it up on the last
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day. So Jesus came as a
servant to accomplish this task, to die
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on a cross, to forgive us
our sins, to deliver us from the
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present evil age and raise us up
into eternal life. And that was his
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job and he did his job.
He did it perfectly. Jesus never got
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distracted by the crowds knee. Jesus
never got pressured by his disciples or pilot
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or anyone else. Jesus always,
in an every moment, walked with perfect
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wisdom according to the perfect will of
God in order to accomplish this task.
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But this relates directly to us,
because his will, or the rather the
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will of the father that he was
obeying, was a will that concerned us,
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as he says in verse forty,
for this is the will of my
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father, that everyone who looks on
the sun and believes in him should have
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eternal life. So this thing that
Jesus did relates to us and in some
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ways to the things that we ought
to do and do do. When we
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look on the sun and put our
faith in him, we are among those
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who God is raising up, delivering
up from this present evil age, from
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these days that are evil. So, in other words, it is we
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think about how we ought to live
our lives, to walk wisely in according
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to the will of God. We
can't just get A to due list and
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sort of run out and start trying
to accomplish it. Why? Because none
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of us are capable of raising ups
our it elves out of this present evil
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age. None of us are capable
of walking with perfect wisdom according to the
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perfect will of God, so that
we can step into the glorious gates of
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Heaven and say except me, because
I'm wonderful. It's ridiculous, because those
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are so were so far from that. But Jesus, Jesus is a different
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story. Jesus is the eternal son
of God who is perfectly holy, perfectly
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blameless, perfectly wise in everything that
he did. And when he stepped into
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the heavenly places and yet even more
sat down with confidence and authority on the
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throne of God, he didn't do
so presumptuously. He did so because that
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was his rightful place as the king, as the Lord had said, I
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will set my king on my Holy
Hill and no one will be able to
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break apart the bonds between me and
him psalm, to paraphrase a little bit.
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That's what he said, that's what
he promised. And so Jesus wasn't
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presumptuously going into the Throne Room of
God, because he was God and he
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is God and he always will be
God. He is the Son of God,
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Eternally Begotten from his father before all
world's light, of light, Very
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God, of Very God. And
because that's because it's him that we're talking
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about, when Jesus comes into the
world to do the will of his heavenly
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father, and he says all who
look on me and believes shall have eternal
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life, then I tell you,
look on Jesus and walk that way.
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That's wisdom. To hear the revelation
of the son of God and of his
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saving power and of his eternal life
and to turn away from that. That
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is foolish, that is stupid.
But to hear about the free grace of
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God given to you and to accept
it with open hands, because you ain't
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got nothing to bring and to walk
firmly and confidently in faith that him who
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died for you as him who will
save you to the uttermost. That is
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wise, and you can have confidence
in that wisdom, because it's not yours
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either. It's the wisdom of God
given to you, wisdom that opened up
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your mind to see these things,
opened up your heart to believe these things.
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And Corinthians Paul says that he preaches
this message in this way to shame
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the wise of this world, as
is we read earlier what Jesus said.
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I say these things and not to
the wise, but I give them,
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even two little children. This message
that I'm telling you about is the very
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wisdom of God, and so that's
why Hebrews tells us to look to Jesus,
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the author and perfector of our faith, throw aside every sin which clings
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so closely, follow him, even
run. Run for him, run in
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him. That's what it means to
walk in the way that Paul is talking
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about, an Ephesians, so beloved. What is God commanding us to in
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Ephesians Chapter Five? He's commanding us
to pay attention, to pay attention to
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God's law, the things that he
wants, the things that he doesn't wants
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to look attentively to what we're doing
and what we're not doing, to do
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so with a sense of the time
that we're in, but also with a
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sense of who we are in Christ, according to the will of God.
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That has been accomplished for us in
him and that is being accomplished as we
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walk in him by faith. Let's
go to the Lord now and as that
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you would help us in these things, empower us in these things, enable
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us to walk for him and in
Him.
