We're going to be back in Ephesians
chapter 2 this morning. The last time I was in Ephesians,
we sort of did Ephesians 2 verses 1, 4, and 5. So today we're going
to go back and focus in on verses 2 and 3. So I will read a bit of the section
here. I need to go back a bit to get
some context. We'll go back to verse, let's
see. Verses 15 to 23 is like one sentence,
so I guess we gotta go back to 15. For this reason, because
I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love
toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you,
remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom
and of revelation and the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your
hearts enlightened. that you may know what is the
hope to which he has called you, which are the riches of his glorious
inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness
of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his
great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from
the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,
far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above
every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in
the one to come, period. It was one sentence. And he put
all things under his feet and gave him his head over all things
to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills
all in all. And now in two chapter two, and
you were dead and the trespasses and sins in which you once walked
following the course of this world, following the Prince of
the power of the air, the spirit, that is now at work in the sons
of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions
of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind,
and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.
But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with
which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses,
made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved.
and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly
places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show
the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us
in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved
through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift
of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For
we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
So as we get into it, let's review where we have been. Last time
I was up here, we took a little detour to the Sermon on the Mount.
It was the time before that that we started Ephesians chapter
2. And the thing I wanted to draw to your attention out of
verse 1 was that the phrase, dead in the trespasses and sins,
is not itself a statement about man's ability or man's nature. Remember, Paul begins here by
contrasting now the work of Christ, which he expounds upon in chapter
one, with who we are and the judgment that is upon us apart
from Christ. So when Paul says, you were dead,
he's making a statement about how we relate to God's justice. Dead is a judgment. It is a due penalty. It is what
the law requires, right? We spoke at length about God's
justice. Justice is a part of God's nature. God loves justice. He is a God
of justice. And the demand of the law is
that when you violate the law, you die. And so when Paul says
you were dead, he's saying that the judgment of God was upon
you. This was a sentencing, a just
and due payment for your thoughts and actions. And then Paul explains
that these sins and trespasses are the reason for this judgment,
the things that we have done to earn it. But in the same way, over in
verse five, Paul declares that even when we were dead in our
trespasses, even when we were under the judgment of God for
our sins, it says that he made us alive together with Christ. And so in the same way, alive
together with Christ is primarily a statement about our relationship
to God and his justice. Just as dead is a judicial sentencing,
for what we have done. So alive is a judicial sentencing
for what Christ has done. Rather than the just judgment
that we deserve for our sins, we are instead given the life
that is the reward of perfect righteousness. Not on account
of our own righteousness, but on account of Christ's righteousness. And so these things are about
how we relate to God in his justice and in his mercy. But Paul spent
some time in verses two and three, here in chapter two, talking
about who we are and what we do. And so last time we talked
all about the economy of justice and the economy of grace and
the work of Christ, and so we're gonna spend some time this week
talking about our works. The things that we have done
before we knew Christ and the things that we do after we know
Christ. So as I move forward today, there
are gonna be two ideas, two concepts, two principles that scripture
seems to hang in the balance. We can take these two ideas and
run too far with one of them and fall into error. These are
the ideas of obedience and grace. Right, we know that grace, the
meaning of the word is that you didn't earn it. The meaning of
the word is that you can't earn it. Whereas obedience means that
you go and you do something, right? So we have these two ideas
that In some contexts may seem to be in opposition, but in the
gospel, we will see their perfect marriage. And so at the heart
of the gospel, there is both an unconditional and freely given
forgiveness of all disobedience. There is also a promised preparation
for undertaking an indispensable command of obedience. we must have both of these things. Grace given freely by God the
Father. Grace given unconditionally by
God the Father. And yet, the word that we have
been given is full of instructions, things for us to do. And so, over the years, James
and I have joked that The position that we occupy is one that makes
both the antinomian and the legalist upset. We sort of find that balance
that scripture sets up for us. So antinomianism, that's a really
big word, right? When I say the word antinomianism
or antinomian, what I'm talking about is someone who believes
that scripture does not contain instructions or that the instructions
of scripture are in some way optional. They are suggestions,
they are guidance, ways to make your life easier, but it's okay
if you disobey them. That is antinomianism. We are
free to live in sin because those sins are already forgiven. And on the other side of this
false gospel coin, we have legalism, that somehow we must earn God's
favor through some act of good works or that we must somehow
motivate God's mercy through some exercise of our will. We
have antinomianism and legalism. And the way we get to each of
those is by taking these ideas of grace and obedience and running
too far away from the other. Legalism, any gospel, any message
that has you earning something, earning mercy, earning grace, any call or invitation to believe
that is framed as though God is waiting for you to do something, as though his
hands were tied until you have untied your own. This is legalism. We'll see some examples of what
this really looks like in our culture and in the church. But just as we can fall into
this era of legalism, requiring works, requiring some sort of
performance, requiring some sort of exercise of the will to merit
the grace of God, we can take this idea of free and sovereign
grace and run too far away from the obedience that scripture
teaches. Any declaration of so-called sovereign grace that somehow
absolves the people of God For many in all, expectation of obedience
to the commands of Christ is this antinomianism. These things are equal and opposite
schemes of the devil that are created to deceive us. So, we will get into verses four
and five first. We have a pretty clear and explicit
rejection here of antinomianism. Nope, legalism first. Legalism
has the clear and explicit rejection here in Ephesians chapter 2. First, we see in verse 4, God
being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he
loved us, Even when we were dead and our trespasses made us alive
together with Christ, by grace you have been saved. Now we talked before that this
word grace should by itself exclude any work that we might perform,
right? But there are some observations
we can make here in verse four that further solidify this point. First, we observe who is acting,
who is the subject of this sentence, who is the one doing the verbs,
right? But God. But God, and then we have a comma,
and then we have an aside, and then the actual verb for this
sentence, but God, occurs halfway through verse five. But God made
us alive together with Christ. So first we see that it was God
who made us alive together with Christ. And then we spent some
time last week talking about how that happened, right? We
spent some time talking about what God did. So we'll go over
to Romans chapter three, right? So you remember that the law
demands death. for its violation, we remember
that God is justice. Romans chapter two, therefore
you have no excuse, oh man, every one of you who judges. For in
passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself because
you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that
the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.
Do you suppose, oh man, you who judge those who practice such
things and yet do them yourself that you will escape? the judgment
of God? Or do you presume on the riches
of his kindness and forbearance and patience? There's that antinomianism
again. Presuming upon the kindness and
forbearance and patience of God. Not knowing that God's kindness
is meant to lead you to repentance. Because of your hard and impenitent
heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath
when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. And so we see
that the law requires the judgment of God. Every single sin will
be punished. And so in Romans 3, Paul will tell us, remember the
law requires righteousness, and so Paul tells us where that righteousness
comes from, but now, the righteousness of God has been manifested apart
from the law. Though the law and the prophets
bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus
Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction. All have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God. and are justified by his grace
as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by
faith. This was to show God's righteousness
because in his divine forbearance, he passed over former sins. So we spent some time talking
about that word propitiation, right? This propitiation is the
satisfaction of wrath, the appeasement of God's justice. This was the word that I read
out of the dictionary for, remember? The pagan Greeks understood this
word to talk about the things that they had to do to earn the
favor of the Pantheon, right? If you wanted to earn the favor
of Hephaistus, the fire god, you might go and be a really
good blacksmith or something, right? These were things that
they had to do to earn the favor, to earn the appeasement, the
propitiation of their false idols. And then the dictionary says,
that's not how the Bible uses the word. At no point does scripture
center the man on this word propitiation. The four times the word is used,
it is talking about something that God has done to secure propitiation
on behalf of his people. The satisfaction of wrath is
something that Christ accomplishes. Redemption that is in Jesus Christ,
whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood. And we see further
here in Romans 3.25, this idea of God's justice always being
fulfilled, right? Always being met. Remember I
told you there is no sin that will go unpunished. So there
in verse 25, this was to show God's righteousness because in
his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. What's
he talking about there? What sins has he passed over? Remember the sins of his people
before Christ, right? The people of God before the
death of Christ were still sinners also, right? And so God, because
he is a God of justice, must punish their sins. And so in
the sacrifices of the Old Testament, we do not see the atonement of
their sins, but we see a picture, a promise that God will atone
for their sins. This is the divine forbearance
Paul is talking about. God puts off the execution of
his wrath for the sins of his people until Christ comes, and
then on the cross he for all time suffers the wrath of God
for his people. It was to show his righteousness
at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier
of the one who has faith in Jesus. So it is on the cross that we
see the marriage of wrath and mercy. We see God's wrath poured
out in an act of grace, an act of mercy. This is what God has done. So
back in Ephesians 2, God has made us alive together with Christ. That is the how. Your sins deserve
the wrath of God, and because God cannot forgive them without
justice, He executes that justice against His own Son. God the
Son willfully, lovingly takes that wrath for His people. We often see preachers talk about
what happened on the cross as if It was a plan B, as if maybe
there was a better way, as if maybe God didn't see that part
coming. Maybe the Romans and the Pharisees surprised God.
The prophet Isaiah would prophesy 1,000 years before it happened
that it was the will of the Lord to crush him. That is the how. How does this salvation happen? But Paul also gives us the reasons. In verse four, God is rich in
mercy. God has loved us with a great
love. The salvation is accomplished
by God himself, and the reasons for it are found in God himself. Paul is here summarizing the
whole of chapter 1. Everything we read in chapter
1 was about the work of God in Christ. It's all about what God has done.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
has blessed us in Christ. with every spiritual blessing
in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before
the foundation of the world. This love with which he has loved
us was given to us before we were here, before our creation. In this love, he predestined
us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according
to the purpose of his will. Remember, what's that framework
that I want us to keep coming back to in reading scripture
through? This covenant of redemption. This idea that God the Father
and God the Son make a deal. God the Father gives to the Son
a work to perform, and in exchange, the Son is given a bride, a people
to call his own. And the work that he is given
to perform is to make her clean. And it is in our marriage to
Christ that we are adopted by the Father. We are sons and daughters
of God through our marriage to Christ. This deal, this transaction,
this covenant of redemption is something that happens in eternity
past. And so there is nothing for us
to do, right? There's nothing that we can contribute to it. And to make this more clear,
we can observe that we are not even presented as participants
in this, here in this passage in chapter two. We are not shown
as participating in this redemption. The part that we play in this
redemption is not stated. Instead, we are presented as
in a sense, potential legal obstacles to this transaction, right? We
are part of the problem. We present the reason Christ
has to do the work, right? Now, this is a rhetorical sense
only. This is the argument that Paul
is trying to make. He's not saying that we present
any challenge to the Father for our salvation, right? But what
does he say? You were dead in the trespasses
and sins when she once walked. And then let's see, verse five,
even when we were dead in our trespasses, he made us alive
together in Christ. Even when we were dead in our
trespasses. The idea here is that us being sinful makes a problem
for forgiveness, right? Because God in his justice, because
of his nature as justice, cannot just forgive us. without satisfying
his justice. And Paul says, even though our
sin presents a problem for forgiveness, God has provided the solution
for that problem in Christ. Even when we were dead in our
trespasses, even when we were by nature children of wrath,
even when we are sons of disobedience, even when we are not deserving
of that love, because of the great love with which he loved
us, he made us alive together with Christ. Our unrighteousness and God's
all-consuming justice must be accounted for. Our debt must
be paid. And so, of course, this debt
is paid by Christ on the cross. God is pleased in himself to
execute his wrath against himself to purchase a people for himself. And so this is the gospel, and
it excludes any so-called gospel that is conditioned upon your
good works. All right, how many times did
I tell you that you have to do something here, that you participate
in this redemption? No, it's a deal that the son
and the father strike in eternity past. It's a work that the son
carries out. And this redemption is done because
God chose to love his people. This excludes the false gospels
of the Jehovah's Witnesses. It's just a bunch of works that
you have to do, a bunch of obedience that you have to do to earn the
favor of God. They even have levels of heaven. Did you know
that? If you're really, really, really
good, you're like level number one. If you are chosen of 144,000,
you're like level two. And if you were like sincere
and did your best, you were level three. But it was all about your works.
The gospel of the Mormons is the same way. If you are good
enough, you get to become your own God and get your own planet.
Yes, Mormonism is a sci-fi novel. You get your own planet, and
if your telescope is strong enough, you can see God. Not making this
up. The gospel of Roman Catholicism
teaches the same thing. that some sins are too great
for Christ to redeem, and others require absolution, require work,
penance. And that as long as you are sincere
and don't commit this list of sins, you can finish paying your
debt for some number of years before you actually go to heaven. I was trying to think of other
false gospels that might actually be relevant for me to talk to
you about. I'm not going to tell you about things that you've
never heard of. But in this community, in the
South, you might have heard of King James-only-ism. You might
have encountered a church that believes that if you didn't read
the gospel out of the King James, you didn't hear the gospel at
all. Those things are out there. Something we have experienced
here as a people, Grace Truth Church, this idea of doctrinal
perfectionism. This is where you are so antinomian
that you circle back around to legalism. There have been people within
these walls who were so so far into this idea of sovereign and
free grace that to even speak of obedience was to make you a false teacher,
which is ironically legalism. See how that works? So against
obedience that I legalistically require obedience to being against
obedience. But Paul's teaching here, this
rejection of legalism excludes any gospel call that makes us
a participant in the completion of redemption. All right, this one is big also
in the South. Pray this prayer. All you gotta
do, pray this prayer. And when you doubt your salvation,
just think about that time you prayed that prayer. It's a real
thing I've heard pastors say to people. How do I know I am saved? Well,
if you weren't saved, you wouldn't have even thought to ask the
question. No, our assurance, how do we
know we are saved, is found in the faithfulness of Christ, right? God is waiting for you to have
faith. No. God has executed his plan
of redemption in Christ, and he chose to love you before the
foundation of the world. And everything works out according
to his purposes in his time. He isn't waiting for anyone but
himself. God does not wait for us. We also see this legalism played
out in this idea that God knows who would have chosen him and
chooses to love those people. I recently heard an analogy that
God's election was like a train where the destination was predetermined
and you have to choose to get on the train or not. But none of these ideas are consistent
with the teaching of Paul here in Ephesians chapter 2. Paul
tells us the part we play in this. You were dead in your trespasses
and sins. You contribute nothing to your
salvation except for the sin that made it necessary. We'll
get to this eventually. In verse 8, Paul just outright
says, this is not your own doing. You didn't do this. The testimony of scripture is
clear. Both the why and the how of redemption have nothing to
do with you. Any gospel that includes you, your works, your
words, your will, as an integral part of its function, is powerless
to save. We even see this played out in
the Old Testament, don't we? The prophet Ezekiel receives
a vision. Sister Karen said she would be
studying Ezekiel, and here we are. Ezekiel chapter 37, the
hand of the Lord was upon me. He brought me out in the spirit
of the Lord and sent me down in the middle of the valley.
It was full of bones. He led me around among them and
behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley
and behold, they were very dry. The Lord said to me, son of man,
can these bones live? Oh Lord God, you know. and you were dead in your trespasses
and your sins. Then he said to me, prophesy over these bones,
say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says
the Lord God to these bones, behold, I will cause breath to
enter you and you shall live. I will lay sinews upon you and
will cause flesh to come upon you and cover you with skin and
put breath in you and you shall live and you shall know that
I am the Lord. And while you were dead in your
trespasses and sins, the Spirit of the Lord preached the gospel
of Christ to your heart. So I prophesied as I was commanded.
As I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the
bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold,
there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and
skin had cover them, but there was no breath in them. Then he
said to me, prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say
to the breath, thus says the Lord God, come from the four
winds, oh breath, and I breathe on these slain that they may
live. So I prophesied as he commanded
me and the breath came into them and they lived and stood on their
feet, an exceedingly great army. Then he said to me, son of man,
these bones are the whole house of Israel. That is us, church. When we were dead in our trespasses,
the Lord breathed life into us. When we were a valley of dry
bones, motionless, dead, destined to stay that way because bones
stay bones, except that the spirit of the Lord breathes life into
you. A dead man does not will himself
to live. But being dead in your sins and
trespasses poses no challenge for the creator of the universe.
It poses no obstacle for the love of God that he has for his
people and has had before the foundation of the world. Therefore prophesy and say to
them, thus says the Lord God, behold, I will open your graves
and raise you from your graves, O my people. I shall bring you
into the land of Israel and you shall know that I am the Lord.
When I open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people,
I will put my spirit within you and you shall live and I will
place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am
the Lord. I have spoken and I will do it, declares the Lord. Who
did all the stuff? The Lord. So this rejection of legalism
should be clear. The rejection of antinomianism
is a little more subtle here. It's a little bit more subtle.
And we can see it in the way Paul shapes his argument. We
can see it in the rhetoric. What we see is that there's an
obvious contrast in Paul's argument. And without recognizing and acknowledging
the contrast that Paul is drawing here, nothing he's saying really
makes sense. Remember last time we were here,
I did this little dance where I said, we've got two groups
of people here, right? I'm going to do the dance again.
And you, I'm going to put the church over here and prove to
you that there's something different about the people of God. You
were dead in the trespasses and sins. All right, here's you. You were dead, in which you once
walked, following the course of this world, following the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work
in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all used to live,
in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the
body and the mind. And we were, by nature, children
of wrath, like the rest of mankind. We need to pay special attention
to the past tense here, right? And you were dead in the trespasses
and sins, right? We said that that's a legal declaration,
but verse two, in which you once walked. We used to, in the past,
walk in our trespasses and sins. We used to follow the course
of this world. All right, this means that we
used to go about the way the culture does. We used to believe
the same thing that our culture believes. We used to act the same way the
culture acts. You used to follow the prince
of the power of the air. Paul makes no bones about saying that
you followed Satan. Right? And that's the truth of
it, right? We've got this picture of, you know, Satanism from all...
You've got your dumb horror movies where, you know, someone's demon
possessed, or there's this group, this cult, this satanic cult,
worshipping pictures of goats. Paul says that Satanism, worshipping
the devil, is anything that isn't worshipping Christ. It is who
you were before God saved you. You used to follow the Prince
of the Power of the Air, and Satan used to be at work in you
because you were a son of disobedience. There's one famous Bible character
who is called a son of disobedience. Judas Iscariot, right? And we always like to think,
I'm not as bad as Judas. I didn't sell Jesus. For a bag
of change, you are following the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons
of disobedience among whom we all once lived. Apart from Christ, we follow Satan. Paul describes the way we live
the passions of our flesh. All right, now that you're in
Christ, now that you have your eyes open and that by the power
of the Spirit, you have been tuned into the things that you
do, right? You know when something you are
doing is sinful, right? James and I speak frankly about
the thoughts that we have, the things that are inside that we
maybe don't let out, right? And I have said to James many
times, maybe this is my flesh thinking this way. Because I
want James to tell me if this is my flesh thinking this way.
I walk him through my thought process. Is this of God or is
this my flesh? Right? We know that our spirit
is at war with our flesh. But we used to just live in the
passions of our flesh, right? Because we were dead. We used to carry out the desires
of the body and the mind. We did what we wanted to. We
lived how we wanted to, right? And Paul says that we were by
nature children of wrath. The core of our being was to
be subject to the wrath of God. Our very nature was to be dead
in our trespasses and sins. And then in case the contrast
wasn't strong enough, he says, like the rest of mankind, the
church is different. There's something different about
us. So where verses one and five talk about our judicial relationship
with God, verses two and three are talking about us, who we
are, what we do. Paul makes it abundantly clear
that something changes in us, about us, and our behavior when
God executes redemption in us. It's the only way we can make
sense of this contrasting language, right? It's the only way we can
make sense of this dichotomy that Paul is setting up for us
here in chapter two. We are someone else, someone
different from the rest of the world. Not just inwardly that
we've been legally declared righteous, but outwardly. Something about us outwardly
looks different. And we're going to talk about
it. Now, Pastor Trey, this seems
like a lot of work to make a point when you could just read Romans
6. Good idea. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that
grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died
to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us
who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his
death? We were buried therefore with
him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was
raised from the dead, by the glory of the Father, we too might
walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with
him in a death like this, we shall certainly be united with
him in a resurrection like this. We know that our old self was
crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought
to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For
one who has died has been set free from sin. If we have died
with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We
know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die
again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died,
he died to sin once. For all but the life he lives,
he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves
dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin
therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions.
Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness,
but present yourselves but present yourselves to God as those who
have been brought from death to life, and your members to
God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion
over you, since you are not under law, but under grace." Here in
Romans chapter 6, we see this marriage of these two seemingly
opposed ideas. What then? Are we to sin because
we're not under the law but under grace? Paul's asking the same
question again. By no means do you not know that
if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you
are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads
to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness. But thanks
be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient
from the heart of the standard of teaching to which you are
committed, and having been set free from sin, have become slaves
of righteousness. Now, we will get to it in a little
while, but Paul gives us some instruction about this obedience
in verse 10. He tells us how it happens, how to understand
it, the perspective to have about it. For we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand
that we should walk in them. Now, what did I say about the
gospel? Let me find it in my notes. It's on page one. At the heart of the gospel, there
is an unconditional and freely given forgiveness of all disobedience,
right? We reject legalism. There is
a promised preparation for the undertaking of an indispensable
command of obedience. The Lord is faithful to prepare
us and to prepare for us. Good works. Okay, so the Bible tells you
what to do. What are we supposed to do with
that? My outline, I call this enforcing expectations. These are commands, right? Scripture
tells us how to live. The commands of Christ are just
that, commands. They're not suggestions, they're
not life pro tips, they are not optional. So how do we hang these requirements,
these commands, and the balance with this grace that is free?
Well, thankfully scripture does not leave it to my discretion
to enforce any of these expectations on you. Right? Scripture does not give me as
a Christian judicial liberty over enforcing the commands of
Christ as I see fit. Scripture does not give me as your pastor
liberty to enforce the commands of Christ as I see fit. It does give me responsibility
over disciplining my own children, right? But even then, I must discipline
my own children within the bounds of the biblical wisdom given
to me as a father. Instead, Scripture gives clear
instructions for enforcing these biblical expectations through
the exercise of church discipline, as described in Matthew 18. If your brother sins against
you, go and tell him his fault. between you and him alone. If
he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does
not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge
may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If
he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if
he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you
as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I say to you, whatever
you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose
on earth shall be loosed in heaven. So just as the commands of Christ
aren't optional, this handling of sin, these instructions
for dealing with sin in the body of Christ are not optional. And
this is broad guidance. There's some discretion given
to the elders of the church with regard to timing and other specifics
of its handling. But this general model must be
followed. Now, what do we get out of this?
We get out of this church discipline, the only thing resembling a measuring
stick for good works ever given in scripture, right? You can't look to your
behavior, your good works for assurance, mostly because if you're honest
with yourself, you're probably not measuring up, right? But even if you are pretty good,
Scripture doesn't tell you how to measure that. I've used this
question. It sounds silly, but that's intentional. There's this question I ask to
people who talk about looking to your good works for your assurance,
and that is, how much good works is enough good works? To know
that you've done enough good works, to have assurance of your
not-good-works-based salvation. It's supposed to be confusing.
The answer is that scripture doesn't give us any sort of measuring
stick like that, right? Scripture doesn't tell us how
to find assurance in our own behavior. Except that in the discipline of the church,
we are at one point told to regard them as a Gentile and a tax collector. The discipline of the church
has been carried out faithfully according to the instructions
of Christ. We may then and only then regard someone as a non-believer
because of their behavior. Now, what's the point? What is
the point of this church discipline? What is the point of enforcing
expectations like this? We are one body, and if I come
and I cut off your hand, you are going to be in tremendous
the commands of Christ are given to the church for her joy and
for her peace. And this enforcement described
in Matthew 18 is demanded to preserve that joy and that peace. And so church, when I teach you
about obedience, when I teach you about following the commands
of Christ, I should do so in a way that magnifies Christ and
magnifies your joy and your peace. If I teach obedience and good
works to you in a way that causes you to look upon them and have
assurance of your salvation, I have not magnified Christ.
I have magnified you. And likewise, if I teach you
obedience and I teach you how to follow the commands of Christ
in a way that doesn't give you joy and peace, but gives you
fear and restlessness, I've not given you the commands
of Christ to the good of your joy and your peace. We are never instructed to measure
our salvation against our works because we didn't do anything
to earn it. Instead, we look upon Christ
and we live. We look upon Christ and we have
joy and peace. The assurance of your salvation
is found in the faithful promises of the Lord It is found in the
power of God in the death of Christ. It is found in the power
of God in the resurrection of Christ. It is found in the testimony
of the Spirit to your spirit. And these commands for obedience
are given for your joy, for our joy and for our peace. Not to be a burden, not to cause
fear of judgment, but that we might live together peacefully
as the people of God, that we might live joyfully in obedience
to Christ. Let's pray. God, we thank you for your word,
that it is true, that it is faithful, and we thank you for your spirit
put within us to read and understand your word. God, we thank you that through
this word we see and we know what Christ has done. We see
your justice poured out on him for our sins. We thank you for your spirit
put in us for obedience, enabling us and empowering us, giving
us a love for your work. We pray that by that spirit, our peace and our joy would be
magnified in Christ. Lord, as we take these elements, bless them, give them to us for
peace and joy in our souls. We pray these things in the name
of Christ. Amen. so Hey, Mike.