Therefore, be imitators of God
as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and
gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must
not be even named among you as is proper among saints. Let there
be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor crude joking. which
are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving for
you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually moral
or impure or who is covetous, that is, an idolater has no inheritance
of the kingdom of God in Christ. Let no one deceive you with empty
words for the cause of these things, the wrath of God comes.
Upon the sons of disobedience, therefore, do not. Become partakers with them. For at one time you were darkness,
but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right
and true and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take
no part in the unfruitful works of darkness. But instead, expose
them. For it is even shameful to even
speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything
is exposed by the light, it becomes visible. For anything that becomes
visible is light. Therefore, it says, Awake, O
sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Look carefully, then, how you walk. not as unwise, but as wise,
making the best use of the time because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish,
but understand what the will of the Lord is. Let's continue
to read. And do not get drunk with wine,
for that is debauchery, but instead be filled with the spirit, addressing
one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks
always and for everything to God the Father in the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence
for Christ. So. What did I miss? Well, I missed
a lot. There's probably. And as you know, every time we
we preach, every time we gather as the saints and every time
we open the word of God, there are literally dozens of sermons
that come out of one. And so this is the nature of
Scripture. It is not possible for me in
fifty thousand years to be able to exposit all that there is
just in Chapter five of Ephesians, much less the whole letter. But
know that when the letter is written or was written, it had
a message. A message, not many messages,
not many little things that we don't want to put together and
try to fill out. But one message, and that message
ultimately is that you who were once dead are now alive in Christ
in order that you might worship, praise, adore, live all to the
praise of His glorious grace. that you might walk in unity
and wisdom and love and affection and sanctification and holiness
that you might walk in power, that you might walk in all these
things under the praise of His glorious grace with which you
are battling in a battle that is not yours, but is the Lord's
and that has already been defeated and won at the cross. So in that,
that's the message of Ephesians. All the other things are what
I call the exterior arguments that push to that. It's not rules. It's not things that we have
to get straight. It's not stuff that we have to
abide by or else. It is just the argument that
you who are in Christ then walk this way because you've been
empowered to do so under the praise of his glorious grace.
And as you fight the fight of faith, you do it together and
in unity and in love and in power, proving that there is a God in
heaven and that he came as Jesus Christ. And we are more than
conquerors in Christ. As a body, there's the argument
of Ephesians. And so then all the stuff that
we see now in chapter four and chapter five, and then as we'll
see going into chapter six, it's very easy to get plagued by the
small, little, minute things that Paul uses to grow his argument. And the argument is that these
things will be evident in your lives. So work on these things.
And we're going to go to Timothy and see what Paul says there.
And we're going to see what Peter says in his second epistle. But
ultimately, what I missed that I really didn't want to miss
is the fact that as Paul is quoting then in verse 14, for anything
that becomes visible is light. Therefore, it says, and he's
quoting two places, not necessarily directly, but there are two places
that could be where he is talking from Isaiah 51, Isaiah 52, Isaiah
60, possibly Malachi. Either way, we know that we see
even in Isaiah 6 even, and we see other places of the Gospels,
that we are to wake up. God has shined His light on us.
2 Corinthians chapter 4. For God, who what? Who calls light out of darkness,
has shone in our hearts. To give us the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Church, it is
not a battle to discern whether you are in the faith. It is a
battle that God is winning and has won as you are in the faith.
We fight the fight of faith by the hand of God, not by the flesh. We are unified in the power of
the God who owns it all and has created it all and by his divine
decrees has established it and purposed it as it is so that
he is glorified in its outcome. Therefore, the body is and will
be one. So how do we work in that? Because
it is a lie to say, I'm a brother to you, but we are not one. Sort of what Brother Jesse was
so eloquently putting to us this morning. How are we not one? Well, here's what happens. Well,
what if we don't see together? Well, I pray that we can see
these things, but let's look there. What is it that the scripture
says? Awake, O sleeper. And rise from the dead and Christ
will shine on you. Those are called illusions. A.L.L. And Paul is remembering all that
Old Testament. He's remembering that God is
the God of light and he shines in the heart of wickedness and
darkness and he takes that which is dead and dark and he brings
it to life and he's shining in the light of those who are his
children and who his eternal love has always been. And he
goes and he reaches into the domain of darkness and he plucks
out his own. How does he do that? He effectually
calls us who are in the light already to go into the darkness
and to proclaim the light. And through the hearing of the
light, God brings to life those who are dead. If we do not proclaim,
we're probably not in the faith. If we do not disciple, we're
at best rebellious and lazy. Maybe we're asleep. Arise! Awake! And get up! See, that's what Paul is saying.
He's like, get up! Awake! Wake up! Rise up! Arise from the dead! You are awake, O church! And
because you are awake, verse 15, look carefully then how you
walk. You are no longer dead. You are
no longer asleep. You are no longer accursed. You are a free people. A slave
under righteousness, a glorious possession, a royal priesthood,
a mighty nation. You are the elect of God. Therefore, walk carefully and
look as you walk. Look. And what's the outcome of all
this preaching? What's the outcome of 41 sermons
in Ephesians thus far? Peace and worship. You know what it means to have
peace? How do you have peace? Well,
peace means everything's good and everything's working well
and everything's perfect and everything's happy and everybody's
got what they need and everybody's smiling. Bull. It's not peace. That's Disneyland on television,
not when you're there. That's utopia that exists only
in the minds of people who are high on something. It's not reality. It never will be. It's not going
to happen. The world will never be at peace.
The world, as we know it on this side of eternity, will never
be without sin, for God is not going to establish it that way.
Because then men can boast. Well, let's just stop trying.
No, we don't. We stand for righteousness. We strive for righteousness.
We practice righteousness or the truth is not in us. We starve
ourselves. We starve the flesh. We petition
the throne of God. We say, oh God, please work in
me righteousness, sanctify me. Let me see your glory and let
the world see your glory in me as I walk righteously. See, that's
why we walk righteously, because we've been created to do so.
Not perfectly, righteously. We stand in position of righteousness
and we fight the fight of righteousness and we do it individually that
we might come and do it corporately. That's the church. So as we are
awake, we look carefully how we walk. We look at our lives. We pay attention to them. Why?
Because we're not asleep. Our eyes aren't closed. We're
not at peace in a coma. God is not going to do that.
But the more people that God calls unto Himself, the more
of His children that He brings to faith, the more of the elect
that establish as a body and live in the societies of this
world, the more the societies will fear God. And the more righteously people
will walk, if nothing else, out of fear of God. No one is even
scared of the government anymore. No one's scared of the sword.
No one's scared of punishment. It's a badge of honor. The holistic view of the Department
of Corrections in this world, if I could dare be so crass as
to say this, is that people long to be identified in that way.
I'm a thug. I'm a gangster. I'm a dealer.
I'm a doper. I'm a bad guy. I'm tough. You're not tough.
You're damned. And your colors and your badge
and your gun and your authority and your rep and all that other
kind of stuff is going to hold no candle to the authority of
the God Almighty who created you for destruction. In church,
we weren't created for destruction. We were created unto righteousness.
So let us walk that way. Let us understand that when we
do, the world will hate us. God promises that the world will
hate us. The world will hate us because we walk in righteousness. So we're looking for peace here.
But we've got to be wise and understand that peace is that
which God has affected. And friends, the only place in
the world where peace is absolute is in the body of Christ. Do
you hear me? There is no peace with our neighbor. If they are not the body. They will say peace, peace where
there is no peace. But we who are at peace with
God most certainly must be at peace with each other. Look carefully
awake, oh, sleeper and arise from the dead. I thought about
that. I thought too much about it. I wrote too many things down.
So I decided not to even bring that list here of what it must
be like to be asleep. And then I thought, well, there's
a sleep of those who are not in Christ who are dead and unable
to see. And then I believe there's a
sleep In some sense, for those who are in Christ, they fall
asleep in their faith. Not unto judgment, but unto laziness,
unto easy believism and unto the lazy Susan, whatever you
call that lazy river, lazy Susan things in the middle of the table
to give you the catch up either way. That's right there. And we're
not floating down leisure lane into a into a utopic Blissful,
oblivious slumber, Christians ought to be awake. So we know
what the sleeping dead are like. What are the sleeping living
like? I believe it's sort of like this, that if we're asleep,
unless we have a problem like sleep apnea, we're still asleep. We're still not aware of the
world. When we're asleep, there's no movement. There's no movement,
there's no motion, there's no growth. If we're asleep, we're
not looking at the world, but we're in a dream state. We're
contemplating our consciousness and we're dealing with all of
these things that are not in reality. Even though we may be
dreaming about something that is in reality, that which we
are experiencing is not real. We're asleep. It's a dream. Some
of us are asleep in the church because we are dreaming about
this place that cannot be. Perfection. Some of us are asleep, and so
we don't see. And when we don't see, we don't
understand. We don't understand. We don't
worship. We don't grow. We're dying, really, as we live,
laying in the bed of slumber in our faith. We have no real nourishment because
we're not able to open our mouths, and all that we get is that which
keeps us alive, oh, so ever slowly, and taking the vitamin of our
faith every few days, or we own even the wings of the prayers
of our brothers and sisters. We are sustained by the mere
pleasure of God. But we who are awake, Church,
seek. And what we see, we behold, we
hear, we receive, we think on these things. We aren't passive. We are passive in our salvation,
we are passive in our regeneration, we are passive in those things
because we are dead when those things take place. But we're
awake. And so now that we're awake,
we must wake up and live and see and savor and cherish and
fight and run and strive and push and pull and hug and hold. We must do these things unto
Christ and unto each other. And we say that we are awake,
but are we thinking? Are we eating? Are we drinking
the living water of Jesus through the Word of God with the saints
who are even our own body? What do we do without the stomach
when it is the first depository of that nourishment that takes
it to the other limbs? A bag of biceps is just meat.
A bag of brains is gross. Without the teeth and the tongue
and the mouth, the eyes, the nose, before we eat that, we
smell to see if it is even foul or fresh. The body must have
its parts and it must work together for its nourishment. And they're
all different. We're all different. We are unified
in our diversity. We are unified in our giftedness
for Christ. He gave gifts to men. He gave
the apostles and the teachers and the evangelists in order
to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, that they may
grow up and build itself up in love. What does he say before
that in chapter four? When it's all, each part is working
together, the church builds itself up in love. How? Where are we
looking? Obtaining to attain, rather,
the maturity, full manhood to the measure of the fullness of
Christ. That's what Paul says. And so we think and we clean
ourselves. We wash our hands before we eat
that we might not get flu. Some of us are just so OCD, we
just can't imagine ingesting that microscopic thing that we
don't know or might know that it's there. We drink, we walk,
we move, we act, we plan, we build. God did not send Nehemiah
back and say, when you get there, twinkle your nose three times
and click your heels together. No place like the temple and
the walls are going to be back. No plan, build, get the watchman,
get the builders, get the materials, get the money, put it together
and go. Do it. And the building blocks
of the church are here to this letter, in this letter to us,
to these Greeks, to these Ephesians, a mixed group of Greeks and Hebrews. Timothy is the elder of overseeing
all the congregations in the city of Ephesus. One of many
elders in the city. Personally trained by Paul. And
that's why I want to go to Timothy. If Paul is writing to Timothy's
flock, then I want to see what he's saying to Timothy. What's
he saying to the pastor there? And so the question then is,
if we're awake, we're supposed to, because we're awake, we're
supposed to look at how we walk and we look to see if we're wise
in our walking. And I started that last week
and I mixed it up. So I should have said this first
and now I'm going to say this second. So it doesn't really
matter. And then next week we'll continue to look. We'll outline it a little bit
today. So how do we walk carefully, looking wisely? How do we walk
together? How do we walk separately? How
do we walk under the praise of His glorious grace? We walk in
a unified focus, not myopically. This isn't unity. We're all looking
at that one dot. Nope. It doesn't work like that. What
is he talking about? I don't know what I'm talking
about. in that specific thing. You want to know what that dot
is? I don't know. What is it for you? What are you looking
at as the one thing that is the thing for you? Is it your hair? Is it your money? Is it your
church affiliation? Is it your doctrine? Which one? Is it your tulip? Your rose? What is it? Who cares? That's not the ultimate,
that's an idol. How about we look at the one
God called Jesus and we understand who he is based on how he's revealed
himself through the word of God. And then in that the cross of
Christ is enough, we preach him crucified. Everything else is
it trickles into the maturity of the church. We hold each other
accountable to error and truth. We see. And we look and we see
things that look like darkness and we go, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no kids. Don't do that. Don't put
that in your mouth. That's not good for you. I got
it out of my nose. It's still not good for you.
Don't put it in your mouth. It's nasty. It's not good for unity, son.
Stop. How about danger? Things that
aren't necessarily intrinsically sinful or disunifying or, oh,
my gosh, that person is walking too close to the road. Don't
take that baby out there. Just chance. Stop, don't let the baby get
in the road. Pull them back. There's darkness
out there. They'll run you over. They don't
care about you. They'll run you over. Come back. What is affection
in the church? What is wise love? Wise love
is love that is gentle and caring and sacrificial, not self-serving. Not haughty, not proud. We go
to 1 Corinthians 13. You see that love does not envy.
It is not proud. It does not boast. It does not
keep a record of wrongs. It does not do these things.
Do you know who has a record of wrongs that they should keep
against us? God. But Paul says that the record
of our sin has been canceled and nailed to the cross in the
body of Jesus, and it is paid. So we have been forgiven. Let
us then forgive one another. Walk in the light, walk in wisdom,
look carefully. Paul didn't say stand still,
you're in a good position, just freeze. And we stand there like
karate kid for the next 10 years. When can I get off this thing?
Just keep walking. Walk by faith, walk by faith
together, and if somebody strays and the bubble gets bigger, we
try to hold them in to keep them from busting the membrane. And
we keep pulling and we strive to unity as long as it is up
to us, as we heard Pastor Luke say just a few weeks ago at a
Romance. And we look carefully how we
walk. So let me give you an example
of that in Timothy, first Timothy, chapter four. And I want to show you what's
not happening at Grace Truth Church. We show you what's not happening
among us. But has certainly happened in
churches that we've been a part of. All of us, you know, what's
uniquely distinctive, one of the most distinctive things that
God is showing me about our fellowship is that most of us have come
from a place in our Christendom and in our church life. And me
and Brother Zeke and Dave were talking about this yesterday.
Most of us have come from a position to where we have been greatly
hurt. By people who call themselves siblings in Christ. I found that
to be a common theme. And I'm willing to bet you that
if I stopped at any congregation today and I stood at the door
and I said, could you take a second? Can I ask you a question? Have
you ever been hurt by somebody in the church? They would probably
say, absolutely. The most harmful thing that's
ever happened to me happened with God's people. Why is that? And so what we have to do is
be careful that we don't put walls. And then we label those ones.
So we put a wall up and then the people on the other side
of that wall that we're trying to keep from seeing us for who we are
because we don't want to be hurt again. Then they tag that wall. Heretic. Unregenerate. Apostate. Let me show you what
Paul tells Pastor Timothy in chapter four. Now, the spirit
of First Timothy expressly says that in later times, some will
depart from the faith. That doesn't mean they lost salvation.
It means that they left the proximity of the people who were the church. Keep in mind the life that the
church had. It was easy to see who was not
there. And they did so how? Well, before
they left the proximity of the church, they left the power of
the church. By devoting themselves to deceitful
spirits, and to teachings of demons. What in the world? What is that? I know what those are. Those
are hyper-Calvinists, aren't they? No, they're not hyper-Calvinists. I believe a hyper-Calvinist,
for those of you who don't know what they are, good. Don't worry about
it. Yet. And there's hyper-Arminians
and there's hyper-Pelagians and there's mainline Evangelicals. There's front loaders, freeloaders
and forward knowledge loaders. And none of it makes a difference.
What I'm talking about here, what Paul is talking about here,
deceitful spirits and teachings of demons. What is it that the
spirit of the Antichrist says? Christ did not come in the flesh. He did not atone for sin, he
is not God. That's the Antichrist. That's
what John says, both in his epistle. And his gospel. And his apocalypse. and the Gnosticism and the Spiritualism
and the Mysticism and all these other isms and sisms and kisms
and all these other stuff, they come along and they invade the
church. One of the main reasons. And how does it happen today?
Because we read stuff and we watch YouTube and we listen to
things and go, oh, yeah, that guy's right. And we haven't read
the Bible enough to know the difference, because we hear something,
the argument's right, we fall for the fallacy and we fall hook,
line and sinker in it. And we at the church are to govern
and guard each other from that. We see somebody walking away.
Oh, wow. When I was a young kid, my mother
tells me the story of coming out on the carport of our house
and seeing a rattlesnake coiled up just a foot away from me.
And what she did not do, which is good, those of you who know
my mother, she's very dramatic. She did not scream and throw
herself on the snake and strangle it. No, she said, she tells me,
I don't remember. She says, son, you stay right
there. Don't you move. And then she goes in the house
and comes out and shoots. I mean, and I thought about that.
What if she'd shot me? I mean, you know. She didn't
want to alarm me in such a way that I would freak out, run toward
the snake, get bit. She'd come out, try to catch
the snake. She'd get bit and we'd both die in the parking
lot or the carport, whatever it is. So even when we have to
say, oh, wait a minute, hold on. So how do we deal with that? Well, it might come, but it hasn't
yet. In our lives, there may be some
things, there may be some deceitful spirits and teachings of demons. How does it come? Look, through
the insincerity of liars. Whose consciences are seared. That must be some really demonic.
That must be some bad theology. That must be cultism. You're
going to be shocked. Look what he said. This is the
deceitful spirit, the teachings of demons. Those who forbid marriage. What? Those who forbid marriage. I
thought we're talking about devil worship here. Paul says, That
those who forbid marriage are demonically controlled, deceitful
liars, and they're telling the church they shouldn't get married. And they're demonic. And they're
apostate. Why? Because Paul says we hold
marriage in high esteem. How do we hold something in high
esteem if we're not supposed to practice it? Oh, glorious
marriage, but don't do it. It's not saying we're supposed
to pray, but you can't. Don't you dare pray. Or look
what else? Who forbid marriage and require
abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving
by those who believe and know the truth. Who are those? The
body of Christ. So what does it mean? It means
eat bacon. Unless you feel guilty, but don't
tell your brother he can't eat it. But if your brother knows
that it makes you feel guilty, then don't take it over to your
brother's house and eat it in front of him. Eat it in your
house with your glass of wine, if you so choose. But don't rub
it in his face. It will make it greasy. And it's
disunity. And so, but why? Don't we know? Isn't that bad for me? Yeah,
there are some things that are bad for you. Twinkies, bad. Krispy Kreme doughnuts, awesome. But bad for you. For God, verse 4, for everything
created by God is good. Now listen. I didn't say the
use of everything, however we want to use it, is good. And
it certainly didn't say the abundance of fleshly desire, that which
is controlling our flesh is a sin. But the thing in itself might
not be sinful. It might not be wicked. God made
certain plants, but when we eat them, we die. You have to look carefully then
how you walk. God made certain meat or meat-type
products. And if we eat too much of them,
we may die. So walk carefully and look carefully
how you walk. For everything created by God
is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with
thanksgiving. Thank you, God. See, if what
you're about to partake of, whether it be food or fasting of certain
food or anything in that realm that is a matter of conscience,
if you're about to partake of that thing and it is not out
of gratitude. It's not received properly. Nothing is to be rejected if
it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word
of God and prayer. I want to teach on that right
now, but at the end of the service, Brother Zeke is going to share
a little bit about prayer. He'll probably be excited about it,
so get ready. It's made holy. So we thank God
in a monster of prayer. We know from His Word it is His.
He's given it to us. And for those of you who were
here two Tuesday nights ago, we talked about a sandwich and
how awesome this sandwich is when we realize that the God
of the universe gave it to us. And I literally had had that
epiphany that night. I got a quick sandwich on the
way over here. And as I sat there with that
sandwich in front of me, I started just thinking way too much. And
it was at the point I wanted to shellack it and keep it. Put
a plaque on it. God's sandwich. Straight from
the hand of God. Yahweh's manna. I mean, we ought
to have that mindset. Wow. This glass of water. created and sustained by the
Word of God, by His mouth, by His power. And He, at this point
in time, allowed me to go and drink it. For those of you who
drink tap water and everything in it. But what does He say about this? So what's what's the point here?
You're rambling. OK, look at verse six of first
Timothy four. If you put these things before
the brothers. You will be a good servant of
Christ Jesus. So what's Timothy's exhortation
or Paul's exhortation to Timothy, put these things in front of
the church? Teach them these things. What
things? The grace of God, the warnings
of God, the power of God, the truth of God, the justice of
God, the mercy of God, the application of all these things of who God
is. How in the world do I apply this to what shoes I wear? Well,
let's turn to the book of Nike. It's not like that. The only thing we see about shoes
is dusting the dust off of them and removing them when we're
on holy ground. Is it a practice of removing
our shoes when we walk into the church? No. But the Bible says
to. No, the Bible said from Moses
to. And for Joshua, too, and for other people, too. Why? Because
it was extremely telling of their fear and reverence for God. And look at this. You will be
a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith
and of the good doctrine that you have followed. And so here we go. We see that
young Timothy is being exhorted to put these things in front
of the church and to always remember in that as he does that he has
and is being trained in the words of the faith and of the good
doctrine that he has followed. So there's a practical application
of theology. There's a pastoral theology.
There's a present theology. And all of this is continually
being worked out. Paul tells Timothy to be a good
worker, to study, to show thyself as an approved workman. I made the statement to some
folks just recently that it's really interesting How so many
people inside the church in America. Among the church of other church.
Look at studying Bible and studying truth and reading Scripture and
reading books about Scripture and looking at the lives of those
who live Scripture as weird wastes of time. When Paul says, what
does he say? Look at verse seven. Have nothing
to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather, train yourself
in godliness. How? Abiding in the word. Abiding in the vine. Holding
fast, not only to Christ, but also to his church. Why do so many of the cults want
your proximity in the seat? Because they think if it's not,
you're going to be destroyed. If you leave our clan, you're
going to die. Because they can read this same
scripture and see the great exhortation and admonishment to stay close
to Christ and in doing so, stay close to his bride. As his bride. Because you cut your ear off,
it rots. You cut the limb off, it withers and it's burned. For while bodily training is
of some value, godliness is of value in every way as it holds
promise for the present life and also in the life to come.
And look at verse 9. This saying is trustworthy and
deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil. and
strive because we have our hope set on the living God, who is
the savior of all people, especially of those who believe. Command
and teach these things. So the authority of God's Word
gives us that which we are to understand about who He is. And
in that understanding and in that working of the Spirit of
God through His Word, we who are His children respond in faith
and repentance and righteousness and striving and pushing and
all of these things. And so we might not really grasp
the fullness of how this walking Carefully
looking carefully. Plays out, so here's how I think
it fully plays out. Go to second Peter chapter one. Keep on flipping. And then we go back to Ephesians
and we've already seen and will continue to see what it looks
like. This is how we're seeing what We instructed the church
is to receive instruction, and then we know here from Peter
in chapter one, verse three, his divine power. It's very explanatory,
his meaning God. Possessive. And that which he
possesses is power. What kind of power? Divine power.
It's not the power of man or flesh or of the world. It's a
power out of the world by the creator of the world and all
that is in it. His divine power has granted. It didn't say his divine power
is packaged for your perusal. It doesn't say his divine power
is offered for your reception. It didn't say his divine power
is available. If you just call this toll free
number and we send you to. It says his divine power has
granted, so as granted, that means it has given authority
to do something to us, all things that pertain to life and godliness. God and his divine power has
granted to us the body of Jesus Christ, the church, Grace Truth
Church. All that pertain to life and
godliness, then where is it? How is it granted to us, God?
Do we get it in the mail? Do we get it in an email? Do
we have a bush that's going to burn? Do we see things that we
have visions and fall out and pass out and spit and spin and
bark? What are we going to do? Where's
the profit? It's right there. He says through the knowledge
of him. Who? God. Chapter 17 of John's Gospel,
this is eternal life, that they know you, the one true God and
Jesus Christ whom you have sent. This is eternal life. The contrast of that we see in
John 3. This is the judgment. They don't love me. They don't
love the light of me. They don't love the light of
my father. They love the darkness of their wickedness and their
death and their blindness and their sleepiness. And they stay
there. Not you. You're a child of God. You love
that which is holy. You love the people of holiness.
And you love the Father who sent the Son and the Son who died
to save you. And we work and fight and strive. How? Through the knowledge of
Him who called us to His own glory and excellence by which His own glory and excellent calling
by which is granted to us, his precious and very great promises
in order that through them. You may become partakers of the
divine nature, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa Peter
is saying that through the teaching of the word and through the battle
of faith and through the unity of the Saints and through the
stride in the race of faithfulness that God's faithfulness provides
to his church. His promises and his power. and his purpose in them that
they may be presented, listen, holy and blameless before him
in the person of Jesus Christ." So, we then become the partakers
of the divine nature. does not mean we are divine.
That means we share the same essence of the one who is divine,
who has given us righteousness because it's not our righteousness. It's Christ's righteousness,
we call that imputation. When you hear, oh, his righteousness
has been imputed to me, well, why do you want to use those
words? Because that's what Paul says. I don't want to make up new words.
It's what Paul said. And all the English translations
for the last 500 years have said that. So God gives the righteousness
of Christ to those who he has saved by the death of his son,
by his eternal promises, by his covenant, who he has loved forever. And now. We are protection of
the divine nature, having been given the nature of Jesus, and
we look at it having escaped from the corruption that is in
the world because of sinful desire. Wow. And now I'm going to get
to the how to's. You ready for them? All of you
checklist people, this is going to be real good for you and it's
going to slam you. Four. Don't you love it? I love it. For this very reason. Make every effort. Make every effort. What does that say? Get up a
little bit, look that way to say scoop that side, say drive
around the block one time. It's just make every effort. You see sin in your life. You
do anything you can. Jesus in his hyperbolic statements,
what does he say? If your hand causes you to sin,
cut it off. If your eye causes you to sin,
pluck it out. Is that a commandment? No, it's
hyperbole. We're cutting off each other's
hands and plucking out each other's eyes. We're all going to be together
for a real long time in the nuthouse. It means that when we are walking
carefully, looking wise in the power of God and we see sin in
our lives, that we make every effort When we see righteousness
in our lives, we make every effort to supplement our faith. For this very reason, make every
effort to supplement your faith. What do you mean? It's faith
alone, friends. Sola Fide. Faith alone. You are saved by faith alone. That's it. Grace alone, in Christ alone,
for the glory of God alone, from the Word of God alone. These
are the solas of every evangelical church since the 17th century,
16th century. We are standing on the waves of men
and women that God has allowed to be martyred to bring the truth
of his glory to us. And we take it as though we got
something because we deserve it. and that we are the best
at what we have received in applying it to our lives. And in that,
we need to be called out. We deserve nothing, and God has
given us everything, and it's only by God's grace, through
faith, which our gifts And so then our walking lies
in the power of God's divine power. He then says to make every
effort to supplement our faith. So we add to or we show our faith
in these ways. And here they are very quick.
I'm not going to expose it all. They just want to show them to you
with virtue. and supplement virtue with knowledge. That's why I can truly say that
a Christian who does not grow in their mind is lazy. Lazy. Do not mishear me. I didn't say the Christian sitting
to your left was lazy. I said any Christian that does
not grow in their knowledge of grace is lazy in that time where
they are not desiring to grow. Wake up, O Christian. And knowledge
with self-control and self-control with steadfastness and steadfastness
with godliness. How are we going to do this?
Timothy. Work, work and strive for godliness. Peter, supplement your faith
with steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness. Godliness with
brotherly affection, brotherly affection with love. Four, if,
here's the conditional statement, if these qualities are yours
and are increasing. It didn't say, if you've ever
seen this in your life, it says, if these are yours, that means
you possess them and are increasing. They keep you. See what you're
thinking right now, they keep me from eternal damnation. No.
That's God's grace through faith, they keep you from being ineffective
or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities,
and I used the word last week, myopic, short sightedness, focused
on one small thing without being able to see anything else. Whoever
lacks these qualities is so short sighted that he is blind, having
forgotten that he was past tense, cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, He's talking to the church. He's
talking to the Christians. He's not talking to the unregenerate.
He's not talking to those who are friends and they're not quite
sure. He's talking to those who are sound, solid, bought by the
blood of Jesus and are in eternal glory today. Be all the more
diligent to make your calling and your election sure For if
you practice these qualities, you will never fail. So you see
that church. I want to get two monkeys off
your back, I want to get monkey number one that says you got
to work, work, work, work, work, work to discern what is pleasing
to God. When the scripture says you got
to know, study and watch out. And the second monkey I want
to get off your back is. Don't think you're in good standing
with God if your faith doesn't cause you to work, work, work,
work, work to practice these qualities. My gosh, you just
took two monkeys and put an ape. Well, I hope he jumps up and
down. Don't feed him. So what do we do? Let's keep looking at Peter.
Peter preaches a sermon here. We don't have to exposit it.
Just read the dang thing. What am I talking? I could have
been done with this an hour ago. For in this way, there will be
richly provided you an inheritance into the eternal kingdom of our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This is the plan of God that
we are saved and that out of our salvation comes striving
and unity and affection and brotherly affection and worship and holiness
and righteousness and study of holy things and a heart for the
word and a love and all these things for those holy affections. And that in this way there will
be richly provided for you. God has ordained it and established
it and called it and done it. It's done. And you who walk in
this way are sure to receive, not because of your walking,
but because you are in Christ, you walk. Therefore, I intend always, Peter
says, to remind you of these qualities Though you know them
and are established in the truth that you have. Let me tell you,
that's a powerful statement. You know what I'm saying? You've
heard it. You're teaching it to others.
But I must remind you of these things. Is that not what Paul
told Timothy to do? Why is it so often as we hear
sermon after sermon after sermon? That's the same sermon with a
different verse on it. It's the same. Why are you saying
the same thing over and over? What's wrong with Paul? You've
been hit in the head too many times? No, this is how we grow. This is how we stay abiding in
the Word. This is how we stay connected
to the body. These things, you know them and
are established in the truth that you have. I think you're
right as long as I'm in this body, the flesh, to stir you
up. Stir you up by way of reminder. So friends, the preaching of
God's Word ought to stir you up, not settle you down. You know what? You simmer down
on Monday, but on Sunday you ought to be stirred up. I had a fellow one day come to
tell me, Pastor, the last three weeks I've nearly had a heart
attack. Your preaching has scared me
to death and I'm about tired of it. I've not had a heart attack.
I said, well, you better listen, because next week you might die. And I wasn't laughing then. It's
funny now that I recall it. But you better listen, because
next week you might die. Preaching is not supposed to
pacify you, church. It's supposed to empower you. The Word of God
is not supposed to make you calm and easy. It's supposed to stir
you up unto righteousness and massive celebration. I honestly
believe that in some sense, if we were truly honest, that when
God's Word speaks to us, even in rebuke, we ought to break
dance. We ought to jump out of our darn chairs and be baptized
for just a few minutes. Kicking and jumping and just
But we're self-controlled, so we don't. But inside, we're doing
it. I'm going to do this as long
as I'm in the body. I'm going to stir you up by way of a reminder, since I know that
the putting off of my body will be soon. Peter's like, I'm dying.
I'm about to take... God's about to take me home. As our Lord Jesus Christ made
clear to me. And I will make every effort
so that after my departure, you may be able at any time to recall
these things." How did he do that, y'all? We're reading it. He had no idea. He's writing
a letter. He says, I'm going to do all that I can to get some way for you
to continue this way so that I can continue to exhort you.
And I hope this letter will do for a few minutes. I'm going
to write a little bit more. I've already wrote you before.
God has told me I'm about to die. He told Paul the same thing. Second, Timothy. Come to me,
I need you bring John Mark, I mean, poured out like a drink offering,
I'm at the end of my game, I've run the race, I've finished the
race, I fought the good fight of faith, and now I'm done and
something we got to do something. I'm gone, Peter's gone, John's
the only one that was still alive at the end. In prison, writing
his letters. And God gave him these words
that became Scripture. Friends, we abide and are empowered
to walk in wisdom by that very word that gave us life. We do a grave injustice to our
souls and to the fellowship of our brethren and sisters. And
I say brethren, that means all genders, it's just a term. We
do an injustice when we come to the table. Screaming Sola
Scriptura, the sufficiency of God's word in all things, and
we say sovereign God, sovereign God, sovereign God, and yet we
get up from that table and we begin to carve out ourselves
systems. carve out ourselves a road map
on what we're going to do to establish righteousness and good
works and all of it. Let's just do it. And the power
of righteousness, the power of God's spirit and in his word,
and when we hit that pothole and we go, oh, that hurt my knee,
we help each other out of that hole and we keep walking, not
looking for potholes, but looking to Christ. One of the greatest ways that
I believe the enemy wrecks the unity of faith in each of us
is that we spend our entire life looking over our shoulders rather
than looking to the cross of Calvary. Next time you get on the freeway,
lower your rearview mirror and raise your seat where all you
can see is it and see how far you get. You will kill yourself. And we
will do that in our faith if we continually looking. We ought
to look. But we need to focus on the walking
in righteousness forward in worship rather than. Standing still asleep,
hoping that there's no sin in us. When we see it, we deal with
it. And then we move on. And we keep
walking. The problem comes is when we
turn a blind eye. And we get up and purpose to
continue in it. Let's walk carefully. Not as unwise, but as wise. Several points, and then we'll
preach them next week. Verse 15 of Ephesians 5 now. Don't
you love these sermons? So we're awake, we're looking,
we're being discerning, we're walking carefully because we
are wise. You see that? Making the best
use of time. Wisdom does that. Why? Because
the days are evil. They're dark and they're fighting
against us. Therefore, do not be foolish. But understand what
the will of the Lord is. It doesn't say figure it out,
but understand. You are wise, so walk in wisdom
and understand the will of the Lord for you. And Paul, as we've
already seen in this letter, has given us the will of the
Lord for us. So what's the outcome? The outcome is that no matter
how burdensome that is, No matter how frustrating that may be to
your soul, you indeed have peace that surpasses all understanding,
that surpasses all knowledge, for it is given by God in Christ
and established and sustained in His Son. Let's pray. And as I pray, Brother
Zeke, you can come. Thank you, Father, for this wonderful,
just fresh look at just how you work in us, how your word exhorts
us and encourages us. Lord, help us to walk in unity
and help us to walk in love and help us to walk in wisdom. Let us be unified. As we are
diverse, as we bear with one another, as we focus on the glory
of Your great mercy in Christ. Thank You for saving us out of
darkness and placed us in the light of Your Son. In His name
we pray, Amen.