I'm gonna be reading in Acts
chapter 8, which is another pivotal point in our transition versus
25 through I'll say verse 30 25 through verse 30 and then
we'll see how far we can get tonight verse 25 of Acts chapter
8 reads as follows and they and when they had testified and preached
the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem and preached the
gospel in many villages of the Samaritans. And the angel of
the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise and go toward the south,
unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which
is desert. And he arose and went, and behold,
a man of Ethiopia and eunuch of great authority under Candace
Queen of Ethiopia, or the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her
treasure and had come to Jerusalem to worship. He was returning
and sitting in his chariot and read Isaiah, the prophet. Then
the spirit said unto Philip, go near and join yourself to
this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him.
and heard him read the prophet Esaias and said, understandest
thou what you are reading? Let me read the next verse and
we'll take it up from there. And he said, how can I except
some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he
would come up and sit with him. Thus is the reading of God's
word. Obviously, we are moving into the last chapter of the
parentheses series in Acts chapter 8. If you guys recall, in the
last three or four studies in Acts chapter 8, we entitled that
series what? Saul, what? Philip, and then
what? And then Saul. And so what we
saw was the opening of Saul's consenting to the death of Stephen. And then we move from Saul to
a parentheses period where we are dealing with Philip the deacon. We call him super deacon, learned
a lot from him. And then also Philip the what? Evangelist. That's who he is. Philip the evangelist. And it's
worth it to note that what God is doing in our observing the
sort of biographical sketch of this man, Philip, is teaching
us something about the wisdom of God, the sovereignty of God,
the subtlety of how God works in his own purpose of redeeming
a people for himself. So Philip becomes for us a great
lesson on the fact that while God has set up structure in the
church by which we are to be governed. And in the new Testament,
it primarily falls out like this at the head of the list are what
we call the apostles and then subsequent to them, but no less
important are the apostles of the prophets. And under the prophets
would be the evangelist. And then we would have pastor
teacher. These are the teaching tools
in the church. Apostles, prophets, evangelists,
teacher, pastor. These are the teaching tools
in the church. And I, I think I'll let you see
that for yourself in Ephesians chapter four. Let's go there
for a moment before we come back and deal with the illustrious
career, the short lived, no doubt, but illustrious career of this
one brother named Philip of whom we just love. And there is a
lot to learn from Philip and I want to make sure that we do
that over the next couple of weeks as we Are learning what
it means to serve God in Ephesians 4 We read over in verse 10 these
words He that descended is the same also that ascended far above
all heavens That he might feel all things who is the he here.
I Christ right so the antecedent to he is Jesus Christ we know
this in verse 7 but unto every one of us is given grace according
to the measure of the what of Christ the gift of Christ so
Christ is a subject the gift is the object and that gift is
now enumerated to us in By virtue of verses 10 and 11 he descended
that is he came from heaven assumed a human nature Accomplished the
work of redemption. Then he also ascended that is
he rose from the dead Ascended into heaven. He has taken his
place and his crown rights as the ruler of the universe Christ
is Lord of all from there He is now dispatching gifts for
the purpose of building his church. So you and I need to know that
the big modus operandi, the chief objective of God is the gathering
in of people from every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. That
when you and I are askew of this primary objective, that you and
I are missing the primary and the most important goal of our
life, and that is to be part of this grand work of evangelism. A man is in glory, sitting at
the right hand of God, controlling the universe for this one primary,
but not exclusive, primary purpose, calling sinners to himself. He's
calling sinners to himself. Let me help you understand this
if you don't get it. There is no action going on in our present
world of any eternal significance other than the salvation of souls. There is no other activity going
on in our world of any eternal significance. I dare you to present
to me something going on in our present world that's more important
than the salvation of a soul, than the salvation of an eternity
bound soul. And so what we're about to do
is get a close up on the heartbeat of God in the salvation of a
sinner. We get to ask ourselves, have
we experienced the presence of God in the conversion of our
own soul? Did it happen like this? And
are we participants in this grand work which continues to reverberate
around the world as God is calling his people to himself? That's
what we're dealing with. And so when the verse says he
ascended into heaven, he ascended into heaven far above all things
in order that he might what? Feel all things. You see that
last line? that he might fill all things.
You know what that means? That means Christ from heaven is actually
organizing, structuring and governing everything with the objective
of bringing everything under his authority. Right now, you
and I are part of him marshaling together nations and kingdoms
and people saved and unsaved, lost and those who are in the
kingdom of God, people who are living and people who are dead.
Everything is being brought under the authority of Christ from
the moment that Christ ascended on high every man woman and child
are and were Under the authority of Christ we live and we die
to Christ. We have to answer to Christ Everything
your boss my boss your employer my employer your schoolmate my
schoolmate your profs my profs and Everyone has to answer to
Jesus because he is the God-man that's ruling the universe. We
all live to Christ and we die to Christ. To be honest, everything
has to answer to that man. I just want you to get a big
picture scenario of this thing called the God-man who's sitting
on his throne running the universe. This is what the apostles were
telling the Jewish people. God hath made him both Lord and
Christ. And this is what Paul says in
Ephesians chapter one, that he's gathering together all things
into Christ. You and I may not be able to
interpret it that way, but it's so. And so then he goes on to
say this, and in that he's bringing everything into subjection to
him so that he might fill all things. That's our plural term
again, fill all things. He gave some what? Apostles and
some what? And some what? And some what? And teachers. It should be pastor
teacher, but that's that's OK. These are gifts in the church.
And if we were to make distinctions, the first three category are
what we call foundation gifts. And the last category are what
we call sustaining gifts. The apostles, the prophets, the
evangelists of the first century, first early centuries were foundation
gifts that established the gospel and local pastors are what we
call maintenance gifts, maintenance gifts. The distinct difference
between a local pastor and an apostle and a prophet and an
evangelist is that the prophets and the apostles went about establishing
gospel churches, establishing the gospel in those gospel communities,
and then setting up local pastors to preserve that gospel. Does
that make some sense? So then a local pastor doesn't
have the freedom, technically speaking, to run around all over
the world, as it were, ministering in multiple circles. He would
fail to actually occupy the analogy of a shepherd. Because the analogy
of a shepherd is one who is close and near and caring for the sheep
on a very, very intimate level. So sheep do not do well when
their shepherds are far away. In fact, he is not a good shepherd
if he's far away. And so when we call the pastor
a pastor, it's because he's taking on the role of a shepherd caring
for the sheep intimately. And the sheep are very much assured
that they know where to find the shepherd because he's in
the house. He's not roaming the streets
about his business, trying to acquire masses of wealth for
himself while his people are at home. The shepherd is a local
minister of the word who reinforces apostolic doctrine. You guys
got that? Very important to know. I'm not
dealing here in terms of this as an exegetical exercise, but
I just want you to know, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors,
they're not equal in that sense. They all have their roles. And
so it is in this context that we are dealing with Acts chapter
8. Go back there. So you can see how I established
this with regards to two ministries, the ministry of the apostles
over against the ministry of the evangelist slash deacon,
the ministry of the apostles. As you and I remember, we saw
how that super deacon Philip was used by God to break into
the Samaritan community. and bless the Samaritan community
with the gospel and the spirit of God bless that gospel, bringing
the Samaritans to Christ. You guys remember that? And they
were enthusiastically drawn to the ministry of Philip because
Philip was very much like Stephan, a man full of the spirit of God,
full of faith and endowed with apostolic powers to heal. So Philip was able to affirm
the gospel of Jesus Christ by going into Samaria, doing authentic,
genuine miracles. This was his role as an evangelist. Now, an evangelist is a gift,
as we just saw. It's not an office in the church. It's a gift to the church. The
office of pastor is something different. And so this gift that
Philip has as an evangelist allowed him to do what he's doing in
terms of going places, preaching, right? But he also occupies the
role of what? Deacon. Remember he was one of
the seven deacons. So he does have a home church.
He's just one of these unusual brothers that gets to roam a
little bit. That's because God wants you and I to focus in on
a unique characteristic of God in the blessing of the word When
a man or woman is submissive to him So I want you to see this
This is the beauty about what's taking place with Philip. It
was that way with step into this is what we're gonna learn. We're
gonna learn how See God uses people who are submissive to
him Now, Philip would have been just fine staying home, exercising
his deacon duties. I mean, because it doesn't matter
whether you're, you know, local dealing with the Hebrew women
and the Grecian women and the arguing women. And, you know,
you got the gift of healing. You can heal folks. You know,
it doesn't matter whether he was at home or away. For him,
what we see in the life of Philip, which is some of the lessons
that you and I want to derive from it, is his submission to
God. because he plays a major role
of submission. What do I mean by that? God allows
Philip to go down into Samaria as we saw. He goes down into
Samaria and he does a magnificent work of ministry. This is what
we saw over in verse 5 of chapter 8. Then Philip went down to the
city of Samaria, right? And preached Christ unto them.
What was the premise or purpose for that? Persecution against
the church. Remember that? Verse three, and for Saul, he
made havoc of the church, entering into the houses, hailing them,
women and men, committed them to prison. Therefore, they that
were what? Scattered abroad, went everywhere
preaching the word. So Philip was part of that scattering. He allowed himself to be moved
away from Jerusalem by the persecution, which led him to Samaria, which
as we learned two or three weeks ago, was no accident. Samaria
was on the chart for salvation. So Philip is actually operating
in obedience to the Spirit of God. He gets to Samaria and he
has all of the necessary qualifications and giftings to bring Samaria
into a deeper, more formidable knowledge of Christ. As you saw,
he was confronted with a false prophet and God in his mercy
sent the apostles down to intercept this false prophet. Remember
that? Simon the sorcerer and the Apostles in entered in and
they took up where Philip left off if you will notice what it
says over in Verse 25. This is where we're gonna start
and they you see the word they that's the Apostles So so the
Apostles now Peter and John and others who are there in Samaria
are doing something that Philip was not required to do. Philip
is a deacon, but he's also what? Evangelist. That means he goes
into Samaria and preaches the gospel and brings those men and
women to Christ by way of the proclamation, the euangelon,
as we're learning in Greek, of the person and work of Jesus
Christ. That's that initiatory work by which the spirit of God
opened their eyes to their need of a savior. They came to Christ
and they were baptized. There is a subsequent work that
needs to be done. Do you know what that work is?
The rooting and grounding of the Samaritans into Christ at
such a deep level as to make sure that they don't fall away
from the truth they just received. Am I making some sense to you?
This is why the apostles are there. The apostles are now moving
in by inspiration of the spirit to take up where the evangelist
has left off to now bring the Samaritans into a deep knowledge
of Christ. So our first point in our outline,
if you will put our PowerPoint up, closing with the Samaritans. closing with the Samaritans.
You guys see that in your outline? So the way the verse opens up,
this is a really interesting construction. I'm not going to
do it in this, in this Greek form. I'm just going to make
sure that if you are reading it and you stumble over it, we
can clear it up. And they, that is the apostles
when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, that there
are two clauses. And they, when they had testified
and preached the word of the Lord, they were doing two things
here. They were preaching the word. And they were what? Testifying. Preaching the word and testifying. Preaching the word and testifying.
Was that what they were called to do? You better know it. But
we have in our outline that they're closing with the Samaritans testifying. You know what it means to testify?
It means to bear witness. Amaterio, the root word is martyr,
from which we get our term to be a witness. What did Philip
and John and rest of the apostles do? They came down and they bore
witness to Jesus Christ Among the samaritans in a way in which
now watch this now philip couldn't do Why philip is the evangelist? He's not the apostle. He's an
evangelist Philip was not there with the apostles when they were
with christ So the apostles are saying things and teaching the
samaritan things that only the apostles could teach them What
are they doing? They are bearing record to the
person and work of Christ that they saw and were a part of. They are taking the Samaritan
people deep into a knowledge of Christ on a level that only
the apostles could render. Remember the apostle had to have
known the Lord. They had to have seen the Lord
in his resurrected glory and have been made partaker of his
resurrected glory, empowered as an apostle. So there are unique
and intimate and personal things about the calling of the apostles
that would serve to anchor the people of God wherever they went.
By the way, as we go through the book of Acts, you'll see
this all the time. Wherever the gospel's being taken, the apostles
must come there and establish the truth. So the first word
that we are called to is testifying, bearing record. That's Acts chapter
one, verse eight. Go there again, I want you to
see it. So I'm gonna make a brief distinction between expounding
scripture, teaching the gospel and testify. A brief distinction. And we've learned this distinction
in our witnessing class, in our evangelism class, that there's
a difference between declaring the gospel and witnessing, right?
Uh-huh, there's a difference now. And the difference is subtle,
don't get me wrong. One should lead to the other,
but the two are not synonymous. One should lead to the other,
but the two are not synonymous. You angle on gospel preaching,
the kerygma, the blessed opportunity, the blessed privilege of explaining
who Christ is, what he did in terms of redemption and all that
an individual can do. But that's distinctly different
from testifying to what you have experienced and the power of
that grace bringing you through the trouble you went through,
declaring to people how it was that Christ saved you. but you
shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost has
come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me. Do you see
it? Both in Jerusalem, Judea and
Samaria. Is Acts 1.8 being fulfilled by
the apostles? And unto the uttermost parts
of the earth. Go back to our text then. I could quote several
verses in regards to that. In fact, don't go back to our
text. Go to Acts 2.40. We'll make our way to our text.
Because I want you to see how obedient the apostles were in
Acts chapter 2 verse 40. Watch what it says. Here's what
Luke says about what they were doing. This is Peter preaching
on the day of Pentecost again. Here it is. He says in verse
39, for the promises unto you, to your children and to all that
are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
Verse 40, here it is. And with many other words, did
he what? And what? Saying, save yourselves
from this untoward generation. He testified and he exhorted. He bore record in the courtroom
of truth, in the conscience of the people of who Jesus was,
how he lived, how he ministered, how he served, how he died, how
he rose again. Why? Because they were there.
They have the privilege to say, we saw him, we served with him. He told us this and he told us
that. We learned his mannerism, we
knew his ways. Here is what we know about the
man Jesus of whom people today deny that he rose again from
the dead. We know he rose from the dead,
the bearing record. Because at the end of the day,
ladies and gentlemen, this is a courtroom case. At the end
of the day, once we're done with religion and God has burnt away
the trap of religion, we're all going to stand before God and
we're going to either be deemed true witnesses or false witnesses. Either we're going to stand before
God bearing record to the truth of Christ or God's going to prove
us to be a liar. That's all this business is about. Ladies and gentlemen, please
hear me. This business is about whether or not you really do
have the spirit of God bearing record in your heart that both
Jesus is Lord. Are you ready? And that you are
a son of God. That's what this is about. See,
remember these apostles weren't making a big bank account out
of this. They weren't making money. They were being killed,
but they're compelled to testify to who Jesus was. And them being
compelled was the work of the third person sent, who took them
places of which Christ told Peter, you wouldn't go if the Holy Ghost
didn't come. Remember John 20? Peter, in your youth, you did
what you wanted to. But when you're older, another's
going to take you by the hand and lead you places you would
not go. Peter wouldn't go to these Samaritans. He's going
to still struggle with going to the Gentiles. but the Holy
Ghost is gonna push him there because Peter has deposited into
his being a history, a memory, a knowledge of the Savior personally,
that's gonna actually break open the doors for the Gentiles. So
this is why we have the work going on that we do in our text. Let me go to one more verse before
we go back home. Acts chapter 10, verse 42. So
now we are in that place of which I just stated, Cornelius' house,
and Peter is uncomfortable But he'll lose that uncomfortability
here in a moment. You know how it is when God gives
you an assignment to have to tell somebody about Jesus and
the assignment is a little bit precarious. Maybe I have to explain
that word if we went to government school. Let me see what precarious,
how can I explain it? The situation is a little edgy.
You know, it can, it can get heated. It could go the wrong
way. People can reject it, whatever the case may be. And you might
even be internally ambivalent about it. Have you ever been
there? There's like, Lord, I mean, you know, if you can find somebody
else to do it, let them do it. But he wants you to do it. And
so he puts you in the situation where you got to tell somebody
about Christ and you feel completely inadequate in the moment. Have
you been there? And then what happens is in the
assignment, this is the thing that I love about Philip. In
the middle of the assignment, you begin to experience a level
of grace that's remarkable. God settles you down. He gives
you access into clarity and you start being able to declare the
word of God with simplicity and eloquence to those people. And
you know, that's not you, you know, it's God. right? And then he may even give you
a little boldness, which you didn't have an ounce of prior
to the assignment. You know how that was before
you started talking to those people, you were scared to death.
You were governed by what if man, if I can get out and then
all of a sudden the boldness comes and you're in control of
the situation. And if you stay subject to the
spirit of God, that is to know how to stay in the moment and
not try to split the screen and think about what you're doing
now and think about what's going to happen if they beat you up.
Cause you know how you can split the screen. You split that screen. And then all of a sudden you
start getting again, once again, very unclear, vague and Oh, I'm
messing up. Cause you're trying to outrun
God, figuring out how you're going to get out of here. Cause
the people looking a little bit perturbed. No, you're supposed to stay on
point. The same God that opened that door to let you in there
is going to take you through that door and get you out. You're
here today. He kept you. You might've got
a knot upside your head. I'm not sure, but you made it
out, didn't you? And it was a remarkable thing
that he allowed you to witness to. And then sometimes we actually
see God work right away to actually convert people. We didn't know
he had gone before us by his spirit and prepared their hearts
to hear our words. And he did. And we go, Lord,
I thank you. And then we fall on our face
and we repent because we knew that we were kicking and bucking
all the way. I'm so glad God don't care about our kicking
and bucking. Don't you see now this is the reason why it's so
important to be filled with the knowledge of God's word. Cause
once the word is in you, then you're prepared. It doesn't matter
how you feel you're prepared. Cause that's where I see the
spirit of God is the one that lines up the words. and gives
you the ability to say what you're supposed to say at the right
time. And it's more remarkable to you
than it is anybody else. Look at God using me with my
fumbling, bumbling self. And Peter was that way too. Acts
chapter 10, verse 42. Notice what he says. Notice what
it says. Verse 42, Peter's speaking to the Gentiles. And he commanded
us, that is Christ, to preach unto the people and to what?
See, those are two different words. One is the proclamation
of the gospel. The other is the witnessing to
the reality of who Jesus was in the fact that he was God manifested
in the flesh and lived among them. This was a crucial, crucial
element in the establishing of the gospel in the early church.
That is, he which was ordained of God to be the judge of the
quick and the dead and he closes in verse 43 to him gave all the
prophets witness that through his name whosoever believes in
him shall receive what And we're gonna talk about that here in
a moment. Go back to our text then. I just want you to see
there's a construction that Luke is using in verse 25 that is
weird, but it's understandable now that we have the precedent.
And they, that is the apostles, when they had testified and preached
the word of the Lord, that's one clause, they returned to
Jerusalem. You guys see that? Now, I want
you to understand that What they did was to stay in Samaria, testify
to Christ, and preach until the Samaritans got it. And then they
returned to Jerusalem. That means that when Philip took
off, of whom we're gonna deal with here in a moment, he took
off leaving the Samaritans in good hands. Are y'all hearing
what I'm saying? They were in good hands. His
job was done. Why? Because one's souls, another
waters, And who gives the increase? So see, when Paul and Barnabas
ran together, Paul would sow, Barnabas would water, and God
would give the increase. Paul would sow because he was
an evangelist par excellence. And then Barnabas would come
behind that and water that word with clarity of doctrine, depth
of doctrine, broadness of doctrine. And they would get rooted and
grounded, and God would bless that. And so what we say here
at Grace is, unless you go deep with Christ, you can't go broad
with Christ. Unless you go deep, you can't
go broad. He does not use people for broadness
until he first takes them deep. You gotta go deep to go broad.
You can't influence anybody in a broad way unless you go deep.
Shallow only begets shallow. And so it says, and they, when
they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned
to Jerusalem, And then what Luke does is actually capsulizes,
encapsulizes what they did as they made their way back to Jerusalem.
What did they do? They preached the gospel in many
villages of the Samaritans. You guys got that? They went
to all of the villages of the Samaritans, sat down, preached
in this village, went to the next, sat down, preach, went
to the next, and preached through all the villages of the Samaritans.
Now you remember when Christ was here and they were walking
with Christ, you know what he told them? Do not go in the way
of the Samaritans. Because it wasn't time. Now it's
time. Why is it time? Because Christ
came, Christ died, Christ rose, Moreover, he sent the Holy Ghost.
They already started in Jerusalem. They preach to their Jerusalem
brother. They preach to the brothers in Judea. Now the gospel is pushing
out to the boundaries of Samaria. In other words, the witness has
been born in Jerusalem already. Are you guys seeing what I'm
seeing? So now the projectory of the universal gospel going
into all the world is taking place. Do you guys see that?
Good, because now what's about to take place is getting ready
to make sense to you. This is amazing. This is amazing. In our outline then, because
I want to make sure that I move into my next point here shortly,
they testified, they bore record preaching the gospel to the Samaritan. And what was the substance of
their message? It's important for you to get this. It's in
your outline, the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness of sins. Two other words, actually three,
in his name. That's what they preached. They
preached the forgiveness of sins. Remember what Christ told the
disciples in the gospel of Luke? He says, you go into all the
world, preaching the remission of sins to all nations. Everywhere you go, you teach
men that there is forgiveness of sin available with God because
of the past finished work of Christ. So stay with me now,
I want you to just get this as a little caveat. We have not
preached the gospel to anyone. If we have not preached the gospel
about sin and the gospel about the remedy of sin, which remedy
is one, forgiveness of sins in Jesus. You have not preached
the gospel until you have made the sinner to know he has a problem
with God and his problem is not his economic situation. His problem
is not his mental disposition. His problem is not his marital
or domestic problem. His problem is not his relatives,
the social context. His problem is sin. And that
until we deal with the core problem of sin, the gospel is of no use
to you. And when once men and women are
ready for the proposition of what must I do to be saved, then
we can give them the clear, unambiguous testimony of the death, burial
and resurrection of Jesus Christ and its implications in terms
of our justification, our sanctification, our glorification, our liberty
from the curse of the law, our freedom for regeneration, our
sanctification, and all of the beautiful things that come with
the atonement and forgiveness of sins. A man or a woman will
not see Jesus as glorious until they realize they need forgiveness
of sins. So this is what they preached.
They preached it everywhere. And then finally in our third
point, under our PowerPoint, they grounded them in the truth.
How do I know this? And I'm just going to kind of
just remind you of this. When you go through the epistles,
one of the things that you find the apostles doing with every
church that he, um, they established was to encourage them to go deep
with God so that they can take root downward and bear fruit
upward. I'm going to share with you three verses just cause I
want you to see them. And if you, if you, if you haven't already
settled it in your mind, that if you're going to be a biblical
Christian, you're going to know that Christ saved you to use
you. And until you get that, your
Christianity is going to be lopsided. Will you guys hear me? You're
not gonna enjoy your Bible and you're not gonna enjoy my preaching
if you don't resolve within yourself that the same God that saved
you brought you to himself in order to prepare you to use you.
It's critically important for you to know that. And so we go
now, first of all, to Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter
2. I want to read verses 3 through
5, and I should go to Colossians 1 as well. I'm going to read
just three verses where we see the exhortation in the New Testament
to maturity and growth. And of course, you're going to
hear this again on Sunday as we deal with the church at Sardis
this week. In Colossians chapter 2, here's what the apostle says.
Are you there? Exhorting them because he knew
that they were being trapped by an almost spoiled or plundered
by philosophies of men He says to them over in verse 5 And I'll
start at verse 4 and this I say lest any man beguile you with
enticing words for though I be absent in the flesh yet am I
with you in spirit and Here's what he says, join and beholding
your what? Order and the steadfastness of
your faith in Christ. You know what made the apostles
happy? That the church at Colossae didn't disintegrate. See that
little word there, order? That word there, order, is from
what we get in the Greek, what is called syntax. Sentence structure. In a sentence, you have a structure
in order for it to be cogent and reasonable. You have a subject,
then you have a verb, then you have an object, that's called
a syntax. That's where we get the word from, a structure and
order. And what Paul was saying is,
when I think about the church at Colossae, I don't see a church
filled with chaos, disorder. I don't see them disintegrating
under a worldly philosophy. I don't see the head becoming
the tail and the tail becoming the head. I don't see disorder
in your church. I'm happy about that. Why is
he saying that? Because everything in the world
is falling apart. Everything in our present generation
is in a state of disorder, disarray. It's dismantling. And it ought
to be reasonable to us that if Christ is the glue that holds
the whole universe together, and is he not, all things are
upheld by the word of his power. He sustains all things. By him
do all things consist. Consist. He says, I thank God
to see the structure and the order in your fellowship here. And then what he says is steadfastness. That's the word for perseverance.
And mark what he says, your steadfastness of faith, where? In Christ. See, now this is on the heels
of him warning the church about philosophies of men that come
into the church and destroy the superlative nature of the person
and work of Jesus Christ. Like if people are heady, like
if our church was a heady church and we were foolish enough to
think that intellectualism is the way that you enter into the
blessings of God. Then you and I would find ourselves
leaving Christ buying into philosophies of men, structures of men, story
caves of men, rudimental elements of men. And the next thing you
know, we would be no longer rejoicing in the pure simplicity of the
gospel of Jesus Christ. At that point, we would no longer
be sinners. We would be intellectuals. When you find a church where
they have defaulted away from the preaching of the gospel,
they are no longer sinners. At that point, you do not please
God. Well, the Colossian church was dealing with that. The other
churches were dealing with other things, emotionalism, mysticism,
paganism, all of the other isms that were seeking to distract
them away from the simplicity, which is in Christ and faith
in Christ. Like faith, which is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. is only designed
to live and thrive when it's in Christ. Take your faith and
place it in something else and over time it will wither and
die. Faith in Christ is the grace
that God gives us to stay connected to him vitally, to drink from
his spirit and to stay on Christ until our faith grows and matures
and bears the fruit that is called to be. Am I making some sense?
Very important. And I think every believer in
here that's been around for four or five years knows what it's
like to be tempted to leave Christ and plant our faith somewhere
else. In our job, in our relationships, in our marriages, in our health,
whatever. The apostle Paul was thankful that they were still
committed to Christ. And so he says in verse six and
seven, here's what he says. So as you have therefore received
Christ Jesus, the Lord, so what? Walk ye in him. You got that?
In the same way in which that gospel came to you in the purity
and fullness of the person of Christ live in that gospel Do
not find yourself distracted by any other message Let people
think you are crazy For being in love with Christ and making
him everything Are you talking about Christ? No, I'm not interested You got that? Can you tell me
how this exalts my savior? It doesn't? Not interested. I'm
sorry. I'm infatuated with one man.
He's just got my heart. He's got my mind. He's got my
soul. I'm bound to him. I love him. Do you have anything to say about
Jesus? I want to know more and more and more about him. I heard that he was the Alpha
and the Omega, that he was the first and the last, that he was
the wisdom and knowledge of God, that hidden in him are all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I heard that eternal life is
in him. I heard that he is the bread
of life, the water of life. He is the rock of life. I heard
that Christ is all in all. If that's true, I want to know
about him. And if it's true, then all I
have time to do is know about him. Because I imagine that until
I'm able to exhaust all that he is, I don't have time for
anything else. And this is what he is saying
to the Colossian church. You guys are going to make it when Jesus
is that much to you. Now watch this. Here it is. Here it is.
Verse seven. Watch it. If you have therefore received Jesus
Christ the Lord and you are walking in him, this is what's going
to happen. Are you ready? You're going to
be rooted and you're going to be built up. He's using two analogies
here. One is an agricultural analogy
of a tree. A tree planted by the rivers
of water, whose roots go down deep, tapping into the river,
bearing fruit in its season, its leaf never withering. Whatsoever
it does, it shall prosper. This is the blessing of being
rooted in Christ. Him the tree of life and we are
branches in that tree. He promises to prune us and make
us fruitful all the days of our life Rooted in him rooted in
him. This here is a living metaphor
So the roots don't stop growing they keep growing a tree's roots
never stop growing Are you hearing me and then he talks about built
up in him so he's conflating metaphors I like Paul he does
what I do He can place metaphor because now he's using the analogy
of a house Rooted in Christ as a tree built up in him as a spiritual
house Built up the church is a tree of life. The church is
built up in him and Established in the faith you guys got that
Established the word is strengthened in the faith You now become a
resource for other people to come in out of the storm You
now become a means by which other people can pluck the fruit and
eat your fruit and acquire the blessed, blessed taste of gospel
life. That's what we are when we are
a gospel church. That's what we are. That's the
beauty of this concept. How does this occur? This occurs
when we are rooted and grounded, built up, taught in Him, established
in the faith. Now watch this. As you have been
taught, abounding therein. This is what I love about Paul.
Paul always uses these increase and abounding adjectives. He
always says increase. He always says abound. Increase,
abound. Increase, abound. Increase, abound. Do you guys believe that? Everywhere
you go, increase, abound. You'll learn this in your Greek
language. Increase and abound. Increase and abound. Look at
chapter one. Let me see if I can make good on that. Increase and
abound. Here's what he says over in verse
eight and nine. For this cause we also, chapter one, since the
day we heard of your faith, do not cease to pray for you and
to desire that you might be what? Filled with the knowledge of
his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. You got that?
Filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and in
spiritual understanding not carnal secular understanding Spiritual
understanding now watch what he says that you might walk worthy
of the Lord You know what that cloth says that cloth says to
the degree that you and I are filled to that degree We can
walk acceptably before God Look find a Christian who's not filled
with the knowledge of his will you'll find a Christian. That's
half half-hearted and that is chaotic and hidden and missing
when it comes to their walk with God. Find a Christian that's
not serious about God's Word and you'll find the Christian
who is actually not experiencing the blessed, blessed, blessed
fruit, the blessed fruit of Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now
mark what he says, that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto
all pleasing. Here it is, being what? Fruitful
in every good work and what? Increasing in the knowledge of
God. So now, and then look at what he says in verse 11, strengthened
with all might, according to his glorious power unto all patients,
long suffering with joyfulness, giving thanks unto the father,
which has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light. Do you see that? He ain't done.
Paul's just like a preacher. He got line upon line upon. Do
you know this ain't no period here? He just rolling. He ain't
done. He ain't done. He just dropping
it. Because each precept actually is the foundation for the next
precept. They actually are coordinated
clauses, dependent clauses. They demonstrate the ongoing
abounding nature of going deep with God. And I just want to
highlight, if you'll notice that he prays that they would be filled
with knowledge, that would result in verse 10. The word I want
to highlight is walk. Do you see that? And walking
with God will result in increasing in the knowledge of God. Is that
true? When you walk with God, don't you learn more about God?
And then it goes on to say that you will be strengthened with
all my in the inner man unto watch this patience. This is
really true that when you grow in grace and in the knowledge
of the Lord, because of your personal walk with Christ, he
gives you more patience. That's the one thing that this
whole journey of ours is doing. It's teaching us patience. That's
the thing you and I wake up saying, look at me, look at me. I'm just not as moved as I used
to be. Am I telling the truth? I ain't moved. I ain't moved.
Though the earth be removed and cast into the midst of the sea,
I have set my eyes, my face before the Lord and I will not be moved.
That's maturity. That's maturity. And it's from
walking with the Lord and that symbiotic relationship of the
Spirit of God pouring into our life, these increases. And I
have to go on to show you that it must abound. This strip and
he must abound in thanksgiving. Verse 12, giving thanks unto
the Father. This is how you know when a saint
is maturing, because they're far more in a disposition of
thankfulness than they are complaining. Yes. The growing, maturing saint
is hallmarked by constant eulogia, constant praises of God, constant
eulogizing of God because of his goodness in their life. They're
not retired and they're certainly not tired, but they're in a place
of thanksgiving because they are constantly recalling God's
faithfulness in their life. Is that true? God's kept me. He's matured me. He's strengthened
me. He's settled me. He's giving me patience. Thank
you, Lord. That's how the saints do it. And there are others too, but
let me move on while I got 30 minutes. Go back with me to our
text. You can read the rest in your own time. Philippians 1,
9, 11, 1 Peter 5, 10. All of those verses are designed
to say this, that the goal of teaching when it's done right
is aimed at helping you go deep with your master so that you
can enjoy your walk with him. That's why you want to go deep. Don't let anyone tell you that
all you need is a little bit of Jesus. You need more of Jesus
than you have. You don't have enough of him.
Am I making some sense? We do not have enough. So our brothers and sisters thinking
that they're doing all right. The moment we think we're doing
all right, we are deceived. I am not doing all right. I need
more of him. I need more of Christ. I need
more of him. And so do you. And let me just
say this as a caveat. When God allows you out of your
submission to that reality, when you submit to the reality that
you need him more, and then you find yourself in the obedience
of that need, guess what he does? He shows you that there's more
of him to have. And when he brings you into that
level of depth of knowledge, it humbles you because you were
deluded in thinking that you had tapped out. You had plumbed
out. When there were multiple levels
of depth in Christ that you haven't even scratched the surface in.
You hadn't gone deep enough to see that there are just measures
of fullness that you and I haven't even come close to enjoying. And when God shows you that next
level, you go, I'm so thankful that you and your goodness kept
your promise. Cause if it was left up to me,
I'd sit here and wither and die in my own foolishness and vanity
thinking that I've got enough of you. When he brings you into
that next level of revelation, that next level of depth of the
glory of God in Christ, it humbles you because you realize that
you were on the brink of missing it by your folly. that depth of knowledge is so
critical to the assurance of yourself because our problem
is is that Assurance of our soul is what we need in order to enjoy
God And where we are making choices that does not augment and enhance
that assurance you and are struggling Because we're making choices
that don't so to the spirit but to the flesh that's true, isn't
it? So we're ready to move on into
what I consider a remarkable journey that's going to take
us a couple of weeks to work through. But I just want to call
your attention to a brother. His name is Philip. And this
lesson tonight is really about submission to the spirit of God. This is about submission to the
spirit of the living God, which spirit is freely given to all
of us who believe. The Spirit of God is given to
every one of us for our profit. Not one of us in here are designed
by God's providence to miss out on the fullness of the Spirit
of God. Every one of us have a right to a level of depth of
walking with God and experiencing his blessings to your heart's
desire. Every one of us. Every one of
us are free to enjoy a walk with God whereby he shows his glory
to you and uses you in remarkable ways beyond your ability to even
imagine. If you want it, if you want to
be used by God in such a way just to glorify him because he
saved you, it's all yours. I just want to let you know.
So when you see other brothers and sisters drinking deep of
the well of grace and having assignments given to them by
which they are sharing the gospel with other people, it's not because
they are better than you, wiser than you, more knowledgeable
than you. They're just like you. They have simply learned what
it means to walk in the spirit. So here we go. I love it. Here we go. PowerPoint number
two. The obedience of faith. I love it. Philip, you are something
else, boy. You started off as a deacon.
Most young preachers want to go to school, get their degree
and jump right in the pulpit, be a pastor. I was talking with
a couple of young preachers today, enjoyed myself. I remember when
I was their age, one of the things I told them while I was closing
out my exhortation to them is I said, boys, I'm old enough
to be their dad, right? I said, boys, they're in their
thirties. So you know how old I am. I said, boys, I said, boys, I'll
tell you what. I remember those years. God used
me mightily in my middle thirties. And I told him, I wouldn't want
to go back to those thirties for nothing in my life. I'm so
happy to be in my fifties now because they were coming to me
with 30, 30 ish issues. You remember in your thirties,
you had power, but you didn't have wisdom, nor did you have experience.
So what's, what's good is power. when you don't know what to do
with it. And then all hell is breaking out against you because,
see, a young man glories in his what? Strength. And he ought
to. He can leap over tall buildings.
but you better know where you gonna land and you better know
what your next step is because the enemy's on your tail. So
these young preachers and pastors, man, I need some help. And they
were so comforted when they left, hugged me and every like Paul
with the Ephesian church, don't go, don't go, don't go. Because
I gave them counsel based on experience, which just settled
them. I told them, you guys on a good
course, just keep doing what you're doing. Understand that
the kingdom of God is a kingdom of patience. See, young people
want to get it done now. Haven't you heard that God is
from everlasting to everlasting and that he never rushes and
that time is his servant? He's not a slave to time. You
better slow down, brother. Take your time, walk through
this thing. And for the most part, God is calling you to communion
with him as a premise for using you. You guys understand that? So then, this gets into my remarkably
contemplative thought about this brother Philip. As was true of
Stephan too. And this is called the obedience
of faith. Look at verse 26 in your Bible. Listen to this. And
the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go
toward the south, unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem
unto Gaza, which is desert. Now this is an amazing, amazing
thought because Philip is in the middle of a river flow of
blessing with the Samaritan saints. He is one of the, he's the penultimate
minister. He's the evangelist. There's
still jazz by Philip, remember? This new Jasper, they all, they
were baptized by him, remember? He's not in any kind of competition
or jealousy with the apostles. There's plenty room to go around.
The Samaritan was a large city of which God had said in the
Old Testament, they were coming to Christ too. And so Philip
strategically set up to come to the Samaritans because remember,
Philip is one of those proselyte Jews. He's not an Orthodox Jew.
He's a proselyte Jew. That means he brought in not
ethnically, but through Judaism. Remember, the problem was the
Grecian women over against the Jewish women. And so that the
deacons were actually Grecian deacons that were brought in
to deal with those problems. Well, see, Philip ain't got a
problem with going to the half breed Samaritans because he's
a half breed himself. And that's how God works. So
God sends him to the Samaritans and God blesses the Samaritans
through Philip. And Philip is a major player
in their coming to Christ and in the middle of them still growing
and being, uh, strengthened and enriched by apostolic presence. Don't you think Philip would
wanted to stay with Peter and John and James and them just
to get more of the techniques down, get the blessings down. I mean, I'm going to stay with
the apostles there. Uh, their wisdom and maturity
might rub off on me. In fact, they might call me an
apostle. Hanging out with the apostle. Hey, apostle Philip.
We're vain, aren't we? Aren't we vain? Now, the Lord
is not sending Philip away because of this. He's sending Philip
away because he can trust Philip. Because Philip's key to success
in ministry is his love to be used by God. That's all. His love to be used by God. So
going back to our PowerPoint, listen to what it says, led of
the spirit. Do you see that? So I'm going
to show you, I'm going to arc some passages in our text. I'm
going to arc them. I'm going to talk about being
led by the spirit a little bit, and then we'll take this up in
two weeks. We won't have a study next week, but being led by the
spirit. Verse 26 says, and the angel
of the Lord spake unto Philip. First of all, God speak to me
anytime you want to. And he gave Philip specific instructions. This could have been through
a dream. This could have been through a vision. Whatever it
was, it was a powerfully impressive revelation that was given to
Philip that was unambiguous. It's not the step we have. You
know what I'm talking about? I think the Lord spoke to me.
Well, listen, when the Lord spoke to Philip, he knew it. An angel
came to Philip. and spake specifically to Philip
about what he should do. Again, the form in which he came,
we don't know. But we know that a mediator of
the Lord came to a servant and said, Philip, you have got to
go. Now watch this. I want you to
mark the connection between imperative and indicative. Imperative are
commands. Indicatives are actions. Here's
the imperative. Rise up and go toward the south. Go the way that goes down to
Jerusalem under Gaza, which is desert. And Philip began to question
the angel. Is that what it says? See the
difference? Imperative is command. Indicative
is obedience. Go, Philip. Guess what the text
says? And he went. Do you see it? The angel says, go this way.
And you know what Philip did? He went. It's like Mission Impossible. You know, I love Mission Impossible.
I don't care. I love it. I love all of them.
I've been loving Mission. I've been loving Mission Impossible.
I've been loving it all the way back to the old James Bond. Love
it. I love when he gets his assignment
in a briefcase, a telephone call. Good. We got an assignment. Mission
impossible because see the salvation of souls is a mission that's
impossible for men. So I love it. I love it So he's
getting his assignment again middle of the night Todd been
preaching to the Samaritans here come the angel the CIA from heaven
telling him you got another mission and He packs the same night and
rolls out the same night Do you understand how much commitment
and? Trust to God you gotta have to
pack your suitcase and go watch this and go Somewhere you have
no idea Let me show you the assignment just in case you didn't get it
Look at what the text said and the angel said unto Philip arise
and go toward the south The way that going down from Jerusalem
unto Gaza Which is desert Philip, go to the desert. Ladies and
gentlemen, there's nothing specific about that. That's as general
as you get. Leave the city, leave the burgeoning
metropolis, leave the stores, leave Kmart, leave 7-Eleven,
leave the gas station, get on Highway 1, Highway 5, Highway
10, and just keep rolling. Where are we going, Lord? Don't
worry, just go. He's on Gaza Strip. He's going down to the
desert. In fact, he's going away from
the epicenter. What is the epicenter? Jerusalem. He's going away from the epicenter.
He's actually going further away from the epicenter than he was
in Samaria. He's going away on a path and
a course when no one else is. This is a solitary journey by
a soldier who is receiving orders without hesitation. The Spirit
of God can trust him. Are you hearing me? Now, this
assignment, obviously, would be challenging to us on a human
level. Because on a human level, we
often think about the present comfort, the loss of comfort,
all of the different what, if, ands, and buts. We do. I don't
care who you are, you do too. Somebody gave you an assignment
to go to Sudan Africa right now to preach you have a thousand
if ands and buts popping up Darfur somebody told you to go to Pakistan
right now all kind of problems You'd be having all kind of you'd
be asking ten preachers whether or not you actually heard from
the Lord. Did I hear from the Lord? I Just want you to understand
now. Don't don't don't take verse
26 and play with it because we do that I'm telling you that
Philip was remarkable and He was remarkable because he's now
taking an assignment that demands that he destroys every sensory
perception in him that's seeking to survive self-preservation. He's going to the desert. God
didn't tell him what he was going to meet there. He just told him
to go. Just like his great, great grandfather,
his great, great, great, great, great, great spiritual grandfather,
Abraham. Remember? Abraham, you pack up
your house and go. I'll tell you when you get there.
And Abraham went, not knowing where he was going, but believing
that God was able to provide for him. Are you following what
I'm saying? So this is radical because what
Philip is about to do is leave a very obvious blessing to go
into a situation of which he has no idea. Is led by the spirit. So I want you to see the three
verses in our text I want to read romans chapter 14 and just
talk up talk about these three points for tonight Here's the
three arching verses that help us understand the grace of god
given to the servant To simply do what god says verse 26 the
angel of the lord spoke into philip saying arise and go And
then we read it again over in verse 29. Are you there? Then
the spirit said unto philip go near and join yourself to this
chariot Do you see that? Now, follow this. Philip is making
his way down Gaza. This brother, whom we're going
to talk about later, is on the road of Gaza, headed back to
Ethiopia. Philip knows nothing about this.
Nothing. He doesn't know whether or not
this chariot is an impediment, an obstacle, a band of soldiers
that could accost him. And then all of a sudden, the
Spirit of God says, join yourself to the chariot. Man, that's a
cold assignment. That's a cold assignment. Listen,
do you understand the cat here has an entourage of soldiers?
From Egypt, no doubt. Swords and spears and axes. And the Holy Ghost says, jump
on the chariot, man. Jump on the chariot. Hold on
now, I don't think you're getting it. That's a death wish if the
Lord ain't in it. Do you understand that as a death
wish? Do you know what happened? If
you would try to catch up with president Obama's entourage and
open up that limousine door to jump in in the name of the Holy
ghost told you to talk, you would be dead. Are you hearing me? So I just
want you to stay here for a moment because I'm telling you it's
remarkable the level of submission that's taking place in Philip's
soul. He's being removed from a very familiar circumstance.
He's walking purely by faith in a direction going away from
the blessing and the longitude and latitude of two entities
who have nothing to do with each other are about to meet. And
the Holy Ghost waits to the last second, giving him no other instructions,
but jump in the limousine. Jump in You see that says now
watch what the text said Verse 30 and Philip ran thither to
him Philip ran up on the chariot He ran up on it. That means Philip
is running While the chariot is rolling and you know The soldiers
that are with this this great man from Ethiopia got their spears
and the arrows all pointed at Philip You know that, right?
Who is this fool? We can shoot him out here and
leave him for the birds to eat every bit of his flesh and nobody
would ever know. Do you understand what I'm getting
at about the level of obedience on the part of Philip? Philip
is not wondering about his life here. He's simply being obedient
to the spirit of God. He's being obedient to the spirit
of God. Powerful. And Philip ran up on
him and heard the man reading from the scriptures. And the
next thing we read over is in verse 39, I believe it says,
look at verse 39. This is the next time you hear
the spirit of God speaking to Philip. And when they were come
up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord caught Philip away
that the eunuch saw him no more. And he went on his way rejoicing. Who went on his way rejoicing?
The eunuch did. But Philip, he was found at a
Zotus. That's what happened when the
Holy Ghost get a hold of you. Hither and yon, here and there. What I want to call your attention
to is being in the will of God. And here's the remarkable thing
about it. As we get ready to close, I got
five minutes. This is not about numbers. At all. This ain't got nothing to do
with numbers. This has to do with a man who is so committed
to the glory of God and so committed to the salvation of souls and
so committed to the methodology by which souls are saved. So
I was teaching these young men today who came to me. I was telling
them that the problem in our present generation is that there's
no commitment to God. and therefore no commitment to
his word, and therefore no commitment to his gospel, and therefore
no commitment to the methodology by which God saves sinners, and
in all reality, therefore, no commitment to the souls of men.
I cannot be committed to the souls of men if I do not believe
in the preaching of the gospel. If I do not believe that the
gospel is the power of God and the salvation, I am not committed
to your soul. I have no care for your soul
if I do not believe that God only uses preaching to bring
men and women into a saving knowledge of God. If I believe that God
saves us by other means, music, dreams and visions, aesthetic
anomalies, this, that or the other. If I believe that, you
know, God just kind of any old osmosis. You know, you got all
kinds of people saying they were saved all kinds of ways. So stay
with me. You're only saved one way By
a confrontation of your soul through the preaching of the
gospel a clear gospel message Which shows you who you are And
shows you who christ is And why it is more than reasonable for
you to bow the knee to him That's the only way we're saved. We
are we're not we're never going to be saved by accident Let me
show you how radically important this is in next over the next
couple weeks We'll unpack this because we need to learn something
about a brother who was prepared for another brother who was prepared
We need to see how the preparation of the heart of men and the answer
of the tongue is from the Lord how that God brings a man whose
heart is prepared for Christ to a man whose heart is also
prepared to tell him about Christ and And thus God worked a work
of grace where Christ is revealed in the heart of a man who's getting
ready to go back and turn a whole nation upside down and bring
them to Christ. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? And it's gonna happen in a way that glorifies God.
Do you know what that means? That means CNN doesn't know about
it. Fox News doesn't know about it.
Internet doesn't know about it. HBO don't know about it. BET
don't know about it. NBC don't know about it. Nobody
knows about what God's getting ready to do to break the doors
wide open to the African people. But God, and not even Philip
knows, and not even the Ethiopia knows. God is working all things
after the counsel of his own will right now, bringing together
events according to the manner in which God works, which he
always works. He never violates these rules. God uses men to
save men. God uses human beings to save
human beings. Angels will help us they are
heirs of salvation to us, but they are the not the ones who
are preaching the gospel to men They are telling us to go preach
But they're not preaching men are preaching to men Am I making
some sense? Men are preaching to me and they're
preaching because of the obedience of faith This brother's coming
home From yet one more dead religious observance of Judaism that did
nothing for his soul only to meet the God of his salvation
through a proclamation of biblical truth for which God had prepared
his soul. This black man was starving for
God, starving for God. And God saw it. Hey Phillip,
got an assignment for you. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun,
dun, dun, dun. Da, da, da. Da, da, da. Da, da, da. Da, da. I'm here. I'm here. Dun, dun, dun, dun. Da, da. I mean, you know how the drama
goes. I mean, there, there is no way for Philip to get in this
chariot and let's God open the door. There's no way he's going
to make it in. They shooting him 150 feet out. They see him. They got the arrows
on him. He's a dead man. If God didn't
calm the whole entourage down, He probably had the soldiers
on Gaza half asleep. Cause you know how soldiers are
when they think there's no enemy around, they probably sleep.
And the Ethiopian is sitting there reading the scriptures.
Are you hearing me? This is God working. Lead of
the spirit, Romans chapter 8, 14. I'm there, I'm there. Romans
8, 14. Just let's hear it and we'll close and we'll come back
and pick this up in two weeks. The Apostle Paul speaking to
us about the great, great, great privilege of the post incarnate
work of Jesus Christ, the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, by which you
and I are brought into sonship with God and more than into sonship
by virtue of just our status, but our relationship with God
in terms of him using us. And this is again, I want to
say this as I close out on this text. This is true for every
one of us. You, me. See, we're busy every
day. We're busy every day. We have
opportunities every day. It's just a matter of whether
or not our heart is in a position to be used by God. Whether we
wake up in the morning saying, okay, Lord, whatever you want
to do, use me. This is all that's required.
We're all busy. I guarantee you there's no one
in our class tonight that's been in the bed, sleep all day long,
woke up about 10 minutes to eight. So let me get the Bible study.
Well, it might be one, raise your hand if you can lay hands
on you, pray for you. Okay, listen to the text. So
the apostle Paul is making it clear the blessing of walking
in the spirit. This is verse one of our text.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus
who walk not after the flesh, but after the what? Right, that's
an indicative. It's not an imperative, it's
an indicative. You're born again, you have the spirit of God. That's
really what that means. You and I are born again, we
have the Spirit of God, and we really walk after the Spirit.
It's a synonym for walking after the gospel, being a gospeler,
someone who enjoys it. To walk after the flesh is to
walk after the law. To walk after the Spirit is to
walk after the gospel. Did y'all get that? See, people
who walk after the flesh are bound by legalistic structures
of do's and don'ts that are based upon performance, trying to get
right with God. People who walk in the Spirit enjoy the full,
free, finished work of Christ and the blessings that come through
it. And we are ready to talk to people about Christ because
we want to, not because we have to. Do you understand that? Listen,
here it is. He says over in verse 13, for
if you live after the flesh, you'll die. That's true. The
wages of sin is what? But if you through the Spirit do mortify
the deeds of the body, you shall live. This is a very clear, very
clear methodology by which we do the will of God. We don't
wake up trying to figure out how we can gratify our carnal
deeds. Our job is to glorify God in these bodies, which are
His, right? Here it is. For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the what? Sons of God. That's right. They
are the sons of God. And what does a son of God look
like? He looks like Jesus. What Philip is doing is what
Jesus did. What the apostles are doing is
what Christ did. What Christ did is what you and I are supposed
to do. Christ loves sinners. Christ was about his father's
will. That's what we're about. Our father's will. When we wake
up in the morning and say, Father, thank you for another day. Don't
we? Lord, I thank you for another day. Thank you. Thank you for
another day. You know what I do before I even get up? Lord, use
me any way you want to. Here we go, Lord, another day.
I'm about to get on my knees and climb up. You know, when
you get my age, you got to get on your knees first, then climb
up. You know how we used to do it when we was youngsters? Just
pop up, just up. And we don't do that now. We
turn over, put our feet on the floor, make sure we touching
the floor, right? Kick the legs out. Why are we
talking to the Lord? Lord, I'm warming up this old
body. I'm going to get up in a second, but I'm not going to
do this presumptuously because you know, it takes a while for
the circulation to kick in and walk with a brother. Talk
with me, lead me, guide me, keep my heart sensitive to your will.
I want to be able to, I want to be a blessing to somebody
today. I want to be a blessing to somebody today. Help me. Oh God, to advance your
cause. to comfort your saints, to encourage
your people, to call men and women out of darkness. There
is no greater purpose in the world. Amen. Father, we thank
you for your word. We thank you for your gospel.
We thank you for these examples. Make them true for us. We pray
all these things in Jesus name. Amen. God bless you. No Friday
study next week. You can come if you want to.