The lesson this morning is in
Ephesians chapter 4. After describing the condition
of natural man and this unbelieving world, Paul begins in verse 21
with this statement. Or in verse 20, I'm sorry. But
ye have not so learned Christ. if so be that you've heard Him."
Now that doesn't say heard of Him. That said, if you have heard
Him and have been taught by Him as the truth is in Him, in Jesus,
that you put off the concerning, the former conversation, the
old man which is corrupt according to deceitful lust, and be renewed
in the spirit of your mind, and that ye put on the new man which
after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore,
putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor,
for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon
your wrath. Neither give place to the devil,
Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working
with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to
give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication
proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use
of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit
of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let
all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking
be put away from you with all malice. And be ye kind one to
another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for
Christ's sake, hath forgiven you." The subject this morning
is learning Christ. Learning Christ. I'm often amazed when I travel,
especially when I travel, when I go places into congregations
that are just from this and from that and from something else.
There's just no telling. You don't know who they are.
You don't know what kind of upbringing they've had. You don't know what
kind of traditions they've been taught. You don't know where
the... And I like to sit and listen
to them talk about what's being preached, especially at a Bible
conference where they hear four, five, six messages, and they
begin to talk about what they preach. And I listen. It's interesting
to hear what they think distinguishes our preaching from what they
know. What makes our preaching different
from the rest of the religion of this world is that we preach
a person. Now, we preach things that are
contrary to what they believe. We preach doctrine. We preach
the doctrine of election. That's different from what most
churches preach. Some of them do preach it, but
some of them don't. We preach the absolute sovereignty
of God in salvation. Most churches don't preach that.
We preach predestination. Predestination is taught in the
Bible. It's an intricate part of salvation,
and we preach that. Most other churches don't. But
that's not the major distinguishing factor between our preaching
and what they preach. What distinguishes us from every
other religion in this world is that we preach a person, a
person, the Lord Jesus Christ. And when he talks about learning,
he doesn't talk about learning doctrine. He talks about learning
Christ. When he talks about looking to
something for salvation, he doesn't point out things. He tells us
to come to Christ, to look to Christ. We preach Christ. We
preach a person. We preach a person. If you come
to that person, you come to that doctrine. But it doesn't work
the other way around. It doesn't work the other way
around. In Acts 10, here's where the apostles begin to preach
the Lord ascended up into glory, crowned of God, set at His own
right hand, given all authority, all power in heaven and earth
to give this eternal life to those that the Father had given
Him. And as a result of that, He sends the Holy Spirit into
this world. And He illuminates the minds
of these witnesses. And they begin to preach. What
did they preach? What was so different about their
preaching? Well, let me go a step back from that. I'm just going
to get rid of my notes this morning and preach to you. What made
the appearance of Jesus Christ? What fascinated, what caused
the big distinction in Galilee? What caused this big distinction
everywhere He went to preach? It was the person. They didn't
go out there to learn about election. They went out there to see Christ.
Listen to this, over in Acts chapter Ten. Listen to what Peter said.
And if you'll read through the book of Acts, you'll find everybody
preaches the same thing. Philip went out and preached
to the eunuch. He was over there reading in Isaiah. He said, do
you understand? He said, who's this talking about?
Philip said, have I got your ear? Let me tell you. Let me
tell you about this. Let me tell you who he is. And Peter stood
up over here in Acts chapter 10, and he said, the word which
God sent unto the children of Israel Preaching peace by Jesus
Christ. Preaching peace by Jesus Christ.
The word I say, you know, because it was published throughout all
Judea and began from Galilee after the ministry of John, how
God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with
power who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed
of the devil, whom you slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God
raised from the dead, showed to his witnesses, commanded us
to preach him to the people, and testify that he's ordained
of God to judge both the quick and the dead. To him give all
the prophets witness." You see that? That's the distinguishing
factor in this thing of preaching is that we preach a person. A
person. And not just any person, but
Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Christ as He set forth in the
Word of God. Now, brethren, there is no learning
apart from that. And that's what He's telling
these Ephesians. If so be that you've learned
Christ, and you've heard Him speak, God has spoken unto us
in these last days by His Son. Acts chapter 13. The Apostle
Paul stands up to preach. Listen to what he said. Through
this man whom God raised from the dead is preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins. and by Him all that believe are
justified from all things from which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses." You see that? They didn't preach something,
they preached Him. Him. Paul said, we preach Christ. Ain't that what he said? Christ
crucified. He said, when it pleased God
who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace
to reveal, watch it now, to reveal His Son in me. Ain't that what
happened? We preach a person, the glorious
person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the author and finisher
of our faith. You got some other foundation,
you don't have faith. He is the author and finisher
of our faith. He's the Alpha and Omega of everything
God communicates to man. That's what it says in Revelation.
The Alpha and Omega, beginning and the end. Through Him, for
Him, by Him, God created all things, orders all things, communicates
all things, gathers all things, accomplishes all things. It's
all in Him. I don't care what. You want to
study creation? Study Christ. He made it. You
want to know what creation is all about? Study Christ. It was
made for Him. That's what it says. I don't
care what it is you want. At awed by strange acts of providence,
all things work together for good to them that love God. Who
makes these things work together for good? He that sits on the
throne. Ranges all things. And this is the glory to which
men are blinded. They're blinded to it. They hunt
for things. They hunt for the little details.
They hunt for the little nitpicky things. And they want to get
you back in the corner and argue over these little things and
argue over these little things. It's not Christ they see. All
the arguments vanish away when a man comes to Christ. They're
all gone. That's right. He's not at war
anymore. He's not arguing about things.
He has eyes to see now. These eyes of God. And he sees,
he perceives. He sees this glory in Christ.
And this glory is that which man is blinded to. He can't see
it. He can't see it. It says here
in Ephesians chapter 4, he said, they walk. See it up there in
verse 17? They don't walk like this anymore. He said, these Gentiles walk
in the vanity of their mind. It's vanity to imagine a salvation
without a Savior. Who's going to save you? You
can't save yourselves. Look unto me, he said, all ye
ends of the earth, and be ye saved. That's the only way you're
going to be saved is for God to appoint a Savior. That's vanity. I'm telling you,
it's vanity. It's vanity to imagine a righteousness
without the imputation of faith. You can't produce a righteousness.
My soul, which of the best works you ever did would you drag out
and show to God after the resurrection? Which one are you going to drag
out? Huh? The Pharisees, he said, in that
day, many are going to say unto me, have not we done many wonderful
works? And they're going to start naming
them out, dragging them out before God. what utter shame and humiliation
they're going to have when God shows them in the light of Christ,
that salvation of Christ, the foolishness of their works. That's
vanity. It's vanity to imagine our sins
being pardoned apart from the blood of Christ. That's vanity. It's utter vanity. What is it that have put away
your sins? What good thing have you promised
or dedicated or committed or think that you think is going
to satisfy God concerning your sins? I'm telling you, it's the
blood of Christ that's on the way. It's on the way. And it's vanity to imagine a
faith without the work of the Holy Spirit. You're not going to figure this
thing out. That's what folks say. Well,
you got any tracks? I don't have a book table in
here. I don't have a track table in
here. I don't believe in them. I think they create more confusion. I do, because these old men,
they've got prejudices. And if you don't have somebody
to tell you what the prejudices are, that's the one thing that
the natural man can have and can get is the prejudices. He'll
read through the book, he'll miss every good thing that writer
had to say, and he'll come away with the prejudices. Look what
I found. And he'll hang it up and try
to show everybody. Huh? That's exactly right. You're
not going to I'm telling you, it's vanity to think you're going
to come to faith apart from the work of the Holy Spirit of God.
It ain't going to happen. It just ain't going to happen.
So if I were you, I'd find out in this book how the Holy Spirit
of God works, where He works, and what means He works in, and
that's where I'd go. That's where I'd go. That's what
I'd do. It's vanity to imagine a walk
without faith. We want to walk and look at our
work, don't we? You want to be destroyed? Examine
yourself. It'll destroy you, won't it?
It'll destroy you. You look in that deep, dark hole,
and you can't find anything. You can't find any righteousness.
You can't find any goodness. You can't find any goodness in
your preaching. All you can find is a pool of
holes. You can't find anything in your
prayers. You don't pray like you ought
to pray. You're destroyed. You're destroyed. There's only
one way that you can walk and be at peace with God and rejoice
and rest, and that's by faith. We walk in Christ with a perfectly
accepted, perfectly righteous, perfect atonement. You say, and
I rejoice, I'm at peace, I'm at rest. I remember Brother Mahan
saying one time, he said, preachers don't get officers, they give
them. And that's why, because they rest in Christ. They rest
in Him. Let Pharaoh get the ulcer. Let
him get the ulcer. And it's vanity to imagine life
after death without the power and presence of God to receive
you unto Himself. It's vain. I hear it every time
there's a funeral, and I go to it, and I listen to these men
preach, and they'll preach that man right into glory. without
the presence and power of God. Vanity. In Ephesians 4, Paul
tells us the story of natural man. His understanding is darkened. See it there in verse 18? His understanding is darkened.
He said in Romans chapter 3, there's none that understandeth. Eternal life, my friend, is to
know God. John said, And we know that the
Son of God has come and given us an understanding, that we
may know Him that is true, and that we are in Him that is true,
even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. Man's understanding is darkened,
Ephesians 4, verse 18. Now listen, being alienated from
the life of God. He has no perception of who God
is because that's eternal life. But he's alienated from that
life because his understanding's darkened. And it's darkened through the
blindness that's in them. Paul said, if our gospel be hid,
it's hid to the lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded
the minds of them which believe not. That's their problem. Their minds have been blinded.
How's he blind men's minds? Through religion. Vain religion. Where does blindness leave the
blind? It leaves him in darkness. It
leaves him to the imagination of his vain mind. You see where
Paul is coming from here? Blind Bartimaeus sat by the road
begging. And he heard him talk. He heard
all this talk. He heard talk about the seed.
and the clouds and the mountains and the plains, and he heard
all this, but he had to sit there in his vain mind and try to imagine
the colors of the sea. The white, billowing clouds that
hang over, the pristine smell of that plain as the water came
down off of that mountain out of those springs and gushed out
there on that plain and that fresh grass and that smell. He
had to just sit there in the mountain. He didn't know anything
at all. Why? Because he was blind. And the
blind are left to the vanity of their minds. You see what
he's saying here? Alienated from that life of God. through the blindness that's
in them because of the blindness of their heart. And it leaves
him to walk in his vain imaginations and it leaves him to walk after
his own passions and his own lusts and his own fallen nature. But, he said in Ephesians 4.20,
you have not so learned Christ. My friend, believers are new
creatures. Not in bodily appearance. Nothing changes when you're born
of God. If you were homely before you were born of God, you're
still homely. If you were handsome before you were born of God,
you're still handsome. There's no outward change that takes
place. None whatsoever. You can't detect
it. Man looks on the outward countenance,
because that's where he thinks the change comes. And he looks,
but he can't see anything. He examines, he looks, he judges
by what he sees, but that's not being born of God. It doesn't
manifest itself in bodily appearance. It's not in some sensational
transformation. He comes away speaking tongues
and healing the sick and all this kind of nonsense, walking
the high life. He's up on the plateau above
everybody like that Pharisee who thought he was up on the
plateau and he looked down on the public and said, Glad I ain't
like him. No, you're worse. You're worse
than him. But there is a transformation
in the heart and in the mind. In 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17,
it says, if any man be in Christ, in Christ, by that spiritual
union, That spiritual union made when the Holy Spirit of God comes
in you and teaches you and establishes you. If any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, and
behold, all things are become new. Love and grace now reign
where enmity and darkness once sat on the throne. Love and grace
rule. As sin hath reigned unto death,
Paul said, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto
eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. He's a new creation,
a new creature. And there are many things that
we might say about this to define the new creation, but let me
just give you three things this morning. First of all, those
who have learned Christ are born of God. You can't know God apart from
the new birth. You can't do it. I don't care
how many books you read. I don't care how many professions
you make, how many aisles you walk. You can't know God until
you're born of the Spirit of God. The new birth is manifested
by our coming to Christ. That's how you know it. It's not in the outward appearance.
It's in the coming to Christ. Nobody that's not born of God
is going to come to Christ. They're not going to do it. That's
what Christ told them. He said, you search the Scriptures
because in them you think you have eternal life. And they are
they that testify of me. But you won't come unto me that
you might have life. Why not? And they were born of
God. Nicodemus. What did he tell Nicodemus? Yeah, you must be born of God. Ain't that what he said? Except
you be born of God, you can't perceive the kingdom of God.
Listen to this over in John 14. Listen to this. I thought this
was interesting. Now, I'm going to... I'm not going to go through the...
A lot of these verses here need a lot of explanation and I'm
not going to do it. I'm just going to tell you what
they mean. In John 14, 22, it said, and Judas said. He's talking about Jude. See
the little exclamation there? It said, not Judas Iscariot.
He's not talking about that Judas. He's talking about Jude. That
name is the same. And here's what Jude asked him.
He was listening. He was listening to what the
Lord said. And the Lord said, I'm going to come to you. And
I'm going to manifest myself to you. This big question mark comes
up in his head and listen to what he says here. He said, how
is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us and not unto
the world? How you gonna do that? How does he do that? It's obvious to me the world
don't see the same Christ I see. They haven't come to the same
Christ I've come to. They don't have the same hope
I have. I'll tell you how opposite it
is. Paul said, after the way they call heresy, that's the
way I worship God. That's how much distinction there
is in this thing. And Jude said, well, how is it
you're going to do that? Listen to what he said, verse
23. Jesus answered and said, if a man loved me, that first thing happens when
you're born of God. Because when you're born of God,
you know that you didn't do this of yourself. And you're going
to love Him. Jesus answered and said, if a
man loves me, he'll keep my words. What words? Them words by which
he was born again. You read about it over in the
books of Peter there, where he talks about it in I Peter. Born
again, that incorruptible Word of God. And this is that word
which by the gospel is preached unto you. He said, if a man keep
my words, that is, he'll treasure my words, my words of redemption. He'll hope in my words of atonement
and cling to my words of reconciliation and rejoice in my words of revelation. If he'll keep my words, And my
Father will love Him, and He'll come unto Him, and we'll make
our abode with Him. We're going to move in. Ain't
that what that says? We're going to make our abode
with Him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings. He won't
receive my words. He don't rejoice in them. They
mean nothing to Him. And the word which you hear is
not mine, but the Father's which sent me. These things have I
spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But, now listen, the
Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send
in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things
to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you." He's the
one who's going to take these words and make them precious
in your heart. That's right. Those who have learned Christ
learn Him by the effectual calling and regeneration of the Holy
Spirit. Just like He dwelt in ancient Israel in type and figure
and revealed Himself in their midst, so He comes to us in our
captivity and manifests His power and presence through a great
deliverance. He delivers us from the law and
guilt of sin. He delivers us from all of those
things. He does that within, John, and
sets you at peace. We have peace with God. By this
new birth, we're enabled of God to perceive the kingdom of God.
We see God's king set upon that holy mount. We see the Christ,
the Messiah, set forth in all the prophecies of the Old Testament
scriptures. And we see this one mediator
typified in all the ceremonial law given to Israel, prophet,
priest, and king, redeemer, substitute, the head and representative of
all his people. You see what I'm saying? We preach
Christ. We preach Christ. And that's what's revealed in
the new birth, the person, the glorious person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And we see him as God has set
him forth as the propitiation for our sins. He, this one mercy
seat, God sets him forth as that mercy seat in that ceremonial
law, enabling God to be propitious toward the sinner. Enabling God
to be just and justify guilty sinners. But how can a man whose understanding
is darkened and who's walked all his days in the vanity of
his mind distinguish between the Christ of God and another
Jesus? The Apostle said they'll come
preaching another Jesus. Well, how am I going to know
the difference? You're born of God. Listen to
this. John said, we have an unction
of the Holy One and know all things. Well, how do you know? I know. I know. Well, I don't believe it. Most
men don't. Most don't. But you will if the Spirit of
God ever comes in your heart. Yes, you will. And then secondly,
and I'll try to hurry, those who learn Christ are made willing
in the day of His power. Brethren, I don't preach that
man don't have a will. Man has a will, but it's a will
not. You will not come unto me that
you might have life. That's what he said. It's a will
not. God makes you willing. Preacher, you're saying God comes
down and gets our arm like we used to do in the schoolyard,
get the arm up behind somebody and just keep twisting it until
he yields? Is that what God does? No. No. He reveals to us what we are. by nature. That's exactly right. Makes us willing by exposing
our sin and rebellion against a loving father who desires only
to save his son from himself. Ain't that what that prodigal
son's all about? Huh? The father just wanted to
save him from himself. And when the son seen that, it
slew him. It just slew him. He makes us willing by showing
us His long-suffering and kindness and goodness in Christ. We're
not herded into the corral by turning a bunch of dogs loose,
nipping at our heels the way they do in religion, but led
gently by the Holy Spirit of God, showing us these things,
showing us what we are and who we are, and in spite of all those
things, the love of God that comes and delivers us from what
we are, saves us from ourselves. Put Satan aside. Put the world
aside. God save you from yourself. You
got enough Satan and world in your own heart that you don't
even need to consider the other two. You just consider what's
in your own heart. God save you from yourself. Willing people are conquered
people. Conquered by grace. Willing people are submissive
to the ways and means of God. Willing people are humble people.
What have you gotten that you haven't received, huh? Willing
people are faithful people. They serve God willingly, willing
to sacrifice, willing to spend and be spent. And willing people
are loving people because they know Him who graciously made
them willing. And they love Him. They love
Him. To know Christ is to be given
the gift of faith. That's the third point, and I'm
going to stop right there, and we'll take that up next week.
It's to be given the gift of faith. That's the master grace
and the grace through which all the other grace, even repentance,
comes through faith. You're not going to repent until
you believe. That's right. But when you believe, you will
repent. And all these other things, love, mercy, grace, all these
things, They come through that master grace of faith we believe.