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Mar, 2020

Tread Now

  • peace
  • Salvation
  • hope
  • sins
  • trespasses
  • victory
  • International Banana Museum


Tread Now

Ephesians 2:1-2 | March 8, 2020

Have you ever had to tread lightly?

Maybe you are going to ask your parents if you can go on that trip with your friends to the International Banana Museum in Mecca, California, but you tread lightly when you tell them how much it is going to cost because you know it will not be a-peeling to them. 

Or maybe you are going to ask your boss if you can get some new furniture for your office, but you tread lightly when you mention the leather recliner with the built-in fold out OLED TV in the armrest with a built-in mini fridge in the other armrest.    

Or maybe you finally got the baby to sleep and you tread lightly out of the room hoping you can at least make it to the kitchen and get in one bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream before you hear crying again – the baby’s cries, not yours.

When we tread lightly, we are proceeding with caution.

We are:

  • Watching where we are treading
  • Watching where we are walking
  • Watching where we are stepping

There is a kind of treading, though, that is not based on the “where” but the “how”. 

A kind of walking and stepping that is less about your feet and more about your heart.

And those steps are the most important steps of your life. 

We might say that ultimately treading lightly is not near as important as treading rightly.

What does that mean?

Let’s find out. 

The Apostle Paul was an immensely well-educated, passionate, trail-blazing Christian in the early church.

He wrote a letter to Christians living in a place called Ephesus and this is what he says beginning with Ephesians 2, verse 1:

1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,

We can fight it or ignore it or deny it or try to beauty cream it or essential oil it or marathon it or weight lift it or healthy diet it away, but physical death is a reality for every single person. 

But what about spiritual death?

According to the Bible, one out of every one person is born spiritually dead.

King David said it this way:

 

Psalm 51:5 (KJV)

Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

David’s birth was not the result of some sinfully dysfunctional family drama – his birth was normal, so to speak.

And as he is thinking through his life he goes back to the earliest moment of his existence outside the womb and confesses that none of his sin has ever been a fluke or an accident.  

No one had to teach him how to throw a temper tantrum.

Unknown

If sin were blue, we would be blue all over.

Paul uses language that anyone can understand to describe the reality of what it means to be born in sin.

He says we are spiritually dead.

We have trespassed and crossed the boundaries and challenged God and his ways and his holiness.

Someone might say, “Well, I don’t feel like I trespassed on God’s holiness.”

Fair enough – you might not know that you are trespassing on someone’s property because either you did not see a sign posted or there was not a sign posted.

But even if you didn’t see the sign or there was not a sign posted, you can’t change the logistical reality that you are trespassing – and you can’t change the spiritual reality that you have trespassed against God.

There’s a story told of a preacher who was preaching in a tent-style meeting outside when a teenage boy shouted out, “You tell us about the burden of sin, but I don’t feel any burden.”

And then he somewhat sarcastically asked, “How much does sin weigh? Eighty pounds? Ten pounds?”

The preacher responded, “Tell me, if I put a 400-pound weight on the chest of a dead man, would he feel it?”

The boy said, “No, because he is dead.”

The preacher responded, “And the man who feels no load of sin is dead spiritually.”

What David and Paul and the whole of the Bible are graciously communicating to us is that when we are born, both our known and unknown sins declare us dead.

Even though we are alive physically when we are born, our sin and trespasses immediately make us needy to be alive spiritually.

From the earliest moment of life, we miss the mark. 

We miss the universal standard of perfection that exists because of the character and nature of God who spoke the universe into existence.

But, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, was crucified on a cross outside of Jerusalem to satisfy the payment for the cosmic penalty of sin – and not just casually all sin in the world, but specifically my sin and your sin. 

And by the power and authority of God, Jesus was raised from the dead three days later to universally and undeniably prove and affirm and guarantee the authenticity of his payment.

And he visibly ascended into heaven to undeniably prove and affirm and guarantee the authenticity that he is both preparing a place for believers and that he is returning to one day make everything right forever.

Salvation in and through Jesus Christ is the wonderfully beautiful, awesome, free, gift of God.

But a dead person can’t open a free gift.

In fact, dead people can’t do anything.

So, at birth, we need God.

He gives us a check-up – and the diagnosis is that we are spiritually dead – not sick, not ill, not wounded, not in a coma, but dead.

We are spiritually helpless, and we need to be brought from death to life.

So, where are you spiritually?

Are you still dead in your sins?

Or have you been made alive in Christ?

Like David, have you acknowledged that your sin is not a fluke?

Have you acknowledged that sin marks your earliest moment?

If not, then we plead with you to come to Christ.

You just heard the no trespassing sign, so, you are without excuse – so, come to Jesus and live. 

And don’t delay – don’t wait for a more convenient time. 

One day Jesus was teaching a crowd of people and some people in the crowd were telling him about recent tragedies in the area.

One of those tragedies was that Pilate’s soldiers had killed some people while they were at church.

And Jesus mercifully responds to the report with a question.

Luke 13:2

“Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate?”

Jesus is asking them:

“Do you think any of those people were thinking as they walked through the sanctuary doors that was going to be their last time they went to church?”

“Do you think that the people that didn’t make it to church that day because they were sick or out of town were better Christians and that’s why they were spared?”

Jesus is drawing a line.

He basically asks them if they think that the people who didn’t attend church that day were better Christians because they didn’t get killed.

And then he responds to his question:

Luke 13:3

“I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Jesus wasn’t been mean or dismissive about the people who had died – he is showing mercy.

He is trying to help us see that evil events or tragedies should always stir us to draw a line to our own hearts and ask:

“Am I alive in Christ?”

“If so, it is well, it is well with my soul!”

“If not, then Lord have mercy on me, a sinner, and save me!”

 

They had also given him a report about a tower that fell near a pool and 18 people died.

He again mercifully responds with a question:

Luke 13:4

“Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem?”

Jesus is asking them:

“Do you think any of those people were thinking as they stood by that tower that they would never go to that pool again – that it would be their day on earth?”

“Do you think that the people who were standing 10 feet farther to the right of the tower and escaped the rubble were better Christians and that’s why they were spared?”

Jesus is again drawing a line.

He’s mercifully pressing them to avoid social media commentary or even panic and he’s asking them to consider the brevity of life.

And like before, he responds to the question himself.

Luke 13:5

“I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Jesus repeats the need for repentance. 

In times of evil events or tragedy, draw a line to your heart:

Are you ready to meet God?

Have you truly repented?

And what does it mean to truly repent?

True repentance has been described as a double turn – you turn from sin and turn to God. 

Lig Duncan

Repentance means grieving over our sin, not grieving over getting caught, not grieving over getting embarrassed, not grieving over the consequences, but grieving over our sin.

Do you grieve over your sin – do you grieve over dishonoring the God who has made the way for you to be rescued and redeemed?

If you have truly repented and turned and are following Christ, then you will tread differently.

Listen to what Paul says next:

1-2 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked

When it comes to the reality of being spiritually dead, this sounds a little off, right?

If dead people can’t open a free gift, then how can they walk?

If dead people can’t do anything, then how can they walk?

The phrase in prison vernacular is “dead man walking.”

Our sins and our trespasses make us spiritual zombies.

We are alive, but we are alive to sin, and we are dead to God.

So, how does a spiritually dead person walk?

 

1-2 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world…

What is the course of this world?

At all points in history there has been a world system, and since the first man and the first woman rebelled against God, this system has been and will always be Anti-God and Anti-Christ.

Our world is not for God’s ways.

  • It doesn’t want God’s laws
  • It doesn’t want God’s restrictions
  • It wants to reject God

And it definitely rejects King David’s divinely inspired assertion that we are sinful from birth and it definitely rejects Paul’s divinely inspired assertion that we are spiritually dead in our sin.

And we are born into this world and its system and as hard as we might try to ignore it or dismiss it, we can’t avoid it.

Just as I had to be born in the exact place where my mom was – I couldn’t be born somewhere else at some other time away from her – you and I are born into the current system of the world.

And unless God saves us, we will live by the ways of the world – we will live against God and against Christ.

What does that look like?

What does “walking” according to the course of this world look like in real life?

Geoff Thomas

You’re just like the rest. You’re a child of your time. You’re exactly like the world. Where the world walks you walk. You are in bondage to peer group pressures. What they do, you do.

Geoff Thomas

Their heroes are your heroes…Your sense of humor, and your values, and your enthusiasms, and your evenings and weekends are just the same…You follow the ways of this world.

Geoff Thomas

You dream the same dreams. You worry the same worries. You are distracted by the same cares. You refuse to consider the same great realities of death, judgment, eternity, God. You are just like the world.

Now, someone might say:

“Oh, great, another holy roller trying to ruin my life by telling me I have to wear denim dresses and a suit and tie and can only watch TBN and Holland Avenue on Facebook live.”

No, I am just graciously challenging us to be wise. 

The difference between worldliness and godliness is how much “ness” you got in you.

By definition, “ness” means:

  • State
  • Condition
  • Quality
  • Degree

All of us live in this world and have to function in this world and have to eat and drink and dress in this world.

We will always have a degree of worldliness in us because we live in this world.

But if we are followers of Jesus then we should have a greater degree of godliness in us. 

How we watch and respond to things we see on the TV and on the internet and things we post on social should be different in:

  • State
  • Condition
  • Quality
  • Degree

Why?

Because of one beautifully, stunning, amazing word in this sentence from Paul:

“Formerly!”

  • You once were spiritually dead in your trespasses
  • You once were spiritually dead in your sins
  • You once were a dead man walking
  • You once were a spiritual zombie

But now you have been made alive in Christ – by grace you have been saved!

This is what Paul wrote the folks in a place called Galatia:

Galatians 1:3-4

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age…

Listen, family and friends and government and education and medicine all have their place of importance and purpose. 

But they cannot ultimately rescue you from the evil of this world or from the evil in your heart.

Only Christ can ultimately rescue you and deliver you from evil and from this present evil age.

Jesus Christ is the supreme and ultimate sacrifice and the supreme and ultimate atonement and the supreme and ultimate payment for our sin. 

The gospel is a rescue and we need to be rescued. 

We need to be rescued from sin and Hell and death.

We need to be rescued from immorality and cancer and bacterial infection and financial debt and divorce and disasters and all the other difficulties of life. 

We need to be rescued from this evil age – from the course of this world. 

We need to be rescued from this temporary world that is full of sin and evil – this temporary world that will one day cease to exist. 

But please make no mistake. 

If you leave this world without Christ, you will be cast into an everlasting age where horror and terror never cease.  

The gospel is a rescue. 

And the Rescuer is Jesus Christ. 

His blood was the payment he delivered so that you might be rescued from this evil age!

And if you have been rescued then you formerly walked according to the ways of this evil age, according to the course of this world, but now you are alive in Christ – by grace you have been saved.

And because of that same grace, how we watch and respond to things we see on TV and on the internet and things we post on social should be different in:

  • State
  • Condition
  • Quality
  • Degree

Why?

Because once we were blind, but now we see.

Once we were lost, but now we have been found.

Once we were dead in our sins, but now we have been made alive in Christ – by grace you have been saved!

The death of Jesus on the cross was the crushing blow. 

There was no return from that punch for the Enemy. 

He didn’t get up and stagger. 

He was completely and totally and eternally knocked out.

1 Corinthians 15:55

“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

 

1 Corinthians 15:56-57

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Eugene Bartlett

I heard an old, old story, how a Savior came from glory. 

That hymn is faithfully true except for one little distinction – it’s not just an old, old story.

I hear a brand-new story every day of how a Savior is still coming from glory every day to rescue me from sin every day! 

A Savior who reminds me that as I fight my war with sin that He has conquered and disarmed my greatest Enemy.

A Savior who reminds me that my greatest Enemy has no bite. 

A Savior who reminds me that He has publicly defeated my greatest Enemy. 

A Savior who reminds me that God has given me victory over sin and victory over death.

Romans 8:37

But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.

Romans 8:38-39

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth,

Romans 8:39

nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And why should that matter so much to you and me today? 

Why should we listen to all of these different words from Paul reminding us about the great victory a Christian has in Jesus?

Because we need to be reminded that no matter how discouraging things get:

Jesus has won!

We need to be reminded that when the powers of death are beating up the Church from within and without:

Jesus has won!

We need to be reminded that when it looks like evil is gaining the upper hand in the world through crime and immorality and poverty and pride and greed and disease:

Jesus has won!

And because Jesus has won and conquered death, we tread differently because now we are no longer trying to keep in step with the world, but we are keeping in step with Jesus.

And being in step with Jesus means nothing can separate us from the love of God.

We tread rightly because we have been made alive and nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!

Nothing!

Message by Dow Welsh |

March 8, 2020 © Holland Avenue Baptist Church

 

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Above are pre-sermon manuscript notes, not sermon transcript

Sermon scriptures NASB unless otherwise noted

Lots of help from many pastors and theologians

Weekly help from Bruce Hurt at www.preceptaustin.org



Have you ever had to tread lightly? Ever, Ever had to tread lightly in a situation? Maybe you were going to ask your parents if you can go on that trip with your friends to the International Banana Museum in Mecca, California planning that trip when you go to your parents to talk to him about it, you know, to tread lightly when it comes to the cost because, you know it will not be appealing to them all day. Or maybe you want some new furniture for your office at work, and so you're going to go and talk to the boss. But you're going to tread lightly when you suggest that you get a recliner that has, ah, foldout TV from one arm, rest on a A mini fridge and the other arm wrist. You might tread lightly when you add that to the expense report. Or maybe you finally got the baby to sleep and you tread lightly out of the room hoping to get to the kitchen and get just one bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream before you hear crying again. The baby's cries, not yours. When we tread lightly, what we're doing is proceeding with caution. We are watching where we are treading. We are watching where we are walking. We are watching where we are stepping. But there is a kind of treading that is not based on where, but more on how a kind of treading that's not really centered on our feet. But Maur centered on our heart. We might say that treading lightly is not nearly as important as trading rightly, and so does it mean to tread rightly? Well, let's see if we could find out. The Apostle Paul was a immensely well educated, passionate, trailblazing Christian, and in the early church he was doing amazing things for the Kingdom of God. And one of the amazing things he did was to write letters to churches. And he wrote a letter to the church of ethicists. And this is what he said in Ephesians two, beginning with Verse one and you were dead in your trespasses. And since you know we can fight it, we can ignore it. We can deny it. We can try toe beauty, cream it or marathon it or paella, Tron it or healthy diet it away. But the reality is, every person will physically die that is a reality. But what about spiritual death? According to the Bible, when you take all of the people in the world past President Future, one out of every one is born spiritually dead. King David put it this way. In some 51 5 This is from the King James version. Behold, I was shaping in iniquity and in sending my mother conceived me. David's birth was not the result of some sinfully dysfunctional family drama. He had a normal birth, so to speak. But what David is doing is he's going back to the very beginning of his life, and he's thinking about the earliest moment of his existence. And in the earliest moment of his existence, outside of the womb, he's confessing. You know what? My sin was never a surprise. My sin was never a fluke. No one had to teach. David had a throw a temper tantrum. Someone once put it this way. If sin were blue, we would be blue all over. Sin is not just something that occasionally happens to people. We are actually born in sin, and Paul uses language that anybody can understand when it means when it comes to describing what it means to be in sin and born and sin, he says. We're spiritually bit spiritually dead. We have trespassed against God's holiness. We have trespassed against God's ways. No, someone might say, Well, you know, I don't feel like I've trespassed against God's Holiness. All right, fair enough. You know, there's times that we might be trespassing on someone's property and we don't know we're trespassing because there's not a sign up. Or maybe we didn't see the sign. But whether there is a sign of whether we see the sign, it doesn't change the logistical reality that we are trespassing if it's not our property. Likewise, we may not feel it, but there is no way to change the spiritual reality that we have trespassed against God. That is what sin is. It's a story told about a preacher who was preaching in a kind of tent style outside meeting, and a teenage boy piped up in the middle of its sermon and said This you tell us about the burden of sin, but I don't feel any burden and then went somewhat sarcastically. He went on and he said, So how much does sin way how much the burden of sin Way is £10. Is it £80? And this is what the preacher said to the young boy. Tell me if I put a £400 weight on the chest of a dead man when you feel it, the boy said, No, he's he's dead, Preacher responded. And the man who feels no load of sin is dead spiritually. What David and Paul and the whole of Scripture is trying to communicate to us is that even at birth, both are known and our unknown sins our problem. We are born alive physically, but as soon as we are born into this sinful world and because of our own personal send, were born in need of being alive spiritually from the earliest moment of life, we miss the mark. That's that's the definition of ST missing the mark, the earliest moment of life. We missed the universal standard of perfection that exists, and that universal standard of perfection exists because of the character and nature of God and from the character nature of God. We have the existence of the universe, and so the math all works together, even though the math doesn't sound like it works in our favor. We missed the mark. Sin causes us to miss the mark. But Jesus of Nazareth, the son of God, was crucified on a cross outside of Jerusalem to satisfy the payment for the cosmic penalty of sin. Jesus was crucified and and not just for casually the sin of the world but for my sin, specifically in your sin. Specifically, Jesus by the power and authority of God was raised from the dead three days later. And in being raised from the dead, he universally and undeniably proved that all of his promises in the payment for sin was authentic and genuine. And then, at a later time, Jesus visibly ascended into heaven to UNMIS, taken Lee and undeniably proven a firm and guarantee that he was going to prepare a place for believers And that one day he will return and he will make all things right forever. They're not right today, and they won't be right until Jesus returns. Salvation in and through Jesus Christ is the wonderfully beautiful awesome gift of God. But a dead person can't open a free gift. A spiritually dead person can't do anything so at birth. We need God. At the very moment that we enter this world. We need God because a diagnosis is made. And the diagnosis is that we're spiritually dead. Not sick, not ill, not wounded, not in a coma. But we are spiritually dead. And with that diagnosis, because we're spiritually helpless, we need to be brought from death toe life. We are in need. So where are you Spiritually when you consider your heart and your mind, Are you still dead in your sins? Or have you been made alive in Christ? Are you like David? And you've been able to acknowledge that your sin is not a fluke. It's not an accident. It's not a surprise that you're not shocked over your sin. Are you able to affirm that? Will you look and think back to your earliest moment? You see sin and you see your need to be rescued. If not, then we plead with you to come to Christ. You've just heard and seen the no trespassing sign in a in a brief version, so you don't have an excuse and so come to Jesus and live and don't delay to look for and wait for a time that is more convenient. One day Jesus was teaching a crowd of people, and some people in the crowd started telling him about some recent tragedies. One of those tragedies was that there were some people, a church and pilots guards went and killed the people who were at church. Jesus mercyfully responds to that report with a question. And this was this question. Luke 13 verse to do you suppose that these galleons were greater centers than all other galleons because they suffered this fate? In other words, Jesus is asking them to. Do you think that any of those people were thinking is they walked into church that day that that was going to be their last day in church? And do you think the people that didn't make it to church that day because they were sick or out of town that they were better because they were spared Jesus as he often does, is drawing a line in the sand? He's asking him to you. Do you really believe that the people who didn't attend church and didn't get killed are better Christians and the ones that showed up, and he responds to his own question. Look, 13 3 I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all. Likewise, Parish Jesus wasn't being mean. He wasn't being dismissive about the people who had died. He's being mercyful to the people who are listening. Jesus is always showing mercy. He's he's tryingto always get us to see that when it comes to evil events or when it comes to tragedies that we see or hear about, the first thing we should do is draw a line to our own heart into our own heart. We should say, Am I alive in Christ? If so, then it is. Well, it is Well, it is well with my soul, regardless of what my social media feed says, regardless of what the new says, regardless of what I hear or see if I am alive in Christ, it is well with my soul. It may not be well with my mind. It may not be well with my body. It may not be well with my attitude, but because of who Jesus is and because of my salvation. It is well with my soul, but you're not alive in Christ. If you draw that line and your heart tells you the truth that you're not alive in Jesus. Then your response changes and you say, Lord, have mercy on me a sinner and save me. They also gave him a report that day about a tower that fell near a pool in 18 people were killed. Jesus mercyfully responds again with a question. Look, 13 4 Where do you suppose that there's 18 on whom the tower and Silom fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? Jesus, Sandy, do you really think that those people that day were thinking that was the last time they were going to that pool? There's the last time they were going to be there. Do you think they were thinking that day that was going to be their last day? Or do you think the people that were standing 10 feet to the left of those people in the tower didn't fall on them? Do you really think that those people were better Christians because they didn't get killed again? Jesus responds to his own question like 13 5 I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise Paris again Jesus is drawing a line in the sand. He's trying to get the people to quit listening to the social media commentary and to quit listening to constant panic about anything that ever happens in line. And he's trying to consider get them to consider the brevity of life regardless of our age, the brevity of life. So he says, in any moment like this, draw a line between you and God and he repeats the need for repentance and times of evil events and times of tragedy. Draw that line to your heart. Are you right? With God? Are you ready to meet God? Have you truly repented? What does that even mean? What does it mean to truly repent? Well, someone has said that true repentance is a double turn. You turn away from sin and you turn to God. Look, Duncan defines it like this. Repentance means grieving over our sin, not grieving over getting caught, not grieving over getting embarrassed, not grieving over the consequences, but grieving over our sin. That's a very important definition. I want you to hear it again. Repentance means grieving over our sin, not grieving over getting caught. Can I just confess most of us this week. If we had a moment that we felt sorry, it might have been because we got called not grieving over getting embarrassed. Likewise, that's probably happened some of us this week not grieving over the consequences. Likewise, probably happened this week, but grieving over our sit grieving over the fact that this God, who by his character in nature in his love, created the world spoken into existence, that this God also created a way for us to be rescued and redeemed. Do you grieve that you've trespassed him? Not your spouse, not your kids, not your boss. But do you grieve that you've trespassed against the Godof the universe, who, with mercy and grace continues to make himself known and continues to show mercy and grace by allowing all of us to breathe? Today? If you've truly repented and you are truly following Jesus, then you will tread differently. That's what Paul says Next, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formally walked. This is odd language, considering that we're talking about someone who's spiritually did. If a spiritually dead person can't open a free gift than that. How can they walk? If a spiritually dead person can't do anything, how can they wall? Well, if we use the prison vernacular, we would say this is means a dead man walking. This is Mike in more modern ways as a spirituals zombie. But that's the picture we have here. Our sins and our trespasses make a spiritual zombies. We're live. We're just not alive to God. We're alive to sin. Sin becomes what gives us life. So how does a spiritually dead person walk? That's when it passes next. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formally walked according to the course of this world. What is the course of this world? But all points in time in history? There has been a system in the world, and this system, really since the garden and the thin of the first man in the first woman. Until now, this system is against God is working against God. We might even say is anti Godan anti Christ. Our world is not for God's ways. The system of the world doesn't want. God's truth doesn't want God's laws. They do not want God's restrictions they just want to reject God. And they definitely want to reject David's divinely inspired assertion that were sinful from birth. And they definitely want to reject Paul's divinely inspired assertion that we are spiritually dead. The world is not for God, but we're born into this world. And as much as we want to deny it, we can't avoid that. Were born into the system of the world. When I was born, I had to be at University Hospital in Augusta, Georgia, because that's where Mama Moi ce I couldn't be born somewhere else. I had to be there no way around that when we're born into this world were born into this system of the world. There is no other way for us to be born. No other place for us to be. Unless God saves us, we will stay in this course of the world. We will stay in this system that lives against God lives against Christ. So does that look like what is the course of this world? Look like I love this description I found this week from Jeff Thomas. It goes like this. It means you're just like the rest. You're a child of your time. You're exactly like the world where the world walks. You walk. You are in bondage to peer group pressures. What they do you do. They're heroes or your heroes. Your sense of humor and your values and your enthusiasms and your evenings in your weekends are just the same. You follow the ways of this world, your dreams, the same dreams. You worry the same worries. You are distracted by the same cares. You refuse to consider the same great realities of death, judgment, eternity and God. You are just like the world. Now someone might say Great. Another holy roly preacher telling me I got to start wearing denim dresses all the time. You know, you are wearing a suit and tie all the time or the only thing I can watch his TB in and the Holland Avenue Facebook life. Okay, we'll plug there, feel free to use it anytime. No, I'm I'm not trying to be a holy roller on you. I'm just saying this. If we're going to profess to follow Christ than we need to be wise, we need to walk wise. We need to live wise. We need to think wise you know the difference between worldliness and godliness is how much ness you got in you nest by definition, means this state condition, quality degree, state condition, quality or degree. That's that's the nests part there and every single one of us, all of us. We have to function in this world. We have to live in this world. We have to eat in this world. We have to dress in this world. We have to go to work in school. In this world, there is some degree of worldly ness that all of us are going to have because we live in this world. But if we are followers of Jesus Christ, our godliness should outweigh our worldliness. We should be Maur godly than worldly. That should be a part of our character. That means how we watch and see and listen to things on TV and the radio and on social media. When when we see these things, we're supposed to be different in ST condition, quality and degree. What? Why are we supposed to be different? Because of one beautifully stunning amazing word in the Senate's from Paul, and that word is formerly formally. Paul says you once were spiritually dead in your trespasses. You once were spiritually dead in your sins. You once were a dead man walking you once were spirituals. Zombie. But now you have been made alive in Christ By Grace, You have been saved. That former Lisa big word that once is a big word. This is what Paul said to the folks in Galatians regulations One grace to you and peace from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins so that he might rescue us from this present evil age. Listen, your family and your friends and the government and education and medicine in the church and and so many other things are great and have a wonderful purpose in our lives. But none of those things can ultimately rescue you from the evil in this world and the evil of this present age. Only Christ can ultimately rescue you from the presence of this evil age. Onley Jesus is ultimately supreme in his sacrifice on Lee. Jesus is ultimately supreme in his atonement. On Lee, the payment of Jesus is ultimate and supreme for sin. The gospel is a rescue and we need to be rescued. We need to be rescued from sin and hell and death. We we need to be rescued from immorality. We need to be rescued from cancer and infection from debt and divorce and all the other difficulties of life. We need to be rescued. We need to be rescued from this present evil age. This present evil age, this temporary world that will one day cease to exist as we know it. We need to be rescued from all of these things. And make no mistake, if we leave this world without Jesus, then we will enter an age where their horror and the terror will never end. That's not me being me. That's the language that Jesus uses over and over again. It's the language of the whole of the Bible. But on the other side of that language is this promise. And it's called the Gospel. The gospel is a rescue, and the rescuer is Jesus. And if you've been rescued by Jesus than that word, it matters. You formally walked according to the course of this world, you formally walked in the presence of this evil age. But now you've been made alive in Christ by grace you have been saved and by that same grace that we've been saved. We should watch and see and listen. Two things on TV and the Internet, on the radio and our social media posts differently. We should again watch them in a state a condition, equality, a degree that looks like and matches Maur of who Jesus is and not Maur of what the world is. Why why should our degree are quality, our condition and our state be different. Here's why I can't make it any more simple than this because we once we're lost. But now we're found We once were blind but now we see we once were spiritually dead in our sins and our trespasses. But now we are alive in Christ by grace We have been saved and dear Christian, that once that formerly should change who we are, what people see us post what people hear us say in the corner of the breakfast joint. Our response at the hospital are response at the funeral. Our response at work in school it should be fueled by the reality that once we were dead But now we've been made alive in Christ Jesus. Let me just say this. We won't always do that perfectly, and that's okay. But the question is, can we draw the line that Jesus straws and say, Yeah, I'm struggling, but I'm there. I'm there. The death of Jesus on the cross was the crushing blow. The enemy did not get up and stagger around. He didn't recover from that point. Now he was knocked out eternally. And that's why Paul wrote this to the Church of Corn. First Corinthians 15 0 death. Where is your victory? Oh, Death. Where is your sting? Sting of death is sin. The power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Victory Victory that defines who we are in Christ, you know, there's an old hymn that says I heard an old old story How a Saviour came from glory and you know that that him is faithfully true with one different distinction. It's not just an old old story. It's a story of today. It's a brand new story that today, over and over again, Jesus comes to help rescue me from my sin. See, I have a a savior That reminds me over and over again that my greatest enemy has been disarmed, that my greatest enemy no longer has a bite it on. Lee has a sting if that that my greatest enemy, that Jesus himself publicly defeated my greatest. And that Jesus reminds me that I now have victory over sin and victory over death. And that's why Paul said this to the Romans. Romans 8 37 But in all these things, we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. And listen. This breakdown for I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor Principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers nor height nor depth you fill in the blank this week. What was it that threw you off track this week? Argument with your spouse argument with your kids. Something happened at work. Something happened at school. Something happen to the doctor. Some of that you read on social media. What threw you off this week? What caused you to have this moment where you and God's not soft? God doesn't love me? God doesn't care. God's not mercyful Jesus. He didn't do anything for me because we've all had that moment this week. Let me just confess. We've all had that moment this week by our response to whatever was happened. We've had that moment of temporary atheism, even just for a second where we would all God can't really be in charge. But he is and he can be. And that's the beauty of what we see here. Liquidy says in verse 39. Continuing nor any other created thing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ. Jesus, our Lord. Why should that matter to you? Here's why. Because starting as soon as you leave, maybe before you get to the parking lot something will be difficult in your life this week. And when the difficulties come, the reality of these truths thes things that Paul sayinto multiple churches in multiple letters. The reason we should listen to it is because when things get the most difficult, we need to remember that Jesus has one. See, the reality is starting today, maybe even before you leave, you're going to find yourself in a moment where it feels like the powers of death inside and outside of the church inside and outside of your home and inside of out of this community, you're going to feel the power of death, and you're going to feel like it's taken over. But then we're reminded that Jesus has one. And this week, when it looks like and feels like that, that evil has the upper hand through immorality or through disease or through greed or through violence, whatever it may be when it when it feels like evil has the upper hand, we need to be reminded that Jesus has one. And in that moment that we remember that there's there's that word formally once. And we realized in that moment that once we were treading with the course of the world, we were we were treading with this president, evil age. But now, in Christ, we're no longer keeping and step with. The ways of the world were no longer keeping in step with the course of the world. Now we're keeping in step with Jesus. Not perfectly, but but we're keeping in step. And when we're keeping in step with Jesus, don't miss this. When we're keeping and step with Jesus, we cannot be separated from the love of God because Jesus crisis redeemed and rescued and saved us. That's the only reason we can tread. Rightly. And when we're treading rightly because of Jesus, nothing. And no one can separate us from the love of God. Why? Because once, once you were dead and your sins and your trespasses put. Now, now, in Christ you have been made alive by grace. You have been saved. And nothing, nothing. Nothing can separate you fromthe love of God.


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