Life Together

If I may offer a word of explanation. Most of you know that we are
in the midst of our study of the book of Romans. We have been
in Romans 8 for literally months and we have been in Romans 8
28 and through 30 for a number of weeks and. I took off last
week really. Just more. For personal reasons,
I have longed to preach Romans 828 for all of my Christian life,
almost 22 years. And there is so much going on
in our church and so much by way of distraction and even distress
that I just didn’t feel that my heart was fully prepared last
Lord’s Day to preach. such a passage, and so I preached
as it were from the well last week. I pulled out a message
that we had done in the past. I’ll do those from time to time
because it gives me an opportunity to record something that we either
miss recorded or something perhaps that we need to hear again. I’m
going into all this because that’s not the case today. I still am
chomping a bit to get back to Romans 8. I still fully intend
to. But I sensed the need to dip into this particular passage. If you’re familiar with the Book
of Romans. There are 11 chapters of deep doctrine and theology
before Paul ever really gets what we might call practical.
And so I know that. I sense that, and I sense it
even more acutely now than ever before, that perhaps we need
to pause for a moment from time to time and hear something practical,
some practical directives from God’s Word. The same thing is
true of both the book of Ephesians and the book of Colossians. Where in the book of Colossians,
after two incredible passages of doctrine, primarily about
our Lord Jesus. After those two heavy chapters
of doctrine, only then does Paul go to the practical applications
of those. In the book of Ephesians, it’s
three chapters of really heavy doctrine ending with the doxology,
and then Paul gets very practical. Well. At the rate that we’re
going, I figured I wouldn’t get to Romans 12 and a practical
section until probably sometime in 2014, so I figured what we
better do is take at least a pause, take a deep breath and hear some
practical exhortation from Paul’s epistle to the Colossians. If
you turn there just briefly, let me just introduce you to
a section. Paul has finished some of the
deep doctrine, and he turns his attention to essentially the
Christian life, and he touches upon almost every area of the
Christian life. Glanced down at Colossians chapter
three, if you would, in verses one through four, he just kind
of makes this general statement about being heavenly minded.
Now, you’ve heard it said some people are so heavenly minded,
they’re of no earthly good. I don’t believe that. Paul says
you can’t possibly be too heavenly minded. In other words, to be
heavenly minded, if you have been raised up with Christ in
verse one, keep seeking the things above. There’s no end to it.
Set your mind on the things above and not on the things of the
earth. not only heavenly mindedness, but that same idea of mortification
of sin that we saw in the book of Romans. There is to be an
all out battle in the Christian life. It couldn’t be any more
practical than this when Paul says in verse five, therefore,
consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality,
impurity, passion, evil desire on. It’s a very practical section. In verse 9 through 11, Paul turns
to another area of our Christian life. And I want you to remember that
these are Christians to whom he’s writing, not just professing
Christians, but people that he had spent time with and ministered
to and probably knew very well of their testimony in Christ.
And so when he writes to them and says, do not lie to one another. He touches upon one of the biggest
weaknesses in the Christian’s life, it doesn’t mean. Somebody
estimated that we lie some 12 times a day, something to that
effect, I don’t know how you I don’t know where you have a
lie meter somewhere, I don’t know. I’ll come back to verses 12 and
13, because that’s where we’re going to spend our time today,
Christ like living or life with one another, how are we supposed
to relate to one another? That’s practical. Verses 14 to 15 paint a picture
of what I would call love oriented living, that we are to exude
the love of Christ beyond all these things. Put on love, verse
14, which is the perfect bond of unity. Let the peace of Christ
rule in your hearts. I should dare say that There
are many who don’t do that. Verse 16 gives to us the exhortation
of what I would call Bible centered living, that the word of God
should so infuse and so control our lives. That it could be termed
Bible centered, look at verse 16, let the word of Christ richly
dwell within you. Well, that’s practical. Verse
17 gives us a picture of what I would call glory driven living
a little bit different than the heavenly mindedness. Whatever
you do, that pretty much covers it, doesn’t it? Whatever you
do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is what I alluded to in prayer. It’s that same thought. Whatever you do, do all to the
glory of God. If you’re taking a class. and you profess Christ, you might
as well do your very best in that class. You might as well
honor God in the work in that class, just as you should do
in your lives, in your relationships. Verses 18 all the way down through
4.1, I would call relationally corrected living. Where Paul addresses the home,
he addresses wives, Husbands, he addresses children, he addresses
fathers specifically in verse 21. The fact that God has touched
our lives should make us as individuals in a family look and live differently,
right? But it shouldn’t really touch
our workplace, should it? Absolutely. Absolutely, and in
verses 22 through 25, just as I shared last Lord’s Day, we
are. To live differently. In the workplace, look at this
in verse 22, slaves and all things obey your masters on Earth. They’re
your earthly bosses, but I’ve heard Christians take the attitude
that you know what? You’re not the boss of me. God
is my boss. I take my orders from boss. No,
you know. Whatever you do, do your work
heartily as for the Lord rather than for men. You’re not pleasing
them. You don’t even really work for
them. You take your marching orders for them, but ultimately
you’re working for the Lord. Or you’re supposed to be. Masters
are in God’s perspective, too, in verse one of chapter four,
masters grant your slaves justice and fairness. If you’re a Christian
boss, God has something to say to you. Intensely practical section. In verses two through four of
that same chapter, chapter four, I would call this section prayerfully
guided living. That’s practical, isn’t it? Sometimes
we just meander through life and when things get really desperate,
then we pray. But this is a prayerfully guided
life. Look at verse two. Devote yourselves
to prayer. How many of us could actually
say we’re devoted to prayer? Don’t raise your hand. Just question
your heart. Are you devoted to prayer? Are
you absolutely given over to prayer, knowing that that is
the means of guidance? Devote yourselves to prayer,
keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving, praying at the
same time for us as well. Is your prayer life just about
you? And finally, the last section
of what I would call this application of doctrine, application of ministry
is what I would refer to as witness minded living. Here’s another
blind spot for the for the typical Christian, the fact that everywhere
we go, everything we do is under scrutiny, isn’t it? How many
times have you had an unbeliever wag their finger in your face?
Oh, yeah, you Christians. Oh, yeah, you, you hypocrite. Oh, look at what you do. They’re watching. No wonder Paul
says in closing, conduct yourselves with wisdom towards outsiders.
They’re watching everything you do. Waiting to criticize. Conduct yourselves with wisdom
toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. If you’re
going to live in this life, you’re going to call yourself a Christian.
Which, incidentally, I’ve told more than a few people to take
that dove sticker or that fish sticker off your car if you’re
going to drive like that. Conduct yourselves with wisdom
towards outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let
your speech always be with grace. Do you do that with customer
service? Let your speech always be with
grace as though seasoned with salt so that you will know how
you should respond to each person. You know what? We should live
different lives. If we’ve been touched by God, it should touch
every area of our life. It should touch our witnessing.
It should touch our home. It should touch the way that
we view heaven. It should touch the way that
we view scripture. It should touch everything we
do. But in verses 12 and 13, I want
you to look. In verses 12 and 13, I think
what he’s talking about here is the church. That’s what I
have in view. I think what Paul is talking
about here is that if you have named the name of Christ. When
you’re at church and when you’re dealing with the Saints, God’s
people, when you’re interacting with those in the church, you
should live differently. We have to live together. It’s
God’s calling. This is God’s place of refuge
for us from the outside world. We go out there to testify of
Christ, not to get encouraged, not to get healed up, not to
get built up, not to be instructed. Paul says, I’m convinced. The
church should look differently. The church should look different
from any other society, any other so-called club, any other gathering
of individuals. The church should look differently. If you would look at verses 12
and 13, well, we’ll spend some time this morning. Where Paul writes, so as those
who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart
of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, bearing
with one another and forgiving each other. Whoever has a complaint
against anyone. Just as the Lord forgave you.
So also should you. Now, if you would keep your finger
in Colossians chapter three, focus there on verse 12, but
I want you to turn over to the book of Ephesians in verse four.
A chapter for. Ephesians, chapter four, both
letters. Written. From Paul’s imprisonment,
both letters very practical in nature, but they certainly include
doctrine, as we’ve already talked about, and in both the letter
to. The Colossians and his epistle
here to the Ephesians, there is this very similar. Set of
verses. Look at Chapter four, verses
one through three. And listen for the parallels.
Therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk
in a manner worthy of the calling with which you’ve been called.
How? With all humility and gentleness,
with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love. Being
diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of
peace. There are parallels. The book
of Colossians mentions compassion and kindness, which. Paul doesn’t
mention to the. Ephesian believers and in his
his address to the Colossians, he goes into much more detail
on the forgiveness, but I want you to pick up the main theme,
the main purpose of Both exhortations, I’m convinced. The main theme
of both exhortations is found in Ephesians chapter four, verse
three. Look at it being diligent to preserve the unity of the
spirit in the bond of peace. We don’t create it. We really
don’t even add to it. All we do is preserve what’s
there. All we do is cooperate with The Holy Spirit, who has
already built that element into our fellowship. All we can do
is wreck it. And all God asks us to do is
don’t do that, don’t wreck the unity of the Holy Spirit. If
you would go back to Colossians. That’s the ultimate theme, that’s
the ultimate direction that Paul is driving, but it’ll take us
a moment to get there. Glanced down, if you would, at
verse 12. Where he says. So as those who have been chosen
of God, holy and beloved, now you know where I paused in the
book of Romans. Trust me, I am not afraid to
preach that verse. I’ve read countless sermons that
essentially drop out that verse. I’ve heard of people that preach
right up to Romans 828 and quit right when it says he predestined
us. I’m not quitting. I’m not afraid
of it. I’ll be back there just as soon
as we’re able. Paul says, look at this. It isn’t
whether you’re chosen or if you’re chosen, but as you have been
chosen. Paul doesn’t doubt their Christianity. Paul doesn’t doubt their salvation.
And if they are saved, Paul knows exactly where it came from. God
moved first. God set his love upon them, as
we have begun to see in Romans 8, 28 through 30. But because
they are those who have been chosen by God, there is a God
given design to their living. That’s what Paul is beginning
to say. If God set his love upon them, if God did choose them,
then God might have a little bit to say about how they live,
shouldn’t he? It’s only reasonable. That if
God has chosen them for salvation, he has saved them. He has called
them out of darkness and into light. He has brought them to
faith. Then he has a right. He has a
divine right, the prerogative as God to make explicit demands
of them as his children. That’s what Paul’s saying. As
those who have been chosen of God, when Paul says, What he
says explicitly here, referring to those whom he’s writing as
those who are chosen by God, he points them to the solemn
truth that they are by a special work of God’s grace rescued out
of and now separated from the world. The world out of which they were
saved. And what it does is immediately call us to mind that as God’s
elect, They were marked out from eternity past, and as such, they
bear a special God given character. They are to look different. They
are to be different. That’s why God saved them. He
didn’t save them because they were holy. He saved them to make
them holy. He saved them to make them look
different. There wasn’t anything in us that
made God move in our direction. Oh, boy, with him, I got a great
deal. Not at all. In fact, it’s in spite of us,
isn’t it always? It’s always in spite of any of
us, the best of us. And that truth is echoed in the
parallel passage. In Ephesians 4, it says, therefore,
I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner
how worthy of the calling with which you’ve been called, we
did look at the call. And we saw that that call was
not just an invitation, right? It was a divine summons that
we could not ignore. It was God’s effectual call calling
us from sin to salvation. And it worked. It worked every
time. And he says, look, if you’ve
answered the call, if you have come to faith in Christ. Then you’ve got to walk worthy,
you’ve got to live a different kind of life. You’ve got to be
and do and function completely differently. I didn’t tell you to do this,
but keep keep something a bulletin or something in Ephesians 4.
We’re going to flip back and forth a few times. Look back
at Ephesians 4 just now. Here in Paul’s epistle to the
Ephesians. He appeals to them, citing his
credentials as the prisoner of the Lord. You say, well, how
is that exactly credentials? Paul wasn’t just tugging at the
heartstring, Paul wasn’t looking for sympathy, per se, he wanted
them to pray for him, no doubt, he says it on a number of occasions,
but he basically wants to acknowledge his own privilege to suffer for
the Lord. That’s what he’s doing when he
says, I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord. He won’t ask anything. The bottom
line, he’s not going to ask anything of the believers to whom he’s
writing that he isn’t willing to do. And if he says, look,
I am imprisoned for Christ, I am a prisoner of the Lord and there
I’m sparing nothing. And what he simply admonishes
them to do is to walk worthy. It’s an interesting word and
it’s used of worship. Where we we essentially esteem
God, we value him, we set a value for him on all that he’s done
and all that he is. And then we respond accordingly.
That’s what worship is. Did you realize that? So if you
have a low view of God, that’s basically how you’re going to
worship. The higher your view of God, the more intense, the
more exuberant, the more passionate, the more heartfelt your worship
will be. You think low of God. Doesn’t
matter how you live. Doesn’t matter whether you go
to a time of confession. Doesn’t matter whether you sing
or praise him at all. Doesn’t matter whether you pray.
Doesn’t matter whether you sing. Doesn’t matter even whether you
listen. You might as well sleep. But if you esteem God highly,
you value him above all else, then it will change not only
the way that you worship, it will change every part of your
life. You esteem him, you value him and you respond accordingly.
That’s worship. What Paul says here, he says,
value your calling in Christ. He says, step back and I want
you to look at your life and what it used to be, that putrid
mass of sin that it used to be. That hopelessness and helplessness,
that ugliness and sin. How God called you out of that. And he called you to himself
and he called you to his own mercy and grace. And he called
you to a new kind of life. It’s different. It’s powerful. It’s liberating and it’s eternal. He says, no matter where you
are right now, if you’ve placed your faith in Christ, you’re
going to continue to grow more and more in Christ likeness,
more and more like him. What an incredible story. And
he says, set a value on that, would you? and then live accordingly. That’s what he says. Walk worthy
and that little appeal to walk worthy is a recurring idea in
Paul’s epistles. Colossians 110 walk in a manner
worthy of the Lord. Well, what would the Lord have
me to do? I’ll never forget the time I think I’ve shared this
before in some circle. I I was cleaning a pool. I was in seminary. I was cleaning
a pool. That was my business. And wouldn’t you know, it was
this very well to do Jewish families pool. And I’m out there cleaning
the pool and I’m doing my best as unto the Lord. Right. And. Out came. The wife. And she came and she just expressed
her gratitude for how I cleaned the pool and How thankful she
was that she had found me and and, you know, and and I just
about escaped when she said, why do you do such a good job? What makes you so different than
all the rest of the pool men? And I said, well, and I’m you
know, I’m listening to all my professors sitting there waiting,
all my fellow seminary students sitting there waiting, listening
for my answer. And I said, well, I clean this
pool and every other pool as if the Lord Jesus himself is
going to come swim in it. And that was about her reaction. OK. But it got the point across. To the Thessalonians, Paul said
that we are to walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you
into his own kingdom and glory. You’re talking about a kingdom
where there is no sin. The kingdom where there is nothing
but forgiveness and nothing but joy and and happiness. What’s that worth? What’s that
worth to you and what does it do to your walk? To the Philippians,
he said in 127, only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy
of the gospel of Christ. How happy are you to have heard
the good news? Is it good news to you at all?
How thankful are you to know the God of salvation? How thankful
are you to know that there was a savior who would have died
just for you? One pastor noted here. The test
of our true apprehension of the gospel is our sense of the majesty
of God. What he’s saying? or rather what
he’s recognizing, Paul is saying here, is that the way that we
walk, the way that we live, the way that we conduct our lives
as Christians is directly related to our view of God. What’s it
worth? We are to walk worthy of our
calling. We are to walk worthy of our Lord Jesus Christ. We
are to walk worthy of God and His gospel. What does it look
like? Paul will spell it out in no
uncertain terms. Look at the passage Colossians
chapter 3 verse 12. Where Paul says, so as those. Not if. But because as those who have
been chosen of God, holy and beloved. As further motivators to this
walk This way that we’re supposed to conduct ourselves a different
way of living because of what God has done. Paul lays upon
these Colossian believers two additional titles, holy and beloved. These are names, as it were.
He’s calling out to them, to the holy ones, to the beloved
ones. And these are in harmony with
the great fact that God had already chosen them. He had already communicated
that and not only are they chosen, but they are holy and beloved.
Let’s pause here, this holiness regards the Colossians, he points
to them and essentially says to them that they are those who
have been set aside by a divine work, set aside for God by a
divine work. They have been taken out of the
sinful world and they have been set apart for holiness, for God’s
own purpose. The old word is consecrated.
They have been consecrated, set apart. That same word, you’ll
hear me use it from time to time, of you. That same word can be
properly translated, saints. That’s who God’s people are before
Him. They’re saints. They’re set aside ones. They
are His holy ones. As we’ve seen, that word sometimes
indicates a sacredness. Sometimes it has the idea of
a separateness being set apart for the service of God. But the word ultimately comes
to mean clean, morally pure, consecrated, set apart, different,
holy, worthy, of God. Note that word saints. Listen to how it rings to the
modern ear. You don’t consider yourself a saint, do you? Nobody
voted on you, right? Nobody had a meeting to decide,
well, his life was good enough. Let’s let him in the club. And
you’ll regularly hear other denominations speak of this very small group
of Christians. Right, they live such impeccable
lives that we have bestowed upon them the title of saint. And
in a sense, we’ve allowed others, other churches, other denominations
to misuse this term in this terminology, and they’ve effectively taken
the word from us to make it an unbiblical thing. Not to Paul. Do you hear Paul say it? We are
God’s holy ones. We are God’s saints. Everyone
who names the name of Christ, everyone who has come to faith
in Christ, no matter how young in the Lord they are, no matter
how that the fact that they don’t possess yet a life of good works. No matter the fact that they
didn’t spend their entire existence working with lepers and the poor
and what have you. The important truth is that they
are in Christ. That’s what makes them saints.
They have placed their faith in Christ and in him alone. That
is a saint. As soon as the newest, most obscure
Christian heard this, his heart must have just welled with admiration
for Paul. Who was loving enough to mention
them by name, He called them holy ones. He says that you are
before God. You are holy. You are set apart
for his purposes. You are saints. This term beloved
is likewise. It’s not to be understood. As
a simple nominative, as if Paul himself was calling them beloved.
One of my favorites, J. Verna McGee, would often Close
his radio show. God bless you, my beloved. That
was him talking to his audience. This is not Paul talking to his
audience per se. It’s not Paul referring to them
as beloved. It’s Paul’s reminder to them
that they are beloved of God. They are the beloved ones. They
are the ones that God loves. It’s Paul’s way of reminding
them in the most straightforward and direct manner possible. Not
only are they God’s chosen, not only are they set apart, holy
saints, they are loved. They are loved by God, they are
his beloved, they are his special objects of affection. And we
forget that. We have a tendency to forget
that and it changes everything. If we forget for a moment that
we are chosen by God, that we are set apart for a special and
specific purpose and that we are loved by God. It changes
everything, it doesn’t matter how we live, it doesn’t matter
how we conduct ourselves. I could care less how I live
if I don’t know those truths. But once you begin to ponder
on those, once you begin to think, God set his electing love on
me. God chose me. God set me apart. God loves me. That too changes
everything. It changes everything about the
way that we live. As one pastor said, their calling
so high, so holy, so authoritative and which had come to them with
such power was to be honored by a walk in perfect correspondence
with its origin and spirit, its claims and its destiny were to
live different lives. We’ll take it up next Lord’s
Day, how we’re to live. Let’s go before him in prayer.
and gratitude for changing us. Our merciful God, we humble ourselves
before you. And we thank you and praise you
that you moved first. That by the time we were awakened
out of that sleep of death, we saw ourselves for who we were,
thorough sinners in desperate need of a Savior. And as our
eyes cleared, We saw that Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. We saw
him having already paid for the sins of sinners. And we saw him
available there to us, and we could not wait to place our faith
in him. Lord God, you moved in our life. You set us apart. You loved us. And because of that, our lives
must be changed. We must live different lives
because of it. God, if there are any here who
don’t already know the Lord Jesus Christ, who have not yet placed
their faith in Him, move in their lives. Bring them, by Your grace,
to faith in our same Lord. It’s in Jesus’ name that we ask.