WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.179 Well, we're at the halfway point of the book, the letter to Timothy, first Timothy. 00:00:08.179 --> 00:00:12.700 And at the halfway point, Paul goes back to the heart of what the letter's really been 00:00:12.700 --> 00:00:14.339 about the whole time. 00:00:14.339 --> 00:00:20.699 And that's his concern to protect the church in Ephesus because it is drifting from the 00:00:20.699 --> 00:00:22.300 good news of the gospel of Jesus. 00:00:22.300 --> 00:00:27.740 And we saw that especially in chapter one as he started talking about the false teaching 00:00:27.739 --> 00:00:30.779 that was getting into the hearts of many people in Ephesus. 00:00:30.779 --> 00:00:36.019 And so Paul's coming back to that same idea here at the beginning of chapter four. 00:00:36.019 --> 00:00:41.339 And again here, he's got a very big view of sin and he's got a very big, even bigger 00:00:41.339 --> 00:00:45.219 view of creation and its power. 00:00:45.219 --> 00:00:49.379 And he's got an even bigger view here of the mercy of God in the midst of that. 00:00:49.379 --> 00:00:53.799 And it's a very practical five verses that we've been given by Paul here. 00:00:53.799 --> 00:00:56.140 So we're going to see two things this morning. 00:00:56.140 --> 00:00:58.820 What's wrong with the world? 00:00:58.820 --> 00:01:01.340 And then how to make it holy. 00:01:01.340 --> 00:01:02.899 So those are the two things he talks about. 00:01:02.899 --> 00:01:05.019 What's wrong with the world? 00:01:05.019 --> 00:01:06.980 And how to make it holy. 00:01:06.980 --> 00:01:08.420 So let's dive into that first. 00:01:08.420 --> 00:01:10.579 What's wrong with the world? 00:01:10.579 --> 00:01:17.260 Now what Paul does here is he takes a very specific sin issue in Ephesus and he uses 00:01:17.260 --> 00:01:20.700 it to talk about a principle. 00:01:20.700 --> 00:01:27.500 And it's the principle of answering the question what exactly is wrong with the world. 00:01:27.500 --> 00:01:32.100 Because that's what's mistaken here in the mouths of the false teacher. 00:01:32.100 --> 00:01:36.020 They were getting the question what's wrong, wrong. 00:01:36.020 --> 00:01:37.300 They didn't understand it correctly. 00:01:37.300 --> 00:01:43.140 All right, so the specific sin here is apostasy. 00:01:43.140 --> 00:01:51.819 Now apostasy is when a person professes faith in Jesus Christ publicly, joins a church, 00:01:51.819 --> 00:01:58.260 and then later they leave denying the gospel of Jesus Christ, leaving the faith behind. 00:01:58.260 --> 00:02:01.460 And if you've been around the church at all, if you've grown up in the church you've probably 00:02:01.460 --> 00:02:02.900 seen this. 00:02:02.900 --> 00:02:04.740 And you've seen this play out and you've seen this happen. 00:02:04.740 --> 00:02:08.340 And it has many forms and many examples. 00:02:08.340 --> 00:02:11.539 It can happen in all sorts of ways. 00:02:11.539 --> 00:02:15.939 And in every single instance it brings grief, in all sorts of level of grief, depending 00:02:15.939 --> 00:02:19.299 on how close you are to the person involved. 00:02:19.299 --> 00:02:24.060 The question is why does Paul come to apostasy here in the middle of Timothy? 00:02:24.060 --> 00:02:28.180 And he actually clues us into why and it's in verse one. 00:02:28.180 --> 00:02:33.739 If you look at four one there's the word in the ESB now, can also be translated but. 00:02:33.739 --> 00:02:38.739 And that means he's referencing something that he's just said in chapter three. 00:02:38.740 --> 00:02:44.939 And at the end of chapter three he says the church is the pillar of truth. 00:02:44.939 --> 00:02:50.100 So he says in the church you've got to expect that there's going to be truth spoken, but 00:02:50.100 --> 00:02:54.900 at the same time also expect that there's going to be apostasy. 00:02:54.900 --> 00:02:58.020 So that's how he's picking up on the logic here. 00:02:58.020 --> 00:03:01.379 The church expect truth but also expect apostasy. 00:03:01.379 --> 00:03:02.700 And then you say well why Paul? 00:03:02.700 --> 00:03:04.500 Why should we expect it? 00:03:04.500 --> 00:03:10.780 In verse one he says the spirit expressly states or in other words he's saying the Holy Spirit 00:03:10.780 --> 00:03:17.099 has told me as an apostle there will be people who join and profess faith in Christ and then 00:03:17.099 --> 00:03:20.860 leave again and deny the gospel. 00:03:20.860 --> 00:03:25.300 And he's saying here that the Holy Spirit told him that but we shouldn't be surprised 00:03:25.300 --> 00:03:30.699 at that because we also know that Jesus said the exact same thing multiple times in the 00:03:30.699 --> 00:03:31.699 gospel. 00:03:31.699 --> 00:03:36.979 In the gospel Jesus says in Matthew 24, 10 and 11 that though many will come into the 00:03:36.979 --> 00:03:43.939 kingdom visibly many will fall away he says before I come again. 00:03:43.939 --> 00:03:49.620 And Paul here says that the spirit says many will fall away in the latter times. 00:03:49.620 --> 00:03:55.139 And that is a special New Testament idea, the latter times, the later times. 00:03:55.139 --> 00:03:57.819 And it always refers to the same thing. 00:03:57.819 --> 00:04:03.180 And in the New Testament later times means the time between Jesus' resurrection and 00:04:03.180 --> 00:04:05.739 Jesus' return at the end of history. 00:04:05.739 --> 00:04:08.579 And so that means right now we're in the latter times. 00:04:08.579 --> 00:04:12.019 The latter times began in Acts chapter one and they're going to go all the way until 00:04:12.019 --> 00:04:13.019 Christ comes again. 00:04:13.019 --> 00:04:20.060 And so he's saying in this age we live in expect apostasy, expect this to happen. 00:04:20.060 --> 00:04:26.500 Jesus very famously in the parable of the sower Luke 8.13 he talks about this. 00:04:26.500 --> 00:04:32.300 He says that when the gospel, when the message of Christ is preached it's like a seed and 00:04:32.300 --> 00:04:38.660 it's spread abroad but sometimes it falls on soil and sometimes it's snatched away before 00:04:38.660 --> 00:04:40.339 it can really take root. 00:04:40.339 --> 00:04:42.579 And he's talking about apostasy there. 00:04:42.579 --> 00:04:48.220 He's saying that apostasy happens, people leave and deny the gospel after believing 00:04:48.220 --> 00:04:54.579 it whenever there's a visible outward manifestation of faith but there's never really faith on 00:04:54.579 --> 00:04:56.139 the inside. 00:04:56.139 --> 00:05:00.620 That the human heart has never really changed from the inside out. 00:05:00.620 --> 00:05:02.819 And that's exactly what Paul's bringing up here. 00:05:02.819 --> 00:05:12.060 Now in Ephesus the specific example he's going to use it to say how does this happen? 00:05:12.060 --> 00:05:15.139 And this is a very important question. 00:05:15.139 --> 00:05:16.740 How does this happen exactly? 00:05:16.740 --> 00:05:22.180 And he's using what happens in Ephesus to explain that to us in every century to the 00:05:22.180 --> 00:05:29.500 reader and it happens through two levels of sin and this is where we get at the principle. 00:05:29.500 --> 00:05:30.500 Two levels of sin. 00:05:30.500 --> 00:05:35.699 The first level he tells us is literally diabolical sin. 00:05:35.699 --> 00:05:40.579 And you see that right here in verse one he says in the later times some will depart 00:05:40.579 --> 00:05:47.340 from the faith by quote devoting themselves to deceitful spirits in the teaching of demons. 00:05:47.339 --> 00:05:54.459 And so Paul says that level one of how this happens is actually the work of Satan and 00:05:54.459 --> 00:05:56.699 the demons. 00:05:56.699 --> 00:06:01.500 And he comes here and he's not talking about demon possession or something like that like 00:06:01.500 --> 00:06:03.979 you see in the gospels exactly. 00:06:03.979 --> 00:06:08.259 He says when they devote themselves he's talking about teaching or ideas. 00:06:08.259 --> 00:06:13.859 So he's saying the way this happens is that actually Satan and the demonic powers work 00:06:13.860 --> 00:06:21.540 into using false ideas, bad ideas, worldviews, ideologies, ideas that deny the gospel and 00:06:21.540 --> 00:06:24.740 they push them into people's hearts. 00:06:24.740 --> 00:06:27.580 They try to massage them in to the heart. 00:06:27.580 --> 00:06:32.580 And so there's a demonic diabolical sin at the base of what's going on here. 00:06:32.580 --> 00:06:36.939 Now look we saw this actually in the gospels at the very end of the gospels when Jesus 00:06:36.939 --> 00:06:39.100 Christ rises from the dead. 00:06:39.100 --> 00:06:45.300 It says that Satan and the demons from that moment tried to convince the world that Jesus 00:06:45.300 --> 00:06:50.300 body had really been stolen, had not risen. 00:06:50.300 --> 00:06:53.980 And there's example number one from the very beginning this is exactly what Paul's talking 00:06:53.980 --> 00:06:54.980 about. 00:06:54.980 --> 00:06:59.860 All sorts of ideas that come from the outside and try to dissuade the heart from believing 00:06:59.860 --> 00:07:01.900 in the resurrection of the Son of God. 00:07:01.900 --> 00:07:07.060 And this can happen in all sorts of ways but the point here is that Paul is actually calling 00:07:07.060 --> 00:07:14.540 on us, Christian, the church to take very seriously the reality of spiritual warfare. 00:07:14.540 --> 00:07:17.339 That it's a very real thing and that it's very serious. 00:07:17.339 --> 00:07:23.779 And as soon as the gospel goes forth and lands on somebody that Satan seeks to kill, still, 00:07:23.779 --> 00:07:25.779 and destroy who first? 00:07:25.779 --> 00:07:29.819 The person that's heard the gospel and the gospel is starting to bed into their lives. 00:07:29.819 --> 00:07:32.660 He wants to snatch it away from them first. 00:07:32.660 --> 00:07:33.819 That's what we learn here. 00:07:33.819 --> 00:07:39.939 Now the second level of sin, it's not only diabolical but it's also we're told human 00:07:39.939 --> 00:07:46.699 sin because he says that this is being mediated in the Ephesian church by people. 00:07:46.699 --> 00:07:52.379 People are the ones that are spreading the ideas that are pulling people away from Christianity 00:07:52.379 --> 00:07:54.139 and they're denying the faith. 00:07:54.139 --> 00:07:58.500 False teachers, these are the ones that he was talking about at the beginning of the letter 00:07:58.500 --> 00:07:59.819 in 1 Timothy 1. 00:07:59.819 --> 00:08:02.180 And he calls them quote liars here. 00:08:02.180 --> 00:08:04.699 And liar is technical. 00:08:04.699 --> 00:08:08.579 It doesn't mean a person who keeps telling fibs. 00:08:08.579 --> 00:08:13.420 It's talking about the fact that they're liars because they are directly denying the word 00:08:13.420 --> 00:08:15.900 of the gospel in what they're teaching. 00:08:15.900 --> 00:08:22.540 And so they're lying about what God has spoken, what God has said in some way, shape, or form. 00:08:22.540 --> 00:08:26.420 And here's where we get to the heart of it, what they were teaching. 00:08:26.420 --> 00:08:32.740 And we learn here that they are forbidding marriage and they're requiring abstinence from 00:08:32.740 --> 00:08:35.820 food, from certain foods. 00:08:35.820 --> 00:08:42.620 Okay, so false teaching, bad ideas, things that corrupt, the heart of the message can 00:08:42.620 --> 00:08:45.060 come in all sorts of ways. 00:08:45.060 --> 00:08:51.659 But one of the ways that it has happened every single century from the beginning of time 00:08:51.659 --> 00:08:56.539 is a message about what's called asceticism. 00:08:56.539 --> 00:09:05.219 And asceticism is just a fancy word for saying that to truly be saved, you've got to deny 00:09:05.219 --> 00:09:10.500 the natural appetites, the natural things that God has given you as a human being, that 00:09:10.500 --> 00:09:12.339 God has made. 00:09:12.339 --> 00:09:16.299 And so here they're saying, look, here's where the corruption is. 00:09:16.299 --> 00:09:22.699 They're probably teaching that, yes, Jesus is part of the way to salvation, but that to 00:09:22.699 --> 00:09:31.339 really be saved, you've got to leave a marriage if you're married, because sexuality is fundamentally 00:09:31.339 --> 00:09:32.339 evil. 00:09:32.339 --> 00:09:38.299 Or you've got to end, I should say, you've got to stop eating certain foods and probably 00:09:38.299 --> 00:09:43.859 live a lifestyle of very minimal eating, so an ascetic's lifestyle. 00:09:43.860 --> 00:09:50.659 And the idea underneath this is that God has come to save the world from the world, that 00:09:50.659 --> 00:09:52.940 what's really bad is the physical. 00:09:52.940 --> 00:09:58.340 What's really bad is the world as we know it, and God's come to take you into a higher 00:09:58.340 --> 00:10:00.500 spirituality. 00:10:00.500 --> 00:10:04.139 And it starts with Jesus, but it never ends there. 00:10:04.139 --> 00:10:07.580 If you really want to be spiritual, if you really want to get in, you've got to live 00:10:07.580 --> 00:10:08.899 the ascetical lifestyle. 00:10:08.899 --> 00:10:13.139 You've got to deny yourself of even the most basic appetites. 00:10:13.139 --> 00:10:15.299 And that's the issue. 00:10:15.299 --> 00:10:19.500 You expect Paul to say, look, the false teachers are coming and saying, these guys are trying 00:10:19.500 --> 00:10:21.100 to get you to worship the demons. 00:10:21.100 --> 00:10:22.100 And that's not what he does. 00:10:22.100 --> 00:10:26.500 He says, they're trying to tell you not to eat, and they're trying to tell you to leave 00:10:26.500 --> 00:10:27.779 your spouses. 00:10:27.779 --> 00:10:30.659 And that is diabolical, he says. 00:10:30.659 --> 00:10:34.580 That is pulling you away from the basics of Christianity. 00:10:34.580 --> 00:10:38.779 And so look, I think there's three calls here to us today. 00:10:38.779 --> 00:10:44.339 One, protect the gospel, protect the good news of Jesus Christ, that he has died and 00:10:44.339 --> 00:10:45.860 he has risen. 00:10:45.860 --> 00:10:50.459 And justification is by faith alone through Christ alone. 00:10:50.459 --> 00:10:52.259 And you can't add anything else to that. 00:10:52.259 --> 00:10:55.939 You can't be justified by adding stuff to some higher spirituality. 00:10:55.939 --> 00:10:56.939 Protect the gospel. 00:10:56.939 --> 00:10:59.500 Secondly, protect your heart. 00:10:59.500 --> 00:11:01.659 And we're going to come back to that in two minutes. 00:11:01.659 --> 00:11:06.740 And then thirdly, he's saying, and Christian church take very seriously that spiritual 00:11:06.740 --> 00:11:12.419 warfare is a reality and that the demonic, the diabolical, seeks to kill and destroy 00:11:12.419 --> 00:11:15.379 and take the gospel out of, snatch it away. 00:11:15.379 --> 00:11:22.259 John Stott, the great commentator, he says that spiritual warfare is the explanation 00:11:22.259 --> 00:11:29.899 why intelligent and educated people can swallow the fantastic speculations of the cults and 00:11:29.899 --> 00:11:36.019 the New Age paganisms on the one hand or atheistic philosophies on the other. 00:11:36.019 --> 00:11:41.620 He says spiritual warfare is underneath that to steal, kill and destroy. 00:11:41.620 --> 00:11:45.379 Now how do you protect the heart just a couple of minutes before we get to the real central 00:11:45.379 --> 00:11:46.379 point? 00:11:46.379 --> 00:11:48.620 We've got to say something about this, how to protect the heart. 00:11:48.620 --> 00:11:52.899 Because the question comes up here where you say, well, what about me? 00:11:52.899 --> 00:11:54.699 What about me? 00:11:54.699 --> 00:11:56.139 Could this happen to me? 00:11:56.139 --> 00:11:59.139 And Paul deals with that here in this passage. 00:11:59.139 --> 00:12:02.659 And there's a negative way to look at it and a positive way to look at it. 00:12:02.659 --> 00:12:08.379 And the negative way is when Paul tells you how this happens or why this happens in these 00:12:08.379 --> 00:12:10.659 particular false teachers' lives. 00:12:10.659 --> 00:12:16.419 And you see it in verse 2, it says that their, quote, conscience has been seared. 00:12:16.419 --> 00:12:23.299 And the Greek word for seared right there is literally the word cauterized. 00:12:23.299 --> 00:12:26.620 If you read it in Greek, it would look identical to the English. 00:12:26.620 --> 00:12:30.939 And you know what cauterizing is, you know, the medical professionals here, when you have 00:12:30.940 --> 00:12:33.900 a terrible wound, you can cauterize it. 00:12:33.900 --> 00:12:39.180 You can burn it back together or you can cauterize something and it kills the nerve endings, 00:12:39.180 --> 00:12:40.180 right? 00:12:40.180 --> 00:12:43.940 It burns to the point of where you can't feel anymore. 00:12:43.940 --> 00:12:49.260 And what he says is that what's happened to bring the human, a person along to denying 00:12:49.260 --> 00:12:54.620 the gospel after they once believed it, is their conscience has been cauterized. 00:12:54.620 --> 00:13:00.540 God has given every single human being that's ever existed a conscience. 00:13:00.539 --> 00:13:04.099 And that conscience yells at you, screams at you all the time. 00:13:04.099 --> 00:13:06.620 And it says, don't go this way. 00:13:06.620 --> 00:13:07.620 This way is wrong. 00:13:07.620 --> 00:13:08.620 This way is false. 00:13:08.620 --> 00:13:09.620 This is bad. 00:13:09.620 --> 00:13:10.620 This is sinful. 00:13:10.620 --> 00:13:14.459 That's how God writes the law into the human heart. 00:13:14.459 --> 00:13:19.980 But over time, the law, the law, the conscience, I should say, is not infallible. 00:13:19.980 --> 00:13:21.379 It can be burned. 00:13:21.379 --> 00:13:22.899 It can be seared. 00:13:22.899 --> 00:13:29.099 And the way that happens, Paul talks about this in Romans 1, is by slowly, slowly, slowly 00:13:29.100 --> 00:13:31.940 rejecting the voice of the conscience over time. 00:13:31.940 --> 00:13:34.580 You know, how does this happen? 00:13:34.580 --> 00:13:38.740 Maybe you've had this experience where, you know, you're trying to fight your sin, but 00:13:38.740 --> 00:13:43.340 there's some particular sin issue in your life and it keeps coming up and it keeps coming 00:13:43.340 --> 00:13:44.340 up. 00:13:44.340 --> 00:13:49.700 And over time, you've given and you've given and you've given and the fight gets harder 00:13:49.700 --> 00:13:52.740 to the point where you stop fighting. 00:13:52.740 --> 00:13:58.420 And that's an example where your conscience is actually being cauterized over time. 00:13:58.419 --> 00:14:02.539 And the way we make our decisions and the way we pursue or don't pursue the things of 00:14:02.539 --> 00:14:08.779 God, the good, the holy, our conscience can either be set free and recovered or cauterized 00:14:08.779 --> 00:14:09.779 over time. 00:14:09.779 --> 00:14:12.819 And so he's saying here that the negative way this happens is that the human conscience 00:14:12.819 --> 00:14:18.459 gets seared by constantly giving in to things that are wrong over and over and over and 00:14:18.459 --> 00:14:21.299 over again, of not entering the fight, as J.C. 00:14:21.299 --> 00:14:24.059 Ryle puts it, the fight for holiness. 00:14:24.059 --> 00:14:25.899 Now, but the positive way. 00:14:25.899 --> 00:14:27.139 The positive way. 00:14:27.139 --> 00:14:32.500 We can only go where Paul goes here and we could do a whole series on this, on how to 00:14:32.500 --> 00:14:33.500 protect our heart. 00:14:33.500 --> 00:14:37.379 But let me say three things very quickly because we've got to move on. 00:14:37.379 --> 00:14:45.500 The first is this, know and be assured that all throughout the New Testament, Jesus Christ 00:14:45.500 --> 00:14:48.659 says, I will not let my people go. 00:14:48.659 --> 00:14:52.819 He says, I save to the uttermost. 00:14:52.820 --> 00:14:57.500 And he prayed, I will not let those who the Father has given me out of my hand. 00:14:57.500 --> 00:15:00.660 I will not loosen my grip on them. 00:15:00.660 --> 00:15:01.660 Jesus Christ will not let you go. 00:15:01.660 --> 00:15:04.820 And you say, but what if, could this happen to me? 00:15:04.820 --> 00:15:07.820 And look, let me, here's the assurance of the New Testament. 00:15:07.820 --> 00:15:09.580 Jesus Christ will not let you go. 00:15:09.580 --> 00:15:12.060 And so the question today is only this. 00:15:12.060 --> 00:15:13.320 It's simply this. 00:15:13.320 --> 00:15:15.580 Do you believe on the Lord Jesus? 00:15:15.580 --> 00:15:18.180 Do you love the Son? 00:15:18.180 --> 00:15:22.780 Even if it's weak, even if it's feeble, do you believe that Jesus Christ walked out of 00:15:22.779 --> 00:15:24.220 the grave on the third day? 00:15:24.220 --> 00:15:28.939 And if you say yes to that, then you can be assured Jesus Christ will not let you go. 00:15:28.939 --> 00:15:30.500 That's the promise of the New Testament. 00:15:30.500 --> 00:15:35.100 The second thing Paul says, now keep the faith. 00:15:35.100 --> 00:15:36.819 And as I just mentioned, J.C. 00:15:36.819 --> 00:15:41.379 Ryle's wonderful book, Holiness, he has a chapter where he says, enter the fight. 00:15:41.379 --> 00:15:48.059 And that might mean that today is actually the time to enter the fight with the sins 00:15:48.059 --> 00:15:52.019 that keep coming up in your life in a way that you haven't in the past. 00:15:52.019 --> 00:15:56.100 And C.S. Lewis has a wonderful section of the screw tape letters where he shows how 00:15:56.100 --> 00:15:58.419 the demons often work. 00:15:58.419 --> 00:16:04.699 They're at their best in tricking us and grabbing hold of us through, he says, our apathy, our 00:16:04.699 --> 00:16:09.740 boredom and our indifference of just ignoring the whole thing. 00:16:09.740 --> 00:16:16.179 And so today's the day to protect your heart by being assured of the gospel and entering 00:16:16.179 --> 00:16:21.059 the fight of saying, where do I need to actually fight for the life of my heart, for the life 00:16:21.059 --> 00:16:22.459 of my soul against sin? 00:16:22.459 --> 00:16:27.899 Thirdly and finally, be hopeful because the New Testament leaves us plenty of room to 00:16:27.899 --> 00:16:34.019 say that people, and this is an empirical reality, people will come and profess faith, 00:16:34.019 --> 00:16:37.659 they'll leave again, and by God's grace they'll come back. 00:16:37.659 --> 00:16:40.299 And this happens all the time, and we can never know. 00:16:40.299 --> 00:16:44.500 And so there's tons of hope, tons of prayer, and tons of ministry in the midst of this. 00:16:44.500 --> 00:16:48.979 Now, the main idea, what's wrong with the world? 00:16:48.980 --> 00:16:54.779 You see, all this specific sense of apostasy has actually been about leading to a principle 00:16:54.779 --> 00:16:58.500 that Paul wants to teach of what's wrong with the world. 00:16:58.500 --> 00:17:03.180 And he gets at it again through the details of this false teaching. 00:17:03.180 --> 00:17:08.299 The false teachers are saying, sexuality, evil, basically evil. 00:17:08.299 --> 00:17:13.539 Hunger, it's an appetite you've got to deny to be truly spiritual. 00:17:13.539 --> 00:17:19.980 Work, entertainment, film, art, politics, science, all of these things that exist out 00:17:19.980 --> 00:17:21.779 in the midst of culture. 00:17:21.779 --> 00:17:24.899 True spirituality is deny, deny, deny. 00:17:24.899 --> 00:17:30.299 Pull yourself away from culture and away from the world and deny yourself because the problem 00:17:30.299 --> 00:17:34.779 is ultimately physical flesh in the things of society. 00:17:34.779 --> 00:17:37.859 And to truly be spiritual, you've got to get away from that. 00:17:37.859 --> 00:17:43.180 And this has been a problem from the early church all the way to today. 00:17:43.180 --> 00:17:47.820 And you've got to remember that in the first century, as people are coming to believe in 00:17:47.820 --> 00:17:52.980 the gospel, they're asking questions like, what do I do with my day-to-day life? 00:17:52.980 --> 00:17:56.779 If Jesus really walked out of the grave, how am I supposed to live my life today? 00:17:56.779 --> 00:17:58.420 What does that mean for me? 00:17:58.420 --> 00:18:01.740 And so we see all over the New Testament, Paul dealing with this. 00:18:01.740 --> 00:18:04.740 People are saying, you've got to leave your marriage. 00:18:04.740 --> 00:18:05.740 There were people teaching that. 00:18:05.740 --> 00:18:09.019 And Paul, 1 Corinthians 7 says, no, no, no, no, no. 00:18:09.019 --> 00:18:13.420 He doesn't tell you to deny your physicality and leave your spouse. 00:18:13.420 --> 00:18:14.420 No, stay in your marriage. 00:18:14.420 --> 00:18:17.779 And people said, you've got to stop working in the midst of the marketplace. 00:18:17.779 --> 00:18:19.579 You've got to leave culture behind. 00:18:19.579 --> 00:18:24.059 And Paul says, no, keep your job, 1 Corinthians 7, 17. 00:18:24.059 --> 00:18:25.319 Keep your vocation. 00:18:25.319 --> 00:18:27.740 Get stuck into the work you've already been doing. 00:18:27.740 --> 00:18:31.299 In all sorts of ways, Paul addresses this over and over and over again. 00:18:31.299 --> 00:18:32.980 And how does he get at it? 00:18:32.980 --> 00:18:34.099 And here it is. 00:18:34.099 --> 00:18:35.259 He answers. 00:18:35.259 --> 00:18:40.940 He says, no, creation is good. 00:18:40.940 --> 00:18:47.379 Everything that God made is good, not evil, not to be rejected. 00:18:47.379 --> 00:18:49.900 And we could put it like this to add a little more nuance. 00:18:49.900 --> 00:18:53.220 It's not that everything in the world is good. 00:18:53.220 --> 00:18:57.619 It is that everything that God has made is good. 00:18:57.619 --> 00:18:58.740 Creation is good. 00:18:58.740 --> 00:19:02.299 And so here's a little bit of language to help you with this concept. 00:19:02.299 --> 00:19:07.700 The structure of creation is good. 00:19:07.700 --> 00:19:14.659 But sometimes and often, it's direction, it's moral direction is bad. 00:19:14.659 --> 00:19:22.379 The structures of creation, society, family, marriage, friendship, food, sexuality, the 00:19:22.379 --> 00:19:25.779 structure, work, the structures are good. 00:19:25.779 --> 00:19:30.500 But because of human sin, the direction, the moral direction is bad. 00:19:30.500 --> 00:19:33.500 And what these false teachers have done is they've conflated that. 00:19:33.500 --> 00:19:37.099 And they've said, no, no, no, the structures are evil. 00:19:37.099 --> 00:19:42.180 So give up marriage and give up sexuality and deny hunger and stop working and get out 00:19:42.180 --> 00:19:46.980 of culture and get out of society and don't enjoy film and art and science and politics 00:19:46.980 --> 00:19:49.660 and reject all technology. 00:19:49.660 --> 00:19:53.500 And Paul says, no, no, no, creation's good. 00:19:53.500 --> 00:19:54.500 Stay. 00:19:54.500 --> 00:19:55.500 Don't leave. 00:19:55.500 --> 00:20:00.660 The principle comes clearly from Jesus' mouth in John 17, 15. 00:20:00.660 --> 00:20:07.180 He prays, I desire that my disciples would be in the midst of the world, all about the 00:20:07.180 --> 00:20:10.500 world, but not of the world. 00:20:10.500 --> 00:20:15.700 You see, structure and direction, that they would be stuck into the structures of creation 00:20:15.700 --> 00:20:22.460 but not carried over into the evil direction that creation often goes. 00:20:22.460 --> 00:20:27.140 Now let's close this long point and just have a very brief point. 00:20:27.140 --> 00:20:34.380 How do we know, how can you really know today that the structures of creation, that creation 00:20:34.380 --> 00:20:40.299 is ultimately good, that it's worth sticking with, that it's worth continuing in your 00:20:40.299 --> 00:20:44.579 day job, that it's worth sticking with your relationships, that it's worth saying that 00:20:44.579 --> 00:20:47.180 food is good. 00:20:47.180 --> 00:20:51.259 How do we know all these things, all these arenas, these spheres of creation? 00:20:51.259 --> 00:20:54.180 How can we really say that, and how can we know? 00:20:54.180 --> 00:20:56.019 And here it is. 00:20:56.019 --> 00:21:01.740 In the middle of history, God became a man. 00:21:01.740 --> 00:21:06.779 And when the false teachers are saying, reject the physical life, because true spirituality 00:21:06.779 --> 00:21:09.259 is utterly spiritual. 00:21:09.259 --> 00:21:13.220 It's not about the body, it's only about the soul. 00:21:13.220 --> 00:21:16.099 God became a man in Jesus Christ. 00:21:16.099 --> 00:21:17.299 He was incarnated. 00:21:17.299 --> 00:21:18.740 He took on flesh. 00:21:18.740 --> 00:21:22.059 He took on physicality. 00:21:22.059 --> 00:21:28.819 You say, is it appropriate, is it right to reject the appetite of your basic hunger, 00:21:28.819 --> 00:21:34.859 and Jesus comes to the crowd, and he says, in my kingdom, people do not go hungry. 00:21:34.859 --> 00:21:38.900 And he makes bread and fish to feed 5,000. 00:21:38.900 --> 00:21:43.299 And you say, am I supposed to reject marriage and sexuality altogether? 00:21:43.299 --> 00:21:50.940 And Jesus says, marriage is the relationship that best illustrates the true point of history 00:21:50.940 --> 00:21:54.059 between Jesus Christ, the groom, and the bride, the church. 00:21:54.059 --> 00:21:56.180 No, don't leave your spouse. 00:21:56.180 --> 00:21:57.180 Stay. 00:21:57.180 --> 00:21:58.899 Am I to reject work? 00:21:58.899 --> 00:22:02.539 And Jesus says, no, not absolutely not. 00:22:02.539 --> 00:22:07.700 God said, take dominion over the land in the very beginning, Genesis 1. 00:22:07.700 --> 00:22:11.940 How do you know that creation is good because of Jesus Christ? 00:22:11.940 --> 00:22:20.980 And it's all in John 3.16, that great memory verse, for God so loved the world that he 00:22:20.980 --> 00:22:23.820 gave his only begotten Son. 00:22:23.820 --> 00:22:27.380 Not only that humans may not perish, because if you believe today you will not perish, but 00:22:27.380 --> 00:22:32.900 also so that the world would not perish, but have everlasting life, that it could be recovered 00:22:32.900 --> 00:22:36.820 and bought back from the evil of sin. 00:22:36.820 --> 00:22:39.180 Sin is like water. 00:22:39.180 --> 00:22:41.460 And the world is like a sponge. 00:22:41.460 --> 00:22:46.460 And sin creeps down into every little crevice that is the sponge of the world, and the world 00:22:46.460 --> 00:22:47.980 soaks it up. 00:22:47.980 --> 00:22:50.660 And Jesus Christ came not to destroy the sponge. 00:22:50.660 --> 00:22:52.140 He came to squeeze it. 00:22:52.140 --> 00:22:57.220 He came to pour the sin and the death and the misery out of the midst of it and recover 00:22:57.220 --> 00:22:59.740 the ultimacy of the good of creation. 00:22:59.740 --> 00:23:03.220 Above all, and here's the last word before we move on. 00:23:03.220 --> 00:23:05.039 How do you know? 00:23:05.039 --> 00:23:08.539 And that's on the third day when Jesus Christ rose from the dead. 00:23:08.539 --> 00:23:12.659 Do you know what God was saying in that moment? 00:23:12.659 --> 00:23:19.619 God the Father, when he raises Jesus Christ up from the dead, he says, physical stuff 00:23:19.619 --> 00:23:22.460 is eternal. 00:23:22.460 --> 00:23:27.339 The day Jesus rose from the dead was the day that God pronounces, I'm keeping the world. 00:23:27.339 --> 00:23:33.539 I'm not getting rid of it, because Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God, now has a resurrected 00:23:33.539 --> 00:23:37.099 physical body that will never leave. 00:23:37.099 --> 00:23:40.139 His body is now forever. 00:23:40.139 --> 00:23:45.219 And so God has so joined himself in Christ to the world that he pronounces creation is 00:23:45.219 --> 00:23:48.619 good and will be ultimately recovered. 00:23:48.619 --> 00:23:52.659 So true spirituality is not the life of asceticism. 00:23:52.659 --> 00:23:55.659 It's being in the world and not of it. 00:23:55.659 --> 00:23:56.939 That's what Paul's teaching us here. 00:23:56.939 --> 00:24:01.379 All right, secondly and finally, and only a couple minutes here. 00:24:01.379 --> 00:24:03.539 Then he addresses a more practical point. 00:24:03.539 --> 00:24:05.099 How do you make it holy then? 00:24:05.099 --> 00:24:07.019 Okay, well, he's teaching us. 00:24:07.019 --> 00:24:14.220 If that's true, if sin has soaked down into the structures of the world like a sponge, 00:24:14.220 --> 00:24:15.539 can I do something? 00:24:15.539 --> 00:24:21.299 Well, first, Jesus Christ has done everything, but then also Paul comes and says there is 00:24:21.299 --> 00:24:24.059 a way to make things, quote, holy. 00:24:24.059 --> 00:24:25.700 And you can see it in verse four to five. 00:24:25.700 --> 00:24:27.819 Everything created by God is good. 00:24:27.819 --> 00:24:33.819 Nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by 00:24:33.819 --> 00:24:36.779 the Word of God and by prayer. 00:24:36.779 --> 00:24:41.660 Now Paul, one of the most common examples of this idea in the New Testament is when 00:24:41.660 --> 00:24:46.299 Paul deals with food that's been sacrificed to idols. 00:24:46.299 --> 00:24:50.619 So in Corinthians especially, he deals with this and he's probably alluding to it in this 00:24:50.619 --> 00:24:51.980 passage. 00:24:51.980 --> 00:24:57.379 Food is sacrificed to idols in the pagan temples, but then it's taken from the temple 00:24:57.379 --> 00:25:01.099 and it's put in the market in these great Greco-Roman cities. 00:25:01.099 --> 00:25:04.139 And the Christians were asking in Corinth and all sorts of places, well, what do I do with 00:25:04.139 --> 00:25:05.299 that? 00:25:05.299 --> 00:25:11.619 Can I eat a piece of meat that was sacrificed to a pagan deity and then used and sold in 00:25:11.619 --> 00:25:16.779 the market for profit to support the temple, the pagan temple? 00:25:16.779 --> 00:25:21.819 And Paul says, if your conscience is clear, eat away. 00:25:21.819 --> 00:25:24.180 And you see what he's saying, how? 00:25:24.180 --> 00:25:29.379 Because that can be made holy by the Word of God and prayer. 00:25:29.379 --> 00:25:34.659 In other words, making something holy, something being made holy simply means this. 00:25:34.660 --> 00:25:40.740 When something that was once used for evil is recovered to be used for the good way that 00:25:40.740 --> 00:25:42.740 God created it to be used. 00:25:42.740 --> 00:25:46.220 So he says, a Christian can absolutely eat meat sacrificed to an idol. 00:25:46.220 --> 00:25:47.220 What do you do? 00:25:47.220 --> 00:25:51.860 You pray and you give thanks to God for what he's provided you in food. 00:25:51.860 --> 00:25:53.259 And then you eat it. 00:25:53.259 --> 00:25:58.700 And he said, and it's made holy, it's set back to rights, it's made holy, it's consecrated 00:25:58.700 --> 00:26:04.460 to what it should be, part of creation, part of the good gifts that God's given us. 00:26:04.460 --> 00:26:07.380 And he does this all over the time in the New Testament. 00:26:07.380 --> 00:26:12.660 Verse five, all things can be made holy by the Word of God and prayer. 00:26:12.660 --> 00:26:17.500 Now here we've got the twofold way to go about this, how to make things holy. 00:26:17.500 --> 00:26:20.299 You need the Word of God and you need prayer. 00:26:20.299 --> 00:26:21.299 What does that mean? 00:26:21.299 --> 00:26:26.860 Well this reference to the Word of God is a going back to Genesis one moment. 00:26:26.860 --> 00:26:30.019 It's not saying that the Bible makes things holy exactly. 00:26:30.019 --> 00:26:34.539 He's talking about God's actual speech at creation. 00:26:34.539 --> 00:26:40.259 The Word of God objectively makes something holy, meaning if God made it, spoke it by 00:26:40.259 --> 00:26:43.420 his word into existence, it's good. 00:26:43.420 --> 00:26:47.579 So objectively you need it to be part of creation. 00:26:47.579 --> 00:26:51.980 Subjectively you need what he says is three times thanksgiving. 00:26:51.980 --> 00:26:57.579 And so the idea here is when you come to the table, the food that hits your table has been 00:26:57.579 --> 00:27:01.099 used in sinful ways by the time it gets to you. 00:27:01.099 --> 00:27:05.179 Every time, there's hardly any doubt about that, almost every time food hits our table, 00:27:05.179 --> 00:27:08.980 there's sin that's happened around it by the time it gets to us. 00:27:08.980 --> 00:27:15.699 But Paul says, pray and give thanks to God and it's set back to right again. 00:27:15.699 --> 00:27:20.779 Sexuality is the most abused reality in human history probably, the most abused structure 00:27:20.779 --> 00:27:22.980 of creation. 00:27:22.980 --> 00:27:29.940 And we know that at so many levels and Paul says it can be redeemed, it can be set back 00:27:29.940 --> 00:27:33.940 to rights, it can be made holy because it is part of the Word of God, the objectivity 00:27:33.940 --> 00:27:38.299 of creation and then give thanks to God and use it the way that God has told you to use 00:27:38.299 --> 00:27:44.180 it and it is now made holy again, consecrated to be the illustration of the marriage between 00:27:44.180 --> 00:27:46.420 Christ and the bride. 00:27:46.420 --> 00:27:51.900 Work, you know that work is by the Word of God, take dominion over the land but you know 00:27:51.900 --> 00:27:57.820 that in the midst of your workplace all sorts of evils can happen and your job can be twisted 00:27:57.820 --> 00:28:01.580 to not serve the common good but to serve a common evil. 00:28:01.580 --> 00:28:07.380 And Paul says here, with thanksgiving to God and gratitude for work itself, use it for 00:28:07.380 --> 00:28:10.460 the good and it is made holy again. 00:28:10.460 --> 00:28:15.820 In other words, he gives the Christian the power to redeem things, to turn them around, 00:28:15.820 --> 00:28:20.259 not ultimately, not eternally but in the moment of the structure. 00:28:20.259 --> 00:28:29.980 Now let me say this as we close here, even moments, experiences can be made holy. 00:28:29.980 --> 00:28:36.660 You know, let's imagine yesterday you were out and you went up Arthur's seat and you 00:28:36.660 --> 00:28:41.859 looked out from Arthur's seat at the beauty of the land and the beauty of this city which 00:28:41.859 --> 00:28:44.740 is undoubtedly immense. 00:28:44.740 --> 00:28:51.779 And you said, thanks be to God, you know, your affection started to stir and you said, 00:28:51.779 --> 00:28:53.779 look at what the Lord has done. 00:28:53.779 --> 00:28:57.660 He's given us the gift of beauty and goodness and I can look out in the midst of a corrupted 00:28:57.660 --> 00:29:02.819 world and see the wonders of architecture and the wonders of the land. 00:29:02.819 --> 00:29:04.980 And that moment was made holy. 00:29:04.980 --> 00:29:09.980 We have a book at our house that we love that's titled Every Moment Holy that deals with this 00:29:09.980 --> 00:29:10.980 very specifically. 00:29:10.980 --> 00:29:17.740 So let me, as we close, let me say this, this passage is written to Christians, to the Christian 00:29:17.740 --> 00:29:20.220 church very obviously. 00:29:20.220 --> 00:29:27.220 And if you're coming today exploring the claims of theism, of religion, of deity, of Jesus 00:29:27.220 --> 00:29:33.140 Christ and the gospel specifically, let me say in the most loving way that you've got 00:29:33.140 --> 00:29:36.180 a real problem here. 00:29:36.180 --> 00:29:44.420 And the problem is that Paul here gives power to gratitude. 00:29:44.420 --> 00:29:50.820 That gratitude is so powerful in the light of the Lord that it can make something good 00:29:50.820 --> 00:29:53.060 again. 00:29:53.060 --> 00:29:58.140 And there's a real problem with that without belief. 00:29:58.140 --> 00:30:03.180 And the problem is this, that without believing in God and especially the Christian God, you 00:30:03.180 --> 00:30:09.060 have no means, I don't think, of explaining either power, the power of gratitude or the 00:30:09.060 --> 00:30:11.500 reality of goodness. 00:30:11.500 --> 00:30:14.820 Take the example of Arthur's seat. 00:30:14.820 --> 00:30:20.180 You sit on top of Arthur's seat and all of a sudden you look out and the overwhelming 00:30:20.180 --> 00:30:26.220 feeling, the affections as they're called start to stir and you realize this place is 00:30:26.220 --> 00:30:29.580 beautiful, which is a problem in itself. 00:30:29.579 --> 00:30:33.699 And you start to say, I'm thankful for this. 00:30:33.699 --> 00:30:35.339 Now it's an emotion that happens to you. 00:30:35.339 --> 00:30:41.579 You don't do it actively, it occurs in you and gratitude rises up in your soul. 00:30:41.579 --> 00:30:42.579 And here's where the problem lies. 00:30:42.579 --> 00:30:45.819 I don't think you have a place to direct it. 00:30:45.819 --> 00:30:49.779 And you can say, well, look, I can be grateful to another person. 00:30:49.779 --> 00:30:50.779 And that's absolutely true. 00:30:50.779 --> 00:30:55.939 An artist can make a piece of art and you say, I'm so thankful for this, to that artist. 00:30:55.940 --> 00:30:59.340 But what about beauty in itself? 00:30:59.340 --> 00:31:03.140 Because no artist makes beauty, they only participate in it. 00:31:03.140 --> 00:31:05.700 And what about music in itself? 00:31:05.700 --> 00:31:11.220 No musician makes music, they only make songs. 00:31:11.220 --> 00:31:14.779 And what about good things in themselves? 00:31:14.779 --> 00:31:20.259 Not a great meal, but the fact of food, the fact of the landscape, the fact of the beauty 00:31:20.259 --> 00:31:23.460 that covers the architecture of Edinburgh. 00:31:23.460 --> 00:31:29.660 Let me suggest that if you're exploring Christianity today, without belief in God, you have no 00:31:29.660 --> 00:31:36.539 explanatory power to say that gratitude is anything but an illusion. 00:31:36.539 --> 00:31:40.500 Because gratitude to be grateful has to be directed at a person. 00:31:40.500 --> 00:31:45.380 But if you want to be grateful for beauty, you've got nobody to be grateful to. 00:31:45.380 --> 00:31:49.380 And Christianity comes, Paul comes and says, there is such a thing as the sacred, there 00:31:49.380 --> 00:31:55.060 is such a thing as beauty in the holy, in the good, and you want it, and we want it, 00:31:55.060 --> 00:31:57.220 and we can have it. 00:31:57.220 --> 00:32:03.420 And the it today is most expressed in the goodness of God, in the grace of Jesus Christ 00:32:03.420 --> 00:32:08.220 to restore all of creation to its utter beauty. 00:32:08.220 --> 00:32:10.660 John 3.16, one more time. 00:32:10.660 --> 00:32:15.180 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that the world would not perish, 00:32:15.180 --> 00:32:20.900 that you would not perish, that he can restore you wherever you might be in your walk in 00:32:20.900 --> 00:32:22.220 relationship to religion today. 00:32:22.220 --> 00:32:27.060 He can restore you and he does it through the power of the death and resurrection of 00:32:27.060 --> 00:32:29.259 the Son of God in the middle of history. 00:32:29.259 --> 00:32:31.740 And so I'll close with this last word. 00:32:31.740 --> 00:32:39.299 If you have a heart today for the sacred and for the holy and for the good and for beauty 00:32:39.299 --> 00:32:43.259 and good food and music, whatever it might be, it all fits together. 00:32:43.259 --> 00:32:44.259 They all go together. 00:32:44.259 --> 00:32:46.019 They come from the same place. 00:32:46.019 --> 00:32:49.660 The God of creation and you can have the sacred. 00:32:49.660 --> 00:32:51.619 You can have the holy. 00:32:51.619 --> 00:32:54.180 Jesus Christ is the holy. 00:32:54.180 --> 00:32:59.099 And so pray to him today, whether you've been a Christian for 50 years or today is day one, 00:32:59.099 --> 00:33:01.619 pray to him this morning. 00:33:01.619 --> 00:33:07.900 Ask for him to speak to your heart and to forgive you and to restore your soul and he 00:33:07.900 --> 00:33:10.500 will. 00:33:10.500 --> 00:33:11.500 Let's pray together. 00:33:11.500 --> 00:33:21.500 Father, we ask now that you would make our souls holy, not through the means of our good 00:33:21.500 --> 00:33:24.220 works, but through the means of the grace of Jesus. 00:33:24.220 --> 00:33:30.339 And in the midst of that, we give thanks, Lord, that you are making all things holy, 00:33:30.339 --> 00:33:34.380 that you would not leave just the human soul to be saved, but you're going to save us for 00:33:34.380 --> 00:33:36.859 the whole world. 00:33:36.859 --> 00:33:39.059 So we give thanks, Lord. 00:33:39.059 --> 00:33:42.059 We give thanks this morning for our embodiment and our physicality. 00:33:42.059 --> 00:33:45.980 We give thanks for good food that will be on our tables today. 00:33:45.980 --> 00:33:50.659 You could have not only wiped food off the planet after our sin, you could have given 00:33:50.659 --> 00:33:55.980 us something less than good food, but yet food still tastes good and that's your gift. 00:33:55.980 --> 00:33:57.460 And we thank you for it. 00:33:57.460 --> 00:33:59.179 We thank you for music. 00:33:59.179 --> 00:34:04.139 We thank you for science and politics and art and society and families. 00:34:04.139 --> 00:34:06.700 We thank you for the structures of creation. 00:34:06.700 --> 00:34:12.420 We ask now that you would send us out of this place to be ministers that speak the good 00:34:12.420 --> 00:34:17.059 news and who participate in redeeming and making holy the things that have once been 00:34:17.059 --> 00:34:19.139 used for evil. 00:34:19.139 --> 00:34:21.980 And so work this reality into our relationships. 00:34:21.980 --> 00:34:24.980 Work this reality into the way we approach our meals. 00:34:24.980 --> 00:34:29.619 Work this reality into the way we listen to music and the way we turn on Netflix that 00:34:29.619 --> 00:34:33.420 we would be in the world but not of it. 00:34:33.420 --> 00:34:36.820 And so we pray for these hearts in Christ's name this morning. 00:34:36.820 --> 00:35:05.820 Thank you.