(c): Seek to Draw Others to Our Heavenly Father

Introduction: The Sound of the New Covenant Priesthood and the End of a Series

0:07 Now I invite you to turn with me in your own Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Matthew, and Chapter 5. To hear the rustling of the pages of your Bibles reminds me of a statement I heard from a converted Roman Catholic priest.

0:46 A number of years ago, before this particular building was constructed, and we were still meeting in what we call Phase 1, he came to speak to us on a Wednesday night, and when he announced where he was going to direct our attention in the Scriptures, and there was the rustling of the pages, he smiled and said, I love to think of the rustling of the pages of the Bible in a gathering of Christians as the sound of the new covenant priesthood, people who know that they stand before God in the light of His Word. May God grant.

1:24 That that will ever be true in this place, that Scripture and Scripture alone directs our minds, binds our consciences, shapes our individual and our corporate life together. Here then, as I read the first 16 verses of Matthew, Chapter 5, And seeing the multitudes, he went up into the mountain, and when he had sat down, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

2:07 Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they...

2:27 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men shall reproach you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely.

2:59 For my sake, rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you. You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt hath lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men. Amen.

3:29 You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a lamp and put it under the bushel, but on the stand, and it shines unto all that are in the house. Even so, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, who is in heaven.

4:02 Let us again pray and ask for the blessing of God upon the preaching of his word. Holy Father, we draw near once more, conscious of our present need of the grace and power, ministry of the Holy Spirit, as I seek to teach and preach your word, and those gathered here seek to listen to the prophet of their souls, how utterly dependent we are upon your kind and gracious disposition to send your Holy Spirit upon us in present actings of power,

4:45 opening our eyes, giving us understanding, giving utterance and unction to your servant. Lord, we are a mass of utter weakness and inability to do anything of spiritual profit to ourselves, so come and help us in our need, we plead in Jesus' name. Amen.

The Third Duty of Adoption: Drawing Others to Glorify Our Heavenly Father

5:12 Now, some of you may be surprised to hear me say that there are many sad days in the life and labors of a preacher of the word of God. And one of them is the day when that preacher terminates a lengthy series of expositions from a portion of the word of God, a book, of holy scripture, or has expounded a dominant biblical doctrine or theme out of the scriptures. Today is such a sad day for me, for today I plan to preach the twelfth and the final message

5:54 in this series of studies on the doctrine of adoption, that gracious, that astounding blessing of God's salvation. In Jesus Christ, by which he takes us out of our native spiritual family, our father the devil, the sons of the devil, our siblings, and he places us into his family with all of the privileges and an irreversible status as full-grown sons. Having expounded the nature

6:36 and privileges of adoption, we have spent several Lord's Days seeking to identify the duties and the obligations which flow from these wonderful privileges and blessings of adoption. We have seen from the scriptures that because we are who we are as the sons and daughters of God, we are seriously equated! Yes, we really are. We have been.

7:06 Very much though. I have been, but nothing has changed about me. And one time I achieved and further survival history. pursue a life of pleasing the Father in all things. And we do that by a meticulous obedience

7:18 to His commandments. We do that in dependence upon His grace, out of gratitude for His grace, and all of the grace context. But the mark of an adoptive son or daughter of God is, that he or she seeks to please the Heavenly Father in all things. And then secondly, we have seen from the Scriptures that the duty of the child of God is to seek to imitate the Father in all things. That is, all things appropriate to a creature,

7:58 a creature made in the image of God, a creature recreated into that image. And God says, through the image of God, He will 곧 math врем,/. the apostle be therefore imitators of God as beloved children. We come this morning then to the third of these duties and responsibilities of all of God's adopted children. And what

8:25 is that duty or responsibility? I'm going to state it this way. As the children of God, it is our duty so to live before an onlooking world, a world of sinners, that some of them will desire to join us in glorifying our Father who is in heaven. Let me run it by you again.

8:52 As the children of God, it is our duty to live before an onlooking world of sinners, so to live before God. That some of them will desire to join us in glorifying our Father who is in heaven. Now in seeking to address this vital aspect of the duties of the children of God, or what we might call the ethical obligations of adoption, and they're nothing less than that. They are ethical, they have to do with conduct, and they are obligations that flow out of who and what God wants them to do. And they are ethical, they have to do with conduct, and

9:33 God has made us as his children. We'll go into consider three major texts. And I'd like you to think of these texts in terms of a stage. And on that stage, you have something that is front and center, right up by the floodlights. That's going to be our first text. But then it's flanked by two

9:53 other texts that are rear left and rear right. But in the light of the scriptural teaching, that at the mouth of two of these texts, we have something that is front and center. And that's going to be two or three witnesses. Let every word be established. I want to set before you from these

10:11 three texts, the center stage text and the two back left and right stage text, this duty that you and I, as the children of God, have so to live before onlooking sinners, that some of them will desire to join us. And I want to set before you from these three texts, the center stage text and us, in glorifying our Father who is in heaven. Now the front center text is verse 16 of Matthew

Front and Center Text: Matthew 5:16 – Let Your Light Shine

10:43 chapter 5. Even so, let your light shine before men. Why? That they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. It's very interesting. This is the first time in the

11:04 Sermon on the Mount, Jesus uses the word Father. So this issue is a very crucial matter. With it, our Lord introduces the word Father, which he uses again and again and again throughout this sermon. But here is its first occurrence. Let me spend a few minutes now considering the setting of this

11:29 text. The opening words of Matthew 5 are what we call, Beatitudes, because they are these eight blessed are. Blessed, blessed are. A Beatitude is the thing that is blessed. And these Beatitudes are a beautifully balanced and comprehensive description

11:51 of the leading features of all who have been adopted into the family of God, all who have, by the new birth, been ushered into the kingdom of God. Notice verse 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Verse 9.

12:12 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. So here our Lord is envisioning people who, by the act of adoption, that legal declaration in the family court of heaven that places us as sons, and who by new birth have been born into the kingdom of God, born into the kingdom of God. So here our Lord is envisioning people who, by the act of adoption, will be born again into the family of God. Here the Lord Jesus gives this beautifully balanced and comprehensive description of the leading features of all who have been adopted and birthed into the kingdom.

12:54 The Beatitudes are not eight rungs on a ladder, which, if we attain these character traits in our strength, will give us entrance into the kingdom of God. The Beatitudes are not eight rungs on a ladder, which, if we attain these character traits in our strength, will give us entrance into the kingdom of God. into the kingdom, entrance into the family of God. Rather, they describe the features on the spiritual face of each and every one of God's adopted children.

13:21 And just a cursory reading leads us to the conclusion that they are primarily inward dispositions and attitudes of the heart. Blessed are the poor in spirit, that's inward. Blessed are they that mourn, have inward grief. Blessed are the meek, a disposition.

13:43 Blessed are they that hunger and thirst. Blessed are the merciful, pure in heart. So our Lord in describing the features of the sons and daughters of His kingdom, the kingdom of grace that He came to establish, is primarily concerned with what grace, grace does in all of His children in framing this inward disposition, this balanced, comprehensive picture of the leading features upon the spiritual face of all the children of God. That is the setting of this passage.

14:25 Now then, our Lord goes on. Page 2 was stuck with some whiteout on the back. Back of page 1. Then in verses 13 to 15, our Lord goes on to describe such people as they live in a world of other people devoid of the grace that imparts these character traits to the sons and daughters of God.

14:56 And He describes their place in such a world under these two images. You are the salt of the earth. He doesn't say, You should be. You ought to become.

15:09 You will eventually merge into. This is an indicative. This is a statement of fact. You, my people, characterized by these eight beatitudes, characterized by this composite, balanced picture of the fundamental character of the children of God, the sons and daughters of the kingdom, because of what you are by grace, described in the beatitudes, you are the salt of the earth.

15:42 Verse 14, another indicative, you are the light of the world. By simply being what you are, you function in two ways in relationship to the unregenerate around you. First of all, you are the salt of the earth. What was the main function of salt in the context in which our Lord spoke?

16:09 For us, salt is primarily something to give savor to our food. We've got refrigerators, we've got freezers. They had no refrigerators, no freezers. In the warm climate of Palestine, the primary function of salt was that of a preservative.

16:31 So when our Lord says to His people, You are the salt of the earth, when grace has made you poor in spirit, mourning, meek, hungering and thirsting, merciful, pure in heart, peacemaker, you are the preservative in the society of the unregenerate. Your presence among unconverted men and women checks the downward slide of moral degeneracy, the putrefaction of a life that is distanced from God and from His law.

17:13 But then there's a secondary function of salt, and that is to flavor, and that was also known in that setting in Job 6.6. Job was conscious of this particular function of salt when he said these words, Job 6 and verse 6, Can that which has no savor be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?

17:46 Can that which has no savor be eaten without salt? And so our Lord says, My children, sprinkled upon society, take away some of the insipid and tastelessness of life outside the kingdom, and they lend a flavor to that society, to those with whom they interact. But then they are the light of the world. Light is that which illumines the darkness.

18:20 Remember a society with no electricity, a society that knew nothing of the kind of light that is constantly around us in the darkness. Darkness was dark. And here our Lord says, You, My sons, My daughters, you are that in the world which illuminates the darkness, and when you illuminate the darkness, you expose what has been hidden by the darkness. Whatsoever makes manifest is light, Paul said.

18:52 Jesus said this is the condemnation that light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light. They will not come to the light, lest their deeds should be manifest. People instinctively know who live in the dark. They want to stay enshrouded in the darkness, lest they be exposed for who and what they are.

19:16 So then, our Lord says, Simply by being what My grace has made you, you are salt of the earth, you are light of the world. Then He attaches to both of those images, an exhortation, a warning, a picture. If the salt loses its saltiness, it is good for nothing. And if the light is covered with a basket, it is not going to perform its function.

19:47 Salt must remain salty, and the light must be unimpeded in sending out its rays. The city set on the hill cannot be hid. The light goes out in every direction. The lamp that is lit is not in any way impeded in sending out its rays by putting a bushel basket over it.

20:08 Now then, that's the setting of verse 16. Even so, in the light of what I've just told you, blessed are the true sons and daughters of God. This is what they look like in their essential character. And because of what they are in their character, this is how they function in the world of the unregenerate.

20:40 They are salt, primarily a preservative to check putrefaction. They are light, primarily to illumine the darkness and to expose what goes on in the darkness. And in the light of that, our Lord now, in verse 16, speaking with a present imperative, lays down a duty. When you find an imperative, God is saying this is an ought to.

21:14 This is something my grace demands of you. This is the responsibility, the ethical demand of adoption. Now one of the problems is taking Greek imperatives and putting them into smooth English. It's very difficult.

21:32 However, I'm going to make an effort, and this is my effort. When the Lord spoke and said, Even so, let your light shine before men, this third person singular, very interesting, not a third person plural, but with a third person singular present imperative of the verb which means to shine, Jesus is saying, Shine forth your light, every single one of you. The verb contains this nuance that he's speaking to each and every one, but in a group.

22:16 Let your light, your light, so shine before men. The verb contains the emphasis on the individuality, the pronoun your, upon the group self, setting, and it is a command that their light shine forth. And where is it to shine forth? Look at the text.

22:38 Shine forth your light before men. Emprosten. In the face of men. What kind of men?

22:50 Men of the world. You are the light of the world. You, the subjects of my kingdom. You, the members of my family.

22:59 There is that other kingdom out there. The kingdom of darkness. The kingdom where the prince of darkness rules. There is that family of the evil one.

23:10 And before their faces, shine forth your light. There's the emphasis of the text. In order. Notice now the text.

23:24 Shine forth your light before men. That, they may see your good works. What are the beams that go out from those whom God has made the light of the world? The beams are their good works.

23:45 They come out of what they are. That's the beatitudes. Poverty of spirit. Meekness.

23:54 Hunger and thirsting for righteousness. That internal character is going to produce a pattern of what Jesus calls good works. And what is the goal in shining forth by these good works? Look at the text.

24:14 That they may see your good works. That the worlding may see them. And glorify your Father which is in heaven. That they may see and they may glorify.

24:33 In other words, that men, women, boys and girls who are not the children of God. Who've not been adopted and spiritually birthed in the kingdom would see your good works and my good works and be led to glorify our Father who is in heaven. And how will they do this? Those good works done by the sons of God functioning as salt and light under the blessing of God will be an instrument in God's hands to humble sinners.

25:06 To expose sinners. To bring sinners to repentance and faith in the context of the gospel being proclaimed. And they will then begin to join you in living a life to the glory of your heavenly Father. That they may see your good works and glorify your Father.

25:30 Who is in heaven. I want to read a comment from one of the commentators on the Sermon on the Mount that I found very helpful. We are so to live that men may see our good works but glorify not us but our Father who is in heaven. How difficult to function truly as an active Christian and yet not to have any showmanship.

26:01 This is true even in our listening to the gospel quite apart from our preaching of it. As we produce and reveal it in our daily lives we must remember that the Christian does not call attention to himself. Self has been forgotten in this poverty of spirit in the meekness and all the other qualities identified in the Beatitudes. In other words we are to do everything for God's sake for His glory.

26:32 Self is to be absent and must be utterly crushed in all its subtlety for Christ's sake and for the Father's glory. It follows from this that we are to do things in such a way as to lead other men to glorify Him to glory in Him and to give themselves to Him. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, yes and so see them that they themselves will glorify your Father who is in heaven. Not only are you to glorify your Father you are to do so in order that these other people

27:16 may come to glorify Him also. This I say is the front and center text that sets before us this third great duty this ethical demand laid upon all of God's adopted ones. Yes, we are seriously to seek to please the Father in everything. Yes, we are seriously to seek to imitate the Father in everything.

Supporting Text 1: 1 Peter 2:11-12 – Honorable Behavior Among Gentiles

27:52 But thirdly it is our duty so to live before an onlooking world of sinners that some of them will desire to join us in glorifying our Father who is in heaven. There is our center front text. Now we take up our text rear left. 1 Peter chapter 2 our two supporting texts 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 11 and 12

28:32 Peter has a beautiful rhythm in his letter. He starts out with all indicatives. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus. And there are no imperatives in chapter 1 until you come down to verse 13.

28:52 He is telling us who and what we are and have in Christ. Then he gives a string of imperatives. Then in chapter 2 verses 1 to 10 another lovely block of indicatives. This is what you are as the people of God.

29:06 You are the people of God in your corporate life. And then he starts in with a string of imperatives in verse 11. Beloved I beseech you as sojourners in pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul having your behavior seemly or honorable literally good among the Gentiles that wherein they speak against you as evil doers they may by your good works which they behold glorify God in a day of visitation. Peter begins with this negative positive motif

29:50 in verse 11. Abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul. This world is not your home. You are resident aliens and in the light of your identity as sojourners and pilgrims on your way to the celestial city consciously deliberately abstain from any fleshly lusts that wars against the soul.

30:16 Anything that dampens your ardor to seek God your passion to please God your hunger to feed upon the word of God deal with it ruthlessly brutally abstain from everything that is warring against the soul. There's the negative. But then the positive. Look at it.

30:37 Having your behavior seemly honorable good among the Gentiles. The NIV renders it live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. The New English Version. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evil doers they may see your good deeds and glorify God in the day of visitation.

31:21 What is Peter saying? Peter is saying be light and salt in the totality of your lifestyle. This is what he's saying. Not only abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul but may this be the very pattern of your lifestyle.

31:40 Having your lifestyle. That's the Greek word that speaks of the total complex of our whole life. Having your lifestyle honorable, good, seemly now notice among the Gentiles. You are the light of the world.

31:59 You are living among the Gentiles. The pagans. Those that are in the kingdom of darkness. Those that are not the sons and daughters of God.

32:09 You are to make conscience of living good lives among the pagans. Why? Because of two realities with respect to these pagans. They are speaking against you as evil doers and number two they are scrutinizing your life and seeing your good works.

32:36 So they are both speaking and they are seeing. Now why are they speaking against the people of God? Well, chapter 4 gives us some insight. Verse 3 1 Peter 4, 3 For the time past may suffice to have wrought the desire of here we are of the Gentiles the pagans to have walked in lasciviousness lust vine-bibbing revelings carousing abominable idolatries wherein they think it strange that you run not with them into the same excessive riot speaking evil of you.

33:13 You are the light of the world. Because they had been wrenched out of this profligate lifestyle and were living a life of conscientious pleasing of the Father seeking to imitate the Father to be consistent children of God that alternate lifestyle was light that shone backwards into all of their companions exposed their wickedness for what it was and so in self-defense the Gentiles the pagans they speak evil of them. They speak evil of you. They've got to find something that justifies their continuance in their lifestyle.

33:58 They are speaking against you as though you're doing evil all the while they know you're not doing evil. But at the same time they're speaking against you. Look at the text. They are scrutinizing you for the text says that wherein they speak against you as evildoers they may by your good works which they behold.

34:23 Just strange words not the standard word for looking at something. It's found only two places in the New Testament. Here and in chapter three. Look at chapter three for a moment.

34:37 In like manner you wives be in subjection to your own husbands that even if any obey not the word they may without a word be gained by the behavior of the wives here's our word beholding your chaste manner of life. Now how closely does a husband behold the manner of life of a wife? That's a pretty close relationship. He scrutinizes.

35:06 He watches her when she gets up in the morning. She goes off to have her devotions. He watches her when she goes out in the kitchen fixes his breakfast. He goes into his drawer to get his underwear and into the closet to get his shirt.

35:19 His underwear's been washed and folded and put in the drawer. His shirt is ironed it's in the closet. He's scrutinizing her. He's looking to see how does she live with this Jesus business.

35:31 With this child of God thing that she talks about. He's scrutinizing. Now Peter says in the same way these people who speak against you are scrutinizing your life. And what are they seeing?

35:45 It says that they may by your good works which they behold. They can't shut down the kind of works that come out of these Christians because they are the salt of the earth. They are the light of the world. They have stamped upon their inner being all of those features of the Beatitudes.

36:14 And having made the tree good the fruit is going to be good. They have a lifestyle that the unconverted scrutinize constantly. And he says in so doing this is what could be the issue. Notice the text.

36:34 That they may by your good works that they behold glorify God when? In the day of visitation. Now this phrase day of visitation means a special nearness of God either in judgment or in mercy. You find the emphasis on judgment in a passage and there are many of them.

37:01 I only cite one of them Isaiah 10 and verse 3. Listen to the language of the prophet Isaiah chapter 10 and verse 3. And what will you do in the day of visitation and in the desolation which shall come from far? To whom will you flee for help?

37:23 And where will you leave your glory? Here God is announced through the prophet. Woes of God's judgment that are going to come upon them in their sin and he calls that special coming of God a day of visitation. But God's drawing near to show mercy is also called a day of visitation.

37:47 Luke chapter 19 and verse 44. When Jesus is weeping over Jerusalem this is his great concern of heart. Luke 19 and verse 44. And they shall dash you to the ground your children within you they shall not leave in you one stone upon another because you knew not the time of your visitation.

38:14 What was the time of visitation? When in the person of Jesus the kingdom of God was drawing near. This was a day of visitation. Luke 7 and verse 16.

38:27 You have a similar emphasis that day of visitation is a day of God's special nearness in mercy. Luke 7, 17 and his report I'm 7, 16 I'm sorry. Here the Lord Jesus has raised a dead one the son of his mother this widow and when word spreads about Jesus raising this boy from the dead verse 16 fear took hold on all and they glorified God saying a prophet is arisen among us and God has visited his people. Now what is Peter saying?

39:11 Well I'm persuaded that this is the thought. I'm going to paraphrase. You saints scattered abroad through Asia Minor as you are determined to wage war against anything that wages war on the state of your state of your soul and as you commit yourself to an honorable lifestyle of careful meticulous obedience to God living to his praise living out the dispositions of the Beatitudes among the Gentiles what will happen? Your Godly lifestyle is the children of God will be a powerful evangelistic tool

39:56 so that when God comes in power through the gospel they will have seen its influence in your good works and those good works have burrowed their way into their consciences so that in the day of God's visitation in power and in grace they will glorify God saying this gospel is true I saw it in John I saw it in Mary I saw it in Henry I saw it in Pete I saw it in his life day after day in the workplace when the latest dirty joke was told he slipped out of the room I saw it in the way he responded when the boss

40:41 was churlish and nasty and of all of us gathered in the lunch room and bad mouthed the boss his mouth was shut and he sat quietly reading a book I saw it when one of the young ladies came in dressed like a harlot and all the guys around her and made comments about her backside and her bosom his eyes were turned away we saw it in his good works and I could go on and on and in the day when God mercifully comes to deal with one of those sinners that are yet in the kingdom of darkness in the family of the evil one they will glorify God in the day of visitation thank you

41:25 God I saw it I saw a real Christian I see that this gospel stuff is not a bunch of talk it's reality I saw it in the life of John I saw it in the life of Mary I cannot deny and they glorify God in the day of visitation do you see the parallels with first Peter two twelve and Matthew five sixteen I wonder if Peter was not consciously thinking of that day on the mountain side in Galilee and he heard Jesus say you are the light of the world

42:10 shine forth by your good works that they may glorify your father who is in heaven do you see the parallels that's the first of the supporting text now I want to direct supporting text as I try to prove to you that if you name the name of Christ and claim to be an adopted son or daughter you have a solemn duty so to live before unbelievers that if God is pleased to give a day of visitation they can point to you

42:55 and say that's what a Christian is their lifestyle to talk about this kind of question today you know the true God and that is the Bible I know the Bible can tell me who that is knows faithful and

Supporting Text 2: Philippians 2:12-16 – Shining as Lights in a Perverse Generation

43:26 to God and you may plan things It's a marvelous statement of Christ as the great example of selflessness. Paul then says, so then, my beloved, even as you've obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

43:57 For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and questionings, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God, without blemish, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you are seen as lights in the world, holding fast or holding forth the word of life. Now note the initial imperative, starting in verse 12.

44:39 These Philippian believers, these sons of God, children of God, as he calls them in verse 15, have been united to Christ. They have been brought into the way of God's salvation, and now he says to them, in my absence, much more now, I want you to do this. I want you to continue to be obedient to all that you know of the will of God, and he says, as an expression of that obedience, work out your own salvation. Not work for it, work towards it.

45:19 But work it out. You have that salvation in Jesus Christ. You are the children of God. Now, live like children of God. Work out that salvation.

45:32 And how are they to do it? With fear and trembling.

45:37 That is, with careful, serious anxiety to make sure I'm doing what I ought to do. There's not a shred of evidence in the Bible. To justify a careless, cavalier, laid-back Christian life. Fear and trembling.

46:01 Not the fear and trembling of the guilty criminal who thinks around every corner there's a policeman who's going to apprehend him. But it's still fear and trembling. It's the fear and the trembling of careful, serious anxiety to do what is right and pleasing before God. I question whether a person is converted who doesn't know what it is to struggle.

46:30 Should I or should I not this, that, or the other? Would this please my Heavenly Father? Would this make me more like my Savior and therefore be a part of imitating my Father? They just carelessly move along in all the patterns they've moved in for years.

46:47 They know nothing of the fear and the trembling of the working out. Of their salvation. And what's the foundational encouragement to do this for? Look at the text.

47:03 For, verse 13. Do this because God who works in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure. You can give yourself to the working out of your salvation in the confidence that if you're a true child of God, united to Christ, God is constantly working in you. Working both the will and the enabling power to accomplish His benevolent saving purposes in you.

47:37 You see there again, that's why I don't understand Christians that don't like the word duty. I love the word duty because I know God is working in me to will to do my duty. And to give me the power to perform what He wills. I love it.

47:53 When my... When my will is inclined to do what I ought to do.

47:57 I love it. Because I know I didn't create it. And you who hate your duty, could it be you know nothing of the power of God changing you from a rebel to a willing subject. I wonder.

48:14 Paul could assume that this would excite the Philippians. Work it out. Fear. Trembling.

48:20 All seriousness. Anxiety and concern to please God. And then they are comforted. God's at work in me to will and to work for His good pleasure.

48:31 There's the principle. Now like a good preacher, He doesn't stop there. He's going to get pointed in His application. Verse 14.

48:40 Here's the first thing He wants to address. In this working out of salvation. Conscious of God's working in to will and to perform of His good pleasure. Do all things without murmuring.

48:55 And disputing. Here's the negative positive motif again. It's everywhere in the Bible. Paul saw parallels between God's old covenant people and God's people under the new covenant.

49:10 He saw many contrasts. We saw one of the major ones when we were opening up the doctrine of adoption. Even the best of God's people under the old covenant were like children under age who didn't come in to the full possession of the liberties of sons. But he saw many parallels.

49:31 1 Corinthians chapter 10. He has a whole section in which he shows the sins of the wilderness generation. And he says don't do what they did. They lusted.

49:45 They committed fornication. They murmured don't be like them. And in seeing those parallels, he says to this new, new covenant community, don't be guilty of the sins that marked that wilderness generation. Sinclair Ferguson comments on this negative injunction.

50:10 Why was this such unacceptable behavior? Because it was deep ingratitude in the face of the saving grace and continuing activity of God. A complaining and arguing spirit is an expression of the grace of God. Expression of ingratitude to God's providence and of lovelessness and pride toward others.

50:32 It's a denial of grace. It's a working against salvation rather than working salvation out in every aspect of our lives. In the face of the self-humbling of Jesus and the servant spirit that was his, murmuring and argument are ugly monsters. Every child of God should recognize them as a child of God.

50:54 Every child of God should recognize them as a child of God. Every child of God should recognize them as a child of God. As what Americans call no-no's. Parents feel very responsible to make sure their children realize there are no-no's.

51:05 What about our own lives as children of the living God? Do all things without murmurings, questionings, disputings. Then the positive. What's the positive?

51:18 Here it is. That you may become by refusing, to indulge in murmurings and questionings and disputings and discontentment and a lack of appreciation for the wise, loving providence of God in your life. You refuse to indulge in those things and in so doing you become what? Children of God.

51:50 Blameless and harmless. Not sinless and faultless. Yes. But blameless and harmless.

52:00 Children of God without blemish. Children of God without some distinguishing ethical abnormality that stands out like a mole on the end of the nose of an otherwise beautiful woman. He says that's what you're to be. Children of God marked by these three negatives.

52:28 Blameless, harmless, without blemish. Now notice, where is all of this to be manifested? In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. And you know where he got that language?

52:47 Crooked and perverse? Right out of Deuteronomy 32 and verse 5. Showing that his mind is steeped in these Old Testament perspectives. Here Moses speaks in the ears of all the assembly this song.

53:05 And here, after speaking that God was the rock, his work is perfect, a God of faithfulness. He describes that wilderness generation in verse 5. They have dealt corruptly with him. They are not his children. Now look

53:21 at the language. It is their blemish. They are a perverse, and crooked generation.

53:31 Paul says the wilderness crowd there under Moses were a blemished crowd. A crooked and perverse generation. He says now, you are to shine forth, blameless, harmless, no blemish, in the midst, in the midst of this world that is crooked, scolios. It is twisted.

53:58 It is a crooked and perverse generation. Then he says, among whom,

54:08 among whom you're in contact with them, they with you, and among them you are seen as lights in the world. You are the light of the world. You are seen as lights in the world. You are sons of God, consistent with who and what you are. And your lifestyle

54:35 shows up the darkness. You are luminaries. You are like suns and moons against the dark night of the unregenerate all around you. And then he says there's an attendant activity holding forth the verb.

54:58 The commentators, the Bible translators can't decide. Is it holding forth the word of life? Out of the context of sons and daughters of God whose lives embody the power of the gospel. They speak and don't open your mouth in any other setting. That's why

55:19 I'm pained at this idea. Get people together in the seminar. Give them some gimmicks to go out and witness and all the rest. And their lives are shoddy.

55:30 Inconsistent. Keep your mouth shut. If Paul is saying by this verb, holding forth, it's in the context of becoming blameless, harmless sons of God without blemish. They're the ones to hold forth.

55:50 It may mean holding fast. And that's why all the Bible translators, if they translated holding forth, they put in the margin holding fast. If they translated holding fast, they put in the margin holding forth. And my persuasion is when God the Holy Ghost used the word that is ambiguous, it's because He wants both. What makes

56:16 you this kind of person? You hold fast to the word. What you hear this morning is not lost by three o'clock this afternoon. It gets into you.

56:30 It grips you. You have dealings with God. The word. The word is fused to your soul, to your mind.

56:42 That's how you become this kind of a person. Father, He prays, sanctify them in the truth. Thy word is truth. And how does the sanctifying power of the word do its work when we hold it fast?

56:57 And when we hold it fast, we become blameless, harmless children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you are seen. You're seen before you're heard. You're seen before you're heard.

57:18 I'll never forget my mother saying, Son, I never had a child that didn't walk before it talked.

57:27 They learned to walk. They learned to talk. You are seen. And in that context, holding forth the word of life. Here

57:40 again, the emphasis is upon so living as the sons of God that what we are, what we don't do, murmuring, questioning, grousing, what we do, all conspire to validate our identity as the children of God, children of a holy heavenly Father living before a world as light in that world. Again, listen to Dr. Ferguson. Underlying Paul's thinking is a principle.

58:20 Christian witness is dependent not merely on what we say, but on what we are. How often we deny the truth of the gospel by the spirit in which we speak or the un-gospel like tendencies our lives exhibit. But Paul says here in this passage, work out the salvation. Salvation, which is ours in union with Christ, and these negatives and positives are in place. Our whole life becomes

58:51 a powerful witness to those around us. We may not be conscious of it, but they cannot ignore it. They will either be drawn to Christ, or will repel Him. We are the light of the world, said Jesus, the light of the world, and we must let that light shine.

59:12 Similarly, says Paul, when salvation is worked out into our lives, we shine like stars in the universe as we hold out the word of life. Well, I lay before you my front and center text, my two supporting texts, and I believe if you love your Bible and appreciate responsible exposition, at least in great measure, I've carried your conscience that the third great duty, the ethical necessity of sonship, of adoption, is so to live before an

Concluding Application: Where to Let Our Light Shine

59:55 onlooking world that should God be pleased to begin to draw them, they will glorify God, and your life and my life will have been instrumental in that day of visitation. Now in the time that remains, let me quickly make one foundational concluding application. It's the great question, where are we to let our light shine? All three of these texts answer that question very clearly. Matthew 5, 16,

60:35 let your light so shine before men. The Philippians passage, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, the Peter passage, among the Gentiles. It is in face-to-face, living interaction with the unconverted. Now, for most of us, our days are lived in the context of the routine, the ordinary, and the mundane.

61:08 If we're not shining in that context, we're not shining at all. You parents, before your unconverted children, that's the world in which you are to let your light shine. Before your neighbors, who know not the Savior, the clerks in the stores and banks where you do business, classmates at school, work associates, that's the life that most of us live. That's our world in which we confront the world, and it is in that world that we are to let our light shine.

61:46 Again, Dr. Ferguson, it's generally true that until we see what the teaching of the gospel looks like in someone's life, we do not really understand what it means. That's why the preaching of the gospel can never be isolated from the life of the church. It is only when non-Christians see the power of the gospel in people, they know that they are likely to respond to it.

62:13 Do people see the transforming power of the gospel? Let me ask you young adults. Here's a group of young single adults. They go over to Applebee's to have a time together.

62:28 Then they're going to go out and who knows what else they're going to do, and they see a group of young singles from Trinity Church sitting there laughing, belting down their mixed drinks just like they are, discussing what's the latest rage among mixed drinks? What a travesty. Saying to these other young people, huh, they got to get their buzz with their booze like we do. What's the difference?

63:05 Hmm? I ask you, what's the difference to know that that goes on with members of this church? Call me a legalist. I stand on the word of God. You want to

63:36 shine His lights? I give personal testimony. I've had waitresses say to me and other Christian couples with whom I've sat in settings like the one I just described, how is it you people seem so happy and cheerful, and you're not belting down booze to get a high? And I've been able to say it's because of Jesus. It's because we know

64:00 Jesus, and we love Jesus, and He's flooded our hearts with joy. That has actually happened. You know I don't take the position that the Bible binds the conscience to be a teetotaler, but young adults have no need to be sitting belting down mixed drinks in a public setting. Shameful.

64:25 Saying to the world, we need what you need in order to be fulfilled, in order to have our highs, in order to feel good. It's one thing to know what my liberties are in Christ. It's another thing to forego those liberties to demonstrate to a non-looking world, I don't need what you need to get what you get. I have a source of joy, peace, and delight in my Savior.

64:57 What about you, living before the world in your own home? What do your kids see, man, in the way you relate to your wife? Do they see you treating her like a queen? Honoring her, giving honor to her as the weaker vessel, dwelling with her in a sensitive, knowledgeable way as Peter says.

65:21 Shining as a light. And when you blow it, and when you're irritated, and you speak the unkind word, or you're quick, not only to ask your wife's forgiveness, but sit your kids down and say, Dad didn't act like a son of the kingdom. I acted like a son of that kingdom out of which God took me. I've asked God's forgiveness.

65:43 Kids, please forgive Dad. I didn't act like a son without spot, without blemish. But the blood of Christ has cleansed me. Will you forgive?

66:00 Do you live that way? Come on, man, get honest. Do you live that way? And when you as a wife buck against your husband's headship, he may not be the most tactful, wise, gentle leader in the home, granted.

66:16 But the Bible says wives be subject to your husbands in everything. And let the wife see that she reverends her husband. Do you do that? Or do you buck him, stand up against him, and you do it even in front of the kids?

66:32 As far as they know, that's normal. Your heart's not broken. You don't go before God. You don't go before your husband.

66:42 You don't go before your children and say, kids, Mom acted in a way that looked like I'm still in the kingdom of darkness. Where the neighbor's wives buck their husbands and resist their headship. But I'm a child of God and I did not like one. Will you forgive me?

67:02 Do you do that, women? Come on. Get honest. Do you do it?

67:08 You young people in relationships, the Bible says, flee fornication. The world laughs at it and mocks at it and says, don't you know, old preacher, this is the day when we can take the pill and we don't need to worry about pregnancy. And if we slip up, we can get the morning after pill and make sure there's no conception or we block and kill what's been conceived. Flee fornication.

67:43 The world clinging, touching, embracing, petting with abandonment. What about you as a Christian? Are you fleeing fornication? Fleeing sexual uncleanness?

68:04 Setting up strict guidelines that until our wedding day, this will not be touched. That will not be touched. This will not be a part of our lives. Shining as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation in the common ordinary interaction with the bank teller. She makes a

68:32 mistake and you get irritated and you show it. What do you do more than others? That clerk that messes up on tallying up what you've bought at pennies or some other place and you stand there. Is that shining as a light? That's a big

68:56 mole on the end of your spiritual nose. Dear people, you take this stuff seriously and it's revolutionary. That's a duty, the responsibility, the privilege I have as a Christian man or woman so to live. As a child of God, that God might be pleased to use the impact of my life to bring others to come and to glorify my God.

69:33 May God be pleased to use his word. I say in closing, how many of you saw that Dateline presentation last Friday about the mixed up two girls that were in the accident. One was killed and one was not. Did any of you see that?

69:52 It was one of the most moving illustrations of what I'm talking about. Absolutely moving of people who were simply living out what they are in Christ in such a way as the gospel was marvelously displayed in what it does in human hearts. Well, dear people, I'm done. I'm a sad preacher.

70:20 I'm done with my preaching on the doctrine of adoption. May God grant that we who have embraced our privileges will with ever increasing determination embrace our duties and responsibilities and the ethical implications of living as the children of God. Let's pray. Our Father, we pray that you would bless your word to every heart gathered here this morning.

70:54 We acknowledge that left to ourselves we are shoddy and careless in the way we live before an onlooking world. We pray you would forgive us and give us grace that by the power of the Holy Spirit we may be sons and daughters of God shining as luminaries in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation. Oh God, help us, we pray. We plead in Jesus' name. Amen.