Purpose of This Study

The Inevitable Second Question: How Shall I Live?

0:03 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, September 13, 1992, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:15 Let us again ask the Lord's help upon the ministry of His Word. Let us pray. Father, we have just corporately prayed in Your presence that You would come by Your Word and do battle in our own hearts. We do welcome You into our hearts to slay all that is false, all that is not true, all of our thinking that does not line up with Your Word, all of our desires, our motives.

0:57 Come by Your Word and have dealings with our hearts. Go beyond, we pray, the Word falling merely upon the outer vestibule of the ear or merely upon those who are in the midst of it. Go beyond those segments of our brain where words register. O Lord, penetrate into the deepest, darkest recesses of our hearts and there speak words of creative light and life, we plead.

1:27 Hear us, O God, as we ask this mercy through the Lord Jesus Christ. Our human being, in any age and in any place, can ask no question of greater importance, than the question asked by a trembling man in a jailhouse located in the ancient city of Philippi nearly 2,000 years ago. The man's question, familiar to many of you, was this,

2:08 Sirs, what must I do to be saved? His question revealed that he was conscious that he was presently engraved in danger as a sinner, a sinner naked and exposed to the wrath of God. His question also revealed that he was in blood earnestness about getting out of his present state of danger and into a place of safety. Now, no answer to that most important of all questions is the correct answer, but that which was given by the Apostle Paul and his disciples.

2:51 Companion Silas, and is recorded in Acts 16.31, their answer to the question being, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. They did not answer this burning question, what must I do to be saved, by pointing the jailer to himself, to other human beings, or to rituals or religious forms and ceremonies. Rather, they pointed this trembling man to a person, a unique person who accomplished a unique salvation for sinners.

3:33 And furthermore, they told this man that he must rest the full weight of his sin-sick soul in all of its vulnerability and nakedness, that he must rest it totally upon this person, and the work that he accomplished for sinners. And they encouraged him to do so by adding this wonderful promise that he would most assuredly be saved upon believing. Now, once any one of you has asked this most important of all questions, and by the grace of God has been brought to embrace

4:17 with all of your heart the one action, the most accurate answer to that question, then there is a second question that inevitably follows. And that question, which always arises in the heart of someone who has asked the first question, what must I do to be saved, has embraced the divine answer and is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, I say inevitably a second burning question will arise, in that believing heart. And that question is this, how shall I now live

4:59 so as to please the God who in Christ has saved me from sin and its consequences? Everyone who is truly saved by faith in Christ instinctively asks this second question. And the reason is that the transforming power of God's grace that brings me to life, that brings any man, woman, boy, or girl to faith in Christ, always implants in that believing sinner a fundamental desire to please Christ. The whole center of one's moral being and passion

5:40 is transformed from self and sin to Christ and to a life of holiness. This is made clear in a text such as 2 Corinthians 5.15, and he died for all of us. For all that they who live should no longer henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again.

Context: The Christian Life in the Church Manifesto

6:06 Now it is the Bible's answer to this second question, namely, how shall I as a saved person live so as to please the God who has saved me, that we will attempt to answer in the coming weeks in our morning ministry of the Word of God. And we will do so, because in our present series of studies entitled A Manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church, a series being preached during this year of our 25th anniversary as a church and as a congregation, in this series we're presently considering the ninth affirmation in that manifesto. And that affirmation is this,

6:49 that we are determined to maintain a balanced, New Testament perspective in our teaching and expectations concerning conversion, the Christian life, and the mission of the church. For several months, all of our attention was focused on the issue of conversion, its necessity, the essential elements of it, and the inevitable fruits and accompaniments of true conversion. We now shift our focus, to that second issue embodied in that affirmation that we are equally determined

7:32 to maintain a balanced, New Testament perspective in our teaching and expectations concerning not only conversion, but the Christian life.

Objective 1: Recognize and Repudiate False Notions

7:47 And as we direct our attention to this vast subject, I want to set before you this morning as the very heart of the ministry of the Word of God, my three-fold objective as we now move to this aspect of our study. There are three very clear objectives that I have in mind. It is certainly not to give a fully comprehensive and extensive preachment of the whole doctrine of the Christian life. This would take not only months, but at least several years of preaching.

8:25 But it is my condition to focus upon this three-fold objective and to say as much as is necessary to accomplish it. First of all, it is to help some of you to recognize and to repudiate false notions concerning the Christian life which you may have assimilated. My first objective is to help some of you to recognize and to repudiate false notions concerning the Christian life. False notions concerning the Christian life which you may have assimilated.

9:04 Now, why is this my concern? Well, for this reason. It is truth alone which is the mother of godliness. Turn, please, to Titus 1 and verse 1, where we have one of the most succinct statements of this great biblical principle that truth alone is the mother of godliness.

9:27 He begins his letter to Titus. He greets him with these words, Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness. And it is that phrase, the truth which is according to godliness. Paul, as a boy, bond-slave of God and a duly constituted apostle of Jesus Christ,

10:11 was a role given to him by the living God in the service of that truth which accords with godliness. That truth which alone is the mother of godliness and that godliness which must always have truth as a mother.

10:36 Now, there is a form of godliness that does not have truth as its mother, but it has lies and misconceptions as its mother. Wherever true godliness exists, it is always the child of truth. And wherever truth is truly believed and embraced from the heart under the influence of the Spirit, it will always have its child called truth. The mother, and the child are never separated in valid Christian experience.

11:13 And the apostle recognizes that bound up in his whole identity and ministry as an apostle is this inseparable relationship between truth and godliness. Therefore, the desire of every true servant of God is to help God's people to recognize and repudiate any notions in any area that they may have a chance to have. They do not accord with the truth because they know that to the extent that errors are held in the mind, godliness will be impeded in the life. And so it does not surprise us when we turn to the New Testament to see that one of the passions

11:56 of the New Testament writers was to enable God's people both to recognize and to repudiate the truths to which they belong. And so, God's people recognize and to repudiate any notions in any area that they may have a chance to have. And so, God's people recognize and to repudiate any notions in any area to which they were not only exposed but which to some degree they had assimilated. Look at several examples of this.

12:19 First of all, Colossians chapter 2. Without going into any detail relative to the whole picture of the errors that were floating around and infecting the church at Colossae, it is clear, according to the latter part of Colossians 2, that the erroneous teaching of the church at Colossae had a strain of pagan asceticism in it. And young Christians were being told if you would really live the Christian life with a capital L, if you would really take off and sprout wings in your Christian life, then you must subject yourselves to these rules of asceticism.

13:04 This is Colossians 2 and verse 20. If you abide with Christ from the root of your soul, you will not be a human. If you abide with Christ from the root of your soul, you will not be a human. If you abide with Christ from the root of your soul, you will not be a human.

13:12 If you abide with Christ from the root of your soul, you will not be a human. Why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourself to ordinances? Hand not, nor taste, nor touch, all which things are to perish with the using after the precepts and doctrines of men. Men were imposing upon them rules and regulations that had no root system in the word of God.

13:39 They were not a legitimate, deduction even, of biblical standards. They had their origin in the perspectives and the dictates of men. And notice what he says about them in verse 23.

13:54 Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship and humility and severity to the body, but are not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.

14:13 The heart of the Christian life as we saw in our previous studies with reference to the inevitable fruits of conversion is this lifetime warfare with remaining sin. And these Colossians knew that they were in that warfare and along came people who were spewing out errors saying, do you really want to make progress in this matter of your warfare against the flesh, against remaining sin? Then you must submit yourself to this regimen of ascetic behavior. Touch not, tangle not, taste not.

14:51 And man-made rules and regulations were being imposed upon the people of God. And Paul says, no, I must inform you because these things are not rooted in truth. They cannot produce any aspect of new godliness. They are of no benefit with respect to this matter of indulgence, of indulgence, of the flesh.

15:15 So the apostle this motive in writing as he did to help some of the Colossians to recognize and repudiate false notions regarding the Christian life which they had begun to assimilate. Here, it was the false notion of asceticism that if we somehow beat down the body and its God-given appetites and capacity for enjoyment of God's gifts, will we, will we be holier? But then in Galatians 5, we see him going after another false notion. Here, not the notion of asceticism, but of legalism or the Judaizing influence

15:59 that came to the churches of Galatia. The book of Galatians, chapter 5. And Paul has been laboring to do what? To help these people both to recognize and to repudiate these false notions.

16:15 And in chapter 5, he writes, verse 7, you were running well.

16:23 Here, the Christian life is likened to running a race. And that's one of the dominant images in the New Testament. It's a marathon race. It's not a hundred yard or a two-thirty dash.

16:35 It's a marathon race. We're in it for the long haul. We must run the race, the writer to Hebrews says, with endurance, with patience. And he said, you were running well.

16:48 You were living out your Christian life with a degree of efficiency and success. Who hindered you? Now notice that you should not obey the truth.

17:01 While you were running, energy and strength that cut the pack on which you ran. And as long as was exerting its dominant influence, you were running well. But you're no longer running well, so he assumes that somewhere along the line, somebody has brought in error in place of the truth. Lies have been propagated in place of the truth.

17:33 He says, this persuasion came not of him that calleth you. The God who called you is the God of truth. And whenever you're led away from the truth, it isn't the God who called you who's leading you away. So I want to know from what source did this persuasion come?

17:49 It certainly didn't come from the God of truth. Because he brought you into the race by the power of truth. And you were running well under the influence of truth. And now that you're halting, it's because you have imbibed something other than the truth with reference to your Christian life and walk.

18:10 And if we have any familiarity with the book of Galatians, we know what notions they were imbibing. He explicitly addresses them in this chapter and throughout the entire book. They were embracing, if they were not only to be accepted before God and be full-blown Christians, that they had to be circumcised and submit themselves to the total Mosaic legislation. They were going further and saying, if you would make advancements in the Christian life, truly live so as to please God, you can only do so as you live out the life of a kosher Jew.

18:47 And this was error. And the apostle does not treat it lightly. He says, this persuasion not come from the one who called you. What was he doing?

18:58 He was pouring out his heart in this white-hot letter seeking to enable these Galatians to recognize and to repudiate false notions concerning the Christian life which they had begun to assimilate. So there was the problem of asceticism that he dealt with in the book of Colossians. The problem here of Lelism or Judaistic tendencies. But look at Hebrews 12.

19:27 They apparently had begun to imbibe a theology of the Christian life that I would call escapism.

19:35 And the writer to Hebrews seeks to enable them to recognize and repudiate this false notion of escapism. He begins the 12th chapter with calling his readers to a renewed commitment to running this race. He calls them to do preparation for the race. Laying aside every weight and the sin that does so easily set us.

20:04 He calls them in this race to fix their eyes upon Jesus. Verse 2. And constantly to consider Christ. Verse 3.

20:13 Consider him that endured such gainsaying of sin against himself that you wax not weary fainting in your souls. Now this is what he calls upon them to do. Now what were they not doing or what were they doing that was not right? Verse 4.

20:32 You have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin and you have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with sons. My son, regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art reproved of him for whom the Lord loveth each. Chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. It is for chastening that you endure.

21:01 God is dealing with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father chastens not? But if you are without chastening whereof all have been made partakers then are ye bastards, illegitimate sons and not true sons. What had happened?

21:16 Apparently they had imbibed some teaching on the Christian life that I'm calling for lack of a better term an escapism. In which somehow they would not experience the degree of hardship that they were experiencing. Hardship was coming as a fatherly discipline to help them to hold loose to this present world. To fix their eyes upon Jesus.

21:40 To run with patience the race that was set before them. And what does the writer do? He says you've forgotten something. I want you to recognize and repudiate any notion that you're going to go sailing to the sky on flowery beds of ease while others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas.

22:03 Consider your Lord. Consider those whom I have written about in the previous chapter. Some who were stoned and sawn asunder. Others who were sewed up in the skin of animals and thrown into the arena.

22:18 You've not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin. Because things are rough you're ready to quit because some of your goods are being taken from you. You're ready to quit because you're losing your job for your Christian testimony. He says you've forgotten something.

22:34 You have forgotten something. You've not only forgotten those who've gone before you. Heaven on flowery beds of ease. You've forgotten your Lord and His wrestling and travailing for your salvation.

22:50 You're not looking off unto Jesus who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross despising shame. And you have forgotten that if you are true sons God's going to whomp on you. God's not going to let you sulk and pout and just ignore it as childish behavior. God's not going to be an indulgent father who says kids will be kids.

23:16 Well that's the terrible twos and the frightening threes and the funky fours and who knows what else. God isn't going to deal with you that way. You've forgotten this. You have somehow bide the notion of escapism.

23:29 Come back! Come back to reality! The doctrine of the Christian life I'm propounding is one that you'd rather cling to Christ and die in a pool of your own blood than repudiate your Savior to extend your life for one hour.

23:47 See what he's doing? He's correcting. Enabling them to recognize and repudiate false notions concerning the Christian life. I mention only one other to show that this was the burden of John as well in 1 John chapter 1.

24:03 Apparently from the language of the Bible in which errors were floating around in the churches that John had a unique stewardship to influence by his ministry not only notions of antinomianism which we could see in this passage but also of perfectionism. Notice chapter 1 verse 8. If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins he is faithful and righteous forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

24:43 If we say we have not sinned there has come a point from which we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us. His word which is truth. If the truth is in us shaping what we think of ourselves and about moral and ethical issues no one in whom the truth resides will ever claim I am free from sin. And so John, John is seeking to help them recognize and to repudiate this false notion of perfectionism that among other things was infecting the thinking of these believers.

Objective 2: Immunize Against Future False Views

25:22 And although we are going to consider this theme of the Christian life as part of the manifesto I haven't forgotten where we are. I don't want you to think this is merely a looking back and a kind of antiquarian interest what has been done in our theology of the Christian life over these 25 years and a kind of setting forth of a declaration of by the grace of God what will be in the future I want us to recognize that there may well be immediate, pressing, personal needs to be met as we open up some of the major dimensions of the biblical teaching with reference to the Christian life. And therefore that is the first of my threefold objective

26:07 that by the blessing of God upon the preaching of the word to help some of you to recognize and repudiate false notions concerning the Christian life which you may have assimilated. But then secondly my objective is to immunize all of you against false views of the Christian life to which you may now or in the future be exposed to immunize all of you against the Christian life. against false views of the Christian life to which you may now or in the future be exposed. You see the first facet

26:52 of my objective is negative. It is corrective. This is positive or preventive. And the key passage that I want you to consider with me is in Ephesians chapter 4.

27:07 What is my objective? Not only to help some of you recognize and repudiate false notions but to immunize all of you against false views of the Christian life. In this chapter familiar to many of us it begins with that call to the maintenance of the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace and then the apostle sets forth those things which form the very top roots of that unity one body, one spirit, etc. Yet within that unity there is diversity.

27:46 First of all diversity of divine gift and the head of the church has conferred upon his church those to minister in various capacities and functions. Verse 11 And he gave some apostles and some prophets some evangelists and some pastors and teachers and then the purpose for which he gives these men and their various functions for the perfecting or mending of the saints unto the work of menacing unto the building up of the body of Christ till we all attain unto the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a full grown man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

28:32 We may be no longer children. Now without going into what is the precise grammatical connection between the first statement of purpose he has given these for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of service. Verse 14 In order that we may no longer be children this much is clear. God has given to his church pastors and teachers and one of the main purposes for which he has given them for the perfecting of the saints is that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind

29:16 of doctrine by the slight of men in craftiness after the wiles of error.

29:25 He focuses on two characteristics of children and he says the risen Christ has blessed his church among other things with pastors and teachers that we may no longer be children. And what two characteristics of children does he focus on? He focuses upon their instability tossed to and fro and their liability to be deceived to and fro with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men in craftiness after the wiles of error. He is concerned that the instability and the liability to be deceived or led astray

30:08 which are characteristic in a unique way of children would not be the marks of the Ephesian believers. He does not want them to be marked by a child-like instability. Well, what is it that creates this instability? It is the winds of false teaching that blow about.

30:31 And what characterizes false teaching? By the use of a combination of terms which suggest the common use of loaded dice and I leave you to the commentators to see why I have said that and the expert use of the dice of slight of hand he indicates that erroneous teaching does not usually stalk about like an ugly fire-breathing wart-infested dragon. That's not the way false teaching stalks about. An ugly warted air-breathing dragon all of us would run away from it.

31:10 No, he says that error comes to us with the cunningness of someone who is cunning us with loaded dice. And we don't have sense enough to know that that's what he's doing. Someone who has learned the clever sleight of hand in which to deceive us. St. Alenzi

31:30 the Lutheran commentator commenting on this imagery. Paul's effective characterization error and of those who propagate it is surely drawn from his own experience. He has been in vessels that were drifting helplessly in waves and wind tossed about with every wind of doctrine. He had seen soldiers and sailors use loaded dice to fleece some innocent greenhorn.

31:58 They had their expert system which was all fair and honest to the inexperienced eye, but deadly in its cunning and trickiness. Paul draws his composite picture and combines the significant terms compactly. Error always operates with a tricky expertness. It uses Bible passages apparent according to their real meaning and reasonings apparently sound and thus easily fools the infants in Christian faith and knowledge who have not yet grown up to Christian manhood and the age measure of the fullness.

32:39 And dear people I don't think we really take to heart as we ought the reality that Paul assumed would be present at Ephesus. That there would be no lack of those who would try with the cuss of the man with his loaded dice and his sleight of hand to con people into imbibing errors.

33:04 And it's very interesting that one of the words used here were translated in the 1901 Wiles of Error. Only other place that word Wiles is found in the New Testament is in Ephesians 6 and verse 11. With respect to the devil himself put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against our word Wiles the stratagems of the devil.

33:31 You see like its author error is deceitful.

33:37 Scriptures tell us in 2 Corinthians 11 3 and I ask you to turn there with me Paul was deeply concerned with the Corinthians that they would be deceived after what pattern? Verse 3 2 Corinthians 11 3 I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity that is towards Christ. My fear is not that you will confront a fire breathing dragon and walk in his jaws and under the scorching

34:21 influence not how Eve was more subtle than any beast of the food which the Lord God had made and he didn't come up to Eve and say you don't believe this baloney about eating has God said? Just ask an innocent question about what God said. Surely there's nothing wrong with wanting to know what God said. He began with his loaded dice and with his sleight of hand.

35:05 Further on in this chapter he makes one of the most amazing statements in all scripture verse 13 for such men are false apostles deceitful questioning themselves into apostles be surprised at this for even Satan fashioned himself as an angel Satan fashioned himself into a messenger of light again are synonymously many places in the scripture Satan himself fashions himself into an angel of light he's going to enlighten

35:50 us he's going to give us deeper insight to the way of God he's going to whisper us into the inner circle of only the initiated would you come closer to Christ I have super insights all the common riffraff you see you're something special and feed out of man that this is what happened with these so-called super apostles and they beguiled the whole church so to the very church

36:32 his credentials as an apostle he says it happened with our first mother as the serpent beguiled Eve no marvel Satan fashions himself into an angel of light it is no great thing therefore if his ministers fashion themselves notice now as ministers of righteousness please don't underestimate how much the devil has

37:17 insinuated himself into an onious teaching concerning the Christian life that has as its initial appearance a better way of living a more righteous life he's not naive and he opens up his heart and says this is my concern and dear people this is my concern not only to help some of you recognize the and repudiate false notions concerning the Christian life which you may have already assimilated to immunize all of you against false views of the Christian life which you may now or in the future be exposed and be exposed to them you will and I've used the word

38:01 immunized purposefully now any doctors here and any biology majors you forgive my oversimplification what is our immune system it's that marvelous part of our physiology which God has armed the body with a regiment of soldiers to fight unwanted invaders and when that unwanted virus or bacteria would invade the body and do it harm the soldiers are called forth to destroy the virus our immune system sets up shop and takes over and we end up in bed we get

38:46 sick attacked vital organs bacteria the bad bacteria multiply and then we have to take antibiotics to go out and help the soldiers to kill them to get better you see that's my concern that we be immunized an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure some of us can remember as kids when we got our first shot so we wouldn't get smallpox and we the little prick and oh it hurt for a moment but all we need to do is grow up enough and see pictures of what people are like who die of smallpox and we say little enough ice to be paid to be immunized against the real thing and those immunization shots what do they do they enable that regiment of

39:31 soldiers that exist with the body to fight certain invaders it increases that regiment enables them to fight off even the prince of those invaders now that's my

39:48 opinion against false views of the christian life to which some of us may be presley exposed but if not presley sooner or later you will be exposed if not to all than to some or many of these now before i leave this head and come to my final let me say something by way of application you see as surely as satan actively promotes erroneous answers to that first and most important of all questions must i do regarding that question when the lord of light and power to bring a man a woman a boy a girl to embrace

40:32 the truth with regard to the first question what must i do to be saved and that disturbed grace is god's one true answer to that question believe upon the lord and that person the enemy loses his subject but he's not done with his subject though he now has lost him to his kingdom he's determined by the gate of conversion and did his

41:17 best to blur out to the narrow gate he might have seeking to rub out all the trash and confuse us and have us wander in righteousness or self certainty and with vigor destination in the celestial city and so once

42:02 he has lost his subject regard to that first question he doesn't

42:10 must stand against the wild and beguiled eve your minds will be beguiled from the simplicity that is in Christ and I know that as those concerned about truth and righteousness the devil does not at all into an angel of his servants as the misters of righteousness here people we must not only be concerned that our understanding be clear and biblical with regard that first question and only proper answer but we must be jealous for this second question

42:54 how shall I live so as to please him who has saved me for these infant churches and did his best to immunize him and repudiate all the assimilated errors he spoke of those who go from house to house with their false teaching those who were wealthy might occasionally have a scroll in something of what we would call the printed page we would call it the printed parchment

43:35 individual believers in whole churches and infected that would leave television

44:03 making enterprise in the so-called Christian book ministry not be naive with now than he did in Paul's day or any genuine pastoral concern must

44:48 be all excited by certain types preaching anyone it was exciting when doctor I don't know how they give it now I can remember that very very wincing and putting but it was good and the day these were the only viruses of error have mercy on us

Objective 3: Lay Major Foundation Blocks for Christian Living

45:30 balance New Testament perspective with regard to our teaching and expectations in the Christian life my goals we enter into this aspect of our study help all of you recognize and repudiate false notions secondly to immunize all of you against false notions and then thirdly lay in your hearts and minds the major foundation block of the Christian life lay in your hearts notice I didn't say in your heads now there's no way to your heart but through your head

46:14 no truth can take hold of the heart that doesn't come to the head but it can stop at the head and never grip the heart and I'm not out simply to pad heads with knowledge even knowledge of truth but it's my goal under God

46:43 going from the medical to the construction field I was back carrying a hod and mixing mud and pushing a wheel barrel save up money to put myself through college buy my clothes and my shoes and other necessities in this life I worked for a small non-union construction company John Hughes up in Stamford Connecticut many decades ago and we would go in after the bulldozer dug the hole and we would pour the slag and then we'd raise up the concrete block wall and I can never never forget how careful Mr. Hughes was to make sure when the carpenters came in to

47:28 play down on the top of that last that they didn't have to use up all the spare shingles to get two or three courses he would shoot every corner this corner was a half inch down he'd tell whoever was laying the block look the next few courses a little extra mud along this side constantly checking why because if the foundation were skewered it was going to make the task of this much more difficult and if they were not careful over the years that house that was tilting just a little bit one way or another began to show up in settling cracks and in other deficiencies

48:13 and in the construction work but not in the best interest of its owner the foundation was absolutely essential to be something for which a man was truly concerned even though when we were almost every bit of it was hidden after the bulldozer came in and back filled though it was hidden it was crucial to that structure well this is my concern that deep in the foundations of your own understanding in your own heart to do this I give you two simple

Purpose of Foundation Blocks: Growth in Grace

48:58 reasons number one that you may continue to grow in grace stunting influence of ignorance and error as a people may continue to grow in grace without the Peter's concern when in chapter three a chapter and their having just said that even scriptures written by the apostle are being twisted what are these believers to do or beloved

49:42 being these things beforehand you see truth the handmaid of God you will fall away from steadfastness instead of that course he says take another but grow in grace

50:27 and that is my concern in seeking to lay in your hearts and minds the major foundation blocks of a biblical doctrine of Christian life is that you a people may continue to grow in grace and you again of Paul relations you running well I trust by the grace of God it can be said of us as a people not only that we were running well but we are and continue to and we will do so

Purpose of Foundation Blocks: Equipping to Help Others

51:07 concern under this heading and laying in our hearts and minds the major foundation blocks of a biblical doctrine of the Christian life not only we may continue to grow in Ephesians for this is the first purpose for which God gives pastors and teachers for the equipping does not mean that every Christian is to have a formal ministry does mean

51:52 that every Christian equitamates that service that we can have one to another is to be so established in the truth that we can take the opportunity of Priscilla Aquila to the preacher Apollos we close our study this morning we return to Acts chapter 18 Acts chapter 18

52:25 sorry verse 24 now a certain Jew named Apollos an Alexandrian by race an eloquent man came to Ephesus and he was mighty in the scriptures this man had been instructed in the way of the Lord in being fervent in spirit he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus knowing only the baptism of John whatever truth he knew he loved it he embraced

53:07 measure of truth he owned the revelatory data up there was a praying who would baptize not with water

53:41 and he began to speak boldly in the city what he knew he was speaking but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him they took him unto them and expounded unto him the way of God no indication that he

54:13 was concerned with the work of the gospel their names occur in other places in the epistles there was a church in their very home and when they heard this man they said he fervently what he knows to pass over into Achaia the brethren encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to receive him when he was come he helped them much that had believed through grace for he powerly confuted the Jews and

54:58 that publicly showing by the scriptures that Jesus was wonderful ministry God gave to Priscilla and Aquila and though they did not personally impact the numbers of people that Apollos did how many would give thanks to God that they are well grounded in the truth as it is in Jesus founded to this man a great gift but of greater spirit the humility of mine to go into the home of a concern of my heart a concern I'm sure shared by

55:43 all of your elders that you may be equipped as the people of God to help others and to minister one to another brings new life into the assembly and with that light some will carry the baggage of previous eros Christian life in some gross and grievous deviation at the level of morals or life by day contact your ear will pick up on things and you can lovingly sit down with a brother sister and

56:24 tell you what you meant by that I think it's a marvelous thing I've read the books of Watchman Knee and this beautiful concept that Christ lives his life through us and we just healed ourselves up and we become totally passive our mind and our we're iterated you some that like a cat on a mouse in your mind not on the person but in your mind and say that's the erroneous teaching that Christ replaces us Christians 220 Christ lives not in me but through me and life which he now lives through me that isn't what Paul said lives in me and the

57:08 love of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me and you'll be able to detect that erroneous notion lovingly sit down and open up the word of God and teach the way of God more perfect are to be equipped to this aspect is to lay in your hearts and minds major foundation blocks who may continue to grow in grace and not be stunted and error be equipped to help others

Recap: The Two Burning Questions

57:52 come around full circle to where we began the most important question anyone can ever ask what must I do to be have you ever asked it as the jailer did he didn't come sauntering in the room and say hey you bunch of religious guys in here tell me I'd like to discuss the doctrine of salvation what's a guy got to do to get saved no no I don't mean to ask it that way he was trembling he was on his knees in the presence of the very men whom he had placed in stock trembling serves what must I do to

58:37 be right with that God have you ever asked that question as a burning

59:19 you give yourself no rest until you take seriously and the spirit of God enables you to have a felt reality of your true state before you too will cry what must say one tell you any other answer but this believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be safe arms of rebellion

59:56 this second question how may I solely to please the God

Prayer for Realization of Objectives

60:20 Father we thank you for the sufficiency of your holy word we thank you for the realism of these letters of the new testament we thank you for the concern placed in the hearts of your servants to help your people to recognize and repudiate error to immunize them against errors and

61:04 to equip them that they might minister one to another oh Lord as we set out to realize these objectives we recognize that apart from the ministry of the spirit not one of them will be realized we therefore plead that your spirit may be given to us in covious measures shall you spare us in the consideration of these things send your spirit in power that we as a people may be able to recognize any erroneous notions that we have imbibed unknowingly Lord search us and try our hearts we desire to walk by nothing but truth which accords with God we would not house air

61:48 to unrighteousness immunize us we pray that we may not be led away from

61:59 we know that the slight of hand are on every hand help us oh God grant us a fresh holy discernment that we may more effectively minister one to another and to those who will bring into arms in days to come we will not be lazy visit were all of these things to those whose livelihood it is to labor in the word in doctrine but oh God give each one of us such a love of truth and love for our fellow men that according to our station and gift and opportunity we will count it our privilege

62:44 to minister the truth to others hear then our prayer and seal your word to our hearts