No Area of Passivity 3 of 4

Introduction to Major Principles of Christian Living

0:02 This adult Sunday school class was held on July 11, 1982, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:12 In this, our combined adult Bible class, we are considering together, and have been for a number of weeks, a very broad theme and subject, which we have entitled, Some Major Principles of Living the Christian Life. Now, from that title, it should be evident that we are not attempting to be exhaustive. We are not talking about all of the principles, or even all of the major principles, but some of the major principles with respect to the question of not how to enter upon the Christian life, but how to live having entered upon that life by the grace of God.

0:54 And our purpose is threefold, to sketch in a working theology, of living the Christian life, to seek under God to be immunized against the many errors that are afloat with respect to this subject, and hopefully to purge away any of those errors that we may have imbibed along the way. Now, our method is very simple. I state a principle, seek to explain the meaning of the words of that principle, and then we go to the scriptures together, seeking to show from the word of God that that principle is true. That principle stated is indeed a distillation, a summary statement of the overarching teaching of the word of God.

Review of Previous Principles and Introduction of Principle Three

1:38 Now, thus far, we have examined two major principles and are in the process of examining a third. Now, will someone from the class please give me the first major principle that we studied together?

1:52 Someone from this side?

1:55 All right, Jerry. All right, there is no one master key to living the Christian life. We need the whole of the Bible. We need the whole of the Bible to live whole lives in Christ.

2:08 All right, principle number two. Someone from this side of the class?

2:17 Denise? All right, there is no release from tension and conflict in living the Christian life, and we examined for several weeks the four major factors which make that principle true. Now, we are concerned with opening up a third major principle of living the Christian life. This one's a bit more of a mouthful.

2:39 Has someone been able to swap? Follow it and give it back to us. All right, Frank?

2:51 Excellent. All right, there is no negation or suspension. No negation, that is cancellation or suspension, that is lifting up to the realm where it is non-operative of any of the faculties of our redeemed humanity in living the Christian life. Now, having explained what we mean by the words, what we mean by the words of that principle, and the fact that in setting out that principle, we're attempting to deal primarily with errors in the area of the doctrine of the indwelling Christ, errors with respect to extending analogies of the Christian life beyond their biblical warrant,

3:35 and then an imbalanced doctrine of sanctification by faith alone. Now, our method, as I said it before you last week, was first of all, to just take a number of biblical passages in which the various faculties of our redeemed humanity are addressed many times with imperative verbs, demonstrating that in the living of the Christian life, our minds are to be active, our affections, our feet, our hands, and what you did last week is to give a number of texts which we just put in the general circle of what we might call the overarching teaching, the overarching teaching of the Word of God.

4:15 Then we attempted to reduce those verses to several major categories, and if we view the Christian life in the category of evangelical law-keeping, that is, keeping the law of God out of motives of love to God as those who've received the free grace of God in Christ, then certainly no faculty is exempt from conscious exercise in living the Christian life. For the essence of evangelical law-keeping is, according to our Lord, loving the Lord our God with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul, and with all our strength. Another major category of living the Christian life is the putting off of sin,

5:00 mortification, or the use of such terminology as putting off the deeds of the old man. And we notice that the key verses which bring the Christian life to that point, are the following. The negative category are verses in which we are called upon to do the mortifying, the slaying, the putting off of the deeds of the old man. We are not called upon to ask Christ to do it.

5:28 We are not called upon to yield so that the Holy Spirit will do it for us. We are called upon to do it. Likewise, with the positive aspect, if we view the Christian life as growing conformity to Christ, we note that we are commanded to put on the virtues of Christ. We are commanded to follow his steps.

5:48 We are commanded to walk as he walked. And then we looked at some of the major figures of the Christian life, the military figures, the athletic figures, and in all of them, we are called upon to be active, very active, in the totality of our redeemed humanity. So much for that review of what we've covered in several mornings of lessons. Now what we're going to do, this morning, is to reduce all of this material from the largest to the lesser amount in these broad categories.

The Concept of Epitomizing Texts

6:21 Now we want to look at what we are calling epitomizing texts. Now I'm using the word epitomizing purposely. If you were to look up the word epitome, you would find it defined this way in Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. An epitome is a person or thing that is representative or typical of the characteristic or general quality of a whole class.

6:53 A person or thing that is representative or typical of a whole class. For instance, if we talk about Marines, and you were to see a young man, say, in his early or mid-twenties, about 5 foot 10 or 11, 165 pounds, all raw bone, muscle, sinew, square jaw, crew cut, blue eyes, determined look, dressed in beautiful Marine dress blues, you'd say that man is the epitome of everything you think about when you think about a Marine. He embodies in his person all of the details of what a Marine is supposed to be.

7:37 So an epitomizing text is a text in which, in a very real sense, the broad teaching of the entire Bible is distilled in a very brief statement of the Word of God. And that's the great helpfulness of epitomizing text. To master the teaching of an epitomizing text is to have in one's hand, as it were, the distillation of large segments of the entirety of the Word of God. And to have some working understanding and acquaintance of the epitomizing texts is to be able to have, as it were, God's own keys, plural, to unlock many other texts

Philippians 2:12-13: Working Out Salvation with Fear and Trembling

8:20 and many other portions of the Word of God. All right, any question now as to where we've been, what we're doing, and what we propose to do today? Yeah, well, ma'am, if you will, please, this is a question. If we have a question, I'll be glad to address it, but this is not an...

8:41 All right, you may address the question. Well, ma'am, that's really not relevant to what we're studying, so I think we'll just bypass that, if we may, please. We're dealing now with principles of living the Christian life. Any questions, any contributions are to be limited to the subject in hand.

9:24 Perhaps we'll have opportunity after the morning service to discuss that question with you. I or one of the other elders would be glad to do so. All right, now, as we turn to the Word of God, then, we're going to consider some of these key texts, these epitomizing texts. And you came up with about four of them yourselves last week when we were fishing for these general texts.

9:46 You'll remember last week, three or four of you came up with texts, and I said, let's set them aside for now because you're stealing some of the thunder from today's lesson. All right? So, text number one. And if I were to be limited to one text, if someone said, I'm going to take away your Bible, all but one text on the subject of living the Christian life and particularly a text which addresses itself to this subject that there is no suspension or negation of the conscious engagement of any faculty of our redeemed humanity, what text do you think I would beg a man to leave with me and to leave in my Bible?

10:28 Pastor Clark is smiling. You're going to venture a guess. 1 Peter 5. Sober be vigilant.

10:39 All right. That might be a...

10:41 All right. Might be a key text. All right. 1 Peter 5.

10:46 That's a candidate. That's not the one I chose. Someone else? Yes.

10:51 No. That might be a candidate, but that's not the one I've chosen. Yes. No.

11:01 Because that's a whole section. We want a text that just distills the whole emphasis on this very element. Yes. Sens?

11:11 Ephesians 2, 22 to 24. Ah, that might be, but that's still not the one I'm fishing for. Pastor Nichols?

11:23 I'll not comment on the comment, but he knows me well enough to know that is precisely the text. Philippians chapter 2, and it's not because I've preached on the text, but it's because of all the texts that I've encountered in wrestling with this subject, none has been more helpful to me, and when I've expounded it to others, I don't know of any other text that has been more helpful on this particular point. Now, remember, I'm not saying this is the most helpful text concerning this particular text or any other text concerning the Christian life in general. We're dealing with principle number three, namely, no suspension,

12:07 no negation of the conscious engagement of all the faculties of our redeemed humanity, and at that particular point, this text is certainly one, if not the most helpful. Philippians chapter 2. Now, you'll remember the context. The apostle has given a call to Christian unity and self forgetfulness, in the opening verses, a unity and self forgetfulness which is only possible if, according to verse 5 of chapter 2, we have in us the mind which was also in Christ Jesus.

12:48 And then, he gives this great exposition of how the mind of Christ operated in the life history of Christ, from the incarnation to the crucifixion, the humiliation and exaltation. Now, after he gives that rich teaching of how the mind of Christ was operative in Christ as a model and pattern of how it is to be operative in us, then he says in verse 12, So then, in the light of this, my brethren, even as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, in the light of the exaltation, work

13:33 out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is working in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Now, try to feel something of the tremendous thrust of the context pressing down upon these two verses. I want you to take a moment to look at this beautiful, this sublime picture of this mentality of selflessness and self-forgetfulness as operative in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.

14:17 Existing in the form of God, he did not think equality with God a thing to be selfishly retained, but emptied himself or made himself down to the abyss of the rejection, the shame, the ignominy of the cross, all for the sake of others, all for your salvation and for mine. Now, surely, if ever there was a time to exhort people, yield to Christ that he might live again in you that very kind of life, this is the context of the love

15:01 of Christ for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who is the one who is the one who is the one who is the one who is the one who is loved and because Christ lives in you and

15:38 accept and is ill

15:59 vigorous language of the passage so then my beloved even as you have always obeyed here is a call to an ongoing life of obedience that is not passivity that is not a negation that is the concentration and the engagement of all of our faculties in a course prescribed by God as you have always obeyed not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence work out now they notice he doesn't say work to attain or work for but work out your own salvation with fear and with

16:43 trembling that is engage all of your faculties in the pursuit and in the context particularly of this mind of self-forgetfulness counting each other better than oneself and doing the appropriate actions which that mindset will dictate and determine work out your own salvation and you're to do it he says with fear and with trembling now that combination fear and trembling is found several other places in the New Testament

17:17 let's look just at one of them Ephesians chapter 6 Ephesians chapter 6 verse 5 so servants or slaves be obedient unto them that according to the flesh are your masters with fear and trembling in singleness of your heart as unto Christ in other words this fear and trembling is not the fear and trembling of the guilty criminal it is not the fear and trembling of the person who

18:02 wonders if his capricious master will turn around and out of the highest place this fazer he is not he is also the head of theinst Floyd blue sky just picked up a stick and clubbing and on predictable hefty unreasonable74 it doesn't mean that at all put the fear in your home does coin traction altogether the 12 would we are to work outial salvation conscious of thatchte used to take quality the or work out send me bewildered coin tremendous issues that are at stake. We are so engaged that we are engaged to the point where

18:44 there is an inward sense of fear and trembling, lest we should fail to work out to the full dimension that salvation which God has graciously imparted to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. So it is a call to such a whole-souled engagement of all of our faculties, our minds, reflecting upon the great issues at stake, the glory of Christ, the honor of Christ, the credibility of Christ in his church as his church lives out the mind of Christ in relating one to another. All of those things

19:24 are poured into the exhortation. Work out your own salvation with fear and with trembling, and then what does he give to encourage us to give all of our faculties to the working out of our salvation? What is the encouragement given to us? Jeff? It's God who is working in us to do

19:47 his will and do his will. All right, you see the connection? Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for, for you're not in a fool's errand in this. You are not left to your own resources. You are not left with

20:04 with only those resources that you have by virtue of your own constitution as a human being, no. As one who has come within the orbit of the redemptive activity of God, God is presently at work in you, both to will, that is, he is directly operating upon our wills, and not only upon our wills, giving us the will to do his will, but also the ability to perform what we have willed by his grace. So he is at work in us, both to will and to work, and all of this according to or for his good pleasure,

20:48 which phrase points in two directions, the sovereignty of God and the grace of God. So under the orbit of the God of sovereignty and of grace, or within the orbit of his gracious influence, we are self-consciously to engage all of our faculties in the working out of our salvation in the confidence that God is presently, powerfully, inwardly working in us to will and to work for his good pleasure. Now you see the tremendous benefit of this passage? It brings together these two lines of thought, which when separated and wrenched loose from its counterpart, leaves the future.

21:32 It leaves the future field open for erroneous teaching on the Christian life.

21:37 You see, it's always that matter of being willing to live with the tensions that God has created in his own work. Some say, well, if God works, then that means our work is insignificant or unnecessary. So if God is working in me to will and to work, then I just need to get out of the way and let him do it. Let him will and work.

21:59 Others say, if I am to work, then whatever God does, it's really only theoretical. If I work out with fear and trembling, I'm doing it. And God must be out here sort of standing along like the coach on the sideline. You know, you're taking the lumps and the bumps and the knocks and the bruises, and he's saying, go get them, guys!

22:17 Good job! That's the way! Pats a guy on the rump when he comes off the field and, you know, bangs him on the back. But he's not taking the lumps.

22:26 And some people then have that idea of the Christian life. God sort of stands on the sidelines and gives us the rules and the directions and shouts encouragement to us. Well, you see, his help is far more profound than that. The text says, he is at work in you to will and to work for his good pleasure.

22:44 So we see in this passage that God's working and our working are concurrent realities. God's working and our working are concurrent realities. Because God works, that does not suspend my working. And because I work, that does not cancel his working.

23:10 Now, it's only the person determined to live with that clear biblical tension that will be kept from crippling errors with respect to his view of how to live the Christian life. God's working and our working are concurrent realities. And we may go on and say, never is God more active than when we are most active. How do I know God is willing?

23:36 Working in me to will and to work. When I am most willing and most working, that which he has laid out in his word. And I never need fear that my willing and my working will outstrip his working in me to will and to work for his good pleasure. I never need fear.

23:54 And I don't lay back and wait until I feel a twitch over the left-hand corner of my will. And I say, whoo-hoo, God's working in me to will. Now I can move. Or feel some afflatus coming upon me.

24:05 Some tremendous. This surge of power to do what I know I ought to do and then say, oh, now God's working in me to work. Now I can get up and work. No, no.

24:14 Beloved brethren, as you have always obeyed, you plant your feet deliberately, willfully, with or without any feelings of delight in that path of obedience. And you walk that path in dependence upon God. As you've always obeyed. Not as in my presence only.

24:36 But now. Much more in my absence. Work out. That's the imperative.

24:41 The imperative is not let God work in. Now that's where this teaching we're exposing twists the word of God. Its emphasis is stop working and let God work. The minute you hear terminology, let God.

24:56 I hope all the lights in your spiritual system start flashing and all your circuits start buzzing. Let God. Who in the world are you? Who in the world am I?

25:08 To stand by, flipping God off and on. Let God. Give God permission to do something. He's God.

25:17 You don't let God. So that whole mentality, you see, is not only a travesty on this teaching. It cuts at the heart of the whole biblical doctrine of who God is. He is at work in us.

25:31 To will and to work. And the imperative terminates upon our duty to work out. With fear and with trembling. All right.

Addressing the Role of Delight and Reluctance in Obedience

25:41 Any question on that text? Yes. If one does not have any delight in the path of obedience, does that border on legalism? I think we'd have to, first of all, answer the question by asking a question.

26:00 Are you asking in any given course of obedience or as the overall pattern of one's life?

26:12 All right. You see, if a person, as the overall pattern of his life, never knows what it is to delight in the will of God, then it's probably an indication he has an unregenerate heart. Because when God regenerates us, he says he will put his law within our hearts and cause us to walk in his judgments and keep his statutes so we can say with our Lord and with David, I delight to do thy will, O my God. Yea, thy law is within my heart.

26:38 But in any specific act of obedience, because of these other realities, the flesh, the world, the devil, the fact that we are saved in hope, there may be that tension, not only of a lack of delight, but a positive inclination in another direction. Think of our blessed Lord. The will of God for our Lord led straight through Gethsemane to what? Golgotha.

27:05 But when he faced that path, he found reluctance. O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Jesus did not go, running with glee to the cross.

27:22 And don't let anyone ever tell you that he did. Gethsemane is the monumental witness that in one sense, Jesus dragged himself to the cross. In one sense. If it be possible, let this cup pass.

27:39 Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. And when he embraced the will of God, in spite of the disinclination, not only of his humanity, but of all that he was as the incarnate Lord, the prospect of the veiled face of his Father, something he had never known from eternity. The Word was with God, and the Word was face to face with God, and the Word was God. To know for the first time the clouding of his Father's faith, that was horrible to him.

28:14 Everything in him shrunk from it. And that's why those who teach that when a sinner is under conviction, he should be willing, to be damned for the glory of God. That's nonsense.

28:25 Jesus shrunk from damnation. He shrunk from damnation. Because that's what he was to bear. He bore damnation vicariously.

28:34 And there was a shrinking, you see, from that particular act of obedience. But then when he embraced it, and it says, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising its shame. So we've got to separate those two things, Ken. And if there is never any sense of, delight or joy, then that may be an indication of an unregenerate heart.

28:56 All right? Did that help clarify the issue? Good. All right, any question now on this Philippians text, before we move on to another epitomizing text?

2 Corinthians 7:1: Cleansing Ourselves from Defilement

29:07 All right, let's turn on, turn over, I mean, to another key text, 2 Corinthians chapter 7.

29:17 Now remember the principle we're looking at. We're not branching out into five or six different directions. The major principle is no negation, no suspension of the conscious engagement of any faculty of our redeemed humanity in living the Christian life. All right?

29:34 2 Corinthians chapter 7,

29:39 and the text in particular is verse 1. Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. All right? Notice the context very briefly, beginning with verse 14 of chapter 6.

30:05 The apostle is giving a call to the life of separateness unto God. Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers. And then he asks a string of questions to show the reasonableness of this direction. What fellowship or communion have righteousness and iniquity?

30:24 What communion, what communion has light with darkness? What concord or agreement hath Christ with Belial? What portion a believer with an unbeliever? What agreement a temple of God with idols?

30:37 You see, he's calling these Corinthians to face the fact that there is this tremendous antithesis between the people of God and those who are not the people of God. And therefore they should not enter into relationships which blur that distinction and act as though it did not exist. It does. It does exist.

30:57 God has drawn that cleavage by taking his own people out of the world into fellowship with himself. And the problem is, often the people of God do not live in the light of that which God has already done by his grace. Well then, as he comes to the end of that series of questions, he then quotes from the Old Testament both promise and command in this same area. What agreement has a temple of God with idols?

31:24 Verse 16. For we are a temple of the living God even as God said. And then quoting from the word of God in the book of Leviticus, the book of Exodus, and the book of Ezekiel, I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Let me pause just to say that all of those promises are taken right out of the heart of Old Covenant promises and applied directly to the church in its New Testament manifestation.

31:54 Very interesting, isn't it? That the great promise of the covenant of the divine indwelling supersedes dispensational distinctions. There are distinctions, but the fact that God is the God of his people is the heart of the promise, the covenant promise, and here the apostle takes it out of these Old Testament passages and applies it to the church in its New Testament manifestation. Wherefore, and now he quotes from the book of Isaiah, come out from among, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you and will be to you a father and you shall be to me sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

32:39 Now notice, having therefore these promises, wait a minute, those were promises made to the Jews.

32:46 He says having these promises, beloved, you see it? These are gospel promises. And in that sense, when we sang as children, every promise in the book is mine, every chapter, every verse, every line. That was good theology.

33:02 Having therefore these promises, beloved, what are we to do? Let us cleanse ourselves. All right, you see the context? The context is the previous call to separation unto God, to which are attached precious promises to those who obey that call to separation.

33:20 The promises of the enjoyment of God himself and the promise in particular of the enjoyment of God himself. of the enjoyment of God himself. of the enjoyment of God himself. of the enjoyment of God himself.

33:28 The enjoyment of filial intimacy with God. I will be to you a father and you shall be to me sons and daughters. So whatever the direction of chapter 7 verse 1 is, it is a direction that breathes of the spirit of grace. It is surrounded with promises.

33:50 It comes to us as it were breaking on the shore of our hearts on the crest of the gracious promises of God. The promises of God break on the shore of our hearts and with those promises come this directive of chapter 7 and verse 1. All right? And what is the major thrust then of chapter 7 and verse 1?

34:12 Conscious of those promises, encouraged by them, drawn to obedience in the light of them, notice the language, let us cleanse ourselves. The direction is a word of direction for us to do something with respect to self-purification that is extensive. Cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit with a view to perfecting holiness in the fear or in the consciousness of the eye of God upon us.

34:56 Question. Do we have any power to cleanse ourselves from one iota of defilement of flesh and spirit?

35:07 That's not a rhetorical question. That's a bona fide question to be answered by someone or someones in the class. Do we have any power to cleanse ourselves of one iota of defilement, Wayne? Right?

35:32 So you're asserting we have absolutely no power to cleanse ourselves of sin's defilement in any degree. In ourselves. All right? Anyone want to agree with that?

35:42 Anyone agree with him?

35:44 Someone agree with him? Yes, Beth?

35:54 All right. In the judicial sense, we have no power to contribute to our justification. Well, what about our sanctification? Is that God's work, too?

36:02 Or is that our work?

36:06 Getting complicated now, isn't it? All right. Let's go over to this side of the class, then we'll come back. Someone want to agree or disagree?

36:13 All right, Jim?

36:21 John 15, 5. Without me, you can do nothing. Someone want to agree and further buttress? Jim and Wayne?

36:27 All right. Louise?

36:33 All right. Which says, all right, that's one of our epitome texts, so we won't go into it any further, but there's a bringing of things together. Is it true that I have no more power ultimately to cleanse myself of sin's defilement than I do to justify myself of sin's guilt?

36:55 Bob? Well, that's true.

37:13 It's like crucify the dead. Yet not I, but Christ, who is in me, your life is right now in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loves me and gave himself to me. He goes on to explain that he did not make void, gave the law, any kind of sanctification or judgment from the first half of the law of Christ.

37:38 Okay. So when we take the overarching teaching of the Word of God, who is the Savior of God's people? The triune God, is he not? Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

37:49 God, our Savior. That's how he's addressed in Titus. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. And the Bible speaks of the sanctification of the Spirit, in 2 Thessalonians, and again in Peter.

38:05 Yet we've got 2 Corinthians 7-1. And I think your Bible says with mine, let us cleanse ourselves.

38:14 Now if we're agreed that ultimately all of the cleansing, as well as all of the justifying grace, is of God, that if any stain of any kind whatsoever is rubbed from my heart, any sinful pattern in my life, is altered or negated, any virtue is imparted, is ultimately the work of God, what in the world does the Apostle mean when he says, let us cleanse ourselves? All right, sense?

Reconciling Divine and Human Cleansing

38:46 All right, so Christ's blood alone can cleanse, but then I have strength to put the sin to death so I don't do it again? I know you well enough to know you're not saying that.

39:12 All right, we still have to fight. All right, Charlie? All right. I think we're starting to get close to the heart of the issue.

39:28 Yes? Doug?

39:58 So you're saying then, if I read you rightly, that in the context, he is speaking about the believer separating himself from defiling relationships and circumstances? All right. Yes, Jeff? Yes, there's a thought in there where it says, having therefore these problems you love us, let us cleanse ourselves, okay?

40:27 And in 1 John, it talks about, in the first chapter,

40:36 it says we have no sin, starting in the, to deceive ourselves when the truth is not in us, what we're saying. If we confess our sins, it is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, okay? And the idea that Christ is the one that's doing the cleansing, but it just talks here of the promises, therefore these having these promises, let us cleanse ourselves. So we cleanse ourselves by confessing sins in faith.

41:11 All right, so you're saying we cleanse ourselves when we use the means provided by God for our cleansing. All right, let me turn you to a passage that I hope will pull this together because we're coming down to the last ten minutes. Let's look at the matter of how we come in the beginning, on the threshold of entering the Christian life, and perhaps this will be helpful to us. Acts chapter 2.

41:34 Peter is preaching on the day of Pentecost, and you'll remember that in the midst of his preaching, such conviction falls, falls upon the multitudes gathered that they cry out in the middle of the sermon, Brethren, what shall we do? Peter gives them a summary statement of what they must do, and then he completes his sermon, verse 40, and notice the language, and with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation. Save yourselves from this crooked generation. Well, he's just been preaching about Christ being the only Savior, and now he says, Save yourselves.

42:18 And how did they save themselves? Well, look at the next verse. Then they that received his word. They saved themselves by embracing the divinely appointed way of salvation.

42:32 All right, and there's the key to the second Corinthians 7-1 passage. We cleanse ourselves of all defilement of flesh and spirit by self-consciously, deliberately, prayerfully, with spiritual zeal and energy, availing ourselves of all the divinely appointed means for our cleansing. You see? We don't sit back and say, Lord, you cleanse me of all defilement of the flesh and of the spirit, and do nothing.

43:06 We apply ourselves to God in the light of His promises and plead that He will enable us, that He will, do what He has said He would do, work in us to will and to work for His good pleasure, and then set out to use every means available and warranted by God to attain that end. Whether, as in the case of the emphasis that Doug has suggested, with certain relationships and places and things that bring us into a compromising union of light and darkness, of God and the devil, a temple of God with a temple of idols, why then, we avoid those, those things in the language of Proverbs? Enter not into the path of the wicked and walk not in the way of evil men. Avoid it.

43:50 Pass not by it. Turn from it and pass on. Or when he comes over into chapter 5 and chapter 7, warning about immoral relationships, what does he tell the young man? Come up to the door of the harlot and then have a prayer meeting?

44:05 He says, go not near the door of her house. If you stay away from her door, you'll never be in her bed. That's cleansing ourselves of all defilement of the flesh and of the spirit. A certain television program has commercials that elicit inordinate covetousness on your part or lust of the eyes.

44:29 Don't sit there and pray.

44:33 Turn the dumb thing off.

44:36 Cleanse ourselves of all defilement of the flesh and of the spirit. Use all of the available God-instituted means to put distance between you and sin and you and occasions to sin. And when you have sinned, the emphasis that Jeff has given, using the divinely appointed means to be cleansed from sin, which is confession. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

45:08 But you see, the great point of this text in 2 Corinthians 7 is that in this process of ongoing separation, from defilement of the flesh and of the spirit, external sins that come, as it were, through the medium of our physical appetites and then those internal things, envy and jealousy and those other things that don't come particularly by means of the physical members, we are to be wholly engaged in the use of all that God has deposited in our hands as Christians. Amen. And how in the world any doctrine of letting the indwelling Christ live his life through you

45:53 squares with a passage like this is beyond me. If I held that doctrine and was preaching through 2 Corinthians, I think I'd almost pray for a good case of the flu on the Sunday that I had to preach on this passage. How could one be honest with the language of the text? Let us cleanse ourselves when the whole theology of the Christian life in those circles is, that's your trouble.

46:17 You're trying to do something. Now stop it and let Christ do everything in you, through you, and for you. That simply will not stand up to this epitome text, which is a watershed of many of the directions of the Word of God. Yes, Rich, you had a question.

46:45 Excellent. Psalm 119, verses 9 and then on into 11. Here again, the young man is responsible to cleanse his way, not to do it in his own way and to make up his own ideas and become a Christian. He may come a monk, man-made methods of self-cleansing, but he is to cleanse his way according to the directions of the Word of God.

47:09 All right, you see then that vital principle that the promises given are to incite us to action, to strengthen and encourage us in our action, not to negate our action. Now you see the difference between those two? So when anyone says, the promises are given to bring you simply to rely and to relax, to surrender and trust, that is not the teaching of the passage. The teaching of the passage is trust and work,

47:44 not surrender and trust. See, the whole terminology surrender is one that has bound up in it. You lay down your arms and you quit and you do nothing. And you don't find that emphasis in the Word of God.

47:56 The emphasis is upon trust and then upon the confidence and the self-confidence that is a conscious, deliberate, vigorous activity that grows out of the climate of trust invigorated by those very promises. Having these promises, let us cleanse ourselves. Not having the promises, let's give up on any effort to cleanse ourselves. And we must never read it or think of it in that way.

Galatians 2:20: Christ Living in Me and My Life of Faith

48:21 All right, any question on this text? Yes, Ken? Yes. Yes, very much.

48:31 And that's why we're going to come to that epitomizing text that I had listed as number six, Romans 8, 13. So that will be coming. Very much so. But we're dealing now, I'm trying to move from the more generic and then we'll move down to some of the more specific disciplines.

48:49 And it's obvious we aren't going to get through all of these this morning. In fact, we have just three more minutes. Let's take the Galatians 2.20 text, all right?

48:59 Because I think we can touch on this briefly. Because this is one of the things, I think, that we need to do. This is one of the texts that is often pressed into the service of what we called an imbalanced doctrine of the indwelling Christ. Now, the context of this passage is very evident if we simply read through the second chapter of Galatians.

49:25 Verse 16 is sort of a summary statement. Galatians 2.16, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believe. Believed on Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

49:51 But if while we sought to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also were found sinners, is Christ a minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build up again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For I, through the law, died unto the law, that I might live unto God.

50:14 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not make void the grace of God, for if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for me. Verse 17, It's obviously a context of teaching that justification comes by faith without the works of the law. Now how can I be justified by faith without the works of the law?

50:51 Because by virtue of being united to Christ, I have been crucified with him. His death to sin and for sin is my death to sin and for sin. God judged me in the person of my surety and my submission. If you look at the last Sunday night's message, God, as it were, in Christ, laid hands of imputation upon the Lord Jesus.

51:17 He was the scapegoat that was slain, He was the goat for removal that was sent out into the wilderness, and I died in his death. Legally, judiciously, I was put to death in him. And yet, Paul says, though I was crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I'm alive. But it is no longer I, that is the I laden with guilt, under just condemnation, the I before union with Christ, the imputation of sin to Christ.

51:52 It is no longer I that live, but notice now, Christ liveth in me. Now in what sense does Christ live in me? Does he live in me in such a way as to replace my life with his? Well, if that's what Paul meant, then he surely contradicted himself, because he says in the next clause, and the life which I now live in the flesh.

52:20 Who lives Paul's life in the flesh, Christ or Paul?

52:26 Do you see it? Look at the text, who lives it? And he doesn't say, and the life which Christ now lives in my flesh. He says, the life which I now live in the flesh.

52:39 I live it in faith. Faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. So that he says he lives this life as a man of faith, and we let scripture interpret scripture. You have the phraseology that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.

53:00 Christ dwells in the man who is the man of faith, but not in such a way as to cancel his life, as to replace his life, but to give him power and motivation and strength to live a life that is pleasing unto God, not to earn salvation, not to earn righteousness, but out of love to the Son of God, who died in our room instead to provide a perfect righteousness for us. So you see, this text simply does not teach what people have tried to make it teach. In that sense, there's more. I, in this text, than there is Christ.

53:41 I live my life in the flesh. But I no longer live it as a man divorced from Christ, under guilt, under condemnation. I live it as a man, as a woman, who has acceptance with God, who being born of the Spirit is indwelt by the Spirit, but whose life is now one of faith in the Son of God, ongoing trust in Him, both for righteousness, for life, for strength. But it is the life which I live as a man of faith, as a man in union with Christ.

Conclusion and Prayer

54:17 All right? Our time is gone. We only got through about half the epitomizing text. Maybe you can do a little scouring in your New Testaments and see if you can come up with the three or four more.

54:27 I had six, seven epitomizing texts. Some of them, as I mentioned, you brought forward last week. But I trust you will find these helpful. And perhaps have others to contribute when we meet again.

54:41 Well, let's pray together and thank God for His Word. Our Father, even as we bow to pray, we recognize that it is the Spirit who ultimately enables us to pray as we ought. And you have commanded us to pray with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. And yet we also acknowledge that we have your Word directing us how to pray.

55:12 The very words of our Lord, Jesus, saying to us after this manner, Therefore pray ye. And so, our Father, we would not passively give ourselves up to some subjective impulse even as we pray. But we would regulate our prayers by the Scriptures, believing that as we do, and the Spirit enables us, this is indeed the praying that is pleasing to you. We give you thanks for your presence with us.

55:41 We give you thanks for your Word. And now we pray that you will help us, even as you have commanded us, not to be hearers only, deceiving ourselves, but doers of the Word. O Lord, may we be stirred up by the exceeding great and precious promises, so that we may be found working out our salvation with fear and trembling, that we may be found cleansing ourselves of all defilement of flesh and spirit, that we may be found living, our lives in the flesh as men and women of faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us.

56:22 Blessed then we pray these portions of your Word that we have studied together and teach us how to live so as to bring glory to your name through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.