One Faith

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good morning everyone. It is Wednesday, August the twenty eighth, twenty twenty four. It is currently ten fifty three am Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, I'm currently feeling a little overwhelmed. I feel like there's so many different things we are working on, and I need to try to finish some of them up so that we can move on to new things. Now. The big thing that we have been working on all of twenty twenty four is the Sermons two point oh app sermon Challenge. Remember, starting in December of twenty twenty three, I told everyone to download the Sermons two point oh app and what was the challenge? Every single day you would open up the Sermon's two points oh app and find a random sermon.

1:04 You're not looking for a specific speaker or a specific kind of church, or one from a specific philological stream. You are just listening at random. And then you are to write down the name of the sermon, the name of the speaker, and then write out a like a one sentence, maybe a little longer summary of what the sermon was about. And the goal was when you reach the end of twenty twenty four, your notebook would record and have for you every single sermon you listened to, and one sermon per day for the entire year. That was the goal. Now to mix things up and to make it a little bit more FuMB fun, not FuMB fun. I gave you specific themes or specific focuses this week.

1:45 You're only going to look for sermons on this specific passage of scripture, or this specific specific philological theme, or whatever the case may be. And so we have done that. We have been relatively successful, I think, and doing that, I don't know. I mean, I don't know exactly how many people have been participating, but I think most of the people who are participating have said it's been beneficial and they've listened to more sermons maybe this year than they ever have. So that's a great thing. And not only that you're hearing other speakers, you're hearing other perspectives. I may agree, I may disagree. That's irrelevant. You're getting an opportunity to hear those and then here on this podcast, what I'm doing is I'm participating with you, and then I'm reviewing sermons, So you're hearing the sermon itself, you're hearing my analysis and critique of it, and you get to hear two different, usually radically different perspectives, which only helps you as a listener. So that's been a big thing we have been working on. Recently. We've been working on the theology of Charles Finnie and how utterly heretical it was, So that's been interesting. There but there and don't forget. We're also working through the entire Book of Romans, looking at all the their furs, and we realize that there's about five different Greek words that are translated therefore, at least in the King James and New King James.

3:05 And so we looked at those five. Well, we've looked at four of the Greek words. We have the fifth one coming up on Sunday. I started in Romans one twenty four. Wow, I offered a radically different perspective on that. So we're working on the there fors, we're working on the theology of Charles f Manny. Were kind of moving on past that. Oh and don't forget right now, all of the Bible colleges and Bible and Christian universities and seminaries. The school is in the air, and so I challenged everyone to start on the sermon's two point oh app look up every Bible college, every Christian university, every seminary, every Bible institute, and follow them so that you can keep track of what's going on in these Bible colleges and seminary because that kind of gives you an idea of what the future is going to look like, because these are the next generation Christian leaders being trained today.

4:00 So listen to all of that audio today. Bob Jones was live broadcasting just a little while ago their chapel service, and it looks like they're making a lot of changes to their chapel service in a way to try to, I guess, make it more beneficial. I've got lots of questions. We may review that audio. I've got lots of questions about chapel services and Christian universities and Bible colleges. I really do. And they kind of gave their philosophy. They kind of saw chapel as a spiritual pep rally. That's kind of an interesting concept. So we could definitely talk about that, oh, and don't forget, and that brings us to what we're about to do. I also, well, I've been telling you about a number of the conferences that you can find all the audio two on the sermon's two point o app. But there was one a few weeks ago, maybe a month ago, called the Assault and Light twenty twenty four conference Salt and Light twenty twenty four conference, and I think it was from I think I have it.

5:00 Pulled up here. I have it pulled up here. It was held at where is it? Tyler Primitive Baptist Church. The twenty twenty four Salt and Light Conference held at Tyler Primitive Baptist Church. Now, this conference I found to be somewhat interesting because the goal of the conference really was to look at Ephesians chapter four, really verse four and five, the Phisians chapter four, verses four through five. Let me read them. Ephesians chapter four, verses four through five. There is one body, one spirit, even as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all, and in you all. I guess if Ephesians four four through six would be the more accurate way to say this. So let me read that one more time. Theesians chapter four, verse four. There is one body and one spirit, even as ye are called, and one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all, and in you all. That was really the focus of the conference. Now, as I started listening to the conference and I started reviewing some of the audio, I found myself somewhat struggling, right because

6:32 they were just really like, we're just going to focus on one God. We're just going to focus on and Father of all. We're just gonna focus on that. And I was like, well, wait a minute, wait a minute. You can't just go to Ephesians four and jump into verse four five and six without some explanation about what's going on, right, And I made the argument that everything in Ephesians four, five and six is connected to what we find in Ephesians one, two and three. Fact that gave everyone a challenge go through Ephesians four, five and six and look at every verse and then see how it connects to something in Ephesians one, two and three. Because Ephesians one, two and three is the really the philological exhortation. It's the it's the theological teaching Ephesia. If I said Exodus, Ephesians one, two and three is the theological philological exhortation, it's really the theological teaching. It's the theological explanation. It's the theological challenge. That's Ephesians one, two and three. Starting in verse four. What do we find, Well, I therefore we have a therefore in Ephesians four one, which indicates a transition. Now it transitions from the philological exhortation to the practical exhortation now based off that theology.

7:51 Here now is the practical aspects, where you take the theology and it now has practical implications. So I was like, you can't just have a conference go to Efusians four and just jump in there and forget the entire structure of the book. This is the practical exhortation that flows from the philological in a sense explanation, if you want to say it that way. So you have to connect it to the philological foundation found in chapters one, two, and three. They didn't really seem to do that, and not only that, I was like, well, wait, a minute. Based off all of the theology and chapters one, two and three. What does Paul immediately do? He says, well, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord. That we could get into a long discussion there beseech you. Now here's the practical exhortation. He's exhorting them. He's beseeching them, he's pleading with them, he's begging them, he's calling them based off the theology of one, two and three, I'm calling you to do what that you walk worthy of the vocation?

8:55 Wherewith you are called? All right? So he wants them to walk worthy? All right? So how do they walk worthy? What does that look like? Well, with all listen, with all lowliness, meekness, long suffering, for bearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity. So if you want to walk worthy, you need to keep the unity. But how can you walk worthy? And how can you keep the unity? What does that look like? Well? What does it look like? Here we go? Are you ready? You need lowliness, you need meekness, you need long suffering, You need to forbear be for bearing one another in love. Then you have to endeavor it, you have to work at it. So you need a certain you need certain attributes. You need certain characteristics, and those characteristics are lowliness, meekness, long suffering, for bearing one another in love. Now we have looked at lowliness, we have looked at meekness today. I wanted to get to long suffering, but I also wanted to get us back to the conference just to hear how they're handling everything. But you need the those things, and then you have to endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit of the bond to piece. Now, so there is I've got to work to maintain this unity, but it requires certain characteristics and attributes. Then from that flows there is one body, one spirit, even as you're called in one hope of your calling. Then verse four and five kind of almost just restates the philological reality. Here's

10:29 the theilological reality. This is what the theological reality should look like. It should look like there is one body, one spirit. That's the way it should look based off the philological truths of chapters one, two, and three. But you're going to have to endeavor to keep this unity, to have this oneness, You're gonna have to work at it. But it's going to require certain attributes. Well, I kept feeling that they didn't really connect it to one. They just kind of wanted to go to four, five, and six and just take each one of those phrases upon But I think those phrases require Chapter four, verses one, two and three, with an understanding of all of this is flowing from chapters one, two and three. That was my And so that just shows you how people can approach the scriptures from a very different perspective. So we need to look at lowly, we need to look at long suffering, and we need to look at for bearing one another in love. We will get to those, But since all of this started by listening to these messages from the twenty twenty four sultan Like Conference, I wanted to return to the sultanl Like Conference and I wanted to look at how they handled this phrase one faith, one faith. And the main reason I wanted to listen to this one they say one faith, and they refer to it as the problem, and I'm like, ooh, I I want to know how they handle this, because wouldn't it be great if we had really just one faith.

11:51 Now you could argue, well, theologically we only have one faith, but practically we don't have anything close to one faith. Christians don't agree on baptism. Christians don't agree in the Lord's Supper. Christians don't agree on church structure. Christians don't agree on the word repentance, on the word baptism. We don't agree on salvation. Literally, you can take any verse of the Bible and you will have you can get fifty different interpretations Christians just we disagree on which hermaeneutical system. We disagree on, eschatology, ecclesiology, you just name theology we disagree. So how can we have one faith? Now you could argue, well, theoretically and are theiologically there is one faith philologically, but practically, how do we find that one faith and come to agreement? Well, the first thing that's required, really, not only is that philological understanding of one, two and three. I think really you need these attributes lowliness, meekness, long suffering, for bearing one another in love, and then you have to endeavor to keep the unity. Say, that's why I keep going to Chapter four, verses one, two and three, because I think four, five, and six can't be understood apart from one, two and three. That's my hermeneutical argument. They don't seem too worried about connecting it so far on what we've heard, I don't know what they're going to do. Let's find out.

13:17 So let's go back to the twenty twenty four someng Like conference a Tyler Primitive Baptist Church as we try to kind of what this is part of our sermon's two point oh app challenge. So I want you to go listen to all the messages from that conference again. Just look up Tyler Primitive Baptist Church twenty twenty four salt Like. There's thirteen messages. Listen to them all. Take good notes you can. You can add them to your your notebook if you're keeping track of everything you're listening to. But I wanted to return to this. What I really needed to do is just continue to look at those attributes, but this one, because I have talked about forever, the never ending fighting, debating, arguing, disagreeing within Christendom should drive all of them a little bit nuts. Right. We all claim to have the same authority the Bible, right, but we can't agree on what it actually says. And so then is it the Bible the final authority or is it actually you and I the final authority? Is it your interpretation of the Bible that's the final authority? And then you judge everyone based off your interpretation. Well, someone else will say that their view comes from the Bible, and then they will say that you're wrong, and you'll say they're wrong. Both of you will claim the Bibles the authority. Well, no, that means the individuals the authority. Right. See, there's lots of problems here. I don't know how they're going to handle this. But and again, when I do review, I don't listen to them first, Right, I don't listen to them first because I like to react in real time when it doesn't come across rehearsed like a production, comes across like I'm just a sinner with a microphone

14:50 listening to sermons, trying to figure things out and invite you to be a part of it. So here we go. I'm so thankful for the message that the Lord blessed Brother Dan to deliver this morning. And as I mentioned, and I know the topic assignments, the theme, the layout for this meeting is something that I feel like the Lord directed me in. But the way my mind works is not the way a lot of people's do. It'd be a terrible thing for you to be inside my mind, believe me. But I'm so thankful the Lord is bringing the meeting together, the messages together, to work together. We now move on to the second theme of this weekend, which is one Faith, and we have Brother Nathan guests to speak to us.

15:41 As I have thought about what I. Believe is being presented in Ephesians chapter four. Again, it focuses on first and foremost the knowledge we have of God, the knowledge of Jesus Christ, because that is the foundation for everything else. But one Lord first, one faith, one baptism. I believe he's talking about how we understand and comprehend who God is and the effect that then has upon us what we believe and what we embrace and what we depend upon. And then that follows that we will be drawn together in a congregation and an assembly for that mutual support, encouragement and building up. And that's what it brings out. I want to just introduce this segment of the meeting by reading to you from the Book of Colossians, which is very much a parallel to Ephesians.

16:35 If you've studied either of these books, you'll see that they're very related the way the Holy Spirit delivers the message. But in Colossians chapter one, beginning in verse twenty one, we read, and you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works. Yet now hath He reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and under blameable and unreprovable in his sight. If ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven. Whereof I Paul am made. A minister, who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ and my flesh for His body's sake, which is the Church. Whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God. Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints, to whom God would make known.

17:44 What is the. Riches of the glory of this mystery among the gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in you, the hope of glory whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perited in Christ Jesus. Wherein two I also labor, striving according to His working, which worketh in me mightily. The apostle here is saying his ministry, his labor, His work is God working in him for you, for his people, for the Church. And it's an ongoing work of the Holy Spirit, He which has begun a good work in you, Paul says in the Philippian Letter, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. So we've considered who God is and what he reveals about himself.

18:34 It's an interesting I guess we could try to dissect that cross reference and how does it fit here Again, it's so weird. They want to go. They're going somewhere else, and to me Ephesians four, you don't go somewhere else. You go you go back to one, two and three. That's the theological exhortation. Four starts the practical or you can say one two and three is the theological explanation. If we want to use that term. Four five and six is the practical exhortation if you want to do it that way. So then and the immediately four five and six flows from Paul say, hey, guys, walk Worthy, endeavor to keep the unity. Now what's required. He gives you the attributes. Then there is one body, one spirit. So is what he's saying, is this practical endeavoring to keep the unity. That's the practical exhortation that flows from the thiological reality about how many bodies one, how many spirits one, how many lords won, how many faiths one, how many baptisms won? Those are the theological truths. But you we are going to have to have these attributes, and we're going to have to endeavor to keep the unity because practical unity is very different than the philological reality. To me,

20:06 that's the that's the million dollar like how do we connect it? Going over to Colautionans, I just I'm not. I don't see that this is the interesting part. I'm I'm like, well, no, no, right here, let's just stay right here. But maybe maybe maybe this will happen. I don't know. I don't know where they're going to go. And what that ought to do. If we have a right understanding and view of God is cause us to see who we are relative to who God is. You see in our flesh. We want to say, I'm not bad, I'm okay. We want to build ourselves up and diminish our flaws and accentuate the positives, and we find ourselves being okay. But when we look and see who God is, we're forced to realize our own lack of value, of worth, of quality, of righteousness.

21:00 We become blacker and blacker and blacker in our sin when we consider the holiness and righteousness of the character in person of our God. And it's right. Now. I completely agree with that. I always tell everyone to reference the first couple of chapters of Calvin's Institutes. When we see God as he truly is, then we see ourselves as we truly are. Okay, that's profound, that's important, that's very Isaiah six. I don't understand the Ephesians four. I don't understand like that. I'm not disagreeing with it, I'm not understanding its correlation to Ephesians four, four, five, and six. Unless you say, well, when we see that there's one God, then we'll see ourselves as we truly are.

21:53 But that doesn't seem to be the point of the text. The text seems to be walkworthy d deavoring to keep the unity? How do you do it? Here are the practical attributes and characteristics you must have, lowliness, meekness, long suffering, for bearing one another love. Then four five and six seems to be this is the reason you're going to end. Maybe maybe maybe the Maybe this is how you should understand it. All right, hey, walk worthy and endeavor to keep the unity? What is required to walk worthy and to keep the unity? These are the attributes, right, and here are here is the theology. Here is the practical attributes you must have and to keep the unity. And here's the philological understanding you must have to keep the unity.

22:37 Maybe that's a better way of understanding this section, right. That we should do that so that forces us to realize that without God we have no hope in the world, which then causes us to rejoice in the Gospel, which declares that there is hope in Christ. It is Christ in us. The hope of glory, because there is no glory, there's no hope of glory apart from who He is. And then we want to learn of him. So Brother Nathan, in just a moment is gonna come and speak to us about that problem of sin that we have, who we are relative to God, and how the knowledge of God reveals to us our desperate condition and primes us for the message of the Gospel, which builds us up, which builds us up together, and it changes our relationship one with another as well, because when we see who God is, and we see God's love for these others, these other individuals whom.

23:41 He dwells in. As brother Dan has just spoken to us, how can we hate our brother if we know that Jesus Christ loved them and died for them. And that's how we as a body, we as a church, are knitted together, even though we're different. We're from different places, have different ideas, have differ different flaws, problem sins. We find love one for another. Why because Christ loved us. So I I don't think this is going to go the direction I thought when I saw the title one Faith or let me go read the title correctly, one faith the problem I thought this was going to acknowledge. Hey, ladies and gentlemen, we are to walk worthy and we have to keep the unity One of the problems with keeping the unity is even though we say there's one faith, clearly there's not one faith. There are thousands of denominations.

24:38 Nobody agrees on everything. Here is the problem, here's why it happens. That's the direction I was going to go. It sounds like the way they're going to go is the problem is we're sinners and we just need to be saved in Christ. Okay, well, I agree that that's a problem, but is I don't. That's been the hard I still don't understand how does this fit with Ephesians one, two and three and four versus one two and three. All I can do is wait and see how he handles it. Pray the Lord will continue to frame and form our minds, our hearts, and enable us to worship. I'm so thankful for the singing. It's been a great blessing just to sing together and unite in songs of praise. I want to ask Brother Ben Cordys, would you lead us in prayer?

25:32 And then we'll have Brother John lead one more song and ask Nathan to come before us. The gracious, loving, and heavenly followed you. Okay, what we're gonna try to do here is skip forward a little bit. Try to skip forward a little bit. I didn't know that we're gonna have singing here in the middle. I'm gonna have to play and do a little skipping, So be patient. Here we go. This is one of the negative things of not listening in advance, but it also makes it much more are real, So here we go.

26:49 Well, I want to start off by just off by just thanking Tyler Primitive Baptist Church, just for your wonderful hospitality. And I know, uh, it is truly a labor, but it's a labor of love, and I hope you know that it is appreciated and most importantly, God. I'm laughing. Well, first of all, all that skipping was a little irritating. I'm laughing because he's trying to speak and a baby is just cry. I mean, I've been in those I haven't been in those situations too many times, but it's always like what do you do, Like do you just talk louder? Do you just talk louder or do you just kind of like just you just wait. But then you don't want to put the parent on the spot. You don't want to put the child on the spot. You don't want to do that, but how do you like? And nobody can hear you? I mean because everyone and when you're when you're when some child is screaming, yelling, crying or or throwing a fit or whatever you're talking, nobody's paying attention. Everyone's eyes are on the child, Like you're looking at everyone, they're all looking over at the parent, at the kid. They're looking at that, and nobody is listening to you. Nobody, nobody's looking at you.

27:53 Nobody's listening to you. You could be you could you could say, hey, hey, hey, I just received information from God that Jesus is coming in five seconds. Nobody would even everybody be looking at the child. Nobody would even be paying attention. So what do you do as a preacher? What do you do? Do you just do you talk and then just keep repeating yourself and repeating yourself and repeating yourself until like you just stay in a continual loop until the child, like that child is screaming, it's full head off. So what do you do? I don't know. I wish someone. They don't. They don't teach you what to do in Bible college and seminary about that. God recognizes it. If you've been coming to Salt and Light for any amount of time, you know that there is one man who is missing. And I just I cannot help but think when I think Salt and Light, I think of brother Jai Viel working so diligently.

28:51 Actually what he's doing is relatively smart. He just kind of staying with all of his introductory thank you and that just because if anyone misses that, great you almost need to find something to continue to discuss until the child's situation has made call that I feel bad for the guy. I feel bad for the guy. And so joyfully in the kitchen, and I know he is now with the Lord. But I would just be remiss if I did not just mention brother Jai's name. And I'm just so thankful for his work, his joyful service to Tyler Church and particularly to sult and Light throughout the years. If you will turn in the scriptures, I want to look at Ephesians chapter four, verses seventeen through nineteen, but will also be in Genesis chapter three.

29:38 For the Joseph stated that my assignment is to talk about the problem, what it means to be outside of the faith, what it means to be really outside of Christ. And this, okay, this has taken a whole different Okay, so the conference is Ephesians four four through six, but this message is going to be an Ephesians four seventeen. And so the problem that he's describing is being outside of the faith. So he understands one faith much more from a philological perspective, a positional perspective. But he's not appearing that he's going to describe the problem as being well, if there's one faith, why does no one agree? See?

30:27 That would be the problem. To me, the problem is that, well, there are those outside of the faith positionally. The problem is all of those who are supposedly a part of the faith. But we're a part of the faith positionally, Now how does that play out practically? Some may state that Again, for me, the issue is that the problem of those who are outside of the faith positionally, those are not saved. They need to be saved. But once once people become saved, now we're part of the faith positionally. But now how does that positional one faith play out practically? In the midst of thousands of denominations, nobody agrees on any thing. Church splits fighting, arguing denominational splits. Nobody can agree on basics. Nobody can agree on the basics, So then what do we do. That's what I hope they were going to get to. Clearly, that's oh that's not okay.

31:30 All right, let's see where they're gonna go. This is what you and I are by nature. You know, if I were to maybe to introduce one of my friends that's here, maybe my good friend back there, Kyle Watford, and you were to ask me, will tell me about Kyle? And I were to say, Kyle is vain, he's empty, he's worthless, he's ignorant, he's blind, he's greedy. You think, whoa Nathan. That's pretty harsh, But you know what, by nature that would actually be true. That's exactly who Kyle is. That's exactly who I am. That's exactly who every one of you are by nature, outside of the faith.

32:21 And so you know, at your job or maybe with your parents, you may come to a boss or whoever you're going, whoever the authority is, and you may come to them with a problem. And they said, don't always come to me with a problem, come to me with a solution. I want to have solutions. So I will have this God's word will have the solution. But before there's a solution, there is a problem, Before there is good news. That presupposes there is bad news, and there indeed is very very bad news before we get to the very very good news. So let's read who am I? Who am I? By nature? Sure? This is what Paul would tell us in.

33:04 Yeah. See this is going a completely different direction. That's been the whole thing with the twenty twenty four Salting like conference is just my I just like I'm sitting here going wait a minute, wait a minute, wit no no, no, no, no, no no no. If we're going to talk about one body, one spirit, one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, one Father of all, how does this fit with Ephesians four, one, two and three? And how does this fit with Ephesians one, two and three, Because therefore clearly tells you everything coming after is a transition from what came before. Well, what came before? We know theological explanation, and then here is the practical exhortation. If we want to do it that way, all right? Got it? Now? Go and and I well, I well we're going to listen to this, but it's really not going the direction I wanted it to go. I so wanted you to tell me why we have one faith, but there's no agreement on that faith. That's what I wanted to deal with, right, So how can we have this one faith? Well, then we can again I've already articulated one, two, and three kind of how we understand this, four, five, and six is the philological reality, but the practical reality is we have to endeavor. How do we endeavor? Well, we got to remember the philological and we have to maintain, so we have to seek these attributes and characteristics. But let's let's see how he now. Okay, well, let's just see where he goes. There's a lot of things I could already say about what he said, but it's taking me further further away from Ephesians four. So it's I mean,

34:38 if you jump all the way over to like seventeen, is he going to connect seventeen to two, four, five, and six? I can't. I think maybe I have a way of working this. Let's see. And Ephesians chapter four versus seventeen through nineteen. He would say, Hey, this, I say therefore and testify in the Lord that ye hence forth walk. What does it mean to walk? Thiss just your manner of life? Don't live, don't act like that? Ye hens forth walk, not as other gentiles walk. When you think gentile, think unbeliever, think pagan, think outside of the faith.

35:24 Now the issue is this, I say, therefore, now we have another therefore, Now this therefore has to be connected to what came before? How far back do we take that therefore too? Now I'm assuming he's going to address this right the therefore in chapter four one takes us back to one, two and three that goes or you could say, where does that stop? Right? Where does that where? Therefore, and now we get to it. Therefore, now that therefore and seventeen does it go, Well, we'll look at verse fourteen that we hence forth. It's not a therefore, But we got a structural issue. We we have to put these things together, structure and and A and the way they are structured, the way it's being formatted, the way it's being put together. That there has to be.

36:13 So I'm assuming he's got he's got to address the therefore, he's got to So I'm just going to go with the idea that he will. Not as other gentiles walk. So who am I by nature? Y'all thought? I was harsh with Kyle and the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, Who, being past feeling, have given themselves over into lasciviousness. That's a that's a hard word to get out. It means unbridled lust. Who, who, being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. There is a problem, is there not?

37:11 This is who we are by nature? What does it mean to be vain? To have the vanity of mind? If y'all remember Brother Dan's message from last year when we talked about what buying the truth and selling not? He did such a powerful job. I thought on what it means to be vain? Vanity means nothingness, emptiness, futile, worthlessness, the vanity of the mind. Who am I? I'm alienated? I'm sorry, my understanding is darkened. I'm alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them.

37:56 That's who I am by nature. First Corinthians. Well you should know this this scripture one Corinthians two fourteen. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, because they're spiritually discerned brothers, sisters outside of Christ. Outside of Christ. What is wise is foolish, and what is foolish is wise? Does that make sense? What is the What does the unbeliever do? In Isaiah, they call good evil and evil good by nature.

38:37 That is where we are. That's where I am. That's where you are. I wonder, Thank God. I'm gonna I'm gonna look here, Thank God they call they call evil good. Right, that's Isaiah five twenty Isaiah. I'm just gonna look at something here, because he says the unbeliever. Okay, hang on, Isaiah and Isaiah. If I can spell, right, Isaiah five twenty, who is guilty of calling evil good?

39:22 All right? Hang on, I'm gonna do it. I'm doing a search here, all right. Okay. See it doesn't specifically name individuals or groups, but addresses the people of Israel. During the prophet Isaiah's time. Okay, that's what I thought. So when you say unbelievers, remember Isaiah. So let me let me name this quickly, Isaiah five twenty. I think that's the passage she's referencing, Isaiah five twenty. I'm gonna go to Isaiah five because I immediately was like, wait a minute here, Isaiah five twenty, woe to them that call evil good and good evil that put darkness. Now, remember if you go back to Isaiah one, the vision, the vision of Isaiah, the son of Amos, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. So clearly this is dealing primarily with Judah and Jerusalem. This is so as this source says Isaiah five twenty doesn't specifically name individuals or groups, but addresses the people of Israel during the prophet Isaiah's time.

40:40 So so many times when we go to the Old Testament say well, these were unbelievers, sometimes those were the people of God. They were a part of God's chosen nation. So I guess the issue is is it ever possible? Because he's trying to make it sound like only unbelievers ever do this, only unbelievers ever do this. So I'm gonna go back to Isaiah FIV. Hang, So here here would be a philological question. I know how most Christians will answer this, but I'm gonna put I'm gonna put forth the question anyway, Woe to them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, they put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Can Christians ever be guilty of doing these things?

41:30 And I will say yes, they can. Christians can be very guilt, guilt, very guilty. And the way we think and the way we act, we know that Christian sin all the time. Are thinking, it's obviously greatly confused. There's all kind I mean, look, you just think about it from this. From this perspective, you have those who are not reformed, who are not reformed in their theology. They will say reform theology and Calvinism is evil, it is wrong, it is horrible, it is heresy, it is ungodly, and some may go so far as hey, it's an damnable heresy. Those who are calvinistic or reform will look at those with their non reform theology. There are Minianism or their you know, Pelagianism. However you want to classify there that's heresy, that is evil. Well, one will see it's good, the other one will say it was evil. The other one who's being said it's evil will call the other one evil.

42:25 Back and forth. Hey, no, I'm what I have is good, what you have is evil? Know what I have is good, what you have is evil. No, that's not exactly verb. You know, a perfect correlation. But what I'm saying is Christians can say something is good and something is evil, and even Christians won't agree on if it's evil or good. Now that's more from a thiological perspective, but you get the idea. Christians can have wrong thinking. Christians can have wrong behavior if you don't think. I know, we Christians love to paint this like infocommercial. Hey, this is what I was and when it became a Now I think right, I do right, I act right. I'm basically perfect. But we know two thousand years of church history we're not basically perfect. Look look at do you believe Luther? Martin?

43:12 Luther the one you're very much responsible from a human perspective. I know there were already things going on before Luthor, but Luther was really the one who kicked off what we would refer to as the Protestant Reformation. Now may some may refer to him as evil, some may say he was great. But I guarantee you, whether you call him evil or great, well we know that he was a sinful man. Did you ever read some of his writings about the Jews? Now, how could he say such horrible things? Because even as believers, even as those of us who believe in God, even those of us who believe we're saved by faith alone, because of Christ alone, even grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, even if we have all of that, right, we can say and do and believe really messed up things. Look at the churches in the Book of Revelation, right, the message is to those churches. Those churches are believing and doing things that are all messed up the entire News Testament. Look at the church at Corinth. Now, I know, I know the typical, Well, those are lost people. Those are lost people. We like to throw anyone out of the Kingdom of God. I don't know if you can just say lost people think that way, We're all we all can think that way.

44:25 So I I you know, I know he wants to draw a hard delineation. These are lost people. But we're not like that anymore. Again, we are not like that. Let me state it again. We are not like we were positionally when I put my faith in Christ. Positionally, I'm a new creature. Old things have passed away, all things have become new. Positionally, practically, I'm not a new creature. Old things are not passed away, and not all things have become new. Because for that to be true, practically, I would no longer have a sinful nature, and I wouldn't need to be changed. I wouldn't have to need to do anything because the old is already completely gone and everything is new. So I basically have already been glorified.

45:07 But we know that's not the case. The sinful nature is still there. You sin, I sind. We all sin. So therefore, positionally, yes, we do everything right because we are an Again, we say, by an imputed righteousness, not an infused righteousness. Imputed righteousness, I'm declared to be that which I'm not. Practically, I'm declared to be perfect when practically I'm not. I'm declared to be righteous when practically I'm not. So to throw out Isaiah five like, well, wait a minute, is that is that referring to the pagan nations, or is that referring to God's nation Israel. Why is it over and over and over that Israel would call evil good and good evil and do and be constantly just be messing up. Because God's people constantly mess up. That's why we are saved by an imputed righteousness.

46:01 That's the way God has chosen to save us, which is confounding and confusing, because instead of saving me with an imputed righteousness, there's a part of us that would say, don't save me by an imputed righteousness. Infuse perfect righteousness in me, remove my sinful nature, and then I can basically be perfect. But no, God save me by an imputed righteousness, leaving my sinful nature clearly intact. And we continue to sin and sin and sin. So therefore we do not become trophies necessary necessarily of how great we are. In practice. We become trophies of God's grace, saving sinners by imputing righteousness to them.

46:44 By nature. Outside of the faith, I'm alienated from the life of God. That means, yeah, I'm estranged from the life of God. I'm separated from godliness. It's foreign to me. I'm blind, and my heart is blind. The word blind actually means it means callous. You know how if you if you learn to play guitar, you want to build up those callouses. I was a whimp. My cousin gave me one guitar lesson, and my fingers hurt too bad. I didn't continue. Shame on me. So what does it mean to be blind of heart? It means to be calloused hardness of heart. Does this not remind you of Romans Chapter one? And again? I'm not just talking about the culture the world system I am, of course, I'm talking about you and I outside of the faith, outside of Christ. The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth or suppress the truth and unrighteousness, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God that's showed it unto them, For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power in Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because that when they knew God,

48:15 they glorified him, not as God. Neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, into birds and four footed beasts and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God and to a lie and worship and serve the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen, that's you and I outside of the great of God, outside of that precious, powerful but also personal indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

49:11 Again, this is the typical I know this is now if you can go listen to my if you go listen to my teaching on Romans one twenty four to look up my message. Therefore part one we covered this Sunday, and I know my theory, my hypothesis goes against everyone else. But see either the way he says, Hey, this is the way we used to be, but we're not like that anymore, because God's grace has transformed us and changed us. Yes, positionally, practically we are very much just like this. We still have lust. We still change the truth of God into a lie. We still worship and serve the creature more than the Creator. We do that is true of all of us. We still are idolatrous. We are still love pleasure more than we love God. Those things are true of us. Look at everything that happens in the church and in Christian lives. We constantly are struggling against these things.

50:06 What changes is this? Now we understand there is a God and these ways are wrong. We acknowledge that they are sinful. We fight against it, but that sinful nature is still very much present in us. We still do these same things. We still struggle, We still sin Within churches. There's still there's pornography, there's adultery, there's fornication, there's greediness, there's backbinding, there's unforgiveness, there's gossip, there's slander, you just name it. It's still present in the church, maybe not as external, but it's still there. And a lot of times it's not as external. Because the average age of a church member in twenty twenty four, the last statistics I look like, is about sixty years of age. That's the average age of a church member in twenty twenty four is between fifty and sixty. Okay, well, when you're fifty or sixty, those external things are not going to be as manifest because while you're probably going to bed at nine o'clock at night, and you're married, and well, so many things are different. Well look at what's going on and young people who clearly believe in God. Well, it may be more manifested externally, but sin is still there.

51:22 Just you can just read, you can go to certain websites that keep track of all the things going on in churches, and you'll be like, oh, my goodness, what happened, what happened? Look what this has happened. This has happened. Now the answer to many's like, well, they're not saved, they're not saved, they're not saved. They're not saved. They're not saved. They're not saved, they're not saved, they're not safe. Well, you keep throwing everyone out of the Kingdom of God. One day you're gonna lay in bed at night you're going to realize how sinful you are. Maybe not externally, but internally, we're still sinners. But the idea is no, no, you just boom just you're it's all different. But then but then at the same time, we'll say it's all different. But bu bah bah, but you still can't be perfect.

52:03 Well wait a minute, So I'm changed, but I can't get to perfection. You'll tell me that I'm a new creature. Old things have passed away, all things have become new. At the same time, you'll tell me I'm still fighting against sin. Well, why am I fighting against anything if I'm a new creature and the old things are gone and everything is new? Like it's a lot of doubles speak within Christianity. But let let's see where he's gonna go here. I'm convinced. I am convinced. I'm talking about me, but I'm also talking about you as well. I'm convinced we do not take sin seriously enough because maybe. I am not. I'm not having sex outside of marriage, and and I don't I don't believe all this this, this wickedness about abortion and transgenderism and all this. So so I'm okay, I'm okay.

52:53 Now, Remember he already just talked about how we are changed, but now he's saying we don't take sin serious enough. Now he's going to acknowledge the sin that's in us. And trust me, there's plenty of Christians who have sex outside of marriage. Now when the average church member, when the average church member in twenty twenty four is a between fifty and sixty years old, you may not have a rampant fornication happening, right, but you have a rampant fornication happening when you have Christian young people far more prevalent than anybody wants, more so than the parents want to acknowledge, more so than anyone want to acknowledge. It's probably more pre or they are at least engaging activetivities that you would have to define as sin because while they got hormones rushing through their body. I'm not excusing anything I'm saying. When you're in one situation, it's very easy to say, well, see I stopped that sin because now you're married, you have a way to take care of those desires and needs. But then you look at some statistics about how rampant pornography is inside church again so that how godly are we really? But see that can be more hidden, that can be nobody knows. You don't know how many people in your church are looking at porn. You have no way of knowing, because first of all, no one's going to usually come to the prayer meeting and say I need prayer because I'm looking at porn. That's going to be something more secret. That's a secret sin. So all right, But but now he's

54:24 going to talk about, well, wait, there's still sin in us, right, It sounds like that's where he's going. No, no, no, what would Isaiah say? I believe it's Isaiah, your very best, your righteousness for the David is what it's a dirty, filthy rag? Because what's the standard? What is sin? What does it mean to sin? Sin is to miss the mark? What is the mark? The mark is that holy God? Right goes Jimmy, the holiness of God. Now, amen, I completely agree, even even when we think we've so transformed and changed, we're still but filthy rags before a holy God, because the standard is perfection. And again I say this all the time. If you're going to talk about some dramatic change in us practically not you're going to remove it from a positional change to a practical change. I can just give you a couple of scriptures to totally destroy your concept love God with all your heart, mind, body, and soul. You don't do that, And if you even think you do, you're deceiving yourself.

55:25 Love your neighbor as yourself. Come on, you'll love yourself more than you love anyone else. Be ye, perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Oh wait, you're never going to accomplish that when oh, be holy as God is holy. Now remember all of these scriptures that tell us to do these things. Those are classified as law philologically, and the law is not for you to is not because you can keep it. The laws constantly remind you that you cannot keep it, and that you fall short, and to constantly show you your sin, so that you'll be constantly humbled and broken and flee to the perfect righteousness of Christ, which is imputed to you by faith alone. And you are say, by grace alone, faith alone, because of Christ alone, not by works. And if you say, well, your works don't save you, but they prove your salvation, well, the only works that's going to prove my salvation are perfect works, which is Jesus Christ. Because my works, no matter how good they are, are nothing but filthy rags and would still fall short. So my works can never prove my salvation. It's only the works of Christ. Whatever tests you give me, I say, take the test to Jesus.

56:23 He already passed it for me. Compared to God. When confronted with God, what did Isaiah do? Shut my mouth? I just need to shut my mouth. I'm an unclean, filthy man. Now. I do want to point this out. While we believe that the Bible teaches total depravity, we are depraved by nature, total inability. We have no ability to come to God in and of our own self because who we are. We are vain, we're filthy, we're greedy, we're sinners. Now praise God in his grace. The total depravity doesn't always manifest itself as much as it could. If that were the case, we would all have killed each other off a long time ago.

57:25 There wouldn't be in existence. Now. I do think that total depravity is starting to manifest itself more and more and more. But thank God for that, because I'm not as bad as I could be. I guess if you would allow me to say it that way. But this is a dire situation, and it started all the way back. Brother Dan touched on this. It started all the way back to the garden seven different times in Genesis chapter one. You can go ahead and turn to Genesis three seven different times, and Genesis one it talks about God.

58:08 This is just once again, this conference has just I'm so I'm still struggling with following it right because it's about Ephesians four, four, five, and six. One faith. That's literally the name of this sermon. One faith. The problem so one faith doesn't really and what he's saying is there's one faith. But I guess the problem is verses seventeen and eighteen. I'm not understanding how you're connecting seventeen and eighteen to Ephesians four five hermeneutically, textually, context contextually, syntax.

58:52 I don't understand at all. I'm totally baffled by this. And now we're going off to Genesis, we're in Romans. Even the introduction, we went to Colossians. I I don't understand. I'm gonna let him finish the point he was just starting to make and we'll wrap this up. This did not go the direction I wanted. It did not. Again, I'm going to continue to challenge you. I mean I will. I'm gonna finish soon. I don't know if I won't probably be today, but soon we will look at long suffering for bearing one another in love, and then we're just gonna wrap it up right, because we've done what we can with this in this looking at this series, we've we've looked at the entire structure of Ephesians Ephesians one, two, three, four, five, six, the entire book. We've provided some understanding of the contextual uh setting for Ephesians four, four, five through six. I've repeated that a little bit this morning. I think we've done about everything we can possibly. I'm literally at a lost.

1:00:07 I'm just at a loss with what to do here, Like I don't, I don't get it. And I understand. This is the beautiful I guess. The beautiful thing and the frustrating thing about preaching is people can handle the text and all I mean, there's no limit in ways in which people can handle the text. I just yeah, yeah, I just don't understand. I just don't understand here. I just I don't. But let let him finish. Obviously, being the creator, I love it. The first calls of all calls without calls, he's un calls, but seven different times it has some form of the phrase. And he saw that it was good. So God created this creation.

1:00:59 He created the head and the earth good and very good, and that includes man. We were just talking about this, brother, Dan and I. He created male and female in his own image, in the imago day, in the image of God, a perfect creation, a flaw without flaws. He saw that it was good. He gives Adam and Eve a command in Genesis two, out of every tree of the garden, enjoy it, enjoy it, have at it. I've given it to you.

1:01:48 Let's just remember this because I know I always have to be the devil's advocate when it comes to Christianity. But let me offer you know what nobody ever wants to talk about in Christianity. Let's remember this eternal God who in the beginning created heaven and earth. This eternal God knew exactly what was going to happen before he created anything. He knew he was going to create Adam and Eve, and he knew that they were going to sin. He knew before he created Satan Lucifer. He knew that that angel would fall. He knew from the before he even created him, and then when Satan fell he knew he could. He would have been perfectly right to destroy him.

1:02:37 Just done, be done. No, Satan gone done, removing evil and sin from my entire creation. It's gone. He's gone. But no, no, no, he does not. Only does he not destroy him, he allows him to come directly to this earth which God had created. No, he does he allow him access to the earth. He allows him access to oh, the garden. He could have kept him out, but he did not. When Satan came in to tempt Eve, God could immediately have stepped in and said, back off. Know Eve, don't listen to him. I'm your creator. He is a liar. God does not do anything to stop it. He doesn't do anything to prevent it. He doesn't do it knowing exactly what's going to happen. And as soon as Adam and Eve sin, he could have destroyed them, destroyed Satan, and then there would be no sin in his creation. He could expunged sin forever. He could have created so much whatever, but he did not, meaning the eternal God who knew everything that was going to happen.

1:03:37 Now you can even get into decrees, we get providence, we could get into that. He does nothing to stop it, knowing it's all going to happen, which then makes it like why like then we got to get into somehow all of this fits into God's plan in some way, shape or form. Cultivate this garden, enjoy this garden. Eat of the fruits in this garden, except this one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Well, with that in mind, let's read Genesis chapter three. Genesis chapter three, verse one.

1:04:29 This goes back all the way back thousands of years ago. Now the serpent was more subtle. He was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, yea hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden. And the woman said, into the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden. God has said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said, unto the woman, ye shall not surely die, For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be open and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

1:05:23 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked. I'll stop there. You remember, I believe it's the end of Genesis two says the man and the woman were naked and unashamed because they didn't have to be. But now they're naked, they're exposed, full of shame. Well, I just want to walk through the process.

1:06:05 I guess of Genesis three, of the fall. What I would always want to say is Inin't it amazing? God shows up after it? God shows up after it, and it says, Okay, I'm in charge. Here's your punishment. Here's your punishment, your pun God. You could have shown up before there was sin, You could have stopped at all. Where was God? God was watching it, knowing it was going to take place. Snook. He knew it before he created them, it was going to take place. God created the very one who brings in the temptation. He created that being, knowing that being was going to bring the temptation.

1:06:45 He could have destroyed that being. He could have prevented that being Satan from enterning. He could have interrupted the temptation. God could have done fifty billion different things. Okay, that's a little bit of hyperbole to stop this. It would need fifty billion or two actions could have stopped it from ever happening. But he did not. He allowed it all to happen, which is crazy. Allowed it is a is a nicer way, depending on your theology. He decreed it. Hey, his providence guided and directed it. But again, I don't know what any of this has to do with Ephesians for because I don't understand. I don't understand.

1:07:28 Yeah, I guess we'll just operate there because now he's just gonna walk through it. He's just gonna walk through it. And I doubt because to me, when when I read, I always say, the most complicated verse is Genesis one one in the beginning God, because if you're reading that and you know what comes after, you're like, in the beginning, God, stop right there, stop, don't do don't say that, don't create don't do it because it's gonna be a disaster. But in Genesis three, I've always said, what blows my mind is not the back and forth between Satan or the serpent and Eve. No, no, no, the woman sees it, she eats. I'm not shocked by that, Okay. And then this is what blows my mind. Then verse eight, and they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of day. Verse eight is like, now you show up. Now you're gonna come. Now, you're gonna come walking in the garden. You're gonna come walking in the garden before I don't know, this whole thing started.

1:08:23 While this thing was starting, right before Eve took a bite. Nowhere, just nowhere, just do not gonna not going to intervene. And then when you read in Genesis later on, you have God intervening when Abraham's like, hey, hey, hey, she's not my wife, she's my sister taker. In both cases, God intervenes to stop anything from happening to Sarah, stops it. He intervenes when Lot's daughters are like, hey, let's get dead, drunk and have physical relations with him. God doesn't intervene. God intervenes, say, angelic beings into Sodom and gomor to remove Lot, but doesn't intervene to stop the incests that incur occurs. I mean, over and over, you see God steps in and then God doesn't do anything. God steps in here, but he doesn't step in to stop David.

1:09:18 That's that's the most confounding thing. But again, none of that has anything to do with Ephesians four. So once again, this conference which is on Ephesians four, five and six or four or Ephesians four, four, five and six I've had I was really hoping that we're going to deal with the problem of one faith. Yet in practice there's not one faith. So how do we understand one faith philologically when there's not one faith practically? How do we understand philologically one body when practically there is I know, we can say, well there's one invisible church, but that what does that even mean? We don't we you know, we don't meet. There's no agreement on any but even if we're a part of one invisible body, there's no practical agreement practically, So how do we understand that? And how do we endeavor to keep the unity? How do we understand these ones that are just spoken of one body, one faith, one bad, one baptism. We don't agree on baptism, like those like, that's what I thought he was going to say, Okay, we've got this problem. We've got one faith philologically, but we don't have one faith practically. Here's the problem, and here's the solution. But they didn't. They skipped to over to verse seventeen. I don't understand. I don't understand. There we have it.

1:10:40 Ah. I thought we were gonna. I thought we were really gonna. Ah. Man, Sometimes I hate myself, like why why do I do these reviews without listening first? But you know that's I couldn't. I couldn't pass it up one faith or one faith the problem. I'm like, oh, yes, this is what we've been waiting for. This is going to be good. And well did not go the direction I thought I did not go. Maybe we could take Ephesians four. Maybe we could do this Ephesians four five, one faith, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Maybe we should do for our sermon's two point oh app sermon challenge you look up sermons on Ephesians four five and see how pastors handle the idea. Of one faith obviously phiologically, but not one faith practically, and how they connect that to walk worthy and endeavor to keep the unity. Maybe that's what we need to do, all right. I feel like I don't know what I feel disappointed here. I feel kind of like, well,

1:12:12 now they can do It's not a criticism. They can handle the text anyway they want. It's a criticism as far as like, from my perspective I was hoping for. I still trying to understand the structure of effusions for that obviously was not their goal. That was not their intention, that was not their purpose, And they can do their conference anyway they want. It's not a criticism. It's just totally radically different perspectives that I'm providing. But when it comes to the whole fall of Man, I think every Christian should be asking some of those hard questions because I think anyone who reads the Bible should be like, wait, this story is really difficult to wrap my mind around because we have to be willing to admit when sometimes it's very complicated. All Right, we'll stop there. Everyone have a great day. I apologize. I don't know what else I can say. I can only when we do review.

1:13:00 Whatever happens is whatever happens, so I can't I can't make it different. So all right, thanks for listening everyone, have a gret day. God bless