reaching our Jerusalem with the gospel. This is a phrase that you will frequently hear in these days if you are to any degree a part of the life and the ministry of this congregation. I began last Lord's Day a brief series of messages. How many there will be, I'm not sure at this point, but it will be for me a relatively brief series of messages under the title, Some Biblical Perspectives Concerning God-Honoring, Spirit-Empowered Evangelistic Endeavors. I began by stating that I would seek to organize this series of messages around the metaphor or the imagery of a tree, a tree rooted in healthy, nourishing soil, a tree comprised of its roots, its main trunk, several main branches, and perhaps a few secondary branches. I then identified what the soil is. And I affirmed, I asserted, that the soil in which any God-honoring, Spirit-empowered evangelistic endeavor must be rooted is the rich, nourishing soil of the Word of God, that is, the Scriptures of the Old and the New Testaments. While there are many evangelistic programs and schemes that are promoted in our day, as I've examined them, few of them, not all, but few of them are thoroughly rooted in the healthy soil of a vigorous interaction with the Scriptures. Rather, secular marketing techniques, psychological and emotional manipulation rule to a great measure in many of them. However, we have sought as your elders in giving guidance in this enterprise to keep before us the simple truth of 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17, in which Paul affirms that all Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for doctrine or teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, in order that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly furnished unto every good work. And it is our conviction that no better work can be found than the work of seeking to bring sinners to the knowledge of Christ through the proclamation of the gospel, and surely the Scriptures ought to be sufficient to equip us for that work, if Scripture is sufficient to equip the servants of God for every good work. And then we began to identify what I called the first main taproot of this God-honoring, Spirit-empowered evangelistic endeavor, and I stated that that first taproot, the main root that draws the primary nourishment into the whole tree, is this. It is comprised of the ability on the part of the people of God to see unconverted people for who and what they really are, and who they are is defined and described by the Scriptures. If we are to be engaged, and engaged with due prayerfulness, with due compassion, with due tenderness, And on the other hand, with due respect to the vigorous claims of the biblical gospel, we must see people for who and what they really are. And then I set forth four lines of biblical truth that constitute the essence of what our unconverted neighbors, children, friends, and work associates, fellow students, really are. And I stated and sought to demonstrate from the Scriptures that we must see people as uniquely created in the image of God. And we worked out some of the implications of that. Secondly, we must see people really fallen and ruined in Adam. And as fallen and ruined in Adam, the Bible says they are in a condition of total depravity total inability and total accountability. My own heart was convicted that it's so easy to move away from that perspective that many of us had as young Christians when with Paul we could say, wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh. And we saw everyone we contacted as either on his or her way to heaven. or on his or her way to hell. We don't talk that way much anymore. People are hell-deserving sinners. People are on their way to hell. And I have been struck in my devotional reading again in the book of Matthew, as I've started again in the New Testament, as I do once a year reading through the entire New Testament, And I've been struck again at how hell and judgment were constantly in the mind and in the heart and upon the lips of our gentle Savior. Again and again He uses the terminology, better to enter life maimed than having two hands to be cast into hell. Whosoever shall say thou fool, whosoever say rachah, shall be in danger of hell fire. Be not afraid of those that kill a body and after this have no more that they can do. Be afraid of him who can cast soul and body into hell. More tolerable in the day of Solomon Gomorrah than for these cities. More tolerable in the day of judgment. Day of judgment. I've just read the kingdom parables in Matthew 13. So shall it be at the end of the age. The reapers will come forth, separate wheat and tares. Wheat shall be gathered into God's barn, the tares shall be gathered and cast into fire, weeping and wailing, outer darkness. These are words again and again and again found upon the lips and obviously in the thinking of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. And no little part of internal mental and spiritual conformity to Christ is seeing people for who and what they really are, as Jesus saw them for who and what they really were. But then thirdly, we must not only see them as people uniquely created in the image of see them as really fallen and ruined in Adam, but we must see them as savable and possibly elect in Christ. We can say of no man or woman, boy or girl, no matter how far they may seem from Christ and an interest in Christ, that man, that woman is unsavable. You can't say that of anyone. You can't say of anyone that person is non-elect. You cannot say that. Only God can say that. And our Bibles tell us that with regard to the savability of men, even the most difficult of them, with men this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible. And we must begin in a new way to look upon people in that way. You are savable. And I'm out to bring that message which, with God's blessing, will prove that my assumption was right. Isn't that a wonderful thing? To put your arm around someone and say, you know what I assumed about you when I first met you? That you were savable. Your mouth was full of foul cursing and uncleanness. Your whole life was one constant commentary on human depravity. But I looked at you and I said, you're savable! And now look what God did. My assumption was valid. Look what God's done for you. Brethren, this gives us hope. This gives expectation. This keeps us plodding on without crippling discouragement. And then fourthly, we must see them as objects of the loving mind and heart of Jesus. when he gave to his church her evangelistic mandate to take the message among the nations, nations comprised of individuals, and Jesus had in his loving mind and heart the nations, all men, until the consummation when he laid upon the church her blessed privilege and duty to make disciples of all the nations, to preach repentance unto remission of sins among all the nations. Well, that's the first taproot. It is seeing people for who and what they really are. And if I'm speaking to someone who's outside of Christ this morning, my friend, this is not an intellectual exercise for you. This is a mirror. This is who you is. This is what you really are, not what you see when you look into the mirror made of the stuff of your own self-deception and your own flattering opinions of who and what you are. This is what God says you are. And the sooner you begin to take it seriously, the sooner you begin to see yourself for who and what God says you are, you are in the way of hopefulness. For it's only when men see who and what they are according to God's description that the gospel is good news to them. Otherwise, it's just interesting information or irritating information. But begin to see yourself for who and what you really are. Begin to feel in the depths of your being. Yes, I am a creature made in the image of God with the capacity to know Him. Made that by joyful, willing, careful obedience, I might bring glory to the God in whose image I was made. And yet that image is now marred because I've turned to do my own thing and to live my life according to my own standards. And in that condition, God says that sin has permeated all of my faculties, my mind, my affections, my will. It reaches out to the members of my body. And in that condition, I cannot perceive spiritual reality. I cannot, as we heard this morning, change my rebel will. I cannot even come to Christ apart from His enabling power, and yet I am totally accountable, and I will answer to God for who and what I've become because of my sin. Begin to take that seriously, my friend, and there's hope for you. For then the gospel will indeed be good news. But having considered who and what we are and how we are to look at man in that light, I come this morning to address taproot number two. In the rich, nourishing soil of the Word of God, there is a second taproot to the tree of God-honoring, Spirit-empowered, evangelistic endeavors. And that second taproot is this. It is the necessity of living before the unconverted a life that embodies and consistently displays the transforming power of the gospel. I'll give it to you again. Taproot number two is the necessity of living before the unconverted, a life that embodies and consistently displays the transforming power of the gospel. If taproot number one has to do with what we see them to be, taproot number two has to do with what they see us to be. You got it? We must see them for who and what they are. They must see us for what and who we claim to be. We claim to be the products of the gospel. We claim to be what they will become if they embrace the message we are seeking to convey to them. And they have every right to expect that we will embody and consistently, not perfectly, consistently display the transforming power of that very gospel that we are seeking to convey to them. And I want you to get this. This is crucial, folks. This is absolutely crucial. I've stated what Taft Root No. 2 is, but I want, before opening it up from the Scriptures, to set forth a very clear qualification. Please listen carefully to this qualification, and the qualification is this. According to the Bible and our own experience, there is a legitimate place for communicating the gospel. to people before whom you have had little or no opportunity to display in your life the transforming power of the gospel. Again, I repeat the stanzas. According to the scriptures, there is a legitimate place for communicating the gospel to people before whom you have had and will not have much opportunity to display in your life the transforming power of the gospel. All we need do is turn to the Gospels and to the book of Acts and we see this again and again. When Jesus commissioned the twelve in Matthew 10, He told them to go around the cities there in Palestine. They were to go into a home, and if there was a son of peace there, they were to make their bed there and stay there and not make it look like they were shopping from house to house to see who put out the best food and have the softest bed. When you find a son of peace, stay there, and then go out and preach, heal the sick, raise the dead. They did not have time to settle into these communities and let people view their transformed life before they preach the gospel or even while they were preaching the gospel. Now obviously there would be some opportunities to manifest the transformed life in interacting with people, but very little long-term settled opportunity for interaction. We find that with the 70 who were commissioned in Luke 10. We turn to the book of Acts on the day of Pentecost, 120 people are in an upper room. The eleven apostles are there. They've chosen the twelve. There are men and women there. Even our Lord's mother is there. A hundred and twenty, it says. And the Spirit of God comes and fills them all and constitutes the new living temple of the New Testament Church. And they go out from that room. People hear this sound and people's attention is attracted. And in some kind of a public forum, they are out, all of them now. It's apparently men and women alike. speaking in these languages that the Spirit of God was giving them the power to articulate, and people from all over were hearing in their own tongues the mighty works of God. These people didn't have time to live before them, to manifest the transformed life. Peter stands up in the midst and says, hey guys, I've heard the scuttlebutt. Some of you are saying that this babbling, this talking is drunk. No, no, we're not drunk. It's only nine o'clock in the morning. This is that which was prophesied by the prophet Joel. So they had very little opportunity for any interaction to validate in their lives the gospel that was now being powerfully preached by Peter, who becomes spokesman for the 120. Philip with the Ethiopian eunuch, he meets him in a desert chariot, preaches the gospel, baptizes him, he goes on his way, and the eunuch goes on his way, and all the way through the book of Acts. So please hear me carefully. Hear me carefully. I don't want to be accused of stating something that is patently unbiblical. I am not saying, by articulating this second taproot, that there is no place for communicating the gospel in settings where you have little or no opportunity to manifest the transforming power of that gospel in your life. You go in, you take your seat on the plane, someone is next to you, you've got an hour and a half flight, and you're sitting there praying, Lord give me wisdom to know how to engage them in conversation and somehow to turn the conversation to spiritual reality. How much living can you do before them in an hour and a half? Now, you can do some things. When there's someone struggling to get a bin, get something in the overhead bin, you be the first one on your feet. May I help you, ma'am? You use a little common courtesy, which is a very rare commodity. You let people know that you're a Christian man. Christian woman, you'll have your ways. Yes, we can begin to drop, but very little opportunity, but we may get a good opportunity to give our testimony, to share a piece of literature, you're sitting in your barber's chair, all of these different situations, whenever and wherever we can communicate any threads of gospel truth by word of mouth, by tract, by, we heard Wednesday night, this trucker who's giving out CDs and leaving in the truck stops and handing them out on tracks, Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! And don't anyone say, well, Pastor Martin told us that unless you've got opportunity to embody and to demonstrate before people the power of the gospel in your own life. No, I never said that. God is bearing false witness. Don't do that. Please, please, please, please, don't do that. Pastor, why are you laboring the point? Because I know human nature and I know what I'm going to get accused of. and I'm trying to fend it off and not allow the devil to take a very vital truth and to use it to serve his own ends. So, having set forth what the taproot is, having given the qualification, let's come back now and let me seek to demonstrate from the Scriptures that for God-glorifying, Spirit-empowered evangelistic endeavors, the necessity of living before the unconverted to whom we would bring the gospel, a life that embodies and consistently displays the transforming power of that gospel. And I want to open up with you three texts of Scripture that I trust will carry your judgment in this matter. The first is Matthew 5, verses 13 to 16. Now, I'm fully aware that Pastor Jay preached on this passage some weeks ago, but I want to come back to it. Matthew 5, verses 13 to 16. In these three chapters, the Sermon on the Mount, that have been dubbed as the Magna Carta of the kingdom of grace that Jesus came to establish, our Lord says, You are the salt of the earth, verse 13 of Matthew 5. But if the salt is lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden underfoot of men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a lamp, and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it shines unto all that are in the house. Even so let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." Now, the context of these words is our Lord has just given what we commonly call the eight Beatitudes. Beginning with verse three, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And He gives these eight Now, these Beatitudes are not rungs on which a person is to climb into the favor of God and ultimately into heaven. These Beatitudes are not a description of how to get right with God. Rather, they are a composite picture of the facial features, the spiritual facial features of all who, blessed with kingdom grace, are in the kingdom by God's own supernatural work of regeneration. The Beatitudes are not a ladder to heaven. They are a portrait of the sons and daughters of the kingdom. They are in their essential spirit-transformed character. Poor in spirit, they mourn, they are meek, they hunger and thirst, they are merciful, pure in heart, they are peacemakers. Now, in the last beatitude, beginning in verse 10, Our Lord describes what will happen to such people because they are not driven off into some kind of a spiritual Christian ghetto with only their own kind, but they are left in a world that has not known the power and the intrusion of kingdom grace. People who are still in darkness, and according to John 3, love the darkness and hate the light. People who love their sins. People who are described in Titus chapter 3 as hateful and hating one another, far from peacemakers. People that are proud, far from poor in spirit. People that are indifferent to things that ought to make them weep, and then weep over things that ought not to make them weep. They know nothing of mourning for the right things in the right way. They hunger and thirst for position and power and prestige and influence, but they know nothing of hungering and thirsting for righteousness. That's the kind of people among whom those who experience these marvelous character traits inwrought by the power of the Spirit, it's among such people they live. And our Lord in the final Beatitudes gives us more than a hint He tells us, in no uncertain terms, that these sons and daughters of the kingdom, with those character traits inwrought by the Holy Spirit, living in the midst of people who know nothing of those things, that there's going to be a reaction. And so he says, blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Kingdom grace has invaded them, and living among those who do not have that grace, there is this reaction against them. Blessed are you when men reproach you, persecute you, say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you. Now look at the text. Having made the transition in that last beatitude from simply looking at the character traits as they are found in isolation in the sons and daughters of the kingdom, poor in spirit, meek, hungering and thirsting peacemakers, having shown that living in a sin-loving, sin-darkened, devil-dominated world, there will be a reaction of that world towards them, and often it will be negative, Jesus very naturally moves in in verses 13 to 16 to describe what the influence of the sons and daughters of the kingdom will be upon that world. He's shown what the reaction of the world will be to them, the last Beatitude. Now what will their influence be in the midst of that world? And he does so by setting forth two metaphors. As Pastor Jay opened it up to us, you are the salt of the earth, and then verse 14, you are the light of the world. The first metaphor, you are the salt of the earth, the commentators go round and round and round seeking to pinpoint precisely what Jesus had in mind. Is he speaking of salt as that which checks putrefaction? Salt that was used to sanctify sacrifices? Salt that was used as an antiseptic? Salt that gave flavor to food? Salt that was used to create thirst? I really don't know. Suffice it to say, Whatever the Lord had in mind, whether He is thinking of His people as an influence that checks spiritual ignorance and moral perversity, whether He is thinking in terms of salt as preserving food that will otherwise putrefy flesh that it sanitizes, I don't know, but this much is clear. Their lifestyle has an impact upon men and women who are not sons and daughters of the kingdom, an influence that they cannot escape. Notice this is not a command, it's a statement of fact. You are the salt of the earth. By being what a kingdom daughter is, by being what a kingdom son is, you are salt in any and perhaps all of the ways that our Lord had in mind. Some of you know what it is in terms of checking evil. People are in the lunchroom at your place of business, and the guys are passing around their Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition. You walk in the door, and somebody puts it behind their back. You're being sought. You're checking the putrefaction of eyeballs soaking in pornography. Perhaps the women are in the lunchroom and they're being catty and passing around gossip. You walk in and suddenly the conversation stops. You can think of many ways. The Lord says, just being what you are as sons and daughters of the kingdom, you function as salt in the earth. That's what you are. But then he says in verse 14, you are the light of the world. That's not a command. Again, that's a statement of fact. Because you are what you are by the dynamics of kingdom grace that has made you into the kind of people described in the Beatitudes. Remember, got to think of these words in the light of the Beatitudes. Because you are poor in spirit. Because you do mourn for the right things. Because you are meek. Because you do hunger and thirst. Because you are merciful. Because you are pure in heart. Because you are a peacemaker. You are the light of the world. You are an instrument to dispel darkness. To expose reality. You don't see reality for what it is in the dark. Light comes and you see reality. The Lord says His people, His kingdom's subjects, are the light of the world. Derived light? Yes. Jesus said, I am the light of the world. He is the ultimate source of all spiritual light and illumination, of all influences that dispel darkness. But we, like the moon, we have derived light, reflective light, because we have come within the orbit of the dynamics of kingdom grace. Now, the part I want to focus on, I want you to look at your Bibles. You are the light of the world. And then he says, in the light of that, a city set on a hill can't be hid. Because you are what you are, you cannot be hid. You are the city set on the hill. Collectively in your life together, as individuals, part of the company of kingdom subjects, you are that. He doesn't say you ought to be, he says you are. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a lamp, and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it shines unto all that are in the house. I have made you what I have made you, and you are shining." Now then, here's the first imperative, as Pastor Jay pointed out, verse 16. Even so, let your light shine before men. Make a conscious effort that what I have made you as light give out its light before the face and the awareness of men, and in the context men is those outside the kingdom. The assumption being, you notice from verse 10 through 12, that we have not been extracted from living interaction with men as unsaved, unconverted, non-kingdom men and women. We are among them. We go to the same places of business. We shop at the same stores. We work in the same shop. We are in the same office. We sit in the same classroom at the college and university. We play in the same neighborhood with them. We have this interaction with men now, he says, because I've made you light. Light to dispel the darkness. Light to expose reality for what it really is. Let your light shine before men. But now the $64 question is, how do I let my light shine? What constitute the beams of my light? And here I ask you to look at the text. Let your light so shine before men that they may see what? Not hear, but see! That they may see! That they may see! And I hope when you lie in your bed tonight you hear the preacher saying that they may see! That they may see! That they may see! That they may see! See what? Your good works. I am to be determined that by the enabling grace and power of God, that I will not only experience kingdom grace, but that I will display and manifest that kingdom grace before the eyes of those who do not know that grace. To what end? Look at the text. And as a result of them seeing those good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. That is, return to the very purpose for which they were made. For what is the chief end of man? to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. And what is the connection between them seeing my good works and glorifying God? Nobody was ever saved and brought to a God-glorifying life by simply looking at the life of another believer. I don't care how Christlike, how consistent, how godly. Faith comes of hearing, hearing by the word of God. It is the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation. What is the connection between my good works being seen and those who see them glorifying God? The assumption is that this forms such a basis of credibility that in that context the word of kingdom grace is spoken, and the power of the Spirit owns it and makes it effectual, and men and women are converted from self-glorifying, self-willed, self-absorbed life and begin to live to the glory and praise of God and that which got the first hooks in them was your good works. That was the hook that drew them into the orbit of the influence of the Word of Kingdom Grace by which alone they can be converted and be saved. You are light. That's what you are. Now God says, let that light shine. That is, make conscience of being a do-gooder. Yes, make conscience of seeking by the grace of God in the presence of the unconverted to manifest a life that both embodies and consistently displays the transforming power of the grace of God. And without that, God may bless His Word from the most shoddy instrument. God may do a lot of things. But what God may do in His sovereignty is not to be the rule of your life. It's what He's revealed in this book. And mark my word, if you and I begin to take seriously with new measures of spiritual energy and zeal and prayerfulness are evangelistic mandate and privileges. Few things will be a more constant and powerful pressure to get your act together in every area than that very zeal and commitment. Unconverted people often know better how a Christian should behave than Christians profess to know. You're a Christian and you do that? You're a Christian and you respond like that? Though they may not want it for themselves, they know what it is and what it ought to look like. And Jesus says, the onus and responsibility is upon us. That's text number one. I think the issue could rest on that text alone, but at the mouth of two or three witnesses. Let every word be confirmed. Text number two is Philippians chapter two. Oh, by the way, let me just give you this quote from Martin Lloyd-Jones. In his Sermon on the Mount, after dealing with this text, he closed this way, Christian people, you and I are living in the midst of men and women who are in a state of gross darkness. They will never have any light anywhere in this world except from you and from me and the gospel we believe and teach. They're watching us. Do they see something different about us? Are our lives a silent rebuke to them? Do we so live as to lead them to come back and ask us, why do you always look so peaceful? How is it you're so balanced? How can you stand up to the things as you do? Why is it you're not dependent on artificial aids and pleasures as we are? What is this thing that you've got? If they do, we can then tell them that wondrous, amazing, but tragically neglected news that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners and to give men a new nature and a new life and to make them children of God. Christian people alone are the light of the world today. Let us live and function as children. of the light. We could turn to Ephesians 5 for an extended commentary on this. I'm not going to do it in the interest of time, but I urge you to look at Ephesians 5 verses 2 or 3 through 11 as a parallel passage. Now, text number 2 is Philippians chapter 2, and all I'm trying to do is demonstrate that this second taproot that I have called living by the grace of God before the unconverted in such a way as to consistently manifest the transforming power of the gospel is crucial to any biblically-framed evangelistic endeavor. Philippians chapter 2. This church, as many of you know, was, if Paul had a pet, this was teacher's pet. This was Apostle Paul's pet. He had peculiar ties of intimacy and affinity with this church. He says some very complimentary things about them. And in the midst of that, it is clear that what bound Paul and these people together, among other things, was their unusual passion for his great passion. His great passion was getting the gospel to the unreached Roman Empire. They shared in that passion with him. And you will notice in his opening prayer, he says that he thanks God for them. Verse 3, make supplication for them. Verse 5, for your fellowship in the furtherance of the gospel from this first day until now. They had an unusual measure of shared gospel passion with the Apostle Paul, and he appreciated that and entered in with them to those gospel endeavors. Verse 12, I would have you know, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather to the progress of the gospel. Here he's heard from Epaphroditus, who's come from them with a gift. And he's heard that they're anxious about him, and he says, look, look, don't be anxious. Don't be anxious. All the things that have happened to me, yeah, they've happened to me, and I'm writing from prison, but they've happened for the furtherance of the gospel. He knew that would make them dance and shout and have a little hallelujah party. Oh, you mean all these things? That's what we're in this for. Paul's in it for the furtherance of the gospel. We're in it for the furtherance and the progress of the gospel. He says in verse 27, He wants to get a hook in these people. Only church he says this to. Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel. Isn't that beautiful? Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel. Well, wait a minute. I thought the gospel was God's good news to the unworthy. Yes, it is. But once you've embraced that gospel, you're saying, I've embraced a gospel that not only makes me right with God and gives me a right standing in heaven, but has broken the dominion of sin, has caused me to forsake the sordid, foul, wretched fountains of this world to satisfy the deep thirst of my soul, Jesus is the water of life to me. Jesus is the bread of life. I don't need your cesspools in order to have a full life, a joyful life, a life that's full of meaning. That's what you say when you say you believe the gospel. He says, let your life be worthy of that. Let your life be a manifestation that the gospel has done in you what the Bible says the gospel does for sinners. That's what it is to be worthy of it. Not that I earn it. No, I'm still an unworthy sinner. But my life is to be worthy of such a gospel. That gospel is not to be denigrated, thought little of, and cheapened because of the way I live. Rather, my life, by the grace and power of God, is to be worthy of the gospel. So that's some of the flavor of the passage. And then, after addressing what he probably had heard was an internal area of friction among some of the people, and pointing them to Jesus' self-abandonment and Jesus' humiliation as the pattern for their lives, we come to verse 12. So then, my beloved, chapter 2, verse 12. even as you've always obeyed, but now, much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." In other words, while I was among you, you obeyed. You were compliant. You were a delight to pastor. When I would give you biblical directives, you clicked your heels and saluted to Jesus, and in His strength, you did it. Even more, now that I'm absent, keep up that pattern of obedience. Don't let anyone say that your obedience was rooted in your loving attachment to me. I'm no longer there, but Jesus is. So continue to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, that is, with a serious regard to the great issues involved, and with a deep sense of your own inadequacy, that you don't come strutting, as it were, into each day, another day to live for Jesus. I can do it. No! Poor in spirit. It's just another way of Jesus in the First Beatitude. I know what I must be. But I know what I am, and I know what I will be, apart from the grace of God and the power of the Spirit. O Lord, help me with fear and trembling. Four, to encourage you, it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work. And there's a beautiful play on words in the Greek. God is working in you both to will, to give you the right choice, and the power to fulfill that choice, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. And there's that beautiful, beautiful, what appears like a great contradiction to many, but this synthesis, God's working and my working, it's all of God, yet it's all of me. I can give myself to the outworking of my salvation with all my energy and faculties in consciousness of my utter inability, yet I'm going to engage all my faculties in the confidence that God is at work in me, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Now it's as though someone's raised his hand and said, excuse me, Paul, let's get pratical. What's that mean, where the rubber meets the road? When I get up tomorrow morning, Elder so-and-so has read your letter, Paul, and I've tried to internalize it, work out my salvation and the confidence God had worked in me, but Paul, what's that mean? Rubber meets the road. I go into the shop tomorrow. I go into the office. I go into the classroom. I go face my three spalking kids. How do I do this, Paul? He says, I'll tell you. Let's start here. He says, I'll give you—how's this for starters? Verse 14. Do all things. Wait a minute. All things. You know what all things means? It means all things. Do all things. That is, any thing that becomes a thing in your life in which you are performing something in the doing of that thing, do all things without murmurings and questionings, and this is language taken right from the Old Testament description of that wilderness generation who were constantly murmuring, constantly disputing with God and with their leaders. In other words, it's a doing things with a grudging attitude, It is doing things with a discontented attitude. It is doing things without that sweet resignation to the will of God, no matter how unpleasant the thing may be or the circumstances in which I am called upon to do that thing in the will of God. As God is working me to will and to work, and as I am seeking to work out my salvation and live responsibly in the light of the Scriptures, things, circumstances, unfold before me in which I am doing this or that, And everything about this or that thing provokes me to where I want to have an internal grumbling and grousing or an external disputation with God or others." He said, no, no. Do everything, in every circumstance, in all relationships, at all times. Don't minimize this. Don't shave off its ubiquity. Do all things without murmuring and complaining. Why? Verse 15. In order that, here's the end Paul has in view, you may become blameless and harmless. Harmless is a poor translation. Blameless and without dilution. This is the word you would use if You went to the market to buy some wine and you ask, is it harmless? Is it undiluted? Do all things, he says, without murmuring and disputings that you may become blameless and undiluted. In other words, through and through you are the Christian you profess to be. No one can legitimately point the finger at you and say, you're a Christian and you do that? If so, you're not blameless. And if you have this sense of a divided heart, well, I'll take this seriously in some circumstances, but not others. You're diluted. You're double-minded. You're not single-minded. You're not pure through and through in your determination that you will, by the grace of God in every circumstance, in all times and places, do all things without murmuring and disputing. to be blameless and harmless, children of God without blemish." It doesn't say without sin, but without blemish. This is the very apostle who the next chapter says, look, I've not yet attained, I've not yet reached the goal. Forgetting the things that are behind, I'm pressing on. He's not teaching sinless perfection, but that when I would open my mouth, no one can legitimately say, he's a Christian and look at that in his life. Man, I see the way he goes out of the boss's office when he's been given an unpleasant assignment, and I don't know that he's cursing under his breath, but he's sure mumbling, and he looks like he just sucked on ten lemons. And he's a Christian? You see where this gets right down to the very essence of how and where we live in a real world? That you may be blameless and harmless without blemish where? in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Again, language taken right from the Old Testament describing that wilderness generation. We get our word skolios, crooked spine, from crooked and perverse. Perverse is the best rendering. It's perverted, twisted, a crooked and twisted generation. But now notice, among whom you are seen. That's it. You're in the midst of it. There in the office, there in the shop, there in the college classroom, there in the playground, wherever you are, you're in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation, and you're being watched. And being watched, you are seen as what? As lights in the world. Beautiful commentary on Matthew chapter 5 and verse 14. You are seen And when you are seen as one who does all things, without murmuring and disputing. That is so counter-human nature. That is so counter-cultural. That is so counter to the context in which we are called upon to carry out our lives. We then are seen as luminaries. The very word used in Genesis chapter 1, for God made the greater light and the lesser light. We are seen as luminaries. We can no more be ignored. than the sun or a full moon. Why? Because we're going around blabbing about Jesus? Not necessarily. Because we leave tracks in the bathroom? Not necessarily. But because When there are circumstances that would cause us to enter into the common complaining and grumbling and murmuring of unconverted people, we are radically different. Isn't it amazing that Paul would focus on something so mundane and so down to earth and so applicable to every one of us that you are seen as lights in the world, and then verse 16, and here the linguist and the exegetes go round and round. You look at half a dozen translations and you'll find them about evenly divided. The Greek word, apeko, is it holding fast to the word of life, or is it holding forth the word of life? And I looked at a number of my translations. They were about easily divided. Holding forth holding fast too. And I couldn't have it settled when men who know far more Greek than I know, one man I was very interested in, he was so dogmatic, Lenski, whom you hear me often quote, the Lutheran commentator who was quite a Greek seller, and Lenski is very dogmatic that never once Hezekiah used in the New Testament to mean holding forth, but always holding to. Hendrickson, again, equally competent Greek scholar and commentator, comes around and he takes Lenski's position apart text by text. And when I find that happen, and I've looked up in my lexicons, and I just throw my hand up and say, Lord, they don't know, I don't know. But this much is clear. This much is clear. If Paul had in mind holding forth the word of life, He only sees the holding forth in the context where people are seen as lights in the world. That much is clear from the grammar, from the context, from the verbs. The holding forth is ancillary to the doing all things without murmuring and disputing that you may be seen as lights. And if you're not seen as a light, Don't hold forth the word that says it transforms children of darkness into children of light. And if you want to know what that means, look how I respond to things that make the rest of you grouse and complain and mumble and grumble. And the difference is, I have partaken of a salvation that's caused me to embrace from the heart the will of my God, and He gives me power to perform it. That's why I say there is this second taproot, and that second taproot is, by the grace of God, that you and I manifest the transforming power of the gospel consistently before those to whom we desire to bring the message of the gospel. Well, time's gone. Let me just give you what the third passage was going to be. 1 Peter 3, and many of you are familiar with it. I won't go into the context as I had hoped to, but just state briefly. Verse 13, who is he that will harm you? Chapter 3, verse 13, if you be zealous of that which is good, Peter's assuming these people are zealous to be do-gooders. But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, blest are you, and don't fear, neither be troubled. Don't be afraid, don't be agitated, but sanctify in your hearts Christ is Lord, ready always to give answer to every man that asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you. Yet with meekness and fear, having a good conscience that wherein you are spoken against, They may be put to shame who revile your good manner of life in Christ. You see the emphasis in this passage. Who will harm you if you're doing that which is good? They revile you for your good manner of life. And when they ask you a reason for the hope that is in you, that hope is being expressed in a lifestyle that is so radically different that sooner or later it provokes the question, what in the world makes you tick? And he says, set Christ apart continually as Lord in your heart, living before Him in all the circumstances of life, ready to speak on His behalf, ready and eager to speak forth the truth of His transforming grace. And he says there will be circumstances in which those who see that lifestyle will be provoked to ask a reason. of that hope. And I'm fully aware that the word used, apologia, can mean a formal defense before a court, but there are at least three instances in the New Testament where it does not have that connotation, and therefore I take the position he's not speaking of the possibility of them being dragged before civil authorities and giving a formal answer to formal charges. No, he's talking about the ordinary believer in the midst of real pressures so living before the eye of Christ that that lifestyle becomes, as it were, the arrowhead that goes into people's hearts and the shaft of the gospel follows behind it. Isn't that what he said to these wives with unconverted husbands? Chapter 3, in like manner you wives be in subjection to your own husbands that even if any obey not the word, they've heard the word. But they've rejected it. They may without the word be gained by the behavior of their wives. Gained by behavior. Well, these were the texts that I wanted to lay before you. You have a parallel passage earlier in 1 Peter 2 and verse 12. But suffice it to say, I hope I've carried your conscience. that with due qualification, and I sought to make it as plainly as possible, there are many circumstances in which it is right and good and noble and even our duty to speak the gospel, to leave a booklet, to leave a track, to leave a tape, to leave a DVD, many circumstances where we will have no opportunity to live before people in close enough proximity to manifest the transforming power of the gospel. The very fact that we care enough for their souls to run the risk of having them think us kooky is a manifestation that the gospel has delivered us from self-serving. Right? So even that in itself is a manifestation, but in terms of the long-term observation of our life, many situations that will not be possible. However, as we think of this endeavor, and I'm seeking to give direction particularly for this endeavor, where we're talking about inviting work associates and neighbors and friends and classmates and people that we have contact with, it is vital for us not only to train ourselves and prayerfully absorb what the scripture tells us about who and what they really are, but to determine by the grace of God that we will manifest consistently the transforming power of the gospel. We must embody it first and then, by God's grace, we must manifest it. And as we do, you see, what's happening is, long before people become Christians, they know what they will look like if they become one. And that's biblical. Paul says, Mark those which so walk as you have us for an example. And that's why the whole endeavor, you see, so easily we see the place of the church. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another as God is pleased to bring them into the net where we want to see them eventually is drawn into the assembly and under the preached word and to observe the fellowship and the chemistry of grace among people that validates and illustrates the wonderful power of the gospel of the grace of God. Let me close with a true story. I don't often close with stories. A lot of preachers do. Nothing wrong with that. I just don't have that many stories. This is a true story. It was a Christian couple that poured themselves into the lives of all of their children, and one of them became the classic prodigal. At age 19, he left that home, abandoned the profession that he once had of belonging to Christ, the profession born witness to in the waters of baptism and church membership, went off into the far country and utterly abandoned himself to every single form of sensuality and debauchery. A couple of years later, he came back home. There seemed to be evidence that God was working in his life. Where he is spiritually, only God knows now. But he recently said to someone who was inquiring about his spiritual state, what it was that brought him back originally from the far country, and he said words to this effect. He said, so and so, I could pretty well get rid of the Bible, pretty well shut out the thought of God. shut out all the training that I had had and the profession I made, but the one thing I couldn't get rid of was the life of my mother and my father. I couldn't get rid of it. There was no explanation but the power of the gospel. My friend, everyone to whom we are privileged to bring the gospel out of the context of any kind of sustained interaction, they ought to be able to say that of us. I tried desperately to get rid of their gospel, get rid of their Bible, but I couldn't get rid of their life. Isn't that what Paul Peter says to those wives? They may without the Word be gained by the manner of life. That stubborn, bullheaded, unconverted husband does everything to get rid of everything. We've got to live with that woman who so embodies the gospel that that salt and that light, eventually blessed by the Spirit of God, bring him to repentance and faith. Oh, may God grant that those who may never come to repentance and faith will know that they've not only heard a clear presentation of the truth of the gospel from us, but they have seen a living, valid manifestation of the power of the Gospel in us. Let's pray. Our Father, we're so thankful that we do have your Word as a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway. And we would confess, our Father, the sins of carelessness, not only before your eyes, but before the eyes of those who look at us, because we name your name And we pray that this day there may be deep, holy resolves, that by your grace we will deal more ruthlessly with those areas of inconsistency in our lives, that we will more diligently cultivate those graces of which we are hearing in the evening expositions. Oh God, may we be passionate not only to please you, in terms of our walk before You, but to be more effective as light and salt in this needy world. God, we cry to You to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, and we trust You, for the praise of Your name and for the glory of Your grace, to effect it in us. Hear us, we plead, in Jesus' name. Amen.