beginning in verse 17. Give heed to the reading of God's word. This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who, being past feelings, have given themselves over to lewdness to work all clean uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ. If indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. Let us pray. Oh Lord our God, we ask as we come now to this passage, this passage that runs so counter to the broader world of the protestant church these days where it runs and has a a sense that is alien to what we have heard many of us from our childhood that we would hear Christ that we would learn Christ that we would be taught by Christ that we might no longer walk as these Gentiles as we once It's one of the chief ironies that two very common errors that we find in the Christian church, and Christian being very broad and loose, the way I'm using it right now, come out of messing with Calvin's doctrine of the preaching of the word. So you have what is called neo-orthodoxy, which you will find in many liberal denominations, and you have the charismatic movement are both kind of offshoots that misunderstood and misread Calvin's teaching on the preaching of the word. Calvin taught, as this passage will show, that when the ordained minister sent by the church preaches the gospel, Those who by faith and the illumination of the spirit hear that sermon and the spirit uses the preaching of that word that they hear the voice of Christ. I've mentioned this before, but that word about in your ESV and verse 21. I'm sorry. Yeah, in verse 21 should be scratched out. It's not there. It's only there in NIV and ESV. the group. That it's not you didn't hear about Christ, you heard Christ. So, there are many qualifications and nuances that have to be made to get this correctly and as so often happens, when you don't have the qualifications and nuance, you end up an error. So, the neo-orthodox error takes it to be that the preaching of the word is the experience of God. to the experience of a particular people of God at a particular period of time. It's not an authoritative word. That's the old neo-Orthodox yarn. And so the preaching is really instantiating it. And so the only place where you'll ever possibly meet the word of God is as the social revolutionary brings that religious experience to you. the the charismatic on the other hand, turns this into place for, oh, the lord laid on my heart and now, you will hear the word from me. So, they they will hold to the full authority of scripture but they say that the authority of scripture needs supplement and both of those are later. Both of these errors deny the scripture as the final word from God, the word that God has given once for all in Christ Jesus. In our passage, Paul is continuing the thought from last time. That's why we read verses 17 to 19, because he gave you this command, don't do this. Well, how can you know how to learning Christ, hearing Christ, being taught by Christ. Paul is not ignorant that you need to know how. These two verses apply Paul's how to live the Christian life. In short, you learn Christ as Christ makes himself known by the Spirit through the preaching of the Word. And those prepositional phrases are both necessary. Because everybody who has functioning eardrums can hear the preaching of the Word. And it can touch their brain cells. But that doesn't bring salvation. It's the Spirit taking that and using that in effectual calling that makes it fit and makes it work. the glory of god that the saint no longer walks as a gentile the holy spirit working through the means that god has ordained preaching without preaching the lord does not work yes i was like well what about this guy okay okay yes but when you have an ordinary means it's kind of like you know in a pinch can you use a screwdriver as a hammer It's a pretty poor one, and you're gonna booger it up, but you might get it in. So, if God has given a hammer to drive the nail, we are to make use of that means. In 1 Corinthians, Paul even goes so far as to say that he chose this means to confound the wisdom of the wise, to humble those who are looking for other ways to know God. that the wisdom of man might be seen as nothing to the glory and power of God. And so our outline this evening, learn Christ, hear Christ, taught by Christ. So learn Christ, hear Christ, taught by Christ. So let's look at verse 20 as we see this phrase, you have not So learned Christ. It's not just peculiar in English, because, you know, we don't say, did you learn gym? Did you learn? But we say, did you learn physics? Did you learn math? We have subjects, not persons as the object to learning. And Greek is no different. So this is a peculiar and one of the best rules for interpreting your Bible. is when something is peculiar, that's where you drill down. That's where you spend your time. You know, kind of as you're looking through genealogies or you're looking through census data, and everything's just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and all of a sudden, huh, an Enoch lived 316 years and then walked with God. Maybe I'm gonna spend time on that versus I wonder what Methuselah means. but that's a different story for a different time. But the point I'm getting at is we look at the outliers, not the normals. And we look at the normals indeed, but we emphasize them to spend time here. Christ is the object of what you are learning. That said, So, it's the same verb. Why would he do this? Well, this word, learn Christ, is the same word from which we get the word go and make disciples in the Great Commission. So, disciples, that's the nice sanctified word one of my professors preferred, learners. So, it's those who learn Christ. There's a similar usage of a word in a way that normally isn't used in Galatians 4 and on. But now, after you have come to know God, or rather have become known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggary elements to which you desire again to be embodied? So it's a similar thing. Don't be like you used to be because you've learned God, know you. And so, this learning Christ, in similar ways, you have come under and been regenerated by the power of the Spirit and come to be alive in Christ Jesus. The idea of both passages is that one who has become known by God or who has learned Christ has will no longer walk as the rest of the gentiles. This is to live a lie. You are not that. It's like, you know, I dare say it, these poor benighted souls who pretend to be animals. That's what it is when you sin. You are doing the equivalent of living a lie and delusion of what you actually are, which is a new creature in Christ Jesus. It doesn't mean the justified saint doesn't sin. It doesn't mean he doesn't grieve the Holy Spirit. It simply means that when you do, you're living a lie. having learned Christ is that which delivers you from being a Gentile. Remember I talked about Paul talks about and looks at humanity and because of God calling Abraham and his descendants, we have Jews and Gentiles. But once you come to be Christ, you know, neither Jew nor Greek, you are now one in Christ. You're a new creature. And so to live as you once did is to live your former life. You were born dead in your trespasses and sins, but now you are a new creature. To live the old ways is to live alive. Paul says in Romans 6. This is, if you will, the Galatians passage I read and this passage are kind of essays in what he's going to say in Romans 6, where he expands what it is to reckon yourself dead unto sin. Now, if we die with Christ, We believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him, for the death he died. He died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God. Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. You will search in vain in your Bible to find the command, die to sin. You won't find it because when you are united to Christ, you have already died to sin. You can't die a second time to sin because you've already died to sin. And so what Paul is saying in Romans six, akin to what we have in our passages, you need to reckon reality to be reality. You need to think of yourself as you truly are, one who is in Christ Jesus, who's dead to sin, one over whom sin no longer has dominion. Oh, I just can't beat this sin. Well, no, you can't, because you've already died to it, and now you need to live as one who has died to it. Yes, we can get into Owen's mortifying of sin, and yes, yes, and yes, Paul's point here is that you're dead and you need to recognize, reckon yourself dead. You know, I heard an analogy recently talking about if you go into a, into Best Buy, you buy a computer and they say, oh, you want a virus, antivirus program for your computer. You say, no. Now, you don't necessarily need an antivirus to not get one. But if you don't think you can, you're going to end up with a virus. Oh, I can go to this dodgy website, and it'll be fine. I can open all these attachments. It'll be fine. Oh, Jared's sitting there like, what's he talking about? But the point of it is, if you don't think that you are susceptible to something, you're going to walk into it. And likewise, if you don't reckon yourself dead to sin, you're going to continue to walk as a Gentile. That's the real problem. This is the reality of those who have learned Christ as Paul described, that they have learned Christ. They reckon themselves dead to sin. Sin no longer has mastery over them. They no longer present their members unto sin. sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace." That's not a recipe for license. It's saying that you, when you come to God, no longer come through Sinai, you come through Calvary. You no longer are trying to, by works of the law, reach unto God. It's the old thing of the law says do, the gospel says done. And so, you have been set free. You don't have to set yourself free. I mean, how much easier is it for Christ to come and say, you're free, than for you to escape? You can't escape, but Christ can set you free. And so, this is what Paul means by, if indeed you have so but learn Christ. To learn Christ is to be dead to sin, and you must reckon yourself dead to sin. So if you've learned Christ, the next question is, OK, I need to learn Christ. How? How do I learn Christ? If indeed you have heard him. No about. This is essential. The about just think of it this way. If the about is supposed to be there, that means the person who's heard the gospel presentation not the case. The word about there adds some haziness that leads to problems. That explanatory preposition fails to communicate what Paul means. It is an utter failure to communicate that you are hearing Christ. Those who have learned Christ, though it's mediated through the preacher's voice, hear Christ. Let's just do a quick historical lesson here. And we can understand why, well, we can kind of understand why somebody might want to put the about there. These are Gentiles. These are Gentiles living in the extreme western end of Asia Minor. They've never been to Galilee or Judea. They never went and heard Jesus speak during his life. So somebody said, And by the way, it's the RSV that first put the about in there. And this is the ESV just carrying on the RSV. So I can call it unbelief for the RSV. That they put the about in there because these guys never made it to Galilee. They never heard Jesus. So therefore, it can't be they heard Jesus. Except that's exactly what Paul means. Paul is writing, yes, he was writing to Gentiles in Western Asia Minor. And though these folks had never been to Galilee, though these folks had never been to Judea, though their eardrums had never vibrated at the sound of Jesus's voice audibly, they had heard Jesus speaking through the preaching of the word. The gospel goes forth. the Word of God is preached. It takes not only the preaching of the Word, though. The preaching of the Word is necessary, but not sufficient. It's necessary, but not sufficient. That's why you have the distinction between the general call, the promiscuous proclamation of the Word of God to the ends of the earth, but even in the parable of the sower, what does it say? It's promiscuously proclaimed to the ends of the earth. Some falls upon the path, some falls upon the rocky soil, some falls amongst the thorns. But that which falls upon the good soil produces fruit ten, twenty, a hundredfold, because it's the working of the Spirit through the means of the proclamation of Jesus Christ. The preaching of the Word is necessary, but not sufficient. I can tell you right now if you want, the sermon I heard when Christ called me to himself, but I'm not going to because it was a heretical mishmash of works righteousness. God uses crooked sticks even in the proclamation of the word of God. And if you've ever heard Spurgeon tell his testimony of when he was brought out of his depression and fear and conviction of sin, he was going to hear some famous preacher, but it was a snowy day, so he stumbled into a primitive Methodist chapel man you've ever seen. He all he did is just kept saying, looking straight at me, say, look to Christ. Um all you into the lord of the world. Look to Christ. It don't, it's not a work to look. You just look and on and on and on. It was, it was and and you can look it up and Spurgeon tells it with his his wit and charm but the point of it is that this man who um Put it bluntly, Spurgeon insults his intelligence. God was pleased to use, to bring the prince of preachers to fade. The most ignorant of men, Spurgeon said. It's not the man, it's Christ who speaks according to his choosing. That is why the Greeks called preaching foolishness, because they're like, this can't be it. There's gotta be more pizzazz, but Christ in God is pleased to confound the wisdom of this age. And it is the ordinary way that Christ works in this age. I have my notes since the resurrection, but that's a misprint. Since the fall from the garden until the coming of Christ when he sets all things to rights. And so when you come to hear the word preached, Whether it's your favorite preacher or your least favorite preacher, you're doing what the New Englanders call putting yourself in the way of grace. That place where God has revealed that he is pleased to work ordinarily to the ordinary beings. And as he does, he teaches himself. He comes to know you and you come to know him and you are now coming to see what it is to be dead in Christ. So you know Christ, you so learn Christ, you've heard Christ, and you are taught by Christ. It's not the vagaries that Jesus speaks to those who learn Christ, it is the truth as it is in Jesus, taken into your heart, screwed down tight, that you can never leave him, because he will never leave or forsake you. Jesus said in John 10, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. Those who walk not as Gentiles, but follow Christ, because they hear him, they hear him, because they have learned him, because the Spirit is at work bringing and drawing them to life, that they follow the shepherd, as he leads them to the everlasting city. Builders, makers, God. This is the only way that you can know Christ. And it's the only way that you'll ever know when you hear the glorious truth that Christ died for your sins, that the you in that your is you. It's not a calculus problem, it's a work of the spirit. in your heart. The fullness of Christ revealed in all the scriptures is the truth that in Jesus, Ephesians as well as Numbers and let alone Isaiah, Malachi, Matthew, Jude, or whatnot, all of it, you hear Christ speaking through the preaching of the word from the full counsel of scripture is the means that God has ordained so that you who once walked like a Gentile will now walk, as you truly are, dead in Christ, following Him. Because you were once one of those having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness to work all uncleanness with greediness. You used to do that with an open abandon and no shame. But now in Christ, you're dead to that and you need to reckon yourself dead to that. So, when it comes before you, you see this this this plate full thanks. And so, as you learn Christ, your appetites change, your affections change, and it no longer even is appealing to you. That's what it is to learn Christ, as Christ has ordained for you to learn him. Namely, hearing him in the preaching of the word from all the Then shall they call on him whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things. That is Paul laying out once again who is to bring this voice of Christ unto you. And so this leads to, okay, so learn Christ. And as we have learned Christ, because we have heard Christ, and we're being taught by Christ, how are we to put ourselves in the way of Christ? I mentioned that already, that we are to do that. But what are we to do that we gain what is necessary? Question 160 of the larger catechism is a nice one-stop shop for this, question 160. What is required of those who hear the word preached? It is required of those who hear the word preached that they attend upon it with diligence, preparation, and prayer, examine what they hear by the scriptures, receive the truth with faith, love, meekness, and readiness of mind, as the word of God, meditate and confer of it, hide it in their hearts, and bring forth the fruit of it in their lives. It's not a magic thing. That's why it was preached in English. I've heard people say, oh, I've heard this wonderful Swahili sermon. What'd it say? I don't know, but oh, it moved me, Bob. No, it is the word of God coming in English that you might hear it and the spirit taking that and causing you to follow Jesus Christ. It's that simple. but it's the talk of your Savior to you. It's the time when your Savior talks to you through the words of the preacher that you might no longer be tossed about, that you might no longer be babes, that you might not walk as Gentiles. And so, as we seek after this truth, we seek after this dying unto sin, we see that it is all found in Christ that we might no longer walk as Gentiles. Let us pray. Father, we ask that you, O God, would open our eyes, our ears, and our hearts, that we might hear Jesus Christ. And in hearing him, we might learn him. And in learning him, we might be taught of him. And as we are taught of him, we might follow him. die as we have died under sin, reckoned ourselves dead under sin, that we might walk worthy of his calling, that others might see the good works that he is working in us and glorify you in heaven. We pray this in Jesus' name. Blessed Jesus at your birth, we are gathered all to hear you. Let our hearts and souls be stirred, now to seek and love and fear you. By your teachings sweet and holy, drawn from earth to love you solely. all our knowledge sense and sight lie in deepest darkness shrouded till your spirit breaks an eye with the beams of truth unclouded You alone to God can win us, you must work all good within us. Glorious Lord, yourself impart, like a blind from God, hear and bless our prayers and Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, praise to you and adoration. Grant that we your word may trust and obtain true consolation. while we in here below thus wander, till we seek your praises yonder. Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, look up and receive the blessing of your God. Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all from this time forth and for evermore. Amen and amen. Praise ye the Lord, ye hosts above, in yonder heavenly high, and bless the Lord, ye saints below, who in his praise delight. by all his creatures let his name be honored and adored let all that breathe in pray tonight to glorify the lord