Paul writes, I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. Now that is just such a full and rich and powerful verse to meditate upon. and would do the Lord's people, I think, a lot of good. But it won't do them much good outside of the context of the rest of what Paul has been writing here, you see. Now the first thing I want to note, however, is he says, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord. Let me deal with that first. He says the prisoner of the Lord. Paul here, once again, um, identifies himself as a prisoner of the Lord. Um, in chapter three, he did the same thing in verse one for this cause. I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ. See the same thing. And he adds a little detail here though. The prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles at Ephesus, right? He's writing to the assembly at Ephesus. Uh, many of whom these believers would be Gentiles. They're not all Jews. For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles, for your sake, but he's the prisoner of Jesus Christ for their sake. And then we have in verse one of chapter four, he is the prisoner of the Lord. So it's very obvious to put the two together and understand that Paul is the apostle to the Gentiles. We know that from scripture. You have the 12 apostles and then somehow a 13th one, how does that happen? He's the apostle to the Gentiles, that's why. The 12 apostles, the 12 tribes of Israel. Well, then there's something new and profound happening. Maybe it was a secret hidden in ages past, it could be. And by the way, in Psalm 66, the verse four we were just looking at, all the earth shall sing unto him and sing praise unto him. Well, you know, if you think about it, that's the secret of the Lord. Isn't it? Isn't that the mystery of Christ? Wait a minute. They're all singing unto him. So this isn't just cowering and confessing him in fear. This is praise and worship. So this is talking about all the nations are going to worship Jehovah, God of Israel. See, brethren, is there in germ form. It isn't spelled out. All the nations will be blessed through Abraham. Yeah, well, that's not the secret. The question is how? Well, here all the nations are going to be singing to the God of Abraham. How can that be? Well, that's the secret. The secret here is it's veiled. But, you know, once we have the answer, it's, you know, it's not that hard to figure out, actually. Like, well, we should have thought of that. How could all the nations be worshiping him unless they entered into covenant fellowship with him? It's really as plain as the nose in your face once you see it. So at any rate, Paul is saying that he is the prisoner of Jesus Christ. He is a prisoner for Christ's sake. He's faithful to fulfill his apostolic calling and preach Christ when at that time that could mean you'll die. So he was a prisoner of Jesus Christ. a captive of Christ by desire and by sovereignty, but he's also a prisoner for you Gentiles. And so Paul expounds upon that in both texts. It's obviously, I mean, let's face it, if you're in prison, And the Romans have you by the nap of the neck, and you don't know where that will end up. That's a sort of overwhelming thought on your mind, and no doubt Paul was no different. But he realized, I'm a prisoner for Christ's sake, and I want you to know I'm a prisoner for your sake, you Gentiles in Ephesus. But it's the first part of this verse that jumps off the pages to me. I, therefore. I therefore, therefore is a connective word, is it not? Paul is speaking in verse one in light of what he's been saying just prior to that in chapter three. And what he was saying in chapter two. And the truth is even in chapter one. In light of what Paul has been saying, therefore, I therefore, because of what I've been saying to you, I therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, I therefore beseech you, I implore you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. So if that's connecting chapter three and chapter two and chapter one to what he's saying here in chapter four, that's the big deal. See, that's what I wanna underscore. Because what did Paul say? Well, he's been talking about the mystery of Christ, right? Even back in chapter one, if you go back to chapter one in verse five, Paul says, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children, Now, see, these Gentiles that have come to Christ, it's only right for him to describe it as adoption because they were part of Old Covenant Israel, that covenant nation of God's people. They were adopted into the family. Right there in that one word, we have the mystery of the gospel, the mystery of Christ, the secret hidden in ages past. It's the beginning, in a sense, it's the beginning of the fulfillment of Psalm 66, four, right? Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ, that's how it happens. We're the adopted sons of God by what Jesus Christ did in the cross. By Jesus Christ to himself, we've been adopted to him according to the good pleasure of his will. That's God's sovereign election. God has, according to His good pleasure, chosen these men and called them out and made them His sons. People say, that's not fair. Then why was it fair for Him to do it with Israel? What about all those people who died outside of Israel in the Old Testament days? Well, it's fair for them, but it's not fair for us nowadays. What are we talking about? Verse six, to the praise of His grace, see, this is all mercy, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved. in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, remember grace is his mercy, his kindness, his unmerited favor, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. because he has chosen us to this end and made us his sons, he will impart to us his wisdom and prudence, having, verse nine, having made known unto us the mystery of his will. There's the mystery. It's not just chapter two and three. Paul brings it up right away. The mystery of his will, the part of his will that we didn't understand in ages past, but has now been revealed by his holy apostles and prophets. according to the good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, at the appointed time that God had ordained, he might gather together in one, this is the mystery two, just not completely spelled out here, all things in Christ, and then even adds to it, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him. And in verse 17 and 18, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory may give unto you, this is Paul's prayer for the Ephesians, that God would give unto them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. So Paul's prayer for them is, Lord, What you have revealed to me, this secret, reveal thou the same unto the Ephesians and use me as an instrument to do it. He's praying that God would give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. See, this mystery is all about Christ and what he was doing. The eyes of your understanding, see they're clothed, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. to this mystery, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. You see, I can't go on and on about that. It'll just take too long. In verse 22, and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to Israel. Well, the thing is, it says to the church. Well, how could the Messiah, Christ, the Messiah, be the head of... He's supposed to be the head of Israel. He's supposed to be the king of the Jews. He's supposed to be the king of Israel. Yup, yup, yup. The church. No contradiction. We can't entertain contradictions. And so Paul expounds on it, of course, very eloquently and very specifically in chapter two, in verse eight, for by grace are you saved through faith and not out of yourselves, right? And he says in verse 11 that you at one time were Gentiles in the flesh and the Jews used to mock you calling you the uncircumcised. Look at those uncircumcised people, a bunch of heathen, right? That's what you used to be called the uncircumcision by those who were circumcised, right? You were looked down upon. He says in verse 12 that at that time you without the Jewish Messiah, you were without Christ. In your unbelieving Gentile pagan estate, you were without Messiah being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, you were not part of God's covenant nation, you were strangers from the covenants of promise, he didn't give the promises to you, he gave it to Abraham and his seed. And so therefore you had no hope, and you were without God in the world. See, so God was a respecter of persons. He only chose the Jewish nation. No, God was never a respecter of persons. And this mystery is meant to finally unveil that. Yes, He chose out just the Jewish nation in Old Covenant times, maybe in part, to show the world, Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated. I'll choose whom I will, and whom I will, I'll harden." People don't like that. Too bad for them. That will always be taught from this pulpit as long as I've got lungs that will come out of my throat. I don't want my lungs coming out of my throat, but air coming through my lungs. If my lungs come out of my throat, there will be no air coming out. But you're no longer aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. You're no longer strangers from the covenants of promise. You no longer have no hope. You're no longer without God, because he says in verse 13, but now, in Christ Jesus, ye who were sometimes afar off from all these things are made nigh by the blood of Christ. And I can't go over all this, take too much time. But in verse 19, now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, like I said you were in verses 12, 11, 12, and 13. But ye are fellow citizens of the commonwealth of Israel. You're a citizen of a nation. You're not a citizen of a church, an organization born at Pentecost that isn't a nation. It's just a spiritual organization. You're not a citizen of a church. You don't even hear anyone use that language. They're fellow citizens with the saints, the believing remnant of the Jewish people who did believe on Christ, and you've been made part of the household of God. And in chapter three, of course, he says that I'm the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. In verse three, he says that the Lord gave him a revelation, and that revelation, he had given to him this mystery which he says in verses four and five, was not made known unto the sons of men, but is now revealed by his holy apostles and prophets. God has given me, in verse four he says, the knowledge, the synthesis of this mystery of Messiah, mystery of Christ, Christ Christos, the anointed one to sit on David's throne. God has given me this mystery to reveal to you. And what is it? Verse six sums it all up, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs. with the believing remnant of the seed of Abraham. Hey, what about the Jews that didn't believe? Romans 11, those branches are cut off. And of the same body, gonna fulfill the promises made to the fathers. They become a part of Israel. This is the secret of the Lord. This is how all the nations will worship him. Not by some dominion is holding a sword and say, worship Jesus, okay, teach me the words to this song and I'll sing it. but by God changing the hearts of men. Can you imagine that? The actual victory of the gospel, not with the sword, not the rush duty sword. That's the mystery. And of course, at the end here, it's throat raw. I'm skipping verses, but he just, he says in verse 18, he wants them to be able to, with all saints, Jew and Gentile, to know what is the breadth, the length, the depth, and the height, and to know, verse 19, to know the love of Christ, the love of the Hebrew Messiah, which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled with all the fullness of God. To be filled with all the fullness of God requires that you receive this revelation, because this is like the capstone that draws all the pieces together. And then you can see the frame of mind Paul is in, verse 20, now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask, or if I can add a word, even think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church, in the assembly. by Messiah Jesus throughout all ages, world without end, amen. You can see Paul is just filled with zeal and love and excitement over this truth that's been revealed, and he has the privilege to teach it to the Gentiles in Ephesus. And he says, I therefore. See, that's the context of I therefore. I therefore, the prisoner of the law. beseech you, that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called." Now they'll say, Pastor, Pastor Gallagher, this Israel of God doctrine is too much of it. You drone on and on and on about these, you know, You drone on and on ad nauseum about these esoteric, non-essential, mystical deep truths, these in-depth things of doctrine about the mystery of Christ and the secret of the Lord. And this in-depth esoteric doctrine, maybe it's fine for some eggheads in seminary or something like that, but it has no practical value. Look, I just want you to teach me to live like a Christian. Teach me to live like a Christian. What am I gonna do with that? Oh, it's all nice and everything, but what am I gonna do with that? I need to be motivated to love him more and to serve him better, and I struggle. Teach me how to live like a Christian. Don't get all wrapped up in this. You got the wrong emphasis. Whoa. Do not pay attention to the first two words of verse one. I, therefore, because See, I therefore beseech you, he says, to walk worthy. Now, when he says, I beseech you to walk worthy, he's saying, I beseech you to live like a Christian. He says, I therefore, because of these truths, beseech you to live like a Christian. In other words, in Paul's mind, this in-depth, esoteric, non-practical doctrine is the reason why the Ephesians should live godly lives. This should be their motivation. Knowing this should move them. Knowing this should motivate them. And what the Christian community says is, what they're really saying is, please motivate me. but don't give me all this doctrine. Just tell me what I gotta do. Oh, brethren, they're looking at it the wrong way. In Paul's mind, in Paul's writing under inspiration, Paul sees the knowledge of the mystery of Christ, the true Israel of God, as proper motivation for a Christian to live a godly life, to live like a Christian, see? And that shouldn't surprise us when you read the end of chapter three leading into I, therefore. God has in his mercy and in his grace, through the sacrifice of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins. I mean, he didn't have sins, but the Lord would deal with our sins. And Christ says, I'll take their sins. And I'll take the punishment in their stead. And he did that for the Gentile believers in Ephesus as well. So God has forgiven them through faith and has made them his sons and daughters and has granted them citizenship. in his covenant nation and made them full participants of the promises made to Abraham and to the fathers, and thereby they have eternal life because they're God's covenant people. And they who are not a people are now the people of God. And Christ died so that even these Gentiles could join into that fellowship of God's covenant nation and receive all those blessings and promises with them, with the believing remnant. This is what Paul's teaching. And someone says, well, this doctrine's not practical. What? So you just wanna know how to live like a Christian? That question, I thought, how can I illustrate this, the absurdity of the question? So I thought to myself, the question is a little bit like asking, How do I live my life to show that I'm a true lover of music? I'm just going to use that as an example. If someone's a true lover of music. So someone says, well, how do I live my life like a true lover of music? And in a sense, I think the question is sort of ridiculous. So let's make a comparison between these two things. So someone says, no pastor, no, no, no, Mr. Music Teacher, how do I live my life like someone who's devoted and in love with music? Well, I suppose the guy might say, well, you listen to music a lot, right? If you're a lover of music, you listen to music a lot. And you'll be very careful. And sometimes you may play music in the background. We all like background music. If we have to do something to pay slight attention to what we're doing, like some menial work, maybe some paperwork, doing bills or something. But generally, the lover of music, he'll do that when he has to. But he likes to just sit there. and get everything out of his way, no interruptions, because he completely enters right into where that song is at, and it moves him, and he doesn't want, and that's why I said, you know, you listen to Psalm's song a cappella, I always say to you, put headphones on, you know. Sound cancelling headphones is what you do, see? And a person who loves music wants to, they'll listen to music, and don't disturb them when the music's going on, because, well, wait, there's a good part, shh, be quiet, right? And some people who kind of like music, but don't really, they're not real lovers of music. Everybody likes music to some degree. But I'm talking about lovers of music. Lovers of music, they don't want to be interrupted, no, no, no, but there's a nuclear bomb going off, who cares? See? And guess what? Nobody has to tell those people, that they need to do that, if that's how they feel. Now, if we're asking the question, how do we live our lives to show and manifest that we're lovers of Christ and his word? Well, brethren, it's the same kind of thing. You need to read your Bible. You need to listen to music. Well, you need to read your Bible. You need to learn of the one that you love. If you're captivated by the glories of what he has done, then you like to read and study and learn more of what he's done and add a layer of truth upon truth. You expose yourself to good Bible teaching. You read your Bible, you study it, and someone says, read through the Bible through the year. I have never been able to read through the Bible in a year. Because what happens is I get going and say, whoa, wait a minute, I didn't see that before. Now you want me just because I've got a calendar, say, okay, now I gotta get going, hopefully I'll remember that. You know what, if you don't deal with it when you see it, it goes out of mind. So I see it, I say, whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm a raw recruit here, I need some basic training, so boom, I jump on it. I can't help myself. I think that's normal. When you whiz through the Bible, But doesn't that happen to you? Or do you know everything, you know? There's a discipline to reading through the Bible so you get the overall picture. I'm not saying it's a bad thing. But I'm saying it's a hard thing. You know, the lover of music, right? You ever get to a section of a song? If you're a lover of music, you know what I mean. If you're not, you just think I'm crazy. But you get to a section of a song, you say, oh, did you hear that part? Oh. And you get back, oh, we're back up. Oh, right there. I do that with literature, right? I was reading the book A Walk Across America. How many people have read the book A Walk Across America? By something Jenkins. Jennings? Jenkins. Jenkins. And it's a really nice book. And he had the one sad chapter about when his dog died. It was the shortest chapter in the book. And he was an Alaskan Malamute. And he was backpacking. He lived at people's houses for a few weeks, make money. And I think he was doing photography and writing an article for like National Geographic or Time or something like that, Life. This is back in the 70s, you know. And just like Americana from inside, you know. And so he's going across and sleeping in a tent, staying in people's homes for several days and maybe working a place for two or three weeks to get more money for food and grub and then move on. And it would take him months to do this, you know. So it's quite an engaging book, and it basically showed, you know, in the heartland of America how kind people were to take a man, he's a stranger and things like that. And his dog ran in front of a truck on a farm and got crushed, and so he had a chapter about burying the dog. And he just went into the pine forest and he cleared, the way he described it is horrifying to read. It's the worst thing you want to read. And then, but when he dealt with the chapter, I can't go to the next chapter, I gotta read that chapter again. I put the book down. I go like three days later, I'm gonna go to the next chapter. I stop reading the next chapter, I go back and read that chapter. I stop reading, I go, this is how I'm built, you see? And I think, so someone who's a lover of Christ and they wanna know how to live like a Christian, then I would say, well, if you're a lover of Christ, how do I live like I'm his child and he's my father? and I love him, then you're going to read about him. You're going to study him. You're going to contemplate his word. You're going to expose yourself to Bible teaching. You're going to attend the body of Christ, which Christ has commanded us to do. Why? Because we fellowship with brethren of like mind, and we're worshiping Christ the way he has told us to. And we do these things And we desire to have a powerful message spoken to us from the word of God. When I was young and after I came to Christ, I enjoyed having the minister up there. If he said something that like, ow, like he shot a dot right in my heart there, he nailed me. Did someone tell him something about me? And I would think, now the Lord playing that to my conscience. I knew the Lord was dealing with me. I never had this stuff happen before and then it just never stopped. Once I came to Christ I longed for the Lord to speak to me and you know I don't know all things and so I enjoyed the preaching of the word. It's what you do and guess what? No one has to tell you to do it. How do I know? How can I live my life to show I'm a lover of music? Well, the music teacher might say, well, you talk about music, right? You love music. You listen to it. You can spend hours going over, listening to music, right? So then you should love talking about music with other people who understand music and are as zealous for you, not with people that are going to be bored and be polite. That's nice. Go away. But you find someone that really thinks the same way, and then you like, you make it, there's an immediate connection there. And then you're talking about that part. Oh, listen to, part in this song. And then you play it over, and he's like, oh yeah, that reminds me. Oh, I know that part too. Right? And guess what? You don't have to go to some music seminar and some guy in a pulpit say, share your love for music with other people. What do you need to be told that for? You need to tell us that. I need to tell you that? As Christians, if we desire to show our faith, and we want to live like we know the Lord and love him, then we're going to seek out fellowship with brethren of like faith, and particularly in spiritual matters. And I've always told the story about the time Chris and I were in my backyard. I think everybody came over for a campfire, and then everybody went home. It was maybe around 11 o'clock at night. Chris stayed behind, and maybe around 12.30, Paula says, oh, I got to go to bed. OK, see you. So it's me and Chris, and we're the only ones out there. And before I knew it, I said, Chris, Did you notice something? What? It's getting light out. The sun was rising. And the only thing we were talking about was we came to Clayville and we learned this and we didn't realize that. We came as Christians, we were already Christians. But we were learning so much and we were going on and on in that fellowship. And you know what? Nobody had to tell us to do that. We didn't have a checklist. Okay, I'm a Christian because I stayed up all night talking about spiritual matters. No, there was no checklist and we didn't even make a mental note of it. It was just something we observed and laughed at ourselves about. If the lover of music wants to know how do I live my life to show that I'm a lover of music? Well, if you're a lover of music, the chances are If you have the capacity to do it, I think most people do at different levels, you want to make music yourself, right? If you're a lover of music, you enjoy making music. So you sing, you take up an instrument, whatever. And when you're making music, I used to play the saxophone, and I loved playing the saxophone. But the saxophone, it is a band instrument. You know? But it's also good. It's a good solo instrument in a band context, but it's good on its own, right? I like listening to a guy on a saxophone on a street corner, you know? But I love playing the saxophone, but you know what I couldn't stand? When I hit a wrong note. When I hit a wrong note, oh, I hated that. Or if I hit it and it was like flat, you know? Maybe, you know, I hadn't warmed up and it just came a bit flat, or my mouthpiece didn't go in far enough or whatever. Or you're playing an instrument, like a brass instrument, and you haven't warmed up your lips in your instrument yet, and the note comes flat. Or you hit just all right, you hit a wrong note. So you get a little riff, and one of those notes in a riff, and it might be all faff notes, but one of them was supposed to be a sharp, and you didn't play a sharp. It's just only the one, but it's like the whole thing's ruined, and you're upset, so you go back and you practice it. You go back and you practice it. You go back and you practice it. And you hate hitting wrong notes. You know why? Because you love music. And you want that music to be what it was intended to be. Beautiful. And you want to create it that way. Well, when we're living for Christ as Christians, we hate playing wrong notes. I'm talking about sin or walking outside of God's will. The thing is, as Christians, we still will play wrong notes. because we're made of flesh. We're motivated to practice now, so we don't hit the wrong, before we became lovers of music, we just picked up instruments and we didn't know what we were doing, everything, all the notes were wrong. But now that we have a desire, it's night and day, we're completely different, we've learned the instrument, but we're always hitting wrong notes here and there. Maybe it's not like before, but you still hit them. And we despise ourselves for it. You know, when you hit that wrong note, you say, oh, what is wrong with me? Why can't I get that fingering? You know, it may be an awkward key that you don't play that often, right? And that would happen with a saxophone more with flats than sharps. And like, oh, it's just an awkward transition until you get a little muscle memory for it. And so as Christians we hit wrong notes and we're not happy and so what do we do? We've got to practice, go back, do it again, do it again, and do it again. And why do we do that? Because we love and revere the Almighty. And guess what? Nobody has to tell us to go back and make it right. That's why when we don't conduct ourselves with integrity, you know, the dear John letter to the husband or to the boyfriend or the girlfriend, there's no integrity in that. If you can say all is fair in love and war, I'm not saying that. I've never had anyone do that to me. This is not a response, well, he must have got burned one day. No, that never happened. But I'm just saying it's wrong. And people do it with churches all the time. They just disappear. You can call them, they don't pick up the phone. they've hit a wrong note, and it doesn't bother them. I'm saying when Christ changes a man from the inside out, it's not that we don't become perfect, but our imperfections bother us, and the Spirit of God is on our shoulder, and we can't get that monkey off our back until we lay down our sacrifice, go back to our brethren, and make it right. And not to be seen of men, it's a conscience thing, because We love what he's done for us. We want to make good music with the Lord, and nobody has to tell us to do that. You ask the music teacher, I want to live my life to show my love for music, then the music teacher says, well, one of the things you'll do is you'll go out and make new converts for your music. In other words, you know, when a song really hits you, you want to share it with somebody. There are certain people, you know, they're in neutral when you mention music, you know, they're not against it, they kind of like it, but they're only background music lovers, you know, or the excitement of a rock concert where there's nothing about the music. But for the music's sake, when you get those people, you see, you say, hey, hey, did you hear this song? Oh, I haven't heard it. Oh, and you're completely glad they haven't heard it. Because you want to show it to them, right? You say, now listen to this. Now wait a minute. I come up to this part. Listen to this. Listen to this right here. And you go over that part, right? I've told you before, so many of my favorites on YouTube are songs. I just don't want to forget about them and lose them. So say that, say that, say that, say that, say that. Now, sometimes I get people to my house, I bring them the computer, hey, listen to this, right? I got the Rosenberg Trio, right? I got the Rosenberg Trio. Now, listen to this one section of the guitar right here. Watch this. Ready, ready? And it's like unbelievable. And I can't get enough of that one part. If you kind of know what went into it for that guy to be able to do that, you're like, wow. And then when someone else says, whoa, And they say, how come I don't know about this guy? Because music for most people, it isn't really so much about the music. It's about the whole package. But some people really like it for its own sake. And when you make a convert that way, the reason that brings so much joy is because that person it now appreciates and they're aware of something they didn't appreciate and weren't aware of before. And now you've given to them and they're like, oh, happy, so who's this guy? I gotta find out the song of this guy. So you've opened up a nice door for him and you've gained someone in your inner circle of music that you can now fellowship with. You can't have too many friends, can you? Well, is there anything different being a Christian? And by the way, no one has to tell a lover of music to do that, to make converts to good music, you see. And as the Christian, we should naturally desire as believers, naturally within the context of God's salvation and his spirit, but we should naturally want to speak to the unconverted and tell them of what Christ has done and what it's meant to us. And you know that most people, the vast majority are going to reject you. You're blowing smoke. You're just a dupe of religion. And there are zillions of dupes of religion, right? We know that. So why should they believe us? Well, you know, that's the big hurdle. That's the big obstacle. But there's always the one out of a thousand people. And that one out of a thousand, when you see them receive the gospel, There's an immediate connection you have and you've got a new friend, a friend in a different way, in a more profound way. And so you know what that's like and so you're eager to find the right time and place to share that faith and nobody really has to tell you to do that. So when folks say, don't give me deep doctrine, I just want to know how to live like a Christian. Don't give me deep doctrine. What they're saying is, I don't care to know that much about the one I love. It doesn't add up. The math doesn't work. Going to church doesn't make your confession true. If you say, well, I just Want to be told how to live like a Christian? You want to be told how? You want to be told how to live like you love music? So you have to be told? Seems like what you're telling me is you don't know how. If you don't know how, I mean, it really does bring into question, well, do you really love the Lord? Because you should know how. It's really not a secret. It's the easiest portions of the Bible. And in this chapter, he gets into it. Now, I'm covering verse one, but you go to verse two, three, and four, he begins to give you some mechanics of what living like a Christian is. And then at the second half of this same chapter, he gets into a lot of detail about godly living and how to live like a Christian. I'm not saying it's wrong to talk about that subject matter, but what Paul is saying here in verse one is, because of this profound truth of the mystery of Christ, I beseech you to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. I do recognize that we as Christians can struggle with sin ourselves. And when we do, just like hitting that wrong note when you're practicing a song, you hit a wrong note, that's a hard one to get. It's the transition from this to this, and that's an awkward one, and you just have to do it enough times until it's no longer awkward. It just takes a lot of work. Only people who love doing it will put the work into it. Other people say, well, this isn't worth it. I'm gonna go out and play baseball, whatever. So we can get frustrated as Christians when we fail the Lord. and sin, and we speak unkindly to this person, or we got stubborn and refuse to forgive that person, or whatever our problem is. And so when we get frustrated with our failures, I think it's only normal for us to seek out godly counsel, the advice of a music teacher, and to ask, what can I do to gain more victory here? Well, that actually shows your love and passion for playing the notes right. I get that, that's true. But here's my point, there's no magic formula for godly living. I think of magic formulas, and one I always used to hear, and you still hear it once in a while. They say families, the studies have shown that families that eat their three meals together are strong families. They stay together and everything goes well. So, therefore, you know, the TV will tell you this, and even some preachers. The TV will tell you. So you need to eat your meals with your family. And then you're going to have a strong family. Now that's the stupidest thing in the world. You know, when you go to prison, you're always sitting at the same table and you eat with the same prisoners. You know what they do? They stab each other and cut off their ears, you know? So I don't think eating all your meals together is going to give you what you're thinking it will. None of it's not backed up by something more fundamental that makes a strong family possible. like commitment, love, sacrifice. It's not eating the meals. And so we always want some trick to make it work. Or another one I used to hear years ago, and maybe people still say it, I'm a little out of the loop, but I've heard it said many times that if a church has a large youth group, then you know the Lord's doing something with that church. And when I heard that when I was young, I thought, that's dumb. You know why? Because I was in the youth group. And looking at it from the inside out, not that impressive. Lots of kids. It wasn't until I got a little older, you know, at first you think, yeah, it's all hunky-dory. Then when you get a little older and people open up more because you're more mature, you see kind of the underbelly. And a church that has a strong young people's program with lots of young people, that, you know, the Lord's using that church. Well, I went to one of those churches. They had an indoor basketball court. The youth group was probably, you know, 45 kids strong or something. It was terrible. Church was good size. Active and growing, they say. From the inside, I mean, I was like in my 20s then, low 20s. I'm thinking, oh no. That's what I thought when I was 14. You know, today's megachurch is that. It's just a large youth group. The megachurch is just a bunch of little kids that never grew up, and now the hippies take over. And now they're old enough to not be called kids anymore. But these megachurches are basically youth-oriented. We don't need the old geezers telling us to do it the way they always did it. We're going to do it some new way, and somehow that makes us feel more spiritual. It's a drug. It's manipulation. It's not the real thing. But it's all so exciting to attend. William Bradford said at the end of his life, the young people left the Plymouth Assembly. So it was probably made up of mostly old people, and he lamented their lack of steadfastness and devotion in a very sad way. You know, you felt bad for them. So if the modern ministers came across the Plymouth Assembly with men like William Bradford and Brewster in it, they said, oh, there's not enough young people here. The Lord isn't using this place. This must be like a spiritually weak church. You know how far off they would be? Well, let me ask you, how big was Jeremiah's church? The Lord torched those who were supposed to be his followers. See, there's no magic formula to godly living. You can pray more often, and that's good. You can pray more fervently, that's good. Someone can say, okay, you really want to learn to love the Lord? Pray, and pray fervently. Okay, pray, and pray fervently. Does that mean like squeeze? Or you can receive, you can read the Bible more. So you're not loving the Lord? Then read the Bible more. and study it and meditate upon it. Okay, read it and study and meditate upon it more. Think about what it's saying. Okay. And go to church and be faithful in your attendance to the body and hear the ministry of the word and also serve others and be a servant to others. And you don't do it by some assignment given to you. That's your life. The people that you are most in the position to serve are the people you know, and those are the hottest people to serve because they're your friends and you're afraid of losing them. So when people want to cop out and have a ministry in church with people they don't even know, it's a cop out. It's always good to go on vacation. Come back well rested. Gives you lots of time to think, you know. Sometimes in the busyness of life, it's hard to think of sermons. You're just whizzing along doing things. So you can pray more, you can read your Bible more, you can go to church more, you can serve others more, and still have a spiritual emptiness. You don't do these things, pray more, go to church more, you don't do these things to learn to love the Lord, Instead, you do these things because you love the Lord. And here's the caveat here, but when you do these things as someone who has already been born again and indwelt by God's spirit and has given you a new heart to love these things, When you pray more, you love him more. When you study the scriptures more and learn more of what he's done, even the deep things of God, when you see these deep things, you say, whoa, God is even better than I thought. And now you honor and revere him more. But the person who doesn't already have that foundation of God's spirit living within him, he can pray more. It isn't going to make him love God more. He can go to church more, but he wonders why he isn't so moved when other people think it's a big deal. He can serve God more and always feels good to help people, but feeling good because you help people isn't what I'm talking about. I'm talking about serving the Lord. In other words, you don't come to know him by doing things. But if you're one of God's people, The more you do and the more you learn, the more you love, but the love was already there. It's kind of like being the musician. or the lover of music. You're a lover of music, so I want to take up a new instrument. I already play this and that, and I want to play that. And you're not very good at it at first, and you get a little better. And the more you get into it, the more things you can see, you can do with that instrument, you didn't realize how great this instrument was. And now you really understand what goes into it. You really appreciate the guys that are good with it. So you're learning to love music even more by having a more in-depth knowledge of it. It's not that you only loved halfway before. It's just that you didn't have as much knowledge and the more knowledge just increases your devotion and love. So there's no real magic formula is what I'm saying. Why does learning more of him and obeying his will Why does that not produce more fervent love and happiness and contentedness in some folks? Well, in some instances, it might be because they're unconverted. They didn't have the changed heart. They're trying to change their heart by doing religious stuff. That's not how your hearts change. If Christ is not already the object of your love, then, and you've never been regenerated and given a new heart or desire for him, then doing these things won't give you that desire. There's people who go to church all the time and they can be very casual about their connection to the church. And why is that? Well, first, maybe the church doesn't feed them. I mean, that can be. But outside of that context, that's a pretty big one, but outside of that context, They're missing something in here. So when these folks studied their Bible more, they went to checklists. Okay, so I'm going to pray more, pray more fervently. I'm going to attend church more regularly. I'm going to read my Bible more often. I'll meditate my Bible. And I will serve the Lord and serve others, okay. And I do all these things, I should feel better inside. And they tried on for a while. And at first maybe because you're doing a few things you feel better about yourself, but then equilibrium comes pretty quick right after that and you're in the same boat. So what do these people end up doing once they've gone through the checklist and it didn't really seem to work? Well, one thing they do is they'll find a new church. Right? It's their fault. I don't have this. So they find a new church. Now sometimes they need to do that because the gospel isn't being preached there. They're not being faithful to the Word of God and there's sin in the camp and the Lord's hand just isn't on it, okay? But oftentimes they'll go and find a new church. And they find a new church, they get excited until the newness wears off. And that excitement, brethren, Because this is all about how to live godly. It's what verse one is about. I'm talking about that subject. If you go to a new church, the nudist wears off. That excitement you have up front is not the joy of the Holy Spirit. And they almost all interpret it that way. It's just fleshly stimulation that results from new circumstances. And you know what that is, like do you ever buy a new home? Move into a new home? It's exciting. Before Paul and I finally settled in Sterling, we moved 10 different times. We lived in 10 different places before we finally got to Sterling. And every time we went to a new place, it was kind of exciting. Like, oh, I look out the window here, it's totally different. The rooms laid out different. It's not necessarily that that house was better than the other one, but it's fresh, and it's new, and there's something exciting. This is part of how we're made in our flesh. But after a while, after you've been there for a while, that wears off. I mean, now that's the place you've been at for a while. Sometimes people traded new wives or new husbands. In all the Lord's blessing, my husband or my wife was a monster. And so therefore I had to do what the Lord, you know, if they depart, let them depart. I'll write them off. And then you go and marry someone else. And then you say, see, now I'm so happy. The Lord has blessed me. And I'm just filled so much. And they think it's the blessing of the Lord. It's the Holy Spirit. And no, let me explain what it is. It's the joy of the sin of adultery that you're reveling in. They call it the Holy Spirit. I can think of a couple of people who have literally said that to me. They asked me what I thought about them. divorcing and remarrying this other person. And I said, no, marriage is forever. You keep your vows. But they, I don't know why they asked me, but then they went and remarried unscripturally. And then they went out of their way to tell me how the Lord was really a blessing in their life now. I'm thinking, you're walking in deception. You're reveling in your sin against God. and you're interpreting it as the joy of the Holy Spirit. That's really bad, brethren. People can do that, even just going to new churches. It can be rebellion, but they say it's the blessing of God. It can be a new wife. It could be, I haven't been there in a long time. I go to Riccati's Grinders and I get a tuna grinder, with everything on it, particularly the red relish, the pepper relish. It's a red pepper relish, which gives it a little tang, you know? And that tuna is like so milky smooth with mayonnaise, you could suck it through a straw. And like that is like, you know? And so it's, I haven't had one a long time. It's new to me because I haven't had one for, you know, it could be a year. And then you have one like, ah. But then if you start eating it every day, you know, you wake up and every day your wife is there. Well, every day, tuna sandwich is there. If you go to Bacardi's every day, it loses the magic. So we have this thing about us, newness is excitement. And then if we have a Christian label to us, we attach excitement to God's blessing and we deceive ourselves because we're not judging from the word of God, we're judging from our feelings. If Christians are trying to live more godly lives by obeying him, reading the scriptures, and praying, and it doesn't work, you can, and so they say, okay, well, it must be the church I'm in, so they go to a new church, they try that, and after a while, and that takes longer, because everything's new, you get new friends, so it takes longer to wear off, but then it wears off, you're right back in the same boat you were. Some people, rather than doing that, what they'll do is they'll start a righteous campaign against the preacher. When they're spiritually dead, they're not where they ought to be, and they won't do business with God, rather than leave, they'll say, you know what? I think the preacher's a little too this, that, or the other. Pick out one or maybe it's all three. He's this, he's that, and he's the other. So I've got a righteous cause here. Then you start a little whispering campaign to why the preacher's no good. And you say, see, God's working through it. God wants to purify our church. And God wants to do a blessing, and he's going to do it through me. And so it's righteous indignation. And you know, it's rebellion. If you can't get along with the assembly that you have Not so much taking a vow, but you've given yourself membership in the right hand of fellowship. You say, I stand with these people. If you're just going to try and undermine it, leave. But before you leave, you should talk to the pastor about what your problem is, because maybe he can help you. And as Pastor Corgini told me, that's why we're here. He goes, don't despise the Lord's people because of their shortcomings. If they didn't have any, then they wouldn't need us. So sometimes they make up for the spiritual vacuum by having a righteous indignation campaign, which is not righteous at all. Or sometimes, in one instance, sometimes they have an organ drive. They say, well, we just have spiritual doldrums and our arms are hanging and they're weak and we're feeble. And then one minister says, we need a new organ, and we don't have the money. This is a real story. We need a new organ, and we don't have the money. And the minister had the gall to say, I think we need to have an organ drive, a fundraiser. And if we could, because people, he said it from the pulpit, like on a Sunday morning or evening service. And this wasn't a regular minister. He was like a fill-in guy, because they were between ministers. And he says, and the organ drive is good. Because people will rally about, let's raise the funds, we'll have a chart, and every week we show, it's made like a thermometer, and it's going higher and higher. And when you reach the top of the thermometer, you know, the red bursts out, and you got the money to buy the organ! So people see it going higher, and that loosens their pocket, the next offering, they put more money in towards the offering in the envelope, and more, and more, and more, and finally reach it, and hey! Yeah, but what happens once you reach it, and now you've been playing the organ for three months? Nothing's changed. And I remember thinking, and I don't know how old I was, It's a wild guess, 15, 16, maybe I was 20, maybe I was 12. I can't even remember the name of the minister that was the guy there presiding over this disaster. But I was young and I thought, this is dumb. And that guy was probably in his 60s. He could have been 70, the minister that was presiding. This guy was a minister, and he thought, oh, so this is how we can increase our love. Have a money drive to get an organ. Those things make impressions. I'll tell you, brethren, it was those kind of things that drew me into the ministry. Somebody's got to say something. I'm half kidding, I suppose, I've said it before. I tell some people, well, I got in the ministry to get in a fight. I told that to one guy at work, he'd been training him at work just like three weeks ago. Yeah, I got in the ministry. I tell some people, I went in the ministry to get in a fight, and he laughs. He says, well, you're Irish, that's why. I go, well, maybe that is part of it. I said, but, I go, you know, I don't want to come to fisticuff with people, that's not my point. I go, the point is, there's so much corruption in religion. Somebody has to say, hey, stop. and tell the truth and be willing to take the punches for it because you'll get them. It didn't seem like enough people were doing it, you see. Brethren, we don't need more how to be good sermons. I think probably what we need, speaking generically, not necessarily as an assembly, but I'm speaking generically for all believers and Christians everywhere, we don't need so much how to be godly sermons, I think one of the first things we need is more gospel sermons that challenges the spiritually dead that lay claim to Christ. I think that's a huge problem, so we probably need more of that, the J.C. Philpott kind of sermons, you know? And in addition to that, I think what we need are more sermons that reveal, and this is for God's people, Because God's people can get into a spiritual rut. So for the unconverted, they need gospel. And they need to be challenged about their confession, profession of faith. But for God's people who are struggling, but they are God's people who are in a spiritual rut, I think they need more sermons on the depths of the love and grace of God. Which is to say, they already know John 3.16. They need the context of John 3.16. which is to say they need more sermons on doctrine, which reveals what Jesus did and why he did it. And when they receive this in-depth, esoteric, non-practical knowledge of their Lord and Master whom they love, they will love him more. And by loving him more, guess what? There's a byproduct to that. All these things we've been talking about. making converts, studying the word. You just do it. And somehow the question, tell me how to live like I love the Lord, just doesn't seem to be on your mind. Tell me more about him. And then when you leave after learning it, you'll know what to do. You don't really need a sermon on don't lie. I mean, don't. But if you're a Christian, you don't know that. Forgive your brother and sister. Turn the other cheek. If you're a Christian, you don't know that. Pray, and pray fervently, and pray in humility, knowing that you're a sinner saved by grace for other sinners who are saved by grace. And so therefore, you don't pray with haughtiness. You pray with the humility of, help my brother in this. You don't need to be told that. Really? And if you do need to be told that, I think there's a bigger problem. So we look at verse one. We have to close. I therefore, in light of this deep, esoteric, non-practical, in-depth, only for seminary doctrine, and really it's not hard when you see it, come on. It's like people say that about the King James, it's too hard to understand. Well heaven forbid, imagine if we had to do it in Greek and Hebrew. It's English, it's English, it's English. So I'll give you a dictionary so you can learn what thou means I therefore, because of all this truth, this doctrine of the mystery of Christ, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, because of this, I beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called." And when he says, I walk worthy of the vocation, he's saying vocation is nothing more than your calling, right? A person's vocation is his calling. His calling is his vocation. You can substitute the word calling if you want there. In light of this truth of Christ that I've been teaching you, Paul says, I implore you that you walk in a manner that is worthy of the calling wherein ye are called. And what is the calling they received? They were made fellow citizens of the commonwealth of Israel. They were the adopted sons of God by the work of Christ. And this is the mystery now revealed. You've been made part of God's holy nation. You received the promises given to Abraham. You have eternal life in Christ. You who are not a people are now the people of God in light of this high calling and grace that God has shown to you. Don't you think you ought to say thank you with your life? And we're supposed to think that the Christians say, well, how do we say thank you? You ought to know. It is not to say that preaching righteousness and God and living is not profitable. It is. For one thing, it can tend to separate the sheep from the goats. Sometimes people need to hear that because maybe they need to admit to themselves they've never known him. And then sometimes even a large people who have known him need to hear that to be reminded Like, they're striving to do it, but maybe they've been distracted by work or family affairs. And there's certain things they've left undone, not so much sin, but they, you know what, I gotta get back on my game here. That's right. And it's a good reminder. But the truth is, the heavy lifting is done by the Holy Spirit and by God's grace when he changes our hearts. and causes us to love Him and to love and serve our neighbors. That is the work of God, not the work of men. We don't need so much more how-to sermons, but why sermons? Why we should walk in obedience to Christ? Why we should honor Him with our lives? And this doctrine for Paul was the proper motivation for people to live a godly life. I want to close with one text of scripture. Matthew 22. Matthew 22. I actually have two passages, but I'm out of time. So Matthew 22 in verse 34. But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, They were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, saying, Master, which is the greatest commandment in the law? See, when we ask how to live godly lives, well, we really are talking about keeping the commandments of the Lord. Now, we know it's the commandments of the New Covenant, as opposed to, per se, the old covenant law, but there's a lot of overlap there, quite obviously. But we're talking about obeying the commandments. Teach me how to obey the commandments. Master, the question is, verse 36, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God. This is the greatest commandment. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. on these two commandments. Hang all the law and the prophets. It's not the other way around. You don't keep the Sabbath and refrain from coveting in order to learn to love the Lord. You love the Lord and therefore you'll keep the Sabbath, if that's an obligation to you in the old covenant, you'll keep the Sabbath and you'll refrain from coveting. You don't learn, you don't increase your love for the Lord by praying more, going to church, and sitting, you can sit there and go on one ear and out the other. You need to love Him. The greatest commandment, so you're worried about commandments where they say, teach me how to live like a Christian. What you're saying is, teach me how to keep the commandments. Okay, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul. That's the whole sermon. This whole sermon has been, the answer is to love Him. Now, you can increase your love for Him by learning and studying of Him, but that won't do a thing for you if you haven't loved Him to begin with. by God's grace. The answer to how to live like a Christian is to love him more. We need to know him. We need to meditate on his word. We need to learn of him. We need to commiserate one with another of the glories of what Christ has done. And you'll just find ourselves living for him. And when we hit a bad note, and we sin, we'll despise ourselves for it, not because we're in doubt whether the Lord forgives us. This is what the super grace phonies teach. No, no, that's not what's happening. When we despise ourselves for our sin, it's because we love him and we hate dishonoring him by ungodly actions, particularly when others see it. It actually comes from love. Guilt oftentimes, proper godly guilt is the byproduct of love. There's a guilt that comes from legalism. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the real thing. So there's your answer. You want to know how to live like a Christian? Know the Lord. You first got to get to know Him as your Savior and then know Him as your Lord and Master and they all go together. Let's bow our heads in prayer.