All right, let's pray, we'll get started. Thank you, Father, for the blessings you've given to us, and we thank you for your word. Father, as we study it, think through its principles and precepts, we can apply that to the situations we face in life. Father, tonight, as we begin this particular class, that it would be used by you to encourage each person attending, whether here in person or on the Zoom, or looking at a recording, In doing exactly that, thinking through the issues of their life, applying scripture to it, that they might walk in a way that's pleasing to you. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so tonight and next week will be lecture. And then after that, the video is going to change, and you're going to see a large group. So that's for the folks on the video. No one's joined me on Zoom yet, so we'll see what happens. All right, so did everybody have a copy of the notes? I don't know. All right. I left a few blanks in there, just so you'll stay awake. There's something to do. Anybody need a pen or pencil? We're all set. All right. The homeschoolers left lots of pencils out there for some reason, so we're sad for you. All right, this is Christian Ethics. This is Dr. Henry Holliman. This is from 1981 and 82, his syllabus on church and society. And since that's gonna be underlying some of our discussions in the future, it's probably a good place just to start. Not only that, but since it's the first night, you probably have not had a chance to look at all the stuff that's posted and read things to have a discussion tonight. So there's a little better, I do the talking instead of everybody else. Feel good about that, Mark? Yes, sir. Yeah, all right. How many hours you worked this week so far? 58. Not bad. Almost as much as me. Yeah. All right. All right, let's start. What do we mean by ethics? From Latin, ethicus. The Greek is athēkos. It's talking about moral character. related to more general primary meaning of ethos or ethos. That would be more of a Greek way of looking at it. Custom is your blank, usage your habit. Okay? So ethics is dealing with customs, usages, habits, how do you do things. It occurs 12 times, and ethos one time in the New Testament, one occurrence in the New 1 Corinthians 15, 33, do not be deceived, bad company corrupts good morals. So it's down a little lower there. And it's translated as good morals, good character, good manners. So it's a pretty general term, okay? Ethics. How are you behaving? Is it good or not? And other concepts that come with the same thing. The word here, anastrophe, word comes up it's 13 times in the testament and this is referring to a way of life conduct or behavior so you can see very related concepts uh the expression in second peter 3 11 translated various ways since all these things were destroyed in this way what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness rsv says lies of holiness king james holy conversation view of that, then how should you live? What are you really living for? Is it really wise to be building a kingdom here if you know it's going to be destroyed? Well, no, not really. We should be thinking about how we're living. We're going to face our Creator and need to walk with Him for that. Contemporary meaning, as used by the evangelical Christian, Christian ethics deals with the principle of right conduct as prescribed by the Bible. All right, that's going to be crucial for us all the way through. Okay, there's a lot of different ethics that are thrown out there. We are controlled by what God has said in the scriptures, period. That's where we're gonna go for true. There's a lot of ethical societies, and a lot of them are not very ethical. Not when we compare it to what the scripture says, but they have their own ethics. They don't match the scripture, they're gonna be judged by God for that. How was all this developed? Now traditionally, we view the Bible as the sole authoritative source However, those who profess to be Christians who do not regard the Bible as the only source of religious authority, or even primary source, also exists. So we're going to talk about that a little bit, just so you're aware of what's out there and what you need to be careful of. Christian now has become a very broad term. You're not necessarily talking about someone actually following Christ either. You've probably run into some of those folks. They say they're Christian. You start talking to them and they don't know Christ. They're not walking after Christ. They're following a cultural Christianity. That will vary from place to place with that slide. Now, the first erroneous from divine revelation and spiritual illumination. If you take an ethics class in college, that's what you're taking, okay? They're not going to the scriptures. They're not going to what God said. They're trying to use human reason to decide what would be good or what would not be good. So the evaluation, the innate human reason, the development of Christian ethics then really is not Christianism, okay? It cannot properly understand God. cannot understand a true Christian conduct. A couple of verses on this. Job 11.7. Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? Good rhetorical questions. And the answer, of course, is no. He's beyond us. 1 Corinthians 1.21. For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not since the message preached to save those who believe. A good passage for us, that whole section of 1 Corinthians. I like the part because it talks about us. Not many mighty, not many noble. There we are. This is normal people God chooses, and he chooses to use us to make fools of those who claim to be wise. We need to make sure we're coming back to the wisdom of God, not the wisdom of the world. the original world cannot bring you to God. So that's crucial for us. Ephesians 1, 17 through 19, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation, the knowledge of him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of his calling, with the working of the strength of his might. So if we're going to get wisdom, where are we going to get it? We're going to have to come back to God. So if you're just relying on human speculation, what are you going to end up with? The musings of man. And that's not going to get you to godliness. Two here, human speculation cannot properly evaluate man's true moral condition. So if you're talking to people who don't know Christ and they're trying to evaluate if they're good or bad, what do they say? They're good, right? You just do this at the good person test, right? Anybody come in and say, is there a good person? Say, I'm a rotten sinner. Oh, they all think they're good. Go ahead, Mark. I'm not as bad as this. Yeah, so it's going to be, and they will evaluate it based on their own standards. I'm not as bad as that person. Yeah, until the other person is like, well, I'm not as bad as you. For everyone's lives, everyone's close lives. So it's just, everybody's this way. So can we come to God's moral standards without coming to what God says about it, right? We can't. So properly evaluate your moral condition. We gotta come to that. You cannot get that from human speculation. For example, in Matthew 7, 11, Christ is very direct. You being evil, know how to do good things for your kids. You'll give them bread. You don't give them a snake, unless they really like snakes or something. That'd be terrible. Okay, you're going to do a good thing, even though you're evil, but he starts there. You're basically evil. Don't think that you're good. It's not fair. Third, human speculation cannot properly perceive spiritual reality. There's a lot of verses that deal with this. John 3, 3, in talking to Nicodemus, truly true, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And Nicodemus' answer was, huh? What are you talking about? He didn't get it. Okay, and he's a teacher of the law. First Corinthians 2.11, for who among men knows the thoughts of man except the spirit of man which is in him, even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the spirit of God. He can't know God without God revealing himself. So the ministry of the Holy Spirit is a very important one for us. Four, human speculation cannot properly formulate biblical standards of conduct. Sometimes we give the Pharisees a bad rap. They are actually people who are trying to live holy lives, but that's the sad part. They studied the word of God, but now they're studying it according to their traditions, and so they end up thinking they're holy because they're keeping traditions but they weren't keeping God's law. How often did Jesus have to correct them with, you're saying that this is true and it's not true. This is what God actually said. They've subverted God's teaching with their own standards. So like Matthew 15, nine, but in vain do they worship me teaching its doctrines, the precepts of men. And that's exactly what they're doing. And thinking they were doing the right thing. A zeal for God without knowledge. Same standard, Matthew 5.44, I say to you, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you. The contrast was, well, you love your friends, you love your neighbor, but who's my neighbor? And Jesus takes that so much farther, even pray for those who are persecuted. Very different. So what are some of the more common unbiblical ideas out there? And you've seen that. You probably have some others. Now, here's the real cynical one. Do it to others before they do it to you. You ever hear that one? OK, some of you have better friends. I haven't said that. I heard that one in college, like, yeah, they're out. No, that's not good. Look out for number one. That's been around for a long, long time. If it feels good, do it. If it hurts, let it lie. That's there. He who dies with the most toys wins. I saw that in the back of a pickup truck. He who dies is dead and going to be judged by God. This actually comes from an old beer commercial. Go for the gusto. You only go around once. Anybody else remember that commercial? No. There's an updated version called YOLO. YOLO. You have different savings. What's YOLO? You only live once. You only live once. OK, well, that's another one. So these pop philosophies are all around there. So what are some popular ones on campus? Like follow your heart is a good one. That's excellent. There's the Hallmark one, right? Think over how to book club. Your best life now. Oh, that was. Somebody else. No, it's my Texas largest church down there. No, no, no, no, no. Yeah, he had that. We call him smiling, smiling, you know, your best life now. Well, that's terrible. This is your best life that you're really in trouble. God has a wonderful plan for your life. Actually, that's a good one, too. He does, but you won't like it. We talk about that a lot at CCF, about how abundant actually means full. Yeah, not getting anything you want. I think they changed the cover on Ray Comfort's little book that was titled that. The front cover had several. One was Daniel in the Lion's Den, Here's your wonderful plan for your life. You throw in the dental lines. Another one was, that track one was a guy getting whacked on the side of his, you know, yeah, it's bad, you know, here you go. God has a wonderful plan for your life on recovery. Well, actually it is a wonderful life, but it's not according to man's standards. So there's a lot of these things, right? That they're out there, but that's all based on human speculation, human reasoning. It's apart from what divine, revelations, givings, but those are things that needs to fall into. They really are. St. McDonald's, right? They had a campaign for years. You deserve a break today. So give us your money and we'll give you lots of salt, right? Little campaign slogans. Marketers are excellent at that to get you to think this is gonna be good for you, right? And you think your life is about that. I deserve this. Who said? You don't, okay? So summary conclusion, these inabilities, the natural man with purely human knowledge to develop biblical Christian ethics points at the need for divine revelation and the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit. back to the scriptures. I have to have a foundation that's actually based on what's true, not on human speculation, not on human musings of man. John 16, 7 through 15, for example, the helper who's going to come to us, and that when he comes he's going to convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and judgment concerning sin, because they do not believe me. So until the Holy Spirit actually convicts someone of sin, they're not going to search for God. They have to be in a desperate need for it. Okay, concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, you no longer see me. Concerning judgment, because the rule of this world has been judged, and he had many more things to say. Then he talks about the Holy Spirit as an economist who can guide them into truth. We need the Holy Spirit. 1 John 2 speaks about that, the Holy Spirit's ministry of enlightening us, of teaching us. I, as a teacher, can give you information, but unless the Holy Spirit uses that and enables you to understand it and then apply it in your life, I'm just beating my gums together. heard words but doesn't do any good in your life. That's the Holy Spirit's ministry, so we must rely on that. First Corinthians 2, 9 through 16, things which the eye, just as it's written, things which the eye have not seen, the ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man. All that God has prepared for those who love him, for to us God revealed them through the Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of the man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, the thoughts of God no one knows except the spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God. Which things we speak not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. A natural man does not accept the things of the spirit of God. They are foolishness to him. He cannot understand them. because they're spiritually praised. But he who is spiritual praises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. Who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ. So this is essential. If we're going to understand our world and how to respond to it properly, we have to have the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He has to be doing that work in our lives. And you've all experienced that. If you've talked to anybody about spiritual things, a lot of times you get that deer in the headlights look. they have no idea what you're talking about. The Holy Spirit's not working there, okay? And until he does, they're not gonna understand that. Or maybe that's part of your own testimony. You heard the gospel, heard the gospel, just did not make sense until one day the Spirit of God worked upon you and suddenly it's like, wow, it all makes sense. That's God. So it has to be spiritually praised. You're not gonna get it by human speculation. You can't reason your way to God. Okay, Christian practices. Now this approach follows the methodology of descriptive ethics, descriptive ethics. So in general, the practice of following the most prevalent conduct. Okay, now Christian practices here, we're using that in a generic sense. Okay, we're gonna describe our ethics by simply what we do. So the idea of prevalent conduct is we look at what everybody else is doing, and if that's what everybody's doing, it must be right, so that's what I'll do. That is the way most Christians live. They've heard the gospel, they start going to church, they start looking around what everybody else is doing, and then just, well, I'll just fit in. That must be the way you do it, because they're all Christians, right? So we assume, we might hope. Some of you, if you grew up in church, and you saw this, and later, like, they say this, they're doing that, I don't understand. You might say, well, they're hypocrites, I'm not going anymore. Diane did that my wife she saw that and said I just see a bunch of hypocrisy here I don't think this is true. Their conduct doesn't match what they say something's not right here and she gave up on it for her teen years But this is prevalent conduct she grew up in a German Lutheran Church, so every October it is bring your own Stein knife Well, you know the Baptist didn't really care for that But then there was the death reform. They were like, well, why where's your cigars? So what determines what's right or wrong? Just the conduct of everybody around you? That's not how we determine it. We've got to go back to the words. So this ends up fitting well into postmodernism, which we're well into now, since that really became more prevalent around the turn of the millennium, is the idea that there are no absolute morals, only relative ones. The idea of what in Rome do as the Romans. Just fit in, and that's OK. we can't judge our Christianity, true Christianity. You can't judge your spirituality by seeing how you match everybody else. That's the wrong standard. Okay. See, this is in line with the, I don't know what that word is. Methodology. That's an M. Methodology, not methodology. I don't know what methodology is. methodology. The Christian would then practice the most prevalent conduct within that given group of Christians. So again, if over half of that particular group drinks alcoholic drink, bring your own Stein and let's enjoy a beer together. Well, if they don't, well, then we don't do that. And that becomes a standard of even of what holiness is. I do or I don't. Is that really the standard we should use? Okay, that's not good. There's actually a joke about a fellow who came from the Netherlands. This is a long time ago. He came over here and he's looking around. He looks like the way the women are dressed and they got makeup all over them. And he's just saying, it's so terrible over there. They're so ungodly. And the steers started rolling down and came rolling past their cigar and dripping into their beer. Which standard? So one is, you should never wear makeup, but they're busy drinking and smoking. So whose standards being used here? Are those biblical standards? That's going to be the question. And we have to think through that in a lot of issues. A lot of things we're going to hit in the future about particular issues that have come up, what does the scripture say about it? Or are we just using our cultural referencing? So I have one Mississippian. Anybody else from the South? You're from the South. We have two Southerners here. You're just shaking your head. No, you're not from the South. I'm from California. The California. OK, it's worse there, but that's OK. I agree. I'm from the Midwest. We're in California. San Francisco, baby. Oh, okay. I'm from Los Angeles. So we just think terrible Sanford. We always felt that way. So my dad's from Mississippi. So I got both cultures are gone. All right. So going and visiting my relatives in Mississippi is like, most of that's cultural. So you gotta get them saved before. I mean, you gotta get lost before you get saved. Right? Because they all think they're Christians. And I would even go to some of my cousins. Well, I'd go to church. Well, I know I should. It's been 40 years. I should go to church. Yeah, I should go. Well, 40 years. It's been a while, but so thanks. I'm a Christian. It's a problem, right? So what are the standards? Well, I'm not doing the things that we consider bad in our culture, so I must be okay. Besides, I got baptized when I was six, right? Yeah, you know exactly what I'm talking about. I got baptized when I was six, so I must be good. And the parents hold on to that even more. They got baptized when they were six, I know they're safe. It doesn't matter what they're doing now, okay? These are not a good way to do it. Now, there's going to be a tension between the dominant culture and the sub-Christian culture anyways. Now, you will find that more in San Francisco, right? Because you're outnumbered, vastly outnumbered, and probably know what persecution is, because this is a big part of it. There's going to be tension there. How are you going to handle that? D, criticism of this approach to Christian ethics. Okay, so let's critique this. One, Christian practice is inevitably imperfect. This is why descriptive Christian ethics will not work. It simply is not. No matter how godly you think you are, your practice is gonna be imperfect. We're not gonna reach perfection until heaven, right? Paul said to be imitators of me just as I am also of Christ. So here, Paul is toward the end of his life here. He's been doing this a long time, and even there he says, only as I am following Christ. All right, would you want to be following Paul's example when he gets in the argument with Barnabas? Not a good example. Okay, that wasn't good. Paul grew too. 2 Philippians 3, 13 and 14. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal, the prize, the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. That's Paul's thoughts on this. So he recognized he's not right there. He's not made it yet. He's still pressing on. So we always had to keep our eyes on Christ. Some of you might follow Steve Lawson, right? How did you react when you find out that this man fell? Well, some have hit hard because they were looking at the man and not at the Savior that he was supposed to be proclaiming. We have to be careful here, okay? 1 John 1, 8 and 10. If we say we have no sin, we're deceiving ourselves, the truth is not in us. And then verse 10, if we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, his word is not in us. Don't expect perfection in this life. So don't expect those that you're around be perfect. They're not going to be. They're going to have flaws. It's going to pop out once in a while. A. Christendom, in a broad sense, has perpetuated or perpetrated some of the worst atrocities in human history. In the name of Christianity, you can think of Christian Europe, even from the Middle Ages on, and some Or how about the fact that major wars in the 20th century were between Christian nations? How can that be? Okay, those proclaiming to be Christians doing things are very unchristian. Be all too frequently history reveals man's inhumanity to man under the banner of Christianity. One of my notes is the World Council of Churches, churches back in the 80s was sending weapons to guerrillas who practice slavery. That's a good place for church funds to go, right? Two, Christian practice may be misinterpreted, okay? Man looks outward, God looks at the heart. It may look good on the outside, but what is the motivations that are behind it? So that's gonna be part of it too. The motivation of Christian ethics really is to serve. It's to glorify Christ. 1 Corinthians 13, 2, if I have the gift of prophecies to know all mysteries, all knowledge, if I have faith to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. What's the motivation behind it? So that can look really good. In fact, Corinthians is a book of correction among a group of people who thought they're really doing good. Look at all the gifts we have, we're great. And yet they're all faction, they're fighting each other. They're tolerant of horrible sins. They're taking each other forward and suing each other. It's terrible. The guys haven't figured out you're not supposed to be visiting the temple prostitutes. What kind of place is this? We have to be careful. My motive does matter. What am I doing? Why am I doing it? My practice shouldn't come without it. B, it's possible to practice mimicry of prevalent Christian conduct without understanding Christian motives and the goals for conduct. Now the reference there is quiz. Anybody know Barnabas' real name? It's in the text. It's Joseph. So Barnabas means son of encouragement. So here's the nature of this guy. He gets this nickname. You're Barnabas. You're a son of encouragement. And that's really his nature and character. He had owned some land. He sold the land. He brings all the proceeds from the sale. He apposited the few of the apostles because he wanted to help the church there in Jerusalem. Well, he got a claim for it. Ananias and Sapphira see this, so Acts 5 talks about them. And they think, well, I would like to have that claim too. So, husband and wife decide we're gonna sell a piece of property, and we're gonna bring the proceeds and set for the apostles' feet, and it's gonna look really good. Except there's one problem. They made out like they sold it for this, but they sold it for that, and they lied about it with this, we gave all. Well, what's the motive behind that? Were they really doing it because they cared about the other people? They just wanted the acclaim of it. And so Peter is very direct with them. Was it not yours when you had it? It was up to you what you wanted to give. You didn't have to give all of it. You could have just said, well, we sold it for this product, and we're getting 70%, 50%, whatever it was. But they wanted to lie about it, and that revealed the motive of their heart. It was about them. So correction to this approach to Christian ethics, point E, evaluated by scriptures. Isaiah 8.20, to the law and the testimony, if they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. Okay, they're liars. John 17.17, sanctify them in the truth, thy word is true. How do we become set apart to actually walking with God? I gotta know what the scriptures say. Christian practice must be based on an outside authority, all right? That's pretty easy to understand. If it's based on your own authority, where are you going to go? Not good. If it's going to be based on other people, you end up with a problem we talked about. So it has to be upon the authority of what God says. Jeremiah 10.23, I know, O Lord, that a man's way is not in himself, nor is it a man who walks to direct steps. Psalm 119.33, establish my footsteps in your word, do not let any iniquity have dominion over him. So this is the necessity of some of the basic Christian virtues, right? Self-disciplines of making sure you're in the work on a regular basis and thinking through it, meditating on it, having your quiet time, confessing your sins to God. That's the purpose of it, that's the necessity of it. Okay. God does not determine proper Christian conduct by pulling the sinners frolicking below. That was definitely Dr. Holloman's statement. He had a bunch of those. I still remember some of them. One was like, it's hard to describe the lilies on the shore when you're drowning in the middle of the lake. This is definitely one of his. God doesn't pull the sinners frolicking below. That's not how we determine things, okay? So thus biblical principles must precede and govern Christian ethical practice, and this is the perspective, the prescriptive approach to Christian ethics. So conclusion, thorough study of Christian ethics does not disregard the history of Christian practice, but scripture, and that's the blank there, itself and not Christian practice remains the only reliable source of true Christian ethics. So I know I'm getting to this point, I'm beating a dead horse here. this thing through, we've got to keep going back to it because there's always so much pressure to fall into line with whatever everybody else is doing around you. Okay, I'll give you another one. When I first came in here, guys were still wearing three-piece suits. That takes you back a ways. Some of you don't even know what I'm talking about. What is a three-piece suit? And hair length was a big issue. And we had a young man, and his hair was on his collar. And if it's on your collar, you know you're out of fellowship with God if you're a man, right? Did you know that? No? So he's a young man. He was in his 20s, and it was there. And we had deacons at that point instead of elders. So he's like, we've got to do something about this guy. He's got this long, long, long hair. I said, don't worry about it. OK, he'll figure it out. It didn't take all that long, because he started looking around at everybody around him. He looked like, I'm kind of out of place here. And he cut his hair. You don't have to force an issue. That's good and bad, isn't it? It's good that he sees people around him, and he wants to mimic those he believes are holy. But it's bad if he thinks that's what makes them holy. So it's a two-edged sword here. You have to be careful. Why do we do what we do? What's the purpose of it? Hopefully, within a church, you have good examples and you want to fit in with that. That's a positive thing about being in the fellowship of the saints. You want to do what everybody else is doing. Even your manner of dress changes. You want to end up fitting with everybody else. If you're up at school, your manner of dress may be different than it's here on Sunday. How come? Yours is the same. No? It's pretty much the same. It's pretty much the same. Oh, you only have so much in your wardrobe, and that's just all I got. Am I right? OK. If I'm going to go do something with some, I will dress like that. I'll give you an example. OK, Sundays, how am I normally dressed here? I may be the only guy with a tie, OK, because I'm old. Saturday, I was going to be teaching. There's going to be a whole bunch of seminars, but it's at a camp. How do you think I'm going to be dressed? I'm going to be very casual. It was interesting watching this in our church association some years ago, normally back in the 90s, especially. If you went, it's a week of meetings and stuff, and all the guys, they got suit and tie on. So we held it at Word of Life. It's a camp. You can see some of these guys were really struggling with the idea of not wearing a tie. They still had on the shirt and the coat, but they weren't wearing the tie. And you can see it just really made them uncomfortable. Fast forward a few years, we're at a different camp, and at least half the guys are wearing very casual. Fast forward to last year, and there's guys walking around in shorts. OK, different generation. I always have a coat with me because sometimes the air condition is just way too low and I want to keep warm. Okay, so what is determining what you're doing? Well, it's because the pressure is there. We're going to look at those around us and think that's what we need to do. Are you doing what you do because you actually have a motive and you want to do it for God? I'm going to expand on this a little bit more, just because I'd like to hit it again. Some years ago, we had a man in the church that got mad at me because I was wearing a suit and tie. Why are you upset with me? No one here is even telling you or suggesting that you need to wear a suit and tie. He said, but because you're wearing it, I feel like I have to and I don't want to. I said, look, I don't wear the suit and tie for you. anybody else? I wear it for me because partly it's how I grew up, and I want to wear the best that I've got in honor of God, especially if I'm leading the service in worship. I want to present that I'm representing, standing for God, and striving to be cut above. I'm not coming here to be comfortable. I'm coming here to worship God, and if I was going to go to an interview for a job, how would I dress? Right, I would dress appropriate to that. I would dress to say that I care. But he still was mad at me because I wore a student tie. You can see the kind of pressure that can be there. Now, if he's actually coming to me to complain about it, I wonder what he's doing to all his friends. Okay, so are you doing it for what reason? His reason is, I wanna be comfortable. Is that how we should come to church? I'm just coming here and my comfort is of the most priority. No, it's not. The priority is I want to honor God. That's it. However that is. So it's actually not the clothes, is it? It's the attitude. The attitude is going to come out in what you do. That is what Christian ethics is about. And you're going to find this over and over again, the same principle. It's not necessarily the actions. What's behind it? Are you doing it because you're really striving to please God? You want to honor God? You understand what the principles are? or is it about you or pleasing your friends? All right, well, let's continue on. Any questions about anything we've talked about so far? Okay. Biblical revelation, 2 Timothy 3.16, 2 Peter 1.21, both deal with the divine origin of the scriptures. It's inspired by God, it's God-breathed. The holy men of old were moved by the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, the same thing happened. That's what 2 Peter 1.21 is referring to in the New Testament, the same kind of thing. There's a progression and revelation from the prophets to the apostles, but it's the same thing. The capstone of ethical conduct is found in the New Testament revelation because it is built upon Old Testament revelation. It doesn't contradict it. Again, John 17, 17, thy word is truth. So truth is recorded in the scriptures, that's the blank. Truth is recorded in the scriptures. John 10, 35, be called them gods in whom the word of God came, and the important phrase there, and the scripture cannot be broken. Or what Jesus says, truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished. It's true, okay, and it's unchanging. 2 Timothy 3, 15, 17, 2 Peter 1, 3 and Deuteronomy 29, 29 deals with this. It's sufficient in scope, sufficient in scope. 2 Timothy 3, 15, 17 deals with Paul talking about Timothy and that from a child he had known the sacred writings because his mother and grandmother had taught him. and that all the scripture was inspired by God and helpful to him, and that's where he then breaks into it. All scripture is inspired by God, proper doctrine, recruit, correction, instruction, righteous, that man of God may be thoroughly equipped, trained for, equipped for all, for every good work. That's what the word of God does for us. 2 Peter 1.3, seeing that his divine power has granted us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of him, let us call this by his own glory and excellence. So the scripture is sufficient, completely sufficient. I don't need to go outside that to try and get the musings of man to understand the scriptures. I need to go to the scriptures and what do they say? Now, does scripture reveal everything? That's really everything we want to know. Jeremiah 29 deals with that. The secret things belong to the Lord, but these things which have been given to us belong to us and our children. And the problem is not what we have not been given scripture. The problem for us is that what we have been given, are we living according to it? Are we applying it? So summary conclusion that biblical revelation provides divine, objective, infallible, and adequate resource of Christian ethics. So we're gonna go back to the scriptures for all of that. So here's some principles that are involved in this. Luke 18, 19, no one is good except God alone. So the highest good, the highest valuation, the pinnacle here is God. That is what defines what is good. Second Timothy, well, passage listed there, we have salvation through Christ, right? John 3, 3, Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 1 Corinthians 3.11, no man can lay a foundation other than the one that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. That's our foundation. 2 Corinthians 5.17, if anyone is in Jesus Christ, he is a new creature, a new creation. All things have passed away. Behold, all things become new. And then 1 Corinthians 2.8, 9, and 10. For by grace we are saved, through faith, that not of ourselves, but the gift of God, not of works by any man shall boast. We are his workmanship, creating Christ Jesus for good works Christ. So this would be a foundational emphasis. That's the blank foundational. A person cannot play being a Christian and win because God knows. He knows the heart. There's a lot of people who do play on that. Number three, this would be prescriptional emphasis. Prescriptional, it's infallible norms. Matthew 4.4, but he answered and said to them, it is written Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. So that's the devil tempting Jesus. And what does Jesus go back to? He goes back to the scriptures. It is written, this is descriptional, this is what I do. I'm not doing what you want. I'm doing what God wants. Again, John 17, 17, we've already mentioned John 13, 17. If you know these things, you're blessed to do them. If you know what the word of God is, you know what his laws are, you know his commands, you're blessed to do them. Psalm 119.33, the cry of the psalmist here, establish my footsteps in your word and do not let any iniquity have dominion over me. That should be the cry of our own heart. I want God to establish me in knowing him and what he wants me to do, how he wants me to live. And Isaiah 8.20, to the law and to the testimony, they do not speak according to this word, it's because they have no dog. There's no enlightenment in them. Okay, the next one, number four, would be motivational emphasis. There's an indispensable motive that we have as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is love. Okay, Matthew 22, 37 through 40. He said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like to it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole law and the prophets, okay? And it is, everything's been it up in that. And it's love, love of God, love of your neighbor. That's enough. If we follow those two things, we keep all the commandments. So this is the motivation that's for it. The first Corinthians 13, one through four passages that beginning on sometimes called the love chapter, but it's the only, if I have this do that, but I don't have love, I'm nothing. I'm a God, I'm a hanging symbol. You know, no matter what gift you have, and it's very pointed to the Corinthians, because they thought they were special and very godly, very spiritual, because they had these gifts and they were being manifested. And he says, if you don't have love and you're doing these things, you're nothing. It doesn't do any good. Motive counts. Some principles of love here. Love is the primary Christian virtue. 1 Corinthians 13, 13. But now faith, hope, love abide these three. The greatest of these is? Love, right? That's the greatest. Galatians 5.22, the fruit of the spirit is love, and then you go to the rest, and I think you can make a good case that everything else you list out as fruit of the spirit are characteristics of love, agape love. Colossians 3.14, beyond all these things, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. First Peter 4, eight, above all, keep fervent in your love for another, because love covers a multitude of sins. Now, since that's a command, it means it takes some work to do that. I would just wish it was just automatic, but it isn't, right? Because agape love is an action that is carried out because you've made a determination of what's in the best interest of the other person, even at the sacrifice of yourself, okay? This is why mothers will eat the bad piece of chicken and give their kids the good pieces. Sometimes that gets weird. My grandmother had this thing, she really liked chicken necks. But she had 10 kids, there wouldn't be anything left of the neck. But she loved her kids above herself, okay? So there is a good culinary illustration of that. You don't like chicken necks? You don't like chicken necks? Okay, it's a Southern thing. I think everybody else, they just cut it out and just throw it away, right? I don't know. 1 John 4, 19, and there are other passages there, expressing love must be experienced in a redemptive sense before it can be properly expressed in a truly Christian ethical sense. This is important. 1 John 4, 19, why do we love? Because he loved us first, right? Could we love if he did not love us first? We actually could. Romans 5.5, hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit has been given to us. And that keeps working your way from rejoicing in tribulation to the love of God is demonstrated in Christ dying for us while we have sinners. 2 Corinthians 5, 14 and 15, the love of Christ controls us. And he concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died. He died for all so they might live They might live, those who live might live no longer for themselves, but him who died and rose again on our behalf. Or Galatians 2.20, Paul's declaration here. I am crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live, I live by the faith and Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. That's why Paul did a lot. 1 John 3, 16, we know by this that he laid down his life for us. We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Are we willing to sacrifice for those around us? How can we do that if we do not understand and have experienced the love of God? We really can't. Leviticus 19, 18, in those passages, love cannot be compelled. That is, you cannot force someone to love them, and yet God can command them. You can't force someone to love you. the God can command it, as a little bit different entity, God can enable you to do it. Leviticus 19, 18, you shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. We know the last part of that pretty well, but a lot of times we forget it has a context. Don't do this, instead do this, or the opposite. Matthew 22, we already mentioned that's the first and second great commandments. John 13, 34, and 35, a new command, I give to you that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you love one another. By this, all men will know that you're my disciples, if you have love for one another. So how can you tell if someone's actually, if a group is really Christians or not? Do they love each other? If they don't love each other, there's something really wrong, right? Romans 5, 5 in Galatians 5, 22, love of true spiritual quality, agape love, is produced by the Holy Spirit. And that's really the blessing, is because it's not something you can generate in yourself anyways, it's the Holy Spirit that prompts it. Our part is stepping out of obedience to put into practice the actions of love, the emotion of it will come and follow. Romans 5.5, hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit is given to us. And then in Galatians 5.22, again, the fruit and spirit is love and all the rest of the characteristics. Number five, the love for Christ necessarily involves obedience to his commandments. And there's a lot of passage on this. This is not being legalistic. This is simply a demonstration of what love is. John 14.15, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. Verse 21, he who has my commandments and keeps them. He is the one that loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my father. I will love him and dispose myself to him. So keeping God's commandments, keeping Christ's commandments, this should be a motivation of you love them, okay? So I'll pick on the back row here, because these are my parents with kids. I'll pick on Mark two. What is your goal for your kids as they get to be older in terms of their relationship with you? It really makes you more of a friendship. A friendship. And that would be demonstrated by how? recognizing the maturity, their age, and how I talk with them, how I deal with them, not as childlike anymore as adults. So you expect them to mature, and in that maturity, should they just, well, you did your job, they're 18, they moved out, and I'll see you in a few years, maybe. Call me when you get out of college. Would that be the relationship you want. I think what you want is like a desire for the kid to keep coming back to you for that. This is, I'm having this problem. What do you think? That kind of stuff, right? Well, not only that, but how about the opposite? Yeah. It's like, cause I'll do that with my kids. Like, Hey, what do you think? I'll ask them. They've gained some knowledge in areas I don't have knowledge in, but what kind of relationship is that? It's a two-way street, one of mutual love, isn't it? That's what your parents would like. So now I'm talking to you who don't have kids yet, that's what you would like. You would like to see your kids grow up to the point where you have a adult relationship with them as mutual love. So you want to see the commands that God's given to us, honor your mother and father, to be carried out with joy because they actually do love you, not because they have to. They actually come around because they like being with you. You like going over there because you like being with them. That takes some work. It takes some work in your parenting to get to that place where you have that kind of relationship. We're very glad we have that with our boys, but we were apart at that for a long time. We enjoy being together. They love us, not because they have to, but because they want to. Now, ideally, that's going to transition about 12 or 13. Does that sound way too young? Actually, it's not. About 12 or 13, they start moving that they have a love for God. They start having a love for their parents. And they start obeying you because they have to or because they want to. Because they want to. I do it because I love them. That is what he's talking about here. Why do I want to obey God? I have to because he's God and he's gonna squash me if I don't? A lot of people that's how they view God. That's not why I obey God. I obey him because I love him. Why do I love him? Because he first loved me. So you can see where this Christian virtue then becomes part of my life and my ethics then become built on that. And that's what he's talking about here. But that's produced by the Holy Spirit which then produces a desire to keep his commandments because I love him. Not because I have to, because I love them. So now my adult kids, if I ask them to do something, they don't have to do it. They have their own homes. They have everything. But I'll find they will bend over backwards trying to do something for us because they love us. And we do the same thing for them. That's what love should do. We love God. We keep his commandments. We keep his commandments because we love God. John 14, 21, number six, love is not allowed to discover or dictate its own standards of conduct, its own standards of conduct. If it's doing that, you've gotten into situational ethics. I decide what I'm going to do. It's my own standard. Again, he who has my commandments, he's the one that loves me. Love you. I don't get to choose my own standard and declare that to be love. Some examples of that, genuine biblical love is inseparable from biblical truth. Speaking the truth in love, we grow up in all aspects of the Hymns of Wisdom that have even Christ. How do we treat one another? I speak the truth in love. I guard what I say by love. Is it fair to go to someone and say, well, I'm supposed to speak the truth and you just give an emotional, don't, Is that loving? Not at all. I have to consider what is good for them. I have responsibility for that. I'll give you one. As a husband, I have responsibility to protect my wife from stuff I know is going to hurt her. And she's not part of the problem anyways. She's not part of the solution. So why would I dump that on her and just cause her emotional turmoil? I had to love her enough to say is that I'll go to somebody else to talk about that. All right, I'll go one of the guys that's actually gonna work with them. So I'll give you an answer to that. So we have our leadership meetings. We had one here a few weeks ago. We were here, the women were on the other side and we get loud. And they thought, and Chrissy had to come to like, oh no, what's going on over there? Like, we're just being guys. We get loud. It was fine. No problem. But we'll work things out. We should have gone in the room way over here so we wouldn't disturb you ladies with something. You know what's going on. They're going to start fighting over there. No, we were having a good time. Okay. Do we care about each other enough to be careful to speak in love? And when you came in, you spoke very kindly and gently to us in love, though you were greatly concerned. Okay. So that's going to guide us. John wrote this. Second John, verse one and two. The elders, the chosen lady of children, whom I love in truth, not only I, but also all who know the truth, the sacred truth, which abides in us and will be with us forever. All right, so in any situation, we don't want to have situational ethics. There's a relative morality. love to dictate what is right conduct in any given situation. Doing the loving thing then becomes the individual's own personal opinion rather than the prescribed biblical commands. This is rampant in our nation. This is rampant to justify all sorts of little heinous sins. I have a personal opinion and this is loving. Okay, the Obergefell decision when that came through, love is love. That's not love. That's lust. That's exploiting people. God determines what that is. You don't get to determine that. God determines it. But a lot of things are justified by saying, well, but that's loving. Well, who decided what that love was? Does it fit God's definition of it? If it doesn't, then it's not loving. It's probably selfish. Love is not determined by your own personal opinion. Number seven, love is fulfilling the law. So this is related to what was said earlier. Romans 8.4, the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to flesh but according to spirit. It's going to be about love. Romans 13, 8 through 10, owe nothing to anyone except love one another, for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet. If there is any other commandment, it's summed up in this saying, you shall love your neighbors yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. So it's both sides, the positive side of doing right and avoiding the negative side of doing wrong. Patients 514, the whole law is fulfilled in one word in the statement, you shall love your neighbors yourself. But is that easy? Well, wasn't that one of the questions that was brought to Jesus? As he stated that, here's the first commandment, the second commandment, and the immediate question to him was, well, who's my neighbor? Trying to get out of it, right? And then that's where the story of the Good Samaritan comes in. Who is your neighbor? Well, it includes this guy who's a distance from you, but you happen to come by, and he's actually someone you find disgusting because he's not of your group. The Samaritan showed love. Okay, that's your neighbor. C8, love seeks the highest good for the object love. This is the definition of what agape love is. Certainly seen best in Christ himself. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that we will believe in him, should not perish but have everlasting life. It's a sacrifice for the best interest of the other person. Again, Galatians 2.20, 1 John 3.16, we know love by this. He laid down his life for us. We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. So that principle then can help avoid the frequent confusion between selfish lust and sacrificial love. And lust just means strong desire. It's lust for all sorts of things. The example we gave here, when one person tells another person the opposite sex, they're not married. I love you, so let's express it sexually. What they really mean is, I love me and I lust you. That's the reality of it. There's no love there. It's exploitation. Okay, that's not acting in the best interest, the highest good for the other person. It's not love, even though in our society, it's masquerades as it. It's not, it's just pure lust. The same can be true in a lot of other things. Okay, strong desire, and yet we'll call it love, and it's not, something completely different. John 15, 13, love is sacrificial, greater love has, no man has this, then he laid down his life for his friends. And that's where we need to be. Are you willing to lay down your life for the violence? It takes a lot, but that's something you kind of have to think of beforehand if you're ever going to do it. Would you lay down your life? From 614, sin shall not achieve. 10, love is not legalistic or sentimentalistic. It edifies. It builds up. Legalism, on the other hand, tears it down. Romans 6, 14, sin shall not be master of you. You are not under law, but under grace. Romans 14, there's the whole passaging with the weaker brother. You eat meat offered to idols. So that's a scriptural don't ask, don't tell. Don't tell them where you got the meat. Don't ask where you got the meat. If they find out and you know it bothers them, well then don't eat. Why? Because your brother's more important than getting a cheap piece of meat. That's the whole point of Romans 14. Do you really care about your brother? So even though he's weaker, you have freedom to do this. I'll set it aside, it's not a big deal. My brother's more important. 2 Corinthians 10, 12, we are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves, but when they measure themselves by themselves, compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding. So don't do that. Okay, that becomes legalism. Number 11, James 2, love is not prejudice. That whole passage deals with A common practice then, a guy comes in, he's dressed well, you come sit up in front, you come in dressed poorly, you're a farmer and not doing well, and your clothes are all dirty and scraggly, well, you sit in the back. That's your prejudice that you're showing partiality. And that's not the characteristic of love, okay? Number 12, love is not overcome by evil, but it overcomes evil by doing good. Okay, that's an important concept here. All right, let me give you a break. We should need to go to the restroom. Pause this. Okay, the objects of love. Well, the vertical love, of course, is love for God. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart. your soul with all your mind. It's your great and foremost commandment. So that's the first. Everything starts with there. If I love God, then everything else is going to flow out of that. There actually is a love for self, and it's assumed. A lot of scriptures deal with that. Properly, love for self is preservative care. I'm going to care about myself to take care of myself. Okay? Because frankly, if I don't take care of myself, I can't take care of other people. Think when you get on a plane and they go through that whole spiel, what they tell you about the oxygen mask. Put it on first, then get your kids. Why? Because if you're not getting oxygen, you pass out, you can't help anybody. So there is an idea for that. And it pops up throughout the scripture. It's assumed because it's going to be there. Ephesians 5, 28, 29. So husbands ought to love their wives, or like the King James here, cherish, it's agape, but cherish their wives as themselves. He who loves his wife loves himself. No one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ also does the church. We're all pretty good at feeding ourselves. Right? So why do you eat? Because you have to, unless you're a culinary student, it's because it's really good. Well, hopefully, because that's how your business is going to go. It's got to be really good for them to buy it. And they get better, right? Okay. Matthew 2239, I hope you've learned. So that's the idea. It's assumed that you do love yourself. So acknowledge that. Based on the principle that one must have a proper care for self before one can properly someone else. Look at 2, 3, 4. Do nothing from self, just your empty conceit with humility of mind. Regard one another as more important than yourselves. Not really looking out for your own personal interests, but also the interests of others. And then D, 2 Timothy 3, 2, in contrast, legitimate self-love, which is care for ourself. This one gives a warning about the sin of a selfishness or an egotism, narcissism. Men will be lovers of self. That's a bad thing there. Lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient, parents, ungrateful, and unholy. Okay, that's an improper love of self. So loving yourself to care for your body, Take basic necessities, that's proper. Loving yourself, that you are termed selfish, it's about you, that's improper. So we should be more concerned for others than even for ourselves. Next is familial or family love, Ephesians 5.5. This you know with certainty, no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an adulteress inherits the kingdom of Christ your God. Again, husbands love their wives, their bodies, et cetera. 533, love your own wife, give to themself. Titus 2.4, encourage the one, young men and women to love their husbands and love their children. That's what older women are to do. They teach how to do that. Okay. 1 Timothy 5.8, this one's really fits in here. Family does not provide for his own, especially for those of his household. He has denied the faith, he's worse than an unbeliever. We have to love our families. And that's a basic thing that should be there. That pops out culturally in some places. In the South, there is a great thing about loving your family. You take care of your own, right? That was definitely seen with Katrina hit. I got family that was in Gulfport, Pasadena, so they got nailed hard. And my uncle had his place down there. It took him weeks to get back home. And part of that is as he was working his way south from up near Meridian where he had gone to get out of the path of the storm. Well, you just keep stopping at another cousin, another, you know, and well, we'll fix your roof. We'll eventually get down to mine. He didn't want to get down there to begin with. And then they all come down and help him. Very different than New Orleans. New Orleans was relying on the government, not helping ourselves. But that's just the way you do things. And then you love your neighbor, too. I have a cousin who's a Methodist minister. His church was across the road from the quad for the local community college. So even though they were 120 miles from the coast, it was still a Class I hurricane. And it went through. Trees are torn up everywhere. They knew it would be a long time before anything got in there. So the men were out with chainsaws trying to clear away. And then they said, well, we have no electricity. What you got in your freezer? Let's cook it. So the whole town gathered on the quad for the community college. And they started with what was perishable first. Feed everybody. They didn't need the other people coming in. And it was a couple of weeks before any trucks finally got through with any supplies. They cared for each other. started with a family love and extended to the community. And that's something that demonstrates a Christian mindset and values. So that's the next part is fraternal love, love for other Christians. Again, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you to love one another by this all men will know that you are Christians. You're my disciples if you have love for one another. This was a practical demonstration of it. Care for each other. All right. To be devoted, Romans 12, 10, be devoted to one another in brotherly love, giving preference to one another in honor. It's part of our Christian character. Number five, love for neighbors. So this is horizontal. So vertical is God, inward is proper care for yourself, then your immediate family, then the larger family fraternal, and now even beyond that as neighbors, we're horizontal. That's the second great commandment, right? Parable of Good Samaritan, who's your neighbor? You don't have to know them, we're still gonna care for them. We see a need, we can meet the need. Or as I think in 1 John, how was the love of God demonstrated? If you see your brother needing, you withhold your heart of compassion. There's not a lot there, there's problems. Galatians 6.10, so then while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who are the household of faith. We'll be expanding a lot on that verse next week. What is he talking about there? Then going beyond neighbor, Matthew 5.44, of loving your enemy. So this is a merciful love. And again, that's something that's only going to come by the Holy Spirit. How can you actually love your enemy? Only by the Holy Spirit working, so you actually do. You actually have a character for that. First Peter 2.21, you have been called to this purpose since Christ also suffered you, leaving you as an example for those who follow your steps. You are following that example and others will follow us. Let's see. Ephesians 5, 1 and 2, therefore be imitators of God as beloved children. Walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, gave himself up for us, and offering and sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. And when did he do that? He did it while we were sinners. John 8, 29, and he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone. I always do the things that are pleased to him. The goal being that I don't please God. That's the goal in life. Okay, inspirational or modeling emphasis. That's next blank down. Kupla is not above his teacher. Everyone after he's been fully trained will be like his teacher. Our goal is to become like Christ, to model it. Anybody ever read Sheldon's book, In His Steps? Yeah, it's a good book, isn't it? It made a resurgence here some years ago, and they had those little bands, W. W. J. D. Right. What would Jesus do that came from some of that off Sheldon's book that actually had a huge effect on America when it came out and a revival broke out because of it. It's a simple idea and yet it's a very true one. What would Jesus do If we're going to follow him and he's our master, then that's a good question for us. An older one than that is Thomas Hempstead's imitation of Christ, which is kind of the basic same kind of idea. I am seeking to imitate Christ in all that I do. Six is the direction of life is God's will. So first there's going to be a volitional or decisional emphasis in this. If I'm going to do God's will, it's going to start with a decision. It's volitional. We make choices. Psalm 48 expressed that. I delight to do your will. Oh my God, your law is within my heart. Here's what I want to do. Ephesians 5.17, so then do not be foolish, understand what the will of the Lord is. I gotta understand to be able to do it. Colossians 4.12, Epaphras, who is one of your number, bond slave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers that you may stand perfectly fully assured in all that is the will of God. And he's commended because he chose to do this. He didn't have to, but he ended up going, he ended up sick, but yet he was getting himself. Romans 12, one and two, therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship or reasonable service of worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is the will of God, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. These are choices. This is a command we need to choose to obey. And it does take work to do that, because the world is trying to pressure us in to follow in. We have to choose to stand against that and instead pursue the inconformity image of Christ. Acts 1730, Paul in speaking to the folks on Mars Hill, God is now declaring to all men everywhere to repent. Well, repent is a change of mind. That's exactly what it means. It's a change of mind, which leads to this change of action. It's a decision that's made. John 13, again, the New Commandment. People know you're His disciples by that. 1 Thessalonians 5, 16, rejoicing, praying without ceasing and everything, give thanks. That's God's will for us. You do that by choice. Okay, doing the known will of God is prerequisite for discovering and doing the unknown will of God. What do we mean by that? All right, if I don't do what I know God wants me to do, how in the world am I ever gonna be sent to the Holy Spirit to do those things that I don't know? The closer you walk with God and obedience to him, the more sensitive you become to being able to respond to those things that are not stated clearly, but the Holy Spirit will prompt you that this is the right thing to do. Genesis 24, 27, the example of Abraham's servants and finding a wife for Isaac. He did what he knew he needed to do and just prayed, God, you're going to have to guide the rest of it. God did. Or again, Romans 12, one and two, this is don't be conformed, be transformed by the renewal of your mind. And that is how you can prove out what the will of God is, because you're going to do what is right. God's spirit does two things in convicting you. He convinced you of both what you were thinking about doing or have done that's wrong. But he also convicts you about what you're doing and do or thinking about doing that's right. That's an affirmation. We don't have that sense. You did it and I feel good. I did what I know was right. It wasn't easy, but I did it and I feel good about it. That's also the Holy Spirit. So we concentrate on doing the immediately known will of God. And as you continue to do that, you start experiencing the specific or perfect will of God for your life. And so that becomes a life of no regrets because I've lived it for God. So whatever has come, it's good. All right, how does this come about? Well, the essential enablement is God's power that comes out. First, dynamical emphasis. Now this aspect is either omitted or de-emphasized in humanism, possibility thinking, sure when he was still alive and those who followed him since. You alone can do it. This idea that it's as humans, you're on your own. That's not going to work. In legalism, the next blank is you think that you can somehow in your flesh conform to the law. I can keep it. I'm going to earn it. Isn't that what keeps most people away from God and have a religious background? I can earn it myself. We live in a county that's mostly Catholic, and that's what you're going to always run into with them. I have to earn it, because that's what they're taught. I have to take the sacraments. I got to do this. I got to earn my way to get it. I got to go pay the priest to do the masses. I got to go put my money in, so I have to go to the candles. That's all going to make me difficult for God. OK. The operation of this principle originates from God in general, that's the central God's power. Look in 2.13, it is God who's at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. That should be a comfort to me. Who's at work in you? You're not on your own. God's at work and we know what he wants, so you can pursue it. Hebrews 13.21, now the God of peace who brought up from the dead, the great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you for every good thing to do his will, working in us that which is pleasing his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever." If God is going to raise Jesus, and he did, do you think he has enough power to enable you to do what he wants you to do? Yes. Yeah, he does, okay. That's got to be an encouragement. If that is the kind of power that's there, he can take care of you. The Holy Spirit in particular is part of this. Zechariah 4.6, this is to Zerubbabel. It's not by the Spirit is that, okay? You don't have to generate that, but through the Spirit will generate it in you. You just have to follow it. Love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, self-control. There's no, against these things, there's no law. These are the things we're supposed to be, and that just generated within you by the Holy Spirit. Romans 8, 2-4, the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of debt. What the law could not do, weak as it was for the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of the sinful flesh and offering for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh so that requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit. I can't keep the law, but the Holy Spirit living in me can enable me to follow God's will. hence, I keep the law. Not to earn anything, but I do it because I love it. Romans 8, 8 and 9, for those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you're not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If indeed the spirit of God dwells in you, anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. So it's the spirit of God in us that can changes us and enables us to do what we don't think we can do. and it is through Christ, Luke 4.14. Nevertheless, you've done well to share my affliction. Conclusion of this, true Christian ethics involves supernaturally directed empowered life. That's how we're gonna live. I can live a righteous life, a godly life, because it's supernaturally directed and empowered. That's the Holy Spirit's word. Eight, true values, proper discretion. And we got a few things here. First, evaluational emphasis. And there's several verses listed here. These are the standards of mental occupation. What are you gonna think about? Isaiah 26, three, the steadfast of mind, those who are steadfast of mind, you will keep in perfect peace because he trusts in you. Second Corinthians 10, five, as you're dealing with people, We are destroying speculations, every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. We're taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. So that's a good one for witnessing. You get scared, don't worry about it. The Holy Spirit can enable you to do that. Psalm 1-2, the delight of the blessed man, right? Is in the law of the Lord. He meditates it day and night. 2 Corinthians 4-8. I know you said she used to give out these banners and she had this verse on it. And at the top, it said TV guide and in front of your TV, I guess, put in front of your monitor. OK, finally, brother, whatever is true, honest, just pure love, we have good rapport, whatever is virtuous, whatever is praiseworthy on these things. Well, for the most part, I guess you just can't even take that off the TV because there's nothing on there that matches that, right? But is that what we think about? Proverbs 23, seven, whereas he thinks within himself. So he is, he says, you eat and drink, but as hard as not busy. What are you thinking about? So it's got to start up here mentally. What are you putting your mind or allowing into your mind? We have to be careful of that. Be careful of electronic devices that keep flashing things at you, right? They are very dangerous. Okay. There is a provision, point B, that the spirit within you appraises all things, so you can rely upon him to be proud of you in these things. That's 1 Corinthians 2, 15 and 16. Philippians 1, 9 and 10. This I pray that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment that you may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless in the name of Christ. So there's provision for us to be pursuing being of proper discretion. First Lesson 521, this is telling you to do this. Examine everything carefully, hold fast, which is good, abstain from every form of evil. Are you evaluated? We have to be careful there, especially around with friends. It's very easy to just go along with what your friends are doing. You gotta evaluate it. Quick story on that one. Okay, if you're gonna go watch a movie, whether it's in a theater or on TV or on your phone or whatever it's gonna be, Do you check to see what's in the movie before you watch it? There's a bunch of sites that will tell you. Do you ever go check? OK, it's a wise thing to do. Jonathan, when he was a teenager, would do that. And it didn't take long for all his friends not to invite him to go anymore. Because he would say, look, I looked up the review. It's got all this stuff. Do you really want to go see that? So I decided, well, we're not inviting you. OK. I didn't want to see that anyways. OK. It's good that those reviews are out there. But you have to be careful. There's not much to block a lot of junk coming in. You don't know what's even in it until, pal, there it is. Just look at the reviews. Even Christian movies that are called Christian movies, you've got to preview those, too, because they're all the same things. Yeah. In fact, a lot of them are really bad when it comes to theology. See, what's the current one that's popular? The Chosen. I think I've seen one or two scenes as I'm walking by, because someone told Diane, you should watch this. So she was watching the episode, and I walked by. And I'm like, well, what's that supposed to be? Well, it's supposed to be Jesus. I'm like, well, that's not where he was. It's supposed to be the Sea of Galilee. He's in this dark dungeon or something. I'm like, if they can't get that right, I know they didn't get anything else right. I'm not watching it." So she evaluated it for her friend and said, no, let's not watch that. But that's become really a claimed thing. Look at, this is good. Look what it's promoting. Yeah, who produced it? You know who produces it? Mormons. Mormons. You think they got a good Christology? I don't think so. Okay, no. Yeah, you have to be careful. So I'm glad you brought that up. we have to be discerning. We have to think about it, and there's provision made for it. So examine everything carefully. Let's look at nine. Ultimate goal? God's glory. That's what our lives are about. The theological emphasis is, what is the theological for the end of our lives? What's the ultimate goal? Well, God says, I will not give my glory to another or my praise graven images. It's about his glory, nothing else. Isaiah 43, seven, everyone who was called by my name and whom I have created for my glory, whom I have formed, even I, whom I have made, even whom I have made. It's about God's glory. We don't like that. We still have this idea. We're autonomous and it's about me. And it's not, you're a creature who's made by a God and your purpose here is to glorify God. And so 1 Corinthians 10, 13, even the mundane things, whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God. Look, when you get your restaurants, you should put that up in a banner someplace, right? See how your customers react. I don't think anybody ever put that in a bar. You drink to the glory of God. That's not what they're doing. Okay, ten practical results and meaningful life. So this next is a consequential emphasis. There are consequences and personal results. There's blessings and happiness. Memorize Psalm 1. How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counts of the godly. nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful. But he shall meditate on the law of the Lord day and night. He will be like a tree planted by rivers of water, which gives forth its fruit in the season and does not wither." This is the blessed man. This is what we should be doing. That's a personal thing. You will be blessed. Or how about the attitudes? Run down the list. Blessed is, and it runs down, character qualities, including, blessed are you when you're persecuted. And the last one, can we, it's part of it. Yes, you can have the blessed in every aspect of life if that's what you're doing in walking with God. John 13, 17, if you know these things and you do them, you are blessed. Okay, so there's a personal blessing that comes with it. Ephesians 2, 8, 10, we already mentioned that, is the blessing of good works. We are His workmanship, creating Christ Jesus for good work that we might walk in that. or one I didn't list there was Matthew 5, in the Sermon on the Mount, to let your light so shine before men that might see your good works and do what? Glorify your fatherhood in heaven, right? So that's gonna be part of it. Titus 2.14, he gave himself up to redeem us from every lawless deed and purify himself for people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds. So the good deeds follow salvation, they don't precede it. They can't proceed it because all our righteous deeds are actually rags before him, before salvation. After salvation, it's a way to glorify him. Titus 3a, this trustworthy statement concerning these things I want to speak confidently. So those who believe God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men. You're going to be a blessing to others too. And point C, there's going to be spiritual fruit. John 15, five, he is the vine, we are the branches. If we abide in him, we will bear fruit, much fruit. If you don't abide in him, you're not going to bear fruit. Okay. 2 Peter 1.8, if these qualities are yours and are creasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. The verses prior to that is all about being, the diligence you're supposed to do, adding to what God has already done. If this is your part, God's doing his part, do your part, and you're gonna be useful in his kingdom. And we've already mentioned the fruit of the spirit for the future. So there's blessings currently, there's spiritual fruit currently, and there's also future rewards. Sometimes this makes people uncomfortable, but this is what scripture says. John 15, 16, you did not choose me. I chose you, pointed you that you would go and bear fruit and that your fruit would remain. So it's continue on. That's for the future. So whatever you ask my father, my name, he may give to you. God actually wants to bless you. Okay, but again, that's blessing is not decided by what the world standards are. It's by what God says is a blessing. Revelation 22, 12, behold, I'm coming quickly. My reward is in my hand to render to every man according to what he has done. And Matthew 19, 29, and everyone who has left houses and brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for my name's sake will receive many times as much will inherit eternal life. So God is there, he's faithful. He wants to bless. And then the next part of the social results, social results. Eight. 10. Personal results. Personal results. Social results. So then while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially those who are the household of faith. So you're blessed. You have current blessings, spiritual fruit in your lives. There's future blessings for you, but you also get to bless others. And that's part of it. We have opportunity. We're gonna try to do good to others. This is just following what Jesus did. Acts 10 through eight. You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit power, how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. All right. So that point leads us to Christian social ethics. Most secular systems end up centering around one of these 10 systems we talked about. We have a different system. We have a system that's about glorifying God. That's our purpose in life. That's the reason we exist. All right, so next week, we're gonna expand on part of this a little bit more, but hopefully that lays a foundation. This is the foundation laid. It should make it a lot easier for us to think through a lot of the stuff that just pops up in life. How do you deal with that? Well, we'll throw one out just for fun. We're fine, because I don't think I'm posting this on YouTube. OK. Years ago, Dutch State College actually had a campus right down the road from us. And one of the professors there had a class in human sexuality. And he normally had some pastor come in. And that guy couldn't make it. Well, he comes right by the church. We saw him. So he called me and said, can you come in and talk Christian perspective on human sexuality? Now, I have three kids, I kind of know how this works, and they want to try and embarrass me somehow. Like, okay, ignore it. What I had to start off with is like, what I'm going to say here, you're not going to be interested, because you just want to go have fun, because you think that's what it's about, and it's not. Here's what the scripture says about going through Christian ethics, biblical ethics about human sexuality. Well, someone brought up the whole thing about homosexuality. haven't gotten that far yet. And already the idea was that, well, love is love. And I asked him a simple question. Do any of you know the morbidity rates for homosexual men? Do you know what their lifespan is like? Do you know what their disease process is? And no one did. Nobody. And I was sad because I've been fed a lie. If you start looking at it at that time, I don't know what it is currently, because I haven't seen statistics in a long time, the average age of the male homosexual was, he died by 46. They didn't live long. They died early. There is a whole long list of gastrointestinal diseases that belong to homosexual males that don't exist outside of that group. Now, this was the time that there was a big push to ban smoking anywhere and everywhere, because smoking is bad for your health. So I brought that one up. No, we shouldn't smoke, it's a bad thing. I said, so you think these diseases are good? Why don't you actually have any care or concern about your friends who are getting involved in this? Do you see where Christian ethics differs? I actually have a care and concern for these people because I know what they're doing is going to harm them. Seriously, they're gonna die young. You know, this one is more recent. The most violent people in the United States lesbian couples. You wouldn't think that, but that's where the most violence occurs within domestic violence. It's lesbian couples. Like, what? We wouldn't think that. Well, aren't you loving each other? They love themselves. Christian ethics are based completely differently than our social ethics of our society. Social society is based on these things we understanding these ethical baselines that it's in God's word, we actually can help people. And we can deal with the stuff that's out there from a compassionate point of view, not just, well, that's terrible. You shouldn't be doing that stuff. I actually care and concerned. It's because what you're doing is you're killing yourself. And they don't even know it. And so they're off running to justify their sins and thinking it's all happy, and it's not. You know, how many get involved in their teen years, late teen years into drugs and alcohol, thinking this is all my friends are doing, it should be good. They don't even understand what life is about, and that's sad. We have so much more to give them. There's so much more you can experience. But compassion comes because now it's coming by God, his standards, and here's how we can live. And that's what we want to approach all those different things. Some are going to be theological things we're going to deal with. A lot are going to be some basic stuff of life. How do we deal with these issues? Cause they're all around us. And in society declining like ours is just going to get worse. So what's a Christian response to it? Okay. We're going to do it from a scriptural basis that actually ends up with a compassion towards people. That's an actual compassion to try to get them to stop before they really do damage themselves. or even take care of them if they have, be a friend, even as they may be dying of AIDS. It's still around, it hasn't gone away. So, all right, any questions, comments? Ready to go home? Yeah, yeah, because you still got to drive back. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for your many blessings to us and for the fact that we have a different standard of living by and it's your standard. Father, not one that we generate, but one that comes from the eternal truths of your word. And Father, that we do have the Holy Spirit to change how we view life, the purpose of our own lives, and how we can be used by you. Father, we recognize that our time on earth, even if we live a long life by human standards, it's still short. We want it, whether long or short, to be lived to your glory. In Jesus' name, amen. All right.