Special New Year Sermon w/Eli Ayala

Welcome back to the Revealed Apologetics YouTube channel, the show, this is the first live stream of 2024.

So happy New Year's for everyone who will be watching.

This is literally New Year's Day. So if folks come later and they say, hey, I didn't know there was something up here.

Yep, I'm going live, it's New Year's and we're gonna begin this new year in the word of God.

And my goal here is to be an encouragement right there at the start of the year.

I wanna encourage folks to be in the word this year more so than they were in the previous year.

I wanna encourage folks to seek God all the more as God has blessed us with life and hopefully he's blessed you with the sort of health that allows you to engage with focus in the study of God's word.

And I just hope that this is going to be an encouragement for folks. So we're not really talking about apologetics today, right?

This channel is called Revealed Apologetics, but this is going to be a sermon. I put a sermon together for you guys and I'm assuming that many people might be sitting home with their family on New Year's Day.

I'm not sure what your traditions are, but if you're just hanging and you want to hear from the word of God and this is for you.

And so hopefully it will be beneficial to that end. All right, well, before we jump in, just to give a quick update,

I will be flying to upstate New York at the end of this week.

I have a speaking engagement there. I'll be giving four messages to a,

I think it's a retreat of some sort. I've spoken at this church some years ago, but I guess they're having this conference here in upstate

New York and I'll be going there at the end of this week. Also in February, I'll be flying up to Long Island, New York to speak at a

Christian school and then perhaps speak at a church as well in the evening.

That'll be a great opportunity for me to visit my family as well because that's where I'm originally from, Long Island, New York, and I'm super excited about that.

Just real quick, by way of reminder, before we jump into this sermon, for those who are interested in supporting

Revealed Apologetics, more specifically by signing up for the PreSuppU online course that I offer, classes start on January 15th and I think the end of the signups is

January 8th. So if you're thinking to sign up for that, the link is in the description of this video, but if you go to revealedapologetics .com,

you click on PreSuppU and you could RSVP. It is my premium version of the course, which means that those who sign up for the premium version of the course, you will get five prerecorded lectures.

They're about an hour or more in length and you get all of the PowerPoint slides that I offer in my presentation, all of the notes and the outlines, and of course, throughout the five weeks of the course, you will also be able to meet with me and the others who have signed up for the course through private

Zoom session in which we go deeper into the video content. I get this all the time. How long are the private

Zoom sessions and can we ask questions? Yes, yes, you could ask any question you'd like on the video content or anything that you're interested in in terms of apologetics.

And we typically do it for about an hour or longer, depending on the nature of the discussion. It's a great opportunity to fellowship with other folks who have signed up from around the country and sometimes around the world and to kind of dive deeper into the content.

So if you're looking to support an apologetics ministry this year, please consider Revealed Apologetics if you've been blessed by this content.

It is greatly beneficial for me as well as it is beneficial for you if you're wanting to learn apologetics.

So I highly recommend that and it would be a great blessing, hopefully a great blessing to you as it is for myself as well.

So without further ado, let's jump right into the sermon. I wanna begin with a word of prayer and then we're gonna jump right in.

And if you are encouraged by the words that I'm sharing with you this morning or this afternoon rather, type it in the comments.

Let me know that this is something that is edifying to you. And so that'll be a great encouragement to me and who knows, maybe

I'll try to put out some more sermon like things or maybe sermons with an apologetics emphasis or something along those lines might be useful for folks.

So let's open up in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we come before you in the name of Jesus. Lord, we thank you for another year.

We thank you for hopefully health and life. And I just pray Lord that you bless each and every person who is listening this afternoon.

I pray that you open up their hearts and their minds to receive what I'm going to share this afternoon.

And I pray Lord for myself that my words are accurate and that I speak with clarity and that I'm able to convey the truth that is found in your word.

And I pray also that I am edified just as those who listen may be edified, may I be edified as I preach not only to people who are listening but I preach to myself as well.

Thank you, Lord. I pray that you are with me this afternoon as I share from your word and I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

All right, well, for those who are following along, I'm going to be reading the passage

I wanna deal with here is 1 Peter 2, verses nine through 12. 1

Peter 2, verses nine through 12. And I'll be touching on some other scripture as well. But kind of the goal here is to highlight the fact that when we recognize what

God has saved us from, we need to understand the fact that God has not saved us simply to save us, but he has saved us unto something else.

He has called us to a higher calling in life. And so as we reevaluate the past year and we kind of think about whether or not we have functioned and participated in the things that God has called us to, perhaps maybe this year we can do a better job by God's grace to live for Christ, to be a light for Christ in a dark world.

And so keeping that in mind, let's just jump right into the text. 1 Peter 2, verse nine through 12, which reads, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

For you were once not a people, but now you are the people of God. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against your soul.

Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may, because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify

God in the day of visitation. And I like that part of the passage where it says, when those slander you as evildoers, they will glorify, they have no choice but to glorify

God in seeing how you are living for God, that they see the transformation in your life, that God will be honored nonetheless.

This reminds me of 1 Peter 3, verse 15 through 16. Let me just get that up here real quick.

1 Peter 3, 15 through 16. And we tend to focus on verse 15 because that's relevant to like apologetics and things like that.

But let's read 15 and 16 of 1 Peter 3. 1 Peter 3, 15 through 16 reads, but sanctify

Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and respect.

Verse 16, and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are being slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.

That is the level of character that God has called us to live.

And so we do not want to give the naysayers a reason to naysay. We rather want to reflect

Christ in everything that we do. So in light of 1 Peter 2, verse 9 through 12,

I've entitled this particular sermon. It's a weird title. It's just entitled,

But You. That's the name of my sermon, the But You sermon. Okay, if you're talking to a friend like, hey,

I was checking out this channel, Revealed Apologetics, and this guy, Eli, was given a sermon, it was called But You.

Well, that's the name of this sermon here because verse nine starts with that, but you.

And I think that's very, very important. When we're reading scripture, we want to look for words like but, and the word therefore, okay?

When the scripture uses the word therefore, it gives us a hint to the fact that what follows is going to be a conclusion to a specific line of reasoning.

Okay, so little key words like that are really helpful when we're studying the Bible. But you, so let's set the context here.

The word but is typically understood as a contrast to what immediately preceded it, right?

But you are a chosen race, right? We're called to righteousness, we're called to his marvelous light, as the text says.

And this is set in contrast to what we'll see in just a moment, the negative characteristics of those who've rejected

Christ or rejected the cornerstone, which is mentioned in verse six through seven, which reads, for this is contained in scripture.

Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious cornerstone, and he who believes in him will not be disappointed, okay?

This precious value then is for you who believe, but for those who disbelieve, this cornerstone, which saves you, has become a stumbling block for those who disbelieve, okay?

Now, why do they stumble? Why is it a stumbling block? Well, the text tells us that they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom, it says they were appointed, verse eight, which then leads us into verse nine.

But you are a chosen race in contrast to those who are not, in contrast to those who are disobedient to the word, to those who are in the darkness out of which

God has called you out of, right? This is very important because I think one of the reasons why many people have difficulty, and I'm obviously not speaking for everyone, has difficulty appreciating their salvation, is that sometimes we forget the depths and the darkness out of which

God has saved us from. And so the light of the gospel of salvation shines all the more brighter when it is set at the backdrop of the blackness and darkness out of which

God has saved us from. I think that's an important thing to keep in mind. Now, why has

God called us out of the darkness? The text says that we're called out of the darkness into his marvelous light.

Why has God called us out of darkness? And to what end has he called us out of? I think those are two important questions.

Well, the issue of why, okay, why has God called us out of darkness? Why has God saved us?

Why has God set us on this path of light or path of righteousness that he set before us? Well, first, the text says that he has chosen us, right?

And this idea of God graciously choosing is found all throughout scripture. We read in Ephesians 1, verse four, with respect to salvation, it says, just as he has chosen us from before the foundation of the world, right?

And it speaks of being conformed into the image of Christ, right? He chooses us not based upon something that is found within us, but he chooses us out of his own grace, right?

And for what purpose? To conform us to the image of his son. One of the things that God wants to do in our lives is to make us look more like Jesus, right?

We've been chosen from before the foundation of the world to be conformed into the image of his son, okay?

He has called us out of darkness. He has chosen us before the foundation of the world. Second Thessalonians 2, 13 through 15 says that God chose you from the beginning to be saved.

Or Acts 13, 48, as many as were appointed to eternal life, believe, those who believe are those who are chosen and appointed.

The text tells us that we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. I love this other part here where it describes, we are a people for God's own possession.

God's choice, not only to save us, but his choice to call us a people of his own possession, to call us a royal priesthood.

All of these things are beautiful truths that are not based upon anything in us.

It is God's good pleasure that he chooses us and puts us on the path that he has put us on, okay?

Now, notice that the utilization of this language of God's own possession or being a chosen race or a royal priesthood, this is something that can't be said of everyone, right?

There are a people of God's own possession and there are those that are not of God's own possession.

Consider John 10, verse 26, where when Jesus is interacting with the people in that text, he says, you are not my sheep.

There is a distinction between those who are his sheep and those who are not his sheep. There's a distinction between those who are a chosen race and a distinction who are not a chosen race understood in this particular context.

There is a people who are called to be a royal priesthood and there are people who are not called to that in the same way, okay?

This is very important. Now, for what purpose does God choose us? What is the purpose?

Well, the text says that we may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called us, okay?

Why has he chosen us as a royal priesthood, a chosen race, sorry, a royal priesthood, a holy nation of people for God's own possession so that we may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called us, right?

As the chosen race, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, the people for God's own possession, we are to declare the many excellencies of our

God, excellencies which include a proclamation of the great grace and mercy with which he's saved us.

That's the beautiful message that God has given us to proclaim to the world. He has saved us from darkness.

He has brought us to the light for the purpose that we may be conformed to the image of Christ and for the purpose to proclaim the wonderful excellencies of our

God. He has saved us from the darkness. Well, what darkness has he saved us from, okay? The scripture speaks of a general darkness, the ways of darkness or walking in darkness, but there is some specificity included in there, right?

In 1 Corinthians, for example, chapter six, verses nine through 11, we get some of the specifics as to the sorts of darkness that God has saved us from.

1 Corinthians 6, nine through 11 says, or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

And look, check this out, this is beautiful. He says, such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the

Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God. Notice that Paul says, such were some of you, right?

Indicating past tense, right? This is what some of them were. This is what some of you were, but not anymore, right?

They were called out of darkness and brought into the light through washing, sanctifying, justifying all the works of the spirit of God upon the person that has been taken from darkness and brought into the light.

And God has called us into the light and so he calls us to live in the light, to walk in the light.

When we are walking in the light, it is not simply kind of, you know, and I'm saved now and that's it.

Walking has reference to a lifestyle. We are walking after a particular lifestyle.

Ephesians 2, verse 10 says, for we are God's handiwork, okay? Notice that we are

God's handiwork. We are a product of God working on us through the power of his spirit.

For we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to what? To do good works, which

God prepared in advance for us to do. This is so important because we are saved unto something else.

God has called us to something else and it is a life of righteousness. Not a righteousness as found in our own efforts, but a righteousness that is energized by the grace of God.

We live and we walk in the light by living and walking differently than the principles of the dark.

That darkness out of which he saves us, right? And he's called us to be a royal priesthood, right?

And this has reference in the Old Testament too. The privilege of belonging to God's people is conveyed by Peter with a number of Old Testament allusions.

So Peter drew on Exodus 19, verse six, for example, using that exact same words there and identifying the church as a royal priesthood.

So in Exodus, the title, that title applies to Israel with whom God enacts his covenant.

At Sinai, Israel's priesthood was such that they were to mirror to the nations the glory of God so that all nations would see that no

God rivals the Lord. And indeed, no God does rival the Lord because there is only one true

God. And so what has God called us to? He has called us to a lifestyle of righteousness.

He has called us to live a life that produces genuine fruit, right?

Jesus says elsewhere that a tree is known by its fruit. The fruit that our life produces must be consistent with the kind of tree that we are, okay?

And so I call folks to consistency, right? I think it was R .C. Sproul who said that we must not be people who have mere profession of faith, but we must be people who are in possession of a genuine faith.

And what is the genuine faith that the scriptures speak about? A genuine faith is a faith that is evidenced through good works.

We're not saved by good works, as the Bible says in Romans 4, verse five, but to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, right?

We're not saved by our works, but our works evidence the genuineness of our faith.

And so if you are committed to Christ, pardon me, I just, I think I was shrinking there for a second.

My seat was going down. Back in my strong Pentecostal days,

I would have blamed that on the devil. Get behind me, Satan, right? Trying to shrink me down so I can't be seen on the camera, distracting.

God has called us to live a life in the light, okay?

And so just as we are not saved by our works, our works will accompany a genuine faith.

And so God has called us to live in that light, to live a life that is one that reflects the righteousness of Christ, the character of Christ, okay?

We don't want to have a flimsy faith, the faith that is, it gives the appearance of, hey, this looks kind of nice, but in reality, it's superficial, right?

We wanna move away from superficial faith, right? We don't want to be, you know, when I taught history, for example, back in the day,

I taught U .S. history. And I remember we went through the historical time period of the U .S. history called the

Gilded Age, the Gilded Age. And it was a time where things in the United States looked nice, it looked nice and bright and shiny, but there were problems.

There were problems, especially in the inner cities and things like this. And so things looked nice on the outside, but in reality, it was hiding something really that was detrimental to society, you know what

I'm saying? So when we speak of something being gilded, we're typically, you know, well, something that's gilded basically is something that is covered thinly with gold, something called gold leaf or gold paint, right?

So gold leaf is a gold that has undergone a process known as gold beading, okay?

Where gold is beaten to a point of almost like paper -like thinness. Now, when we speak of someone being gilded or someone having the character of gildedness, what this refers to is having a pleasing or showy appearance that conceals something of little worth.

You see this example in scripture as well. It's not exactly gilding, but the idea is still there.

Matthew 23, 27 says, and Jesus is declaring his woes to the Pharisees. And those of you who are familiar with Matthew 23, it's a very important passage as he not only declares the woes and judgment upon the teachers,

Matthew 24 goes right into the Olivet Discourse where Jesus declares that judgment, that predictive judgment over Jerusalem.

Matthew 23, 27 says, woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites, you are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of bones of the dead and everything unclean.

Wow, right? So we can give the appearance of faith, but in reality, we are filled with dead men's bones.

We don't want to do that, okay? We want to have a genuine faith, a faith that is accompanied by works that give testimony to the transformative power of God's grace upon our life, okay?

We want to walk in wisdom, right? Wisdom is a very powerful theme found throughout scripture.

I love the passage here in comparing the wisdom of God and the wisdom of man. 1

Corinthians 1, verses 20 through 21 says, for the foolishness of God, the foolishness of God.

Now God doesn't have any foolishness, but if he were, like hypothetically speaking, God's foolishness would be wiser than man's wisdom, right?

1 Corinthians 1, 20 through 21, for the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom. And Psalm 14, one, it's a well -known passage.

The fool says in his heart, there is no God, okay? That's foolish thinking. We don't want to walk as though God were not there.

We want to walk in the light of the fact that God dwells within us. Proverbs 1, seven says, at the beginning of knowledge, the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the

Lord. Colossians 2, three says, in him, in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

We want to walk in Christ and we want to walk in the wisdom and knowledge that he's provided us, especially in his word.

We want to build our foundations this year upon the rock. I mean, this is a beautiful and powerful passage.

Matthew 7, 24 through 27, let's read it. Matthew 7, 24 through 27, which reads, therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

The rain came down, the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against that house, yet it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock.

But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.

The rain came and the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell with a great crash.

You see, true wisdom does not come in simply hearing the words of Christ, but building our house on what he says.

And you have that idea expanded upon a little bit in James chapter one, verses 22 through 26, if you want to go there later and read that.

And you see, James speaks there of not just simply being hearers of the word, but doers of the word, okay?

It involves having a commitment to Christ, having an obedience towards what God has commanded us to do and persevering in that obedience by God's grace.

You see, the righteous in scripture are called or described as those who are wise, right?

Who is the wise man, but the one who delights in the law of the Lord. Consider Psalm, the book of Psalm chapter one, verse three.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord. And on his law, he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by the streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither and who prospers in all he does.

Not so with the wicked, for they are like chaff driven off by the wind.

I love that. The man who meditates on the law of the

Lord is described as a tree planted by streams of water. He has access to the water that the roots remain strong.

He has a strong foundation, but this is not so with the wicked. This is not so who, as we described in first Peter, that opening passage of scripture that I mentioned, that those who disobey

God's word are gonna reject the cornerstone, right? The wicked are fools. Don't walk in foolishness.

Don't walk in darkness this year. Be determined by God's grace to walk in the light and let that light shine.

Now, the wicked, the Bible describes as foolish. In Psalm 36, nine, there's a short little thing

I wanna read here. It's so powerful. In his light, we see light. In the light of God, we see light.

We see all things clearly when it is seen in the light of God's light. Now, foolishness is to do the opposite, to walk away from the light by which all things are seen is foolishness.

It's to walk in darkness. It's to walk in ignorance and vanity, right? Colossians 2, eight says, "'See to it that no one takes you captive "'by philosophy and empty deceit, "'according to human tradition, "'according to the elemental spirits of the world "'and not according to Christ.'"

The mind of foolishness, the mind of the world is based in philosophy, which is empty deceit, not philosophy generally speaking.

It is a specific kind of philosophy. It is a philosophy that is not according to Christ. And it says here that the kind of philosophy that is empty, right, is a philosophy that is based upon the elemental spirits of the world, the stoicheion, the elementary truths, the basic principles, these kind of the ways of thinking.

We don't want to have elementary principles and basic truths rooted not in Christ. We want to walk in Christ as Lord of our minds and our hearts and allow his word to guide us and our steps and our paths throughout life, okay?

Ephesians chapter four, verse 17 through 18, the apostle Paul says this, and it's so important.

"'So this I say and affirm together with the Lord "'that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles walk "'in the futility of their mind, "'being darkened in their understanding, "'excluded from the life of God "'because of the ignorance that is in them, "'because of the hardness of their hearts.'"

The unbeliever, the one who walks in darkness is described as one who walks in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, ignorant, hardened heart, right?

And the unbeliever loves his darkness, the Bible says. In John 3, 19, it says, "'And this is the judgment, "'that light has come into the world "'and people love the darkness rather than the light "'because their works were evil.'"

This year, as we try to focus on Christ, to be grounded in his word, let us love the light because our works are righteousness.

Let us not be the ones who hide in the dark and are afraid of the light exposing the evil, right?

We want to live as an open epistle before the world. So, so important. So as we kind of, to wrap things up here, to consider this new year,

I know a lot of people set all sorts of goals for themselves and all sorts of things that they want to accomplish.

And I definitely have those as well. And I'm sure the gyms are packed.

You know, the memberships are up and all those sorts of things. Let our goal this year be to draw closer to God in prayer, in the word of God.

And let our prayer also be that those things transform the way that we live.

Now, this channel is primarily focused on apologetics, but this is so important that part of apologetics is the character of the one who engages in the defense of the faith.

Isn't that right? Right? This is, I think I remember reading this in, it was the first apologetics textbook

I had when I was in seminary. It's called the popular encyclopedia of apologetics.

All right. And when I was at Liberty, we had this book and I wish I don't have a physical copy, unfortunately, which was actually not that bad.

Although it's criticisms of presuppositionalism I had to take issue with. But anyway, there was a section, an entry there entitled incarnational apologetics.

And it is this idea that part of the way that we defend our faith is in the flesh, not in the negative way, like walking in the flesh, but in our lives, the way we live our life is also an apologetic.

Let that be our goal this year, not just to sharpen our intellectual knowledge of arguments and identification of fallacies and all these sorts of things are so important, but to also have our life as an apologetic, to demonstrate in the way that we live that the powerful

Christ who has saved us and transformed us is living in us.

And the effects of that fact can be seen by those who are all around us.

Let that be our goal this year. And so I wanna encourage you guys this year, be in the word, be in prayer, go out there and share your faith, go out there and defend your faith.

Hopefully this channel has been beneficial to that end, but stay in the word, be rooted in scripture and live a life that honors

Christ, right? Live a life that is worthy of the calling with which God has called you.

Live a life that is reflective of the fact that Christ has called you out of the darkness and has brought you into his marvelous light.

Well, I hope this is edifying to you. It's just a brief sermon

I wanted to bring to you and hopefully it is an encouragement to you. And if you like it and you find it encouraging, be sure to share it with others.

By the way, if you want me to come and preach at your church, that's totally a thing. You can totally do that. On my website, revealedapologetics .com,

there is a little section where you can send me a message and that's usually where I get speaking engagements and stuff.

So not only do I do apologetics, I also preach at churches and things like that. If that's something that you're interested in, you can totally do that.

And that's totally a thing. A lot of people think that I just do this and I've mentioned that I'm a teacher, but I also am a traveling speaker and love to interact with other believers and to encourage the preaching and sermons and these sorts of things.

So if you're interested in that, that's totally a thing. You can sign up for that and reach out to me through my website.

Lastly, I'm going to end in a prayer and just a quick reminder once again, for folks who are following my channel, if you're interested in supporting

Revealed Apologetics, you can do that on revealedapologetics .com. There's the donate page there as well.

And you can sign up for the presuppositional course, five week course on presuppositional apologetics, which includes meeting with me five times throughout the course of five weeks to go deeper into the content.

So those classes start in January 15th. So you'll have to sign up soon as that will come upon us quicker than you think.

But let's conclude here and wrap things up. And then I will let folks know when

I'm going live. This was kind of a surprise live stream today, but I hope it was a blessing to you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you in the name of Jesus.

Lord, we thank you and I thank you for the honor and the privilege it is to be able to do things like this on the internet.

I just pray, Lord, that the words that were shared this morning is an encouragement to those that are of your own possession,

Lord. And I pray, Lord, that those who need to know who you are, hear what's being said here and that they are brought to conviction,

Lord, and by your grace granted the gift of faith and repentance, Lord. And so we just pray for unbelievers and we pray for believers to be encouraged.

Help us to walk in a way that is honoring and pleasing to you, Lord. Help us to have an incarnational apologetic as well as all of those other wonderful intellectual tools that you have blessed the church with,

Lord. We thank you. We love you. We pray all of this in Jesus' name, amen. And that's it for this afternoon