F4F | Steve Adams Living a Clockwise Life

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Roseboro. I am your servant in Jesus Christ and this is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the

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Word of God. No shortage of crazy things being said out there. Now today's installment, this is gonna be a little bit trickier as far as discernment levels go, like one being the easiest and ten being the super hardest.

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This is gonna be a solid eight, maybe a nine if you're not familiar with the concept of the proper distinction of law and gospel.

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In fact, if you've never heard, even if you have, if you've never heard the concept of the proper distinction between God's law and the gospel and how they relate to each other, go ahead and hit the subscribe button down below.

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Don't forget to like the video and to ring the bell. Now what we're gonna do today, we're gonna head over to Saddleback Church and we're gonna listen to one of their teaching pastors,

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Steve Adams, and he's gonna be delivering a sermon titled Living a Clockwise Life.

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And this is a good example of not only taking a biblical text out of context, but not rightly teaching law and really weighing people down with law.

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See, as a pastor, you know, you kind of have to ask the question, what is the purpose of a sermon?

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What's the purpose of a sermon? And a lot of pastors assume that the primary purpose of the sermon is to convince you to make a freewill decision to intentionally apply biblical rules, commandments, or principles so that you can then be more

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Christ -like. That's not the purpose of a sermon, by the way. The purpose of a sermon is to exegete a biblical text in order, and then through properly exegeting the biblical text, make the distinction between law and gospel and use law and gospel correctly for the purpose of convicting you of your sin, to placard and proclaim

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Christ so that your faith is built up, and then through faith, that strong faith, you then, by the work of the

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Holy Spirit, mortify your sinful flesh and God produces in you the

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Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit. Completely different approach altogether, and so I'll kind of let you sort that out, but we'll note a few things along the way.

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We're gonna handle a chunk of this sermon because, like I said, this is on a discernment level that's a lot higher because it's gonna deal with fundamental assumptions as far as what the purpose of the sermon is, and then you'll note then how his assumptions are then going to, well, cause him to do monkey business with a biblical text.

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All that being said, let's pull up my desktop, and here's

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Saddleback Church's YouTube channel. Here's Steve Adams and Living a Clockwise Life, and if you want to open up your

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Bible in preparation for the Bible teaching, go ahead and open up to Romans chapter 3.

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Romans chapter 3. Here we go. But today, what I'm gonna talk with you about, I'm gonna talk with you about living a clockwise life.

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Now, you know the term clockwise, it refers to the... Living a clockwise life.

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See, already I gotta just ask the question, which of the fruit of the

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Spirit is living a clockwise life? In the realm of sanctification, which particular type of sin are we talking about?

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Is it a sin of the flesh that I'm addressing? What's the opposite of living a clockwise life, and which commandment am

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I breaking if I'm not living a clockwise life? See, I have to ask questions like this because in thinking biblically regarding my sanctification,

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I think it's absolutely vital that Christians do good works. In fact, you're not a Christian if you don't do good works.

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Not because doing good works makes you a Christian, because Christians do their good works because they are

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Christians. And so good works are informed and defined by God's Word.

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So immediately, I'm already asking the question. I'm not familiar with the concept of a clockwise life.

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I'm not sure what the phrase even means, and I graduated from seminary.

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So we've got a problem here already. The motion of the forward motion of a hand on a clock, and I want to borrow that term this weekend and say,

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I think you and I, I think the Scripture, the Scripture we're going to look at today in Ephesians, it tells us to live a clockwise life.

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And a person that's clockwise from... So Ephesians tells us to live a clockwise life.

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What I want to talk to you about today, a person who's clockwise is one who, in their forward journey, they are making the most of every opportunity and their time, and in doing...

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In their forward journey, they're making the most of every opportunity. Business opportunity?

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What kind of opportunities are we talking about? So they grow in wisdom. They are clockwise. And let's take a look at this

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Scripture. It's from Ephesians chapter 5 verse 15 through 17, and it says this, so be careful how you live.

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Don't live like fools, but live like those who are wise. Okay, so be careful how you live, got it.

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Don't live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.

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Don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. Now, three rules for sound biblical exegesis.

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They are context, context, and context. So we're going to apply the three rules for sound biblical exegesis here, and we're going to take a look at the context of Ephesians 5 to see if we can figure out what's going on here so that we can better grasp it.

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Now, this is where I'm going to start to flesh out the concepts of law and gospel, but let me open up to Ephesians 2 first.

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Ephesians 2 verses 1 to 10 are one of the greatest summaries of the

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Christian faith that you can find in all the Scriptures. In fact, it's like ground zero for sound doctrine, and we'll note a few things in this text to sort a few things out before we get to Ephesians 5.

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So, and this is where we'll start our concepts of law and gospel. Ephesians 2 1 states, and you were dead in trespasses and sins, by the way, dead means dead, in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and we were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

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Yeah, so here in Ephesians 1 through 3, we get the doctrine of original sin, you're dead in trespasses and sins, basically under the dominion of darkness, children of God's wrath, it's a bad thing.

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And then you get one of the best words in all of Scripture here, and it's but, because this but is going to work at erasing everything that's in the first three verses, but God, he is the subject of the verbs here, he's the subject of the sentence, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and he raised us up with Christ and seated us up with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

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Notice, God did all of these things. For everybody who's a true believer in Jesus Christ, penitent believer in Christ, God has made us alive together with Christ, raised us up with him, seated us with him in the heavenly places, this is most certainly true, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

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For by grace you have been saved through faith, this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, it is not the result of works, so that no one may boast.

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For we are God's workmanship, we are created in Christ Jesus for good works, which he prepared beforehand that we should walk in him.

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Okay, so here's the idea, we are dead, God makes us alive together with Christ, by grace we are saved through faith, this is not our own doing, it is not from us, it is the gift of God, so that no one can boast, and then we are

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God's workmanship, we are created in Christ Jesus by God, we are his workmanship, created for good works.

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This is why Christians do good works, because they are Christians, it's the same reason why cows moo, because they're cows, the same reason why cats meow, because they're cats,

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Christians do good works because they're Christians, and God has prepared those good works for us in advance.

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Important to note there. So all that being said, this begins to start to lay out, you know, at least a big block in the major concepts here, law and gospel, because we're not saved by our good works, we're not saved by our sanctification, we are not saved by our obedience, we are saved by grace through faith, faith is trust, trust in the promises of God for the forgiveness of our sins, we are saved by grace through faith, it's not our own doing, it's the gift of God, so that no one can boast.

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You kind of get the idea here. Now, all of that being said, I'm going to introduce another concept and then we'll go back to Ephesians 5, because I want to really lay out the law and gospel bit.

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Okay, so when you read the Bible, there are commandments. God says, you shall have no other gods, that's what he says.

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God says, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, he says that as well. He says that you are to honor your father and your mother, he does say that, and he also says that you shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, and then there's all kinds of things you are forbidden from coveting, you know, because, you know, sin begins in the heart, right?

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So all of these things are commanded by God and in those, that's the law, all right? These, this is the moral law of God.

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What is its purpose? Is its purpose in order to give us a program that we can follow, that once we achieve obedience to these commandments, that God will give us salvation because we've earned it?

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No. That's not the reason why God gave us the law, and the law cannot save us, okay?

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This is, I know this is foundational work for some of you, and for some of you that's like, I've never heard it talked about in this way.

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I get it, all right? So Paul, in the book of Romans chapter 3, asked an important question, okay?

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He asked the question, are we Jews any better off than the Gentiles? And he says not at all, for we have already charged that all, that's everybody, both

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Jews and Greeks, everybody on planet earth, they are under sin as it is written, and watch what he says, none is righteous, no not one, no one understands, no one seeks for God, all have turned aside, together they've become worthless, no one does good, not even one, their throat is an open grave, they use their tongues to deceive, the venom of asps is under their lips, their mouth is full of curses and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood, in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known, there is no fear of God before their eyes.

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That's the expanded version of what Paul wrote in Ephesians 2, 1 and 3. You know, dead in trespasses and sins, and this is all of us, this is, we've been born, we were conceived and born in this state as a result of Adam's sin, through the sin of Adam, the many, all of us were made sinners, right?

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Now, all of that being said, here comes the law part. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, and the purpose of that then is so that every mouth may be stopped, and so that the whole world may be held accountable to God.

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Yeah, so you can think of it this way, one of the proper uses of God's law, and there's three, one of the proper uses of God's law is to show you that you're a sinner, that you do not measure up, and in the process to silence you, because if you ask just the average person on the street, are you gonna go to heaven?

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Yes. Why? Because I'm a good person. Really, okay? Why do you think that?

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Because I pay my taxes and I've never been to prison, and I put money in the kettle and the

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Salvation Army thingy every Christmas. Mm -hmm. Scripture would beg to differ.

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None is righteous, no not one. There are no good people on the planet, me included, okay?

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The purpose of the law is that we would be held accountable to God. God's law says you have sinned, you have transgressed

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God's holy law, you are guilty, you are a sinner, and you sit there and you go, I don't like you talking to me like that.

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I agree, I don't like being talked to that way either, but what the Scriptures say about all of us, me included, is true, and then you note this.

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So what's the solution? Well, verse 20, by works of the law, no human being will be justified in God's sight, since through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

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So one of the right uses of God's law then is to show you that you are sinful, to show me that I'm sinful.

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You're using God's law correctly, if that's what you're using it for. Now if you're using God's law to say, now just get busy being obedient, and then

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God will pat you on the head and you'll be saved, the law was not given to save you, or me, or anyone else, okay?

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Now he goes on, but now the righteousness of God, and the phrase righteousness of God, that is the righteousness of God, meaning it's his righteousness, not mine, his, okay?

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This is the righteousness that is given by faith, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets, they bear witness to it.

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This is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus for all who believe, for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all there means all, including the tiniest little fetus or infant, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom

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God put forward as a propitiation, you could say an atoning sacrifice by his blood to be received by faith.

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This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the former sins.

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It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just, and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

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So what then becomes of our boasting? That's a good question.

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I mean, and if you'll note that I've seen this happen so many times, it's almost like, you know, a given, that anybody who believes that they're saved by their works, either in full or in part, oftentimes arrogance goes along with that, and they're really boastful.

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Why? Because, well, they believe misguidedly that somehow their good works, their obedience makes them saved, and so, you know, they're boasting in their self -righteousness.

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But here, if you're saved by grace through faith apart from works, and everybody is declared to be unrighteous and unholy, and we are saved by grace as a gift from God through faith, then there is no room for boasting.

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So Paul asks the question, what then becomes of our boasting? It's excluded. By what kind of law?

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By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified.

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Dikaiao here in the Greek, justified, means to be declared righteous. We are justified by faith apart from works of the law.

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Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles also? Yes, of the Gentiles, since God is the one who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

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Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? No, on the contrary, through this faith we uphold the law.

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Now, this is an important bit right here, okay? Really important, because this then creates the link point between biblical justification and biblical sanctification, and I'll explain what

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I mean by that. Do we then overthrow the law by faith? No, on the contrary, through faith we uphold the law.

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You're sitting there scratching your head going, how exactly does that work?

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I'll get to that in a moment, but I think we're in the ballpark now, is a good way to put it.

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Okay, now let me give you another cross -reference here, Galatians chapter 3. The entire book of Galatians is written against the

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Judaizing heresy, and the heresy of the Judaizers, they said you're not saved unless you're circumcised, so they mixed grace and law -keeping, and Paul says of them that they're anathema.

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Even in the opening chapter it says, even if we are an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel other than the one already preached, let him be damned, anathema.

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Alright, so in Galatians, Paul again hints at this linchpin as far as faith being concerned.

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He says, oh foolish Galatians, who's bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.

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So let me ask you this, did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

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Are you so foolish having begun by the Spirit? Are you now being perfected by the flesh?

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So you'll note here, he's talking about their sanctification. You've begun by faith, are you now trying to be perfected, to become

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Christ -like by your flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain if indeed it was in vain?

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He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does he do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith, just as Abraham believed

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God and it was counted to him as righteousness? So you'll note, faith is a vital component in the proper distinction between law and gospel, between the letter and the

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Spirit, and faith and works, you know, works of the flesh have to be distinguished and properly maintained, that distinction needs to be maintained regarding Christian sanctification.

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Christian sanctification is not a mere matter of you making a decision to apply yourself to be obedient.

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It doesn't work that way. In fact, I would recommend a work by Augustine called a treatise on the letter and the

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Spirit, a treatise on the letter and the Spirit. It's available in the public domain, a very fine work that reiterates justification by grace through faith alone, and also then makes the proper distinction as it relates to how then does a

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Christian make progress in sanctification. Augustine kind of puts it this way, that through the law of works,

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God commands us to obey, and there are specific commands he gives us, you know,

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I listed a few of them, you know, not to murder, to steal, to honor your father and mother, not to bear false witness against your neighbor, not to covet, things like that, and so God said through the law of works,

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God says, do what I command you. But by faith then, by the law of faith, we cry out to God, please give me what you command.

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Now I recently, in fact on the Friday episode of Fighting for the Faith from last week,

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I played one of my sermons. The name of the sermon is why New Year's resolutions don't work.

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You know, that's kind of the idea, why New Year's resolutions don't work, and it's because you are sinful, but I actually discuss all of these topics, including

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Augustine's point and all of that, and what we're gonna do is we're gonna put a link to it up here and also down in the description to that episode of Fighting for the

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Faith, why New Year's resolutions don't work, and you'll start to see that, yeah,

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God, the Holy Spirit, works in us through the means of grace and gives us the ability to begin to obey

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Him in this life, although not perfectly. So I want you to have that resource, and I want to make reference to that so that you can, you know, you can avail yourself again.

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Why New Year's resolutions don't work, that's an episode of Fighting for the Faith. The link will be there in the description and also up in the corner when it happened.

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Anyway, you get the point. So all that being said, proper distinction of law and gospel then comes down also to a sanctification, noting then, sanctification is not some mere matter of me trying to, with my own will, overcome the weaknesses of my sinful flesh.

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No, all Christians have the Holy Spirit. Then through faith and crying out to the

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Spirit and through the means of grace, God giving us this power to mortify our sinful flesh.

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So when God's commands come at us, saying that, I command you not to do this, or I command you to do that, we recognize then that the third use of the law, which is a valid use, shows us what a good work is, but God's law cannot and does not give us the power and ability to obey it.

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So then through the law of faith, we cry out to God and ask God humbly to give us what he's commanding us to do.

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So yeah, again, good kind of getting the track all greased up there for you.

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I know this is a long episode, but work with me here. I told you this was gonna be long. So Ephesians chapter 5 now.

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So if you remember a long time ago, we were letting Steve Adams talk about Ephesians 5, about living a clockwise life.

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In Ephesians 5, 15 to 17, he was trying to explain to us, teaches us this concept of living a clockwise life, and we noted he read it out of context.

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So when we get to Ephesians chapter 5,

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Paul has already explained we are saved by grace through faith apart from works.

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Our three rules for sound biblical exegesis that are context, context, context. And so Ephesians 5 says, therefore be imitators of God.

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Therefore, because you're saved by grace through faith apart from works, and you are created in Christ Jesus for good works, because of that, then be imitators of God as beloved children, because you already are, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God.

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And you're gonna note then, his concept of sanctification, of walking in love, is grounded in the gospel of what

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Christ is, the good news that Christ has bled and died for our sins. Okay, everything comes back to the gospel.

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So sexual immorality, all impurity, or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among the saints.

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Let there be no filthiness or foolish talk nor crude joking which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

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For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who's covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

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So let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

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Therefore, do not become partners with them. For at one time you were darkness, were past tense, but now you are light in the

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Lord. So walk as children of the light, for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true, and try to discern what is pleasing to the

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Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

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It is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret, but when anything is exposed by the light it becomes visible.

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For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore, it says, Awake, O sleeper, rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you.

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Alright, so now we have the bigger context before verse 15. Alright, now we get to verse 15.

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So look carefully then how you walk. Peripateo has to be with how you conduct your life.

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Not as unwise, but as wise. Make the best use of the time.

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And now this is gonna be an important thing here. I'm gonna pull this up to where we can see this. So making the best use of the time.

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Here it's tonkairon. Kairos is the word used for season.

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Okay, so the time is not talking about kranos time. Okay, that would be like your schedule.

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At noon we do this, and at 1 o 'clock we do that, and at 5 p .m. we do this, and that's kranos time.

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But this is kairos. This has to do with the season. So making the best use of the season, the time, because the days, plural, are evil.

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So therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Alright, now you're gonna note it goes on.

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So what is the will of the Lord? What is the will of the Lord? What does it mean to make the best use of the season?

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So do not get drunk with wine. That is debauchery. Be filled with the Spirit. Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

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Singing and making melodies to the Lord with your heart. Giving thanks always for everything to God the

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Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

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And that goes on. So what is the will of God? Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the

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Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church. His body and is himself its

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Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their own husbands.

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Husbands, love your wives as Christ has loved the church, gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that's a reference to baptism, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish.

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In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. Alright, so you want to know what the will of the

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Lord is? It continues explaining what that is. So we'll note then that some very, very specific things are listed as the will of the

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Lord and what it means to be wise as opposed to unwise. Let's see what Steve Adams is gonna do here.

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It's been a while since we've seen him, so let me back this up just a little bit as he lays out what he's gonna do here.

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Our journey, they are making the most of every opportunity and their time, and in doing so they grow in wisdom.

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They are clockwise. And let's take a look at this scripture. It's from Ephesians chapter 5 verse 15 through 17, and it says this, so be careful how you live.

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Don't live like fools, but live like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.

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Don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. And it spells out what the

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Lord wants me to do, you know, before that as well as after that. And in this passage

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I see four things that you and I can do, how we can live a clockwise life. Okay, so wives submit to your husbands.

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Husbands love your wives as Christ has loved the church. Children obey your parents.

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That's Ephesians 6, which is still continuing with this thought. Honor your father and mother. That's the first commandment, that it may go well for you.

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Here's how fathers don't provoke your children to anger. Bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the

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Lord. Bond servants obey your earthly masters. This kind of works out in this way.

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Then employees obey and do good work for your employers. And then if you're an employer, treat your employees kindly.

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Yeah, those are the ways. Okay, so the reason I'm saying that is because that's how that text works, but what

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Steve Adams is doing here is weird. Let me back it up just a little bit. Listen again. But understand what the

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Lord wants you to do. And in this passage I see four things that you and I could do.

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Four things. I saw more than that, but they were listed in the text. Is Steve Adams going to list out those things?

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Avoiding sexual immorality, impurity, singing psalms and hymns, spiritual songs, wives submitting to their husbands, husbands loving their wives as Christ loved the church, children obeying their parents, bond servants obeying their masters, masters not being harsh with their bond servants.

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Is that what he's gonna say? I mean, because I saw more than four. How we can live a clockwise life. So let's look at these.

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Number one, to live a clockwise life, I must pay close attention to how I conduct myself.

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Pay close attention to how I conduct myself. The scriptures...

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So what's happened here is he's ripped these two verses, actually you know, 15, 16, 7, 3 verses out of context, and he's encapsulated them and completely separated them from the actual things that the texts say that we that with how we do what it's saying to do.

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So be careful how you live. And the words that the Apostle Paul used here, those words mean to walk or to live calculated, precisely, just like a clock.

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It's very calculated. It's very precise. And we are to walk in a very calculated, cautious way.

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So to live a clockwise life, I can't just flippantly do what I want to do. I should pay attention to how

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I live my life. Right, and you should pay attention to the context of the passages that you're preaching from, too, so that you don't make them say things they don't say, or you omit things that they do say.

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Secondly, to live a clockwise life, I in this case, it's just a matter of reading in context.

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Discern what is right and act upon it. The scripture there says, don't live like fools, but like those who are wise.

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And you know, it's, some people think that knowledge and wisdom are the same thing, and they're not. Knowledge and wisdom are not the same thing.

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See, knowledge is just transactional information. It's just information that we share back and forth, and then that's it.

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That's the beginning, that's the end. But wisdom is transformational action. Wisdom is transformational action.

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Wisdom is transformational action? Where'd you get that definition?

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And action is the catalyst for wisdom. You can know something, but if you don't put it into practice, then what good is it?

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It's nothing more than knowledge. And we use our good judgment, and our experiences, and our knowledge to make right choices.

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But we have to put that knowledge into practice. All right, so real quick, just the categories of law and gospel.

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Is this law or gospel? Answer, it's law, because it's telling us what we should be doing.

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Things I need to apply, things I need to do. Are we sanctified or justified by the law?

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No. I know the speed limit is 75, but I can tell you now, when you go 95 at the wrong time of the day, you get a little coupon from the state police.

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95? Wow. Okay, don't even do that in North Dakota. Yeah. I know the speed limit, but I'm wise when

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I actually put that knowledge into action. So to live a clockwise life, I must discern what is right, and then act upon it.

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Thirdly, to live a clockwise life, I must steward my time with great caution and intentionality.

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Notice, everything here. The thing I got to do, the thing I got to do, the thing I got to do, the thing I got to do. Law, law, law, law, law, law, law.

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Now, since the law is always accusing us, let me ask you this question. Is everybody there sitting there going, well,

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I'm already doing this? No, most of people sitting there going, yeah, well, I need to improve in this category.

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So they're being convicted here. So the solution when you've transgressed God's will is to do what?

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To confess your sin and to be forgiven. Will we hear about the cross in this? No. Steward my time with great caution and intentionality.

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And there's a very interesting thing here. The Apostle Paul used a word, he used one word that we take that phrase, make the most of our opportunity.

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And the word he uses refers to getting something back by means of paying a ransom.

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Yeah, redeem. Yeah, that's he's correct about the word there, by the way. Meaning, there's something here that someone else has, but for me to have it,

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I must pay the ransom. And for whatever thing you're involved in, whatever actions that you do, whatever activities you're a part of, there's a ransom you must pay for those activities.

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And that ransom is your time. Can we talk about how Christ has redeemed us?

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You may have read a translation of this talk about redeeming the time for the days are evil.

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Okay, so here you're talking about a ransom or a redemption, and the Greek word there is that, by the way, it is.

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But you're doing this completely disconnected from any concept of the redemption or ransom paid by Christ so that we can be forgiven and justified.

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And see, this is the problem. When you don't do law and gospel properly, and you end up just preaching only law, then you weigh people down with a heavy burden and try to convince them that Christian obedience is akin to making a

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New Year's resolution, and it's not. It costs you time, and time being literally,

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I think, the greatest resource that God has given us. It's the greatest commodity we have because you can't manufacture it.

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It's a gift from God. Now notice, he's talking about Kronos time, but this text, redeeming the time, the

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Kairos, it's a season for the days are evil. He's talking about Kronos, but the text itself is using

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Kairos time, which is a different way of looking at time altogether. You can't duplicate it, you can't manufacture it, you can't steal it.

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It is what it is, it's here and it's gone, and then it's no more. I actually tried to steal time.

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I did. I actually tried to steal time. Now a little bit of a note, this personal anecdotal story from his life is an example of Kronos time, and again, the time here that's being talked about in Ephesians 5 is

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Kairos. It's about the season, the days that we are in. Back when we lived in Chicago, my wife

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Stephanie and I and my sons Matt and Tyler, two times a year would take a road trip down south to see our family, and I loved to get on the road early.

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How many of you like to get on the road early when you're traveling? Yeah. I want to be on the road at 4 a .m. Really?

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It's that weird? Man, okay. Steph told me that I was the only one that would do such a thing, and now

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I'm starting to believe her, but I want to be on the road at 4 a .m., and what does it matter to them? They're gonna go to sleep, they're gonna get in the car, and that was my rationale.

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I said, you guys are gonna get in the car and go to sleep, so what does it matter? But I, and this one time we were leaving, she was doing laundry, it was kind of late, and I said,

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Steph, I want to be on the road by 4 a .m. I really do. She said, no way. I can't do it.

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I'm sick to my stomach at that time of the morning. I got to get up at 3 then in order to be, no,

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I can't do it, Steve. I can't leave at 4 this time. I can't do it. And I started thinking, is there a way that we could both get what we want?

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Yes. I'll change every clock in the house, make her...

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And you're still married. Wow. Think it's 6, when really it's 4. Yeah, this wouldn't destroy trust in a marriage at all.

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Now, I see some really judgmental eyes. I'm beyond, I see some women look at me, and yeah,

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I may have just lost points with a lot of you, but, but you got to understand what I was trying to do here. I thought it would be fun. I thought it would be this really cool thing, because what

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I saw... Yeah, if you just kept reading, you know, the text talks about husbands loving their wives as Christ loved the church, gave himself up for her, that kind of stuff.

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That might have helped him out here. But again, you know, he's not properly distinguishing between law and gospel.

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This is all law. He's not made a careful distinction between the type of time that's being discussed in these three verses, as opposed to the kind of time he's discussing in a sermon illustration.

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And as a result of it, it really is making a mess of things, and rather than discipling people in what the

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Scriptures say, and helping them to recognize what the Bible teaches regarding Christian sanctification, it's actually creating a lot of confusion.

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Steph would get in the car, and the boys, and then they would wake up, you know, several hours down the road.

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She goes, wow, it's already eight o 'clock. You know, did we make good time? We go, oh, you know what? Here's the funny thing.

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It's actually six o 'clock. And then she would laugh. I would laugh. We'd high -five.

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Matt and Tyler would go, Dad, you're the funniest. That was really funny. It would be like a

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Hallmark movie ending. That's what I really thought was going to happen. And so I went through our home and changed every timekeeping device in our house.

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And in fact, Stephanie had a wristwatch. The band was broken in her purse. I went in her purse and changed that watch just in case she caught on to me and looked at the one place she thought

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I wouldn't touch. So it was all set, and then I realized there was one timekeeping device in our home that had not changed, and it was the clock on the stove.

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Now what I didn't know, because I don't cook, there's no reason for me to touch the stove, and so I didn't know how to change the clock on the stove.

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I didn't realize that when you touch the buttons on the stove, it beeps every single time no matter what you want it to do.

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So she was on the other side of the house, and I hit it. Beep, beep. And I kind of waited.

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Didn't hear anything. I'm good. So I hit it one more time to change it, and all of a sudden, like flash forward, there she was.

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Like from nowhere. And she said, what are you doing? Why are you touching the stove? Because again, there's no reason for me to touch the stove.

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And I didn't know what to say, so I've learned over the years when I don't know what to say to my wife, I say nothing.

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I just stand there and don't say a word. Just let it play out.

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I didn't know what to do. I said nothing, and she said, why are you touching the stove? And then she looked at me, looked at the stove, and she went, oh!

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And then she walks into the living room, and then I hear that sound again. Then she comes back into the kitchen, and she said, you changed the clocks.

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Well, remember that Hallmark ending I was looking for? Didn't happen. Oh, there was an ending, but there was nothing

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Hallmark about it. So let me ask the question, does this illustration help us to rightly understand

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Ephesians 5, 15 to 17? Nope. This whole illustration is actually muddying up our understanding of Ephesians 5 and confusing us, misleading us, if you would.

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Nothing Hallmark about it. In fact, we left at noon that next day. Yeah, she showed me.

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Oh yeah, now you're happy. I get it. Time is precious.

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It can't be manufactured, stolen, duplicated. It's here, and then it's gone. For you and I to live...

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Yeah, again, that's chronos, time. The type of time mentioned in Ephesians 5 in 15, 16, and 17 is kairos.

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It's a season time. It's because the days, plural, are evil. It's not talking about being a good steward of your chronos time.

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It's not what it's talking about. A clockwise life. We must steward our time with great caution and intentionality.

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So to live a clockwise life, we must pay close attention to how we conduct our lives, discern what's right and act upon it, steward our time with great caution intentionality, and the fourth thing

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I see in this passage that we're to do to live a clockwise life is recognize what's really important and respond accordingly.

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Okay, if you just read the text, you'd know what those things are. You'd recognize them immediately.

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They're listed for you in the text because one of the proper uses of God's law is shows us what a good work is.

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So you're gonna know it. La la la la la la. And he's twisted the text up and made it this capsule, and we're totally disconnected from what the text is actually saying about what real

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Christian sanctification is. Painful.

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Recognize what's really important and respond accordingly. The scripture there says don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the

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Lord wants you to do. Right, and to understand it, you keep reading. Thoughtless life is careless.

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It's inattentive. It's just... Yeah, you know, like a sermon that's careless is one that's inattentive to the context of the text that you're preaching.

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End them living. But a thoughtful life is careful. It's accurate. It's attentive.

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It's intentional. And we have this great danger on our journey of trying to live this clockwise life and make the most of our time and our opportunities, and as we do, we grow in wisdom.

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But there is a problem. There's something I call personal and missional drift.

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Yeah, I think you get the point. He is not going to get to the context there and help us to recognize what

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God would have us do and what His will is. It's like completely avoided, like it's the plague, because if he were to actually preach what the text says, both before 515 and after 517, they might have a drop in attendance there at Saddleback.

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Yeah, but failure to properly understand and distinguish the proper distinction between law and gospel, failure to recognize that even our sanctification comes back to faith, it is not just a mere gut decision to obey, and then completely avoiding the context of the text that he's preaching from makes this so that it's a super heavy burdensome sermon.

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At the end of it, you got a list of things that you're supposed to do, but the cross doesn't make an appearance, repentance, confessing your sin, being forgiven, trusting in Christ, bearing fruit in keeping with repentance, none of those things show up in this sermon.

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Hopefully you found this helpful. If so, all the information on how you can share the video is down below, and just a reminder,

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Fighting for the Faith, we're supported by the people we serve, and that's you. All the information on how you can support us is down below in the description, and for everybody who joins our crew at Gunner's Mate and above in the month of January, I will send you a signed copy of my fine art print, a photograph

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I've taken in London titled, All Things London, as my way of saying thank you for joining our at that level or above.

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So until next time, may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ, and his vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.