In Christ Alone (Part 1 of 2)

We've all heard the saying, when in Rome, do as the Romans do.

It's a phrase that's used to encourage us to blend in, to go along with the surrounding culture. Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg points out why the Bible teaches us to do exactly the opposite at times. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 17. Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk, as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart.

They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learn Christ, assuming that you have heard of him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Amen. We turn again to God in prayer. Father, as we come now to the Bible, we earnestly pray for the help of the Holy Spirit to reveal Christ to us, to reveal ourselves, to show us who and what we are outside of Christ and in Christ. Help us, Lord, to think, to believe, to obey. For we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, you know, when we come to the Bible—not only as we come to it now in this public forum, but as we turn to our Bibles on a daily basis—we turn to a book that understands the world in which we live. Indeed, there's a very real sense in which, when we open up our Bibles, we're reading them in a world that has been aptly and strikingly described for us in verses 17, 18, and 19—the verses to which we paid attention last time.

And if you recall, you know that we read them in light of Paul's opening section of his letter to the Romans, and we were suggesting to one another that between them we really have the locus classicus of humanity outside of Christ. Here is, if you like, a succinct and dreadful but equally clear understanding of humanity turned away from God. And we noted that it is marked by futility, by darkness, by alienation, by ignorance, hardness, a callous nature to sensuality, and a greediness that extends to every kind of impurity. It's not a very nice description.

It's not the kind of thing that you're going to find by just reading the average novel or by turning up one of the popular magazines that are available to us on a routine basis. But it is a classic description of the natural state of humanity, of which each of us is a part, outside of Christ. And one of the things that should be most striking to us is that when we consider this—and we realize that it had immediate relevance to Ephesus a long way from here, Ephesus in modern-day Turkey, two thousand years ago, and here we are in the twenty-first century in Western culture—and we realize that all these weeks and months and years have elapsed since these words were penned, and it is pretty clear—in fact, it is glaringly obvious—that humanity is unable to repair its walls, unable to mend its disappointments, unable to rectify its flaws and its faults. Whether we take it on a micro level or on a macro level, whether you take it in terms of relationships on an interpersonal basis, or whether you regard the nations of the world this morning, it's not difficult to realize that the world in which we live is broken, and that the attempts at fixing that broken world have proved, at best, to be fleeting, momentary, and certainly not lasting.

The attempts remain the same throughout time. If only we can educate the people a little better, if only they have an understanding of things, then I'm sure they will just clean their act up. Doesn't happen. In Europe, you buy cigarettes—one buys cigarettes—in a white box that simply says on it, This stuff will kill you.

And people go in and say, Could I have two packs of that, please? So the education is not able to deal with their habitual behavior. In the same way, legislation cannot alter the darkness of humanity, can't alter the darkness in my own heart. In fact, the heart of man is not changed by acts of Parliament in London nor by acts of Congress in Washington, D.C. All of those endeavors, after all this time, still cry out, Is there any remedy?

Is there any possibility? How in the world can this thing be fixed? And, of course, the answer that Paul is providing to these Ephesians is that what man is unable to do in himself, God has done. And into this spiritual blindness, a light has shone. Into the hardness, the grace and mercy of Christ has come. Into an impure and an unclean world, the light of righteousness and purity and clarity stands out in stark relief. And it's not as if somehow or another we look for this, as it were, in the gutter press.

We don't even need to look for it. It trips us up. I was mentioning the physicist last week, Hawking, and now, this week, Dawkins. Dawkins, most famous—notorious, really—for his book The God Delusion. He's a very brilliant man, there's no doubt about that, commenting on the atonement, commenting on the death of Jesus. On page 253 in his book, he describes the death of Jesus as a vicious, sick, masochistic, repellent action to be dismissed as barking mad. Why does he say that? Because he is spiritually blind. Because his eyes have not been opened to the truth. Because of the hardness of his heart. You contrast that with some pretty intelligent people who are here today.

They could probably take him on. I couldn't. But you could. And yet you're prepared to stand up and sing how deep the Father's love for us, how vast beyond all measure, that he would give his only Son to make a wretch his treasure. Now, why is it that you're singing that and he's saying that? Is it because you're cleverer than him and it's about IQ, and if you're smart enough that you can get in?

No! It's because the eyes of your understanding have been opened, because the grace of God in his mercy has been revealed to you. The answer to this, as Paul has made clear, is in him—that is, in Jesus. In him, you are now completely different. He's begun in that way in Ephesians chapter 1, in verse 7, in him we have redemption through his blood.

He says the same thing in him. When you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, you believed in him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. Now, we understand this—some of us do, at least—because we sing these things. Once I was blind but believed I saw everything, proud and yet foolish at the same time. Or in another line from one of our songs, I was a stranger chasing selfish dreams.

Now I made one through grace alone. Now, why is this? Paul is explaining it.

He's coming to it here, and he does it elsewhere. You were at one time carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. You were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. That's verse 3 of chapter 2. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, and by grace you have been saved. So this is the underpinning of all that he is now speaking to them about—about the nature of the church, what it means to be the church, how gifts have been given to the church in order that the church might function, and then in order that the church might be marked not only by unity but also by purity. And this is because God has intervened in deliverance. In other words, what he's making clear is the vast contrast between life outside of Christ, seventeen to nineteen, and life in Christ, twenty and following. He's not unique in this.

Peter does the same thing. He reminds his scattered readers that the Lord Jesus has called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light, and so he says, as aliens and strangers live in such a way as to make this clear. In other words, to come back to our passage, we are to walk in a manner that is worthy of the calling to which we have been called.

Let's be clear about this. The business of Christianity is not to improve the world. There are all kinds of people out there trying to improve the world. That is not what Jesus came to do.

No, actually, Jesus came to take men and women out of the world, to save them from the world, and to bring in an entirely new humanity. You see, that's the significance of there is neither Jew nor Gentile, Scythian, bond, or free. He's not saying these things don't exist. Of course they exist.

But they are totally subservient. They're actually ultimately irrelevant in relationship to what God has chosen to do in making a whole new humanity. That's what we were learning when he talked about breaking down the wall of separation between the Jew and the Gentile. And he says, You came from here, and you came from here, and he has made one new man out of the two.

What does he mean, one new man out of the two? As Jesus rose from the dead, he is, if you like, the prototype of the first new man. And when we are included in Christ, then we are included in a new humanity.

That doesn't mean that we drop out of the world. Jesus made that clear as well. Father, I ask that you don't take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. But he also said of his followers, They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. So the Christian is different from the non-Christian. And if a person is a Christian, then he or she knows that he is different. And furthermore, the non-Christians know that we're different too. Unless we've decided to go with boy George on a kamakamakamakamakam chameleon kind of Christianity, where we're playing one side against the other. Read 1 Peter.

Remember, he says, They will think you are weird, because you do not run with them in the same profligacy that marks their lifestyle. You once were perfectly fine in that realm, but not anymore. Why? Because you're not in that realm anymore. You see, what Paul is actually saying in this section is this to these readers. We are no longer to live as we once did, as the old man—which is his terminology.

Why? Because we are no longer the old man. But we are to become, in practical expression, the new man that we have been made in Jesus.

So, there is an immediate contrast, isn't there? You used to live in this way, in the hardness of your heart, callous, engaged in these things. Listen, to one degree or another, it's true of us all.

Murray M'Cheyne died at twenty-nine. He was a very good Presbyterian minister, a twenty-nine-year-old man. He wrote in his journal, I know that the seed of every sin known to man dwells in my heart.

All right? He may not have given expression to it all—he probably hadn't—but he knew that he was only one step away from every one of them. And that's true of every one of us. True of every one of us. That's why there's no place for the Christian snob. There's no place for looking down at people and saying, Can you believe that?

You should believe it. Because you're looking at yourself outside of Christ. Now, the contrast is both challenging and it is at the same time encouraging.

What a picture! Always 17, 18, 19, and then he says, But that is not the way you learned Christ. It's a bit like in Hebrews, where he describes the apostasy situation, and he says, However, when I think of you, I'm thinking differently. That is not the way you learned Christ. So, when you were in Christ's classroom, if we might put it that way, what did you learn?

It's interesting. He says, You learned Christ. He doesn't say you learned about Christ, but you learned Christ. To learn Christ surely is more than simply knowing about Christ. You could take a survey around the building even later on today and ask people if they know about Christ, and many will say, Yes, we do. They'll have all kinds of ideas about him as well. Some will be true and some will be spurious.

But they haven't learned Christ. You could say, You know somebody. I could say, I knew Susan, but I've learned Susan for a long time. I've embraced everything that Susan is.

My life cannot be explained apart from that embrace. There's something of that when he says, You have learned Christ. There's something of him in Philippians 3 where he says, That I might know him. What do you mean you might know him?

Of course you know him. You're the apostle Paul. That I might know him and the power of his resurrection and share in the fellowship of his suffering. So in other words, to learn Christ is to embrace him in all that makes him Christ. Jesus is the Lord and the King and the Savior and the prophet and the priest and so on.

And when that begins to permeate a life and an understanding of things—unlike the dark understanding outside of Christ—then it flavors everything. We mentioned Newton last week. I mentioned him again now for the very same reason. Newton's life was a shambles by his own testimony. In fact, shambles is to be kind to him. He was profligate. He was disgraceful.

He was horrible. And yet he writes the hymn, How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds, in a believer's ear. Can you imagine when his friends, who'd been on those ships with him, heard that Newton was a vicar and was writing hymns? They say, Well, you've got a whole new take on Jesus Christ now, because you've been saying that for a long time. But this is different.

Yes, Jesus, my shepherd, Savior, friend, my prophet, priest, my King, my Lord, my life, my way, my end. What happened to Newton? He learned Christ. Look at your text. That is not the way you learn Christ, assuming that you've heard about him and were taught in him. He's not suggesting that they haven't. It's just his way of calling them to verify the fact and to do so by going on to act in keeping with the word that they've heard. And were taught in him. Heard. Actually, our version there says, Heard about him. But there's no preposition in Greek.

There's no about. It actually just reads, And you have heard him. As the Gospels had come to them, they had heard Christ's voice. The apostles had preached, and they had heard the voice of Christ. Remember, when we were in chapter 2, a hundred years ago, he says something along those lines. He says, And Jesus came and preached peace to you, you who were far off, and peace to those who were near. And people would say, Well, I wasn't here when Jesus came and preached. Jesus came and preached in Ephesus.

No. Well, what does he mean? And he came and preached. Well, you see, it's what we're beginning to remind ourselves of, that when the Word of God is taught, that the voice of Jesus is heard. The mouth of God is in the Word of God. So that far beyond the voice of a mere man, at the level in which you process my sentences and syntax, there is a dynamic that takes place, there is a dialogue that takes place in the midst of the monologue, which is a dialogue between the Spirit of God, who wrote the Word of God, and the heart of man, who listens to the Word of God being conveyed. Without that, the whole thing's a useless exercise.

Without that, I should simply be giving inspirational talks for Fortune 500 companies, if they would have me, or doing something else where communication skills matter. But no! You see, you heard him. You heard him. That's why the hymn writer can say, I heard the voice of Jesus say, Come unto me and rest. Well, you never heard the voice of Jesus. There was no audible voice.

What does he mean? He heard him. In the Word, you heard him. And you were taught in him. In other words, Christ wasn't only the subject matter or the teacher.

He was actually the sphere or, if you like, the context in which all of this was taking place. And you were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus. Interestingly, he uses Jesus here. This is the only time in the letter where he uses the word Jesus on its own. Why doesn't he say, as the truth is in the Messiah, or as the truth is in God? He says, as the truth is in Jesus.

I think he must do it purposefully—to remind the people that they have believed in Jesus. You have come to Jesus. You have found the truth in Jesus, the one, the historical Jesus, the one who was born of the Virgin Mary, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, who was dead and was buried, who was raised from the dead, who will return in power and great glory. That's who you've come to trust in—he who said, I am the way and the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me. Why do we go to all the world? Why are they going to Bolivia?

Why are we supporting people in the lostness of Asia, if this is not the case? You see, nobody will be interested in seeing the gospel going out to the world unless you have learned Christ. You have heard him. You have been taught in him. Then you find yourself saying, Everybody needs to hear this.

Everybody needs to know this. The need for the secular person on that London Bridge is the same need as exists in the life of the Muslim terrorist. It is the need for Jesus as a Savior and a friend. And we dare not allow the world to shut us down and to become just another little story on the addendum of Western culture.

No, no, not for a moment. You did not learn Christ in that way. You heard him. You were taught in him.

Taught what? The truth that is in Jesus. You're listening to Truth for Life.

That is Alistair Begg showing us how we need to be beacons in a dark world, not blenders. He's titled today's message, In Christ Alone, and we'll hear the conclusion on Monday. Here at Truth for Life, one of the things we love to do is to select books we can recommend to you that will bolster your confidence in the reliability of Scripture. And today, we hope you will ask for a copy of the book, Refreshment for the Soul. This is a daily devotional that contains writings taken from the Puritan preacher Richard Sibbes. As you read this devotional throughout the year, you will see for yourself why Sibbes was often referred to as the Heavenly Doctor. He writes with conviction on a wide range of topics, things like how to keep your heart pure, how to distinguish between true and false humility, and how to gain victory in spiritual battles. The book also includes a number of multi-day series on topics that all of us can benefit from. Topics like, what do we do when we feel our faith is weak, and how to diagnose spiritual discouragement. If you've never read the work of Richard Sibbes, this is a great way to introduce yourself to his writing. And if you're already familiar with Sibbes, you probably already know this is a book you will benefit from throughout the year. Ask for your copy of the devotional book, Refreshment for the Soul, when you give a donation to support the Bible teaching ministry of Truth for Life. You can give your gifts securely through the Truth for Life mobile app, or online at truthforlife.org slash donate. Or if you prefer, you can call us at 888-588-7884. I'm Bob Lapine. Thanks for joining us to kick off this first week of the new year. We hope you'll enjoy your weekend and are able to worship with your local church family. On Monday, we'll learn the key to dealing with the futility of living in a broken world. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.