Okay, well, we're ready to start this second session. This is new to me, this kind of thing, so I hope that, apparently, it's not new to you all, and I hope that I can do this justice, but we're going to talk about evidence of a transformed life in this particular session. Let me get it to that slide there. Okay, but the way I want to begin is again with a familiar text over in Ephesians, chapter two. And this is a passage that teaches us about how that we are saved by grace, through faith in Christ, and not by our works. And I want to read beginning in Ephesians two, read down through beginning in verse one. And I want to read down through verse nine, just to start our lesson in this session. He says, "and you were dead in the trespasses and sins 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 and the sons of disobedience, among whom we also once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 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, by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with Him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ, Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of His grace and the kindness toward us in Christ, Jesus. For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." What this passage tells us, and again, I think that we are all aware of this. It is telling us that those of us who are saved have not earned our salvation, nor could we ever earn our salvation. It's something that is just impossible to do. Salvation is a gift. It is a free gift that has been given to us by God, and it is something that is accepted by coming to God through faith in Jesus, Christ. Jesus said in John 14, verse six, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No man comes unto the Father but by me." Peter said in the book of Acts in the fourth chapter, in verse 12, there is no other name given among men," that is the name of Christ, "there is no other name given among men by which we must be saved." And then, of course, as Jesus said in Mark 16, verses 15 and 16, when he was sending out the disciples in the Great Commission, as Mark records it for us, he told them, "to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believes and is baptized will be saved. He that does not believe will be condemned." Salvation is a free gift that has been given to us by God. And Ephesians, chapter two emphasizes that point.
But as William Barclay wrote when he was commenting on this text in Ephesians, he says it is neither right nor possible to leave the teaching of Paul here, and yet this is where he says it is often left. And what I think he meant by this is that that we find a lot of emphasis upon this concept, excuse me, on the gospel preaching, we find a lot of emphasis that is focused on celebrating what Jesus has saved us from. He has saved us from sin. He has saved us from the wrath of God. He has saved us from eternal condemnation. And that indeed, is a good focus, and it's something that we do need to rejoice in. We need to be just glorifying God because of that. But in a way that was never intended, and I think this is the point that Barclay was trying to make, the focus, in some cases, has shifted to the point that we have neglected in understanding and in teaching what Jesus has saved us to. We know what he has saved us from, but what has he saved us to? As a result of the free gift of salvation that God has blessed us with, as I pointed out to you, and I think as you are already familiar with from what we read in Second Corinthians, chapter five and verse 17, we have been made new creatures. We are now a part of the new creation, and what we are doing is just simply waiting for the consummation. Anticipating the time in which it arrives and we are going to take our place then in the new creation throughout eternity. And God be praised for that. But we have not been made new creatures simply to sit back and take pleasure and enjoyment in the salvation that we have, even though we will experience that, at least we should experience that we have been made new creatures in Christ. Created in Christ, Jesus, Paul said in Ephesians, chapter two and verse 10, for good works, not to save us, but because we've been saved having responded, then to the call of the message of the gospel as part of the new creation. We are now expected to walk worthy of that calling. We are expected, as we see from what Paul said in Romans 12, particularly in verse two, to be transformed by the renewing of our minds or to live in the way that Paul points out in Ephesians the fourth chapter, that we are no longer walking in a manner in which we were once dead, but now we are walking in a manner in which we are now alive. We are walking putting off the old man, and we are putting on the new man created in Christ, Jesus, as Paul says, Unto these good works.
Now let me ask you, shouldn't it be true that as people who have been saved by the grace of God that we should be, of all people, we should be the most dedicated people to being transformed. Shouldn't we, as the beneficiaries of God's great gift of salvation, be people who are active in good works that God has prepared for his people to be active in? Well, obviously the answer to that question, to both of those questions, is yes. But how do we know? How do we know if we are truly transformed, or being transformed into people who are committed to being active in the works that God has prepared for us to walk in? For that matter, how do we even know what works we are to be walking in? Well, that's what I want us to think about, as we think about this concept of the evidence of transformation, and the way that I want to do this, as I pointed out to you in the first session, I want to pose three questions, three questions that we're going to look at that I think can help us to look at these things. And I'll try to make application of them after I've unpacked what I think these questions are designed to do.
The first one that-- the first question that I want us to think about is this, if we are indeed going to be people who are demonstrating evidence of transformation, is our obedience, known by all? You know, throughout the majority of Paul's letters, both to the local churches that he wrote as well as to the individuals that he wrote, The Apostle Paul usually began or he ended with words of Thanksgiving, words of encouragement, words of praise, for these Christians that he was writing to, and in some of the remarks that he made, it includes praise for their manner of lives, in their faithfulness to the Lord, in their obedience to the Lord, indicating their lives were being truly transformed into the new life that they had in Jesus. And I want you to look at some of these. First open to Colossians chapter three, or excuse me, Colossians chapter one, we're going to begin in verse three, and read down through verse six. Paul says there, "We always thank God the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ, Jesus, and the love that you have for all the saints because of the hope that is laid up for you in Heaven, of this you have heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you as indeed in the whole world, it is bearing fruit and increasing, as it also does among you since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth." And we'll stop there. Now. This is a church, if you don't know this, and I suspect that you do, because I'm sure you've studied the letter of Colossians, but you know that this church was a church that was not one that was started by the Apostle Paul. Paul didn't have a part in all of this, but he knew them. And Paul says, other people know you too, as well, and he knew them, and the others knew them because of their transformed lives, because of the fact that they were demonstrating obedience and faithfulness. And so that was indicating to Paul, who didn't know these people, you're being transformed into the image of Christ.
Let's look now at the next one that I want us to look at. And that's over in First Thessalonians. And we're going to read verses four through 10. First Thessalonians, chapter one, beginning in verse four, and reading down through verse 10, he says, "For we know brothers loved by God that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you, not only in Word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit. And with full conviction, you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake, and You became imitators of us and the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything, for they themselves report concerning us among the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come." Now this is a church that was well known by Paul. He actually helped in the process of beginning this local congregation. So he knew them. But He also points out that this was a church that was well known, not simply by him, but that the fact that the word of the message of what they had received and how they were living their lives had spread the information of their transformed lives, which was demonstrated by their obedience and faithfulness, was something that everybody knew about.
The next one is over in the book of Philemon. Philemon was written to an individual, but listen to what he says, beginning in verse four, there's only one chapter in Philemon. So verse four. "I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good-- every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ, for I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you." Now again, this is an individual Christian that he is writing to who was known for his transformed life, and it was known because he was demonstrating this by his obedience and by His faithfulness to Jesus.
And there's one other text then, just one verse over in the Roman letter in Romans, chapter 16 and verse 19. And I would submit to you that this particular verse pretty much sums up what it's all about Romans, chapter 16. And I want us to look here at verse 19. He says, "For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil." For your obedience, he said, is known to all the Christians who made up this church were Christians that Paul knew some of them, but he didn't know most of them. And in fact, Paul did not begin the church at Rome. But Paul did know some of these folks, and he knew their reputation. And Paul says here that it is known by all about your obedience to the truth, and that pretty much sums up what we're trying to talk about, what I'm trying to impress upon us at this point they were demonstrating in their lives, and all of these accounts that we've looked at how that their lives had been transformed by the new life that they had received in Christ, and it was being demonstrated in the way that they were living through their obedience to the truth. And I think if we were to put this in the modern day vernacular, this is the way I think Paul may have said this. If I was doing a paraphrase, I might write it something like this. I am so thankful for you guys. I think about you all the time, and when I do, it makes me praise God, and not just me, but everyone who knows you, or knows of you. You guys are awesome. I think that's the way that I would characterize this to some degree. Now, this doesn't mean that they were perfect in their walks with the Lord. On the contrary, Paul is writing these letters to these people because they have all kinds of issues that they needed to work on, and he's giving them the kind of guidance from the Holy Spirit that when able address the problems that they were experiencing and solve those problems. But nonetheless, they were people who had reputations for living their lives as obedient children of God, striving not only to learn his will but to do His will, their lives had been dramatically changed for the better. They were being transformed, and this was demonstrated by the fact that their obedience to God was clearly evident to everyone.
Now, let me ask you this, what is this Church known for? I don't know most of you people. As I said, I have heard of the reputation of the College View church from the time I was in my early 20s. So I have known of this group for a long time. I have known individuals who are members of this congregation who are impressed with, some who have fallen away from the Lord. Some of you I know kind of vicariously through the connections you've had with my brother. I've known Kenny for a long time. But how would you characterize this church? Well, the way to answer that question, is it ask another question, and that is, what is your-- How is your obedience? Let me put it that way. How is your obedience as an individual now, because a church is as strong as its weakest link. And so how do you know how or what the reputation of a church is is through the individuals who make it up. And so you have to ask yourself, then, how is my obedience understood? How is my obedience recognized? And let me make an aside here for just a minute. You know obedience, it seems to me, in the modern day, particularly among conservative groups, particularly among evangelicals, but even among Churches of Christ, obedience, in the minds of a lot of people, is quaint. It's important, but it's a quaint idea, and it's not really all that interesting, but I'll tell you what many people think is interesting, what many churches at least, think are interesting, and what some Christians think are interesting, and that is, are we relevant? Are we creative? Do we have enough creativity within the group? Are we being up to date with all these things. Now that's interesting, and many people believe that's how you draw people to a church. The seeker friendly movement that was done back in the 90s, that's how they focused. Obedience of the people didn't really matter. Well, I won't say it didn't matter. It mattered, but it didn't matter as much as are we relevant? Are we a group of people who are creative enough that we can draw people in? And this is what they were looking at. This is what some still look at, as far as being a church that they think is really being effective. And what I'm trying to say to you is that these qualities are not the ones that demonstrate a transformed life. What demonstrates a transformed life is obedience, obedience to God. So is our obedience to God known by all? Is your obedience to God known by those who are around you? Obedience to God is the first quality that should be seen in our lives, indicating that our lives have been and continue to truly be transformed into the image of Christ. And so that's the first question that we need to ask. Is our obedience known by all?
Here's question number two, is our concept of heaven a holy place? What do you guys think about when you think of heaven? What would come to your mind? It would be interesting if this were a class time and we could just go around to every individual here and just ask the question, what do you think of when you think of heaven? And I bet you we get all kinds of ideas, some of them probably kind of squirrely, but I think most of them would be probably quite Biblically sound. And the reason why I say that is because do you realize the Bible doesn't really talk much about the descriptions of heaven? And that, to me, is fascinating. We're curious about this place, but the Bible doesn't really give us a lot of specifics. It does, though, it gives us glimpses. Now let's turn to Revelation and look at some of the glimpses that it gives to us. And I recognize that revelation being the nature of the literature, that it is being a kind of an apocalyptic sort of literature carries with it a great deal of symbolism, but the symbolism is designed to help us to have glimpses, so we get to glimpse. And in Revelation chapters 21 and 22 is where we have the glimpses. So let's read first of all revelation, 21 beginning in verse one and down through verse four. "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven, and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning or crying or pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." Now dropping down to verse eight. "But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers and sexually immoral sorcerers, idolaters and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death." Verse, 22 dropping down there, "And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day, and there will be no night there, and they will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life." Now let's look at chapter 22 verses 14 and 15. "Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life and they may enter into the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood." Now, although this is only a brief glimpse, and that's really all we have here, what the Bible does reveal to us is something that is quite significant. And one of the things that it reveals is that this new heaven and the new earth, this new creation that is being addressed here will be a holy place that is inhabited by holy people.
You know, in the modern day, the popular concepts of life after death, it is the idea that God's expectations of those who will inhabit this new creation have been reduced to nothing more than the unconditional acceptance of everyone and everything. That's what a lot of people think. And so they think everybody's going to go to heaven. But if you ask those people, are there anybody going to go to hell? They will say yes, there are people who will be lost. But I dare say that in an audience even of this size, if I were to ask people, How many of you think you're going to heaven, probably all of you would raise your hand. And if I ask how many of you people think you're going to hell, probably no one would raise your hand. For a couple of reasons on that one, one, you don't think you are and two, you would be embarrassed to raise your hand. And what I'm trying to say here, then is that people have this, what I think is a very convoluted understanding of God and His holiness and His righteousness, that God's just going to let everybody go up there, that he's not going to turn anyone away. But the fact is, there are some who will not be a part of this new creation. And he makes that clear in Revelation 21 verse eight, "but as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable." And he goes on and has this, this listing of all of these different things that are going to keep people out. And again in verse 15 of chapter 22, "dogs and sorcerers, sexually immoral murderers and idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood." You know, folks, no matter what a person might profess, if he or if she demonstrates disregard for Jesus by giving himself or by giving herself over to sinful behavior habitually and impenitently, then the fact is that Heaven is not going to be that person's home. And that's what is being taught here, when this concept, I think, is properly understood and appreciated, then it will, in fact, serve as a motivation to our life in this life now, so that we will be transformed into the new life that will be characteristic of the new creation.
Now, let me make an application of this, and I want to do it with what is a very hot topic today, and one that is very sensitive, and that is the issue of homosexuality. There are a lot of so called Christians who are caving in on this moral issue of homosexuality. And I ask myself, why is this happening? There are people that I know who have taken a compromised position in all of this, that homosexuality is not that bad. How can you-- how can you say the two adults who love each other, doesn't matter what their gender is, how can you say that these people are wrong? They love each other. And so there has been this, this compromise that has been going on, and particularly this has been happening in conservative groups, particularly among conservative and evangelicals. As a matter of fact, for the shepherds of this group, in fact, for everybody in this group, but particularly the shepherds, I would recommend a book that will blow your mind, and it's called Shepherds for Sale. It was published just a month ago, written by a woman by the name of Megan Basham, and it is eye opening about what is happening among conservative evangelicals, even some are listed in that among Churches of Christ, one character, at least in particular. So why is this happening? I don't have the answer to that question particularly, but I will suggest something because I think I need to suggest something that I think is important. It may, in fact, be that there is cultural pressure in all of this. There's no question about that, but I believe that a more significant factor is that many people who are claiming to be Christians have failed to really understand the holiness of heaven, and that's indicated by the fact that they are willing to accept in this life, now, and this is how they are willing to live their lives now, in accepting things that the Bible clearly shows is unacceptable. You know, if it's true, as some have come to believe, that heaven is a place of universal acceptance of people who, for the most part, are pretty nice people, then why in the world would anyone care? Why should it be a big deal about homosexuality here on Earth. Since people who practice this, for the most part, they appear to be pretty nice people. I have known men who have struggled with homosexuality. I've known men who have practiced homosexuality, and every one of them is a nice guy, a really nice guy. I've known a couple of women who were lesbians. They're not as nice as the men. I don't know why that is, but whatever the case, homosexual men are pretty nice people. As a matter of fact, I don't share this with many people. Actually, I do. I've said this, use this illustration many times, but in my life, I have been approached by four men, homosexuals, approached by four men. Now you can expand on that how you want. And I have never been, never been hit on by a woman. And I'm thinking to myself, after the fourth time that happened, and I was talking with my wife about this, and I said, What is it about me that draws men? I just don't get it here. And boy, I'll tell you what my masculinity was really beginning to be-- it was starting to suffer. And my wife, she gave me this bit of wisdom that perhaps helped me a little bit. She said, you're just not receptive to when women are hitting on you. Well, what does that mean? I'm receptive when men are hitting on me? But they were all nice guys. Every one of them was a nice guy. Two of them were good friends of mine. One of them sang in my wedding. Just some very nice people. If our understanding of Heaven is, as I said, it's just this place where God is going to accept everybody, then what is this big issue about homosexuality? Because they are very nice people.
Well, I'll tell you, I think it's this. Then many Christians have never been taught about these other things, about what Paul or what John writes in the revelation about sorcerers and murderers and idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood, and how that they're going to be left outside the gates of heaven. However you understand that so that they don't really then have the courage to stand up and say that the sexually immoral who refuse to repent will not be welcomed there either. But folks, that is exactly the picture of the biblical text. That is the way Heaven is identified. That's the way it's described in the glimpses that we have of it. So if heaven is a holy place, which is exactly what the Bible teaches. And if heaven is going to be inhabited by holy people, which is exactly what the Bible teaches, then if we are going to be able to enter into this place of holiness, we must strive in this life for holiness, which requires a transformed life. As the Hebrew writer said in Hebrews, chapter 12 and verse 14, "Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord." And if you don't like this notion of being holy, which requires and demonstrates transformation, then I'm pretty certain you wouldn't like heaven if you were allowed to go there anyway. If you don't like a holy God, then why in the world would you want to be with Him forever? And if you don't like being around holy people, then who in the world are you going to pal around with in the new creation? And if your worship is something that doesn't appeal to you now, then what makes you think it'll be a thrill in heaven. One man put it this way, you would not be happy there because you are not holy here. Charles Spurgeon put it this way, it is sooner that a fish could learn to enjoy living in a tree than the wicked to live in heaven. Our concept of heaven being a holy place prepared for a holy people demonstrates itself in the way that we live our lives now being transformed into holy people. And so again, I ask the question, what is your concept of heaven? Is it Heaven is a holy place? If it is, then we have to be holy people, and that's what we are being transformed into.
And then the third question that I want just to think about, which is the final question, are we Great Commission Christians? Let's turn to Matthew chapter 28 again. It's a very familiar text, but let's turn over there. And as we're doing so, I want you to be thinking about this question, and that is, what is involved in the Great Commission? Matthew gives us, probably what is the most detailed account of this. So in Matthew 28 beginning there in the 18th verse, Jesus is speaking, and he says, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age." You know, there are actually two parts to this great commission. There is the first part which Jesus says, I want you to go and make disciples of all nations, which is completed when they have been baptized. And then the second part is, I want you to Teach these new disciples to observe all that I've commanded you, in other words, to teach them to observe all that Jesus commanded. Now, it's important to note something here, and that is this word, observe there in Matthew chapter 28 and in verse 20. Teaching them to observe. That's the English Standard Version translation. I think for the most part, it's the way most modern English translations translate this verse, except the New International Version. And the New International Version translates it this way, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And that took me down this little rabbit hole of looking up this word. I think that many times when we use the word observe, we carry it, carries with it, at least this connotation that we have to take notice of something. I want you to observe this. Okay, so we take notice of something and we're looking at it. But this Greek word literally means to keep it doesn't mean just simply to look. It means to keep and hence, I think, is the reason why the translators of the NIV translated this to obey. And so in fulfilling the Great Commission, we are not asking of new disciples to simply take notice of Jesus commands, kind of like we would be taking a new art student into some profound Art Gallery and tell them observe this painting. That's not what we're doing. What we are trying to do and what we should be trying to do is to teach new disciples to follow Jesus, teaching, in other words, to obey his commands. And so when we think of carrying out the Great Commission, oftentimes, what our concept of the Great Commission is is that we have to take the gospel message to those who are lost in sin, encouraging them to obey the gospel so that they can be saved. Now, obviously that's true as far as it goes, but what I'm suggesting is it doesn't go far enough. God doesn't simply want those who are lost in sin to come to know Jesus and to receive the salvation from sin that he's made possible, although he wants them to have that. He wants those who have been saved to continue to be obedient to Jesus. In other words, the Great Commission is not just about changing our spiritual position, or our spiritual posture, from being lost to being saved. It's also about changing our lives. Being transformed by being obedient to all that Jesus is taught. I do not believe that we take the Great Commission seriously if we do not help our fellow disciples to continue to grow in obedience, bringing about the desired transformation. And so again, are we great commission Christians? And by that again, I'm not just simply saying, Are you taking the message of the gospel to people who need to hear it? That's important. But once people are saved, are we continuing to take the message that you now have to obey what Jesus teaches? Because that's where the rub oftentimes enters into people's lives.
You know, if you've been saved by Christ, then you've received a wonderful gift, a gift that God has freely given to you, totally by His grace. And I will tell you this, that you have earned nothing, nor could you ever possibly earn this salvation. As people who are saved, though, we have been given new life, we have been made new creatures. We are a part of a new creation that has to be fully consummated, but we are already a part of it, as we await the consummation and we anticipate our time being in this new creation throughout eternity, we need to praise God every day for what he has done for us through Christ. And again, let me say to you that you need to be thinking about this, that if you're not a Christian, you need to be thinking about it from the perspective of the fact that the only way this is ever going to start is when you receive that free gift, and you now have life, and as we addressed in our first session, now you have the facilitation of being able to change, to transform, to be what God wants you to be. But let me say, as I bring this to a conclusion, I want to speak to those of us who are saved, we have to understand that we have not just simply been saved from something. Yes, we have been saved from sin. Yes, we have been saved from God's wrath. Yes, we have been saved from eternal condemnation. But we haven't just been saved from something. We have been saved to something, and that something is to live transformed, lives created in Christ, Jesus for good works, walking worthy of our calling, which is indicated by the ways we've looked at. So ask yourself as you go through the next few days, is your obedience known to all? Is your concept of heaven a holy place that is to be inhabited by holy people? And are you a great commission Christian helping your fellow disciples continue to grow in their obedience as you are growing in your obedience?
Now, tomorrow, as I said, we're going to talk about what I think is probably the most important lesson in this series, and that is when we're going through this process, and it seems to have stalled. Seems to have stopped. What do I do? Well, come back tomorrow, we'll talk about that, and hopefully it will be informative to you. You all have been wonderful listeners, and I appreciate so much the opportunity to spend this morning with you all, and I hope that the things that I've said to you are things that can be helpful, things that help us to understand, perhaps in a little bit different light, and perhaps in a more deeper way, what the concept of biblical transformation is all about. Thank you very much for your attention.
