Leaving the World to Reach the World

today on grace to you we live to fulfill the will of god in other words to make the gospel believable we have to be different from the world the strategy is to leave the world to separate from the world to abandon the world to reach the world [Music] what in the world makes us so embarrassed about the gospel i determined to know nothing among you except jesus christ and him crucified [Music] [Music] therefore if you have been raised up with christ keep seeking the things above where christ is seated at the right hand of god set your mind on the things above not on the things that are on earth for you have died and your life is hidden with christ in god when christ who is our life is revealed then you also will be revealed with him in glory now what i want to focus on in this opening part of the third chapter is the very clear command to keep seeking the things above verse one and verse two set your mind on things above not on things that are on the earth let me begin by just kind of reinforcing the title leaving the world to reach the world we all get the mission of the church in the world we're to reach the world with the gospel go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature where to go and where to bring the gospel and then where to teach them to observe everything the lord has commanded them make disciples that's the great commission we're here for the purpose of calling to salvation from a human viewpoint those whom god will call from his divine sovereign will we are the instrument he does this through believers through the church so we all get the great commission we we understand that let's just say we understand the mission we also i think understand for the most part the message we we understand the message is the gospel that christ came into the world as the incarnate son of god that he lived his endless life after having been born of a virgin that um he died a substitutionary death he rose literally physically from the grave uh he ascended into heaven he sits at the right hand of the father on high and he intercedes for us we understand that we understand the history of our lord's incarnation we understand the purpose of it it is to bring salvation he came to give his life for his people he came to be the sacrifice that would satisfy god so we get the gospel message that christ lived died rose again for our salvation but what the church seems to be having trouble with is the method the method the church has been taken captive by a kind of pragmatism that it seems it cannot shake and i think that pragmatism is dealt with in the simple statements that i just pointed out to you in verses one and two keep seeking the things above and set your mind on things above rather than doing that rather than setting its mind on heaven rather than seeking what is above believers today and even church leaders today seem to be preoccupied with seeking things that are below the actual purpose seems to be to best assess the world around us and do the most we can to make some kind of superficial alterations in our economics or in our social structure or in our cultural definitions the church seems to be earth bound and of course that would be a satanic strategy wouldn't it if we're called to heavenly things then satan would want to make sure we got trapped in earthly things and that has been the death of churches throughout church history but it seems to be that even today a kind of evangelical pragmatism where we we understand the mission we even understand the message but we really are confused about the method bible claiming bible believing churches i'm talking about are the ones that are confused and have no reason to be confused if they just kept reading the bible they affirm there's a popular and widespread and fully embraced i think notion that to reach the world we have to become like the world that's basically the bottom line we've got to become like the world that is the common perspective of evangelical pragmatism pragmatism basically says we do what works so we do what attracts people we give people what they want we talk the way they like to talk we play the way they like to play we we act the way they like to act we like the things that they like and and the more common ground we can find with the world the more effectively we build a bridge to them to give them the gospel that's essentially what pragmatism is it seems to work it draws a crowd they like it this has to be right that's what pragmatism says so the bottom line is the church needs to become as much like the world as possible we need to give the unbelievers as much of what they want as possible we need to adopt their their cultural style their fashion their music their entertainment their media their jargon as much as possible we need to to accept their cultural expectations for things like comfort anonymity self-fulfillment acceptance tolerance affirmation and you can fill out the list yourself and we need to sort of remove all the obstacles that offend them things like sin and righteousness and judgment and wrath and eternal punishment things that convict things that indict things that condemn and we need to embrace as many social ideologies as possible we we need to really be open to feminism we need to be open to homosexuality same-sex marriage sex outside of marriage social justice victimization intersectionality critical theory social politics because these are all the things that everybody's caught up in these are the things that they are advocating now and unless we want to be isolated we need to jump on the advocacy bandwagon we need to essentially accept as many worldly norms as we can possibly accept that is typical of the modern method to supposedly fulfill the great commission now is that the right strategy is that the way it ought to be are we supposed to find as many things as possible that are exactly what unconverted people want in a given culture and make sure we give them all of those and that is what builds the bridge well in reality that is the opposite of what the bible says that is absolutely opposite what god has called us to do by way of methodology according to god's word we have to leave the world to reach the world we have to leave the world to reach the world this is basic listen to the words of our lord in john 8 23 he says to the jewish leaders you are from below i am from above you are of this world i am not of this world you will never find in the entire ministry of our lord in all of his interactions as recorded in the four gospels any time where he accommodated the world in any way any time where he occupied himself with trying to set worldly disorder back into order or worldly confusion back into sanity that you will not find a time when he wanted to deal with worldly economics or societal injustices or inequities there is no human philosophy in his evangelism or that of the apostles and neither should there be in ours i think we've lost sight of the fact that the strategy is exactly opposite what seems to be popular today the strategy is to leave the world to separate from the world to abandon the world to reach the world in other words to make the gospel believable we have to be different from the world we have to be other than the world i i want to show you that in several portions of scripture i think they'll all be familiar with you to you but i want you to hear them again romans 12 romans 12 very beloved portion of scripture just the opening couple of verses after 11 chapters of the glories of the gospel paul brings in a therefore based upon the glories of the gospel which he calls the mercies of god here's what you're to do present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to god which is your spiritual service of worship okay you're a believer you've become transformed by the gospel you have one responsibility that is to see your entire life presenting yourself as a living sacrifice to god that's a heavenly act that's because you're not of this world you're from above you belong to the kingdom of heaven and so the initial responsibility you have as a believer is to give your life up to god in a way that is a sacrifice holy and acceptable to god that is your initial act of spiritual service of worship so you start your worship by offering yourself to god in other words this is a whole giving of oneself to divine purposes this transcends the world and on the backside of that verse 2 do not be conformed to this world do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of god is that which is good and acceptable and perfect so what does it mean then what does it mean to offer your life as a living sacrifice unto god holy and acceptable to him what does that mean it means that you do not conform to the world but rather are transformed by the renewing of your mind your mind is renewed by the word of god and all you live for is to demonstrate what the will of god is so what does it mean then to live a risen life what does it mean to leave the world it means to live entirely within the framework of divine commands entirely within the framework of what the will of god is which is good and acceptable and perfect we live to fulfill the will of god and as we do that obviously we recognize this is consistent with who we are for we are the temple of the living god just as god said i will dwell in them and walk among them i will be their god and they shall be my people this is consistent with the fact that god now takes up residence in us right god lives in us father son and holy spirit really the triune god lives within us we are the temple of god so we are people of heaven we are heavenly people we are concerned to offer our lives and sacrifices to god and god alone it's a solo sacrifice he is the only lord we give him everything this means that we are a temple unto him we are sacred in the total sense because god dwells in us then verse 17 gives the implications of that taken from isaiah in the old testament therefore come out from their midst and be separate says the lord what does that mean come out from their midst and be separate and do not touch what is unclean and i will welcome you and i will be a father to you and you shall be sons and daughters to me says the lord almighty if you're a child of god you have come out from the world you have been separated from the world this is a separation [Music] in galatians chapter 1 verse 3 grace to you and peace from god our father and the lord jesus christ who gave himself for our sins so that he might rescue us from this present evil age according to the will of our god and father to whom be the glory forevermore amen this is a doxology coming out of the heart of the apostle paul over the fact that god and the lord jesus christ have rescued us from this present evil age we are separated from it we are rescued from it in philippians chapter 2 just to continue to see how consistent scripture is on this verse 15 says you are to prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent children of god now have you noticed all this language we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to god that's our spiritual act of worship we offer holy living sacrifices to him this means that because we are sacrifices to him we are separated from the world we touch not the unclean thing we come out uh from the world we leave the world and here you have the same thing exactly in verse 15. you are to be blameless and innocent children of god picks up the same identification that we're children of god we are to live above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you appear as lights in the world holding fast the word of life it is to be obvious to everyone that we belong to god that we are otherworldly that we are not a part of this world now this is challenging because we're still in this world we're still in this world but while we are in this world we are not to be of this world and of course the lord jesus is the example of that he was in this perverse and corrupt world borrow paul's words and yet it never affected him he was the light shining in the darkness and listen to what he said in john 15 9 18 and 19. if the world hates you you know that it's hated me before it hated you just something to remind the pragmatist about christ himself came into the world to preach the gospel and he was hated he was hated by the mass of people he came to zone his own received him not he was in the world the world was made by him the world knew him not he was rejected he was rejected aggressively he was rejected hatefully and hostily so that they actually executed him so i think that is basically the undoing of any pragmatic approach to evangelism because our lord himself who was the shining light in the darkness the the light that was the purest light that ever walked on earth and he was killed by the very world he came to preach to so he says if the world hates you you know it's hated me verse 19 if you were of the world the world would love its own but because you're not of the world but i choose you out of the world because of this the world hates you you're not of the world i choose you out of the world so we live above the world we live out of the world we have to leave the world to reach the world not become more and more and more like the world over in the 17th chapter of john's gospel and verse 15 he said in his prayer to the father i do not ask you to take them out of the world but to keep them from the evil one he doesn't take us out of the world he leaves us here he prays that the father would protect us from the evil one but he leaves us in the world this is where we have to be to do the work that the church is called to do we have to be in the world but we also have to be heavenly heavenly what makes the gospel believable is the transformed life i've said this repeatedly through the years that you you can preach the gospel to people all you want but unless they see a transformed life by the power of the gospel what's the attraction that's why all the garbage in the church all the sin and immorality at the leadership level in christianity is so disastrous because it basically turns all the claims of christianity into hypocrisy and lies you cannot tell me that christ changes lives makes you holy bef when you were before unholy if what i see is just more unholiness like everybody else if religious people are just charlatans and frauds and phonies and maybe in some cases the worst that men can be because of their hypocrisy and because they misused the name of god in christ then there's nothing in the gospel that attracts me that's why jesus said look let your light so shine before men that they may see your what your good works and glorify your father who's in heaven you are light shining in the world but only when they can see your good works and when it's manifestly obvious that things that are happening in your life are not normal when they see that there's a triumph over sin there's a triumph over iniquity transgression when they see that there's a life full of gratitude and joy love and virtue and humility they can see the transformation pragmatism does nothing but make the gospel harder to communicate because it's all mixed up with what the world loves this has to be separated separated to such a degree that even the one who is the greatest evangelist who ever walked was hated by the very people he came to reach paul said come out from among them and be separate what does that mean it means that you're above the things of this earth you don't live in this kingdom you live in the kingdom of heaven you have been literally blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in christ so that's why back to our text in colossians 3 paul starts by saying therefore the first two chapters he talked about salvation the first two chapters he talked about christ and what he did for us i read the second chapter for you does the same thing in the first chapter so because you have been redeemed because you have been transformed because you have been forgiven because christ paid the debt for your sins therefore since instead of if because this is not hypothetical this is factual since you have been raised up with christ you have died with him you have risen with him he has been saying that in the opening two chapters you are in christ you're a citizen of the kingdom you're part of the household of god since this is true that you died and were raised up with christ here's the command keep seeking the things above where christ is seated at the right hand of god set your mind on things above not on the things that are on earth that is a general command that is the first sweeping command in response to gospel privilege we have entered into a new kingdom we're not part of this world we have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of god's dear son this is amazing language we are heavenly beings listen the fact of your salvation was a greater change than you'll experience at your death at your death you have subtraction you lose your fallen flesh that's subtraction when you die but at salvation you were given a new and eternal nature that's forever that was the transformation of all transformations look at philippians chapter three just a couple more of these important scriptures verse 19 talking about unbelievers whose end is destruction whose god is their appetite and that defines them in general whose glory is in their shame in other words they find their satisfaction and shame they worship their own appetite their own desires they're headed for destruction but notice the last indictment who set their minds on earthly things that's how people who are on the way to destruction live people whose god is their appetite whose glory is in their shame verse 20 for our citizenship is in heaven from which also we eagerly wait for a savior the lord jesus christ who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory by the exertion of his power that he has even to subject all things to himself our citizenship is in heaven not on earth so we live in the heavenlies everything we love and everything we're part of is in heaven our father is there our savior is there our inheritance is there our home is there our citizenship is there our reward is there it's all there all the virtues we love are heavenly virtues all the truths we love are heavenly truths all the enterprises that we want to engage in are heavenly enterprises this is a life that is consumed with focusing on what is heavenly what is eternal and that means it's focused on christ who is the embodiment of all of that so this heavenly focus is a focus on christ and we want we want to do the will of god that's a heavenward life and we want to do what god wills and only what god wills we want to fulfill his purpose in his way we want to be preoccupied with christ we want to draw down all the virtues that belong to christ this is how we want to be go down to verse 12. so as those who have been chosen of god holy and beloved be like the lord put on a heart of compassion kindness humility gentleness patience bearing with one another forgiving each other whoever has a complaint against anyone just as the lord forgave you so also should you beyond all these things put on love which is the perfect bond of unity let the peace of christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body be thankful let the word of christ richly dwell within you with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with thankfulness in your heart to the lord whatever you do in word or deed to all in the name of the lord jesus giving thanks through him to god the father that's living a heavenly life drawing down all the truth and all the virtue from heaven into your life so he says in verse 1 keep seeking this is a lifelong pursuit keep seeking what does it mean to keep seeking it's explained in verse two it's a mental exercise it's a mental process keep seeking by setting your minds on the things above not on things of the earth again i just say christians get sucked into so many earthly things what do you spend most of your time thinking about what preoccupies you what irritates you what exhilarates you where are your joys and where are your disappointments located in this world or in the heavenly realm what moves your heart what occupies your emotions live in the heavenlies don't get caught up in the earth and when people see heavenly lives the gospel becomes believable you must not only seek heaven but you must think heaven and all that is heavens is revealed on the pages of scripture where is your mind what are you seeking what occupies your life i hope it's heaven and i hope that heavenly occupation shows up in heavenly living that's how we leave the world to reach the world we know it's easy to be distracted by our day-to-day lives what we will eat all the things to be checked off our lists by the end of the day the potentially stressful conversations at work and at home budgeting meetings events and the list goes on it's a never-ending spiral and yet that's exactly what our flesh and satan want to get us diverted from our true and only purpose on this earth as believers sharing the gospel in every land that is our purpose to make clear and share the gospel to all who will hear to help you in your pursuit of growing in christ and understanding the word of god i'd encourage you to visit our website gty.org and take advantage of the thousands of resources available to you at no charge again that's gty.org thanks for opening god's word with us today we'll see you next time on grace to you [Music]

Channel: Grace to You

Views: 51,438

Rating: 4.9487777 out of 5

Keywords: John MacArthur, Bible, Preaching, Christianity, Expository, Exposition, Sermon, Jesus, Christ, Grace to You, evangelism

Id: E9CfDaVtccM

Length: 28min 30sec (1710 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 03 2021