At the Bible conference last week in Chicago, preacher Alex Kurz closed his message on “walking intelligently” with this prayer: “May we take to heart the danger in walking like other Gentiles walk as they are participating and perpetuating the Adversary’s policy of evil, the spiritual ignorance, having their understanding darkened. May it not be so with us. May we certainly find all meaning and relevance and purpose in life through the Lord Jesus Christ. May we be living images of that one true image of our Savior.”
Here’s how Frankfort,
Kentucky preacher Greg Resor, a high school math teacher by trade, began his message
at the conference:
Religion
pushes forth this issue of glorying in the flesh and this system, in Ephesians
2:2, that we used to walk in teaches us how to walk in a manner that would be pleasing
to the flesh: “Look at what I’ve done. Look at what I’m able to do. Look how
good I am.”
Ephesians 2: [2]
Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according
to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience:
[3] Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the
lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and
were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
There’s an
education that’s taking place based upon a corrupted wisdom and we were a part
of that class our entire lives until we came to know Jesus Christ. We were
taught how to be selfish from a young age.
There’s a
teaching, a curriculum that goes along with this. Who created it? Satan, "the prince of the power of the air." He’s designed this curriculum and set it forth and he
doesn’t have to do anything. He just says, “Have at it.” And we just followed
along with that because that’s what we were taught we were supposed to do. Taught
by the TV and the movies and all those things we spent our time with.
Everything we
see in this world outside of the Word of God is to promote that education. I
spent 14 years as a part of public education and I’ve always told folks, “However
bad you think the education system is, it’s way worse.” I’ll just be honest with
you.
I Corinthians
2: [1] And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of
speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
[2] For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ,
and him crucified.
[3] And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
[4] And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's
wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
[5] That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the
power of God.
[6] Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the
wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
[7] But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom,
which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
Here you see
both those wisdoms showing up. One of them, Paul says, “I’m not coming to you in
man’s wisdom; I’m coming to you with something greater than that—something that’s
not corrupted. In fact, cannot be corrupted.”
How is that
we know we’re falling back into Satan’s wisdom? If it’s all about flesh, me
glorying in me.
I’ve thought
about this before. As an unsaved person did you ever think, “How can I glorify
God?” Now that you’re saved how often do you think, “How can I not glorify
Satan?” We have to constantly remind ourselves of who we are in Christ so that
we don’t fall back into that glorying in ourselves and living after the flesh.
*****
Here’s an
outtake from Kurz’ sermon:
II Cor. 5:17:
[17] Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things
are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Paul never
uses the language “born again.” He never uses the language “a new birth.” A new
birth and a new creature are two different things. When a mother gives birth to
a child what does that do? It perpetuates the human species. When a cow gives birth
to a calf, what’s going on? It perpetuates the species.
We’re a
genuine, one-of-a-kind species. You see the difference? We are in Christ a new
order of species; an exclusive race, unique. It’s the “church the body of
Christ” and we do have this relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Colossians
3:10: [10] And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge
after the image of him that created him:
To walk
intelligently today is to recognize that there is this new creature, the church
the body of Christ. He is the living head; we are its membership. We are
genetically related to this new creature.
This new
creature is given the privilege of representing the Lord Jesus Christ while we’re
here. The verse says to “redeem the time for the days are evil.”
Listen, the
Adversary understands who we are and he understands that if he can get the body
of Christ to do what the nation of Israel did in the past—“Hey, why don’t you
walk like the Gentiles walk?”
He understands
that if we start walking like those Gentiles, alienated from the life of God,
having their understanding darkened, we will be rendered irrelevant. We’re
going to be neutralized. We will be made vain, and not only that, we’ll start
to lose purpose and meaning in life: “What’s the point?”
Then, instead
of being the mirror reflection of OUR image in Christ . . . You know what those
rulers of darkness, that spiritual wickedness in high places . . . You know
what the principalities and powers desire most? The same thing they desired in
the past: worship, admiration, participation.
If the
Adversary can get the Body of Christ . . . instead of being the reflection of
the image of Jesus Christ (“Put on that new man”), he would rather we start
reflecting the image of those small “g” gods out there, where we begin to reflect
the value system of the course of this world. We begin to think like the course
of this world. We begin to prioritize our lives according to “the prince of the power of the air.”
II Corinthians
3: [17] Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is liberty.
[18] But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the
Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the
Spirit of the Lord.
To behold is
to contemplate, reflect. Paul says, “Consider, hear, understand.” To behold is
to spend time “beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord.”
An intelligent faith is living a life based upon an understanding of God’s Word rightly divided, and by doing so we’re “changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”