December 6
Acts 28:1-31; Ephesians 1:1-2:22
If you had a police line-up and you were asked to pick out the Christian, the servant of God, by externals, you would more often than not get it wrong. I would add if you had that same line-up and were asked to pick out those I call friends, those I choose to confide in, those I would turn to for advice, again you would often get it wrong based on externals. Externals often emphasize superficialities and appearances. There are many who "look the part". Many respectable members of society, who are good spouses and parents, responsible, and lead fairly moral lives, have never humbled themselves before God and repented of all of those sins that they commit daily, but that often go unnoticed by the world. There are so many who are ex-addicts, ex-convicts, ex-gang members who in no way look the part. Yet it is often these who realized the gravity of their sin and have made the choice to follow Jesus Christ. Many of them still carry the scars from that past life, but their hearts have changed. It is these that God calls His children. It is these that I call brother and sister. What a departure from how we are trained from when we are young. For us in Christ it is not about attaching ourselves to the Who's Who in society, but God's chosen. Yes, these friends are not the ones that my parents might have chosen for me growing up. They are not the ones who could have catapulted my career in medical school. But these are true friends. They have the truth indwelt in them as they abide daily in the Word of God. Their counsel aligns with God's Word and can be trusted. I can honestly say that I love them.
After the shipwreck, the inhabitants of Malta sized up their new guests, but were wrong. We read in Acts 28:3-6, "As Paul gathered an armful of sticks and was laying them on the fire, a poisonous snake, driven out by the heat, bit him on the hand. The people of the island saw it hanging from his hand and said to each other, “A murderer, no doubt! Though he escaped the sea, justice will not permit him to live.” But Paul shook off the snake into the fire and was unharmed. The people waited for him to swell up or suddenly drop dead. But when they had waited a long time and saw that he wasn’t harmed, they changed their minds and decided he was a god." Paul, the prisoner went on to heal many on the island. In Paul's greeting to the Ephesian church, we read in Ephesians 1:5-7, "God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins." Notice in these verses that there was no merit system of good works which were required to be adopted into the family. It was His choice, and for His pleasure that we are chosen. For us, it comes to making a choice, not being good enough.
Realize, nothing distinguished us from one another You simply cannot tell by how one looks, how respectable one might appear, as we read in 2:1-3, "Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else." Getting married at the age of 20, doing well in school, ambitiously pursuing a career in medicine, might have made me look the part, but until I made that decision to repent of my sins and accept Christ's free offer of salvation, I was just as much the degenerate sinner as everyone else, I just didn't look the part. To reiterate, you can't distinguish based on externals. We come to a portion of Scripture which should be memorized in 2:8-10 (NKJV), "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." You can stop trying to earn your way into heaven. Jesus did it for us. He alone is good enough. Whatever externals and fences you might have established in your upbringing, please abolish them all, for Jesus Christ has taken away all distinction except one, salvation in His finished work. It is this internal truth that makes us relatives, not our heritage, skin color, marital status, income, position, etc. If Jesus calls you friend, and He does if you have accepted Him, then that is what I call you.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: