WEBVTT 00:00:00.479 --> 00:00:03.200 Our text today is from the book of Colossians. 00:00:03.279 --> 00:00:09.119 We're continuing a study of the Apostle Paul's letter to the church at Colossae. 00:00:10.400 --> 00:00:15.679 That letter we call the letter of Paul to the Colossians, and we've been studying it for some time. 00:00:15.919 --> 00:00:19.440 And for those of you who are new with us, yes, we are still only in chapter one. 00:00:20.320 --> 00:00:26.239 We're reading today from chapter one, verse 23 through 27. 00:00:27.199 --> 00:00:28.320 This is our text. 00:00:30.480 --> 00:00:45.119 If indeed you continue in the faith stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister. 00:00:45.679 --> 00:01:10.319 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the church, of which I became a minister, according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints. 00:01:10.879 --> 00:01:23.680 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 00:01:24.719 --> 00:01:30.079 Let's pray together that God might open his word to us. 00:01:35.680 --> 00:01:36.400 There we go. 00:01:36.480 --> 00:01:37.359 Let's pray this together. 00:01:37.680 --> 00:01:41.359 Lord, your word is a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path. 00:01:41.599 --> 00:01:45.840 Help us to hide your word in our hearts that we might not sin against you. 00:01:46.239 --> 00:01:54.319 Your written word is your revelation of your living word, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are made and all things are sustained. 00:01:54.719 --> 00:02:06.159 May the preaching of your word help to make us, sustain us, convict us, and console us for your glory and our good, and the good of those who have not yet heard. 00:02:06.480 --> 00:02:07.120 Amen. 00:02:08.719 --> 00:02:16.719 I think very close, very soon we will come to, we'll get to the place where we've memorized all of these prayers for our children and for the word. 00:02:18.400 --> 00:02:22.319 This passage of scripture starts in the middle of a phrase. 00:02:22.560 --> 00:02:29.199 And so for our understanding, let me go back and read from verse 21. 00:02:30.159 --> 00:02:43.039 Paul says, And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he is now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. 00:02:43.280 --> 00:02:57.439 If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister. 00:03:01.280 --> 00:03:17.840 The topic or doctrine of perseverance of the saints, the doctrines of predestination and election, have been difficult ones for us as a congregation for the last couple of months. 00:03:18.479 --> 00:03:26.879 Since I came here, but even since before I came here, because before I came to be your pastor, I preached a couple of times, three times. 00:03:27.680 --> 00:03:30.560 And this doctrine kept coming up in the text. 00:03:31.039 --> 00:03:46.560 And they're difficult for us as a congregation because you know, most of you know, and I know that we've had a couple of families, a couple of couples that have left us specifically over this doctrine, and that's painful for you. 00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:49.120 It's painful for me too, but not in the same way. 00:03:49.199 --> 00:03:52.159 It's painful for you because you love them and you know them. 00:03:52.719 --> 00:03:56.240 Um I haven't gotten the chance to get to know them very well yet. 00:03:56.400 --> 00:04:08.400 Though I must say, in all of this proceeding, they've been very kind to me, they've been nothing but gracious to me, but simply don't believe this doctrine of perseverance of the saints. 00:04:08.800 --> 00:04:13.360 And the question was asked to me is this something that I intend to preach as I'm your pastor? 00:04:13.520 --> 00:04:25.439 And my response was this: I intend to preach Scripture, and I intend to preach these doctrines because Scripture preaches these doctrines, and I can't get away from them in the text. 00:04:25.920 --> 00:04:36.800 I wouldn't want to avoid them anyway, because to me they are so sweet, they are so comforting, they are so reassuring. 00:04:37.439 --> 00:04:56.079 I wouldn't want to not preach them, but even if I was tempted to do so, just in order to be kind or to save relationships or to give time for us to get to know one another, it's very hard for me to stay away from those doctrines in the text of Scripture because they come up all the time. 00:04:56.720 --> 00:05:01.839 And so we pick the study of Colossians because Colossians centers on Christ. 00:05:02.240 --> 00:05:11.120 And as my first sermon series with you, my desire was that we would realign ourselves on the person and the work of Jesus Christ. 00:05:11.360 --> 00:05:13.120 And so we have this series that we're in. 00:05:13.199 --> 00:05:16.639 It says on the front of your bulletin, Christ is all, right? 00:05:17.040 --> 00:05:20.959 The soul-satisfying supremacy of Jesus. 00:05:21.360 --> 00:05:29.120 And it is that supremacy of Jesus that comes into play in these doctrines. 00:05:29.600 --> 00:05:43.600 This is why, one of the reasons why, these are so important to us, and why, if ever given the chance, I would love to tell people, have the opportunity to tell people these truths. 00:05:43.920 --> 00:05:51.839 Because it says significant things about who God is and our perception of how big he is. 00:05:53.040 --> 00:05:58.879 A number of Christians struggle deeply with the doctrine of the perseverance of saints or whatever you want to call it. 00:05:59.199 --> 00:06:07.920 When they read that final salvation is conditional upon continuing the faith, as we read in this passage, this is one of those passages that must be discussed. 00:06:08.079 --> 00:06:13.120 The reason why these things have been debated in the church for a couple of thousand years. 00:06:13.439 --> 00:06:29.439 But when some Christians read these kinds of passages, this if indeed passage here that we're beginning with in verse 23, they are instantly paralyzed by anxiety or driven to a performance-based legalism. 00:06:29.839 --> 00:06:31.439 Some of you grew up in that. 00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:38.480 Some of you grew up in a legalism that said, in order for God to be happy with you this week, you have to do these things. 00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:42.560 In order for God to be happy with you in your life, you have to do these things. 00:06:42.720 --> 00:06:48.000 There are whole religions based around that purpose. 00:06:48.319 --> 00:06:55.680 That we could make ourselves somehow right with God or that God would be pleased with us because of our own merit or works. 00:06:57.439 --> 00:07:12.160 We can diagnose this spiritual sickness, this constant anxiety, the churning of the stomach that leads to this performance-based legalism as a twofold optical illusion, if you will. 00:07:12.959 --> 00:07:23.040 One is that our view of God is too small, that we're looking at God and we're seeing God way too small, way smaller than he really is. 00:07:23.199 --> 00:07:37.040 And our view of ourselves, for better or worse, not necessarily egotistically, but our view of ourselves, even if our view of ourselves is very, very bad, that our view of ourselves is simply too big. 00:07:38.480 --> 00:07:40.639 So there are two ways to look through a telescope. 00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:42.639 I don't, when was the last time you looked through a telescope? 00:07:42.720 --> 00:07:44.720 I don't, I can't even think when that was. 00:07:44.879 --> 00:07:52.879 Some of you have kids around and you bought them a telescope thinking that would be a nice thing for them to hang their clothes on, and that's what they do with it. 00:07:53.120 --> 00:07:57.839 Some of your kids are going to be astronauts, and they're like, no, no, I use mine every day. 00:07:58.399 --> 00:08:00.399 But I know there's two ways to look through a telescope. 00:08:00.480 --> 00:08:02.480 There's a there's a right way and there's a wrong way. 00:08:02.560 --> 00:08:12.399 There's the way that when you look through a telescope, you're looking through it from the little end, and on the other end, there's a big end, my scientific knowledge, you that's about the extent of it there, okay? 00:08:12.560 --> 00:08:16.399 There's a little end and a big end to a telescope, somewhere in between there are lenses, I believe. 00:08:16.560 --> 00:08:26.000 If you look through the lens correctly, then a massive distant star is magnified so you can see how breathtakingly large it really is. 00:08:26.720 --> 00:08:34.159 But if you ever turned the telescope around, and maybe you did this when you were a kid, you turn the telescope around and you look through the big end. 00:08:34.799 --> 00:08:44.639 And you have to kind of get your eye all the way up in there, and then someone else might come in and look in the little end, and if they get totally freaked out because your giant eye is sitting there in the middle of it, right? 00:08:44.960 --> 00:08:55.440 But if you look through the big end, then if you look at the stars, then a massive object suddenly looks even more microscopic and distant and insignificant. 00:08:56.240 --> 00:09:04.080 And when it comes to this doctrine, some Christians look at God through the wrong end of the telescope. 00:09:04.159 --> 00:09:19.120 They see a small, distant, reactionary God who is helplessly standing at the finish line, waiting to see if you and I have enough personal stamina to finish the race and make it all the way to Him. 00:09:21.519 --> 00:09:26.320 Some other Christians look at ourselves through a magnifying glass. 00:09:26.559 --> 00:09:31.120 Maybe it's the same Christians, but some Christians look at themselves through a magnifying glass. 00:09:31.279 --> 00:09:40.480 We over-emphasize our own willpower, our initial choices that we maybe made long ago, and our spiritual grit. 00:09:41.039 --> 00:09:43.039 We overemphasize these things. 00:09:43.279 --> 00:09:50.639 We view our salvation as like this thin tightrope that we're walking, right? 00:09:51.120 --> 00:09:53.919 I won't ask you when the last time you walked the tightrope was. 00:09:54.080 --> 00:09:56.320 Some of you, please don't, please don't do that, okay? 00:09:56.399 --> 00:09:58.480 Don't walk any tightropes this week, okay? 00:09:58.639 --> 00:10:21.039 But we we think of ourselves as the acrobats who have to keep our balance and not go too far in that direction, not go too far in this direction, or we're going to fall away, or we're going to lose the salvation that we have somehow accomplished through our hard work and grit. 00:10:22.480 --> 00:10:35.679 Rather than realizing that if there's a tightrope at all, that we are being carried in the perfectly balanced, perfectly capable, immensely strong arms of the Almighty God. 00:10:36.080 --> 00:10:42.320 When your view of God is small, perseverance is a terrifying weight that you have to carry. 00:10:42.559 --> 00:10:51.679 When your view of God is big, perseverance is something that was accomplished for you, and it is an absolute certainty. 00:10:52.480 --> 00:10:58.320 Because your God, who saved you, can handle this too. 00:10:59.919 --> 00:11:04.559 To cure this optical illusion, we have passages like this one. 00:11:05.039 --> 00:11:14.000 Scripture constantly forces us to correct our focus and magnify God's active sovereign role in keeping us from falling. 00:11:14.240 --> 00:11:25.840 Now, let's be clear: magnifying God, and we're told all through Scripture to magnify God, places like Psalm 34.3, it says, Oh, magnify the Lord with me, then let us exalt his name together. 00:11:26.080 --> 00:11:35.200 Magnify doesn't mean here to make God bigger than he really is, but that we might really see him as he actually is. 00:11:35.919 --> 00:11:44.000 And that seeing him, we see that that scale of his supremacy and his power and his sovereignty is indeed great. 00:11:45.200 --> 00:11:51.360 Scripture shifts the burden of preservation from human willpower to divine power. 00:11:51.679 --> 00:12:01.200 Jude places our ultimate security, if you read in the little book of Jude, places our ultimate security not in our ability to hold on to God, but in his absolute power to hold on to us. 00:12:01.360 --> 00:12:02.399 Jude 1.24. 00:12:02.480 --> 00:12:12.320 It says, Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy. 00:12:15.120 --> 00:12:20.559 There is in doctrinal studies, who's reading? 00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:22.240 Somebody's reading John Frame right now. 00:12:22.320 --> 00:12:24.240 Is it John Frame, Stephen, that you're reading right now? 00:12:24.399 --> 00:12:27.919 Some big systematic theology, Stephen told me he's reading right now. 00:12:28.159 --> 00:12:49.519 And if you're studying soteriology, the study of salvation, you will see this golden chain of salvation in the book of Romans, that God accomplishes each step for us, that there are steps in salvation, not necessarily on a clock, but there are steps that happen in order in salvation that God accomplishes all of those for us. 00:12:49.759 --> 00:12:51.440 Romans 8.30 makes this clear. 00:12:51.519 --> 00:13:01.039 It says, those who he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified. 00:13:02.639 --> 00:13:11.519 And so to see this rightly, let me just tell you, you can stop doing this. 00:13:11.919 --> 00:13:12.240 Okay? 00:13:12.480 --> 00:13:15.360 I'm not going to actually get on a tightrope or a balance beam or something. 00:13:15.440 --> 00:13:18.480 I figured that would be unwise this morning, but just pretend with me. 00:13:18.639 --> 00:13:20.320 You can stop doing that. 00:13:20.559 --> 00:13:36.399 I'm not saying you don't need to live godly lives, you do need to live godly lives, but your motivation, if your motivation to live a godly life is that God would be okay with you and you would in fact make it to the end and in fact be saved, then you're reading scripture wrong. 00:13:37.279 --> 00:13:41.120 And I'm not saying that to put you down, I'm saying that to lift you up. 00:13:41.360 --> 00:13:42.399 Praise God. 00:13:42.720 --> 00:13:50.000 You've been reading it wrong because the good news is that God is the one who saves you and He is the one who keeps you. 00:13:50.240 --> 00:13:53.360 Let's look at some kind of diagnostic questions. 00:13:53.440 --> 00:13:56.799 I'll put on my doctor glasses here and look over the brim of them, right? 00:13:56.879 --> 00:13:58.559 Isn't that what you're supposed to do if you're a doctor? 00:13:58.720 --> 00:14:02.080 You're supposed to look over the brim when you ask the diagnostic questions. 00:14:03.279 --> 00:14:05.679 No, I'm not a medical professional. 00:14:06.399 --> 00:14:07.919 But consider these. 00:14:08.879 --> 00:14:12.399 Where does my mind fly when I read the warnings of Scripture? 00:14:12.559 --> 00:14:19.440 When I read a passage like Colossians chapter 1, verse 23, where does my mind go? 00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:28.080 Is that my first instinct to look inwardly at my own resolve and go, boy, I sure hope I can. 00:14:28.240 --> 00:14:31.200 If indeed you continue in the faith, boy, I sure hope I can. 00:14:31.600 --> 00:14:32.799 I sure hope I can. 00:14:32.879 --> 00:14:42.320 I better reapply my efforts to continue in the faith, to stay stable, to stay steadfast, to not shift. 00:14:42.399 --> 00:14:45.039 I really, boy, I gotta get back on it. 00:14:45.919 --> 00:14:52.559 Or is your instinctive reaction to look upward to the intercession and the promises of Christ? 00:14:52.799 --> 00:15:03.519 Put it this way, are you more confident in your ability to hold on to God or in his capacity to hold on to you? 00:15:04.320 --> 00:15:06.480 You don't have to answer that out loud. 00:15:07.039 --> 00:15:08.559 But you should consider it. 00:15:08.720 --> 00:15:14.320 Are you more confident in your ability to hold on to God or in God's ability to hold on to you? 00:15:14.960 --> 00:15:16.879 Which one are you more confident in? 00:15:19.279 --> 00:15:24.399 It's funny how kids somehow things are simpler to them. 00:15:24.639 --> 00:15:28.080 I think if we went down the hall and asked the kids this question, you know what they'd say? 00:15:28.720 --> 00:15:30.080 I'm more confident in God. 00:15:30.399 --> 00:15:32.159 God's way bigger than me, right? 00:15:32.559 --> 00:15:39.120 But somehow the pressures of life, as we grow older, they push that out of us and our confidence wanes. 00:15:40.080 --> 00:15:41.679 Let me ask you the second question. 00:15:41.840 --> 00:15:45.679 How do I handle spiritual failure and dry seasons? 00:15:45.919 --> 00:15:53.039 When you fall into sin or you experience a season of spiritual coldness, spiritual deadness. 00:15:53.600 --> 00:15:55.519 How many of you love Keith Green's music? 00:15:55.679 --> 00:15:58.559 You ever listen to Keith Green back in the day from the 80s? 00:15:58.720 --> 00:15:59.679 You like Keith Green? 00:15:59.759 --> 00:16:03.039 He used to sing a song, and the song was a confession of sorts. 00:16:03.120 --> 00:16:09.440 He said, My eyes are dry, my prayers are cold, my faith is old. 00:16:10.559 --> 00:16:12.159 We go through those seasons, right? 00:16:12.320 --> 00:16:16.480 Dry seasons, spiritual failure, spiritual coldness, deadness. 00:16:16.799 --> 00:16:22.399 Do I try to fix myself and clean up my act before approaching God? 00:16:22.799 --> 00:16:25.200 Is that your reaction to that? 00:16:25.360 --> 00:16:31.360 Do you try to fix yourself and clean up your act before you approach God for help in that season? 00:16:31.759 --> 00:16:39.360 In other words, I can't approach God possibly as I am because I've been spiritually dead or cold or I haven't been to church in five weeks or whatever it was. 00:16:39.440 --> 00:16:43.679 I haven't read my Bible lately, and so I can't possibly approach God as I am. 00:16:43.840 --> 00:16:51.840 I better go and start reading my Bible and go back to church before I ever would deign to pray to God. 00:16:52.320 --> 00:16:57.120 Because if I pray to God when I've been acting like this, he probably won't even listen to me. 00:16:57.360 --> 00:16:59.360 How many of you ever feel that way? 00:16:59.759 --> 00:17:01.360 How many of you do that? 00:17:04.880 --> 00:17:19.599 Or do you, in your coldness, your deadness, your season of darkness, do you instantly collapse onto the finished work of Christ and into the arms of your Savior and just say, I need you, help me? 00:17:20.799 --> 00:17:23.039 Which one do you do more often? 00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:25.119 Third question. 00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:36.960 Does the thought of your final salvation and standing before the judgment seat of Christ, does the thought of that give you anxious striving or worshipful rest? 00:17:38.880 --> 00:17:40.960 What does the thought of that evoke in you? 00:17:41.119 --> 00:17:42.319 That day to come? 00:17:42.960 --> 00:17:59.200 If the thought of standing before God on the final day causes you panic, is it because you secretly believe, or even publicly believe, that your performance is what secures your entry into that eternal rest? 00:18:01.119 --> 00:18:03.599 What do you think of when you think of that day of judgment? 00:18:03.759 --> 00:18:06.079 Are you going into it with fear? 00:18:06.720 --> 00:18:08.880 Because you think you haven't done enough? 00:18:09.599 --> 00:18:14.240 Now, as I said, there are whole religions that base themselves around this. 00:18:14.319 --> 00:18:22.640 If you have the Mormons come to your door, elder such and elder so and so, and they're all about 18 or 19 years old, and they'll come to your door and they have the name tags on, right? 00:18:22.880 --> 00:18:26.720 Very clean-cut, very nice young men, sometimes young women. 00:18:27.599 --> 00:18:30.720 And they'll come to your door and they'll want to talk with you. 00:18:31.039 --> 00:18:38.559 And the few times that that's happened to me, I will ask a question of them and I will say, Do you know for certain that you're saved? 00:18:39.599 --> 00:18:48.000 And if you're a Mormon and you're practicing Mormonism as it reads, as they practice it, you can't say yes. 00:18:48.400 --> 00:18:55.279 Because Mormons don't know that they're saved until they stand before their version of judgment. 00:18:55.759 --> 00:18:56.640 They don't know. 00:18:56.960 --> 00:19:03.200 They would say to you, if you ask that question of them when they come to your door, they would say to you, I hope so. 00:19:03.680 --> 00:19:04.240 Right? 00:19:04.480 --> 00:19:05.359 I hope so. 00:19:05.599 --> 00:19:12.799 Because if they don't do enough, and kind of in the right way, then in their minds they won't be. 00:19:13.279 --> 00:19:17.039 Whole religions based on works and merit, right? 00:19:18.720 --> 00:19:21.839 And again, I'm not throwing people under the bus who don't believe this. 00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:25.200 I would just love for everybody to believe this, you know. 00:19:26.160 --> 00:19:36.000 I mean, if we had a machine down the hall that gave out free soda and candy and I don't know, black walnut pie or something, you know, if we had a machine like that in the hallway, I'd want you to know about it. 00:19:36.079 --> 00:19:39.039 I'm gonna be like, no, I don't want to tell them they might be offended. 00:19:39.200 --> 00:19:39.839 You know? 00:19:40.079 --> 00:19:41.440 I want you to know. 00:19:41.839 --> 00:19:44.000 Because I love you and I want good things for you. 00:19:44.160 --> 00:19:46.640 If you believe this doctrine, you want people to know, right? 00:19:46.720 --> 00:19:48.319 This is good, good news. 00:19:48.480 --> 00:19:50.400 This is the good news of the gospel. 00:19:53.839 --> 00:19:55.039 One more question. 00:19:56.400 --> 00:20:00.720 When I think about my spiritual history, who gets the credit? 00:20:01.680 --> 00:20:03.200 I think most of you get this right. 00:20:03.359 --> 00:20:04.400 Most of us get this right. 00:20:04.559 --> 00:20:25.519 When I share my testimony or think about why I'm still a Christian today, do I focus primarily on the wisdom and the courage of my choice to choose Christ, or the strength of my faith, or the depth of my commitment, or do I say with tears, if God had not held me fast, I would have run away a long time ago? 00:20:25.759 --> 00:20:28.400 What's your testimony in that way? 00:20:28.799 --> 00:20:34.000 I don't think many of us get that wrong, because I think we know what the right thing to say there is. 00:20:34.319 --> 00:20:39.039 But I would say to you that some of our music on the radio gets it wrong. 00:20:39.200 --> 00:20:46.720 Some of our Christian music on the radio seems to be more about my love for God than about God's love for me. 00:20:47.119 --> 00:20:53.759 And over and over again, with endless sometimes repetitions, we are reiterating how much we love God. 00:20:54.640 --> 00:21:00.960 As if by saying that over and over like a mantra, that somehow it's going to secure us. 00:21:01.920 --> 00:21:08.799 Well, I'll be honest with you, I don't love God hardly anything compared to what he loves me. 00:21:09.119 --> 00:21:10.240 How about you? 00:21:12.160 --> 00:21:13.200 I just don't. 00:21:13.440 --> 00:21:23.599 And it's not because I don't love God, it's just that his love for me is exponentially greater than anything that I could ever muster on the other end. 00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:29.599 Well, what Paul's saying here in verse 23, look at the text with me. 00:21:29.680 --> 00:21:41.039 What Paul's saying here in verse 23 is that this perseverance is the evidence of true reconciliation with God. 00:21:41.759 --> 00:21:56.160 That he has reconciled us in his body of flesh by his death in order to present us holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if we continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel. 00:21:56.480 --> 00:21:59.759 This passage, this verse makes some people fearful. 00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:06.400 There are others who interpret it this way, and I believe this is the right way to interpret it. 00:22:07.680 --> 00:22:14.240 This evidence is important so that we know that we are his. 00:22:15.279 --> 00:22:18.880 But God is the one who secures that in us. 00:22:19.519 --> 00:22:20.160 Right? 00:22:20.799 --> 00:22:24.960 These are warnings for us when we see text like this in Scripture. 00:22:25.200 --> 00:22:32.400 This word if introduces a real necessary condition for final salvation. 00:22:32.960 --> 00:22:51.920 And it clears up for some of us what's going on with some of our friends and family members that say walked an aisle and got baptized, got dunked, as a little kid or something, and then there's just no evidence at all in their life that they're walking with Christ or that they know Christ. 00:22:52.559 --> 00:23:06.559 We're not looking at this as evidence based on their own merit or their achievement, but that God would be working in our hearts to convict us of our sin and to call us to joyful obedience. 00:23:06.720 --> 00:23:08.000 Doesn't God do that for you? 00:23:08.160 --> 00:23:10.000 Doesn't He convict you of your sin? 00:23:10.160 --> 00:23:14.319 You do something wrong, and the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart and says, don't do that anymore. 00:23:14.480 --> 00:23:15.519 Stop it. 00:23:16.559 --> 00:23:19.680 Like the old Bob Newhart sketch, if you've ever seen that. 00:23:19.759 --> 00:23:21.279 It's just stop it, right? 00:23:21.359 --> 00:23:24.160 And the Holy Spirit says that to us. 00:23:24.480 --> 00:23:28.720 And we're convicted, and we stop it, hopefully, right? 00:23:30.079 --> 00:23:33.119 And then God gives us appetites for godly things. 00:23:33.440 --> 00:23:34.799 We want to go to church and worship. 00:23:34.880 --> 00:23:45.599 We want to go to our Bibles and read and study and meditate on his word, and we delight in singing songs of praise to him and living lives of service in obedience. 00:23:46.720 --> 00:23:52.160 But God uses passages like this, these are not empty warnings. 00:23:53.200 --> 00:24:03.119 It is true that the final presentation before God is holy and blameless, as it says in the verses before that, is contingent upon continuing in the faith. 00:24:03.279 --> 00:24:05.599 That's what we read over and over in Scripture. 00:24:05.920 --> 00:24:13.039 God uses these warnings for us in Scripture to awaken vigilance on our part. 00:24:13.680 --> 00:24:14.000 Okay? 00:24:14.480 --> 00:24:17.680 He does this to awaken vigilance on our part. 00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:26.559 That the threat of falling away is the very means that God uses to keep us fighting the fight of faith. 00:24:27.519 --> 00:24:33.279 Now, hopefully, for you, it's not that your threat of falling away is that you're going to lose your salvation. 00:24:33.440 --> 00:24:52.400 Hopefully, if you see those things in you, or you begin to sense a waning of your love for God or waning of your appetites for his word or his people, or you start to get consumed by your own sin or a besetting sin, that you would look at that and say, Help me, God. 00:24:52.960 --> 00:24:54.960 Help me in my sinfulness. 00:24:55.519 --> 00:24:57.519 Give me a desire to know you. 00:24:57.680 --> 00:24:59.200 Give me a desire to serve you. 00:24:59.359 --> 00:25:01.119 Give me a desire to love you. 00:25:01.759 --> 00:25:08.319 Restore to me the joy of my salvation, as David prayed in Psalm 51. 00:25:11.200 --> 00:25:13.599 Create a right spirit in me. 00:25:17.599 --> 00:25:39.519 These warnings are given to us to give us vigilance, that we might remain vigilant in our lives, that that threat of falling away or that concern that we are not living up to what we have already attained, what Christ has already attained for us, are the things that reminds us to dig back in, to live the kind of lives that He's called us to live. 00:25:39.680 --> 00:25:48.799 Hebrews 3.14 says this, for we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 00:25:49.039 --> 00:25:59.759 1 Corinthians 15, 1 and 2 says, The gospel I preach to you, by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preach to you, unless you believed in vain. 00:26:01.759 --> 00:26:16.720 Now, rather than letting a lack of perseverance cause us to coast or make excuses, we can take ownership of our daily sort of spiritual trajectory under the banner of God's grace. 00:26:16.880 --> 00:26:19.759 Jerry Bridges, great author, if you've read any of his books. 00:26:20.079 --> 00:26:22.720 Jerry Bridges in his book, The Pursuit of Holiness, says it this way. 00:26:22.799 --> 00:26:26.960 He says, Too often we say that we are defeated by this or that sin. 00:26:27.119 --> 00:26:28.960 No, we are not defeated. 00:26:29.119 --> 00:26:31.440 We are simply disobedient. 00:26:31.680 --> 00:26:38.640 It might be well if we stopped using the terms victory and defeat to describe our progress in holiness. 00:26:38.799 --> 00:26:43.920 Rather, we should use the terms obedience and disobedience. 00:26:44.160 --> 00:26:44.799 Right? 00:26:45.279 --> 00:26:49.200 We should use the terms obedience and disobedience. 00:26:53.119 --> 00:26:59.440 Because some of us, when we use those words victory and defeat, we are acknowledging that we view this wrongly. 00:26:59.920 --> 00:27:02.960 That we are viewing this as something that we can achieve. 00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:16.240 But our obedience and our disobedience is good ground for us to turn to our Savior and ask him for his help. 00:27:17.519 --> 00:27:23.839 Now, last year, and I can see I'm not going to make it through the whole passage today, so we'll finish up here in just a moment. 00:27:24.079 --> 00:27:26.400 Let's read the latter part of verse 23. 00:27:27.039 --> 00:27:38.799 This is what it says, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister. 00:27:39.359 --> 00:27:47.680 Paul goes on to say that he is filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the church. 00:27:47.839 --> 00:27:53.359 Let me address that very quickly here, so that again we don't get the wrong idea. 00:27:54.319 --> 00:27:55.599 What is Paul talking about? 00:27:55.759 --> 00:28:07.279 Why would he say, now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the church. 00:28:07.519 --> 00:28:08.559 Why would he say that? 00:28:08.720 --> 00:28:16.319 Well, the Bible is very, very clear that nothing is missing from the value of Jesus' death. 00:28:16.640 --> 00:28:22.079 That Jesus' death on the cross accomplished all that it was meant to accomplish. 00:28:22.240 --> 00:28:25.359 The debt for sin is fully paid. 00:28:25.519 --> 00:28:28.960 In John 19, where you read of Jesus on the cross. 00:28:29.200 --> 00:28:37.440 And one of the last things we read those sayings of Jesus on the cross, when he received the sour wine, he said, it says in John 19, it is finished. 00:28:37.599 --> 00:28:39.440 And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. 00:28:39.519 --> 00:28:40.240 It's finished. 00:28:40.400 --> 00:28:41.680 It's done. 00:28:43.039 --> 00:28:43.359 Right? 00:28:43.519 --> 00:28:44.319 We sing about that. 00:28:44.480 --> 00:28:48.000 We were singing a song this morning about that in the bathroom, Caroline and I. 00:28:48.240 --> 00:28:49.440 You don't want to see that. 00:28:49.680 --> 00:28:51.359 It's a great song, though. 00:28:51.680 --> 00:28:52.319 Right? 00:28:53.599 --> 00:29:03.119 Hebrews 10, 14 says, For by a single offering, that is Christ, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. 00:29:04.240 --> 00:29:08.240 Everything that God needed to accomplish on the cross was accomplished. 00:29:08.480 --> 00:29:09.920 Debts entirely paid. 00:29:10.240 --> 00:29:12.160 Slates wiped clean. 00:29:12.400 --> 00:29:13.359 Jesus did it. 00:29:13.599 --> 00:29:14.720 Jesus paid it all. 00:29:14.880 --> 00:29:16.400 All to him I owe. 00:29:16.720 --> 00:29:17.039 Right? 00:29:17.440 --> 00:29:19.200 Sin had left a crimson stain. 00:29:19.440 --> 00:29:20.400 He what? 00:29:21.519 --> 00:29:23.039 Washed me white as snow. 00:29:23.200 --> 00:29:23.519 Right? 00:29:23.839 --> 00:29:24.799 So what's the lack? 00:29:24.960 --> 00:29:26.960 What's the lack that Paul is talking about? 00:29:27.279 --> 00:29:29.119 This is kind of exciting. 00:29:29.599 --> 00:29:30.799 It is exciting. 00:29:31.440 --> 00:29:32.640 What is the lack? 00:29:32.880 --> 00:29:42.480 The lack here, what is missing, the thing that's missing, is the nations cannot physically see Christ's scars. 00:29:43.039 --> 00:29:47.039 That they weren't present at the crucifixion. 00:29:47.279 --> 00:29:52.319 They are not, in the sense in which we use the word, apostles. 00:29:53.440 --> 00:30:00.240 They did not personally encounter Jesus in the way that Paul and the disciples did. 00:30:01.359 --> 00:30:14.000 The church fills up this lack, the church, including the Apostle Paul, fills up this lack by suffering to deliver the message of the cross. 00:30:14.319 --> 00:30:21.839 The suffering of the messenger is the visible display of the sacrificial love of the master. 00:30:22.799 --> 00:30:25.359 And you know, you've experienced some of this. 00:30:25.680 --> 00:30:51.599 Some of you, you toil and you strive to proclaim the gospel to your kids, to your grandkids, to children here, to your neighbor, to your loved one who time and time again disappoints you, and you keep coming back, you keep being that person in their life to speak truth to them and offer them help and hope. 00:30:52.000 --> 00:31:00.480 The suffering of the messengers of Christ is the visible display of the sacrificial love of our Savior. 00:31:00.960 --> 00:31:03.279 2 Corinthians 4 10 echoes this. 00:31:03.359 --> 00:31:13.039 It says, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 00:31:13.519 --> 00:31:24.400 Philippians chapter 3, verse 10 says, Paul says, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. 00:31:27.839 --> 00:31:39.759 And this suffering is not just about persecution or the things that we give up, the money, the time, the effort, the hours on our knees in prayer that we give up on behalf of other people. 00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:49.839 This suffering is also about our desire for holiness and our fight with sin. 00:31:52.160 --> 00:31:52.480 Right? 00:31:52.640 --> 00:31:54.160 Look at verse 22. 00:31:54.640 --> 00:32:01.680 He is now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. 00:32:03.039 --> 00:32:11.920 Jesus died in order that we would be holy and blameless and not reproachful to God. 00:32:15.440 --> 00:32:16.640 What do we do? 00:32:17.759 --> 00:32:23.119 That we not be, that we be holy and blameless and not reproachful to God. 00:32:24.640 --> 00:32:28.480 Well, Scripture, the book of Hebrews, tells us that we should fight. 00:32:29.039 --> 00:32:34.640 In fact, it says, in your struggle against sin, have you shed your own blood? 00:32:34.880 --> 00:32:37.119 Now I'm not saying go shed your own blood. 00:32:38.000 --> 00:32:39.839 The blood of Christ accomplished that. 00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:48.000 But that that verse in Hebrews kind of echoes for us how serious God is about our commitment to our own holiness. 00:32:48.240 --> 00:32:49.680 He died for it. 00:32:51.039 --> 00:32:52.640 Could we live for it? 00:32:53.920 --> 00:33:01.839 This is visible, a visible picture, Paul is saying, of the death of Christ on the cross. 00:33:02.079 --> 00:33:09.599 That when people need a visible representation of Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross, who do they look to? 00:33:10.160 --> 00:33:11.519 They look to us. 00:33:12.160 --> 00:33:17.519 They look to God's church, the local church and local communities. 00:33:17.680 --> 00:33:19.839 That's who they look to. 00:33:20.240 --> 00:33:34.480 When they see us giving our own time and money and talents and energy and sometimes tears in order to work in the lives of other people in order that they might receive the gospel or respond to the gospel. 00:33:34.640 --> 00:33:36.319 And they say, why would you do this? 00:33:36.640 --> 00:33:39.200 I'm getting ready to get on a plane today. 00:33:39.519 --> 00:33:41.680 Four o'clock this afternoon, I'm going to go get on a plane. 00:33:41.759 --> 00:33:43.200 I'm going to fly to Maine. 00:33:43.440 --> 00:33:46.880 I'm going to get in at like 11.30 tonight. 00:33:47.039 --> 00:33:52.240 And tomorrow morning, I'm going to drive like two hours up the coast and I'm going to meet a mission team of people from North Carolina. 00:33:52.319 --> 00:33:53.119 There's 10 of them. 00:33:53.359 --> 00:33:54.720 Came from a church in North Carolina. 00:33:54.799 --> 00:34:02.880 They spent their own money, spending their own vacation time to come to Maine and to help some of the little churches there in those towns in Maine. 00:34:03.119 --> 00:34:04.240 Why would they do that? 00:34:04.400 --> 00:34:05.440 It's confounding. 00:34:05.519 --> 00:34:11.360 It's confusing to people in their own communities when they go back to work next week and people say, Where were you last week? 00:34:11.519 --> 00:34:15.840 And they say, Well, I decided to go to Maine and help some churches in Maine so people can hear about Jesus. 00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:16.800 Why would you do that? 00:34:16.960 --> 00:34:26.480 Why would you spend hundreds of dollars and spend one week of your precious vacation time, be away from your families, in order to go to Maine and do that there? 00:34:26.960 --> 00:34:36.639 And they can say, I do it because in doing it, it's a visible reminder of the sacrifice of my Savior upon the cross. 00:34:36.960 --> 00:34:40.320 I do it because he first loved me. 00:34:41.440 --> 00:34:45.760 Any little sacrifice that we make is just this tiny little picture. 00:34:46.239 --> 00:34:51.840 The kids are making me pictures for my office, staying on the wall of my office, beautiful, colored in pictures, right? 00:34:52.000 --> 00:34:54.079 Some of them are outside the lines, whatever. 00:34:54.880 --> 00:34:55.840 That's what we are. 00:34:56.000 --> 00:35:04.880 It's our lives with these little scribbled pictures, these visible reminders of Jesus' death and sacrifice on the cross for our sin. 00:35:08.880 --> 00:35:09.840 So that. 00:35:17.440 --> 00:35:20.960 So that if you read verse 25 with me, look at that there. 00:35:23.440 --> 00:35:34.480 Paul says, this, in order to fill up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions, in order that people might have a visible reminder, a tangible reminder of what Christ has done. 00:35:35.760 --> 00:35:39.840 He says in verse 25, of which I became a minister. 00:35:40.079 --> 00:35:42.159 This is why I became a minister. 00:35:42.480 --> 00:35:46.639 According to the stewardship, that's the household plan, that's what that word means. 00:35:46.800 --> 00:35:55.199 According to the household plan from God that was given to me for you to make the word of God fully known. 00:35:56.559 --> 00:36:00.880 I'll stop there and we'll pick it up in a couple of weeks. 00:36:02.800 --> 00:36:07.519 But I would say to you, this is why God has put you where you are. 00:36:07.840 --> 00:36:14.239 In order that you might be a visible reminder of what Christ has done. 00:36:14.400 --> 00:36:37.280 In order that the world out there and the world in here, the congregation of God in here, might see you and through your life and your words and your prayers and the way that you conduct yourself and the things that you say and the things that you choose and the choices that you make, that they might constantly be reminded of what Jesus has done for them. 00:36:39.039 --> 00:36:46.880 And if we make our salvation all about us and our own merit, then we won't be that. 00:36:47.280 --> 00:36:51.280 We won't be a visible reminder of Christ on the cross. 00:36:51.440 --> 00:36:55.440 People will just walk away going, what a great guy he is. 00:36:55.920 --> 00:36:58.480 Or what an amazing woman she is. 00:36:59.519 --> 00:37:01.119 And we don't want that. 00:37:01.920 --> 00:37:02.880 You are. 00:37:03.440 --> 00:37:05.679 You are amazing men and women. 00:37:06.639 --> 00:37:08.559 But that shouldn't be what we want. 00:37:08.800 --> 00:37:19.920 That when we do whatever it is we do and we say whatever it is that we say, that people's reaction to that when they walk away from us is what a great God they serve. 00:37:20.239 --> 00:37:23.599 What a great savior they represent. 00:37:23.920 --> 00:37:24.559 Right? 00:37:25.039 --> 00:37:27.519 That's what God has called us to. 00:37:27.679 --> 00:37:36.000 It's what God called the Apostle Paul to, and that's what God calls each of us to according to his good plan for us. 00:37:36.719 --> 00:37:42.480 Now, this morning, if you're not a believer, you're not a follower of Christ, I hope that you see that in us. 00:37:42.719 --> 00:37:51.440 I hope that when you've interacted with people in this congregation, you've interacted with other Christians wherever you're from or wherever you hang out, that you see that in them. 00:37:51.679 --> 00:38:04.880 That maybe that's why you're here is because you saw in someone who is a follower of Christ how wonderful Christ is and the wonder of what he has done for you and me. 00:38:05.280 --> 00:38:07.199 I hope that you've seen that. 00:38:07.519 --> 00:38:11.280 If you have seen that and you want to talk about it, you can call me. 00:38:11.760 --> 00:38:13.360 Phones work in Maine. 00:38:13.599 --> 00:38:16.800 They don't work on airplanes so well, but other than that, you can call me. 00:38:17.039 --> 00:38:20.880 You can talk to any of our elders that were up here or whoever you came with. 00:38:21.119 --> 00:38:29.280 Have that conversation with them and say, I want to know more about this Jesus that you seem to be representing pretty well. 00:38:29.679 --> 00:38:30.000 Okay. 00:38:30.639 --> 00:38:34.239 So I hope some of those conversations will take place in the days ahead.