SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
SPEAKER_01: I tell you what, as a as a just a just a guy, a lay guy, coming up here and speaking whenever I am privileged to do so, looking over there and seeing Pastor Vic there always kind of puts a shutter through my me.
SPEAKER_01: Sure want to do this, uh do this right and do it well.
SPEAKER_01: Um a few weeks ago, Pastor Jason gave me a call and he asked me if I'd be willing to preach sometime in March.
SPEAKER_01: And I said I would.
SPEAKER_01: And uh as I began a couple of weeks later to start to think about what I was gonna preach on, uh he got that phone call, and he and Allison head off to Georgia, and I came home with a family of four, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so his uh his schedule got really upended, and I was really having trouble figuring out what to preach that I could put into one sermon.
SPEAKER_01: Because I was I was just, man, this is just this has been a tough one.
SPEAKER_01: It's I've been all over the map, and and so I ended up asking him very gingerly if I could have two services.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if it was out of his um uh sense of relief or his graciousness, but you're gonna get stuck with me today and next Sunday as well.
SPEAKER_01: The scriptures that I want to read here, and usually pastors have scriptures read for them, right?
SPEAKER_01: But I don't right?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: And I've always wanted to say, Houston, it's page 867 in the Pew Bible or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, we're going to Luke chapter 9.
SPEAKER_01: Luke chapter 9, and I am still kind of tied to my old New American standard, but I will read it out of the NIV.
SPEAKER_01: Luke chapter 9, we're gonna read verses uh 28 through 35, and then we'll hope to get a couple of uh of short verses uh from Paul's writings um in later.
SPEAKER_01: But we're we're looking at eight uh at Luke's account of the Mount of Transfiguration experience.
SPEAKER_01: So Luke 9, verse 28, about eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John, and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray.
SPEAKER_01: And as he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.
SPEAKER_01: Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him.
SPEAKER_01: As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, Master, it's good for us to be here.
SPEAKER_01: Let us put up three shelters, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.
SPEAKER_01: He did not know what he was saying.
SPEAKER_01: While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud.
SPEAKER_01: A voice came from the cloud, saying, This is my son, whom I have chosen.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to him.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to read two more passages also.
SPEAKER_01: The first is Galatians 2.20, which Pastor Scott just read in a different translation.
SPEAKER_01: We probably know this by heart.
SPEAKER_01: I have been crucified with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.
SPEAKER_01: And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith, by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
SPEAKER_01: And then Romans 6, 6, which says, For we know that our old self was crucified with him, so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to say that those probably seem like very strange bedfellows, those three passages of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: But I hope over the course of the rest of this morning and next week to show you how they do fit together and why they can be talked about together.
SPEAKER_01: And I will be the first to admit that my approach this morning is going to be pretty unorthodox.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to talk about and make some observations about this passage regarding the Mount of Transfiguration.
SPEAKER_01: And then I'm going to introduce the sermon.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And then we're going to move on to other things regarding our status as believers who were crucified with Christ on the cross and work from there into next week.
SPEAKER_01: So that's kind of the schedule here, and it's a little unorthodox.
SPEAKER_01: I believe I have heard maybe two or three sermons in my lifetime preached on the Mount of Transfiguration episode.
SPEAKER_01: And I think each time the preacher has taken it as an opportunity to take a pot shot at Peter, right?
SPEAKER_01: Because he says, I don't know what to do with this.
SPEAKER_01: Let's build some tabernacles.
SPEAKER_01: And he was apparently all wrong about that.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what people have jumped on for Peter.
SPEAKER_01: You know, he speaks before he thinks, and people have preached about that and use Peter, and rightly so, and his mistakes as lessons.
SPEAKER_01: But that's not where we're going to be heading this morning.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to look at some other things that we can at least observe, and I believe this passage teaches.
SPEAKER_01: He has, for example, preached the Sermon on the Mount, he's cast out demons, he's healed lepers, he's taught in parables.
SPEAKER_01: He's got a whole lot of people that have started to follow him around the countryside.
SPEAKER_01: And in fact, about a week prior, if you just back up in the passage, you'll find that he took a basket from a little boy that had some fish and loaves in it, started passing out food, and we know that he passed out so much food from that one basket that more than 5,000 people went away fed.
SPEAKER_01: Incredible.
SPEAKER_01: And now a week later, occasionally Jesus would just say, I gotta go off, I gotta go off and pray.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if it was in the morning or whatever, but he let's say it was.
SPEAKER_01: He wakes up and he says, Hey, Peter, James, John, let's go.
SPEAKER_01: We're going up the mountain.
SPEAKER_01: I gotta pray.
SPEAKER_01: And boy, would you love to have been a mouse in the corner for that prayer meeting?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus' face and even his garments, the Bible says, became radiant.
SPEAKER_01: They started to sparkle like lightning.
SPEAKER_01: And then two men appear out of nowhere.
SPEAKER_01: Moses and Elijah.
SPEAKER_01: They're recognizable.
SPEAKER_01: And they start talking with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Peter, not knowing what to think, says, Let's build some tabernacles, and that didn't get a response.
SPEAKER_01: And the cloud surrounds them, and then the voice comes out of heaven saying, This is my beloved son.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to him.
SPEAKER_01: And then the cloud disappeared.
SPEAKER_01: And there they were, alone again with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Now, before I go any further, I want to ask you a question.
SPEAKER_01: Do you believe this?
SPEAKER_01: I mean really.
SPEAKER_01: I really mean to ask you, do you believe this?
SPEAKER_01: Do you think Jesus' face really changed?
SPEAKER_01: Sparkle.
SPEAKER_01: Do you believe that two men from hundreds of years prior just all of a sudden show up and start talking with Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: And they're understood?
SPEAKER_01: Then a voice comes out of a cloud?
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
SPEAKER_01: Do you believe that?
SPEAKER_01: Really?
SPEAKER_01: Or are we all too willing to hide behind the rationalistic, naturalistic thinking of our society and say, ah.
SPEAKER_01: Told those stories to the kids in Sunday school.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: Tell you what, that's what the Bible says happened.
SPEAKER_01: We need to believe that this is true recorded history because it is.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I said I'm not going to preach on this passage, but there's some things I do want to just observe from it.
SPEAKER_01: I think the first and most obvious is that Moses and Elijah, even though they weren't living, breathing members of that current society, apparently had not ceased to exist.
SPEAKER_01: They had been part of the unseen world, but all of a sudden, bam, the Lord either gives them bodies again temporarily or gives us a vision of them in their bodies.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know which it is, but they weren't, they weren't gone.
SPEAKER_01: And they conversed with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They had simply been part of an unseen world that became seen for a time, and they spoke.
SPEAKER_01: They conversed with Jesus and note, they conversed in a language that could be understood.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter, James, and John could overhear them.
SPEAKER_01: Else, how could Luke have known this ever happened?
SPEAKER_01: And then they vanished.
SPEAKER_01: They went back where they came from.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's kind of spooky, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we got a society that just loves this out there stuff, and we got it right here.
SPEAKER_01: And it really happened here.
SPEAKER_01: Make sense?
SPEAKER_01: A second point is that on that mountain, there were represented, I'm going to just call it three classes of people.
SPEAKER_01: We got Moses, he's an Old Testament saint, lived under the law, and then he died.
SPEAKER_01: You've got Elijah, another Old Testament saint, lived under the law, got translated.
SPEAKER_01: One of two people we know of that got translated, the other being Enoch.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't my grandpa, although his name was Enoch.
SPEAKER_01: And then you've got Peter, James, and John, disciples of the Lord Jesus, who lived prior to, during, and after the Lord's death and resurrection, and then they died.
SPEAKER_01: Now think about that.
SPEAKER_01: With the exception of those of us who might be fortunate enough to be alive and remain when the Lord returns, everybody else that's ever lived is represented on that mountain.
SPEAKER_01: Can you think of another thing that could have happened?
SPEAKER_01: So there's something here for all of us.
SPEAKER_01: A third point of interest, and this is in my mind by far the most important thing.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself this.
SPEAKER_01: What did Jesus and Moses and Elijah talk about?
SPEAKER_01: Luke was very careful to say.
SPEAKER_01: They talked about Jesus' coming departure that he was to accomplish in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, what they talked about?
SPEAKER_01: They talked about Jesus' death and resurrection and ascension.
SPEAKER_01: And the words that are used in the Gospel of Luke indicate that they talked about this at length.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why do you think that might be the topic of conversation?
SPEAKER_01: Why couldn't Moses and Elijah just come down and happen to pop out and hey, Jesus, how are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: Man, that was a cool miracle you performed last week.
SPEAKER_01: That leper, he is doing so well.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: They had something more serious than that to talk about, didn't they?
SPEAKER_01: They talked about the coming death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because the death and resurrection of Jesus is the focal point of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, I would say it's the hinge point of human history.
SPEAKER_01: It's the solution to the fall of humankind.
SPEAKER_01: It's the answer to our sin problem.
SPEAKER_01: It's the only hope we have of ever returning to the God who created us.
SPEAKER_01: And Moses and Elijah conversed with Jesus about it because they had an interest in it.
SPEAKER_01: We've got an expression these days.
SPEAKER_01: We say you've got skin in the game, right?
SPEAKER_01: These guys had skin in this game.
SPEAKER_01: Because if Jesus did not continue on and die and be raised again, they too would have been without hope in this world.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's as if they were spectators from an unseen world.
SPEAKER_01: Or, you know, I always use athletic, stupid athletic things like an old alumni coming back and getting to go in the locker room and cheering the new the new team on.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's it's more than that, of course, but they got to come down and talk to Jesus and say, boy, we gotta go through with this.
SPEAKER_01: Our lives depend on it.
SPEAKER_01: They knew that Jesus had to die.
SPEAKER_01: They knew that he had to be raised.
SPEAKER_01: They needed Jesus to complete this journey.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, look where you will in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: You can go back to the Garden of Eden and think about the skins of animals that God provided for Adam and Eve.
SPEAKER_01: Blood was shed.
SPEAKER_01: You can move down a little further to Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: He had the knife above his son's throat.
SPEAKER_01: And a substitute was provided.
SPEAKER_01: Or you can, a few more pages, Isaiah, talking about there's this lamb that's gonna be led to slaughter.
SPEAKER_01: Or you can go a little farther, the last Old Testament prophet, John the Baptist, who sees Jesus out in the desert one day and says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Or Jesus himself, when he's visiting with Nicodemus, and he says, You know what?
SPEAKER_01: The Son of Man's gonna have to be lifted up.
SPEAKER_01: Just like Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: Or you can go to the end of Scripture, and John, when he's talking about the beasts and the elders, let's leave it at that.
SPEAKER_01: The elders who fall down.
SPEAKER_01: And they sing to the risen Christ, Thou art worthy to break the seal on that book.
SPEAKER_01: Because it was your blood that was shed, the purchase for the Lord, men from every tribe and tongue and nation.
SPEAKER_01: The life and death of resurrection goes cover to cover as the focal point of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: You look where you will, it's the focal point.
SPEAKER_01: And the lives of all that would be saved from the penalty of sin depend on it.
SPEAKER_01: So no wonder Moses and Elijah wanted to talk about it.
SPEAKER_01: Their lives, their eternities depended on it too.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't think that Peter, James, and John understood exactly all of what they heard at the time.
SPEAKER_01: Think about when they are holed up practically in the fetal position after the death of Christ, not knowing what to do.
SPEAKER_01: They had some learning to do yet, but I don't think they ever forgot what they heard, even if they hadn't understood it at the time.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, when he writes his second epistle and talks about the fact that he's going to depart from his earthly dwelling real soon, Peter says he refers back to the time that he spent with the Lord Jesus on what he said was the holy mountain.
SPEAKER_01: How could he ever forget it?
SPEAKER_01: And overhearing that conversation about the coming death and resurrection of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: One more point I want to, or just thing I want to observe about this passage, and that's it's a broader point, but it has to do with Scripture and our understanding of it.
SPEAKER_01: We need to know, and we need to understand that we are reading true recorded history.
SPEAKER_01: We're reading about things that really did happen even when they seem to be out of the ordinary.
SPEAKER_01: Luke has accurately recorded an event that really happened in time and space.
SPEAKER_01: Francis Schaefer, and oh, I hope that's a name or an author with whom you're familiar.
SPEAKER_01: Francis Schaefer, when he comments on this passage, says, This happened on a particular mountain, on a particular day, at a particular time.
SPEAKER_01: He says, if the disciples had been wearing wristwatches, their watches would have continued to keep time.
SPEAKER_01: And the people down at the base of the mountain would have gone on with their day while the event transpired.
SPEAKER_01: He says it wasn't until the next day that they came down.
SPEAKER_01: Time had transpired.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, Peter, James, and John and Jesus did not disappear into some philosophic other or some psychological dream outside of time and space for this to happen.
SPEAKER_01: This was this really happened.
SPEAKER_01: This is real true history.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's the observations.
SPEAKER_01: Now let me talk through my introduction to my sermon.
SPEAKER_01: There are some things that really trouble me these days about our society.
SPEAKER_01: We are tremendously influenced by both the behavior of our society and its opinions.
SPEAKER_01: And frankly, the vast majority of our society lives as if God doesn't exist, right?
SPEAKER_01: Now, I'm going to hasten to say that that doesn't mean that our society is atheistic.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's not.
SPEAKER_01: You press most every man or woman on the street, and they will admit that somewhere, deep, deep down, they have a sense that there's something else, or maybe even someone else, that's out there somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the God of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: But they've got this sense that there's something else out there.
SPEAKER_01: But unfortunately, our society has this thing so screwed up.
SPEAKER_01: It's almost schizophrenic.
SPEAKER_01: Now let me let me try to explain what I mean by that.
SPEAKER_01: We've got a society where our schools and our media aggressively teach, and it is now basically patently assumed that we are nothing more than the latest iteration of what?
SPEAKER_01: Time plus chance.
SPEAKER_01: Matter plus time plus chance.
SPEAKER_01: And if they can't figure it out right now and make it and explain it away, they just tack on a couple billion more years, right?
SPEAKER_01: With no proof whatsoever, frankly.
SPEAKER_01: So we've got a society that says that's what we are, and it also says that's all there is.
SPEAKER_01: And this naturalistic philosophy of reality, which is so different than what we just saw on the Mount of Transfiguration, has permeated our society.
SPEAKER_01: And it would scoff at Luke chapter 9, because there's way too much spooky stuff going on there, right?
SPEAKER_01: And yet, when we look at that answer and we say time plus matter plus chance, we know deep within ourselves that is not true.
SPEAKER_01: We really do, don't we?
SPEAKER_01: We don't have to think very long.
SPEAKER_01: We are self-aware people.
SPEAKER_01: We know there is more to us than just our physical bodies.
SPEAKER_01: And hence, our society, ironically, also has an obsession with things of the spirit, small s, really small s.
SPEAKER_01: Everything from Eastern mysticisms to Native American spiritualisms to New Age philosophies to Satan worship itself.
SPEAKER_01: It's all out there.
SPEAKER_01: We're self-aware.
SPEAKER_01: We know deep within ourselves that there's something more.
SPEAKER_01: But our society, that part of our society that involves itself in those aforementioned practices, would also scoff at Luke 9.
SPEAKER_01: Because you see, there is no such character as the incarnate Son of God who can enter his creation at will or even communicate.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: That part of our society says, now leave that to us.
SPEAKER_01: We'll dream up our own God, right?
SPEAKER_01: We'll dream up something more palatable.
SPEAKER_01: So we've got a society that wants it both ways.
SPEAKER_01: They want to say that there's a universe out there and a world around us that is time plus chance plus matter and nothing else, and yet at the same time they want to be spiritual, but they got that messed up too.
SPEAKER_01: How in the world can the man on the street know who he is or what he is?
SPEAKER_01: How can he when he's getting wrong messages from both sources?
SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I know I am belaboring this point, but it's just it just bugs me.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you think about the difference between what we just looked at in Luke 9 versus what society wants us to believe.
SPEAKER_01: Luke 9, you got you got matter plus time plus chance, but you got the spirit stuff and they don't fit together and they're both wrong on both counts.
SPEAKER_01: Um there's there's absolutely no need for salvation because we make up our own God and we just do our best, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's all it's it's all wrong.
SPEAKER_01: It's not reality.
SPEAKER_01: And then we have the sermon on the, or that sermon on the mount, the Mount of Transfiguration, which I admit doesn't go through every point by point by point that we just talked about, but you see that there is both a material and a spiritual, or a material and immaterial universe.
SPEAKER_01: You see that there's physical and spiritual beings.
SPEAKER_01: You understand from the conversation that took place that there's a need of a savior.
SPEAKER_01: There's something wrong in the spirits of these people.
SPEAKER_01: Boy, it's just a it's a whole different answer, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: It's entirely different than what the world tells us about.
SPEAKER_01: And so we've got this tension from for this tension.
SPEAKER_01: And um so what does this imply about the Word of God?
SPEAKER_01: What about the Bible?
SPEAKER_01: His revelation to us.
SPEAKER_01: This doesn't prove anything, but let me say this.
SPEAKER_01: To me, it means that when I read the scriptures, I should not be shaken or surprised when I see something that seems to be out of the ordinary.
SPEAKER_01: I should expect it.
SPEAKER_01: I've got a God who is spirit, who created the world, who can control it at all times, who can enter it whenever he wants to for his purposes.
SPEAKER_01: Why wouldn't I expect to see something a little out of the ordinary at times?
SPEAKER_01: Does that make some sense, or am I just on my own here?
SPEAKER_01: Now, we're not going to convince a watching world of these truths through clever argument, right?
SPEAKER_01: 1 Corinthians 2, Paul says, Hey, I didn't come to you with clever speech.
SPEAKER_01: But it's got to be the Holy Spirit that convinces and convicts.
SPEAKER_01: But I'll tell you what, that does not excuse us from being able to tell the truth as clearly as we can.
SPEAKER_01: We should be ready all the time to stand up for the Word of God and our Savior and our God.
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm going to have to move along here or else ask for a third Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: I think that to me there's a question that should be asked here.
SPEAKER_01: So if uh if we understand that as spiritual beings, um we need to understand in our spiritual state, naturally, we're dead as doornails.
SPEAKER_01: So let's forget that what the what the our society is telling us about ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at what the word says about us.
SPEAKER_01: We're spiritual beings and we are dead as doornails until we are given new life by God.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this because we should all know this, but let's just go through the let's go through the drill here.
SPEAKER_01: Adam and Eve sinned.
SPEAKER_01: They begin to die physically, they die immediately spiritually, right?
SPEAKER_01: And we inherit that.
SPEAKER_01: It gets passed on down through every human being that's ever lived.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, we have sinned by choice too, so don't blame Adam, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so being spiritually dead without the blood of Christ covering our sin, we are separated from God, we are naturally inclined to do everything else but go to Him.
SPEAKER_01: But when we are led, when we are summoned, when we are what?
SPEAKER_01: Drawn, I think is the word the scripture uses, by the Holy Spirit to the person and work of Christ, and through his aid come to faith in him, immediately our spirits become alive.
SPEAKER_01: We are given spiritual life by the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And also we know that at that same time the Holy Spirit of God comes to live within us.
SPEAKER_01: Our bodies become the temple of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, can you the temple of the Holy Spirit in this thing?
SPEAKER_01: Really?
SPEAKER_01: Man! See, he put up with a lot.
SPEAKER_01: We should be very, very familiar with the way that a man or a woman becomes justified and seen as sinless from God's perspective, because we and we know then that at that moment the Spirit takes up his dwelling within us.
SPEAKER_01: As opposed to society now, when you I'm trying to wrap this, my thoughts together, as opposed to what we'd have from society, who the man, the man on the street can't know who he is or what he is.
SPEAKER_01: We do.
SPEAKER_01: We know who we are, we know what we are.
SPEAKER_01: We are God's created beings.
SPEAKER_01: We are physical and spiritual beings.
SPEAKER_01: And who are we?
SPEAKER_01: Well, for crying out loud, if I put my faith in Christ, I'm a child of the king.
SPEAKER_01: What a difference.
SPEAKER_01: So then we get to these other verses that I think they're in the bullet.
SPEAKER_01: In Galatians 2.20 and Romans 6.6, I believe I read them, did I not?
SPEAKER_01: Or did I not?
SPEAKER_01: I can't remember.
SPEAKER_01: I've been crucified with Christ, no longer I who live, Christ lives in me, my old self was crucified, so that the body of sin might be done away with.
SPEAKER_01: I promise you.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to ask this.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so so we're at this point where I know I've come to faith.
SPEAKER_01: I know who I am, I know what I am.
SPEAKER_01: I know I've come to faith in Christ, and my eternal destiny is secure.
SPEAKER_01: I know it.
SPEAKER_01: I've even got the Holy Spirit residing in me as the earnest of my inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: Well, like the third question in the title for the sermon, now what?
SPEAKER_01: Who am I?
SPEAKER_01: What am I?
SPEAKER_01: Well, now what?
SPEAKER_01: And here's where I think the rubber meets the road.
SPEAKER_01: And boy, I tell you what, this is where I've been, whoo, the Lord's been teaching me.
SPEAKER_01: So I got it, I gotta figure out.
SPEAKER_01: I I you know, I know I'm saved by grace through faith, and I I I know how this movie is gonna end, right?
SPEAKER_01: What about between now and then?
SPEAKER_01: Am I just gonna, am I being led by, and am I empowered by the Holy Spirit of God?
SPEAKER_01: Really?
SPEAKER_01: Or am I just kind of going with the flow, kind of blending in with society, kind of doing the best I can just to look good?
SPEAKER_01: You know, which is it?
SPEAKER_01: I know what the Lord would like.
SPEAKER_01: So I think we need to ask ourselves the question: am I am I really reflecting the image of God as I should?
SPEAKER_01: That's why I was created, to love him and to reflect his image into the world.
SPEAKER_01: And if I say I'm doing that, then if I'm doing it wrongly, if I'm just putting out a good show, instead of being led by and filled by the Spirit of God, then let me tick off some things that are wrong with that.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, I'm not fooling God, am I?
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, I have them written down here.
SPEAKER_01: Um I'm not going to be effective in the spiritual battle, because this is a battle, this is a spiritual battle.
SPEAKER_01: It's being fought in the heavenly places, right?
SPEAKER_01: And I forgot my second one, but my third one is that if I um if I give the watching world around me the notion that to be a child of God is nothing more than just trying my best and trying to live a moral life and doing the best I can, even though I am saved, if I give them the mistaken impression that's uh that's all there is to it, you know what I do?
SPEAKER_01: Some medical people in here?
SPEAKER_01: I inoculate them.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I inoculate them.
SPEAKER_01: Because if I give them the impression that's all it takes, they end up thinking they're true believers too.
SPEAKER_01: And all they're doing is saying to me, you know, I can do as well as you.
SPEAKER_01: I got a list of things I should do and shouldn't do too.
SPEAKER_01: And I bet I can keep my list just as good as you.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
SPEAKER_01: Oftentimes they do.
SPEAKER_01: But if that's what they think there is to the Christian life and being a Christian, and I give them that message, I just inoculate them, and I actually make it more unlikely that they'll ever catch the true disease.
SPEAKER_01: That's pretty sobering.
SPEAKER_01: I can also grieve the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: If I just push him back into a deep dark corner of my life and just go on this thing, go after this thing on my own.
SPEAKER_01: I believe the Spirit's grieved.
SPEAKER_01: Now, how do how what's what's the way out of this?
SPEAKER_01: Well, let me just say this: that when we get together again next week, Lord willing, we're gonna start talking about.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, I've I'm tempted to call Val and say the sermon for next week will be titled, When Did You Die Most Recently?
SPEAKER_01: That ought to get him to come in here, right?
SPEAKER_01: Improve the attendance.
SPEAKER_01: No, but this is what we're gonna start talking about next week, is is how Paul in particular, but Jesus himself also.
SPEAKER_01: If you go back to a few verses prior to the Luke's account of the Mount of Transfiguration, you will find the Lord Jesus Christ saying that it was necessary for him to be rejected by men and to suffer and die and be raised again.
SPEAKER_01: And it isn't within more than two verses when he says that's the same thing that you're gonna have to do if you're my disciple.
SPEAKER_01: How about that?
SPEAKER_01: Now there's nothing redemptive about us dying to sin and to self.
SPEAKER_01: We'll talk about that.
SPEAKER_01: We don't get justified because of that.
SPEAKER_01: We get justified because we get to put on the righteousness of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus said, You want to be my disciple?
SPEAKER_01: You want to follow me?
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna be rejected.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna have to die to sin and to self.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, you know, how about once a year?
SPEAKER_01: No, what did he say?
SPEAKER_01: Every day, right?
SPEAKER_01: He wants us to die daily to sin and to self.
SPEAKER_01: And then we can talk about the second half of Galatians 2.20.
SPEAKER_01: And living the resurrected life while we're still here on earth.
SPEAKER_01: Then we'll understand what the Bible truly means about having joy even in trials and being thankful all the time.
SPEAKER_01: And all those hard sayings start to make sense when we get filled with the Spirit and understand this stuff a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the clock is going.
SPEAKER_01: And I think I'll stop because I don't want to start something new here.
SPEAKER_01: But um we'll pick this up next week, and I hope that um maybe you'll even give some thoughts to this between now and then.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting the website at Faith Freedom.