In this lesson, Mark Twombly finishes overviewing the work of Jesus Christ. Specifically, Mark looks at the motive for Christ’s salvation work as well as the resolution and continuation of Christ’s work. Mark concludes the overview by discussing reflections and personal application.
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right good morning and happy Memorial Day weekend starting just a few seconds early actually just turned it’s just turning nine o’clock now hope you all are having a wonderful weekend God is good to us and giving us many blessings isn’t he so we’re going to continue in the work of Christ this is week two I’ve left a generous amount of time for interaction so as I often say interruptions are welcome they’re actually not interruptions I’ve planned for them so I’m I’m appreciating interacting around the word of God with you together I love what it says in Colossians 3 16. we emphasize this in Iron Man it says that the word of Christ ritually dwell in you as you teach and admonish one another so I hope you recognize that we all have a role here I’ve prepared some specific things but let’s let’s take on that that admonition from our Lord to teach and admonish one another as we share his word together so uh our memory verse which I commend to you first Corinthians 15 3-4 forever delivered to you as of first importance what I also received that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures and so one of the things I think we see both in the personal work of Christ from what Khalif taught a couple weeks ago and what we started to cover last week is this is also somewhat of an evangelism class right it helps to ground Us in what the gospel is and I hope you recognize that we never get passed to the gospel right that it has past implications for us in terms of our forgiveness of sins but ongoing implications in our lives um you know when I came up in the faith um I was actually taught by several people that we need to get Beyond The Gospel and move on to discipleship which is really an artificial I think uh bifurcation because they’re both so connected and hope as we go through the scriptures today that you will see that another verse that we emphasized last week that I’ll re-emphasize here for in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form and in him you have been made complete and he is ahead over all Rule and Authority interesting in him we have been made complete and so I hope this is a time of learning in a time of worship for us as we reflect on the realities of our Salvation so with that let me pray for us father I pray that today you would impress Upon Our Hearts our past and ongoing need for a savior that we would understand and appreciate the cost of your work in Christ that we would more deeply understand the perfect provision of Christ’s work and we would demonstrate and present the Risen Christ to others in our lives and we would live lives of repentance and faith and call others to that as well in Jesus name amen amen all right so um last week we covered these items we we connected the the relationship between a Christ person and his work right we we reminded ourselves that because he is a savior he saves right and so and there’s so many things we could say about about Christ himself because he’s a shepherd He Shepherds right there’s all kinds of things we could say and we recognize in our lives you realize you can only act out of your identity as I like to say you could only be who you are you can only fake it for so long and certainly in the Christian Life God calls us to something that is going beyond the Motions right he transforms our hearts so that our affections are changed and we live differently we don’t just perform differently but we live differently I was thinking about this in the last couple days about you know when I wake up in the morning I’ve shared this with some of you I wake up desperate and I just need to get with the Lord right away or my thoughts would go south I tend to roll negative I don’t know if there’s anyone here like that I’m sure there are and so I feel like I’m revived you know every day when we when we talk to Psalm 119 those the Revival versus really resonate with me one of the things I thought about was just the need for God to change our hearts you know I often am clear about the right thing to do but I’m not always in a place where my heart and my affections are there with it anybody else relate to that and we I desperately cry out Lord change my heart changed my heart even as a Believer you’ve saved me but this this continual Revival and renewal that’s why we pray things like search me oh God and know my heart right created me a clean heart we want God to do something deep and I was reminded of an old school worship song from Maranatha changed my heart oh God and I was been I was actually listening to it on the way here changed my heart oh God make it ever new change my heart oh God may I be like you this is what we’re crying to him You Are The Potter I Am The Clay mold me and shade me these are the things that we need God to do and this these are the things that God does for us in Salvation so I hope we recognize as we go through this that salvation isn’t as some have called it simply fire insurance right you’ve heard that term where we’re just okay my eternity’s taken care of now I can just go about living my life as I wish and then I’m good when I die when the Christian life’s not like that the lord loves us too much to let us live like that and so we covered last week also a man’s need the cost of Christ’s work I think we can never quite get past that we need to always think about that we think of um the woman who washed Jesus feet with her tears and with perfume and and what did what did Jesus say about her he loves much he was forgiven much loves much but he was forgiven little Love’s little little so always having in front of us the depth to which we’ve been forgiven even the smallest sin is against an infinite God and deserves Eternal punishment so keeping that ever in front of us not from a guilt perspective but from a forgiveness perspective it’s just so important in terms of our love relationship with God which is the whole point right that’s our that’s our first and greatest commandment to love the Lord your God with all our heart soul mind and strength so keeping our sins before us in terms of what he’s forgiven grows our love for him and of course the provision of Christ’s work how he has done that and today we’re going to talk a little bit more about the motive for Christ’s work and the resolution and continuation of Christ’s work and then I’ll we’ll spend some generous time on reflection and application so we don’t have a ton of content today as I mentioned so if you have a question and want to interrupt at any time I’ve saved some time at the end but if you want to interrupt me throughout the time throughout our discussion that’s just fine as well okay great all right the motive as you may suspect for Christ’s work is love I love this from John 3 there’s just so much going on in John 3.
um and I love how Pastor Dave has unpacked this for us lately it’s been really rich just a couple highlights as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the son of man be lifted up so that whoever believes will in him have eternal life for God so loved and when you see the term so loved I think there’s two things you want to think about it’s it’s the magnitude but it’s also in such a way right how did he do it that he gave that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life for God did not send the son into the world to judge the world but that the world might be saved through him stop right there if you ever heard people say things like this well good God you know he’s not judgmental he’s not here to judge us kind of concatenate you just stop this verse right here but you got to keep reading right um but that the world might be saved through him he who believes in Him is not judged he who does not believe has been judged already this is a given Jesus came to bring Grace and Truth with the understanding that that judgment was understood and that people were guilty right he who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God so this past week in Iron Man we covered the love of God or at least just a piece of it one of the things we recognize is that God’s love is so much greater and different than human conceptions of love right let me just ask you a question if anyone would like to chime in what are some of the human conceptions of Love common understandings of what love is fleshly love is that what you said less right so right affection physical affection Right certainly part of that in the context of marriage but but but not the whole thing right if if marriage is dependent upon that yeah that’s not going to work particularly after you get to a certain age as a practical thing yeah certainly it’s got to be something more than that yeah and and that and that type of Love is merely an out an outflow of a healthy relationship for sure yeah it’s a commitment yeah yeah some other thoughts about human love Chris you were there what were some of the things we talked about put you on the spot what’s that that’s cheating yeah it’s more like rule-based rule-based yeah that’s what you said right having a maybe a sense of obligation or a sense of conditional I love you if you love me that kind of thing and we know biblically that just doesn’t work you know if you love those who love you what what good is that right Jesus calls us to love our enemies so there’s an aspect of it so we ended up with this with the agape love to summarize is it’s a conscious Act of the will that seeks the highest good of another well that’s really different than most human conceptions um so God’s motive what is God’s motive of right he why does I ask you this why does God love us it’s a little bit of a trick question because he is God because he’s God yeah summarizing for a number of scriptures he loves us because he loves us there is nothing in us I hope you get this there’s nothing in us that motivates God to love us in fact it’s quite the opposite that’s what’s make what makes his love so amazing people talk these days you talk about a human conception of love you are worthy of Love really I don’t think any of us are that’s what makes God’s love so amazing Glenda you know we went over that the verse that escapes me but yeah of Israel because I didn’t choose you because you were the greatest but you were the fewest in fact you were probably the least likely candidate which is the point of why I did it Judy loves because he created us that’s a good point so um I can kind of go down this this uh detour a little bit as as those created in His image there’s there is a sense in which there is an inherent value but because of our corrupted nature that does not invoke God’s love at all right and so you look at a verse like this for God so loved the world and we know that God has not from eternity past saved the whole world so this is an interesting discussion in what sense has God loved the whole world well there’s a lot I could say about that but but but a couple things is one is his restraint right his restraint in in his patience with us not not wiping us all out at the same time the common Grace God causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust we are even in this Fallen World the amazing blessings that people who are far from God experience and one of the things you may not have considered is the blessing that God has given to unbelievers through Believers through us we see this in in Ephesians 3 and other places that God has made his presence and he he has glorified himself through the church so our presence as flawed as we are is an amazing aspect of God’s power our presence on Earth is an incredible blessing to the world we are a salt and light we are a preservative you get that right and so I think those are all things to consider in terms of God’s love for the world all of those things could probably be a whole lesson in themselves so we’ll uh we’ll move on from that um if you if you stick in your Bibles to Ephesians in Romans 5 in that area we’ll probably be good today because we’re going to be in and out of that another verse on the motive for Christ’s work on his love right for while we were still weak this emphasizes what we were just talking about for while we were still weak at the right time Christ died for the ungodly for one will hardly die for a righteous man though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die but God my love in the butt when it’s when you see but God I love when that shows up turn to Ephesians 2 and we’re going to look at that a little bit too but God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us much more than having now been Justified as Blood by his blood we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him we see this further emphasized in Ephesians 2 and I just let’s be amazed uh at God’s love right um just picking up a couple Concepts from Ephesians 2 dead in transgression and sins walking according to the course of this world according to the ruler of the power of the air the spirit that is now working in the sons of Disobedience we conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh doing the desires of the Flesh and of the Mind children of Wrath even as the rest right we talked about Sin last week citizen just falling short it’s not just turning aside it’s going in the opposite direction it is utter Rebellion to God and in spite of that he loves us and he seeks us and then we see this other but God in verse 4.
but God being rich in Mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions made us alive together with Christ by Grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the Heavenly places in Christ Jesus and then verse 7 I love verse seven this is kind of a bottom line of why did God do all this so that in the ages to come he might show The surpassing Riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus God saved us basically to show off that’s okay he can do that we do that that’s a problem God does that it would be inappropriate for him not to do that brings great glory to himself that’s why saved us you get that it’s not it’s not about me it’s about him yeah so let’s be really clear about God’s motive of love and what he’s doing in his own his own Glory one of the things we talked about yeah it’s Deuteronomy 7 7-8 I actually have it in my notes Here Glenda the verse that you mentioned it’s not because you were the greatest but because you were the the least right um yeah a couple of the other verses here that would reinforce this second Timothy 1 9 is one of them let me take a quick look at that yeah who saved us and called us with a holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and Grace which he gave to us which he has given to us in Christ Jesus from all eternity wow so that’s one of the things we talked about on Tuesday in Iron Man is God’s love is an eternal love it’s from eternity past and it’s to Eternity future right nothing can separate us from the love of Christ right these verses are there to reassure us because we doubt it’s Love Don’t We I’m not the only one who doubts his love no yeah first John 4 19 is another one that further reinforces this yeah yeah I should have had this memorized we love because he first loved us right our love is motivated by his love and so one of the connections that we made I think it’s important to make here is that because God’s love is not influenced or motivated by anything in us I think that tells us about the way we are to love others right we love not because of others but because of God I said this to the men the other night I said I’m sorry guys I love you but you don’t provide enough motivation for me to love you as I should and I don’t provide enough motivation for you that motivation has to be something Beyond ourselves it has to be him so that’s a wonderful thing to think about um pink said this and I’ll just read this as a great quote the love of God Is uninfluenced by this we mean there was nothing whatever in the objects of his love to call it into exercise nothing in the creature to attract or prompt it the love which one creature has for another is because of something in the object but the love of God is free spontaneous uncaused let’s be really clear about that really clear about that all right yep we read uh here’s another one right blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his great Mercy according to his great Mercy has caused us to be born again to a Living Hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead I think James 1 18 is something I wrote here that will help us as well Jesus 1 18 in the exercise of his will he brought us forth by the word of Truth so that we would be kind of firstfruits among his creatures right again with this whole aspect of God’s love being uninfluenced by anything outside of himself so important so important that we recognize this and what assurance that gives us right our Behavior our affections are um they waver right what if God’s love wavered with that that wouldn’t be good for us praise the Lord that it that it doesn’t all right let’s move on to the resolution and continuation the resolution and continuation of Christ’s work Romans 1 4-5 who was designated as the Son of God in power this is Christ according to the spirit of Holiness by the resurrection from the dead Jesus Christ Our Lord through whom we have we received Grace and apostleship for The Obedience of Faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name this idea of his lordship right this is why we talked last week about when we think about the gospel we think not just about his death but about his resurrection um you look at at Romans reticular Romans 6 particular and we see that his death his burial and his resurrection are reflected in our lives right all of that we live in resurrection power we see this in Ephesians 3 right and Ephesians 1. yeah um and we looked at um Philippians 1 Philippians 2 last week as well we think about his humiliation and his lordship right he who was king of kings and Lord of lords he could not be higher could not have gotten any lower right and it’s interesting he did not he did not cease to be Lord but as we see through his resurrection we’ll go to the next slide um he showed himself to be what he always was and that is Lord I love this in Hebrews 1 God having spoke spoken long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways in these last days spoke to us in his son whom he appointed heir of all things through whom also he made the worlds who is the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature and upholds all things by the word of his power who having accomplished cleansing for sins sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high important for us to recognize that he’s he he maintained that position throughout his life although it was concealed and having been raised from the dead he went back to obviously his um his rightful place if you will although he never fully really gave that up he concealed it last week we talked about a couple things what is Christ doing in heaven maybe we could repeat that anyone remember what he’s interceding for us that’s the main thing he is interceding for us praise the Lord he is reigning he’s ruling yeah there’s nothing outside of his rule I love when it says he upholds all things think about this he upholds all things by the word of his power constantly why are you and I here Colossians says in him all things hold together amazing and that’s through the Reign and the rule of Christ all right and then acts 22 Acts 2 32-36 this Jesus God raised up again to which we are all Witnesses therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit he has poured out this which you both see and hear for David did not Ascend into the heavens but he himself says the Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand until I put your enemies as a footstool for your feet interesting you look through the gospels Jesus had an interesting interaction with the Pharisees on this passage therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified so again was this a new thing did God put him to a position that he wasn’t in before did he make him Lord in Christ in that sense that’s not how we understand this right he has revealed him to be such through his resurrection he was always ruling and reigning and now this is obvious in a sense that it validated to the world demonstrated to the world that he is Lord and Christ it’s interesting when we talk about the gospel um I don’t know if you’ve ever heard this phrase I’ve heard it throughout my life it might be more of an older phrase that well if if you see someone who professes to be a Christian but they don’t seem to be living as such they say well he’s received them as Savior but not as Lord how do we respond to that he is the Lord right he is Savior and Lord so if you’ve received him as Savior not as Lord I’m going to say boldly you haven’t received Jesus because he is the Lord right Romans 10 9 and 10 tell us this if you believe in your heart that God if you um I’m gonna go there because I’m it’s not coming to me having a little senior moment here um if you um I’m sorry I’m just going to read it yeah um that if you confess either mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised from the dead you will be saved right so there’s a there’s an aspect of their of acknowledging Christ’s true identity and there’s an implication a sure implication there of repentance right again you receive him as Lord um and uh there’s a repentance aspect of salvation right you you believe you repentance and faith and I find there’s two things that are those are the two things that often in American Christianity and evangelism we neglect we neglect to mention his lordship people have said do you believe in lordship salvation and to quote Jack Nicholson is there another right if it’s not the worship salvation it’s not salvation there’s not they’re not categories right so the lordship aspect is something that’s often neglected in American Christianity and repentance when we tell people well all you have to do is believe I think that falls short right because that’s not how the scriptures talk about salvation the very first recorded words of Jesus are repent and believe in the gospel so let’s go with what he says when we both live out and communicate the gospel to others all right First Corinthians 15. for Since By A Man Came Death By A man also came the resurrection of the Dead for as in Adam all die so also in Christ all will be made alive but each in his own order Christ the firstfruits after that those who are Christ’s at his coming then comes the end when he hands over the kingdom to the God and Father when he has abolished all Rule and all authority and power for he must Reign until he has put all things put all his enemies under his feet and I love this The Last Enemy to be abolished is death amazing let’s talk about this for a minute eternal life is that just for the future what what implications does eternal life have for you and I right now some thoughts on that something that kind of comes to an end so if you have it now we’ve already done if you haven’t now you have the wrong eternity seems really basic but it’s really worth thinking about I think I may have shared last week of a a friend who struggles with the the idea that you can lose your salvation and I go right to there’s many places you can go here but John 5 24 is really helpful to you truly truly I say to you Hugh here’s my word of beliefs him who sent me what has eternal life and does not come in the Judgment but has passed out of death into life so eternal life we live in eternal life now and if I could just be really rudimentary eternal life is eternal by definition you can’t lose it if you haven’t the assured brothers and sisters and that’s wonderful a wonderful thing to reflect on and he is preparing a place for us we know that from John 14. that’s wonderful but that’s not when eternal life begins we live in it now I remember reading I think it was an article by John Piper talked about um what are you looking forward to most about heaven and no crying no death no sorrow all that everything will be perfect we perfectionists finally get what we want you know in heaven but that’s not the main benefit I think the question he asked was if you could have all the benefits of heaven and God wasn’t there would that interest you and I hope we get to the point in our lives we say well what would really be the point of that right if we’re not enjoying and seeking our relationship with Christ now as the very best thing in our lives that might indicate something about where we are because that’s the whole point of Eternity we’ll get to be with him right and yeah how trivial things of the body and things of the Earth really are you know because we’ll be here we’ll be living forever so things now and this life doesn’t you know what I mean yeah how trivial things on Earth are now yeah it’s really interesting to think about that um I was reflecting I think it was in Proverbs 25 this past week I got to thinking about it says um you know to pay attention to your stuff your flocking hurts all the while knowing that those riches aren’t forever and I got to thinking about that um they’re insignificant but they’re not right the thing so to your point anyo um I think it’s in First Corinthians 4 for the things that are seen are temporal but the things that are unseen are eternal right the the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to be revealed to us there’s an eternal weight of Glory right ahead of us yet how we handle these temporal things has Eternal implications now I’m going to speak out of something that I feel I know understand very little about but there are Eternal rewards based on how we treat temporal things today really interesting right do not store up for yourselves Treasures on Earth it says in Matthew 6 but store for yourselves because those things will Decay but store up for yourselves Treasures in Heaven but it’s based on our faithfulness with the things that we have here knowing that there’s a reward ahead of us right it’s so interesting take care of your stuff but the stuff isn’t ultimate if I can put it in maybe a crude way Glenda you know people think that go in and see our Lord and see that worshiping and to worship him yeah yeah people say oh my grandma and my grandfather or my mom and dad is in heaven I long to see them yeah but that’s not what heaven is all about is seeing Christ the one who caused us to be in heaven and worshiping all the days of Eternity yeah I’m so glad you mentioned that because I was thinking about um how this was presented at my mom’s funeral my mom died young at 47 and there was a lot there was I thought during the funeral there was um and I see this at a number of funerals um maybe an over emphasis on seeing your loved one again no offense that’s going to be great I missed my mom and I look forward to seeing her but that’s not ultimate she would say that people were there were like you shouldn’t really be looking forward to seeing me it’s Christ that’s him so that’s that’s a real test I think Linda of where our hearts are what are we looking forward to most if it’s the Perfection of the environment if it’s people that we miss I think I think that falls short of the true worship that we should have that’s good all right I don’t even know what’s next here yeah and then we talked about this right Glenda thank you for reminding us so what is he doing now as he reigns therefore he is able to say forever those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them again this blows away any idea that we can lose our salvation right Christ is not falling short of his intercession for us it’s not therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find Grace to help in time of need Hebrews 4 16.
when is our time of need it’s constant our need I hope you recognize this brothers and sisters our need does not waver we don’t need him more sometimes we are our awareness of it changes but our need for him I think is beyond what we can even comprehend right if he is upholding all things power and if he is um holding us together then our need can scarcely be overstated and so one of the things that I’ve enjoyed and appreciated as I’ve gone through difficult times is the CL the closeness that I get to experience with Christ because I I I’m desperate I have that sense of desperation and it’s interesting when I when when circumstances get a little bit better um it scares me a little bit because I want to enjoy the blessings but I know that in my sinfulness I’m gonna I’m gonna be maybe a little more distant from him I’m gonna feel like I don’t need him as much as I really do if you’ve read accounts of Christians who’ve been in prison for their faith there’s two that I can think of in particular Richard wormbrand who’s written the book torture for Christ which I recommend and uh The Heavenly Man by a Chinese Pastor named brother Yun both of them said something almost identical they said that when they when they were released and they were out and they were free they had moments where they longed to go back because they had trouble recapturing that sense of intimacy with Christ that they treasured isn’t that interesting and so this is why I think sometimes God doesn’t give us the blessings that we seek the Earthly blessings that we see because he knows that we need to be uh have on him so yeah that’s good stuff so our time of need is constant all right the resolution and continuation of Christ’s work so I’m gonna kind of summarize here he is Lord giving us a mission of discipleship I think we saw that in the Romans 1 passage we have received Grace and so for for Paul says apostleship but I think we recognize that um inverses like in in um second Corinthians 5 right that we he has given us the mission right the word of reconciliation right he’s reconciled us right and given us given that mission mission to us um let me just read it yeah it’s so great knowing the fear of the Lord we persuade where we persuade men it goes on for the love of Christ controls us having concluded this that one died for all therefore all died and he died for all so that they who live would no longer live for themselves but for him who died and rose again on their behalf I’m just picking up on some things here God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not counting their transgressions against them and he hasn’t committed to us the word of reconciliation so then we are ambassadors for Christ as God is pleading through us we beg him on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God so we recognize that our Salvation comes with a mission a mission of evangelism and discipleship He reigns in Majesty never doubt that right no matter how bad circumstances get he is ruling and he is reigning from on high he has conquered death I love what we read The Last Enemy to be abolished is death that is a past reality that we will see in the future that we will see in the future and he intercedes for his people praise the Lord he enters he is constantly never unceasingly interceding for us before the father and he is coming again he is coming again do you believe that you think about that there was a back in the days where Christian bumper stickers were more of a thing I don’t like bumper stickers at all but there’s there’s some that I like um yeah I won’t deviate to the to my favorite my favorite one but um because it has no it has no spiritual edification at all um there was a bumper sticker that said simply perhaps today and for Christians it was he could come today and I’m and most days I’m like yeah today would be good wouldn’t today be great I love that but we we stand we walk in anticipation of his coming all right we’ve got plenty of time here to discuss and to reflect before I get into some specific items here um are there any questions or comments that you might have all right if you think of anything let me know I did want to clear something up and and thanks um to Jane for asking me about this earlier this week some things on forgiveness that I mentioned last week that I think uh I I want to just kind of um uh maybe alleviate any confusion there might be about that so um one of the things I said maybe a little bit too tersely was that we don’t have to ask for forgiveness let me just clarify that a little bit right and the reason I said that was from Ephesians 1 7 where it says in him we have the Forgiveness of our trust Redemption through his blood the Forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace and then you look at the Lord’s Prayer where it seems to indicate that we’re asking for forgiveness and then first John 1 9 if we confess our sins he’s faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins so I want to be really clear that um the main thing we think about that is if we do ask the way I personally apply it is I confess and seek repentance and I thank him for the Forgiveness that I have in Christ right but this doesn’t eliminate the need for confession I was reading some commentaries this past week where some people actually believe that that because of Ephesians 1 7 you don’t have to confess anymore that’s not it at all and so I just want to make sure that we’re really clear on that one of the things we do see if you look at first John 1 is what does confession do it well I’ll just read it in first John 1 starting I think in verse am I going in and out here okay is there anything okay um I’ll start in verse five um first John 1 verse 5 and this is the message we have heard from him and declared to you that God is light and in him there is no Darkness at all if we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness we lie and do not do the truth but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us if we confess our sins he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness if we say that we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us and then verse 2 verse 1 my little children I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin and if anyone sins we have an advocate with the father Jesus Christ the righteous I think our Lord recognizes that even as Believers we’re going to sin is that not clear and so this idea of confession if we don’t confess known sin it affects our ongoing fellowship with the Lord right and our cleansing and our fellowship with one another you can’t hide that if I have unconfessed sin in my heart it’s going to affect my relationship with you Jody Human Relationships like and know he’s forgives me or he’s going to cover it over with love but if I don’t go to him it hinders the relationships that I was looking on some other commentary and it was just saying it’s a difference between positional forgiveness and relational positional versus relational forgiveness yes I thought yeah yeah we know forget here but it hinders right and so right you know you have to cleanse your part yeah so just a reassurance that unconfessed sin doesn’t affect our Eternal salvation but it affects our relationship with God and with others yeah hopefully hopefully that’s helpful there’s a lot to forgiveness right you can yeah I that’s for another time so um turn of Colossians 2 and this is something I think for us to really think about the ongoing implications of our Salvation how does it apply to our lives um day to day Colossians 2 6-7 um but therefore as you’ve received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him having been firmly rooted and being built up in him having been established in your faith just as you were instructed and abounding with Thanksgiving you talked about this earlier notice the word Lord there again right as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him how have we received Christ Jesus the Lord by repentance and faith how are we to continue to walk in Repentance and faith it’s a beautiful thing I think I think we have to recognize that salvation repents in faith is not a one and done thing it is from the perspective of our Eternal salvation but in terms of a walk so important that we have that cycle I don’t know about you I have not run out of things to repent of yet and I’m gonna be bold and say you haven’t either I don’t know all that’s going on in all of your lives but I’m pretty sure that’s true praise the Lord that we can continue to come to him Colossians 3 verses 1 through 4 um Precious Precious passage here um has real implications in our daily walk therefore if you have been raised up with Christ now keep in mind this is reflecting on the spiritual realities of Salvation and what does that mean for how we live out our daily lives any of this talk this really kind of connects those Eternal realities that you were mentioning versus the temporal realities therefore if you’ve 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 died and your life has been hidden with Christ in God when Christ who is our life is manifested then you also will be manifested with him in glory it goes on therefore consider the members of your Earthly body as dead to and it lists all those sins there’s so much here if you have been raised up with Christ if you’re in in Christ that’s true so let’s think that through keep seeking the things above what are you thinking about most of the time what grabs your affections right is it things on earth or things in heaven prayer meeting on Wednesday Pastor Dave said something that I never heard before and I’ve been thinking about this since so our our brief devotional time in perimeting was from Psalm 27 which is my favorite Psalm right the Lord is my light and my salvation Whom Shall I Fear it goes on in verse 4 it says one thing I’ve asked of the Lord that I shall seek that I might dwell on the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in his Temple that’s one of the few places where the scriptures give this one thing one thing that is the ultimate thing right to behold his Beauty to worship him to know him and one of the things that they’ve said was see if I remember it is if we consider anything else besides him to be essential then the result in our lives will be fear I’m not talking about fear in the good sense right fear is in dread if we consider anything about him in our lives to be essential the result will be fear and I thought wow that that really landed with me and I think that that challenges us from this passage here keep seeking the things above right where are our affections are they divided right are we um or are they ultimately in him set your mind on the things above not on the things that are on Earth for you died and your life has been hidden with Christ in God so when we think about living for Eternal things let’s just talk about this for a little bit what things are Eternal and I have three things in mind what three things are eternal one of them is really obvious as I tell my kids if you say God or Jesus you’re right with these questions at least half the time let’s go with that God is eternal right what else is eternal our souls people are Eternal okay there’s one other thing I’m thinking of Isaiah 40 verse 8 if you know it off the top of your head it’s the word of God the grass there’s the flower face but the word of our Gods stands forever so if our affections are dominated by those things first of all the Lord himself second of all the people they got he’s put in our lives and then in his word I would actually probably reverse us to God his word and then people because God in his word are so closely connected think about that right am I investing in Eternal things right um I remember just I think part of the reason that God blessed us with six children is to help me recover from my perfectionism because if you’ve got well let’s face it even if you have one child they just it’s going to be a little bit it’s going to be some chaos right and I remember the Lord impressed this thought on my heart in my 20s as the chaos was growing he this thought entered my mind you can have Perfection you can have order if you will not Perfection order in your relationships or order in your stuff but on this side of Eternity you can’t have both if you have to choose between or between those two choose the people right I can have a a clean garage and a clean office and and be be unreconciled to your point with with and then that’s no good right so Jody dark [Music] mountains and on the right side if you looked out that window was you upcoming beautiful outstretched lamp and he said as you’re going through your trial even when maybe you pass some of those dark mountains you keep looking back there instead of the hope that’s out before you of the the beautiful scenery so he was just saying when you’re setting your mind on things above yeah it’s where your focus is and you can get stuck back here yeah just keep replaying that like a record and you’ve got to change the hope that we have the hope we have to be future looking to what’s ahead of us I’m gonna I’m gonna run with that for a little bit look at Romans 8. this is so beautiful the fact the fact that the things that are unseen are eternal uh is a gift to us and the fact that we can’t see them is actually a gift um look at Romans 8.
are you starting in uh yeah starting verse 23 and not only this but also we ourselves having the first fruits of the spirit even we ourselves grown within ourselves do you feel that life is frustrating it’s a mess right having the first fruits of the spirit even we ourselves grown within ourselves eagerly waiting for our adoption as Sons the Redemption of our body for in hope we were saved that it’s thing I hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes for what he already sees but if we hope for what we do not see with perseverance we eagerly wait for it Jody I think this captures what you were saying the Unseen hope that we have it’s actually a gift from God that we can’t see it in this life because it focuses our attention away from the things of this life to Eternity this turns around something that I have personally found frustrating to say oh this is a gift from God so that I will focus on the right things hope that is seen is not hope wow and of course we know biblically hope is not wishful thinking it’s rock solid Assurance it is an anchor for the soul as it says in Hebrews all right I do want to get to this last passage so think about this how aligned are your affections and motivations with the reality of Christ’s rule and then second Corinthians 4 6 to 10 and I would really encourage um some personal reflection on this passage in the coming week I think you’ll really benefit from that second Corinthians 4 verses 6 to 10. I think we mentioned it briefly last week so let me read that for God who said light shall shine out of darkness is the one who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ but we have this treasure in Earthen vessels so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves in every way Afflicted but not crushed perplexed but not despairing persecuted but not forsaken struck down but not destroyed always caring about in the body the dying of Jesus so that the life of Jesus Also may be manifested in our body so when it says Earth and vessels I was thinking back to Pastor Bobby when did you preach on that we are baked what was the phrase we are baked dirt uh that’s who we are I love that just sticks with me yeah that’s who we are so that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves I want us to think about so hopefully you can relate to what we see in verses eight and nine and he Afflicted but not crushed perplexed but not despairing at least that right and we’ve been perplexed this past week or a couple weeks I mean I have right um persecuted but not forsaken struck down but not destroyed and what does this mean brothers and sisters always caring about in the body the dying of Jesus so that the life of Jesus Also may be manifested in her body we’re going back to that first verse Christ was buried it was died buried and was risen we that we reflect that in our lives in what way how does your life reflect the reality of the Gospel let me suggest a couple things what does it mean to carry about in the body the dying of Jesus Paul said that in Christ he dies daily what does this mean Jesus said I think it was in John 12 unless the grade if we um falls into the ground and dies or remains by itself alone but if it dies it Bears much fruit now that’s a reflection of his work on the cross right but it’s also I think has some implications for us because we have to die to sin we have to continually well and I command Romans 6 through 8 for to you particularly Romans 6. we have to continually consider ourselves dead to sin but alive to God we need to buy the spirit in Romans 8 13 put to death Deeds of the body right so in in this sense putting to death are fleshly lusts is the way is a primary way I think in which we carry about the dying of Jesus right we are caring about in the body the dying of Jesus denying self right receiving mock ridicule whatever may come as Jesus did right we’re not Jesus but identified with him we experience this always caring about in the body of the dying of Jesus and I would challenge you with this count us with this what are some sacrifices that um God calls us to as Believers that you have not been willing to make right what ways do you know that you need to die to self to your own desires that you’re refusing to do we’ve all got this I think the minimum that I think about is you know I think about our brothers throughout the world who are who these these verses that we just read about um persecuted uh Afflicted you know we’re not experiencing that maybe as much um as I like to say that there are there are people who are experiencing more than microaggressions in this world today they’re getting more than their feelings hurt right they’re under real harm and under death threat not only threat of death but actual death it’s a little easy for us here so what are the sacrifices that we’re making I’ll start with one that I’ll just commend to you how’s your daily time with the Lord are you setting aside that time as your first priority we read this in Psalm 27 one thing right uh I’ve asked the Lord that I shall seek that I might dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life the behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in his temple in other words putting my fellowship with him first in Luke 10 verses 38-42 that whole sequence with Mary and Martha you know Mary Mary Martha you were worried about so many things Jesus said only one thing is necessary what is that one thing sitting at the feet of Jesus I know it might sound legalistic I don’t mean that at all um man shall not live on bread alone but in every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God I would commend you brothers and sisters that is your minimum sacrifice be uncompromising in setting aside your first and best time with the Lord just settle it everything in your life flows out of that everything everything and I’m amazed at the pushback that I get sometimes when I have conversations about this but that that’s the sacrifice I think you know the just just faithful service to Christ in his body right First John 3 16 says he laid down his life for us we ought also to lay down our lives for one for the Brethren right the sacrifices that we make in our daily lives um and this is this goes back to what you were saying anyo it’s putting aside those things that the world values right you’re going to sacrifice financially maybe in your career right to to put your priorities in the right place right it hopefully you got that memo it’s a sacrifice right but if we so I just trust that the Lord will lay on your heart these scriptures that talk that that tell us what what do I need to lay aside another one that’s really clear is the fear of man brings us near but he trusts in the Lord will be exalted I hope you recognize that if you’re living Paul said this in Galatians if I if I um sought the approval of man I could not be a servant of Christ that’s a very big thing that we need to give up is the approval of people right so there’s a lot I could say about this but I trust the Holy Spirit to bring to your mind what that means in your own life today all right these are the wonderful implications of the work of Christ the ongoing word of Christ let me pray for us father we praise you for the perfection of Christ’s person and the Perfection and the completion of your work and what it means in our lives father we are so often distracted we are so often selfish and you want us to live on a higher level caring about in the body the dying of Jesus that the life of Jesus might be manifested in our body that that precious Fellowship that precious revelation of you demonstration of your power to the world and so make it so for us we pray by your grace in Jesus name