Wednesday, 3:00PM
Today’s teaching focuses on the mortification of sin! The last point Derek Thomas mentions about legalism is of critical importance! We CANNOT mortify our sin in our own strength. The Gospel of God, the Good News of God is NOT about behavior modification! The Gospel of God is that He is God! And He is triune! Father, Son and Holy Spirit! The Creator of all that is! He created human beings to image Him and we ALL have failed miserably. He sent His Son, incarnate into the world which He created - God the eternal Son took on human flesh, born as a baby and all that involves, in time and history - and lived the life we were commanded to (active obedience) and then He died the death we deserve (passive obedience). He saves sinners through His Son because God is just, loving, and merciful and will not allow sin to go unpunished!
The death Jesus died was Him taking upon Himself the judgment of God, the wrath of God on His people’s behalf. He absorbed in Himself, as our substitute, the wrath of God that we deserve for our sinful rebellion against our Creator. John 15:13: Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. God the Son willingly became human in order to live and give His life for His people, His bride! Jesus is truly God AND truly man. One Person with two natures. Not 50% & 50%. But 100% God and 100% man. From His human nature, He lived in perfect obedience to God’s commands and from His human nature He took in the wrath/judgment/punishment of God on our behalf. ➡️That…THAT, IS THE LOVE OF GOD! He became a human in order to rescue us from the wrath of God/ the judgment of God/ the punishment of God against OUR SIN. Since the third chapter of Genesis, every human being born has been born under the domination of SIN. God hates SIN because of what it has done to His creatures and His very good world. We in turn image Him wrongly (we ALL fall short of the glory of God) by hurting ourselves and others as we sin.
We NEED to be freed from the power and control and influence that SIN has over us.
And God becoming human and taking on God’s wrath, as a human, is the ONLY way our SIN could be atoned for. Human for human. Paid for in full! So what Jesus accomplished on the cross is He took the judgment of God in our place so we wouldn’t have to in the final judgment! He took on the final judgment already on the cross for His people!
Either you trust completely in Christ alone for taking on the punishment you deserve for rebelling against God: resting in Jesus knowing He has freed you from the wrath of God. OR You can continue trusting your SELF and your ways and your feelings and opinions that are under the influence/control/power of sin and expect, that when God decides to take breath from you and you physically die, you can expect to face the wrath/judgment/punishment of God on your own. There is a judgment coming. See Hebrews 9:27.
This is not a scare tactic, this is reality. This is truth. This is the Gospel! This is the testimony of God in His written Word, the Holy Bible! This is GOOD NEWS! God has done what only God could do! He paid for our sin for us and gifts us the righteousness of Jesus’ perfect obedience! We CANNOT do it on our own. We absolutely NEED Jesus!
So Derek Thomas’ point in #5 at the end of this message is about legalism. Thinking we can modify our behavior to earn God’s love. No, no, NO! We CANNOT earn God’s love. The Gospel is about how God has AND continues to love His people! The Gospel reveals His love in the truth of how He justly pardons our sin in His work accomplished IN and THROUGH Jesus Christ! He sent His Son to pay the debt we owe in full and God the Father accepted the willing sacrifice of the Son on behalf of those whom the Father gave Him and the Holy Spirit gifts us with the Son’s perfectly obedient life! That’s salvation! That is reconciliation to the Father, through the Son, applied by the Holy Sprit! That is the only way any human is justified before the one true, living triune God! The fact that God is triune is absolutely Good News! For if He wasn’t, salvation of any human would not be possible!
Can you say freedom!?!
Freedom from sin!
Freedom from death!
Freedom from the wrath of God!
And…freedom to be utterly grateful to God for what He has done for us!
Freedom to love God in response to His love towards us first!
Freedom to trust Him and Him alone! Not our feelings or opinions!
Freedom to obey/submit to His ways because we NOW KNOW that what He commands is for our good and for our joy and our protection… and ultimately for His glory!
His grace/mercy/love/Holy Spirit empowers us to obey Him once He has gifted us new life IN Christ!
He, and He alone transfers us from being IN Adam to being new IN Christ!
From old creation to new creation!
From the darkness into His light!
From SIN IN Adam to complete rescue/salvation IN Christ!
From blind to sight!
From deaf to hearing!
From trusting self to trusting Jesus Christ!
From victim mentality to victory and freedom IN Christ!
Ultimately, from eternal death to eternal life!
SIN is not just something we do (verb). SIN is an evil, wicked influence rooted in our own self deception stemming from our own desires and selfish urges that compel us to act/think/behave for our own benefit at the expense of others (noun). SIN convinces our mind to hate the things of God and worst of all, to hate God Himself. You might not think you hate God, but disobedience to God is obedience to satan/sin/the flesh that is full of and pleased with SELF. Ego/arrogance. And Jesus is the only One that has the keys to unlock us and free us from the prison of actually taking pleasure IN SIN and trusting SELF!
True saving faith gifted by God frees us from:
1) The pleasure of sin.
2) The power of sin.
3) The penalty of sin.
4) And ultimately at the return of Jesus, it frees us from the presence of sin!
So the EVIDENCE that one has been rescued from the domination and oppression of SIN is obedience to Christ!
- The EVIDENCE of true saving faith is you long, hunger and thirst for God and you seek Him in the Scriptures on a regular basis! He is the Only One that satisfies our hunger and quenches our thirst!
- The EVIDENCE of salvation is that you no longer take pleasure in sin, you hate sin because God has given you sight to see the destruction it not only causes you, but others and His name!
- The EVIDENCE that you have been born again from above by God Himself is you have new priorities, new desires according to His revealed will recorded in His written word!
- The EVIDENCE that you are IN Christ is you now obey His Word (although imperfectly) revealing that you trust Him over SELF!
- The EVIDENCE that you are truly part of the bride of Christ, part of His body, adopted into His family - is you will long to find and join a truly biblical church where you enjoy sitting under the rightly divided preached word of God! You enjoy the family of God and growing in your union with Him and with the other brothers and sisters He has also adopted into His family! You will long to corporately worship and praise Him for who He is - your Lord, your Master, your God, your Savior and your Redeemer! You will long to be in submission to and under careful watch and prayer of Holy Spirit-filled pastors and elders as God commands His people in the New Testament! You will desire to be held accountable knowing it is for your own good and God’s glory! You long to receive communion after you have professed your gift of saving faith publicly! You desire to join the Lord at His feast that He has called you to! You long for Him to continue to feed you from His Word pursuing holiness and broaden the weening from the fallen world’s sinful ways!
- The EVIDENCE that you belong to Jesus is you truly enjoy Him, love Him and adore Him! When someone speaks His name honorably your heart smiles! You do not fear! And when someone speaks His name irreverently you cringe and pray for them!
- The EVIDENCE that you are a Christian is you will not win any popularity contests! You will be thought of by the ones remaining in the old creation still dominated by sin and under God's wrath as a hypocrite, judgmental, bigoted, narrow-minded, mean, unloving, etc. And you confidently know you are blessed by God and He is allowing you to participate in His suffering and as bad as it hurts - you are blessed and grateful to be counted worthy to partake of His sufferings! And you KNOW He is worth it at any costs!
- The EVIDENCE you are walking with God led by the Holy Sprit is you truly care about people’s souls! You desire and pray for even your worst human enemy to be gifted saving faith by the grace of God alone!
- The EVIDENCE that you are a friend of Jesus is you tell people the truth in love knowing they will possibly think negative and wrong things about you! Those who hate TRUTH hear the TRUTH as hate.
- The EVIDENCE that God has and is still at work transforming your mind and purifying your heart is you love Jesus above ALL - above ALL people and above ALL things! His love controls and compels you!
- The EVIDENCE that you’re influenced by God and not SIN is you truly enjoy His authority over you and you rest in the reality of His sovereignty and provision no matter what it looks like or feels like!
- The EVIDENCE that you are under the active authority and grace of God and not the devil is you do not compromise and tolerate sin to reach a sinner!
- The EVIDENCE that you have a new heart is you now pray asking God to conform you to His will, no longer do you pray asking/telling God to conform to your will!
- The EVIDENCE that you are walking with God led by His Spirit is confession and repentance is a continual rhythm of life, not a one time moment in your past! Once God saves you from SIN, He continually is at work purging sin by renewing your mind with His Word!
- The EVIDENCE that you are of the new creation IN Christ is you know you are not your own, that you were bought with a price! And you know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit! You know He saved you that we would glorify God in our body...now and in glory!
These are just some of the EVIDENCES that you are indeed in-dwelt by the Holy Sprit and under His influence and have been rescued by God from self-deception and sin’s powerful, wicked influence.
If you are not certain and confident that this EVIDENCE is a present reality in your life there is only one thing you can do. Plead with God to have mercy on you. (Consult God in Luke 18:9-14) Confess your sins to God! (Don't continue to call God a liar by trusting in your own "righteousness", consult God in 1 John 1:9-10) Ask for His forgiveness! Quit running and HIDING FROM Him like Adam and Eve scared and ashamed in the garden and run TO Him in trust, surrender, humility and truth! Then open your Bible and start listening to Him! And ask Him to grant you belief in His Son! Not just belief in the facts ABOUT His Son - but belief INTO His Son! Only God gifts saving faith! It is not something we can muster up ourselves. If we could, then why did God the Father have to send His Son to take on human flesh?
Salvation is by God! From God! And For God!
Psalm 19:14; coram deo!
#graceandspace for you and for others, no matter what it looks like!
