From Hostility to Holiness

Sovereign Grace Family Church iconSovereign Grace Family Church

2 views

0 comments

00:05
I invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to Colossians chapter 1 and hold your place at verse 21.
00:27
Last night I was looking over a statistical analysis on New Year's resolutions.
00:38
It's funny that Andy would mention them in his prayer because I was just curious as to how many people actually make New Year's resolutions and I don't know what kind of an organization dedicates themselves to the survey of human beings, but there's a survey for just about everything that you can find.
00:57
And this particular survey said that about half of U.S.
01:04
adults will make New Year's resolutions.
01:08
It's actually more than half among the ages of 18 to 35 and then as you get older I guess you realize it's not really useful.
01:16
Less older folks do it but more younger folks do it and it's about half and 48% of those who make New Year's resolutions tend to make New Year's resolutions regarding the losing of weight.
01:30
That is the most popular thing is the losing of weight.
01:34
And yet 23% of people who make a New Year's resolution quit within the first week and only about 36% make it past the first month and the study went on to say that only about 9% of people who make a New Year's resolution see it through to the end of the year.
02:00
And what that reminded me of, I was just looking it up because it reminded me of the fact that we are really good at starting things but we're not always really good at seeing things through.
02:18
I paused for amen but I'll see that you're unwilling and I understand.
02:23
But we're really good at starting things but we're not always good at seeing things through and when it comes to something like losing weight, well that's important but it's not the end of the world, it's not really eternal in nature.
02:41
But when it comes to our faith, oftentimes we put great emphasis on the starting of our faith.
02:54
Somebody comes to Christ, somebody's converted, somebody is baptized and there's a big deal placed on the beginning of faith.
03:04
And yet when we go to the scriptures what we find is the emphasis is not placed on the beginning of faith but rather the emphasis in scripture is on the seeing faith through to the end.
03:23
The running of the race, the finishing of the race is what is the focus, not did you get saved but did you die in faith.
03:37
And that's what we're going to see today in this passage.
03:41
Verses 21, 22 and 23 form one sentence in the Greek New Testament and it's one sentence which begins with the idea of who we were and then moves to the idea of who we are.
03:56
But then it goes into what we must continue to be.
04:01
And so today we're going to focus on the idea of abiding in faith, moving from hostility to holiness and abiding in that holiness.
04:14
So let's stand together and read the text for today.
04:32
Colossians 1 verse 21 says, And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.
04:48
If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
05:08
Father in heaven, I praise you this morning for the opportunity to worship.
05:12
I praise you for the men that I serve with and Lord, I thank you for the opportunity to be led in worship by our worship team and singing and hearing the word read and hearing the prayers given.
05:23
And I'm so grateful to you, God, for this place that we can gather where the body of Christ can be taught the word of God.
05:35
I pray, O God, now that as we turn our attention to the exposition of the word that you would keep me from error, Lord, knowing that I am fallible and capable of preaching error.
05:46
And I pray, Lord, that you would also, by your grace, open the ears of your people to hear the truth and apply it to their hearts by the power of the spirit.
05:56
And Lord, if there are those today who still exist in a place of alienation, who still exist hostile in mind, workers of evil, Lord, that you would, by your grace, change their heart today, reconcile them by the blood of Christ so that you might present them wholly blameless and above reproach before you.
06:30
Father, thank you for this blessing of this word.
06:33
And may we may we understand it.
06:36
May your spirit teach us in Jesus name.
06:41
Amen.
06:43
You may be seated.
06:45
Can we mute this mic? It just seems like I've got a lot of echo.
06:49
I don't know if it's from that or from this, but maybe bring my head mic down a little bit too.
06:54
I just feel loud.
06:55
I get loud and I don't, if I hear myself, that means I can't get loud.
07:00
That ain't going to happen.
07:01
So I mentioned earlier about New Year's resolutions.
07:06
It's very common on January 1st, not only for people to make resolutions, but it's also very common for this to be a time to take stock.
07:19
Oftentimes on January 1st, people will reflect on what they have done in the past year, looking at both successes and failures.
07:32
They'll take stock of where they are and they'll prepare for the year to come, examining what all they perceive might take place.
07:47
Well, when we think of that, if we think about the idea of reflection and taking stock and preparing for the future as something that we normally do on January 1st anyway, it is interesting that this particular passage would fall on the day that we are normally doing this because that's what this passage does.
08:10
This passage, verses 21, 22, and 23 in Colossians, reflects on who we were outside of Christ.
08:19
It takes stock of who we are in Christ and it looks forward to what must continue if we are to continue to proclaim the name of Christ.
08:30
Again, it's so interesting because you know that we're preaching through Colossians verse by verse.
08:36
I didn't plan to be here this day.
08:38
It just so happened that because of taking as long as we did through the Christ hymn, which is verses 15 to 20, it just so happens this fell on New Year's Day.
08:46
But it's interesting that it did because it so fits in to the theme of the day.
08:52
And I want to remind you of what we talked about last week because the entire section that really begins in verse 20 but continues to verse 23 is on the subject of reconciliation.
09:07
Verse 19 says, for in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell.
09:11
We talked about that two weeks ago.
09:13
Talked about the fullness of deity that dwells in Christ.
09:17
But it goes on.
09:18
That's only part of it.
09:19
It says, it pleased the Father that the fullness should dwell in him and through him to reconcile all things to himself, whether things in earth or things in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
09:30
That's what I preached last Sunday on Christmas morning.
09:33
We talked about the fact that it pleased God, not only that the fullness of deity should dwell in Christ, but it pleased God that through that fullness of deity dwelling in Christ that God would reconcile to himself the world by the blood of the cross.
09:49
That pleased God to reconcile the world to himself through Christ.
09:57
But Paul, maintaining this idea of reconciliation, maintaining this theme of reconciliation, now goes into a three-part examination of the concept of reconciliation by looking at what we were, what we are, and what we must continue to be.
10:20
That is the outline for today.
10:22
If you haven't picked up on that, I've said it now I think three times.
10:25
We're really looking at the past, the present, and the future.
10:29
What we were, what we are, and what we must continue to be.
10:37
And so, let us look first at what we were.
10:43
He says, and by the way, it's broken into three verses, 21, 22, 23, so it's literally three verses, three points, it's going to follow that line.
10:50
Verse 21 says, and you who were once alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds.
11:00
It's interesting that when we look at the Apostle Paul's writing, he does not paint a very rosy picture of humanity, does he? Not at all.
11:10
Paul is not afraid to give us the accurate picture of humanity.
11:15
If you read modern human, modern literature on human nature, you will note that much of it tries to dispel with the idea of the sinfulness of human nature, and rather tries to explain human nature by virtue of some form of sociological explanation.
11:36
I remember when I was doing my work on my degree, my education degree, one of the books I read, the very first page, the very first, the introduction to the textbook said, for a long time, human beings believed that they were born in sin and that their behavior was based on a sinful nature that they inherited, but we now know.
12:06
I've never forgot that.
12:08
But we now know.
12:13
No, we don't.
12:14
We don't now know.
12:16
We have now tried every way we can to try to satisfy this universal idea of sin.
12:23
We blame it on nature, we blame it on nurture, we blame it on all kinds of different things, but we won't actually deal with the heart of the issue, which is sin, because if you believe in sin, you have to believe in God, because there is no sin without a lawgiver, because sin is the breaking of the law.
12:45
And the world that doesn't want to believe in God has to find something else to call sin, so they call it something else, because you can't have a law breaking without a lawgiver.
12:57
But Paul has no problem here defining the human nature apart from Christ.
13:03
He says, we were alienated, we were hostile in mind, and we were doing evil deeds.
13:09
In the Greek text, as I said, this is all one sentence, verses 21, 22, and 23 is all one sentence, and what's interesting is what we see is we see a structure here.
13:20
He says, this is what you were, this is what you will, what you are, and what you must continue to be.
13:25
As I've said, that's our outline, but I want us to consider for a moment what it means to be alienated, because that is a stress that Paul is making here, and I do believe that the two most important words in this one long Greek sentence are the words alienated and reconciled, because he says, you were alienated, hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, but he has now reconciled you so that he can present you holy and blameless and above reproach.
13:54
So the two ideas that we see being juxtaposed are the idea of alienation and reconciliation.
14:04
What does it mean? I had fun with my Sunday school class this morning, I said, what does it mean to be alienated? And we sort of talked about what alienated means, and I said, what is an alien, and of course, our modern context, we hear alien, we think, you know, like aliens.
14:21
But the idea of alienation, the idea of an alien is something that is outside.
14:27
Something that is not, something that does not belong.
14:31
Something that is foreign, right? And so the idea of this word, when it says, at one time, you existed as alienated, and the reason why I just said exist, I know that's not what it says in the ESV, the ESV says you were, but the word were there is actually a, it's a verb from the word amy, which is actually what we have in the Greek, I just sort of nerded out, sorry.
14:58
The word ontos, ontology is the study of being.
15:04
The Greek here says, you ontos, alienated.
15:08
You were, in your being, alienated from God.
15:15
That's what you were.
15:17
According to your nature, you were alienated from God.
15:22
You were separated from Him.
15:25
Now how are we separated from God? Well, we can go back into the Old Testament, what does it say? Your sin does separate you from Him.
15:32
What was the very first thing that happened in the garden after the sin happened and God gave the judgment against the serpent and against the woman and against the man, what is the very next thing that happens? Exile.
15:47
The sending out.
15:48
The alienation from where they were, which was in the very presence of God, in the most beautiful place, the most comfortable place, the most perfect place that had ever been created and now they are alien from that place.
16:03
The presence of God is no longer their abode.
16:06
The comfort and the power and the majesty of God is no longer comfortable.
16:20
It's no longer safe because now when you come into the presence of God, it's not comforting, it's frightening.
16:31
Think about Isaiah.
16:32
Isaiah, the most holy man in all of Israel, he faces God in Isaiah chapter 6 and what does he do? He recoils in terror.
16:42
Woe is me for I am undone and I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips.
16:49
I recognize my alienation.
16:52
See, you were alienated from God.
17:01
By the way, I think I've mentioned this a few times so far, but in case you haven't heard it or picked up on it, there is a lot of commonalities between Ephesians and Colossians.
17:12
They are really sister letters in our Bibles and there's a section in Ephesians chapter 2 where Paul deals with the same idea of being alienated and he's referring specifically there to the Gentiles being alienated and separated from the covenant of God and outside of the grace of God and he talks about that alienation.
17:39
This is the idea here.
17:41
We were once alienated, hostile in mind.
17:52
The word hostile here is actually a very intense word for the idea of hatred.
18:02
Talk to unbelievers, well, I just love Jesus, isn't that what they say? Well I just love the Lord, isn't that how they act? But then you begin to talk about the Lord, the Lord who demands obedience, the Lord who demands faithfulness, the Lord who will put his enemies under his feet and smite the wicked and the Lord who punished all but eight people in the flood by drowning them as the earth collapsed beneath them and swallowed them into a watery grave.
18:38
A God who will send fire and brimstone upon the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.
18:42
A God who would take a man's wife and turn her to salt.
18:47
You see, you start talking about that God and you see the hatred well up.
18:52
Well that's not the God I worship, that's true because you worship an idol.
18:58
Certainly it's not the God you worship because you're alienated from the God who does exist so the Bible says what you do is you supply yourself with something to worship and the thing that you supply yourself with is the God of your own making.
19:11
You are alienated from God and therefore you are separated from him but you have to have something to worship because human beings are absolutely worship beings.
19:21
We are called homo religiosus, the worshiping being.
19:24
By nature we all worship something, even the atheist worships his own intellect often.
19:34
But you are alien, you are hostile in mind and he goes on to say you are working evil deeds.
19:42
The word here is the word ergos which is where we get the word work.
19:47
Think of something ergonomic that works well, that's where the word comes from.
19:51
And poneroi which is my favorite Greek word, it just sounds cool.
19:56
Poneroi means evil.
19:58
I don't know why, it shouldn't be my favorite word.
20:02
It just sounds nice.
20:06
The actual phrase is entois ergois tois ponerois.
20:11
You literally worked evil deeds.
20:15
See you were hostile in your mind, you were enemies of God mentally but you were also hostile in action because you were working that which was opposed to him.
20:30
So it wasn't just what you thought, it's what you did.
20:32
Again, the picture Paul is painting is the picture of the natural man.
20:37
The natural man is alienated, the natural man is hostile, the natural man is a worker of evil, the natural man has no desires for the things of Christ, no desires for the word, cannot even understand the word according to 1 Corinthians.
20:54
Now that's all bad.
20:57
But understand if you are in Christ, that is not a description of who you are, that's a description of what you were.
21:03
And that's the important part Paul is making here.
21:05
Paul is expressing the concept of reconciliation by first helping you to understand what you were reconciled from.
21:11
Honestly, if you have trouble sharing the gospel with people, memorize Colossians 1, 21, 22, 23, because it's what you were before Christ, what you are in Christ, and what you must remain.
21:25
This is it, you were alienated, hostile, workers of evil, but he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy, blameless, and above reproach.
21:48
By the way, if you do have a King James Bible, you'll notice that the word reconcile falls into verse 21, but if you were looking at anything other than a King James Bible, you'll notice that it falls into verse 22.
22:02
And this is not a textual variant, this is just a place where the King James simply places the verse markation at a different point.
22:10
The verse markation in the King James falls after the word reconciled, so the word reconciled is in verse 21, but, like I said, in other translations it just falls in verse 22.
22:20
It doesn't change any meaning or anything, but just to point out, we are now in verse 22, where he says, he has now reconciled, and remember, if we know what alienated means, then we can learn more about what reconciled means, because these are the two words that I said I think this entire sentence hangs on.
22:41
It hangs on the idea of what you were and what you are.
22:45
You were alienated, you are reconciled, because what does alienated mean? Means to be outside, means to be not welcome, means to be not a part, means to be, again, cast away, but what does reconciled mean? Brought back, reunited, joined together.
23:01
All the things that alienation isn't, reconciled is.
23:07
And that's the beauty of verses 21 and 22, it's showing you the change that happened when you became a Christian, when you became a Christ follower, when you received the Lord of Glory, what happened is you went from being an alien to being a friend.
23:25
John MacArthur, John MacArthur, in his commentary on Colossians, he talks in this portion of the commentary about five benefits of salvation that we should all understand.
23:40
And this isn't my sermon, but I liked it so much I did put it in my notes.
23:44
He said we should all understand justification, the guilty declared righteous.
23:48
We should all understand redemption, the slave is purchased and set free.
23:53
We should all understand forgiveness, the sin debt has been paid and forgiven.
23:58
We should all understand adoption, the stranger has been made a son.
24:03
And we should all understand reconciliation, because reconciliation is the enemy becomes a friend.
24:11
Beloved, that'll preach, that's all of it.
24:14
You've gone from being at enmity with God, alienated from God, hostile in mind, workers of evil deeds, now he has reconciled you, how? By his body of flesh.
24:28
By the way, I do think, just as a side note, I do think Paul is emphasizing here something that in his day would have been very important, and that is the juxtaposition between true Christianity and the Gnostic Christianity which was beginning to grow in the first century.
24:48
Because Gnostic Christianity was not Christianity at all, it was Gnosticism and it was dualistic It believed that spirit is good and matter is evil.
24:59
And that's why so many times in the New Testament we see this emphasis upon the physical nature of Christ.
25:07
Think about what John says in his letters, if any man says Christ does not come in the flesh, he's not of God, right? It's always an emphasis on Christ in the flesh.
25:16
Because the Gnostic would say, no, the flesh is evil.
25:21
There is no coming in the flesh, there is no idea of incarnation.
25:26
But here Paul says, you have been reconciled by what? He says three words that you have been reconciled.
25:32
You have been reconciled in his body, which is the word soma, by his flesh, which is the word sarx, by his death, thanatos.
25:47
He's emphasizing the physical nature of Christ who came as a man in the flesh to put his body on a tree to die for the sins of his people.
26:03
That's how you were reconciled.
26:04
I talked about this last week, I'm not going to reiterate everything.
26:06
But understand, your reconciliation did not come to you by something you did.
26:14
Your reconciliation came to you by something Christ did on your behalf.
26:21
He died on the cross for you.
26:23
Paul's going to talk about this more later in this book.
26:27
He's going to talk about how Jesus was nailed to the cross and our sin was nailed to the cross because Christ took upon himself our sin.
26:39
So that's the juxtaposition between 21 and 22.
26:43
You have in 21 alienation.
26:46
You have in 22 reconciliation.
26:49
Your alienation brought about hostility in your mind and work of evil.
26:55
But in your reconciliation, you have three blessings given here.
27:01
The reconciliation is that you be presented holy, blameless, and above reproach before him.
27:12
Now for a moment, I just want to say that word present is very important too.
27:21
It says he has reconciled you in his body and flesh by his death in order to present you holy, blameless, and above reproach.
27:33
The word present there actually means to be brought into the presence of something and it was a courtroom term.
27:46
So if you imagine being in a courtroom and having someone presented before the judge for judgment, that's the idea of what this is.
27:57
That Christ by his death on the cross, by his body having been nailed to the cross and receiving in himself the penalty that you deserved, you can now be presented to the father holy and blameless and above reproach.
28:19
That's what he did in his body and flesh.
28:23
He made you able to stand before God.
28:28
To be presented before God as holy.
28:34
Listen, holy is not something you are by nature.
28:43
We are by nature unholy, unrighteous sinners.
28:48
Holy is what God is.
28:51
In fact, holy is the only thing that God has ever used in the superlative degree to be described.
28:57
That's probably the worst way I could have said that, so let me say it again.
29:00
God is only described with one of his attributes to the superlative degree, and that's holy.
29:08
God is never called love, love, love.
29:11
He's never called justice, justice, justice, or mercy, mercy, mercy.
29:15
But he is called holy, holy, holy.
29:21
The seraphim who surround the throne of God cry out day and night with their faces covered and their feet covered because they are in the presence of God, holy, holy, holy.
29:41
God is holy.
29:43
I am wicked.
29:46
But Christ came and he died, and now he calls me holy.
29:57
He makes me holy because that's the way I have to be if I'm going to stand in the presence of God.
30:06
I can't stand in the presence of God unholy.
30:09
I can't stand in the presence of God without it.
30:17
So he presents me holy, blameless, and above reproach.
30:29
It actually says before him.
30:32
The word before him means under his eye, or in his eye, in his presence.
30:38
So the idea of presence is the beginning and end.
30:42
It says you're presented to him, holy, blameless, and above reproach before him.
30:47
And both of those have the idea of being in his presence.
30:50
So those three things are bookended by where you are because of what Christ has done.
30:56
You have been, you have been saved.
31:02
You have been saved by the only one who could save you.
31:09
The word blameless means without blemish, momos, not manoa, I call you momo sometimes.
31:19
Momos means blemish.
31:21
The word here is amomos, without blemish.
31:26
And then the above reproach, we're probably familiar with the idea of being above reproach if we've ever studied what it means to be an elder.
31:35
Because elders are called to be above reproach.
31:39
And I've often said, doesn't mean sinless in that context because if that were the case, then I wouldn't qualify, Andy wouldn't qualify, Mike wouldn't qualify, wouldn't nobody qualify.
31:52
There ain't no man outside of Jesus Christ who would qualify as being sinless.
31:58
But the word above reproach means to be unrebukable.
32:04
It means to have a life that is not marked by habitual sin.
32:12
And so we can say that there are men who qualify and they, that's why we examine for the qualifications of elder.
32:20
That qualification must be met.
32:24
But in this context, because of the trifold example, holy, blameless, and above reproach, this is, this is saying this is how Christ presents all of us.
32:35
Not just the elders, not just the pastors, not just the deacons who also are called to be blameless, right? But this is how every man and woman who is in Christ is presented to God.
32:48
Holy and blameless and above reproach.
32:53
Now, when we get to 23, something very scary happens.
33:06
And I'm, and I'm going to say it's scary because I think it should be at least a little, a little heavy on the heart.
33:19
Because Paul adds a conditional clause to the last statement.
33:27
Because he says Christ has reconciled you in his body in order to present you holy, blameless, and above reproach.
33:34
But then he adds a word that none of us want to hear.
33:39
If.
33:41
We don't want to hear that word.
33:42
We just want to stop at verse 22.
33:44
In fact, a lot of sermons I saw on this, they stopped at verse 22.
33:50
And I thought about, well, I could keep going one verse at a time.
33:54
Because I have been for several weeks.
33:57
And I could be in Colossians for three years like I was Genesis.
34:00
No, but I said, but I've got, I'm going to pick it up this week and do three verses.
34:04
I said, and I cannot leave out verse 23.
34:06
Because verse 23 is intricately connected to verses 21 and 22.
34:10
Because again, not only is it all one sentence in the Greek, it all forms one idea.
34:14
And that idea is this.
34:15
Is if you have been brought into a saving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, you will continue in that faith until your dying day.
34:30
Because that's basically what he says.
34:32
Read with me.
34:32
He says, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable, steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
34:47
Notice what he's saying.
34:51
He's including a conditional clause that is making verse 22 conditioned upon something else that we don't want it to be conditioned upon.
35:04
We want everything to be conditioned upon what was in verse 22.
35:07
That he's reconciled us by his body and flesh.
35:10
But he says, if you continue, if you continue in the faith, I want you to notice something.
35:26
He doesn't say in your faith.
35:30
And the reason why I stress that is not to say that your faith doesn't matter, because it does and it's part of it.
35:40
But when we talk about continuing in the faith, that means to continue to hold fast to the truth of the gospel that you have been given.
35:49
And we know that because he says that later.
35:51
He says, not shifting.
35:52
Look down in the synod.
35:53
Not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all the world under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have been made a minister.
36:01
You see, that part is where he's telling you what you have to hold fast to.
36:05
You have to hold fast to the truth.
36:08
There have been many men who started strong only to stray into false teaching and dangerous false teaching which has led them to apostasy.
36:23
I mean, I can name some names of men that you would probably hold in high regard and point to the fact that later in their lives, they abandoned the faith for some false photocopy of it.
36:36
And it's a sad reality.
36:38
So Paul says you have to continue in the faith.
36:41
What faith? The gospel that has been proclaimed.
36:45
And Paul uses a hyperbolic statement.
36:47
He says the one that's been proclaimed through all the earth.
36:51
Now understand, Paul's writing here about the year 60-ish.
36:55
So it hasn't been proclaimed everywhere, but Paul is saying the one universal faith.
37:01
Remember he says in Galatians, if any man preaches any gospel other than the gospel that you heard, let him be what? Accursed.
37:09
Cut off.
37:10
Anathema.
37:12
So that's the idea here of the gospel that's been proclaimed in all creation under heaven.
37:18
The one true gospel must be maintained.
37:21
It must be kept.
37:22
It must be believed.
37:24
And it must continue to be believed.
37:29
You don't get to change it to what you want it to be.
37:32
You don't get to pervert it into your faith.
37:35
It has to be the faith.
37:37
Once for all delivered to the saints.
37:39
You understand the point there when he says, if you continue in the faith.
37:46
And he gives three descriptions.
37:50
He says stable, steadfast, and not shifting.
37:53
Which are three ways of saying basically the same thing.
37:56
You're standing on a rock, and you must continue to stand on that rock.
38:02
Not move to another rock.
38:05
Not jump off the rock.
38:08
But you must stay on that rock.
38:12
Now, if you are a Baptist.
38:17
And we are.
38:21
Conditional clauses tend to make our nervous tick kind of begin to arise.
38:31
Because especially among those who have a Southern Baptist background.
38:36
We have long believed in OSAS.
38:42
Once saved, always saved.
38:45
I call it OSAS, it's short.
38:49
And yet we come to these passages.
38:54
That seem to indicate that there is the potential of falling away.
39:02
And so we have to deal with them.
39:05
Right? We can't just ignore them.
39:07
We can't go from verse 22 to 24 and pretend it wasn't there.
39:11
Oh, by the way, if you do that, I'm going to take you over to Hebrews.
39:14
And there's like three or four of them that say almost the exact same thing.
39:17
Some even more powerfully.
39:19
Chapter 2, chapter 6, chapter 10.
39:22
Just going to be there.
39:23
If it ain't here, so might as well deal with it here.
39:29
Understand that the concept of once saved, always saved.
39:37
Says that it is impossible for a person to lose their salvation.
39:43
But that is not the way that the doctrine was originally described by the reformers.
39:51
And this must be understood.
39:53
Because if you understand an inkling of the history of how this doctrine has evolved.
39:59
Then you will understand the difference between the right way of seeing it and the wrong way.
40:06
Because how this doctrine evolved.
40:10
Is it was once referred to, not as once saved, always saved.
40:15
But it was once referred to as the perseverance of the saints.
40:22
Now some people prefer to use the term preservation.
40:25
And I'm good with either.
40:26
But for a moment I do want to stress why the term perseverance is used.
40:35
Because conditional clauses like we have in verse 21.
40:39
Are there to remind us that faith is not tested by how you begin.
40:46
But faith is tested by how you end.
40:50
And faith, I like the way Blake White said this.
40:53
He's a pastor who has written some books.
40:56
He says the test of faith is time.
41:00
The test of faith is time.
41:07
A.W.
41:08
Tozer said this.
41:11
It is my opinion that tens of thousands of people if not millions.
41:15
Have been brought into some kind of religious experience by accepting Christ.
41:19
And yet they have not been saved.
41:22
How would one come to the conclusion that someone has not been saved? They have abandoned Christ.
41:35
You see what we find in this clause, this condition.
41:39
Is that we must continue in the faith.
41:43
And if we don't.
41:47
And that falling away becomes permanent.
41:54
Then that says something about our initial claim to faith.
42:00
I've asked Dave to pull up something from our confession.
42:07
And it was actually number 23.
42:09
Thank you Dave.
42:10
This is our confession of faith.
42:13
And even though we read it weekly going through.
42:15
There are times where I like to draw out from it.
42:17
To use it as a teaching tool.
42:19
And I know those are little letters.
42:22
Yeah, I know I never wear my glasses like I should.
42:25
But I'll try.
42:26
I got it printed here.
42:27
I'll just read it here.
42:30
Speaking of faith.
42:31
Listen to what it says.
42:33
All those that have this precious faith wrought in them by the Spirit.
42:37
Can never finally nor totally fall away.
42:40
Seeing the gift of God is without repentance.
42:44
So that he still begets and nourishes in them faith, repentance, love, joy, hope.
42:48
And all the graces of the Spirit unto immortality.
42:51
And though many storms and floods arise and beat against them.
42:55
Yet they shall never be able to take them off that foundation and rock.
42:59
Remember I said we're standing on a rock.
43:03
Which by faith they are fastened upon.
43:07
Notwithstanding through unbelief and the temptations of Satan.
43:09
The sensible sight of this light and love be clouded and overwhelmed for a time.
43:13
See it does recognize the fact that there are times where we have seasons of doubt.
43:17
There are times where we go through seasons of struggle.
43:20
And there may even be times where we go through seasons where it feels like we've stepped off the rock.
43:24
But if we are in Christ.
43:26
He will bring us back.
43:27
That's what this is saying.
43:28
He will keep us fastened.
43:30
Because he's the one keeping us on the rock.
43:37
I'll finish it.
43:37
He says.
43:38
Yet God is still the same.
43:41
And they shall be sure to be kept by the power of God unto salvation.
43:46
Where they shall enjoy their purchased possession.
43:48
They being engraved upon the palms of his hands.
43:51
And their names having been written in his book of life from all eternity.
43:56
You see we can believe in perseverance of the saints.
44:01
We can even believe in one saved always saved.
44:05
If that's the way you want to say it.
44:07
It's not my favorite way of saying it.
44:09
But if that's the way you want to say it.
44:10
It's not wrong.
44:12
I just think it misses a vital aspect of what it means.
44:16
Because here's what one saved always saved tends to mean to people.
44:21
I got baptized when I was eight.
44:24
I have never been back to church.
44:27
But God is faithful.
44:29
The end.
44:30
That's the way people think.
44:32
That Christ didn't change their life.
44:36
But they're still saved.
44:38
Understand this.
44:39
If Christ hasn't changed your life.
44:41
You ain't saved.
44:45
And if you don't continue in the faith.
44:50
You're not saved.
44:53
Oh that puts so much of a weight of burden on me pastor.
44:55
I can't believe you put the burden on me.
44:57
I didn't write it.
45:01
You got an issue.
45:02
You take it up with Paul.
45:04
Because all I'm doing is exegeting what he said.
45:08
He says if you continue.
45:09
Third class conditional clause.
45:12
Look it up.
45:15
It's a conditional clause.
45:17
Which says for this to be true.
45:19
This also has to be true.
45:22
And if this isn't true.
45:23
That's not true.
45:25
So if we do not continue in the faith.
45:28
Stable, steadfast.
45:30
And unmovable.
45:31
We will not be saved.
45:36
And you say wow.
45:40
You've burdened me pastor.
45:42
No.
45:43
What I've done is I've told you the truth.
45:46
And I have reminded you of a very important reality.
45:50
And that is all around you.
45:52
You see people leaving the faith.
45:56
Don't think for a moment.
45:58
When you see a person leaving the faith.
46:01
That God has failed.
46:04
That's an important thing.
46:08
How many of you have ever heard of something called deconstructionism? Deconstructionism is the very, very modern expression.
46:24
Of reevaluating Christian truth claims.
46:29
In light of modern ideas of right and wrong.
46:34
Good and bad.
46:35
Evil and virtue.
46:38
And what we see in the deconstructionist movement.
46:41
By the way.
46:42
Spend five minutes on Twitter and any of the social media.
46:45
And you just go to hashtag deconstruct.
46:47
You will find people all over.
46:49
Yes, I was a Christian.
46:51
But now I have reevaluated.
46:54
I've deconstructed it.
46:56
And now I'm not a Christian anymore.
46:59
By the way, Joshua Harris.
47:01
How many of you know Joshua Harris? Joshua Harris wrote a book.
47:04
Why I Kissed Dating Goodbye.
47:05
Hugely popular in the 90s.
47:08
Very popular, especially among conservative Christian groups.
47:12
He just recently, within the last couple of years.
47:14
He deconstructed.
47:15
Now he's left his wife.
47:17
He's abandoned the faith.
47:19
And there's a lot of other things that are rumors that I won't get into.
47:23
Marty Sampson.
47:25
Worship leader.
47:27
Christian singer.
47:28
Abandoned the faith.
47:30
Deconstruction.
47:31
Deconstructed.
47:31
Lecrae wrote a song called Deconstruction.
47:35
Now, to Lecrae's defense, at least I would say this.
47:39
He says he's still battling this.
47:42
And he's still dealing with it.
47:43
But a lot of what he is saying sounds a lot like he's on the road to apostasy.
47:49
Because by the way, often what deconstruction leads to is apostasy.
47:55
And we believe in apostasy.
47:58
This is why I have so much trouble with the once saved, always saved idea.
48:03
Because the once saved, always saved movement or idea tends to not have room for apostasy.
48:10
And apostasy is this by definition.
48:12
Once they claimed Christ and now they do not.
48:19
Apostasy is not falling into sin.
48:22
Now it can lead to that.
48:23
But what I'm saying is Christians can deal with sin.
48:26
Christians can struggle with sin.
48:27
Christians can battle with sin.
48:28
That's not apostasy.
48:31
Apostasy is somebody who says I was a Christian and now I'm not.
48:35
Dan Barker, who was once an evangelist, who now is the head of the American Association of Atheists, the worst AAA in the world.
48:50
He's an apostate.
48:52
He named the name of Christ and now he has abandoned Christ.
48:59
Understand apostasy is real.
49:01
Paul is making that clear.
49:03
By the way, if you don't understand this, how do you understand the four soils? Jesus said a seed fell among the pathway and the birds ate it up.
49:13
That's a picture of somebody who didn't even receive it.
49:15
But then a seed fell among the rocky soil and it sprang up for a time.
49:19
But it withered away because what? It had no root.
49:24
And the seed fell among the thorns.
49:26
And it was choked out by the cares of this world.
49:30
It did not bear fruit.
49:32
But one seed went into the good soil and it bore 30 and 60 and 90 fold.
49:38
And that's the picture of the one who was truly converted.
49:45
You say I'm scared, Pastor.
49:47
Good.
49:49
Because my job isn't to get up here and tickle your ears every week.
49:52
My job is to stand up here and remind you that we are to make our calling and election sure.
49:57
Not based upon our good works.
50:02
But upon the work of Christ.
50:04
Are you trusting this day in the finished work of Christ? Are you trusting this day in what He has done for you? Are you still trusting in what you do for yourself? Beloved, there is no reconciliation outside of Christ.
50:33
And there is no reconciliation if we abandon Christ.
50:39
Because again, that's outside of Christ.
50:44
Are you in Christ today? Are you in the faith? I didn't ask you if you got baptized when you were 12.
50:52
I didn't ask you if you grew up going to the church youth group.
50:55
I didn't ask you if you went to VBS or church camp.
51:00
I asked you today.
51:02
Can you say Christ has changed my life.
51:07
And I am forever changed.
51:11
Beloved, that's what it means.
51:14
To be reconciled to God.
51:15
And to know that we are presented before Him.
51:19
Holy.
51:21
Blameless.
51:23
And above reproach.
51:25
Let's pray.
51:29
Father, I thank you for your word.
51:31
Thank you even now that we have the opportunity to be challenged by it.
51:39
And Lord, it is a challenge.
51:42
It's a challenge to consider that there are those who name the name of Christ.
51:49
Who will one day walk away.
51:52
Wash their hands of Him.
51:54
And prove themselves to be unbelievers.
52:00
But Lord, Paul is not writing this.
52:05
So that we walk around wringing our hands.
52:07
Questioning every motive and every idea.
52:09
But rather that we would hold fast to Christ.
52:13
So I pray for everyone under the sound of my voice.
52:17
That Lord, we would not hold fast to what we have done.
52:21
But rather that we would trust and rest.
52:24
In the hope of the gospel.
52:27
Which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven.
52:31
We pray this in Jesus name.
52:35
Amen.