Root Your Resolutions in Sanctification

LaRue Baptist Church, OH iconLaRue Baptist Church, OH

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Scripture Reading and Sermon For 12-31-2023 Scripture Readings: Psalm 32; Matthew 19.16-20 Sermon Title: Root Your Resolutions in Sanctification Sermon Scripture: Various Scriptures Pastor Andrew Beebe

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The Old Testament reading this morning is from Psalms 32. I ask you to please stand in honor of God's word.
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Blessed is the one whose transgressions is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the
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Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
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For day and night, your hand was very heavy upon me. My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
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I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the
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Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Therefore, let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found.
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Surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him. You are a hiding place for me.
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You preserve me from trouble. You surround me with shouts of deliverance. I will instruct you to teach you in the way you should go.
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I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you.
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Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.
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Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.
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The New Testament reading is from Matthew chapter 19, starting in verse 16. And behold, a man came up to him, saying,
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Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life? And he said to him, why do you ask me about what is good?
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There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments. He said to him, which ones?
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And Jesus said, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness.
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Honor your father and mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The young man said to him, all these
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I have kept, what do I still lack? Jesus said to him, if you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come follow me.
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When the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. And Jesus said to his disciples, truly
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I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.
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When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, who then can be saved?
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But Jesus looked at them and said, with man, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.
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Then Peter said in reply, see, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?
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Jesus said to them, truly I say to you, in the new world, when the son of man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
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And everyone who has left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life.
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But many who are first will be last, and the last first. You may be seated. Well, good morning.
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I do thank you for your singing, and I mean that. We live in a world in which there's a joint chorus singing that is wickedness and sin.
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It seems to rain to such a degree that can be very intimidating and scary, but to know that there are faithful people of God joining together in chorus, singing truth, it is something that I hope delights your heart, it delights mine.
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To know that all around the world today, there are songs of praise to Christ, our
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King, who is truth. And what a thing to remember as we hear the world and the chorus they sing of wickedness.
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But we know that there's the faithful, the people, the elect, the chosen ones, who are singing true praises and worship to our
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God. I hope that that encourages your heart to sing together with one another, with your neighbor, these praises that rightfully belong to our
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Lord. I ask that you would open your Bibles. We're gonna be kind of jumping all over the place.
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This is a topical message in light of the new year. But why don't you open it up?
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We'll start in Psalm 19, I believe, Psalm 19. Let me go to our
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Lord in prayer. God in heaven, we need your help today. We need your help every day.
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We are indeed needy people. And God, I pray that you would see our need, Lord, and you would give us a heart that cries out to you in our weakness.
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And not one that tries to strengthen ourselves by our own strength, but one that God relies upon you.
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I've seen and realized that it is good to celebrate weakness. It is good to celebrate the fact that we are unable, because we have always been met the whole purpose of everything, of all your work is to show us that we are people in need of Jesus.
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And so we need him this morning, every one of us, we need him. There are those who believe upon him this morning who are in need of him, even for their sanctification as they look forward to their glorification.
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And there are even unbelievers in this room that need him for their justification in this moment.
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Lord, would you give us Jesus now? Would you open our hearts and minds? And may we receive him?
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I thank you, Lord, for this grace of love in Christ. And so may we look to him together, in Jesus' name, amen.
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Well, I'm in trouble if I'm already. I don't know what's going on. I'm in trouble though. Well, it is a new year we're facing.
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The end of what I think is 2023 and the beginning of 2024. I always got to take my time and consider it for a moment.
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And like gifts come with Christmas, which is, I think, appropriate. So resolutions usually come with New Year.
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A new year, a better you. I've always been a proud Scrooge on New Year's and defiant not to make any resolutions for there is a silliness to it, right?
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If it's something that's worthy of change, you ought to have been doing it already. So I've always been a proud
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Scrooge in light of that. But as I considered the popularity of it, I like to consider why is something so popular, whatever it may be.
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And typically it speaks to a common humanness of us that God is revealing himself through and then shows himself to be the ultimate fulfillment of it.
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And so that's where my mind was really going with this popularity of resolutions, with New Year's resolutions, resolutions in general.
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And it really does, if you consider it, and this is what I want to look at this morning, that the idea of resolutions and the popularity of it, it really speaks to a common human basic desire that God fulfills in Christ.
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And I want to reveal that, show that, nothing that a mature
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Christian won't know already, but look at it in this light and see that God truly is good to his people.
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And he truly does show us the proper way for such a desire in our heart to be fulfilled in Christ.
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And I think the two major things I want to look at this morning is one, New Year's resolutions speak to a most basic human desire.
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And two, God provides the only way this desire is truly fulfilled. So as we go down the first path,
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New Year's resolutions speak to a most basic human desire. Something at its core, it's saying that something is wrong as it is now, and there is a desire for something better in the future.
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Isn't that what a resolution really is speaking to? There's something wrong with, and what's nice about resolutions is it's focused on self.
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Many times we want to say everyone else is the issue. But there's something wrong here and now with myself now, and there is a desire for something better in the future.
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And that is so biblical, it's crazy.
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There is an objective reality without us or beyond us that reveals that there is something wrong within us.
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And so it's a very biblical, basic human desire to say there is something wrong here and something needs to change.
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And I think we see where that comes forth. How is that biblical in Psalm 19?
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We're gonna go through it quickly and kind of grab hold of this doctrine. If you see
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Psalm 19, one through six, and it's the creation up in the heavens or in the skies that screams forth something true about God.
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And that's where the Psalm begins. If you look at Psalm 19, look at verse one. The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
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Day to day, the sky proclaiming this, it pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge.
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That means it is tireless. Creation, the sky, always proclaims
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God's glory. It never stops. It is always screaming at creatures below. All humanity, all who are under the sky, they can't help but hear the language of God is glorious and righteous and wonderful.
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They hear it no matter what. Day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals this knowledge.
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Verse three, there is no speech that's not, nor are there words whose voice is not heard. Everyone hears it. Their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world.
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In them, he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber and like a strong man runs his course with joy.
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It's rising is from the end of the heavens and it's circuit to the end of them and there is nothing hidden from its heat.
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There's nothing hidden from the sun's proclamation that our God reigns, he's awesome and worthy of all obedience and righteousness.
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This is something that is proclaimed throughout all the earth. No one is hidden from that heat or from that proclamation.
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So this goes to everyone. And I think seven through 11 is then talks about the law or the
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Bible or the word of God and it's different from creation above, but yet it's doing the same thing.
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If you look at verse seven, the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise and simple.
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The precepts of the Lord are right and it rejoices the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
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The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
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Verse 10, more to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
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Moreover, by them your servant is worn and keep them, there is great reward. Now there's a lot that could be said about both aspects of here, but what
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I want to point your mind to, your heart to, is the fact that both creation above, screaming forth from the skies, the word of God declares the righteousness of God, that he is holy, perfect and good.
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And now as it is declared to everyone, there's not one person who hasn't received that revelation in some fashion.
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What is the only proper response of the individual? Well, look at verse 12.
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Who can discern his errors? I like that, that's interesting. It's not just simply saying, oh, the error is a man, but it's saying who can even discern the amount of them?
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Whenever you consider the holy, the perfection, everything that God is, who can even understand the depths of wickedness in the soul?
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And so what I'm trying to point to is that there is something very natural of a resolution that says there is something wrong with me and something needs to change in the future, right?
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There is something very natural as the creation is screaming forth God's righteousness, that it would be received by the sinner, that there is something wrong.
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There's a very natural feeling within our hearts. There is an objective reality of God's righteousness without us, and there is a subjective reality that we feel deep within our bones that we do not make the cuts.
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They meet together, and the result is guilt and the feeling of shame. In fact,
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Paul details more on this subjective reality of receiving the righteous decree of God and feeling inadequate.
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If you look at Romans 2, if you look at Romans 2, verse 14 and 15, he says, for when,
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I'll give you a second, Romans 2, 14 and 15, there is something that God has given us so that we can truly feel the sting of this all the more.
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14, when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves.
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Everyone understands it to some degree, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness their conflicting thoughts, accuse or even excuse them.
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So creatures have been made with a conscience within them that takes the objective realities of God and his righteousness, and there's a subjective feeling of I am guilty.
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There is a subjective feeling that I have shame. That is a God -given conscience in us to receive that the way we should, that I am utterly corrupt and I have shame.
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So there's a most natural thing in the world to feel the need for resolution, isn't there? There's something wrong with me.
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Something's not right. There's this glorious, and whether they know that's God, we know who it is, or whatever it may be, they can't help, we can't help but feel the righteousness displayed in creation in his word, and it meets the consciousness of our soul in which is filled with shame because of guilt.
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And so it is oh so natural and right to say I need resolution.
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I need something to change. I need to get out from this shame. I need to get out from this guilt.
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It is something very, very natural. The righteousness of God is always on display, and it goes inside of us to a guilty and shameful conscience that produces feelings of the shame.
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Something is wrong as it is now, and there's a desire for something better, and it makes New Year's resolutions popular.
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It makes it something that is popular. And so the second major point here is that God provides the only way this desire is truly fulfilled.
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That is a good desire to have, but it is only good whenever we pursue the way that God has enabled us to find total fulfillment from this desire.
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I need something better. I need change. I need to get out from this shame that I feel and change my life.
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Well, God is the only one that provides a way for this desire to be truly fulfilling, fulfilled.
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Because since the fall of man, man has tried his best to find his own solution.
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Adam and Eve sowed leaves to cover their shame, to be better, and man has likewise constantly tried to go their own way to relieve them of this shame and guilt.
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We read it earlier. I think it's worthy to look at it. This is exactly what's going on in Matthew 19, and this is a common feeling of man, of us, in our heart.
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Matthew 19, with the young man and his goodness. Matthew 19, if you wanna go there, verse 16.
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This is a rich young man who is very much a man who has constantly tried to be good before God, who constantly feels the sting of a shame and responds with,
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I just need to do better. I just need to do better. And he goes to Jesus, in verse 16.
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A man came up to Jesus saying, teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?
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What must I do to have life? Now, obviously, he didn't feel like he had it because he wouldn't need to feel the need to go to Jesus to ask what he must do.
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And he presupposes that I must do something good in order to receive it.
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And Jesus, in verse 17, said to him, why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good.
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I could go into what he means by that, but nevertheless, the point, let's move forward. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.
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And there, Jesus is saying, if you wanna be righteous before God, obey him. Be perfectly righteous. And that's what he's pointing him to.
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And you gotta understand, this man thought, for sure, that I just need to be better. I just need to do good. I need to obey
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God, and that will give me life. And so Jesus is pressing him on that to show him that you cannot do it, that you cannot do that of yourself.
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He asks, in verse 18, which ones? See, legalists, they always say, okay, I gotta keep the law.
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Which ones do I gotta keep? They try to make the law easier to do. He asks, which ones? And Jesus said, you shall not murder.
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He starts going through the 10 commandments. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness.
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Honor your father and mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The young man said to him, of all these I have kept, what do
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I still lack? And that's the baseline of what I'm going to these verses for is that there is a something in this man that I have kept these good things, but there is still something utterly lacking in my heart.
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This man is feeling guilt and shame, or he's feeling shame because of his guilt, even as he continuously tries to resolve himself to keep more of God's commandments.
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He is still under that weight. He can feel it. And he says, there must be something else that I'm not doing.
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And so Jesus, knowing who he is, being truly God, points to his idol of his heart, the major one, when he says, if you would be perfect, go and sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me.
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Now this got exactly to this man's idol, in which the young man heard this. He went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
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The point that I'm bringing us to here, the point that we're looking at, is that there is this natural feeling with us, right?
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The shame that we feel that we want to try to cover by doing good, by simply doing better, by just, if I could just put on the weights on one end of just goodness, right, following God's commandments, it will outdo the shame that I feel for my guilt.
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This is exactly what all false religions teach, including Islam, right? At the end, you understand, this isn't really the major point of the sermon, but at the end, in the false religion of Islam, you understand that even
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Muslims don't know if they're saved or not. We'll see, maybe, if my good outweighed the bad, and even then, in their case, this false god might still throw me into hell.
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But nevertheless, all false religions teach that it's just a matter of just doing more good, right? It's just a matter of outweighing my bad, or covering my shame, my guilt with the good, right?
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Man has, since the beginning, tried to do it their own way.
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But a guilty conscience cannot produce shameless works. That's the issue, right? That whenever you are guilty, right, when you have broken
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God's law, as all have done, you are guilty, period. And so with that guilt, a conscience cannot produce shameless works.
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So no matter how many resolutions we might think, I just need to do that and get better, and I'll be feeling better about myself, you will do it with a shameful, guilty conscience, and so therefore, it will not be proper works.
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See, resolutions rarely work because it's driven by a guilty conscience. People who make resolutions, they typically don't work because it's driven by a guilty conscience with an end that's not to glorify
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God, but to make themselves feel better. And even successful ones are limited in scope because they cannot relieve the overall shame of an overall guilty person.
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I like what, well, we won't do it. Second London Baptist Confession of Faith, chapter 16, paragraph seven, explains good works by the unregenerate very well, but I didn't bring mine up, and we can skip that point.
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But it is a natural, good, and proper to pursue righteousness. It is a natural thing within us that I feel shame,
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I'm guilty, and I need something different, I need righteousness. This is a natural, good thing to feel in light of your guilt, but it must be from the foundation
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God provides, or it will be a house that will tumble and fall.
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That is a new heart, a free conscience that is free from guilt. This is the only foundation that works.
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This is the only thing that will actually enable proper resolutions for proper growth that God has ordained.
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We need newness. We need complete and total change, and a resolution mindset built off of that complete newness.
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This is what we, as Christians, need. And so we do not wanna throw the baby out with the bathwater and say, resolutions, huh, no.
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That is absolutely normal to want newness, to want something different, to want to be righteous, but it needs to be built off of the newness that God is doing in his creation that has fallen into guilt and shame.
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This is why Revelation 21 is so beautiful, is so good, if you wanna turn there.
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Revelation 21, we're gonna spend a moment in this book. Revelation 21, five, and he who was seated on the throne said, behold,
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I am making all things new, period.
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Also, he said, write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, it is done.
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I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, to the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.
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You know what it means to be thirsty there? He's not talking about literal water in which we are thirsty for water.
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He's talking about the thirst of our soul to be righteous like God is righteous. Again, a natural thing, creation crying out,
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God is righteous in our conscience, within us saying, I am not. There is a distance there, and the thirsty soul cries out, oh
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God, I need your righteousness, I'm thirsty for you. And here is the promise of God that to the thirsty, the one who acknowledges that thirst, he says,
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I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. You know who that is?
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This is himself, Jesus Christ, the true God of true God from flesh, true flesh, of true flesh.
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The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God, and he will be my son.
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So that is the promise, right? That I give living water, I give of this righteousness. That desire you have is good, the thirst you have is good, and I shall give it.
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I am Christ, I will give it to you for those who conquer as he has conquered.
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And it's interesting that the word conquer, that's what it's all about, right? Conquering our sin, conquering the sin that causes us to be thirsty to gain the righteousness of God, right, to receive the drink that our thirst desires.
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And we see that it's by the conquering of ourselves, the conquering that we do.
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But this conquering is completely connected with the true God of true God, true flesh, of true flesh, with Jesus Christ.
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Jesus Christ is the one who is conquered, and when we join in his conquering, we receive that drink, and we receive proper righteousness.
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Look at chapter five. Look at that conquering we see in chapter five. It's not as if we conquer of ourselves, although it says to those who conquer, but it's those who conquer in Christ.
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Look at chapter five, verse five. Remember the scroll, no one's worthy to open it.
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And one of the elders said to me, stop weeping. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.
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And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain.
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What a interesting thing, that the one who is conquered, conquered through being killed.
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This is the one that was slain. This was his conquering. He was slain with seven horns, with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.
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And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
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And they sang a new song, saying worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God, from every tribe and language and people and nation.
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And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.
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Resolutions without the conquering power of Christ and his sacrificial work to forgive us our sins are as worthless.
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It must be built on the foundation that our Lord has conquered sin, and he's done it by his blood.
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Look at chapter eight, verse eight, or chapter one, verse eight. I know we went backwards in Revelation, but it's fine.
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Chapter one, verse eight. I am the Alpha and the Omega, Christ says. The Lord God, it says the
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Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come the Almighty. I am the one who has conquered.
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I am the one who was, who is, and who is to come. And beloved, we must ground our resolution.
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We must ground our change in the fact that Jesus has conquered. He is the was, he is the is, and he is the one to come.
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And we need to ground it in that work if we are to see success. Jesus was.
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I'm gonna go, I know in the text it says is, was, to come. But for the sake of it being clear, let's start off with the fact that Jesus was.
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What did Jesus do to provide us with the right foundation for resolution? What did Jesus do to provide us with conquering our sin, conquering our guilt, conquering our shame?
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Well, Jesus was the promise of the Old Testament. Jesus was the fulfillment of the
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Old Testament with his first coming. If you look at Isaiah 55, this is who Jesus was, the one who was promised.
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Look at Isaiah 55, to conquer our thirst. Look at Isaiah 55, one through three.
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Come everyone who thirsts. Come to the waters, and he who has no money, come buy and eat.
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Come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
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Why do you look for vain, moral, up -building resolutions that if I just change myself enough,
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I'll be okay? Why do you spend your money in such a way that's not true drink? Listen diligently to me and eat what is good and delight yourself in rich food.
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Buy true drink, or get or receive true drink. It is a very easy thing to just fix yourself up morally.
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There's a billion different things that you can locate and say, I gotta fix that, that, and the other, and then I'll start feeling. But the
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Bible says, don't spend your money on such silly things. It's like an ocean filled with water, right?
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Very easy to get a drink, but it's salt water. Very easy for you to pick these different things that you need to fix of your life and think, this will make me feel not guilty or shameful anymore, but it is something that does not actually satisfy.
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It says, why would you spend your money for that which is not bread? It says in verse three, incline your ear and come to me, hear that your soul may live, and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.
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Jesus is the promise of the Old Testament. He was. And in fact, he came, and what did he say in his first coming, who was?
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He says in John 17, following the same kind of, showing himself to be the fulfillment of that same promise, what does he say?
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It's not John 17, John 7, that's what it is. I knew that was wrong. John 7, 37, what does he say?
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On the last day of the feast, John 7, 37. On the last day of the feast, the great day,
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Jesus stood up and cried out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
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Whoever believes in me, as the scriptures have said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
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Jesus is there locating that promise and saying, I am the one who is fulfilling that. Your soul is thirsty.
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You desire righteousness. Come to me and drink deeply, and you will be truly satisfied.
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Where we thirst under God's displeasure, Jesus, the
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Son of God, never thirsts, for he was well -pleasing to God the Father. You see that.
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Jesus, the reason why he can offer us drink is because he didn't lack. Where we are displeasing to the
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Father, and we feel it because of creation itself proclaiming his righteousness, and our conscience bears witness that we are guilty,
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Jesus walked with a perfect conscience. Jesus, on many occasions, the Father said,
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I am well -pleased with this one. Jesus walked in complete righteousness. He has water to give, righteousness to give, because he was perfectly righteous himself.
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Where we thirst, because all creation cries out against God's, cries out
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God's righteousness, yet we are not. Jesus, the Son of God, never thirsts, as he received that objective display of righteousness with subjective blamelessness, innocence, clear conscience.
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The righteousness that declared God's righteous, the creation that declared
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God's righteousness always came within Jesus subjectively of an innocent conscience, of a clear conscience of one who walked blamelessly before the
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Father. Yet, the power of Jesus is not completed in that, although that's powerful, right?
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I mean, just think about your own self and your own guiltiness, your own shame. The idea that Jesus walked blamelessly, no shame, no guilt, always doing what's pleasing to the
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Father, right? That the power that's in that is, we can't imagine the full capacity of that power, but yet his power was not completed there.
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It's not like the completion of his power was found in his righteous living, but it was completed in the fact that he gave of abundance this righteousness to his people.
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He had an abundance of drink that caused him not to thirst, and his power was completed in the fact that he offers that drink to the thirsty.
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Look at Isaiah 53. Look at Isaiah 53, verse 10.
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And keep in your mind the fact that it was God's good pleasure. Keep in your mind the fact that the
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Son was pleasurable to the Father. When the Father looked at the Son, he was well -pleased.
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He pleased him in every single way. Not one moment was he ever displeased with the way Christ lived his life.
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But yet, in verse 10, we have a remarkable passage. Yet, it pleased Yahweh to crush him.
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The one that was always pleasing, the Father. It pleased the Father to then crush him and put him to grief.
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When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days, the will of the
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Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied.
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By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
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Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoiled with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors.
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Yet, he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressor. Jesus came, he is the one who came.
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He was to forgive you of your sins so that you would be justified and no longer walk in the guilt and the shame that comes forth from it.
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And any resolution that we have, any desire to do better and good needs to come forth from this foundational truth.
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It needs to come forth from the fact that we are justified solely by the blood of Jesus Christ.
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And a resolution has its life in the fact that Jesus is, not only was in his work, but Jesus is.
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And what is Jesus? Jesus is, he's at the right hand of the Father in full glory, giving us a full drink of the
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Spirit so we can behold him and be like him. Go with me to John 17. Go with me to John 17.
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Truly, Jesus was and is and is to come. And Jesus came the first time to justify us, to forgive us of our sins, but that's not where his work stops.
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Jesus is today and he's at the right hand of the Father today, full of glory, giving us a full drink of the
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Spirit so we can behold him and be like him. You understand that? So any resolution keeping that's not grounded in this justifying work and this sanctifying work is for naught.
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We see that Jesus is now at the right hand of the Father and look at what he's doing there. Look at John 17, verse six.
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This is his last message to his disciples before he went back to be with the Father where he would be until he would come in return.
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And he says, I have manifested your name, speaking to the Father, to your people, whom you gave me out of the world.
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Yours they were and you gave them to me and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you for I have given them the words that you gave me and they have received them and have come to know, came to know, come to know in the truth that I came from you.
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And they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I'm not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.
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All mine are yours and all yours are mine and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world.
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And I am coming to you, Holy Father. Keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one even as we are one.
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While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction that the scriptures might be fulfilled.
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But now I am coming to you. And these things I speak in the world that they may have joy fulfilled in themselves.
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I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
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I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
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So sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
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And for their sake, I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
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And look at this in verse 20. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word that they may all be one, just as you,
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Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
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The glory that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one.
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I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one so that the world may know that you sent me and have loved them even as you loved me.
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Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you have loved me before the foundation of the world.
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Oh, righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.
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I may know to them your name and I will continue to make it known that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them.
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So here's Jesus about to return to the Father where he will be until he returns. And he says, I desire for you to reveal yourself, to reveal the truth to them, to sanctify them in that truth.
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And I desire for them, what is that? To see me in all my glory with where I am at the right hand of the
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Father. Look again at verse 24. This is it.
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Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me, he's referring to all the church in the church age, may be with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me because you love me before the foundation of the world.
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The whole Christian pursuit is found in that one verse. That we would see the glory of Christ where he is right now at the right hand of the
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Father. This is the very definition of sanctification. That I would be set apart and see the glories of Christ revealed at the right hand of the
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Father and be like him and to look like him and to have that righteousness displayed actively in my life.
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So the point is that Jesus came and justified us by his blood. And Jesus right now is at the right hand of the
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Father and his whole desire is for us to see him where he is now and be like him now.
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To grow in sanctification now that we have received the righteousness of justification and are practicing that out in sanctification so we can be like him where he is at now at the right hand of the
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Father. Jesus is and he desires for us to be like him now.
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And of course, Jesus is to come again. Jesus is to come again.
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He was, he is, and he is to come. To take us to a new heaven and a new earth where we dwell with God in perfect righteousness.
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Hearing the echoes of behold I make it all things new to the thirsty I give from the spring of the water of life without payment.
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You see, this is what he's bringing us to to the completion of what we are realizing now.
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So it is most natural, it is most natural for God's unrighteous creatures to feel the need to make resolutions.
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And God's creation which reveals his glory, it is the most natural thing to desire. I need change,
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I need better. But any resolution not rooted in the one who conquered and offers abundant and eternal drink is short -sighted and destined to miss its mark.
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If you are a follower of Jesus, you should abound in resolutions. We should be the people that lead the idea that I need change.
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That as it is right now, as sin is left over, it needs to be dealt with. We should abound in resolutions.
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But it needs to be with the aim to see Jesus where he is now, seated at the right hand of glory.
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If it's not rooted, any change that's not rooted in that sanctifying agent, then it is worthless, it is useless, and it's destined to ultimately fail.
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We make our resolutions based on the fact that my guilt has been dealt with. My shame has been dealt with.
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Now I worship Christ renewed with a new heart and everything I desire to do now is so I can behold him more and be like him more.
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Waiting for him to return and bring these resolutions to its ultimate fulfillment, God dwelling with man in perfect righteousness.
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So we should be all about change. We should be all about looking at our lives in a very particular way and saying, in what ways am
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I falling short? Because God has given us the strength through his son to make actual, eternal change to know him better.
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So we go forth off of that foundation, being people of change, being people who look like Christ, being people who act differently, and it is enticing to the world who recognizes there is something wrong with me and I know there has to be an answer somewhere.
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There's an answer in the change that Jesus brings. May your resolutions be rooted in this change.
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May you not be lazy and not considering, where do I need to change? Because it is the beautiful benefit of the
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Christian that we have been given the strength in Christ to actually change. So it is a great pleasure of ours to say this needs to change, that needs to change, and by God's grace through Christ, it shall come about.
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Praise God that we can have such gospel -rooted resolutions. Let us pray. Oh, Father in heaven,
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I do thank you, Lord, for this great act of worship that you've given to us to do.
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In this life, we have been redeemed as people who are following after Jesus.
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We have been justified. We have been declared righteous. And what a great benefit it is, what a great gift it is that in this life, as there are sins left over in our practice, we get to bring these to Christ and say, oh,
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Lord, forgive me for this and vanquish this enemy. That the conquering of Christ can be our conquering.
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That his work can be given to us so that we,
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Father, perform these good works by this strength that he provides. God in heaven, how can any of us be lazy and not be resolving within ourselves to practice his righteousness more and more in our lives?
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How can we do anything else but be applying this to our lives? Whether we be a husband, a wife, a mother, a father, a child,
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Lord, may we see all our different vocations and say Christ is Lord even over that.
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It may be our pleasure, Lord, to change for his glory and grace, for his grace that he's given to us, and may our worship be found there.
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We thank you, we praise you, and may you be glorified forever because of this work you've done for us.