The nail in the coffin of legalism | Clip from Perseverance of the Saints

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In the sermon, he gives kind of three points to open up the sermon, and here they are.

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He says he wants to talk about the means of our steadfastness that is pointed to in Colossians 2 .6.

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That's the verse he uses. As you, therefore, have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.

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So, walking. And so he says, well, what is the means of their steadfastness? Second, what is the manner in which they ought to use these means?

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And third, what is the argument that he gives to enforce the exhortation?

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So, very quickly there, the means of perseverance is this walking, a daily simple choice is being made.

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The manner in which we walk, he says, it's in him, in Christ. And that's where he does a good job of explaining to us, don't forget that it is only by being united to Christ by faith that we are constantly supplied with what we need to live out the

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Christian life. And then third, this is for those who have, in fact, actually received

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Christ. So, we can't skip the new birth and jump right, and we talked about this before, and jump right into persevering.

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So, we need to have the right starting line and the right finishing line. So, then he goes on to give four major applications of his doctrine.

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So, here's the statement of the doctrine. It is the duty of all those that have received the

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Lord Jesus Christ to walk in him. And his four, we'll just go through them a little bit at a time.

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The first one is this, he says, I shall inquire how everyone that has Christ does receive him.

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So, that's the first point, really, of his sermon. If this is true, that every believer must persevere or must walk in Christ, all the way to the end, he said, well, how do you even get in Christ?

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And under that first point, really, he kind of makes a couple of major emphases. One is, this is the

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Christ that's offered to you in the gospel. And so, I think that's important, and I'm glad he starts here, because it ought to put kind of the nail in the coffin to legalism.

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We are talking, as you mentioned, only to people who are alive in Christ, who have cast all hope upon Christ.

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Christ is not only their righteousness. He is their constant sanctification, and he will be their ultimate completion or redemption.

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So, it is only those who belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to them, who live upon the truths of Christ, and they have embraced

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Christ as he's presented in the gospel. These are the only people that this sermon is for.

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But he also gives a warning. You must embrace Christ as the gospel offers him, as scripture offers him, and not as you might think he should be offered to you.

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So, in other words, there is no room for us coming to the gospel to say, well,

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I like this and this and this about the Savior, but these are things I'm not really sure I'm ready to take on board.

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So, I'm going to take Jesus kind of in pieces. Or we could say, I'm going to offer

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Christ counter -proposals. So, here's the gospel call. Well, yes, but I have a counter -proposal.

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And so, he makes a strong argument there, that if you have not embraced Christ based on Christ's stated terms in scripture, so not what your preacher says or your parents, if it is not based on Christ's declared terms, then you cannot receive him at all.

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