Colossians - Continue In The Faith

God Centered Theology

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And so today we've come to the part in verse 23 where he says, "'If indeed you continue in the faith, firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the

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Gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under Heaven.'" And the last phrase there of the verse we'll pick up next time.

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So, he goes through here and in verses 19 and 20 he talks about the fact that all the fullness of deity dwelt in Christ Jesus.

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He talks about the fact that between His cross we now have peace with God, because there are no neutral creatures.

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There are only the slaves of sin, the slaves of righteousness. There are those that are in an open hostility, an open rebellion against God.

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And those that now have the capacity through the indwelling Holy Spirit to choose God, to obey

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God, to walk in righteousness, pursue holiness. And it is this peace that we walk in. Romans chapter 5 talks about the grace in which we stand.

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Ephesians chapter 2 talking about it is the faith, not the works. It is by grace you are saved, not through works but through our faith.

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Romans chapter 4 is just a beautiful chapter talking about the fact that it is our faith that is the instrument of our justification.

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But the basis of our justification is on the shed blood of Jesus Christ, and that is brought out there for us.

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And then when he brings into verse 21 he talks about the fact that you were formerly, formerly alienated and hostile in mind.

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And as a result of this you were engaged in evil deeds. And he talks about the fact that yet now

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Jesus Christ has reconciled you in His fleshly body. And it is because of this, you know

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I talk about the fact that a lot of people only think in terms of salvation as the one time event when you get saved, and you know it is just the one thing.

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Salvation biblically speaking is actually a process. It involves the one time moment in time when you place your faith in Christ and you are instantly regenerated, you are justified.

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And that aspect of our justification is eternal in nature. John 3 .16, so for God to love the world

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He gives the monogamist, His unique one and only Son. That the believing ones, the whoever that will believe will have life, but not just physical life, but have life eternal.

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Describing what this type of life is. And it is because on the basis of what Jesus Christ did for us that God can offer full, free justification on the basis of our faith in Christ.

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And that is part of it. There is also our ongoing sanctification which is being set apart for God.

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You can look at sanctification in terms of we are set apart eternally to God. Colossians notes this when we looked back when we started this series, verse 2 when

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Paul says, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ. Saints, Greek word meaning holy ones, or set apart ones, faithful brethren.

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A description of what Christians are, and what they look like. And so, we get the sanctification that is involved in our salvation.

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There is also a coming future glorification when Christ will return a second time.

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We will receive a resurrected body that is perfectly suited for eternity. And we will go on and live on in eternity with Christ forever and ever.

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But it is because of our justification, because of the reconciliation, the bringing us, buying us back to God, that at the end of verse 22 it says that He will present us before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.

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So, regardless of our sanctification or lack thereof in some

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Christians, some of us don't engage with the Holy Spirit. Some of us don't utilize His power to help us resist sin, and walk in righteousness.

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Regardless of what your life looks like after you've been saved, you've been justified. You know some

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Christians will progress very quickly. Some will take time. Some have different ups and flows to their life.

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But regardless of what you do, no sin can reverse your justification. And regardless of your sanctification process in your

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Christian life, nothing changes the fact that you can at any moment after the point in which you are saved, you could die and you would be before a thrice holy, eternal

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God, perfectly holy, blameless, and beyond reproach. We talked about this last week on Wednesday night.

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The most beautiful aspect of salvation to me is the fact that when I stand before God, when

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I die one day, if I die before He returns, when God views me, He will view me as being equally as righteous as His Son.

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Let that sink in for a minute. You will be viewed as equally as righteous as Jesus Christ.

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Is it because you are righteous? No. Is it because I'm righteous? No. It is because in salvation,

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Romans chapter 6 talks about the fact that you've been baptized into Jesus Christ. The Greek word that we translate baptized is the word that literally means to immerse.

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And it is a spiritual component that is talked about in Romans chapter 6. We are spiritually, literally immersed into Jesus Christ, so that when

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He died, we died. When He received the wrath and penalty of sin, that was our wrath and our penalty.

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When He was raised from the dead unto eternal life, that's our eternal life. So, in salvation every bit of our sin is imputed to Him, and He is treated as if He committed those sins when

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He didn't. And all of His righteousness and obedience that He did perfectly is imputed to us, and we are treated and viewed by the

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Father because of this reconciliation as if we were the ones that perfectly obeyed and were perfectly righteous.

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And to me that is just the most beautiful aspect of our salvation. And so that brings us to verse 23 here where He says, if indeed you continue in the faith.

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So, the subject matter before us today is the aspect of continuing in the faith. And notice it says, if indeed.

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Now, I want to talk about this word, if, to get started. This word that is translated, if, here is not questioning if the

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Colossian believers can do it. And it is not saying that continuing in the faith is a condition of our justification, or our reconciliation before God, which we've already discussed in the chapter.

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No, what it is saying is that because of what Christ has already done in reconciling us back to the

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Father, and now that we are justified before God, we will continue in the faith as a result of that.

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This is what you would call in theological circles the perseverance of the saints. And we're going to explain how this word, if, fits into it.

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The if, and I've looked at the most mainline translations, most every single one that is a word for word translation will translate this if.

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Now, I'm going to discuss in just a second, there are those that would say you should translate it since, s -i -n -c -e, instead of if.

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I'm going to explain why you shouldn't do that. But most of them will have if in your Bibles translated there. This if here in English is a conditional conjunction that when followed by any verb expresses a condition thought of as real, or assumed as factual.

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It is viewed as a factual condition. So, what it is saying is that this conjunction that is translated to the

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English word, if, when followed by the verb, which in this verse is continue in the faith, continue is the verb.

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When followed by a verb it means that it is assuming it is as factual.

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So, what it is saying is it is saying, yes, indeed if, if you continue in the faith you show yourself to be reconciled, justified to God.

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But it is not saying if in the sense that, well it is in doubt. It is saying if in the sense it is assuming it as a factual thing.

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It is assuming it as something that 100 % of Christians will do without exception.

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Now, some as I've already said would say, well you should translate it with the word, since. And that would express it more clearly.

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This is not the case. Translating it with the word, since would create a situation where the condition, continuing in the faith, would be the basis upon which what preceded it was true.

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So, what that means is if it said, since you continue in the faith, then what that would be saying is that it is our continuing in the faith that makes us reconciled to God.

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It is our continuing in the faith that puts us in a position where we can be presented before God holy, blameless, and beyond reproach.

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So, you would not want to translate this since, you want to translate it if. Now I know that brings some connotation into our

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English language, like questioning and things. But that's why the original languages are so important. You know it can get a little nerdy, geeky, which you know

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I love. Not everybody shares in my nerdiness and my geekness.

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So, I try to avoid going into this level as much as I can. And I don't do it to make myself look smart.

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Look, when it comes to the original languages I'm still at a very elementary level. I study once a week on it, and try to learn something new.

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I'm real good with verbs. I love the Greek verbs. I just think they are wonderful how they have different actions, and so on and so forth.

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And the tenses and all that good stuff. I'm still elementary in learning. So, I'm not here to make myself look smart. But the things that I do know if it's involved in what

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I'm preaching, I think it's very important to point these things out. So, what it is saying here, when it says, if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast.

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What it is saying is that in light of what God has done, it can be assumed as a fact that you will continue in the faith.

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There are zero Christians that have been truly born again that will fail to continue in the faith.

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Now, this is not speaking of sinless perfection. I've said many times we are saved from the penalty of sin, not the ability to sin.

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We remain in sinful humanness. Now, it is true that as our spirit, which as far as our soul is concerned we are as holy as we are ever going to be.

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We are as holy right now as we will be in Heaven. But our sinful humanness, the old man that keeps wanting to creep up has to be continually sanctified and set apart to God.

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And as that happens, yes your sin should go down, your righteousness should go up.

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But there is not a shred of evidence in the Bible that you can make an argument for sinless perfection. But what this is saying is the continuing in the faith.

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The faith once for all handed down to the saints as it says in the book of Jude. The faith meaning the

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Gospel. And the context is in the very verse itself when He says, you won't be moved away from the hope of the

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Gospel that you have heard. Kicking back, we will in a minute to verses 5 and 6,

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He sets the context that we are talking about, the Gospel. It is the faith, the

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Christian faith, the faith that separates us from every other religion in the world, the faith.

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Y 'all it's about 100 degrees in here. I'm sorry this thing's got to go. Y 'all forgive me, so much better.

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I'm one of them hot people, and I'm not brave enough to ask the question if we can turn the air conditioning down to what would make me feel good yet.

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You know what they'd probably let me if I flip the bill probably. That would probably be good right there.

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Alright, so it is the faith, the Christian faith.

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It's not a sinless perfection. It's not whether or not you live up to some Christian standard that someone else has for you.

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It means you won't apostatize. This is essentially the doctrinal passage here that is the firm argument against the understanding of what we call the free will

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Baptist that believes you can lose your salvation. It's something you have to maintain. I've said this before, let me go ahead and say it again just so we are clear.

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If you could lose your salvation, you would. If Andy could lose his salvation,

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Andy would. Why? Andy's a sinner. I sin. If our justification is on the basis of anything that we do, you can't trust it.

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You can't hope in it. If our justification is on the basis of what the eternal being did in the

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Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ on the cross, you can trust it. You can hope in it because it is perfect.

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Now, what Paul said is that the reconciled person, the justified person continues in the faith.

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And he's already demonstrated this in what he has said in the chapter, verse 5 and 6. He says, "'Because of the hope laid up for you in Heaven of which you previously heard in the

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Word of truth, the Gospel, the Good News, which has come to you just as in all the world, also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing.'"

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Watch this, "'Even as it has been doing in you since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth.'"

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So, the first point here is that you can trust that Christians will continue in the faith because Paul's already addressed the fact that the

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Gospel, the faith is already producing fruit in the people that he's writing to here in Colossae.

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He's saying, "'If indeed you continue in the faith, assume it as a fact that you will do it,' because it's already doing it.

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You're already demonstrating that it's true. Verse 13 and 14 where he said, "'For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the

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Kingdom of His Beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.'" He's demonstrating and wants us to understand what has changed.

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Too many times Christians and those that would come to profess belief in Christ never truly grasp what has changed.

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This is not something like a, you know, He just subjectively made us more inclined to do righteousness.

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He completely transformed us from someone that was spiritually dead to now someone that is spiritually alive.

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He rescued us from the domain of darkness. That doesn't sound too good.

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I don't want to be in a domain of darkness. I don't want to go there. But it's where we were at. It's who we were.

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And then He transferred us. Notice that it is saying that Christ did these things. Our faith is the instrument upon which we become saved, but it is

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Christ that is both the basis and the power upon which anyone is saved. He's the one that transferred us from the domain of darkness into the

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Kingdom of His Beloved Son. God doing this transfer, in whom

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Jesus Christ, in whom we have the redemption, the forgiveness of sins. So, we are understanding that this

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Gospel, this faith is already producing in them. We have to understand what has changed, but also understand that salvation, the transformation that occurs is a complete 100 % fundamental change.

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Turn with me if you will in your Bible to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2

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Corinthians chapter 5, very familiar scripture here in verse 17 when it says,

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Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, bringing in and understanding what

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Romans 6 has had to say about us being baptized or immersed into Christ, that's what it is speaking of here.

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If anyone is in Christ, He is a new creature. It didn't say

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He took the old self, and the old creature, and what we used to be and just simply threw some paint on the walls, or maybe added some new chairs in the room.

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It's a complete renovation. Everything about who we were, torn down. Everything about who we are now, and who we are progressively turning into in Christ is new.

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It's a new creature, new creation. The old things have passed away when we die.

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Jesus Christ is the only one that has been resurrected. Well, it was Lazarus too, but in terms of the resurrection we speak of it is

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Jesus Christ. Lazarus may have been resurrected by the power of Christ, but he still eventually died again. So, it is a point that a man wants to die.

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But when old things have passed away they don't come back, they are dead, they are ceased of life.

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But it says, Behold, new things have come. Now, all of these things are from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ.

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You ever notice how Paul uses the same kind of language in all of his books? And all the skeptics out there say, well, how do we know

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Paul really wrote the same? He uses the same words all the time. Reconciled us through Himself to Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

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You skip down to verse 21 it says, He, God, made Him, Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

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That's salvation. It's Jesus Christ, the Eternal Being, the Eternal One, Second Person of the

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Trinity, knew no sin, could not be the author of sin. It wasn't just that He was sinless in His life, it was that He was incapable of sin, because He's Eternal God.

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He who knew no sin, became sin on our behalf, our substitute, so that we might become the righteousness of God, Philippians chapter 3, in Him, in Christ, as in Christ we have our righteousness.

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We are a new creature. Fundamental transformation. You can't live exactly like the world and profess to be in Christ.

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This is something that I think a lot of churches struggle with today. We almost sort of, and I'm 100 % against fundamentalism, legalism, and pharisaical activity.

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But it's sort of like we've taken to reject that, not necessarily here, but when I see it in a lot of churches, especially on Facebook, whew,

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Lord Jesus bring some righteousness to Facebook. But in places out there you see it, they've taken it.

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So, to solve that we take the other extreme. It's like we don't ever want to talk about sin. We don't ever want to talk about holiness, or what we are supposed to be doing as Christians in pursuing righteousness, because we don't want to seem like we are making judgments, or you know coming down as like a legalistic fashion of you can do this, but you can't do that sort of thing.

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Look, 2 Corinthians is clear, if you've been truly transformed by the power of God, your life is going to look different.

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You're not going to be the same. You're going to be different. You're going to be sanctified.

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You're going to be set apart. You're going to walk and live in righteousness. Not perfectly, but we can't use the excuse of not being perfect.

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See, that's what happens. You say, well, if you start talking about holiness and righteousness you must think we are supposed to be perfect.

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Straw man argument, putting words in people's mouths is not what they are saying. A true preacher of the

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Word is never going to say you will be perfect. Now, we will be in eternity. But if you are out there living no differently, and the conversation of your life is

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I'm no different than what I was before, I can't judge your heart. None of us should ever judge anyone's heart.

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But the Bible says we would need to tell that person, say, look, you know, especially if this is someone that you have, you know you're in their circle, because not everybody deserves to know everything you do.

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And not everybody has the right to come into your life and say you should do such and such. But if you are in the realm of that circle with that person where you have the right and the ability to do so, tell them, say, hey, this doesn't match up with your profession.

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It ain't kicking them out of the Kingdom, it's just saying go and sin no more. Walk in righteousness. Galatians 5, produce the fruit of the

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Spirit. Start doing the thing. You hear me say it all the time, I'm not so much worried about the past. Whatever you've done in your past I don't care.

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You know what I'm concerned about? What are you doing today? And what are you doing tomorrow? So, if anybody were to ever sit in front of me and say, you know

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I'm struggling with this, or I'm struggling with that, and then we could flip the tables and I could tell them I'm struggling with because I'm a sinner too.

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But the key is not, well I guess you're out of the Kingdom, I guess you're not saved. No, you profess to be in Christ.

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This doesn't match it. You've recognized it, 1 John 1 .9, repent of your sin, confess your sin,

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He is faithful and just enough to forgive your sin. And continually over the scope of your Christian life

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He'll cleanse you from all unrighteousness, thus helping you walk in greater and increasing righteousness.

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That should be the conversation. That should be the habitual walk of the Christian. That's what

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Colossians 1 .23 is saying. It's saying you'll continue in the faith and as a result of that you'll do certain things.

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So, this whole, you know it gets thrown up every time, like, oh, I guess you're trying to say, no, nobody is saying you're trying to do it perfectly, but you can't use that as an excuse.

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Romans 6 covers this. Paul says the people were coming to him and they were saying, well, Paul if grace abounds then we can just do whatever we want, right?

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We can just sin all we want, and grace will just abound that much more. And he says, no, may it never be.

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Do you not know that those of you who have been baptized, have been baptized into Jesus Christ and you are no longer yourselves?

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He says later in the chapter you are no longer a slave of sin, you are a slave of righteousness, act like it.

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There is no excuse for a Christian to sin, but Christians will sin. But we have an

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Advocate with the Father that is promised to be faithful to help us cleanse us from that unrighteousness, but we've got to recognize it in our life, reject it, turn from it, and continually pursue our

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Savior. There is a balance there, so much of it is a balance. There have been times in my life I haven't been proud of where I was at.

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I haven't been proud of what I was doing, or what I was saying at the moment. It didn't make me unsaved, but it hurt my witness.

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It hurt who I was supposed to be. I was never going to be as effective for God in those moments as I could be now, when

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I'm actually pursuing God on a daily basis. And that's the key to what it is saying here when we are a new creature in Christ.

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So, this faith, let's get back to Colossians 1 verse 23. I'm going to answer three quick questions about this faith that we are to continue in before we wrap it up for today.

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Number one, what faith are we continuing in? We've already answered this to a degree, the faith, the faith that all

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Christians have in Christ. Meaning zero people who have truly been born again will fall away or lose their faith in Christ.

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When you understand that our faith itself is a gift of God, and it is by its very origin supernatural, you understand it comes from God, and you have a better understanding that losing this faith is not a possibility because it is not up to us.

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We are given the faith in Christ, the faith that we put in Christ, we will persist in it. It is assumed as factual, remember the whole discussion on the word, if?

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It is assumed as factual because of its origins. Hence, if we could lose our salvation we would, but it is not up to us.

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Thankfully we are held by the power of God. We see this very clearly in verse 17 of Colossians 1 where it says, he,

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Jesus Christ, is before all things, and in Him all things hold together, or consist, or endure.

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Not just to creative work, but all those that are His righteous ones, His holy ones, will continue in the faith.

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They will persist in the faith. Why? Because we are special? Because we have special powers? Or there is something great about us?

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No, it's because there is something great about our Savior, and He has the power to hold us, and keep us until the day

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He returns. So, number one, what faith are we continuing in?

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Number two, what does this continuing in the faith look like in a believer? Well, it is firm in its foundation and steadfastness.

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Notice that the verse says, if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast.

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The word established means to lay a foundation. It's a Greek word in the perfect tense which means that it is a foundation that has already been laid.

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A perfect tense verb means that the progress of an action has been completed, and the results of the action are continuing in full effect.

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So, it is the continuation and present state of a completed past action.

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So, what is that saying? What it's saying is that in the case of our continuing faith being firmly established, we turn to 1

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Corinthians chapter 3 and looking at verse 11 for our description where it says, for no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is

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Christ Jesus. The foundation for our faith is Christ Jesus.

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We continue in the faith because Jesus Christ in the past laid the foundation for our faith.

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Our continuing in the faith is not dependent upon us, for if it were we would fail and fall away.

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It is completely dependent on the one in whom our faith is in. So, you can say that it is firmly established in the foundation of Christ, but it is also steadfast.

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This word steadfast means to be seated, to be firm, to be immovable, not given to fluctuation, or moving off course.

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So, this verse could be translated in this way, we continue in the faith firmly steadfast in the foundation of our faith.

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That's ultimately what it is saying, that Christians continue steadfast, firmly rooted in the foundation of our faith which is

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Jesus Christ. And then lastly, number three, what are the results of continuing in this faith?

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Well, the believer who is firmly steadfast in the foundation of their faith, Jesus, in the foundation of their faith,

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Jesus Christ, they will not be moved away from the hope of the Gospel. Notice the verse continues, if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the

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Gospel that you have heard. Now, the verb translated moved away here is not a perfect tense, but a present tense verb which means there is ongoing action.

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It means that this place where we are firmly seated and steadfast, this foundation we are established in, we will continually, ongoing over the course of our life, continually remain and never be moved from it.

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I think sometimes we, I don't want to say play

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Christian because I think that assumes that people have the wrong motives, and I don't think that would be true of any of you all.

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But we sort of play Christian in the sense that it's something we do, or it's a place we go, or it's a community we're involved in.

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All those things are important and good, and they are part of what we do. But my friends,

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I dug in this morning on this verse because I think it's important. We need to constantly be reminded that there is a difference between Christianity and Islam.

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There is a difference between Christianity, and I'm sorry but there is a difference between Christianity and Catholicism.

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There is a difference between Christianity and Mormonism. There is a difference between Christianity and Jehovah's Witnesses.

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There is a difference between Christianity and Secular Progressivism, Secular Totalitarianism, which as much as they don't want to admit it, it is a religion and it is a worldview.

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Our worldview says we are all sinners, destined for Hell, and because of Jesus Christ we are transferred from the domain of darkness to the domain of light, and life, and the

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Kingdom of God. And if indeed we continue in the faith, assumed as fact, those who have been saved will continue in the faith, and they won't do it any other way but firmly established in the foundation of Christ.

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They'll do it in a steadfast way, and they won't be moved away from it because they will continually remain firm in where they are at.

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So, I pray that this morning you are not only saved in this room, but maybe if by some chance you haven't really been living for Christ.

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Maybe you haven't been submitting to the Word of God. Maybe there is something God's put His finger on in your life, and you say,

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I just don't really know. I don't want to give this up. My friends, Christ has given you all the resources and all the power you need to overcome anything standing in your way, and you'll do it on the foundation of Jesus Christ.