5. New Year's Eve Conference | The Church in Fellowship

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Pastor Jeff Rice of Covenant Reformed Baptist Church, recorded Sunday January 7

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6. New Year's Eve Conference | The Glorious Future of the Church

6. New Year's Eve Conference | The Glorious Future of the Church

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Even while we are in this message today, let's keep in mind the members of our church who are sick.
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So today's message is going to be a little different, and let me tell you why. We had a
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New Year's Eve conference this past Lord's Day evening, and I had six messages that were lined up to tell a story.
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The fifth message was not told, and that was the church in fellowship.
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The gentleman who is a local pastor here who was supposed to present this message did not do so, and for that I want to repent to you today.
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In my house, when him and I had this conversation, I walked through with him what a church must ho to in order to have biblical fellowship.
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He agreed, he even sped it off back to me, and then he stands up here and does not agree at the pulpit.
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Now, if it would have been a Lord's Day service, I would have came up here and removed him, physically if necessary, but it being a conference, and like me being friends with a lot of these guys that do conferences, they allow them to continue.
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They remove the sermon from the row, right?
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It doesn't go on YouTube, so today's sermon will replace what he did in that YouTube section concerning the small conference that we did, but not only did he not say what we agreed should be said, he focused on a doctrine, a oneness theology doctrine that we do not ho to, and we would say if you ho to a oneness doctrine, you are not a
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Christian, and again I want to repent for that, and I want to repent for something else too, because in my message
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I mention how we are to put no man, no preacher on a pedestal, and he comes up and puts me on a pedestal, and I want to repent for that.
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I don't consider myself to be famous in any matter.
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I'm known for rebinding Bibles. What I want to do with my life is to glorify
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God, and what he does with that, he does with that. But I never want to be looked at as someone on a pedestal.
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I do not deserve it. No man does it. Glory is to be given to God.
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So if you search the record for this man's message, you will not find it.
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It has been removed. The theme for our message today is the church in fellowship.
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This should have been what was preached, and my proposition is this. We are called as the church universal to be in fellowship with like -minded believers.
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If an orthodox church chooses not to fellowship with us over Reformed theology, then let them be accountable to God.
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We, however, are to love them, and pray for them, and to pray for the unity of the body.
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Jesus makes it clear that we, you and I, the church, are to be known for our love for one another.
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Our love for one another. We are, this church,
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Covenant Reformed Baptist Church, should be known for its love, not only for one another, those of us who are gathered here, but also for the other biblical churches that are gathering together, not only in Tallahoma, Manchester, Winchester, Nashville, Florida, California.
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We are to love them. We are to be known for our love for them.
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As Christians who are a part of a local church, we are above all things to seek the glory of God in life, church, and community.
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Life, church, and community. With that said,
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I understand that this is counterintuitive to what we see taking place in the church today.
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In our outline today, we're going to ask three questions. Who is
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God? Who is Jesus? And what is the gospel?
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Point number one, who is God? Point number two, who is Jesus? And point number three, what is the gospel? What is the gospel?
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And as we transition, the answer, listen, the answer to those three questions are found in the doctrine of the
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Trinity, the doctrine of Christology, and the doctrine of justification by faith alone.
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If a believer or a denomination can answer these three questions correctly, we can have fellowship with them.
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If they do not answer these three questions correctly, we do not have fellowship with them.
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Now that's not saying you in your personal life cannot have a oneness Pentecostal friend, but don't dare associate with him as a brother in Christ.
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He is the mission field. No difference than a Mormon or a
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Jehovah Witness. The correct answer to these questions is the is, listen, is the bare minimum for fellowship.
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I wanted to strip it down to the bare minimum. These three questions are the same questions
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I would ask anyone who I believe that their theology seems a little off, right?
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I want to say, who is God? Who is Jesus? And what is the gospel?
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As a matter of fact, these are the same three questions I ask a Mormon or a Jehovah's Witness. I know they're going to answer them wrong, but I'm going to ask them these three questions.
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I'm going to sit there patiently and listen to their answers. And when they're done, I'm going to give them the biblical answers.
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And if they try to leave, I'm going to say, hold on. I waited patiently for you to give these answers.
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You will show me the same respect. So question number one, who is
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God? Listen, there can be no more important questions than these three.
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There's a reason why the first one stands where it stands. Who is
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God? If you don't know who God is, you don't know who Jesus is, and you don't know the gospel.
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Who is God? And when I ask that question, if that answer doesn't lead to God being triune, there cannot be
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Christian fellowship with an individual or an institution. Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 4 says this,
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Hear, O Israel, Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is one.
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There is only one God. This means in your study of God, if you come up with more than one
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God, you are wrong. There is only one
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God. The orthodox Christian faith is monotheist. A monotheist is someone who believes in one
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God. Mono in the Greek means alone, only, sole, or single.
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We were talking about this earlier, but when you bear down to it, it just means one.
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Mono, one. The term theist in Greek means theos or theon, which means
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God. So, a monotheism means one
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God. There is only one God. Now as Christians, we are also
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Trinitarian. This means in your study of God, if you come up with God being just one person, you are wrong.
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You are wrong! Which means that this one
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God is yet three. One God who is yet three.
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Now, how can that be true without contradiction?
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In the Christian faith, we would say that this one God in our monotheism, right, is speaking about the being of God.
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One God in being. There is only one being of God.
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And Trinitarianism focuses on the three persons that are the one being.
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So when you think of God, theos, or theo, theos, or theon, depending on again the verbiage around it, it's talking about Trinity.
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Now you can read in there where it's clearly where it just gives the word theon, or theos, and you can say, well this is clearly talking about the
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Father. Because right after it will say, in his son Jesus, it will say, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
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So that part right there where it says God, it's clearly talking about the Father because it talks about him giving his son.
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But for the most part, if you just see generically the word God in there, your mind needs to go to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
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That's where your mind should go to. God is Trinitarian. Let's look at Matthew chapter 28.
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Now I know that in this series that we have on this conference that this verse has already been preached, but I want to look at it from a different angle, a different view, and I just want to look at verse 19.
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So we know that this is the Great Commission. Jesus has called his disciples together, and he tells them about his authority that has been given to him, and now he's given them some authority under his name.
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In verse 19 he tells them, his disciples, he says, therefore, he says, go therefore and make disciples of all nations.
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So, leave Jerusalem and make disciples of all nations and baptize them, who?
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Those who have become disciples in the name of the Father and the
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Son and the Holy Spirit. Now what
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I want you to focus your attention on right here in this moment is the name.
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Baptize them, baptize those who you have made disciples of in the name.
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The name here is singular. Jesus tells his disciples to baptize disciples in a singular name, and then he goes on and mentions three persons.
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The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. One name, three persons.
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The name here, I believe, is speaking about the covenant name of God, which is
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Yahweh. What's God's name? Yahweh.
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Yahweh is God's covenant name. Is the
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Father Yahweh? Is the Son Yahweh? Is the
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Holy Spirit Yahweh? The name Yahweh here is speaking about the being of God, while the
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Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is speaking about the three persons of this one being,
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God. There is only one Yahweh, and yet there are three persons who carry this divine name.
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The Father is God. Look with me in John 17, verses 1 -3.
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Jesus spoke these things, so let me give a real quick, this is the high priestly prayer.
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Jesus has gotten somewhere where he can pray to his
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Father. Jesus spoke these things in lifting up his eyes to heaven.
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So where is the Father? In heaven. And said, Father, the hour has come.
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Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.
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Jesus is asking the Father to glorify him, so that he can glorify him.
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Verse 2, even as you gave him authority over all flesh, that to all whom you have given him, listen, to all whom you have given him, he may give eternal life.
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So right here we clearly see that the only ones that are given eternal life are those who have been given to him, which harkens back to chapter 6.
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That's not a part of our message, but just so you know, it's clearly seen there too, right?
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We've got this conference coming up. Now before I read this next verse, I want to point out something, that Jesus is a part of this heresy that we had given to us
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Sunday night. Jesus is praying to his
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Father in heaven. Oneist theology would say that while Jesus was on earth, there was no
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Father in heaven. Who is he praying to? They would say to his divine self.
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So his physical self is on earth, but his divine self is in heaven.
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That means that if that's true, then while Jesus is on earth, he's not holding all things together by the word of his power, but he's not
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God. So Jesus is praying to his
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Father, Jesus is on earth, his Father is in heaven, and look at verse 3, and this is eternal life, that they, who's the they?
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The ones that were given to him by the Father, may know you, who's the you?
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His Father, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
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In this text, Jesus, the Son of God, prays to God, calls
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God his Father, and calls his Father the only true God.
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This text is clear that the Father is God, but the
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Son is God also. Look with me in Titus chapter 2, we'll begin reading in verse 11, we'll read in verse 15, but our focus will be on verse 13.
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Titus chapter 2, beginning in verse 11, for the grace of God has appeared, and it's going to tell you why it appeared, bringing salvation to all man, instructing us that, instructing us that denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope in the appearing of our, of the great glory of our great
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God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from lawlessness, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works.
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So these people that he is possessing are to be zealous for good works.
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These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority, let no one disregard you.
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Paul is telling Titus that God has appeared, he has brought salvation, those that are saved are to live a life of denying themselves of ungodliness, worldly desires, and that we should be sensible, righteous, and godly.
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And we're looking for our Savior to appear, and that we are to be zealous for good works, and that he is to reprove those who are not following this instruction.
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Well look at verse 13 where it says looking. We are to be looking for the blessed hope in the appearing of the glory, remember
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Jesus said the Father has the glory, of the glory of our great
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God and Savior Jesus Christ. Ladies and gentlemen this is my friend and co -elder
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Pastor Cal. Now which one is he?
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Is he my friend or is he my co -elder? Both.
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I'm introducing him to someone, I'm saying this is my friend and my co -elder
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Pastor Cal. A lot of husband and wives had this thing, me and my wife we said yeah we're not going to do this, right?
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We can have best friends outside of the marriage, right? She don't consider me her best friend,
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I don't consider her my best friend, she's my wife, I'm her husband, right? Now if you do that, that's fine,
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I might make fun of you a little bit, but you hear that a lot. This is my best friend and wife, or this is my best friend and husband, and it's speaking about the same person.
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And that's what Paul is doing here, speaking of Jesus, our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
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There's no antecedent here pointing to the Father. Now there's other texts, one was even read earlier where it says something similar, but the way the structure that it's broken down, you can tell there's, that it's distinctly talking about the
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Father and Jesus. Right here in this text, it is not.
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When he says our great God and Savior, great God and Savior is the same.
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And who is the great God and Savior? Paul says Jesus Christ.
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Jesus Christ is our great God and Savior. Jesus is
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God. But also the Holy Spirit is
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God. Turn with me to Acts chapter 5. In Acts chapter 5, we have the persecution is coming upon the church.
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The church is gathering together, and people are selling off their property, and they're giving it to the church where the church can dispense it as there's need.
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And right here in chapter 5, we see a hiccup in this system of someone who can sell their property, and they don't have to give it all, but instead of being honest, they lie.
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And we're talking about Ananias and Sapphira. So right here beginning of chapter 5, look at verse 1, but a man named
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Ananias with his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property and kept back some of that price for himself with his wife's full knowledge.
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They were best friends, right? And bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles' feet.
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But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the
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Holy Spirit? So who did Ananias lie to?
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The Holy Spirit. And to keep back some of the price of the land.
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While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your authority?
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Why is it that you laid this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man.
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So he's saying you have not lied to Peter and the apostles and to the rest of church. You have not lied to man, but to God.
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So what's the nearest antecedent to that? The Holy Spirit. They lied to the
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Holy Spirit. They lied to God. They lied to God.
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The Holy Spirit is God, is Yahweh. Question number two.
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Who is Jesus? For this, let's go to 1 John. And I want to point out something real quick that if I wanted to stretch this sermon out, we could do who is
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God's sermon, who is Jesus' sermon, and who is the Holy Spirit's sermon.
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And so I'm trying, there's so many other texts that I could visit for this, so I'm trying to just give one or two here and there to prove the point.
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But the battle for me this week was which verse do I want to come at it with, right? Which verse should
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I, should I hit him with this one, should I hit him with this one? And to keep it in a good timely fashion,
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I was only able to give one. And I think that 1 John, this is something that we've already looked at over a year ago, and I figured it's something that we could revisit real quick.
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So 1 John chapter 1, look at verses 1 through 3. In the beginning was the
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Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
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He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him.
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And apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being.
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This is saying the Word, which we would say is
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Jesus, is with God, is God, and He, Jesus, this
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Word, created all things. And yet we can show verses where the
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Father created all things, and it's because they're both true. As God, the divine being,
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Yahweh, created all things. Now what
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I really want to point out here is where it says, in the beginning was the
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Word. We agreed that this here is logos, however you want to say it.
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And this logos, this Word is with God. And the
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Greek structure, if you break it down, it says, and the Word was God. It actually should be translated, in my opinion, that God was the
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Word. And I think if translators followed the Greek structure, it would eliminate a lot of cults.
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But this is what we have to work with. Now right here where it says was with God, this is logos in prostantios.
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Logos in prostantios. Prostant here means face to face.
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Both of them, the Father and the Son, are called God, and it says that they are face to face.
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Logos in prostantios. Prostant is face to face.
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That which was face to face with God, is God, came down from heaven to explain to us
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God. And we'll clarify that here in a minute. So Jesus, who we would all agree that this is speaking about, is the
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Word, is the logos, who was face to face with God, who created all things.
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Now I read to you earlier, John 17 verses 1 through 3. I want to go back to verse 5.
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But I also want to point out real quick that in verse 1, he says,
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Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.
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Look at verse 5. Now, Father, glorify me together with yourself with the glory which
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I had with you before the world was.
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The Bible is clear that God shares his glory with no one, and he doesn't.
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The Father and Jesus are co -eternal. I would say the Holy Spirit, co -eternal, co -existing, right?
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They have. It's the same way, in the same way that one
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God, that one being, they all are that one being. They all have that one glory.
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The difference is, when Christ came, that glory had to be veiled.
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It had to be hidden. If Jesus would have been walking around in all of his glory, they would not have crucified the
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Son of God. If they knew 100 % sure that this was
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God in flesh, they would have not crucified him, and therefore there would be no redemption for mankind.
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There was a purpose in the veiling of the glory. Jesus is saying, the time has come.
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He knows that he's about to die. He knows that he's about to be buried. He knows that resurrection is coming.
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He's saying, Father, raise me from the dead. It's coming. Give me that glory back that I had with you from the beginning.
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Jesus is God, the second person of the Trinity. I read this earlier, the
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Affination Creed. I don't see a better way to explain it.
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It says, for as we are compelled by the truth of Christianity to acknowledge every person by himself to be
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God and Lord, we are forbidden by the universal faith to say there be three gods or three lords.
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The right faith then is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the
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Son of God, is God and man, perfect God, perfect man of rational soul and human flesh subsiding, equal.
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So we're saying that he is equal to the Father as touching the Godhead and inferior to the
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Father as touching the manhood. This is talking about when his glory had to be veiled. Who, although he be
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God and man, yet is not two, but one Christ. One, not by the conversion of the
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Godhead into flesh, but by taking of the manhood into God.
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Christology teaches that Jesus has two natures.
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So the one being of God has three persons. The second person of the
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Trinity, Jesus, has two natures due to him coming into time.
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The divine nature and the human nature. The divine nature, the divine nature is
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Jesus as the one being of God, holding all things by the word of his power.
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Human nature, speaking of the human nature, is Jesus taking on humanity.
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The word that was with God, who was God, who created all things, enters into time.
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Look at verse 14 of John 1. And the word, which we would agree is
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Jesus, Logos, became flesh. That's what that is speaking of in that portion of that creed.
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The word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, glory as the only begotten from the
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Father, full of grace and truth. And he does this in order to explain to us
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God. Look at verse 18. No one has seen God at any time.
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The only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the
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Father, he has explained him. Notice it mentions God twice in here, and in both times it's speaking of a different person of God.
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No one has ever, it should be read like this, no one has ever seen God the
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Father at any time. The only begotten
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Son of God, who is in the bosom, think face to face with God, he has come to explain him.
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He has come to exegete him. That's what that word here means, explain.
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It's where we get our word exegete. What I'm doing, for the most part, when we're up here, whoever's preaching up here, what they're doing, they open the
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Bible, they get to a particular text, they're doing exegesis, they're expositioning, they're explaining to you what the
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Bible says. Jesus came so that we may know God. He came to exegete, to exposition for us
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God, right? Apart from the incarnation, we would not truly know
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God. I would go as far as to say before Jesus came,
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Israel of the Old Testament did not truly know God. Not fully, like you and I do here in hindsight 2020, we have the scriptures, we have
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Jesus being revealed to us, the Trinity being revealed to us in the New Testament. They didn't have this,
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Jesus had not come, and if you read scripture, if you start in Genesis and you work your way through, you'll see this revealing take place over a course of time, right?
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We didn't receive his divine name truly into the book of Exodus.
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Moses had a greater knowledge of God than Abraham was given, but Abraham believed the knowledge, the message that he had, and it was counted to him as righteousness.
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That's why you'll sometimes hear me say we're going to be judged by the light in which we have been given.
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Don't look back on history and say, but they didn't know, doesn't matter, or there's a period of time where the light people, they didn't have the
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Bible in their vernacular, right? And so they had to listen to someone read it to them and think, well, they didn't have it then, so we don't have to read it now.
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They didn't read it then, so we don't have to read it now. Ladies and gentlemen, you're in an abundance of light where we have it in your vernacular and almost every vernacular and many different translations to help you understand in your vernacular.
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And don't say just because they didn't have it, they didn't have to read it. Don't think that you don't have to read it.
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It's important to read the Word of God and to know God. We communicate to Him by listening to Him and by speaking to Him.
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We listen to Him through His Word. We speak to Him in our prayers. And this is very important for a
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Christian to have this relationship with God, who is a Trinity. But without the incarnation, we would not have that knowledge.
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Point number three, what is the gospel? And I mentioned this earlier.
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If we did not know the doctrine of God, who is God, that He is
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Trinity, we would not know that the second person of the Godhead came into time, lived a life we could not live, right?
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Die the death that we should die. The gospel message is we would not know these things.
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And so that's why it's important to ask these questions if you're in a position to ask these questions in that order.
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Who is God? Who is Jesus? And what is the gospel? Last week, we looked briefly at Romans 5 .1.
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I want to return there. Romans 5 .1.
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And it's the only one I didn't put a mark in. Okay, here we go.
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And we're going to stay here for the rest of the time. I want to real quick, I want to read verse 1.
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It says, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
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Lord Jesus Christ. So right here, he's hearkening back to chapter 4.
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How is it that we have peace with God? He points to Abraham, and he points to David. David says something really good here.
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I mean, well, Paul points out what David says, and look at verse 6. Just as David also speaks about the blessing of a man to whom
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God counts righteousness apart from works, blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven and whose sins have been covered.
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Blessed is a man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.
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Blessed is the man whom the Lord, whose sins the Lord will not take into account.
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Now, if you're a big James White fan, you know that James White has used this verse in many of his debates against those who hold to a works -based system, right?
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Especially in Catholicism. He's used this as a way to say, well, who is the blessed man?
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I think it was Peter Savinskis, who he was debating at the time, he said that he hoped to be the blessed man, but that came after he said it was
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Jesus. Now, put that into perspective. Blessed is Jesus whom
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God the Father will not account his sins to. Did Jesus sin? No, see, it doesn't make any sense.
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Who sinned? Me and you. We have sinned. Blessed are you whom the
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Lord will not account your sins to. Well, how does that happen?
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Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
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Lord Jesus Christ. We saw last week that God's terms for peace is faith in Jesus Christ.
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The question is, why is faith in Jesus Christ God's term for peace?
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So, faith is his terms for peace. We are his delegates. We are to go out and to tell the enemies of God, God's terms for peace, and it's faith.
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Why is faith in Jesus Christ God's terms for peace? And to that,
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I want to focus our attention on verses 6 through 11. And as I read this,
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I'm going to give commentary. This is a, whenever we get to the book of Romans, we'll break this down a lot slower, but we cannot do that today.
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Verse 6, for while we were still weak.
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This weak here is talking about us being in sin, while we were still sinners, while we were weak at the right time.
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Galatians talk about this right time being the fullness of time, when it was predetermined for Jesus to be born.
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That's what this is talking about. Christ died for the ungodly. While we were still weak, still sinners at the fullness of time, when
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Christ came into the world, Christ died for the ungodly.
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For one would hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for a good man, someone would dare to even die.
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But God demonstrates His own love toward us, and while we were yet sinners,
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Christ died for us. This is 3 .16,
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for God so loved the world, that He sent His only begotten
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Son, that those who believe in Him would not perish.
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This is His demonstration, His demonstration of His own love toward us, and while we were yet sinners,
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Christ died for us. The purpose of God sending His Son is to die for us, much more than having been justified, right here listen, by His blood.
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Verse 1 says we're justified by faith. Verse 9 says we're justified by His blood, much more than having been justified by His blood.
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Are we justified by faith, or are we justified by His blood? We shall be saved, since we are justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
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And I'll make that connection here in a minute. Verse 10, for while we were enemies, enemies, we were reconciled, this is made right, to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
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So we're justified by faith, we're justified by His blood, and we are saved by His life.
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What's this speaking about? This is the gospel, His death, burial, resurrection.
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Verse 11, and not only this, but we also boast in God through our
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Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received reconciliation. This God here, through, we boast in God through our
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Lord Jesus Christ, right? So we're Trinitarians, so as Biblical Christians we would say that we are monotheists, one
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God, but we're Trinitarians, and our focus is on Jesus Christ, all right?
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So our salvation is Trinitarian, right? We boast in God, the
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Trinity, through our Lord Jesus Christ. We boast in our one
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God, who is three persons, through the Lord Jesus Christ, because God is greater than us.
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He is holy, holy, holy, and we are enemies of God. God Himself gave the terms of peace.
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Faith in Christ. Romans 3 23 says, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
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That's every one of us, all but Christ. First John 3 4 says, everyone who does sin does lawlessness.
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Sin is lawlessness. What is sin? It's breaking God's law. So why is it that God sent
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His Son to die for sinners? Paul answers by calling the incarnation, the death, burial, and resurrection an event, and he calls this event
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God's demonstration. The demonstration was that He came to show us
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His love, for God so loved the world. The demonstration of this love was that while we were yet sinners,
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Christ died for us. Our justification comes from faith in Jesus.
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There's no contradiction where it says, you're justified by faith in Jesus Christ, and then we're justified by His blood, because what did
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Jesus do for us? You cannot say that you believe in Jesus, but you don't believe in His death, burial, and resurrection.
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That's the wrong Jesus. That's the Muslim Jesus, right?
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That Jesus won't save you. To be justified by faith in Jesus is to be justified by the gospel of Jesus Christ, His blood shed for us.
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And so when you read that, you can't look at that and say, hey, these two things are pinning against each other. No, they're one and the same.
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Our justification comes from faith in Jesus Christ, our trusting in His blood, that speaking of the life, death, and resurrection.
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You know, the Bible says the life is in the blood. The life is in the blood.
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There's a reason why Paul is speaking this way. Sometimes it can clearly just go over the reader's heads.
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And the work of salvation is Trinitarian, right? We talk about this quite often here as reformed folks.
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We believe that there's a, in what's called covenant theology, and there's an overarching covenant called the covenant of redemption where the
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Father purposed to save a people. John 17 talks about Him giving people to the
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Son and that His death applies to them, right?
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God the Father purposes to save a people. God the Son comes into time and accomplishes that purpose.
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And let me tell you something, just like every other covenant, the covenant of redemption is a blood covenant. It's a covenant made between the
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Godhead in eternity past and in time the blood was shed. Jesus Christ's blood is the sealing of the blood covenant between the
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Godhead. The Holy Spirit who lives in you and I when we preach
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Christ applies that message, applies salvation to the believer.
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It's Trinitarian. It's by the grace of God for sending His Son through faith, yours and my faith.
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The doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ alone is a doctrine built around works, the works of Jesus Christ.
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Him living the life we could not live. Him taking the punishment for in our place because we deserve the wrath of God.
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We deserve to go to hell and spend eternity away from God under His punishment in a lake that burns with fire.
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But Jesus Christ took our punishment. He was buried in the third day. He rose again and He's coming back, ladies and gentlemen.
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Now by way of conclusion, individual churches are called to fellowship with one another.
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We're called to do this. The truth is we can do more together than we can apart.
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We can support, do, feed, whatever it looks like.
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We can do more together than we can apart. However, in order for true fellowship to happen between two different denominations, these three truths must stand.
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They must stand. And in the justification by faith, it has to be in Christ, the finished work of Christ, which represents
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His death, His burial, and His resurrection. So if someone talks about they believe in the justification by faith alone and they deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ, there is no fellowship.
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There is no fellowship. Christian fellowship has to do with who God is, who Jesus is, and what is the gospel.
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If there's disagreement there, there can be no fellowship. If there's agreement there and there's other disagreements, there can be fellowship and wonderful debate over food, right?
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Amen? I say that because we're Baptists, right? We love to eat. The doctrine of the
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Trinity, the one what? One being. The three who's, the three persons,
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Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The doctrine of Christology that Jesus, the Son of God, is both
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God and man. The doctrine of justification by faith that salvation is not something we do.
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Salvation is something that was done by God, not us.
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And you and I are called to believe. And as we close,
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I want to ask you, have you been justified by faith in the triune
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God who sent His Son for you? Are you washed in the blood of the
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Lamb? Right? That's that song, right? Are you washed in the blood?
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I'll spare you the thing. And the soul quenching blood of the
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Lamb. Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow? Oh, be washed in the blood of the
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Lamb. So much truth there. Are you washed in His death, burial, and resurrection?
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Listen, if you are not, you better be. He is coming. And it's by looking to Him in faith, it's by trusting in His death for you,
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His being buried, and His resurrection, Him being in heaven, and Him coming back.
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And if you're fellowshipping with someone who doesn't believe that, stop it. That's your mission field.
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Witness to that man or woman. We are available to anyone who wants to talk.
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Let's pray. Oh God, Lord, we know that we fell
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You in so many different areas. Probably me more than anyone else in here.
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God, I ask for Your grace and for Your mercy. I'm so thankful that I have peace with You, that this peace came through Your grace in sending
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Your Son, through Your grace in having someone to witness to me, through Your grace of regeneration, giving me this belief to have that through my faith
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I can be reconciled in You, in Christ. Lord, these three questions are hand in glove.
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If we do not know who You are, we will not know who Christ is, and we will not know the gospel.
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And the gospel cannot be mentioned without knowing that Jesus is the second person of the
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Trinity who left heaven and fulfilled the mission that was given to Him.
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Lord, give us boldness and strength to stand not in our weakness, but to stand in the truth of who
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God is and the obedience of the commandment to go. God, I pray right now over this meal as we are about to partake,
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I pray if there's anyone here that's living in sin and they're stubborn and hard -headed, Lord, that You will prevent them from partaking in this meal.
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Lord, I pray if there's any here who's struggling with sin, that You will give to them the confession,
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Lord, that they will confess their sins to You, and so that way they can partake with a clean conscience.
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And Lord, we pray that You use this meal, that You use this meal,
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Lord, to strengthen us in our Christian walk and to conform us to a greater weight of glory to the image of Your Son, Jesus Christ.