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An Exposition.
History hope everybody's doing well. This thing is slow to load. So thank you guys for watching this morning or whenever you watch. Really appreciate you watching supporting and helping us as this ministry is trying to get the gospel of Jesus Christ get the truth of God's Word out to our community.
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So let me know let me know if you would like to talk about anything this morning's topic. Oh before I do that I forgot to remind you that of course this is truth in love video ministry and we get that from Ephesians 4 15 and let me read that for you.
But speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head even Christ. So we want to speak the truth in love with we don't want to be a doormat and be passive. We don't want to be enablers.
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I was given a book week before last and it's a book that we're going through it in a in a men's small group and it's about the gospel. The title is called the gospel center life and it's about Thune and and Walker.
And as I was looking at chapter 1 which we were going to look at this week in the small group he of course he's talking about the gospel and he's he's given a chart he's given an explanation but to start off the the gospel is the gospel is the good news that that is not just to give you life the gospel is the good news for the rest of your life.
And in theological or Christian or biblical terms well words that that we use to describe the things that are going on in scripture. When we say that the gospel or the good news it is to give you life.
That's justification when God saves us when God causes us to be born again that's justification when the gospel the good news gives us life. And then when I say the gospel is the good news is for the rest of your life.
That's the the big theological word that we use called sanctification. We're we're God that the Holy Spirit is growing us to be more like Christ to it took him to conform to the image of Christ through his word through scripture to the truth of scripture.
So it's it's good not just to give us life but it's good for the rest of our life. And that's kind of my interpretation of of this gospel center life idea and and where he was going and and what got me so excited about where he was going in in this first chapter was that it it meshed so heavily with the video that I did on Tuesday night and the verses that I used to the night and the verses that I used Tuesday night.
The topic that we talked about was how to pray for each other how you can pray for me and how I can pray for you. But there's so many more implications just like with any other verse or chapter in scripture there's so many more implications with within those texts that we want to look at another one of those implications today the one we looked at Tuesday of course was prayer.
And this one is about the gospel and the gospel for the rest of your life. He starts out by quoting Colossians which Colossians 1 which we were in and last last Tuesday night and this is the point that he makes and you have to start.
I'm in the New American Standard Bible and so I'm not sure how the wording is maybe in in yours if you have a different version but if you're in Colossians chapter 1 the very very very last two words of verse 5 gives you what verse 6 is talking about.
So the very end of verse 5 says the gospel and then verse 6 says which has come to you just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing even even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth.
So this gospel wasn't just for the beginning of life for them but is the good it was a good news for the rest of their life. He says that the gospel is constantly bearing fruit and increasing. So that's why we that's why we have a gospel centered life because it moves beyond just the time that we're saved our justification.
The gospel is for our sanctification it's for the rest of our life. And he he goes on to explain how that works. And he gives a drawing it gives a chart of how that works and I really thought that his his chart was very insightful and it meshed so well with what we were talking about in these verses in Colossians and Philippians and I wanted to share it with you because I thought it was I got really excited about it thought it was really really wonderful.
So so yeah let me let me just go over the chart real quick. So you have a line I don't know if I can keep let me try to keep it open so I can see it there we go all right. So you have a line and this line represents your your timeline your your life.
And then there's a moment if you have surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ if you've repented of your sins put your trust in Jesus Christ there. There's a moment in that timeline where God has saved you.
God has caused you to be born again. And that's that separates that makes the timeline in this chart look different from the rest of your life. The rest of your life was in this chart was just a straight line the timeline of your life.
And then there's that moment of justification where God saved you. And then something happens. And that's when we go to Philippians chapter 1 verses 9 and 10 and and I want to reiterate what I said on Tuesday night because it's so important Philippians chapter 1 verses 9 and 10 and this is how he's praying for them.
And this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in what he this is mind-blowing in a in a culture in a society in in a church culture in society that that tells us that we can keep our Bibles on the shelf that everybody has their own opinion and everybody's opinion you know is right and we can't we can't have a disagreement we can't have a discussion about it our opinions and try to get to the real true interpretation of Scripture that our decisions are based on our feelings how I feel about this how I you know how this makes me feel we're drowning in a culture that is helping us to make decisions in a completely wrong and unbiblical way.
Paul is telling them in Philippians 1 verse 9 he's saying I'm praying that your your love your love for that may abound still more and more that it keeps growing for what. For real knowledge and discernment so that you may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ.
So their love he wants to grow grow grow grow grow grow grow keep growing. Not not for this that and other specifically he is specific here for real knowledge and all discernment. And we get that information from Scripture from God's Word so that you may approve what is excellent.
So he he wants their love to grow in in knowing God's Word and studying Scripture so that they can have real knowledge and real discernment so they can approve what is excellent. And when you approve what is excellent you are abandoning and you are departing from that which is evil.
There's a separation. There's a growing and continuing separation from that which is excellent from that which is good godly biblical and then from that which is evil a continuous separation when your love grows more and more for real knowledge and all discernment so that you can approve what is excellent you're going to continue to move towards God and toward and abide and remain in those things that are excellent approved of God worthy and abandoned and separate from those things that are evil.
And that was the picture that I saw in this book. Excuse me I apologize. So going back to the picture that's in this book how we have a gospel center life the gospel is is the good news that is not just to give you life but it's the good news for the rest of your life.
You're justified. You have your timeline of your life. It's a straight line. And then there's a moment when God saves you when you're justified when you're converted and then that timeline changes and then begins your sanctification.
And so what he does is he has that straight line and then he has conversion. And then he has two other lines at the moment of conversion they begin to split and separate as time goes on and I'm sure you've heard this explained before and maybe you've seen the the picture on Facebook.
I haven't seen it recently for a long time actually. But maybe you've seen the picture or heard the description how how Jesus and Jesus is always represented with a cross. Right. So Jesus is is the bridge and there's this great chasm between us and God.
And so you have the cross as the bridge between us and God who bridges that chasm so that we can we can come to God. Which that analogy kind of has its flaws because you know Jesus you know Jesus is the way to God but you know it kind of implies that we still have to make an effort to cross the bridge.
Jesus come down Jesus did everything and God is the one who saves us. So I apologize for trying to untangle that that picture that analogy but I just wanted you to remember that that that idea of Jesus and the cross representing Jesus and and Jesus being the bridge that that brings us to God.
Okay. And so he he kind of uses that picture of the cross in in this in this analogy in this chart. So so what is the what is the from the time of conversion what is the line that's going up and going this way.
He says it is the growing awareness of God's holiness. So from the before we were converted you know we didn't have that much knowledge of who God is and as someone explained the gospel to us you know the scripture says faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God.
So at the time of conversion we have some knowledge of who God is. Right we have we have some knowledge. But after conversion during the process of sanctification our our awareness of God's holiness and who he is is is a constant growing thing.
Now there's another line that goes this way and the two lines are continuously separating. So the line that is going this way is our growing awareness of our flesh and our sinfulness during our straight timeline before conversion probably weren't aware or didn't care about our sin against God.
But at the moment of conversion when someone gave us the gospel preached to us the gospel we heard the gospel heard the truth of God's Word we were we had to be aware the Holy Spirit had to open open up our eyes and make us aware of our flesh and our sinfulness in order to repent of our sinfulness in our sins.
So we became somewhat aware at the time of conversion when when we apologized repented and turned from sin has anyone ever specifically repented of every single sin that they ever committed or committed up until that time or will ever commit.
No we we don't we don't have all knowledge and and remembrance of every single sin. So we had we had somewhat of a knowledge of how truly sinful we we are before God. But after conversion because the gospel is for the rest of our life which is sanctification that line keeps going down this way because as a part of our sanctification our knowledge our awareness of our sinfulness continues to grow.
Now let me say this and he makes this comment in the book just because our awareness of God's holiness grows and just because our awareness of our sinfulness grows does not mean that we become or we we are more sinful or that God becomes more holy just because we're aware of it.
No we are he is completely perfectly holy and we are utterly depraved. We just become more aware of it. Our awareness of it doesn't make it so it's just who we already were and who he already was and we just become aware of it.
So he wanted to make that distinction before we move forward now as we continue with the analogy so it it reminded me of a Philippians chapter 1 verse 9 where he prayed that their love for for real knowledge which is what he's calling awareness.
Real knowledge is awareness and discernment. So you have awareness of God's holiness and awareness of our sinfulness and that discernment separates so that you may approve that that which is excellent or things that are excellent and that's all discernment.
So real knowledge is awareness of God's holiness and our sinfulness and discernment is that approval of those things that are excellent those thing we learn more and more about God and who he is and his holiness.
And like I said before when we learn more and more about God his holy his holiness and who he is and and the things that he loves the things that he wants us to do his will we approve those things that are excellent and pure and worthy.
When we do that we are moving away from those things that are evil and impure and undesirable which is the other line that's going this way away from God which is which is us and our sinful heart and our sinfulness.
So this chart really represents Philippians chapter 1 verse 9. Now here's the good part the even better part. Excuse me I apologize. So at the time of conversion our sanctification our gospel for the rest of our life continuously makes us aware of God's holiness and it continuously makes us aware of our sinfulness.
But that bridge that Jesus is which is represented by the cross is not just a bridge for conversion for justification for that one moment in our life where God calls us to be born again where he saved us where he granted us repentance and faith.
The cross the the bridge which is Jesus Christ is continuous too. So at the time of conversion it's because the gospel of Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross and it touches between us and God. And so as that line I don't know how to do my fingers here as that line continues to grow further and further apart we become more aware of God's holiness and we become more aware of our sinfulness.
The cross of Christ is still our bridge that touches both ends. And so you have a cross that touches this line and this line. And as it grows farther away the cross touches this line and this line and it moves farther away and the cross touches this line and this line.
What does that mean. As we grow in sanctification the cross of Jesus Christ gets bigger and bigger and bigger the gospel gets bigger Jesus gets bigger. The more we are aware of God's holiness and the more we are aware of our own sinfulness the more the bigger the more glorious the gospel of Jesus Christ becomes to us the bigger the cross becomes and the more we more we learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
When we are converted we we have very very little knowledge of who God is our own sinfulness and the gospel of Jesus Christ. But that process of sanctification makes the cross get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.
And the bigger the cross is the more glorious and wonderful and Jesus is to us the more precious he is to us. So that's the process of sanctification that is the gospel for the rest of our life that Jesus keeps getting bigger and more precious to us.
So I hope that was hope that was edifying to you. Hope that was helpful if it was. And I of course I hate doing this but if that was helpful to you if you would like like the video share the video. We just want this truth of God's Word to go out into our community.
We we want our community to grow in Jesus Christ. We want the kingdom of God to grow. We want more brothers and sisters in Christ. We want reconciliation to happen in our community and in our world. And so we we want to be a part of that.
And so we truly truly covet your your participation your support through through likes through comments and through shares. And so if I can if I can pray for anybody I'd love to be able to do that. And because of the delay I'm gonna give just a just a minute here to see if anybody requests prayer.
If if you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ remember that we have all sinned. None of us are perfect. Some people may act like it and and people use that as a crutch. You know you're you're a Christian you know I see you doing this nothing.
Nobody really ever wants to reflect on their own life. But if we're truly truly concerned with this life and wants to come in this world and our family God is the only answer and his son is the only answer.
And we've all sinned and we've all missed the mark and I have completely blown it myself. I'm nowhere near the mark. I was nowhere near the mark. I will never ever be near the mark in my own efforts because of what Jesus did on the cross.
God sees Jesus when he looks at me. Because the righteousness that Jesus earned here on this earth was credited much to my account. And that's because the Holy Spirit opened my eyes through the Word of God.
And so I encourage you listen to the words of Scripture listen to the words of God that that we all need Jesus. We all need a Savior because we're all sinful. We've all broken God's laws and we we need someone to rescue us.
And his name is Jesus. He was born of a virgin virgin lived as a sinful life he was. He was killed hung on a cross by sinful man the his own creation. He died he was buried then he rose from the grave by the power of God accepting his sacrifice.
And then he ascended into heaven where he sits now as King of Kings and Lord of Lords until his enemies are made his footstool and his he is interceding for us today. And he he is commissioned us to go preach this gospel so that you and I may repent of our sins.
This is his message. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. Put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Turn from your sins and put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. So and that's the only way to peace.
That's the only way to life and reconciliation is through Jesus Christ. And so I encourage you if you've never done that if you've never surrendered to Jesus Christ please do that today. I do not see anyone as requested prayer.
So I'm gonna go ahead and pray. And if you're still with me I hope you that you will join me. If you watch the video later and and you would like for someone to pray for you. All you have to do is just type me and I'll see that at some point see the notification.
And I'd love to be able to pray for you. So if you're still with me let's pray together. Father we thank you for giving us a new a new wonderful day to serve in your kingdom. Thank you for your mercy your kindness and your grace.
Thank you for Jesus who who willingly came down to rescue us to give his life on behalf of those who would believe to take upon himself our sins. Well thank you for the time that you've given us in in your word.
Father may it be glorified to you. Father we use it to edify those that watch and listen. We love you. And we thank you. And father I pray for all those who who watch this morning you will bless them encourage them and help them as they walk through this life.
Father may they walk it with you now pray all these things in Jesus name. Amen all right. Thank you guys for watching. Remember that Jesus is King. Go live in that victory and continue to go out and proclaim this gospel that is that gives us life and the gospel that's for the rest of our life.
I hope you have a good day and I hope to see you soon.