7 practical ways of clinging to Christ | Clip from Sanctification

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Resources on the 1689 Confession of Faith

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seven directions, seven counsels, seven applications for this.

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How do you do this? How do you cling to Jesus Christ every day of your life and do it cheerfully, effectively?

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And he gives a number. I'm going to just read through them, and then Chuck, if you want to pick one that you feel is particularly helpful for our day, for yourself, and I'll pick one.

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And we may kind of wander a little bit, but we'll be okay. Here they are. And this is kind of restated in my language.

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Number one, he says, make sure that you give Christ your heart and not just an external profession.

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So heartily cling to him. Number two, make sure that you continue to hate the expressions of sin that remain in your life.

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Number three, beware of becoming absorbed or entangled with the world.

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Number four, be careful of your choice of company, activities, entertainment, things that feed the soul and fill up the soul.

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We could say your spiritual diet, your social diet. All right. Next, keep constantly in mind the reality of your need to depend upon God as you're clinging.

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So, you know, that reminds me of the picture in the Song of Solomon in chapter eight, where, you know,

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Solomon is coming up, walking out of the wilderness, and his wife, his bride, is there. She's coming up, but she's weary.

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And it says, who is this coming up out of the wilderness, leaning on the beloved? And so the wonderful picture, the

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Christian turning their back on the world's old temptations, all the old lovers, and tired with the struggle at times, weary, heart -weary, and the only way to do it is to lean heavily on Christ.

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You know, when you think of leaning, how much strength does it take to lean? Well, you know, you don't have to be strong to lean.

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You just have to be determined. I cannot do this on my own. I must lean on Him.

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So good point. Number six, live with your thoughts directed toward what is yet to come.

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And we've kind of already mentioned that. The anticipation of the glorious end ought to fuel today.

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Then finally, he says, make every diligent use of the means of grace, prayer, scripture, worship, whether that's individually or whether that's with other believers corporately.

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So all right, Chuck, great list. If you were to, for the sake of time, pick one or two that you felt most helpful, which would you pick?

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They are all good, as you said. Great list. I'm going to mention the first one.

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Make sure you give Him your heart and not just your external profession. I think he actually talked about beware of resting in mere skin -deep convictions.

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So give yourself fully and completely to Christ and not just, well, love

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Him deeply. Give Him your heart. But the one that I think that probably is most helpful to me or the biggest problem for me perhaps is the third one about being entangled with the world.

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I have not found it easier as I've gotten older to, I've not found that the world has become less entangling.

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There are things that are obviously sinful. I'm not talking about that so much as good things, even necessary things that are given wrong priority and you chase them or you allow them to occupy time and space that they do not have the right to occupy.

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I've not found that battle to become easier with age. The first one you mentioned there when he talks about heartily with all the heart clinging and not just the externals, so not forms, formality,

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I go through the forms of religion, and not just intellectual profession and lining up truths in the right order, but the heart being penetrated by those things in a way that is irreversible, not perfect.

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There will be one day where the pain of love is no longer ours, and that's a phrase from an old writer, and I forget who wrote it, but they talked about love must be pain now if it would be bliss in heaven.

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That is, because of love to Jesus Christ, there are certain things that grieve us now.

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Sin grieves us, sluggishness grieves us, indifference grieves us, and the unbeliever feels no grief over those things.

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We do. We break our hearts over how slow our hearts are to just be wholly given over to him.

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And one day that will be laid aside, and so that's one of the great things we look forward to, not just heaven and some streets of gold and a little cabin in the corner, but there will be my king and a new creation, and there will be an intimacy with him that now we have only had just a little foretaste of, and there will be no sin to cloud it ever.

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