Work out your own salvation in fear and trembling

Here I Stand Theology iconHere I Stand Theology

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In this message we will be looking at the doctrine of Justification and Sanctification in the life of every believer.

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When the Holy Spirit illuminates God's word to us, it's opened up and it's revealed.
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That's the knowledge of God being revealed. That's one of the things that the work of the
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Holy Spirit is, is to reveal God unto us and to reveal God unto us through his word.
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And so I believe today I would say this, that I've just been overwhelmed with information.
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I just really feel like the Spirit of God has just opened up his word more and more and it's just too much for me to handle.
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So I'm just going to do my best today to give you what the word of God says, to teach you from the word of God concerning what the word of God teaches us about two things specifically today.
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And we're going to be saying a lot to get to this, but if you are taking notes this morning, we're going to be talking about justification and sanctification in the life of every believer.
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Remember, just to give you a bit of recap here for the book of Philippians, the apostle
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Paul, the context of this epistle, as well as all of the epistles, the context is within the life of the local church written to believers, particularly here at Philippi.
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The apostle Paul is writing to them and he's writing to them, encouraging them to continue in the faith of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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And he's shared many things with them, not only doctrinally, but he shared many things with them personally and in experience through sufferings.
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And heartaches and trials and pains for the sake of the gospel. And the central theme of Paul's letter to the church at Philippi is simply
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Jesus Christ, simply Jesus Christ. And he has encouraged them, as I mentioned to you, to hold fast to the gospel, to be united in the gospel of Jesus Christ, particularly and specifically in and around the doctrine of Jesus Christ, who
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Jesus is and what Jesus Christ has done, particularly his saving work on the cross for the sins of men.
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And so in the second chapter, we read how Paul, in his call for the church to be unified around the doctrine of Jesus Christ, encourages them to be of one mind, to be in the same mind, to have the same thought process, not to do things out of selfish ambition or pride.
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But we're in conceit. And then in verse five through 11, like Jeff quoted in that song,
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Paul gives us, gives the church there at Philippi, as well as being preserved for us throughout time here, the example of what it means to be humble.
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It's easy for us, it ought to be easy for us to be humble, by the way, when we consider what
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Christ has done. Jesus Christ gave up everything and came to this earth to suffer as a man, to be the propitiation for our sins.
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He humbled himself, the scripture says, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
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And because of this, God highly exalted him and God gave him the name, which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in the earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is
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Lord to the glory of God, the Father. And so this is where this brings us to.
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And we're going to read this morning as our text of scripture this morning, verses 12 through 16.
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And then I want to, after we read this passage of scripture, I want us to go and remember, how do we, how do we interpret scripture by the scripture?
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Amen. Everybody with me? How do we interpret the scripture? By the scripture. Do we interpret scripture by my opinion,
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John Piper? No, we interpret the scripture according to the scripture.
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It ain't about me or what I think. It ain't about you or what you think. It's about what thus says the word of God.
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So that being said, that recap being made, that the Paul, the apostle
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Paul exhorts them to unity around the doctrine of Christ. He gives them the example of humility.
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And then here in verse 12, he says this, therefore, my beloved, that's a term of endearment.
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That is a compassionate word. It's an endearing word.
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Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence.
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And keep this statement in mind, because this is one of the things we're going to be looking at.
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This latter part of the 12th verse and the 13th verse, particularly, Paul says, he makes a strong statement.
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He says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is
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God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure.
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Do all things without complaining and disputing that you may become blameless and harmless.
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The children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and a perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.
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The day of Christ there in that 16th verse that Paul makes reference to is the day.
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It's a term used. There are a couple of different terms used throughout the epistles. The day of the
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Lord is the day of judgment. The day of Christ here Paul speaks of is the day when all the redeemed of God, having been glorified as promised by Jesus Christ, will be gathered together.
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And so it's important to remember that. Let's go to the Lord in prayer if we could for just a moment, please.
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Dear Lord, today I need your help. Lord, today I need your wisdom.
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I need your strength. God, I need today personally just simply to confess my inability to you to preach the gospel and to confess to you that,
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God, I recognize today if there's going to be any work that's done in the hearts and in the minds of the people in this place,
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God, it's going to be because you do that work in the hearts and the minds of the people in this place.
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Lord, if there be any here today that are lost, dear God, that are dead in sin and trespasses,
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God, it's our prayer that you would show them mercy, quicken them, make them alive, attune to the truth of your word, regenerate their hearts and their minds through the
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Holy Spirit, give them new birth, dear God, save them today. Dear God, for the redeemed, for the folks here that are saved by the grace of God today, we pray that you would help us be ever aware of our responsibility,
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God, to live before you in holiness, which only you give to us, for it is in Jesus' name we pray.
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Amen and amen. As I said this morning, we want to preach and try to teach somewhat this morning about justification and sanctification in the light of this passage of scripture.
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When we consider and we realize that this, the context of what's being said,
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Paul is speaking to Christians at Philippi, we know that according to verse 1 of this very same letter,
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Paul says, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, he says, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, we see an exhortation, we see the command to obey, not as if you were going to do it, but as if you were going to do it.
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It is in my presence only, Paul said, but now, much more in my absence, remember
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Paul is writing to the Philippian church, the church here at Philippi, probably, likely from his prison cell in Rome at one point in time, and he's writing to them and encouraging them and he's telling them these things, and he says, continue to obey what
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God has said, not only as you have done when I'm there, but even when
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I'm not there, you continue to do this, and then he makes this statement, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
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I want to make this very plain, and I want to make this very clear, so that there are no misunderstandings, there are false teachings today, and have been even since the
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New Testament times concerning faith versus works -based salvation, the scriptures do not teach that a man can be made right in the sight of God, saved by grace, by the works that we do.
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Being baptized won't save you, having your name on the church roll won't save you, being a perfect attender to church every week will not save you, reading your
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Bible will not save you, although technically you were begotten by the word, but you understand what
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I'm saying, I'm assuming that today. For by grace are you saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
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Now the word of God to the unredeemed, the unregenerate man may in many cases, in many places seem to contradict itself.
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Kenny talked to us a little bit about what seemed like a contradiction this morning. And this may very likely be deemed a contradiction by those in the world, those who do not understand the things of the
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Spirit of God, because they've not been born again by the Spirit of God. Paul is not saying, if you work out your salvation, that you'll be saved.
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You don't work to be saved, you work because you are saved. Good works follow salvation, not the other way around.
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You cannot do enough good works to be made right in the sight of God. No man can, and that's what the scriptures teach us.
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And so justification and sanctification, how do they play into this understanding?
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And why is it important for you as a Christian to understand and to know the difference in justification and sanctification and how they function together in the grace of God?
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Justification. I'm going to give you a simple definition here of justification. Justification is
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God imputing the righteousness of Christ to the undeserving sinner.
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Justification is God doing the work, is God imputing the righteousness of Jesus Christ to the undeserving sinner.
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The scriptures teach the just shall live by faith, that our righteousness is not our own, but it is given to us by Jesus Christ.
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Sanctification. Sanctification is God, in the person of the
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Holy Spirit, working out the evidence of justification in the life of the believer.
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This fellow over here, in Rob England, in Bible study Thursday, Rob kind of challenged us to try to put into our own words and to define what this looked like, what it meant to us.
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And I was finally able to do that in this. Sanctification is God, in the person of the
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Holy Spirit, working out the evidence of justification in the life of the believer.
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Many folks, Calvin, Spurgeon, Luther, MacArthur, Stanley, all these preachers make profound statements concerning justification in all of them.
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I absolutely agree with the statements they make concerning justification and sanctification.
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But the thing that happens, or has happened and continues to happen, is that a watered down, weakened version of the gospel is continuously proclaimed from within the walls of church buildings, from the pulpits that are inside those church buildings, and it is not a doctrinally sound, and it is not a biblically sound statement nor teaching, and that teaching is this.
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That teaching goes something like this, that if you, at one point in your life, say a prayer, walk an aisle, raise your hand, or just say that you've been saved, that forever, you are eternally secure.
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I'm glad you all are pausing because I want you to soak this in and think about it. You ought not to just say amen right away, but hopefully you'll be able to agree when
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I show you how the scriptures disagree with that form of teaching.
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Nowhere in the scriptures is it taught that a man can be saved by the grace of God and have
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Jesus as Savior and not know him as Lord.
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He is both Lord and Savior. When you get saved by the grace of God, you are saved from the penalty of sin, you're saved from the power of sin, and one day, ultimately, we'll be saved from the presence of sin.
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The Lordship of Jesus Christ is not optional, and we should never proclaim it as such, just to get decisions or just to have a crowd.
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It's easy to have a crowd when you tell people Jesus loves you and he wants you to come just as you are.
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The crowds will flock and to a degree, that is a true statement, but friends,
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Jesus Christ does not desire man to remain in sin.
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And so I'm going to make a statement. It may never be in air quotes,
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Jeff. It may never be written down on the pages of books, but I'm going to make a strong statement today, and that statement is this.
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A person, and I had to write this down, this is, I wrote this down concerning my statement.
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A person who professes to have been saved from their sin and yet not to demonstrate the evidence of regeneration in their life only shows that they have never truly been saved.
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No Lordship teaching is a false teaching that not only condemns those who fall prey to its scope, but it robs
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God of the glory and the honor that he absolutely deserves.
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A cheapening of grace. And so this morning, Paul was not preaching nor teaching a cheapened grace.
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He was not teaching a no Lordship doctrine. He was not advocating no
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Lordship theology. He was saying in reverse order, because we're going to see it right here, that as the figure of speech he used in reverse order, he first tells the
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Philippians, work out your salvation. That means to work it out to,
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I believe one of the words used there in the Greek means something to the effect of energize or to cause it to move.
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The causing to work good works in the life of a Christian is not because the
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Christian himself has within himself the ability and power to do these good works, but because God, the
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Holy Spirit works in and through the Christian. That's important to remember.
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And so let's look for just a moment from the scriptures and see what the gospel call to salvation is.
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As we look, we're going to be going back into the New Testament. We're going to be going back to Matthew chapter three.
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If you want to be turning there, Matthew chapter three, the first place we're going to be reading is from verse seven.
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But as you're turning, please hear this, the gospel call to salvation in our day and in our time, as I'm turning there to the gospel call to salvation in our day.
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And in our time has been simply reduced and watered down to just a few statements.
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Now, here's the thing, as we've shared with you, we want, as Spurgeon said, you got to be able to know the difference, not just between the truth and error, but between truth and half truth.
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If myself, sir, or any other preacher ever stands in the pulpit and he says this to you, come to Jesus so you can have a better life,
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I suggest turning him off. That's what the gospel call has been reduced to nowadays.
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Come to Jesus so your life can be better. Your life ain't good enough like it is.
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And you just need some home improvement. Friends, you do not need home improvement.
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A dead man does not need to be improved. A dead man needs to be made alive.
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And that can only happen by the regenerating power of the spirit of God. Another statement that is used is this, come to Jesus and he'll make you a success.
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Stephen Furtick, Elevation Church, I'm throwing out another name at you. Yeah, I'm saying it out loud.
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Listen to a bit of a sermon by him this past week. He had the audacity to stand in the pulpit of the church that he is pastor at, to step out away from the pulpit in boldness, telling about the account of how
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God spoke to Moses from the burning bush. And how he cheapened and how he lightened the circumstance and the experience that took place there.
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And basically, and in quotes, he said this, when God told
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Moses, I am who I am, explained who he was. He said, and Moses acted as though he needed some more information.
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And he interpreted that scripture saying this, that God said, I am whatever you need me to be.
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Friends, God is not whatever you need him to be. God, Jesus Christ was the propitiation for our sin.
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He is not, he's not your genie. He's not your bellhop where you ring the bell and say,
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I need this. And all of a sudden you have this or that. He is the holy
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Lord of glory who does not wait on our every breath, but we are rightly to wait on every breath of God.
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The gospel call has been reduced to this. Come to Jesus so that you can have help for your problems.
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Some people just want to get away from their issues. You ain't never going to get away from issues.
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Joe, put it this way. Man that is born a woman is a few days and full of trouble.
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That's what the word says. So you just need to get it in your head and understand and know you're never going to have a time where you're never going to have any issues.
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Never going to have a time when you've never got any problems. Jesus didn't come to get you out of everything that you're in.
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He came to be the propitiation for your sin. The statement is reduced, the gospel is reduced to this.
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Come to Jesus even if your life is great and he'll be the icing on your cake.
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He'll complete you. You know those, one of those movies where it's probably a chick flick that says you complete me.
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Something to that effect. Some of you know what I'm talking about. John, you know what I'm talking about. Shame on you, you sissy.
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Friends, Jesus is not the icing on your cake. Your life is horrible.
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You are miserable in sin, lost and separated from a holy
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God and only by the grace of God do you have anything or know anything of the goodness and mercy of God.
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He did not come to be the addition. He came to be everything and only thing. So, have any of you, does that sound familiar to any of you?
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Have any of you ever heard that? And the call is this, just come down front. Just bow your knee and repeat after me.
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Let's just do the ABCs. Admit you're a sinner, believe in Christ and confess your sins.
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How many people have done that and yet how many people who have done that are still lost?
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Who have died and have gone into eternity, separated from God because they held to a work that they accomplished and that they achieved and did not depend upon the work of the
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Holy Spirit to regenerate them. Biblically speaking, the call to salvation goes like this,
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Matthew chapter 3. Matthew chapter 3 and verse 7. Matthew chapter 3 verse 7.
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But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them,
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Brutivipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance.
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And do not think to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father, for I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
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Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
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I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. But he who is coming after me, this is the preaching of John the
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Baptist, he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.
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He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn.
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But he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Going over to Matthew chapter 4 and verse 17.
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The gospel call we see is a call to repentance. It's not an easy thing to hear.
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It's not an easy thing to heed. The Word of God says in Matthew chapter 4 verse 17,
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From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
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In Luke's gospel chapter 11. Matthew, Mark, Luke. Luke chapter 11 verses 29 through 32.
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Luke 11 chapter 29 verses, or chapter 11 verse 29 through 32.
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And while the crowds were gathered thickly together, he began to say, This is an evil generation.
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It seeks a sign. And no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet.
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For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation.
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The queen of the south will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them.
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For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And indeed, a greater than Solomon is here.
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This is the words of Christ. Verse 32. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it.
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For they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And indeed, a greater than Jonah is here.
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The call, gospel call to salvation has always been the call to repentance.
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It's never been, I'm going to make this easy for you if you'll just do this.
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No, it's been repent. And repentance itself only
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God alone grants. 2 Timothy chapter 2.
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2 Timothy chapter 2. 2
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Timothy chapter 2 verses 24 through 26. Listen to what the word of God says.
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The apostle Paul is writing to Timothy concerning pastoring and teaching the churches. And he says this.
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A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient.
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In humility, correcting those who are in opposition.
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If God, paradventure, the King James uses paradventure. The new
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King James says, if God perhaps, it means exactly the same thing. If God perhaps will grant them repentance.
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Why does God grant men repentance? So that they may know the truth.
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And that they may come to their senses.
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If there's ever anyone who is out of their mind. If there's anyone who is outside of their own senses and common sense.
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It is the man, woman, boy and girl who is outside of the grace of God.
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Because they are not able in and of themselves to know the truth.
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And he says this. That they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil.
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Having been taken captive by him to do his will.
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That's what the word of God teaches concerning the gospel call to salvation. It is a gospel call to repentance.
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It is secondly a gospel call to self -denial and absolute dependence upon the
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Lord. A man cannot be justified by the deeds of the flesh according to the word of God.
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A man cannot be justified according to the works of the flesh.
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Meaning there's nothing that you can do to be made right in the sight of God. The imputation of the righteousness of Christ on the behalf of the believer is done by God.
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The gospel call, it's a call to self -denial and absolute dependence upon the Lord. Matthew chapter 10.
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Matthew chapter 10 and verse 32. Jesus said, therefore whoever confesses me before men, him will
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I also confess before my Father who is in heaven. This confession that's spoken of here when understood in the context of the passage itself is more than just the words that come out of our mouth, but it is the way of our life.
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Can a person be justified and not be sanctified? No, because the two go hand in hand.
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And so Jesus says, whoever confesses me before men, him will I also confess before my
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Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, him
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I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven.
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If you profess to be saved and do not evidence the fruit of the spirit, which is sanctification, then you have not truly been saved.
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And what you need is to be born again. He went on to say, do not think that I am come to bring peace on earth.
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I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. Jesus did not come to be the icing on the cake.
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He did not come to get you out of your troubles and trials. He did not come to make everything better.
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He did not come to make you a success. He came because he was the only hope of salvation.
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Jesus said, I did not come to seek, or he said, I did not come to be served, but to serve and to give my life a ransom for many.
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That's what the word says. He went on to say this, for I've come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter -in -law against her mother -in -law, and a man's enemies will be they of his own household.
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And Jesus makes a statement here that is so outrageous.
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Trying to understand it outside of the spirit of God will drive you crazy.
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He says, he who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.
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And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
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Jesus is not saying that you ought not to love your mother and father, that you ought not to love your in -laws, that you ought not to love your children, that you ought not to love your husbands and wives.
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He's simply saying here, this figure of speech that is used here is used in this way, that in comparison to your love for God, your love for your family ought to look like hate.
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Our love for God as a Christian ought to be the chief goal of our life.
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By the way, that is the great commandment. Love the Lord thy God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.
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What is sin? Sin is transgression of God's law. And so the call to salvation in repentance is not for the faint of heart.
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The gospel call to self -denial and absolute dependence upon the Lord is not for the weak and faint of heart.
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And he goes on to say, verse 38, and he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy.
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The gospel call to salvation is not a call to come to Jesus as Lord and you go about your business the rest of your life.
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The gospel call to salvation is for you to die to yourself, to know that Christ died for your sins and that from henceforth and forevermore you ought to live for Him alone and no one else.
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He went on to say, he who finds his life will lose it and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.
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That's what Jesus said. That's the gospel call to salvation. Repentance, self -denial, absolute dependence upon God.
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The gospel call to salvation is a call to holiness. Turn over to 1
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Peter, the book of 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 4, 1
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Peter chapter 4. And by the way, I hope you're able to follow along and I hope that you're not growing weary of looking at these passages of Scripture because I would not dare to stand up here and try to give you opinion of my own to tell you this is what the gospel says.
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I want to read the Word of God to you so that you have no excuse. So that when you leave this place, you can't say, that wasn't made aware to me.
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I had no idea that was the case. Our hope is that of Spurgeon when he said many times, our hope that every time we preach the gospel, somebody might get born again, somebody might be saved.
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It's not the case. But friend, may today be the day that you through the
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Spirit of God are made alive and quickened unto salvation that you know you've been passed from death unto life in Jesus Christ.
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The apostle Peter says this concerning the call to holiness. 1 Peter chapter 4 verse 1.
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Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind.
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For he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.
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No lordship teaching says that you'll be saved and you don't have to show any evidence.
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Maybe at a later time, you'll surrender to the lordship of Jesus Christ. If you ever hear that, run from the person who tells you that.
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Run from them. Because they are telling you a lie and you'll be damned because of that lie.
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He said, goes on here and he says this. We have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the
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Gentiles. When we walked in lewdness, in lusts, in drunkenness, in revelings, in drinking parties and abominable idolatries, in regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation speaking evil of you.
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Now, let me just really quickly give you the context of what is being said here. He is telling and encouraging the people here to the dispersion.
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The saints are scattered throughout. He's encouraging them to continue to live for God. And they're in the midst of a people that they've been raised up around.
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They've lived their lifestyle of sin. They've lived a life dedicated to sin and their selves. And God has saved them from their sin.
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God has regenerated them. God has given them the new birth. And now these people who once lived the life of sin are now living according to holiness, are walking in the way of the
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Lord. And the people around about them are just not understanding why they ain't doing the same old things that they used to do.
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Friend, if you're doing the same old things that you used to do before you profess that you got saved, then you have not been saved.
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I'm not saying you're going to be perfect. We all sin. Not just in the past, but regularly in the present.
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And as long as we live, we're going to wrestle with sin. But I'm saying as a pattern in a way of life, if you are living the same way that you live before you profess that you are saved, you have not been saved.
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And I'm saying, I'm going to tell you that, I'm going to reinforce that here in just a minute. The scripture goes on to say here, we've spent enough of our time in the past in regard to these.
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They think it's strange. Verse 5, they will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
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For this reason, the gospel was preached also to those who are dead.
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And he's speaking about how the gospel was proclaimed throughout time through faith.
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Because by the way, from the very beginning, in the Old Testament time before Jesus came, folks were saved exactly the same way folks are saved today, by faith.
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By faith in the living God. They're saved by faith in the living God. In the
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Old Testament, they were saved looking to the promise of Christ coming. In the
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New Testament and in now, we are saved because Christ did come, and because Christ did die, and because Christ did revive, and because Christ did ascend to the
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Father, and because one day Jesus is coming back. He goes on to say this, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
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Verse 7, but the end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be serious and watchful in your prayers.
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And last of all, before we return to Philippians and finish up, turn to 1 John. 1
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John chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2, remembering the gospel call is a call to holiness.
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It's a call to right living. 1 John chapter 2, verse 28.
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The Apostle John here writes to the church.
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And in writing to the church, he's encouraging them. He's giving them evidences of salvation.
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We spent last year, a bulk of last year, in this book of 1, 2, and 3
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John, preaching to you from the pages in the text of this scripture, the evidences and assurances of salvation.
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And so this may sound familiar to you. 1 John chapter 2, verse 28. The Apostle writes this.
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And now little children abide in him. That abide, that means to remain in him, to work in him.
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That when he appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
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If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of him.
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Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God.
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Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know him. Oh, wow.
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This call to holiness is a call to sanctification. It's a call to separation.
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It's not a call to blend with the world. It's not a call to get the world.
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The church has never been called to get the world to be in agreement with us just so that we can have a bigger crowd and get a greater number of people and have a greater impact.
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Friends, today the church has always been called to come out from among the world and be separate.
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And if they do not recognize us and you're alarmed by that, then you need to be in the
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Word of God more and more and more so that you are aware that is a natural response.
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If the world is in agreement with the church, there is a problem. And if the church is in agreement with the world, there is a problem.
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He goes on here to say this, Beloved, now are we the children of God.
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It has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
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And verse 3 says this, And everyone, everyone who is saved is what that's speaking about.
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Everyone who is saved, who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure.
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It's not works -based salvation. It's not saying the strength comes from us, but it's saying that there's going to be evidence of salvation.
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Justification and sanctification go hand in hand. All that is introduction.
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I'm going to be done in five minutes. There's my timer. It's 11 .52, so by 11 .57,
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I promise I'm going to quit. That was a big introduction to just try to exposit these four verses, but it's very, very important that we understand the context and the foundation that was laid by the
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Apostle Paul previously throughout. So he said, Work out your own salvation.
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And how did he say to do that? With fear and trembling. John Calvin said this,
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There is nothing that ought to train us more to modesty and fear than our being taught that it is by the grace of God alone that we stand and will instantly fall down if he even for a moment slightly withdraws his hand.
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But God, know this, church, what God has begun,
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God finishes. He's not like you and me. He don't start and then leave off.
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Friends, if you've been born again by the spirit of God, God is going to complete his work of salvation in you all the way to glorification.
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That's the word of God. So he said, Work your salvation out.
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Live your salvation. Walk out your salvation with fear and trembling.
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And then he put the rubber to the road and he says this, and this is where it leaves everybody out and puts
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God in control of everything. Verse 13, For it is
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God who works. Hallelujah.
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It is God who works where? In you. Paul tells the
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Philippian believers, I want you all to walk out your salvation and fear and trembling.
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And they say, How can we do this on our own? And he comes back and he's saying, You do not or cannot do it on your own.
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But it is God who does it in you. It is God who works in you both to will, both to desire to do and to do for his good pleasure.
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Do all things without complaining and disputing. The children of Israel in the
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Old Testament, if you'll read back in the Old Testament, the children of Israel had a problem with murmuring and complaining.
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And guess what? It's still a problem. And it's a problem you got to discipline on your own.
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How many of you like to hear murmuring and complaining? Nobody. Unless you just like to hear yourself.
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Nobody likes to hear it. It displeases the Lord and the Lord hates it. And Paul encourages them,
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Don't complain. Don't murmur about the life that you're called to live. But be blameless and be harmless.
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Children of God, I've got two minutes. Without fault in the midst of a crooked and a perverse generation.
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We live in a crooked and a perverse generation. Real quick, a quote from Calvin on that.
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He said, You are, concerning that passage, you are, it's true, enclosed in the midst of the wicked.
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But in the meantime, bear in mind that you are, by God's adoption, separated from them.
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Let, therefore, let be, therefore, in your manner of life conspicuous marks by which you may be distinguished.
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Are you different? If you are not different, you have not been saved by the grace of God.
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There are no second -class Christians. The preacher ain't no more spiritual than Jeff is.
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Amen. Everyone, if you've been saved by the grace of God, you've got the same anointing
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God has given me. The very same.
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But you ought to be, you ought to be distinguished. You ought to be unique. Without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.
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Among whom you shine as lights in the world. Jesus said there in the sermon,
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I believe it was on the mount. Let your light, therefore, so shine among men that they may see your, what?
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Good works. And what? Glorify your Father which is in heaven.
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It is your duty and your responsibility as a Christian to walk in holiness.
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If you are not walking in holiness, one of two things is true. You are being disobedient to God.
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And you need to get your heart right with God. And you need to get on the right, head the right direction.
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Or two, you just need the bottom line be saved. And his grace will work in you.
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To give you the ability and the power to do what is right and pleasing in his sight.
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Heavenly Father God, I praise you and I thank you for this day. I thank you God and I praise you for this privilege and this honor to be in your house.
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I thank you and I praise you for the truth of your word. God burn it in my heart and in my mind.
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Oh God, I thank you for illumination of your truth through the Holy Spirit.
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And I do not ever want to take for granted what you do in that. I praise you for that.
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Make this people, dear God, more like you continuously on a daily basis.
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Give me grace to yield unto you in my obedience.
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As sometimes I'm very stubborn and very rebellious. But even in that God again,
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I thank you. Because through you, we were able to repent.
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Through you, we were able to know the truth. And through you, we will walk in grace and grow in grace.
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For it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen and amen. Are all hearts and minds clear this morning?