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The Bible begins with a garden, and it ends with a garden. In the first garden, Adam and Eve sinned and what they received and what we inherited was a curse. To Eve and all her daughters, God said: I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, in pain you shall deliver children; yet your desire will be for your husband, and he shall rule over you (Gen. 3:16). To Adam and all his sons, God said: Cursed is the ground because of you; with hard labor you shall eat from it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; yet you shall eat the plants of the field; by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, until you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return (Gen. 3:1719). Essentially, what the curse would produce for them was the kind of suffering that sticks. What do I mean by characterizing the curse with the kind of pain that sticks with you? If you have ever suffered from nerve pain, you know from experience the kind of pain I am talking about. There are some prescription medications that can help numb you to the pain, but nerve pain is very difficult to treat. If you have had sciatica, any form of back pain, a pinched nerve, or anything of that nature, you have experienced the kind of pain that sticks. Sometime ago I read a quote from someone who said, Our first parents bit into the forbidden fruit and our teeth have ached ever since. That person was not referring to the kind of ache you might experience when you bit into something cold or hard, no... the kind of ache is the one I experienced after having all four impacted wisdom teeth taken out of my jaw in my late 20s. The curse has left us with a kind of aching that sticks and is with us until our final breath, and it is this ache that leaves us with tears. Tears over our broken world, tears over a relationship, tears over wayward children, tears over the hurt and damage caused by parents, tears over the problems sin causes in our world and to our own selves. The House that Adam and Eve Had Adam and Eve enjoyed the presence of God in a Garden that was not at all dissimilar to the tabernacle the Israelites set up and tore down as they journeyed in the wilderness, nor was it unlike the temple Solomon built after Davids death. The tabernacle and temple were designed as a model to reflect Eden as the house of the Lord. What Adam and Eve had in the garden was a gift from God that included the presence of God; In his excellent book, The Warrior Savior, Owen Strachan wrote of Eden, From the start, God sought faithfulness on the part of his people through testing. He gave them a forest-garden overflowing with beauty and gladness, trees spilling unblemished fruit, but he also gave them a prohibitionone delivered under the starkest terms: death from disobedience.[1] The tabernacle and the temple served to remind Gods people not only of the beauty of Eden but the promise that His people would one day be where He is... in His presence. So, when David wrote the last line in Psalm 23, it was the promise of God to restore what was lost in Eden that he had his heart and eyes set upon. To be in the house of the Lord is to be with the Lord. David does not have a building in mind here, but to be in the presence of God. The house of the Lord is not a structure but wherever it is that He dwells. What made the loss of Eden so devastating and catastrophic was not Adam and Eves expulsion from the garden, but that they were driven away from the presence of God. In other words, what made Eden home was the presence of God not the other things that were a part of Edens beauty. Before Adam and Eve were driven outside of the garden, God cursed the snake and promised the first couple that things would not stay cursed because He would send a Deliverer to reverse the curse of sin. The serpent entered Gods house (the Garden) and enticed Eve and her husband to doubt God and question both His goodness and faithfulness! In the garden the crafty and cunning snake spoke: Has God really said, You shall not eat from any tree of the garden? Eve replied: From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die (Gen. 3:23). The serpent then went in for the strike: You certainly will not die! For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil (Gen. 3:45). Adam and Eve succumbed to Satans temptation and bit into the forbidden fruit, but that is not how the story ends! God found the couple and He spoke to the great serpent what is a promise to all mankind: And I will make enemies of you and the woman, and of your offspring and her Descendant; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise Him on the heel (Gen. 3:15). Strachan observes: In Genesis 3, the snake spoke first. But the snake did not have the last word in Eden, just as the devil will not have the last word in history. Strachan continues: When God shows up, the hiding stops, and justice rolls down.... the God who comes to earth is not only pursuing a mission of justice. This God is, even more, about to unleash a great rolling flood of mercy.[2] It is the promise of a better Eden through the promise of a snake-stomping redeemer that David had in mind when he wrote: Certainly goodness and faithfulness will follow me all the days of my life, and my dwelling will be in the house of the Lord forever (v. 6). Who can guide me, who can restore me, who will keep me, who will bless me, and who is it that loves me? It is the Lord of the 23rd Psalm and He will lead me to the place where I will be able to see Him face-to-face in His house forever. The House that We are Promised We have seen over and over again throughout this series that the Lord of the 23rd Psalm is Jesus the Good Shepherd, for He said of Himself: I am the good shepherd, and I know My own, and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep (John 10:14-15). The serpent is a thief, and Jesus said of him: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came so that they would have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10). The 23rd Psalm is the promise of the abundant life that can only be experienced through the good shepherd. The abundant life includes the table He has prepared before me in the presence of my enemies (v. 5a). The abundant life is to have His favor in the form of the oil He has anointed my head with and the cup he has placed in my hand that is overflowing with His blessing! This is what Paul meant when he wrote Ephesians 1:3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ... The cup of Gods favor is Ephesians 1:7, In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace. Now, think again what it is that the 23rd Psalm is saying to those of us who have been found by the good shepherd. The good shepherd leads me: The Lord is my shepherd, I will not be in need. He lets me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. The good shepherd restores me: He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for the sake of His name. The good shepherd keeps me: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. The good shepherd blesses me: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; my cup overflows. The good shepherd loves me: Certainly goodness and faithfulness will follow me all the days of my life, and my dwelling will be in the house of the Lord forever. What does this all mean? There are no green pastures or quiet waters without Jesus leading you. There is no restoration for your soul or the righteousness you need apart from Jesus as your guide. There is no walking THROUGH the valley of deep darkness apart from Jesus keeping and guarding you. There is no blessing and treasuring of God upon you without Jesus. Finally, there is no goodness, faithfulness, and a better Eden apart from the God who loved you so much that He sent His one and only Son! Why did David long to dwell in the house of the Lord? What is it that makes heaven great? For what reasons does the promise of a better Eden outweigh all the sorrows of this world? These questions have nothing to do with the place and location of the house of the Lord, heaven, a new and better Eden, but everything to do with the One who is in the House David longed to dwell, heaven, and the new and better Eden. When Jesus prayed hours before His crucifixion, He prayed this: Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world (John 17:24). This is one of the reasons Jesus assured His disciples: In My Fathers house are many rooms; if that were not so, I would have told you, because I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will take you to Myself, so that where I am, there you also will be (John 14:23). For David, the blessing of being in the house of the Lord forever was that he would be with the Good Shepherd forever. In his commentary on Psalm 23, James Johnston commented on this very point: Take away the people and a house becomes a sad and empty place. The joy of Heaven is not mansions or streets of gold. Jesus is the joy of Heaven. It will be home because he is there.[3] The Better House that David Longed For For starters, what we know from verse six is that it is certainly ours, which means that without any doubt, for those of us whose shepherd is Jesus, our dwelling will be with him. How long will our dwelling be with Him? The answer is simple: Forever. What is the House that we will dwell in forever, besides the fact that it is the Lords house? It is the restoration of what was lost in the first Eden, but better! It is the city that Davids great, great, great grandfather longed to receive, for we are told from the book of Hebrews: By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he left, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as a stranger in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God (Heb. 11:810). Abraham was looking for a city not made with human hands because he longed for the same thing David longed for in Psalm 23:6. The house of the Lord is the city that belongs to the Christian: For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come (Heb. 13:14). We will receive the city we are looking and longing for when God makes all things new once and for all. It is the thing that Paul wrote about in Romans eight, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the eagerly awaiting creation waits for the revealing of the sons and daughters of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. (Rom. 8:1821) The house of the Lord that David was looking forward to spending forever in is a resurrected and redeemed earth free from the curse of sin. The Bible is full of images describing what it will be like to live in a resurrected earth free of the curse of sin. In Revelation 21, we are told that when God does make all things new and we inherit the city He has promised us, He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away (Rev. 21:4). On that day, we will see God face to face in the same way that Adam and Eve did; here is what we are told in Revelation 21:3, Behold, the tabernacle of God is among the people, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them... God will wipe away our tears because there will be no curse to cause them ever again. The new earth will be like the Garden of Eden but better; it will also be like heaven today, but better. We will enjoy physical bodies and a physical planet where the veil that shields our complete interaction of all that is spiritual will be pulled back. We will walk with angels; enjoy a full and perfect creation that will include trees, mountains, and rivers. There will be one City the City of God where we will be able to go in and out. We will run through the forests, climb mountains, eat amazing food, run barefoot through the prairies, enjoy the light of something more powerful and radiant than the sun. We will dwell on a new earth that will never again know the cold of night, but the light of a day illuminated by the Glory of God. But understand this: none of it will be worth it if our Triune God is not there! Listen, we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever because of the certainty of His goodness and faithfulness that pursues His sheep. [1] Owen Strachan, The Warrior Savior (Phillipsburg, NY: PR Publishing; 2024), 3. [2] Ibid., 6-7. [3] James A. Johnston, Preaching the Word: The Psalms: Rejoice, the Lord Is KingPsalms 1 to 41, ed. R. Kent Hughes, vol. 1, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015), 251.

[SEGMENT 1-1] The identity crisis 1 The identity crisis is real. And it's intentional. What's interesting about identity is we are told that we need to know ourselves. I remember in the 70s when people would talk of “finding himself or herself”. I didn't know what it meant at the time, but I learned far later in life.   Elon Musk brought up a profound concept recently in an interview with Tucker Carlson. Essentially Musk said that American society has lost its religion, and thus many Americans have a hole in their souls. Musk then declared, "Nature abhors a vacuum...they need something to fill that void. So they adopt a religion, but it's not a real religion... Woke."   Elon Musk says the West is declining because people are abandoning belief in God and replacing it with the religion of the "woke mind virus." Elon also said he identifies as "culturally Christian" and grew up Christian "For most people, they need something to fill that void, and… pic.twitter.com/AXTmL3o4MI — George (@BehizyTweets) October 7, 2024 What Musk insightfully points out is the identity crisis in America. And the identity crisis of today touches on timeless philosophical debates about self, individualism, and collective identity.    [SEGMENT 1-2] The identity crisis 2 Obama and other Democrats are famous for the phrase: That's not who we are. As if they know who we are. I've never met a Democrat close to knowing who I am, much less the soul of this nation. Who are you? Have you ever been asked that question? I know when I first started dating, I “fronted” like a big dog. I borrowed one of my buddy's car, so I could look cool. I even used to have a bank slip that I found with tens of thousands of dollars on it, and I would leave it around my apartment for my date to find. Stupid stuff.   The idea of knowing who you are is critical. Although I barely knew my deadbeat father, a part of me longed to know him. For a while I thought my longing was about him. However, I learned that it wasn't about knowing him at all, but about trying to find out more about myself. The conundrum of nature nurture. Which part defines us. The obvious answer is both. However, we find ourselves wondering which part dominates.  [SEGMENT 1-3] The identity crisis 3   [X] SB – Sara Sidner of CNN (partial) Trump is known…[SEGMENT 1-4] The identity crisis 4   [X] SB – Sara Sidner of CNN full Need to do more to explain to the public what her policies are Distinguish herself from Biden. Introduce her to the public? Her upbringing…   Sure they know!     Growing up, society taught me individualism. Be yourself. Be who you are. You're special. And so on. So why does society want so desperately for me to be part of the collective? I have collectives. First, I'm a human being. Second, I'm an American. Those are my collective, or in today's vernacular, “my pronouns” Why is the Left obsess with identities. For example, the LGBTQ distinction? Why would people want to lead with sexuality over humanity? Given that sexuality isn't necessarily something one can see, why make that an issue. I can generally tell a person's gender, so it's easy to separate men from women. And most people recognize a Black person from a white person. While we recognize these distinctions, none of them should matter in terms of judging people, yet society does judge. So why add a category that I can't possibly know, i.e. sexuality into the equation. In math we call this an “unknown”. Too many unknowns makes it impossible to solve for the answer to the equation. I'm convinced that Leftism has devolved back to where people no longer want to find and embrace their individuality, but instead to find their dysfunctional collective. The things that bind us together as humans are universal. And some would argue that being American is much the same. And while I admit there is truth in “the Black condition”, I put Americanism ahead of cultural blackness. Further, what it boils down to is a belief in self.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-kevin-jackson-show--2896352/support.

[SEGMENT 1-1] The identity crisis 1 The identity crisis is real. And it's intentional. What's interesting about identity is we are told that we need to know ourselves. I remember in the 70s when people would talk of “finding himself or herself”. I didn't know what it meant at the time, but I learned far later in life.   Elon Musk brought up a profound concept recently in an interview with Tucker Carlson. Essentially Musk said that American society has lost its religion, and thus many Americans have a hole in their souls. Musk then declared, "Nature abhors a vacuum...they need something to fill that void. So they adopt a religion, but it's not a real religion... Woke."   Elon Musk says the West is declining because people are abandoning belief in God and replacing it with the religion of the "woke mind virus." Elon also said he identifies as "culturally Christian" and grew up Christian "For most people, they need something to fill that void, and… pic.twitter.com/AXTmL3o4MI — George (@BehizyTweets) October 7, 2024 What Musk insightfully points out is the identity crisis in America. And the identity crisis of today touches on timeless philosophical debates about self, individualism, and collective identity.    [SEGMENT 1-2] The identity crisis 2 Obama and other Democrats are famous for the phrase: That's not who we are. As if they know who we are. I've never met a Democrat close to knowing who I am, much less the soul of this nation. Who are you? Have you ever been asked that question? I know when I first started dating, I “fronted” like a big dog. I borrowed one of my buddy's car, so I could look cool. I even used to have a bank slip that I found with tens of thousands of dollars on it, and I would leave it around my apartment for my date to find. Stupid stuff.   The idea of knowing who you are is critical. Although I barely knew my deadbeat father, a part of me longed to know him. For a while I thought my longing was about him. However, I learned that it wasn't about knowing him at all, but about trying to find out more about myself. The conundrum of nature nurture. Which part defines us. The obvious answer is both. However, we find ourselves wondering which part dominates.  [SEGMENT 1-3] The identity crisis 3   [X] SB – Sara Sidner of CNN (partial) Trump is known…[SEGMENT 1-4] The identity crisis 4   [X] SB – Sara Sidner of CNN full Need to do more to explain to the public what her policies are Distinguish herself from Biden. Introduce her to the public? Her upbringing…   Sure they know!    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-kevin-jackson-show--2896352/support.

Well, we have arrived at Ephesians 2, and the very first thing we are told is that the Christian was once dead. I love the irony in the fact that we are entering Ephesians 2 on the day where all of us are suffering from one less hour of sleep this morning (Daylight Savings Time). So, what I thought I would do before we plunge ourselves into our passage this morning is to first reflect on four of the weirdest ways people have died. For those of you who are still angry that you lost an hour of your sleep, just know that it is a miracle you made it this morning. It is estimated that 450 people die falling out of bed every year. According to statistics, you are twice as likely to die from an angry vending machine than a hungry shark. It is reported that about 24 people die annually from being hit by champagne corks in the face, mostly at weddings. Less people die from poisonous spiders than flying corks from champagne bottles! The weirdest death I learned about was that of Joao Maria de Souza of Brazil, who was killed in 2013 when a cow fell through his roof and crushed him while he slept. Whether it is by falling out of a bed, a falling cow through your roof, or the inevitable and eventual failing of your health, all of us are going to die one day. What does Dead Mean? I do not need to spend a whole lot of time explaining what dead means. The word the apostle Paul used from the original language means exactly what the word dead means. If you are confused as to what the word for dead (nekros) means, it means this: no longer having life. However, why does the apostle Paul use the word dead to describe who or what the Christian used to be? Paul could have said, you were sick in your offenses and sins. He could have chosen the words, handicap, wounded, or he even could have used the same line from The Princess Bride, which was: mostly dead. The difference between dead and mostly dead is that when you are mostly dead, you are slightly alive. Of all the words the apostle could have used, he chose the word, dead. What if Ephesians 2:1-4, stated this instead? And you were mostly dead in your offenses and sins. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were barely alive in our wrongdoings, made us completely alive together with Christ. But that is not how Ephesians 2 begins is it? To understand what Paul means by the word dead we need to go to the place the apostle pulled the word from in the Bible, and that place is found in Genesis. You remember the story; in the beginning, even when, the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters God created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1-2). Then, after all but mankind was created, on the sixth day God said, Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness (1:26). God created mankind above and separate from the rest of creation, for unlike the rest of creation, mankind was created in His image: So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth (vv. 27-28). It is from Genesis 2:15-17 that Paul pulls the word dead from to explain what the Christian once was: Then the LordGod took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and tend it. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, From any tree of the garden you may freely eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat from it you will certainly die. The Hebrew word used for die (מות) in Genesis 2:17 means death, and every other time the word is used, it is used for death. When we come to Genesis 3 and Adam and Even ate the fruit God told them not to eat, they did not physically die in that moment, but what happened next gives us a sense for what it means to be dead in the way Paul describes the Christian used to be. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they were tempted by the words of the serpent who said: You certainly will not die! For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil (Gen. 3:4-5). The physical death Adam, Eve, and the rest of creation would eventually experience is that which all living things would now succumb to, but it also included a type of death that was beyond physical. They experienced a death of innocence through shame (v.7), they experienced a death of an intimacy and peace within the relationship their marriage was designed to produce (vv. 16-17), and they experienced a death of the kind of peace (shalom) they were created to experience with God and His creation (vv. 8-15; 4:1-8). The death God warned Adam and Eve about was a spiritual death and it was their sin that vandalized the shalom they enjoyed before their rebellion towards God through their sin against God out of a desire to be like God. This is the kind of death Paul was referring to in Ephesians 2:1 and is the kind of death (nekros) Jesus had in mind when one of His disciples asked to bury his father; Jesus said to his disciple: Follow Me, and let the dead [nekros] bury their own dead [nekros] (Matt. 8:22). What Jesus said to His disciple is to leave the corpse of his father to those who are still dead in their offenses and sinsthis is the kind of death all people are born into before they ever experience a physical death. How Guilty Where You? So, what does it mean to be dead? Paul tells us in the first verse: And you were dead in your offenses and sins. Just so that you are clear, if you are a Christian, you were dead, and your deadness was twofold: in your offenses and sins. Again, Paul is intentional with his word choice here, and instead of using only one word, he uses two. We are dead in our offenses in that we were guilty of overstepping Gods moral boundary. The Greek word Paul used for offense (paraptōmo) can also be translated: offense, wrongdoing, sin, transgress, or to trespass. When I was fourteen years old, my friends and I decided to break into a house we believed was abandoned, to steal copper, and we did it in broad daylight. We thought we were cunning enough to get into the house without being noticed, in spite of the fact that the street the house was on was a very busy road and on the other side of the road, directly across from the house we decided to break into, was a popular Harley Davidson Shop. Well, you probably are not surprised that we did get caught. Within minutes of my one friend finding his way into the house through a window, a big scary man on a Harley demanded that we stand face forward toward the house while 3-4 police cars arrived. The three of us were put in separate police cars after we were interrogated by one of the officers. We knew that we were in big trouble because we trespassed and broke the law. I was also convinced that I was going to be a dead teenager once my father found out what I had done. When Adam and Eve bit into the fruit, what you need to understand and what you must understand is that it was not just a misstep taken, but a deliberate act of cosmic treason to not only be like God, but to dethrone God! What else could have been the motive for Eve and Adam, who was right next to his wife when she bit into the fruit and gave it to him, to take and eat the very thing that God said would bring pervasive death? The temptation was to doubt the goodness of God because of the fruit He forbade them to eat: You certainly will not die! For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil (Gen. 3:4-5). The temptation was to believe what Adam and Eve needed was not God but what was forbidden by God! Since Adam and Eve bit into the forbidden fruit, sin, like a terminal disease has found its way into the womb of every woman just as the Psalmist lamented: Behold, I was brought forth in guilt, and in sin my mother conceived me (Ps. 51:5). What does this mean? you ask. It means this: just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned (Rom. 5:12). Or in the words of Cornelius Plantinga: Sin is a plague that spreads by contagion or even by quasimetric reproduction. Its a polluted river that keeps branching and rebranching into tributaries. Its a whole family of fertile and contentious parents, children, and grandchildren.[1] Your deadness in the form of your offenses and sins was not the kind of deadness that leaves what was once alive stiff and inanimate; no, your deadness expressed itself because, you previously walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all previously lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the rest (vv. 2-3). You were a dead person walking! You were the spiritual and moral equivalent of George Romeros Night of the Living Dead! Notice how our offenses and sins were manifested: We followed the prince of the power of the air (the devil). We were disobedient. We lived in the lusts of our flesh. We indulged the desire of our flesh and mind. We were children of wrath. According to verse 2, this is the course of this world. The word for course can also be translated age; the point is that we walked according to the spirit of the age because it was our nature to do so. We were spiritually dead and stood before a Holy God as a walking corpse who, according to Romans 3, not only did not seek God (vv. 10-11) but had no fear of Him (v. 18). As the walking dead, we were enemies of the God of the living (see Rom. 5:10). As children of wrath, we stood before God as objects of His just wrath because of our offenses and sins. If you are not a Christian than Ephesians 2:1-3 is still true of you. You are still spiritually dead, and you are still a child of the wrath of an infinitely holy and just God and the place reserved for you, if nothing changes, is a condemnation you will never recover from; the kind of condemnation we are warned about in Revelation 20:11-15, Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them; and they were judged, each one of them according to their deeds. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyones name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. People are generally okay when it comes to topics such as the love of God, the mercy of God, the grace of God, and even the justice of God. What many struggle with most is the wrath of God. Dr. James Boice said of these verses in Ephesians, The worldly mind does not take Gods wrath seriously because it does not take sin seriously. Yet if sin is as bad as the Bible declares it to be, nothing is more just or reasonable than that the wrath of a holy God should rise against it.[2] If you struggle with just how serious God takes your sin, you need not look any further than the cross of Christ. What is the Remedy for All Your Sin? I will spend an entire sermon unpacking what we see in verses 4-7 next week, but for now, let me show you Ephesians 2:4-5 against the backdrop of verses 1-3. We were dead in our offenses and sins, But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) We followed the prince of the power of the air (the devil), but God We were disobedient, but God We lived in the lusts of our flesh, but God We indulged the desire of our flesh and mind, but God We were children of wrath, but God made us alive with Christ. How did God do it? Obviously, He did it through Jesus, but the reason He did it was threefold: 1) He is rich in mercy, 2) His love is great, and 3) His grace is sufficient. Mercy happens when you do not get the punishment you deserve, and grace is when you get something you did not earn or deserve. If you are Christian, the reason you received Gods mercy and grace is because His love for you was greater than your offenses and sins against Him. Permit me to show you something that I hope will bless you as much as it has blessed me this week. Remember what Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:18-19; he was praying that the eyes of the hearts of those reading his letter would see and know three things: that you would know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the boundless greatness of His power toward us who believe. The word Paul used for boundless means, to surpass, to go beyond, to exceed. As you remember from last week, that word is used to stress the kind of power that raised Jesus from the grave and made your salvation possible. That power in conjunction with the richness of Gods mercy, the greatness of God love, and the sufficiency of Gods grace is infinitely greater than all your transgressions and sins. Christian, although you were once a child of Gods just wrath, He has made you a son/daughter because He has done the thing that only He could do, He made you alive with Christ. Romans 5:10-11 is for you Christian: For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, he shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also celebrate in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. If you are not a Christian, then you need to hear this: the same mercy, love, and grace that has made the Christian alive in Christ is available to you if you would just receive by faith the Jesus who makes Gods mercy, love, and grace possible; there is no sin that is too great for Gods mercy, love, and grace to overcomeand it is still held out to you by a holy God who has every right to consume you by His wrath. [1] Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., Not the Way its Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 1995) p. 53. [2] James Montgomery Boice, Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Ministry Resources Library, 1988), 49.

Well, we have arrived at Ephesians 2, and the very first thing we are told is that the Christian was once dead. I love the irony in the fact that we are entering Ephesians 2 on the day where all of us are suffering from one less hour of sleep this morning (Daylight Savings Time). So, what I thought I would do before we plunge ourselves into our passage this morning is to first reflect on four of the weirdest ways people have died. For those of you who are still angry that you lost an hour of your sleep, just know that it is a miracle you made it this morning. It is estimated that 450 people die falling out of bed every year. According to statistics, you are twice as likely to die from an angry vending machine than a hungry shark. It is reported that about 24 people die annually from being hit by champagne corks in the face, mostly at weddings. Less people die from poisonous spiders than flying corks from champagne bottles! The weirdest death I learned about was that of Joao Maria de Souza of Brazil, who was killed in 2013 when a cow fell through his roof and crushed him while he slept. Whether it is by falling out of a bed, a falling cow through your roof, or the inevitable and eventual failing of your health, all of us are going to die one day. What does Dead Mean? I do not need to spend a whole lot of time explaining what dead means. The word the apostle Paul used from the original language means exactly what the word dead means. If you are confused as to what the word for dead (nekros) means, it means this: no longer having life. However, why does the apostle Paul use the word dead to describe who or what the Christian used to be? Paul could have said, you were sick in your offenses and sins. He could have chosen the words, handicap, wounded, or he even could have used the same line from The Princess Bride, which was: mostly dead. The difference between dead and mostly dead is that when you are mostly dead, you are slightly alive. Of all the words the apostle could have used, he chose the word, dead. What if Ephesians 2:1-4, stated this instead? And you were mostly dead in your offenses and sins. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were barely alive in our wrongdoings, made us completely alive together with Christ. But that is not how Ephesians 2 begins is it? To understand what Paul means by the word dead we need to go to the place the apostle pulled the word from in the Bible, and that place is found in Genesis. You remember the story; in the beginning, even when, the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters God created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1-2). Then, after all but mankind was created, on the sixth day God said, Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness (1:26). God created mankind above and separate from the rest of creation, for unlike the rest of creation, mankind was created in His image: So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth (vv. 27-28). It is from Genesis 2:15-17 that Paul pulls the word dead from to explain what the Christian once was: Then the LordGod took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and tend it. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, From any tree of the garden you may freely eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat from it you will certainly die. The Hebrew word used for die (מות) in Genesis 2:17 means death, and every other time the word is used, it is used for death. When we come to Genesis 3 and Adam and Even ate the fruit God told them not to eat, they did not physically die in that moment, but what happened next gives us a sense for what it means to be dead in the way Paul describes the Christian used to be. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they were tempted by the words of the serpent who said: You certainly will not die! For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil (Gen. 3:4-5). The physical death Adam, Eve, and the rest of creation would eventually experience is that which all living things would now succumb to, but it also included a type of death that was beyond physical. They experienced a death of innocence through shame (v.7), they experienced a death of an intimacy and peace within the relationship their marriage was designed to produce (vv. 16-17), and they experienced a death of the kind of peace (shalom) they were created to experience with God and His creation (vv. 8-15; 4:1-8). The death God warned Adam and Eve about was a spiritual death and it was their sin that vandalized the shalom they enjoyed before their rebellion towards God through their sin against God out of a desire to be like God. This is the kind of death Paul was referring to in Ephesians 2:1 and is the kind of death (nekros) Jesus had in mind when one of His disciples asked to bury his father; Jesus said to his disciple: Follow Me, and let the dead [nekros] bury their own dead [nekros] (Matt. 8:22). What Jesus said to His disciple is to leave the corpse of his father to those who are still dead in their offenses and sinsthis is the kind of death all people are born into before they ever experience a physical death. How Guilty Where You? So, what does it mean to be dead? Paul tells us in the first verse: And you were dead in your offenses and sins. Just so that you are clear, if you are a Christian, you were dead, and your deadness was twofold: in your offenses and sins. Again, Paul is intentional with his word choice here, and instead of using only one word, he uses two. We are dead in our offenses in that we were guilty of overstepping Gods moral boundary. The Greek word Paul used for offense (paraptōmo) can also be translated: offense, wrongdoing, sin, transgress, or to trespass. When I was fourteen years old, my friends and I decided to break into a house we believed was abandoned, to steal copper, and we did it in broad daylight. We thought we were cunning enough to get into the house without being noticed, in spite of the fact that the street the house was on was a very busy road and on the other side of the road, directly across from the house we decided to break into, was a popular Harley Davidson Shop. Well, you probably are not surprised that we did get caught. Within minutes of my one friend finding his way into the house through a window, a big scary man on a Harley demanded that we stand face forward toward the house while 3-4 police cars arrived. The three of us were put in separate police cars after we were interrogated by one of the officers. We knew that we were in big trouble because we trespassed and broke the law. I was also convinced that I was going to be a dead teenager once my father found out what I had done. When Adam and Eve bit into the fruit, what you need to understand and what you must understand is that it was not just a misstep taken, but a deliberate act of cosmic treason to not only be like God, but to dethrone God! What else could have been the motive for Eve and Adam, who was right next to his wife when she bit into the fruit and gave it to him, to take and eat the very thing that God said would bring pervasive death? The temptation was to doubt the goodness of God because of the fruit He forbade them to eat: You certainly will not die! For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil (Gen. 3:4-5). The temptation was to believe what Adam and Eve needed was not God but what was forbidden by God! Since Adam and Eve bit into the forbidden fruit, sin, like a terminal disease has found its way into the womb of every woman just as the Psalmist lamented: Behold, I was brought forth in guilt, and in sin my mother conceived me (Ps. 51:5). What does this mean? you ask. It means this: just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned (Rom. 5:12). Or in the words of Cornelius Plantinga: Sin is a plague that spreads by contagion or even by quasimetric reproduction. Its a polluted river that keeps branching and rebranching into tributaries. Its a whole family of fertile and contentious parents, children, and grandchildren.[1] Your deadness in the form of your offenses and sins was not the kind of deadness that leaves what was once alive stiff and inanimate; no, your deadness expressed itself because, you previously walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all previously lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the rest (vv. 2-3). You were a dead person walking! You were the spiritual and moral equivalent of George Romeros Night of the Living Dead! Notice how our offenses and sins were manifested: We followed the prince of the power of the air (the devil). We were disobedient. We lived in the lusts of our flesh. We indulged the desire of our flesh and mind. We were children of wrath. According to verse 2, this is the course of this world. The word for course can also be translated age; the point is that we walked according to the spirit of the age because it was our nature to do so. We were spiritually dead and stood before a Holy God as a walking corpse who, according to Romans 3, not only did not seek God (vv. 10-11) but had no fear of Him (v. 18). As the walking dead, we were enemies of the God of the living (see Rom. 5:10). As children of wrath, we stood before God as objects of His just wrath because of our offenses and sins. If you are not a Christian than Ephesians 2:1-3 is still true of you. You are still spiritually dead, and you are still a child of the wrath of an infinitely holy and just God and the place reserved for you, if nothing changes, is a condemnation you will never recover from; the kind of condemnation we are warned about in Revelation 20:11-15, Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them; and they were judged, each one of them according to their deeds. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyones name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. People are generally okay when it comes to topics such as the love of God, the mercy of God, the grace of God, and even the justice of God. What many struggle with most is the wrath of God. Dr. James Boice said of these verses in Ephesians, The worldly mind does not take Gods wrath seriously because it does not take sin seriously. Yet if sin is as bad as the Bible declares it to be, nothing is more just or reasonable than that the wrath of a holy God should rise against it.[2] If you struggle with just how serious God takes your sin, you need not look any further than the cross of Christ. What is the Remedy for All Your Sin? I will spend an entire sermon unpacking what we see in verses 4-7 next week, but for now, let me show you Ephesians 2:4-5 against the backdrop of verses 1-3. We were dead in our offenses and sins, But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) We followed the prince of the power of the air (the devil), but God We were disobedient, but God We lived in the lusts of our flesh, but God We indulged the desire of our flesh and mind, but God We were children of wrath, but God made us alive with Christ. How did God do it? Obviously, He did it through Jesus, but the reason He did it was threefold: 1) He is rich in mercy, 2) His love is great, and 3) His grace is sufficient. Mercy happens when you do not get the punishment you deserve, and grace is when you get something you did not earn or deserve. If you are Christian, the reason you received Gods mercy and grace is because His love for you was greater than your offenses and sins against Him. Permit me to show you something that I hope will bless you as much as it has blessed me this week. Remember what Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:18-19; he was praying that the eyes of the hearts of those reading his letter would see and know three things: that you would know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the boundless greatness of His power toward us who believe. The word Paul used for boundless means, to surpass, to go beyond, to exceed. As you remember from last week, that word is used to stress the kind of power that raised Jesus from the grave and made your salvation possible. That power in conjunction with the richness of Gods mercy, the greatness of God love, and the sufficiency of Gods grace is infinitely greater than all your transgressions and sins. Christian, although you were once a child of Gods just wrath, He has made you a son/daughter because He has done the thing that only He could do, He made you alive with Christ. Romans 5:10-11 is for you Christian: For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, he shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also celebrate in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. If you are not a Christian, then you need to hear this: the same mercy, love, and grace that has made the Christian alive in Christ is available to you if you would just receive by faith the Jesus who makes Gods mercy, love, and grace possible; there is no sin that is too great for Gods mercy, love, and grace to overcomeand it is still held out to you by a holy God who has every right to consume you by His wrath. [1] Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., Not the Way its Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 1995) p. 53. [2] James Montgomery Boice, Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Ministry Resources Library, 1988), 49.

When you come together Talk 7. We're Nothing without Love – 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 1 Corinthians 13 is one of the best-known chapters in the Bible. It is often chosen as a reading at weddings and is widely recognised as one of the greatest statements that has ever been written on the nature of love. I well remember how it was read on the first and last day of every term in the Chapel at Brentwood School where I attended as a pupil in the 1950s. Verses 4-8 are a favourite source of sermon material for many a preacher and Christians have often been challenged to replace the word love with their own name and ask how true these verses are in their own lives.  By contrast, of course, all Paul says about love is wonderfully true as we look at the life of the Lord Jesus, and I confess I find it easier to use his name, rather than mine, to replace love throughout these verses: 4 Jesus is patient, Jesus is kind…   So there can be no doubt that the truths Paul teaches about love in this chapter extend far beyond the context in which it is set. But they do nevertheless have an immediate relevance to all he is saying throughout chapters 11-14 about what should happen when Christians meet to worship the Lord. And that is what we will be considering in this talk. How does 1 Corinthians 13 affect our understanding of chapter 14, and of 14:26 in particular? We will divide the chapter into three sections: ·       It's all meaningless without love (1-3) ·       The nature of love (4-8) ·       Recognising our limitations (8-12) It's all meaningless without love (1-3) In the opening verses of the chapter Paul says: 1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. The general sense of this passage is very clear and requires little comment here [1]. In saying this, however, we must be careful not to diminish its importance. Its clarity must not detract from its urgency. Nothing is more important than love. Whatever gifts we may have and whatever we may do, if our motive is not love, it counts for nothing. Without love I am nothing (2) and I gain nothing (3). This principle applies to every function of the body of Christ, not just to the things mentioned in these verses, which are just illustrations of it. As we saw in the last talk, every part of the body is needed. Every member is important. And when one member suffers, we all suffer (12:26). Each member should have equal concern for every other (12:25). And now in chapter 13 Paul says that the only way that all this is possible is when we love one another. So the things Paul refers to in verses 1-3 are just illustrations of the great principle of the paramount importance of love. But why does he choose these particular illustrations to make his point? The answer must surely lie in the particular problems facing the church in Corinth at the time. It's evident from chapter 14 that there were problems in Corinth with their use of gifts like speaking in tongues and prophecy which are the two gifts he mentions first here in chapter 13. And the reference to knowledge may well reflect what Paul has said in chapter 8 about food sacrificed to idols, where he stresses the importance of love compared with knowledge: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God (1-3). This, along with the final verses of chapter 1, indicates that some of the Corinthians were in danger of boasting about their knowledge and wisdom. There Paul reminds them that they would be nothing if it were not for the fact that God had chosen them and called them:   Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God – that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord" (1:26-31). This is surely why he reminds them in 13:4 that Love… does not boast. And it may well account for the inclusion of faith that can move mountains (13:2). Spiritual gifts are charismata. They come from God's grace. There is no room for boasting, however greatly God may have used us. So as we later consider Paul's encouragement in 14:26 for all to participate by bringing a contribution to our meetings, we need to remember that whatever we may bring must be brought in love and that, of course, includes humility. But now we need to consider how verses 4-8 might affect our understanding of 14:26. The nature of love (4-8) As I have already acknowledged, these verses have a far wider application than our understanding of chapter 14. But chapter 13 is no mere parenthesis. It is set firmly between Paul's teaching in chapter 12 on the importance of the role of every Christian within the church as the body of Christ and his application of that principle in chapter 14 where he gives specific direction as to how certain roles are to function when the church is gathered for worship. Furthermore, the link in Paul's thinking between chapters 13 and 14 is clearly established in 14:1 where he says: Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. As we will see in the next talk, the underlying principle of all he says in chapter 14 is putting other people first which is surely the main way in which we express our love for them. Prophecy, for example, is to be desired more than tongues because it edifies others, not just ourselves (14:1-5). So his teaching on the nature of love in 13:4-8 has a direct application to our understanding of chapter 14 and of 14:26 in particular. But how? Paul says: 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.       8 Love never fails. Some of these wonderful attributes of love are more obviously applicable to the contents of chapter 14 than others. So it is these that we'll consider here, bearing in mind that they have a wider relevance that's beyond the scope of our present discussion. Love is patient In a gathering where each member is encouraged to contribute something for the edification of the others (14:26), there is an evident need for patience. Waiting one's turn isn't always easy, especially when some people are praying or prophesying at great length. As a preacher I confess that I have often been somewhat lacking in patience when the musicians are prolonging the worship to a point where I am wondering if there will be enough time left for me say all that I believe God's given me to say. But then I do well to remember that the congregation may well need to be patient with me! Love is kind… it is not rude Consideration for others is so important if the meeting is to meet its full potential. My old pastor, Alfred Webb, used to compare the time available in a meeting to a cake. If there were six people around the table, hopefully you wouldn't dream of taking more than one sixth of the cake! So, he said, don't take more than a fair share of the time available. Be kind. Making way for others is certainly taught in 14:30 where Paul encourages someone who is prophesying to stop if someone else has a revelation to share. Of course, kindness in a meeting can take many forms, but perhaps one of the most important is with regard to judging other people's contributions to the meeting. Paul encourages us to try to excel in the use of the gifts God has given us (14:12), but that implies that the level at which we use them may not always be at the highest, and we are in need of kindness when this is clearly the case with regard to the contributions of others. Love does not boast…It is not proud… It does not envy We have already noted that pride was a major problem at Corinth – pride in who their favourite preacher was (ch.1), pride in their tolerance (ch. 5), pride in their knowledge (ch. 8), and possibly, here in chapter 13, pride that they were able, so they believed, to speak the languages of angels (v1). There is also a suggestion of pride in 14:37 where Paul says: If anybody thinks he is a prophet or spiritually gifted, let him acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord's command. No doubt it would have been difficult for some to submit to Paul's apostolic authority in this matter, but the key to humility is the understanding that we are what we are by God's grace (15:10). Pride and boasting are totally inappropriate for a Christian: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:8-10). All that we have and all that we are is by the grace of God. And this includes the gifts that we may use in our meetings. They are charismata.  They come from God's grace. So there's no basis for pride, and there should really be no need for us to envy our fellow Christians, but sadly it's all too possible to do so. We may envy the gifts God has given them, or the amount of time allotted to them, or the prominence given to them in the meeting. But if we love them we will be glad for them. Why am I glad when my children and grandchildren are taking part in the meetings? Because I love them! But as a Christian I am called to love every member of the body of Christ, and I should rejoice with them (12:26) when they are honoured. Love is not self-seeking That this was a problem in Corinth is clear from the fact that at the Lord's supper – which at that time would have been a meal rather than the tiny emblems that are generally used today – some were going hungry while others were getting drunk: For as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk (11:21). It's not surprising, therefore, that this self-centred attitude manifested itself in other areas too, as we see in the opening verses of chapter 14. The Corinthians were edifying themselves by speaking in tongues (v.4) but needed to be encouraged to prophesy so that others might be edified. But this is something we will address in more detail in the next talk. Love… rejoices with the truth… It always protects Much of what Paul writes in his epistles is there for the express purpose of safeguarding the truth. What we believe is of vital importance. It determines our eternal destiny. And nowhere is this more important than when we are gathered together in church. Among the things that Paul encourages in 14:26 is a word of instruction – literally a teaching. Love is to be the motive for all that we do, and that includes teaching. In Mark 6:34 we read that Jesus was moved with compassion for the people because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and so he began to teach them many things. In John 8:31-32 he said: If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Love was the motive for his teaching and its purpose was to set people free. The same must be true of those who bring a word of instruction in our meetings. But the need for truth is relevant not only to teaching, but also to prophecy. As we shall see in the next section, we know in part and we prophesy in part (13:9). Our knowledge and prophetic insight are limited. That's why we all have a responsibility to weigh carefully what is said (14:29). Recognising our limitations (8-12) Love never fails, but where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. The overall sense of these verses is very clear. Paul has already taught us that supernatural gifts are pointless unless they are motivated by love (1-3). He has explained what he means by love and extolled its virtues (4-8). Now in verses 8-13 he makes it clear that, although there will ultimately be no need for supernatural gifts, love will remain for ever. It never fails (8). It remains (13). In Chapter One we discussed what Paul means by perfection in verse 10.  We rejected the views of the cessationists who believe that perfection refers to the completion of the canon of Scripture. The supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit will be at work in the church right up until the Lord's return. In the age to come, prophecy will not be needed – it will have already been fulfilled! Words of knowledge will be unnecessary – we shall know fully, even as we are known! But until then, these wonderful gifts are essential to the effective witness and worship of the church. But wonderful though these gifts are, their operation is not infallible. We know in part and we prophesy in part. The contributions Paul is encouraging in 14:26 must be understood in this light. God's gifts are perfect, but we are not. We do not yet see face to face. Paul says, we know… we prophesy. The gifts come from God but they come through us, and we are fallible. This must affect our understanding of all that Paul says in chapter 14, not just verse 26. As we eagerly desire spiritual gifts we are to try to excel in our use of them (12). This clearly implies that it's possible to exercise them without excelling in them. That's why words of prophecy need to be weighed carefully (29) and why Paul found it necessary to give instruction as to how the gifts should be used. Had the operation of the gifts been infallible, such instruction would have been unnecessary. In short, whatever contribution we may make during the course of a meeting, we must always be aware of our own fallibility. Paul encourages us to participate (26), but to make sure that we do so in love. Our use of spiritual gifts may well be imperfect, but he tells us to eagerly desire them (14:1) nevertheless. But that's something we will consider in more detail in the next talk. [1] In Body Builders I have already discussed what Paul means with regard to controversial issues like the meaning of tongues of angels and whether martyrdom is a gift of the Spirit. I see no need to repeat my arguments here, as these things are not, in my view, directly relevant to the subject of this series.

For another episode of TheRichLifePodcast.com I interview Holy City Sinner a.k.a. Christian Senger Interview. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 01:56 Who is Christian Senger?..aka Holy City Sinner 04:38 Fun things to do in Charleston SC 08:18 Why Christian started the Holy City Sinner Blog 11:26 Business Habits: What drives Christian to keep HCS going 17:46 The Rich Life Podcast Core Values 21:09 The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod and 10% Happier by Dan Harris 24:28 Being present and the effect on anxiety 24:55 The future of Holy City Sinner 28:13 Where to find Christian For more podcast episodes: https://TheRichLifePodcast.com --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-rich-life/support

What does it look like to be a godly woman in this world? What is the distinction between a Christian woman and a non-Christian? For today's Text-Driven Tuesday Jay and George discuss 1 Peter 3:1-7 and look at marriage as strangers and exiles.  ***Be Sure to subscribe on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Podbean***Conformed to Christ aims to engage the mind, affect the heart, and call people to follow Christ. Additionally, our aim is to introduce and explain passages of Scripture and difficult theological doctrines in a down-to-earth and easy-to-grasp manner. Theology and the Bible should impact your life and our goal is that we might play a small part in seeing that happen.

As we continue our series examining the "Christian mindset" we examine Paul's audacious statement to "rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice!" What does it mean to have joy in every circumstance and situation and how can we practically live this way? In this expositional sermon, Nathan Johnson explores joy and how we as Christians can live every moment rejoicing despite our circumstances or situations. Twelve Reflections on Joy:We must know the source of joy Joy is a fruit … the natural outflow of the life of the Spirit within us Joy is not about circumstances but a purposeful response amidst the circumstances Rejoicing doesn't have to make sense … but it does need to happen (always) Joy increases with the increase of pressure (suffering, trial, persecution) Joy is a present declaration in our future hope (we rejoice because we know the future) Joy exposes and declares our focus and trust in God We rejoice because we know trials and difficulty lead to maturity Joy is most evident (or seen more clearly) in our trials, sufferings, hardships, difficulties, and weaknesses We rejoice because we know God is King … and He has overcome the world We rejoice because God is a God of Joy Joy is to be a distinctive mark of a Christian For more Christ-Centered teaching and resources, visit https://deeperchristian.com/ (deeperChristian.com) Support this podcast

Show Notes: If you wanted to read the sermon, here is the link. I have added a few of the quotes I read below: “I did go thus far for many years… using diligence to eschew all evil … a conscience void of offense … [yet] all this I was but ‘almost a Christian’” For context. […]

Download this Episode We've all been there. Life hits you like a freight train and knocks you off course. Today we discuss how to get the train back on its track. Tune in to hear about how we deal with death, struggle, and negative outside voices. reThink Real Estate Podcast Transcription Audio length 28:18 RTRE 60 – Breaking Out of a Rut in Your Real Estate Business [music] [Chris] Welcome to re:Think Real Estate, your educational and hopefully entertaining source for all things real estate, business, news and tech.  [Christian]: I am Christian Harris in Seattle, Washington. [Nathan]: Hi, I am Nathan White in Columbus, Ohio. [Chris]: And I am Chris Lazarus in Atlanta, Georgia. Thanks for tuning in.  [music] [Chris]: Everybody and welcome back to re:Think Real Estate. I'm Chris here with Christian and Nate is back. No longer sick. Welcome back Nate.  [Nathan]: Thanks. Thank you. [Chris]: Yes. All of energy today. [laughter]  [Christian]: He is possessed to be here. [Chris]: Oh. Let's see those jazz hands Nate. [Nathan]: Hold on. [laughter]. [Christian]: What are you typing? [Chris]: Not even…Not even ready to start. There we go.  [Christian]: Yeah don't worry about this.  [Chris]: So we were just talking before getting started here about, you know, what do you do when you're in a rut. Like you're just out of it, you know, listening to Nate's voice. He's in a rut right now. Even if it's just for the next hour. So like Christian what do you do when you're in a rut? Like how do you pull yourself out of it? [Christian]: I mean I'll tell you one thing that's key to not do and that's to quit, and to listen to the demons, you know, that are speaking…speaking lives in your head about how your failure and your, you know, nothing's ever gonna change and it's gonna be like this forever. I'm sure I'm just the only one that hears those negative thoughts but… [Chris]: It's gonna be like this forever. You're a failure. [Christian]: Don't listen to them. I know. See now I'm hearing the voices for real. This is so real. [Chris]: [laughter] In your headphones.  [Christian]: Yeah in my headphones. So that's the first thing you don't do. [Chris]: Yeah I gotta agree. [Christian]: For me personally, you know, I just kind of keep my head down and keep going. But I mean I lot of it depends on why I am in a rut. Is it like a family rut where relationships aren't going great? Is it work? Is it financial? You know. Because I think, you know, the solution to those are all gonna be a little different. But the key to getting out of those is leaning…leaning on people. You know, like being honest. Having people that can come around to you and speak truth into that. Whether it's co-workers or family members or, you know, besties, you know. Don't isolate yourself because that's…that's doesn't go well for most people. [Chris]: Gotta have your besties. Nate. [Nathan]: Yep. [Chris]: What do you think? [Nathan]: What's the question again? [Chris]: How do you get out of a rut. [Nathan]: Oh how do you get out of a rut. [Christian]: It's your topic buddy. [Chris]: Yeah this is your choice Mr. “I'm in a rut.”  [Nathan]: How do you…You know, I don't know. You got to find, you know, how you used to work triggers. You got to find….one you got to be able to identify you're in a rut. Right. I mean, you know, yeah I just kind of went through one. Yeah I was sick for a week. Had some unfortunate family things happen. And, you know, it was just [censored] death of you. I mean it's what it was but you know it side tracks you. Right. You know, as I call it the…the train gets off the rail. So you one you got to recognize that the…the freaking train you're on is off the rails. And then you got to figure out what's the trigger to get it back on. You know, for me it's being very scheduled and stuff. And just it's…I don't know you have to just recommit.  You know, what's the…I used to have a mentor who used to say “You kind of have to recenter the salt on the plate.” And I think that's what you got to do. You got to be able to identify it. You got to figure out, you know, why you're in it. OK get out of it, you know, and then , you know, there's certain things. I don't know you can read motivational stuff. I mean Gary Vee I, you know, it's not for all people but he's for me. And I can get on a pity party and he gets me out of the pity party. So [Christian]: Yeah nice kick to the junk to get you back on track. [Nathan]: Yeah and I think in our industry, I think we all get kind of jaded at times. You get….you get I don't know. You get frustrated and then you get sidetracked.  [Christian]: And it's just you. [Nathan]: Yeah all right. [Chris]: No it's definitely not just you.  [Nathan]: Yeah I know it's everybody. I was talking with a colleague the other day and, you know, he said “Man I just…” he said “I didn't do [censored] for six months.” And now you know, he knew it. He identified it. But, you know, he's like the worst part is now I gotta play catch-up. I, you know, we all, you know, we get these peaks and valleys. And I don't…I don't like to get in those peaks and valleys. I like to have, you know, a nice steady stream of income. Right. [Chris]: Well six months is a little bit too long. That…that's not all right. Six months is an active decision to say “You know what, I'm just not gonna work.” [Nathan]: Yeah. [Christian]: I think it's called clinical depression. [Nathan]: Yeah well, you know, he was working on his home doing some other things. Fine. But… [Christian]: OK so he's just distracted. [Nathan]: He's just distracted and I think we all can get distracted. And then I think we just get frustrated. You know, we can get in our own way. So and, you know, it's, you know, you hear a realtor say “Oh I'm…” You know, we talked about this before. You know, “I'm so busy” And you say “What do you have going on?” And they're like “Oh I got one house in contract.” But you're so busy like…I don't know. It's…when I'm not busy, I'm not busy. You know, I don't even like the question what people say “Oh it's spring time right now. You're, you know, you must be busy as all get out. I'm steady. I'm not busy as I'll get out. But when you talk to me in November, December, January and February, guess what? You get the same response. Versus a lot of people say “Well I ain't got nothing going on.” So staying out of a rut I think is important. I think it's important that you identify how long you're in one. And it only took two weeks to get in one. Just because of, you know, being sick. And we're all self-employed. Right. o… [Chris]: Yeah I think I think one of the things is it doesn't take too long to get into a rut. Like one thing can happen and throw you completely off the rails. And then it…you have to go through…well depending upon what it is, you've got to go through these stages of healing to kind of get back into your groove. So if it's…if, you know, if it's family that's throwing, you know, things at you that are like “Oh, you know, what you're wasting your time. You're not in a good environment. The industry is gonna end soon. Your real estate agents are gonna be obsolete. Everything's gonna be AI in tech.” I just got that from my [censored] father the other day. And… [Christian]: Ouch. [Chris]: Yeah like “Really, no I…I don't think it is but, you know, that…that's great that you're encouraging me. I really appreciate that.” But you got to go through this stage of accepting what has happened. Seeing it from, you know, multiple points of view. Realizing that, you know, you're either making the right decision and then you double down on your decision, or there's some corrective action that needs to happen. And then you need to make the corrective action. [Christian]: I mean I'd say that, this is kind of cliché, but I definitely say that it's very important to…as you're trying to, you know, realize, you know, “OK what's…what set me in this rut and how do I get out?” is to try to only focus on things that you can affect. Right. As most of stuff in our life we have no control over. You can't control other agents, can't control the market. You control what you do and how focused you are. And, you know, your attitude and all that kind of stuff.  But I'd say that's definitely key to getting out of it is not…not, you know, what we call catastrophizing, if that's a word, which I don't think it is. But, you know, essentially… [Nathan]: It sounds great. [Chris]: Yeah if it's not a word it sounds like a word and it should be a word. So yeah… [Christian]: It's…it's a word that would they use in in the military's newer…what they call it, resiliency training . Essentially, you know, one of the keys to, you know, not getting in a rut or recognizing when you are going into rut is recognizing, you know, a mindset that's a downward spiral of catastrophizing everything. Where, you know, one thing happens and then you just assume the worst and then that, you know, self-fulfilling prophecy happens. And you keep spiraling downwards as opposed to, you know, “OK let's look at the big picture. Let's not think of the worst thing let's think of, you know, outcomes that are positive and, you know, be optimistic as opposed to pessimistic”, you know.  This is one of the mental tricks of, you know, how are you going to position yourself mentally to get out of the rut. As opposed to, you know, staying in that rut. [Chris]: I like that. That's really good. So Nate, cuz you ran for 24 hours last year, what was like what was going on in your head and do you think that any of those things could be used to get you out of a rut ? [Nathan]: Well I'm getting ready to run for twelve hours soon again. I think it's just it's…it's a semental staying power if you would. Because what's the easiest thing to do in any of those scenarios are with what we do for a living, what's the easiest thing to do? [censored] it. Quit. Right. [Chris]: Like quit. Don't even… [Nathan]: Just quit. Right. I mean I think what most people don't realize and, you know, I can use it running wise or even and, you know, in this rut…What we think of and perceive is something that maybe feels like forever, is really not that long of a period of time. Right. When I did that race out in Colorado or run out in Colorado, there was a gentleman that, you know, he quit after, you know, about 16 hours. And he said “I can't do it anymore.” And I said “Dude just take a break. Don't leave the course. If you leave the, you know, if you leave the course, you can't restart. But you can you could take a rest, that's fine. It's OK. If you want a rest for thirty minutes or three hours then you could start back up on whatever mile you're on.”  Right. And he said no he couldn't do it. He went back to his hotel. About twenty three hours and thirty minutes into it I seen him at the finish line, start/finish line. And, you know, him lapping through and he comes and pulls up beside me and starts running. And I was like “What are you doing back out here?” He's like “I should have listened to you.” He's like “I left. I got back to the hotel. I took 30 minutes. Laid down and I was like nah I feel great now.”  So I think what we do is it's…it's how we perceive that. Right. like “Oh you're in a rut.” And I have been in a rut for two weeks. And it's that like Christian said, you get the self-fulfilling prophecy. And then it does spiral out of control. Right. versus if we can kind of slam the [censored] brakes on things, and go “Hold up. All right. Reset.” And…and grab a hold of it by the balls a little bit, you know, then…then you've got a good opportunity. But I think we just we, you know, society as a whole and what, you know, whether it's real estate or not, we…we just get caught up in that bad moment. So you got to be more optimistic than pessimistic. [Christian]: Yeah well I think it also help if, you know, kind of speaking to people getting into the industry, if there was a more realistic portrayal of what it's like to be a new agent. Because I mean I've, you know, speaking of our first quarter was very, very rough financially. And we have like five agents that just gave up. Just “I'm done. I'm not renewing my license. This was too hard.” And it's kind of that lack of resiliency because they'd…I don't think they had a realistic expectations coming into it. They're like “You can't just sit on YouTube while you, you know, quote to do your calls.” [laughter] Like you're not gonna get…You know, so there's a lack of resiliency. There's a lack of hustle. A lack of urgency and then, you know, no matter what, you know, your brokerage does, or people come up alongside you, they don't do it. They don't listen. And then they quit. And you're like “Yeah I kind of saw the writing on the wall.”  You're like, you know, it's…from the perspective of a broker like it's really easy to become jaded. And, you know, my version of a rut looks differently, you know, because I'm looking at agents and productivity and, you know, margins. And that kind of stuff. From agent perspective, you know, it's trying to get business, you know, having people say no to you. Or if you're new to an area trying to figure out how to get the word out there. And, you know, that kind of stuff. But either way it comes down to like not giving up, being resilient when things don't go perfectly, not letting that spiral and ruin the rest of your day.  [Nathan]: I would agree. [Chris]: Definitely, you know, you've got to be able to compartmentalize a little bit to know “Hey, you know what this is not that big of a deal.” Or, “You know what, this sucks. But, you know, I gotta keep ploughing on because if I stop I'm never gonna get this done. I'm never gonna hit my goal. So I've got to keep going.”  You know, it took, you know, I was in a rut a few weeks ago. And it took me a good five to six days to work my way through it. And it wasn't until I kind of saw some things from a different angle that, you know, it was…I realized, you know what, what I was doing was correct. And, you know, this one situation was an outlier. And it really didn't affect what I was doing as much as I thought it would. [Christian]: Yeah I mean a lot of what we're talking about here is your perspective. Right. And earlier I mentioned not letting yourself be isolated. And the reason for that is that other people can bring a perspective that you don't have. You know, they're looking at that from the outside. Where you may be, you know, kind of myopically looking at your feet. And, you know, where you just stumbled while they're looking at the big picture of like “But look at all this potential and look at where you came from and look at what's ahead of you.”  You know, I think that's very important to have that community around you, of people that can speak into you. Well that's your spouse or business partner or whatever. [Chris]: And sometimes you don't even want to hear it. Sometimes you're just like “You know what, I…I'm not even gonna listen” and you have to hear from some like third party that has nothing to do with you. Because, you know, those that are closest to us sometimes we feel like they're just, you know, boosting us up. And it's not authentic. [Christian]: Right. And then your wife says “That's what I've been saying to you.” And you're like “Oh sorry.”. [Chris]: Yeah. [Christian]: I get that [censored] all the time. My wife's like “Why wouldn't you just listen to me. That's what I was telling you.” And I am like “Oh [censored] you're right.” [Nathan]: Well that's…that's the funny flipside of being resilient. Another word for that could be stubborn. Or [laughter] hard-headed, you know. So what keeps you driving for it could also be what keeps you from listen to people. So … [Chris]: Yeah I think not so much that, but we have…we have this tendency that if something shakes us to our core. like that we're…if something happens it's that messes us up and throws us way off track, then we have this tendency to not exactly trust everything that we've done, up until that point 100%. So if there's something…if there's something that's in our core circle that's telling us something and then whatever happens throws us off our game, then we're gonna immediately have a certain distrust for this. And we're gonna go to an outside source to verify whether we're right or wrong. And once we do that, if we verify “You know what, what we've been doing is right.” then we come back to that circle and like “You know what, everything here is good.” We're happy. If something's wrong then we're gonna come back to that circle and be like “Wait what the [censored] is going on here? Like why…why are you saying this. Or, you know, why didn't…why…” You get it. Yeah it's…it's not just about listening to those that are closest to us. It's a mental thing. Like if something…mentally we've got to recenter ourselves. [Christian]: It sounds like you're saying that insecurity creeps in, depending on where we feel like things went wrong. [Chris]: Yeah definitely. And I mean it all depends on whatever happens. Right. because sometimes it's something small and it's not a big deal and it maybe, you know, maybe it's something that we're just disappointed in, and it's gonna take us, you know, a few minutes to get over. Or maybe it's something…maybe it's a personal attack or something that a relative is going in, the new agents is going. You're not making any money. You need to stop. Right. This is…you're…you're wasting your time, you're wasting your money, you're wasting our money, if it's a spouse. You know, even if you're doing the right things you may have not planned long enough. Nothing ever happens fast enough. Nothing ever happens, you know, the way that we want it. So you've got to kind of have that margin of error that you can work with. [Christian]: Sure and when you come into with…realistic expectations. Right. I mean so much of what happens in relationships that goes wrong, or getting in a rut that…that, you know, the reason we get there is because expectations are unmet, or our situation changes. You know, like if…if we think is gonna be easy and it's not, you know, we get in a rut. If, you know, we expect to make more money in the first quarter than we did, you know, it's easy getting in a rut. I mean it's just kind of…and not letting those quote failures drive you or dictate you. Because I mean what, you know, one man's failures is another person's learning, try opportunity. Yeah and that's something I've had to learn. Is like theoretically I understood. You know, as this ethereal concept I understood that failure was inevitable, and I need to be able to learn from that. But than going through that, that's experientially a lot different.  [Nathan]: So I need to get over this whole thing of how my job interferes me living my best life. [Chris]: You have the one job that you not interfere with you living your best life. [Nathan]: I don't have a job.  [Christian]: This is coming from the guy who's taken like several vacation this month to go down to…[crosstalk] [Nathan]: I know. I know. Listen you…listen I don't even have a job. I have…I do something I enjoy and love. I'm fortunate that I don't even do it as a job. I get to do what I enjoy. [Chris]: That's good. [Christian]: Yeah well let's…let's take us a little deeper and more personal. I mean Nate you kind of brought up the subject, cuz this last couple weeks have been pretty rough for you. I mean what have you found to be helpful kind of getting out of this rut for you? [Chris]: And first do you need to lay down on the therapist couch and put five cents in the jar? [Nathan]: No. Again it's…what's been helpful for me I mean again it's…I think, you know, what's the old saying? You know, you you're the average of the five people you spend the most time around. So I think it's also about the people you surround yourselves with. And that, you know, when you do get in that, they'll help you with that. You know, or they'll, you know, they'll they're kind of champion you and…and support you to say, you know, “Hey yeah…” You know, when you say “I'm in a rut or I'm this” they'll…they'll boost those spirits.  And it won't be an ego boost. It won't be one of those things like “You're the best thing in the world next to cotton candy.” But they know how to push you in the right direction to support you. And I think that's what…having that support is important. And I mean that ranges from colleagues that I have, to neighbors, to a wife. Like, you know, it's…it's all those things. You know, it…it makes, you know, surviving that period of time easier.  And…and sometimes you just need that outer push. And you also need it…I think you need the people around you that are honest with you. You know, what I mean? [Chris]: You don't need “Yes men. Yes.” [Nathan]: Yeah right. Yeah you need somebody to go tell you the truth. I mean that's, you know, that's, you know, my friends, the people I surround myself with will tell me, you know, what they think. And…and sometimes I don't want to hear it. [censored] A lot of times I don't want to hear it. But it is what I needed to hear. [Christian]: Sure. No one likes hearing the hard truth. [Nathan]: Yeah, no you know. [Chris]: But to be able to appreciate it though when it's in front of you. [Nathan]: Yeah. Yeah you're right. [Chris]: That's one of the hard…the hardest thing that I've found is when, you know, getting that criticism. Whe…when you just want to wall up and go into like active defence mode. Like just letting your body language relax. Having, you know, open gestures and trying to be open-minded to put yourself in the other person's shoes, and see what they're seeing.  [Nathan]: Right. [Chris]: And then trying to see if there's some corrective action that needs to be made there. That's…that's hard when you just go into like “Alright go ahead, give me the feedback because it's rare that I ever get feedback like this. So, you know, take advantage of it while you can.” [Christian]: Sure. Well it can be challenging too because, you know, no one's perfect and no feedback is gonna be perfect. So you have to like decide “OK what's an honest truth that I need to hear” versus “OK that part is kind of [censored]. I'm gonna not take that, you know, what I'll take, you know, kind of not throw the baby off the bathwater.” Like taking the truth where you find it whether that's in, you know, quote a rival or enemy, or that's in someone who's, you know, really close to you and has your best interest at mind. You know, like that could be…it can be challenging. Because, you know, typically I find that if you're playing it safe, there's gonna be a lot less friction and a lot less controversy and criticism. If you're really pushing the bounds, that's when things get tough and people can get ugly. So… [Chris]: Yeah. [Nathan]: You know, I know how to…at least I know how to do it. I know how to have a fight with myself. If that makes any sense. You find out [crosstalk] Yeah I know how to like… [Chris]: Elaborate on that. [Christian]: Yes do. [Nathan]: Because you've got to be willing to call your own [censored]. Right. You've got to be willing to kind of punch yourself in the face. Right. you've got to be… [Christian]: I need to watch conversations with you. [Nathan]: Yeah. Right. That's a staff meeting. Remember? It again it's, you know, you…it's like…I mean it sounds crazy but it's having that conversation in your head of “Hey Nathan, stop being a pussy and do what you know, what you need to do. Get your [censored] up off the couch. Or wake up on time. Or eat right. Or whatever it is. You're not doing these things. Stop…stop [censored] yourself.” And just having that honest, you know, that David Goggin [phonetics] said, you know, “You got to be able to look that man in the mirror.” Right. And that man in the mirror is, you know, me. And so if you can't have that honest fight, dialogue with yourself internally, I don't think it matters what anybody tells you then. [Christian]: Well the starting place for that is being self-aware. Like if you don't know yourself like you're gonna have a real tough time having that honest conversation. [Nathan]: Well most people can't do that though. They live in some [censored] fairyland. [Christian]: Well yeah, you know, I mean we all have our blind spots. Some people are more aware than…than others, you know. [crosstalk] The most important thing in life is…is being honest about that, you know.  [Nathan]: Right. Sorry. I don't know. You gotta find what works for you. I know what works for me. [Christian]: Yeah you…you be unique. [Nathan]: I'm good at doing that. Chris are we gonna wrap it up? [Chris]: Yeah so I think we…we hit on some good points. The…I think no matter where you are in your career you're gonna get hit with something that's gonna throw you off your game. You're gonna…you're gonna have a Nate moment where you got to be in front of the mirror and you got to kick yourself in the [censored].  You know, one of the things that I tell some of the new agents is, you're always gonna have a boss. And even when you're self-employed you still have a boss. It's the person in the mirror. And who do you want to work for? Do you want to work for a strong leader? Somebody who's going to step up and challenge the things that needs to be challenged to make sure that things are getting done that need to be done? Somebody that's gonna keep it on track? Or do you want to work for somebody who is just very lackadaisical and doesn't really care when you clock in?  And you have a boss, whether you're working for somebody else or yourself. So it's just a matter of making sure that you're doing the right things for you. When you get stuck in a rut, you got to pull yourself out of it. One way or another.  [Nathan]: Yeah, you know, Henry David Thoreau [phonetics] comes to mind. Sorry. Pulling out the big gun. But, you know, he said “What lies…what lies ahead of us and what lies behind us are small matters compared to what lies within us. And when you bring what's within you, out into the world, great things happen.” Right so, you know, I think you gotta remember what's inside. [Chris]: We need to set up Nate's…Nate's motivational quotes of the week. [Christian]: I know that's good. That's a good one. And as kind of closing thoughts…kind of reflecting on our conversation here. You know, obviously people's struggles are vary based on them, their personality, situation and what not. A lot of we've been saying is, you know, kind of “Don't give up. Keep trying. Push harder.” Yeah that kind of stuff. But I also want to say that it's not entirely up to you or it's not just about working hard or trying harder. Because sometimes, you know, you push too hard and you work too much and you get sick. And, you know, your body forces you to…to take a break. So I know for me one thing that's rejuvenating, and it can help me get out of a rut sometimes even when I feel like my rut is I have too much to do, is to act…intentionally take a break. Spend more time with the family. Unplug from work. Now some agents, you know, err on that side too much. Where, you know, spend too much time…they spend too much time relaxing. And not enough time working. I don't think that's our problem. And I think that's a lot of agents problems.  But give yourself permission to take a break, rejuvenate, spend time with family, you know, not always be…be working. Because sometimes that's all it takes to get out of a rut.  [Chris]: I couldn't agree with you more. And, you know, it's…sometimes it's hard for…for agents to take off, you know, an entire week from work. Just do a few long weekends every now and then. You don't have to…you don't have to take off a week or two weeks. Sometimes that's…that's not realistic. But make sure that your mental health is in check. And that you're taking some time to decompress and unwind and put things in perspective. What I've found is that when…when I'm able to do that, I'll come back with some new ideas. Because I'm not thinking about, you know, the day-to-day. I'll be able to just kind of, you know, day dream. Whatever it is. Read a good book and come back with, you know, a new perspective on what we're doing. So couldn't agree more with you Christian. Nate great points.  Everybody thank you so much for tuning in to this week's episode of re:Think Real Estate. If you haven't already ,please go to the website which is rtrepodcast.com. sign up for the newsletter so you never miss an episode, whenever we drop one, which is every single week. Thanks for tuning in everybody. We'll see you next week. [music]  [Chris]: Thanks for tuning in this week's episode of the re:Think Real Estate Podcast. We would love to hear your feedback so please leave us a review on iTunes. Our music is curtesy of Dan Koch K-O-C-H, whose music can be explored and licensed for use at dankoch.net. Thank you Dan. Please like, share and follow. You can find us on Facebook at Facebook.com/rethinkpodcast. Thank you so much for tuning in everyone and have a great week.  [music]  

What is the reason for the hope of a Christian? For many, the knee-jerk response might be “cuz the Bible said so”! But is it true that “as the Bible goes, so goes the Chrisitian faith”? In this message, we unpack the idea that the Christian faith isn’t based on an inspired book, but rather an unprecedented event in human history.

Message by Steve Bradley on April 7th, 2019 Am I a Christian? For more information about events and activities at City Life please visit our website at www.clc-wa.com/

Why I Am a Christian ***For a .pdf transcript click on the "Notes" icon above***

Will God forgive me even if I've sinned since becoming a Christian? For more resources, check out http://livelovedministries.com Where Silence Is Nonexistent by A Himitsu https://soundcloud.com/a-himitsu Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/theoatboat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/theoatboat/support

Does it matter how I dress? Why is that so important as a Christian? For many people, this conversation has more to do with what people see instead of what they know. Truthfully, there are times when we have to ask ourselves if what we are doing is about us or about Jesus. This week, Pastor Butler speaks to us about the reality that in Christ we have literally “put on Christ”, that we wear Him around in our daily lives. As he focuses on Ephesians 4:17-32, Pastor Butler will speak to us about learning to live by the motto “Off with the Old, On with the New”. Join us Sunday mornings at 9:00 and 10:30 am for worship in our Main Sanctuary (9:00/10:30) and the South Building (10:30). Visit us at www.crosspointe.tv CrossPointe.

The Eternal Security of the Christian For me, personally, probably for many of you as well, the most comforting doctrine in Scripture is the eternal security of the believer. Commonly, the doctrine is given us as once saved, always saved. You can't lose your salvation. Just for me personally, just to know with a sense of servitude in my heart, a sense of assurance that when I die, I'm going to be with Jesus, and I'm not going to be condemned, that I've crossed over from death to life, that I'm going to see Jesus on his throne, that he will welcome me into eternal habitations, that I will sit with Christ at the table along with the redeemed from all over the world, that I'm going to be there, that there's actually a place with my name on it that no power can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Many Scriptures teach me this. John 6, Jesus says these words with his blessed lips, "For I've come down from Heaven not to do my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me, and this is the will of him who sent me that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day." But later in that same chapter, Jesus said, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up at the last day." he says later in that same gospel in John 10, "My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one." Or as the Apostle Paul says in Romans 8, "For those God foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called, and those he called, he also justified, and those he justified, he also glorified." These passages and many others teach me the eternal security, the believer that when we come to faith in Christ, we don't receive anything less than eternal life and we will never perish. But, as we come to Hebrew 6, particularly verses 4-6, we come to one of the most controversial passages in the New Testament, one of the most commonly fought over battle ground text. Because it seems to say that there are genuine Christians that will end up in Hell. It seems to teach that people who are genuinely believers in Christ, can fall away, and not only that they can fall away, but you can never bring them back to repentance. It's an ancient battle ground over which battles have been waged on this one question: "Can a truly regenerate, a truly converted person, subsequently later on lose their salvation, fall away from Jesus and end up in Hell?" During the time of the Roman persecutions, there was a group of people known as the Novatians. The Christians were being persecuted under one emperor after another but particularly under the wicked Emperor Decius. Some church attenders, some professors of faith in Christ, renounced their faith in order to save their lives. Others, on the other hand, refused to renounce their faith. Some of them were killed. Others suffered the loss of loved ones, or husband's wives, of children, of friends. After the time of persecution ended, some of those who had repudiated Christ, who had renounced Christ, came back with tears, repentant, wanting to be reinstated to the church. Some churches, some church leaders refused to allow them to come back. A Roman priest in particular named Novatian set himself up as a rival Pope, a rival leader of the Church of Rome, and started a schism with the Roman Church on stricter principles of not allowing the lapsed to come back into the church. Now, those Novatians were eventually condemned as heretics by the official church in Rome. Sadly, the Roman church that condemned them also linked their movement to the Book of Hebrews, and to this passage in particular, and because of this passage, and generally the message of Hebrews, the Roman Church as a whole was slow to accept the Book of Hebrews as canonical Scripture. Calvinists vs. Arminians Many, many centuries later, those that strongly espoused the sovereignty of God and salvation, sometimes called Calvinists or reformed in their theology, debated or disputed with those that emphasized the more human focus and salvation, human free will. Arminians, they battled over this text as well. John Wesley, who was the 18th-century founder of Methodism in England, focused on human free will and human decisions all the way throughout salvation. He considered lawlessness the greatest plague in the Church of England, and specifically the view that because we are forgiven of all of our sins by the blood of Christ, we can lead careless, immoral lives and still be assured that we're going to Heaven. He hated that view. And he blamed reformed theology or strong view of the sovereignty of God. He blamed that view for that way of thinking, that lifestyle. And he said, "Instead, we need to preach that people can be true, genuine Christians one day and still end up in Hell after they die." In his booklet, Predestination Calmly Considered, Wesley took his readers through a back and forth debate on this text, Hebrews 6:4-6, proving that the people described in this text must be genuine Christians who then fall away and are lost. Wesley wrote, "It remains that those who see the light of the glory of God and the face of Jesus Christ, and who have been made partakers of the Holy Ghost of the witness and the fruits of the Spirit, may nevertheless so fall from God as to perish everlastingly." When one of Wesley's protege pastors was asked, "Do you believe in the perseverance of the saints?", he answered, "Certainly I do." The question was surprise and said, "I thought you did not." The Methodist preacher then explained, "Oh, sir, you have been misinformed. It is the perseverance of sinners that we doubt." Well, I don't find that very comforting because I am a sinner, and I need to know that God is going to persevere with me as a sinner until he saves me to the uttermost. I want to know this doctrine of security and I want to know if this text, Hebrews 6:4-6, takes my security away from me. That's what I want to know. I want to understand this passage of Scripture and I want you to do it as well. Does this passage teach that a genuine Christian can fall away from Christ? If so, how can we have any assurance at all, on a Sunday afternoon or a Tuesday morning or at any point in your life, how can you know? You don't know the future. And if it doesn't teach that a Christian can lose their salvation, what does it teach? What is it here for? Three Basic Approaches to Hebrews 6 There are three basic approaches to this text. The first approach, the man-centered or free will approach, this passage is clearly talking about true and genuine Christians who have been justified, and it's also clearly teaching that such people can lose their salvation, can renounce or repudiate Christ and end up condemned. Secondly, is what's known as the so-called "straw man" approach. In other words, this is just a rhetorical technique by the author to Hebrews. He's talking clearly about true Christians, the languages of true Christians. It must be, according to this view. But it says, "If they fall away." And since no true Christian can fall away, then this is an empty set. It's talking about nobody really. But the passage does us some good, and that's why it's in there. The third approach, which is the one I take, is that this passage is not speaking about true genuine Christians, that the five designators that are in here come short of designating these people as regenerate. There are people that derive tremendous benefits from regular church attendance at good healthy churches. Those benefits come to them through the power of the Holy Spirit, but they are short of being regenerate, and that it's possible to be actively involved in a good healthy church like that and then later fall away from Christ, and I believe going as far as this passage goes, viciously repudiate Christ, become an enemy of the church, a vocal enemy in some public way trample the blood of Christ under foot or at least in some vicious, private way. And whenever there's an opportunity that they can communicate this, this is their heart's state. And you can't restore those people back to their prior confession and that the passage does do true believers good in a mysterious and a powerful way these warnings, as they do throughout the book of Hebrews, keep us with the proper state of mind. And let me tell you right now what I think that is. I'll say it again perhaps at the end, but I want to say it to you right now: "How does God want the truly regenerate person to think and feel about these things now?" And this is what I think. I think if you have, as a Christian, a solid assurance of your final salvation based on the finished work of Christ on the cross and your faith, the internal testimony, the Holy Spirit that you are a child of God, and you with great joy can sing with full assurance that you're going to end up in Heaven, and day after day after day you fight sin and hate it and fight it with everything you have inside because it's evil and it will be no part of your future life in Heaven, then you're exactly where you need to be. And there are verses that do kind of some of the one work, and some other verses do some of the other work, and all put together, they shape our hearts and get us to be exactly where we need to be, joyful assurance coupled with unending warfare while we live in the body of death. That's what you've got. That's the Christian life. I. The General Exhortation: Let Us Go On to Maturity Alright, well let's look more specifically at this passage, and I'm just trying to stay as close as I can to the phrases in this text. Whenever I'm in doubt, I cling even closer to the Scripture than ever before. So we're going to go phrase by phrase. We're going to try to understand this and see what the Lord is saying to us through it. Now the context of Hebrews 6:1-6, media context is Hebrews 5. Now, the author has been warning a church of Jewish people that made professions of faith in Christ, who under intense and growing persecution, they were, I think, being tempted to forsake Jesus in particular and go back to old, to comfortable Old Covenant Judaism. The author is showing them that to do so would involve an open rejection of Christ as Messiah, to refuse God's call to come over into the Promised Land of the new covenant of salvation in Jesus. And so the author has been consistently, through the first five chapters, proclaiming the greatness of Jesus. Just how majestic he is. The radiant display of God's glory is Jesus, greater than any angel, greater than Moses, who was just a servant in God's house, but Jesus a Son over God's house, greater than Moses because he gives us a better sabbath rest and therefore he's better than Joshua because he leads us into an eternal sabbath rest in Heaven with God. He's greater than Aaron because his priesthood is a greater priesthood than the ironic priesthood. He is a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. And so the author's been portraying the greatness of Jesus, and then he gets to this word, Melchizedek. And as soon as he mentions Melchizedek, "you are priest forever in the order of Melchizedek," he stops. He interrupts himself and he gives the Hebrew Christians a full chapter and a half of rebuke, exhortation, warning and encouragement. That's Hebrews 5:11-6:20. And we're right in the middle of that interruption. The author has interrupted himself. But don't think that that interruption is something off by the side. It's really the very reason why he wrote the whole letter. And so he interrupts himself and he brings it right home to bear, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, training and righteousness." And so he is doing that right here. And then in Chapter 7, he resumes his train of thought and he goes on with this issue of Melchizedek. He's trying to show us that we have a high priest who can pray to God for us, who can save us from our sins, who can minister better than any of the other priests could do. Now, the rebuke we've already seen, last week, Hebrews 5:11-14. We have a lot to say about this Melchizedek figure, but it's hard to explain because you're sluggish and lazy in your hearing. By now, you should be further ahead. "You need milk and not solid food." And he's urging them. He's rebuking them. Then he gives us this exhortation in Hebrews 6:1-3. And the basic exhortation here is, "Let us go on to perfection or maturity," depending how you translate it. But the aim, the goal, is perfection. What could be achieved really is maturity, but that's the exhortation. Let's go on to maturity in Christ. Then he gives them a very serious warning which is the controversial passage verses four through eight, in effect saying that it's impossible to bring those who fall away, after these experiences, those who fall away back to repentance. Then he gives them some encouragements and exhortations from 9-20, Hebrews 6:9-20, how the author sees better things in them, things that accompany salvation. He remembers their labors for Christ. He points them to God's awesome power to finish their salvation and exhorts them one more time not to be lazy in their Christian life. So that's the context. So the general exhortation here is, "Let us go on to maturity." This is the main concern for this epistle, for these Christians to continue in Christ right to the end of their lives, not just to begin with Jesus, but to continue right to the end with Jesus, for them not to drift away, turn away or fall away, for them to run their race with endurance and then finally enter God's sabbath rest in the end, at the end of their lives. And so in verse one, we have this clear exhortation. Look at it with me, Hebrews 6:1, "Therefore, let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity." Maturity is the goal, spiritual maturity in Christ. He's compared them to spiritual babies, but he wants them to be spiritual mature adults, mature in Christ. And in order to do this, they have to have a proper vision of the Christian life. And the final goal of our salvation is total conformity to Christ. And so it doesn't matter too much to me whether you translate this word "perfection" or "maturity." It doesn't matter much. You are not going to be perfect in this world. That, the Bible is very clear about that. But the Bible is also clear that you are to aim for perfection in this world. At every moment, you're aiming for Christlikeness. I want to be just like Jesus. I don't want to be 90% like Jesus today, I want to be like him completely in every way. And since we go from this exhortation and one of the direst warnings in the entire Bible, it's pretty clear that to remain spiritually immature, to stay as a baby, is actually dangerous for you. It's dangerous. There's a connection then between continued growth and spiritual safety or protection. Conversely, there is a connection between failure to grow and eventual apostasy. So the issue here with these Hebrew professors of faith in Christ has to do with their inability to hear, to understand and to apply Christian doctrines, specifically this doctrine about Melchizedek. And he says, "Look, let's leave the elementary doctrines about Christ. Let's not lay again that foundation again," and so that the foundation of the Christian mind is doctrine, Christian ideas, concepts. Paul speaks of this foundation, the foundation of the building. In 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, "By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it, but each one should be careful how he builds, for no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ." What are the elementary doctrines of Christ here? So what is that foundation? What are the elementary doctrines of Christ here? Well, I think Verse 1 and 2 kind of list them. "Therefore, let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works," is one translation, "or acts that lead to death, faith in God, instruction about washings," or I think baptism is actually a good translation, "the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment." These are what he calls elementary principles. These are the beginning doctrines of the Christian life. Repentance from dead works So repentance from acts that lead to death. Acts that lead to death are violations of God's law. The only thing you ever need to repent from are sins, right? Sins are always transgressions of God's law. So as you begin to hear the gospel and evangelists, if he's faithfully telling you the truth, he'll say you must repent. You must turn away from your sins because your sins will condemn you. It's a foundational doctrine, repentance from dead works. Faith in God Secondly, a faith in God, especially faith in Jesus Christ. He talks about the elementary teachings about Christ. And so, faith in God through Jesus Christ, that you would trust in Jesus. So that's the full issue of repentance and faith, turning away from sin and turning to Jesus and seeing in Jesus in his death on the cross, his blood shed on the cross, your full forgiveness. Putting your trust in Jesus, that's an elementary principle of the Christian faith. It's the beginning doctrine. Turn away from sin and turn to Jesus. Instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands And then baptisms, plural word, but washings. I think in my interpretation, I'm not so sure about this, but I think it's both water baptism and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And I believe that water baptism is a sign or a symbol of the true baptism of the Spirit, the cleansing and the washing of the spirit. And then the laying on of hands happened back then in the early church with a new convert, like you remember how Ananias was sent to Saul of Tarsus after Saul had seen the vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus, and he was blinded by that, and he was praying and waiting, and God sent Ananias as the kind of human instrument, the evangelist. And placing his hands on Saul, he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord has sent me," who you saw on the road to Damascus, "has sent me that you might receive your sight and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." And so I think the placing and the laying on of hands was a visible demonstration of the gift of the Holy Spirit, the receiving of the Holy Spirit. The resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment The resurrection of the dead and eternal judgement that someday we will be raised up, that the righteous and the unrighteous alike, everyone will be raised up and go to judgment, and that God will separate all people, everyone into the righteous and the wicked, the believers in Christ and the unbelievers. Oh, if I could just plead with you. If you're here now in the state of being an unbeliever in Christ, you don't know how much longer you have to be alive. You don't know if you'll even make it to tonight. I urge you, while you're listening to me now, that you could, in your mind, picture Jesus on the cross, his blood shed, picture him dead under the wrath of God. His penalty was really for you. And trust in him. Put your faith in him that his righteousness might become yours and that your wickedness is given to him and he'll take it away and God will forgive you of all your sins, and trust in him that he not only died, but that God raised him up from the dead on the third day. I plead with you that you need perhaps this milk. You need these elementary teachings, then trust in Jesus. But if you've already believed all that, believed it years ago, time has come to move on. Let's go past these elementary doctrines, this milk of the cross. Don't misunderstand. Don't say, "Well, I've got it now. I understand everything there is to know about the cross of Christ." You never will. It's an infinite work. But these doctrines are called elementary. These are the milk doctrines. There's more to learn. So let's leave these elementary teachings, and let's go on to maturity. Key Statement: “God permitting, we will do so...” And the next statement is vital. Let us go on to maturity, and God willing, we will do so. Wow. "God permitting," we will go on to maturity. Don't skip over that. Friends, don't skip over anything in the Book of Hebrews. Everything's vital, but what is the author saying here? You might think that's an odd statement. Why wouldn't God permit us to go on to maturity? Well, I don't think this is a throw-away line. It's the key to everything. All Christian graces come from the Father through the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. There are no Christian graces or good things that happen to you that don't come from God. And if God permits for you to live, you'll live. And if he does not permit you to live, you will die. And if God permits you to continue in Jesus, you'll continue in Jesus. And if he does not permit you to continue, you will not. It all comes from God. Everything started with God and it will end with God. And so God permitting, you can make a single step in Christian progress. Jesus put it very plainly when he said, "I am the vine and you're the branches. If you remain in me, if anyone remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing." That Jesus' version of, "God permitting, we will do so." Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing. Apart from the ongoing sustaining grace of Almighty God through Jesus Christ, we would all be lost in a single day's time. Your faith would disappear if God didn't sustain it moment by moment. And so only if God wills can the Hebrew Christians, number one, keep being Christians, and number two, make progress as Christians, to God alone then be the glory for our salvation. Are you still in Jesus after all these years? Then give him the glory. God has permitted you. He has willed you to still be in Jesus. And if you're still in Jesus tomorrow, give him the glory. But you know what? He's promised you will be. He will keep his promise, but it all comes back to God. There's no independent Christian life here, but rather totally dependent. II. The Terrifying Warning of Apostasy Then the author turns of this terrifying warning of apostasy, the third and final step in its progression, as I pointed out in the NIV translation, which comes across as, "Don't drift away," Hebrews 2:1, "Don't turn away," Hebrews 3:12, and "Don't fall away," Hebrews 6:6, from the living God. So we have this terrifying warning of apostasy. Now, I can just stop and speak anecdotally to you. I can just speak to you from your experience. Have you ever known anyone that seemed to be doing great in their Christian life, was attending church regularly, coming to Bible studies, talking the talk, seemingly walking the walk, everything going great, and then some time later, they're not there anymore? Then you find them somewhere and you talk to them and their hearts have grown cold and distant from Jesus. Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever met anyone like that? I have met dozens and dozens of people like that. It's really sad. It's really tragic, and you want to think, "What can I do for these individuals?" And you're praying for them and you're, "What can I do? Maybe I can win them back. I want to win them back." But then the whole time, there's kind of perhaps rising a niggling concern in your own life. "Well, what about me? How do I know that won't happen to me?" So we come to this text and we ask does this text teach that we can lose our salvation? So look at verses 4-6. It says there, "For it is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss, they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace." III. Four Key Questions of Interpretation Four key questions of interpretation. Question number one: Who is the author talking about? What kind of person is this? Is this a regenerate person or not? Question number two: What does it mean to fall away? Question number three: What does it mean to renew again to repentance? Question number four: Why is it impossible to renew such people again to repentance? These are the four questions that any interpreter of this passage has to face if they want to be faithful. Now, let me tell you something. I think you can hear a lot of pastors preaching this passage, they'll skip these four questions, give you generally what they think and move on. I'm not trying to do that. I want to teach you to ask these kind of questions. These are the questions you have to ask if you want to understand what God means by this text. Who is the Author speaking about—Christians or not? Now first, what kind of people is the author talking about? Are these regenerate people or not? Are these Christians or not? Well, first of all, notice the shift of language. In many other passages around, before this and after this, he uses "us" and "you" language. Us and you. He talks about us, he talks about you. Us, you, us, you. He does that a lot. But in this passage, he changes to "those" and "them." Those kind of people. I don't think that's just an accident. Basically, he's taking a "if the shoe fits wear it" kind of approach here. He's laying out description saying if this is you, then this is the situation. He's going to later say, "I actually don't think this is you." But I think that's important. Also, notice things he does not say. He doesn't use certain phrases like this. He doesn't say that these people are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. He doesn't say that they're regenerate or born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. He doesn't use any language about justification here. He doesn't talk about justification through faith. He doesn't talk about being indwelt by the Holy Spirit so that the Holy Spirit then becomes a testimony that they are children of God. He doesn't mention adoption as children of God. These phrases and others like it, he doesn't mention. Actually, a statement after this passage makes it clear that the author does not believe these people to be saved, the people he's describing here. Look at verse nine. This is not in our passage this morning, but look at it. Hebrew 6:9, it says, "Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we're confident of better things in your case," look at the next phrase, "things that accompany salvation." Well, that tells me everything I need to know about this list. This list does not necessarily accompany salvation. So, in other words, the author has a good confidence that these Hebrews were actually genuine Christians who are being tested, but he does feel they need to be warned nonetheless, and so he warns them about apostasy. Well, what does he say about these people? Well, they have once been enlightened. They have tasted heavenly gift. They have shared in the Holy Spirit. They have tasted the goodness of the word of God and they have tasted the powers of the coming age, these five things. Now, can these descriptors be speaking of someone who was never really a true Christian? Or, on the other hand, can a true Christian fall away and be lost forever? Those are your options. Well, I believe these descriptors are speaking of a category of people who are deeply immersed and involved in the powerful apostolic era church who are experiencing in an overwhelming way the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the daily and weekly life of that healthy church, but who were not regenerate, actually. He says they "have once been enlightened." It's an interesting phrase. Enlightened, what does that mean? It comes from the Greek word photos, from which we get photography or photon. The Greek word usually means coming to a new understanding by good, solid Christian teaching. That frequently is used that way. For example, in Ephesians 1:18, "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints," etcetera. So enlightenment comes from kind of what I would say an "aha moment" where you learn something and something new hits you, and it's like, "Ah. Now, I'd never understood that before." Now, I believe that everyone who has truly converted is marvelously enlightened, amen? Haven't you had some light shine in your dark heart? Haven't you gotten some light that's true? But is it true that everyone who receives some light from the Gospel is genuinely converted? Now, that's a different question. Is it possible for an un-regenerate person to learn something and come to a new understanding of Christian theology or spiritual things without being regenerate? I think not only is it possible, it actually happens all the time. Recently, I was explaining the sacrificial system to a lapsed Catholic, went through the details of the sacrificial system, which I've done many times in this church. And this individual had heard these words in the mass year after year and have never understood, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." This individual told me, "I have never understood that. Now, I do. Finally, I see the connection between the animal sacrificial system and the death of Jesus." Enlightened, not regenerate. Actually, in the parable of the seed and the soils, there's a category, the rocky soil, that receives and springs up. Something comes up. They at once received the word with joy. Well, let's trace the joy back to its root. What's the root of joy? An idea, a thought, right? Here's a thought. There's a Heaven. It will last forever. It's going to be beautiful. You should want to be there, whatever. Sounds good to me. And there's joy at that and it comes from enlightenment. Conversely, it's also possible to have some kind of enlightenment on the negative aspects of the Christian faith. For example, you can hear of the terrors of hell and you can tremble and be worried about it and concerned as the Governor Felix was when he heard Paul, discourse on righteousness and self-control and the judgment to come. And when Felix heard this, Acts 24:25, he was very afraid and he stopped Paul and said, "That's enough for now. I'll send for you again, and we'll talk later." Well, what was Felix thinking? Fear. Why? Because he was enlightened about the true nature of hell and Judgement Day that's coming, but not regenerate. Is it possible then to be enlightened? I think so. Secondly, "tasted the heavenly gift." What does this mean? I think the heavenly gift here, let's just go right to it, is the Holy Spirit. I think it's the gift of the Holy Spirit. He's frequently spoken of as a gift, the gift of the Holy Spirit. "Repent and believe and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." He's spoken of as the Spirit from Heaven. You'll receive the gift from Heaven, so he's the heavenly gift, the Holy Spirit. Well, what then does it mean to taste of the heavenly gift? Well, let's try be a heavenly gift sampler. So we have a heavenly gift sample. Have any of you ever been to Costco? Like, a good friend of mine, who I will not mention from the pulpit, who can actually eat a whole meal from samples at Costco.You may know who I'm talking about. I'm not going to say his name. I love him dearly. But he can go to Costco and he can do very, very well there. But he never buy... Well, I'm not going to go that far. Probably, he buys some things from Costco. I asked him, "Do they have like a furniture set there where you can kind of sit and eat the samples? I mean, do they have a TV plugged in so you can... I mean, it could be your kind of living room for an afternoon, you know?" But you know what I mean. By samples, they're samplers. And you just taste and you're getting tastes, but you're not sitting down to the meal. Jesus on the cross was offered wine to drink mixed with gall, and he tasted it but he didn't drink. There's a difference between tasting and drinking, friends. And so in this sense, they were partakers of the Holy Spirit. This does not mean they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Because in John 14, we're promised the Holy spirit will be with us forever, that when he comes and takes possession of you and you become a son or daughter of the Living God and the Spirit testifies to you, that you're a child of God, that will be forever. He doesn't adopt you one day and un-adopt you the next. But these were merely partakers with the Holy Spirit. What does that mean, "Partakers of the Holy Spirit"? I think you hang around. Listen, you hang around in a good healthy church, you're going to receive some benefits from the Holy Spirit. You're going to receive the benefit of good teaching. You're going to receive the benefits of encouragement, benefits of good examples, benefits of financial contributions and generosity. You might receive financial help in a time of need as a gift of the Holy Spirit to you, even though you're unregenerate. These people, I think, have actually gone beyond that. To skip ahead, it says, "They tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age." They might have even been physically, miraculously healed by the power of the Holy Spirit and still unregenerate. Not everyone who gets physically healed is saved. John 5, Jesus warned one of the men he healed, "Stop sinning or something worse will happen to you." So these people were partakers, the fruit, the gifts of the Spirit flowing horizontally, but they were not genuinely converted. They tasted the goodness of the word of God. I think, again, this refers to the preaching, the teaching of the word, and there's some value and benefit that comes to everybody from a good exposition of Scripture. You're tasting of it, but you're not drawing it in. And the powers of the coming age, it talked in Hebrews 2:4 about the powers of signs and wonders, of miracles, of healings, gifts of tongues and prophecy, and all the stuff that was flowing in the apostolic era of church. And they had tasted or partook of it, but I believe they were not regenerate. So these people have been experiencing the healthiest, most powerful spiritual experience all under the various ministries of the Holy Spirit. They were there week after week at church. They heard the word of God unfolded. Christians were using their spiritual gifts in their lives to heal them or bless them or encourage them or help them in some way. Their minds had been enlightened by the Gospel and they had sampled these good things, but tragically they had never believed and they'd never been converted. What does it mean to “fall away”? Second question: What does it mean then to fall away? Well, first of all, let's be clear what this does not mean. Listen carefully to this because Satan can use this to discourage you. This does not refer to various temptations that may cause ordinary Christians to stumble along the way. It does not refer to that. It doesn't even refer to grievous sins that may lay hold of someone and even in some mysterious way take them captive for a period of time in which they're habitually drawn into that lifestyle. It doesn't refer to that. It's not stumbling therefore into this or that sin. Neither is it falling prey to some surprising temptation that seizes you and drags you away or falling even into false doctrines or false understandings of aspects of the Christian life. And it certainly doesn't refer to somebody who's walking with the Lord, living a very disciplined, upright life, having daily quiet times, venturing out into evangelism, serving others, memorizing Scripture, but then through a variety of temptations, through weariness, through circumstances, tragedies in their family, starts to get cold or drift back somewhat and struggle attending church. This is not what this is talking about. There are other verses about that condition. This isn't talking about that. Well then, what does it mean? It means a total renunciation as an act of the will, of all the doctrines and commitments of the Christian faith, a full rejection of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, as the Savior of the world, a denial of the saving power of the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross. It consists in a vowed, deliberate repudiation of Jesus Christ, falling into another religion like Old Covenant Judaism or Islam or Buddhism or paganism or even atheism. John Owen called it this, "A voluntary, resolved relinquishment of and apostasy from the Gospel, the faith, the rule and obedience thereof which cannot happen without the person casting the highest reproach and disgrace imaginable upon the person of Jesus Christ himself." Look at verse six, "To their loss, they're crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace." In effect, they're standing with the crucifiers of Jesus and giving full ascent to what they did, glad that Jesus was crucified because he deserves it. He's a blasphemer and a deceiver of the people, publicly disgracing Jesus, cursing his name. Same themes come again in Hebrews 10, "If we deliberately keep on sinning," verse 26 and following, "after we've received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgement and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God." So the word "deliberately keep on sinning," describes this apostasy. Deliberately means willingly with the full agreement of the heart, and from the heart sinning by trampling the blood of Jesus under foot as if it were an unholy thing. Hebrews 10:29, "How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him and has insulted the spirit of grace." What does it mean to “renew again to repentance”? Thirdly, what does it mean to renew again to repentance? Well, the author speaks of what many of us, any of us, would want to do to such a person, make some effort to win them back, renew them again to repentance. We yearn to bring them back to their former way of life, their former outward profession. "Just come back, and it'll be like it used to be. Come back and be part of us. Come to church again and come and partake of the Lord's supper again, and come and sit under the preaching again, and just be part of us again." Early church thought this meant baptism, a rebaptism for this, but there's no connection, open connection, here to baptism. Some people think it teaches a real inward genuine repentance toward Jesus. But the problem with that interpretation is they never had that to begin with or else they wouldn't have fallen away. So you can't renew them back to something they never had. So instead, it's that they would come back and do the things they used to do, make that outward profession, continue to live the Christian life. And the author says it is impossible. It is impossible. You cannot renew them again to repentance. It cannot happen. They fall away. They are like trampling the Son of God under foot. They're despising him, blaspheming him and is impossible to renew them again to repentance. Why is it “impossible” to renew such people to repentance? Question four: Why? Why? Why is it impossible to do it? Well, I think you should go back to the beginning of Verse 4 to understand this, and if you have the NIV with you, you're greatly at a disadvantage here. And why? Because they left off a keyword. The first word in Verse 4 should be the word, "for." If you have an NIV, do what I did right here and write the word "for" right there at the beginning of verse 4. It's easy. "For" for four right in there. Stick the word "for" in there. Why? Well, because the "for" makes you go back a verse to Verse 3, and what does verse three say? "And God permitting we will do so." That's why it's impossible. You know why? God isn't going to do it. God grants repentance. It's not impossible because God can't do it. God can do anything. Remember the story of the rich young ruler who comes and then goes away sad, and Jesus makes the statement, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven." Disciples are astonished and say, "Who then can be saved?" You remember Jesus' answer? "With man, this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." So there's no lack in God. God can take out any heart of stone and put in the heart of flesh. He can do it any time he wants. The reason it's impossible to renew these apostates to repentance is that God has willed not to. He's made no promises to them to renew them. There's nothing in his character that obligates him to reclaim the apostate. He's not forced or compelled in any way, and he's saying here that he will not bless any such efforts. So John Owen said this, "The apostle instructs us no further in the nature of future events but as our own duty is concerned in them. It is not for us either to look for or hope for or pray for or endeavor towards the renewal of such persons unto repentance. God gives law unto us in these things but not unto himself, interestingly. It may be possible with God for all we know. Only he will not have us to expect any such thing from him nor has he appointed any means for us to attempt it. What he shall do we ought thankfully to accept, but our own duty towards such persons is absolutely at an end." I really think this is the best interpretation of Jesus' statement, "Do not give dogs what is sacred. Do not throw pearls before pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet and then turn and tear you to pieces." IV. Key Questions of Application If that verse has any application, I think its application is here now. These are vigorous enemies of the cross now. They are apostates and they're trampling Jesus publicly. "Leave them alone. There's nothing more he can do for them." Application for us. And I just want to put it in question form: Does this passage teach that a true believer can lose his or her salvation? At least this much you can answer, "Pastor doesn't think so." Alright, you can go with that. Whatever you think is up to you. But I think I've laid out evidence for why I just don't think that that's... And if you believe that, then you have to go back to the passages I quoted from John and tell me what they mean because I don't know what they could mean if they don't mean what they seem to mean. I think it's plain that the five descriptions of the apostates in this passage come short of speaking of a genuine Christian. Secondly, how should a Christian hear this dreadful warning? How should you hear this warning? I think the best phrase is from Philippians, "With fear and trembling." "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." And so I told you a combination of joyful expectancy based on the work of Christ and a fear and trembling, working out your salvation, putting sin to death and saying, "Oh, God, strengthen me. Help me in my battle against sin. This is a hard battle. I need your help. Please be with me. Pour out your grace on me and I know that I'll continue in Jesus. Thank you that you have promised that you'll do that." Look at verses 11 and 12. There is a kind of life that leads to Heaven. Hebrews 6:11-12 describes it. We'll get to it in due time, but I just want to read it now. "We want each of you to show the same diligence to the very end in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised." A diligent life ends up in Heaven. Not a lazy life. A life filled with faith and patience in the battle of Christianity. So this warning against apostasy is meant to jar us out of complacency, that just because we go to a good church, we're surrounded by God's people, we receive the benefits of their spiritual gifts, we enjoy happy feelings of spiritual enlightenment, that we are because of those things regenerate. Rather, we must look deeper. Is our faith working deep conviction of an hatred towards sin? Is there a pattern of growing holiness in our lives, our private lives? Are we working out our salvation with fear and trembling? Are we trusting in Jesus day after day, confident that he will sustain us to the very end, but not allowing that confidence to be a license for sin? Truly a lapsed regenerate child of God hears this warning soberly and brings it back to Jesus and says, "Jesus deliver me from sin. Help me to run this Christian race with endurance." And it stands over many Evangelical and Baptist churches that have easy believe-ism, a walk the aisle, raise your hand, instant baptism, pray the sinners prayer, receive full assurance of salvation, be taught immediately once saved, always saved, and then lead sinful self-indulgent lives in which there's no pattern of holiness, eventually leave off attending church since you already have your fire insurance, it stands over such churches and says, "You are shoddy workmen." Paul laid a foundation and the builders that came after needed to build with gold and silver and costly stones and you're building with straw and wood and stubble. That is not the genuine Gospel. And a true Christian should look after this passage and just look after your genuine heart love for Jesus. Spend this afternoon telling Jesus you love him. If he convicts you of sin, repent. Ask for forgiveness. Let him cleanse you and restore you. Rest in your assurance that you're going to be in Heaven when you die, and then keep getting to work fighting sin. And finally, if you're lost, you've heard the gospel today. Don't walk out of here without a saving interest in Jesus. Trust in Jesus for the salvation of your souls. Close with me in prayer.