Podcasts about me john

ONE June 1, 2025 Elwyn Johnston John 17 Verse of the Week: “that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me” John 17:23 1. The diversity of oneness “that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You” John 17:21 2. The purpose of oneness “Sanctify them in the truth [set them apart for Your purposes, make them holy]” John 17:17 AMP To know Christ “though the world does not know You, I know You” John 17:25 “My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” Philippians 3:10 “I count everything as loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Philippians 3:8 To make Christ known “I have made You known to them, and will continue to make You known” John 17:26 “Just as You commissioned and sent Me into the world, I also have commissioned and sent them into the world.” John 17:18 “I pray that they may be united with Us so that the world will believe that You have sent Me.” John 17:21 3. The power of oneness “The people are one, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them!” Gen. 11:6 “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting….And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” Acts 2:1, 2, 4 “whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do” John 14:12 4. The foundation of oneness - Jesus “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” John 17:3

May 11, 2025 The Good Shepherd and Me - John 10:22-30 by Sermons of Pastor Paul Kaldahl

Send us a text“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.  “And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me” (John 17:20-23).Written and sent out from the morning prayer time of Tommy Hays each day.God bless you and may you have a great day!—Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministrieshttp://messiah-ministries.org

The Wedding Table April 27, 2025 Elwyn Johnston Revelation 19:6 – 8 Verse of the Week: “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” Revelation 19:9 1. The wedding requires preparation “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 “I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:2 & 3 “The feast has been prepared….everything is ready” Matthew 22:4 “without holiness no one will see the Lord.” Hebrews 12:14 “I promised you to one husband, to Christ so that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:2 “the washing of water by the Word” Ephesians 5:26 “the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and His bride has prepared herself.” Revelation 19:7 2. You have a personal invitation “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” Revelation 19:9 “I have called you by name; you are Mine!” Isaiah 43:1 “I am the Good Shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me” John 10:14 “by grace you have been saved through faith, and you can't take credit for it, it is the gift from God.” Ephesians 2:8 “Invite everyone you find to the wedding.” Matthew 22:9 “the guests he had invited ignored them and went their own way” Matthew 22:5 3. The wedding will be a party “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.” Rev. 19:6 “I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.” Matthew 26:29

Send us a textEarly released program for Easter Weekend (April 19, 2025)The prophets foretold Him. The gospels reveal Him. The epistles explain Him. All of Scripture exalts Him.“Him” being Jesus Christ, the God-man who lived among us, was crucified by those He created, miraculously rose from the grave, and then ascended alive into heaven.This is way beyond the “greatest story ever told”. Rather, Jesus Christ is the greatest One who ever lived. His crucifixion, burial, resurrection is the greatest, most significant event in human history.Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6).Scripture also says, “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time” (1 Timothy 2:5).This Easter weekend, we're going to talk about “the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all”. We'll examine the most detailed Old Testament prophecy about Him in Isaiah 53 and see how it was precisely fulfilled. We'll also hear some of the most profound hymns about Christ's sacrificial death for man.We hope your Easter is made more meaningful as you listen to this special edition of The Christian Worldview.--------------------Related Resources:Why Would Anyone Follow Jesus?

Jesus says of the Old Testament Scriptures that “they … bear witness about Me” (John 5:39). This is especially true of two central messianic prophecies, Isaiah 52:13–53:12 and Psalm 22, which feature prominently in Holy Week services. In Isaiah 52–53, we gain remarkable details about Jesus' crucifixion from a prophecy that was written more than 700 years before His death. In Psalm 22, the Holy Spirit inspired David, about 1,000 years before Jesus' birth, to record words that apply in part to David himself but above all to the Messiah. It would not be a stretch to say that Isaiah 52–53 is a biographical portrait of Jesus Christ, and Psalm 22 is autobiographical, since Jesus took the words of David on His own lips at His crucifixion. Or perhaps we should view it the other way around, with “David's Son, yet David's Lord” (LSB 451:1; cf. Matthew 22:41–46) lending the words to His ancestor. Either way, opening the Old Testament leads us straight to Jesus. Rev. Carl Roth, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Elgin, TX, joins Sarah to talk about the “Searching Scripture” feature in the April 2025 issue of the Lutheran Witness titled “The Suffering Servant” on Isaiah 52:13–53:12 and Psalm 22. This year, “Searching Scripture” is themed “Opening the Old Testament” and will walk through ways that the Old Testament witnesses to Jesus Christ and His grace, mercy and peace, delivered through the holy Christian church. Follow along every month and search Scripture with us! Find online exclusives of the Lutheran Witness at witness.lcms.org and subscribe to the Lutheran Witness at cph.org/witness.

Jesus says of the Old Testament Scriptures that “they … bear witness about Me” (John 5:39). This is especially true of two central messianic prophecies, Isaiah 52:13–53:12 and Psalm 22, which feature prominently in Holy Week services. In Isaiah 52–53, we gain remarkable details about Jesus' crucifixion from a prophecy that was written more than 700 years before His death. In Psalm 22, the Holy Spirit inspired David, about 1,000 years before Jesus' birth, to record words that apply in part to David himself but above all to the Messiah. It would not be a stretch to say that Isaiah 52–53 is a biographical portrait of Jesus Christ, and Psalm 22 is autobiographical, since Jesus took the words of David on His own lips at His crucifixion. Or perhaps we should view it the other way around, with “David's Son, yet David's Lord” (LSB 451:1; cf. Matthew 22:41–46) lending the words to His ancestor. Either way, opening the Old Testament leads us straight to Jesus. Rev. Carl Roth, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Elgin, TX, joins Sarah to talk about the “Searching Scripture” feature in the April 2025 issue of the Lutheran Witness titled “The Suffering Servant” on Isaiah 52:13–53:12 and Psalm 22. This year, “Searching Scripture” is themed “Opening the Old Testament” and will walk through ways that the Old Testament witnesses to Jesus Christ and His grace, mercy and peace, delivered through the holy Christian church. Follow along every month and search Scripture with us! Find online exclusives of the Lutheran Witness at witness.lcms.org and subscribe to the Lutheran Witness at cph.org/witness.

There are five Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke, John - and the Christian. Most people never read the first four. That observation, made a long time ago, could not be more true today. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When God's Messenger Messes Up the Message." If our world's getting darker, then something must be wrong with what folks are "reading," in the Christians - the messengers - they know. We talked about that yesterday. And then there must be something wrong with their message. No, wait! Actually, with the way they represent the message. That message is, as the Bible says, the "good news about Jesus" - the love that died for us, the power that crushed death. So the problem sure isn't the message. But the Good News doesn't sound as good when it's obscured by three mistakes that we messengers make. Number one, our tone. So many unbelievers I know use some unwelcome words to describe Christians. You may have heard them: "angry," "you're judgmental," "you're condemning." Did you know up to 80% of communication is tone? Not what we say, but how we say it. So is our tone drowning out our message? Jesus' main man, Simon Peter, seemed to learn that over time. Earlier, he was brash, he was explosive. But later, he said we should "always be prepared to give an answer to everyone...with gentleness and respect" (1 Peter 3:15). Is that how people feel when they're with us - "gentled" and "respected?" Is it our message folks are rejecting or our tone? This isn't about winning an argument. It's about winning a heart. Then secondly, our retreat may be part of the problem. Our message gets obscured. We Jesus-followers have one authority for the message that changes eternities. It's God's Word. "All Scripture" the Bible calls it. He says it is "God-breathed" (2 Timothy 3:16). But as our culture moves, Christians tend to move with it. Always keeping an apparently "righteous distance" but quickly ending up where non-believers were as little as ten years ago. And reinterpreting, rationalizing, diluting their source, the Bible, to justify their flexible "truth." When we adjust our beliefs to placate our culture, we are no longer the choice Jesus called us to be. We're just an echo of our culture; losing the power of God's voice for some wimpy blend of Christianity and cultural appeasement. As Martin Luther essentially stood against the whole world in his day, here was his anchor verse: "Your word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens" (Psalm 119:89). If it stands firm in the heavens, I can't change it on earth. Thirdly, I think our message can be obscured by our baggage. The Gospel is compelling when it's just the Gospel. But some people never get to the Gospel because of the baggage we encumber it with: politics, church, denomination, culture wars, rules, condemning people's lifestyles. It's all about Jesus. Jesus made it all about Jesus with His simple invitation, "Follow Me" (Mark 1:17). "Come to Me" (Matthew 11:28). "Trust in Me" (John 14:1). That's why Paul, Jesus' greatest ambassador, said in our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Corinthians 2:2, "I resolved when I was among you to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." Charles Spurgeon said the Cross is God's "magnificent magnet." Because "if they perceive, "Spurgeon said, "that He loved them and gave Himself for them, their hearts are stolen away." That message, uncompromised, unencumbered, delivered with love, is what it has always been. According to Romans 1:16, "The power of God at work, saving everyone who believes." It's all about Jesus and His Cross. Stick to that my friend! Messengers who act like Jesus, a message that's all about Jesus. That is a bright light on an otherwise dark and dangerous stretch of beach.

     In the Christian life, faith can be seen in two ways. First, there is the single act of faith in Jesus that results in our salvation (John 3:16; 6:40; 20:31; Acts 4:12; 16:31; Eph 2:8-9). This refers to our justification before God and is a one-time event that is never repeated. Justification is declared because God has imputed His righteousness to us at the moment we trusted in Jesus as our Savior (Rom 5:17; 2 Cor 5:21; Phil 3:9). This results in our eternal salvation and is conditioned only on faith in Jesus (Rom 3:28; Gal 2:16), for “there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Act 4:12). Second, after being born again, God calls us to a walk of faith where we continually trust Him at His Word and obey His directives (2 Cor 5:7; Heb 10:38; 11:6). The walk of faith focuses largely on what we think (Rom 12:1-2), say (Eph 4:15; Col 4:6), and do (Jam 1:22). God's Word sanctifies us as we walk by faith in Him (John 17:17), and this glorifies Him and advances us to spiritual maturity. Justification sets the ground for sanctification, but does not guarantee it, as the Christian must possess positive volition and make ongoing good choices that are rooted in divine viewpoint. Some believers, like the prodigal son, may turn to a sinful lifestyle. Faith that Justifies us Before God      Our righteous standing before God starts the moment we believe in Jesus as our Savior. This is the Jesus of Scripture and history, and not a fake Jesus like those taught by Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, or one we create in our imagination. Jesus is the second Person of the Trinity; He is God in the flesh (John 1:1, 14; 20:28; Col 2:9). Prior to His incarnation, God the Son was involved in planning our salvation with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. God the Father sent God the Son into the world to fulfill a divine mission. God's Word tells us, “The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14; cf., John 4:34; 7:29; 8:29; 20:21). The Father's great mission was to make salvation available to everyone. This act of God was done in love, as it is written, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16), and “He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10; cf., Rom 5:8). The Son agreed with the Father, saying, “I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38), and “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). When God the Son came into the world and took upon Himself humanity, He executed His mission flawlessly.      The divine mission began in time and space nearly two thousand years ago when God the Son took upon Himself humanity. The writer to the Hebrews cites the words of God the Son as He was about to enter the world, saying, “Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says [to God the Father], ‘Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, but a body You have prepared for Me'” (Heb 10:5). The third Person of the Trinity, God the Holy Spirit, facilitated the mission by bringing about the hypostatic union within the womb of the virgin Mary (Isa 7:14; Luke 1:30-35; Gal 4:4). The angel Gabriel told Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). At the moment of conception in the womb of the virgin Mary, undiminished deity was combined forever with perfect humanity. Eventually, Jesus was born, and God “became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). The apostle Paul tells us, “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form” (Col 2:9).      God's Word also informs us that Jesus was a Jew, born a son of Abraham, in the line of David (Matt 1:1), the promised Messiah (Matt 1:1, 16-17; John 1:41). Jesus grew in human wisdom (Luke 2:40, 52) and lived a perfectly righteous life before God and man. The record of Scripture is that Jesus “knew no sin” (2 Cor 5:21), was “without sin” (Heb 4:15), “committed no sin” (1 Pet 2:22), and “in Him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5). In His humanity, Jesus walked in perfect conformity to God the Father's holy character and divine revelation. This is important, for Jesus' sinless life qualified Him to go to the cross and pay the ransom price for our sins. Jesus said, “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).      When the divinely appointed time came for Jesus to go to the cross (John 12:23; 13:1), He went willingly (Isa 53:10; John 10:18). Just hours before the crucifixion, Jesus said to His Father, “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do” (John 17:4). Then He went to the cross and “offered Himself without blemish to God” (Heb 9:14), and “gave Himself for our sins” (Gal 1:4). Jesus paid our sin debt by means of His “precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ” (1 Pet 1:19). While on the cross, “Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor 15:3), and He died in our place, “the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God” (1 Pet 3:18).      Jesus' death on the cross was a one-time event, as He “offered one sacrifice for sins for all time” (Heb 10:12). After Jesus paid for all our sins, “He said, ‘It is finished!' And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit” (John 19:30). Jesus' death on the cross satisfied every righteous demand of God the Father concerning the payment for our sins (Rom 3:25), for “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). Jesus paid the price for all our sins. There's nothing more to pay. After Jesus died, He was placed in a grave and was resurrected to life on the third day (Acts 2:23-24; 4:10; 10:40; 1 Cor 15:3-4), never to die again (Rom 6:9). Because Christ died for everyone (John 3:16; Heb 2:9; 1 John 2:2), everyone is savable. The Bible tells us that God has brought “salvation to all men” (Tit 2:11), that He “desires all men to be saved” (1 Tim 2:4), and is “not wishing for any to perish” (2 Pet 3:9).      Once we understand who Christ is, as God in the flesh (John 1:1, 14), and what He has accomplished for us on the cross—having died for our sins, was buried, and raised again on the third day (1 Cor 15:3-4)—we can then exercise our faith by trusting in Him as our Savior. To receive salvation, the unbeliever is told to “believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31a). Jesus is the object of our faith. To believe in Christ as our Savior means we trust Him to accomplish for us what we cannot accomplish ourselves: eternal salvation from the lake of fire.      Faith in Christ is the only condition for salvation. Faith does not save; Christ saves. Faith is merely the instrument by which we receive the free gift of God, which is eternal life. Though the gift was very expensive for the Lord, it is offered totally free to us, for “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23). And it is “by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph 2:8-9). Only the empty hand of faith accepts the gift. It offers nothing but is open to receive that which is offered by another. God's gift is available to everyone, for “whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16), and “he who believes has eternal life” (John 6:47). No payment is required from us to receive it. It's a free gift.      The only sin that keeps a person out of heaven is the sin of unbelief, the individual choice NOT to trust in Jesus as one's Savior. The one who rejects Jesus as Savior is judged by God on the sole ground that “he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18). These are the ones who “are always resisting the Holy Spirit” (Acts 7:51; cf. John 16:8), who “do not believe” in Jesus as their Savior (John 16:9), and “are unwilling to come” to Him so that they “may have life” (John 5:40). Those who willingly reject Christ as Savior will, after death, experience eternal separation and punishment away from God for all eternity, for “if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev 20:15). This need not happen. Hell is avoidable for the one who trusts in Christ as Savior, for “whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16), and “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not believe in the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36). Salvation is a free gift from God (Rom 3:24; 6:23), offered by grace alone (Eph 2:8-9), through faith alone (Gal 2:16; 3:26; 2 Tim 3:15), in Christ alone (John 14:6; Acts 4:12), totally apart from human works (Rom 4:4-5; Eph 2:8-9; Tit 3:5). For lost sinners, the matter is simple: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).      Once we have trusted in Christ for salvation, God then bestows on us forgiveness of sins (Acts 10:43; Eph 1:7), the gift of righteousness (Rom 5:17; Phil 3:9), eternal life (John 10:28), and many other blessings (Eph 1:3). And having entered into a relationship with God through Christ (John 1:12; Gal 3:26), we are then called to a life of holiness and righteousness (1 Pet 1:15-16), as we learn His Word (2 Tim 2:15; 3:16-17; 1 Pet 2:2; 2 Pet 3:18), walk by faith (2 Cor 5:7; Heb 10:38), and advance to spiritual maturity (Heb 6:1). This new walk with God will honor Him and edify others (Eph 4:1-2; 5:1-2). Dr. Steven R. Cook

Send us a text“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me” (John 14:1).Written and sent out from the morning prayer time of Tommy Hays each day.God bless you and may you have a great day!—Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministrieshttp://messiah-ministries.org

Send us a text“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27).Written and sent out from the morning prayer time of Tommy Hays each day.God bless you and may you have a great day!—Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministrieshttp://messiah-ministries.org

Is Jesus Equal To God The Father? The answer is yes because the  Bible contains several verses that indicate Jesus' claim to His equality with God, the Father. I will share some of these Scriptures with you. John 10:30: "I and the Father are one"  John 12:45: "He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me"  John 14:9-10: "He who has seen Me has seen the Father"  John 5:17: "My Father is always at his work . . . , and I too am working"  Matthew 10:40: Jesus equates himself with God John 5:25–27; 10:17–18; 17:2: Jesus claims authority given to him by the Father  Philippians 2:6-11: Christ was like God in everything, but gave up his place with God to become human and obedient, even to the point of death on the cross  John 5:15-29: The Son does what the Father does, and the Father gives all judgment to the Son Well you might ask if Jesus is equal to God, Why did He say the Father is greater than Him or why doesn't He know the day when He will return in correlation to the second coming? The answer: Jesus took on flesh and blood, he became a humble servant unto the Father.  Nonetheless, it doesn't divest Him of being deity, it is the prerogative of the Godhead (Father Son and Holy Spirit) for only the Father to know the day that The Son will return. As well,  in correlation to the order of the Godhead, He is still in perfect unity with the Father and the Holy despite their distinctiveness. This will conclude my podcast for today. #isjesusGod #fathersonandholyspirit #deityofchrist #thewordofgod #thesonofGod --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/biblequestionsandanswers/support

In John 5:39 we read the words of Yeshua when He said ... "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me" (John 5:39 NASB).  All they had was the Old Testament in Jesus' day.  Therefore, is there a connection with the purposes of the flood and the reason for the Cross?  There is.  It seems likely the flood testifies of the Messiah. There are two critical verses to consider.  Gen. 6:5 and 8:21.  The first describes mankind before the flood.  The second verse describes mankind after the flood.  After the flood there were only eight people left, Noah and his wife, his three sons, and their wives.  The verse are below. Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  (Gen 6:5) The LORD smelled the soothing aroma; and the LORD said to Himself, "I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.  (Gen 8:21) So Yahvay, the Lord God, is sad and decides to destroy all mankind.  He does this and it is all because of the state of man as specified in Gen. 6:5.  The flood occurs and now we are left with eight people.  And God states that the condition of mankind (these remaining eight) hasn't changed!  They are still ones whose heart is intent on evil from their youth.  So, the flood did nothing.  It did not get rid of sin and evil and man's inclination to sin.  Is God saying that the only to get rid of evil, sin, and mankind's inclination to sin is to totally destroy all humans?  If He had, if Yahvay also killed Noah and his family, there'd be no more sin.  The Creator would've destroyed the Creature He made, man and woman, and we'd have a world with no sin and no evil.  But, He left eight live.  And they have the same condition as before the flood.   He left eight live.  Is this perhaps related to a famous verse we seemingly all know and that is John 3:16 or  "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."  (Joh 3:16) Is He saying that the answer to the dilemma of the curse on us, on all mankind, our inclination to sin, is the sacrifice of Messiah, the death of Yeshua?  So join us as we study the answer to the fact that the flood did nothing, it did not rid the world of sin and death and evil.  Join us as we again hear THE VERY WORDS OF GOD and see that scripture testifies of Jesus and the redemption plan of the Lord.     Rev. Ferret - Who is this guy?  What's his background?  Why should I listen to him?  Check his background at this link - https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/8qth6w4e56oub9js1w1gu/BackgrndTeacher-mar-25-2020.pdf?rlkey=f14fr2wmde5fezjmnrny8cycl&dl=0        

     Sometime in eternity past, God the Father sent God the Son into the world to fulfill a divine mission. God's Word tells us, “The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14). This was the great mission: to bring salvation to everyone. This act of God was done in love, as it is written, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16), and “He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10). The Son agreed with the Father, saying, “I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38), and “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). When God the Son came into the world and took upon Himself humanity, He executed His mission flawlessly.  @ThinkingonScripture  Click here for full article: https://thinkingonscripture.com/2024/07/03/god-the-son-came-down/  Dr. Steven R. Cook

October 31st marks the 507th anniversary of the protestant reformation when a Catholic monk by the name of Martin Luther wrote ninety-five complaints concerning the Roman Catholic Church and nailed those complaints to the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg in 1517. Little did Luther know that his complaints would be taken down, translated into multiple language, and mass produced through the newly invented printing press. It was because of what Martin Luther was reading and studying in his Bible that he wrote his complaints for the purpose of debating and dialoging over what he believed were inconsistences with the teachings of the church compared to what the Bible actually taught. Eventually, on April 17, 1521, Luther would have to appear before the Diet of Worms to give account for the vast number of texts, treatises, letters, and tracts calling into question the teachings and traditions of the Roman Catholic Church. It was at the Diet of Worms Luther was given the option to recant and repent, and if he did so, he would be welcomed back into the Church. If Luther refused, he would be branded a heretic and burned at the stake. Luther requested an adjournment to pray and formulate an appropriate response. The meeting was reconvened the next day on April 18th, and it was on that day that Luther delivered a speech that would forever affect the Church. Luther was only permitted to give a short and simple answer whether he would retract his teachings or stand by them; here is the most well-known part of his answer before the Diet of Worms: Since your most serene majesty and your highnesses require of me a simple, clear, and direct answer, I will give one, and it is this: I cannot submit my faith either to the pope or to the council, because it is clear that they have fallen into error and even into inconsistency with themselves. If, then, I am not convinced by proof from Holy Scripture, or by cogent reasons, if I am not satisfied by the very text I have cited, and if my judgment is not in this way brought into subjection to God's word, I neither can nor will retract anything; for it cannot be either safe or honest for a Christian to speak against his conscience. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen. Luther was not burned at the stake over his answer but understood that his answer could have resulted in his death. What did happen was he had to go into hiding and change his name and appearance for a while, for his own safety. Luther delivered his great speech because there was a truth greater and more important than his own safety, for what he was most concerned about was not what the Pope declared to be true, but what Gods word said and how everything else compared to what the Word of God said. We live in a different time compared to the day Luther lived! However, if you are a Christian, you a part of a community known as the church of Jesus Christ, and therefore are a people of one book, and that book is the Bible which contains within its pages the truth of how it is we are to live. When Paul wrote his epistle to the Ephesians, he did so while in prison. Before the apostle was the presence of a roman soldier, and it was with the armor a soldier of Rome wore that Paul would become all too familiar. What is the Belt of Truth? Paul lists six pieces that belong to the armor of God, seven parts if you include Pauls statement on prayer in 6:18-19 and that there is no power apart from a dependance upon God in prayer. The first piece of armor that he begins with is a belt. The belt was an important part of a Roman soldiers armor, not because it made it look better, but because it served two primary purposes: it was used to tuck in and keep the soldiers garments from tripping him up, and it was used to hold the sheath for ones sword. It is worth noting that the belt also served to display a soldiers military status and rank. The belt went underneath the armor, while remaining visible so that it was obvious he was ready to fight. As the warriors belt was critical for his readiness in battle, truth is essential to the Christian life. If we are going to stand in the might of the Lord, if we are going to be able to stand firm against the devils schemes, and if we are going to have any hope in resisting on the evil day, truth is essential to the Christian life. It is the nature of our God and the character of His Word: Teach me Your way, Lord; I will walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name. (Ps. 86:11) God is not a man, that He would lie, nor a son of man, that He would change His mind; has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? (Num. 23:19) The Rock! His work is perfect, for all His ways are just; a God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and just is He. (Deut. 32:4) Truth is not only essential to the Christian life; it is the center of the Christian faith! Think about it, Gods fullest and most perfect expression of His faithfulness and character is in His Son, Jesus: God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power (Heb. 1:13a). If you are a Christian, you follow Him who said: I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6b). Think about what Paul is saying in Ephesians 6:10-14; the only way you will be able to resist the father of lies (the devil) is by putting on the full armor of God, beginning with the belt of truth! But, dear Christian, what is the belt of truth? I want you to think about the significance of where the belt is placed. It is the first part of the armor that is put on and it is the one piece that is tightest and closest to your person. I do not believe I am reading too much into this when I say that I believe the belt of truth is more than just the Word of God (although it certainly is that), it is also our new identity now that we are in Christ! We who were once dead in our sins are now alive with Jesus (2:4-5), and now He is head over His church which we are now a part of (1:22). We are now His body (1:23), Jesus is our peace (2:17-18), we are His temple (2:21), because Jesus now dwells in our hearts through faith (3:17). Through Christ, we are one body, sealed by one Spirit, called in one hope by one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all... (4:4-7). Our identity is now in Jesus, which means that He is our truth! This is why, more than any other book in the entire Bible is the phrase in Christ repeated more than thirty times to describe where it is the Christian finds his/her identity than in the epistle to the Ephesians! Listen, to put on the belt of truth is to do what we read in Romans 13:14, Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. To put on the belt of truth is to identity with the Jesus who said: Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple (Luke 14:27). If you are a Christian, His truth is now your truth. Why is the Belt of Truth Important? To put on the belt of truth is to be so identified with Jesus that you are freed up to, walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called (Eph. 4:1). To put on the belt of truth is to stand on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles with Jesus Christ as your eye-opening, mind-captivating, and life-shaping cornerstone (2:19-20). To put on the belt of truth is to walk in love, just as Christ loved you and gave Himself up for us, and offering and sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma (5:1-2). To put on the belt of truth is to subject yourself under the cleaning water of Gods word (5:26). To put on the belt of truth is to identify with the Lordship of Jesus by doing what He says (see Luke 6:46). We seem to live at a time in society when my truth trumps all other truths. Since the days of Martin Luther, we have moved closer and closer to redefining truth with every form of media invented to give us more knowledge and make the world more accessible to us. Now, do not misunderstand me, God gave us a brain to grow in our understanding and the different forms of media has made available to us some really great things, but it has also been used to pervert knowledge and truth. Think for a moment of how the different forms of media have changed our lives. The printing press paved the way for the enlightenment and modernity when truth was measured by reason. The worldwide web paved the way for postmodernity beginning in the 60s until our present day with the conviction that reason and the human intellect is no longer the arbiter of truth, but also includes the emotions and intuition as the arbitrators of truth to the point when we now have our own truth. Now, with the invention of AI, we are entering a new era and the way our society measures truth and morality, like modernity and postmodernity, will never be the same. Our world is changing so rapidly and so profoundly, but there is one thing that has not changed and cannot change, and that is this simple fact: all truth is Gods truth. Truth belongs to our Creator and the lies belong to the devil. Our identity is in Jesus who is, according to the Bible: ...the same yesterday and today, and forever (Heb. 13:8). Our world is changing, but not so with our God! He remains infinitely good, infinitely just, infinitely holy, infinitely wise, and is equally a God of love and mercy in infinite measure! He alone, in our ever-changing world, remains always true, always honorable, always right, always pure, always lovely, always commendable, always excellent, and always praiseworthy (see Phil. 4:8). The God who chose you before dirt was invented, He who redeemed you with His blood, and the One who has sealed you for the day of redemption DOES NOT CHANGE! For I, the Lord, do not change; therefore you, the sons of Jacob, have not come to an end. (Mal. 3:6) Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. (Jas. 1:17) God is not a man, that He would lie, nor a son of man, that He would change His mind; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? (Num. 23:19) So, if the One who is truth does not change, how is it and why is it that some in the church feel the need to mold and shape what the Bible teaches to what our ever-changing world defines as true? So here is the rub. If you are a Christian (or thinking about becoming a Christian), you follow Jesus who said: I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6b). As Lord over your life, He will make demands upon your life for His glory and your good, to put the belt of truth on is to walk in light of your identity as a Christ-follower. You cannot and you will not walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called (4:1), if you are not putting on the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 13:14). Because Jesus is the cornerstone of His church and the apostles and prophets are Her foundation, we, as His church, are a pillar and support of the truth (1 Tim. 3:14-15) in a world that does not know the Truth, because it does not know Jesus. Sam Storms said of our enemy: Satan will always flourish in the midst of theological ignorance.

October 31st marks the 507th anniversary of the protestant reformation when a Catholic monk by the name of Martin Luther wrote ninety-five complaints concerning the Roman Catholic Church and nailed those complaints to the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg in 1517. Little did Luther know that his complaints would be taken down, translated into multiple language, and mass produced through the newly invented printing press. It was because of what Martin Luther was reading and studying in his Bible that he wrote his complaints for the purpose of debating and dialoging over what he believed were inconsistences with the teachings of the church compared to what the Bible actually taught. Eventually, on April 17, 1521, Luther would have to appear before the Diet of Worms to give account for the vast number of texts, treatises, letters, and tracts calling into question the teachings and traditions of the Roman Catholic Church. It was at the Diet of Worms Luther was given the option to recant and repent, and if he did so, he would be welcomed back into the Church. If Luther refused, he would be branded a heretic and burned at the stake. Luther requested an adjournment to pray and formulate an appropriate response. The meeting was reconvened the next day on April 18th, and it was on that day that Luther delivered a speech that would forever affect the Church. Luther was only permitted to give a short and simple answer whether he would retract his teachings or stand by them; here is the most well-known part of his answer before the Diet of Worms: Since your most serene majesty and your highnesses require of me a simple, clear, and direct answer, I will give one, and it is this: I cannot submit my faith either to the pope or to the council, because it is clear that they have fallen into error and even into inconsistency with themselves. If, then, I am not convinced by proof from Holy Scripture, or by cogent reasons, if I am not satisfied by the very text I have cited, and if my judgment is not in this way brought into subjection to God's word, I neither can nor will retract anything; for it cannot be either safe or honest for a Christian to speak against his conscience. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen. Luther was not burned at the stake over his answer but understood that his answer could have resulted in his death. What did happen was he had to go into hiding and change his name and appearance for a while, for his own safety. Luther delivered his great speech because there was a truth greater and more important than his own safety, for what he was most concerned about was not what the Pope declared to be true, but what Gods word said and how everything else compared to what the Word of God said. We live in a different time compared to the day Luther lived! However, if you are a Christian, you a part of a community known as the church of Jesus Christ, and therefore are a people of one book, and that book is the Bible which contains within its pages the truth of how it is we are to live. When Paul wrote his epistle to the Ephesians, he did so while in prison. Before the apostle was the presence of a roman soldier, and it was with the armor a soldier of Rome wore that Paul would become all too familiar. What is the Belt of Truth? Paul lists six pieces that belong to the armor of God, seven parts if you include Pauls statement on prayer in 6:18-19 and that there is no power apart from a dependance upon God in prayer. The first piece of armor that he begins with is a belt. The belt was an important part of a Roman soldiers armor, not because it made it look better, but because it served two primary purposes: it was used to tuck in and keep the soldiers garments from tripping him up, and it was used to hold the sheath for ones sword. It is worth noting that the belt also served to display a soldiers military status and rank. The belt went underneath the armor, while remaining visible so that it was obvious he was ready to fight. As the warriors belt was critical for his readiness in battle, truth is essential to the Christian life. If we are going to stand in the might of the Lord, if we are going to be able to stand firm against the devils schemes, and if we are going to have any hope in resisting on the evil day, truth is essential to the Christian life. It is the nature of our God and the character of His Word: Teach me Your way, Lord; I will walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name. (Ps. 86:11) God is not a man, that He would lie, nor a son of man, that He would change His mind; has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? (Num. 23:19) The Rock! His work is perfect, for all His ways are just; a God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and just is He. (Deut. 32:4) Truth is not only essential to the Christian life; it is the center of the Christian faith! Think about it, Gods fullest and most perfect expression of His faithfulness and character is in His Son, Jesus: God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power (Heb. 1:13a). If you are a Christian, you follow Him who said: I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6b). Think about what Paul is saying in Ephesians 6:10-14; the only way you will be able to resist the father of lies (the devil) is by putting on the full armor of God, beginning with the belt of truth! But, dear Christian, what is the belt of truth? I want you to think about the significance of where the belt is placed. It is the first part of the armor that is put on and it is the one piece that is tightest and closest to your person. I do not believe I am reading too much into this when I say that I believe the belt of truth is more than just the Word of God (although it certainly is that), it is also our new identity now that we are in Christ! We who were once dead in our sins are now alive with Jesus (2:4-5), and now He is head over His church which we are now a part of (1:22). We are now His body (1:23), Jesus is our peace (2:17-18), we are His temple (2:21), because Jesus now dwells in our hearts through faith (3:17). Through Christ, we are one body, sealed by one Spirit, called in one hope by one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all... (4:4-7). Our identity is now in Jesus, which means that He is our truth! This is why, more than any other book in the entire Bible is the phrase in Christ repeated more than thirty times to describe where it is the Christian finds his/her identity than in the epistle to the Ephesians! Listen, to put on the belt of truth is to do what we read in Romans 13:14, Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. To put on the belt of truth is to identity with the Jesus who said: Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple (Luke 14:27). If you are a Christian, His truth is now your truth. Why is the Belt of Truth Important? To put on the belt of truth is to be so identified with Jesus that you are freed up to, walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called (Eph. 4:1). To put on the belt of truth is to stand on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles with Jesus Christ as your eye-opening, mind-captivating, and life-shaping cornerstone (2:19-20). To put on the belt of truth is to walk in love, just as Christ loved you and gave Himself up for us, and offering and sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma (5:1-2). To put on the belt of truth is to subject yourself under the cleaning water of Gods word (5:26). To put on the belt of truth is to identify with the Lordship of Jesus by doing what He says (see Luke 6:46). We seem to live at a time in society when my truth trumps all other truths. Since the days of Martin Luther, we have moved closer and closer to redefining truth with every form of media invented to give us more knowledge and make the world more accessible to us. Now, do not misunderstand me, God gave us a brain to grow in our understanding and the different forms of media has made available to us some really great things, but it has also been used to pervert knowledge and truth. Think for a moment of how the different forms of media have changed our lives. The printing press paved the way for the enlightenment and modernity when truth was measured by reason. The worldwide web paved the way for postmodernity beginning in the 60s until our present day with the conviction that reason and the human intellect is no longer the arbiter of truth, but also includes the emotions and intuition as the arbitrators of truth to the point when we now have our own truth. Now, with the invention of AI, we are entering a new era and the way our society measures truth and morality, like modernity and postmodernity, will never be the same. Our world is changing so rapidly and so profoundly, but there is one thing that has not changed and cannot change, and that is this simple fact: all truth is Gods truth. Truth belongs to our Creator and the lies belong to the devil. Our identity is in Jesus who is, according to the Bible: ...the same yesterday and today, and forever (Heb. 13:8). Our world is changing, but not so with our God! He remains infinitely good, infinitely just, infinitely holy, infinitely wise, and is equally a God of love and mercy in infinite measure! He alone, in our ever-changing world, remains always true, always honorable, always right, always pure, always lovely, always commendable, always excellent, and always praiseworthy (see Phil. 4:8). The God who chose you before dirt was invented, He who redeemed you with His blood, and the One who has sealed you for the day of redemption DOES NOT CHANGE! For I, the Lord, do not change; therefore you, the sons of Jacob, have not come to an end. (Mal. 3:6) Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. (Jas. 1:17) God is not a man, that He would lie, nor a son of man, that He would change His mind; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? (Num. 23:19) So, if the One who is truth does not change, how is it and why is it that some in the church feel the need to mold and shape what the Bible teaches to what our ever-changing world defines as true? So here is the rub. If you are a Christian (or thinking about becoming a Christian), you follow Jesus who said: I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6b). As Lord over your life, He will make demands upon your life for His glory and your good, to put the belt of truth on is to walk in light of your identity as a Christ-follower. You cannot and you will not walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called (4:1), if you are not putting on the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 13:14). Because Jesus is the cornerstone of His church and the apostles and prophets are Her foundation, we, as His church, are a pillar and support of the truth (1 Tim. 3:14-15) in a world that does not know the Truth, because it does not know Jesus. Sam Storms said of our enemy: Satan will always flourish in the midst of theological ignorance.

In this lesson we confront some awesome questions?  The first is who are the Nephilim?  For us in the 21st century many say the nephilim are fallen angels.  Where did that come from?  We will see it is one opinion coming from both some non-Biblical literature of the late first century and the Zohar, a Jewish book of mysticism written in the Middle Ages.  Upon further study, however, we find that other great rabbis disagreed with this opinion and they offered two other views.  (For further study from a Jewish scholarly source I recommend this link - click here to read scholarly background on the nephilim from The Jewish Virtual Library - https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/nephilim).  Both views of these rabbis of the Middle Ages, Rashi and Ibn Ezra, great rabbis in their own right, disagree.  They also disagree with each other and with the view the nephilim are evil fallen angels.  So, in Jewish literature we have at least three distinct views and each of them contradict the others.  So, we Christians have bought into one view that has no Biblical basis at all.   Once again, let us confront this issue.  Let us see if God's word helps us with a more realistic view of the nephilim.  It does! The second question is why did God destroy all mankind with the flood except for one man, Noah?  Noah's sons and their wives and Noah's wife were rescued as well.  But, Noah is the ONLY righteous man of his time not his sons, their wives, or Noah's wife.  Why them?  Moreover, Genesis chapters 1-11 is about non-Hebrews.  Noah is not a Hebrew!  This is related to all of us, all mankind.   I agree that the flood did happen.  There is too much evidence from the cultures of the ancient Middle East that strongly suggest that the flood was real.  But, so many today focus on trying to prove the flood had to be worldwide, or others who argue the flood was local, and others who say it is a myth. (I think it was local based upon the Hebrew and not English.) I suggest this focus is clouding the real issue, why did God do the flood?  What was the result?  Is there something we are missing that we can't see?  I will present a view that relates to Jesus' words in John 5:39 ... "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me" (John 5:39 NASB).  All they had was the Old Testament in Jesus' day.  Therefore, is there a connection with the purposes of the flood and the reason for the Cross?  There is.  It seems likely the flood testifies of the Messiah.   Rev. Ferret - Who is this guy?  What's his background?  Why should I listen to him?  Check his background at this link - https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/8qth6w4e56oub9js1w1gu/BackgrndTeacher-mar-25-2020.pdf?rlkey=f14fr2wmde5fezjmnrny8cycl&dl=0  

As a family and as the church, we are called to bear fruit that reveals God's love. Together, we must let His Word lead our hearts, so that in everything we do, we reflect Jesus. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me~ John 15:4 NKJV

     For Christians, there is blessing through submission to God. This blessing comes from operating within the sphere of God's love and laws, which establish boundaries for us to thrive and survive.[1] This is because “a man's way is not in himself, nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps” (Jer 10:23); rather, “The steps of a man are established by the LORD, and He delights in his way” (Psa 37:23). As God's children, we are instructed, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight” (Prov 3:5-6).      Living in submission to God means putting His will above our own, trusting in His plan, and following His directives. It entails aligning our thoughts, words, and actions with God's will and commandments. This submission is characterized by humility, trust, and obedience to follow God's directives over personal desires.      In the Old Testament, Abraham exemplified submission when God called him to leave his homeland and go to a land that He would show him. Moses wrote, “Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you…So Abram went forth as the LORD had spoken to him” (Gen 12:1, 4). Abraham's obedience to the Lord made him “the friend of God” (Jam 2:23; cf., 2 Ch 20:7; Isa 41:8). When God said to Isaiah, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us? (Isa 6:8a), Isaiah responded, “Here am I. Send me!” (Isa 6:8b). And when it was revealed to Mary that she would conceive in her womb and bear the humanity of Christ, she said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). Jesus, the Perfect Example of Submission      Jesus Christ provides the perfect example of submission to God. He's the perfect example because He is perfect and never disobeyed the Lord. Jesus said, “I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 5:30), and “I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38). In the Garden of Gethsemane before His crucifixion, Jesus prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will” (Matt 26:39; cf., Matt 26:42, 44). Paul tells us that Jesus “humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:8). Jesus' willingness to submit to the Father's will, even to the point of death, is the ultimate example of submission. Jesus never deviated from the Father's course for Him.      Jesus' submission to the Father started when He was very young. By age twelve, Jesus knew God was His Father and what the Father's mission was for Him (Luke 2:40-47).[2] Isaiah wrote, “The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of disciples, that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple” (Isa 50:4). This passage refers to Jesus' humanity, where God the Father would educate Jesus as His disciple. This education enabled Him to minister to others, as He says, “that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word” (Isa 50:4b). To those who are weary in their souls, a divinely spoken word can lift the spirit and revive the heart (see Matt 11:28). And Jesus' discipleship training took place in the early morning hours, as Messiah states, “He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple” (Isa 50:4c). According to Arnold Fruchtenbaum, “During His boyhood in Nazareth, every morning, Jesus was awakened by His Father in the early hours of the morning to receive instruction. In this way Jesus learned who He was, what His mission was, and how to act and react accordingly.”[3] As a human boy, Jesus had to be educated, which meant the discipline of acquiring knowledge over time. Because of His daily discipline, Jesus was fluent in the Scriptures by age 12. Fruchtenbaum states: "The New Testament gives us an account of a 12 year old Jesus visiting the Temple in Jerusalem for the first time (Luke 2:41–50). By the age of 12 Jesus was fully conversant with the Hebrew Scriptures and able to debate deep spiritual matters with the leading theologians of the day. Furthermore, when Jesus is later rebuked by His mother for remaining in the Temple, He replies, “Did you not know I would be in My Father's house?” This one statement shows that by the age of 12 Jesus knew that Joseph was not His father, knew that God was His Father, and therefore understood that He was the Messiah of Israel."[4]      Jesus was fully submissive to the Father, saying, “The Lord GOD has opened My ear; and I was not disobedient nor did I turn back” (Isa 50:5). Another translation reads, “The sovereign LORD has spoken to me clearly; I have not rebelled, I have not turned back” (Isa 50:5 NET). The word “disobedient” translates the Hebrew verb marah (מָרָה), which, according to HALOT, means “to be recalcitrant, rebellious.”[5] Jesus was not hardhearted nor defiant to the Lord in any way. When God spoke to Messiah, His Servant, He was in total submission to God in everything. Throughout Scripture we observe where other servants of the Lord tried to escape His call to service. When Moses was called by the Lord (Ex 4:1-12), he replied, “Please, Lord, send someone else” (Ex 4:13 CSB). When God called Jonah, we're informed His prophet rebelled, and “Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD” (Jon 1:3a). But Messiah never rebelled against the Lord. He was in total submission to Him. And such submission required a mind that was saturated with divine viewpoint, and a will that was totally surrendered to God. Warren Wiersbe states: "His mind was submitted to the Lord God so that He could learn His Word and His will (Isa 50:4). Everything Jesus said and did was taught to Him by His Father (John 5:19, 30; 6:38; 8:28). He prayed to the Father for guidance (John 11:42; Mark 1:35) and meditated on the Word. What God taught the Servant, the Servant shared with those who needed encouragement and help. The Servant sets a good example here for all who know the importance of a daily “quiet time” with the Lord. The Servant's will was also yielded to the Lord God. An “opened ear” is one that hears and obeys the voice of the master. The people to whom Isaiah ministered were neither “willing” nor “obedient” (Isa 1:19), but the Servant did gladly the will of the Lord God. This was not easy, for it meant yielding His body to wicked men who mocked Him, whipped Him, spat on Him, and then nailed Him to a cross (Matt 26:67; 27:26, 30)."[6]      Later, Jewish scholars would marvel at Jesus' wisdom (Matt 13:54; John 7:15); yet, they were unwilling to submit to Him as Messiah. This is an amazing thing, for though “the Light has come into the world” (John 3:19a), and that Light was bright and clear, we are informed that “men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil” (John 3:19b). Here, we are reminded that at the heart of every problem is the problem of the heart, and the human heart is very corrupt and in great need of life and light. King David: An OT Example of Submission      David provides a good example of an OT believer who lived in regular submission to God. The Bible describes David as a man after God's own heart (1 Sam 13:14; cf. Acts 13:22). David walked faithfully with the Lord and surrendered to His will. David was an obedient king, for the most part, and subsequent kings were measured by him (1 Ki 3:14; 9:4-5; 11:4-6, 31-34, 38; 14:7-8; 15:1-5; 11-15; 2 Ki 14:1-4; 16:1-3; 18:1-3; 22:1-2). David set the bar for what it meant to be a good king, and this allowed others to have a standard to guide them. However, we should not conclude that David was perfectly obedient and kept the Lord's will in all matters in his life. He did not. No believer ever does, for there are none who are sinless (Eccl 7:20; 1 John 1:8, 10), except the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Cor 5:21; Heb 4:15; 1 John 3:5).      David personally acknowledged his sins, saying “my iniquities are gone over my head; as a heavy burden they weigh too much for me” (Ps 38:4). He also wrote, “My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see; they are more numerous than the hairs of my head, and my heart has failed me” (Ps 40:12). Among David's recorded sins, the most offensive was his adulterous affair with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, Uriah (2 Sam 11:1-17). Scripture tells us that David had slept with Bathsheba and had her husband, Uriah, killed; and “the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the LORD” (2 Sam 11:27). What is commendable about David is that he handled his sin in a biblical manner by confessing it and seeking the Lord's forgiveness. Concerning Uriah and Bathsheba, David said, “I have sinned against the LORD” (2 Sam 12:13; read Psalm 51 for the longer version of David's confession). And upon his confession, the prophet Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has taken away your sin; you shall not die” (2 Sam 12:13). Here we see God's grace and government at work; for though David was forgiven and restored to fellowship with God, there were still consequences for his actions and the Lord dispensed judgment upon David and Bathsheba (2 Sam 12:14-18).      On another occasion, David followed Satan's temptation and “sinned greatly” by taking a census in Israel (1 Ch 21:1, 8), presumably because he was trusting in his military strength rather than the Lord. When God judged David for this, David confessed his sin and declared, “I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing” (1 Ch 21:8a). Not only did he confess his sin, but he also sought the Lord's forgiveness, saying, “Please take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly” (1 Ch 21:8b), and “I am in great distress; please let me fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are very great” (1 Ch 21:13). It is a hallmark of mature believers to humble themselves before the Lord through confession.      Furthermore, David practiced the sin of polygamy contrary to the Law of Moses, which specifically commanded the king of Israel, that “he shall not multiply wives for himself” (Deut 17:17). From Scripture we know the names of eight of David's wives: Michal (1 Sam 18:27), Abigail (1 Sam 25:39-42), Ahinoam (1 Sam 25:43), Bathsheba (2 Sam 12:24), Maacah, Haggith, Abital, and Eglah (2 Sam 3:2-5). And he had other wives and concubines that are not named, as Scripture reveals, “David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he came from Hebron” (2 Sam 5:13a). Interestingly, the Bible says nothing about David's practice of polygamy, and though it is a sin according to Scripture, it was apparently tolerated in David's life, perhaps because it never resulted in his wives leading him into idolatry as it had with his son, Solomon (see 1 Ki 11:1-11).       Despite David's imperfections and sins, he was still regarded as a man after God's own heart (1 Sam 13:14; Acts 13:22). His life demonstrates several key areas of faithfulness that are instructive for Christians. David exhibited a deep love and devotion to God, as reflected in his heartfelt expressions throughout the 75 Psalms he wrote (see Psa 3:1; 4:1; 5:1; 6:1; 8:1; 9:1; 11:1; 12:1; 13:1; 14:1; 15:1; 18:1; etc.).[7] Many of the Psalms reveal David's heart of worship to the Lord. His repentance and humility are evident after his sin with Bathsheba, where he sincerely sought God's mercy and forgiveness (Psa 51:1-2). David's trust in God's sovereignty was unwavering, as witnessed in his confrontation with Goliath and his reliance on God (1 Sam 17:37). His obedience to God's commands is seen in his refusal to harm King Saul, respecting God's anointed king (1 Sam 24:1-6). His commitment to justice and righteousness was evident in his reign, where he sought to administer justice and equity for all his people, for “David reigned over all Israel; and David administered justice and righteousness for all his people” (2 Sam 8:15). Even in difficult times, David depended on God for guidance, protection, and comfort, as beautifully expressed in Psalm 23. Lastly, his desire to build a house for God, although fulfilled by his son Solomon, demonstrated his dedication to honoring and prioritizing the Lord (2 Sam 7:1-2). These aspects of David's life highlight the important areas of faithfulness: devotion to God, humility, trust in God's sovereignty, obedience to God's commands, a heart for worship, commitment to justice and righteousness, dependence on God in difficult times, and a desire to honor and prioritize the Lord. The life of David demonstrates that believers can have a healthy walk with the Lord and be in submission to Him and doing His will in the major areas of their lives. Dr. Steven R. Cook   [1] This truth can be compared to the relationship between a loving and wise parent and their child. Just as a parent establishes boundaries and rules to protect and guide their child, God provides His commandments for our well-being, and this because there is much evil in the world. A loving parent sets these boundaries to ensure the child's safety from evil and help them thrive. They know that without guidance, a child might make harmful decisions because they lack the wisdom and experience to navigate life's complexities on their own. Similarly, God's laws create a framework within which we can experience true freedom and blessing. By submitting to God's guidance, we avoid the pitfalls and dangers that come from relying solely on our own understanding. When we trust in the Lord and acknowledge Him in all our ways, He directs our paths, leading us to a life of purpose and fulfillment. [2] Jesus, in His humanity, was not omniscient, and needed to develop and grow in His understanding. Luke tells us that Jesus “continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him” (Luke 2:40). When Jesus was twelve, He traveled with Joseph and Mary to Jerusalem (Luke 2:41-42), but after they left, we're informed “Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem” (Luke 2:43b). Joeseph and Mary were not aware that Jesus had stayed behind (Luke 2:43-44), but when they looked for Him and could not find Him, “they returned to Jerusalem looking for Him” (Luk 2:45b). Luke tells us, “Then, after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers” (Luke 2:46-47). Jesus, in His humanity, had great biblical wisdom, but not because He learned from the Rabbinic scholars of the day. The Jewish leadership understood this. John wrote,  “The Jews then were astonished, saying, ‘How has this man become learned, having never been educated?'” (John 7:15). Jesus replied to them, saying, “My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me” (John 7:16). [3] Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Messianic Christology: A Study of Old Testament Prophecy Concerning the First Coming of the Messiah (Tustin, CA: Ariel Ministries, 1998), 51. [4] Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Messianic Christology: A Study of Old Testament Prophecy Concerning the First Coming of the Messiah (Tustin, CA: Ariel Ministries, 1998), 51. [5] Ludwig Koehler et al., The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994–2000), 632. [6] Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Comforted, “Be” Commentary Series (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 126. [7] King David is traditionally attributed with writing 73 of the 150 Psalms in the Book of Psalms. These Psalms often bear his name in their superscriptions, indicating his authorship. Additionally, the New Testament ascribes two other Psalms to David (Psalm 2 in Acts 4:25 and Psalm 95 in Hebrews 4:7), bringing the total traditionally attributed to David to 75.

The post Abide in Me – John 15 appeared first on Community Bible Church.

In 2012, D.A. Carson published his book, The Intolerance of Tolerance. Around the time his book released, he spoke on the subject at a conference I attended; I remember thinking that his book was timely and potentially prophetic, but none of us could have fully appreciated the gravity of what was coming. The following quote from Carsons book illustrates exactly what I mean: Neither the old tolerance nor the new is an intellectual position; rather, each is a social response. The old tolerance is the willingness to put up with, allow, or endure people and ideas with whom we disagree; in its purest form, the new tolerance is the social commitment to treat all ideas and people as equally right, save for those people who disagree with this view of tolerance. Advocates of the new tolerance sacrifice wisdom and principle in support of just one supreme good: upholding their view of tolerance. So those who uphold and practice the older tolerance, enmeshed as they inevitably are in some value system, are written off as intolerant. Thus banished, they no longer deserve a place at the table.[1] I would suggest that the older tolerance allowed space to disagree charitably with those who did not share your point of view. Not only are those of the older tolerance banished from a place at the table. Today, we find ourselves in a very interesting state of affairs in that if your ideology does not line up with that of the loudest and most vocal of ideological voices regarding sex, identity, what it means to be human, and what must be tolerated, you will be diagnosed with a certain phobia and placed into the category of mental illness. So, before we get into Ephesians this morning, I thought it would be fun it first define the word Phobia and then consider some phobias that do actually exist to better appreciate Ephesians 5:11-14. So, what is a phobia? According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH), a phobia is a intense, irrational fear of something that poses little or no actual danger. Furthermore, NIH affirms that, Although adults with phobias may realize that these fears are irrational, even thinking about facing the feared object or situation brings on severe anxiety symptoms. According to Wikipedia, a phobia is, an anxiety disorder, defined by an irrational, unrealistic, persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation. The definition that Merriam-Webster still provides for phobia is, an exaggerated usually inexplicable and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation. So, permit me to list a few common phobias and then share with you some other phobias that are not as common. Acrophobia: An intense fear of heights. Claustrophobia: An intense fear of confined spaces. Arachnophobia: An intense fear of spiders. Entomophobia: An intense fear of insects. Here is a list of phobias that you may not have heard of before: Arachibutyrophobia: An intense fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. Nomophobia: An intense fear of being without your mobile phone. Plutophobia: An intense fear of money. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (a 36-letter word): An intense fear of long words. Taking a stance against something is not necessarily due to a phobia but possibly a moral conviction. A legitimate question that must be answered is from what standard does your moral conviction come? Does it come from culture, or does it come from something that transcends culture? For the Christian, our moral standard is not culture but the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ as our cornerstone. Here is how the apostle Paul explained what standard we use to judge what is good or evil, it is Ephesians 2:19-22, So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of Gods household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. Jesus, who is the King of kings and Lord of lords and serves as the cornerstone of His Church, gave those who make up His Church this command, Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matt. 28:19-20). The prophets and the apostles are the foundation of Jesus Church, and it is the prophets and the apostles whose teachings make up the Bible as the Word of God. The Bible is, ...inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17). If we are going follow Jesus and live as though the Bible is the Word of God, we will be labeled by those still in darkness as phobic and intolerant. As a people who, were once darkness, but now... light in the Lord we live for what God loves and we stand against what God hates. Listen, if we are going to try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord (v. 10), we will be compelled to live counter-cultural in a world that calls evil good, and good evil. As children of light we belong to the God who condemns any culture that calls evil good, and good evil: Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight (Isa. 5:20)! We Expose the Darkness by Not Participating in It Now we come to Ephesians 5:11 where we are commanded to avoid all participation in the useless deeds of darkness. What does that mean? The NIV translates verse 11 this way: Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. The NKJV gets closer to the heart of what Paul is communicating: And have no fellowshipwith the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. The word used for participate (synkoinōneō) does not mean fellowship in the Greek, but it does mean share. It is a Greek word that is also used in Philippians 4:14, Nevertheless, you have done well to share [synkoinōneō] with me in my difficulty. To share in something is to have fellowship with it. What are the useless deeds of darkness? Well, they include but are not limited to sexual immorality, impurity, greed, filthiness, foolish talk, and vulgar joking. The useless deeds of darkness is what we were once slaves to before we were made alive with Christ when we, lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath (Eph. 2:3). The useless deeds of darkness is what the apostle John described in 1 John 2:16, For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. You may recall how the holiness of God is used to the third degree unlike any other attribute of God mentioned in the Bible. Day and night the seraphim do not cease to call out to one another, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come (Rev. 4:8). I pointed out how this is a literary devise used in the ancient languages to emphasis a very important point. There is another literary devise I told you about when we began this series in Ephesians, which comes in the form of repeated words or phrases; one such phrase that is repeated over and over again in Ephesians are the phrases in Christ, in the Lord, in Christ Jesus, and in Him; collectively they are used about 33 times. If you are a Christian, your identity and life is in Christ. Pauls description of the Christian as being in Christ is a phrase that is equivalent to remaining in Jesus; here is what Jesus said about remaining in Him: I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself but must remain in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me (John 15:1-4). Sinclair Ferguson said this about what it means to be in the Lord: To be in the Lord is to belong to a new world, to inhabit a new kingdom in which we become new men and women. In this new kingdom, new powers are at work in us the powers of the Spirit of the crucified, risen, ascended, reigning and returning Christ. Once we were in the darkness. Worse, the darkness was in us we were darkness. Now we have been drawn into the light, illuminated by Christ the Light of the world. More, we have been invaded and transformed by Christ the Light. In the Lord we are light![2] So, if we are now children of light because of our redemption and union with Jesus, why in the world would we want to have fellowship with or share in the useless deeds of darkness? Not only are we not to participate in the useless deeds of darkness but we are to expose them. What does Paul mean that we are to expose the useless deeds of darkness? Well, it is clear Paul is not telling us to avoid the world, for that would go against the way he lived his life and much of what is written in the both the Old Testament and New Testament. The design and plan for Gods people was always to be on mission by entering into the darkness as His instrument to light up the darkness. Israel was saved from Egypt to be Gods kingdom of priests to be His light in a dark world: Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exod. 19:5-6). Israels great failure was that they repeatedly and continually and habitually as a nation, participated in the fruitless deeds of darkness when by their mere existence should have exposed the emptiness and uselessness of sin. Israels problem was a heart problem only Jesus is able to fix. Jesus is Gods Yes to the promise of Deuteronomy 30:6, The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, so that you may live. Jesus is Gods answer to Ezekiel 36:26, Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. You, Christian, are the recipient of such promises through and in Jesus, so why would you even want to have fellowship, share, and remain in the fruitless deeds of darkness that rob you of the kind of life you were designed to have in God? Not only are the deeds of darkness fruitless, but the wrath of a holy God is set against such deeds! This is why Paul wrote concerning those who continue to practice sexual immorality, impurity, and greed (5:3), for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret (v. 12). Our Life in Christ Exposes the Uselessness of the Deeds of Darkness The only hope for lost humanity is Jesus! He is the only solution for our sin problem. Only through the life of Jesus and the death that He died for sinners can the spiritually dead be raised to new life. Sinclair Ferguson is spot on in his description of what happened when the Christian was saved from the wrath of God: We have been invaded and transformed by Christ the Light. Now as those who are alive with Christ, we carry the light of Jesus into the darkness of the world, this is why Jesus said, You are the light of the world.... Your light must shine before people in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matt. 5:14, 16). So what happens when light invades a dark room? It exposes what is in the room. One of two things will happen when light exposes what is in the darkness, it will anger those who love the darkness, or it will reveal a better way to those tired and wearied by the darkness. To expose the darkness in the context of Ephesians is to contrast the living against the dead. It is not picket signs on the corner, bumper stickers, or hats that protest the darkness. It is what happens when light pierces the darkness of sins domain. The light of Christ displayed in and through His people reveals to those in the darkness that there is a better way because Jesus is the only way to experience the kind of redemption of our souls and the forgiveness of all our sins that will grant us true salvation and freedom (1:7).Many will reject Christ as the only remedy for our salvation as intolerant and they will run to the darkness, but there will be some whose sin will be exposed by the light of Christ, and they will run to Him for the life only He can give. This is the point Paul makes in verse 13, But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. I think the New Living Translation translates this verse in less confusing way: But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, for the light makes everything visible. Legislation and laws are good only in that it helps to suppress the evil we humans are capable of, but it can never fix the evil we are capable of. If you are darkness, you will yield the useless fruits of darkness to one degree or another. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can remedy the dark heart of humanity! The gospel of Jesus Christ alone, is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Rom. 1:16). Christian, you are living proof that the same power that raised Jesus from the grave is still possible today! You serve as a reminder everywhere you go that either the wrath of God can be avoided through Jesus, or the wrath of God is coming upon those who reject Him (see 2 Cor. 2:14-16). We who were asleep and dead in our sins, are only alive because the light of Christ has shown upon us. It is here in verse 14 that Paul quotes what was most likely an early church hymn composed on the basis of Isaiah 60:1-2 and Christ as the fulfillment of its promise: Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you. Here is what Isaiah 60:1-2 promises: Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth And deep darkness the peoples; But the Lord will rise upon you And His glory will appear upon you. Here is another one for those who reject Jesus as God! Only Yahweh has the power to redeem and raise the dead, yet Jesus has done in your life what only God is capable of doing. We who were once dead, heard the voice of Christ, and we arose to follow Him and now we live! We who once enjoyed the darkness, delight in walking in light as those who now belong to the One who said, I am the Light of the world; the one who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life (John 8:12). Pursing Jesus is the only way to fight against our own sin and the temptation to participate in the useless deeds of darkness. Amen. [1] D.A. Carson, The Intolerance of Tolerance (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; 2012), 98. [2] Sinclair B. Ferguson, Lets Study: Ephesians (East Peoria, IL: The Banner of Truth Trust; 2021), 132.

In 2012, D.A. Carson published his book, The Intolerance of Tolerance. Around the time his book released, he spoke on the subject at a conference I attended; I remember thinking that his book was timely and potentially prophetic, but none of us could have fully appreciated the gravity of what was coming. The following quote from Carsons book illustrates exactly what I mean: Neither the old tolerance nor the new is an intellectual position; rather, each is a social response. The old tolerance is the willingness to put up with, allow, or endure people and ideas with whom we disagree; in its purest form, the new tolerance is the social commitment to treat all ideas and people as equally right, save for those people who disagree with this view of tolerance. Advocates of the new tolerance sacrifice wisdom and principle in support of just one supreme good: upholding their view of tolerance. So those who uphold and practice the older tolerance, enmeshed as they inevitably are in some value system, are written off as intolerant. Thus banished, they no longer deserve a place at the table.[1] I would suggest that the older tolerance allowed space to disagree charitably with those who did not share your point of view. Not only are those of the older tolerance banished from a place at the table. Today, we find ourselves in a very interesting state of affairs in that if your ideology does not line up with that of the loudest and most vocal of ideological voices regarding sex, identity, what it means to be human, and what must be tolerated, you will be diagnosed with a certain phobia and placed into the category of mental illness. So, before we get into Ephesians this morning, I thought it would be fun it first define the word Phobia and then consider some phobias that do actually exist to better appreciate Ephesians 5:11-14. So, what is a phobia? According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH), a phobia is a intense, irrational fear of something that poses little or no actual danger. Furthermore, NIH affirms that, Although adults with phobias may realize that these fears are irrational, even thinking about facing the feared object or situation brings on severe anxiety symptoms. According to Wikipedia, a phobia is, an anxiety disorder, defined by an irrational, unrealistic, persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation. The definition that Merriam-Webster still provides for phobia is, an exaggerated usually inexplicable and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation. So, permit me to list a few common phobias and then share with you some other phobias that are not as common. Acrophobia: An intense fear of heights. Claustrophobia: An intense fear of confined spaces. Arachnophobia: An intense fear of spiders. Entomophobia: An intense fear of insects. Here is a list of phobias that you may not have heard of before: Arachibutyrophobia: An intense fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. Nomophobia: An intense fear of being without your mobile phone. Plutophobia: An intense fear of money. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (a 36-letter word): An intense fear of long words. Taking a stance against something is not necessarily due to a phobia but possibly a moral conviction. A legitimate question that must be answered is from what standard does your moral conviction come? Does it come from culture, or does it come from something that transcends culture? For the Christian, our moral standard is not culture but the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ as our cornerstone. Here is how the apostle Paul explained what standard we use to judge what is good or evil, it is Ephesians 2:19-22, So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of Gods household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. Jesus, who is the King of kings and Lord of lords and serves as the cornerstone of His Church, gave those who make up His Church this command, Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matt. 28:19-20). The prophets and the apostles are the foundation of Jesus Church, and it is the prophets and the apostles whose teachings make up the Bible as the Word of God. The Bible is, ...inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17). If we are going follow Jesus and live as though the Bible is the Word of God, we will be labeled by those still in darkness as phobic and intolerant. As a people who, were once darkness, but now... light in the Lord we live for what God loves and we stand against what God hates. Listen, if we are going to try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord (v. 10), we will be compelled to live counter-cultural in a world that calls evil good, and good evil. As children of light we belong to the God who condemns any culture that calls evil good, and good evil: Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight (Isa. 5:20)! We Expose the Darkness by Not Participating in It Now we come to Ephesians 5:11 where we are commanded to avoid all participation in the useless deeds of darkness. What does that mean? The NIV translates verse 11 this way: Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. The NKJV gets closer to the heart of what Paul is communicating: And have no fellowshipwith the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. The word used for participate (synkoinōneō) does not mean fellowship in the Greek, but it does mean share. It is a Greek word that is also used in Philippians 4:14, Nevertheless, you have done well to share [synkoinōneō] with me in my difficulty. To share in something is to have fellowship with it. What are the useless deeds of darkness? Well, they include but are not limited to sexual immorality, impurity, greed, filthiness, foolish talk, and vulgar joking. The useless deeds of darkness is what we were once slaves to before we were made alive with Christ when we, lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath (Eph. 2:3). The useless deeds of darkness is what the apostle John described in 1 John 2:16, For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. You may recall how the holiness of God is used to the third degree unlike any other attribute of God mentioned in the Bible. Day and night the seraphim do not cease to call out to one another, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come (Rev. 4:8). I pointed out how this is a literary devise used in the ancient languages to emphasis a very important point. There is another literary devise I told you about when we began this series in Ephesians, which comes in the form of repeated words or phrases; one such phrase that is repeated over and over again in Ephesians are the phrases in Christ, in the Lord, in Christ Jesus, and in Him; collectively they are used about 33 times. If you are a Christian, your identity and life is in Christ. Pauls description of the Christian as being in Christ is a phrase that is equivalent to remaining in Jesus; here is what Jesus said about remaining in Him: I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself but must remain in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me (John 15:1-4). Sinclair Ferguson said this about what it means to be in the Lord: To be in the Lord is to belong to a new world, to inhabit a new kingdom in which we become new men and women. In this new kingdom, new powers are at work in us the powers of the Spirit of the crucified, risen, ascended, reigning and returning Christ. Once we were in the darkness. Worse, the darkness was in us we were darkness. Now we have been drawn into the light, illuminated by Christ the Light of the world. More, we have been invaded and transformed by Christ the Light. In the Lord we are light![2] So, if we are now children of light because of our redemption and union with Jesus, why in the world would we want to have fellowship with or share in the useless deeds of darkness? Not only are we not to participate in the useless deeds of darkness but we are to expose them. What does Paul mean that we are to expose the useless deeds of darkness? Well, it is clear Paul is not telling us to avoid the world, for that would go against the way he lived his life and much of what is written in the both the Old Testament and New Testament. The design and plan for Gods people was always to be on mission by entering into the darkness as His instrument to light up the darkness. Israel was saved from Egypt to be Gods kingdom of priests to be His light in a dark world: Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exod. 19:5-6). Israels great failure was that they repeatedly and continually and habitually as a nation, participated in the fruitless deeds of darkness when by their mere existence should have exposed the emptiness and uselessness of sin. Israels problem was a heart problem only Jesus is able to fix. Jesus is Gods Yes to the promise of Deuteronomy 30:6, The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, so that you may live. Jesus is Gods answer to Ezekiel 36:26, Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. You, Christian, are the recipient of such promises through and in Jesus, so why would you even want to have fellowship, share, and remain in the fruitless deeds of darkness that rob you of the kind of life you were designed to have in God? Not only are the deeds of darkness fruitless, but the wrath of a holy God is set against such deeds! This is why Paul wrote concerning those who continue to practice sexual immorality, impurity, and greed (5:3), for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret (v. 12). Our Life in Christ Exposes the Uselessness of the Deeds of Darkness The only hope for lost humanity is Jesus! He is the only solution for our sin problem. Only through the life of Jesus and the death that He died for sinners can the spiritually dead be raised to new life. Sinclair Ferguson is spot on in his description of what happened when the Christian was saved from the wrath of God: We have been invaded and transformed by Christ the Light. Now as those who are alive with Christ, we carry the light of Jesus into the darkness of the world, this is why Jesus said, You are the light of the world.... Your light must shine before people in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matt. 5:14, 16). So what happens when light invades a dark room? It exposes what is in the room. One of two things will happen when light exposes what is in the darkness, it will anger those who love the darkness, or it will reveal a better way to those tired and wearied by the darkness. To expose the darkness in the context of Ephesians is to contrast the living against the dead. It is not picket signs on the corner, bumper stickers, or hats that protest the darkness. It is what happens when light pierces the darkness of sins domain. The light of Christ displayed in and through His people reveals to those in the darkness that there is a better way because Jesus is the only way to experience the kind of redemption of our souls and the forgiveness of all our sins that will grant us true salvation and freedom (1:7).Many will reject Christ as the only remedy for our salvation as intolerant and they will run to the darkness, but there will be some whose sin will be exposed by the light of Christ, and they will run to Him for the life only He can give. This is the point Paul makes in verse 13, But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. I think the New Living Translation translates this verse in less confusing way: But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, for the light makes everything visible. Legislation and laws are good only in that it helps to suppress the evil we humans are capable of, but it can never fix the evil we are capable of. If you are darkness, you will yield the useless fruits of darkness to one degree or another. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can remedy the dark heart of humanity! The gospel of Jesus Christ alone, is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Rom. 1:16). Christian, you are living proof that the same power that raised Jesus from the grave is still possible today! You serve as a reminder everywhere you go that either the wrath of God can be avoided through Jesus, or the wrath of God is coming upon those who reject Him (see 2 Cor. 2:14-16). We who were asleep and dead in our sins, are only alive because the light of Christ has shown upon us. It is here in verse 14 that Paul quotes what was most likely an early church hymn composed on the basis of Isaiah 60:1-2 and Christ as the fulfillment of its promise: Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you. Here is what Isaiah 60:1-2 promises: Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth And deep darkness the peoples; But the Lord will rise upon you And His glory will appear upon you. Here is another one for those who reject Jesus as God! Only Yahweh has the power to redeem and raise the dead, yet Jesus has done in your life what only God is capable of doing. We who were once dead, heard the voice of Christ, and we arose to follow Him and now we live! We who once enjoyed the darkness, delight in walking in light as those who now belong to the One who said, I am the Light of the world; the one who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life (John 8:12). Pursing Jesus is the only way to fight against our own sin and the temptation to participate in the useless deeds of darkness. Amen. [1] D.A. Carson, The Intolerance of Tolerance (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; 2012), 98. [2] Sinclair B. Ferguson, Lets Study: Ephesians (East Peoria, IL: The Banner of Truth Trust; 2021), 132.

Christian, for what purpose did God save you? If Ephesians 1:4 is true (and it is), why did God choose you before the foundation of the world? Why was the blood of Jesus shed on your account? For what end were all of your sins forgiven? What is the motivation of the Holy Spirit to seal you and keep you until the day of redemption? Did God choose you so that you would be happy? Was it for your joy that Jesus shed His blood? Is it for your satisfaction that the Holy Spirit seals and keeps you? We are in Ephesians, and we have spent a considerable amount of time reflecting upon why it is that we exist and what it means to be alive with Christ. I have addressed multiple times throughout this series the question of purpose being a very important question that must be answered and how Ephesians answers that question for both the Christian and His Church. I recognize that there have been seasons in this nation and the world that were full of absolute craziness! We find ourselves in a time and place today where the word crazy doesnt seem to be a strong enough word to describe the day and age we live. From the century of the Churchs birth on Pentecost to 2024, there have been great catastrophes, devastating wars, insane tyrants, global pandemics, mass genocides, severe persecution, and so much more. Jesus said of His Church: I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it (Matt. 16:18). Besides the fact that those who make up Jesus Church are sealed and kept by the Holy Spirit, I am convinced that the Christians who endured and overcome from generation to generation did not forget who they were in Christ and what they once were apart from Christ. Every time churches or the Christians who made up those churches forgot those two things; they lost sight of the Churchs mission or worse. Last week I spent all our time in Ephesians 5:1-2 on purpose; I did that because it is important to see and understand verses 3-5 in light of those first two verses. What I want to do with our time today is to spend it in 5:1-6, and here is why I feel the need to do that. Ephesians 5:1 and 5:6 are statements of identity and the verses sandwiched in between make more sense when you understand who you are as a Christian in light of who you once were. So, for what purpose were you saved? Ephesians 5:1-6 answers that question for us, and it is to these verses we now turn our attention. You are More Loved Than You Can Imagine To be a beloved child of God is to be treasured by God. If you are a Christian, this is your new identity. As a beloved child of God, you are the recipient of Gods rich grace that He has lavished upon you for an inheritance that will never run out. Jesus blood was the price He paid that will never default because it was sufficient to cover the price tag for past, present, and future sins (see Eph. 1:7-11). Because you belong to God as His beloved children your identity is with Christ who is enthroned, in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come (Eph. 1:20b-21). If you are a Christian, you who were far away from God, have been brought near by the blood of Christ (2:13). Christian, you are beloved because of the only begotten Son of God who, preached peace to you who were far away so that you would no longer be a stranger and foreigner to His grace; now, you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of Gods household (2:17-19). To be a beloved child of God is to be loved by a God who is determined and committed to finish the work He started; He is building His Church as a dwelling of God in the Spirit (2:20-22), and you, Christian, are part of what He is building. This is why He saved you, and although happiness is a byproduct of discovering your purpose, you were ultimately saved to be holy! You were chosen in Christ to be, holy and blameless before Him (1:4). You were made alive with Christ, for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (2:10). Because you have been made alive with Christ, you are being made holy through Christ. You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy is Gods command for Gods people for every season of life and for every generation past, present, and future (see Lev. 19:2). The apostle Peter wrote, If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each ones work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ (1 Pet. 1:17-19). As the beloved children of almighty God, we are commanded not only to mimic Him in how we love but also in how we live in the pursuit and practice of holiness because our heavenly Father is holy. For what other reason would Jesus command: You shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matt. 5:48). Obviously, Jesus was not telling us that we could be perfect, but that we must strive to do what? To be imitators of God as His beloved children. This is what Jesus means when He said, If anyone loves Me, he will follow My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him. The one who does not love Me does not follow My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Fathers who sent Me (John 14:23-24). My dear brothers and sisters, this is what Paul prayed for in Ephesians 3:14-19, For this reason I bend my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner self, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to all the fullness of God. So how do we imitate the God who is holy? We walk in love in the same manner that Jesus loved us. What does that kind of love look like? According to 1 Corinthians 13, it is a love that is patient, kind, not jealous, does not brag, and is not arrogant. It is the kind of love that does not act disgracefully, does not seek its own benefit; it not provoked, does not keep an account of wrongs suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, and rejoices with the truth (see 1 Cor. 13:4-7). You Were More Sinful Than You Thought According to verse 6, the reason why the sins listed in verses 3-5 are not to even be mentioned among those whom God made alive with Jesus is because when we were dead, we were sons of disobedience but that is not who we are now. When you were dead in your offenses and sins, Paul described in Ephesians 2:2 three ways you walked as the sons of disobedience: You walked according to the course of the world by walking in step with its values and culture that is contrary to the values and culture of Gods kingdom. What this means is that you loved the very thing God is opposed to: For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world (1 John 2:16). You walked according to the prince of the power of the air (the devil). A prince is another word for ruler and the ruler of this world is the devil, and the legions of demons under his command. He is described as the god of this age (2 Cor. 4:4) and a roaring lion (1 Pet. 5:8) who describes himself as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). This is the one we blindly followed thinking his steps would lead to life, but instead they lead to death. Your walk was governed by a different spirit who works in the children of disobedience and the fruits of that spirit are, 1) the lusts of our flesh, 2) indulgence of the desires of the flesh, and 3) of the mind. The guiding and governing of that evil spirit is what sets people apart as children of wrath instead of beloved children of God. Because of Gods rich mercy, because of His great love, and because of His grace, He made those of us who were dead in our offenses and sins alive together with Christ. Listen, if you are alive you are no longer dead! What is always necessary for a resurrection to happen, is change in the DNA of the dead must take place! When you who were once dead in your offenses and sins were made alive with Christ, your spiritual DNA changed! You who were unable to love God, can now love Him. You who were once motivated by a malevolent spirit are now empowered by the Holy Spirit. You who once walked in step with the devil, now are able to follow Jesus. You who were blindly aligned with this world, now belong to the kingdom of God with the eyes of your heart having been enlightened, knowing the hope of your calling, while experiencing the boundless greatness of Gods power in your life (Eph. 1:18-19a). What Paul is addressing in verses 3-4 has to do with the culture and pattern of your life in what you do and what you say. The sins listed in these verses have to do with, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life (1 John 2:16), that characterized Adam and Eves sin in the garden and every sin ever since. Against the backdrop of what is the root of sin, consider what Paul says here: But sexual immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness or foolish talk, or vulgar joking, which are not fitting The Greek word that we get sexual immorality from is porneia and is a word used to describe all forms of sexual sins. Sexual sins include any form of sexual sin outside of the covenant of marriage between one man and one woman such as fornication, adultery, homosexuality, bestiality, or even lustful thoughts (Matt. 5:27-30). Why are sexual sins singled out here as those sins that must not even be mentioned among Christians? Because sex is designed by God to be shared exclusively within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman; we are told, For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church (5:31-32). This is why the Bible also commands: Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers (Heb. 13:4). It is not just sexual immorality that must not characterize the life of the Christian, impurity and greed must not characterize the Church either. The Greek word uses for impurity (akatharsia) is frequently used in reference to sexual sins but can also be used to describe sins as impure and obviously unholy. The type of greed referred to in these verses is the desire to take that which does not belong to you. Remember that the heart of sin is the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life (1 John 2:16), and the fruit of the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is sexual immorality, impurity, and greed. In verse 5, Paul warns us: For this you know with certainty, that no sexually immoral or impure or greedy person, which amounts to an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. How does committing these sins fall into the category of idolatry? Think about it, all sexual sins make a god out of sex where the one committing such sins involves participating in what is unholy by taking what does not belong to you, whether it is an image or another persons body to make it your own out of a belief that that sexual experience will give you what God cannot give you. Related to the sins we do with our bodies are the sins that flow out of our hearts and from our lips. This is why Paul continues in verse 4, there must be no filthiness or foolish talk, or vulgar joking from the mouth of the Christian. Jesus said of the heart that belongs to Him: The good person out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil person out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart (Luke 6:45). If you have been born again, if you have gone from spiritual death to spiritual life in Christ, then the DNA of our dead spiritual corpse has been changed to the living DNA of Jesus Christ! This is why the Bible has such strong things to say about such sins! Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor those habitually drunk, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor. 6:9-11) Paul is not saying that we will never sin, but what he is saying is that those of us who are truly alive with Christ, walk in a way where the pattern and culture of our lives does not include ongoing sexual immorality, impurity, greed, filthiness and foolish talk, and vulgar talking. We are alive in Christ and no longer bow down in worship to the idols of the world we live in. Our satisfaction comes from the God of the living and no longer from the prince of the spiritually dead; or as one commentator wrote: Believers have a God more satisfying than sexual sin and greed, a God worthy of endless thanksgiving, a God who has given them a kingdom.[1] We who have been made alive with Christ, have not been saved for the kind of cheap and anemic happiness our world offers, but for a holiness only God can provide through a Jesus who can only satisfy. Our purpose is to worship God, not to live for cheap substitutes. It is because of our new life in Christ that we are able to live lives characterized by a thankful heart. Perhaps some of you have fallen into patterns of sin characterized by the verses we have studied this morning. Let me leave you with an invitation by our Lord Himself and a prayer for us all. First, Jesuss invitation to you who feel stuck: Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light (Matt. 28-30). Second, a concluding prayer from Psalm 130, 1Out of the depths I have cried to You, Lord. 2Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive To the sound of my pleadings. 3If You, Lord, were to keep account of guilty deeds, Lord, who could stand? 4But there is forgiveness with You, So that You may be revered. 5I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, And I wait for His word. 6My soul waits in hope for the Lord More than the watchmen for the morning; Yes, more than the watchmen for the morning. 7Israel, wait for the Lord; For with the Lord there is mercy, And with Him is abundant redemption. 8And He will redeem Israel From all his guilty deeds. Amen. [1] Tony Merida, Exalting Jesus in Ephesians (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2014), 125.

Christian, for what purpose did God save you? If Ephesians 1:4 is true (and it is), why did God choose you before the foundation of the world? Why was the blood of Jesus shed on your account? For what end were all of your sins forgiven? What is the motivation of the Holy Spirit to seal you and keep you until the day of redemption? Did God choose you so that you would be happy? Was it for your joy that Jesus shed His blood? Is it for your satisfaction that the Holy Spirit seals and keeps you? We are in Ephesians, and we have spent a considerable amount of time reflecting upon why it is that we exist and what it means to be alive with Christ. I have addressed multiple times throughout this series the question of purpose being a very important question that must be answered and how Ephesians answers that question for both the Christian and His Church. I recognize that there have been seasons in this nation and the world that were full of absolute craziness! We find ourselves in a time and place today where the word crazy doesnt seem to be a strong enough word to describe the day and age we live. From the century of the Churchs birth on Pentecost to 2024, there have been great catastrophes, devastating wars, insane tyrants, global pandemics, mass genocides, severe persecution, and so much more. Jesus said of His Church: I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it (Matt. 16:18). Besides the fact that those who make up Jesus Church are sealed and kept by the Holy Spirit, I am convinced that the Christians who endured and overcome from generation to generation did not forget who they were in Christ and what they once were apart from Christ. Every time churches or the Christians who made up those churches forgot those two things; they lost sight of the Churchs mission or worse. Last week I spent all our time in Ephesians 5:1-2 on purpose; I did that because it is important to see and understand verses 3-5 in light of those first two verses. What I want to do with our time today is to spend it in 5:1-6, and here is why I feel the need to do that. Ephesians 5:1 and 5:6 are statements of identity and the verses sandwiched in between make more sense when you understand who you are as a Christian in light of who you once were. So, for what purpose were you saved? Ephesians 5:1-6 answers that question for us, and it is to these verses we now turn our attention. You are More Loved Than You Can Imagine To be a beloved child of God is to be treasured by God. If you are a Christian, this is your new identity. As a beloved child of God, you are the recipient of Gods rich grace that He has lavished upon you for an inheritance that will never run out. Jesus blood was the price He paid that will never default because it was sufficient to cover the price tag for past, present, and future sins (see Eph. 1:7-11). Because you belong to God as His beloved children your identity is with Christ who is enthroned, in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come (Eph. 1:20b-21). If you are a Christian, you who were far away from God, have been brought near by the blood of Christ (2:13). Christian, you are beloved because of the only begotten Son of God who, preached peace to you who were far away so that you would no longer be a stranger and foreigner to His grace; now, you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of Gods household (2:17-19). To be a beloved child of God is to be loved by a God who is determined and committed to finish the work He started; He is building His Church as a dwelling of God in the Spirit (2:20-22), and you, Christian, are part of what He is building. This is why He saved you, and although happiness is a byproduct of discovering your purpose, you were ultimately saved to be holy! You were chosen in Christ to be, holy and blameless before Him (1:4). You were made alive with Christ, for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (2:10). Because you have been made alive with Christ, you are being made holy through Christ. You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy is Gods command for Gods people for every season of life and for every generation past, present, and future (see Lev. 19:2). The apostle Peter wrote, If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each ones work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ (1 Pet. 1:17-19). As the beloved children of almighty God, we are commanded not only to mimic Him in how we love but also in how we live in the pursuit and practice of holiness because our heavenly Father is holy. For what other reason would Jesus command: You shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matt. 5:48). Obviously, Jesus was not telling us that we could be perfect, but that we must strive to do what? To be imitators of God as His beloved children. This is what Jesus means when He said, If anyone loves Me, he will follow My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him. The one who does not love Me does not follow My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Fathers who sent Me (John 14:23-24). My dear brothers and sisters, this is what Paul prayed for in Ephesians 3:14-19, For this reason I bend my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner self, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to all the fullness of God. So how do we imitate the God who is holy? We walk in love in the same manner that Jesus loved us. What does that kind of love look like? According to 1 Corinthians 13, it is a love that is patient, kind, not jealous, does not brag, and is not arrogant. It is the kind of love that does not act disgracefully, does not seek its own benefit; it not provoked, does not keep an account of wrongs suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, and rejoices with the truth (see 1 Cor. 13:4-7). You Were More Sinful Than You Thought According to verse 6, the reason why the sins listed in verses 3-5 are not to even be mentioned among those whom God made alive with Jesus is because when we were dead, we were sons of disobedience but that is not who we are now. When you were dead in your offenses and sins, Paul described in Ephesians 2:2 three ways you walked as the sons of disobedience: You walked according to the course of the world by walking in step with its values and culture that is contrary to the values and culture of Gods kingdom. What this means is that you loved the very thing God is opposed to: For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world (1 John 2:16). You walked according to the prince of the power of the air (the devil). A prince is another word for ruler and the ruler of this world is the devil, and the legions of demons under his command. He is described as the god of this age (2 Cor. 4:4) and a roaring lion (1 Pet. 5:8) who describes himself as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). This is the one we blindly followed thinking his steps would lead to life, but instead they lead to death. Your walk was governed by a different spirit who works in the children of disobedience and the fruits of that spirit are, 1) the lusts of our flesh, 2) indulgence of the desires of the flesh, and 3) of the mind. The guiding and governing of that evil spirit is what sets people apart as children of wrath instead of beloved children of God. Because of Gods rich mercy, because of His great love, and because of His grace, He made those of us who were dead in our offenses and sins alive together with Christ. Listen, if you are alive you are no longer dead! What is always necessary for a resurrection to happen, is change in the DNA of the dead must take place! When you who were once dead in your offenses and sins were made alive with Christ, your spiritual DNA changed! You who were unable to love God, can now love Him. You who were once motivated by a malevolent spirit are now empowered by the Holy Spirit. You who once walked in step with the devil, now are able to follow Jesus. You who were blindly aligned with this world, now belong to the kingdom of God with the eyes of your heart having been enlightened, knowing the hope of your calling, while experiencing the boundless greatness of Gods power in your life (Eph. 1:18-19a). What Paul is addressing in verses 3-4 has to do with the culture and pattern of your life in what you do and what you say. The sins listed in these verses have to do with, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life (1 John 2:16), that characterized Adam and Eves sin in the garden and every sin ever since. Against the backdrop of what is the root of sin, consider what Paul says here: But sexual immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness or foolish talk, or vulgar joking, which are not fitting The Greek word that we get sexual immorality from is porneia and is a word used to describe all forms of sexual sins. Sexual sins include any form of sexual sin outside of the covenant of marriage between one man and one woman such as fornication, adultery, homosexuality, bestiality, or even lustful thoughts (Matt. 5:27-30). Why are sexual sins singled out here as those sins that must not even be mentioned among Christians? Because sex is designed by God to be shared exclusively within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman; we are told, For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church (5:31-32). This is why the Bible also commands: Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers (Heb. 13:4). It is not just sexual immorality that must not characterize the life of the Christian, impurity and greed must not characterize the Church either. The Greek word uses for impurity (akatharsia) is frequently used in reference to sexual sins but can also be used to describe sins as impure and obviously unholy. The type of greed referred to in these verses is the desire to take that which does not belong to you. Remember that the heart of sin is the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life (1 John 2:16), and the fruit of the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is sexual immorality, impurity, and greed. In verse 5, Paul warns us: For this you know with certainty, that no sexually immoral or impure or greedy person, which amounts to an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. How does committing these sins fall into the category of idolatry? Think about it, all sexual sins make a god out of sex where the one committing such sins involves participating in what is unholy by taking what does not belong to you, whether it is an image or another persons body to make it your own out of a belief that that sexual experience will give you what God cannot give you. Related to the sins we do with our bodies are the sins that flow out of our hearts and from our lips. This is why Paul continues in verse 4, there must be no filthiness or foolish talk, or vulgar joking from the mouth of the Christian. Jesus said of the heart that belongs to Him: The good person out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil person out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart (Luke 6:45). If you have been born again, if you have gone from spiritual death to spiritual life in Christ, then the DNA of our dead spiritual corpse has been changed to the living DNA of Jesus Christ! This is why the Bible has such strong things to say about such sins! Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor those habitually drunk, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor. 6:9-11) Paul is not saying that we will never sin, but what he is saying is that those of us who are truly alive with Christ, walk in a way where the pattern and culture of our lives does not include ongoing sexual immorality, impurity, greed, filthiness and foolish talk, and vulgar talking. We are alive in Christ and no longer bow down in worship to the idols of the world we live in. Our satisfaction comes from the God of the living and no longer from the prince of the spiritually dead; or as one commentator wrote: Believers have a God more satisfying than sexual sin and greed, a God worthy of endless thanksgiving, a God who has given them a kingdom.[1] We who have been made alive with Christ, have not been saved for the kind of cheap and anemic happiness our world offers, but for a holiness only God can provide through a Jesus who can only satisfy. Our purpose is to worship God, not to live for cheap substitutes. It is because of our new life in Christ that we are able to live lives characterized by a thankful heart. Perhaps some of you have fallen into patterns of sin characterized by the verses we have studied this morning. Let me leave you with an invitation by our Lord Himself and a prayer for us all. First, Jesuss invitation to you who feel stuck: Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light (Matt. 28-30). Second, a concluding prayer from Psalm 130, 1Out of the depths I have cried to You, Lord. 2Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive To the sound of my pleadings. 3If You, Lord, were to keep account of guilty deeds, Lord, who could stand? 4But there is forgiveness with You, So that You may be revered. 5I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, And I wait for His word. 6My soul waits in hope for the Lord More than the watchmen for the morning; Yes, more than the watchmen for the morning. 7Israel, wait for the Lord; For with the Lord there is mercy, And with Him is abundant redemption. 8And He will redeem Israel From all his guilty deeds. Amen. [1] Tony Merida, Exalting Jesus in Ephesians (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2014), 125.

     The gospel is the good news that addresses the bad news of human sinfulness and separation from a holy God. Despite our helplessness and deserving of eternal punishment, God's solution is the gospel of grace, which reveals Jesus Christ took our sins upon Himself, died, was buried, and resurrected on the third day (1 Cor 15:3-4). At the cross, God judged our sin as His righteousness required, and pardons the sinner as His love desires. Salvation from eternal damnation is a free gift offered to all who trust in Christ alone, which emphasizes God's infinite grace rather than our human effort. This ultimate gift, paid for by Jesus's sacrifice, underscores the Bible's message that “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23), highlighting God's generosity and the completeness of Christ's work on the cross. God is Holy      The Bible reveals God is holy. God declares of Himself, “I am holy” (Lev 11:44), the psalmist says, “holy is the LORD our God” (Psa 99:9), and the Seraphim declare, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts” (Isa 6:3). In her prayer, Hannah said, “There is no one holy like the LORD” (1 Sam 2:2). In these verses, the word “holy” translates the Hebrew word qadōsh (קָדוֹשׁ), which, according to James Swanson, refers “to being unique and pure in the sense of superior moral qualities.”[1] God's holiness is closely linked with His righteousness, justice, and perfection. Holiness denotes moral purity. J. Carl Laney states, “When we say ‘God is holy,' we mean He is totally separated from all that is unholy, defiling, or contrary to His nature. God's holiness is unique and distinctive in that it is without any contamination or impurity.”[2] Because God is absolutely holy, it is written, “no evil dwells with You” (Psa 5:4), “Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and You cannot look on wickedness with favor” (Hab 1:13), and “God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). Evil is any thought, word, or act that is contrary to the character and will of God. According to Merrill F. Unger, moral evil “is the failure of rational and free beings to conform in character and conduct to the will of God.”[3]George Howley states, “God is separate from all evil and is in no way responsible for it…[and] It can only be attributed to the abuse of free-will on the part of created beings, angelic and human.”[4] Evil originates in the heart (Gen 6:5; Zech 8:17), is part of our nature (Matt 7:11), and results in evil actions (Neh 13:17; Prov 24:8; 1 Pet 3:12).[5] According to Scripture, “the LORD is righteous and He loves righteousness” (Psa 11:7). There is a time when “He is coming to judge the earth; and He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in His faithfulness” (Psa 96:13), and He will “judge the living and the dead” (2 Tim 4:1). Everyone is a Sinner      Sin is the failure to conform to God's perfect righteousness. Scripture reveals we are sinners “in Adam” (Rom 5:12-13; 1 Cor 15:21-22), sinners by nature (Psa 51:5; Jer 17:9; Rom 7:14-25; 13:12-14), sinners by choice (Eccl 7:20; Isa 59:2; Jam 1:14-15; 1 John 1:8, 10), born as “sons of disobedience” (Eph 2:2), and are “by nature children of wrath” (Eph 2:3). The Bible reveals “there is no one who does not sin” (1 Ki 8:46), and “there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins” (Eccl 7:20). Isaiah wrote, “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way” (Isa 53:6a). Paul stated that we “are all under sin” (Rom 3:9), and “there is none righteous, not even one” (Rom 3:10), for “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). James wrote, “we all stumble in many ways” (Jam 3:2a), and John declared, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us... If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:8, 10). This means everyone stands guilty before God. Good Works Do Not Save      Good works have no saving merit before God. Isaiah wrote, “all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment” (Isa 64:6a). Paul wrote, “a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified” (Gal 2:16), for “by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph 2:8-9), and God “saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works” (2 Tim 1:9), and “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness” (Tit 3:5a). Though human good works may have value in the sight of other people, they have absolutely no saving merit in God's sight. None at all! The Solution of the Cross      We are helpless to save ourselves, but God made a way, and this because He loves us and desires our salvation. He loves us so much that He sent His Son into the world to pay the sin debt we cannot pay. We're told, “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10). Nearly 2,000 years ago, God the Father sent God the Son into the world to take upon Himself humanity (Isa 7:14; Luke 1:30-35; John 1:1; 14; Heb 10:5), to be free from sin (2 Cor 5:21; Heb 4:15; 1 Pet 2:22; 1 John 3:5) and to live a perfectly righteous life. Jesus said, “I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38; cf., John 7:29; 8:29; Gal 4:4). Jesus was sent by the Father to be “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), for “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).      Jesus willingly went to the cross and paid our sin-debt (John 10:18). His death was a penal substitutionary sacrifice for us, as the Son of Man came “to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Paul wrote, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). Peter said, “Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God” (1 Pet 3:18). His death on the cross was for all sins for all time, for “the death that He died, He died to sin once for all” (Rom 6:10), He “offered one sacrifice for sins for all time” (Heb 10:12), and “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). Because of Jesus' death on the cross, God “canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross” (Col 2:14). There's nothing for us to add to Jesus' work on the cross. Having paid our sin debt in full on the cross, Jesus said, “It is finished!” (John 19:30), and then He died.      After Jesus died for our sins, He was buried in a grave, and raised on the third day, as Scripture reveals (1 Cor 15:3-4). And “Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again” (Rom 6:9). After Jesus's resurrection, He was seen alive by hundreds of people (1 Cor 15:5-8), and those eye witnesses provided a written record of what they saw and heard (Luke 1:1-4; John 20:30-31; 2 Pet 1:16-18). God's offer of salvation is available for everyone. The Bible speaks of “God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:3b-4), who has brought “salvation to all men” (Tit 2:11), and is “not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9).      The cross is God's righteous solution to the problem of sin, as well as His greatest display of love toward sinners. At the cross, God judged our sin as His righteousness required, and pardons the sinner as His love desires. To understand the cross of Christ is to understand the heart of God toward a fallen world He wants to save. If someone perishes eternally, it is because they failed to respond to God and His drawing them to Himself (John 3:18; 5:39-40; Acts 7:51). All who end up in the lake of fire are there by personal choice, not because God failed to love them or make provision for their eternal salvation.      Once we hear the good news about what Christ accomplished for us, we are asked to place our faith in Him, to “Believe in the Lord Jesus” for salvation (Acts 16:31). Jesus is the object of our faith. To believe in Christ as our Savior means we trust Him to accomplish for us what we cannot accomplish ourselves: eternal salvation from the lake of fire. Faith in Christ is the only condition for salvation. Faith does not save. Christ saves. Faith is merely the instrument by which we receive the gift of God. Only the empty hand of faith accepts the gift. It offers nothing, but is open to receive that which is offered by another. No payment is required by us to receive it. Christ alone saves. No one else can save us, including ourselves. Salvation is a Free Gift from God      Salvation is a gift from the Lord. It is the most precious gift ever offered. And though the gift was very expensive to God, it is absolutely free to us. The precious gift of our salvation was paid in full by the Lord Jesus Christ who died for our sins, who hung between heaven and earth and paid our sin-debt. According to God's Word, “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23). The words “free gift” translate the Geek noun charisma (χάρισμα) which, according to BDAG, refers to “that which is freely and graciously given, favor bestowed, gift.”[6] And Joseph Thayer defines it as “a gift of grace; a favor which one receives without any merit of his own.”[7] Paul, when writing to the Christians at Ephesus, said, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph 2:8-9; cf., Rom 4:4-5; Tit 3:5). To say we are saved by grace means our salvation is unearned and undeserved in any way. God's gift of salvation is totally apart from any good works we may produce, and since good works do not save, bad works cannot unsave (though they can bring divine discipline). A gift focuses on the graciousness of the giver, whereas a reward focuses on the work of the recipient. Salvation is NOT a reward for work we've accomplished; rather, it is a free gift from God and based totally on the finished work of Christ. We pay nothing. Jesus paid it all.      The realization that salvation is offered freely, based solely on the perfect work of Jesus on the cross, offers profound relief to the person who has been laboring under the yoke of a works-based system. Those who operate under a works-based system of salvation will never reach a place of certainty in their relationship with God, for they will never know whether they have done enough to gain entrance into heaven. But the truth that salvation is a grace-gift from God, received by faith alone, liberates those who accept it. When properly grasped, God's gospel of grace alleviates the pressure to perform and the fear of falling short and brings a deep sense of peace and joy, knowing our salvation is secure, not because of our own efforts, but because of Christ's finished work. Peace comes when we look to Christ and the promises of Scripture and not ourselves. This gospel of grace message transforms our relationship with God from one of fear and striving to one of gratitude and love, as the focus moves from what we must do to what Christ has already done on our behalf. This grace-based approach encourages us to live out our faith from a place of thankfulness rather than obligation, resulting in a more authentic and joyful Christian life. The Benefits of the Cross      At the moment of faith in Christ, the benefits of the cross are applied to us. Scripture reveals we are forgiven all our sins (Acts 10:43; Eph 1:7), given “eternal life” (John 5:24; 10:28; Rom 6:23), the “gift of righteousness” (Rom 5:17; Phil 3:9), have “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:1), become “children of God” (John 1:12; Gal 3:26), are “justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus” (Rom 3:24), are “rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Col 1:13), and are blessed “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph 1:3). Furthermore, as Christians, we are among those “whose names are in the book of life” (Phil 4:3). As a result, “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1). We will never experience the lake of fire. Never. As Christians, “our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil 3:20). Good Works Should Follow Salvation      To be eternally saved, the only condition is faith alone in Christ alone (John 3:16; 20:31; Acts 4:14; 16:31). That's all. Once saved and justified in God's sight, the Lord expects us to submit to Him in total obedience in all areas of life (Matt 28:20; Rom 12:1-2; Jam 4:7), and to learn His Word in order to live His will in every particular (2 Tim 2:15; 3:16-17; 1 Pet 2:2).      After salvation-justification, the Lord directs us to begin a lifelong journey of faith (2 Cor 5:7; Heb 10:38; 11:6), and to “press on to maturity” (Heb 6:1). This glorifies God, edifies others, and results in the best life possible in this world. Good works is what God expects of His people. Jesus said, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matt 5:16). Paul wrote, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph 2:10). The Lord instructs us “to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age” (Tit 2:12) and to be “zealous for good deeds” (Tit 2:14). We agree with Paul who wrote, “So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith” (Gal 6:10). God clearly calls His people to a life of obedience and good works. There is no question about this. The Scriptures are plain on the matter, instructing us, “like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior” (1 Pet 1:15). It is never the will of God that we sin; however, when we sin (and there is no Christian who does not sin), it is always His will that we handle it biblically by means of confession (1 John 1:9), which always results in forgiveness and restoration of fellowship. If we fail to walk in regular obedience to the Lord, we are subject to divine discipline in time (Heb 12:5-11), and loss of rewards in eternity (1 Cor 3:10-15; 2 John 1:8). Though believers may turn from the Lord and pursue a life of sin, these will also experience divine punishment, even to the point of physical death (1 Cor 11:30; 1 John 5:16-17), but will not forfeit their salvation, which is not possible (John 10:28).      In summary, salvation is free. The Lord Jesus purchased it for us on the cross, and He offers it without cost to those who place their trust in Him. It is freely offered and freely received, and there's nothing for us to pay. That's grace. Our justification before God is a one-and-done event that happens at the moment of faith in Christ. Good works are not a prerequisite, corequisite, or postrequisite to salvation. That is, beyond simple faith in Christ, nothing is required of us before, during, or after we believe in Him as our Savior. We are saved by grace alone (we don't deserve it), through faith alone (not by works), in Christ alone. Good works should follow salvation (Eph 2:10; Gal 6:10), but they are never the condition of it.      Once saved, God calls us to a lifelong process of sanctification. Sanctification is the life we live after being justified, and this process continues until we leave this world, either by death or rapture. The sanctified life requires us to learn and live God's Word (2 Tim 2:15; 1 Pet 2:2; 2 Pet 3:18), walk by faith (2 Cor 5:7; Heb 10:38), be filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18), walk by the Spirit (Gal 5:16), and make ongoing good choices to stay on the path of God's will. Dr. Steven R. Cook     [1] James Swanson, “קָדוֹשׁ”, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997). [2] J. Carl Laney Jr., eds. Charles Swindoll and Roy Zuck, “God is Holy”, Understanding Christian Theology (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003), 188. [3] Merrill Frederick Unger, “Evil” The New Unger's Bible Dictionary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1988), 382. [4] George Howley, “Evil,” ed. D. R. W. Wood et al., New Bible Dictionary (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 349. [5] To be evil means we conform ourselves to Satan's world-system (1 John 2:15-16), and that we, by default, are self-centered and not God-centered. To be righteous means we are conformed to God's character and will, both in a salvific and sanctified way. [6] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 1081. [7] Joseph Henry Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Being Grimm's Wilke's Clavis Novi Testamenti (New York: Harper & Brothers., 1889), 667.

Called June 16, 2024 Elwyn Johnston 2 Timothy 1:9 Verse of the Week: “Run your race that you may lay hold of the prize and make it yours.” 1 Corinthians 9:24 1. Know God - Salvation “everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Philippians 3:8 “God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” 1 Thessalonians 5:9 “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36 “when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they were amazed; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.” Acts 4:13 2. Grow in God - Sanctification “For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but unto sanctification.” 1 Thessalonians 4:7 “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 3:18 Direct you “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:14 Disrupt your plans 3. Sow into people - Serving Benefits: You will be satisfied. “Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won't need to compare yourself to anyone else.” Galatians 6:4 You are strengthened “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me” John 4:34 “Run your race that you may lay hold of the prize and make it yours.” 1 Corinthians 9:24 Specific calling: Seek God “He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6 Sensitive to the Spirit “when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth” John 16:13 Start serving now “Now the boy Samuel served the Lord by assisting Eli” 1 Samuel 3:1 “Speak, for Your servant is listening.” 1 Samuel 3:10

Election      Election derives from the Greek verb eklegō (ἐκλέγω) which, according to BDAG, means “to make a choice in accordance with significant preference, select someone or something for oneself.”[1] According to Norman Geisler, “The word election (or elect) occurs fourteen times in the New Testament. An elect person is a chosen one; election (or elect) is used of Israel (Rom 9:11; 11:28), of angels (1 Tim 5:21), and of believers. In relation to believers, election is the decision of God from all eternity whereby He chose those who would be saved.”[2] Geisler further states, “The words chosen and chose are used numerous times. The terms are employed of Christ (Luke 23:35; 1 Pet 1:20; 2:4, 6), of a disciple (Acts 1:2, 24; 10:41; 22:14; John 15:10), and even of Judas (John 6:70; 13:18), who was chosen to be an apostle. Soteriologically, a chosen one is a person elected to salvation by God.”[3]      Election is that free choice of God from eternity past in which He chose to save and bless some (Eph 1:4-5). The elect are the ones chosen. God elects groups (Luke 6:13-16; John 6:70) and individuals (1 Ch 28:5; Acts 9:15). Election is to salvation (Acts 13:48; Eph 1:4-6; 2 Th 2:13), spiritual blessing (Eph 1:3), holy and righteous living (Col 3:12; 1 Pet 2:9), and service for the Lord (Jer 1:4-5; Gal 1:15-16; cf. Acts 9:15). In election, God is sovereign and people are free. Both are true. This is why Jesus said, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out” (John 6:37). Here we observe the coalescence of God's sovereignty and positive human volition as the Father gives and people come of their own choice.[4] We observe something similar in Acts where Luke wrote, “When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48). Here we observe Gentiles who were appointed to eternal life, and that they personally exercised their volition and believed in the Lord for salvation.[5] Robert B. Thieme Jr., states: "[Election is] the recognition by God, before the foundation of the world, of those who would believe in Christ; the sovereign act of God in eternity past to choose, to set apart, certain members of the human race for privilege, based on His knowledge of every person's freewill decisions in time. While God is sovereign, having the right to do with His creatures as He pleases, never has He hindered or tampered with human free will. He did not choose some to be saved and others to be condemned. Instead, in eternity past, God first chose to accomplish the work of man's salvation through the Son. Then, He looked down the corridors of time and elected for salvation everyone He knew would believe in Jesus Christ (Eph 1:4). God elected believers in the sense that He knew ahead of time that their free will would choose for Christ….Moreover, God did not elect anyone to hell: unbelievers are condemned to eternally reside in hell only because they have used their volition toward unbelief (John 3:18)."[6] Predestined by God      When writing to the Christians at Ephesus, Paul said, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will” (Eph 1:4-5). The word predestined translates the Greek word proorizō (προορίζω), which means, to “decide upon beforehand,  predetermine.”[7] Harold Hoehner defines the word similarly as, “to determine beforehand, mark out beforehand, predestine.”[8] Geisler notes, “Just as God predetermined from all eternity that Christ would die for our sins (Acts 2:23), He also predestined who would be saved. As Paul says, ‘Those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son' (Rom 8:29).”[9] According to Paul Enns, “Even though election and predestination are clearly taught in Scripture, man is still held accountable for his choices. Scripture never suggests that man is lost because he is not elect or has not been predestined; the emphasis of Scripture is that man is lost because he refuses to believe the gospel.”[10]      Predestination refers to what God purposes for us. The Bible reveals that God has predestined us to adoption as His children (Eph 1:5), to our ultimate conformity to Christ (Rom 8:29–30), and to the blessings of our future inheritance (Eph 1:11). Warren Wiersbe states, “This word, as it is used in the Bible, refers primarily to what God does for saved people. Nowhere in the Bible are we taught that people are predestined to hell, because this word refers only to God's people. Election seems to refer to people, while predestination refers to purposes.”[11] According to Robert B. Thieme Jr., predestination refers to “God's predetermined, sovereign provisioning of every believer for the purpose of executing His plan, purpose, and will in time (Eph 1:4-6, 11).”[12] Thieme further states: "In eternity past God decreed, or established with certainty, the believer's destiny for time and eternity. However, the divine act of predestination is never to be confused with the ideas of kismet [the idea of fate] or any other human-viewpoint system of fatalism. God did not negate free will or force anyone into a course of action. Rather, He only decreed and provisioned what He knew would actually happen. He predestined believers based on His eternal knowledge that they would, by their own free will, accept Jesus Christ as Savior. Long before human history began, sovereign God determined that every Church Age believer would be united with the resurrected Jesus Christ, the King of kings. Those who believe are predestined as heirs of God and joint heirs with the Son of God—sharing the eternal destiny of Jesus Christ Himself (Eph 1:5). Furthermore, God predestined believers with everything necessary to fulfill His plan in time. No Christian is dependent upon human energy, personality, or human effort, because God established a grace way of life and furnished the divine means of execution (2 Tim 1:9). Every believer in this age has equal opportunity to either accept or reject God's predestined provision. Regardless of personal failure or success in time, all believers are predestined to be completely “conformed to the image of His Son” in resurrection bodies in heaven (Rom 8:29)."[13] Foreknowledge      Peter wrote of God's elect as those “who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father” (1 Pet 1:1-2). Here, the word foreknowledge translates the Greek noun prognōsis (πρόγνωσις), which means “to know beforehand, know in advance”[14] Foreknowledge simply means that omniscient God, from eternity past, knew in advance all that would happen in time and space, and He knew the actions of every person and whether they would be saved or not. Jesus communicated His foreknowledge when He said to His disciples, ‘“There are some of you who do not believe.' For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him” (John 6:64). God also knew His own actions in time and space, either to direct, permit, or overrule human or angelic decisions, and to judge everyone fairly for their actions. According to Norman Geisler: "Being omniscient, God also eternally foreknew those who would be saved: “Those God foreknew he also predestined” (Rom 8:29). Indeed, they were “elect according to the foreknowledge of God” (1 Pet 1:2). Since His foreknowledge is infallible (He is omniscient), whatever God foreknows will indeed come to pass. Hence, His foreknowledge of who would be saved assures that they will be."[15]      In his letter to the Romans, Paul wrote, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom 8:29). The word “foreknew” translates the Greek verb proginōskō (προγινώσκω) which, according to BDAG, means “to know beforehand or in advance, have foreknowledge.”[16] Here, the word connotes God's knowing people in an intimate sense and not merely what they will do. This speaks to the richness of the relationship God has with each individual. Though we exist in time and space and live our lives in a chronological manner with one experience sequentially following the next, God exists in the eternal realm, beyond time and space, in the eternal now. This means that God is present at all times and places in human history simultaneously. Scripture speaks of what God foreknew from eternity past as it relates to the choices of His elect, but His foreknowledge is not detached or impersonal; rather, it is intimately connected to the formation of His family and the execution of His purposes in the world (see Jer 1:4-5). Prevenient Grace      Prevenient grace refers to the grace of God that precedes and prepares a person's heart and will for salvation. The term “prevenient” means “preceding” or “coming before.” According to Geisler, “Prevenient means ‘before,' and prevenient grace refers to God's unmerited work in the human heart prior to salvation, which directs people to this end through Christ…This grace is also seen in the fact that ‘the goodness of God leads you to repentance' (Rom 2:4). Thus, prevenient grace is God's grace exerted on our behalf even before He bestows salvation on us.”[17]      Because God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4), and is “not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9), He works in a preparatory manner to convince the fallen human heart to welcome Christ (2 Tim 1:9). Jesus spoke of the role of the Holy Spirit in the dispensation of the church age, saying, “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me” (John 16:8-9). According to Geisler, “The act of convicting, then, is that by which God persuades a person that he is a sinner and, thus, is in need of the Savior.”[18] This prevenient work of God is necessary because of the sinfulness of mankind. It is not considered to be salvific in itself but rather a preparatory grace that allows individuals to cooperate with God's saving work in Christ. In this perspective, salvation is seen as a cooperative process where individuals have the ability to accept or reject God's offer of grace. Christians are Elect in Christ      From eternity past, God intended for His grand plan of salvation for all humanity to be achieved through His Son. Scripture reveals “the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14), and “the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10), and He is “the Lamb who has been slain” from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8). Jesus is the Father's Chosen One. God said, “Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen One in whom My soul delights” (Isa 42:1). And He said of Jesus, “This is My Son, My Chosen One” (Luke 9:35). And Peter describes Jesus as “chosen and precious in the sight of God” (1 Pet 2:4). Jesus was chosen by God before the foundation of the world to be the Savior of all mankind, and Christians are elect because we are in Christ. Geisler states: "Christ is eternal, and the universal church was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4); hence, in the mind of God, the church of God is eternal. Further, Christ is the elect of God (Matt 3:16–17), and we are elect in Him; not only is Christ the elect One, but in the New Testament those “in Christ,” the church, the members of His body, were elect in Him before time began."[19]      Scripture reveals that Christians “are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father” (1 Pet 1:1-2), that Christ “was foreknown before the foundation of the world” (1 Pet 1:20), was “chosen and precious” in His sight (1 Pet 2:4), and that God “chose us in Him before the foundation of the world” (Eph 1:4). The prepositional phrase “in Him” (ἐν αὐτῷ) speaks to our election and union with Christ (Eph 1:4). According to L. B. Smedes, “This strongly suggests that God elects people for salvation in the same decision that He elected Christ as their Savior.”[20] Because Jesus is God's Chosen One, it is asserted that we, God's elect, were chosen at the same time as Christ, and He “saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity” (2 Tim 1:9). When we believed in Jesus as our Savior, God placed us into union with Christ, for “by His doing you are in Christ Jesus” (1 Cor 1:30). Paul wrote, “I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen [eklektos], so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory” (2 Tim 2:10).      The prepositional phrase, “in Christ” (ἐν Χριστῷ), emphasizes the idea of believers being in union with Christ. This union is not merely a metaphorical expression but signifies a profound spiritual reality. The Apostle Paul frequently uses this expression to convey the intimate and transformative relationship that believers have with Christ (Rom 8:1; 12:5; 1 Cor 1:2, 30; Gal 3:28; Eph 1:3-4; Phil 1:1; Col 1:2; 2 Tim 1:9; 2:10). Being “in Christ” signifies that believers are, in a real spiritual sense, united with Him. This identification includes sharing in His death, burial, and resurrection, for we have been “crucified with Christ” (Gal 2:20), and “we died with Christ” (Rom 6:8), were “buried with Him” (Rom 6:4), and “have been raised up with Christ” (Col 3:1). In a real way, we were with Him on the cross, in the grave, and at His resurrection. In the eyes of God, His experience has become our experience. This identification with Jesus is real, even though we were not physically alive at the time of His crucifixion, burial, resurrection, or ascension into heaven. Furthermore, “In Him we have…forgiveness of our trespasses” (Eph 1:7), “have been sanctified in Christ Jesus” (1 Cor 1:2), have “eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23), and are told there is “no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1). This kind of identification in and with another is true in other instances. For example, it was said of Rebekah, “Two nations are in your womb” (Gen 25:23), even before Israel was called into being as a nation. Similarly, the writer of Hebrews speaks of Levi who “paid tithes” (Heb 7:9), and this while “he was still in the loins of his father” Abraham (Heb 7:10). This means that Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek, even before he existed, as he was in the loins of his father, Abraham.[21]      Furthermore, being “in Christ” reflects a believer's new position before God. It signifies that, through faith in Christ, believers are accepted and justified before God. Their sins are forgiven (Acts 10:43; Eph 1:7), and they are seen through the righteousness of Christ (2 Cor 5:21; Phil 3:9). The phrase also emphasizes that believers participate in the benefits of Christ's redemptive work. This includes reconciliation with God (Rom 5:10), adoption as children (Gal 4:5; Eph 1:5), the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 3:16), and the status of being a new creation in Christ (2 Cor 5:17). Believers are seen as co-heirs with Christ, sharing in the inheritance of eternal life (Eph 1:3-14; Rom 8:17). This positional truth is foundational to the concept of salvation by grace through faith. While being “in Christ” has personal implications, it also has a corporate dimension. It speaks to the collective identity of the Church as the body of Christ, with believers being interconnected and sharing a common life “in Christ.” Robert B. Thieme Jr., states: "Through the baptism of the Spirit at salvation, every believer of this age is removed from his position in Adam and secured in his position “in Christ” (1 Cor 15:22; Eph 2:5–6; cf. Gal 3:27). The believer, no longer spiritually dead, is made a “new creature” with a totally unprecedented relationship with God (2 Cor 5:17a). The “old things” that once kept him alienated from God have passed away; phenomenal “new things” have come by virtue of his position in Christ (2 Cor 5:17b). The believer shares Christ's eternal life (1 John 5:11–12), His righteousness (2 Cor 5:21), His election (Eph 1:3–4), His destiny (Eph 1:5), His sonship (John 1:12; Gal 3:26; 1 John 3:1–2), His heirship (Rom 8:16–17), His sanctification (1 Cor 1:2, 30), His kingdom (2 Pet 1:11), His priesthood (Heb 10:10–14), and His royalty (2 Tim 2:11–12). This new position can never be forfeited."[22]      In summary, the prepositional phrase “in Christ” encapsulates profound theological truths about the believer's union with Christ, identification with His redemptive work, a new positional standing before God, and the communal identity of the Church as the body of Christ. It serves as a key concept in understanding the richness of Christian salvation and the transformative impact of faith in Jesus Christ. Dr. Steven R. Cook   [1] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 305. [2] Norman L. Geisler, Systematic Theology, Volume Three: Sin, Salvation (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers, 2004), 220–221. [3] Ibid., 221. [4] Other passages that emphasize God's sovereign choice: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:44), and “no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father” (John 6:65). Paul wrote, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will” (Eph 1:4-5). And to Christians living in Thessalonica, Paul wrote, “We should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth” (2 Th 2:13). [5] Romans 9:1-18 is often cited when discussing election to salvation; however, when one looks at the context of Roman 9, it does not pertain to salvation, but to God's selection of the progenitors of the nation of Israel. In a similar way, God sovereignly selected Nebuchadnezzar to be the king over Babylon (Dan 2:37-38; 5:18), and Cyrus as king over Persia (Ezra 1:2). In fact, God's sovereignty is supreme when it comes to selecting all human rulers, for “It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings” (Dan 2:21), and “the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind, and bestows it on whom He wishes and sets over it the lowliest of men” (Dan 4:17). At times, He even raises up young foolish kings to discipline His people, as He told Isaiah the prophet, “I will make mere lads their princes, and capricious children will rule over them” (Isa 3:4). [6] Robert B. Thieme, Jr. “Election”, Thieme's Bible Doctrine Dictionary, (Houston, TX., R. B. Thieme, Jr., Bible Ministries, 2022), 81. [7] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 873. [8] Harold W. Hoehner, Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2002), 193. [9] Norman L. Geisler, Systematic Theology, Volume Three: Sin, Salvation, 221. [10] Paul P. Enns, The Moody Handbook of Theology (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1989), 329. [11] Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 11. [12] Robert B. Thieme, Jr. “Predestination”, Thieme's Bible Doctrine Dictionary, 203. [13] Ibid., 203-204 [14] Moisés Silva, ed., New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014), 138. [15] Norman L. Geisler, Systematic Theology, Volume Three: Sin, Salvation, 221. [16] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 866. [17] Norman L. Geisler, Systematic Theology, Volume Three: Sin, Salvation, 222. [18] Ibid., 222. [19] Norman L. Geisler, Systematic Theology, Volume Four: Church, Last Things, 50–51. [20] L. B. Smedes, “Grace,” ed. Geoffrey W Bromiley, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1979–1988), 551. [21] These two analogies with Rebekah and Levi help convey the idea of a connection or representation that transcends mere physical existence. In the case of Rebekah, the passage refers to the statement, “Two nations are in your womb” (Gen 25:23), highlighting that this declaration occurred before Israel was called into being as a nation. This serves as an example of a connection that existed before the actual historical formation of the nation. Likewise, the reference to Levi paying tithes while still in the loins of his father, Abraham (Heb 7:9-10), is another analogy used to illustrate a connection that goes beyond the immediate physical existence of the individual. It suggests a representation or identification that precedes the individual's own existence. [22] Robert B. Thieme, Jr. “Position in Christ”, Thieme's Bible Doctrine Dictionary, 200.

Although the word church is not used in these verses, it is used throughout Ephesians. The Greek word for church is ekklesia and means, assembly, gathering, community, congregation, or as you know it church. That is its meaning on the surface but dive a little deeper into the meaning of ekklesia and you will discover that the word is made up of a prefix and a root. The prefix is ek and means out of, and the root is kaleō, which means, call or summon. All I want you to know and appreciate is that the word for church (ekklesia) literally means, the community of called out ones. If you are a Christian, then you belong to the ekklesia of Jesus Christ; you have been called out of the world: But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a Holy nation, a people for Gods own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9). If you are a Christian, your identity is now in Jesus and is the reason why He prayed this for you: I am not asking on behalf of these alone, but also for those who believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one; just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me (John 17:20-21). If you are a Christian, you belong to Him as His Church. Nine times the word ekklesia is used in Ephesians, but the Church is also referred to as the body (sōma) in Ephesians 4:4 and six more times throughout the epistle (see 1:23; 2:16; 4:12, 16; 5:23, 30). To be the body of Christ is to belong to Christ and to be in Christ. In and through Jesus we now belong as the ekklesia and our identity will forever be linked to Him as His Bride. So, dear Christian, is it any wonder that it is Jesus who assures His Church who is His Bride, who is His body: Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades (Rev. 1:17b-18). We do not have the time to get into the significance of numbers this morning, but I do want to point out three significant numbers in these verses that are easy to miss if someone doesnt point them out to you. First, the number one signifies unity in the Bible. The number seven signifies perfection or completion in the Bible. Finally, the number three, for reasons that will soon become clear. Paul is emphasizing the need for unity in the opening verses of Ephesians 4, and urges the Church to be zealous, to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. This is why he emphasized that there is one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God that we, as the Church of Jesus Christ, share. Now, notice how many ones the apostle lists in these verses; he lists seven ones symbolizing that what binds us together as the Bride of Christ is complete and perfectly as God intended it. Finally, and the neatest part of these verses in my opinion is the number three, and you can see it with each of these verses: We are, one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling this is due to the work of the Holy Spirit, as God the Spirit. We have one Lord, one faith, and one baptism because of the redeeming work of Jesus Christ, as God the Son. We worship, one Father of all who is over all and through all and in all who is God the Father. The significance of the number three is that it is symbolic of the God who we worship who is Three-in-One as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There are two ways I can break down these verses in this sermon. I was tempted to create seven points for each of the reasons why we must, urgently keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (v. 3). I have chosen the second way I can break down these verses and it the outline Paul intentionally provided for us based on God as a Trinity. Notice that in Ephesians 1:3-14, Paul begins with the Father who has chosen us, then the Son who has Redeemed us, and then the Holy Spirit who has sealed us. Here in Ephesians 4:4-6, Paul begins from the ground up with the Holy Spirit who keeps us in power, the Son of God who walks with us in love, and the Father who is sovereignly for us. In light of all of the craziness in our nation and world, I cannot think of a more appropriate or more comforting passage in the Bible for this Sunday. The Holy Spirit Keeps His Church Powerfully (v. 4) There is only one body that is the Church, and that one body is defined by the Spirit of God: keeps all who have been redeemed through the blood of the Jesus (1:7) by sealing them as Gods inheritance that He promises to never lose (1:13-14). Listen, just as your physical body cannot live apart from your soul, it is equally true the Church is not really the Church apart from the Spirit of God in Her. If you are a Christian, it is because you heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and believed it. In the moment you believed the gospel, you were baptized by the Holy Spirit (Matt. 3:11; Luke 3:16; Rom. 6:1-7). When you were baptized by the Holy, you experienced what was promised in Ezekiel 36:26-27, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and bring it about that you walk in My statutes, and are careful and follow My ordinances. This is the promise Jesus said all who belong to Him would receive: I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, so that He may be with you forever; the Helper is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him; but you know Him because He remains with you and will be in you (John 14:15-17). If you are a Christian, then you who were once dead in your sins are now alive in Jesus and the evidence that you are alive in Jesus is the inward and outward work of the Holy Spirit who you were baptized in, sealed by, and are now experiencing His regenerative power in your life. What you experienced is the same thing that every other true born-again Christian has experienced; that miracle is described for us in 2 Corinthians 4:6, For God, who said, Light shall shine out of darkness, is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. The true body of Christ is sealed by the lifegiving Spirit of God, and the one hope that is shared by every true Christian who makes up the Church of Christ is a single and unified hope that is rooted in a Jesus who not only died for sinners and rose from the grave, but is coming again to make all things new and to reverse the curse of sin! The hope of the true Christian is the hope of the true Church: We long for the return of Jesus who is, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come (Eph. 1:20-21), and as the body of Christ, we echo the same desire the apostle John shared in his concluding prayer in the book of Revelation: Come, Lord Jesus (Rev. 22:20). If you are a Christian, you belong to one body because of one Spirit, evidenced by one hope of your calling. The Son of God Walks with His Church Lovingly (v. 5) Another reason why we ought to be zealous, to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace is because, as the body of Christ, we share one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. The one Lord is Jesus, the one faith is His gospel, and the one baptism is the public confession that He is both savior and Lord over our lives through the waters of baptism. So, lets briefly look at each of these three statements individually. Jesus is Lord. There can be no other lord or lords if you are a Christian! What this means is that the body of Christ and those who truly belong to His body accept, embrace, and follow the Jesus revealed in the Bible. Who is the Jesus revealed in the Bible? He is the One who claimed: I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6). He is the One who asserts Himself with the proclamation: I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades (Rev. 1:17b-18). It is this Christ that every true believer celebrates as the One who is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He who is the head of the body, the church; and He who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything (Col. 1:17-18). It is to Him all authority belongs and it is before Him that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:11). Jesus is Lord, and because He is Lord, those who truly belong to Him follow where He goes (Luke 14:26-27), and go where He sends (Matthew 28:19-20). Jesus is Lord because He is, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end (Rev. 22:13). Jesus is He, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty (Rev. 1:8). Jesus is Lord and it is the recognition of and submission to His lordship that marks every true Christian who makes up His Church. The one faith we share as His Church is a confidence in Jesus as Lord. The Greek word for faith is pistis which is confidence in the thing that you believe is indeed true! The faith Paul is speaking of is so much more than the acknowledgment of certain facts about Jesus such as His life, death for sin, and resurrection. No, the faith that marks the true body of Christ is a confidence that He is all that He claimed to be and all that He did and all that He is is enough for our life, salvation, and our complete redemption. It is our one faith in Him that compels us to follow Him! Oh, dear friends, in light of His Lordship and the faith you claim to have in Him, consider the words of our dear Savior: Now why do you call Me, Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say (Luke 6:46)? It is because of Christs Lordship and our confidence in all that He did and all that He is that we share in one baptism. Now the baptism Paul is referring is in reference to water baptism, but it is so much more than water baptism, for it is the underlining reason why water baptism is not a way to complete your salvation but the next step of obedience to Jesus as a result of your salvation. One of the passages in the Bible I like to use during our baptism services is Romans 6:3-4, Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. Water Baptism is the outward sign of a new identity that is rooted in Jesus death and resurrection which is the reason for the new life as His redeemed people. This is also the reason Jesus commanded His Church: Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matt. 28:19-20). If you are a Christian, it is because of One Lord, one faith, and one baptism! God the Father is Sovereignly for His Church Eternally (v. 6) If you are a Christian, God is your Father! This ought to compel in us an urgency and zeal to, keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (v. 3). Surely it is because we share, one hope, one Holy Spirit, one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. However all of this is because of the sovereign will of God the Father who, according to Ephesians 5-6, In love predestined us to adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. What unifies us across denominational lines as brothers and sisters who make up the body of Christ is the Holy Spirit who seals us as His own, the hope of the saving work of Jesus, the allegiance to the Lordship of Christ, a confidence that He is enough, and the evidence that we have gone from darkness to light and death to life. Because of this, we who were once sons of disobedience and children of wrath, now have been reconciled to God as his children; what unifies us now is that God is our Father! What unifies us is that we can celebrate with confidence the assurance of 1 John 3:1, See how great a love the Father has given us, that we would be called children of God; and in fact we are. For this reason the world does not know us: because it did not know Him. But dear brothers and sisters, we now know the God who we used to run from, and now we can call him Father! This is why the all Paul is referring to in verse 6 are all true Christians regardless of the secondary issues we disagree on. This final and important point serves as the climax of Ephesians 4:1-6, Our God and Father is, over all and through all and in all. Dont miss this! The three alls here are referring to the one body of Christ who is sealed by one Spirit, because we share one hope, have one Lord, share one faith, who are identified by one baptism, and belong to one God is now our Father. Because of this our Father is over all believers, through all believers, and in all believers. Let me say it another way: Our God and Father is lovingly and sovereignly over all His redeemed children. Our God and Father is lovingly working through all His redeemed children. Our God and Father is lovingly residing in all His redeemed children. So what are the hills we ought to be dying on? There are seven of them listed for us in these verses: There is one body and one Spirit, just as you also were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all (vv. 4-6). The question I leave you with is this: In light of what unifies us, how are you doing with Ephesians 4:1-3? How are you, walking in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, being zealous to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace? Amen.

Although the word church is not used in these verses, it is used throughout Ephesians. The Greek word for church is ekklesia and means, assembly, gathering, community, congregation, or as you know it church. That is its meaning on the surface but dive a little deeper into the meaning of ekklesia and you will discover that the word is made up of a prefix and a root. The prefix is ek and means out of, and the root is kaleō, which means, call or summon. All I want you to know and appreciate is that the word for church (ekklesia) literally means, the community of called out ones. If you are a Christian, then you belong to the ekklesia of Jesus Christ; you have been called out of the world: But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a Holy nation, a people for Gods own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9). If you are a Christian, your identity is now in Jesus and is the reason why He prayed this for you: I am not asking on behalf of these alone, but also for those who believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one; just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me (John 17:20-21). If you are a Christian, you belong to Him as His Church. Nine times the word ekklesia is used in Ephesians, but the Church is also referred to as the body (sōma) in Ephesians 4:4 and six more times throughout the epistle (see 1:23; 2:16; 4:12, 16; 5:23, 30). To be the body of Christ is to belong to Christ and to be in Christ. In and through Jesus we now belong as the ekklesia and our identity will forever be linked to Him as His Bride. So, dear Christian, is it any wonder that it is Jesus who assures His Church who is His Bride, who is His body: Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades (Rev. 1:17b-18). We do not have the time to get into the significance of numbers this morning, but I do want to point out three significant numbers in these verses that are easy to miss if someone doesnt point them out to you. First, the number one signifies unity in the Bible. The number seven signifies perfection or completion in the Bible. Finally, the number three, for reasons that will soon become clear. Paul is emphasizing the need for unity in the opening verses of Ephesians 4, and urges the Church to be zealous, to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. This is why he emphasized that there is one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God that we, as the Church of Jesus Christ, share. Now, notice how many ones the apostle lists in these verses; he lists seven ones symbolizing that what binds us together as the Bride of Christ is complete and perfectly as God intended it. Finally, and the neatest part of these verses in my opinion is the number three, and you can see it with each of these verses: We are, one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling this is due to the work of the Holy Spirit, as God the Spirit. We have one Lord, one faith, and one baptism because of the redeeming work of Jesus Christ, as God the Son. We worship, one Father of all who is over all and through all and in all who is God the Father. The significance of the number three is that it is symbolic of the God who we worship who is Three-in-One as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There are two ways I can break down these verses in this sermon. I was tempted to create seven points for each of the reasons why we must, urgently keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (v. 3). I have chosen the second way I can break down these verses and it the outline Paul intentionally provided for us based on God as a Trinity. Notice that in Ephesians 1:3-14, Paul begins with the Father who has chosen us, then the Son who has Redeemed us, and then the Holy Spirit who has sealed us. Here in Ephesians 4:4-6, Paul begins from the ground up with the Holy Spirit who keeps us in power, the Son of God who walks with us in love, and the Father who is sovereignly for us. In light of all of the craziness in our nation and world, I cannot think of a more appropriate or more comforting passage in the Bible for this Sunday. The Holy Spirit Keeps His Church Powerfully (v. 4) There is only one body that is the Church, and that one body is defined by the Spirit of God: keeps all who have been redeemed through the blood of the Jesus (1:7) by sealing them as Gods inheritance that He promises to never lose (1:13-14). Listen, just as your physical body cannot live apart from your soul, it is equally true the Church is not really the Church apart from the Spirit of God in Her. If you are a Christian, it is because you heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and believed it. In the moment you believed the gospel, you were baptized by the Holy Spirit (Matt. 3:11; Luke 3:16; Rom. 6:1-7). When you were baptized by the Holy, you experienced what was promised in Ezekiel 36:26-27, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and bring it about that you walk in My statutes, and are careful and follow My ordinances. This is the promise Jesus said all who belong to Him would receive: I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, so that He may be with you forever; the Helper is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him; but you know Him because He remains with you and will be in you (John 14:15-17). If you are a Christian, then you who were once dead in your sins are now alive in Jesus and the evidence that you are alive in Jesus is the inward and outward work of the Holy Spirit who you were baptized in, sealed by, and are now experiencing His regenerative power in your life. What you experienced is the same thing that every other true born-again Christian has experienced; that miracle is described for us in 2 Corinthians 4:6, For God, who said, Light shall shine out of darkness, is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. The true body of Christ is sealed by the lifegiving Spirit of God, and the one hope that is shared by every true Christian who makes up the Church of Christ is a single and unified hope that is rooted in a Jesus who not only died for sinners and rose from the grave, but is coming again to make all things new and to reverse the curse of sin! The hope of the true Christian is the hope of the true Church: We long for the return of Jesus who is, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come (Eph. 1:20-21), and as the body of Christ, we echo the same desire the apostle John shared in his concluding prayer in the book of Revelation: Come, Lord Jesus (Rev. 22:20). If you are a Christian, you belong to one body because of one Spirit, evidenced by one hope of your calling. The Son of God Walks with His Church Lovingly (v. 5) Another reason why we ought to be zealous, to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace is because, as the body of Christ, we share one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. The one Lord is Jesus, the one faith is His gospel, and the one baptism is the public confession that He is both savior and Lord over our lives through the waters of baptism. So, lets briefly look at each of these three statements individually. Jesus is Lord. There can be no other lord or lords if you are a Christian! What this means is that the body of Christ and those who truly belong to His body accept, embrace, and follow the Jesus revealed in the Bible. Who is the Jesus revealed in the Bible? He is the One who claimed: I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6). He is the One who asserts Himself with the proclamation: I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades (Rev. 1:17b-18). It is this Christ that every true believer celebrates as the One who is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He who is the head of the body, the church; and He who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything (Col. 1:17-18). It is to Him all authority belongs and it is before Him that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:11). Jesus is Lord, and because He is Lord, those who truly belong to Him follow where He goes (Luke 14:26-27), and go where He sends (Matthew 28:19-20). Jesus is Lord because He is, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end (Rev. 22:13). Jesus is He, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty (Rev. 1:8). Jesus is Lord and it is the recognition of and submission to His lordship that marks every true Christian who makes up His Church. The one faith we share as His Church is a confidence in Jesus as Lord. The Greek word for faith is pistis which is confidence in the thing that you believe is indeed true! The faith Paul is speaking of is so much more than the acknowledgment of certain facts about Jesus such as His life, death for sin, and resurrection. No, the faith that marks the true body of Christ is a confidence that He is all that He claimed to be and all that He did and all that He is is enough for our life, salvation, and our complete redemption. It is our one faith in Him that compels us to follow Him! Oh, dear friends, in light of His Lordship and the faith you claim to have in Him, consider the words of our dear Savior: Now why do you call Me, Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say (Luke 6:46)? It is because of Christs Lordship and our confidence in all that He did and all that He is that we share in one baptism. Now the baptism Paul is referring is in reference to water baptism, but it is so much more than water baptism, for it is the underlining reason why water baptism is not a way to complete your salvation but the next step of obedience to Jesus as a result of your salvation. One of the passages in the Bible I like to use during our baptism services is Romans 6:3-4, Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. Water Baptism is the outward sign of a new identity that is rooted in Jesus death and resurrection which is the reason for the new life as His redeemed people. This is also the reason Jesus commanded His Church: Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matt. 28:19-20). If you are a Christian, it is because of One Lord, one faith, and one baptism! God the Father is Sovereignly for His Church Eternally (v. 6) If you are a Christian, God is your Father! This ought to compel in us an urgency and zeal to, keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (v. 3). Surely it is because we share, one hope, one Holy Spirit, one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. However all of this is because of the sovereign will of God the Father who, according to Ephesians 5-6, In love predestined us to adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. What unifies us across denominational lines as brothers and sisters who make up the body of Christ is the Holy Spirit who seals us as His own, the hope of the saving work of Jesus, the allegiance to the Lordship of Christ, a confidence that He is enough, and the evidence that we have gone from darkness to light and death to life. Because of this, we who were once sons of disobedience and children of wrath, now have been reconciled to God as his children; what unifies us now is that God is our Father! What unifies us is that we can celebrate with confidence the assurance of 1 John 3:1, See how great a love the Father has given us, that we would be called children of God; and in fact we are. For this reason the world does not know us: because it did not know Him. But dear brothers and sisters, we now know the God who we used to run from, and now we can call him Father! This is why the all Paul is referring to in verse 6 are all true Christians regardless of the secondary issues we disagree on. This final and important point serves as the climax of Ephesians 4:1-6, Our God and Father is, over all and through all and in all. Dont miss this! The three alls here are referring to the one body of Christ who is sealed by one Spirit, because we share one hope, have one Lord, share one faith, who are identified by one baptism, and belong to one God is now our Father. Because of this our Father is over all believers, through all believers, and in all believers. Let me say it another way: Our God and Father is lovingly and sovereignly over all His redeemed children. Our God and Father is lovingly working through all His redeemed children. Our God and Father is lovingly residing in all His redeemed children. So what are the hills we ought to be dying on? There are seven of them listed for us in these verses: There is one body and one Spirit, just as you also were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all (vv. 4-6). The question I leave you with is this: In light of what unifies us, how are you doing with Ephesians 4:1-3? How are you, walking in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, being zealous to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace? Amen.

Easter night, millions of Americans tuned in to Jesus, this was actually several years ago when "The Bible" miniseries was on cable TV. Except this time, "A.D. - The Bible Continues" was on a major network. I was one of those millions who was watching on Easter, plunged into the world-changing events of that first Good Friday and Easter. I couldn't help but connect it to a touching Facebook post I saw on Good Friday about a bookstore visit that a dear Native American friend had with her young grandson - who she calls "Handsome." Handsome spotted a painting that really got his attention. It was Jesus nailed to the cross. He went straight to it and he said "with passion" in his voice, his grandma said, "Gramma look! Can we buy it? It's the last one. If we don't buy it, someone else will get it!" Here's what our friend wrote: "Today is Good Friday, the day Jesus died on the cross for me. How could I not buy the picture for Handsome?" Well, I'll tell you, that picture of that little boy hugging that painting is tattooed in my mind. It occurred to me that the little guy was onto something. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Personal A.D." You know what I think that little boy had? I think he had the idea that you need to make Jesus yours while you can. Not because there's a limited supply, but because that ultimate spiritual opportunity won't always be there. Jesus described that opportunity this way in Revelation 3:20, "Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear My voice and open the door, I will come in." If I hadn't already "opened the door" to Jesus, I think watching that TV reminder of His awful death might just have done it. Looking there and realizing that the price He paid to rescue me from the death penalty for what I've done against Him; for my sins. In the Bible's words, "He loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). I suspect a lot of us have felt that knock on the door, that tugging in our heart maybe many times. But just like that little Native boy realized, it's important to grab Jesus while you can, because we never know when our heart is going to beat for the last time. And we'll suddenly be on the brink of eternity. Or because we have reached the spiritual point of no return. There is one the Bible calls the "Hardening of your heart." Ignoring Jesus' knock so many times you just don't hear Him anymore. The Bible has this warning and it is our word for today from the Word of God. It is from Hebrews 4:7. And who knows, it might have your name on it today. "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts" (Hebrews 4:7). You know, there seems to be one other especially disturbing way that we can miss Jesus; one that can make postponing Jesus life's biggest mistake. "Call on Him while He is near," the Bible says (Isaiah 55:6). Which suggests He won't always be near. Jesus said, "No one can come to Me unless the Father...draws them to Me" (John 6:44). I've got to come to Jesus, not when I'm ready, but when He's ready. When I "hear His voice." If you feel that tugging, if you hear His voice inside, He's ready. It's time! You say, "Ron, I've never gotten this settled. Let's get this done today. Would you reach out with all the faith you can and say, "Jesus, I'm yours." Would you tell Him that in your heart? Tell Him that out loud if you choose. I would urge you to come to our website. It is all about securing your personal relationship with Jesus and thus securing your eternity. It's ANewStory.com. Please check it out. I remember the day I heard that voice and I opened the door. It changed my life forever and my eternal destination; moving from the emptiness of life without Jesus to the amazingness of life with Him. And moving from B.C. - before Christ, without Christ - to my personal "A.D."

     For those living in the church age, the content of faith is the good news that Jesus—the Messiah—died for our sins, was buried, and resurrected on the third day (1 Cor 15:3-4). When people accept this as historically true, and then place their faith in Jesus, they experience salvation. According to Fruchtenbaum, “we must believe that Yeshua died for our sins as our substitute, that He was buried and rose again, and that He therefore has provided salvation. Thus, one trusts Yeshua for one's salvation.”[1] According to Robert B. Thieme Jr., “First Corinthians 15:3-4 defines the boundaries of the Gospel, beginning with the work of Christ and ending with His resurrection…Any Gospel message that strays from the cross or denies Jesus Christ's resurrection from physical death is inaccurate and out of bounds.”[2] Today we understand the saving gospel message as, “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3-4). Knowing the good news of what God accomplished for us through Christ at the cross, we must then “Believe in the Lord Jesus” (Acts 16:31), and trust exclusively in Him as our Savior, for “there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Salvation is by grace alone (Rom 3:24; Eph 2:8-9), through faith alone (Rom 3:28; 5:1; Gal 2:16; Eph 2:8-9), in Christ alone (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). And when we believe in Christ as Savior, we are forgiven all our sins (Acts 10:43; Eph 1:7), given eternal life (John 10:28), become children of God (John 1:12; Gal 3:26), are “rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Col 1:13), become citizens of heaven (Phil 3:20), and are blessed “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph 1:3).      During the seven-year tribulation many will be saved, both Jews and Gentiles. The apostle John described 144,000 Jewish believers, taken from the twelve tribes of Israel, who are called “bond-servants of our God” (Rev 7:3), and who will be  sealed by the Lord (Rev 7:4). After describing these Jewish believers, John then saw “a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes” (Rev 7:9). When John asked, “where have they come from?” (Rev 7:13), the answer was given, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev 7:14). The last clause that mentions “the blood of the Lamb” speaks of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, “the blood of Christ” (1 Pet 1:19) which purchased our salvation. But what did these Tribulational saints believe that resulted in their salvation?      In the Olivet Discourse (Matthew chapters 24-25), Jesus prophesied about the future tribulation and His second coming and said, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matt 24:14). The gospel of the kingdom that was offered to Israel during Messiah's first coming is similar to the gospel message preached during the time of the Tribulation. J. Dwight Pentecost notes, “Although the news at the first advent was restricted to Israel, prior to the second advent it will be announced not only to Israel but to the whole world.”[3] William MacDonald states, “the gospel of the kingdom is the good news that Christ is coming to set up His kingdom on earth, and that those who receive Him by faith during the Tribulation will enjoy the blessings of His Millennial Reign.”[4]The gospel of the kingdom offers both spiritual and national deliverance to those living during the tribulation. According to J. Dwight Pentecost. “This was the Gospel Christ proclaimed as He offered Israel the covenanted kingdom and invited them to put faith in Him. This same message will be proclaimed again during the years of the Tribulation period preceding Messiah's second advent to the earth.”[5] The first part of its message directs people to look to Jesus as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). This results in spiritual and eternal salvation. The second part of the gospel of the kingdom pertains to Israel's theocratic kingdom, where God will rule over His people and the world, through Jesus, the descendant of David and rightful King of the nation. This gospel will last until the seven years are completed, and then, as Jesus said, “the end will come” (Matt 24:14b). The “end” refers to the end of the seven year tribulation, when Jesus returns and puts down all rebellion (Rev 19:11-21) and establishes His kingdom on earth for a thousand years (Rev 20:1-6). It is at that time, “when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne” (Matt 25:31), and He will reign for “a thousand years” (Rev 20:6). According to Louis A. Barbieri Jr.: "Though this will be a terrible time of persecution, the Lord will have servants who will witness and spread the good news concerning Christ and His soon-coming kingdom. This message will be similar to that preached by John the Baptist, Jesus, and the disciples at the beginning of Matthew's Gospel, but this message will clearly identify Jesus in His true character as the coming Messiah. This is not exactly the same message the church is proclaiming today. The message preached today in the Church Age and the message proclaimed in the Tribulation period calls for turning to the Savior for salvation. However, in the Tribulation the message will stress the coming kingdom, and those who then turn to the Savior for salvation will be allowed entrance into the kingdom. Apparently many will respond to that message (cf. Rev 7:9-10)."[6] J. Dwight Pentecost adds: "The Gospel of the kingdom is the message that John the Baptist proclaimed to Israel. It involved first a call to repentance, then an invitation to behold or to look by faith to the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). This is the same message that will be proclaimed in the world during that period Christ called, literally, “the tribulation, the great one” (Matt 24:21). This future period is the unfulfilled seven years of Daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks (Dan 9:24-27). During this period the Gospel of the kingdom will be preached to Gentiles by 144,000 who will be sovereignly redeemed and commissioned to be God's servants (Rev 7:1-8). They will proclaim salvation by grace through faith based on blood so that men can have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev 7:14). The same message will be proclaimed by the two witnesses (Rev 11:3), prophets God will raise up to bring a message to the nation Israel. Indeed, their message is no different than the one the prophets have always brought to a disobedient covenant people down through the ages."[7]      In summary, saving faith is always a response to God and a promise He has made. Today, God the Holy Spirit draws people to Christ, convicting them of one particular sin, and that is the sin of not trusting in Jesus as Savior. Jesus specified the particular sin, saying, “because they do not believe in Me” (John 16:9). When people respond positively to the work of the Holy Spirit, they will believe in Jesus as Savior, accepting the truth “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3-4). And having accepted this good news, they will then turn to Christ as Savior, and “Believe in the Lord Jesus” (Acts 16:31), and be saved. Long and Short Gospel Presentations      In the New Testament, the gospel that saves is presented in both long and short form. A long presentation of the gospel is found in the Gospel of John as a whole. The apostle John states, “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:30-31). The gospel that saves is clearly presented in the Gospel of John.      A short form of the gospel is found in Acts 16, where Paul and Silas told the Philippian jailer, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). The text of Acts 16 as a whole is not evangelistic in nature, but a brief account of Paul's missionary journey in the city of Philippi, of which the jailer was a part of that historical narrative. How much the Philippian jailer knew about God, sin, the personhood of Jesus, and the cross and resurrection is not revealed in the text. What is plain is that Paul told the jailer that if he believed in the Lord Jesus, he would be saved. A Warning to Any Who Would Pervert the Gospel of Grace      The gospel that saves spiritually is specific in its content, and to preach any other gospel will not only result in a failure for the lost to obtain that which is necessary for entrance into heaven, but it will bring great judgment upon the one who proclaims it. The apostle Paul wrote, “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!” (Gal 1:8-9). It is noteworthy that Paul includes himself in this warning, as the gospel that was delivered to him, once it was received, could not be changed, even by one so great as the apostle Paul himself. Concerning this verse, Arnold Fruchtenbaum comments: "In verses 8–9, Paul pronounces the anathema, which is a rebuke against false teachers. Anyone who teaches a gospel that is different from the gospel they have received is to be anathema. Another gospel is any gospel other than the gospel of the grace of God. Any addition to the simple statement that salvation is by grace through faith is another gospel. Any addition to the gospel—be it baptism, tongues, ceremonies, church membership, repentance—perverts the gospel and is anathema."[8] Lewis Chafer adds: "This anathema has never been revoked, nor could it be so long as the saving grace of God is to be proclaimed to a lost world. From the human point of view, a misrepresentation of the gospel might so misguide a soul that the way of life is missed forever. It behooves the doctor of souls to know the precise remedy he is appointed to administer. A medical doctor may, by an error, terminate what at best is only a brief life on earth. The doctor of souls is dealing with eternal destiny. Having given His Son to die for lost men, God cannot but be exacting about how that great benefit is presented, nor should He be deemed unjust if He pronounces an anathema on those who pervert the one and only way of salvation which was purchased at so great a cost. A sensitive man, when realizing these eternal issues, might shrink from so great a responsibility, but God has not called His messengers to such a failure. He enjoins them to “preach the word” and assures them of His unfailing presence and enabling power."[9]       [1] Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Faith Alone: The Condition of Our Salvation: An Exposition of the Book of Galatians and Other Relevant Topics, ed. Christiane Jurik, Second Edition. (San Antonio, TX: Ariel Ministries, 2016), 6. [2] Robert B. Thieme, Jr. “Gospel”, Thieme's Bible Doctrine Dictionary, (Houston, TX., R. B. Thieme, Jr., Bible Ministries, 2022), 113 [3] J. Dwight Pentecost, Things to Come: A Study in Biblical Eschatology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1958), 472. [4] William MacDonald, Believer's Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments, ed. Arthur Farstad (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), 1294. [5] J. Dwight Pentecost, Thy Kingdom Come: Tracing God's Kingdom Program and Covenant Promises throughout History (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1995), 311. [6] Louis A. Barbieri Jr., “Matthew,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 77. [7] J. Dwight Pentecost, Thy Kingdom Come, 121–122. [8] Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Faith Alone: The Condition of Our Salvation: An Exposition of the Book of Galatians and Other Relevant Topics, 12–13. [9] Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology, vol. 3, p. 10.

What is God like? It sounds like the question of a six-year old—honest; direct; no nuance.  Simple as it sounds, it's actually one of the most important questions in human history. From the dawn of recorded time, both peasants and philosophers have wrestled with the question. Some cultures told themselves that He was angry and all-powerful. Others asserted that He was only one of many gods usually engaged in wrangling with each other. Still others claimed He is eternally inspecting our behavior, searching for any cause to deny us a forever home with Him. Jesus answered the question for all time and for all people. “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!” He told His followers. “The words I speak are not my own, but My Father who lives in Me does His work through Me” (John 14:9-10). The kindness, the graciousness, the sacrificial spirit seen in Jesus are identically those of the Father. So the Bible declares, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Jesus was giving us the ultimate picture of God: “This is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). When you wonder if God is a friend or the ultimate enemy; when you doubt that He can forgive your brokenness and rebellion; when your heart aches to be loved and welcomed home—remember this: Jesus is the very image of the Father (Col 1:15). And you will stay in grace. -Bill Knott

What is God like? It sounds like the question of a six-year old—honest; direct; no nuance.  Simple as it sounds, it's actually one of the most important questions in human history. From the dawn of recorded time, both peasants and philosophers have wrestled with the question. Some cultures told themselves that He was angry and all-powerful. Others asserted that He was only one of many gods usually engaged in wrangling with each other. Still others claimed He is eternally inspecting our behavior, searching for any cause to deny us a forever home with Him. Jesus answered the question for all time and for all people. “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!” He told His followers. “The words I speak are not my own, but My Father who lives in Me does His work through Me” (John 14:9-10). The kindness, the graciousness, the sacrificial spirit seen in Jesus are identically those of the Father. So the Bible declares, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Jesus was giving us the ultimate picture of God: “This is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). When you wonder if God is a friend or the ultimate enemy; when you doubt that He can forgive your brokenness and rebellion; when your heart aches to be loved and welcomed home—remember this: Jesus is the very image of the Father (Col 1:15). And you will stay in grace. -Bill Knott

What is God like? It sounds like the question of a six-year old—honest; direct; no nuance.  Simple as it sounds, it's actually one of the most important questions in human history. From the dawn of recorded time, both peasants and philosophers have wrestled with the question. Some cultures told themselves that He was angry and all-powerful. Others asserted that He was only one of many gods usually engaged in wrangling with each other. Still others claimed He is eternally inspecting our behavior, searching for any cause to deny us a forever home with Him. Jesus answered the question for all time and for all people. “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!” He told His followers. “The words I speak are not my own, but My Father who lives in Me does His work through Me” (John 14:9-10). The kindness, the graciousness, the sacrificial spirit seen in Jesus are identically those of the Father. So the Bible declares, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Jesus was giving us the ultimate picture of God: “This is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). When you wonder if God is a friend or the ultimate enemy; when you doubt that He can forgive your brokenness and rebellion; when your heart aches to be loved and welcomed home—remember this: Jesus is the very image of the Father (Col 1:15). And you will stay in grace. -Bill Knott

Imitation is the Highest Form of FlatteryJesus did something that seems so out of place for us today, living in a culture that exalts pride, ambition, and independence— He voluntarily lived in a dependent relationship with His Father and deferred all glory to Him. But He didn't have to live this way. This was His voluntary choice between equals. And remember, Jesus is God Himself, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father. He is the Second Person in the Trinity, and not some innately subservient, second-class God.To set the scene, Jesus is in the midst of a brutal attack by the Jewish religious elites because He said, “My Father,” showing a family relationship with God Himself. And the Jews responded with rage and death threats. His statement about being God's Son seriously enraged them.So Jesus clarified His statement and His relationship with God the Father by stating this about His dependence on the Father. You would do well to note the implications of what He is saying.Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly (truly, truly), I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, (why) but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He (the Father) does, the Son also does in like manner” – John 5:19.It appears the Son has chosen to live in a dependent relationship with His Father, much like a slave (doúlos) does to their Master. Yet, being fully God, Jesus chose this posture to ensure, as an example to each of us, the importance of seeking the will of the Father and not our own will. And if it was good enough for the Son of God to live that way, surely it is good enough for us.Jesus Speaks His Father's WordsNext, Jesus reveals the importance of seeking only the will of the Father and not His own will. And again, you would do well to note the implications of this subservient posture of our Lord.“I can (dúnamai – to be able, to have power by virtue of one's own ability and resources) of Myself do (to carry out or perform an action or course of action) nothing (no one, none at all, not even one, not in the least). As I hear (from the Father who sent Him), I judge; and My judgment is righteous (just, correct, right), (why) because I do not (the voluntary choice of Jesus) seek (to strive for, wish, require, demand) My own will (desire, inclination, plan of action, purpose) but (in contrast) the will (desire, inclination, plan of action, purpose) of the Father who sent Me” – John 5:30.This passage does not say Jesus was something less than the Father or had to appeal to a power or authority greater than Himself to perform miracles. Quite the opposite. Jesus states He is choosing, as an equal with God, to put aside His personal desire and agenda and give glory to His Father by living in a dependent relationship with Him. And His judgment is righteous because it came directly from the Father. So, to His Jewish detractors, Jesus was saying, “If you've got a problem with Me or with what I am saying, take it up with the Father. For I am only doing what the Father commands me to say and do.”But it continues.His Purpose Was to Do His Father's WillIn the next chapter, Jesus teaches the troubled masses that He is the bread of life the Father sent from heaven for them, using the imagery of Moses and manna in the...

Unlimited atonement is the view from Scripture that Jesus died for everyone, and even though His death is sufficient to save everyone, the benefits of the cross are applied only to those who believe in Him as Savior. In contrast to this is the teaching of limited atonement, that Christ died only for those whom God has elected to salvation. Though there are Christians who hold to limited atonement, and have written well on other theological matters, it is the view of this writer that they err on this subject, relying more on human logic than the testimony of Scripture. Arnold Fruchtenbaum states, “Those who hold to limited atonement do not come to their conclusion based upon the exegesis of Scripture because the fact is that there is no passage anywhere in the Bible that says He died only for the elect…The defense for limited atonement is not based upon exegesis; it is based upon logic.”[1] According to David Allen: "Limited atonement is a doctrine in search of a text. No one can point to any text in Scripture that states clearly and unequivocally that Christ died for the sins of a limited number of people to the exclusion of others. Most Calvinists admit this. Alternatively, a dozen clear texts in the New Testament explicitly affirm Christ died for the sins of all people, and another half dozen plus that indirectly suggest it."[2]      Jesus' atonement for sins is the basis for reconciliation, because God has judged our sins in the Person of Christ who died on the cross in our place. Jesus is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29), and “who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4), and “who gave Himself as a ransom for all” (1 Tim 2:6), and tasted “death for everyone” (Heb 2:9), and “is the Savior of all men, especially of believers” (1 Tim 4:10), “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men” (Tit 2:11), and “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world” (1 John 2:2; cf., 1 John 4:10), and “the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14). Peter wrote of “false prophets” and “false teachers” who “deny the Master who bought them” (2 Pet 2:1).      Because Christ died for everyone, everyone is savable. But though the death of Christ is sufficient to save everyone, only those who believe will benefit from His work on the cross. And when people believe in Jesus, accepting the fact the He died for their sins, was buried, and raised again on the third day, they receive forgiveness of sins (Acts 10:43; Eph 1:7), the gift of righteousness (Rom 5:17; 2 Cor 5:21; Phil 3:9), and the eternal life (John 3:16; 10:28). Human volition is the key, as “God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent” (Acts 17:30). This means they must not trust in themselves or any system of good works to save, but trust in Christ alone to save.      Biblically, we should understand that Jesus is the God-Man (Isa 7:14; John 1:1, 14; Heb 1:8), that “in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form” (Col 2:9). Furthermore, He was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary (Isa 7:14; Luke 1:30-35; Gal 4:4), was born without the taint of sin and lived a sinless life (2 Cor 5:21; Heb 4:15; 1 Pet 2:22; 1 John 3:5), which qualified Him to go to the cross and pay the ransom price for our sins by means of His shed blood (Mark 10:45; 1 Tim 2:6; 1 Pet 1:18-19). When the divinely appointed time came for Him to go to the cross (John 12:23; 13:1), Jesus willingly went and died in our place and paid the penalty for our sins (John 10:18; Rom 5:8). Peter wrote, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God” (1 Pet 3:18). After Jesus paid for our sins, “He said, ‘It is finished!' And He bowed His head, and gave up His spirit” (John 19:30). Jesus died, was placed in a grave, and was resurrected to life on the third day (Acts 2:23-24; 4:10; 10:40; 1 Cor 15:3-4), never to die again (Rom 6:9). Salvation is now available to everyone, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). The only sin that keeps a person out of heaven is the sin of unbelief. The apostle John wrote, “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18). Jesus, speaking to unsaved persons, said, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life” (John 5:39-40). And Jesus pointed out that the world as a whole is convicted by God the Holy Spirit of one sin, the sin of unbelief, “because they do not believe in Me” (John 16:9). For those who reject Christ as Savior, their future is one of eternal separation and punishment away from God for all eternity, for “if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev 20:15). This need not happen. Hell is avoidable to the one who trusts in Christ as Savior, believing the gospel message “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3-4). And this salvation is a gift from God (Rom 3:24; 6:23), offered by grace alone (Eph 2:8-9), through faith alone (Gal 2:16; 3:26; 2 Tim 3:15), in Christ alone (John 14:6; Acts 4:12), totally apart from human works (Rom 4:5; Eph 2:8-9; Tit 3:5). Once we understand who Christ is and what He's accomplished for us on the cross, we can then exercise our faith by trusting in Him as our Savior (and not a fake Jesus like that of Mormon's and Jehovah Witnesses). Once we have trusted in Christ for salvation, God then bestows on us forgiveness of sins (Acts 10:43; Eph 1:7), the gift of righteousness (Rom 5:17; Phil 3:9), eternal life (John 10:28), and many other blessings (Eph 1:3). For lost sinners, the matter is simple, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). Dr. Steven R. Cook   [1] Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, God's Will & Man's Will: Predestination, Election, & Free Will, ed. Christiane Jurik, 2nd Edition. (San Antonio, TX: Ariel Ministries, 2014), 44. [2] David L. Allen, “A Critique of Limited Atonement,” in Calvinism: A Biblical and Theological Critique, ed. David L. Allen and Steve W. Lemke (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2022), 71.

     Total depravity is the biblical doctrine that sin permeates all aspects of our being—mind, will, and sensibilities, and renders us helpless to save ourselves. It does not mean we are as bad as we can be, for there are many moral unbelievers in the world. Being contaminated by sin means whatever morality we produce can never measure up to the perfect righteousness God expects. Is there any person who can say, “I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin?” (Prov 20:9). The answer is an emphatic No! The human heart is corrupt, for “the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick” (Jer 17:9). And “Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins” (Eccl 7:20), and “There is none righteous; not even one. There is none who understands; there is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become useless. There is none who does good, there is not even one” (Rom 3:10-12; cf. Rom 8:8). Some might argue that we can perform good works and help to save ourselves. This is wrong. Scripture states, “your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God” (Isa 59:2), “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away” (Isa 64:6). Salvation does not come by human works; rather, we are “justified by faith apart from works of the Law” (Rom 3:28), and salvation comes “to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly” (Rom 4:5), and we are “not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified” (Gal 2:16), “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph 2:8-9), and God “has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity” (2 Tim 1:9), and “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit” (Tit 3:5). By human standards, even the worst person can do some good. But human estimation is lower than God's estimation and it is God's standards that define what is truly good. According to Charles Ryrie, “Total depravity must always be measured against God's holiness. Relative goodness exists in people. They can do good works, which are appreciated by others. But nothing that anyone can do will gain salvational merit or favor in the sight of a holy God.”[1] Calvinist View of Total Depravity      For Calvinists, total depravity means total inability. They regard people as totally unable to respond to the things of God; like a physical corpse. Notable scholars such as B. B. Warfield, R. C. Sproul, John Piper, Wayne Grudem, John Frame, John MacArthur, and J. I. Packer hold this view. B. B. Warfield wrote, “nothing is more fundamental in the doctrine of the Reformers than the complete inability of man and his absolute need of divine grace.”[2] John Frame states, “We can never come to God out of our own resources. We are helpless to do anything to save ourselves. This condition is sometimes called total inability” (italics his).[3] J. I. Packer states, “Total depravity entails total inability, that is, the state of not having it in oneself to respond to God and his Word in a sincere and wholehearted way (John 6:44; Rom 8:7–8).”[4] That is, lost sinners cannot respond to God at all, as they are spiritually unable (dead) to respond apart from God's granting life and the ability to believe. This leads Calvinists to conclude two things. First, God sovereignly acts by Himself to regenerate the spiritually dead and make them spiritually alive. Second, God gives the newly regenerate a special kind of faith whereby they can and will trust in Christ as Savior. According to Wayne Grudem, regeneration is “the act of God awakening spiritual life within us, bringing us from spiritual death to spiritual life. On this definition, it is natural to understand that regeneration comes before saving faith. It is in fact this work of God that gives us the spiritual ability to respond to God in faith.”[5] According to John MacArthur, “Our response in salvation is faith, but even that is not of ourselves [but is] the gift of God. Faith is nothing that we do in our own power or by our own resources...Paul intends to emphasize that even faith is not from us apart from God's giving it.”[6] The result of these divine actions in God's elect means they will produce good works and will persevere in those works throughout their lives until they die. John MacArthur states, “The same power that created us in Christ Jesus empowers us to do the good works for which He has redeemed us. These are the verifiers of true salvation.”[7] Thus, good works from regeneration to the end of one's life are the proof of salvation. Failure to produce ongoing good works until the end of one's life is offered as proof he was never saved (Matt 7:21). The Biblical View of Total Depravity      The correct biblical view is that total depravity means total unworthiness, not total inability to respond in faith to God's offer of salvation. Despite the profound impact of sin on human nature, the Bible does not portray people as entirely incapacitated. Yes, all mankind is “dead” in their sins (Eph 2:1); but death does not mean total inability, but total separation from God, for even those who were dead still “walked according to the course of this world” (Eph 2:2). Mankind is totally depraved in the sense that sin corrupts every part of our being, intellect, will, and sensibility. However, it does not mean that fallen people are unable to respond in faith to the gospel of grace.      The first example of spiritual death in the Bible is found in the Garden of Eden. God had warned Adam and Eve, saying, “from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” (Gen 2:17). The warning was that if they disobeyed God, on that very day, they would die (and death means separation, not cessation). Adam and Eve experienced spiritual death at the moment they disobeyed God. Yet, immediately after the fall, in their state of spiritual death, they could sense God's presence in the Garden, as they “heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden” (Gen 3:8). Furthermore, Adam heard God's voice when He “called to the man” (Gen 3:9), and Adam responded to Him, saying, “I heard the sound of You in the garden” (Gen 3:10a). Though they could not undo their newly fallen sinful state, it did not render them totally unable to perceive God or to respond to Him when He called out to them. And they did respond positively to the Lord when He promised to provide a descendant, a Seed of the woman, who would crush the head of the serpent (Gen 3:15). They also responded positively by accepting God's provision of clothing after He killed an animal, took its skin, and covered their nakedness (Gen 3:21).      Furthermore, God made mankind in His image, as Scripture states, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Gen 1:27). Even after the historic fall of Adam and Eve, all people are said to be “in the image of God” (Gen 9:6), and “in the likeness of God” (Jam 3:9). Despite the fall of humanity into sin, the image of God in humanity remains intact, implying that humans still retain some moral capacity, which includes the ability to accept God's offer of salvation by faith. Though people are deeply affected by sin, they still possess some capacity for moral choice and responsibility, thus arguing against the notion of total depravity meaning total inability.      Regeneration is entirely the work of God in saving lost sinners who cannot save themselves (Rom 5:6-10). The sinner brings nothing of worth to salvation, but receives all that God has to offer by grace. John Walvoord states, “Regeneration is wholly of God. No possible human effort however noble can supply eternal life.”[8] Paul Enns states, “Succinctly stated, to regenerate means ‘to impart life.' Regeneration is the act whereby God imparts life to the one who believes.”[9] Regeneration occurs in the one who believes in Christ as Savior. According to Charles Ryrie, “Salvation is always through faith, not because of faith (Eph 2:8). Faith is the channel through which we receive God's gift of eternal life; it is not the cause. This is so man can never boast, even of his faith. But faith is the necessary and only channel (John 5:24; 17:3).”[10] The Bible teaches there is only one kind of faith, and that only those who place their faith in Christ will be saved. Faith does not save. Christ saves. The Strict-Calvinist believes there are two kinds of faith, one that is common to all, and another that is special and imparted only to God's elect. Believe to Receive Eternal Life      There are numerous passages in the Bible that place faith as the necessary prerequisite to regeneration. It is written, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16), and Jesus said, “This is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life” (John 6:40), and “he who believes has eternal life” (John 6:47). Paul wrote to Timothy about “those who would believe in Him for eternal life” (1 Tim 1:16). In these and other instances, “eternal life” is given after we believe in Jesus as our Savior. Furthermore, people are condemned, not because God has not made a way for them to be saved, but because of their unwillingness to come to Christ as Savior. The issue is individual choice, not inability. The apostle John said, “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18). Jesus, speaking to unsaved persons, said, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life” (John 5:39-40). Jesus said the Holy Spirit convicts everyone of sin (John 16:8), particularly the sin of unbelief, “because they do not believe in Me” (John 16:9). There is only one sin that keeps a person out of heaven, and that is the sin of unbelief; of rejecting Jesus as the only Savior. Apparently unbelievers may resist the Holy Spirit, as Stephen said in his sermon, “You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit” (Acts 7:51a).      Scripture reveals that “God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent” (Acts 17:30). This means they must not trust in themselves or any system of good works to save, but must trust in Christ, and Christ alone to save. Faith does not save. Christ saves. Faith is the non-meritorious instrument by which we receive eternal life. The Strict-Calvinist believes Christ died only for the elect (Matt 1:21; John 10:15), and only the elect are savable. The Bible teaches that Christ died for everyone (John 3:16; Heb 2:9; 1 John 2:2); therefore, everyone is savable. Paul said, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men” (Tit 2:11), and that God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4). Peter stated, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9). Anyone can be saved by believing the gospel message “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3-4). Jesus is Free from Sin      Concerning total depravity and the transmission of original sin, Jesus is the sole exception, for Mary's virgin conception (Isa 7:14; Luke 1:30-35) meant Jesus was not born with the taint of original sin. Being free from original sin, Jesus also had no sin nature. Furthermore, Jesus lived His entire life and committed no personal sin. Scripture reveals Jesus “knew no sin” (2 Cor 5:21), was “without sin” (Heb 4:15), “committed no sin” (1 Pet 2:22), and in whom “there is no sin” (1 John 3:5). His sinless life qualified Him to die a substitutionary death in our place, “the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God” (1 Pet 3:18). Jesus died for everyone and paid the penalty for our sin (John 3:16; Heb 2:9; 1 John 2:2). Though His death is sufficient for all to be saved (unlimited atonement), the benefits of the cross are applied only to those who believe in Him, which includes forgiveness of sins (Acts 10:43; Eph 1:7), the gift of righteousness (Rom 5:17; Phil 3:9), and eternal life (John 10:28). Dr. Steven R. Cook   [1] Charles Caldwell Ryrie, Basic Theology, 253. [2] Benjamin B. Warfield, The Plan of Salvation: Five Lectures (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1915), 44. [3] John M. Frame, Salvation Belongs to the Lord: An Introduction to Systematic Theology (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2006), 112. [4] J. I. Packer, Concise Theology: A Guide to Historic Christian Beliefs (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1993), 84. [5] Wayne A. Grudem, Systematic Theology (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House, 2004), 702. [6] John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary on Ephesians (Chicago, Ill. Moody Press, 1986), 98. [7] Ibid., 101. [8] John F. Walvoord, The Holy Spirit (Grand Rapids, Mich. Zondervan Publishing, 1977), 132. [9] Paul P. Enns, The Moody Handbook of Theology (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1989), 338. [10]

     Total depravity is the biblical doctrine that sin permeates all aspects of our being—mind, will, and sensibilities, and renders us helpless to save ourselves. It does not mean we are as bad as we can be, for there are many moral unbelievers in the world. Being contaminated by sin means whatever morality we produce can never measure up to the perfect righteousness God expects. Is there any person who can say, “I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin?” (Prov 20:9). The answer is an emphatic No! The human heart is corrupt, for “the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick” (Jer 17:9). And “Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins” (Eccl 7:20), and “There is none righteous; not even one. There is none who understands; there is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become useless. There is none who does good, there is not even one” (Rom 3:10-12; cf. Rom 8:8). Some might argue that we can perform good works and help to save ourselves. This is wrong. Scripture states, “your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God” (Isa 59:2), “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away” (Isa 64:6). Salvation does not come by human works; rather, we are “justified by faith apart from works of the Law” (Rom 3:28), and salvation comes “to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly” (Rom 4:5), and we are “not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified” (Gal 2:16), “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph 2:8-9), and God “has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity” (2 Tim 1:9), and “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit” (Tit 3:5). By human standards, even the worst person can do some good. But human estimation is lower than God's estimation and it is God's standards that define what is truly good. According to Charles Ryrie, “Total depravity must always be measured against God's holiness. Relative goodness exists in people. They can do good works, which are appreciated by others. But nothing that anyone can do will gain salvational merit or favor in the sight of a holy God.”[1] Calvinist View of Total Depravity      For Calvinists, total depravity means total inability. They regard people as totally unable to respond to the things of God; like a physical corpse. Notable scholars such as B. B. Warfield, R. C. Sproul, John Piper, Wayne Grudem, John Frame, John MacArthur, and J. I. Packer hold this view. B. B. Warfield wrote, “nothing is more fundamental in the doctrine of the Reformers than the complete inability of man and his absolute need of divine grace.”[2] John Frame states, “We can never come to God out of our own resources. We are helpless to do anything to save ourselves. This condition is sometimes called total inability” (italics his).[3] J. I. Packer states, “Total depravity entails total inability, that is, the state of not having it in oneself to respond to God and his Word in a sincere and wholehearted way (John 6:44; Rom 8:7–8).”[4] That is, lost sinners cannot respond to God at all, as they are spiritually unable (dead) to respond apart from God's granting life and the ability to believe. This leads Calvinists to conclude two things. First, God sovereignly acts by Himself to regenerate the spiritually dead and make them spiritually alive. Second, God gives the newly regenerate a special kind of faith whereby they can and will trust in Christ as Savior. According to Wayne Grudem, regeneration is “the act of God awakening spiritual life within us, bringing us from spiritual death to spiritual life. On this definition, it is natural to understand that regeneration comes before saving faith. It is in fact this work of God that gives us the spiritual ability to respond to God in faith.”[5] According to John MacArthur, “Our response in salvation is faith, but even that is not of ourselves [but is] the gift of God. Faith is nothing that we do in our own power or by our own resources...Paul intends to emphasize that even faith is not from us apart from God's giving it.”[6] The result of these divine actions in God's elect means they will produce good works and will persevere in those works throughout their lives until they die. John MacArthur states, “The same power that created us in Christ Jesus empowers us to do the good works for which He has redeemed us. These are the verifiers of true salvation.”[7] Thus, good works from regeneration to the end of one's life are the proof of salvation. Failure to produce ongoing good works until the end of one's life is offered as proof he was never saved (Matt 7:21). The Biblical View of Total Depravity      The correct biblical view is that total depravity means total unworthiness, not total inability to respond in faith to God's offer of salvation. Despite the profound impact of sin on human nature, the Bible does not portray people as entirely incapacitated. Yes, all mankind is “dead” in their sins (Eph 2:1); but death does not mean total inability, but total separation from God, for even those who were dead still “walked according to the course of this world” (Eph 2:2). Mankind is totally depraved in the sense that sin corrupts every part of our being, intellect, will, and sensibility. However, it does not mean that fallen people are unable to respond in faith to the gospel of grace.      The first example of spiritual death in the Bible is found in the Garden of Eden. God had warned Adam and Eve, saying, “from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” (Gen 2:17). The warning was that if they disobeyed God, on that very day, they would die (and death means separation, not cessation). Adam and Eve experienced spiritual death at the moment they disobeyed God. Yet, immediately after the fall, in their state of spiritual death, they could sense God's presence in the Garden, as they “heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden” (Gen 3:8). Furthermore, Adam heard God's voice when He “called to the man” (Gen 3:9), and Adam responded to Him, saying, “I heard the sound of You in the garden” (Gen 3:10a). Though they could not undo their newly fallen sinful state, it did not render them totally unable to perceive God or to respond to Him when He called out to them. And they did respond positively to the Lord when He promised to provide a descendant, a Seed of the woman, who would crush the head of the serpent (Gen 3:15). They also responded positively by accepting God's provision of clothing after He killed an animal, took its skin, and covered their nakedness (Gen 3:21).      Furthermore, God made mankind in His image, as Scripture states, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Gen 1:27). Even after the historic fall of Adam and Eve, all people are said to be “in the image of God” (Gen 9:6), and “in the likeness of God” (Jam 3:9). Despite the fall of humanity into sin, the image of God in humanity remains intact, implying that humans still retain some moral capacity, which includes the ability to accept God's offer of salvation by faith. Though people are deeply affected by sin, they still possess some capacity for moral choice and responsibility, thus arguing against the notion of total depravity meaning total inability.      Regeneration is entirely the work of God in saving lost sinners who cannot save themselves (Rom 5:6-10). The sinner brings nothing of worth to salvation, but receives all that God has to offer by grace. John Walvoord states, “Regeneration is wholly of God. No possible human effort however noble can supply eternal life.”[8] Paul Enns states, “Succinctly stated, to regenerate means ‘to impart life.' Regeneration is the act whereby God imparts life to the one who believes.”[9] Regeneration occurs in the one who believes in Christ as Savior. According to Charles Ryrie, “Salvation is always through faith, not because of faith (Eph 2:8). Faith is the channel through which we receive God's gift of eternal life; it is not the cause. This is so man can never boast, even of his faith. But faith is the necessary and only channel (John 5:24; 17:3).”[10] The Bible teaches there is only one kind of faith, and that only those who place their faith in Christ will be saved. Faith does not save. Christ saves. The Strict-Calvinist believes there are two kinds of faith, one that is common to all, and another that is special and imparted only to God's elect. Believe to Receive Eternal Life      There are numerous passages in the Bible that place faith as the necessary prerequisite to regeneration. It is written, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16), and Jesus said, “This is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life” (John 6:40), and “he who believes has eternal life” (John 6:47). Paul wrote to Timothy about “those who would believe in Him for eternal life” (1 Tim 1:16). In these and other instances, “eternal life” is given after we believe in Jesus as our Savior. Furthermore, people are condemned, not because God has not made a way for them to be saved, but because of their unwillingness to come to Christ as Savior. The issue is individual choice, not inability. The apostle John said, “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18). Jesus, speaking to unsaved persons, said, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life” (John 5:39-40). Jesus said the Holy Spirit convicts everyone of sin (John 16:8), particularly the sin of unbelief, “because they do not believe in Me” (John 16:9). There is only one sin that keeps a person out of heaven, and that is the sin of unbelief; of rejecting Jesus as the only Savior. Apparently unbelievers may resist the Holy Spirit, as Stephen said in his sermon, “You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit” (Acts 7:51a).      Scripture reveals that “God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent” (Acts 17:30). This means they must not trust in themselves or any system of good works to save, but must trust in Christ, and Christ alone to save. Faith does not save. Christ saves. Faith is the non-meritorious instrument by which we receive eternal life. The Strict-Calvinist believes Christ died only for the elect (Matt 1:21; John 10:15), and only the elect are savable. The Bible teaches that Christ died for everyone (John 3:16; Heb 2:9; 1 John 2:2); therefore, everyone is savable. Paul said, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men” (Tit 2:11), and that God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4). Peter stated, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9). Anyone can be saved by believing the gospel message “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3-4). Jesus is Free from Sin      Concerning total depravity and the transmission of original sin, Jesus is the sole exception, for Mary's virgin conception (Isa 7:14; Luke 1:30-35) meant Jesus was not born with the taint of original sin. Being free from original sin, Jesus also had no sin nature. Furthermore, Jesus lived His entire life and committed no personal sin. Scripture reveals Jesus “knew no sin” (2 Cor 5:21), was “without sin” (Heb 4:15), “committed no sin” (1 Pet 2:22), and in whom “there is no sin” (1 John 3:5). His sinless life qualified Him to die a substitutionary death in our place, “the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God” (1 Pet 3:18). Jesus died for everyone and paid the penalty for our sin (John 3:16; Heb 2:9; 1 John 2:2). Though His death is sufficient for all to be saved (unlimited atonement), the benefits of the cross are applied only to those who believe in Him, which includes forgiveness of sins (Acts 10:43; Eph 1:7), the gift of righteousness (Rom 5:17; Phil 3:9), and eternal life (John 10:28). Dr. Steven R. Cook   [1] Charles Caldwell Ryrie, Basic Theology, 253. [2] Benjamin B. Warfield, The Plan of Salvation: Five Lectures (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1915), 44. [3] John M. Frame, Salvation Belongs to the Lord: An Introduction to Systematic Theology (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2006), 112. [4] J. I. Packer, Concise Theology: A Guide to Historic Christian Beliefs (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1993), 84. [5] Wayne A. Grudem, Systematic Theology (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House, 2004), 702. [6] John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary on Ephesians (Chicago, Ill. Moody Press, 1986), 98. [7] Ibid., 101. [8] John F. Walvoord, The Holy Spirit (Grand Rapids, Mich. Zondervan Publishing, 1977), 132. [9] Paul P. Enns, The Moody Handbook of Theology (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1989), 338. [10] Charles C. Ryrie, Basic Theology (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1999), 377.

1 John 2:15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. This verse begins a section of John's letter that might look like a digression, but I suggest it is the natural progression of his encouragement to the young men, those who are working out their faith with fear and trembling against the evil one in this world. He admonished them not to love the world or the things in the world. One who loves the world doesn't know the love of the Father by experience. Jesus told his disciples that they would overcome the world, and the evil one, the god of this world, because He had overcome them. The last words they heard Jesus say to them as a group before being arrested were these: “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). How did He overcome the world? When Jesus said, “the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me” (John 14:30), He was testifying to the fullness of the love of God within Him. There was nothing in the world which Satan could offer Him to distract or draw Him off of doing God's will, namely, revealing the ultimate expression of the love of God to the world. So today we are encouraged by John's insight from the life of Jesus. If you have the love of the Father in you, you overcome the world. One thing living to love with Jesus means is this: those who live to love with Jesus don't love the world or the things in the world. The world has no life in it. It has nothing to offer us that can satisfy the deepest desires of our souls and bring us ultimate, long-lasting happiness. The love of the Father revealed in Jesus Christ satisfies the deepest needs and desires of our hearts. When John wrote that Jesus is eternal life, he was declaring Jesus to be the lone source of life in this world—the only source of satisfaction. If Jesus lives in us, then we have the same fullness that He did, and that fullness of life came from the love of His Father. The children, young men, and fathers, regardless of their stage of spiritual development, all have the love of the Father in them. This is true of all who are His. We have the love of God in us, which overcomes everything the evil one and the world has to throw at us. This encourages us to glorify God by being most satisfied in the love of God revealed in Christ. By so doing, we are free to live to love with Jesus out of the fullness of the love of God.

“And the glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one; I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one, that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me” (John 17:22-23). This week we conclude the series titled, “The Goal of Our Christian Life,” with speaking from brother Andrew Yu on having a new beginning for the practice of the church life. This is part four of message six from a conference hosted by the church in New York City in November 2015. The original recording can be found at:  https://livingtohim.com/2016/02/conference-in-new-york-with-andrew-yu-november-2015/

Arcana Coelestia 6789(2) Unless external truth is from internal truth, it cannot be conjoined with good. Take the Word as an illustration. Unless the internal of the Word flows in with those who read the Word and abide in the literal sense, no conjunction is effected of truth from the Word with good; and the internal of the Word flows in and is conjoined with good when the man esteems the Word holy; and he esteems it holy when he is in good. Arcana Coelestia 6788. And he said unto his daughters. That this signifies thought concerning the holy things of the church, is evident from the signification of “saying,” as being thought (see n. 3395); and from the signification of “daughters,” as being the holy things of the church (n. 6775). The holy things which are here signified by “daughters” are truths. In the Word these are called “holy,” by reason that the truths which with man become truths of faith, are from good; and because that which proceeds from the Lord's Divine Human is Divine truth from Divine good. Hence it is that the “Holy Spirit” is the holy which proceeds from the Lord; for the Spirit itself does not proceed, but the holy which the Spirit speaks, as everyone can understand who considers the matter. That the Holy Spirit, which is also called the “Paraclete,” is the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord's Divine Human, and that the holy is predicated of the Divine truth, is evident from the Lord's words in John: I will ask the Father that He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him. The Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and shall remind you of all things which I have said unto you (John 14:16-17, 26). When the Paraclete is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who goeth out from the Father, He shall testify of Me (John 15:26). When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall lead you into all truth; He shall not speak from Himself, but what things soever He shall hear, He shall speak. He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall declare it unto you. All things whatsoever the Father hath are Mine; therefore said I, that He shall take of Mine, and shall declare it unto you (John 16:13-15). If these passages are collated with many others, it can be understood that the Holy Spirit is the holy which proceeds from the Lord's Divine Human; for the Lord says, “Whom the Father shall send in My name;” also, “Whom I will send unto you from the Father;” and further, “He shall take of Mine and declare it unto you; all things that the Father hath are Mine, therefore said I, that He shall take of Mine, and shall declare it unto you.” It is also evident that the holy is predicated of truth, for the Paraclete is called the “Spirit of truth.”   Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments offered in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to keep the focus on understanding the Text in terms of its application to the inner life along with reinforcing any key LP principles that have been highlighted in the exchanges.  

In a culture that devalued women, Jesus not only valued them as equally created in the image of God in the same way as men, but the value He placed upon them is seen through the New Testament writers as followers of Jesus. For example, the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) were all written by men who were sure to point out that it was a man by the name of Judas who betrayed Jesus and it was the male disciples in Jesus life who left Him and fled when He was arrested. However, it was the women in Jesus life, along with John, who were present while Jesus hung on a cross to die. If you were making up a story about a Savior in a male dominated society that viewed women as, in the words of Socrates, Incapable of reason and making rational choices, you would by no means portray them as being brave enough not to flee and hide like the rest of the disciples did. It is also worth noting that if Jesus resurrection was a made-up story told by a group of men, you definitely would not make women the first eyewitnesses to His resurrection! The inclusion of women in Jesus life serves as further proof that not only is the Bible for both men and women, but additional evidence that Jesus did rise from the grave. However, before Jesus rose from the grave, He was crucified and did indeed die! He was handed over by the religious leaders of His day to be sentenced to death by Pontius Pilate for treason, and although He was innocent of such crimes he was sentenced to death by crucifixion. Before He was forced to carry His cross, He was beaten, flogged, mocked, and beaten again. Jesus stood mangled and hemorrhaging before a jeering crowd who demanded with shouts: Crucify, crucify him! (see Luke 23:18-25). When Pilate told Jesus that he had the power to release him, Jesus replied: You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above (John 19:11). Pilate washed his hands in a bowl of water symbolizing his innocence and ordered that Jesus be crucified. Jesus was forced to carry His cross to the place of his execution known as Golgotha. Once He reached Golgotha, Jesus was stretched out by force upon the cross where His hands and feet were nailed to the wooden beams that made up His cross, where He would hang until His death. For six hours he hung on that cross and while on the cross, three of the seven statements that came out from His mouth that will serve as my main points this resurrection Sunday morning, were as follows: While the crowd mocked him and the soldiers gambled over his clothes, as Jesus hung on the cross stripped of His cloths and humiliated before the masses, He said: Father, forgiven them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). While dying on the Cross under the wrath of God for sins we are guilty of, under the unrestrained justice we all deserved for our sins, Jesus cried: My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? (Matt. 27:27)? Just before He breathed out what air was left in His lungs, in case there was any confusion as to who was in charge, Jesus declared: It is finished (John 19:30). Jesus died. To prove that he was dead, one of the soldiers thrust his spear into the side and heart of Jesus, a man by the name of Joseph asked Pilate for the body of Jesus, and then His body was prepared for burial, placed in the tomb, and a stone was rolled in front of the entrance of the tomb to seal the grave shut. While in the tomb, Jesus was not unconscious and he didnt have a twin brother who pretended to rise from the grave; Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wanted to be impeccably clear that Jesus physically died on the cross and that His death was very important and very significant. Three days later, Jesus rose from the grave! The women in Jesus life were the first to see and witness His resurrected body, while the men in His life refused to believe it until Jesus appeared to them as well. They, and every other person who encountered the risen Christ, would never be the same! If Jesus remained in the tomb after His death, then all we would have to look to was a dead martyr. Jesus did not stay dead though, and His resurrection is proof that all that He said and did was legitimate and true. Jesus went to the cross to die a death each and every human deserved to die. To the Corinthian Church, Paul wrote to a group of people who had seen how a resurrected Jesus transformed lives: Now I make known to you, brothers and sisters, the gospel which I preached to you, which you also received, in which you also stand, by which you also are saved, if you hold firmly to the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I handed down to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:14) Jesus lived the life none of us could and died the death that every single one of us deserved, and His resurrection from the tomb validates His death for our sins and triumphant victory over sin and death as true. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it is, the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Rom. 1:16). Jesus Resurrection Proves that We Can be Forgiven by God (Eph. 2:11) It is the power of the gospel that the Christians in Ephesus experienced! Ephesus was the home of one of the seven wonders of the world: The Temple of Diana (Artemis). Horrible things happened in that temple and people from all over the world came to Ephesus to experience what the goddess Diana offered, and Ephesus economy benefited under the oppressive demonic power of Artemis, until the gospel came to that city. Those who became Christians were identified by those in the city as belonging to the Way after something Jesus said about Himself: I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6). We are given a small glimpse of the kind of effect the gospel had upon Ephesus and the worship of Diana in Acts 19. Demetrius, a silversmith who made a living off forming silver shrines of Artemis, was particularly angry over the way the gospel impacted his business; listen to his complaint about the apostle Paul: You see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable number of people, saying that gods made by hands are not gods at all. Not only is there danger that this trade of ours will fall into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be regarded as worthless, and that she whom all of Asia and the world worship will even be dethroned from her magnificence. (Acts 19:2627) To those who heard about Jesus, repented of their sins and idolatry, and surrendered their lives to Him, Paul wrote: In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us (Eph. 1:7-8a). Because of Jesus, these Ephesian Christians had a new identity that was now rooted in Christ instead of Artemis! Against the backdrop of a demonic temple, Paul wrote these words: These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and made Him head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. (Eph. 1:2023) To those rescued out of the paganism of Artemis through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:11-12a, Therefore remember that previously you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision which is performed in the flesh by human hands were at that time separate from Christ. They were at one time dead in their sins; under the guise of Artemis, they once, 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 (Eph. 2:1-3). But through the cross of Christ, they have been made alive with Christ because of the rich mercy, great love, and sufficient grace of almighty God! If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, if you have placed your faith and trust in Him as the only means for the forgiveness of your sins, then you who, were at one time separate from Christ (2:11), have been forgiven by God through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. Jesus Resurrection Proves that We Can be Reconciled to God (Eph. 2:12) On the eve of His execution, Jesus was abandoned and left alone with no one. If that were not enough, there was One more person who abandoned Him to leave him completely and desperately alone. We learn who that person was with Jesus words from the cross: My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? (Mark 15:34). Why would Jesus say such a thing from the cross? Because it was on the cross that Jesus was cursed in our place, which was the plan all along. It is the reason why John the Baptist cried out upon seeing Jesus in the early days of our Saviors earthly ministry: Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29)! While Jesus endured the humiliation of the cross, He experienced exactly what the prophet Isaiah described in Isaiah 53:5, But He was pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings; the punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:5). When Jesus cried out, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? He, in that moment, experienced the cursing of His Heavenly Father for sins we are guilty of. From the moment of conception, ours is a nature that gravitates towards opposition against our Creator. Oh, we are fine with a god of our own making, but the God who spoke the galaxies into existence, whose power fashioned more than 300 billion suns with a command, before whom the pure Seraphim shield their faces with one set of wings and cover their feet with another set of wings, while calling out to one another concerning God almighty: Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of armies. The whole earth is full of His glory (Isa. 6:1-3), we run from that God! Why? Because, as the Bible declares: There is no righteous person, not even one; there is no one who understand, there is no one who seeks out God. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:10-11, 23). That is the problem with humanity and that is why Jesus said, For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10). For our sin, Jesus was cursed so that you and I would not have to be, this is why the Bible states, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us for it is written: Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (Gal. 3:13). Aarons blessing is now for you Christian: The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord cause His face to shine on you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His face to you, And give you peace (Num. 6:2426). Aarons blessing is for you Christian, because Jesus drank every last drop of Gods wrath on your account by becoming a curse in your place. Jesus experienced the antithesis of Aarons blessing, which if the voice of God could be heard on that day Jesus hung from the cross: The Lord curse you, and abandon you; The Lord turn His face from you, and condemn you; may the Lord stand against you, and withhold His peace from you.[1] Jesus because a curse in our place because we were, strangers to the covenant of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Because of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, you have been reconciled to God! Jesus Resurrection Proves that We Can Become the Children of God (Eph. 2:13) The final statement from the cross came in the form of a final declaration: It is finished! All that was required for our redemption was accomplished on the cross! We who were hostile towards God, stood as an enemy of God, who 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 (Eph. 2:2-3), we who were once children of Gods wrath have now been reconciled to God and experience only His pleasure. If you are a Christian, then Ephesians 2:13 is for you: But now in Christ Jesus you who previously were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. The cross of Christ was enough to save lost sinners and the resurrection of Jesus is proof that all who are far and away from God can be forgiven by God, reconciled to God, and made a child of God through the Christ of the cross who lived the life we could not live, died a death we all deserved, and conquered sin and death on the third day by rising from the grave! Concerning Jesus: There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among mankind by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). This is the gospel, and it is, the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Rom. 1:16)! [1] I heard this for the first time at the 2008 T4G Conference delivered by R.C. Sproul. For more see: https://www.ligonier.org/posts/god-cursed-him.

In a culture that devalued women, Jesus not only valued them as equally created in the image of God in the same way as men, but the value He placed upon them is seen through the New Testament writers as followers of Jesus. For example, the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) were all written by men who were sure to point out that it was a man by the name of Judas who betrayed Jesus and it was the male disciples in Jesus life who left Him and fled when He was arrested. However, it was the women in Jesus life, along with John, who were present while Jesus hung on a cross to die. If you were making up a story about a Savior in a male dominated society that viewed women as, in the words of Socrates, Incapable of reason and making rational choices, you would by no means portray them as being brave enough not to flee and hide like the rest of the disciples did. It is also worth noting that if Jesus resurrection was a made-up story told by a group of men, you definitely would not make women the first eyewitnesses to His resurrection! The inclusion of women in Jesus life serves as further proof that not only is the Bible for both men and women, but additional evidence that Jesus did rise from the grave. However, before Jesus rose from the grave, He was crucified and did indeed die! He was handed over by the religious leaders of His day to be sentenced to death by Pontius Pilate for treason, and although He was innocent of such crimes he was sentenced to death by crucifixion. Before He was forced to carry His cross, He was beaten, flogged, mocked, and beaten again. Jesus stood mangled and hemorrhaging before a jeering crowd who demanded with shouts: Crucify, crucify him! (see Luke 23:18-25). When Pilate told Jesus that he had the power to release him, Jesus replied: You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above (John 19:11). Pilate washed his hands in a bowl of water symbolizing his innocence and ordered that Jesus be crucified. Jesus was forced to carry His cross to the place of his execution known as Golgotha. Once He reached Golgotha, Jesus was stretched out by force upon the cross where His hands and feet were nailed to the wooden beams that made up His cross, where He would hang until His death. For six hours he hung on that cross and while on the cross, three of the seven statements that came out from His mouth that will serve as my main points this resurrection Sunday morning, were as follows: While the crowd mocked him and the soldiers gambled over his clothes, as Jesus hung on the cross stripped of His cloths and humiliated before the masses, He said: Father, forgiven them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). While dying on the Cross under the wrath of God for sins we are guilty of, under the unrestrained justice we all deserved for our sins, Jesus cried: My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? (Matt. 27:27)? Just before He breathed out what air was left in His lungs, in case there was any confusion as to who was in charge, Jesus declared: It is finished (John 19:30). Jesus died. To prove that he was dead, one of the soldiers thrust his spear into the side and heart of Jesus, a man by the name of Joseph asked Pilate for the body of Jesus, and then His body was prepared for burial, placed in the tomb, and a stone was rolled in front of the entrance of the tomb to seal the grave shut. While in the tomb, Jesus was not unconscious and he didnt have a twin brother who pretended to rise from the grave; Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wanted to be impeccably clear that Jesus physically died on the cross and that His death was very important and very significant. Three days later, Jesus rose from the grave! The women in Jesus life were the first to see and witness His resurrected body, while the men in His life refused to believe it until Jesus appeared to them as well. They, and every other person who encountered the risen Christ, would never be the same! If Jesus remained in the tomb after His death, then all we would have to look to was a dead martyr. Jesus did not stay dead though, and His resurrection is proof that all that He said and did was legitimate and true. Jesus went to the cross to die a death each and every human deserved to die. To the Corinthian Church, Paul wrote to a group of people who had seen how a resurrected Jesus transformed lives: Now I make known to you, brothers and sisters, the gospel which I preached to you, which you also received, in which you also stand, by which you also are saved, if you hold firmly to the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I handed down to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:14) Jesus lived the life none of us could and died the death that every single one of us deserved, and His resurrection from the tomb validates His death for our sins and triumphant victory over sin and death as true. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it is, the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Rom. 1:16). Jesus Resurrection Proves that We Can be Forgiven by God (Eph. 2:11) It is the power of the gospel that the Christians in Ephesus experienced! Ephesus was the home of one of the seven wonders of the world: The Temple of Diana (Artemis). Horrible things happened in that temple and people from all over the world came to Ephesus to experience what the goddess Diana offered, and Ephesus economy benefited under the oppressive demonic power of Artemis, until the gospel came to that city. Those who became Christians were identified by those in the city as belonging to the Way after something Jesus said about Himself: I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6). We are given a small glimpse of the kind of effect the gospel had upon Ephesus and the worship of Diana in Acts 19. Demetrius, a silversmith who made a living off forming silver shrines of Artemis, was particularly angry over the way the gospel impacted his business; listen to his complaint about the apostle Paul: You see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable number of people, saying that gods made by hands are not gods at all. Not only is there danger that this trade of ours will fall into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be regarded as worthless, and that she whom all of Asia and the world worship will even be dethroned from her magnificence. (Acts 19:2627) To those who heard about Jesus, repented of their sins and idolatry, and surrendered their lives to Him, Paul wrote: In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us (Eph. 1:7-8a). Because of Jesus, these Ephesian Christians had a new identity that was now rooted in Christ instead of Artemis! Against the backdrop of a demonic temple, Paul wrote these words: These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and made Him head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. (Eph. 1:2023) To those rescued out of the paganism of Artemis through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:11-12a, Therefore remember that previously you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision which is performed in the flesh by human hands were at that time separate from Christ. They were at one time dead in their sins; under the guise of Artemis, they once, 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 (Eph. 2:1-3). But through the cross of Christ, they have been made alive with Christ because of the rich mercy, great love, and sufficient grace of almighty God! If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, if you have placed your faith and trust in Him as the only means for the forgiveness of your sins, then you who, were at one time separate from Christ (2:11), have been forgiven by God through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. Jesus Resurrection Proves that We Can be Reconciled to God (Eph. 2:12) On the eve of His execution, Jesus was abandoned and left alone with no one. If that were not enough, there was One more person who abandoned Him to leave him completely and desperately alone. We learn who that person was with Jesus words from the cross: My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? (Mark 15:34). Why would Jesus say such a thing from the cross? Because it was on the cross that Jesus was cursed in our place, which was the plan all along. It is the reason why John the Baptist cried out upon seeing Jesus in the early days of our Saviors earthly ministry: Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29)! While Jesus endured the humiliation of the cross, He experienced exactly what the prophet Isaiah described in Isaiah 53:5, But He was pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings; the punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:5). When Jesus cried out, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? He, in that moment, experienced the cursing of His Heavenly Father for sins we are guilty of. From the moment of conception, ours is a nature that gravitates towards opposition against our Creator. Oh, we are fine with a god of our own making, but the God who spoke the galaxies into existence, whose power fashioned more than 300 billion suns with a command, before whom the pure Seraphim shield their faces with one set of wings and cover their feet with another set of wings, while calling out to one another concerning God almighty: Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of armies. The whole earth is full of His glory (Isa. 6:1-3), we run from that God! Why? Because, as the Bible declares: There is no righteous person, not even one; there is no one who understand, there is no one who seeks out God. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:10-11, 23). That is the problem with humanity and that is why Jesus said, For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10). For our sin, Jesus was cursed so that you and I would not have to be, this is why the Bible states, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us for it is written: Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (Gal. 3:13). Aarons blessing is now for you Christian: The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord cause His face to shine on you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His face to you, And give you peace (Num. 6:2426). Aarons blessing is for you Christian, because Jesus drank every last drop of Gods wrath on your account by becoming a curse in your place. Jesus experienced the antithesis of Aarons blessing, which if the voice of God could be heard on that day Jesus hung from the cross: The Lord curse you, and abandon you; The Lord turn His face from you, and condemn you; may the Lord stand against you, and withhold His peace from you.[1] Jesus because a curse in our place because we were, strangers to the covenant of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Because of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, you have been reconciled to God! Jesus Resurrection Proves that We Can Become the Children of God (Eph. 2:13) The final statement from the cross came in the form of a final declaration: It is finished! All that was required for our redemption was accomplished on the cross! We who were hostile towards God, stood as an enemy of God, who 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 (Eph. 2:2-3), we who were once children of Gods wrath have now been reconciled to God and experience only His pleasure. If you are a Christian, then Ephesians 2:13 is for you: But now in Christ Jesus you who previously were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. The cross of Christ was enough to save lost sinners and the resurrection of Jesus is proof that all who are far and away from God can be forgiven by God, reconciled to God, and made a child of God through the Christ of the cross who lived the life we could not live, died a death we all deserved, and conquered sin and death on the third day by rising from the grave! Concerning Jesus: There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among mankind by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). This is the gospel, and it is, the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Rom. 1:16)! [1] I heard this for the first time at the 2008 T4G Conference delivered by R.C. Sproul. For more see: https://www.ligonier.org/posts/god-cursed-him.

More of Jesus and Less of Me John 3:30–31 With Brother Randy Rigney 

     The gospel is the solution to a problem. The problem for us is that God is holy, mankind is sinful, and we cannot save ourselves. Salvation is never what we do for God; rather, it's what He's done for us through the Person and work of Jesus who is the Son of God incarnate (John 1:1, 14; 20:28; Heb 1:8; 1 John 4:2), whose sacrificial death on the cross atoned for our sins (Rom 6:10; 1 Pet 3:18; 1 John 2:2), who was resurrected (Rom 6:9; 1 Cor 15:3-4), and who grants eternal life to those who place their trust solely in Him (John 3:16-18; 10:28; Acts 4:12; 16:31). Jesus died for everyone (John 3:16; Heb 2:9; 1 John 2:2), but the benefits of the cross, such as forgiveness of sins (Eph 1:7), and eternal life (John 10:28), are applied only to those who believe in Him as Savior. God is Absolutely Righteous and Hates Sin      The Bible reveals God is holy, which means He is righteous and set apart from all that is sinful and can have nothing to do with sin except to condemn it. It is written, “For the LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness” (Psa 11:7), and “Exalt the LORD our God and worship at His holy hill, for holy is the LORD our God” (Psa 99:9; cf. Isa 6:3). Habakkuk wrote, “Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and You cannot look on wickedness with favor” (Hab 1:13). And, “God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). This means God is pure and free from all that is sinful.      Being absolutely righteous, God can only hate and condemn sin. God Himself said, “Pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverted mouth, I hate” (Prov 8:13b), and “let none of you devise evil in your heart against another, and do not love perjury; for all these are what I hate, declares the LORD” (Zech 8:17). And of God is it written, “everyone who acts unjustly is an abomination to the LORD your God” (Deut 25:16b), and “You hate all who do iniquity” (Psa 5:5), and “You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness” (Psa 45:7), and “the way of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD” (Prov 15:9a), and “evil plans are an abomination to the LORD” (Prov 15:26), and “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness” (Heb 1:9a).[1] All Mankind is Sinful      To be saved, a person must accept the divine viewpoint estimation of himself as sinful before God. The Bible reveals “there is no man who does not sin” (1 Ki 8:46), and “no man living is righteous” (Psa 143:2), and “there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins” (Eccl 7:20), and “your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear” (Isa 59:2), and “all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away” (Isa 64:6), and “there is none righteous, not even one” (Rom 3:10), and “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23), and “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8), and “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:10). Solomon asked, “Who can say, ‘I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin?'” (Prov 20:9). The answer is: no one! God is righteous and we are guilty sinners. Biblically, we are sinners in Adam (Rom 5:12; 1 Cor 15:21-22), sinners by nature (Rom 7:18-21; Gal 5:17; Eph 2:1-3), and sinners by choice (1 Ki 8:46; Prov 20:9; Isa 53:6; Rom 3:9-23). Sin separates us from God and renders us helpless to merit God's approval. We Cannot Save Ourselves      All humanity is quite competent to produce sin, but utterly inept and powerless to produce the righteousness God requires for acceptance. Scripture reveals we are helpless, ungodly, sinners, and enemies of God (Rom 5:6-10), and prior to our salvation, we were dead in our trespasses and sins (Eph 2:1). We cannot save ourselves. Only God can forgive sins (Eph 1:7; Col 1:13-14), and only God can give the gifts of righteousness (Rom 5:17; 2 Cor 5:21; Phil 3:9) and eternal life (John 10:28) that make us acceptable in His sight. Our good works have no saving merit, as God declares righteous “the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly” (Rom 4:5a), for “a man is not justified by the works of the Law…since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified” (Gal 2:16), for “by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph 2:8-9), and God saves us, but “not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness” (Tit 3:5a). We cannot save ourselves any more than we can stop the rotation of the earth, jump across the Grand Canyon, or run at the speed of light. Christ alone saves. No one else. Nothing more. Salvation is by Grace Alone, Through Faith Alone, in Christ Alone      The Bible teaches that we are “justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus” (Rom 3:24), and “justified by faith apart from works of the Law” (Rom 3:28). Salvation is free, and it is received freely by “the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness” (Rom 4:5). Our salvation was accomplished entirely by Jesus at the cross when He shed His blood at Calvary, for we are redeemed “with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ” (1 Pet 1:19). And because our salvation was accomplished in full at the cross, it means there's nothing for us to pay. Nothing at all. Salvation is a gift, given freely to us who don't deserve it. That's grace, which is unmerited favor, underserved kindness, unwarranted love, unearned generosity, and unprovoked goodness. Scripture reveals, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph 2:8-9). Salvation is never what we do for God; rather, it's what He's done for us by sending His Son into the world to live a righteous life and die a penal substitutionary death on the cross in our place, “the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God” (1 Pet 3:18).      Our faith needs to be in Jesus alone. This, of course, is the Jesus of the Bible, for no other Jesus will do. A false Jesus does not save anyone, such as the Jesus of Mormonism or Jehovah's Witness. The Jesus of Scripture is the second member of the Trinity, God the Son (John 1:1; Heb 1:8), who added perfect humanity to Himself two thousand years ago (John 1:14; 1 John 4:2), was born of a virgin (Isa 7:14; Luke 1:26-35), in the prophesied city of Bethlehem (Mic 5:2; Matt 2:1, 6), a descendant of Abraham and David (Matt 1:1), as the Jewish Messiah (Matt 1:1, 17), who lived a sinless life (2 Cor 5:21; Heb 4:15; 1 Pet 2:22; 1 John 3:5), and willingly went to the cross and died for us (John 10:18; Rom 5:8; 1 Pet 3:18), atoning for our sins (Rom 6:10; Heb 7:27; 1 Pet 1:18-19), and was raised again on the third day (Acts 10:40-41; 1 Cor 15:3-4; 1 Th 4:14), never to die again (Rom 6:9). This is the Jesus of Scripture, the One who saves those who trust solely in Him for salvation. No one else can save. Scripture says of Jesus, “whoever believes in Him will have eternal life” (John 3:15), and “whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16), and “He who believes in Him is not judged” (John 3:18), and “He who believes in the Son has eternal life” (John 3:36). Jesus Himself said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life” (John 6:47), and “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies” (John 11:25), and “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved” (John 10:9), and “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6), The apostle John wrote, “He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life” (1 John 5:12). These passages emphasize that eternal life is obtained through belief in Jesus Christ. Salvation is exclusively in Jesus. Those who reject Jesus as Savior will spend eternity away from God in the lake of fire, for “These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2 Th 1:9; cf., Rev 20:15).      To be saved, one must turn to Christ alone for salvation and trust Him 100% to accomplish what we cannot – to rescue us from eternal damnation. We must believe the gospel message, “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3-4). Knowing the good news of what God accomplished for us, we must then “Believe in the Lord Jesus” (Acts 16:31), and trust exclusively in Him, for “there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). We should not look to ourselves for salvation, for there is nothing in us that can save us. Nothing at all. Christ alone saves. No one else. Nothing more. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Walk Worthy of the Lord      God's children are called “to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called” (Eph 4:1), to “conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Phil 1:27), to “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Col 1:10), and to “walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory” (1 Th 2:12). In biblical language, the term “walk” often represents one's way of life or conduct. It's a metaphor for the journey of life and how one navigates it. To walk “worthy” emphasizes the importance of living in a manner that is fitting or appropriate for the calling we have received as Christians. We are children of God by faith in Christ (Gal 3:26), adopted brothers and sisters to the King of kings and Lord of lords, and our performance in life should match our position in Christ. Salvation is free. It's a gift, paid in full by the Lord Jesus who died on Calvary. God's gift is received freely, by grace, no strings attached, and is received by faith alone in Christ alone (John 3:16; Acts 4:12; 16:31; Eph 2:8-9). That's all. However, living the sanctified life as a new Christian is radical and calls for commitment to God. This requires positive volition and dedication to learning and living God's Word on a daily basis. It means prioritizing and structuring our lives in a way that factors God and His Word into everything. It means bringing all aspects of our lives—marriage, family, education, work, finances, resources, entertainment, etc.—under the authority of Christ. This is the sanctified life when we learn Scripture (Psa 1:2-3; Jer 15:16; Ezra 7:10; 2 Tim 2:15; 3 :16-17; 1 Pet 2:2; 2 Pet 3:18), walk by faith (2 Cor 5:7; Heb 10:38; 11:6), and advance to spiritual maturity (Heb 6:1). As we advance, God's Word will saturate our thinking and govern our thoughts, values, words, and actions. A sign of maturity is when God and His Word are more real and dominant than our experiences, feelings, or circumstances. This is the place of spiritual maturity and stability.      Unfortunately, not everyone answers the call to Christian service, as our justification does not guarantee sanctification. But for those who have positive volition and who answer the call, there is no better life, no higher calling, no nobler pursuit, than that which we live in our daily walk with the God of the universe who has called us “out of darkness and into His marvelous light” (1 Pet 2:9; cf. Eph 4:8-9). As those who are now “the saints in Light” (Col 1:12), we need to act like it, “for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light; for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth, trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord” (Eph 5:8-10). And we are to “lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Rom 13:12), and learn to function “in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world” (Phil 2:15). Being a light in the world means helping those who are positive to God to know Him. It means sharing Scripture with them. It means sharing the gospel of grace to the lost who want to know God so they might be saved (John 3:16; Acts 4:12; 16:31; 1 Cor 15:3-4; Eph 2:8-9). And for Christians who want to grow spiritually, it means helping them know God's Word so they can advance to spiritual maturity (Heb 6:1; cf., 2 Tim 3:16-17; 1 Pet 2:2; 2 Pet 3:18). This life honors the Lord, edifies others, and creates within us a personal sense of destiny that is tied to the infinite, personal, creator God who has called us into a relationship and walk with Him. Dr. Steven R. Cook     [1] The atheist rejects the existence of God; therefore, in his mind, there is no One to whom he must account for his life. In the mind of the atheist, good and evil are merely artificial constructs that can be arbitrarily adjusted to suit one's life. Apart from the atheists, there are many who desire to be religious, but do not acknowledge or accept the true God, which was the case with the scribes, Sadducees and Pharisees. Religion is man, by man's efforts, trying to win the approval of God. Worldly religion is a works-based salvation where a person tries to live a good-enough-life to gain entrance into heaven. A false god is always self-serving and rarely condemns. And if the man feels condemned by his false god, there's always a way for him to correct his wrong, pay some penance, and save himself by his own good works. Salvation by good works tells you the person worships a false god and not the God of the Bible.

I was thinking the other day that the manger that Jesus was laid in was dirty compared to our standards today. It is estimated that Jesus was most likely born in March or April. We are not entirely sure what kind of room he was born in, but the fact that there was a manger (feeding trough) gives us some idea that it was where the animals were kept. So, what was in the stable Jesus was most likely born in? If there were donkeys, cattle, sheep, or chickens, there was also the smell of manure and urine, cattle-biting lice, a whole bunch of annoying species of flies common in the middle east known as the Bazaar Rly (known to spread trachoma an irritating eye disease). Do not forget the common Stable Fly that would have been feeding on the blood of the livestock surrounding Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. By the way the Stable Flies Mary and Joseph shooed away from Jesus may have carried anthrax. My guess is, there were most likely rats and mice along with all the diseases they carry. The manger was a feeding trough and before they prepared it to lay Jesus in, there was no Clorox to disinfect it from it being used for animals to eat from, drool into, and maybe even sneeze out an occasional maggot that crawled up into the snouts of certain animals to live in their throats. I am sure Joseph did his best to clean out the manger, but then you have the bedding to consider, which would have been straw infested with straw itch mites. So the first group of people invited to see the Christ-Child are dirty shepherds? My point is simply this: The One born King of the Jews made His grand entrance into our world through the mess of a stable. But why that way? It was of Jesus that the ancient prophets declared: Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will name Him Immanuel. (Isa. 7:14) For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. (Isa. 9:6) But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will come forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His times of coming forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity. (Mic. 5:2) Why a stable? Before I answer that question, I want us to reflect on Hebrews 1:1-3 briefly. In only three verses, we are given nine reasons for why there is a good reason for the shepherds, a stable, and a manger. Jesus is the Only Way to Know God. The best and greatest revelation of who God is according to the author of Hebrews, is Jesus. According to the prophet Micah, Jesus did not become the Son of God at Marys miraculous conception as a virgin or at His birth; no Jesus was always God the Son long before His birth, for His times of coming forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity (Mic. 5:2). What did happen when Mary was told that she would have a child, is that Jesus took on human flesh, and He did so to live a life while remaining fully divine and fully human, and the life He lived was the life we could not live for the purpose of dying a death he did not deserve on a cross for the sins of mankind. Jesus said of Himself: For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10). Jesus is the heir of all things. The One laid in the manger, was and remains the heir of all things. All of creation belongs to Him; it was His from the beginning, but it is especially His now! The Bible says that all of us are sinners from the moment of conception in that we are all born sinful. When Jesus took on human flesh by way of the miraculous conception that did not include a human biological father, he was born without a nature to sin. Jesus was fully God while remaining fully human. For sinful humanity and a cursed creation to be liberated from sin, a kinsmen redeemer was needed. If a family member lost their inheritance and property for any reason, a kinsmen redeemer was needed who met three requirements: He must be related to the person who suffered lost, he must have the ability to purchase back what was lost, and he must be willing to make the sacrifice necessary to restore what was lost. Ever since Adam and Eve sinned against God, the curse of sin has been passed down from one generation to the next. The child that was laid in a manger is the kinsmen redeemer qualified to restore what was lost through Adams sin. Jesus is the Creator of the world. Jesus not only existed before His birth on the first Christmas, but we are also told that it was through Him that God made the world. The Bible says of Jesus: for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authoritiesall things have been created through Him and for Him (Col. 1:16). The one who was laid in the manger, was responsible for the material that human hands used to fashion it, which also shows us that only is Jesus a qualified redeemer, but He is also an able redeemer. Jesus radiates the glory of God. Jesus does not reflect the image of God like the moon reflects the Suns light. No, Jesus radiates the glory of God like the Sun radiates light. Jesus was not created by God but is God. There was never a time when Jesus was created because there was never a time when He was not the Son. The God of the Bible is unlike any other god that people have created to worship, for the God we learn of in the Bible is Yahweh as One God in three persons: Father, Son, and Spirit. Jesus is exact representation of Gods nature. I have two sons; they share my DNA but they are not me nor are they the exact representation of me. There is a Son who shares the exact representation of Gods nature, and that Son is Jesus, for the God the Son and the God the Father are of the same divine essence; this is how Jesus is the climax of Gods revelation of Himself to lost humanity. When one of his disciples asked Jesus, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. To which Jesus answered: The one who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? (John 14:8-9). When Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds saw the face of Jesus, the saw the face of God. Jesus is the sustainer of creation. The mystery of the incarnation and miracle of Christmas is that the one who was laid in a manger, is the One who sustains and keeps creation, by the word of His power. What the author of Hebrews is trying to say here is that the Son of God is not only responsible for creation, but actively preserves creation! This is why Jesus could walk on water, cure diseases, raise the dead, and quiet storms with the word of His mouth. Jesus is a qualified and willing redeemer. The One who was laid in the manger was born to make purification of sins, and the way that he did it was through a cross of wood for sins we committed and are guilty of. This is why, when John the Baptist saw Jesus, he said: Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29)! Hundreds of years before Christmas happened, the prophet Isaiah wrote of Jesus: But He was pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings; the punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed (Isa. 53:5). The Christ-Child was born to become a curse for us so that we could be pardoned, redeemed, and made the children of God (Gal. 3:13-14); or as the Bible states: He made Him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus is the only one who can save. After Jesus died upon the cross for our sins for our redemption, we are told that Jesus, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high What this means is that because of who He is and why He took on human flesh, after He died, Jesus rose from the grave because how can death keep the Author of Life? After Jesus rose, He ascended to heaven, and He sat down! He sat down because his sacrifice for sin only had to be offered once and for all! This is why Jesus said of Himself: I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6). Besides Jesus, there is salvation found in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among mankind by which we must be saved (Acts. 4:12). Jesus is to be worshiped because of who He is. The child born on the first Christmas and laid in a dirty manger surrounded by dirty creatures, of which Mary, Joseph, the Shepherds, and every other human is the dirtiest; He was born to save sinners. Of Jesus the scriptures testify: And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross. For this reason also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth (Phil. 2:810). The question for you my dear friend, is what will you do with Jesus today, on this Christmas Eve? The reality of Christmas is simply this: Jesus was really born. Jesus really did live, Jesus really did die on a Roman cross, and Jesus really did rise from the grave. J.R. Tolken, who wrote The Lord of the Rings, once said of the story of Jesus: The Gospels contain a fairy-story, or a story of a larger kind, which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories. But this story is supreme, and it is true. Art has been verified. God is the Lord, of angels, and of menand of elves. Legend and History have met and fused.[1] The reason Jesus made His grand entrance into our world through the mess of a stable is because He was born to enter into the mess of sin-cursed humanity. The message of the manger is simply this: If you were a hundred times worse than you are, your sins would be no match for His mercy.[2] Jesus came to save us! [1] J. R. R. Tolkien. On Fairy Stories, (1939). [2] Tim Keller.

I was thinking the other day that the manger that Jesus was laid in was dirty compared to our standards today. It is estimated that Jesus was most likely born in March or April. We are not entirely sure what kind of room he was born in, but the fact that there was a manger (feeding trough) gives us some idea that it was where the animals were kept. So, what was in the stable Jesus was most likely born in? If there were donkeys, cattle, sheep, or chickens, there was also the smell of manure and urine, cattle-biting lice, a whole bunch of annoying species of flies common in the middle east known as the Bazaar Rly (known to spread trachoma an irritating eye disease). Do not forget the common Stable Fly that would have been feeding on the blood of the livestock surrounding Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. By the way the Stable Flies Mary and Joseph shooed away from Jesus may have carried anthrax. My guess is, there were most likely rats and mice along with all the diseases they carry. The manger was a feeding trough and before they prepared it to lay Jesus in, there was no Clorox to disinfect it from it being used for animals to eat from, drool into, and maybe even sneeze out an occasional maggot that crawled up into the snouts of certain animals to live in their throats. I am sure Joseph did his best to clean out the manger, but then you have the bedding to consider, which would have been straw infested with straw itch mites. So the first group of people invited to see the Christ-Child are dirty shepherds? My point is simply this: The One born King of the Jews made His grand entrance into our world through the mess of a stable. But why that way? It was of Jesus that the ancient prophets declared: Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will name Him Immanuel. (Isa. 7:14) For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. (Isa. 9:6) But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will come forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His times of coming forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity. (Mic. 5:2) Why a stable? Before I answer that question, I want us to reflect on Hebrews 1:1-3 briefly. In only three verses, we are given nine reasons for why there is a good reason for the shepherds, a stable, and a manger. Jesus is the Only Way to Know God. The best and greatest revelation of who God is according to the author of Hebrews, is Jesus. According to the prophet Micah, Jesus did not become the Son of God at Marys miraculous conception as a virgin or at His birth; no Jesus was always God the Son long before His birth, for His times of coming forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity (Mic. 5:2). What did happen when Mary was told that she would have a child, is that Jesus took on human flesh, and He did so to live a life while remaining fully divine and fully human, and the life He lived was the life we could not live for the purpose of dying a death he did not deserve on a cross for the sins of mankind. Jesus said of Himself: For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10). Jesus is the heir of all things. The One laid in the manger, was and remains the heir of all things. All of creation belongs to Him; it was His from the beginning, but it is especially His now! The Bible says that all of us are sinners from the moment of conception in that we are all born sinful. When Jesus took on human flesh by way of the miraculous conception that did not include a human biological father, he was born without a nature to sin. Jesus was fully God while remaining fully human. For sinful humanity and a cursed creation to be liberated from sin, a kinsmen redeemer was needed. If a family member lost their inheritance and property for any reason, a kinsmen redeemer was needed who met three requirements: He must be related to the person who suffered lost, he must have the ability to purchase back what was lost, and he must be willing to make the sacrifice necessary to restore what was lost. Ever since Adam and Eve sinned against God, the curse of sin has been passed down from one generation to the next. The child that was laid in a manger is the kinsmen redeemer qualified to restore what was lost through Adams sin. Jesus is the Creator of the world. Jesus not only existed before His birth on the first Christmas, but we are also told that it was through Him that God made the world. The Bible says of Jesus: for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authoritiesall things have been created through Him and for Him (Col. 1:16). The one who was laid in the manger, was responsible for the material that human hands used to fashion it, which also shows us that only is Jesus a qualified redeemer, but He is also an able redeemer. Jesus radiates the glory of God. Jesus does not reflect the image of God like the moon reflects the Suns light. No, Jesus radiates the glory of God like the Sun radiates light. Jesus was not created by God but is God. There was never a time when Jesus was created because there was never a time when He was not the Son. The God of the Bible is unlike any other god that people have created to worship, for the God we learn of in the Bible is Yahweh as One God in three persons: Father, Son, and Spirit. Jesus is exact representation of Gods nature. I have two sons; they share my DNA but they are not me nor are they the exact representation of me. There is a Son who shares the exact representation of Gods nature, and that Son is Jesus, for the God the Son and the God the Father are of the same divine essence; this is how Jesus is the climax of Gods revelation of Himself to lost humanity. When one of his disciples asked Jesus, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. To which Jesus answered: The one who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? (John 14:8-9). When Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds saw the face of Jesus, the saw the face of God. Jesus is the sustainer of creation. The mystery of the incarnation and miracle of Christmas is that the one who was laid in a manger, is the One who sustains and keeps creation, by the word of His power. What the author of Hebrews is trying to say here is that the Son of God is not only responsible for creation, but actively preserves creation! This is why Jesus could walk on water, cure diseases, raise the dead, and quiet storms with the word of His mouth. Jesus is a qualified and willing redeemer. The One who was laid in the manger was born to make purification of sins, and the way that he did it was through a cross of wood for sins we committed and are guilty of. This is why, when John the Baptist saw Jesus, he said: Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29)! Hundreds of years before Christmas happened, the prophet Isaiah wrote of Jesus: But He was pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings; the punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed (Isa. 53:5). The Christ-Child was born to become a curse for us so that we could be pardoned, redeemed, and made the children of God (Gal. 3:13-14); or as the Bible states: He made Him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus is the only one who can save. After Jesus died upon the cross for our sins for our redemption, we are told that Jesus, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high What this means is that because of who He is and why He took on human flesh, after He died, Jesus rose from the grave because how can death keep the Author of Life? After Jesus rose, He ascended to heaven, and He sat down! He sat down because his sacrifice for sin only had to be offered once and for all! This is why Jesus said of Himself: I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6). Besides Jesus, there is salvation found in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among mankind by which we must be saved (Acts. 4:12). Jesus is to be worshiped because of who He is. The child born on the first Christmas and laid in a dirty manger surrounded by dirty creatures, of which Mary, Joseph, the Shepherds, and every other human is the dirtiest; He was born to save sinners. Of Jesus the scriptures testify: And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross. For this reason also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth (Phil. 2:810). The question for you my dear friend, is what will you do with Jesus today, on this Christmas Eve? The reality of Christmas is simply this: Jesus was really born. Jesus really did live, Jesus really did die on a Roman cross, and Jesus really did rise from the grave. J.R. Tolken, who wrote The Lord of the Rings, once said of the story of Jesus: The Gospels contain a fairy-story, or a story of a larger kind, which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories. But this story is supreme, and it is true. Art has been verified. God is the Lord, of angels, and of menand of elves. Legend and History have met and fused.[1] The reason Jesus made His grand entrance into our world through the mess of a stable is because He was born to enter into the mess of sin-cursed humanity. The message of the manger is simply this: If you were a hundred times worse than you are, your sins would be no match for His mercy.[2] Jesus came to save us! [1] J. R. R. Tolkien. On Fairy Stories, (1939). [2] Tim Keller.

Church: The Hatfields and McCoysWe live in a world that is totally at war with itself. Our nation is being torn apart by division – racial, socioeconomic, political – you name it, and we've experienced it. But that's not how Christ designed His church to be. In fact, Jesus said in John 17 that when we love each other more than we love ourselves, the lost world will come to believe God sent Jesus and He is truly the Son of God. In other words, our unity and oneness with each other will be the strongest evangelical draw we have to bring others to Christ.But if you look around, all we see within the church is division. Some churches believe in the sovereignty of God, while others deify man and his free will choices. Some churches see homosexuality as a sin, while others have drag queens teaching the children on Sunday mornings. The church has a history of dividing on trivial matters such as the mode of baptism or our posture in prayer rather than uniting around the “faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3).But what did the Lord have in mind when He created His church? And does it look anything like what we've turned it into today? Let's take a few moments and do a brief survey on what the Lord said about His church.It's Unity Above Almost Everything ElseAs we've shared already, the early church was built on devoting themselves to the four disciplines found in Acts 2:42. And as you can see, two of the four deal with building our family relationships with each other in unity (fellowship and the Love Feast, or the breaking of bread).And they continued steadfastly in (were devoted to) (1) the apostles' doctrine and (2) fellowship, in the (3) breaking of bread, and (4) in prayers – Acts 2:42.Then we have the prayer of Jesus before His death on the cross. And what was the content of His prayer? Our unity in Him and each other.“That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us (why) that the world may believe that You sent Me” – John 17:21.Notice how many times Paul encouraged the church (and the individual believers) to humble themselves in unity with others like our Lord did. It seems that being one together in Him was continually on Paul's mind.Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be (what) like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, (why) that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ – Romans 15:5-6.Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that (what) you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment – 1 Corinthians 1:10.I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to (what) walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, (how) with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all – Ephesians 4:1-6.Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others – Philippians 2:1-4.Ugh, Enough AlreadyI know, too many...

“These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and your joy may be made full” (John 15:11). These things refer to lessons Jesus Christ taught His disciples the night before He was crucified. It must have been an amazing Bible class! Jesus packed a tremendous amount of information into His last class with them—the information they would need to persevere in the devil's world. Lessons we also need to learn and apply. Highlights include the need to be cleansed from personal sin through the use of rebound, I John 1:9, the need to forgive and love others using the problem-solving device of impersonal love, and how to overcome fear. “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me” (John 14:1). Click for Full Transcript:https://rhem.pub/christs-amazing-ee5e6a

1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! Yeshua has great passion for the fulfillment of Psalm 133! This psalm carries great significance, as it is the step right before entering into the immediate presence of God.  Here is one example: “Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul” (Acts 4:32a).   As the word “behold” indicates, unity among brothers is something to look at and see how good it is.  The type of unity that this psalm admires is dwelling unity.   Brotherly love and unity are like the oil of this psalm, which comes down from above. There is no hope of this unity originating from below.  “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17:20-21).