Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Let's turn and hear God's word,
and first John Too. I'm going to
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read beginning at verse eighteen and I'll
read through twenty eight. The focus of
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the sermon this morning is on Verse
Twenty Eight, is on that last verse.
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Right, let's give our attention to
God's word. May bless it to
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us. Children. It is the
last hour and, as you have heard,
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that antichrist is coming. So now
many antichrists have come. Therefore,
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we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but
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they were not of us, for
if they had been of us, they
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would have continued with us, but
they went out that it might become plain
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that they are not of us.
But you have been anointed by the Holy
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One and you have all knowledge.
I write to you not because you do
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not know the truth, but because
you know it, and because no lie
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as of the truth. Who is
the liar? But he who denies that
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Jesus is the Christ. This is
the antichrist, he who denies the Father
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and the son. No one who
denies the Son has the father. Whoever
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confesses the son has the father.
Also, let what you heard from the
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beginning abide in you. If what
you heard from the beginning abides in you,
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then you too will abide in the
sun and in the father, and
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this is the promise that he made
to us, eternal life. I write
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these things to you about those who
are trying to deceive you, but the
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anointing that you have received from him
abides in you, and you have no
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need that anyone should teach you,
but as his anointing teaches you about everything
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and is true and is no lie, just as it has been taught you,
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or just as it has taught you, abide in him now, little
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children, abide in him, so
that when he appears you, we may
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have confidence and not shrink from him
in shame. At his coming, you
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may be seated. As we begin
this morning and reflect on what God has
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spoken to us. Let's just pause
a moment and remember something about God's word,
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the importance of it, the stability
of it, some of the reasons
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for it. Here in this passage
we have just read, we read in
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Verse Twenty Five, if what you
heard from the beginning abides in you,
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then you two will abide in the
sun and in the father. How is
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it that we have access to the
father and the son? How do we
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come to know God through hearing.
This is what Paul says in Romans Chapter
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Ten. What is it that we
hear God's word? God's Word is spoken
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to US and abides in us so
that we may abide in it, so
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that we might live in it,
dwell in it, and through that word,
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through God's speaking his truth, which
is no lie, we come to
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know the son and the father.
What is that word? Well, you
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could sum it up in different ways. John sums it up in verse twenty
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five when he says, and this
is the promise that he made to us,
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eternal life. Now there's a lot
of packed into those two words.
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This is the promise that he made, eternal life. We could think about
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what eternal life is, we could
think about how it is, we come
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to have it through Jesus and any
number of things, but this is where
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it all starts. It starts not
in US going out and seeking God,
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but in God coming to us,
in speaking a word to us that is
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living and active and effective, word
that is so living it can be described
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of as abiding, as remaining,
as staying, as dwelling. So these
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are the things that we have in
mind when we start to think about what
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it means to a bide in him. This verse a Verse Twenty eight are
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focus for this morning as two simple
parts. First it has a command and
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then it gives a reason for the
command. Do you see that? So
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First John to twenty eight. First
there's the command what we ought to do,
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and it's described by these words abide
in him. Abide in him.
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That's the command. That's what we
ought to do. And then we have
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the reason for the command. If
we abide in Jesus, then when Jesus
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returns will have confidence, not fear
and not shame. This is going to
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be said in other ways, in
another places, a little bit go and
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earlier in our service I read this
passage from first John for right verse thirteen.
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By this we know that we abide
in him. Do you hear that
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word again, that phrase? And
he and US. He's given us his
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spirit. We read that. We
have in Verse Eight Sixteen. So we
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have come to know and to believe
the love that God has for us.
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God is love and whoever abides in
love abides in God. By this verse
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Seventeen, by this is love perfected
with us so that we may have confidence
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for the Day of Judgment. There's
no fear. He says. Fear has
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to do with punishment. We can
have confidence. This is the reason he
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gives for why we ought to abide
in Christ. Now there are lots and
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lots of other reasons of why you
ought to abide in Christ, but this
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is the one John gives and will
think about it this morning. But let's
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begin with the beginning. Let's begin
with the command to abide in him.
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What does that mean? Does it
mean to abide in him, abide in
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Jesus? The word abide is a
word we don't use a lot anymore.
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Newer translations or translations that seek to
put this into more modern English will use
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words like continue or remain or stay, which are all excellent translations. So
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is this word abide? It's just
an older word and it means those things.
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It means to stay, to persist, to continue or remain. Now
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we use that word and it can
be used in different ways and it will
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take on its meaning depending on what
it's connected to. So sometimes the word
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abide can have a physical sense.
So you might say to your guests.
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Well, you probably wouldn't, but
you could if you wanted to. You
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could say, oh, would you
please abide a little longer in my home.
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They'd probably say why are you talking
like that? But you, you
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could say that right and they would
probably understand what you mean that they want
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you to. You are asking them
to stay a little longer. There's a
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physical sense in that. You're asking
them to stay put in this location,
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but it can have other meanings to
you can stay put them or remain or
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continue in a condition, to abide
in a state of health. We might
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stay or in a relationship, to
abide in your job or in a contract
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with your employer, or you can
abide in in in a situation or other
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kinds of things. So we have
to think carefully about what does this word
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mean here? How do we abide
in him, because it can mean different
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things depending on what we're abiding in. So let's talk about first what this
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doesn't mean, because there are a
few ways in which we can go wrong
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here. We should not take abiding
in Jesus in a physical sense. Here's
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what I mean. When Jesus said
to his disciples abide in me, he
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wasn't telling Thomas, for example,
to put his finger in Jesus side and
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keep it there. Right, I
want you to physically be in me and
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I want you to stay there,
remain in me, Thomas. We of
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course know that's that's not what he
asks. It's not what he means.
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And another thing we can remember is
that the ascension itself would make this impossible.
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Jesus certainly didn't want Thomas to keep
his finger in his side because Jesus
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was going to ascend. It would
be impossible for Thomas to do that because
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Jesus's body would be in heaven and
Thomas's and us, with all of ours,
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is here on earth. Jesus ascension
makes that that kind of command impossible.
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Along similar lines, we also ought
not to think of our union with
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Christ as some sort of fusion of
his essence with ours. To be one
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with him or to be in him
or have union with him does not imply
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that somehow the essence of God is
fused with you and your essence throughout the
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history. This is important to say
because throughout the history of the church,
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including today, there's been a temptation
to think of our union with him in
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this way, and you can find
it in eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism and
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in Protestantism. It comes I won't
get into why, but it comes from
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thinking of our union with God and
more platonic or terms of Plato, than
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it does of Peter or Paul or
or John. The Union that we have
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with God is not the result of
some kind of chain of being in which
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our being is sort of ontologically connected
with God. Somehow. It comes in
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a different way, which I'll explain. The Union we share with God is
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great, but we do not become
God. I do not become God,
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Christophered as not become God, and
God does not become Christopher. We have
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a union with one another, but
it's not because our essences are mixed together.
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Marriage is a helpful analogy here.
Jesus himself tells us to think about
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marriage in terms of our union with
him and Effesians Chapter Five. When the
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Bible says that the two become one
in their marriage, it's not saying that
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the two people cease to exist and
a third entities created. Right you,
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if you are married, you are. You did not cease to exist or
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somehow fuse your personhood with someone else. It's similar with us in God.
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When we become one with God and
united with him, we do not cease.
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God does not cease. We remain
distinct and yet also one. Nor
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is it saying that we become one, as I mentioned, in a purely
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physical sense, and this is true
even in a marriage. A husband and
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wife express a great unity in physical
intimacy, but it's not limited to that,
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is it even outside of that.
They are still married, they are
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still one, they are united and
remain one at all times in their marriage.
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Likewise, with God, the eternal
distinction between the essence of God and
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the essence of a creature does not
become erased when a creature is becomes one
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with God, when we are found
to be in him, united with him,
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we remained distinct. The Creator remains
the Creator. The creature remains the
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creature creature. Sometimes we try to
think about this in another sort of odd
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way. We think, well,
God is omnipresent, right, he's everywhere
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at all times and in all places. He's also omnipotent, and that he's
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upholding all things. He's intimately connected
with every molecule of the universe, and
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that's true, but that doesn't mean
that God divinizes everything. Just because God
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is everywhere, it doesn't mean that
God is everything. We don't have a
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pantheistic world in which every man,
woman, child, dog, boat or
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parking lot becomes God. Right.
It's obvious that this is true. God
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is God and and we are not, even though it's also true that God
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is upholding everything, from the leaf
to the parking lot, to you or
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me, by his power and without
him connected to us and innoce, in
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a sense, we would cease to
exist. But existence is different than the
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salvation and the saving kind of union
that John Means when he says abide in
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him. God's Omnipotence and Omnipresence extend
to everything. God is everywhere and everything
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and on is the omnipotent upholder of
the universe. But God's Omnish or Omnish
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or sorry, omnipresence, or his
everywhareness extends beyond the objects of his salvation.
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In other words, being in Christ
remaining in Christ, is not just
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a matter of existing. Right,
we're at what? Other words, just
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because God is omnipresent doesn't mean that
you are automatically in him in the way
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that John Means. Just because God
is everywhere in the world, just because
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God is upholding you and active in
your life, which he is in every
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life of every single person, it
doesn't yet mean that you know him,
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that you are in him, and
the way that John Talks about when he
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says abide in him. Being in
Christ doesn't mean just being upheld in this
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work of creation, but it means
being upheld by a special work and being
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made by his spirit as a part
of new creation. Means that God's electing
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love has been set upon you and
is set apart so that you are in
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him and united with him and one
with him in a new way. And
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that's a lot to digest, I
know. Perhaps it would be helpful to
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think positively about this now. What
does it mean to abide in him?
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These are the things that it doesn't
mean. What does it mean? What
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does it mean when John Talks About
our union with Christ and are being in
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him and are the call to remain
in him? Well, the Bible tells
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us that there are different ways in
which we can understand this union that we
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have with Christ. For one,
it's a covenantal union. Our Union with
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class Christ has a legal and covenantal
nature. You can go back to the
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analogy of marriage for some help.
How do the two become one? I'll
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by getting married. A man shall
leave his father and mother and become one
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with his wife. The scripture says
they become married by joining together, and
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this legal covenantal act. How do
they get married? By entering into a
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covenant with one another. And the
same as true for US and Christ.
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If you go to the book of
Ephesians, for example, you see that
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this biggins as a work of God's
grace and and his covenanting with us.
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I'm going to read an Ephesians chapter
one, verse four. There we see
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that it says even as he chose
us in him before the foundation of the
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world, that we should be holy
and blameless before him in love, he
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predestined us for adoption as sons through
Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his
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will. Here Paul describes that love
that John Describes in chapter four and he
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says, you want to know where
the beginning of that all is? It
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happened, Paul says, even before
the world itself was made, before you
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were made. God chose you in
love, predestined you in love, he
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cut made a covenant to love you
from all eternity. Similarly, in verse
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eleven, we read in him here
that language in him, abide in him.
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Here Paul says in Him, through
our union with him, we have
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obtained an inheritance. Why, having
been predestined according to the purpose of him
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who works all things according to the
counsel of his will, where does our
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union with Christ begin? Well,
certainly doesn't begin with kind of physical union,
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because it happens before we even exist. It happens before ere we've even
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been created. Our Union with Christ, are being united to him, happens
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from all eternity in the Council of
God. That's where your union with him
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is situated. In Him, we
have been predestined to obtain this inheritance that
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God's purpose and will might be worked
out in the world. This is,
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of course, an amazing thing,
and God promises to do amazing things in
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us. It's not merely a relationship
that God establishes by the word of his
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power and his great council. He
does something in us. He promises that
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in our new creatureliness, as he
unites us to himself in love, in
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time and space, he changes us. Listen to his promises. In is
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Echiel, Chapter Thirty six, I'm
going to read verses twenty two through thirty
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Zekiel thirty six. Verses Twenty Two
through thirty and as you hear this,
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I want you to to notice what
it is God has promised to do here.
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It is that eternal life that John
Mentions is fleshed out in some ways
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here and many other places as well. So, Ezekiel Thirty six, verse
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twenty two, therefore say to the
House of Israel. Thus says the Lord
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God, it is not for your
Sake, oh Israel, that I am
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about to act, but for the
sake of my holy name, which you
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have profaned among the nations to which
you came. And I will thendicate the
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holiness of my great name, which
has been profaned among the nations, of
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which you have profaned among them,
and the nations will know that I am
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the Lord, declares the Lord God, when, Through You, I will
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vindicate My Holiness Before Their Eyes.
You See, here God is emphasizing that
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it is by his purpose, by
his will, Israel, his people,
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have done exactly the opposite. He
is doing this in spite of what they've
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done. He's loving them because or
in spite of the fact that they are
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ungodly and unrighteous. Here's what he
will do. I will take you verse
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Twenty Four. I will take you
from the nations and gather you from all
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the countries and bring you into your
own land. I will sprinkle clean water
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on you and you shall be clean
from all your uncleanness, cleanness, uncleannesses,
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and from all your idols. I
will cleanse you and I will give
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you a new heart and a new
spirit I will put within you and I
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will remove the heart of stone from
your flesh and I will give you a
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heart of flesh and I will put
my spirit within you and cause you to
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walk in my statutes and be careful
to obey my rules. You shall dwell
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in the land that I gave to
your father's and you shall be my people
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and I will be your God and
I will deliver you from all cleanliness or
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an uncleannesses, and I will summon
the grain and make it abundant and lay
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no famine upon you. I will
make the fruit of the tree and the
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increase of the field abundant that you
may never again suffer the disgrace of famine
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among the nations. Then you will
remember your evil ways and your deeds that
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you are not good and you will
loathe yourselves for your iniquities, in your
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abominations. Is Not for your sake
that I will act, declares the Lord
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God. Let that be known to
you. Here God says that in His
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grace, as we sang in the
Psalm earlier. I don't know if I
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yes, I have this here.
Let me read. Set the verse two.
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From beneath the cross of Jesus,
upon the Cross of Jesus, Mine
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Eye at times can see the very
dying form of one who suffered there for
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me and from my stricken heart,
with tears too, wonders, I confess,
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the wonders of redeeming love and my
unworthiness. That's what God is saying
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here. I am going to do
this for you and you will see these
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two things. You are great unworthiness
us and you will come to hate it
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and despise it, but you also
see my greatness and the goodness of my
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grace. I'm going to do something
in you. And how does he say?
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He will do it. Not by
not by changing us into God's but
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by giving us his spirit to spiritually, capitalist holy, spiritually live in us,
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dwell in US and change us,
to take our hearts and make them
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out of Stony, stubborn, sinful
things and two hearts that beat for God.
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This is what the Lord promised to
do before the creation of the world
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was is what he predestined for,
and this is what he does do when
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Jesus Christ comes earn salvation for us, establishes the legal basis for the covenant,
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that our sins might be forgiven through
his sacrifice, that we might receive
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all righteousness and love in his name. And then what does he promised to
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do? To pour out his spirit
on his people, to make these changes
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in us. This is all made
possible because of what is sometimes been called
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the marvelous exchange, in which we
give our sins to God, he takes
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them on himself and gives us his
righteousness. Before this happens, before we
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come to abide in God, before
we come to be in Christ, through
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his work in us, his word, proclaimed, his spirit, the uniting
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of ourselves with him by faith,
we are in a different state. Romans
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five tells us that we are abiding, we are dwelling, we are united
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with someone else, our first father, Adam, and in him, Paul
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tells us, we have dirt,
we have death, we have curse and
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the wrath of God. Why?
Because in Him we have fallen the covenant
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that God made it with Adam was
not only for himself but as first his
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posterity, to that all who are
in him also sin in him and also
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die in Him. This is why
God comes to save us, so that
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he might transfer us out of our
union with Adam and bring us into union
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with himself. This is what it
means to be in Christ. It means
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to have union with him because of
his work for us. So how can
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we come to have that? John
says that we are in Christ and he
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says we are to abide in him. How can we abide in him?
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Let me start by saying that you
can't abide somewhere or in someone or in
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something unless you're already there. You
can't abide in Christ unless you already have
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him. Do you have Christ?
Do you know him? Do you live
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in him? Are you made new
in him? Do you have the spirit
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of God dwelling in you? Are
you walking in the life of the resurrection?
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If not, then it will be
impossible for you to abide in him,
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just as it would be impossible for
you to abide in in a abide
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in a place and which you aren't
currently at. So how can we abide
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in Christ? How can you come
to have this great inheritance and change of
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heart and all of these things that
are promised to us. Well, John
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Thirty six, Jesus says, whoever
believes in the sun has eternal life.
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There's that promise that John mentioned.
Whoever believes in the sun has eternal life.
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Whoever does not obey the son shall
not see life, but the laugh,
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but the wrath of God remains on
him. Beloved, that word remains
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is the same word that he uses
later when he says abides. It's one
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or the other. We either abide
in the in and under the wrath of
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God, by being left in our
trespasses and sins, or we abide and
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remain and live in Christ, who
forgives our sins and cleanses us from all
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unrighteousness. How do we come to
no longer be under wrath but abide in
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Christ? Well, Jesus says,
whoever believes, whoever believes, we come
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to believe by the word working in
us. We come to believe by abiding
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in the thing that we have heard. As John says, let what you
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have heard from the beginning abide in
you. Let that word that created this
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life in you remain in you.
This is what it means to abide in
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Christ. If we abide in Christ
by faith, if that's how we start
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and be first become united to him, how, then, do we stay
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in him? We stay in him
by staying in that word, by continuing
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our believing, by producing the fruits
of righteousness, by trusting in God.
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Paul says in the book of Colossians, as you received him, so walk
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in him. How do we receive
him? By faith? How do we
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walk in him? How do we
abide in him by faith? If you
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do not know the Lord Jesus as
your savior, if you desire or not
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to be under God's wrath and condemnation
for your sins, know that all you
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have to do is believe. And
it's not a great leap of faith into
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the darkness. No, God describes
the work that he is doing is coming
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into the light as revelation, as
coming to believe the thing which has been
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revealed, the Sun who has made
himself known. This is the command that
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he gives us. Abide in him. Do you want to abide in Jesus?
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Then come to know him, trust
him. How do you come to
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know him? Well, hear it
in his word as it's proclaimed. You
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this morning, as you hear it
throughout your life, as you remember it
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from past times, as you find
it here in the scriptures. Well,
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let me conclude briefly with the reason
that John gives for our abiding in him.
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He says, little children, abide
in him, remain in him,
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stay in him, continue and persist
in faith, so that when he appears,
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we may have confidence and not shrink
from him in shame at his coming.
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Go back to John Thirty six.
If we do not believe in the
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son, if we are not trusting
in him for our life, for that
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new spirit that God promised in Ezekiel, thirty thirty six, where are we?
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We are remaining under the wrath of
God. And that means that when
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Jesus comes again, which he will
one day, a day that we do
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not know, a day that we
have not been told, if we are
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not abiding in him, we will
be afraid of him because he is bringing
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judgment and wrath for all who are
not in him, for those who are
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not in Christ. It's not a
sort of neutral position. You can't say,
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well, Jesus is for other people, because if you do, that
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means he's not for you. And
when the great conqueror and prince comes to
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judge the world, you want him
to be for you. When God comes
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in his wrath to crush all unrighteousness, to destroy all evil forever, you
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want to be on his side.
You want to be on the side of
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righteousness, you want to be on
the side of holiness, you want to
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be on the winning side. When
Jesus comes, be on his side,
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be in him, because the one
who isn't will face shame at his coming,
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will shrink from his coming, will
have fear, as John says in
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First John. For but for those
of us who have believed and who have
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lived our lives by faith and whatever
point God gave us that gift, then
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we will stand with confidence. We
will literally rise up out of our graves
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with confidence and security, glowing and
glorying in the light of God, him
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shining through us and resurrected bodies.
We will be more than conquerors, overcomers,
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as he says earlier in chapter two, when he says I write to
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you because you are strong, the
word of God abides in you and you
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have overcome the evil one. On
that last day that will be manifest and
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all of our sorrows and all of
our sufferings and all of our sins will
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be gone and we will be forever
and permanently a vindicated and shown to be
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on the right side of the wrath
of God. There will be no shaking,
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no fear when judgment comes. If
you are in Christ, John Jesus
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says in John Fifteen. You did
not choose me, but I chose you
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and appointed you that you should go
and bear fruit and that your fruit should
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abide, it should remain persist,
so that whatever you ask the father in
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my name, he may give it
to you. Jesus says there and in
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several other places, there in John
Fifteen, that he is doing something really
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remarkable in us, the language of
his equal, of great crops that will
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never die, never facing famine.
That's s scatological language, that's Heaven Times
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language, that's eternal life language,
and the same as promised here, when
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God is working in us, he's
already be gone a word work that,
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on the last day, will be
revealed for all that it is. This
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is the reason we ought to abide
in him. So, when you're setting
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priorities in your life, when you're
deciding what you're going to give your time
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to your energy, to your resources, to when you're deciding which path to
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take, whether to obey, whether
to not obey, what to love,
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what not to love, where to
set your hopes. We're not to set
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your hopes. Think about a passage
like this. Think about what God is
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saying in this command that he's given
to you, when he says abide in
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him and you will not be put
to shame. Live in Christ, dwell
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in Christ, find your life and
your hope in him and on the last
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day, the all the things and
the difficulties, in the temptations that one
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seemed so strong, will seem like
nothing, because you will not be afraid
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when the wrath of God comes,
because you will know that you have been,
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always have been and always will be, justified in his name, sanctified
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in him and glorified forever. Abide
in him, abide in him. Let's
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pray
