Deceiving Yourself About Yourself

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:04.280 And Your Gospel, as we have been reminded of who we are in Jesus 2 00:00:04.320 --> 00:00:08.550 Christ, and that there is no boasting in ourselves, but only in him 3 00:00:08.550 --> 00:00:12.070 alone. We ask that, as we come to your word now in First 4 00:00:12.150 --> 00:00:16.710 Corinthians, that you would impress these truths on our hearts, that you would 5 00:00:16.710 --> 00:00:23.219 sink the roots of those truths deep down into our souls, that we would 6 00:00:23.219 --> 00:00:28.460 find ourselves to be steadfast in the word of God and built up in it. 7 00:00:29.820 --> 00:00:34.780 Lord, we ask that you would help us to be aware of our 8 00:00:34.939 --> 00:00:40.890 pride, to confess it and to set that aside, that we might trust 9 00:00:40.929 --> 00:00:44.770 in you and in you alone, and that your work might be done in 10 00:00:45.049 --> 00:00:49.649 us, according to the power of Your Holy Spirit and the promises that have 11 00:00:49.729 --> 00:00:53.960 been delivered to us in Christ. We pray this in his name. On 12 00:00:54.119 --> 00:01:00.640 men, please remainstanding, if you're able, and let's turn our attention now 13 00:01:00.679 --> 00:01:27.340 to first Corinthians chapter three. I'll read the whole chapter this morning, First 14 00:01:27.379 --> 00:01:42.489 Corinthians chapter three. But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual 15 00:01:42.650 --> 00:01:47.090 people, but as people of the Flesh, as infants in Christ. I 16 00:01:47.239 --> 00:01:49.519 Fed you with milk, not solid food, for you are not ready for 17 00:01:49.640 --> 00:01:53.560 it. And even now you are not ready, for you are still of 18 00:01:53.640 --> 00:01:59.239 the flesh. For what? For? While there is jealousy and strife among 19 00:01:59.400 --> 00:02:01.950 you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 20 00:02:04.269 --> 00:02:07.349 For when one says I follow Paul and another I follow a police, 21 00:02:08.030 --> 00:02:13.069 are you not being merely human? What, then, is Apollos? What 22 00:02:13.270 --> 00:02:17.939 is Paul Servants, through whom you believed as the Lord assigned to each? 23 00:02:19.860 --> 00:02:23.620 I planted, apolous watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he 24 00:02:23.939 --> 00:02:30.490 who plants nor he who waters is anything but only God who gives the growth. 25 00:02:30.409 --> 00:02:36.289 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive 26 00:02:36.449 --> 00:02:40.770 his wages according to his Labor, for we are God's fellow workers. You 27 00:02:40.930 --> 00:02:46.000 are God's field, God's building. According to the grace of God given to 28 00:02:46.080 --> 00:02:51.560 me, like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation and someone else 29 00:02:51.680 --> 00:02:54.879 is building upon it. Let each one of the each one, take care 30 00:02:55.039 --> 00:03:00.150 how he builds upon it, for no one can lay a foundation other than 31 00:03:00.229 --> 00:03:06.110 that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if any one 32 00:03:06.189 --> 00:03:09.310 builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, Hay 33 00:03:09.389 --> 00:03:15.979 Straw, each one's work will become manifest, for the day will disclose it, 34 00:03:15.580 --> 00:03:19.740 because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what 35 00:03:19.900 --> 00:03:23.900 sort of work each one is done. If the work that anyone has built 36 00:03:23.979 --> 00:03:28.090 on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any one's work 37 00:03:28.210 --> 00:03:30.689 is build up, he will suffer burned up, he will suffer loss, 38 00:03:31.210 --> 00:03:37.009 though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. Do you 39 00:03:37.210 --> 00:03:40.479 not know that you are God's Temple and that God's spirit dwells in you? 40 00:03:42.400 --> 00:03:46.159 If any one destroys God's Temple, God will destroy him, for God's Temple 41 00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:53.039 is holy and you are that temple. Let no one deceive himself. If 42 00:03:53.120 --> 00:03:57.949 any one amongst you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him 43 00:03:57.949 --> 00:04:01.150 become a fool that he may become wise, for the wisdom of this world 44 00:04:01.430 --> 00:04:06.469 is folly with God, for it is written he catches the wise in their 45 00:04:06.550 --> 00:04:12.300 craftiness and again the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise that they are futile. 46 00:04:13.340 --> 00:04:16.620 So let no one boast in men, for all things are yours, 47 00:04:16.660 --> 00:04:21.459 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephus, or the world or life or death, 48 00:04:21.540 --> 00:04:27.689 or the present or the future, all are yours, and you or Christ's 49 00:04:28.209 --> 00:04:46.399 and Christ is God's Amen. You may be seated. There are many different 50 00:04:46.439 --> 00:04:50.560 things that we might consider from this passage this morning. I want to focus 51 00:04:50.680 --> 00:04:56.149 on what I think is one of the primary things that Paul wants to communicate 52 00:04:56.350 --> 00:05:00.069 to us, what God wants to communicate to us, and that's that we 53 00:05:00.230 --> 00:05:05.310 shouldn't boast in ourselves, but we should boast in the Lord and the Lord 54 00:05:05.310 --> 00:05:11.660 alone. This comes up in our passage. It came up in our hymn 55 00:05:11.699 --> 00:05:16.339 that we sung a moment ago. We called ourselves to poor contempt, on 56 00:05:16.660 --> 00:05:24.410 all our pride to a Lord Forbid. We saying that I should boast save 57 00:05:24.569 --> 00:05:30.170 in the cross of Christ alone. Why is that? Why is that so 58 00:05:30.329 --> 00:05:36.040 important? This is what this passage helps us to understand, and for very 59 00:05:36.079 --> 00:05:45.160 important reasons. Boast thing is essentially taking confidence in something else, whether rightly 60 00:05:45.240 --> 00:05:50.230 or wrongly. Boasting is placing our trust and are it's an expression, we 61 00:05:50.230 --> 00:05:54.949 might say, of a trust that is placed, and we like to boast 62 00:05:54.990 --> 00:05:59.350 in all kinds of things. We boast in things we have, we boast 63 00:05:59.709 --> 00:06:01.629 in things we say and the things that we've done, in the things that 64 00:06:01.750 --> 00:06:09.500 we plan to do. Now some boasting or pride, we might say, 65 00:06:09.540 --> 00:06:15.300 in a certain context makes sense as long as it's limited and qualified. Right 66 00:06:15.500 --> 00:06:18.730 we explain to future employers that we have done such and such a thing and 67 00:06:18.889 --> 00:06:23.970 so we are reliable to do another thing that we might be asked, and 68 00:06:24.129 --> 00:06:30.290 that's appropriate. It's not that kind of boasting and pride that Paul is talking 69 00:06:30.329 --> 00:06:35.399 about. He's talking about taking those penultimate things, those little things, and 70 00:06:35.639 --> 00:06:43.319 turning them into our ultimate confidence, taking this thing that you may have done 71 00:06:43.360 --> 00:06:46.310 or the thing you might have achieved and turning that into your source of hope, 72 00:06:47.709 --> 00:06:55.069 your source of trust for this life and for the next. And that 73 00:06:55.269 --> 00:07:00.310 boasting, that boasting and men, that boasting and wisdom, that pride in 74 00:07:00.470 --> 00:07:06.459 ourselves, has no place, Paul says, in the Christian life. Perhaps 75 00:07:06.579 --> 00:07:13.060 the strangest boasting of all from Christians is when Christians boast in their Christianity. 76 00:07:15.139 --> 00:07:19.050 And that's what we'll think about together. From First Corinthians three, God will 77 00:07:19.050 --> 00:07:25.370 show us that this most important, this most central all incompanisation aspect of our 78 00:07:25.410 --> 00:07:30.040 life, our faith in him. There's no prop room for pride in that. 79 00:07:31.519 --> 00:07:39.160 We belong to the Lord. Because of the Lord, we are God's 80 00:07:39.240 --> 00:07:44.829 building, we are God's field, because of God, we ought not to 81 00:07:44.910 --> 00:07:49.310 boast in ourselves but in him, and by removing our false boasting, the 82 00:07:49.430 --> 00:07:55.350 good news is that he also removes the consequences of false boasting, so that 83 00:07:55.470 --> 00:08:03.060 we can glorify and enjoy God instead. So I want to begin by talking 84 00:08:03.139 --> 00:08:09.500 about the things that keep us from confidence in the Lord. The thing that 85 00:08:09.620 --> 00:08:16.209 keeps us from confidence in God, and the problem is selfdeception, or at 86 00:08:16.209 --> 00:08:22.129 least we can start here. The problem that keeps us from confidence in God 87 00:08:22.250 --> 00:08:26.569 is we deceive ourselves. That's what Paul says in verse eighteen. He says 88 00:08:26.610 --> 00:08:31.120 Lett no one deceive himself. That's a funny thing, isn't it, to 89 00:08:31.320 --> 00:08:39.879 deceive yourself to know the truth and then to trick yourself into believing a lie? 90 00:08:41.590 --> 00:08:43.669 It's really foolish, right. We would say, well, why would 91 00:08:43.669 --> 00:08:46.269 anybody do that? But of course we do it all the time. We 92 00:08:46.549 --> 00:08:52.990 trick ourselves end up believing things that aren't true. Maybe you've true to yourself 93 00:08:54.110 --> 00:09:00.779 into buying a car that you couldn't afford, or maybe you tricked yourself into 94 00:09:01.019 --> 00:09:05.820 marrying someone you knew you shouldn't, or maybe you tricked yourself into lifting something 95 00:09:07.460 --> 00:09:13.570 that you knew you couldn't. Debt, bad marriages, bad backs. These 96 00:09:13.649 --> 00:09:18.730 are the results of US fooling ourselves, and we could pile up the examples. 97 00:09:20.929 --> 00:09:24.519 We like to pretend that we are purely rational creatures and that if we 98 00:09:24.919 --> 00:09:30.440 just have the right facts, then we will be motivated by the truth and 99 00:09:30.559 --> 00:09:35.480 we will go where the evidence leads. But the truth is were more often 100 00:09:35.559 --> 00:09:39.269 than not happy to ignore the facts when we think that doing so will get 101 00:09:39.309 --> 00:09:46.389 us what we want. And sadly, amazingly, this applies even to our 102 00:09:46.509 --> 00:09:52.620 Christianity. This happens when people who have been graciously adopted by the father, 103 00:09:54.139 --> 00:09:58.379 have been given the inheritance of his only begotten Son, act as though all 104 00:09:58.419 --> 00:10:05.620 of that belongs to us because of our greatness. We have been graciously adopted 105 00:10:05.700 --> 00:10:11.009 by God while we were still sinners, right. We read this just a 106 00:10:11.169 --> 00:10:18.049 moment ago Intophesians chapter two. While you were dead in your trespasses and skin 107 00:10:18.250 --> 00:10:26.720 sins, God poured out this rich love to to us. But we deceive 108 00:10:26.759 --> 00:10:28.960 ourselves. Let me give you three examples, drawn from our passage, of 109 00:10:30.080 --> 00:10:35.389 how we do this. One way we deceive ourselves and in begin to boast 110 00:10:35.629 --> 00:10:43.149 in man instead of God is we replace our devotion to God with devotion to 111 00:10:43.389 --> 00:10:48.309 his servants. We replose devotion that is due to God alone with devotion to 112 00:10:48.470 --> 00:10:56.059 his servants. Now, God's servants are certainly important. They are worthy of 113 00:10:56.139 --> 00:11:00.019 our gratitude. We should honor them, imitate them, submit to them. 114 00:11:00.100 --> 00:11:05.009 They are those whom God is using to bring about good things in our lives, 115 00:11:05.169 --> 00:11:11.049 to build us up, to strengthen us. But we should never treat 116 00:11:11.129 --> 00:11:16.730 them as though they were God himself. They are only his servants. That's 117 00:11:16.730 --> 00:11:20.240 why Paul says in Verse Five. What then is a paulace? What then, 118 00:11:20.399 --> 00:11:28.480 is Paul Servants through whom you have believed? The author of Hebrews makes 119 00:11:28.559 --> 00:11:31.120 this point as well, in regard to one of the greatest servants of God 120 00:11:31.759 --> 00:11:39.429 of all, Moses, right great, Great Moses, this great man of 121 00:11:39.549 --> 00:11:45.710 God who led peep, God's people out from slavery and bondage under Pharaoh to 122 00:11:46.029 --> 00:11:52.379 freedom and life under God. But what does Hebrews say about Moses, this 123 00:11:52.620 --> 00:11:58.580 one who climbed up the amount Sinai and who, when he came down, 124 00:11:58.820 --> 00:12:03.490 his face shine with the glory of God so brightly that people told him to 125 00:12:03.009 --> 00:12:09.529 cover it up? He was a servant. Hebrew says he was a servant 126 00:12:09.570 --> 00:12:16.919 and though glorious, so glorious that people shielded their eyes from him, it 127 00:12:16.080 --> 00:12:22.799 doesn't begin to compare with the glory of Jesus. Hebrew says that, well, 128 00:12:22.879 --> 00:12:30.509 Moses was a servant in God's house, Jesus was a son, the 129 00:12:30.750 --> 00:12:35.789 Lord and Master of the House, to whom the father had given all things. 130 00:12:37.070 --> 00:12:41.549 Well, that's true of Moses, how much more so of Apollos and 131 00:12:41.830 --> 00:12:48.460 Paul and Cephas and others? We can, of course, be devoted to 132 00:12:48.539 --> 00:12:52.460 people. Paul was devoted to the Corinthians, the Corinthians were devoted to him. 133 00:12:54.019 --> 00:12:58.220 But we should never be devoted, we should never give our love in 134 00:12:58.460 --> 00:13:03.129 such a way that only belongs to God himself. When we do so, 135 00:13:03.450 --> 00:13:09.250 we begin to put our pride and our trust in man instead of God. 136 00:13:11.850 --> 00:13:16.240 All of us, whether we are great or small, are under God and 137 00:13:16.320 --> 00:13:20.120 under his authority. When we give what is do to him alone, to 138 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:26.279 his servants, we turn his Gospel into law, we turn what is divine 139 00:13:26.309 --> 00:13:33.710 into what is human and we begin to trust in ourselves, in man more 140 00:13:33.789 --> 00:13:39.789 than the savior of man. This is one way, and we deceive ourselves 141 00:13:39.470 --> 00:13:43.659 when practical way in which we go about trusting in man rather than God. 142 00:13:45.340 --> 00:13:50.100 A second way we do this is by dividing God's servants against each other. 143 00:13:50.500 --> 00:13:56.610 So one way is by putting over an undo devotion in them. Another is 144 00:13:56.049 --> 00:14:01.129 dividing them, or another way to put it is dividing the Work of God, 145 00:14:01.850 --> 00:14:05.250 valuing some parts of his work and not others. In that way, 146 00:14:05.330 --> 00:14:11.399 we stand over God. When the people in Corinth stood over, in a 147 00:14:11.559 --> 00:14:15.320 sense, Paul and apolos and said I like this one but not that one, 148 00:14:15.600 --> 00:14:20.720 what were they doing? They were essentially saying I like this part of 149 00:14:20.840 --> 00:14:24.549 God's work and not that part of God's work. I prefer this thing God 150 00:14:24.750 --> 00:14:30.789 is doing to that thing God is doing. But is God's work divided? 151 00:14:31.669 --> 00:14:37.629 Are we in a position to stand over what God does and choose what we 152 00:14:37.750 --> 00:14:43.179 would like and what we would not like? Of course not. Paul says, 153 00:14:43.299 --> 00:14:46.659 I planted a Paulus watered, but God gave the growth verse seven. 154 00:14:46.860 --> 00:14:52.860 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything. It's God who 155 00:14:52.929 --> 00:15:00.970 gives the growth. We are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, 156 00:15:01.289 --> 00:15:07.159 God's building. This doesn't mean that servants don't exist. This doesn't mean that 157 00:15:07.240 --> 00:15:11.759 there aren't separate gifts, but it does mean that they are all one under 158 00:15:11.799 --> 00:15:18.399 the one Lord. The Lord's work is varied, and so our servants, 159 00:15:18.639 --> 00:15:22.110 Paul will go on to describe this, not only in relationship to him and 160 00:15:22.309 --> 00:15:26.309 other workers, but in relation to Corinth and all churches, even ours, 161 00:15:28.950 --> 00:15:33.190 to each of you, that the Lord has saved, He has poured out 162 00:15:33.230 --> 00:15:41.299 his Holy Spirit on you and has given you particular gifts, capabilities, ways 163 00:15:41.419 --> 00:15:46.259 in which you are called to serve him, and do serve him, and 164 00:15:48.460 --> 00:15:52.409 you ought not to despise it, and others not to. Ought not to 165 00:15:52.570 --> 00:15:56.409 despise it, and we not ought not to separate one of those gifts from 166 00:15:56.409 --> 00:16:02.929 the other and think of though one is more important than another. God uses 167 00:16:03.009 --> 00:16:10.720 them all together like a body, members of a body, hands, feet, 168 00:16:10.960 --> 00:16:17.240 eyes, ears, all working together, and that makes the body good. 169 00:16:18.559 --> 00:16:21.429 But it also points us to God, who makes the body good. 170 00:16:22.710 --> 00:16:26.470 Our Trust is in God. When we deny that, when we die, 171 00:16:26.669 --> 00:16:30.669 divide up the body and we say well, this part's more important than that. 172 00:16:30.830 --> 00:16:33.019 Cut off the feet, cut off the hands, I don't want that 173 00:16:33.179 --> 00:16:38.100 here anymore, we are dividing up the work of the Holy Spirit. Now 174 00:16:38.179 --> 00:16:42.059 this, of course, doesn't mean that everything God's servants are do are perfect, 175 00:16:42.820 --> 00:16:47.059 but it does remind us that God is the one who is ultimately at 176 00:16:47.100 --> 00:16:52.009 work. God is watching. Paul talks about this some ways. As he 177 00:16:52.169 --> 00:16:56.250 begins to talk about the various ways in which the servants work and versus ten 178 00:16:56.529 --> 00:17:03.519 through fifteen, he says people build with different things, some of high quality, 179 00:17:03.639 --> 00:17:07.160 some of low quality, some of bad quality, and all will be 180 00:17:07.319 --> 00:17:12.400 revealed. That's good news to us. If we are trusting in the Lord, 181 00:17:14.160 --> 00:17:18.470 if we're trusting in servants, then we might find ourselves very wanting at 182 00:17:18.509 --> 00:17:23.589 the end of the day. We might find ourselves we will find ourselves disappointed, 183 00:17:25.710 --> 00:17:33.819 frustrated, angry when God servants don't act like God. But when we 184 00:17:34.380 --> 00:17:41.099 trust that God is doing his work, even with fallen people, we can 185 00:17:41.180 --> 00:17:47.890 know that we're safe. Even though the tools are imperfect. The day will 186 00:17:47.930 --> 00:17:52.250 come, all will be revealed and what we will find at the end of 187 00:17:52.410 --> 00:17:56.529 time is that the foundation in which all has been laid is secured. This 188 00:17:56.730 --> 00:18:00.279 is what God wants us to remember, is that this work that the Corinthians 189 00:18:00.319 --> 00:18:04.920 were trying to divide up these people, that they were pitting eat against each 190 00:18:04.920 --> 00:18:08.599 other, against one another, they were not to think of things this way. 191 00:18:10.400 --> 00:18:12.029 Instead, they were looked. They were to look first and foremost to 192 00:18:12.150 --> 00:18:22.470 God and to his work. The last thing that we ought to notice is 193 00:18:22.509 --> 00:18:26.819 that we boast in ourselves in giving this divine devotion to servants of the divine 194 00:18:26.859 --> 00:18:32.420 we thought about that. We thought about how we boast in ourselves by dividing 195 00:18:32.500 --> 00:18:36.299 God's work, by becoming a judge over God's work. And finally, we 196 00:18:36.660 --> 00:18:41.259 boast in ourselves and we deceive ourselves when we begin to think that we are 197 00:18:41.490 --> 00:18:45.410 our own making, as I've mentioned, as the scriptures say, we are 198 00:18:45.490 --> 00:18:52.529 God's work from God's tools. We are God's field and God's Temple. Notice 199 00:18:52.569 --> 00:18:56.039 the way that God says this. This is worrely wonderful. He says we 200 00:18:56.119 --> 00:19:03.240 are built on a foundation by his servants. Verse Sixteen. Do you not 201 00:19:03.519 --> 00:19:08.720 know that you are God's Temple and God's spirit dwells in you? Talks about 202 00:19:08.759 --> 00:19:12.869 our safety. Next, in verse seventeen, he says if anyone destroys God's 203 00:19:12.910 --> 00:19:18.869 Temple, God will destroy him, for God's Temple is holy and you are 204 00:19:18.109 --> 00:19:26.420 that temple. These things are, of course, all connected because of how 205 00:19:26.660 --> 00:19:30.579 we are built and by whom we are built. It tells us the kind 206 00:19:30.779 --> 00:19:37.259 of building we are. We are a protected structure, a safe one, 207 00:19:38.009 --> 00:19:45.369 secure one, a holy one, one, set apart for God to dwell 208 00:19:45.490 --> 00:19:51.849 in. This does not divide US and teach us to put other people down. 209 00:19:52.200 --> 00:19:56.359 Our unity in the Lord, our strength in the Lord, tells us 210 00:19:56.440 --> 00:20:02.079 to look to him and as we do so, we are built up these 211 00:20:02.240 --> 00:20:06.480 kinds of Gospel truths. When he tells us you are holy, you are 212 00:20:06.680 --> 00:20:11.029 secure, you are under my protection. They teach us to then to turn 213 00:20:11.230 --> 00:20:17.230 to other people and do it with the dignity they deserve, the love they 214 00:20:17.349 --> 00:20:25.220 deserve. The opposite is, of course, true. Selfdeception, brothers and 215 00:20:25.339 --> 00:20:30.859 sisters, is dangerous. When we deceive ourselves and begin to think that we 216 00:20:30.140 --> 00:20:37.490 ourselves are worthy of a pride, of being boast, of boasting in we 217 00:20:37.809 --> 00:20:45.809 can fall into great folly and Sara a man who decides to do his own 218 00:20:45.970 --> 00:20:49.599 heart surgery because he watch something on Youtube and he's just really confident that he 219 00:20:49.680 --> 00:20:56.559 can do it. Consider somebody who tries to build a house without any plan 220 00:20:56.839 --> 00:21:02.319 or knowledge of how to build a house and just look around their garage and 221 00:21:02.440 --> 00:21:07.630 start, you know, stapling tarps to pieces of wood, and it's not 222 00:21:07.750 --> 00:21:15.430 going to end will, and it's not just the way in which we build 223 00:21:15.470 --> 00:21:19.700 these things that will end in our folly, but it's also, we have 224 00:21:19.900 --> 00:21:26.460 to say, the danger of offending him, the giver of all of these 225 00:21:26.539 --> 00:21:30.700 things. When God offers this great salvation to us, when he says, 226 00:21:30.900 --> 00:21:34.089 I will give you everything, I will give you my spirit, I will 227 00:21:34.130 --> 00:21:37.089 build you up, I will make you holy, I will protect you, 228 00:21:37.289 --> 00:21:41.609 I will keep you, I will unite you, both in this life and 229 00:21:41.730 --> 00:21:45.970 in the life to come, and we say, never mind, I've got 230 00:21:47.130 --> 00:21:51.119 it, I can do it on my own, I can do it in 231 00:21:51.200 --> 00:21:56.240 my own way, I can staple my wood together and build my own structure 232 00:21:56.279 --> 00:22:02.589 and you know, I will fill myself with only spirit. This will not 233 00:22:02.750 --> 00:22:07.990 turn out well. The scriptures warn us that when we despise the gifts of 234 00:22:07.069 --> 00:22:11.750 God, when we turn away from the gifts of God and put our strength 235 00:22:11.869 --> 00:22:17.740 in our own pride, we will fall. We will fall not only under 236 00:22:17.779 --> 00:22:19.819 the weight of our own foolishness, but under the weight of God's wrath. 237 00:22:21.700 --> 00:22:26.700 Who is offered to us a so great a salvation and then we reject of 238 00:22:26.819 --> 00:22:33.490 it? The antidote to these things is given right here in our passage. 239 00:22:33.089 --> 00:22:41.529 Don't be self deceived, but instead remember the truth that our being a taught 240 00:22:41.690 --> 00:22:48.599 here to remember and believe. But the Holy Spirit speaks to us today to 241 00:22:48.680 --> 00:22:53.799 remember self deception, how pernicious the flesh is, how prideful we can be, 242 00:22:55.240 --> 00:23:00.190 and to be on guard against it, on guard by holding fast to 243 00:23:00.269 --> 00:23:03.829 the very truths that God speaks to us here. And what is the truth? 244 00:23:04.869 --> 00:23:10.430 The truth is that the Lord is good and it's him who builds his 245 00:23:10.549 --> 00:23:17.339 church, and that foundation on which he builds his church is Jesus Christ himself. 246 00:23:18.299 --> 00:23:23.420 When we try to build the church out of our own righteousness and out 247 00:23:23.460 --> 00:23:30.250 of our own prides, it's like building that foolish house. It's like building 248 00:23:30.369 --> 00:23:33.049 house on a foundation of sand. The winds come and knock it down and 249 00:23:33.170 --> 00:23:40.569 it all falls apart. But we build our foundation on the Cross, the 250 00:23:40.769 --> 00:23:45.119 Cross of Christ, on the righteousness of Christ, we do have something strong 251 00:23:45.279 --> 00:23:51.519 and sure, even, as Paul tells us, we know this from the 252 00:23:51.680 --> 00:23:56.309 cross. I think about this way. If we had some great thing to 253 00:23:56.430 --> 00:24:03.630 offer God, the building materials, the skills of the builders, add all 254 00:24:03.710 --> 00:24:08.670 of these things up, why would God send His only begotten Son to die? 255 00:24:08.710 --> 00:24:15.579 If we were perfectly capable of assembling all of our righteousness, get righteousness 256 00:24:15.619 --> 00:24:22.940 together, constructing a holy temple fit for God to dwell in. Why would 257 00:24:22.980 --> 00:24:27.769 Jesus have to suffer and die the way that he did? He wouldn't. 258 00:24:29.650 --> 00:24:32.809 God would simply say get to work, we'd get to work and all would 259 00:24:32.849 --> 00:24:37.529 be well. Jesus had to die because we were unable to do that. 260 00:24:40.400 --> 00:24:45.920 And in our inability, God still loved us, and so, instead of 261 00:24:47.160 --> 00:24:52.910 judging us and pouring out his wrath upon us for our pride and our rebelliousness 262 00:24:53.150 --> 00:25:02.990 and our idolatry, he instead poured out his wrath on Jesus as a act 263 00:25:03.029 --> 00:25:11.059 of love toward us, and built our hope not on our own righteousness but 264 00:25:11.539 --> 00:25:21.019 on his. Jesus died because we needed God. God came into this world 265 00:25:21.059 --> 00:25:27.730 and took on human flesh because we needed God. God offered himself as a 266 00:25:27.930 --> 00:25:37.720 sacrifice for our sin because that's what we needed. God established our hope in 267 00:25:37.880 --> 00:25:41.799 Heaven on his righteousness alone, because that's what we needed. That's why, 268 00:25:41.799 --> 00:25:47.519 when we look to the cross, when we survey the Wondrous Cross, we 269 00:25:47.759 --> 00:25:55.430 throw contempt on all our pride and trust only in Jesus. Christ alone. 270 00:25:57.069 --> 00:26:03.579 He died because we weren't worthy righteous the people. He died because we were 271 00:26:03.619 --> 00:26:10.539 unworthy, unrighteous people who are in need of His grace. And having died 272 00:26:11.059 --> 00:26:15.420 and having given us all things, we can know that the foundation of our 273 00:26:15.619 --> 00:26:22.089 life now and the foundation of our hope in the future rests not on me 274 00:26:22.529 --> 00:26:32.170 trying or you trying, but on God accomplishing and finishing his work. Our 275 00:26:32.329 --> 00:26:38.440 Salvation rests on the foundation of the forgiveness of our sins given by God himself. 276 00:26:41.119 --> 00:26:45.599 We stand in the presence of God. We dwell in the love of 277 00:26:47.000 --> 00:26:56.829 God because of his love toward us. And so let us not deceive ourselves 278 00:26:56.869 --> 00:27:02.819 and boast in our pride, but instead give all glory to God, Father, 279 00:27:03.059 --> 00:27:07.380 son and Holy Spirit. Let us not seek to build on any other 280 00:27:07.539 --> 00:27:15.180 foundation, to give Undo weight to his servants, to divide them up, 281 00:27:15.299 --> 00:27:19.250 to trust in them or anything else. Let us not deceive ourselves, but 282 00:27:19.410 --> 00:27:26.450 instead know the truth and trust in God alone. When we boast in ourselves, 283 00:27:26.529 --> 00:27:32.279 we undermine all our hope, but we boast in the Lord, we 284 00:27:32.440 --> 00:27:40.720 find solidity and hope and joy forever. I'll praise pe to God. Let's 285 00:27:40.720 --> 00:27:45.430 pray our heavenly father we ask that you would help us to remember these truths. 286 00:27:45.470 --> 00:27:52.869 Were so prone to self deception, so prone to wandering away. We 287 00:27:52.029 --> 00:27:56.190 lose sight of who you are. You, we lose sight of who we 288 00:27:56.470 --> 00:28:02.140 are, our security, our protection, of the love with which you have 289 00:28:02.299 --> 00:28:10.180 given to us. You have given to us all things in Christ. We 290 00:28:10.299 --> 00:28:14.890 ask that you would help us to keep our eyes on him, and to 291 00:28:15.009 --> 00:28:18.930 do so through the cross. As we look at the cross, help us 292 00:28:18.970 --> 00:28:25.410 to remember that he, Jesus Christ, is not just a helper and aid, 293 00:28:26.369 --> 00:28:30.680 some kind of a side power that comes into our lives and helps us 294 00:28:30.720 --> 00:28:37.319 get a little better, grow a little more, but instead, O Lord, 295 00:28:37.519 --> 00:28:41.549 you are our Savior. You raise us from death to life. You 296 00:28:42.029 --> 00:28:48.430 unstop our ears, which were at once unable to hear and now can hear. 297 00:28:48.509 --> 00:28:52.509 You Open our eyes, which were once unable to see, and allow 298 00:28:52.589 --> 00:28:57.460 us to see the very light of the glory of God in the face of 299 00:28:57.619 --> 00:29:03.980 Jesus Christ. Lord, let us put all of our rest and our hope 300 00:29:03.619 --> 00:29:07.980 in him and, as we do so, by the power of your spirit, 301 00:29:08.059 --> 00:29:11.289 we ask that you would continue your work in this world, of drawing 302 00:29:11.490 --> 00:29:17.250 in your people, of building up your church, of placing one living stone 303 00:29:17.289 --> 00:29:22.809 on top of another and filling us all with your presence, that we might 304 00:29:22.930 --> 00:29:27.880 glorify and enjoy you forever. As those who have been built into this holy 305 00:29:29.079 --> 00:29:34.319 structure and built by your hands, we pray this all in Jesus name. 306 00:29:36.079 --> Amen.