Episode Transcript
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Would you remain standing with me,
if you're able, and turned to the
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book of Philippians and if you've noticed
on your bulletin the Textas Philippians, to
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twelve and thirteen. I want to
back up a little bit. I want
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you to see the context here of
twelve and thirteen. So let's back up
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to verse five of Chapter Two.
Listen very carefully. This is the word
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of God. Have this mind among
yourselves, which is yours. In Christ,
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Jesus, though he was in the
form of God, did not count
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equality with God a thing to be
grasped, but emptied himself by taking the
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form of a servant. Being born
in the likeness of men and being found
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in human form, he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to the point of death,
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even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly Exalted Him and
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bestowed on him the name that is
above every name, so that at the
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name of Jesus, every knee should
bow in heaven and on earth and under
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the earth, and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory
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of God, the Father. Therefore, my beloved as you have always obeyed,
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so now, not only as in
my presence, but much more in
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my absence. Work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling, for it
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is God who works in you both
to will and to work for his good
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pleasure. The grass withers in the
flower fades, but the word of our
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God endures forever. You may be
seated. Well, it's a privilege to
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be here this Lord's Day morning with
you. The Missions Committee of Southern California
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presbytery and Arizona and in Hawaii are
very interested in what's taking place in the
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churches in Arizona and in the last
seven to eight to nine years or so
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God has been doing a wonderful work
in Arizona and we have heard reports about
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your congregation and we have prayed for
you and we have rejoiced with you and
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for you that you're a worshiping congregation
of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and your your
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healthy and growing in grace as well
as in numbers. So I'm so grateful
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to be here. We are so
connected with you and this is a privilege
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to preach the word of God to
you. I don't know that much about
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Arizona. Most of the time I've
spend in Arizona has been probably in a
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car just driving through the desert region
and thinking wow, it's hot outside,
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but there must be some nice lakes
around. And I don't know if any
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of you have ever attempted to water
ski, which is really fun, especially
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in a warm, dry climate like
this. It's challenging. I grew up
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in a family who had a couple
of different boats and we water ski.
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We did that all the time and
we would invite friends to be with us
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and we would teach them how to
get up on those skis and literally ride
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on top of the water. Little
illustration here before we actually get into the
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text. You see the skis,
they could be they could be the word
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of God. Okay, picture of
the skis and a better water skier ends
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up on one ski called a Slalom
Ski, and then they're doing all kinds
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of other crazy things these days as
well, and other contraptions. But let's
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say the skis of the word of
God. Let's say the rope is faith,
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the handles and there's a rope connected
to the back of the boat and
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that's faith and you're holding on.
Okay, and I'll talk to you a
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little bit before I'm done here.
You're all be able to go out and
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go water skin. It'll be it'll
be fun. And the boat and the
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motor, that's the power. What
we're going to call that the power of
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God, the power of God unto
salvation. It's all from him. And
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one thing we would always say to
people as they're sitting in the water with
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their knees up to their chest and
they're holding the handles or the handle and
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it's going between their skis. We
say this to every person. Don't try
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to pull yourself up. Let the
boat, that the motor, do the
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work and pull you up. You
cannot pull yourself up. And almost invariably,
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whoever tried it for the first time, as soon as they started coming
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up, up, up, a
little bit out of the water, they
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would do what they would pull themselves
up with the rope and the skis would
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go this way and they go backwards. You know, splash. That's what
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we try to do in the Christian
life. We try to pull ourselves up,
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we try to become the power.
But no, you can't stand on
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the water. You see the skis, the word of God is what you
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must stand on as a Christian each
and every day. You can't pull yourself
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up by faith. We hold on
to the Lord, we trust in the
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Lord, we rely on the Lord, but he's the one who gets us
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up and he's the one who helps
us to live a different life from the
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culture around us. We're actually standing
on the water, sliding along, and
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I'll tell you, it's a lot
of fun and if you fall, you
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just fallen into water and you get
back up again. I wish the Christian
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life were that easy and that fun
all the time. We know it's not
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and it's a life of of this
my responsibility and what I ought to do
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and God's sovereignty and what he's doing. And there's a connection here. And
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how many times that we talked about
the Christian life and sanctification and tried to
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figure that out and try to put
that together. I know as a pastor,
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I've tried to explain that to people
and I keep working at it because
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I can't fully explain it. Maybe
Pastor Chelpka here can. You can go
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to him after the service let him
explain it to you. But where does
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responsibility end, so to speak,
and sovereignty began, or vice versa?
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What's the connection? Will Paul puts
them here side by side in our text
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and he just states them, he
doesn't explain. Well, here's how it
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works. So we're going to walk
through this together and I hope when you
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leave here today that you're going to
take these verses with you and ponder them
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in your minds and and put into
practice what we're learning here. My proposition
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statement is this because of Christ finish
work on the cross, and that's,
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brothers and sisters, that's everything.
Because of his finished work on the cross,
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we work at the Christian life.
That's the word that Paul uses.
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We Work Resting in Christ's continued work
in us, and so everything is based
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on his finished work on the cross. Yet we as Christians, we work,
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we strive, and yet we do
it at the same time resting in
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Christ continued work within us, resting, trusting in the spirit of Christ to
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do his work in and through us. And we don't do it by feelings,
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we do it by faith. Remember, you're standing on those water skis,
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you're standing on the word of God
and that's the only way you can
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live the Christian life. Now I
read that previous paragraph for you because Paul
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Notice that word in verse twelve.
He says, therefore, and we've all
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been taught. When you see the
word, therefore, where, you ask
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yourself, what's it there for?
What's he doing? What has preceded it?
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Because he's making a point. He's
now giving us some application and exhortation
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here, after we've seen the doctrine
and the doctrine. One of the most
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sublime paragraphs in the whole New Testament
is what precedes verse twelve. We see
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Jesus there, the glorified son of
God, coming down into this world,
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taking on human flesh, incarnation.
We see complete divine and human nature's brought
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together in the person of the Christ, in one person. We see here
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in this text his sacrificial death and, by implication, his resurrection. We
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read about his ascension and his glorification
and his rule. That whole text talks
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about that Jesus Christ and what he
has accomplished. Brothers and sisters, is
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the basis for you not only to
get to heaven, but it's the basis
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for you living your Christian life every
single day. We are to live in
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the Gospel, rejoicing in that and
looking to Jesus at all times. Our
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tendency is to hear a sermon and
to remember what, you got to do
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this and you should do that and
should do that. We remember those things,
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we make our list and then we, if we're sincere, we try
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to do it and we take our
eyes off of the Lord, you see,
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and we try to pull ourselves up
and then we fall. Sometimes it's
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very discouraging. In the broader context, here, Philippians won six it's God
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is the one who has started the
work in US and, Paul says,
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I'm confident that the one who started
it is going to complete until the day
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of Christ, Jesus. So underneath
us, all around us, guiding us,
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is the Living God, intimately involved
in your daily walk and in every
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detail of your life, and I
believe that, and take that literally.
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Doctrine leads to life. I respond
to God's Word in obedience. Why?
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Why do you want to obey?
Well, I hope your answer is because
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Jesus Christ has earned my salvation.
I live my life motivated by gratitude and
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praise and Thanksgiving. Every day.
I want to live for him, I
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want to please him, I want
people to see the life of Christ in
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and through me, and so I
follow hard after him. The response to
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the doctrine work is the first point. Work. We are responsible for our
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every thought, word and deed,
and God doesn't let us off the hook.
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We're responsible for every thought and word. Indeed, we're going to take
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every thought captive. We are.
God is going to hold us accountable for
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every word that we speak and every
decision that we make, and that's overwhelming
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if you are sincerely wanting to please
the Lord. And notice what Paul says.
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So he says, therefore, my
beloved, as you have always obeyed,
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so now, not only as in
my presence, but much more in
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my absence. He's in prison right
now in Rome. Wants to be there,
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can't be there, I'm not there. You've done well when I've been
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with you. Do even better when
I'm not with you. He wrote to
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the Thessalonians. The reports about you, your faith and your hope and your
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love and your witness are just marvelous. They're very good. And then he
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said something else. He said,
Excel still more. You're doing well,
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do better, keep growing, keep
pursuing the Lord. And so here he
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gives us our statement. Work out
your salvation now. What does that mean?
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Let's be very clear, because if
you misunderstand this, you're going to
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be in great, great trouble.
He doesn't say work for your salvation.
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He doesn't say work toward your salvation. If you keep working, at some
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point you're going to get ahold of
it and you're going to get some salvation.
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Or work at your salvation. He
says work it out. Why?
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Because God has declared you already saved. John Sixteen, you believed on the
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Lord. You have eternal life.
That's the Gospel, that's the good news.
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All I have to do is take
a hold of that rope, so
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to speak. All illustrations fail in
some way. God will pull me up.
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God will save me, and he
has done that through his blessed son,
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the Lord Jesus Christ. Live it
out now, Paul says. Demonstrate
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it, prove that good, acceptable
and perfect will of God. I know
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your pastor's been in Romans, I
think Romans twelve, recently. I don't
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know if you're still there, but
the beginning of the chapter, that verse,
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comes out of Romans twelve to a
living demonstration of the marvelous will of
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God. Justification. Let's just underland
that for just a moment. We're looking
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at the doctrine of sank vacation,
but justification is is what? Well,
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it's declaration. God, the Holy
Judge, declares a sinner just righteous in
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his sight because of the imputed that
the righteousness of Christ given to that sinner,
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received by faith alone. He forgives
all of your sins and he gives
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you, as a free gift,
the righteousness of Jesus Christ, all of
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it. You stand before God,
perfect, positionally perfect before the Holy God,
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and that's the only way we could
ever have fellowship with God and walk
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before him and pray to him and
enter into the holy of holies is because
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we are clothed in the righteousness of
Jesus Christ, and that's an act of
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God. And it happens like that
the moment of faith. It's a declaration,
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but sanctification is a life, and
that's a Paul is talking about in
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our text today. So work,
bringing to full completion, finish the job,
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so to speak, and will never
finish the job and will never come
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to full completion this side of glory. But we have a part in this
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sanctification process. We do. We're
responsible to get up and to work,
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as Paul Puts It, and he
tells us that we enter into this with
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what how's he describe it there.
He describes it with fear and trembling.
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You know, the world says you
got to be confident and you can never
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demonstrate a weakness. You, you're
always confident, you're on top of things,
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you can do it. It's all
about you, it's all in you.
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And Paul says here, this work
is a work you must do,
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but you must enter into it with
fear and trembling, because any any honest
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Christian, will realize what, I
can't do it. How many times if
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I said I'm going to control my
speech or, as we heard a little
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while ago, my anger, and
it wells up again inside me? How
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convicting is that? And so it's
a fear and trembling that we say,
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okay, Lord, I'm going to
step out and live this Christian life,
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but I cannot do it and I'm
looking to you for everything. That's the
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best place to start, not self
confidence, but confidence in the Lord Jesus
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Christ and his faithfulness. He started
the work, he's working the work and
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he will complete the work, and
that's your hope and mind. You see,
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to live this out in the fear
of God is to want to please
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God above all else. I want
my life and my words to honor the
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Lord, and so I'm very serious
about my Christian life and growing in grace.
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So what does this working look like? William ASS plumber rights. It
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is easy for us to backslide from
God. We go astray from the womb,
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speaking lies. Is as natural for
us to do wrong as for the
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sparks to assent in our voyage Er
heavenward, wind and tied are against us.
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If we do nothing to overcome their
action, they will carry us away.
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We can go to hell without intending
to do so, without putting forth
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any efforts to that effect. But
to go to heaven requires prayer, Self,
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denial, vigilance, violence, running, wrestling, fighting, and I
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would add Paul's word here, working. I hope you understand what he's saying.
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He's not saying that you put out
your best effort because you're going to
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earn your way into heaven. That's
not the point. Christ has earned our
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way into heaven. But, brothers
and sisters, we cannot let go and
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just let God. I've been involved
in a counseling situation. That's a very
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troublesome situation, and one party has
that attitude. I will love my husband,
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when God does his work in me, when he gives me that feeling
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and when he when he causes me
to do something. Is that correct?
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And so that person is waiting for
some kind of feeling experience. She's waiting
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for God to do something that God
commands her to be doing. Some basic
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points. What this Christian life looks
like, what we're involved in, and
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it's all. It's all by the
grace of God, every step, everything
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we do. You're here by the
grace of God. Now, some of
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you maybe came because you were brought
here. You're only that big, but
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I believe that you're here because God
has enabled you to come here by His
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grace. You See. Okay,
some simple points here. Listen to this
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before point number two. It is
a life of putting off the old and
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putting on the new, putting on
Christ. That's what the Christian life is.
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That's what this walk is. It's
putting out the garbage, as the
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spirit of God, through the word, reveals to me. It's putting it
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off, it's acknowledging it. That's
why we have confession of sin in the
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early part of our service services,
because we know we're sinners and we need
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the grace of God. It's putting
on Christ, and that's exactly what Paul
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saying in Philippians, chapter three,
verse seven. Whatever gain I had I
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counted as loss for the sake of
Christ, and there's a list of seven
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different things there previous to that verse
that Paul Says I did this and I
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did that and I was this and
I was incredible, and that's that's garbage
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to me. Now that's and I'm
continually putting off and putting on is in
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a verse ten, that I may
know him and the power of his resurrection
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and may share his sufferings, becoming
like him in his death. That's this
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constant putting on, this seeking after
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the effort
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that God gives us the grace to
put out. Secondly, it's a life
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of prayer and the word of God. Now it's a life of that.
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It's a daily life of that,
or it ought to be, and that's
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a discipline that we need to put
fur it out into. Probably one of
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the questions that when I visit people
in my carregation they're kind of hating to
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hear is talking about their walk with
the Lord and how they're doing in the
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reading of the scriptures, and so
often do I hear well, I know
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I should do that and I intend
to do better, but it's not happening
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right now. And you know it's
not going to happen unless we have a
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discipline and a plan and a focus
and we keep committing it to God and
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we start and it takes sweat,
it takes effort, to take sacrifice,
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it takes okay, I'm not going
to watch TV, I'm going to read
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the word for a bit. I'll
watch TV, but the word comes first.
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You see, prayer comes first.
This book of the law shall not
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depart from your mouth, but you
shall meditate on it day and night,
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so that you may be careful to
do according to all that is written in
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it, for then you will make
your way prosperous. Then you will have
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good success. God said that to
Joshua before Joshua went into the promised land.
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What do I need to know from
you, Lord? How are the
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armies doing? That we got enough
swords and and you know all the stuff
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of war, because that's what we're
in into in God says. Listen,
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I want you to meditate on the
word of God. I want it to
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become a part of your thoughts and
words and deeds, Joshua, then you'll
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have success. We tend to put
the word of God in prayer over here.
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We have a lot of things we
have to get done and we tack
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that on whenever we can instead of
making that the most important priority of my
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life is that intimate relationship with the
Lord. And so what do we do
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when we don't have a habit of
doing it? We keep bringing it to
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the Lord. He knows that,
you see, he understands. He's not
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upset with us. He wants us
to love him and to pursue him and
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he will do the same with us
and he'll keep doing it even when we're
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not faithful. And so it's not
a big guilt trip. Of all I
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have to do this. When you
begin to learn and delight in those intimate
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times with him, it will be
something you get to do, it'll be
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something you look forward to doing.
Oh, I've got so many scriptures here,
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but I how long do you preach? Normally, about an hour and
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a half or so. Okay,
Super, okay, wow, I'm going
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to go home and tell the people
in my congregation what you do. Thirdly,
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and briefly, it's a life of
taking every thought captive. You Say
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I am so distracted in my prayer
life. Often Times I don't know how
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you are, but I think of
something and I start praying about it and
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wow, thoughts well up and I'm
all over here and I wake up and
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I say, what are you doing
over there, mark? Well, I
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don't know. I don't know how
I got here. Maybe that's just me.
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You never have trouble and wandering mind
during prayer. But we're called to
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take every thought captive. Second Corinthians
ten five, we're called to watch over
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our hearts with all diligence, for
from the heart flow forth the very issues,
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the springs of life. The condition
of your heart will determine that the
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joy and the condition of your life. And so if your countenance is down
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and you're sad or angry or troubled
with lust or worry or something, it's
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because there's something wrong with the condition
of your heart. You've not been watching
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over it. And what I've found
in proverbs for twenty three reading that in
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the context, I keep coming to
this Lord. My heart just keeps wanting
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to go all over the place.
I cannot do this. And he's and
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he says to me, you're right, don't try to pull yourself up.
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Hold on to me, hold on
to the handles, hold on to the
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rope. The power is mine,
the enabling is mine. I want you
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to acknowledge that and stop striving and
look to me. And then, when
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you take the next step, because
it's you taken it, he's not going
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to take it for you. Your
eyes are on him, you're yielded to
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him, you're trusting in him.
Fourthly, it's an ongoing process of killing
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sin and constant discipline unto Godliness,
this putting off, putting on. The
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puritans called it mortification, the killing
of sin. We can't just dabble a
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little bit with sin and say,
Oh, I'm sorry, we must come
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to hate our sins and we want
them to be dead, and yet we
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know they're going to be with US
until glory. This internal fight and struggle
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is going to continue until the Lord
takes you to glory. Paul says in
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Colossians three five. Put to death. Therefore, what is earthly in you,
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sexual immorality and purity, passion,
evil desire and covetousness, which is
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idolatry. And he goes on in
the list. And yet, brothers and
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sisters, I can sincerely look at
that and I stumble right and left,
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unless I am yielded to him,
unless I am saying, Lord, I
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can't do this, but I want
to do it so much, and you
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know that want to is a work
of grace within your heart. And maybe
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you're saying my heart so cold,
I don't even want to. Then you
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need to bring that to him and
he will change that attitude. It is
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a discipline process and it is a
training process. So how did you learn
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to do the things that you do
in your daily life? You know that
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the habits of daily living, because
you do not go into most of those
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exercises thinking, okay, now I'm
going to take the cap off the top
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of the toothpaste tube and okay,
next step here, got to get it.
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You don't do that. You're doing
other things, you're thinking about other
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things. It's a habit, it's
a part of your life. And Sin
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is that way as well, and
so we must constantly be recognize it and
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saying, Lord, grant me grace
here to put this off, to mortify
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this, to kill this. So
it's a constant discipline walking with my eyes
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upon the Lord. And then,
fifthly, it's a life of seeking and
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knowing and pursuing Jesus, Christ relentlessly. And that's IT, Paul says in
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Philippians chapter three, doesn't he?
Not Having not that I have already obtained
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it or I'm already perfect, but
I press on to make it my own,
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because Christ, Jesus has made me
his own. I forget what lies
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behind those sad times and those victories. I put them in perspective, I
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learn from them. I don't completely
forget it, but I don't live with
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looking over my shoulder. I'm going
to look to the Lord Jesus and I'm
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taking the next step, and the
next step was my eyes on him.
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When I go through struggles, there
are times in the morning, before I
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even get out of bed, I
say, Lord, I just I give
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you my heart this morning I'm struggling. I'm just going to get out of
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bed, I'm going to take the
next step, I'm going to do what
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I know you've called me to do
and I'm trusting in you. I don't
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know how it's going to work out, but I commit it to you.
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I commit this putting off to you. I commit taking every thought captive to
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you. I commit a life of
prayer in the word to you and this
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process of killing sin. I'm going
to keep committing it to you. I
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want victory today, I commit it
to you. I'm going to seek you,
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I want to know you, I
want to be like you, I
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want the power that is yours in
my life. More briefly, a second
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mate, your point, and that's
what Paul makes in our passage here.
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It's rest. So it's work and
it's rest. Every thought, word indeed
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that pleases the Lord Is Accomplished by
his sovereign grace. In me, everyone,
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I could never take one step in
my sanctification in the right direction.
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I have to yield and trust and
rely upon him every single step of the
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way. And so when I look
back on my life, I say I
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cannot believe the amazing grace of God
and all that I went through, how
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a faithful he was, how kind
he was, how many times he picked
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me back up and drew me to
himself. It was a life lived by
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the grace of God and I give
him all the honor and the glory.
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You see, and it's a life
designed for the glory of God and for
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the good of his beloved people.
You See, I work and yet at
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the same time I rest in him, same time knowing that apart from him,
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as Jesus tells us, I can
do nothing. So, in fear
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and trembling, I trust he is
working out his will in my life.
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Does that mean I always understand it? I always know where I am going?
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I always know what the Providence of
God means? Know most of the
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time I don't. But it's a
walk of faith. It's faith that pleases
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God, and he doesn't always tell
us what he's doing exactly and why he's
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doing it and when he's doing it
and so on, and that pleases him.
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You know, we can fall so
readily and I would rather have you
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leaning more completely this morning on on
His grace and his power yielded to him,
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then saying I've got a list now, I wrote it down and I'm
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going to do these five points.
That concerns me because you, like myself,
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will fall flat on your face if
it's here's what I'm going to do.
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It's on me. I want you
to say, by the grace of
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God, I will do these things. It's on him. My eyes are
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on you, Lord, but here's
what happens in the Christian life. I
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take this out of Joel Beeky's book. Getting back into the race is the
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title. It's on the subject of
backsliding. He says we can fall into
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ruts in the Christian life. There
can be coldness in prayer. We don't
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even notice it because we're reform presbyterians. We know how to pray, we
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can pray impressive prayers, but our
hearts don't have to be in them.
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Coldness and prayer in difference under the
word. I've heard of million sermons.
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I'm good at sitting there and having
a pastor think I'm awake and I'm listening
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to him when I'm a million miles
away growing inner corruptions. There are thoughts
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and desires and imaginations that are evil
and they are wicked and and I'm having
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more trouble with them. The love
of the world, declining love for believers,
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a coldness toward my brothers and sisters
and man centered hopes, he writes.
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Man Center hopes. My heart and
my affections are are completely on this
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life and instead of living for glory
and for Heaven, with the principles of
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Heaven, I'm living for earth,
with the principles of Earth. Notice what
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the passage says, and let's take
a hold of it. Don't take one
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verse out of here, out of
context. It says that God works in
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us. He begun the work,
he continues the work, he will finish
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the work. In Effesians, Chapter
two, turn a couple pages to the
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left. There were dead. We're
under the dominion of the flesh or under
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the dominion of Saintan. There where
children of Wrath and by grace, he
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says, sess there's not a work. There complete mercy and Grace and sovereign
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love, and we no effusions.
To eight nine. That's exactly what it
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says. Even the very faith that
I exercise, the ability to hold on
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to the rope, you see,
is given me by Almighty God. I
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don't even have that kind of ability. The faith is a gift. And
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but in verse ten, he says
where we are his workmanship, created in
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Christ Jesus for good works which God
prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
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You see, it's all been ordained. It's not a second thought with
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God. We are his workmanship.
He is working within your life. Nothing
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comes by chance, nothing is a
misstep by God. We don't hear oops.
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Oh did God say that? I'm
in trouble. No, it's perfect.
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He's begun the work and he will
continue that work. If you're taken
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note, read Hebrews Thirteen, twenty
and twenty one, that great benediction.
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It says God is the one who's
equipping us, and so on. God
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works in us, Paul writes,
both to will, he says. In
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other words, God gives us the
desire. We walk by faith and God
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gives us the desire and he will
cause that desire to grow and to flourish.
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Ezra was a pagan where in the
book of Ezrah, Sir Cyrus was
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a pagan king, and you read
the first chapter. God It's now the
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seventy years are up and God is
going to bring his people back into the
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land. And what does he do? He moves in the heart of this
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Pagan King and the and the King
opens everything up and tells the people of
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God, take what you will and
what you want, and whoever wants to
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go go. and Cyrus, this
pagan king, is a tool in the
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hands of God. God can work
in the heart of a pagan king.
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How much more does he work in
the hearts of his children, with the
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very spirit of God residing within us. The king's heart is a stream of
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water. In the hand of the
Lord, he turns it wherever he will.
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So God works in us both to
will, to desire and notice,
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it says, to work or to
do. And after you have suffered a
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little while, the God of all
grace, who has called you to his
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eternal glory in Christ, will himself
restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you.
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That's sovereign grace. That's what we
rely upon for is Peter Ten.
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Now to him who is able to
keep you from stumbling and to present you
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blameless before the presence of his glory
with great joy, writes jude. In
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the Twenty Fourth Verse, The Apostle
Paul underlines at all, he says,
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but by the grace of God I
am what I am, and His grace
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toward me was not in vain.
On the contrary, I worked harder than
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any of them. See Pulls not
afraid to talk about working hard. But
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notice how he ends it, though. It was not I but the grace
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of God that is with me.
And so, brothers and sisters, if
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you understand what Paul's saying here in
Philippians, you will continually be yielding,
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but you will be working, you'll
you'll have a plan and you'll have a
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gender and you will go to work
as you yield to the Lord and trust
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in him and rely on him to
to enable you to do that work.
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And at the end of the day, if things are going well, you
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will say it's all by the grace
of God. Notice the final application here.
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It's all for his good pleasure.
You ever thought of that, that
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God takes pleasure in you? Oftentimes
we're so under the pile with the stuff
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of life that thought never enters our
minds that God actually delights in his how
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could he delight in me, such
a failure? But he knows every thought
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of your heart, he knows everything
you have done, he knows everything you
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should have done and you haven't done, and so on and so forth.
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He knows US intimately. Then it
says here it's for his good pleasure,
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but the focus of his good pleasure
it's the people of God, his Covenant
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Children. He's working in us.
What is a pleasure to him? Because
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we are a pleasure to him.
Zeph and IA is a song. There'
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Zeph and I a little minor prophet
three hundred and seventeen. At the end
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of that little minor prophet book he
says he will rejoice over you with gladness,
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with joy, with singing. There's
different translations and there's a song,
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there's a melody that I won't sing
it right now. I sing it when
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I'm alone and I enjoy it.
God rejoicing over us with gladness, singing,
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delighting in his people, you see. So when you're working, it's
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a work of joy and happiness and
purpose and focus, because you're working for
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00:41:19.219 --> 00:41:22.340
Almighty God, you're Living Unto Almighty
God and you know that he delights in
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00:41:22.460 --> 00:41:29.380
your life. Why? Because you're
in Christ and you stand righteous before him
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00:41:29.380 --> 00:41:34.730
in Christ. And so, brothers
and sisters, work as if it all
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00:41:34.969 --> 00:41:37.610
depended on you, and don't give
up that work. It is a good
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work in the Lord, but trust
and rest, relying upon the ongoing work
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of Christ within you and for you, and he promises to complete his work.
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00:41:51.960 --> 00:41:57.400
He will complete it. God's called
us to faith in his holy word.
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00:41:57.639 --> 00:42:01.070
He's called us to hold on by
faith to him, to cling to
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00:42:01.190 --> 00:42:07.389
him and to stand on those skis
you see, to stand on that word
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00:42:07.469 --> 00:42:12.309
of God and he will take you
up to a life, a spiritual realm
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00:42:12.510 --> 00:42:15.070
and a life that people will look
at you and say, what is it
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00:42:15.150 --> 00:42:19.260
about your life, the quality of
your life? You seem to live on
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00:42:19.380 --> 00:42:23.579
a different plane, in a different
way. What is it? And then
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00:42:23.659 --> 00:42:28.420
we can share about the grace of
God that we found in the Lord Jesus
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00:42:28.460 --> 00:42:32.889
Christ, in the Good News of
the Gospel. May You live in that
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00:42:34.090 --> 00:42:38.730
Gospel this week, rejoicing in it
and working for the glory of God.
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Let's pray
