Phil: God is going to take us, take a people out of this dark world and take us all the way to a place where we will stand there robed in the glory of God. And we will be so bright that people here, it’d burn their eyes out to look at us. Do you really believe that God has that purpose for you? Has He ever made that real? I pray that He will because if we can get the reality of that, I don’t mean just some emotional thing, but I mean, if we can get the reality of that where we can believe Him, we can stand in these times, and know that He is right here in the now.
We now stand, why? Because of his grace is right here now. We know what He did, we know where we’re going, but He’s also here. And that’s what I need. I need Him this moment. I need Him right now. We’re doing what I’m doing. I can’t do this, but I am looking to him for his power and his grace.
Thank God, so we glory in our sufferings. Why would we do something crazy like that? Oh, it says, Because, there’s a cause, there’s a reason we know that suffering produces, or pressure produces perseverance. Now, if I am going in a certain direction and I encounter resistance of some kind, but I keep going, do you see how that works on that quality in me, that ability to keep going, that’s what perseverance is, patience.
That’s willing to say, I am not gonna give up just because there’s a pressure here. Just because it gets hard, I’m not gonna give up. I see that it’s worth everything to know Him. His purpose is worth everything. Not only that, I know He’s with me to help me in the process. So I am willing to cooperate with Him in the outworking of part two salvation. Okay? He’s brought me to this place. I have a relationship with Him. Now, He’s calling me to walk through something because there’s something He’s accomplishing in me. Praise God!
You know, this is a good place to perhaps drop in I thought I started to say a while ago. There’s a life that’s been born in the heart of everyone that’s been born of Him. See, that’s what... We gotta come to a place where we’re in full agreement with Him. We’ve turned from our sin and handed our life over, but we’ve also invited Him to come in and live. Yes. And in part, a new heart and a new life. Yes. And He’s done that.
How does Peter describe that? What have we been born of? He compares the new birth to an incorruptible seed. Now, what’s a corruptible seed? It’s part of this world, is this death. I mean, it just doesn’t last. Life that is born into this world is subject to what? Death. It can’t last. Everything about this world is corrupt.
And of course we know again is destiny, but there is a life that is born into the heart of every person that is born of His Spirit. It’s an incorruptible life. You can’t kill it. (chuckles) Thank God! That’s what gives me the hope that He’s put something in me. But He wants that to grow up and become more like Him. He wants me to learn how to live that out and not my old nature.
And the only way that’s gonna happen is he’s gonna have to put me in situations that show me my old nature trying to resist and trying to get in the way. But He wants me to come to a place where my default reaction is to go to Him and say, Lord, you’re showing me what I need. You’re showing me what’s wrong, what’s lacking here, but you’ve promised me to take me through. Lord, help me right now to stand, to rely upon your ability to get through this and to triumph and to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. That’s perseverance.
Do you see where we’ve got every resource we need? That’s what the Lord wants you and me to get today. Because we will absolutely, if we don’t really get this, man, life is a struggle. Trying to quote, “serve God,” is a struggle. I mean it’s a fight regardless. But if we’re fighting without this knowledge, my God, what a terrible battle it is. Thank God that we can actually come to a place where we see that, you see what God is doing.
We talked about putting ourselves in the potter’s hand. What’s that about? Is that not surrendering our will and our plans and saying, Lord, you’ve got a purpose for me. That’s what I want. And so I am trusting You to work out Your purpose, to shape me according to what Your plan is for me. And I know in the process You’re going to want me to exercise the Spirit that you have put in me. You’re gonna give me the ability to do that. So everything comes from you.
But do you see how it has to involve us? He is wanting... Again, what did Abraham do when God told him to do something or when He promised him something? He believed. Do you see where that same pattern, there was something that was totally impossible, but God had promised. Abraham persistently believed God and it came to pass.
Is that not what He’s called us to do? Everything that he’s talking about, this pathway to glory is totally impossible, but God’s promised and God has supplied everything that we need. So, where does that leave us? It leaves us walking in faith, looking to Him, dealing with issues as they arise in our lives and they will arise.
But all we can get to a point where he said, Oh, what next? Oh, poor me. I need a box of chocolates, or whatever. God wants us to get to the point where we just say, Praise God, I understand what’s going on and I know what God’s doing and I know where it’s going to lead. This is awesome where God has given me the chance to experience Him.
Isn’t that what this is about? It’s wonderful to know about God, but how are we going to experience Him unless we do it on the field of battle in situations where we need Him and we can’t handle it, which is like all the time. We just don’t know that. But God’s helping us, isn’t He? And so you’ve got this pattern worked out of perseverance and character. And character brings hope.
So, there’s this building of our... There’s this growing up of a life that He’s planted in here, but He wants us to cooperate in the growth process. And yet He supplied everything we need.
You go back to chapter two sometime and you look at the judgment, when God is gonna judge everybody and they fall into two categories. You got those that are stubborn and clinging to their sin, but you’ve got others who through perseverance, seek after glory and so forth, and He’s gonna give them eternal life. So, you’ve got people that agree with sin and people who persevere. That’s two categories. Which are you in?
We need the Lord, don’t we? Yes. But, oh, how faithful He is. This is salvation, part two. Getting rid of our sins and the guilt is awesome, but I need something that goes way beyond that. I need something to help me live out what He wants and to be the kind of person He wants. I can’t do that, but He gives me what I need. Okay?
None of this is new, but I just pray that God will make it new because I know that everyone, everyone that knows Him especially, you’re in a place right now where you need Him. You’re in a place where things are difficult. In fact, you may be in a situation, it looks totally impossible. Ain’t no way I can handle this. Lord, I can’t deal with this. God help me. I see this need in me or I see this situation, God, you’ve dropped me in a place that’s totally impossible.
Yeah, He did. Why would He do that? Because He wants to make Himself real to you. He wants to get me and every one of us to the point where we are gonna trust Him and believe Him in the battle and draw from Him the strength to do what is right in His eyes and know that we don’t have to give in. It doesn’t have to defeat us. Yes, there’s a terrible power that’s gonna do everything in its power to hold us back and fight against this. But there is a greater power. Thank God. Thank God!
Boy, I haven’t even gotten through the first few verses here, have I? Character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame because God’s love has been poured out. See, that’s the other thing. It’s not just, Okay, I’m for you. This is love motivating everything. God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit has been given to us.
Thank God! “You see it just the right time when we were still powerless. Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person, someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love….”
It’s wonderful thing. It’s one thing for God to say, I love you. But how do we know that? We look at the cross, we look at what He did for undeserving, helpless, hopeless sinners. He demonstrated it. I pray that God will help us to learn how to put our love, put the love He puts in us into action. But, “He demonstrated his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Thank God! Okay?
“Since we now have been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him.” Now he’s going into destiny? “For if while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his son, how much more having been reconciled shall we be saved through his life?”
Now, do you see salvation’s part one and two? It’s pretty plain there, isn’t it? We’re reconciled through his death. You know, I have oftentimes mentioned this, I’ve done this overseas in seminars and I’ll point out to somebody. You know that we’re not saved by Christ’s death. They look at me. We are reconciled by his death. The thing that separates us from a holy God was done away by the blood of Jesus Christ.
But the salvation he’s talking about here is now is the answer to, now what? Because if all God did was to wipe away my guilt, erase my rap sheet, that doesn’t help me. I’m still the same person who created that rap sheet. I need a salvation from me.(chuckles) I need something to happen to the guy who created all those sins. That’s what salvation is about.
How does such a thing happen? Obviously, you can’t just give me rules to go by. I need something more powerful than that sin that would hold me captive. I need the power of divine life born in my heart and in my life. That’s what saves me. And so all of salvation is learning how to cooperate with his life that is living in me. Praise God!
I don’t know how far to take this. But anyway, I think I will just summarize a lot of the rest of this pretty quickly. He goes into the fact of how we became sinners. How did you become a sinner? We were born that way. We were born that way. Okay. In other words, our first father, Adam, deliberately rebelled and sinned against God and it corrupted the very life that he had in him. And that is what has been passed.
So you talk about the past determining destiny. That’s a pretty good example. He brought forth a race of people who live under the wrath of God. And it’s not just that they sort of automatically do it. It’s they agree with it. If you point it out, they agree with it and they rebel against the light that would point it out.
But God has started another family. He sent His Son to that cross. I mean one act of sin brought sin upon the whole race and death as a result of it. But one act of obedience dealt with all of the sins of the world and brought forth a brand new life and a brand new family. And what God shares with us is not just the forgiveness from the cross and the blood and all the wonderful things that stands for, but it’s the life that came out of that too. There is a brand new family that has been born and that’s what determines our destiny. Thank God!
You know, we’ve used the example before of the corn of wheat, the grain of wheat. And you could ask, if I hold this, what am I holding? I’m holding, you know, you could say it’s one seed, but what happens when part of that dies, that needs to die and part of it lives? It grows up, doesn’t it? There’s life in there that has the power to sprout out and to create more and to create more and to create more.
And just like Adam’s life got proliferated through the whole human race, there’s a life in Jesus Christ that absolutely is shared with everyone who bows the knee and surrenders their heart and their life to him. There’s a life born in here that cannot die. And you want a foundation for Christian living. What is my hope of glory, by the way, in Colossians? What hope does somebody like me have to wind up in a place of glory one day and stand there and shine like the sun? What’s my hope? Christ. Christ in me. Nothing less, nothing short. I have got to have Him in me.
And what God is doing for every single one of us right now, this is where this is relevant. God will put you and me in situations and you’re probably in one right now or in several where the only resource, if we’re gonna really stand and go forward with Him, we’re gonna have to look to Him. We’re gonna have to be honest about needs that He exposes in us. Bring them to Him, lay them in His feet, believe in Him. Trust in Him for the grace and the strength to do what He said and what He wants us to do.
And we’re gonna grow and we’re gonna become more like Him. We’re gonna experience this God. He is not interested in having a bunch of theology students and learning all about it with our heads. He wants you to know Him. He wants you to know how much He loves you. He wants you to be so connected to His plans, His eternal plans for you, that you are able to see past everything that this world has to offer. Praise God!
There’s one scripture that I wanted to touch on just very briefly ‘cause it’s toward the end of the passage. And he talks about in verse 17, I think it is, “For if by the trespass, the sin of the one man,” that’s Adam, right? So, if by his sin, “death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness” do what? “Reign” where? “In life.” How? “Through that one man, Jesus Christ.”
That’s what salvation is all about. Do you see, again, salvation is part one and two? He does away with the trespasses. But there is a grace that enables us to navigate this life and to be victorious. Not because we’re something, not because we have feelings even, but simply the ability to put one foot in front of another and rejoice in Him and praise Him and thank Him, offer the sacrifice of praise that we sing about and say, Lord, I know that there are parts of me that are dying, but I know there’s a part you put in here that’s gonna live forever.
That’s what this life is about. It’s not about what I can accomplish here. Everything is about what You’re accomplishing in me that will last forever. And I want to walk in the experience of real salvation. I thank You that You did away with my rap sheet, but now I want to become the person you intended for me to be in the beginning. I wanna see not just the cross in the end of my sins, but I wanna see the resurrection.
Didn’t Paul say I wanna know him? The power of his resurrection, conform to his death, all those things. And he made that the goal of his life. Somehow Paul saw the connection between what God did in history and the destiny and the fact that there’s not a thing that can stop that. That’s what He’s called us to step into.
But we need to be participants in that. And how do we do that? Everything we need has been given by Him. I’ll tell you to Him, be the glory. Part of me says, Who am I to preach this? You need it as bad as the people do, and I agree, I do. There are things in me right now that I need, but I know I’m not alone. God doesn’t choose perfect people to do what I’m doing. It’s a good thing ‘cause we don’t have any. But I’ll tell you what, God wants us to know, wants us to take this word to heart and realize you have what you need.
Do you understand what your life is about? Do you understand the basis of that has already happened, history has happened. The destiny is not something that we just sorta hope somehow. This is something that God will work out in us when all He wants us to do is just to believe Him and to persist in believing Him. And he’s gonna give you the strength even to do that.
That’s why he says, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you to will and to do of his good purpose.” And you see how grace is not just this vague thing, it’s God’s power at work, saving sinners. Well, that’s me. I need Him. I need Him this morning, but He’s faithful. He’s gonna take us through.
I don’t care what it is in your life right now, where you see something that’s wrong in you or some situation you can’t handle. You have every right to bring it to Him. If you’re His, if you surrendered your life in Him, you stand by grace. That means He looks upon you, not with disgust and contempt because you’re in a weak place. He looks upon you with mercy and with favor and with love and says, I’m here to help. Believe Me, trust Me. Look to Me, bring this to Me. Experience My salvation in a fresh way. Right here, right now.
Salvation is a very progressive thing. Didn’t Paul talk about the message being foolishness to those who are perishing? That’s right. But to us who are being saved. So, there, he talks about the process to us who are being saved. It is what? The power of God.
You see that theme everywhere in the scriptures? Salvation parts one and two. We’re in the middle of part two. If you know Him, if you don’t know Him, oh my God, you need Him. Yes. If you don’t know Him, you’re under the wrath of God. You will look at the cross if you wanna know what your destiny is.
But that destiny can change because of Jesus. And I’ll tell you, when He calls your name, you say, Here am I, Lord. I surrender. I hand my life. This life I can’t keep anyway. I hand it over to you. Change me. Give me the new heart, the new life. Let the old one perish. I’m done with it, Lord. I just want you and I know that, and I’m gonna live from this point on looking forward to where this is headed. And I know it’s headed. I know where it’s headed. It’s headed to glory. It’s not because I can engineer any of that. It’s because of what you’ve done. Praise God! Praise the Lord!
