Life Discovery Series

Are We Almost There? - All Lost For Christ

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Jim Reinking

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Series Code: LDS

Program Code: LDS000024


00:34 Well, as we began last Sabbath morning
00:37 as I shared with you,
00:38 we're going to be doing on Sabbath mornings a revival.
00:43 Do we need a revival?
00:44 Do I need a revival? How about you?
00:48 Really, for those of us who are active in
00:51 or relationship with Jesus Christ,
00:52 a revival means we have an opportunity to grow closer
00:56 and go deeper into our relationship with Jesus.
00:59 And maybe some of us,
01:00 maybe we've just kind of bend you know,
01:03 just drifting along
01:05 and a revival is a way to spark
01:09 that glow of faith and love in Jesus Christ.
01:14 And so I have chosen these subjects quite carefully,
01:17 it may not always be apparent
01:19 but anyway and I am gonna connect
01:21 with what we've studied a little bit last weekend
01:24 and I want to began by saying that
01:27 I believe that this moment was established,
01:31 was established God had a purpose for this moment,
01:34 He commissioned this moment
01:36 and He entrusted us with a message,
01:39 a message that's to be taken to the whole world.
01:41 A message that by the way,
01:43 unless there be any confusion
01:45 a message that is centered in Jesus Christ,
01:49 a message that informs us of Jesus,
01:53 His plans for us.
01:56 We found as we were in the Book of Peter,
01:58 we found we are in a time of delay.
02:02 We also found that as we looked in
02:04 just briefly looked at Matthew 25
02:07 where it talks about the 10 virgins.
02:09 Remember, it says, "While the bridegroom tarried"
02:13 that's the word delayed.
02:14 And by the way, who is the bridegroom?
02:17 My friends, that's Jesus.
02:19 While He tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
02:22 Don't miss that point, the wise virgins as well as
02:26 those who were not so wise,
02:28 they all were slumbering and sleeping.
02:31 And so I ask the question because, you know,
02:36 are we ready for the coming of Jesus?
02:39 My friend, you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ,
02:41 you know the answer to that already, don't you?
02:43 Amen.
02:45 You know the answer to that already.
02:47 But that's what brings me to this subject,
02:50 the subject of being-- the subject being
02:52 righteousness by faith and it is by faith.
02:58 That's where we would put the emphasis, wouldn't we?
03:01 It's righteousness by faith.
03:02 And as we look back in time,
03:05 it's going back to the General Conference
03:08 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
03:10 Do you know the historical background of all of this?
03:13 I believe that we had this message
03:15 but it had been clouded over with so many other issues
03:18 that the church was dealing with.
03:20 And I believe that God was in His divine purpose
03:23 seeking to bring us back
03:25 as a people to the centrality of our faith
03:28 in Jesus Christ and His righteousness.
03:31 It's a beautiful message, it's a beautiful message.
03:36 It's a powerful message
03:39 as we talk about righteousness by faith.
03:41 And you know, it was not a part of the agenda
03:44 set for that General Conference.
03:46 It came out of the devotional period,
03:49 the devotional period that was put together
03:51 by A.T. Jones and Dr. E.J. Waggoner.
03:54 You can see the pictures right here.
03:57 And God moved in a powerful way
04:00 in that General Conference.
04:01 And by the way, do you remember the history of this?
04:04 Everybody just get onboard,
04:05 was everybody just jumping up and down saying,
04:07 "this is the most wonderful thing we've ever heard."
04:11 No, they were what we would probably
04:13 called the traditionalists
04:15 who said, "Oh, we've never heard it
04:16 quite this way before.
04:18 We are not so sure about this."
04:23 And you know, truth can be that way, can it?
04:26 Really, it can be that way.
04:28 No matter how beautifully portrait Christ was
04:32 in these presentations of these two men.
04:35 Yeah, there are those who opposed it.
04:38 And I believe that God would have us
04:41 come back to and for some of us
04:43 who never really studied out some of these things
04:45 back to a clear understanding of righteousness by faith
04:51 and a deeper experience in,
04:55 it is one thing to know and to understand
05:00 and we must but we must also be engaged
05:04 spiritually to experience that which we know.
05:10 The two must go together. Anybody saying amen out there?
05:13 Amen. All right, good.
05:15 I've got about handful of you together.
05:16 Let's see if we can pick up the rest of you
05:18 as we get going a little bit deeper into the subject.
05:21 Take your Bibles and turn with me
05:23 to Philippians Chapter 3.
05:26 Philippians Chapter 3,
05:28 and we're gonna began with verse 4.
05:29 I am gonna share with you a--
05:31 the testimony of a converted Pharisee.
05:36 And I am talking about the apostle Paul
05:38 as some of you already have gather.
05:41 He shared this wonderful testimony of his experience
05:47 and see if you can relate to it.
05:49 Philippians Chapter 3, beginning with verse 4,
05:51 I remind you, I am using
05:52 the New Americans Standard translation.
05:55 And where Paul, where Paul says,
05:57 "Although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh."
06:02 Here's a Pharisee saying,
06:04 well, I could have confidence in the flesh.
06:07 I mean, you know, there is the things of the spirit
06:10 and then there's the things of the flesh to be in the flesh.
06:13 You know, we're talking about
06:14 the corruptive element of sin in ones life
06:18 when we talk about being in the flesh,
06:19 being dominated by the flesh and its fleshly desires.
06:23 Paul is talking about these kind of things,
06:25 is that what he's talking about?
06:26 "Although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh.
06:29 If anyone else has a mind
06:32 to put confidence in the flesh, I far more."
06:34 Now we'll see when he's talking about
06:36 putting confidence in the flesh,
06:38 he is talking about it in a religious context
06:42 which is quite fascinating as you look at this statement
06:46 that religious things can relate
06:50 to this matter of being in the flesh.
06:53 Think about that, think that through a little bit
06:55 because it goes on in verse 5 to say,
06:57 "Circumcised the eighth day."
06:59 That's what was required by the Mosaic Law.
07:02 It was a sign of the special relationship
07:05 between the Jews and God, it was all of that.
07:09 "Of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin,
07:13 a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the Law, a Pharisee."
07:19 It was all of that.
07:20 I mean, these are pretty,
07:22 I mean these are on surface it very religious things.
07:26 What a heritage he's talking about,
07:28 "The nation of Israel, tribe of Benjamin."
07:30 That was a renowned tribe.
07:32 The first king of Israel by the way,
07:34 came from the tribe of Benjamin.
07:36 They were renowned warriors among the Israelites.
07:39 They could use this sling
07:42 with either the right or the left hand.
07:45 You know, those were the missiles of that day.
07:47 And so they were really quite renounce.
07:49 So he was on one hand
07:52 proud of his religious heritage, wasn't he?
07:57 We can translate that into modern terms.
07:59 You know, I can be a baptized member
08:01 of the Seventh-day Adventist church
08:02 and more than that a third generation Adventist,
08:06 maybe even a fourth generation Adventist.
08:10 And I can have had the best education
08:14 that the Adventist system can possibly offer.
08:18 I may be an officer of the church
08:21 and zealous for the truth
08:25 and yet, based upon Paul's teaching here,
08:28 yet be in the flesh.
08:32 That's kind of disturbing to hear that, isn't it?
08:35 It is kind of disturbing to hear that
08:37 but the Paul is really bearing witness
08:39 to his pre-conversion experience.
08:42 It was deeply religious on one hand.
08:46 But there was one thing that was missing.
08:48 What was that one thing that was missing
08:51 in Paul and Saul's experience?
08:53 What was missing? Jesus.
08:59 In a word, there was Jesus that was missing, wasn't it?
09:04 And I'll tell you, we can have it all,
09:06 we can have been raised in it,
09:09 we can be comfortable with the Adventist culture
09:14 and be culturize Adventist and yet without the relationship
09:19 without Jesus be more than just something we know about
09:25 but we're experiencing it is really nothing.
09:30 Really it's nothing.
09:32 And I am not down playing
09:33 importance of the fellowship in church and all of the things
09:36 that go with being a part of this wonderful moment.
09:40 I take you on in Philippians Chapter 3
09:42 and we're looking at verse 6.
09:44 Verse 6, he asks-- he says, "As to zeal,
09:48 a persecutor of the church, as to the righteousness,"
09:51 now we're getting to the issue
09:54 that we're going to be studying this morning.
09:56 "As to the righteousness which is in the Law,
10:00 in the Ten Commandments, found blameless."
10:05 Well, from a human stand point
10:08 and in his pre-conversion experience,
10:11 he thought he was on track, didn't he?
10:14 He thought that he was blameless
10:17 when he kept the commandments.
10:20 But my friend, I tell you,
10:22 we'll see it when he found Jesus Christ
10:25 he began to see things
10:26 from a totally different perspective.
10:30 And he began to see his previous experience
10:32 for what it really was.
10:34 It was a Christless experience. And so it will be for us.
10:41 You know, we can all of to this things,
10:43 we could be a part of the system
10:46 but it's not until we come to Jesus Christ
10:48 that we really began to see ourselves in a different light.
10:52 Jesus gives us perspective, doesn't He? Amen.
10:56 He always gives us perspective.
10:58 And let me tell you,
10:59 if there's anybody that hasn't really found it,
11:01 I mean, it's more than just a doctrine,
11:03 knowing about the doctrine of salvation,
11:05 knowing that Jesus died for sins.
11:07 It means a personal engagement in a relationship,
11:11 a committed relationship to Jesus Christ.
11:14 And so having the knowledge of it
11:16 without the engaged relationship,
11:20 my friend, we will always have-- we will not have the perspective
11:24 to see things for what they truly are.
11:27 Now, I would guess probably most of us this morning
11:30 know something about what it means to be
11:32 in a committed relationship.
11:36 If you are married, among other things,
11:39 you are in a committed relationship.
11:42 How many of you are in a committed relationship? Okay.
11:47 Well, there are some parallels from the human experience
11:51 as we talk by committed relationship.
11:54 To the committed relationship on this--
11:56 in this spiritual realm there are some correlation,
11:59 aren't there?
12:01 And there, you know,
12:02 it's something that goes fairly, fairly deep.
12:05 So anyway, as he came to Jesus,
12:08 he gained a totally new perspective.
12:11 He thought he was self-satisfied.
12:16 That was the term, wasn't it? Self-satisfied.
12:19 In his religious experience he felt the need of nothing
12:25 until one day he found Jesus for what He really was.
12:30 In Titus 3:5, it says, talking about righteousness,
12:34 "Not by works of righteousness which we have done,
12:40 but according to His mercy He saved us."
12:47 And my friend, you can be
12:49 an excellent Christian committed on a certain level
12:54 but again without that committed relationship
12:56 to Jesus Christ,
12:59 my friend, all that you
13:00 and I can do will always come up short.
13:07 We are not saved.
13:08 I hope, I believe that probably 90% of us here
13:12 this morning are fairly clear of this,
13:14 clear on this intellectually.
13:17 It's not by our works of righteousness
13:19 that by we were saved, it's by what?
13:23 What's the key word here? It's by His mercy.
13:28 It is through His love,
13:30 it is through His grace that we are saved.
13:34 And so it's not based on our performance,
13:37 it's not based on anything that we could do outside
13:40 our making-- and it's a response.
13:42 It's God that took the first steps,
13:44 it is response of faith
13:47 to embrace Jesus as a personal Savior
13:50 and to enter into a committed relationship
13:53 this is what will prepare
13:55 each one of us for the comic of Jesus.
13:59 Right?
14:01 Oh, you are a quite--
14:02 we need a few African-Americans here this morning, don't we?
14:06 They always add a little flavor to the fellowship of the church.
14:11 But anyway, you know us littlie white,
14:14 maybe I shouldn't say, this is after all being taped.
14:17 Us littlie white proper Anglo-Saxons
14:20 you know, you know how we are,
14:23 we just-- we feel these things at heart.
14:27 We are just nice demonstrative of these things
14:29 as our black brother and sisters.
14:32 But I like some of their enthusiasm, don't you? Amen.
14:35 I have a statement from Ellen White
14:37 that I want to share with you
14:38 that really fits into what we were talking about.
14:40 It's Letter 48, 1903, take a good look at what the--
14:45 and remember from Revelation 12,
14:48 it describes is as the testimony of Jesus.
14:50 This is I believe Jesus speaking to us.
14:53 It says this, all the work done--
14:56 "All the work done, however excellent
14:57 it may appear to be."
15:00 And my friends, you know, let's examine our experience.
15:03 All the things that we may do in the church,
15:04 all the things we may do in a community,
15:07 all the things that we were doing
15:08 in this six weeks seminar and there's a lot of effort
15:11 and there's a lot of work that's involved in it.
15:14 At least for some us there is.
15:15 All of the things that we can do,
15:18 notice it says, "Is worthless if not done" How?
15:25 "In the love of Jesus."
15:28 Let me tell you something, I think you probably know this
15:32 but do you know with God motivation
15:36 is most often more important to God
15:40 in what we do than what we actually do.
15:45 We can do the right things from wrong
15:49 and selfish and self-interested motivations, right?
15:55 We can do that.
15:56 And so it's more than just what we are doing,
15:59 that's the exterior, it's how it correlates
16:03 to what's within the heart that's he crucial question.
16:07 Is it self in throne or is Christ in throne.
16:12 That's central to it all.
16:14 "Is worthless if not done in the love of Jesus."
16:18 What we do here this morning
16:20 as we gathered together as God's people,
16:21 the songs we sing, the things that's being preached
16:25 all of the activities that are going on here in this place
16:28 and beyond in our outreach into the community again,
16:31 is absolutely worthless
16:33 if it is not done in the love of Jesus.
16:38 And I tell you all of the preaching that I can do
16:40 or the Pastor Gale can do through the years
16:43 and I am gonna be doing quite a bit of preaching
16:45 in the next six weeks, five weeks now of this series.
16:48 I am gonna do a lot of preaching,
16:49 I am gonna be doing a lot of those kinds of things
16:51 but if it is not done in the love of Jesus
16:54 it is worthless.
16:57 We wasted our time, we wasted our money.
17:01 And I don't know about you
17:03 there's a lot of demands on us when it comes to time.
17:05 I don't have time. I don't have time.
17:08 You don't have time to waste it
17:13 and just kind of playing the game.
17:16 You know what I am talking about?
17:18 And we can do this, I can do this.
17:21 This was always a good text for me,
17:23 this always keeps this in sharp focus for me.
17:27 It goes on to say, "One may go through
17:28 the whole round of religious activity,
17:31 and yet unless Christ is woven into all that he says
17:36 and does, he" now notice the word is will,
17:39 not maybe or possibly, will.
17:42 "He will work for" whose glory? "For his own glory."
17:47 So unless Christ is woven into everything
17:51 that he does and says or she does
17:56 and say we will end up working for his own glory.
18:00 And those of us who are in public ministry,
18:02 this is a particular concern that we ought to be aware of
18:05 because self is so insidious, it's so easy for self to be in
18:09 and define ourselves we're doing good things,
18:11 we're preaching good things and to find out in the end
18:14 and the end to find out how tragic it would be,
18:16 in the end to discover that we've been working
18:18 for our own, our reputations,
18:21 for our own interest
18:23 and it's really been very much about self
18:27 and what people think about me,
18:29 and what I am doing and what I am saying.
18:33 And my friend, it is truly the spirit of God
18:36 that is at work.
18:37 It is not about me,
18:40 it's not really about you, is it?
18:43 It's about Him. Amen.
18:46 And that's my desire, purpose and prayer
18:51 for the time that we spend together
18:53 in what we are doing during the six weeks of this seminar.
18:56 I want it and it's gonna happened
18:59 because we desired and it will come
19:01 as a result of all of us participating in this desire,
19:06 this prayer that it is truly about Jesus
19:09 that He is the one that is present,
19:11 that He is the one that is speaking through His word,
19:14 through the songs that were singing,
19:16 working to touch and affect hearts.
19:18 Which means those of us who are the instruments,
19:21 our hearts and our minds must be open
19:24 and we must be touched with His love and grace. Amen.
19:30 You know, I've been doing this 26 years plus,
19:34 that's' a long time.
19:35 There are few of you here,
19:37 there are more than a few of you here today,
19:39 26 years, you haven't lived 26 years.
19:43 And my friend, those of us who have been at this
19:45 for a very long time this can become a kind of route.
19:49 We've done this, we've said this,
19:50 this is the way we do it, this is how we
19:53 you know, do our thing in church
19:55 and we just-- in the end
19:57 we're just kind of going through the motions of it.
19:59 My friend, we don't have time
20:01 to just go through the motions of that.
20:04 I don't have time for that.
20:07 You know, I am spending a good part of my time
20:09 away from my family
20:11 and I think most of you would think about,
20:12 that would be pretty tough lifestyle.
20:15 I don't have time just to play games
20:18 and just go through the motions.
20:21 If I am going to be leaving my family
20:23 and living somewhat of an unusual lifestyle
20:27 that goes with the kind of work I do,
20:30 I want to be sure that
20:32 what's happening is being done for His glory.
20:35 And something eternal is going to come out of it.
20:38 And it's not going to happen,
20:40 again, it isn't about me, it's not.
20:45 You can say an amen, to that if you care. Amen.
20:49 2 Corinthians 5:21, talking about how
20:54 this righteousness by faith comes.
20:57 This is such a wonderful, beautiful study in God's words.
21:01 2 Corinthians 5:21, I love this passages scripture
21:06 where it says about God in relationship to Jesus.
21:09 It says, "He made Him"
21:11 God made Jesus "who knew no sin,"
21:16 He is spotless, He is untainted of sin,
21:20 He certainly understand sin, He certainly has been
21:23 you know, He's been observing
21:25 what sin is been doing in our lives
21:26 and upon this planet
21:28 that's why He stepped in to deal with it.
21:31 But He is absolutely and totally innocent.
21:35 Experientially when it comes to this matter of sin,
21:39 "He knew who--
21:40 Him who knew no sin to be--" He made him.
21:43 Let me get that back together,
21:44 "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf."
21:51 Now often we talk about Jesus bearing our sins
21:55 and it's true, He bore our sins.
21:57 But this text says that
21:59 when Jesus as a representative of the human race
22:03 having taken human flesh upon Himself
22:05 and the incarnation, taking our place
22:07 as the divine substitute on the cross of Calvary
22:11 He not only bore our sins but, listen to this,
22:15 His identity was so complete and so full with-- full with us
22:21 as sinners that the text says, He became sin itself.
22:28 His identity was that He became sin itself.
22:31 And I don't think you and I can began to appreciate
22:34 what this did to the innocent heart
22:38 and soul of the Savior as sin was being laid upon Him
22:43 and as He was becoming sin,
22:44 as He became the object of God's wrath.
22:47 And let me tell you, God is-- God rightfully--
22:50 somebody better be angry about this mess that we are in
22:53 and the horrible things that are happening
22:55 because of sin, don't you think?
22:56 What kind of God is gonna be sitting up there
22:58 you know, twiddling His--
23:00 well, I don't about that what to say about God,
23:02 you know, that's just gonna be sitting up there
23:04 and you know, all of the stuff is going on.
23:08 No, there is a place when it talks about
23:10 and angry God I am glad, I am glad we serve a God
23:13 that sometimes is angry about
23:16 the horrible things that are taking place
23:18 when there's physical and sexual abuse
23:20 I am glad that there's a God that's angry about it
23:23 but I am also glad that we serve a God
23:25 that also is loving.
23:27 Amen.
23:29 And even many of those who were in the very depths
23:32 of the grip of the horribleness and awfulness of sin
23:37 who by His grace yet will be saved.
23:41 That's-- you know, that's a delicate balance
23:44 that must be caving of course God is perfect.
23:47 So He is in perfect balance, we would say that,
23:49 wouldn't we about God? Perfect balance, He is.
23:52 But think about, Jesus not only bearing our sins
23:55 but becoming sin itself, the wrath of God against sin.
24:00 That sense of absolute abandonment
24:04 that He experienced on the cross off Calvary
24:05 because of sin, that separation from God that
24:08 you know, run from His lips,
24:10 "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
24:16 Again, I don't think you and I
24:17 can be even began to appreciate
24:21 the depth of pain and grief and sorrow
24:26 that Jesus experienced on the Cross of Calvary
24:29 when He became sin itself and when He finally died.
24:34 My friends, He didn't dies because of the wounds,
24:36 because He was crucified or that He'd been abused.
24:39 He died because of sin. Sin killed Him, right?
24:45 And in the end sin is gonna kill us
24:48 without the relationship.
24:51 And that's why God stepped in.
24:54 That's why Jesus stepped into this mess
24:57 and said this will not stand, I am not gonna let this happen.
25:01 There's more to this, so there's two sides on this substation
25:05 as we are taking a look at it.
25:06 So, "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf,"
25:10 it goes on to say, "So that"
25:11 this is giving us a reason for it,
25:14 "So that we" that's' you and me,
25:16 vast in the grasp of sense,
25:18 "So that we might become the righteousness of God."
25:22 And notice the phrase, "In Him," in Jesus.
25:26 This is how it all takes place.
25:28 It is in the relationship, isn't it,
25:31 that we become the righteousness of God.
25:32 So this is the divine transaction
25:35 that takes place at the Cross of Calvary.
25:37 It's a transaction of love and the part of God
25:40 in the person of Jesus
25:42 as He on one side bore our sins, became sin itself
25:45 and on the other side of the transaction
25:47 by faith in Jesus Christ we become righteous.
25:51 He became sin so that we might become righteous in Him.
25:57 Don't ever forget that word, that phrase, in Jesus.
26:00 That's what it's about, isn't it? Amen.
26:03 And it's all there at Calvary, it's all there.
26:08 Let's go back to Philippines 3:7, 8.
26:13 Philippians 3:7, 8,
26:17 we're gonna pick up where we left off.
26:20 As Paul continues to bear his testimony something dramatic,
26:24 something fundamental changed in the life of this Pharisee.
26:30 Those religious things that seemed so important
26:32 but they were Christ-less.
26:34 Those things that seemed so vital
26:36 but they were Christ-less
26:39 when he really discovered Jesus.
26:41 I tell you a change, a fundamental change
26:43 came into his heart and it will with us as well.
26:46 Verse-- verse, let's see, we read verse 6
26:49 and we want to look up verses what?
26:51 Let me look at my notes, it helps,
26:53 yeah, its verses 7 and 8
26:55 where it says, but what-- "But whatever."
27:00 That word, "but" is a contrast.
27:02 A contrast to what preceded it to what now follows.
27:09 And my friend, as you and I
27:12 come into that committed relationship with Jesus Christ
27:15 there will be a contrast between what we were
27:19 without Christ to what we now become in Christ.
27:24 Amen. Okay.
27:26 So it says, "But whatever things were gain to me,"
27:29 I mean this was his life, this was his life,
27:32 this Pharisee and all that went with it.
27:35 "But whatever things were gain to me
27:37 those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ."
27:43 You see what began to really captivate him.
27:47 And my friend, it was Jesus.
27:49 And in light of Jesus
27:52 and what Jesus came to mean to him,
27:56 he really began to see things
27:58 from a totally fundamentally different perspective.
28:02 Those things that he once--
28:03 those things that were gained to him
28:06 he count them as loss, as worthless.
28:10 And my friend, all that we can do
28:12 apart from Christ even in the religious realm,
28:14 if done apart from Christ is absolutely worthless
28:20 and he counted it as loss for the sake of Christ.
28:24 But my friend, it is the relationship
28:26 that gives meaning to what we do,
28:30 to what we do in church,
28:31 what we do as Christians in our everyday walk up there.
28:36 Not just here but up there.
28:39 Jesus makes a totally difference within our lives
28:42 as we come to Him as you know.
28:45 And my friend, for the apostle Paul
28:47 it was you know the difference between
28:50 a life that really though religious
28:52 was very much centered in self.
28:54 Those things that once were gained to him,
28:56 that's self centeredness.
28:58 And my friend, nothing worse than a self-centered religion.
29:02 But again when he came to Jesus
29:04 there was this change, this fundamental change.
29:07 Again, those things that were gained to him
29:09 he consider to be loss for Christ
29:11 because now it's not centered in self it is now centered--
29:16 a experience that is centered in whom?
29:19 In Jesus.
29:21 And my friend, that makes all the difference.
29:25 It's fundamental, but that--
29:27 everything falls out of that, right.
29:31 It does.
29:34 And some of us have been content
29:36 in our experience for far less than this.
29:42 We have, I am not here to beat anybody down
29:44 but I am just saying there's something more.
29:48 I know some people, they says like
29:50 when you get married the first year or two,
29:51 it's wonderful, it's all this emotion
29:54 but then let the few decades go by,
29:56 you just kind of settle down.
29:58 And they look at the religious life something like that.
30:01 But my friend, it is our privilege
30:03 with an active relationship with God through Jesus Christ
30:06 to continue on in our first love experience.
30:12 It may not be something of the history of our past,
30:15 it can be an active part of who we are
30:18 in Jesus Christ today and tomorrow
30:21 and on through the ages of eternity.
30:28 And I believe that God is calling back
30:30 some of us who lost it
30:32 or calling us back to our first love experience.
30:36 Oh, the joy and the vitality
30:38 and oh, the-- yeah, all that joy.
30:41 That's why when I talk about doing evangelism,
30:44 I tell people it can be one of the most joyous things
30:48 that you can do.
30:50 When Jesus is present and He said where two or three
30:54 or I will be present.
30:56 But we need to be sensible to His presence, don't we?
30:59 And when Jesus is touching hearts
31:02 and when Jesus is revealing Himself
31:04 through His word and Jesus is being exalted
31:07 and He is the focal point let me tell you there is joy.
31:12 And my friend, that's where the traditional
31:13 more doctrinal approach is really kind of short.
31:17 I mean, it's more than making you know, the gospel
31:22 and what Jesus did at Calvary, one of the things that we teach
31:26 in the sequence of our teachings.
31:28 It's making Jesus as He ought to be,
31:32 the focal point and the thread
31:34 that goes through everything that we teach,
31:38 preach and sing about.
31:42 And that can't happen, you can't just learn that by education,
31:46 going to seminary.
31:48 That comes out of our, once experience in Jesus.
31:54 That's how it works.
31:56 And so we can't contrive this, we really can't contrive it.
32:00 And as I said, this-- for Paul this all happened
32:03 on the Damascus road, it was life changing,
32:06 fundamentally it was life changing.
32:08 I take you on to verse 9, he continues,
32:12 I don't think, did we read verse 8?
32:15 Oh, I got caught up in verse 7,
32:16 so I didn't finish verse 8, we have to do that.
32:18 "More than that," Paul says, "I count all things to be loss
32:22 in view of the surpassing value
32:25 of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord."
32:27 Now when he talks about knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,
32:30 this is more than knowing about Jesus,
32:33 it's more than knowing the doctrine
32:37 and the teaching about Jesus.
32:40 Knowing Jesus is speaking
32:42 of an intimate committed relationship in Jesus.
32:49 It is speaking of a love connection
32:52 between us and Christ.
32:54 His love flowing by His spirit into our hearts
32:57 and in return our love flowing
32:59 back in connection to the one we love, right.
33:05 So when we talk about knowing Jesus,
33:07 it has intellectual content through it
33:11 but it must be experiential and it must go--
33:15 you know, listen, it's not either
33:18 or, the intellect or the experiential.
33:21 If you lead one-- you know, you got to have both of that.
33:24 Intellect without experience is pretty dry.
33:27 The experience without the content
33:29 of the intellect side of what we were studying here
33:33 and whatever else we might study these,
33:35 the experience pretty shallow, right.
33:38 We need both.
33:40 It's none and either or proposition whatsoever.
33:43 So I don't want to be misunderstood
33:45 but I am talking about,
33:46 we gonna have the intellectual side--
33:48 we gonna have the truth but without Jesus
33:50 we really don't have the truth
33:51 because He is the truth. Amen.
33:55 That's the testimony He bore
33:57 and that's what we ought to be preaching,
33:58 that's what we ought to be sharing.
33:59 So anyway, "The surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord
34:03 for whom I have suffered the loss of all things."
34:07 There's that perspective
34:08 that changed fundamentally for Him.
34:10 "And count them but rubbish
34:11 so that I may gain Christ." Amen.
34:16 This becomes the focal point,
34:18 this becomes the most important thing in one's life.
34:22 And my friend, this is what swings it
34:24 when things are going well in our lives
34:25 and when things are going bad.
34:27 We are going through tough times.
34:31 It's Jesus that can get us through.
34:33 And I went through this
34:35 some two years ago in my own family.
34:37 Some horrible things were happening
34:40 and when I talk about my family,
34:42 I am talking about my birth family.
34:44 And probably I shouldn't get into this too much
34:47 but I just went through an experience where I just said,
34:50 God, I don't know how this is gonna work out
34:52 but I am gonna do this one thing,
34:54 I am gonna trust You no matter what. Amen.
34:57 Took about two years for this, whole family--
34:58 I dealt with money and I tell you
35:01 when a family money it can be blessing,
35:03 it can be a curse.
35:05 But anyway there's someone in family that felt
35:08 that they should have it all and start to take all of us down
35:13 in their attempt to get out the money.
35:16 And my mother is still alive, she's 87.
35:20 They really had their eyes on her assets
35:23 and felt the rest of us ought to--
35:26 anyway, we have gone into it.
35:27 It was horrible, it's awful.
35:30 But I tell you, when things are going badly in life
35:35 my friend, once faith in Jesus will make all the difference.
35:41 It will.
35:42 I don't know what's going on in your life,
35:44 I don't know what's going on in you heart
35:45 but anyway, that's what it's about.
35:47 Verse 9, it goes on to say, "And may be found in Him,"
35:50 in Jesus "not having a righteousness of my own."
35:54 Take a good look at this, "Not having a righteousness
35:56 of my own derived from the Law."
35:58 That is not based upon my obedience,
36:00 what I can do and measuring up to what the law requires.
36:03 So, "It's not righteousness of my own derived from the Law,
36:07 but that which-- that which that is that righteousness
36:12 which is through faith in Christ."
36:16 It is through the relationship
36:19 that we derive our righteousness.
36:22 And it's not really-- it becomes ours
36:25 but it's really about His righteousness
36:28 that by faith becomes ours because you know He's perfect.
36:35 And by the way, to be perfect is to be perfect in love,
36:37 for remember, the law is summed up in these words
36:42 from Romans 13 where it says,
36:44 "Love is the fulfilling of the law."
36:48 So to be perfect in love is to be perfect-- perfect--
36:51 yeah, man, I don't want to get into it
36:54 but that, you know, perfection.
36:57 People got all tied up in this matter of perfectionism
36:59 forgetting the essence of it.
37:01 Some of the most unlovely and most unchrist like things
37:03 have been done in the name of perfectionism,
37:08 right and many have forgotten it's really about love.
37:16 It's about love, truly it's about love.
37:20 Anyway, where do we leave on?
37:21 And okay, "And may be found in Him,
37:23 not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law,
37:26 but that which is through faith in Christ,
37:28 the righteousness which comes from God
37:32 on the basis of faith."
37:37 And faith is that-- commitment
37:38 faith is that love that binds us
37:41 into this committed relationship that we are talking about.
37:47 And let me share with you another statement,
37:48 this one, 1 Selected Messages, page 367,
37:52 this really puts it together in a way you know,
37:55 I am trying to emaciate it
37:56 but this really puts it together.
37:57 "The law demands righteousness."
37:59 It does, but the problem is we've been tainted by sin.
38:03 It could demand righteousness for as long as the day
38:08 you know, it can demand all of the righteousness
38:10 it wants of us but we have been corrupted by evil.
38:16 We just can't measure up and you and I can't produce it.
38:20 It can demand it and it does.
38:22 And be assured of it,
38:23 God's standard is absolute perfection.
38:27 Did you hear me?
38:29 Not 99.9% will do, it is 100% perfection.
38:34 I didn't mean to get into perfectionism
38:36 but I guess it's on my mind here.
38:39 100% righteousness alone
38:42 is our qualification for heaven.
38:44 You just stay with me though.
38:46 Okay, just stay with me I am going to put this together.
38:49 It demands it and we see this awful scripture,
38:52 there is this high standard, this is what God requires.
38:57 And many of us have you know,
39:01 we struggle with this and because you know what,
39:04 you and I cannot possibly measure up
39:07 to what's required of us.
39:09 Who of us here is able of ourselves to measure up?
39:12 Let me see your hand and afterwards,
39:15 Gale, you and I will sit down
39:16 and we will have a little conversation.
39:20 You tell me, you know.
39:22 Anyway, "The law demands righteousness,
39:23 and this the sinner owes to the law;
39:25 but he is incapable of rendering it."
39:30 I tell you there are those who have gone through a lifetime
39:33 in the church seeking to do what God requires of them,
39:37 they have sweated blood itself.
39:43 And some people never come to an understanding,
39:45 particularly the strong willed individual,
39:47 he can't do it.
39:50 You and I can't do it.
39:52 We are incapable and we are incapable
39:56 because of what sin has done to us,
40:00 in our hearts and minds.
40:02 "The only way in which he can attain
40:03 to righteousness is through faith."
40:05 We've already seen that, the word of God.
40:07 So it clearly indicated there.
40:08 "By faith he can bring to God the merits of Christ,
40:12 his perfection and the Lord places
40:15 the obedience of His Son to the sinner's account."
40:17 It is like a bank account.
40:19 You are in a deficit situation,
40:21 you and me as sinners were in deficit situation.
40:25 And my friend, the righteousness of Jesus
40:29 is put into our account
40:33 and the debt is satisfied.
40:36 That's the way it works.
40:38 "Christ's righteousness is accepted
40:40 in place of man's failure," praise His name.
40:43 "And God receives" this is all by faith.
40:47 I know there's gonna some that say,
40:49 "This can't be this easy. It's just faith.
40:53 There's nothing that we have to do."
40:55 Oh, yes, there's something you have to do.
40:57 You have to respond in faith and that's all you and I can do.
41:03 "And God receives, pardons, justifies,
41:06 the repentant, believing soul, treats him
41:09 as though he were righteous."
41:11 He treats us as we never sinned.
41:13 Can you imagine that? That's pretty good stuff.
41:17 And furthermore it says, "And loves him or her
41:21 as He loves His Son."
41:23 Well, does that put a value on you and me?
41:26 Amen. God loves me like that?
41:30 All of the words and all of the-- you know.
41:35 It is secrecies of my life and it says
41:37 "This is how faith is accounted" or considered "righteousness."
41:44 Oh, my friend, embedded in the bible
41:46 and in the Revelations of this Spirit of Prophecy
41:49 it bares testimonies is this wonderful truth
41:53 in Jesus Christ.
41:56 And see, knowing and understanding the truth
42:01 by faith leads us into a deeper understanding
42:06 and experience which is absolutely essential.
42:09 But what do we do?
42:11 We have those texts
42:12 but then there's texts like Revelation 14:12
42:15 where it says, "Here are they
42:16 who keep the commandments of God."
42:19 We've already settled it,
42:21 it can demand righteousness of it,
42:22 we can't render it as we are incapable of rendering it.
42:25 And we are accepted by faith, we are accounted,
42:28 we are considered righteousness by faith in Jesus.
42:32 Then where does this whole matter
42:33 and it's all through the bible,
42:35 this whole matter of keeping the commandments,
42:37 you know John 14:15,
42:39 "If you love me, keep my commandments."
42:41 "Here are they we just ready to keep the commandments of God."
42:45 This is love for God that you keep His commandments.
42:49 You know, we got to find harmony there's some are, don't we?
42:52 And there is harmony if properly understood
42:56 and experienced as I will not point out.
43:00 And I am going to touch this part of our study
43:04 this morning in the context of the relationship.
43:07 And that's where it ought to be look at,
43:09 in the context of relationship.
43:10 In John 15:5, Jesus said,
43:13 "He who abides in Me and I in him."
43:18 Boy, that's pretty intimate, isn't it?
43:21 "He who abides in Me and I in him" he will what?
43:26 "He bears much fruit."
43:31 One of the most powerful things
43:32 that we experience in life are relationships.
43:36 Relationships, they are, think about it.
43:40 The relationships,
43:42 a relationship between a husband and a wife,
43:44 family relationships, a parent and a child.
43:48 Well, I love-- I just love my kids
43:50 you know, I just learn so much more about God's love
43:53 when I had children.
43:55 You can bear witness to that,
43:56 those of you who are parents, right.
43:58 I love them in the good times
43:59 and I love them in the bad times.
44:02 I love them when they are doing what is right
44:04 and I love them when they are failing.
44:07 And you know what, we are made in the image of God,
44:09 that's the reflection of God's love for His children.
44:13 God's love not conditioned on our performance, it's not.
44:18 And that's what wins hearts over,
44:20 that's what keeps winning my heart over
44:22 and that's why I keep preaching it.
44:25 So out of the relationship we bear fruit.
44:29 It says, we bear fruit, tie into it Philippians 1:9
44:35 where Paul says, "I pray, that your love"
44:38 It comes out of the relationship,
44:39 we love because He first loved us.
44:41 So if we love it means
44:43 because we are experiencing His love and some other.
44:46 "I pray, that your love may abound still more and more"
44:50 that's talking about growing in love.
44:54 Amen. Growing in love.
44:56 "I pray, that your love may abound still more
44:59 and more having been filled" What does it mean, filled?
45:05 Who's been filled? We.
45:08 "Having been filled
45:10 with the fruit of righteousness,"
45:13 notice the next part,
45:14 "which comes through Jesus Christ"
45:20 as a result of the relationship.
45:23 Relationships on a human level are transformational.
45:29 Now that can go two different directions, can't they?
45:33 But they could be transformational.
45:35 But above every relationship
45:38 that you and I can possibly experience
45:39 on the human level is the relationship
45:42 we are privilege to experience in Jesus Christ.
45:45 That relationship is the most powerful of any relationship
45:50 and is truly transformational.
45:54 Not instantaneous
45:55 because it's growing in love more and more
45:59 you know, it's growing.
46:01 It becoming, the process of becoming--
46:03 have you ever seen two people
46:05 that have spent decades together
46:07 who even look alike and talk just alike?
46:13 How does that happen? It's love.
46:17 It's the years of being together,
46:20 of being molded and being you know,
46:22 the two shall become one, becoming truly one.
46:26 They start to sound alike, even look alike, you know.
46:31 And that's how it is with our relationship with Jesus.
46:34 We become like Him, the one that we love,
46:37 the one who has promised to come to abide in us,
46:40 abiding in us.
46:42 And if He's in us,
46:44 He begins to infiltrate into every aspect of life,
46:47 into our thinking, into our value system,
46:51 into what we do and into what we say,
46:54 even how we speak is affected by His love embrace
46:58 when Jesus is present in the life.
47:00 This is a growth experience.
47:03 It's growing in Him, isn't it?
47:06 And that take you to 1 Peter 1:1, 2.
47:10 For the Holy Spirit has a part in all of this too
47:12 and I can only touch on this
47:14 but look at the salutation here
47:17 1 Peter 1, "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
47:20 to those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus,
47:25 Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
47:29 who are chosen,"
47:30 its talking about God's people who are chosen.
47:34 And my friend, we have been chosen.
47:37 You have been chosen, I've been chosen.
47:38 But notice what is says of them,
47:39 "Who are chosen
47:41 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,
47:44 and by the sanctifying work of the Spirit."
47:49 We've been chosen by the sanctifying
47:52 work of the Spirit and for what purpose.
47:55 "To obey Jesus Christ
47:58 and be sprinkled with His blood."
48:01 We have been chosen by God
48:04 through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.
48:07 And remember, it is through the Holy Spirit
48:09 that Jesus abides in us anyway.
48:12 Right? Okay.
48:16 And so this through the sanctifying,
48:18 that's being set apart, that's what it means.
48:21 And we're set apart for the powerful
48:22 working of God's love and grace through Jesus Christ
48:26 as He is abiding in us
48:30 through the sanctifying work of the Spirit.
48:34 To obey, oh, no, in Jesus Christ,
48:38 we are not uncomfortable with this word,
48:40 obedience in its proper setting.
48:45 We better not be because those of us
48:47 who are parents are going to have a lot of trouble
48:50 if we don't believe that there's a proper place for obedience.
48:53 You know, when you love somebody you want to please them.
48:56 When you love somebody as we love Jesus
49:00 we want to be obedient
49:02 but also know we are still dealing
49:04 with what sin has done to us, right.
49:07 And that's where the growing comes into.
49:11 I will share with you this statement.
49:13 "He who is being sanctified by the truth"
49:15 and remember, the spirit is the Spirit of truth.
49:19 "Will be self-controlled,
49:20 and will follow in the footsteps of Christ
49:22 until grace is lost in glory."
49:25 Now notice, "The Righteousness
49:27 by which we are justified is imputed."
49:30 That's what we consider righteousness.
49:34 "The Righteousness by which we are sanctified is imparted."
49:38 So there are these two aspects of righteousness by faith.
49:42 The first, we spent the greater part on
49:44 that is by faith in Jesus,
49:46 we are accepted through His righteousness,
49:49 not-- it's not derived from keeping the law,
49:51 it is through the righteous life of Jesus
49:54 we are accounted, we are considered to be righteous
49:57 but as in time we are abiding in Jesus,
50:01 we are becoming like Jesus.
50:04 His life, when it talks about
50:06 the impartation of the righteousness here,
50:09 it's talking about the impartation
50:11 of the very life of Jesus.
50:14 Don't lose that connection.
50:17 For the righteousness to be imparted to us
50:20 is to have the life of Jesus imparted to us.
50:23 It is our faith, it is through love
50:26 and it is through time
50:28 that process of becoming like Him.
50:32 And we may stumble along the way,
50:35 may, we probably will at time stumble along the way.
50:38 And when we do, oh, we blew it,
50:43 we are in a stage of discouragement
50:45 until we get on our knees and we confess our sins
50:48 and then everything gets solve.
50:49 Is that the way it works?
50:51 No, even at the point where we may fail
50:54 in our growth in Jesus
50:55 we are still covered by His perfection. Amen.
51:00 And so when it says the law requires of His righteousness
51:03 and I went on to say 100% righteousness
51:06 will do and only do
51:08 and is the primary qualification for entering into the heaven,
51:13 my friends it is 100% pure in Jesus
51:17 and it is Jesus righteousness and through His perfection
51:22 that we are accepted and we will be saved.
51:27 It is nothing of self, it is all about Him.
51:32 See, we are growing into that
51:33 because you know sometimes it is about me,
51:36 sometimes self gonna way, right.
51:39 It's making Jesus the center point of it all, it is.
51:44 There's been swing in passers of this whole thing.
51:48 There was legalism going on.
51:50 What we need to guard against when there are extremisms
51:53 that go on in the church is that we don't overreact and end up
51:58 and find ourselves in the opposite extreme.
52:02 And I believe that's happen in part.
52:04 Nobody is interested in going back to the legalism.
52:08 Anybody here want to back to it into the legalism
52:11 that some will experience and some were teaching?
52:15 I don't believe everybody was into it.
52:18 But there certainly seem to be a fair amount of it
52:22 but on the other side of it we want,
52:25 this is where we need to be balanced in all of this
52:27 and that-- we do that through our experience in Jesus
52:29 and keeping focus on the truth.
52:32 And the truth is that there is this process
52:34 of becoming like Him.
52:36 Steps to Christ, my last statement here,
52:39 "There are two errors against
52:40 which the children of God, especially need to guard.
52:43 The first is that of looking to their own works,
52:46 trusting to anything they can do,
52:48 to bring themselves into harmony with God.
52:51 The opposite and no less dangerous error
52:55 is that belief in Christ releases men
52:57 from keeping the law of God
52:59 that since by faith" and I know there
53:02 some confusion out in the church over this whole matter.
53:06 "That since by faith alone" and it's true, isn't it?
53:10 "By faith alone
53:11 we become partakers of the grace of Christ,
53:14 our works have nothing to do with our redemption.
53:18 Instead of releasing man from obedience, it is faith,
53:23 and faith only," that is the relationship
53:25 "that makes us partakers of the grace of Christ,
53:27 which enables us to render obedience."
53:31 Amen. Who does the enabling?
53:34 Just try harder to live the better.
53:38 It's how it comes the-- what do you say?
53:42 Well, it says we partake the grace of Christ
53:45 that we are enabled, it's a process of becoming.
53:50 And my friends, it's all about knowing Jesus.
53:55 It's all about coming into this relationship in Jesus Christ.
53:59 I am gonna end with the song, I want you to bow your heads
54:03 and I want you to mediate upon the words of the song
54:06 because it's a capstone
54:08 to what I shared with you this morning.
54:25 What is this thing I feel?
54:31 What makes my heart reveal?
54:37 This strange attraction to be like Him
54:47 Why can I not ignore
54:53 Like so many times before
54:58 His Invitation to be like Him
55:09 Somehow I can't escape
55:13 the love He has shown
55:19 Somehow His spirit finds a way
55:24 to make it known
55:30 To think that God my life
55:34 Jesus gave up His own
55:39 It makes me want to serve Him
55:45 and trust Him, Him alone
55:53 He chose to lay aside
55:58 all the fame and pride
56:04 That's how my Lord became
56:08 the greatest of all man
56:13 And He is not ashamed
56:19 to let me share His name
56:25 That I might find my life in Him
56:44 What made Him come descend
56:50 to love me like a friend?
56:55 In spite of all my sin
56:59 He bled on me and died
57:05 Lord God, I offer you
57:11 my sin to renew
57:17 Cry unto mighty self
57:21 to be like Him
57:43 Say you desire this morning,
57:45 just raise your hand right there.


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Revised 2014-12-17