3ABN On the Road

Abide

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: David Asscherick

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Series Code: OTR

Program Code: OTR000803


01:00 Happy Sabbath. Happy Sabbath.
01:03 It's good to be alive, amen. Amen.
01:05 So much better than the alternative.
01:09 Amen. Amen.
01:11 I am happy to be alive this morning
01:13 and more than that I am happy to be alive in Jesus.
01:19 And it is a good thing to look out
01:20 and see all of your smiling faces.
01:23 Are you "gladventists", this morning?
01:26 Amen. Amen.
01:29 I am looking forward to our presentation this morning.
01:32 I thought it will be well for us to just spend a few moments
01:35 in review that is sort of recapitulating
01:39 what we have learned up to this point.
01:42 In our first presentation we learned that life is a wager,
01:48 that life is a bet.
01:50 And that you can evaluate any wager,
01:53 any bet by that three-tiered formula.
01:56 What is the size of the price to be gain?
01:58 What is the size of the risk involved
02:00 and what are your chances of actually gaining
02:02 the promised price?
02:04 We talked about a man name Blaise Pascal
02:06 and Pascal said that only the fool
02:10 would chose to live the godless life
02:12 because the size of the price
02:14 that is eternal life is an actual infinite
02:16 and of course as a mathematician
02:17 he was very interested in that.
02:19 The size of the risk involved is non existent
02:23 because in order to demonstrate
02:25 that there is a risk in the Christian experience,
02:27 you would have to show
02:28 that the quantity or quality of the life of the Christian
02:31 is somehow inferior to the non-believer.
02:35 But I am here to tell you this morning
02:36 with all of the enthusiasm and vigor that I can muster
02:39 that my life has been exponentially better,
02:43 more satisfying, more substantive and meaningful
02:46 since my conversion to Christ than it was before.
02:49 Can someone say, amen? Amen.
02:50 And so the size of the price is infinite,
02:52 the size of the risk is non existent.
02:54 In fact there's actually a benefit to be gained
02:57 by entering into this gospel wager
02:59 and then of course the best news of all, the third point,
03:01 what are the chances of actually gaining the promise price.
03:04 And what are the chances? 100%.
03:08 Jesus Himself said, "For God so love the world
03:11 that He gave His only begotten Son that--"
03:13 what's the next word?
03:15 "Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish."
03:17 In other words everyone qualifies
03:20 if you can but believe.
03:22 And so in our opening presentation
03:24 we saw that this thing called Christianity is very credible
03:28 but even more than credibility it is livable.
03:32 There are many things that have the appearance of credibility
03:35 but are not livable.
03:36 The great central truth of the Christian faith
03:38 is not just that it's intellectually credible
03:40 and that it's existentially credible
03:42 but that you can actually live it.
03:44 It make sense, it allows you to look at the world around you
03:48 and compartmentalize all of the various streams
03:50 of information that are coming in.
03:52 I freak-- I frankly do not know how people
03:55 who are not Christians can maintain their sanity
03:58 in this world that is falling apart at the scenes.
04:02 And so in our opening presentation
04:03 we saw that Christianity is credible
04:05 and that there is no risk,
04:06 no actual risk involved in taking Jesus at His word.
04:09 Our second presentation, we looked at the issue of worth.
04:13 The issue of what, everyone? Worth.
04:16 And you remember that
04:17 really the central feature of the idea of worth
04:20 is that worth is subjective.
04:23 It is what, everyone? Subjective.
04:25 Another way of saying that is,
04:27 the one who is willing to pay the price for a given object
04:30 is the one who determines what that is worth.
04:33 A $5,000 sports coat,
04:35 you remember the analogy is not worth it to me.
04:38 There are many things that are worth
04:39 various monetary expenditures but that would not be worth.
04:42 In another words, what I get in exchange
04:45 is not sufficient enough for me
04:47 to justify spending that kind of money.
04:51 So what are you worth?
04:53 Well, the answer is that there was a man
04:55 who was walking through a field,
04:56 Jesus said, the kingdom of heaven is like the man
04:58 walking through a field and he finds there a treasure.
05:02 What does he find everyone? He finds a treasure.
05:05 And when he finds that treasure,
05:06 he's so thrilled with that treasure,
05:07 so overjoyed with that treasure,
05:09 that he liquidates all of his assets,
05:11 so he can attain that field that contains that treasure.
05:13 And we say what does this mean?
05:14 Well, what it means is that when we find Jesus,
05:17 we give it all up for Jesus.
05:18 When we find the gospel, we give it all up for the gospel
05:20 and that is in fact what the parable is teaching
05:22 but it's not all that the parable is teaching.
05:24 Can someone say, amen? Amen.
05:27 More importantly is not the treasure that we find
05:30 but the treasure that Jesus found
05:32 when He found you in that out of the way field.
05:36 Jesus looks down there and He sees a treasure,
05:39 He stubs His toes so to speak on something,
05:41 He knows it's not a rock, He knows it's not a root
05:43 and He looks down and He investigates
05:45 to see what that treasure is and the treasure is you.
05:49 Now He knows that it will cost Him how much?
05:51 How much will it cost Him? It will cost Him everything.
05:54 But he purchased it anyway
05:56 which means that God has established
05:59 your worth and your value.
06:02 Now here's something very exciting about that.
06:04 Your worth and your value are established independent
06:08 of how you feel about yourself.
06:11 Did you pick up on that, yes or no?
06:13 Your worth and your value are established independent
06:15 of how you feel about yourself.
06:17 You might say, I don't feel like I am worth xyz,
06:21 fill in the blank but how you feel about it,
06:23 frankly doesn't matter at all.
06:25 The fact of the matter is that God paid an infinite price,
06:29 in fact the ultimate price for you
06:31 and the price paid for you
06:32 determines your worth in the eyes of God.
06:36 Amen. Amen.
06:38 Now the great thing about all of this I suppose is that
06:42 when God paid an infinitely high price for us
06:45 because He is omniscient,
06:47 that is to say He knows everything,
06:49 He knew what He was getting.
06:52 God did not purchase you and then looked under the hood
06:55 so to speak and say, "Uh, I didn't--
06:57 this is not at all what I thought I was getting."
06:59 He knew. He knew exactly what you were.
07:03 He knew your failures and your foibles, your faults,
07:06 your inconsistencies, your hypocrisies.
07:08 He knew it all and He still paid an infinitely high price for you
07:12 while you were a sinner.
07:14 Someone say, amen. Amen.
07:16 Now that was our second presentation.
07:18 You are worth, that is the great
07:20 central truth of the Christian faith
07:22 that God condescendingly become a man
07:24 but not just to become a man but to die as a man
07:27 so that He could redeem His purchased possession
07:30 and save eternally those who would exercise faith.
07:34 And that was last night's presentation.
07:36 What was the title of last night's presentation,
07:39 very complicated?
07:40 Do. That's right, do.
07:42 And we learned last night that our do
07:46 if not placed in its proper context
07:48 becomes what? Dodo.
07:55 The central feature of the Christian faith
07:57 is not primarily or predominantly
08:00 about what I do but about what Jesus did and is doing.
08:05 And we divided, some would say,
08:08 you know, over generalize
08:09 but for the purposes of our illustration
08:11 last night it worked.
08:12 We divided all non Christian faiths
08:14 from Christianity and we asked the central question.
08:16 What is the single scarlet thread
08:18 that separates this from those
08:20 and the answer is over here in the final analysis,
08:23 it is something that I do that recommends me to God.
08:27 It is something that I do
08:28 that causes God to look upon me with favor,
08:30 so the locus of salvation
08:32 for you theologians would be centered in me.
08:35 I initiate God's happiness with me
08:39 but over here the locus of salvation is in God.
08:43 God is the initiator and we respond to God's gracious act.
08:48 Amen. Powerful.
08:52 Desire of the Ages, page 25,
08:54 one of my all time favorite quotations
08:56 from the writings of Ellen white.
08:58 Christ was treated as we deserve
09:00 that we might be treated as He deserved.
09:04 He was condemned for our sins
09:06 in which He had no share
09:07 that we might be justified by His righteousness
09:10 in which we had no share.
09:11 He suffered the death which was ours
09:14 that we might receive the life which is His,
09:16 with His stripes we are healed.
09:20 That was last night's presentation,
09:21 so that basically brings us up to speed.
09:24 What we want to address this morning
09:25 is this important question of how do I do it.
09:31 I believe presentation number one,
09:33 the Christianity is credible and there's no risk involved.
09:36 I believe presentation number two
09:37 that God has placed an infinite value on my life
09:39 knowing all of my foibles, fault and inconsistencies.
09:41 I believe presentation number three
09:43 and that is that the central truth of the Christian faith
09:45 is what Jesus has done
09:47 and not primarily about what I have done.
09:48 But in the final analysis if it doesn't work,
09:51 it might look good on paper
09:52 but if we can't make it work in our lives,
09:55 we are not going to be able to institute these great truths
09:59 that we intellectually believe.
10:00 Are we all on the same page, yes or no?
10:02 So how do we make it work?
10:03 How do I stay fresh with Jesus?
10:07 In fact I had one of the young people approach me last night
10:09 and he said you know, Pastor Asscherick,
10:10 I believe what you've said
10:12 and I resonate with what you have said
10:13 but what I want to know is how do I keep it real,
10:16 how do I keep it fresh, not just once every week,
10:18 not just once every two months,
10:20 not just once every three months.
10:22 I am tired of these roller coaster rides
10:24 up and down, and up and down.
10:25 I am on fire and then I am in the lows
10:27 and I am on fire and then I am in the low.
10:28 How do I keep it real? Do you want to know that?
10:33 Well, I think I figured it out. And I've got very good news.
10:37 It's not rocket science.
10:40 Open your Bibles with me to John 15.
10:43 Our presentation this morning is almost as easy to remember
10:47 as last night's presentation, almost.
10:51 Our presentation this morning is entitled, again one word
10:54 but this time more letters, "Abide."
10:59 What is it everyone?
11:00 Abide. John 15.
11:03 Let's go there together, John 15.
11:07 Our presentation is entitled simply
11:09 yet profoundly, Abide.
11:13 What we are going to do is
11:14 really study through the first eight verses of John 15
11:18 and we are going to pay particular attention to verse 3
11:21 but let's just read through the first eight verses
11:23 to sort of get an airplane overview of the passage.
11:26 Now this is for many of us a familiar passage.
11:29 And it's always a dangerous thing for a preacher
11:32 to preach on a familiar passage
11:34 because people think they know the passage.
11:37 But be very careful that you don't ever become
11:39 so familiar with the Bible
11:40 that you think you know everything about a given passage
11:43 even very familiar passages like John 3:16.
11:46 There are gems of truth to be uncovered inside
11:49 of even the most familiar versus in scripture.
11:51 Can you say, amen? Amen.
11:52 So please do your best to sort of disabuse your mind
11:55 of what you think you know about this morning's passage
11:58 and let's take a fresh look
11:59 at this verse of scripture, these verses.
12:02 John 15, beginning in verse 1,
12:05 Jesus says, "I am the true vine,
12:08 and My Father is the vinedresser.
12:11 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away
12:15 and every branch that bears fruit He prunes,
12:17 that it may bear--" what? "More fruit."
12:21 Verse 3, "You are already clean
12:22 because of the word which I have spoken to you.
12:24 Abide in Me, and I in you.
12:26 As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
12:28 unless it abides in the vine,
12:30 neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
12:33 I am the vine, you are the branches.
12:35 He who abides in Me, and I in him,
12:37 bears much fruit for without Me you can do--" what? "Nothing."
12:41 Verse 6, "If anyone does not abide in Me,
12:43 he is cast out as a branch and is withered
12:46 and they gather them and throw them into the fire,
12:47 and they are burned.
12:49 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you,
12:52 you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
12:55 By this is My Father is glorified,
12:57 that you bear much fruit so you will be My disciples."
13:02 Now if you are going to take this passage of scripture
13:05 and you are going to distill it down to a single word
13:08 to it's most fundamental element,
13:10 what would that word be? Peace of cake.
13:12 What would it be everyone? Would be the word, abide.
13:14 Jesus uses that some eight or nine,
13:16 perhaps even 10 times in this passage.
13:18 He says, "Abide, abide, abide, abide, abide, abide.'
13:23 Now, is anyone here this morning reading from
13:25 the New International Version of the Bible?
13:27 Okay. Anyone? Raise your hands. Okay.
13:30 What does is your Bible say there?
13:32 It doesn't use the word abide, does it?
13:33 What does it say? It says remain.
13:37 You look that word abide up
13:39 and what the word abide means
13:41 is to remain or better yet, to stay put.
13:45 It means what everyone? Stay put. Stay there.
13:51 The essence of the word abide is don't move,
13:55 stay where you are, remain where you are. Abide in me.
14:00 Jesus says that some eight or nine or ten times.
14:03 Stay there, stay there, stay there, stay there.
14:07 Remain where you are, remain where you are, do not move.
14:12 Now there's an important
14:15 grammatical and theological point
14:18 to understand about the word abide
14:20 and it's very simple, very easily understood.
14:24 You cannot abide where you're not.
14:31 Amen. Amen.
14:33 Okay, this group is having little trouble with that.
14:36 Let's try that again.
14:37 Okay, you cannot abide where you aren't.
14:40 You understand that? Yeah.
14:42 Okay, they got it. Praise the Lord.
14:43 How are my A students doing? Okay.
14:47 Okay? Okay.
14:50 Well, these are the sheep on the right hand
14:53 and these are the goats on the left.
14:57 Of course from your perspective you are the sheep
15:00 and they are the goats.
15:02 But we are all sinners saved by grace.
15:03 Someone say, amen. Amen.
15:05 The A students as well as the non-A students.
15:10 So the idea of the word abide is to remain, to stay put.
15:15 So we would say linguistically soundly,
15:18 grammatically soundly that you cannot,
15:20 listen very carefully here, the words are purposely chosen.
15:22 You cannot continue to abide
15:26 where you do not presently reside.
15:30 Amen. Amen.
15:32 That would be an exercise in futility,
15:33 its not grammatically sound, it's not logically sound
15:36 and it's not theologically sound.
15:37 You cannot continue to stay
15:39 where you are if you are not there. Right?
15:45 I get lost very easily, right.
15:48 My wife, she has fantastic navigatorial skills.
15:52 I need to appreciate that, navigational skills.
15:55 And she's one of these people
15:57 that can go through a city one time
15:58 and she just has some sort of awareness
16:01 of where things are.
16:02 First time in the city and she can find me a Thai restaurant.
16:06 I don't know how she does that.
16:07 She is like...
16:10 She can just get there, okay.
16:11 So she just has tremendous sense of awareness, right.
16:15 Now you get her in the woods and she's lost, right.
16:18 She's instantaneously lost.
16:19 Just turning in circles, you know.
16:21 I don't know what it is.
16:23 But me, I am directionally challenge, very much so
16:26 and I sometimes drive by the turn to my own house. No joke.
16:31 Frequently, in fact just a few days ago
16:33 I was driving from the airport
16:35 and I realize that I was in familiar,
16:39 I was in territory rather that looked unfamiliar.
16:42 And I thought well this doesn't quite look right.
16:44 And I started looking at the exit signs,
16:46 I have driven 40 miles past my exit. True story.
16:53 And I was like, how did I just do that?
16:56 Where was my brain?
16:58 I am very confused about this.
17:01 So I am one of those people, all right.
17:03 So I go to the big malls and you know,
17:06 I want to find a place you know,
17:07 I don't know whatever it is,
17:08 a specific place perhaps to eat
17:10 or to buy some clothes or something
17:11 and they have those, you know,
17:12 those boards with those big schematic drawings,
17:14 you know, top down architecture looking drawings
17:17 and there's the red dot there that says, "You are here."
17:20 You know what I am talking about.
17:23 You know what I always think when I see that,
17:24 I think to myself, I've always been here.
17:27 And this is not new information
17:28 and there's never been a time in my life
17:29 where I wasn't here.
17:31 So you are here and you got a kind of you know,
17:34 figure out, okay.
17:35 You sort of put it all together.
17:38 The idea of the word abide is that you are in a place,
17:43 now stay there.
17:46 You cannot continue to abide in a place
17:50 that you do not presently, what? Reside.
17:52 So if I say to you, this afternoon,
17:56 following this morning presentation
17:58 I would like to invite you for a few moments
18:00 to abide here in this gymnasium.
18:04 Is that an option that will be available to you, yes or no?
18:07 Yes. Absolutely.
18:08 Because you are already here,
18:09 so you can continue to abide here
18:11 because you are here.
18:12 If however I said,
18:13 immediately following this morning's presentation,
18:15 I would like to invite you
18:17 to abide with me in Orlando, Florida.
18:21 Could you abide this afternoon
18:23 immediately after this presentation
18:25 in Atlanta, Florida, yes or no?
18:26 Correct, Orlando, Florida,
18:27 Atlanta, Georgia, Orlando, Florida,
18:30 see, you know, I am directionally challenged.
18:34 Would that be an option, yes or no?
18:36 No. No.
18:37 you couldn't abide there because you are not there.
18:40 So Jesus says some ten times in His passage,
18:43 abide, abide, abide, abide, abide, abide, abide.
18:46 Stay put, stay there.
18:50 Now let's go back to the passage.
18:51 And what we are going to do is we are going to read now
18:53 just through the first three verses of this scripture.
18:57 Okay, just verses one, two and three.
18:59 And notice with me what word is conspicuously absent.
19:05 John 15, beginning in verse 1,
19:08 "I am the true vine, My Father is the vinedresser.
19:11 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away
19:14 and every branch that bears fruit He prunes it,
19:16 that it may bear more fruit.
19:18 You are already clean because of the word
19:20 which I have spoken to you."
19:24 What word is noticeably absent?
19:26 Abide. Yeah, the word, abide.
19:27 But what's the first word of verse 4?
19:29 Abide. Abide. Okay.
19:31 So, Jesus has to first tell them
19:34 where they are before He can tell them to stay there.
19:38 Does that make sense, yes or no?
19:40 In other words, Jesus has to first give them confidence
19:43 in their present tense position in Christ
19:46 before He can exhort them to stay in that place.
19:50 The key to understanding this whole passage is verse 3.
19:55 Jesus says, you are already clean
20:00 because of the word which I have spoken to you.
20:03 Jesus is speaking here to His disciples.
20:07 Now in the English language we can use the word "You"
20:12 to refer to either a singularity or a plurality. Okay.
20:15 So I can be speaking to one person,
20:17 say his name is Mathew and I can say,
20:19 you know, Mathew, I like to go out to lunch with you. Okay.
20:23 Does that make sense grammatically, yes or no? Sure.
20:26 But I can also be speaking to a larger group,
20:28 say four, five, six or more people
20:30 and I can say to them, hey,
20:31 why don't you come over to my house.
20:34 Would they understand that it's mean
20:35 all of them can come over to my house?
20:37 Sure they would.
20:38 So in English language, we have the "You"
20:40 that is both singular and plural depending on context.
20:44 In the Greek you have a specific "You" for the singular
20:47 and another "You" for the plural.
20:49 When Jesus says here, you are all already clean,
20:53 this is in the-- guess what? Plural or singular?
20:56 Plural. It's in the plural.
20:57 So Jesus is speaking to His disciples
20:59 and we would substitute the word,
21:01 we would insert the word,
21:02 you are all already clean through the word
21:06 that I have spoken to you.
21:09 Now I want you to notice with me,
21:10 not just the plurality of the verse
21:12 but notice that Jesus uses the word "already."
21:17 What does the word "already" mean?
21:20 What is that word mean?
21:22 Is that something that's going to happen,
21:24 is happening or has happened?
21:26 Something that has happened, that's exactly right.
21:27 So if my wife says to me, "Sweetie, please pick up
21:29 such and such from the grocery store."
21:31 If I say, "Sweetie, I've already been to the grocery store
21:34 and I've got those groceries."
21:35 She knows, I've been there in the past
21:37 and mission is accomplished already.
21:40 Jesus says, you are already, past tense.
21:44 And what's the next word? What is the word everyone?
21:48 Clean as oppose to dirty. Clean as oppose to impure.
21:55 You are all already clean,
21:59 and then He says something very interesting,
22:01 because of the word that I've spoken to you.
22:06 What word is that?
22:09 I wonder, I wonder what He's talking about.
22:11 Here Jesus speaking to His disciples,
22:14 He says, you are all already clean
22:16 because of the word that I've spoken to you.
22:18 Well, what word is He talking about here?
22:21 Well, commentators are not agreed on this, okay.
22:26 There are variety of options here
22:28 but I like to share with you this morning
22:29 what I am absolutely confident He is referring to.
22:31 It's something that occurred just probably two hours before.
22:36 Just two hours before He had used this identical language.
22:40 Now, I say two hours, it could have been four,
22:41 it could have been one but just the few hours before
22:44 Jesus had used this identical language
22:46 of being clean, completely clean
22:48 because of something He had done.
22:50 Go with me to John 13.
22:52 Keep your finger in John 15, go back two chapters to John 13.
22:58 Now, I know in your Bible
23:00 that looks like a great big distance, right.
23:01 John 15, all the way through 14
23:04 and back to 13 but John 13 is the last supper.
23:08 It's the what everyone? Last supper.
23:10 So the amount of time that transpires between John 13
23:12 where Jesus is in the upper room
23:14 and He washes the disciple's feet
23:15 and the time He tell His disciples
23:16 abide in Me and I in you.
23:18 The amount of time that transpired there
23:19 could have been as little as an hour.
23:21 Okay, it could have been as much as you know,
23:23 maybe four or five hours
23:24 but we are talking about a small amount of time.
23:27 So when Jesus says, you are all already clean
23:30 through the word that I've spoken to you,
23:32 it would have made sense to them
23:33 because He had just used that very same language
23:36 an hour or two before.
23:38 John 13, beginning in verse 1.
23:40 Here we go, "Now before the feast of the Passover,
23:43 when Jesus knew that His hour had come
23:45 that He should depart from this world to the Father,
23:47 having loved His own who were in the world,
23:48 He loved them to the end.
23:50 And supper being ended, the devil having already
23:52 put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot,
23:53 Simon's son, to betray Him,
23:55 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given
23:56 all things into His hands,
23:57 and that He had come from God
23:59 and was going to God, rose from supper
24:01 and laid aside His garments,
24:02 and took a towel and girded Himself.
24:05 After that, He poured water into a basin
24:06 and began to wash the disciples' feet,
24:08 and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded."
24:14 It's impossible for us,
24:16 literally impossible for us to understand the magnitude
24:20 and frankly the magnanimity of what is happening here.
24:23 The infinite, illimitable God of the universe
24:27 is stooping down to wash the dirty,
24:29 dusty, urine laden, manure laden feet of His disciples.
24:36 In Jesus' time if you went to visit someone
24:39 and you enter their house,
24:41 it was not uncommon for them to have a wash basin
24:43 either just outside or just inside of the door
24:45 in a same way that you might have a welcome mat
24:47 just outside or just inside of the door.
24:49 And so if you came to this person's house,
24:52 you should wash your feet
24:53 before entering that was just kind.
24:56 It was just a common courtesy.
24:57 If however this person's house
24:59 that you went to visit was a person of affluence or means
25:01 and they have servants,
25:02 then frequently the servants would come and wash your feet.
25:06 Now if there were say six servants
25:09 and five of them were Jewish and one of them was a Gentile,
25:13 the responsibility of washing the feet
25:15 always revolved upon the Gentile.
25:18 It was considered the lowliest of the lowly duties.
25:21 And so the idea of washing feet was not something that was,
25:26 you know, it had a very negative connotation
25:28 in the days of Jesus.
25:29 And so the discussion arises there
25:31 as they are preparing for the Passover meal,
25:33 the last supper, the feet need to be washed.
25:34 The discussion arises, who is going to do it?
25:38 Nobody wants to do it.
25:39 I mean, it would be the equivalent
25:42 in our day of cleaning the toilets, right.
25:44 Get a bunch of the theology students together and say,
25:46 you know what, we got to clean the toilets,
25:47 who's going to do it?
25:48 And they will, oh, me, me, can I.
25:50 I love the way they plunger,
25:51 I like that little swish up on to the edge.
25:53 It's just not going to happen.
25:55 You know, somebody say, "Oh you know,
25:56 I love to clean the latrines but I got to write a sermon."
26:01 Somebody will say, "I am working on my Greek."
26:02 You know, it's just everybody's going to have a reason
26:04 why they can't clean it.
26:05 That's basically what's happening here.
26:06 Nobody wants to be the bottom guy.
26:10 And then Jesus does something
26:12 that was almost impossibly difficult for the disciples
26:15 to understand culturally and contextually.
26:18 Jesus gets up, takes the wash basin,
26:21 fills it with water, girds Himself with the towel
26:23 and starts going around, again, to wash the dirty, dusty,
26:26 manure laden, remember, manure.
26:29 Today we have the internal combustion engine,
26:31 we have cars and all of that but not in those days.
26:33 If you got around you had a camel or a donkey
26:36 and I've been to the parades and I know what happens.
26:40 Are you hearing what I am saying?
26:42 Last night we talked about dung, do we need to say anymore?
26:44 You know what happens.
26:46 Will you walk on those same streets, right?
26:49 And so here's Jesus, the incarnate God,
26:54 that is the in fleshed God condescending to kneel down
27:00 and wash all of these junk
27:04 off of the feet of the disciples.
27:06 And the disciples are in credulous, Peter the most.
27:10 You have got to be kidding me.
27:15 When they joined the Messiah club
27:17 on the shore of the Sea of Galilee there,
27:20 this is not what they signed up for, right.
27:23 Follow me and I will-- and they are thinking you know,
27:24 we are going to thrash these obnoxious Romans,
27:27 I want to sit on the right, maybe you can sit on the left.
27:30 When they joined the Messiah club,
27:32 they didn't sign up for this.
27:35 And here goes Jesus calmly
27:38 and yet I would add in a dignified way
27:41 washing the feet of His disciples.
27:47 You could probably make a case for the fact
27:49 that if there was a single scene
27:52 that you can just take a snapshot picture of
27:55 and show to people of other religious persuasions,
27:58 what is the essence of Christianity.
28:00 You can make a case for this scene.
28:03 The infinite, eternal, illimitable,
28:05 omnipotent God of the universe serving manure laden sinners.
28:12 So then, He comes to Peter
28:16 and Peter in prototypical Petering fashion protests.
28:22 Verse 5, "And after He had poured water into a basin
28:26 and began to wash the disciples' feet,
28:27 and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.
28:29 Then He came to Simon Peter.
28:30 And Peter said to Him, "Lord, are You washing my feet?"
28:32 Let me translate, "Lord, are You kidding me? Really.
28:39 What do You think You are doing, Jesus?"
28:44 Jesus could have easily responded,
28:45 "Well I am doing the very thing that none of you wanted to do."
28:49 Verse 7, "Jesus said,
28:51 'What I am doing now you do not understand,
28:53 but you will know after this.''
28:55 The washing of the disciples feet
28:57 is a foreshadowing of the cross.
29:01 The cross event-- see, Jesus alone can wash the dirt
29:05 and the dust from in between our toes.
29:08 Jesus alone can wash away the sin,
29:11 that hardened sin that gets into the creases
29:14 and crevasses and cracks of our life.
29:16 Can someone say, amen? Amen.
29:17 And so this is a symbol here that it is Jesus alone
29:21 who can clean us and who can wash us.
29:23 And Peter basically says that, He says, "Okay, Peter,
29:25 I understand that you don't have a clue
29:27 what I am doing right now.
29:28 But in just a little while you will get it."
29:32 Well again, in prototypical Petering fashion,
29:34 he absolutely protests.
29:35 In verse 8, "Peter said to Him,
29:37 'You will never wash my feet!"
29:42 Give me a break.
29:47 Jesus said, "Alright, If I don't wash you,
29:51 then you have no part with Me."
29:54 And here we go pendulous Peter.
29:56 From this side, right, all the way over to this side.
29:59 He says, okay, Lord, sorry, I made a mistake there,
30:01 then why don't you wash my head maybe a little shampoo
30:05 and my hands as well, just give me a bath.
30:09 Swinging from this extreme to that extreme.
30:11 Now watch Jesus' response here.
30:13 Remember the reason that we came to John 13
30:15 is we're trying to understand John 15:3
30:18 that's what we're looking for John 15:3.
30:20 "You are already clean through the word
30:22 that I've spoken to you.
30:23 We ask a question, what word is he talking about?
30:25 Well, just a couple of hours before,
30:26 He had used that identical language.
30:29 The whole concept of being washed or being cleaned
30:33 as a symbol of the forthcoming cross.
30:35 Now look at this right here, absolutely amazing,
30:38 verse 10, and Jesus said to him,
30:39 "He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet
30:43 but is completely" what's the word everyone?
30:46 Clean, now watch this, "And you are all" what?
30:51 Cleaned.
30:53 And then He adds but not all of you.
30:55 Now the but, not all of you part is a reference to, who?
30:58 Judas plainly.
30:59 So do you see the similarity in language in this passage
31:02 and our passage in John 15, yes or no?
31:04 Jesus says here, listen, you are all already clean.
31:08 In fact here He adds, you are completely clean.
31:14 They were not clean by virtue of their spotless lives.
31:18 They were not clean by virtue of their rigorous adherence
31:21 to the Mosaic Law or any other law.
31:24 They were clean because the infinite God of the universe
31:27 had cleaned them up Himself.
31:30 And He says here, already clean, in fact completely clean.
31:34 So it makes perfect sense that just a couple hours later
31:36 when He says, "You are all already cleaned
31:39 because of the word I have spoken you."
31:40 Immediately they would have thought of that experience
31:43 that just happened a few moments before.
31:44 A few hours before perhaps
31:46 in the upper room when Jesus said, wash their feet.
31:50 Are we all in the same page, everyone, yes or no?
31:52 Yes.
31:53 Powerful.
31:54 Now, Jesus cleans the dirty, dusty feet of the disciples
32:00 as a symbol, as a what everyone?
32:03 As a symbol of His condescension,
32:05 in fact not just a symbol of His condescension
32:07 but as a manifestation of His condescension.
32:09 But as a symbol of the forthcoming cleanliness
32:12 that they would receive only from His blood
32:14 shed on the cross.
32:17 Now with that in mind go back to John 15.
32:21 Let's go plug this in.
32:24 And as we're prepared to plug this in,
32:26 some of you I'm afraid are going to be mildly uncomfortable
32:31 with some of the conclusions
32:32 that we're going to draw from this.
32:34 But I assure you they will be biblical conclusions.
32:38 Let us just think here for a moment
32:39 about the condition of the disciples
32:41 when Jesus tells them
32:43 that they are all already completely clean,
32:46 as oppose to dirty and filthy.
32:49 The disciples are perfect at this point.
32:54 Yes or no?
32:56 Far from it.
32:58 In fact, the reason that Jesus had to wash their feet
33:01 is that they were busy arguing
33:02 about who is going to be the greatest.
33:09 Still having issues with pride.
33:11 Still struggling with sin in their life obviously.
33:17 Did the disciples at this point understand the concept,
33:21 the theological concept of the crucifixion?
33:24 Yes or No?
33:25 No, they are totally confused.
33:27 I mean that, that was right out there in John 13
33:29 I mean, it's just plain as day.
33:30 Jesus says to him, you do not understand.
33:32 Now but you're going to understand,
33:34 so the disciples we could say fairly were theologically inept.
33:39 If they don't understand the crucifixion,
33:40 it's a guarantee I mean, its prima facie proof
33:43 that they don't understand the resurrection.
33:46 Right, if you don't have the crucifixion part,
33:47 you definitely don't have the resurrection part.
33:49 And so here we are with these disciples
33:51 still filled with the spirit of pride,
33:53 still struggling with issues in their lives,
33:55 no question about that.
33:56 Who do not understand all of the nuances of theology,
34:00 the crucifixion, the resurrection and all.
34:02 No.
34:03 And Jesus has the temerity to say to these guys,
34:06 you are all already completely clean.
34:14 Forgive me for being so bold here
34:16 but the only conclusion
34:18 that I feel that we can safely come to is this conclusion
34:21 and its going to make some of you uncomfortable
34:22 for which I don't apologize.
34:26 And that is that cleanliness in Christ
34:28 must precede Christian character perfection.
34:34 Did you get that?
34:35 Amen.
34:36 It was kind of a scary amen there.
34:38 It's kind of a... amen.
34:43 And some people try to say amen and nothing came out,
34:45 they are like...
34:48 what did he say, let's say it again.
34:50 Apparently cleanliness in Christ precedes being a perfect person.
34:55 Amen.
34:57 In fact, my thesis this morning
34:58 and how to make the Christian faith works goes something like,
35:01 how to make the Christian faith work, goes something like this.
35:03 You'll never even get to Christian character perfection,
35:06 if you don't have confidence
35:07 about your cleanliness in Christ today.
35:09 Amen.
35:11 Now we are back in John 15.
35:13 Let's look at verses 1 to 3 again
35:15 and it's going to make by the grace of God,
35:17 perfect sense I mean, such logical sense,
35:21 I'm fiercely logical, sometimes to a fault.
35:25 But here we're going to see how it's just all fits together.
35:29 John 15, beginning in verse 1,
35:31 "I am the true vine, my Father is the vinedresser.
35:36 Every branch in Me that does bears no fruit, he takes away,
35:38 and every branch that bears fruit he prunes,
35:39 that it may bear more fruit.
35:41 You are all already clean
35:42 through the word that I have spoken to you."
35:45 And then the first word of verse 4 is "stay there."
35:50 Stay where?
35:52 Stay clean in me.
35:55 Jesus could not exhort them to stay in Christ
35:59 to abide in Christ
36:01 until He had first made it crystal clear to them
36:03 that they were in fact in Christ.
36:08 He can not exhort them to remain
36:10 where they don't know they are.
36:14 And so He says you are all already cleaned
36:16 not because of what you have done
36:18 but hallelujah because of what I have done.
36:20 Now stay in that faith relationship
36:23 trusting to what I have done for you.
36:25 Amen.
36:27 And then the rest of the verses
36:28 make such good sense, stay there.
36:31 Stay there. Stay there.
36:35 Remain there.
36:36 Stay right there, stay, stay, stay, stay, stay, stay.
36:42 May of you have disobedient dogs
36:44 that you pretend are obedient.
36:48 I have seen this a hundreds times if I have seen it once
36:51 and that is the person that,
36:54 you know, they persuaded themselves
36:55 that their dog is really obedient
36:56 and say, oh, yeah, it's a good dog, great dog.
36:59 And so the dog, you know, all of a sudden a squirrel comes.
37:05 Going out to the squirrel.
37:06 Rover, come here.
37:08 No but he obeys.
37:09 Rover, come here.
37:11 And he finally get Rover to come over and you say, now stay.
37:13 And the dog just shoots off around the block.
37:15 Get the dog back, now stay.
37:18 The dog go to some or other place, now stay.
37:20 That is the imagery I want you to have here.
37:23 The dog wants to run away, the master is saying stay.
37:27 That's exactly what Jesus is saying,
37:28 stay there, stay right there.
37:31 Stay put, don't move,
37:33 stay clean in me.
37:38 Beloved you cannot continue to abide in Christ,
37:43 if you do not have the present tense confidence
37:45 that you presently reside in Christ.
37:49 Just try staying somewhere that you don't know you are.
37:56 But this is the rub,
38:00 many people, many sincere Christian people
38:07 are trying desperately to remain in Christ,
38:12 to abide in Christ, to be a good Christian,
38:15 to live the good Christian life
38:17 without the present tense confidence
38:19 that they are in Christ.
38:22 How can you remain in Christ
38:24 if you don't believe that you are in Christ?
38:28 That's Jesus' whole point.
38:30 He says, abide in me, stay in me,
38:33 stay put, stay right where you are.
38:37 What about the disciples, were they perfect, yes or no?
38:40 No.
38:42 But you know, something interesting about the disciples.
38:45 Disciples would go out in the course of the day
38:47 and they make a mistake.
38:48 They were very good at making mistakes, weren't they?
38:50 Yes or no?
38:52 Yeah, almost as good as some of you.
38:54 They're very good at.
38:55 They make a mistake in the day,
38:56 they would say things like
38:57 oh, Jesus we went to this city
38:59 and they didn't want to receive you and we got a great idea,
39:01 we want to burn the place to the ground.
39:06 And Jesus would be like,
39:07 well, let's not think so outside of the box.
39:14 Let's look at this from a different perspective writing
39:16 and or another example
39:17 you know, the young people,
39:18 you know, the children want to rush to Jesus
39:20 who was right there, get away, get away,
39:21 the master doesn't have time for this
39:23 and Jesus would then turn on and say,
39:24 "Suffer the little ones to come unto me."
39:26 And He would look at His disciples and say,
39:27 "Except you become one as these, you are not going to heaven."
39:32 Oops.
39:34 So the disciples were very good at making mistakes,
39:36 very, very good at making mistakes
39:38 but you want to know something interesting about the disciples.
39:40 Every night, do you know where they were?
39:45 They were in camp with Jesus.
39:49 And every morning, you know what,
39:51 they would wake up in Jesus' camp.
39:54 And they would go out
39:55 and I tell you they have the very best intentions
39:57 that day to not make one of those mistakes,
39:59 do not say something foolhardy,
40:00 they have the very best intentions
40:02 but in the unlikely or if we prefer a likely event
40:05 that they made a mistake,
40:07 that they fall or fell that they--
40:09 that they said something stupid
40:10 or that they did the wrong thing.
40:13 I guarantee that at the end of the day
40:14 you know, where they were?
40:16 They were back around that campfire with Jesus.
40:20 The next morning they started that day with Jesus.
40:24 And so you could have pointed to the various failures,
40:27 the various inconsistencies
40:28 and the various hypocrisies of their life
40:30 but Jesus wasn't looking at the occasional deed or misdeed,
40:34 Jesus was looking at the general tendency of the life
40:37 and the general tendency of the life for 3 1/2 years
40:39 was to be in camp with Jesus.
40:43 So I am reading from Steps to Christ, page 57.
40:45 "The character is revealed
40:46 not by occasional good deeds and occasional misdeeds,
40:49 but by the tendency of the habitual words and acts."
40:57 The disciples imperfect though they were,
41:00 always ended the day with Jesus
41:03 and they started the day with Jesus.
41:07 And God evaluated them
41:09 and told them that they were clean
41:11 on the basis of the general tendency of their life.
41:16 They stuck it out with Jesus.
41:21 The Bible says, a just man.
41:23 A what kind of man?
41:25 A just man falls seven times,
41:30 and rises up again.
41:33 The difference between the just man and the unjust man
41:36 is not that the just man never falls,
41:40 it's that when he falls, he gets back up.
41:42 Amen.
41:44 The difference between
41:46 the just woman and the unjust woman
41:47 is not that the just woman never makes a mistake
41:49 or never gossips or never gets upset.
41:52 No, no, no, the difference is when you fall,
41:54 you choose to get back up.
41:58 The disciples made mistakes many
42:00 and you have made mistakes many
42:02 and the devil tries to discourage you
42:04 with your mistakes and with your failures
42:06 and with your faults and with your foibles.
42:08 But the trick to the--
42:09 the whole trick to the Christian experience is get back up.
42:13 Amen.
42:15 Stay with Him.
42:17 Get dust yourself off.
42:19 If you have to come to Jesus,
42:21 say Jesus, clean my feet I need help
42:23 and he's gonna clean those feet up
42:24 and He's gonna send you back in to the game, go get him boy.
42:30 Just get back up.
42:33 When you fall if you stay down,
42:35 the devil has gained a victory.
42:38 If you get back up and go to Jesus,
42:40 the devil can't touch you.
42:46 Jesus says, stay there.
42:48 Stay where?
42:49 Stay in a faith relationship with me.
42:50 Paul was writing to the church in Galatian
42:52 and he said, wait a minute, wait a minute confusion,
42:54 you started this thing by faith,
42:56 are you now made perfect by the works of the flesh,
42:59 by the works of the law, no, no, no.
43:01 Listen, salvation is by faith
43:03 from beginning all the way through to the end.
43:06 Amen.
43:08 You are justified by faith, you are sanctified by faith
43:11 and you will be glorified by faith.
43:15 There is no transition point where it's by faith
43:18 and then it quickly transitions in to works, no, no, no, no.
43:21 Its by faith, by faith, by faith
43:23 you believe what God has done,
43:25 is doing, you fall down,
43:27 you make a mistake get back up,
43:29 dust yourself off, and by the grace of God
43:31 those periods of mistake will become further and further apart
43:36 and your victories will become more and more grand
43:38 and more numerous in consistent
43:40 and before you know, what, you'll look in the mirror
43:42 and you won't even recognize that person.
43:44 Amen.
43:47 Because God is working.
43:51 Abide in me, stay right there.
43:57 There's a question, people say Pastor Asscherick,
44:00 do you believe in victory over sin?
44:06 To ask that question is to answer it.
44:10 If I don't believe in victory over sin,
44:14 then I must believe in sin over victory.
44:18 And if the devil contempt me to sin
44:21 but Jesus can't keep me from sinning,
44:23 then I'm serving the wrong being.
44:28 If the devil is strong enough and powerful enough
44:30 and clever enough to tempt me and entice me into sin
44:33 but my God is not strong enough to keep me from sinning,
44:36 then I am in trouble.
44:40 Of course I believe in victory over sin.
44:42 How can you read both the Old and the New Testaments
44:44 and not believe that God's plan for His people
44:47 is not just deliverance from the penalty of sin
44:49 but also deliverance
44:50 from the very power of sin in their lives.
44:53 Amen.
44:56 I say with C.D. Brooks, I am not the man that I want to be
44:59 but I can rejoice that neither am I the man I used to be.
45:04 There is a transition.
45:07 God begins to work in you His marvelous work, why?
45:11 Because you are super saint now,
45:13 because you are on your own now, no.
45:14 Because you are abiding in Christ by faith,
45:16 you're sticking it out with Jesus.
45:18 You're reminding yourself daily, hourly,
45:20 moment by moment if need be that Jesus washes you,
45:23 Jesus cleanses you.
45:24 It's about what Jesus has done and everything that you do
45:28 is in response to that great initial act of God's love.
45:34 Your obedience does not cause God to love you.
45:37 Your obedience is the sign that you've accepted the love
45:39 that He has already demonstrated by dying on a tree.
45:47 Do you believe that Jesus could keep you
45:50 from sinning for one second?
45:54 Anyone believe that?
45:56 How about two seconds?
46:00 Okay, how about 60 seconds?
46:06 Anybody think that's possible?
46:08 Right.
46:09 I can hold my breath for 60 seconds.
46:12 Right.
46:13 So technically I can just say, okay, here we go.
46:15 No sin zone.
46:19 Now think about Jesus, I'm gonna hold my breath,
46:21 I can't say anything, I can't move too fast or too quickly.
46:24 So I believe there for a full 60 seconds
46:27 Jesus could give me the power to not sin for 60 seconds.
46:30 You believe that's possible?
46:32 Yeah, but you know where this is going.
46:36 Ooh!
46:38 Oh, that's just fiercely logical, isn't it?
46:40 So if He can keep me from sinning for one second,
46:42 then by definition for two seconds
46:45 because all that a two is just two ones.
46:49 Right.
46:50 And if He can keep me for two,
46:51 then He can keep me for three
46:52 and if He can keep me for three, He can keep me for four,
46:54 four for five, all the way, why not?
46:59 Why not?
47:00 Now here's the good news.
47:02 You are not thinking about that.
47:05 You are thinking about Jesus.
47:10 God is more powerful than Satan.
47:16 God wants to grow you
47:19 into a person that you may scarcely recognize
47:23 when He's done.
47:25 It can be a little exhausting,
47:29 it can be sometimes laboriously slow
47:33 but dare I say it,
47:35 that if you will end up in camp with Jesus every night
47:41 and you will wake up with Jesus in the morning.
47:45 If you will stay there
47:48 that God is gonna do something in your life,
47:51 that even you could scarcely believe.
47:55 Now in closing open your Bibles to Mathew 5,
47:58 last passage of scripture.
48:01 In speaking of the subject of Christian growth,
48:05 I personally know of no other
48:08 more simple encouraging
48:15 and profoundly beautiful passage than the Beatitudes.
48:18 Now I want to show you
48:19 the Beatitudes by the grace of God
48:21 in a way that may be you've never seen before.
48:22 We're gonna do it quickly.
48:25 This is Jesus' first public address, right?
48:29 He is baptized there in the opening chapters of Mathew
48:32 and this is really the beginning of Jesus' public ministry.
48:35 This is sort of His, the opening state of the kingdom address.
48:41 Jesus begins and He gives us these things
48:44 that we refer to as the Beatitudes
48:45 but really the Beatitudes are like a Christian ladder.
48:49 A Christian, what everyone?
48:50 Ladder.
48:51 Moving from A to B
48:54 then from B to C, from C to D
48:57 and right up the ladder, he gives us a progression.
48:59 A what every one?
49:00 Progression. Progression.
49:02 See sometimes we study the Bible,
49:03 if we don't study the Bible carefully,
49:04 we think we're just getting
49:05 these little isolated anecdotal proverbial statements,
49:08 well, that's nice.
49:09 Blessed are the poor in spirit,
49:11 for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. That's so nice.
49:12 I think I am going to cross-stitch that
49:14 and hang in my bathroom wall.
49:18 Hey, good, knock yourself out.
49:19 But there is something more there.
49:23 The Beatitudes are not just
49:24 these little sound bites of religious wisdom,
49:27 there is something there.
49:29 I want to show it to you by the grace of God.
49:31 Here we go, right in the beginning, Jesus says,
49:32 "Blessed are the poor in spirit,
49:34 for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
49:36 Blessed are the poor in spirit.
49:38 Jesus says, "Blessed are those
49:39 who recognize their spiritual poverty,
49:43 For theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
49:45 Now we have three verb tenses
49:46 in the English language past, present and future.
49:49 And Jesus here employs the word is, which is present tense.
49:52 He says, "Blessed are those who recognize,
49:54 happier are those who recognize their spiritual poverty,
49:56 for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
49:59 You say, amen. Amen.
50:01 Present tense. So what would be the next step?
50:03 After we come to the cross,
50:04 after we realize our spiritual impoverishment.
50:06 After we realize that it is God's work and not our work.
50:09 We realize that we are sinners in need of a Savior.
50:11 We come to Jesus and we realize at the foot of the cross
50:13 that we are spiritually bankrupt.
50:18 There is no salvageable material in you.
50:21 So just disabuse your mind of that ridiculous notion.
50:24 There is no good thing in you.
50:26 When you come to the foot of the cross,
50:27 God starts with from scratch.
50:31 David said, create in me a what?
50:34 Clean heart, O God.
50:35 And when God creates, He creates us,
50:38 the theologians would say Ex nihilo,
50:40 that is out of nothing.
50:42 He doesn't have some raw material that you dig in there
50:44 and say Oh, yeah I think
50:45 we got a little we can work with here and that.
50:47 No, He just throw, you go--
50:51 Right, we guys have to get in and throw that out
50:52 that's we can't keep any of that.
50:54 He's got to start from scratch with you
50:56 and so He recognize your spiritual poverty
50:58 and Jesus says, happy are those
50:59 who recognize their spiritual poverty
51:01 because theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
51:03 The thief on the cross.
51:06 He knows he is bankrupt.
51:10 I mean, if ever there was a time to trust God
51:12 it's when you're hanging from a tree.
51:17 That would be a good choice.
51:18 Hedge your bets, right?
51:21 So the thief on the cross,
51:22 he doesn't have time to become a vegan.
51:29 He just has time to put his trust in this man there
51:33 that's crucified between him and the other.
51:36 He knows his spiritual bankruptcy
51:38 and so he trusts Jesus.
51:40 And Jesus says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you today.
51:44 You are gonna be with me in paradise."
51:47 Second verse, "Blessed are those
51:49 who mourn for they shall be comforted."
51:50 When you realize your spiritual bankruptcy
51:52 you don't throw a party.
51:55 You mourn your present spiritual condition.
51:56 Can some one say, amen.
51:57 Amen.
51:59 Follow the sequence, it's very simple.
52:00 You recognize your spiritual poverty
52:01 and then you mourn that spiritual condition
52:03 but notice what Jesus says here,
52:04 "Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted."
52:07 Notice with me that the verb tense has changed.
52:11 In the first Beatitude, your's is the kingdom of heaven,
52:14 in the second Beatitude, you shall be what?
52:17 Comforted.
52:18 What happens after that,
52:19 what happens after we mourn our spiritual condition?
52:21 "Blessed are the--'' what?
52:23 "Meek, for they shall inherit the earth."
52:25 When you realize that you're spiritually bankrupt
52:26 and you're mourning that spiritual condition.
52:28 This would cause you not to be proud and hardy
52:30 and high-minded but to be humble.
52:33 Realizing beloved that the ground is level
52:35 at the foot of the cross
52:36 and you are no better and praise the Lord,
52:38 no worst than any other sinner.
52:41 Can someone say, amen. Amen.
52:42 Oh, no matter what the Pharisee say.
52:47 Jesus says, "Blessed are the meek"
52:49 and so you see the progression it's so chronological,
52:52 it's so powerful, you recognize your spiritual poverty,
52:54 you mourn your spiritual condition
52:56 and then this causes you to be meek.
52:58 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
53:01 What's next?
53:02 Well, of course verse 6 is next.
53:04 Well, what do you mean at that point?
53:06 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for food.
53:12 What you are hungering and thirsting for
53:14 when you realize your spiritual bankruptcy,
53:15 you're mourning your spiritual condition
53:16 and this causes you to be meek.
53:18 What are you hungering for?
53:20 You need righteousness.
53:23 A righteousness that you do not own that you do not possess,
53:26 your righteousness's are like filthy rags.
53:27 You need an external righteousness
53:29 that God gives to you as a free gift
53:31 and so you hunger and you thirst for righteousness
53:34 and Jesus says, "They shall be filled."
53:37 Do you see the progression everyone, yes or no?
53:40 Verse 7, "Blessed are the merciful,
53:42 for they shall obtain mercy."
53:43 When you realize that you are the recipient,
53:46 the undeserved recipient of God's mercy,
53:48 then you would want to bestow that mercy
53:50 upon those around you.
53:52 Amen.
53:54 Beloved, coming to the foot of the cross
53:56 causes you to say, I am the recipient,
53:57 the undeserved recipient of God's mercy.
53:59 I now want to be an instrument
54:01 through which God can shed His mercy upon others.
54:05 And God here begins to work the transformation
54:07 and it sometimes refer to as sanctification.
54:09 Sometimes we get all caught up in this theological
54:12 Norman Geisler, justification,
54:13 sanctification, blah, blah, blahfication.
54:16 Beloved, it's about Jesus, stay with Jesus.
54:20 Now I am not in any way down playing the importance
54:23 and the sophistication of the study of the Bible
54:28 and of the significance and the sophistication of theology.
54:30 What I am saying is, don't loose Jesus in your theology.
54:36 The goal is to find Him there.
54:38 Amen.
54:40 Verse 8, "Blessed are the pure in heart,
54:42 for they shall see God." Wow.
54:43 You know what happens
54:44 when you start bestowing mercy upon others.
54:47 God starts to work a change in you.
54:50 That change comes about when you stop paying attention
54:53 primarily at your own needs and your situation
54:55 and you start trying to find opportunities
54:57 to lavish mercy upon others,
54:58 God begins to work a change in you,
55:00 He begins to purify the springs of your heart.
55:03 What are we seeing, rejoice, ye, pure in heart.
55:07 Well, notice what he says.
55:08 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall, what?
55:10 See God.
55:11 And so what's happening here is
55:12 you're climbing the spiritual ladder,
55:13 you recognize your spiritual poverty,
55:15 you mourn your spiritual condition.
55:16 This causes you to be meek to those around you.
55:18 You hunger and thirst for righteousness.
55:21 You realize that you are the undeserved recipient
55:22 of God's mercy and so you are merciful to others
55:24 and then now where we are?
55:27 Where we are?
55:29 Yeah, our heart is becoming pure.
55:33 We're to the final or to the second to the last step,
55:35 you are the penultimate step.
55:37 Verse 9, "Blessed are the-" what?
55:40 "Peacemakers, for they shall be called the Son's of God."
55:42 Now, peacemakers, what that means is blessed are those
55:45 who take upon themselves the personal responsibility
55:48 of being ambassadors for Christ
55:50 and communicating to the uninformed, uninitiated world
55:54 that God has made peace with them through Jesus.
55:57 That's how you became a peacemaker.
55:58 Jesus was the prince of peace
56:00 and He came to make peace in that sense.
56:02 And so we too when we give Bible studies,
56:04 when we preach evangelistic service,
56:06 when we extend the arm of Jesus to those around us,
56:09 we are becoming peacemakers, we are becoming like Jesus.
56:12 Can you say, amen? Amen.
56:14 Powerful, you find that there in 2 Corinthians 5
56:16 where the Apostle Paul says, we beseech you therefore,
56:19 we beseech you on behalf of Jesus,
56:21 be reconciled to God
56:23 and so we become peacemakers
56:24 when we don't just keep our religion to ourselves.
56:33 If your neighbor doesn't know you are a Christian,
56:37 maybe you're not.
56:42 If your co-workers don't know that you are a Christian,
56:45 maybe you're not.
56:49 If your employees don't know that you're a Christian,
56:53 maybe you're not.
56:55 And someone had said,
56:56 if you were accused of being a Christian in a court of law
56:59 would there be enough evidence to convict you?
57:03 True religion is not kept to oneself, amen.
57:07 Every disciple is born into the kingdom of God
57:09 as a missionary and so we become peacekeepers
57:12 and notice it says, you are peacemakers.
57:13 "Blessed are the peacemakers,
57:14 for they shall be called the sons of God.''
57:15 Of course after Jesus who was the son of God.
57:18 Now we are at the top of the ladder,
57:19 everything is up to this point, okay, get this.
57:21 We are talking about Christian growth.
57:22 We are talking about abiding in Christ.
57:23 So what's the first step at the ladder, say with me.
57:25 You recognize your spiritual, what?
57:27 Poverty.
57:28 And then you mourn that spiritual condition.
57:30 This causes you to be meek
57:31 and then you're hunger and thirst for righteousness.
57:33 You realize that you are
57:34 the undeserved recipient of God's mercy.
57:36 And so you want to bestow that mercy upon other.
57:38 So far so good everyone?
57:39 Okay.
57:40 And then you reach out to others communicating that mercy,
57:42 you become a peacemaker all the way up the ladder of faith
57:46 you're climbing up the ladder of faith
57:48 until you reach the top,
57:50 the ultimate apex of this ladder of faith.
57:53 The final Beatitude, Jesus says, "Blessed are those
57:55 who are persecuted for righteousness sake,
57:57 for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
58:03 It's the same thing.
58:05 The last promise is the same as the first promise.
58:09 You know what Jesus is saying?
58:11 Wherever you are on the ladder,
58:14 your's is the kingdom of heaven.
58:15 Amen.
58:18 Wherever you are on that ladder,
58:20 your's is the kingdom of heaven.
58:21 Right here, right now, yours is God's kingdom.
58:27 You might be the thief on the cross
58:29 at the very bottom, bottom, bottom,
58:30 but your's is the kingdom of heaven.
58:33 You might be all the way up at the top
58:35 being persecuted for righteousness sake
58:37 because you are so filled with the spirit of Christ,
58:39 and you get the same reward
58:41 but let me tell you something
58:42 that even my five year old boy understands.
58:44 Ladders offer climbing.
58:49 It's not the divine lazy boy.
58:54 It's the divine ladder.
58:57 So if you are at the bottom,
59:00 you shouldn't be content to stay there.
59:04 So you climb but you take that step in the confidence
59:08 that yours is the kingdom of heaven.
59:10 You cannot continue to abide in Christ
59:14 if you don't have a living confidence
59:15 that you presently reside in Christ.
59:17 I think I figured this thing out.
59:21 You stay with Jesus, you stick it out with Jesus
59:27 and He will take care of the hard part.
59:31 You hang in there with Jesus
59:35 and He will finish the work
59:40 that He has begun in you.


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Revised 2014-12-17