This is a rush transcript.

[00:00:00] Has anyone else been watching the Olympics around here?

[00:00:05] I don't know if you know, but the Olympics are happening right now in Rio de Janeiro. And one of the things we enjoy and my family is sitting down and watching the Olympics, I had no idea that my two year olds would enjoy watching a 10000 meter race until last night, but they were digging it like they're running. They're still running. Look, that guy. He's running. It was awesome. I hope that you've been enjoying that time. And it is a special time in the life of sports in the in the world, because really it's a time where we care about sports that we really don't care about. I don't know if you've noticed this, but I have not really been into a cycling race like I have been the last few weeks. Badminton has not really crossed my mind, but definitely interested to see what's happening there. And I don't know if you've been inspired by the Olympics. Right. Very inspirational stories going on. Maybe some of you have been inspired this week that you're like, man, I actually want to go find the pool.

[00:01:04] I actually wanna go find a pool that I could swim some laps in. Right. And I'm I'm thinking about what's going to be my, like, pre swim routine. You know, just getting all the muscles loose and, you know, doing one of these are Michael Phelps has already taken that one. What's going to be my signature warm up? You know, sometimes when you're preaching, you kind of do that as well. But it's so special to see what's going on in the Olympics. And one of the things I love watch in is that reaction on a person's face when they realize they've just won their first gold medal by some people. They've won like in the 20s. And they're like, OK. Another one, sweet. But there's the person that's like they've been training their whole life. And they finally get to the point where they have won the gold medal. And just to see the way that their face lights up, it's so exciting. It's a you know, it's a want to be athlete. It's inspiring to see real athletes in action. And just that that that recognition that you see on their face that all of the time, all of the work, all of the effort that I have put into this sport that I have dedicated myself to for years and years and years of my life, it is now all worth it, right, that there is this this recognition that. Yes. Praise the Lord, I've done this I've done this work. And now I have seen the results. And in our lives, God has called us to some work. Right while we spend our time, our days here in this life. God has given us things to do right. God has given us a work. And we'll be explaining this word in a minute. But a work of sanctification that he wants us to participate in in our lives. And this morning, we're gonna be going to a passage that's gonna help us see the finish line, that's going to help us see what is going to be the end result of all of the things that God calls us to in our life. And I think if we don't have that clear, if we see just what God has called us to do without seeing the results at the end of what's going to happen, we might have the wrong attitude towards the things that God has called us to do here in our lives day in and day out. And and really, this is gonna be a sweet year in the life of our church, as Bobby and I have been thinking and praying about what we'll be preaching through and even continuing our study in the Gospel of John. We're we're actually calling this next year in the life of our church, the year of sanctification. Right. You can hashtag that if you want to. Right. We're calling it the year of sanctification. And what we're what we're meaning by that is that this is a year where the passages that we are going to be studying right now in the Christian life, there's really never not a year of sanctification. We just qualify it by saying that. But the passages that we're gonna look at this year are going to be very focused on believers. Right. Even as we've been studying the gospel of John over this last year in chapters one through twelve, it's Jesus public ministry. And there's very much a hey, here he is. Here's what he's claiming to be here, the things that he's doing. Here's the way that he is helping people to see which side they're really on or they are on the side of the religious leaders, really of the devil, or are they on the Lord's side? What do we really believe about Jesus? That's been the question we've been coming to again and again and again over the first 12 chapters of the Gospel of John. And we've well, praise the Lord. We've seen people get saved here at our church because they've been confronted with the gospel, with who Jesus really is. And we've had many people come and see Jesus Christ as he has declared himself to be the son of God, the Christ who's here to save us from our sins. And it's been epic. But this next passage in the church on the Gospel of John, Chapter 13 through 17, it's very much Jesus kind of huddling up with his disciples and he is telling them how he wants them to live after he's going to die and be resurrected and ascend into heaven. And while they're waiting for him to return, there is very much a here's how to live in the meantime, here's how to live in sanctification. Bobby's gonna be starting us back. Into John, Chapter 13. Two weeks from today, which is very exciting, I'm very excited to get back to the gospel of John. And next week, we've got a special guest speaker who also has the last name of Blakey Bishop Bruce Blake. He will be bringing the word for us next week. And he's going to be talking about a key area where living for the Lord, our sanctification really comes into play. And that's going to be the family. So I hope that you'll come back next week. But before we get to our text, I really wanted to actually make sure we actually understand. What do we mean when we say sanctification? Right. We've got these theological words that we use to describe concepts in the Bible, and they're biblical words, but not everybody necessarily knows what we mean. So before we get our text, can we just talk about, like a salvation timeline for a moment here? We go through this together. Let's start off with the way that each and every one of us starts off in our life. And it starts off that we are not a Christian. That is the way that each and every turn your Bibles to a Fenians, chapter two. And we'll just spend a few minutes walking through this for a moment before we get into our main text for this morning, page 976. If you've got one of our Bibles in Ephesians, chapter two versus one through three. Paul writes. And you were dead in the trespass as ensigns in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air. The spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. And we're by nature, children of wrath like the rest of mankind, the way that you and I and every human person starts out. Apart from Jesus Christ is that we're not Christian. We're actually separated from God because of our sin. And we live our lives not for the Lord, but for ourselves. That's the way that each and every one of us starts, right? That's the way we're naturally born into this world. No one had to sit me down and explain to me how to sin. It came kind of prewired in to the way that I live my life. And during this period of our life, we know that God is doing a drawing work, that right then at that point in every person's life, that God is calling to people to come to himself. Even all your notes, you can kind of draw this picture just to give you a helpful reminder of what's going on, that God is helping people right now who aren't safe. He is helping them to understand the gospel. He's helping them to understand the good news of Jesus Christ and of our need for salvation and how it can only be found in him. It can't be found in any works that we do. He's helping people to understand what it means to really repent of their sin, that they can't continue to live in sin and say that Jesus Christ is their lord and savior. God is helping people to understand what faith really is. It isn't just understanding the information about the Bible or about who God is. It's really putting my trust in Jesus Christ to save me.

[00:07:55] God is helping people to understand how good he is. He's helping people to understand that the things of this life that I thought would satisfy me, that would bring me meaning and fulfillment. I am realizing that that is not delivering on the promise I hoped it would deliver. God is convicting people of their sin, of their need for salvation, that God is very active in people's life, hoping to draw them to himself.

[00:08:19] Right. That God wants people to be safe. He wants people to turn away from their sin. But there comes a point, right? If someone does get saved when a person repents and believes in the gospel, there comes a point where everything changes in their life. And we call that theologically and biblically, we call that justification. Justification is when God looks at a person and declares them to be righteous, he declares them to be just he declares them not guilty in his sight. You could write down even just next to that if you're kind of follow along with this chart. Write down Romans three twenty four where it says, we are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, that that a lot of things happen very quickly. Right. We can't even separate them out in terms of time. But right at that moment, God gives people the ability to repent and turn away from their sin and to put their trust in him. God declares them righteous. He declares them not guilty. God, it drops them into his family. God gives them the Holy Spirit. They start living a new life. They get spiritual life. And all of that happens like that right there in a moment, right when a person repents and believes in the gospel. They get saved and really then they start living as a new creation in Jesus Christ. Right. That their old life is is not their new life. Right. They're living a brand new life, a spiritual life, a different kind of life than they lived before. They still look the same. They still talk with the same accent. Maybe, but they're a new person in Jesus Christ, that they're old things that have gone. And now there are new things there that have. You could write down Second Corinthians five, 17 as a as a ref, as a reference, but really, as we think about the Christian life, we realize that the best is yet to come. Right. There's a point at which we are justified and declared righteous by the Lord. But we are looking forward to another point where we will be glorified. We are looking forward to glorification that when Jesus returns and he brings all of his people that he has saved home to bring with him to be with him forever. That is going to be the day that I long to see you, long to see that if you're in Christ, you long to be with the Lord. You longer no longer have temptations to sin going on in your life. Anybody else excited about that? That when Jesus comes back and when we're at with him forever in heaven, with the Lord, the new heavens and the new earth, we're gonna get new bodies. Where you get new bodies that don't have the same weaknesses that we do today, that are not marred by sin, that are really fit to be with God forever in heaven. And we're gonna get to see him in all of its glory. We're gonna get to be with him that we have a relationship with him right now through the Holy Spirit. But then we will see him. And when it says we want to see him, we will be like him. You can write down first, John. Three, two. Beloved, we are God's children now. And what we built will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is right that all all of the temptations that we face, all the things that we fight against in our lives, that that struggle will be done when we are with the Lord, that he will make us in our character. He will finish the work that he has begun of salvation in our lives and then forever. We are going to be with the Lord. We're going to be in his presence, worshiping him forever. We're not going to get tired. In heaven, there's not gonna be any sickness or pain. We're gonna be in his presence, adoring him for ever that that's the Christian life. But really, there's this point in between when we get justified and the point of when we get glorified, there is a a length of time in the middle there where that is where God's work of sanctification is ongoing. That in the middle is the process of sanctification. Justification happens at a moment and happens at a point in time. And it's always true. From then on, when we get glorified, that's gonna happen in one specific moment and then it's gonna entrance into a new state. And sanctification is a process. It's a process that God begins the day that we get saved. And he does not stop it all the way until we reach glorification where we are with him forever, that when we get justified. One of the things that the Bible says happens to us is we get set apart. And that's really what that word sanctification means, that God puts us in a new category. He puts us not in the category of someone who's worthy of his judgment, who's far from him, but he transforms us into the kingdom of his beloved son. We are now one of his children that we are set apart from who we used to be in the new life that we're living in Jesus Christ right now. But it's also a process. It's also something that on an ongoing basis, God is setting us apart from sin to live for him.

[00:13:15] Right in justification. God has declared for all time that I am perfect, that I am acceptable in his sight. That's not based on the fact that I am perfect. It's based on the fact that Jesus Christ was perfect and his perfection has been given to me.

[00:13:30] But in God's eyes, I've been declared perfect. But am I perfect right now or are you perfect right now? Absolutely not. I have not yet met a perfect Christian and anyone who says that there is that they are just going to prove that they're not. By saying that. But it really it really kicks off a process. Right. You could write down some versus like first in First Thessalonians four, it says this is the will of God, your sanctification. Right. You're setting apart from sin that you would abstain from sexual morality. We're not yet perfect. God wants to change through a process the way that you and I live. And he wants to transform our character so that we are more and more like Jesus Christ every day, every month, every year that we live. He wants to transform us. You could write down Second Corinthians three 18 and it says, and we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the spirit that there is this process by which I become more and more like Jesus Christ. And this is a process where I'm being set apart from sin to live for the Lord. You could write down Romans 12 to that. We're not supposed to be conformed to this world, still living the way that everyone who doesn't know the Lord lives. But we're to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. And that is a process that God is going to lead us through. You could even look to Colossians three versus one through ten and see that, hey, there's a process by which. We're already we've already died to send, but we're still putting it to death. We're still turning away from it. We're now putting on righteousness. We're putting off things that characterized our old person, our old self, and we're living in a new way that God wants us to live. And this is a turn and turn in your Bibles to Philippians, Chapter two. And let's just see the nature of this work. That really justification is the work that God himself does. Right. We do not participate in that work. All we bring to that work is the sin that makes our justification necessary. That's what we bring to the table. No amount of good works on our part of contributing to that. That's the work that God does. Glorification is going to be in an entire work of the Lord that he himself does in the end. But if you look at Philippians Chapter two, verses 12 and 13, we read those for us together. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed. So now not only is in my presence, but much more in my absence. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, right? That there is an aspect of which God is going to call you and I to do work right. That we are to work out our salvation that who God is declared us to be. We are now to live like that person in Jesus Christ that we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. This is something that we have a role to play in. But yet ultimately look at what it says in verse 13. It says, Ford is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. That justification is solely a work of the Lord. Glorification is solely a work of the Lord. But in the middle, there's this process of sanctification where God is really working, but he is working in us and through us that any effort that we expend, God is ultimately the one that is making that effort effective. Right. We're supposed to take it seriously. But on my own, in my own strength, I'm not going to be able to make myself more like Jesus Christ unless Jesus Christ is actually doing that work in me. Right. So that's basically an overview of what it looks like when a person comes to the Lord that we've got a future hope of being with the Lord. But in the meantime, while we wait for him to return, that God is going to be doing a sanctifying work in us. He's going to make us more like what he's already declared us to be and Jesus Christ. Does that make sense? Everybody, we good to keep going on. Let's turn to our texts for today. Jude versus twenty four and twenty five. You have not cracked open, Jude. You are in for a treat this morning. I am very excited. Paged 1027 if you've got one of our our Bibles. Right. Even as I was thinking about the Olympics, I was thinking about this text and preaching it this weekend. And there's the Olympic medalist that they're so happy to win a gold medal. And then there's some others that maybe you're just thrilled to be in the Olympics at all. I don't know if you've seen videos of some divers from some countries who maybe don't necessarily qualify for the finals, but they're just happy to be there. And as I was thinking about that, I was really thinking about all the Olympic hopefuls that didn't even make it to the Olympics. They trained for years and years, but they didn't see that light at the end of the tunnel and they gave up. Right. They they stopped short of continuing on all the way to the Olympics. And what we're going to see here in these two versus is really the end, which I hope that will change the way that we think about the work that God wants to do right now. Read with me, June 24 and 25.

[00:18:26] It says now to him, who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy to the only God, our savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord be glory, majesty, dominion and authority before all time and now and forever.

[00:18:45] Amen.

[00:18:46] Going to have to resist the temptation to just close in prayer and let it be done right there. This is a this is such a sweet passage. This has been one that I've long to preach on and for for a long time, because just so rich, so full of.

[00:19:00] Of joy, even just reading it makes me very excited about the Lord and what he will do in my life. And really what we're getting is a preview of what's going to happen in the end. There will be a day that every Christian will be presented blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy. That's what's going to happen. That is what is sure to happen in the life of every believer. And right now is we haven't reached that point yet. We are on our way there. We are waiting for Jesus to come back. This mindset that we see here, these attitudes, we're gonna see three attitudes towards our spiritual growth here this morning that I hope will transform. And even as we go into this next year of talking about what God wants for us to do, I hope that this morning what we learn will really help prepare us for what God has in store for us in the future. And let's look at this first attitude right here in verse 24 says now to him, who is able to keep you from stumbling?

[00:20:02] Right. Our first attitude that you can write down on your notes is as we think about our sanctification, as we think about our spiritual growth. Let's have the attitude that stumbling must cease. Stumbling must cease. This benediction here, this doxology is directed to him.

[00:20:22] Who is able to keep you from stumbling? Right there is talking about God's ability in this verse. Now, it's not saying that God is going to glorify a Christian right after they get say that they will be perfect. It's very clear from many points in the Bible that this is a process that we're going through. Even the apostle Paul himself says, hey, I haven't reached it yet. But I'm still pressing forward to the goal that that God wants me to. But basically, it's saying that God is able to keep you from stumbling. This verse should give us an understanding of what God is able to do in the life of a Christian. And can we just say can we just acknowledge that this attitude towards sin, towards stumbling is very, very different than the way that most people think in America today?

[00:21:11] Even most people who would claim to be Christians, most people the prevailing thought in the church today is stumbling is the status quo for a Christian right. That stumbling is the ongoing pattern of life for a Christian person right there. When I go to a small group, maybe not here in this church, but, you know, in an America large, I go to a small group. The thought is I'm stumbling. And the other person in my group says, me too, bro. And then we just close in prayer. And that's kind of the end of it, right?

[00:21:41] That we we really think that stumbling, that continuing to live in sin is the normal thought for the Christian life is that we're still there are many people, far too many people that think that we are still under the dominion, under the power of sin in our lives.

[00:22:01] And we want to say it loudly and clearly that God is able to keep us from stumbling. And I get a name and a man of God is able to keep us from something many of us need to change our attitude towards sin. Right. And here's just something for us to think about. Right. That the Bible declares that if a person is continually, perpetually, habitually living in sin, without repentance, without change, without victory, that that person might not even be a Christian. If you were to look at first, John, three versus four through 10, you could write that down on your notes and make statements like No one who who continues in sin has either seen him or known him. Right. If you have sin in your life. That's ongoing. That you've never really repented of, that you've never really turned away from that. You've never really had victory over. The question should be, am I really living a new life in Jesus Christ? Right. Of the old things. Have they started to go and I'm living in a new way in Jesus Christ? Or is it just more of the same all the time in my life? It says also in First, John three, that if you've been born of God, you can't keep on sinning because God seed abides in you. And God won't allow us to keep sinning in the same way that we did before we were saved. Right. That that's something that the Bible talks about very clearly, that there will be a change. There will be different fruit that shows up in the life of every person that has truly been saved, truly been converted, truly been given a new life in Jesus Christ.

[00:23:40] Right. And God, that's because God is able to change us. It's not because we're able to level up. Or change ourself or it's a continual pattern of self improvement. It is a work that God has begun. And God is faithful to continue in our lives. That's why our lives change, because God is in our lives and he is committed to continue to change us for his for his glory.

[00:24:05] But then there's others of us right there as we think about our life. We we've seen sin and we've seen victory over that sin. We've seen that we are able to say no to our temptation. We've seen that God has made changes, that it's very clear that there's no way that I could have done that in my own life. It had to be the Lord. But then there's times in our lives where we're tempted to think this this is hard.

[00:24:28] That there are days where where my willpower is pretty low. There are days where it just feels like. And I am tired in this same sin that I have been fighting against and pushing out of my life and putting to death. That temptation has. Has come back and is knocking on my door yet again. Ryan, I've got that same fight to fight again at that same putting to death to do that same turning away that that same, you know, calling out to the Lord to help me to turn away from that sin. There's there's a there's a lack of willpower that I don't want to have. And I feel like there's too many of us that we're trying to live the Christian life in our own strength. We are looking to our ability. Right, rather to him rather than to him, who is able to keep us from stumbling. I've got a couple of cute kids that I am so blessed to have. I've got these twins, miles and all over. They're gonna be three in October. Really excited, so blessed at those guys. And they're still kind of in the spot where they want you to hold them. Like Charlie's not really want me to hold them that much. He's five, almost six. He's kind of past that stage. But Miles and Oliver are still like, hold you, hold you. That's kind of one of their regular requests in the in the Blakey house. And there's times where maybe we're walking somewhere. We're out doing some errands as a family and they want to be held and some holding on to them. And I will ask them to hold on to me. You know, when they're kind of flopping all around and, you know, kind of squirming and stuff, you know, I'm pretty strong, but they're getting pretty heavy. And, you know, it's it's hard to do that. So I'll say hold on to that and put your arms around Daddy. But who's really responsible for holding them up? Right. Am I really relying on their strength to hold their grip on me? Or am I like committing as a dad who loves my kids and does not want them to fall to the ground, that I am going to hold them up. I'm going to hold them fast. Right. That's what we need to be looking to God to do in our lives every single day of our lives. Right. That we need to wake up every day and remember that God today in my life, he is able to keep me from stumbling.

[00:26:42] Right. That he is already given me all that I need.

[00:26:45] He does not lack any ability to keep me from stumbling in my life. And that's really because of who he is, right, that God is able to keep me from stumbling because God doesn't stumble himself right. He has no lack of ability.

[00:26:59] I've got lack all over the place. Right. I lack this. I like that. God lacks nothing.

[00:27:06] I lack energy sometimes. God never gets tired. Right. God is never going to tire of helping you turn away from sin in your life. On your most tired day. God has not gotten tired one little bit. He is just as Abel, just as eager, just as ready to help you. I lack ability. Sometimes God does not lack ability. Right. There are some times where a temptation might come into your life. That is a surprise to you, right? You weren't expecting it to happen. God is not surprised by anything. Right. He's not scrambling around thinking what do I do in this situation? You already knew it was going to happen.

[00:27:46] And he's just as able to keep you from giving into that temptation, from falling into that sin no matter what. Right. He is the one who created you. Think about this, that there is never anyone who understands what's going on in your body more than God. There is never anyone who understands better than God how you are feeling at any given moment. Right. Even in sickness, even in times where you are just feeling very, very low, very disheartened that your soul is disquieted within you. Even in those moments, that's not surprise. He's not trying to figure out what's going on. He's the one who created your body. He's the one who's sustaining your body. He's the one that knows better than any doctor and any any any, uh, any other person, even yourself. What's going on? Right. He's never going to be out at a lack of knowledge of how you're doing. At any moment in your life. Right. There is no one that has as a better knowledge of what you've been through in your life than the Lord. Right. You realize that God has a better knowledge of what you've been through even than you do.

[00:28:52] Right. That you've forgotten things that God has not forgotten.

[00:28:57] Right. That we need to think that this God who is in relationship with us, that has given me his Holy Spirit. He never lacks the ability to help me to turn away from sin. He never lacks the ability to keep me from stumbling. And can we just take a moment this morning to rejoice that we're not in this fight against sin alone?

[00:29:19] Is that a sweet thought to you? Have you thought about that? That that that the temptations that you face, you never face them alone. If you are a Christian who is in Jesus Christ, he is always engaged in that fight with you ready to help in any way that you need it at that moment.

[00:29:36] Do you realize that can we rejoice that the Lord is with us and that He is in us through his Holy Spirit? That there is going to be a time this week where you're looking at a temptation where you're maybe feeling tired. Maybe it's been a long day. Maybe the kids have not been as cooperative as you would like them to be. Maybe your plans haven't gone the way. And there's going to be a temptation that comes into your life and you're gonna be thinking, I am not able to do this, and we need to probably even maybe shout out audibly in our house at some point this week. He is able that he is able to keep me from stumbling, that my attitude is that this stumbling, this walk, is that committing sin. That should be a thing that's happening less and less and less all the time in my life because of who God is for me, because of the work that he is doing in my life. It doesn't please the Lord for someone to believe that that God can deliver them from the penalty of their sin, but not the power of their sin in their lives.

[00:30:37] And there's far too many people that are believing that today.

[00:30:39] They really believe in that. Living for the Lord, obeying the Lord's Commandments is something I cannot do.

[00:30:46] And that is a wrong attitude towards sin. It doesn't really acknowledge what God is able to do in our lives. So can we all just commit that we are going to have the attitude towards sin that God is able to keep us from doing it, keep us from giving into it? God is able to change your life in a way that's more powerful than you could have ever anticipated before you got saved.

[00:31:10] Right, every time turn and turn your Bible, the first Corinthians, 10, 13, let's just let's just see how this works out practically for a moment here, that every moment of temptation. Right. That God is going to be faithful. Right.

[00:31:24] First Corinthians 10, 13, that that God is is is faithful, that there will still be regular temptations that face us as believers, that we are going to maybe start having a desire to do something that we know we shouldn't do or an opportunity will present itself for us to bend the truth or to lie when we should tell the truth.

[00:31:47] And in every single one of those situations, look at this this statement, it's in first Corinthians 10, 13 says no temptation has overtaken you. That is not common to man. And God is faithful. And he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.

[00:32:07] It will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.

[00:32:09] But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.

[00:32:18] Praise the Lord that he is going to be faithful. Every single time, every single temptation that you face, you can have confidence that this is not too much for me. Right. God has not given me something that is going to beyond be beyond his strength in me to handle to turn away from to say no to right.

[00:32:36] Many things might be gone beyond my ability. But it's not just my ability that I've got work in in my life. It's really my ability and his ability. And without his ability, my ability might be really nothing.

[00:32:47] But because he's in me. He is going to work and every single time he has not given me too much to handle. Now, some of us we face and temptations that are pretty intense, that feel like they're coming on pretty strong. And so we've just got to rejoice that God's ability is is so much more superior than the power of that temptation in our lives.

[00:33:09] We're never going to reach a point at which we don't have the ability to say no. And the practical way that God is going to help us in those moments is he is going to provide the way of escape. Right. He is going to supply us an opportunity to say no, that we actually have a choice when faced with the temptation that we do not have to give into it, like maybe we used to do before we got saved, that now we have the choice to say no to it, that we can walk away from that temptation, that we can start actively thinking about something else. We can fill our mind with thoughts of the Lord, that we can remember the scripture that God has called us to remember, or we can even call a friend right there.

[00:33:49] Is the phone a friend option when temptation is facing right. You text one of your Christian brothers or sisters here at CompassHB H.B 10 13. You're gonna get a phone call back, right? This is something even among some of the men at our church. Even in some of our small groups, we've got the hey, when there's a moment, the temptation is coming in. If I'm talking through that with a friend, with a fellow believer in the Lord, that's going to if I bring that temptation into the light, that's going to make it lose a lot of its power. That's going to help me to say no to it. When I when I know that there's another friend who's praying for me, when I know that, like, hey, we're gonna have a conversation about this situation and I want to be able to encourage my friend with God's ability and what he allowed me to do through his through his grace in my life. I mean, what it's really like. It's like we got a really rich friend, right? Anybody else pay bills regularly and they're in their life. You've got people asking you for money, for the things that they give to you in your life, the place you live, the phone you use. Right. That that keeps happening all the time. The electricity that you expend. Edison's coming at you for it all the time.

[00:34:55] And it's like you have a really rich friend that has said, hey, every single bill, you just tell me the amount and I will pay it every single time. Right? Every single time. Now, there might be a time where I don't tell my really rich friend the amount of the bill and so it doesn't get paid. But every single time it's there, it's available.

[00:35:12] Right. That strength is always going to be there for a Christian. God lacks no ability and in every single temptation, he's going to be faithful to provide the way of escape. Right. You've got to believe that. That's got to be your attitude about temptation, about sin in your life. Let's turn over to one other passage. Let's go to Romans Chapter six Romans chapter.

[00:35:34] Six, page nine.

[00:35:37] If you've got one of our Bibles, Romans, Chapter six, this is a passage that will regularly talk about whenever we're talking about baptism here at our church, that it's not baptism and water that saves you, but it's really being placed into Jesus Christ that saves you. And what we do whenever we do a baptism at our church is just a reenactment of what's already happened in our life. But re with me in verse five, it says, for if we have been united with him. Right. We've really been placed into Christ in our our life has been stuck together with his life. We have been united with him in a death like his. We shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self, our old self that did not have power to say no, to sin our old self, that would regularly given the temptation, even if it made us feel bad at the end, we would just keep doing it.

[00:36:27] Our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Right.

[00:36:44] That really like it's his ability that is able to keep us from stumbling. And we have been united with him. In Jesus Christ that we've actually been placed into Jesus Christ and and really our old self was put to death with Jesus Christ.

[00:36:58] Did you get that catch that so that the body of sin might be brought to nothing. Right. That that what everybody knows is so powerful, that seems so impossible to overcome is really me and my own desires. Right. That I can't stop wanting to do this self-destructive thing in my life. But Jesus Christ died and was raised so that the body of sin that we have could be brought to nothing, that it could be rendered powerless.

[00:37:25] Right. So that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. That sin is no longer a master over you if you are a Christian.

[00:37:34] Have you thought about that? That you're no longer enslaved to sit there when that temptation comes and maybe you've given into that temptation numerous times before, you have the ability to say no to it. That is no longer your master, that you have a new master and it's Jesus Christ. What a sweet thought.

[00:37:54] What a victorious thought. For us this morning that we are no longer enslaved to sin. And really, that's the way that God commands you to think about yourself. Go down even to verse eleven. It says so you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus, that that is the way that we are commanded to think about ourselves in the new life that we have in Jesus Christ. That sin, I'm dead to sin. Sin no longer has power over me. It's no longer master over me. I don't want anything to do with it. We don't have a relationship. I'm not making provision for it. I'm not giving any opportunity for it to live and grow in my life. But I am alive to God.

[00:38:40] I am living a new life in Jesus Christ that is different from the old life that I lived before. Jesus Christ. Praise the Lord. That's the way that we need to think about ourselves.

[00:38:51] That's the way that you need to commit over this next year, because we're going to be talking about some things that God wants us to do. And some of these things are going to be challenging, right? Jesus is gonna get down and wash some stanky feet of his disciples and then he's going to tell us to like, as he has loved them.

[00:39:08] We also are to love one another. Right. That we are going to sacrificially serve one another. And I can almost guarantee you that there is going to be a point in the next year.

[00:39:18] We're gonna be like, I don't want to do that. Right. Getting down, stooping down, lowering myself to serve someone else. To give up my own interests for someone else. I think I'd rather just opt out of that this time. Right. You're going to feel that desire. You're gonna feel that temptation. And maybe that feeling might even be pretty strong. And that's when you need to consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ. Jesus that that person that has to give in to a strong desire towards sin.

[00:39:46] That's not who you are anymore. Praise the Lord.

[00:39:51] Praise the Lord and God wants us to think of that ourselves that way. But he also wants to us to make decisions that flow out of that. Continue reading with me in verse twelve.

[00:40:01] He says, let's not send therefore right in your mortal body you've died to send. The body of sin has been brought to nothing. Consider yourselves dead to send. So don't let sin keep raining in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. You don't have to do that anymore. You have another option. You don't have to choose that any longer. It says in verse 13. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness. Our members like our our our bodies, our thoughts, our attitudes are inclinations. And we don't need to give it the dominion that it used to have in our life. Right. It doesn't have it anymore. So we don't have to give into it. And we really want to make as Romans write down Romans 13 14 on your notes, read that verse later. But we really want to give no provision to the flesh, right.

[00:40:46] We want to stop presenting our members as instruments of unrighteousness. That means that God is going to help us to make lots and lots of practical choices that lead us away from sin and towards righteousness in our lives, that God is going to make a lot of changes in you, that maybe there is a crowd of people that you used to roll with and those people were all about sin and you got saved.

[00:41:12] And those people continue to be all about sin.

[00:41:15] God maybe doesn't want you to keep rolling with those same people in that same way. Right.

[00:41:20] Maybe God wants to change some of the the choices of entertainment that you have in your life. Maybe God wants to change some of the priorities that you have. Right. That your priority used to just be on your career and your advancement, that God wants to change the way that you think about that, that maybe your phone used to be a great source of sin in your life. Maybe God wants you to present that phone to the garbage and get a new phone. That's dumb.

[00:41:48] That doesn't have the ability to bring things right in front of you that are going to constantly tempt you to sin against the Lord. Maybe God wants you to stop spending time on the Internet that has no purpose, right. Where you are.

[00:42:01] You just gonna be tempted to let worthless things kind of control your thoughts and your your minds that you're gonna be tempted to look at things that you you shouldn't, that God really wants us to present ourselves, continues to go present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. Right. That's what God wants us to do, that every damn. And I present myself before the word right that I want to go before the Lord and I want to know him and I want to I want to grow in my relationship with him and I want to see what he calls me to do. And I want to do that. And Fouzi enthusiastically. Right, that in this this next season of our life. Right. That we're gonna realize that God is even given us his word to help this process happen right there.

[00:42:46] We're gonna see things that God wants us to do. And it's through God's word that we're gonna be turning away from sin. Right. That maybe we're gonna realize that, hey, I'm not loving other people the way that God wants me to and God is gonna help us. He's gonna change us. He's gonna transform us as we look at him and as we look at his word together. Right. That's the attitude we've got to have, right, is we see what God is gonna command us to do as we see the growth that he wants to accomplish and is in our life.

[00:43:14] We really want to confidently say he's able to do it right, that we want to go to that thinking, hey, whatever he commands me to do, I know that in him I'm going to have the power to do that right in myself.

[00:43:26] I might not have the power to do that. I mean, I have the willpower at any given moment to do that.

[00:43:31] But God himself is with me and he is able he is able, my friends.

[00:43:37] And so and this time, right, we're in this period of life where we are waiting for the finish line. And that's go back to Jew chapter and chapter one, verse twenty four. And let's continue to look right there. It says now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory. With great joy. Our second attitude towards our spiritual growth should be excitement for the finish, excitement for the finish. Let's get that down. That's point number two on your notes. Excitement for the finish. God is not just able to keep us from stumbling just in the next, like, fifteen minutes or just today or just even this week or this month or this year. God is going to be faithful to bring you all the way to the finish line Amen.

[00:44:25] And then he is able to keep you from stumbling and he is able to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy. Now, there is going to be a point. It is sure it is certain that every person who is a Christian who has been saved by Jesus Christ will be presented before the Lord and we will be presented blameless.

[00:44:50] Right. We will not just be declared blameless, declared to be justified. We will actually be presented before the Lord. As one who bears no guilt, who bears no blame, who is acceptable before the Lord because of the work that Jesus Christ has done to us. Right. And I know if you thought about that, but I'm pretty sure that when I get into God's presence and I really see him in all of his glory, you ever think about that moment where you catch that first real glimpse of the Lord and all of his all of his holiness? You see those moments in the Bible where it seems like God kind of pulls back the wallpaper for a moment and he lets his glory out. Never. He's like falling down like dead people. They're like terrified in the presence of the glory of the Lord. And when we get into God's presence, I think we are going to realize more than ever before. How much blame we should have. Right. How sinful we really are. It's like in the presence of God. We should knelt before him because of our because of our sin. Right. It even in the Book of Revelation, when it when it just talks, even if you just turn over the next page from Judah into Revelation at chapter one, verse seven, it says, Behold, he is coming with the clouds and every I will see him.

[00:46:12] Even those who pierced him and all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Then when we see God, when he comes back, it says that every person throughout the entire earth is going to wail, that we are all going to realize how sinful, how wicked, how how, how much our rejection of God really means before him.

[00:46:39] There's gonna be a point at which I, I realize that and it hits me like it has hit me before in my life. But it is going to hit me when I am in God's presence in a way that is so much more than I have ever experienced in my life. Because I'm going to see it all clearly. I'm going to see how much he deserves. So clearly and all the points that I've just kind of treated him is unimportant. Those are going to become a tremendous deal in his presence.

[00:47:02] Right. That I'm going to realize. I deserve the blame. I deserve the punishment. I deserve the wrath for my sin. But yet, Jesus Christ says later in revelation that all those people that are wailing on account of their sin, that that those that are saved, that Jesus Christ himself is going to come and he's going to wipe every tier away from their right, that that God himself is going to present us blameless.

[00:47:27] And I almost think there's going to be this moment where it's going to hit us so much more and Jesus Christ is going to be right there.

[00:47:33] And we are going to be presented blameless not because of ourselves, but because of him and what he accomplished for us. Now, do you think in that moment there will be great joy?

[00:47:48] There will be great joy. There will be tremendous joy, you think you've known joy here in this life. You think, Ryan, Thunder Mountain Disneyland is giving you some joy in your life? You do not know Joy. You do not know this great joy that is described here that there should be such an excitement for the joy, this great joy that we will experience when we are presented blameless before the Lord. That that should affect the way that we live our lives right now.

[00:48:12] Right. That we should be so looking forward. Like if you're an Olympic athlete and, you know, right now I'm put in hours in the pool. I'm swimming those laps. I'm getting tired, I'm getting hungry. I'm having to eat a lot because I'm swimming a lot and all this stuff. And this is just kind of hard.

[00:48:27] But, you know, hey, at the end of this gold medal ride, that's going to affect the way that you train, that's going to affect the amount of effort, the amount of enthusiasm that you're going to come to your training each and every day. And so knowing the joy that set before us, that's going to affect the way that we live our lives day in and day out as well. Right.

[00:48:46] And Matthew, chapter 25, verse 14, Jesus told a parable about him, you know, being a master who went away to a far country and he gave people charge over his property and he gave, you know, differing levels to different people. And his first two servants, there's three servants in the parable. The first two of them, they go and they go immediately and they start going to work for their master.

[00:49:11] The third servant basically goes and takes what God has given him and buries it in the ground. Right. When the master comes back, he's settling accounts with his servants. And for the first two, for the third servant, he basically e basically judges. The first servant says, hey, you knew that that I wanted to return on my investment. I wanted this to compound. And because you just stuck it in the ground, you did nothing with it. I'm actually going to call you a worthless servant. I'm actually going to say deliver this servant over to the tortures. But for the first two servants that they took what the Lord had given them, and they immediately started to try to multiply. Right. They immediately started to see it spread and compound so that they could give their master a return.

[00:49:55] And yes, the master says when when he gets back to those servants, he says, well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master. Right there.

[00:50:07] If we know that the joy that we have before us and in Matthew 25, it's not just like, hey, have some joy yourself. It says no. Enter into the joy of your master.

[00:50:19] Right. It's not only going to be our joy that we're presented and we're experiencing in that moment. We are going to get to experience God's joy. Right. We're going to be entered into his joy, a joy that so far surpasses any any amount of joy that we've ever experienced in our lives. Right. God is completely happy, completely filled with joy in himself.

[00:50:44] You think about the moment where God has set forth this plan throughout all of history to bring about a people for himself or people for his own possession from every tribe, tongue and nation. And there they are. Jesus Christ is like these are the people that I purchased with my own blood.

[00:50:58] You think that God's joy is going to compound our joy in that moment that we get to enter into his joy, his joy that, hey, now the work that he had decided to do throughout all of history, that that work is completed now. We will be with him and he will be our God and we will be his people forever. That's going to be some joy, my friends. Right. That's going to be some joy that should make us willing to get to work here in this life. Right.

[00:51:25] That we're not just kicking back and trying to live for right now, that that joy is so good and so appealing to us that we want to live for that.

[00:51:33] Right. And I'm putting all of my eggs into that basket. Right.

[00:51:37] I really want to put all of my hope into the grace that's going to be brought to me when Jesus comes back and when I am with him. And so right now, I'm not living for the American dream.

[00:51:48] I'm not living for the biggest house or the nicest possessions or I'm not looking forward most to that next vacation that we get to take as a family or or really, you know, a kind of a vacation is when you just take your wife away, you take your kids more of a trip. Right.

[00:52:04] It's it's not exactly the same thing there, but that's not what I'm looking forward to. That's not that's not what I'm I'm basing my hope on. Hey, when I just get to that next level in my career, when I get to that next level of achievement and income, when I finally get to that point where all the kids seem to sleep through the night at the same night, oh, what a day of rejoicing that will be. Right. I'm not putting my hope in all the temporary, short lived, shallow things of this life. I'm really placing my joy and really setting my hope on what's going to happen when God comes back.

[00:52:38] Right.

[00:52:39] We need to fix our eyes on it. What is above where Christ is even in the midst of this next year? I think there's going to be trials that God brings into your life. Hard things that he allows you to go through. And you need to look forward to have you to look forward to that day when Jesus Christ, when God himself will look at you and he will say, well done, good and faithful servant.

[00:53:02] Enter into the joy of your master. Just think about it in that one moment when you really see God in all of his glory. And he says something favorable about you. And he says that you're blameless. You're going to experience more joy in that one moment than you could accumulate in a lifetime of trying to live for yourself.

[00:53:20] Here in this life, you're looking forward to that.

[00:53:22] We got excitement about the future. We got excitement about what God is going to do. I really think we've got to cement this attitude now. Right? That is God calls us to to basically give our lives away, that we're gonna be called to live from, that we're gonna be called to sacrifice our own interests and love one another's sacrificially as a servant, just like Jesus Christ. If we're not looking forward to the joy that we have in store for us. We get to be with the Lord. We're gonna be tempted to kind of like have that compete with temporary joys in this life so we can have that attitude now. Right. That I'm looking forward to the finish line. I'm not looking forward to this next summer, this next trip. I've got to go on. I want to be with God in heaven. Anybody else looking forward to that? Anybody else yearning for that here this morning? I hope that you are. Our last attitude continued.

[00:54:13] Read me and Jude, verse 25, says to the only God, our savior through Jesus Christ, our Lord be glory. Majesty, Dominion and Authority before all time and now and forever a man. Our last school attitude is all glory to God, all glory to God, all glory to the father through the son and the work that he has accomplished in our lives. Now I know that we know that we should ascribe to the Lord the glory that is due for what he has already done. Right. Whenever we look at creation, you go down to the beach tonight and you watch the sunset. You're going to be praising the Lord for his glory in what he has made. Right. We know that we should give God the glory for all of his creation. We know that we should give God the glory for his work in salvation. Right. That Jesus Christ has done for us. What we couldn't do for ourselves. But. But are we thinking about giving God the glory for the work that he's actively doing right now?

[00:55:11] Day in and day out in our lives.

[00:55:15] Right. Have have you ascribed to God the glory for giving you victory over temptation in your life to someone else? Like, I mean, we can talk about it and say, oh, praise the Lord for the way that he saved me. We love to share our testimonies of how God brought us from being dead in our sin to alive in his son here at our church. But what was the last time that you just gave God the glory for his work of sanctification in your life? Right. I'm reading my Bible more with more enthusiasm than I ever have in my entire life. Now, that's a work that God has done. That wasn't something I was just able to muster up. That was something that he really did this. This temptation that that kind of, like, mastered me before I was saved. Now that I'm safe, God has been faithful. And even though there's still times where I am very tempted to go back and do that thing that I used to do. Look at how God's been faithful, right. Maybe even sharing with another brother and sister in Christ, how God specifically provided the way of escape out of temptation for you in a specific situation this week.

[00:56:15] We've got to give the glory to the Lord that he he deserves glory for being able to keep us from stumbling. Right. That is something that we should be praising him for, that we should see His Majesty and power put on display as he continues to do that in our life.

[00:56:31] And we've got to really we've got to really watch out for pride in our spiritual lives.

[00:56:36] You realize this, that there's gonna be even a very subtle temptation that might just sneak into your heart to think, hey, this spiritual growth, these these things that I'm able to say no to and do that, that's kind of what I did, right.

[00:56:50] That that I am now somehow at a at a level above that I am somehow better than someone else. Right.

[00:56:55] That that I can kind of look down my nose at that person that isn't at the stage of spiritual maturity that that I am at. Right. We've kind of give all the glory, all the majesty continually to the Lord that that praise God that he has grown so many of us that there are mature believers who are living their lives consistently for his glory at our church. And that's a work that God is done, right.

[00:57:19] God wrote the Bible.

[00:57:20] God helped you to understand his word. God's spirit helped you determine it was his ability working with you and for you the whole time that has caused you to grow. Right. So we've really got to say no to pride. We've really got to constantly be giving God the glory that this is not what I've been able to accomplish in my own life. This is really his ongoing continuing work that I want to praise him for, that I want to ascribe to him the glory for. I want to even just encourage you as a result of this sermon, to find a friend here at our church, maybe there in your fellowship group to even talk with them and just share with them ways. God has been helping you to turn away from sin recently, ways that God has been helping you to say no to temptation. Right. To actually live righteously. Right. Those are things that we want to be talking about all the time, that we want to be giving God the glory for what he has done, how faithful he is. Right.

[00:58:15] It says to him be glory, majesty, dominion and Authority that the way we're going to continue to give God the glory is that we're gonna continue to acknowledge that he has the dominion and the authority in our lives.

[00:58:27] Sin no longer has the dominion and authority in our lives that he does. Right. And as we continue to see what he wants us to do over this next year in our lives and in the life of our church, we want to continue to just come to church every week with the attitude, whatever God wants me to do. I'm going to do it right. And because he has the Dominion, he has the authority over my life that he is able to keep me from stumbling, that with his power, I am actually going to be able to do it.

[00:58:57] And if you think about it like that, what a year we have ahead.

[00:59:02] How much glory does God deserve for his work? Even before the ages began. And now and forever. A man. Are you looking forward to this next year, the year of sanctification here at CompassHB Bible Church? I pray that you are. Let me read these last two versus for us. And in conclusion, says now to him, who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy to the only God, our savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord be glory, majesty, dominion and authority before all time and now and forever.

[00:59:34] Amen. We pray God.

[00:59:35] We praise you, Lord. We give you the glory because you have done a work in us. God, you have done a work throughout history to send your son so that we could be freed from the power of sin in our lives. God. And we want to confidently say that you are able here this morning. God, we do not want to have a pessimistic look towards our spiritual growth, towards our fight against sin that we're gonna go through in our life this year. God, we want to have confidence, not confidence in ourselves or our own strength.

[01:00:04] But God, you have directed us to have confidence in you.

[01:00:09] God, you're so able.

[01:00:10] You lacked no ability to help us God. You had every situation in every circumstance and every temptation you have given us the ability to say no, to sin and to live for you.

[01:00:23] And now we look forward even to the day God, where you will come again and we will get to be with you in your presence forever, where you will present us blameless before the presence of your glory and what great joy we will experience then God. So to your name, be the glory.

[01:00:37] Both now and forever more we bring all God's people said.